Bonobo gestures, meanings, and context

Funding: The author is currently funded by the European Union’s 8th Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, under grant agreement no 802719.Although you might not know what a “gesture” is (yet), most people reading this book probably have some experience with gestures. Waving, bowing, clapping, nodding, pantomiming, and pointing, are just some of the many gestures that you may have encountered. As humans, we use many conventionalized gestures that we learn throughout our lives and regularly produce gestures alongside language (Goldin-Meadow 2005). One way of examining the evolution of human gesture, and potentially human language, is to study gestural communication in other species. Researchers in great ape gestural communication tend to define a gesture as an intentional, mechanically ineffective movement of the limbs, head, or body that is used to communicate (Townsend et al. 2016). All great apes use gestures to communicate (Call and Tomasello 2007), and there is growing evidence of gestural communication across the primate taxa (Macaca mulatta, M. nemestrina, M. arctoides, Maestripieri 2005; Macaca radiata, Gupta and Sinha 2016; Macaca Sylvanus, Hesler and Fischer 2007; Papio anubis, Bourjade et al. 2014)

HR 10 as seen by CHEOPS and TESS : revealing δ Scuti pulsations, granulation-like signal and hint for transients

Funding: CHEOPS is an ESA mission in partnership with Switzerland with important contributions to the payload and the ground segment from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The CHEOPS Consortium would like to gratefully acknowledge the support received by all the agencies, offices, universities, and industries involved. Their flexibility and willingness to explore new approaches were essential to the success of this mission. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission that are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA’s Science Mission directorate. We are grateful to V. Antoci for helpful comments. SJAJS has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 833925, project STAREX). VVG is an F.R.S-FNRS Research Associate. SS acknowledges the support from CNES, the Programme National de Planétologie (PNP), and the Programme National de Physique Stellaire (PNPS) of CNRS-INSU. GyMSz acknowledges the support of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) grant K-125015, a a PRODEX Experiment Agreement No. 4000137122, the Lendület LP2018-7/2021 grant of the Hungarian Academy of Science and the support of the city of Szombathely. ABr was supported by the SNSA. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project Four Aces. SH gratefully acknowledges CNES funding through the grant 837319. SGS acknowledges support from FCT through FCT contract nr. CEECIND/00826/2018 and POPH/FSE (EC). DG gratefully acknowledges financial support from the CRT foundation under Grant No. 2018.2323 “Gaseous or rocky? Unveiling the nature of small worlds”. SC acknowledges financial support from the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES, France) and from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France) under grant ANR-17- CE31-0018, funding the INSIDE project. ACC and TW acknowledge support from STFC consolidated grant numbers ST/R000824/1 and ST/V000861/1, and UKSA grant number ST/R003203/1. YAl acknowledges the support of the Swiss National Fund under grant 200020_172746. We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund through grants ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, ESP2016- 80435-C2-2-R, PGC2018-098153-B-C33, PGC2018-098153-B-C31, ESP2017- 87676-C5-1-R, MDM-2017-0737 Unidad de Excelencia Maria de MaeztuCentro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme. The MOC activities have been supported by the ESA contract No. 4000124370. SCCB acknowledges support from FCT through FCT contracts nr. IF/01312/2014/CP1215/CT0004. XB, SC, DG, MF and JL acknowledge their role as ESA-appointed CHEOPS science team members. LBo, VNa, IPa, GPi, RRa, GSc, VSi, and TZi acknowledge support from CHEOPS ASI-INAF agreement n. 2019-29-HH.0. ACC acknowledges support from STFC consolidated grant numbers ST/R000824/1 and ST/V000861/1, and UKSA grant number ST/R003203/1. PEC is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Erwin Schroedinger Fellowship, program J4595-N. This project was supported by the CNES. The Belgian participation to CHEOPS has been supported by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) in the framework of the PRODEX Program, and by the University of Liège through an ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions financed by the WalloniaBrussels Federation. LD is an F.R.S.-FNRS Postdoctoral Researcher. This work was supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through national funds and by FEDER through COMPETE2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacão by these grants: UID/FIS/04434/2019, UIDB/04434/2020, UIDP/04434/2020, PTDC/FIS-AST/32113/2017 and POCI01-0145-FEDER- 032113, PTDC/FIS-AST/28953/2017 and POCI-01-0145- FEDER-028953, PTDC/FIS-AST/28987/2017 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER028987, O.D.S.D. is supported in the form of work contract (DL 57/2016/CP1364/CT0004) funded by national funds through FCT. B-OD acknowledges support from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number MB22.00046. MF and CMP gratefully acknowledge the support of the Swedish National Space Agency (DNR 65/19, 174/18). MG is an F.R.S.-FNRS Senior Research Associate. KGI is the ESA CHEOPS Project Scientist and is responsible for the ESA CHEOPS Guest Observers Programme. She does not participate in, or contribute to, the definition of the Guaranteed Time Programme of the CHEOPS mission through which observations described in this paper have been taken, nor to any aspect of target selection for the programme. This work was granted access to the HPC resources of MesoPSL financed by the Region Ile de France and the project Equip@Meso (reference ANR-10-EQPX-29-01) of the programme Investissements d’Avenir supervised by the Agence Nationale pour la Recherche. ML acknowledges support of the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant number PCEFP2_194576. PM acknowledges support from STFC research grant number ST/M001040/1. This work was also partially supported by a grant from the Simons Foundation (PI Queloz, grant number 327127). IRI acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund through grant PGC2018-098153-B- C33, as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme. NAW acknowledges UKSA grant ST/R004838/1.Context . HR 10 has only recently been identified as a binary system. Previously thought to be an A-type shell star, it appears that both components are fast-rotating A-type stars, each presenting a circumstellar envelope. Although showing complex photometric variability, spectroscopic observations of the metallic absorption lines reveal variation explained by the binarity, but not indicative of debris-disc inhomogeneities or sublimating exocomets. On the other hand, the properties of the two stars make them potential δ Scuti pulsators. Aims . The system has been observed in two sectors by the TESS satellite, and was the target of three observing visits by CHEOPS. Thanks to these new data, we aim to further characterise the stellar properties of the two components. In particular, we aim to decipher the extent to which the photometric variability can be attributed to a stellar origin. In complement, we searched in the lightcurves for transient-type events that could reveal debris discs or exocomets. Methods . We analysed the photometric variability of both the TESS and CHEOPS datasets in detail. We first performed a frequency analysis to identify and list all the periodic signals that may be related to stellar oscillations or surface variability. The signals identified as resulting from the stellar variability were then removed from the lightcurves in order to search for transient events in the residuals. Results . We report the detection of δ Scuti pulsations in both the TESS and CHEOPS data, but we cannot definitively identify which of the components is the pulsating star. In both datasets, we find flicker noise with the characteristics of a stellar granulation signal. However, it remains difficult to firmly attribute it to actual stellar granulation from convection, given the very thin surface convective zones predicted for both stars. Finally, we report probable detection of transient events in the CHEOPS data, without clear evidence of their origin.Peer reviewe

The infrared luminosity of retired and post-starburst galaxies : a cautionary tale for star formation rate measurements

Funding: VW acknowledges Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) grants ST/V000861/1 and ST/Y00275X/1. NVA and VW acknowledge the Royal Society and the Newton Fund via the award of a Royal Society–Newton Advanced Fellowship (grant NAF\R1\180403). NVA acknowledges support from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq). KR acknowledges support from NASA grant 80NSSC23K0495.In galaxies with significant ongoing star formation there is an impressively tight correlation between total infrared luminosity (LTIR) and Hα luminosity (LHα), when Hα is properly corrected for stellar absorption and dust attenuation. This long-standing result gives confidence that both measurements provide accurate estimates of a galaxy’s star formation rate (SFR), despite their differing origins. To test the extent to which this holds in galaxies with lower specific SFR (sSFR=SFR/M*, where M* is the stellar mass), we combine optical spectroscopy from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with multi-wavelength (FUV to FIR) photometric observations from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey (GAMA). We find that LTIR/LHα increases steadily with decreasing Hα equivalent width (WHα, a proxy for sSFR), indicating that both luminosities cannot provide a valid measurement of SFR in galaxies below the canonical star-forming sequence. For both ‘retired galaxies’ and ‘post-starburst galaxies’, LTIR/LHα can be up to a factor of 30 larger than for star-forming galaxies. The smooth change in LTIR/LHα, irrespective of star formation history, ionisation or heating source, dust temperature or other properties, suggests that the value of LTIR/LHα is determined by the balance between star-forming regions and ambient interstellar medium contributing to both LTIR and LHα. It is not a result of the differing timescales of star formation that these luminosities probe. While LHα can only be used to estimate the SFR for galaxies with WHα > 3 Å (sSFR ≳ 10-11.5 /yr), we argue that the mid- and far-infrared can only be used to estimate the SFR of galaxies on the star-forming sequence, and in particular only for galaxies with WHα > 10 Å (sSFR≳ 10-10.5 /yr). We find no evidence for dust obscured star-formation in local post-starburst galaxies.Peer reviewe

Enantioselective Michael additions using isothiourea catalysis

Abstract redacte

Testing kinematic distances under a realistic Galactic potential : investigating systematic errors in the kinematic distance method arising from a non-axisymmetric potential

Funding: This investigation is funded by the European Research Council under ERC Synergy Grant ECOGAL (grant 855130), lead by Patrick Hennebelle, Ralf S. Klessen, Sergio Molinari and Leonardo Testi. MCS acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council under the ERC Starting Grant “GalFlow” (grant 101116226) and from the Royal Society (URF\R1\221118). EV acknowledges support from an STFC Ernest Rutherford fellowship (ST/X004066/1).Context. Obtaining reliable distance estimates to gas clouds within the Milky Way is challenging in the absence of certain tracers. The kinematic distance approach has been used as an alternative, and it is derived from the assumption of circular trajectories around the Galactic centre. Consequently, significant errors are expected in regions where gas flow deviates from purely circular motions. Aims. We aim to quantify the systematic errors that arise from the kinematic distance method in the presence of a Galactic potential that is non-axisymmetric. We investigated how these errors differ in certain regions of the Galaxy and how they relate to the underlying dynamics. Methods. We performed 2D isothermal hydrodynamical simulation of the gas disk with the moving-mesh code AREPO, adding the capability of using an external potential provided by the AGAMA library for galactic dynamics. We introduced a new analytic potential of the Milky Way, taking elements from existing models and adjusting parameters to match recent observational constraints. Results. In line with results of previous studies, we report significant errors in the kinematic distance estimate for gas close to the Sun along sight lines towards the Galactic centre and anti-centre and associated with the Galactic bar. Kinematic distance errors are low within the spiral arms, as gas resides close to local potential minima and the resulting line-of-sight velocity is similar to what is expected for an axisymmetric potential. Interarm regions exhibit large deviations at any given Galactic radius, and this is caused by the gas being sped up or slowed down as it travels into or out of spiral arms. In addition, we identify ‘zones of avoidance’ in the lv-diagram, where the kinematic distance method is particularly unreliable and should only be used with caution, and we find a power-law relation between the kinematic distance error and the deviation of the projected line-of-sight velocity from circular motion.Peer reviewe

Comparing neural networks against click train detectors to reveal temporal trends in passive acoustic sperm whale detections

Funding: The Direcció General de Pesca i Medi Marí del Govern de les Illes Balears - support to obtain data about Sperm Whale presence in Emile Baudot and Mallorca Channel. Additionally, we are grateful to the Fundación Biodiversidad of the Ministerio de Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico for their support of projects CALMA and CALMADOS, which were conducted to assess the temporal presence of cetaceans in the sea mountains Ausiàs March and Monte Olivas.Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is an increasingly popular tool to study vocalising species. The amount of data generated by PAM studies calls for robust automatic classifiers. Deep learning (DL) techniques have been proven effective in identifying acoustic signals in challenging datasets, but due to their black-box nature their underlying biases are hard to quantify. This study compares human analyst annotations, a multi-hypothesis tracking (MHT) click train classifier and a DL-based acoustic classifier to classify acoustic recordings based on the presence or absence of sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) click trains and study the temporal and spatial distributions of the Mediterranean sperm whale subpopulation around the Balearic Islands. The MHT and DL classifiers showed agreements with human labels of 85.7% and 85.0%, respectively, on data from sites they were trained on, but both saw a drop in performance when deployed on a new site. Agreement rates between classifiers surpassed those between human experts. Modeled seasonal and diel variations in sperm whale detections for both classifiers showed compatible results, revealing an increase in occurrence and diurnal activity during the summer and autumn months. This study highlights the strengths and limitations of two automatic classification algorithms to extract biologically useful information from large acoustic datasets.Peer reviewe

Investigation of the effect of solvation on 1J(Metal–P) spin–spin coupling

Funding: Financial support from Slovak Grant Agencies VEGA and APVV (VEGA-2/0135/21, APVV-19-0516 and APVV-22-0488) is acknowledged. MB wishes to thank the EaStCHEM School of Chemistry for support and access to an HPC cluster maintained by Dr H. Früchtl.The solvent effect on the indirect 1J(M–P) spin–spin coupling constant in phosphine selenoether peri-substituted acenaphthene complexes LMCl2 is studied at the PP86 level of nonrelativistic and four-component relativistic density functional theory. Depending on the metal, the solvent effect can amount to as much as 50% or more of the total J-value. This explains the previously found disagreement between the 1J(Hg–P) coupling in LHgCl2, observed experimentally and calculated without considering solvent effects. To address the solvent effect, we have used polarizable continuum and microsolvated models. The solvent effect can be separated into indirect (structural changes) and direct (changes in the electronic structure). These effects are additive, each brings roughly about 50% of the total effect. For the in-depth analysis, we use a model with a lighter metal, Zn, instead of Hg. A much smaller solvent effect on 1J(Hg–P) for a dimer form of LHgCl2 is explained. Pilot calculations of 1J(M–P) couplings in analogous systems with other metals indicate that for metals preferring square planar structures the solvent effect is insignificant because these structures are fairly rigid. Tetrahedral structures are less constrained and can respond more easily to external effects such as solvation.Peer reviewe

Intellectual exchange and the reception of classical literature at early medieval Fulda

This thesis studies the inheritance of classical literature at the monastery of Fulda in the ninth century. An examination of two writers, Rudolf of Fulda and Brun Candidus, provides a kind of case study of the broader intellectual networks and transmission of classical literature at work in the Carolingian Empire. The study attempts to situate Carolingian literary aesthetics within the context of Late Antique poetry and material culture. It argues that the dominant thread in these writers was the inheriting and refashioning of past classical sources. Through slight emendations made to the classical sources, Rudolf and Candidus are able to incorporate and synthesize pagan writers into the Christian culture of the ninth century. The thesis uses the transmission history of Vitruvius’ De architectura as a case study of the broader intellectual networks. Further, it uncovers a previously unknown Carolingian reader of Vitruvius, Rudolf, and argues for the onetime existence of a manuscript copy of Vitruvius at the Fulda monastery. Additionally, the thesis contains the first English translations of Rudolf’s Miracula sanctorum in Fuldenses ecclesias translatorum, and Brun Candidus’ opus geminatum or ‘twinned-work’, the prose Vita Eigilis, and the metrical Vita Aeigili. In the study of the metrical Vita the thesis argues that, contrary to being simply derivative or unoriginal, through the use and manipulation of fragments of classical poets such as Vergil and Ovid, Candidus created a narrative subtext to his poem that offered a commentary on the recent crisis at the Fulda monastery, while also offering a vision of ideal and harmonious monastic life. An extensive commentary on the poem adds to this evidence by examining in detail every classical reference in the poem

New insights into Sistani intellectual culture under the Saffarids

Funding: This research was enabled by funding from a Junior Fellowship offered by Koç University’s ANAMED centre, a Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship from the AHRC’s Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, The Honeyman Foundation’s Covid-19 Exceptional Scholarship, The Forty-Nine Thirteen Foundation’s Scholarship, and the A. H. Morton Scholarship by The Gibb Memorial Trust.This article investigates patterns of scholarly patronage relating to Khalaf b. Aḥmad (r. 963–1003 CE, d. 1009), placing them in their broader Saffarid and regional contexts. Of the extant works we can link to Khalaf, a little studied medical text, the Kunnāsh, is arguably the single most insightful in exposing Khalaf as patron and in placing him in the context of earlier and later Saffarid and Sistani support for the medical sciences. The article argues that Khalaf being both an author of a work on dream interpretation and a patron of medical literature is not a combination unique to him. In fact, it fits rather well with the pattern of patronage activities of the Khwārazmshāhs in the early eleventh century. This study suggests that Eastern Iranian areas may have developed a greater degree of self-definition as intellectual centres of scholarship than previously acknowledged, and that this will have happened both through competition with one another and by retelling their legacies of past patronage.Peer reviewe

New results on non-disjoint and classical strong external difference families

Funding: The first author was funded by EPSRC Grant EP/X021157/1. The second author was funded by the London Mathematical Society Grant URB-2023-75.Classical strong external difference families (SEDFs) are much-studied combinatorial structures motivated by information security applications; it is conjectured that only one classical abelian SEDF exists with more than two sets. Recently, non-disjoint SEDFs were introduced; it was shown that families of these exist with arbitrarily many sets. We present constructions for both classical and non-disjoint SEDFs, which encompass all known non-cyclotomic examples for either type (plus many new examples) using a sequence-based framework. Moreover, we introduce a range of new external difference structures (allowing set-sizes to vary, and sets to be replaced by multisets) in both the classical and non-disjoint case, and show how these may be applied to various communications applications.Peer reviewe