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)

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

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

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

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

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

Cas10 based 7SL-sRNA diagnostic for the detection of active trypanosomiasis

Funding: PCS, LJM and FG are funded through core support to the Roslin Institute by the United Kingdom Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (BBS/E/RL/230002C); PCS is supported by a BBSRC Discovery Fellowship (BB/X009807/1); LJM and KRM were supported by a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award (206815/Z/17/Z); MFW and SG are funded by a grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Grant REF BB/T004789/1) and a European Research Council Advanced Grant (Grant REF 101018608).Animal Trypanosomosis (AT) is a significant disease affecting cattle across sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia, posing a major threat to economic productivity and animal welfare. The absence of reliable diagnostic tests has led to an over-reliance on widespread pre-emptive drug treatments, which not only compromise animal health but also heighten the risk of drug resistance. The chronic nature of AT, characterized by cyclical low or undetectable parasite levels, and the necessity for field-applicable tests that can distinguish between active infection and prior exposure, present considerable challenges in developing effective diagnostics. In previous work, we identified a parasite-specific small RNA, 7SL-sRNA, which is detectable in the serum of infected cattle, even during the chronic stages of infection. However, existing methods for detecting sRNA require specialized equipment, making them unsuitable for field use. In this study, we have developed both a fluorescence-based and a lateral flow diagnostic test utilizing Cas10 technology for the detection of 7SL-sRNA from Trypanosoma congolense and Trypanosoma brucei. The fluorescence assay detects 10 – 100 fM T. congolense 7SL-sRNA and 1 pM T. brucei 7SL-sRNA, and the lateral flow assay showed a limit of detection of 1 – 10 pM for both species. Either assay can effectively identify active infections in cattle, including during chronic phases (with positive signals observed up to the experimental end point, 63 days post infection). This also highlights the effective use of Cas10 for small RNA detection, paving the way for a cost-effective, user-friendly, and field-deployable diagnostic test for AT, while establishing Cas10 technology for the detection of small RNAs in general.Peer reviewe

(dis)Orientating horror : feeling queerly

Sara Ahmed begins her book Queer Phenomenology with a discussion of orientation, drawing a parallel between considerations of sexual and spatial orientations and questions of how we reside, inhabit and move through them. This audiovisual essay will take up this spatial understanding of queerness in which Ahmed ‘re-animate[s] the very concept of space’ (2006: 12) to explore the experience of disorientation in horror cinema. Horror films frequently use camera movement to disrupt and disturb our embodied connections with characters and places, shifting us away or upending safe or straightforward relationships with space. If, as Ahmed suggests, straightness is an investment in following established lines, and queerness involves turning away and deviating from the lines and objects provided by straight culture, then we might understand such disorientations as an expression of queerness existing as a fundamental and embodied element of the genre. This audiovisual essay will explore camera movement as an aspect of (dis)orientation through a selection of examples, including Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019), La Casa Muda (Gustavo Hernández, 2010) and Evil Dead (Fede Álvarez, 2013). In so doing, I will combine Ahmed’s queer phenomenology with the work of Jennifer Barker, specifically her conceptualisation of the film itself as embodied, possessing skin, musculature, and viscera. Barker, like Ahmed, is engaged with the question of orientations, and the ways we might share embodied spatial understandings with those of the film, through the camera’s movement and negotiation of space. The video will engage with this work through audiovisual comparisons achieved by multiscreen compositions, slow-motion and layering – techniques which allow scrutiny and exaggeration of movement. Through films that are ostensibly concerned with heterosexual characters and worlds, this audiovisual essay will seek to address the horror film body’s own rejection of straightness. References Sara Ahmed (2006) Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Durham: Duke University Press. Jennifer Barker (2009) The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience. Durham: Duke University Press.Peer reviewe

Facile, reversible hydrogen activation by low-coordinate magnesium oxide complexes

Funding: The authors thank the EaSI-CAT Centre for Doctoral Training (S.T.), the EPSRC doctoral training grant (EP/N509759/1, S.B.) and the University of St Andrews for support. The authors gratefully acknowledge computational support via the EaStCHEM Research Computing Facility.New approaches to achieve facile and reversible dihydrogen activation are of importance for synthesis, catalysis, and hydrogen storage. Here we show that low-coordinate magnesium oxide complexes [{(RDipnacnac)Mg}2(μ-O)] 1 , with RDipnacnac = HC(RCNDip)2, Dip = 2,6-iPr2C6H3, R = Me ( 1a ), Et ( 1b ), iPr ( 1c ), readily react with dihydrogen under mild conditions to afford mixed hydride-hydroxide complexes [{(RDipnacnac)Mg}2(μ-H)(μ-OH)] 4 . Dehydrogenation of complexes 4 is strongly dependent on remote ligand substitution and can be achieved by simple vacuum-degassing of 4c (R = iPr) to regain 1c . Donor addition to complexes 4 also releases hydrogen and affords donor adducts of magnesium oxide complexes. Computational studies suggest that the hydrogen activation mechanism involves nucleophilic attack of an oxide lone pair at a weakly-bound H2···Mg complex in an SN2-like manner that induces a heterolytic dihydrogen cleavage to yield an MgOH and an MgH unit. Alternative synthetic routes into complex 4b from a magnesium hydride complex have been investigated and the ability of complexes 1 or 4 to act as catalysts for the hydrogenation of 1,1-diphenylethene (DPE) has been tested.Peer reviewe

Mindful moments : using meditation for student and staff wellbeing in the classroom

This article discusses the increasing concerns for student mental health within higher education and the specific need for anthropology to consider the effects of our teaching content on student wellbeing. I reflect on using mindfulness in the classroom as a coping strategy for the challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, and how meditation helped to create a supportive, relaxed learning environment. Acknowledging the limits of this practice, I consider meditation to be one resource within a wider pedagogical toolkit that embraces student-centred learning. My argument does not intend to further burden teaching staff with the responsibilities for student welfare, but instead demonstrates how using pedagogies that prioritise wellbeing can increase student engagement, promote inclusivity and lead to positive transformations for students and staff.Peer reviewe