Primate cognition in zoos : reviewing the impact of zoo-based research over 15 years

This work was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement no. 609819, SOMICS (EM, EW, ST), UK Economic and Social Research Council studentship 2267016 and the St Leonard’s Research Scholarship from the University of St Andrews (KD).Primate cognition research is reliant on access to members of the study species and logistical infrastructures to conduct observations and experiments. Historically founded in research centers and private collections, and spreading to modern zoos, sanctuaries, and the field, primate cognition has been investigated in diverse settings, each with benefits and challenges. In our systematic review of 12 primatology, animal behavior, and animal cognition journals over the last 15 years, we turn a spotlight on zoos to quantify their current impact on the field and to highlight their potential as robust contributors to future work. To put zoo-based research in context, we compare zoos to three other site types: university-owned or independent research centers, sanctuaries, and field sites. We assess the contributions of zoos across several critical considerations in primate cognition research, including number of investigations, species diversity, sample size, research topic diversity, and methodology. We identified 1,119 publications reporting studies of primate cognition, almost 25% of which report research conducted in zoos. Across publications, zoo-based research has greater species diversity than research centers and covers a diverse range of research topics. Although our review is merely a snapshot of primate cognition research, our findings suggest that zoos may present advantages to researchers regarding species diversity, and lack some of the methodological constraints of field sites, allowing greater ease of access to a diverse range of subjects for cognition investigations. We suggest that zoos have great potential as key contributors for future investigations in primate cognition. Finally, we shed light on the symbiotic relationship that can emerge between researchers and zoos, forming partnerships that bring unique advantages to both parties.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Host and microbiome features of secondary infections in lethal covid-19

Secondary infections contribute significantly to covid-19 mortality but driving factors remain poorly understood. Autopsies of 20 covid-19 cases and 14 controls from the first pandemic wave complemented with microbial cultivation and RNA-seq from lung tissues enabled description of major organ pathologies and specification of secondary infections. Lethal covid-19 segregated into two main death causes with either dominant diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) or secondary pneumonias. The lung microbiome in covid-19 showed a reduced biodiversity and increased prototypical bacterial and fungal pathogens in cases of secondary pneumonias. RNA-seq distinctly mirrored death causes and stratified DAD cases into subgroups with differing cellular compositions identifying myeloid cells, macrophages and complement C1q as strong separating factors suggesting a pathophysiological link. Together with a prominent induction of inhibitory immune-checkpoints our study highlights profound alterations of the lung immunity in covid-19 wherein a reduced antimicrobial defense likely drives development of secondary infections on top of SARS-CoV-2 infection

Dynamic Oil-in-Water Concentration Acquisition on a Pilot-Scaled Offshore Water-Oil Separation Facility

This article is a feasibility study on using fluorescence-based oil-in-water (OiW) monitors for on-line dynamic efficiency measurement of a deoiling hydrocyclone. Dynamic measurements are crucial in the design and validation of dynamic models of the hydrocyclones, and to our knowledge, no dynamic OiW analysis of hydrocyclones has been carried out. Previous studies have extensively studied the steady state efficiency perspective of hydrocyclones, and have related them to different key parameters, such as the pressure drop ratio (PDR), inlet flow rate, and the flow-spilt. Through our study, we were able to measure the dynamics of the hydrocyclone’s efficiency ( ϵ ) response to step changes in the inlet flow rate with high accuracy. This is a breakthrough in the modelling, control, and monitoring of hydrocyclones

Is Language Required to Represent Others' Mental States? Evidence From Beliefs and Other Representations.

An important part of our Theory of Mind-the ability to reason about other people's unobservable mental states-is the ability to attribute false beliefs to others. We investigated whether processing these false beliefs, as well as similar but nonmental representations, is reliant on language. Participants watched videos in which a protagonist hides a gift and either takes a photo of it or writes a text about its location before a second person inadvertently moves the present to a different location, thereby rendering the belief and either the photo or text false. At the same time, participants performed either a concurrent verbal interference task (rehearsing strings of digits) or a visual interference task (remembering a visual pattern). Results showed that performance on false belief trials did not decline under verbal interference relative to visual interference. We interpret these findings as further support for the view that language does not form an essential part of the process of reasoning online ("in the moment") about false beliefs.ESRC and Leverhulme Trus