Music and dance as a coalition signaling system

Evidence suggests that humans have neurological specializations for music processing, but a compelling adaptationist account of music and dance is lacking. The sexual selection hypothesis cannot easily account for the widespread performance of music and dance in groups (especially synchronized performances), and the social bonding hypothesis has severe theoretical difficulties. Humans are unique among the primates in their ability to form cooperative alliances between groups in the absence of consanguineal ties. We propose that this unique form of social organization is predicated on music and dance. Music and dance may have evolved as a coalition signaling system that could, among other things, credibly communicate coalition quality, thus permitting meaningful cooperative relationships between groups. This capability may have evolved from coordinated territorial defense signals that are common in many social species, including chimpanzees. We present a study in which manipulation of music synchrony significantly altered subjects’ perceptions of music quality, and in which subjects’ perceptions of music quality were correlated with their perceptions of coalition quality, supporting our hypothesis. Our hypothesis also has implications for the evolution of psychological mechanisms underlying cultural production in other domains such as food preparation, clothing and body decoration, storytelling and ritual, and tools and other artifacts

Sunspot and MN tidal effects on Stanwell Park, NSW, beach change, 1895-1980

Beach change on Stanwell Park beach has been linked to sea-level fluctuations and annual rainfall such that a 1-cm rise in sea-level and a 100-mm increase in rainfall results respectively in 0.45m and 0.8m of beach retreat. Both variables are related to the Southern Oscillation, which has worldwide climatic teleconnections. Research in NSW and elsewhere indicates that the 11- and 22-year sunspot cycles and 18.6-year MN lunar cycle may affect some sea-level and rainfall records. None of these astronomical variables was found to relate to beach retreat at Stanwell Park more than any of the meteorological or oceanographic variables

The magnitude and nature of \u27noise\u27 in world sea-level records

While average world sea-level is rising at a uniform rate of 1-1.5 mm yr-1, regional rates can vary by an order of magnitude. Over time scales of several years these rates can be 10-100 times greater because sea-level is affected at this scale by highly changeable meteorological and oceanographic variables. The inherent noise level in world sea-level records is 35 mm. Much of this is expressed as fluctuations on the order of 20-100 mm with a frequency of 3-5 years. This latter noise is highly coherent at tide gauges around the globe and appears unrelated to resonance or wave excitation in oceans. It is suggested that this variability reflects changes in the world hydrological budget linked to the Southern Oscillation. This latter phenomenon relates to the strength of trade winds in the tropical Pacific Ocean and can generate significant drying followed by flooding over continental landmasses

Town register: Lincolnville, Northport, Belmont, Morrill, Searsmont and Waldo

The group of towns included in this work are located in the southeastern portion of the county of Waldo, adjacent to the city of Belfast. The region in which they lie is, for the most part hilly and broken, rimmed by low-lying mountains which extend almost to the waters of Penobscot Bay. Portions of the mountain chain extending across the country separate the land into valleys and small plateaus which afford much excellent land for agriculture, the occupation in which most of the inhabitants are engaged. Combining the attractions of seashore and mountain, and abounding in beautiful lakes and streams, this section presents manifold attractions to every lover of the beautiful. These towns are closely connected both from an historical and from a geographical point of view and have a common origin

Community transcriptomics reveals universal patterns of protein sequence conservation in natural microbial communities

Background Combined metagenomic and metatranscriptomic datasets make it possible to study the molecular evolution of diverse microbial species recovered from their native habitats. The link between gene expression level and sequence conservation was examined using shotgun pyrosequencing of microbial community DNA and RNA from diverse marine environments, and from forest soil. Results Across all samples, expressed genes with transcripts in the RNA sample were significantly more conserved than non-expressed gene sets relative to best matches in reference databases. This discrepancy, observed for many diverse individual genomes and across entire communities, coincided with a shift in amino acid usage between these gene fractions. Expressed genes trended toward GC-enriched amino acids, consistent with a hypothesis of higher levels of functional constraint in this gene pool. Highly expressed genes were significantly more likely to fall within an orthologous gene set shared between closely related taxa (core genes). However, non-core genes, when expressed above the level of detection, were, on average, significantly more highly expressed than core genes based on transcript abundance normalized to gene abundance. Finally, expressed genes showed broad similarities in function across samples, being relatively enriched in genes of energy metabolism and underrepresented by genes of cell growth. Conclusions These patterns support the hypothesis, predicated on studies of model organisms, that gene expression level is a primary correlate of evolutionary rate across diverse microbial taxa from natural environments. Despite their complexity, meta-omic datasets can reveal broad evolutionary patterns across taxonomically, functionally, and environmentally diverse communities.Gordon and Betty Moore FoundationAgouron InstituteNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Educatio

Mega Tsunami of the World Oceans: Chevron Dune Formation, Micro-Ejecta, and Rapid Climate Change as the Evidence of Recent Oceanic Bolide Impacts

This paper deals with the physical and environmental effects resulting from oceanic impacts by sizable comets, and the rates and risks associated with such cosmic impacts. Specifically, we investigate two sets of probable oceanic impact events that occurred within the last 5,000 years, one in the Indian Ocean about 2800 BC, and the other in the Gulf of Carpentaria (Australia) about AD 536. If validated, they would be the most energetic natural catastrophes occurring during the middle-to-late Holocene with large-scale environmental and historical human effects and consequences. The physical evidence for these two impacts consists of several sets of data: (1) remarkable depositional traces of coastal flooding in dunes (chevron dunes) found in southern Madagascar and along the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, (2) the presence of crater candidates (29-km Burckle crater about 1,500 km southeast of Madagascar which dates to within the last 6,000 years and 18-km Kanmare and 12-km Tabban craters with an estimated age of AD 572±86 in the southeast corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria), and (3) the presence of quench textured magnetite spherules and nearly pure carbon spherules, teardrop-shaped tektites with trails of ablation, and vitreous material found by cutting-edge laboratory analytical techniques in the upper-most layer of core samples close to the crater candidates. Although some propose a wind-blown origin for V-shaped chevron dunes that are widely distributed around the coastlines of the Indian Ocean and in the Gulf of Carpentaria, we have evidence in favor of their mega tsunami formation. In southern Madagascar we have documented evidence for tsunami wave run-up reaching 205 m above sea-level and penetrating up to 45 km inland along the strike of the chevron axis. Subtly the orientation of the dunes is not aligned to the prevailing wind direction, but to the path of refracted mega-tsunami originating from Burckle impact crater. The results of our study show that substantive oceanic comet impacts not only have occurred more recently than modeled by astrophysicists, but also that they have profoundly affected Earth’s natural systems, climate, and human societies. If validated, they could potentially lead to a major paradigm shift in environmental science by recognizing the role of oceanic impacts in major climate downturns during the middle-to-late Holocene that have been well documented already by different techniques (tree-ring anomalies, ice-, lake- and peat bog-cores)

Isolation and Characterization of Bacteria That Degrade Phosphonates in Marine Dissolved Organic Matter

Semi-labile dissolved organic matter (DOM) accumulates in surface waters of the oligotrophic ocean gyres and turns over on seasonal to annual timescales. This reservoir of DOM represents an important source of carbon, energy, and nutrients to marine microbial communities but the identity of the microorganisms and the biochemical pathways underlying the cycling of DOM remain largely uncharacterized. In this study we describe bacteria isolated from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) near Hawaii that are able to degrade phosphonates associated with high molecular weight dissolved organic matter (HMWDOM), which represents a large fraction of semi-labile DOM. We amended dilution-to-extinction cultures with HMWDOM collected from NPSG surface waters and with purified HMWDOM enriched with polysaccharides bearing alkylphosphonate esters. The HMWDOM-amended cultures were enriched in Roseobacter isolates closely related to Sulfitobacter and close relatives of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria of the Oceanospirillaceae family, many of which encoded phosphonate degradation pathways. Sulfitobacter cultures encoding C-P lyase were able to catabolize methylphosphonate and 2-hydroxyethylphosphonate, as well as the esters of these phosphonates found in native HMWDOM polysaccharides to acquire phosphorus while producing methane and ethylene, respectively. Conversely, growth of these isolates on HMWDOM polysaccharides as carbon source did not support robust increases in cell yields, suggesting that the constituent carbohydrates in HMWDOM were not readily available to these individual isolates. We postulate that the complete remineralization of HMWDOM polysaccharides requires more complex microbial inter-species interactions. The degradation of phosphonate esters and other common substitutions in marine polysaccharides may be key steps in the turnover of marine DOM.Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Award GBMF3298)Simons Foundation (Grant 329108

Parent and child agreement for acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychopathology in a prospective study of children and adolescents exposed to single-event trauma

Examining parent-child agreement for Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents is essential for informing the assessment of trauma-exposed children, yet no studies have examined this relationship using appropriate statistical techniques. Parent-child agreement for these disorders was examined by structured interview in a prospective study of assault and motor vehicle accident (MVA) child survivors, assessed at 2-4 weeks and 6 months post-trauma. Children were significantly more likely to meet criteria for ASD, as well as other ASD and PTSD symptom clusters, based on their own report than on their parent's report. Parent-child agreement for ASD was poor (Cohen's κ = -.04), but fair for PTSD (Cohen's κ = .21). Agreement ranged widely for other emotional disorders (Cohen's κ = -.07-.64), with generalised anxiety disorder found to have superior parent-child agreement (when assessed by phi coefficients) relative to ASD and PTSD. The findings support the need to directly interview children and adolescents, particularly for the early screening of posttraumatic stress, and suggest that other anxiety disorders may have a clearer presentation post-trauma