The Role of Umwelt in Animal Curiosity: A Within and Between Species Comparison of Novelty Exploration in Mongooses

In its broadest sense, curiosity has been described as an intrinsic motivation to acquire novel information; this ‘novelty-seeking’ is notably in the absence of any immediate reward. One way to examine information seeking in animals, has been to present animals with novel objects and measure the way animals gather information through exploration. While this is a standardized and common paradigm, few studies have focused on what factors influence how animals perceive novelty, whilst considering the predicted impacts of an animal’s ‘umwelt’ on exploration. In this study we assessed explorative behaviors in mongooses through both an intra and interspecific view. First, in meerkats (Suricata suricatta) tested in their natural environment, we established that they distinguish familiar from unfamiliar and show increased exploration of novel objects. We also found that odor influenced the meerkats’ explorative action, so that non-odorous items were manipulated longer. Presence of conspecifics influenced approaches to novelty, but not the exploration per se. Human presence interacted with an individual’s level of habituation to impact approaches and exploration of novelty and we found a strong captivity effect on exploration between captive and wild meerkats. Between species analysis showed that yellow mongooses (Cynictis penicillate), a less social mongoose than meerkats, showed higher levels of novelty exploration, when tested within the same habitat. Thus, these findings show that multiple factors, including perceptual abilities (merkwelt) and social factors (sozialwelt), are decisive for when and how animals explore their environment and must be considered both when designing novelty paradigm tests and their interpretations

Giving to the Giver: A Research Proposal on Implementing Donor Nutrition Education to Promote Healthier Options in the Food Bank

Objective: To increase the nutritional value of donations given by donor organizations to the Food Bank based on a Red-Yellow-Green (RYG) scale. Background: Food banks have been planted across the Southeastern Virginia region to help with the prevalent issue of food insecurity. The food bank receives various food donations. The goal, however, is to implement education to the donor organizations to improve the nutritional value of the donations based on the Red-Yellow-Green scale. Participants and Methods: A Quasi-Experimental Before-and-After design across multiple groups will be used. Consistent donor groups will be selected for the intervention and baseline donations will be monitored for a month based on health value. After the first month, the one-week education intervention will be implemented. Donations from the donor organizations will, then, be monitored for an additional month. Finally, the nutritional value of the donations will be assessed based on the RYG scale. Analysis: The data will be analyzed using the central tendency method of descriptive statistics. A paired T-test will determine whether there was a statistical difference pre- and post-intervention, which will infer the impact of nutrition education on the quality of donations presented by the organizations. Results: There is an expected increase in the amount of green donations and decrease in the amount of red donations received by donor organizations. Limitations: Limitations of this study include the trial period, season, convenience of items, selected sample size, and finances

ALMA Resolves 30 Doradus: Sub-parsec Molecular Cloud Structure Near the Closest Super-Star Cluster

We present ALMA observations of 30 Doradus -- the highest resolution view of molecular gas in an extragalactic star formation region to date (~0.4pc x 0.6pc). The 30Dor-10 cloud north of R136 was mapped in 12CO 2-1, 13CO 2-1, C18O 2-1, 1.3mm continuum, the H30alpha recombination line, and two H2CO 3-2 transitions. Most 12CO emission is associated with small filaments and clumps (<1pc, ~1000 Msun at the current resolution). Some clumps are associated with protostars, including "pillars of creation" photoablated by intense radiation from R136. Emission from molecular clouds is often analyzed by decomposition into approximately beam-sized clumps. Such clumps in 30 Doradus follow similar trends in size, linewidth, and surface density to Milky Way clumps. The 30 Doradus clumps have somewhat larger linewidths for a given size than predicted by Larson's scaling relation, consistent with pressure confinement. They extend to higher surface density at a given size and linewidth compared to clouds studied at 10pc resolution. These trends are also true of clumps in Galactic infrared-dark clouds; higher resolution observations of both environments are required. Consistency of clump masses calculated from dust continuum, CO, and the virial theorem reveals that the CO abundance in 30 Doradus clumps is not significantly different from the LMC mean, but the dust abundance may be reduced by ~2. There are no strong trends in clump properties with distance from R136; dense clumps are not strongly affected by the external radiation field, but there is a modest trend towards lower dense clump filling fraction deeper in the cloud.Comment: accepted to Ap

Discovery of Cancer Driver Long Noncoding RNAs across 1112 Tumour Genomes: New Candidates and Distinguishing Features

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) represent a vast unexplored genetic space that may hold missing drivers of tumourigenesis, but few such "driver lncRNAs" are known. Until now, they have been discovered through changes in expression, leading to problems in distinguishing between causative roles and passenger effects. We here present a different approach for driver lncRNA discovery using mutational patterns in tumour DNA. Our pipeline, ExInAtor, identifies genes with excess load of somatic single nucleotide variants (SNVs) across panels of tumour genomes. Heterogeneity in mutational signatures between cancer types and individuals is accounted for using a simple local trinucleotide background model, which yields high precision and low computational demands. We use ExInAtor to predict drivers from the GENCODE annotation across 1112 entire genomes from 23 cancer types. Using a stratified approach, we identify 15 high-confidence candidates: 9 novel and 6 known cancer-related genes, including MALAT1, NEAT1 and SAMMSON. Both known and novel driver lncRNAs are distinguished by elevated gene length, evolutionary conservation and expression. We have presented a first catalogue of mutated lncRNA genes driving cancer, which will grow and improve with the application of ExInAtor to future tumour genome projects

The Role of Umwelt in Animal Curiosity: A Within and Between Species Comparison of Novelty Exploration in Mongooses

In its broadest sense, curiosity has been described as an intrinsic motivation to acquire novel information; this ‘novelty-seeking’ is notably in the absence of any immediate reward. One way to examine information seeking in animals, has been to present animals with novel objects and measure the way animals gather information through exploration. While this is a standardized and common paradigm, few studies have focused on what factors influence how animals perceive novelty, whilst considering the predicted impacts of an animal’s ‘umwelt’ on exploration. In this study we assessed explorative behaviors in mongooses through both an intra and interspecific view. First, in meerkats (Suricata suricatta) tested in their natural environment, we established that they distinguish familiar from unfamiliar and show increased exploration of novel objects. We also found that odor influenced the meerkats’ explorative action, so that non-odorous items were manipulated longer. Presence of conspecifics influenced approaches to novelty, but not the exploration per se. Human presence interacted with an individual’s level of habituation to impact approaches and exploration of novelty and we found a strong captivity effect on exploration between captive and wild meerkats. Between species analysis showed that yellow mongooses (Cynictis penicillate), a less social mongoose than meerkats, showed higher levels of novelty exploration, when tested within the same habitat. Thus, these findings show that multiple factors, including perceptual abilities (merkwelt) and social factors (sozialwelt), are decisive for when and how animals explore their environment and must be considered both when designing novelty paradigm tests and their interpretations

Bioenergy for climate change mitigation: Scale and sustainability

Many global climate change mitigation pathways presented in IPCC assessment reports rely heavily on the deployment of bioenergy, often used in conjunction with carbon capture and storage. We review the literature on bioenergy use for climate change mitigation, including studies that use top-down integrated assessment models or bottom-up modelling, and studies that do not rely on modelling. We summarize the state of knowledge concerning potential co-benefits and adverse side effects of bioenergy systems and discuss limitations of modelling studies used to analyse consequences of bioenergy expansion. The implications of bioenergy supply on mitigation and other sustainability criteria are context dependent and influenced by feedstock, management regime, climatic region, scale of deployment and how bioenergy alters energy systems and land use. Depending on previous land use, widespread deployment of monoculture plantations may contribute to mitigation but can cause negative impacts across a range of other sustainability criteria. Strategic integration of new biomass supply systems into existing agriculture and forest landscapes may result in less mitigation but can contribute positively to other sustainability objectives. There is considerable variation in evaluations of how sustainability challenges evolve as the scale of bioenergy deployment increases, due to limitations of existing models, and uncertainty over the future context with respect to the many variables that influence alternative uses of biomass and land. Integrative policies, coordinated institutions and improved governance mechanisms to enhance co-benefits and minimize adverse side effects can reduce the risks of large-scale deployment of bioenergy. Further, conservation and efficiency measures for energy, land and biomass can support greater flexibility in achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation

Bioenergy for climate change mitigation:Scale and sustainability

Many global climate change mitigation pathways presented in IPCC assessment reports rely heavily on the deployment of bioenergy, often used in conjunction with carbon capture and storage. We review the literature on bioenergy use for climate change mitigation, including studies that use top-down integrated assessment models or bottom-up modelling, and studies that do not rely on modelling. We summarize the state of knowledge concerning potential co-benefits and adverse side effects of bioenergy systems and discuss limitations of modelling studies used to analyse consequences of bioenergy expansion. The implications of bioenergy supply on mitigation and other sustainability criteria are context dependent and influenced by feedstock, management regime, climatic region, scale of deployment and how bioenergy alters energy systems and land use. Depending on previous land use, widespread deployment of monoculture plantations may contribute to mitigation but can cause negative impacts across a range of other sustainability criteria. Strategic integration of new biomass supply systems into existing agriculture and forest landscapes may result in less mitigation but can contribute positively to other sustainability objectives. There is considerable variation in evaluations of how sustainability challenges evolve as the scale of bioenergy deployment increases, due to limitations of existing models, and uncertainty over the future context with respect to the many variables that influence alternative uses of biomass and land. Integrative policies, coordinated institutions and improved governance mechanisms to enhance co-benefits and minimize adverse side effects can reduce the risks of large-scale deployment of bioenergy. Further, conservation and efficiency measures for energy, land and biomass can support greater flexibility in achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation.</p

Bioenergy for climate change mitigation: Scale and sustainability

Many global climate change mitigation pathways presented in IPCC assessment reports rely heavily on the deployment of bioenergy, often used in conjunction with carbon capture and storage. We review the literature on bioenergy use for climate change mitigation, including studies that use top-down integrated assessment models or bottom-up modelling, and studies that do not rely on modelling. We summarize the state of knowledge concerning potential co-benefits and adverse side effects of bioenergy systems and discuss limitations of modelling studies used to analyse consequences of bioenergy expansion. The implications of bioenergy supply on mitigation and other sustainability criteria are context dependent and influenced by feedstock, management regime, climatic region, scale of deployment and how bioenergy alters energy systems and land use. Depending on previous land use, widespread deployment of monoculture plantations may contribute to mitigation but can cause negative impacts across a range of other sustainability criteria. Strategic integration of new biomass supply systems into existing agriculture and forest landscapes may result in less mitigation but can contribute positively to other sustainability objectives. There is considerable variation in evaluations of how sustainability challenges evolve as the scale of bioenergy deployment increases, due to limitations of existing models, and uncertainty over the future context with respect to the many variables that influence alternative uses of biomass and land. Integrative policies, coordinated institutions and improved governance mechanisms to enhance co-benefits and minimize adverse side effects can reduce the risks of large-scale deployment of bioenergy. Further, conservation and efficiency measures for energy, land and biomass can support greater flexibility in achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation