Emotional engagements predict and enhance social cognition in young chimpanzees

Social cognition in infancy is evident in coordinated triadic engagements, that is, infants attending jointly with social partners and objects. Current evolutionary theories of primate social cognition tend to highlight species differences in cognition based on human-unique cooperative motives. We consider a developmental model in which engagement experiences produce differential outcomes. We conducted a 10-year-long study in which two groups of laboratory-raised chimpanzee infants were given quantifiably different engagement experiences. Joint attention, cooperativeness, affect, and different levels of cognition were measured in 5- to 12-month-old chimpanzees, and compared to outcomes derived from a normative human database. We found that joint attention skills significantly improved across development for all infants, but by 12 months, the humans significantly surpassed the chimpanzees. We found that cooperativeness was stable in the humans, but by 12 months, the chimpanzee group given enriched engagement experiences significantly surpassed the humans. Past engagement experiences and concurrent affect were significant unique predictors of both joint attention and cooperativeness in 5- to 12-month-old chimpanzees. When engagement experiences and concurrent affect were statistically controlled, joint attention and cooperation were not associated. We explain differential social cognition outcomes in terms of the significant influences of previous engagement experiences and affect, in addition to cognition. Our study highlights developmental processes that underpin the emergence of social cognition in support of evolutionary continuity

N, P and K budgets for crop rotations on nine organic farms in the UK

On organic farms, where the importation of materials to build/maintain soil fertility is restricted, it is important that a balance between inputs and outputs of nutrients is achieved to ensure both short-term productivity and long-term sustainability. This paper considers different approaches to nutrient budgeting on organic farms and evaluates the sources of bias in the measurements and/or estimates of the nutrient inputs and outputs. The paper collates 88 nutrient budgets compiled at the farm scale in 9 temperate countries. All the nitrogen (N) budgets showed an N surplus (average 83.2 kg N ha-1 year-1). The efficiency of N use, defined as outputs/inputs, was highest (0.9) and lowest (0.2) in arable and beef systems respectively. The phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) budgets showed both surpluses and deficits (average 3.6 kg P ha-1 year-1, 14.2 kg K ha-1 year-1) with horticultural systems showing large surpluses resulting from purchased manure. The estimation of N fixation and quantities of nutrients in purchased manures may introduce significant errors in nutrient budgets. Overall, the data illustrate the diversity of management systems in place on organic farms, and suggest that used together with soil analysis, nutrient budgets are a useful tool for improving the long-term sustainability of organic systems

Effects of Strong Magnetic Fields in Strange Baryonic Matter

We investigate the effects of very strong magnetic fields upon the equation of state of dense bayonic matter in which hyperons are present. In the presence of a magnetic field, the equation of state above nuclear density is significantly affected both by Landau quantization and magnetic moment interactions, but only for field strengths $B>5\times10^{18}$ G. The former tends to soften the EOS and increase proton and lepton abundances, while the latter produces an overall stiffening of the EOS. Each results in a supression of hyperons relative to the field-free case. The structure of a neutron star is, however, primarily determined by the magnetic field stress. We utilize existing general relativistic magneto-hydrostatic calculations to demonstrate that maximum average fields within a stable neutron are limited to values $B\le 1-3 \times10^{18}$ G. This is not large enough to significantly influence particle compositions or the matter pressure, unless fluctuations dominate the average field strengths in the interior or configurations with significantly larger field gradients are considered.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. To be submitted to Phys. Lett.

Academic language socialisation in high school writing conferences

This study examines multilingual high school writers’ individual talk with their teachers in two advanced English language development classes to observe how such talk shapes linguistically diverse adolescents’ writing. Addressing adolescent writers’ language socialization through microethnographic discourse analysis, the author argues that teachers’ oral responses during writing conferences can either scaffold or deter students’ socialization into valued ways of using academic language for school writing. She suggests what forms of oral response provide scaffolding and what forms might limit multilingual adolescent learners’ academic literacy. Constructive interactions engaged students in dialogue about their writing, and students included content or phrasing from the interaction in their texts. Unhelpful interactions failed to foster students’ language development in observable ways. Although teachers attempted to scaffold ideas and language, they often did not guide students’ discovery of appropriate forms or points. These interactions represent restrictive academic language socialization: while some students did create academic texts, they learned little about academic language use

Sweet taste preference in binge-eating disorder: A preliminary investigation

Research suggests that individuals with high liking for sweets are at increased risk for binge eating, which has been minimally investigated in individuals with binge-eating disorder (BED). Forty-one adults (85% female, 83% white) with binge eating concerns completed a sweet taste test and measures of eating disorder behaviors and food cravings. A subset of participants with BED completed an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT; N = 21) and a 24-hour dietary recall (N = 26). Regression models were used to compare highest sweet preferers (HSP [N = 18]) to other sweet preferers (OSP [N = 23]) and were used to assess associations between sweet taste preference and outcome variables. Effect sizes (ηp2) for differences between HSP and OSP ranged from small (≤ 0.01) to large (≥ 0.24); group differences were statistically nonsignificant except for 24-hour caloric intake (ηp2 = 0.16, p = 0.04), protein intake (ηp2 = 0.16, p = 0.04), and insulin sensitivity index (ηp2 = 0.24, p = 0.04), which were higher in HSP, and postprandial insulin, which was smaller in HSP (ηp2 = 0.27, p = 0.03). Continuous analyses replicated postprandial insulin response. Compared with OSP, HSP reported numerically higher binge-eating frequency (ηp2 = 0.04), over-eating frequency (ηp2 = 0.06), and carbohydrate intake (ηp2 = 0.14), and they exhibited numerically smaller postprandial glucose AUC (ηp2 = 0.16). Sweet taste preference may have implications for glucose regulation, binge-eating frequency, and nutrient intake in BED

A multiwavelength study of the supernova remnant G296.8-0.3

We report XMM-Newton observations of the Galactic supernova remnant G296.8-0.3, together with complementary radio and infrared data. The spatial and spectral properties of the X-ray emission, detected towards G296.8-0.3, was investigated in order to explore the possible evolutionary scenarios and the physical connexion with its unusual morphology detected at radio frequencies. G296.8-0.3 displays diffuse X-ray emission correlated with the peculiar radio morphology detected in the interior of the remnant and with the shell-like radio structure observed to the northwest side of the object. The X-ray emission peaks in the soft/medium energy range (0.5-3.0 keV). The X-ray spectral analysis confirms that the column density is high (NH \sim 0.64 x 10^{22} cm^{-2}) which supports a distant location (d>9 kpc) for the SNR. Its X-ray spectrum can be well represented by a thermal (PSHOCK) model, with kT \sim 0.86 keV, an ionization timescale of 6.1 x 10^{10} cm^{-3} s, and low abundance (0.12 Z_sun). The 24 microns observations show shell-like emission correlated with part of the northwest and southeast boundaries of the SNR. In addition a point-like X-ray source is also detected close to the geometrical center of the radio SNR. The object presents some characteristics of the so-called compact central objects (CCO). Its X-ray spectrum is consistent with those found at other CCOs and the value of NH is consistent with that of G296.8-0.3, which suggests a physical connexion with the SNR.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Aspects of String-Gas Cosmology at Finite Temperature

We study string-gas cosmology in dilaton gravity, inspired by the fact that it naturally arises in a string theory context. Our main interest is the thermodynamical treatment of the string-gas and the resulting implications for the cosmology. Within an adiabatic approximation, thermodynamical equilibrium and a small, toroidal universe as initial conditions, we numerically solve the corresponding equations of motions in two different regimes describing the string-gas thermodynamics: (i) the Hagedorn regime, with a single scale factor, and (ii) an almost-radiation dominated regime, which includes the leading corrections due to the lightest Kaluza Klein and winding modes, with two scale factors. The scale factor in the Hagedorn regime exhibits very slow time evolution with nearly constant energy and negligible pressure. By contrast, in case (ii) we find interesting cosmological solutions where the large dimensions continue to expand and the small ones are kept undetectably small.Comment: 21 pages, 5 eps figure

Stress induced grooming in the rat -- An endorphin mediated syndrome

Exposure of adult male Sprague--Dawley rats to a non-traumatic noise-light stress procedure subsequently increased grooming behavior in a novel environment. The grooming syndrome was marginally facilitated by adrenalectomy and by hypophysectomy. Opiate blockade by naltrexone returned grooming to basal levels. This suggests that stress induced grooming is not dependent upon pituitary-adrenal integrity for its expression, although it may be modulated by the latter. On the other hand this form of grooming may depend upon an endogenous opiate system.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23542/1/0000501.pd