Personality, Foraging and Fitness Consequences in a Long Lived Seabird

While personality differences in animals are defined as consistent behavioural variation between individuals, the widely studied field of foraging specialisation in marine vertebrates has rarely been addressed within this framework. However there is much overlap between the two fields, both aiming to measure the causes and consequences of consistent individual behaviour. Here for the first time we use both a classic measure of personality, the response to a novel object, and an estimate of foraging strategy, derived from GPS data, to examine individual personality differences in black browed albatross and their consequences for fitness. First, we examine the repeatability of personality scores and link these to variation in foraging habitat. Bolder individuals forage nearer the colony, in shallower regions, whereas shyer birds travel further from the colony, and fed in deeper oceanic waters. Interestingly, neither personality score predicted a bird's overlap with fisheries. Second, we show that both personality scores are correlated with fitness consequences, dependent on sex and year quality. Our data suggest that shyer males and bolder females have higher fitness, but the strength of this relationship depends on year quality. Females who forage further from the colony have higher breeding success in poor quality years, whereas males foraging close to the colony always have higher fitness. Together these results highlight the potential importance of personality variation in seabirds and that the fitness consequences of boldness and foraging strategy may be highly sex dependent

Data augmentation for machine translation via dependency subtree swapping

We present a generic framework for data augmentation via dependency subtree swapping that is applicable to machine translation. We extract corresponding subtrees from the dependency parse trees of the source and target sentences and swap these across bisentences to create augmented samples. We perform thorough filtering based on graphbased similarities of the dependency trees and additional heuristics to ensure that extracted subtrees correspond to the same meaning. We conduct resource-constrained experiments on 4 language pairs in both directions using the IWSLT text translation datasets and the Hunglish2 corpus. The results demonstrate consistent improvements in BLEU score over our baseline models in 3 out of 4 language pairs. Our code is available on GitHub

Data Augmentation for Machine Translation via Dependency Subtree Swapping

We present a generic framework for data augmentation via dependency subtree swapping that is applicable to machine translation. We extract corresponding subtrees from the dependency parse trees of the source and target sentences and swap these across bisentences to create augmented samples. We perform thorough filtering based on graphbased similarities of the dependency trees and additional heuristics to ensure that extracted subtrees correspond to the same meaning. We conduct resource-constrained experiments on 4 language pairs in both directions using the IWSLT text translation datasets and the Hunglish2 corpus. The results demonstrate consistent improvements in BLEU score over our baseline models in 3 out of 4 language pairs. Our code is available on GitHub

Personality, Foraging and Fitness Consequences in a Long Lived Seabird

While personality differences in animals are defined as consistent behavioural variation between individuals, the widely studied field of foraging specialisation in marine vertebrates has rarely been addressed within this framework. However there is much overlap between the two fields, both aiming to measure the causes and consequences of consistent individual behaviour. Here for the first time we use both a classic measure of personality, the response to a novel object, and an estimate of foraging strategy, derived from GPS data, to examine individual personality differences in black browed albatross and their consequences for fitness. First, we examine the repeatability of personality scores and link these to variation in foraging habitat. Bolder individuals forage nearer the colony, in shallower regions, whereas shyer birds travel further from the colony, and fed in deeper oceanic waters. Interestingly, neither personality score predicted a bird's overlap with fisheries. Second, we show that both personality scores are correlated with fitness consequences, dependent on sex and year quality. Our data suggest that shyer males and bolder females have higher fitness, but the strength of this relationship depends on year quality. Females who forage further from the colony have higher breeding success in poor quality years, whereas males foraging close to the colony always have higher fitness. Together these results highlight the potential importance of personality variation in seabirds and that the fitness consequences of boldness and foraging strategy may be highly sex dependent

Orbitofrontal cortex, emotional decision-making and response to cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis

Grey matter volume (GMV) in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) may relate to better response to cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) because of the region's role in emotional decision-making and cognitive flexibility. This study aimed to determine the relation between pre-therapy OFC GMV or asymmetry and CBTp responsiveness and emotional decision-making as measured by the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Thirty patients received CBTp + standard care (CBTp+SC; 25 completers) for 6-8 months. All patients (before receiving CBTp) and 25 healthy participants underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging and performed the IGT. Patients' symptoms were assessed before and after therapy. Pre-therapy OFC GMV, measured using a region-of-interest approach, and IGT performance, measured as overall learning, attention to reward, memory for past outcomes and choice consistency, were comparable between patient and healthy groups. In the CBTp+SC group, greater OFC GMV was correlated with positive symptom improvement, specifically hallucinations and persecution. Greater rightward OFC asymmetry correlated with improvement in several negative and general psychopathology symptoms. Greater left OFC GMV was associated with lower IGT attention to reward. The findings suggest that greater OFC volume and rightward asymmetry, which maintain the OFC's function in emotional decision-making and cognitive flexibility, are beneficial for CBTp responsiveness

Solar Science with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array — A New View of Our Sun

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a new powerful tool for observing the Sun at high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution. These capabilities can address a broad range of fundamental scientific questions in solar physics. The radiation observed by ALMA originates mostly from the chromosphere—a complex and dynamic region between the photosphere and corona, which plays a crucial role in the transport of energy and matter and, ultimately, the heating of the outer layers of the solar atmosphere. Based on first solar test observations, strategies for regular solar campaigns are currently being developed. State-of-the-art numerical simulations of the solar atmosphere and modeling of instrumental effects can help constrain and optimize future observing modes for ALMA. Here we present a short technical description of ALMA and an overview of past efforts and future possibilities for solar observations at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. In addition, selected numerical simulations and observations at other wavelengths demonstrate ALMA’s scientific potential for studying the Sun for a large range of science cases

Who dares does not always win: risk-averse rockpool prawns are better at controlling a limited food resource

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier Masson via the DOI in this record.Animal ‘personality’ – the phenomenon of consistent individual differences in behaviour within populations – has been documented widely, yet its functional significance and the reasons for its persistence remain unclear. One possibility is that among-individual behavioural variation is linked to fitness-determining traits via effects on resource acquisition. In this study, we test this idea, using rockpool prawns (Palaemon elegans) to test for a correlation between ‘high-risk exploration’ and the ability to monopolise a limited resource. Modified open field trials (OFTs) confirmed that consistent among-individual (co)variation in high-risk exploratory behaviours does exist in this species, and multivariate analysis shows trait variation is consistent with a major axis of personality variation. Subsequent feeding trials in size-matched groups where competition was possible revealed a high repeatability of feeding duration, used here as a proxy for RHP (resource holding potential). We found significant negative correlations between feeding duration and two ‘risky’ behaviours, such that individuals that took fewer risks fed more. Our results are not consistent with the widely hypothesised idea of a ‘proactive syndrome’ in which bolder, risk-taking personalities are positively associated with RHP. Rather they suggest the possibility of a trade-off, with some individuals successful at monopolising limited, high-value resources, while others are more willing to engage in potentially risky exploration (which may increase the likelihood of encountering novel resource patches). We speculate that alternative strategies for acquiring limited resources might thereby contribute to the maintenance of personality variation observed in wild populationsTH and AJW were supported by a grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council awarded to AJW (BBSRC, grant BB/L022656/1)

VACCELERATE Site Network: Real-time definition of clinical study capacity in Europe

Background: The inconsistent European vaccine trial landscape rendered the continent of limited interest for vaccine developers. The VACCELERATE consortium created a network of capable clinical trial sites throughout Europe. VACCELERATE identifies and provides access to state-of-the-art vaccine trial sites to accelerate clinical development of vaccines. Methods: Login details for the VACCELERATE Site Network (vaccelerate.eu/site-network/) questionnaire can be obtained after sending an email to. Interested sites provide basic information, such as contact details, affiliation with infectious disease networks, main area of expertise, previous vaccine trial experience, site infrastructure and preferred vaccine trial settings. In addition, sites can recommend other clinical researchers for registration in the network. If directly requested by a sponsor or sponsor representative, the VACCELERATE Site Network pre-selects vaccine trial sites and shares basic study characteristics provided by the sponsor. Interested sites provide feedback with short surveys and feasibility questionnaires developed by VACCELERATE and are connected with the sponsor to initiate the site selection process. Results: As of April 2023, 481 sites from 39 European countries have registered in the VACCELERATE Site Network. Of these, 137 (28.5 %) sites have previous experience conducting phase I trials, 259 (53.8 %) with phase II, 340 (70.7 %) with phase III, and 205 (42.6 %) with phase IV trials, respectively. Infectious diseases were reported as main area of expertise by 274 sites (57.0 %), followed by any kind of immunosuppression by 141 (29.3 %) sites. Numbers are super additive as sites may report clinical trial experience in several indications. Two hundred and thirty-one (47.0 %) sites have the expertise and capacity to enrol paediatric populations and 391 (79.6 %) adult populations. Since its launch in October 2020, the VACCELERATE Site Network has been used 21 times for academic and industry trials, mostly interventional studies, focusing on different pathogens such as fungi, monkeypox virus, Orthomyxoviridae/influenza viruses, SARS-CoV-2, or Streptococcus pneumoniae/pneumococcus. Conclusions: The VACCELERATE Site Network enables a constantly updated Europe-wide mapping of experienced clinical sites interested in executing vaccine trials. The network is already in use as a rapid-turnaround single contact point for the identification of vaccine trials sites in Europe.The VACCELERATE Site Network has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation pro gramme (grant agreement No 101037867) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bil dung und Forschung [BMBF]) (grant agreement No BMBF01KX2040).S

Extra-pair parentage and personality in a cooperatively breeding bird

Why so much variation in extra-pair parentage occurs within and among populations remains unclear. Often the fitness costs and benefits of extra-pair parentage are hypothesised to explain its occurrence; therefore, linking extra-pair parentage with traits such as personality (behavioural traits that can be heritable and affect reproductive behaviour) may help our understanding. Here, we investigate whether reproductive outcomes and success are associated with exploratory behaviour in a natural population of cooperatively breeding Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) on Cousin Island. Exploratory behaviour correlates positively with traits such as risk-taking behaviour and activity in other wild bird species and might promote extra-pair mating by increasing the rate at which potential extra-pair partners are encountered. We therefore predicted that fast-exploring individuals would have more extra-pair offspring. There is also a potential trade-off between pursuing extra-pair parentage and mate guarding in males. We therefore also predicted that fast-exploring males would be more likely to pursue extra-pair parentage and that this would increase the propensity of their mate to gain extra-pair parentage. We found that neither the total number of offspring nor the number of extra-pair offspring were associated with a male’s or female’s exploratory behaviour. However, there was a small but significant propensity for females to have extra-pair fertilisations in pairs that were behaviourally disassortative. Overall, we conclude that, due to the small effect size, the association between exploratory behaviour and extra-pair paternity is unlikely to be biologically relevant. Significance statement: True genetic monogamy is rare, even in socially monogamous systems, and multiple factors, such as behaviour, social structure, morphology and physiology, determined by the biological system can cause variation in extra-pair parentage (EPP). Therefore, investigating the inherent differences in these factors among individuals could be informative. We investigated whether reproductive outcomes/success are associated with differences in the propensity to explore novel environments/objects in a promiscuous, island-dwelling cooperatively breeding bird, the Seychelles warbler. Our results showed that exploratory behaviour was not associated with the number of offspring produced by an individual, and thus the long-term fitness consequences of different exploratory tendencies did not differ. We also found that the propensity to engage in EPP in females was higher in dissimilar behavioural pairs, but due to the small effect size, we hesitate to conclude that there are personality-dependent mating outcomes in the population

The European Reference Genome Atlas: piloting a decentralised approach to equitable biodiversity genomics.

ABSTRACT: A global genome database of all of Earth’s species diversity could be a treasure trove of scientific discoveries. However, regardless of the major advances in genome sequencing technologies, only a tiny fraction of species have genomic information available. To contribute to a more complete planetary genomic database, scientists and institutions across the world have united under the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), which plans to sequence and assemble high-quality reference genomes for all ∼1.5 million recognized eukaryotic species through a stepwise phased approach. As the initiative transitions into Phase II, where 150,000 species are to be sequenced in just four years, worldwide participation in the project will be fundamental to success. As the European node of the EBP, the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) seeks to implement a new decentralised, accessible, equitable and inclusive model for producing high-quality reference genomes, which will inform EBP as it scales. To embark on this mission, ERGA launched a Pilot Project to establish a network across Europe to develop and test the first infrastructure of its kind for the coordinated and distributed reference genome production on 98 European eukaryotic species from sample providers across 33 European countries. Here we outline the process and challenges faced during the development of a pilot infrastructure for the production of reference genome resources, and explore the effectiveness of this approach in terms of high-quality reference genome production, considering also equity and inclusion. The outcomes and lessons learned during this pilot provide a solid foundation for ERGA while offering key learnings to other transnational and national genomic resource projects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio