323 research outputs found
Meaningful call combinations and compositional processing in the Southern Pied Babbler
Languageâs expressive power is largely attributable to its compositionality: meaningful words are combined into larger/higher-order structures with derived meaning. Despite its importance, little is known regarding the evolutionary origins and emergence of this syntactic ability. Whilst previous research has demonstrated a rudimentary capability to combine meaningful calls in primates, due to a scarcity of comparative data, it is unclear whether analogue forms might also exist outside of primates. Here we address this ambiguity and provide evidence for rudimentary compositionality in the discrete vocal system of a social passerine, the pied babbler (Turdoides bicolor). Natural observations and predator presentations revealed babblers produce acoustically distinct alert calls in response to close, low-urgency threats, and recruitment calls when recruiting group members during locomotion. Upon encountering terrestrial predators both vocalisations are combined into a âmobbing-sequenceâ, potentially to recruit group members in a dangerous situation. To investigate whether babblers process the sequence in a compositional way, we conducted systematic experiments, playing back the individual calls in isolation, as well as naturally occurring and artificial sequences. Babblers reacted most strongly to mobbing-sequence playbacks, showing a greater attentiveness and a quicker approach to the loudspeaker, compared to individual calls or control sequences. We conclude the sequence constitutes a compositional structure, communicating information on both the context and the requested action. Our work supports previous research suggesting combinatoriality as a viable mechanism to increase communicative output, and indicates that the ability to combine and process meaningful vocal structures, a basic syntax, may be more widespread than previously thought
Phytochrome-Based Extracellular Matrix with Reversibly Tunable mechanical Properties
Interrogation and control of cellular fate and function using optogenetics is providing revolutionary insights into biology. Optogenetic control of cells is achieved by coupling genetically encoded photoreceptors to cellular effectors and enables unprecedented spatiotemporal control of signaling processes. Here, a fast and reversibly switchable photoreceptor is used to tune the mechanical properties of polymer materials in a fully reversible, wavelengthâspecific, and doseâ and spaceâcontrolled manner. By integrating engineered cyanobacterial phytochrome 1 into a poly(ethylene glycol) matrix, hydrogel materials responsive to light in the cellâcompatible red/farâred spectrum are synthesized. These materials are applied to study in human mesenchymal stem cells how different mechanosignaling pathways respond to changing mechanical environments and to control the migration of primary immune cells in 3D. This optogeneticsâinspired matrix allows fundamental questions of how cells react to dynamic mechanical environments to be addressed. Further, remote control of such matrices can create new opportunities for tissue engineering or provide a basis for optically stimulated drug depots
A new Late Agenian (MN2a, Early Miocene) fossil assemblage from Wallenried (Molasse Basin, Canton Fribourg, Switzerland)
Excavations of two fossiliferous layers in the Wallenried sand- and marl pit produced a very diversified vertebrate fauna. New material allows the reassessment of the taxonomic position of the ruminant taxa Andegameryx andegaviensis and endemic Friburgomeryx wallenriedensis. An emended diagnosis for the second species is provided and additional material of large and small mammals, as well as ectothermic vertebrates, is described. The recorded Lagomorpha show interesting morphological deviations from other Central European material, and probably represent a unique transitional assemblage with a co-occurrence of Titanomys, Lagopsis and Prolagus. Rodentia and Eulipotyphla belong to typical and well-known species of the Agenian of the Swiss Molasse Basin. Abundant small mammal teeth have allowed us to pinpoint the biostratigraphic age of Wallenried to late MN2a. The biostratigraphic age conforms to data derived from the charophyte assemblages and confirms the oldest occurrence of venomous snake fangs. The palaeoenvironmental context is quite complex. Sedimentary structures and fauna (fishes, frogs, salamanders, ostracods) are characteristic for a humid, lacustrine environment within a flood plain system
Purification and characterization of 4-methylmuconolactone methylisomerase, a novel enzyme of the modified 3-oxoadipate pathway in the gram-negative bacterium Alcaligenes eutrophus JMP 134
Lower and upper probabilities in the distributive lattice of subsystems
yesThe set of subsystems â (m) of a finite quantum system â(n) (with variables in Î(n)) together with logical connectives, is a distributive lattice. With regard to this lattice, the â(m | Ïn) = Tr ((m) Ïn ) (where (m) is the projector to â(m)) obeys a supermodularity inequality, and it is interpreted as a lower probability in the sense of the DempsterâShafer theory, and not as a Kolmogorov probability. It is shown that the basic concepts of the DempsterâShafer theory (lower and upper probabilities and the Dempster multivaluedness) are pertinent to the quantum formalism of finite systems
The impact of electronic versus paper-based data capture on data collection logistics and on missing scores in thyroid cancer patients.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the type of data capture on the time and help needed for collecting patient-reported outcomes as well as on the proportion of missing scores.
In a multinational prospective study, thyroid cancer patients from 17 countries completed a validated questionnaire measuring quality of life. Electronic data capture was compared to the paper-based approach using multivariate logistic regression.
A total of 437 patients were included, of whom 13% used electronic data capture. The relation between data capture and time needed was modified by the emotional functioning of the patients. Those with clinical impairments in that respect needed more time to complete the questionnaire when they used electronic data capture compared to paper and pencil (OR <sub>adj</sub> 24.0; p = 0.006). This was not the case when patients had sub-threshold emotional problems (OR <sub>adj</sub> 1.9; p = 0.48). The odds of having the researcher reading the questions out (instead of the patient doing this themselves) (OR <sub>adj</sub> 0.1; p = 0.01) and of needing any help (OR <sub>adj</sub> 0.1; p = 0.01) were lower when electronic data capture was used. The proportion of missing scores was equivalent in both groups (OR <sub>adj</sub> 0.4, p = 0.42).
The advantages of electronic data capture, such as real-time assessment and fewer data entry errors, may come at the price of more time required for data collection when the patients have mental health problems. As this is not uncommon in thyroid cancer, researchers need to choose the type of data capture wisely for their particular research question
Evolution of Oligo-Miocene talpids (Mammalia, Talpidae) in Europe: focus on the genera Myxomygale
JWST MIRI flight performance: The Medium-Resolution Spectrometer
The Medium-Resolution Spectrometer (MRS) provides one of the four operating
modes of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on board the James Webb Space
Telescope (JWST). The MRS is an integral field spectrometer, measuring the
spatial and spectral distributions of light across the 5-28 wavelength
range with a spectral resolving power between 3700-1300. We present the MRS's
optical, spectral, and spectro-photometric performance, as achieved in flight,
and we report on the effects that limit the instrument's ultimate sensitivity.
The MRS flight performance has been quantified using observations of stars,
planetary nebulae, and planets in our Solar System. The precision and accuracy
of this calibration was checked against celestial calibrators with well-known
flux levels and spectral features. We find that the MRS geometric calibration
has a distortion solution accuracy relative to the commanded position of 8 mas
at 5 and 23 mas at 28 . The wavelength calibration is accurate
to within 9 km/sec at 5 and 27 km/sec at 28 . The uncertainty in
the absolute spectro-photometric calibration accuracy was estimated at 5.6 +-
0.7 %. The MIRI calibration pipeline is able to suppress the amplitude of
spectral fringes to below 1.5 % for both extended and point sources across the
entire wavelength range. The MRS point spread function (PSF) is 60 % broader
than the diffraction limit along its long axis at 5 and is 15 % broader
at 28 . The MRS flight performance is found to be better than prelaunch
expectations. The MRS is one of the most subscribed observing modes of JWST and
is yielding many high-profile publications. It is currently humanity's most
powerful instrument for measuring the mid-infrared spectra of celestial sources
and is expected to continue as such for many years to come.Comment: 16 pages, 21 figure
Combinatoriality in the vocal systems of nonhuman animals
A key challenge in the field of human language evolution is the identification of the selective conditions that gave rise to language's generative nature. Comparative data on nonhuman animals provides a powerful tool to investigate similarities and differences among nonhuman and human communication systems and to reveal convergent evolutionary mechanisms. In this article, we provide an overview of the current evidence for combinatorial structures found in the vocal system of diverse species. We show that considerable structural diversity exits across and within species in the forms of combinatorial structures used. Based on this we suggest that a fineâgrained classification and differentiation of combinatoriality is a useful approach permitting systematic comparisons across animals. Specifically, this will help to identify factors that might promote the emergence of combinatoriality and, crucially, whether differences in combinatorial mechanisms might be driven by variations in social and ecological conditions or cognitive capacities
LensWatch: I. Resolved HST Observations and Constraints on the Strongly-Lensed Type Ia Supernova 2022qmx ("SN Zwicky")
Supernovae (SNe) that have been multiply-imaged by gravitational lensing are
rare and powerful probes for cosmology. Each detection is an opportunity to
develop the critical tools and methodologies needed as the sample of lensed SNe
increases by orders of magnitude with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory
and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The latest such discovery is of the
quadruply-imaged Type Ia SN 2022qmx (aka, "SN Zwicky"; Goobar et al. 2022) at z
= 0.3544. SN Zwicky was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in
spatially unresolved data. Here we present follow-up Hubble Space Telescope
observations of SN Zwicky, the first from the multi-cycle "LensWatch" program
(www.lenswatch.org). We measure photometry for each of the four images of SN
Zwicky, which are resolved in three WFC3/UVIS filters (F475W, F625W, F814W) but
unresolved with WFC3/IR F160W, and produce an analysis of the lensing system
using a variety of independent lens modeling methods. We find consistency
between time delays estimated with the single epoch of HST photometry and the
lens model predictions constrained through the multiple image positions, with
both inferring time delays of <1 day. Our lens models converge to an Einstein
radius of (0.168+0.009-0.005)", the smallest yet seen in a lensed SN. The
"standard candle" nature of SN Zwicky provides magnification estimates
independent of the lens modeling that are brighter by ~1.5 mag and ~0.8 mag for
two of the four images, suggesting significant microlensing and/or additional
substructure beyond the flexibility of our image-position mass models
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