Toshisada Nishida (1941–2011): Chimpanzee Rapport

Frans de Waal pays tribute to pioneering primatologist Toshisada Nishida, who transformed our understanding of chimpanzee behavior and culture and galvanized efforts to ensure their conservation

Additive technology of obtaining products from ceramics

Created an original design of the device, which lets you create samples of thermoplastic ceramic slurry, which after sintering, are obtained ceramics with high strength and hardness parameters

Post-Conflict Affiliation by Chimpanzees with Aggressors: Other-Oriented versus Selfish Political Strategy

Consolation, i.e., post-conflict affiliation directed from bystanders to recent victims of aggression, has recently acquired an important role in the debate about empathy in great apes. Although similar contacts have been also described for aggressors, i.e., appeasement, they have received far less attention and their function and underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. An exceptionally large database of spontaneous conflict and post-conflict interactions in two outdoor-housed groups of chimpanzees lends support to the notion that affiliation toward aggressors reduces the latter's aggressive tendencies in that further aggression was less frequent after the occurrence of the affiliation. However, bystander affiliation toward aggressors occurred disproportionally between individuals that were socially close (i.e., affiliation partners) which suggest that it did not function to protect the actor itself against redirected aggression. Contrary to consolation behavior, it was provided most often by adult males and directed toward high ranking males, whereas females engaged less often in this behavior both as actors and recipients, suggesting that affiliation with aggressors is unlikely to be a reaction to the distress of others. We propose that bystander affiliation toward aggressors may function to strengthen bonds between valuable partners, probably as part of political strategies. Our findings also suggest that this post-conflict behavior may act as an alternative to reconciliation, i.e., post-conflict affiliation between opponents, in that it is more common when opponents fail to reconcile

Seasonal diet changes in elephant and impala in mopane woodland

Elephant and impala as intermediate feeders, having a mixed diet of grass and browse, respond to seasonal fluctuations of forage quality by changing their diet composition. We tested the hypotheses that (1) the decrease in forage quality is accompanied by a change in diet from more monocots in the wet season to more dicots in the dry season and that that change is more pronounced and faster in impala than in elephant; (2) mopane (Colophospermum mopane), the most abundant dicot species, is the most important species in the elephant diet in mopane woodland, whereas impala feed relatively less on mopane due to the high condensed tannin concentration; and (3) impala on nutrient-rich soils have a diet consisting of more grass and change later to diet of more browse than impala on nutrient-poor soils. The phosphorus content and in vitro digestibility of monocots decreased and the NDF content increased significantly towards the end of the wet season, whereas in dicots no significant trend could be detected. We argue that this decreasing monocot quality caused elephant and impala to consume more dicots in the dry season. Elephant changed their diet gradually over a 16-week period from 70% to 25% monocots, whereas impala changed diets rapidly (2-4 weeks) from 95% to 70% monocots. For both elephants and impala, there was a positive correlation between percentage of monocots and dicots in the diet and the in vitro digestibility of these forage items. Mopane was the most important dicot species in the elephant diet and its contribution to the diet increased significantly in the dry season, whereas impala selected other dicot species. On nutrient-rich gabbroic soils, impala ate significantly more monocots than impala from nutrient-poor granitic soils, which was related to the higher in vitro digestibility of the monocots on gabbroic soil. Digestibility of food items appears to be an important determinant of diet change from the wet to the dry season in impala and elephants

Entropic effects on the Size Evolution of Cluster Structure

We show that the vibrational entropy can play a crucial role in determining the equilibrium structure of clusters by constructing structural phase diagrams showing how the structure depends upon both size and temperature. These phase diagrams are obtained for example rare gas and metal clusters.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Agent-based Social Psychology: from Neurocognitive Processes to Social Data

Moral Foundation Theory states that groups of different observers may rely on partially dissimilar sets of moral foundations, thereby reaching different moral valuations. The use of functional imaging techniques has revealed a spectrum of cognitive styles with respect to the differential handling of novel or corroborating information that is correlated to political affiliation. Here we characterize the collective behavior of an agent-based model whose inter individual interactions due to information exchange in the form of opinions are in qualitative agreement with experimental neuroscience data. The main conclusion derived connects the existence of diversity in the cognitive strategies and statistics of the sets of moral foundations and suggests that this connection arises from interactions between agents. Thus a simple interacting agent model, whose interactions are in accord with empirical data on conformity and learning processes, presents statistical signatures consistent with moral judgment patterns of conservatives and liberals as obtained by survey studies of social psychology.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 2 C codes, to appear in Advances in Complex System

Erythritol airpolishing in the non-surgical treatment of peri-implantitis:A randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVES: To compare erythritol air-polishing with piezoelectric ultrasonic scaling in the non-surgical treatment of peri-implantitis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Eighty patients (n=139 implants) with peri-implantitis (probing pocket depth (PPD) ≥5mm, marginal bone loss (MBL) ≥2mm as compared to bone level at implant placement, bleeding and/or suppuration on probing (BoP/SoP)) were randomly allocated to air-polishing or ultrasonic treatment. The primary outcome was mean BoP (%) at 3 months after therapy (T3). Secondary outcomes were mean SoP (%), plaque score (Plq) (%), PPD (mm), MBL (mm), full mouth periodontal scores (FMPS) (%), levels of 8 classical periodontal pathogens and treatment pain/discomfort (Visual Analog Scale, VAS). Patients who were considered successful at T3 were additionally assessed at 6, 9 and 12 months. Differences between both groups were analysed using multilevel statistics. RESULTS: Three months after therapy, no significant difference in mean BoP (%) between the air-polishing and ultrasonic therapy was found (crude analysis β (95% CI) -0.037 (-0.147; 0.073), p = 0.380). Neither secondary outcomes SoP (%), Plq (%), PPD (mm), MBL (mm), FMPS (%) and periodontal pathogens showed significant differences. Treatment pain/discomfort was low in both groups (VAS score air-polishing group 2.1 (±1.9), ultrasonic 2.6 (±1.9); p = 0.222). All successfully treated patients at T3 (18.4%) were still considered successful at 12 months follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Erythritol air-polishing seems as effective as piezoelectric ultrasonic scaling in the non-surgical treatment of peri-implantitis, in terms of clinical, radiographical and microbiological parameters. However, neither of the proposed therapies effectively resolved peri-implantits. Hence, the majority of patients required further surgical treatment

Erythritol air polishing in the surgical treatment of peri-implantitis:A randomized controlled trial

Objectives: To compare erythritol air polishing with implant surface cleansing using saline during the surgical treatment of peri-implantitis. Material and Methods: During a resective surgical intervention, implant surfaces were randomly treated with either air polishing (test group n = 26 patients/53 implants) or saline-soaked cotton gauzes (control group n = 31 patients/ 40 implants). Primary outcome was change in mean bleeding on probing (BoP) from baseline to 12 months follow-up. Secondary outcomes were changes in mean suppuration on probing (SoP), plaque score (Plq), probing pocket depth (PPD), marginal bone loss (MBL), periodontal full-mouth scores (PFMS), and levels of 8 classical periodontal pathogens. Clinical and radiographical parameters were analyzed using multilevel regression analyses. Microbiological outcomes were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test. Results: No differences between the test and control group were found for BoP over 12 months of follow-up, nor for the secondary parameters Plq, PPD, and MBL. Between both groups, a significant difference was found for the levels of SoP (p = 0.035). No significant effect on microbiological levels was found. A total number of 6 implants were lost in the test group and 10 in the control group. At 1-year follow-up, a successful treatment outcome (PPD0.5 mm) was achieved for a total of 18 implants (19.2%). Conclusions: Erythritol air polishing as implant surface cleansing method was not more effective than saline during resective surgical treatment of peri-implantitis in terms of clinical, radiographical, and microbiological parameters. Both therapies resulted in low treatment success