Orangulas: effect of scheduled visual enrichment on behavioral and endocrine aspects of a captive orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

Captivity may have adverse effects on captive great apes, as they spend much more of their time engaged in foraging and other activities in the wild. Enrichment interventions have the potential to alleviate the adverse effects of captivity by introducing novel stimuli. In orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), interactive digital enrichment has proven effective at engaging users out of their own free will, in exchange for nothing but the experience. This article reports the results of scheduled visual enrichment in the form of “orangulas”—one-hour long videos of footage consisting mainly of open spaces in different environments, with which the pongid participant could engage at free will. The efficacy of the orangulas were measured with both behavioural and endocrine measurements, concluding that scheduled visual enrichment has the potential to improve the welfare of captive orangutans by providing novel stimuli in the context of largely stable environments

Managing sharing is caring: Mothers’ Social Media Dilemmas and informal reflective practices on the governance of children’s digital footprints

“Sharenting” is a usual habit for families in the digital age. While media outlets describe parents as inattentive and naïve about it, empirical data shows that many of them face digital dilemmas about this practice. Little is known, though, about the reflective practices parents engage in when trying to tackle these dilemmas. To fill this gap, this study explores how a parenting forum can work as an informal reflective and learning site where parents naturally discuss Social Media Dilemmas (SMDs) associated with sharenting. The contribution reports on findings from a thematic analysis of 1,626 posts from 47 discussion threads, where parents sought their peers’ advice and support to deal with these kinds of predicaments, lookingat how these naturally occurring conversations can help parents learn about and make sense of the new challenges posed by the evolving communication ecology in terms of governing their children’s digital footprints

Deploying the Secret Police: The Use of Algorithms in the Criminal Justice System

Algorithms saturate our lives today; from curated song lists to recommending “friends” and news feeds, they factor into some of the most human aspects of decision-making, tapping into preferences based on an ever-growing amount of data. Regardless of whether the algorithm pertains to routing you around traffic jams or finding your next dinner, there is little regulation and even less transparency regarding just how these algorithms work. Paralleling this societal adoption, the criminal justice system now employs algorithms in some of the most important aspects of investigation and decision-making. The lack of oversight is abundantly apparent in the criminal justice system where various algorithm-based tools are now routinely deployed to investigate, prosecute, and sentence offenders. In the absence of suitable safeguards, decisions affecting life and liberty are contained in an impenetrable “black box.

Integration theories and European education policy: bringing the role of ideas back in

Education policy, traditionally a fortress of state-building processes, is now being challenged by the emergence of a new dimension at the European level. The Lisbon Strategy of 2000 has not only redefined education as a tool for improving Europe’s competitiveness within the knowledge economy, but it has also significantly expanded the role of the European Commission as a legitimate actor intervening in education. Although the increasing involvement of the EU in education has been empirically covered by the existing literature, less attention has been devoted to elucidating these changes from a theoretical point of view. This article contends that these transformations raise a theoretical puzzle in terms of the understanding of the two mainstream theories of European integration. This argument is developed in three steps. First, the article examines the historical developments of EU competences in education. It then critically engages with the main theoretical explanations of European integration theories in relation to these changes, namely supranationalism and liberal intergovernmentalism, asserting that these approaches do not fully account for a comprehensive explanation of the drivers behind these transformations. By contrast, the article suggests that broadening the analytical lens to include a more ideas-centred approach provides a more in-depth understanding of European education policy

Experimental and computational analysis of the structure and dynamics of intrinsically disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are abundant in cells and have central roles in protein-protein interaction networks. Many are involved in cancer, aging and neurodegenerative diseases. The structure and dynamics of IDPs is intimately related to their interactions with binding partners. Because IDPs are inherently flexible and do not have a single conformation, conventional methods and conditions for determining structure and dynamics of globular proteins may not be directly applicable. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the primary techniques characterizing the structures and dynamics of IDPs, but one cannot rely solely on NMR data. A primary aim of this work was to use Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations in conjunction with NMR and other biophysical techniques to achieve a deeper understanding of the structure and dynamics of IDPs. To establish suitable parameters and force field choice for simulating IDPs, extensive MD simulations were performed and the results were compared to experimental data. Using computational and experimental techniques, the interactions between peptides from 9 disordered proteins with a common target were interrogated. The findings allowed us to determine key factors in modulating the affinities of the various interactions and highlighted the importance of molecular recognition fragments (MoRFs) in IDP target recognition and binding. IDP binding was also investigated from the perspective of the binding partner. The backbone resonances of the ~32 kDa target were assigned and the binding interface was mapped in the presence of a peptide from a disordered binding partner. Chemical shift changes distant from the interaction site indicated that IDP binding is a complex process, which should be studied from the perspectives of the partner and target. Because IDPs are highly sensitive to environmental conditions, the effects of molecular crowding on the dynamics of IDPs were also investigated. I found that crowding might have differential effects on the conformational propensities of distinct regions of some IDPs. This information will help to understand the behavior of IDPs in cellular environments and to determine suitable conditions for accurately studying them. This work has helped to improve the understanding of how IDP structure and dynamics relate to target binding

Universal charts for optical difference frequency generation in the terahertz domain

We present a universal and rigorous approach to study difference frequency generation in the terahertz domain, keeping the number of degrees of freedom to a minimum, through the definition of a suitable figure of merit. The proposed method relies on suitably normalized charts, that enable to predict the optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiency of any system based on wave propagation in quadratic nonlinear materials. The predictions of our approach are found to be in good agreement with the best experimental results reported to date, enabling also to estimate the d22 nonlinear coefficient of high quality GaSe.Comment: 3 pages in 2 columns format, 3 figures. GaSe analysis has been corrected. Fig. 3 has been replace

The ongoing transition at an exponential speed from Conservation genetics to Conservation genomics

Conservation genetic disciplines have greatly progressed during the last thirty years, mainly thanks to the continuous development of molecular biological knowledge and the implementation of molecular tools used to describe diversity at the DNA level. The ongoing transition from Conservation genetics to Conservation genomics is showing to increase at an exponential speed as the integrated use of various kinds of molecular genetic data and bioinformatic approaches may improve our theoretical knowledge and practical approaches in the conservation and wise use of biodiversity. Aim of this mini-review is to push forward the ongoing transition, bearing in mind that most of the applied conservation programs would not need entire genomic data set, which are still expensive and time consumin

Social networking sites as virtual ‘showcases’

A survey of Italian mothers who engage in ‘sharenting’ suggests they are motivated by both a desire for external validation, as well as more communitarian goals such as sharing moments with distant relatives and seeking support. But while many mothers see it as their right to engage in sharenting, what implications does this have for children’s rights and privacy? Davide Cino is a PhD student studying education in contemporary society at the University of Milano-Bicocca and a visiting pre-doctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. He researches children’s social media presence and online privacy. Silvia Demozzi, PhD, is a researcher in education at the University of Bologna. Her work focuses on child adultisation and sexualisation, sharenting and children’s rights