Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Stuart K. Watson, Joseph G. Mine, Louis G. O'Neill, Jutta L. Mueller, Andrew F. Russell, Simon W. Townsend
Summary: A critical component of language is the ability to recombine sounds into larger structures. Animals' ability to generate meaning through reusing sound elements is limited to pairs of distinct elements, possibly due to the cognitive demands of processing complex sound sequences. Testing the chestnut crowned babblers, researchers found that the birds responded quicker and for longer to recombined bi-element sequences compared to familiar ones, but showed no differential responses to recombined tri-element sequences, suggesting a cognitively prohibitive jump in processing demands. Overcoming constraints in processing complex combinatorial signals was necessary for productive combinatoriality in language.
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Camille Munday, Paul Rose
Summary: This study investigates the behavior of Mandarin Ducks in the wild and its implications for the evaluation of captive birds. The results show differences between the behavior of free-living and captive Mandarins, indicating that captive birds may not have the opportunity to express species-typical behaviors.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Juan C. Alonso, Inmaculada Abril-Colon, Carlos Palacin
Summary: The study found that male African houbara bustards display more frequently under moonlight, possibly to detect predators and visually communicate with females. Moonlight also facilitates males combining booms with visual signals from white neck feathers, making multimodal signals more efficient.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Marco Antonio Correa Varella
Summary: Human musicality exhibits the necessary hallmarks for biological adaptations, potentially solving various adaptive problems in ancestral environments. The expansion of nocturnal activities throughout human evolution is proposed as a key factor in the evolution of musicality, enhancing its development and functionality.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Guillermo Navalon, Alexander Bjarnason, Elizabeth Griffiths, Roger B. J. Benson
Summary: This study examines the morphological diversification in living birds and finds substantial variation in evolutionary modes among different avian subgroups and skeletal parts. It suggests that waterbirds have explored a large portion of their morphospace, emphasizing body proportions and bone shape related to locomotion, while landbirds have distinct body forms and emphasize local shape variation in the head and distal limb bones.
Article
Ornithology
Cristian Perez-Granados, Karl-L. Schuchmann
Summary: The study monitored the nocturnal vocal activity of the Undulated Tinamou in the Brazilian Pantanal from June 2015 to May 2016. The results showed a unimodal pattern of nocturnal vocal output, with peak activity in September and October. Nocturnal vocal activity was positively associated with moon phase, but not with minimum air temperature, suggesting a potential relationship between vocalizations and moonlight intensity.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Christina L. Faust, Adrian A. Castellanos, Alison J. Peel, Peggy Eby, Raina K. Plowright, Barbara A. Han, Nita Bharti
Summary: Based on the data of 60 HeV spillover events, this study finds that temperature, population density, forest cover, and pasture are the most influential environmental factors associated with HeV spillover risk. It also highlights the importance of considering multiple environmental factors in understanding spillover events.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Carlos Camacho, Pedro Saez-Gomez, Paula Hidalgo-Rodriguez, Julio Rabadan-Gonzalez, Carlos Molina, Juan Jose Negro
Summary: Leucism, characterized by the lack of melanin pigmentation, is present in various animal species. A study on red-necked nightjars found that the probability of leucism increased with age, and leucistic individuals had consistently smaller body mass and size compared to non-leucistic individuals.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Yu Feng, Bing-Hui Zheng, Hai-Feng Jia, Bing-Bing Song, Yang Liu, Jun-Ping Bi
Summary: This study developed a whole process accounting method based on the export coefficient model to quantify the influence of natural factors and agricultural activities on water quality. A case study in the Dongting basin, China showed that natural factors can promote or inhibit the migration and transformation of agricultural pollutants, with high spatial variability. Monitoring areas with greater natural impact in the basin is a priority. Cultivated land area and pig-breeding were positively correlated with pollutant discharge. The comprehensive high-impact areas were mainly located in Dongting Lake district during 2005-2010 and Xiang River watershed during 2010-2020. Controlling or reducing cultivated land area and livestock breeding intensity in these high-impact areas is recommended to mitigate the impact on environmental water quality in the entire basin.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Raphael Nussbaumer, Silke Bauer, Lionel Benoit, Gregoire Mariethoz, Felix Liechti, Baptiste Schmid
Summary: By applying a flow model to bird density and velocity maps, researchers quantified the migration of birds between nights and tracked the seasonal flow of birds across Western Europe. The study revealed multiple migration waves crossing the study area in a short period, with up to 188 million birds taking off in a single night. Furthermore, the research emphasized the importance of combining interdisciplinary data and methods in elucidating avian migration dynamics.
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yuanping He, Haolin Wang, Haichao Wang, Xinqi Xu, Yuman Li, Shaojia Fan
Summary: This study investigated the variation characteristics of nocturnal O3 in Shaoguan, China, finding that the concentration of nocturnal O3 peaked at midnight. The horizontal and vertical winds played a role in influencing the O3 concentration at night.
ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Carlos A. Rodriguez-Saltos, Fernanda G. Duque, Julia A. Clarke
Summary: Animals can time their behaviors at predictable intervals, and the precision of timing may be influenced by the duration of the intervals. A study on the song of the scaly-breasted wren found that the timing of whistles in nearly half of the songs followed a model of constant precision rather than scalar timing. The precision of the wren's timing was higher than that of nonhuman mammals and birds trained in the laboratory.
Article
Ecology
Emily Helliwell, Dongseok Choi, Justin Merritt, Jens Kreth
Summary: Membrane vesicles are produced by both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, and they can stimulate eukaryotic cells and participate in cell-to-cell communication. However, there is limited knowledge about their general biology in the context of community members and the environment. In this study, we discovered that the production and dissemination of membrane vesicles by the Gram-positive oral commensal Streptococcus sanguinis are influenced by environmental and community factors.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jiamei Wu, Zhibin Chen
Summary: This study investigates the asymmetric effects of government environmental subsidies and non-environmental subsidies on corporate environmental responsibility. The findings provide meaningful insights for understanding and promoting corporate environmental responsibility as well as guiding the government in effectively utilizing subsidies for the greening process.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Ayse L. Allison, Harriet M. Baird, Fabiana Lorencatto, Thomas L. Webb, Susan Michie
Summary: Eliminating plastic waste depends on changing human behaviour. This review categorizes and evaluates relevant behaviours, variables, and interventions using different frameworks and models. The study finds that capability, opportunity, and motivation have medium-strength associations with behaviour. 'Persuasion', 'enablement', and 'environmental restructuring' interventions have the strongest impact on behaviour change. 'Communications and marketing', 'environmental and social planning', and 'service provision' policies have the strongest impact on behaviour change. Interventions targeting 'psychological capability' have a negative effect, while interventions targeting 'physical opportunity' and 'reflective motivation' have the strongest positive effects. All identified behaviour change techniques have medium to large effects on behaviour change. These findings provide clear directions for future research and efforts to reduce plastic waste.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Paul D. Teal, Lakshmi Krishnan, Terence Betlehem
ENGINEERING OPTIMIZATION
(2019)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Annie G. West, David W. Waite, Peter Deines, David G. Bourne, Andrew Digby, Valerie J. McKenzie, Michael W. Taylor
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2019)
Article
Acoustics
Lakshmi Krishnan, Terence Betlehem, Paul D. Teal
IEEE-ACM TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING
(2019)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Maximilian Fisser, Rodney A. Badcock, Paul D. Teal, Arvid Hunze
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2019)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Maximilian Fisser, Rodney A. Badcock, Chris W. Bumby, Paul D. Teal, Arvid Hunze
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2019)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Arang Rhie, Shane A. McCarthy, Olivier Fedrigo, Joana Damas, Giulio Formenti, Sergey Koren, Marcela Uliano-Silva, William Chow, Arkarachai Fungtammasan, Juwan Kim, Chul Lee, Byung June Ko, Mark Chaisson, Gregory L. Gedman, Lindsey J. Cantin, Francoise Thibaud-Nissen, Leanne Haggerty, Iliana Bista, Michelle Smith, Bettina Haase, Jacquelyn Mountcastle, Sylke Winkler, Sadye Paez, Jason Howard, Sonja C. Vernes, Tanya M. Lama, Frank Grutzner, Wesley C. Warren, Christopher N. Balakrishnan, Dave Burt, Julia M. George, Matthew T. Biegler, David Iorns, Andrew Digby, Daryl Eason, Bruce Robertson, Taylor Edwards, Mark Wilkinson, George Turner, Axel Meyer, Andreas F. Kautt, Paolo Franchini, H. William Detrich, Hannes Svardal, Maximilian Wagner, Gavin J. P. Naylor, Martin Pippel, Milan Malinsky, Mark Mooney, Maria Simbirsky, Brett T. Hannigan, Trevor Pesout, Marlys Houck, Ann Misuraca, Sarah B. Kingan, Richard Hall, Zev Kronenberg, Ivan Sovi, Christopher Dunn, Zemin Ning, Alex Hastie, Joyce Lee, Siddarth Selvaraj, Richard E. Green, Nicholas H. Putnam, Ivo Gut, Jay Ghurye, Erik Garrison, Ying Sims, Joanna Collins, Sarah Pelan, James Torrance, Alan Tracey, Jonathan Wood, Robel E. Dagnew, Dengfeng Guan, Sarah E. London, David F. Clayton, Claudio Mello, Samantha R. Friedrich, Peter Lovell, Ekaterina Osipova, Farooq O. Al-Ajli, Simona Secomandi, Heebal Kim, Constantina Theofanopoulou, Michael Hiller, Yang Zhou, Robert S. Harris, Kateryna D. Makova, Paul Medvedev, Jinna Hoffman, Patrick Masterson, Karen Clark, Fergal Martin, Kevin Howe, Paul Flicek, Brian P. Walenz, Woori Kwak, Hiram Clawson, Mark Diekhans, Luis Nassar, Benedict Paten, Robert H. S. Kraus, Andrew J. Crawford, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Guojie Zhang, Byrappa Venkatesh, Robert W. Murphy, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Beth Shapiro, Warren E. Johnson, Federica Di Palma, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Emma C. Teeling, Tandy Warnow, Jennifer Marshall Graves, Oliver A. Ryder, David Haussler, Stephen J. O'Brien, Jonas Korlach, Harris A. Lewin, Kerstin Howe, Eugene W. Myers, Richard Durbin, Adam M. Phillippy, Erich D. Jarvis
Summary: The Vertebrate Genome Project and the international Genome 10K consortium have collaborated to generate high-quality genome assemblies for 16 species representing six major vertebrate lineages, leading to new biological discoveries. Long-read sequencing technologies are essential for maximizing genome quality, and addressing complex repeats and haplotype heterozygosity are crucial for reducing assembly errors and improving completeness of reference genomes. The lessons learned from this project have paved the way for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP), an international effort to generate high-quality, complete reference genomes for all known vertebrate species.
Article
Ecology
Paul Roe, Philip Eichinski, Richard A. Fuller, Paul G. McDonald, Lin Schwarzkopf, Michael Towsey, Anthony Truskinger, David Tucker, David M. Watson
Summary: The Australian Acoustic Observatory utilizes low-cost hardware and storage to efficiently build scale in terrestrial fauna surveys through continuous recording of soundscapes. It provides a direct and permanent record of terrestrial soundscapes across Australian ecoregions, offering unparalleled environmental monitoring on a continental scale. The data is freely available under an open access license, enabling new approaches to understanding ecosystems and long-term environmental change.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Paul D. Teal, Etelvino H. Novotny
Summary: This paper discusses methods for generating a D-T-2 map from two-dimensional diffusion and transverse NMR relaxation measurements. Two data processing methods are proposed which do not require wasting data, leading to improved accuracy and discovery of important features.
JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Praveen B. Choppala, Marcus R. Frean, Paul D. Teal
Summary: This paper proposes a new approach to particle filtering by adopting the principles of information exchange, which allows for accurate approximation of the posterior density and tracking accuracy.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SIGNAL AND INFORMATION PROCESSING OVER NETWORKS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Dion G. Thomas, Yu-Chieh Tzeng, Petrik Galvosas, Freya G. Harrison, Mary J. Berry, Paul D. Teal, Sean D. Galvin, Sergei I. Obruchkov
Summary: Objective: A single-sided magnet system is developed for measuring Magnetic Resonance relaxation and diffusion parameters. Methods: This system uses an array of permanent magnets to optimize magnet positions and produce a homogeneous B-0 magnetic field that can project into a sample. Results: The magnet produces a 0.2 T field and can measure T-1, T-2, and ADC parameters. In-vivo studies show its potential for non-invasive measurements in the brain, such as monitoring T-2 during cerebral hypoxia.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Annie G. West, Andrew Digby, Anna W. Santure, Joseph G. Guhlin, Peter Dearden, Kakapo Recovery Team, Michael W. Taylor, Lara Urban
Summary: Gut microbiota play a crucial role in conserving threatened wildlife, influenced by factors such as diet, medication, and habitat. In this study, the interaction between host genomic diversity and gut microbiota of the critically endangered kakapo was comprehensively analyzed. The research identified the impact of host genomic diversity, as well as factors like diet, antibiotics, disease, and habitat, on the kakapo gut microbiota. These findings provide valuable insights for kakapo conservation and disease prevention.
Article
Microbiology
Annie G. West, Andrew Digby, Gavin Lear, Michael W. Taylor
Summary: This study analyzed the fecal samples of kakapo chicks and the nest litter to understand the development of their gut microbiota. The results showed that the age and hand rearing conditions of the chicks had a significant impact on the bacterial communities in their excrement. The microbiota of the nest litter also changed over time since the chick was placed in the nest.
Article
Microbiology
Annie G. West, Anne DeLaunay, Phil Marsh, Elena K. Perry, Megan Jolly, Brett D. Gartrell, An Pas, Andrew Digby, Michael W. Taylor
Summary: This study examined the gut microbiotas of takahe in different locations in New Zealand. The results showed that location was a significant factor in the variation of gut bacterial communities. Lactobacillus and Campylobacter were the most common bacterial groups.
Article
Acoustics
Mark A. Poletti, Paul Teal
Summary: This paper presents a superfast Toeplitz matrix inversion method using FFT techniques, which transforms the non-periodic Toeplitz matrix solution into a periodic framework and utilizes the Woodbury matrix inverse identity. By avoiding the calculation of a large matrix inverse, the method achieves typical computation times and accuracy for equalizing simulated and measured room impulse responses in both single- and multi-channel cases.
IEEE-ACM TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
James Hunter-Ayad, Scott Jarvie, Glen Greaves, Andrew Digby, Ralf Ohlemuller, Mariano R. Recio, Philip J. Seddon
Summary: Conservation translocations are being used increasingly to combat species' population and range declines, but moving animals to new environments introduces uncertainty that can undermine decision making. This study proposes conservative and extrapolative strategies for managing novelty and uncertainty in conservation translocations, with each strategy having specific risks and opportunities depending on the scenario. Examples of the application of these strategies to endemic New Zealand species, such as tuatara and takahe, are provided.
FRONTIERS IN CONSERVATION SCIENCE
(2021)
