Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ashley S. Hammond, Silindokuhle S. Mavuso, Maryse Biernat, David R. Braun, Zubair Jinnah, Sharon Kuo, Sahleselasie Melaku, Sylvia N. Wemanya, Emmanuel K. Ndiema, David B. Patterson, Kevin T. Uno, Dan V. Palcu
Summary: The study confirms the age of KNM-ER 2598 to be older than 1.855 million years, locating it as Homo erectus and uncovering fossils of C-4 grazers, as well as additional hominin fossils.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Wenkai Huang, Wei Hu, Tao Zou, Junlong Xiao, Puwei Lu, Hongquan Li
Summary: This paper introduces a bionic crawling modular wall-climbing robot with variable-step-distance functionality, which can adapt to different wall conditions by carrying different numbers of modules to handle various load requirements.
Article
Biology
Yitzchak Ben Mocha, Sophie Scemama de Gialluly, Michael Griesser, Shai Markman
Summary: This article discusses two major inconsistencies in the definition of cooperative breeding and proposes solutions. The first inconsistency is the restriction of cooperative breeding to species with non-breeding alloparents, lacking quantitative criteria. The second inconsistency is the lack of specification regarding the type, extent, and prevalence of alloparental care. The proposed operational definition aims to enhance comparability and enable studying cooperative breeding as a multi-dimensional behavior.
BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Qi Sun, Ning Ding, Chaofeng Zhao, Qi Zhang, Shaowen Zhang, Shenghua Li, Siping Pang
Summary: This article introduces a new organic explosive, 1,3,5-trinitro-2,4,6-trinitroaminobenzene (TNTNB), which has high energy and excellent chemical stability. It also shows enhanced stability in water, acids, and bases, making it a promising candidate for organic explosives.
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Hidetoshi Ikeda, Takafumi Toyama, Daisuke Maki, Keisuke Sato, Eiji Nakano
Summary: This report introduces an automatic control system that allows an assistive robot to help push a wheelchair up stairs. By mimicking the actions of a human pushing a wheelchair up stairs, the system improves convenience and safety. Experimental validation showed that the system performs well at a certain step height and friction coefficient.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Beat Keller, Jonatan Soto, Angelina Steier, Ana Elisabeth Portilla-Benavides, Bodo Raatz, Bruno Studer, Achim Walter, Onno Muller, Milan O. Urban
Summary: Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in plant physiology, biomass accumulation, and yield. This study demonstrates that the efficiency of photosystem II (Fq'/Fm') is highly responsive to actual growth conditions and significantly affects biomass in climbing bean lines. The results show that the seasonal response of Fq'/Fm' to fluctuating photosynthetic photon fluence rate (PPFR) is correlated with biomass and yield. Additionally, automated photosynthesis phenotyping outperforms genomic predictions in identifying high-yielding climbing bean lines and a candidate gene for high photosynthetic performance.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2023)
Article
Anthropology
Sheela Athreya, Allison Hopkins
Summary: Efforts to name and classify Middle Pleistocene Homo, often referred to as Homo heidelbergensis, are hindered by confusing morphological patterns and conflicting paleoanthropological ideologies. The study suggests using ethnobiological framework to examine Middle Pleistocene Homo and emphasizes the importance of taxonomies in identifying, classifying, and naming biological organisms across human societies. Naming these hominins above the species level with modifiers is seen as consistent with observed human capabilities for cognitive differentiation and allows for clear communication across different ideologies.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Forestry
Dario Grattapaglia
Summary: GS has rapidly evolved from a hyped topic to a leading area of applied research in tree breeding, surpassing the initial phases of the hype cycle and moving towards wide application. By integrating modern DNA typing, quantitative genetics, and mixed-model analysis, GS has revolutionized the breeding approach by predicting complex phenotypes through genomic effects, leading to enhanced genetic gain and breeding value accuracy in forest trees.
Article
Biology
Shay Rotics, Tim Clutton-Brock
Summary: The study found that in larger groups, inequality in contributions to cooperative activities and the frequency of free riding increased. This was partly due to increased differences in contributions between helpers of different sex and age categories in larger groups. The increase in inequality in contributions was associated with reductions in total provisioning conducted by the group, which in turn led to reductions in pup growth and survival.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Walter D. Koenig, Sahas Barve, Joseph Haydock, Hannah L. Dugdale, Madan K. Oli, Eric L. Walters
Summary: Although 50 years have passed, Hamilton's theory of kin selection still holds true, showing that co-breeding, compared to solitary breeding, can increase the indirect fitness effect, especially for males. However, for females, the presence of age-weighted fitness will influence the effectiveness of co-breeding.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Biology
Philip A. Downing, Ashleigh S. Griffin, Charlie K. Cornwallis
Summary: In cooperative breeding groups, breeders extend their lifespans by outsourcing parental care to non-reproductive group members, which lightens their workloads and increases survival rates. Helpers reduce breeders' investment in feeding offspring, leading to higher annual survival rates, with similar effects on female and male breeders.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Guy Beauchamp, Sahas Barve
Summary: Sentinels in a group of Florida scrub jays can detect predators and rivals early by monitoring their surroundings. Multiple sentinels reduce predation risk and increase collective detection, but gaze synchronization reduces the efficiency of collective detection by limiting visual coverage. Despite the benefits of sentinel presence, there are limits to collective detection when multiple individuals are vigilant at the same time.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yoel Rak, Eli Geffen, William Hylander, Avishag Ginzburg, Ella Ginzburg
Summary: The study suggests that the proposed hominin species Australopithecus sediba from the Malapa Cave in South Africa actually consists of two species, one belonging to the genus Homo and the other Australopithecus. This indicates that Homo must have originated earlier than the Malapa remains, contradicting the scenario proposed in the original report on Au. sediba.
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Markus Zottl, Tanja Schreier, Michael Taborsky
Summary: Members of social groups negotiate with each other about the exchange of goods and services, and coercion may be involved if there are asymmetries between interacting partners. Cooperative breeders, such as the cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher, provide an excellent model to study such interactions. Our experimental results show that received aggression triggers increased alloparental brood care in subordinates, suggesting that fish use punishment to enforce cooperation.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Ettore Camerlenghi, Alexandra McQueen, Kaspar Delhey, Carly N. Cook, Sjouke A. Kingma, Damien R. Farine, Anne Peters, Noa Pinter-Wollman
Summary: Multilevel societies are considered one of the most complex forms of animal societies, with most research focusing on mammals. This study proposes that multilevel societies could also be common in cooperatively breeding birds, and provides evidence through comparing and analyzing bird species in Australia and New Zealand.