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In chorusing species, conspecific interference exerts strong selection on signal form and timing to maximize conspicuousness and attractiveness within the signaling milieu. We investigated how túngara frog calling strategies were influenced by varied social environments and male phenotypes and how calling interactions influenced female preferences. When chorusing, túngara frog calls consist of a whine typically followed by one to three chucks. In experimental choruses we saw that as chorus size increased, calls increasingly had their chucks overlapped by the high-amplitude beginning section of other callers' whines. Playback experiments revealed that such overlap reduced the attractiveness of calls to females but that appending additional chucks mitigated this effect. Thus, more elaborate calls were preferred when calls suffered overlap, although they were not preferred when overlap was absent. In response to increasing risk of overlap in larger choruses, males increased call elaboration. However, males overwhelmingly produced two-chuck calls in even the largest choruses, despite our results suggesting that additional chucks would more effectively safeguard calls. Furthermore, aspects of male phenotypes predicted to limit call elaboration had negligible or uncertain effects, suggesting that other constraints are operating. These results highlight how complex interrelations among signal form, signaling interactions, and the social environment shape the evolution of communication in social species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute kidney injury (AKI) remains a significant clinical problem with a high mortality rate. Thus, the need for early recognition and treatment of AKI is an important goal. Clinical Science has a history of publishing high impact work across a breadth of scientific disciplines to improve understanding of disease mechanisms, including nephrology. This commentary spotlights a paper from more recent history that is highly cited. The work focuses on the mechanistic role of circular RNA in the pathobiology of AKI using approaches that include both in vivo experimental models and human cell culture experiments to delineate a potentially novel cellular pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Females of many species choose mates using multiple sensory modalities. Multimodal noise may arise, however, in dense aggregations of animals communicating via multiple sensory modalities. Some evidence suggests multimodal signals may not always improve receiver decision-making performance. When sensory systems process input from multimodal signal sources, multimodal noise may arise and potentially complicate decision-making due to the demands on cognitive integration tasks. We tested female túngara frog, Physalaemus (=Engystomops) pustulosus , responses to male mating signals in noise from multiple sensory modalities (acoustic and visual). Noise treatments were partitioned into three categories: acoustic, visual, and multimodal. We used natural calls from conspecifics and heterospecifics for acoustic noise. Robotic frogs were employed as either visual signal components (synchronous vocal sac inflation with call) or visual noise (asynchronous vocal sac inflation with call). Females expressed a preference for the typically more attractive call in the presence of unimodal noise. However, during multimodal signal and noise treatments (robofrogs employed with background noise), females failed to express a preference for the typically attractive call in the presence of conspecific chorus noise. We found that social context and temporal synchrony of multimodal signaling components are important for multimodal communication. Our results demonstrate that multimodal signals have the potential to increase the complexity of the sensory scene and reduce the efficacy of female decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insectivorous Brazilian free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) inhabits North, Central, and South America. Since the 1920s the diet of these bats has interested scientists. The aim of this review is to catalog the published studies that explore the diet of T. brasiliensis and speculate how modern methods of analysis may be useful. The 19 studies reviewed reveal moths (Lepidoptera) and beetles (Coleoptera) as the two most common food items. Eighteen other orders of insect are commonly identified. El murciélago de cola libre (Tadarida brasiliensis) habita el Norte, Centro y Sur de América. Desde la década de 1920, la dieta insectívora de estos murciélagos ha interesado a los científicos. El objetivo de esta revisión es catalogar los estudios publicados que exploran la dieta de Tadarida brasiliensis y examinar cómo los métodos modernos de análisis pueden ser útiles. Los 19 estudios revisados revelan que las polillas (Lepidoptera) y los escarabajos (Coleoptera) son los dos alimentos más comunes. Otros dieciocho órdenes de insectos son comúnmente identificados. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For complex communication signals, it is often difficult to identify the information-bearing elements and their parameters necessary to elicit functional behavior. Consequently, it may be difficult to design stimuli that test how neurons contribute to communicative processing. For túngara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus), however, previous behavioral testing with numerous stimuli showed that a particular frequency modulated (FM) transition in the male call is required to elicit phonotaxis and vocal responses. Modeled on such behavioral experiments, we used awake in vivo recordings of single units in the midbrain to determine if their excitation was biased to behaviorally important FM parameters. Comparisons of stimulus driven action potentials revealed greatest excitation to the behaviorally important FM transition: a downward FM sweep or step that crosses ~600 Hz. Previous studies using long-duration acoustic exposure found immediate early gene expression in many midbrain neurons to be most sensitive to similar FM. However, those data could not determine if FM coding was accomplished by the population and/or individual neurons. Our data suggest both coding schemes could operate, as 1) individual neurons are more sensitive to the behaviorally significant FM transition and 2) when single unit recordings are analytically combined across cells, the combined code can produce high stimulus discrimination (FM vs. noise driven excitation), approaching that found in behavioral discrimination of call vs. noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise control of whole-body calcium is essential for the maintenance of normal physiological function. Disruptions in calcium homeostasis can lead to pathology including osteoporosis, kidney stone formation, and cardiac arrythmias. During the 1960s and early 1970s, a full understanding of calcium metabolism was still emerging. This commentary spotlights a seminal Clinical Science paper published in 1972 that significantly advanced the field and contributed to the eventual approval of bisphosphonate drugs commonly used to treat post-menopausal osteoporosis, cancer metastases, and other calcium disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One hundred fifty years ago Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, in which he presented his theory of sexual selection with its emphasis on sexual beauty. However, it was not until 50 y ago that there was a renewed interest in Darwin's theory in general, and specifically the potency of mate choice. Darwin suggested that in many cases female preferences for elaborately ornamented males derived from a female's taste for the beautiful, the notion that females were attracted to sexual beauty for its own sake. Initially, female mate choice attracted the interest of behavioral ecologists focusing on the fitness advantages accrued through mate choice. Subsequent studies focused on sensory ecology and signal design, often showing how sensory end organs influenced the types of traits females found attractive. Eventually, investigations of neural circuits, neurogenetics, and neurochemistry uncovered a more complete scaffolding underlying sexual attraction. More recently, research inspired by human studies in psychophysics, behavioral economics, and neuroaesthetics have provided some notion of its higher-order mechanisms. In this paper, I review progress in our understanding of Darwin's conjecture of "a taste for the beautiful" by considering research from these diverse fields that have conspired to provide unparalleled insight into the chooser's mate choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the search for understanding female sexual decision-making, progress has been made in uncovering a variety of perceptual biases and most of these concern the animal's sensory biology and cognitive processes. We are now poised to dig deeper into the female's decision-making and ask if incentive salience, which plays a role in all types of appetitive behaviors, also influences a female's "taste for the beautiful." The incentive salience hypothesis suggests that dopamine assigns value or salience to objects or actions. After value is assigned to all potential actions, an action selection system then chooses among potential options to select the most valuable action. In this view, dopamine stimulates reward-seeking behavior by assigning incentive salience to specific behavioral actions, which in turn, increases pursuit and focus on objects or stimuli that represent the valuable action. Here, we apply this framework to understand why females are compelled to respond maximally to some male courtship signals over others and how this process may reveal a female's hidden mate preferences. We examine studies of dopamine and the mesolimbic reward system because these may play a role in expanding the female's perceptual landscape for novelty in male courtship signals and establishing novel hidden preferences. We review three avenues of research that may identify signatures of incentive salience in females during sexual decision-making. This review includes studies of dopamine agonist or antagonist administration in females during mate choice or partner preference tests, measures of neural activity in dopaminergic neural circuits during mate choice or partner preference tests, and social regulation of dopamine in females when entering reproductive contexts and/or exposure to mate signals. By applying the incentive salience hypothesis to female reproductive decision-making, it redefines how we see the female's role in sexual encounters. Females cannot be considered passive during reproductive encounters; rather they are seeking sexual encounters, particularly with males that tap into their perceptual biases and initiate a reward-seeking response. Incentive salience applied to reproductive behavior requires considering females as viewing sexual stimuli as rewarding and initiating action to seek out this reward, all of which indicates females are driving sexual encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to propose solutions to reduce the number and frequency of medicine shortages in Australia. Some of the many factors that contribute to medicine shortages, such as manufacturers' production processes and business decisions, are outside the control of Australian stakeholders. But there are many factors that are within the control of stakeholders, including poor communication between stakeholders, incomplete and inaccurate information, unhelpful practices and attitudes of hospital tender authorities, and lack of certainty and incentives for manufacturers in relation to pharmaceutical tenders. The following strategies are designed to address these issues and achieve a significant reduction in the number and frequency of medicine shortages in Australian hospitals. They include improving communication and understanding between stakeholders, providing higher quality information on likely usage, changing practices of hospital tender authorities to better meet stakeholder requirements, and increasing incentives for manufacturers to participate in hospital tenders. The six key actions to implement the medicine shortage-reducing strategies are: (1) initiate a biannual forum for hospitals and industry; (2) establish a medicines substitutes information service operating nationally; (3) share information on likely changes to hospital usage; (4) reform stock allocation strategies; (5) introduce incentives for manufacturers; and (6) change hospital tender authority practices and policies. The first step to reduce medicine shortages is for stakeholders to think differently about the problem, and to act more collaboratively using the proposed strategies and actions, as a framework for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scabby Butte is an isolated exposure of Upper Cretaceous (uppermost Campanian to lowermost Maastrichtian) strata of the St. Mary River Formation. These rocks have produced a diverse assemblage of both terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates, although hadrosaurid and ceratopsid dinosaurs represent the largest component by volume. Almost all of these dinosaur remains were collected from a single bonebed (Site 2) at Scabby Butte and have been referred to the hadrosaurid Edmontosaurus regalis Lambe, 1917 and the ceratopsid Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis Sternberg, 1950. This study presents a quantitative taphonomic reanalysis of the originally published data, providing new information previously overlooked and important information about the age-class structure of the dinosaur fauna preserved at the site. Site 2 is a lag deposit with a minimum number of 11 individuals (two ceratopsid, nine hadrosaurid), with three-quarters of the material being adult-sized based on size-class analysis. Most elements have undergone moderate to severe breakage and abrasion, and are completely disarticulated, suggesting that they were transported from where they died; post-mortem scavenging is also a possibility, as evidenced by the presence of tooth marks and trample marks on several elements. Burial took place soon after scavenging, as there is little evidence of subaerial weathering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans and other animals have been shown to exhibit preferences for options previously associated with greater past need. Such studies indicate that animals are sensitive to both the physical properties of choices and their own state-dependent gains at the time of learning. Because this behaviour appears to occur across divergent taxonomic groups, it most likely reflects a common way that animals learn about food. Here we study this phenomenon in the frog-eating bat, Trachops cirrhosus. This carnivorous bat hunts by eavesdropping on frog and insect mating calls and its diet is both broad and seasonally variable. As a result, these bats must learn about new sources of food and possibly the state-dependent gains associated with those sources. In this experiment we trained bats to associate two different acoustic cues (ringtones) to two identical food rewards. Each ringtone was encountered in one of two nutritional states: hungry or pre-fed. We then tested preferences between these cues under both nutritional states. We found that bats overwhelmingly preferred the ringtone associated with previous greater deprivation regardless of their condition during testing. We argue that it is most likely adaptive for frog-eating bats to place a higher value on food rewards that are obtained when internal reserves are low. • Properties of prey and state-dependent gains of predators may affect learning. • We tested whether bats' nutritional state during learning affects food preferences. • Bats preferred cues that they learned when they were in a hungry state. • Reliance on internal state as a cue to food availability is most likely adaptive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relatively few studies have used experimental manipulations to investigate the mechanics of vocal production in frogs and toads, even though many frogs produce complex signals with multiple components and/or nonlinearities. Modelling approaches can add to empirical studies by illuminating how various components of the vocal system interact to produce communication signals. In this study, we use bond graphs, a lumped-element modelling technique, to explore how the combination of active modulation of vocal production and the passive dynamics of a unique laryngeal structure result in the complex calls produced by males in an anuran model system. The túngara frog (Physalaemus (= Engystomops) pustulosus) produces advertisement calls with a 'whine' and a facultative 'chuck'. Whines are amplitude and frequency modulated. The chuck is characterized by its spectral complexity and appears to contain a period doubling bifurcation resulting in subharmonics. In our model, we focus on how a fibrous mass attached to the vocal cords results in subharmonics in the chuck. Our models suggest that active (neural) modulation of the fibrous mass is not necessary for the transition between the spectral characteristics of the whine and chuck. Rather, it is possible that the vibratory mode of the fibrous mass and thus the vocal cords changes passively as a result of changes in airflow through the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual selection driven by mate choice has generated some of the most astounding diversity in nature, suggesting that population-level preferences should be strong and consistent over many generations. On the other hand, mating preferences are among the least repeatable components of an individual animal's phenotype, suggesting that consistency should be low across an animal's lifetime. Despite decades of intensive study of sexual selection, there is almost no information about the strength and consistency of preferences across many years. In this study, we present the results of more than 5,000 mate choice tests with a species of wild frog conducted over 19 consecutive years. Results show that preferences are positive and strong and vary little across years. This consistency occurs despite the fact that there are substantial differences among females in their strength of preference. We also suggest that mate preferences in populations that are primarily the result of sensory exploitation might be more stable over time than preferences that are primarily involved in assessing male quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most models of animal foraging assume that individuals make decisions rationally. One expectation of rationality theory is that preferences should be hierarchical or transitive. For many animals, including humans, making decisions about what to eat can become difficult when various parameters of choices are not positively related to one another and no single option may be considered the best. These complex decisions can result in irrational behaviour, suggesting that the value of any particular option may vary depending on the other available options. Here, we tested whether frog-eating bats, Trachops cirrhosus , are transitive in their preferences for frog calls. These bats attend to several attributes of the calls, such as call amplitude and complexity, when choosing a frog to target in their attack. While acoustic preferences are largely understood in isolation, we have a limited understanding of how bats choose between calls that vary along several important acoustic dimensions. Here, we conducted a series of binary choice experiments manipulating amplitude and complexity both separately and together to evaluate whether these bats make transitive foraging decisions. We found that bats are transitive in their rankings of calls based on these acoustic dimensions, with preferences reflecting a trade-off between both amplitude and complexity. Overall, our results add support to the notion that bats' preferences obey the general principles of rational behaviour and support the use of optimality approaches to the study of animal behaviour and decision making. • Animal foraging models assume hierarchical preferences, but evidence is mixed. • Frog-eating bats showed linear preferences for calls that varied in amplitude. • Bats preferred calls with chucks and calls with more chucks up to a threshold. • When chucks and amplitude were varied, bats showed transitive preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most scientific investigators conduct well-designed and controlled preclinical experiments generating data that are difficult to explain, contrast with existing scientific dogma, or represent a perceived negative result. It is common for these findings to remain hidden away in a drawer from the greater scientific community. However, these unseen results can lead to publication bias, have the potential to significantly advance scientific disciplines if they are published, and can help investigators avoid repeating experiments that have already been done, thus saving money and time. Moreover, these unexpected data may actually have significance if re-interpreted leading to new hypotheses. This editorial commentary highlights a novel user-friendly tool developed by Bernard and colleagues (REF) to help investigators determine appropriate options for disseminating unpublished data in order to make them available to the broader scientific community. In addition, this commentary serves as an announcement for an upcoming special call for papers on meta-research to be published in Clinical Science. Meta-research is the evaluation and study of existing scientific literature and data. It is an evolving field dedicated to improving rigor and reproducibility in science, an endeavor to which Clinical Science and Portland Press are committed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic communication in many anuran species can show the effects of both natural and sexual selection. This is reflected in the sexually dimorphic anatomy of the larynx and ear structures, as well as the allometric relationship of these morphological traits to head or body size. In this study, we examined laryngeal and ear structures of cricket frogs Acris crepitans not only as sexually dimorphic characteristics, but also as they differ across populations in environmentally different habitats. We used 2-way ANOVA to determine whether the volumetric or linear measurements of these structures differed by sex and population. Females have significantly larger body, head, and ear sizes, but significantly smaller larynges than males. Furthermore, females as well as males show larger body and head sizes, ears, and larynges in a dryer open habitat. An ANCOVA analysis shows that males, but not females, differ in laryngeal size across populations beyond the allometric changes attributable to head size alone indicating that males have a greater degree of laryngeal population variation. In contrast, our covariate analysis found that in both sexes many of the ear differences are non-significant once head size is accounted for, suggesting that most of the population-level ear variation is due to allometric effects of body size. We conclude that although both sexes show size differences in the larynx related to selection for larger body size in dry, open habitats, selection on males for larger larynx size related to the production of lower frequency calls in those habitats does not result in correlated changes in the female larynx. The results suggest that in anurans, selection for changes in body and head size affects both sexes equally, male calls and the vocal structures responsible for them can further diversify without concordant changes in females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Choosing a mate is one of the most important decisions an animal can make. The fitness consequences of mate choice have been analysed extensively, and its mechanistic bases have provided insights into how animals make such decisions. Less attention has been given to higher-level cognitive processes. The assumption that animals choose mates predictably and rationally is an important assumption in both ultimate and proximate analyses of mate choice. It is becoming clear, however, that irrational decisions and unpredictable nonlinearities often characterize mate choice. Here we review studies in which cognitive analyses seem to play an important role in the following contexts: auditory grouping; Weber's law; competitive decoys; multimodal communication; and, perceptual rescue. The sum of these studies suggest that mate choice decisions are more complex than they might seem and suggest some caution in making assumptions about evolutionary processes and simplistic mechanisms of mate choice. Highlights • Mate choice decisions are sometimes irrational. • Auditory grouping is not always an easy task for choosers. • Comparisons can be based on proportional rather than absolute differences. • Mate preferences can be influenced by competitive decoys. • Novel combinations of audio and visual cues can result in perceptual rescue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animals are expected to optimize energy intake when choosing between different foraging options. A common explanation for deviations from optimal economic decisions is that there is an imperfect relationship between physical reality and an animal's perceptual processes, which can constrain assessment of profitability. One such phenomenon that is apparently ubiquitous across taxa is proportional processing, where a perceived change in a stimulus is proportional to the change in stimulus magnitude. In this study, we investigated whether proportional processing explains how frog-eating bats, Trachops cirrhosus, discriminate between patches of frog choruses that vary in their number of calling frogs. To test this, we created artificial choruses consisting of one to six calling frogs. In the flight cage, we then tested the preference of bats ( N = 17) with every pairwise combination of chorus size. We found that while bats generally preferred larger choruses, preferences for larger choruses were better explained by the relative, not absolute, differences in chorus sizes. This indicates that T. cirrhosus is perceptually limited in its ability to discriminate between choruses of varying size as the choruses increase in size. Foragers are likely to be less choosy when choosing among larger patches. Highlights • We investigated perceptual limitations in patch size assessment in frog-eating bats. • Frog-eating bats preferred larger choruses, with more calling frogs. • Bats attended to relative, not absolute, differences when choosing larger chorus sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incretins represent a group of gut-derived peptide hormones that, at physiological concentrations, potentiate the release of insulin. Work leading to the discovery of incretins began as early as the late 1800s where scientists, including Claude Bernard who is widely considered the father of modern physiology (Rehfeld, J.F. The Origin and Understanding of the Incretin Concept. Front. Endocrinol. (Lausanne) (2018) 9, 387; Robin, E.D. Claude Bernard. Pioneer of regulatory biology. JAMA (1979) 242, 1283-1284), attempted to understand the pancreas as an important organ in the development of diabetes mellitus and blood glucose control. After the seminal work of Paulescu and Banting and Best in the early 1920s that led to the discovery of insulin (Murray I. Paulesco and the isolation of insulin. J. Hist. Med. Allied Sci. (1971) 26, 150-157; Raju T.N. The Nobel Chronicles. 1923: Frederick G. Banting (1891-1941), John J.R. Macleod (1876-1935). Lancet (1998) 352, 1482), attention was turned toward understanding gastrointestinal factors that might regulate insulin secretion. A series of experiments by Jean La Barre showed that a specific fraction of intestinal extract caused a reduction in blood glucose. La Barre posited that the fraction's glucose lowering actions occurred by increasing insulin release, after which he coined the term 'incretin'. In the 1970s, the first incretin was purified, glucose insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) (Gupta K. and Raja A. Physiology, Gastric Inhibitory Peptide StatPearls Treasure Island (FL); 2020), followed by the discovery of a second incretin in the 1980s, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Interest and understanding of the incretins, has grown since that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a relatively common hematologic malignancy, and up to half of patients with MM present with renal dysfunction at the time of diagnosis. MM-associated renal injury has been linked to an excess level of monoclonal immunoglobulin free light chains (FLCs) in the circulation; however, it is not clear how these FLCs drive renal pathology. In this issue of the JCI, Ying et al. unravel a novel mechanism by which FLCs mediate renal injury in MM by inducing fibrotic and inflammatory pathways in the kidney. Specifically, FLC-mediated production of H2O2 was shown to activate JAK2/STAT1 signaling, increase production of IL-1β via induction of capsase-1, and promote activation of TGF-β via αvβ6 integrin. Moreover, the authors identified a tryptophan residue within a specific monoclonal FLC that was required for optimal H2O2 production and downstream signaling. A better understanding of the drivers of MM-associated renal injury has potential for the identification of promising therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medusaceratops lokii Ryan, Russell, and Hartman, 2010 is an enigmatic taxon of ceratopsid represented by partial parietals from the Mansfield bonebed in the Campanian Judith River Formation, Montana. Originally, all ceratopsid material collected from this bonebed was referred to the centrosaurine ceratopsid Albertaceratops, but subsequently two parietals were designated the types of the chasmosaurine, M. lokii, in part, because they were interpreted to have three epiparietals bilaterally. Here we describe new material from the bonebed that allows a systematic revision of the taxon. A revised reconstruction of the frill, informed by newly discovered parietals, reveals that M. lokii had a broad midline ramus and at least five epiparietals (ep) around the margin of the frill, both traits that are characteristic of Centrosaurinae. From medial to lateral, the epiparietal ornamentation consists of a small, variably procurving epiparietal (ep 1), an anterolaterally curving pachyostotic hook (ep 2), a smaller pachyostoic process (ep 3), and two small triangular epiparietals (ep 4 and 5). A phylogenetic analysis of ceratopsids, which is the first to include Medusaceratops, indicates that M. lokii is a unique, early centrosaurine ceratopsid taxon that is more closely related to Centrosaurini and Pachyrhinosaurini than Nasutoceratopsini. No unequivocal chasmosaurine bones or diagnostic material from any other ceratopsid could be identified from the Mansfield bonebed, suggesting that it represents one of the oldest occurrences of a monodominant accumulation of a centrosaurine ceratopsid on record. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an analytical design framework for sustainable future-proofing (DfSFP). The framework provides a systematic approach to deal sustainability and to address future requirements across the entire lifecycle of the system. Future-proof design is one way to obtain a design which defers obsolescence and extends the system's service life and generally includes additional elements in the current solution in order to accommodate future capabilities as projections of the future solutions required to meet those future requirements. However, not all long-life systems are sustainable. In the DfSFP process, future capability elements are integrated in the system capability model in such a way that the system is future-proofed and remains sustainable throughout the system lifecycle. We begin by examining the principles of future proofing and the principles of sustainable design and integrating them to obtain a set of sustainable future-proofing (SFP) design principles. The SFP principles address the entire system lifecycle and account for the impact on the system of additional future proofing elements. The impact is categorised in accordance with the system lifecycle and assessed using a rating system which has been developed to integrate future-proofing elements in the system ensuring overall system sustainability. In order to select the most-suitable design based on the principles developed in this work, a modified analytic hierarchy process is proposed. Finally, an illustrative example is presented where the proposed DfSFP methodology is used to design a house with sustainability and future-proofing requirements. It is shown that the framework provides a systematic analytical basis to assist the designer in addressing the future requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the vocal and non-vocal responses of male cricket frogs ( Acris crepitans) to conspecific advertisement calls that had been attenuated or degraded by reducing the depth of amplitude modulation ( AM). Both are characteristic of changes to the call as it is transmitted through natural habitats. As stimulus calls became more intense or less degraded, male cricket frogs gradually decreased their call rate and increased the number of call groups and pulse groups in their calls, changes indicative of increased aggressive interactions. At the higher intensities and lower degradation levels, the probability that males would shift to one of two non-vocal behavioral responses, attacking the perceived intruder or ceasing calling and abandoning the call site, gradually increased. The results show that differences in signal attenuation and AM degradation levels are perceived by males and trigger both vocal and non-vocal behavioral responses consistent with their use in evaluating the distance to a challenging male. Furthermore, the results indicate that the male responses are graded, increasing as intensity rises and degradation falls, and hierarchical, with vocal responses preceding behavioral responses over the range of intensities and degradation levels presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world advances toward the eradication of polio, outbreaks of wild poliovirus (WPV) in polio-free regions pose a substantial risk to the timeline for global eradication. Countries and regions experiencing active conflict, chronic insecurity, and large-scale displacement of persons are particularly vulnerable to outbreaks because of the disruption of health care and immunization services (1). A polio outbreak occurred in the Middle East, beginning in Syria in 2013 with subsequent spread to Iraq (2). The outbreak occurred 2 years after the onset of the Syrian civil war, resulted in 38 cases, and was the first time WPV was detected in Syria in approximately a decade (3,4). The national governments of eight countries designated the outbreak a public health emergency and collaborated with partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to develop a multiphase outbreak response plan focused on improving the quality of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance* and administering polio vaccines to >27 million children during multiple rounds of supplementary immunization activities (SIAs).† Successful implementation of the response plan led to containment and interruption of the outbreak within 6 months of its identification. The concerted approach adopted in response to this outbreak could serve as a model for responding to polio outbreaks in settings of conflict and political instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The placoderm Titanichthys from the Late Devonian (Famennian) is based on incomplete and fragmentary specimens that have hindered understanding of its overall anatomy and phylogenetic relationships. A new, nearly complete, articulated specimen from the Upper Devonian Cleveland Shale provides new information about the previously undescribed rostral, postmarginal, postsuborbital, submarginal, posterior superognathal plates, and the nasal capsule. A revised diagnosis is provided for the genus. Three new diagnostic characters are identified, including a transversely elliptical rostral plate that does not contact adjacent plates, a reduced posterior superognathal, and a median dorsal plate that inserts into the posterior dorsal lateral plate. The first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Titanichthys indicates that the genus is a basal aspinothoracid arthrodire closely related to the enigmatic taxa Bungartius and Tafilalichthys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The purpose of a requirement expression is to transform the needs of various entities into a formal language such that the intent is clearly understood by all involved. Although many sources provide definitions of the terms associated with a requirement expression, few contain guidance as to the process of developing a requirement, there are only occasional agreements on common definitions, and the defined terms are too narrowly focused to be useful across the full requirements engineering domain. This paper develops a cohesive set of definitions of the terms associated with a requirement expression. First, a framework for the transformation of needs into requirements is discussed and existing definitions are presented from the major relevant sources. These definitions are then analyzed and an integrated set of definitions is developed for the key terms associated with a requirements expression: entity; need; requirement expression; requirement statement; characteristics of a well-formed requirement statement and a well-formed set of requirements; and requirement attributes that, along with the requirement statement itself, comprise a well-formed requirement expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A partial skull (CMN 8804) of a ceratopsid from the upper unit of the Campanian Oldman Formation of Alberta is the first Canadian example of the newly established Nasutoceratopsini, a new subclade of Centrosaurinae defined as the stem-based clade of centrosaurine ceratopsids more closely related to Nasutoceratops titusi than to Centrosaurus apertus. The new clade is diagnosed, in part, by having a parietosquamosal frill lacking modified epimarginals; a small nasal horncore; large, rostrolaterally directed postorbital horncores; and a relatively short, deep face. Although the CMN 8804 taxon closely resembles Nasutoceratops, its phylogenetic position within Nasutoceratopsini is unresolved. The CMN 8804 taxon would have been contemporaneous with dinosaurs from the lower portion of the Dinosaur Park Formation 200 km to the northwest in Dinosaur Provincial Park. The presence of the CMN 8804 taxon in Alberta, and the approximately contemporaneous Nasutoceratops in Utah, indicates that the nasutoceratopsins persisted in both north and south Laramidia well after the first appearance (i.e., Coronosaurus brinkmani) of the newly defined Centrosaurini. This stem-based clade is composed of centrosaurine ceratopsids with well-adorned parietosquamosal frills and short postorbital horncores that are more closely related to Centrosaurus apertus than Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis. The rarity of nasutoceratopsins in the well-sampled sediments of Laramidia suggests that they may have had different ecological preferences than centrosaurins, or that their relatively non-diagnostic, fragmentary remains may be misidentified as other centrosaurins. The temporally (∼79-76 Ma) and geographically (Utah to Alberta) large distributions of Nasutoceratopsini weakens the hypothesis of distinct north and south Laramidian provinciality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is a noisy place, and animals have evolved a myriad of strategies to communicate in it. Animal communication signals are, however, often multimodal; their components can be processed by multiple sensory systems, and noise can thus affect signal components across different modalities. We studied the effect of environmental noise on multimodal communication in the túngara frog (Physalaemus pustulosus). Males communicate with rivals using airborne sounds combined with call-induced water ripples. We tested males under control as well as noisy conditions in which we mimicked rain- and wind-induced vibrations on the water surface. Males responded more strongly to a multimodal playback in which sound and ripples were combined, compared to a unimodal sound-only playback, but only in the absence of rain and wind. Under windy conditions, males decreased their response to the multimodal playback, suggesting that wind noise interferes with the detection of rival ripples. Under rainy conditions, males increased their response, irrespective of signal playback, suggesting that different noise sources can have different impacts on communication. Our findings show that noise in an additional sensory channel can affect multimodal signal perception and thereby drive signal evolution, but not always in the expected direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT There are many sources in systems engineering and requirements engineering that use the term 'attribute,' but few define the term and fewer actually go into any detail regarding how the attributes might be applied to requirement statements. This paper addresses the inconsistent definition and use of the term as part of the systems engineering and requirements engineering processes. We discuss the importance of defining requirement attributes and offer a useful definition. We provide a possible list of attributes along with their meaning, in order to provide a useful set of attributes that organizations may include with requirement expressions to manage better their requirements. Finally, we discuss how attributes can be used to manage not only requirements and sets of requirements, but also the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To forage efficiently, animals should selectively attend to and remember the cues of food that best predict future meals. One hypothesis is that animals with different foraging strategies should vary in their reliance on spatial versus feature cues. Specifically, animals that store food in dispersed caches or that feed on spatially stable food, such as fruits or flowers, should be relatively biased towards learning a meal's location, whereas predators that hunt mobile prey should instead be relatively biased towards learning feature cues such as odor or sound. Several authors have predicted that nectar-feeding and fruit-feeding bats would rely relatively more on spatial cues, whereas closely related predatory bats would rely more on feature cues, yet no experiment has compared these two foraging strategies under the same conditions. To test this hypothesis, we compared learning in the frugivorous bat, Artibeus jamaicensis , and the predatory bat, Lophostoma silvicolum, which hunts katydids using acoustic cues. We trained bats to find food paired with a unique and novel odor, sound, and location. To assess which cues each bat had learned, we then dissociated these cues to create conflicting information. Rather than finding that the frugivore and predator clearly differ in their relative reliance on spatial versus feature cues, we found that both species used spatial cues over sounds or odors in subsequent foraging decisions. We interpret these results alongside past findings on how foraging animals use spatial cues versus feature cues, and explore why spatial cues may be fundamentally more rich, salient, or memorable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is associated with increased plasma levels of the adipose-derived hormone leptin. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) express leptin receptors (LepR); however, their physiological role is unclear. We hypothesized that leptin, at levels to mimic morbid obesity, impairs vascular relaxation. To test this, we used control and VSM-LepR knockout mice (VSM-LepR KO) created with a tamoxifen-inducible specific Cre recombinase to delete the LepR gene in VSMC. Control (10-12 wk old) and VSM-LepR KO (10-12 wk old) mice were fed a diet containing tamoxifen (50 mg/kg) for 6 wk, after which vascular reactivity was studied in isolated carotid arteries using an organ chamber bath. Vessels were incubated with leptin (100 ng/ml) or vehicle (0.1 mM Tris·HCl) for 30 min. Leptin treatment resulted in significant impairment of vessel relaxation to the endothelial-specific agonist acetylcholine (ACh). When these experiments were repeated in the presence of the superoxide scavenger tempol, relaxation responses to ACh were restored. VSM-LepR deletion resulted in a significant attenuation of leptin-mediated impaired ACh-induced relaxation. These data show that leptin directly impairs vascular relaxation via a VSM-LepR-mediated mechanism, suggesting a potential pathogenic role for leptin to increase cardiovascular risk during obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The chasmosaurine ceratopsid Chasmosaurus is known from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Two valid species, Chasmosaurus belli and C. russelli, have been diagnosed by differences in cranial ornamentation. Their validity has been supported, in part, by the reported stratigraphic segregation of chasmosaurines in the Dinosaur Park Formation, with C. belli and C. russelli occurring in discrete, successive zones within the formation. Results/Conclusions: An analysis of every potentially taxonomically informative chasmosaurine specimen from the Dinosaur Park Formation indicates that C. belli and C. russelli have indistinguishable ontogenetic histories and overlapping stratigraphic intervals. Neither taxon exhibits autapomorphies, nor a unique set of apomorphies, but they can be separated and diagnosed by a single phylogenetically informative character—the embayment angle formed by the posterior parietal bars relative to the parietal midline. Although relatively deeply embayed specimens (C. russelli) generally have relatively longer postorbital horncores than specimens with more shallow embayments (C. belli), neither this horncore character nor epiparietal morphology can be used to consistently distinguish every specimen of C. belli from C. russelli. Status of Kosmoceratops in the Dinosaur Park Formation: Kosmoceratops is purportedly represented in the Dinosaur Park Formation by a specimen previously referred to Chasmosaurus. The reassignment of this specimen to Kosmoceratops is unsupported here, as it is based on features that are either influenced by taphonomy or within the realm of individual variation for Chasmosaurus. Therefore, we conclude that Kosmoceratops is not present in the Dinosaur Park Formation, but is instead restricted to southern Laramidia, as originally posited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security is an enduring priority for both individuals and communities. Methods such as locks, fences, identity cards, and passbooks have been used for many years to provide security against physical attack, crime, espionage, and terrorism. As a result, many national governments, standards organizations, think tanks, and commentators have proposed security methods. None of these methods provides enduring and effective responses to the serious security challenges faced today. Shortfalls in effectiveness derive from terminology that is inconsistent, incomplete, confusing, or contains language that is specific to the physical, personnel, or electronic domains. This article presents harmonized taxonomies for security and resilience that can be applied across the physical, personnel, and electronic domains. These taxonomies provide an ordered set of terms to organize thinking, and facilitate data and information sharing throughout the security discipline. Functional decomposition is used to derive the new taxonomies of security and resilience. Case studies that span the physical, personnel, and electronic security domains are used to provide the experimental context to test the utility of the new taxonomies, using an established security risk assessment framework. The utility of the new taxonomies is further validated by the results of a survey of senior security experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disentangling ontogenetic from interspecific variation is key to understanding biodiversity in the fossil record, yet information on growth in the ceratopsid subfamily Chasmosaurinae is sparse. Here, we describe the partial skull of a juvenile chasmosaurine, attributed to Arrhinoceratops brachyops, within the context of more mature specimens of this species, to better understand the ontogenetic transformations therein. We show that as A. brachyops matured, the postorbital horncores became longer and shifted from a posterior to an anterior inclination, the deltashaped frill epiossifications became lower and fused to the underlying frill, and the face became more elongate. In these respects, A. brachyops closely resembled Triceratops, suggesting that these ontogenetic changes may have been common to all long-horned chasmosaurines. However, an event-paired cladistic analysis of Chasmosaurinae using a standardized matrix of 24 developmental characters reveals that the relative timing of ontogenetic events in Arrhinoceratops was more like that of Chasmosaurus, particularly in the relatively late reduction in scalloping around the frill margins. Thus, the ontogenetic similarities between Arrhinoceratops and Triceratops appear to be plesiomorphic, partly related to the retention of the elongate postorbital horncores, which are primitive for Ceratopsidae. This study elucidates the otherwise contentious evolutionary relationships of Arrhinoceratops, and highlights the importance of ontogenetic data for resolving phylogenies when morphological data from adults alone are inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fossil record of ceratopsid dinosaurs between the occurrence of their proximate sister taxa in the Turonian and the beginning of their well-documented radiation from the late Campanian of North America onwards (approximately 90 and 77 Ma) is poor, with only seven taxa described from this early period in their evolution. We describe a new taxon of a highly adorned basal centrosaurine, Wendiceratops pinhornensis gen. et sp. nov., from the lower part of the Oldman Formation (middle Campanian, approximately 78-79 Ma), Alberta, Canada. Over 200 bones derived from virtually all parts of the skeleton, including multiple well-preserved specimens of the diagnostic parietosquamosal frill, were collected from a medium-density monodominant bonebed, making the new taxon one of the best-represented early ceratopsids. The new taxon is apomorphic in having epiparietals at loci 2 and 3 developed as broad-based, pachyostotic processes that are strongly procurved anterodorsally to overhang the posterior and lateral parietal rami, and an ischium with a broad, rectangular distal terminus. Although the morphology of the nasal is incompletely known, Wendiceratops is inferred to have a large, upright nasal horn located close to the orbits, which represents the oldest occurrence of this feature in Ceratopsia. Given the phylogenetic position of the new taxon within Centrosaurinae, a enlarged nasal horn is hypothesized to have arisen independently at least twice in ceratopsid evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foraging decisions can be influenced by innate biases, previous individual experience and social information acquired from conspecifics. We examined how these factors interact to affect flower colour preference in the large earth bumblebee, Bombus terrestris dalmatinus . Individual bees with no experience foraging on coloured flowers were first tested for innate colour biases on an unrewarded array of blue and yellow artificial flowers. Depending on treatment, bees then acquired individual experience foraging on a colour (either blue or yellow) associated with high-quality sucrose rewards, or a colour with low-quality sucrose rewards, or they did not acquire any individual experience. Bees were then exposed to the alternative colour associated with conspecific demonstrator bees (social information) or the alternative colour with no social information. Bees that had no individual experience visited flower colours that were associated with conspecific demonstrators (social information) but only significantly if the socially demonstrated colour was one for which bees had an innate bias. When bees had individual experience foraging on a colour with high-quality rewards they continued foraging on that colour, and generally did not visit the socially demonstrated alternative colour, regardless of innate colour bias. Alternatively, when bees had individual experience foraging on colours with low-quality rewards, they made more visits to the socially demonstrated alternative flower colour, but only when the alternative colour was the colour for which they had an innate bias. Bees that had no access to social information continued to forage on low-reward coloured flowers. Thus we show that reward quality of resources with which bees have individual experience affects the use of social information but with an important role of innate biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that disproportionately affects women during their childbearing years. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in this patient population at an age when women often have low cardiovascular risk. Hypertension is a major cardiovascular disease risk factor, and its prevalence is markedly increased in women with SLE. Estrogen has traditionally been implicated in SLE disease progression because of the prevalence of the disease in women; however, its role in cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension is unclear. The objective of this review is to discuss evidence for the role of estrogen in both human and murine SLE with emphasis on the effect of estrogen on cardiovascular risk factors, including hypertension. Methods: PubMed was used to search for articles with terms related to estradiol and SLE. The references of retrieved publications were also reviewed. Findings: The potential permissive role of estrogen in SLE development is supported by studies from experimental animal models of lupus in which early removal of estrogen or its effects leads to attenuation of SLE disease parameters, including autoantibody production and renal injury. However, data about the role of estrogens in human SLE are much less clear, with most studies not reaching firm conclusions about positive or negative outcomes after hormonal manipulations involving estrogen during SLE (ie, oral contraceptives, hormone therapy). Significant gaps in knowledge remain about the effect of estrogen on cardiovascular risk factors during SLE. Studies in women with SLE were not designed to determine the effect of estrogen or hormone therapy on blood pressure even though hypertension is highly prevalent, and risk of premature ovarian failure could necessitate use of hormone therapy in women with SLE. Recent evidence from an experimental animal model of lupus found that estrogen may protect against cardiovascular risk factors in adulthood. In addition, increasing evidence suggests that estrogen may have distinct temporal effects on cardiovascular risk factors during SLE. Implications: Data from experimental models of lupus suggest that estrogens may have an important permissive role for developing SLE early in life. However, their role in adulthood remains unclear, particularly for the effect on cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. Additional work is needed to understand the effect of estrogens in human SLE, and preclinical studies in experimental models of SLE may contribute important mechanistic insight to further advance the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the preponderance of women affected by the chronic autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), estrogen is thought to contribute to SLE disease progression. This is supported by evidence from experimental animal models of SLE showing that removal of estrogen in young female mice delays autoantibody production and renal injury and lengthens survival. Blood pressure and changes in body composition are important cardiovascular risk factors that can be regulated by estrogens. Because cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in patients with SLE, we used an established female mouse model of SLE (NZBWF1) to test whether early life removal of estrogen impacts the development of hypertension and changes in body composition commonly associated with SLE. Eight-week-old female SLE and control mice (NZW/LacJ) underwent either a sham operation or ovariectomy. Body weight, body composition (fat and lean masses), and renal injury (albuminuria) were monitored until mice reached 34 wk of age, at which time mean arterial pressure was assessed in conscious animals by a carotid catheter. Early life removal of the ovaries delayed the onset of autoantibody production and albuminuria while causing an increase in body weight and fat mass. Blood pressure in the adult was not altered by early life removal of the ovaries. These data suggest that estrogens may have a permissive role for the development of SLE while helping to maintain normal body weight and composition, which is associated with reduced cardiovascular risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual communication can evolve in response to sexual selection, and it can also cause behavioral reproductive isolation between populations and thus drive speciation. Anurans are an excellent system to investigate these links between behavior and evolution because we have detailed knowledge of how neural mechanisms generate behavioral preferences for calls and how these preferences then generate selection on call variation. But we know far less about the physical mechanisms of call production, especially how different laryngeal morphologies generate call variation. Here we review studies of a group of species that differ in the presence of a secondary call component that evolved under sexual selection. We discuss how the larynx produces this call component, and how laryngeal morphology generates sexual selection and can contribute to speciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Commercial camera systems were flown above 97% of the atmosphere. • They showed utility in single filter vegetation and soil analysis in a near-space. • Calibration testing revealed that both cameras were able to show consistent results. • High-altitude balloon flight allowed data capture from a space-like environment. • These flights demonstrated a lower-cost remote sensing verification method. Two widely available, small size, weight and power camera systems were flown above 97 % of Earth's atmosphere and showed utility in single filter vegetation and soil analysis in a space analogue environment. The experiment was conducted as a low-cost verification and test analogue to flying on vastly more expensive low Earth orbit missions. Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used as the metric by which performance was analysed for ground calibration testing, low and near-space altitude remote sensing. Ground calibration testing with a laboratory-grade spectrometer revealed that both cameras were able to return consistent NDVI results, and high-altitude balloon flight allowed similar data capture from an environment similar to space. Although compressed captured imagery had been processed using gamma correction and pre-image processing, these were able to be corrected provided that access to radiometrically-calibrated data was available. The two hobbyist cameras were shown to return scientifically useful results, demonstrating performance, and additionally their utility for citizen science applications in the near-space environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: While almost all system design texts identify that designing for life cycle is an essential aspect of system design, only a few make mention of designing for disposal at the end of life, and fewer still provide any guidance how to design to address this important issue. Further, disposal at the end of life is just one of the options in the Retirement Stage of the system life cycle—ideally, the system will be transitioned into another life cycle, on the basis that the longer a system exists in some form, there is lower cost and lower environmental impact resulting from the need to develop replacement systems. A good system design, therefore, should not only achieve longevity of use in the first life cycle of the system but should aim for longevity of use in all subsequent life cycles, until disposal is the only viable option that remains for the system elements. This paper begins by addressing the potential for multiple life cycles of a system, making a distinction between end of life and end of life cycle, and suggesting a useful taxonomy for the terms associated with system retirement. A simple three-step methodology is then presented for the consideration of the issues relevant to design for all aspects of retirement of a system: identify the reasons for retirement, identify the potential retirement methods (making use of the presented taxonomy), and identify the design issues that arise from the consideration of each retirement method. A simple example of the use of the methodology is presented to provide the basis for some discussion and conclusions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the majority of frogs, males but not females produce vocalizations to attract mates. Sexual selection can influence the evolution of these vocalizations by modifying the frog's morphology. The larynx is the main organ responsible for sound production; thus, it constitutes a target of selection. The goal of this study was to determine qualitatively and quantitatively the sexual differences in the developmental sequence of larynges of Physalaemus pustulosus ( = Engystomops pustulosus). We examined larynges of individuals ranging from recent metamorphs to adults. We provide quantitative measurements of laryngeal area and volume, vocal cords, and fibrous mass 1 (FM1), as well as qualitative descriptions of the developmental origin of vocal cords and FM1. Larynges of small male and female juveniles (less than 16 mm SVL) are similar, both externally and internally. The area of these larynges is no more than 1 mm2; no vocal cords or FM1 are present in either sex at this developmental stage. In individuals larger than 16 mm SVL, there is a marked divergence in relative size of the larynx between the sexes. The male larynx begins to exhibit a strong positive allometry until it reaches a plateau at 24 mm SVL. Also, at 16 mm SVL, the vocal cords and FM1 appear as distinctive outgrowths on the wall of the arytenoid cartilage in male larynges. Female growth rate of the larynx, however, is constant and exhibits negative allometry throughout ontogeny. Female vocal cords and FM1 are barely distinguishable as adults, and never attain the size and most likely neither the mobility as in the adult male larynx. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our view of the evolution of sexually selected traits and preferences was influenced radically in the 1990s by studies that emphasized how signals interact with sensory properties of receivers. Here, twenty-five years later, we review evidence that has accumulated in support of this idea. We replace the term sensory biases with perceptual biases to emphasize the growing knowledge of how cognitive processes generate selection on sexual traits. We show that mating preferences among conspecifics (e.g., sexual selection by mate choice) often are influenced by perceptual adaptations and constraints that have evolved in other contexts. We suggest that these perceptual biases need not be costly to females when they influence mate choice because in many cases they generate direct benefits. Although we do not reject a role for indirect benefits in mate choice, such as good genes, exclusive focus on eugenic mate choice limits our understanding of the evolution of the remarkable diversity of sexually selected traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impacts of uncertainties in duration and resource availability and usage on project time and cost. This is done by modeling different scenarios as relevant resource-constrained project scheduling problems. The aim is to develop a scheduling risk assessment framework (SRAF) to model uncertainties in duration and resources and to observe their impact on project objectives (i.e., completion time and cost). This framework provides appropriate information for managers and decision makers and facilitates project planning (scheduling and budgeting) by incorporating uncertainties and risks. To visualize the risk, this article uses an extended version of the integrated definition standard as the example business process. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed SRAF under varied dynamic conditions, we have considered and solved a practical case study using a self-developed heuristic approach, titled enhanced move-based local search heuristic. The computational results and useful insights open an avenue for future research in the field of project management, which will provide some important propositions or guidelines for project management practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the formation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) to advise the WHO on developing a framework to study the origins of high-threat pathogens including SARS-CoV-2. Topics include some infectious pathogens considered as Disease X or their origins were not known such as Ebola, factors contributing to the risk of their future emergence and how experts for SAGO were selected to study the origin of COVID-19.

The original hypodigm of the controversial mid-Cretaceous Moroccan dinosaur Sigilmassasaurus brevicollis is redescribed, and the diagnosis of the taxon is revised. Unambiguously referred material is restricted to cervical and anterior dorsal vertebrae sharing apomorphies with the holotype. A newly recognized diagnostic character of Sigilmassasaurus is the absence of anterior and posterior interzygapophyseal laminae of the neural arch, so that the neural spine directly meets the dorsal margin of the neural canal. A phylogenetic analysis supports the inclusion of Sigilmassasaurus in Tetanurae but not in Carcharodontosauridae. Sigilmassasaurus is distinct from all other theropods known from comparable material and is thus retained as a valid taxon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air-driven vocal production systems such as those found in mammals, birds, and anurans (frogs and toads) combine pneumatic and mechanical elements in species-specific ways to produce a diversity of communication signals. This study uses bond graphs to model a generalized anuran vocal production system. Bond graphs allow an incremental approach to modeling dynamic physical systems involving different domains. Anurans provide an example of how signal diversity results from variation in the structure and behavior of vocal system elements. This paper first proposes a bond graph model of the integrated anuran vocal system as a framework for future study. It then presents a simulated submodel of the anuran sound source that produces sustained oscillations in vocal fold displacement and air flow through the larynx. The modeling approach illustrated here should prove of general applicability to other biological sound production systems, and will allow researchers to study the biomechanics of vocal production as well as the functional congruence and evolution of groups of traits within integrated vocal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]