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Frontiers in Microbiology 2023Steep Cone Geyser is a unique geothermal feature in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), Wyoming, actively gushing silicon-rich fluids along outflow channels possessing...
Steep Cone Geyser is a unique geothermal feature in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), Wyoming, actively gushing silicon-rich fluids along outflow channels possessing living and actively silicifying microbial biomats. To assess the geomicrobial dynamics occurring temporally and spatially at Steep Cone, samples were collected at discrete locations along one of Steep Cone's outflow channels for both microbial community composition and aqueous geochemistry analysis during field campaigns in 2010, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Geochemical analysis characterized Steep Cone as an oligotrophic, surface boiling, silicious, alkaline-chloride thermal feature with consistent dissolved inorganic carbon and total sulfur concentrations down the outflow channel ranging from 4.59 ± 0.11 to 4.26 ± 0.07 mM and 189.7 ± 7.2 to 204.7 ± 3.55 μM, respectively. Furthermore, geochemistry remained relatively stable temporally with consistently detectable analytes displaying a relative standard deviation <32%. A thermal gradient decrease of ~55°C was observed from the sampled hydrothermal source to the end of the sampled outflow transect (90.34°C ± 3.38 to 35.06°C ± 7.24). The thermal gradient led to temperature-driven divergence and stratification of the microbial community along the outflow channel. The hyperthermophile dominates the hydrothermal source biofilm community, and the thermophiles and dominate along the outflow before finally giving way to more diverse and even microbial communities at the end of the transect. Beyond the hydrothermal source, phototrophic taxa such as , , and act as primary producers for the system, supporting heterotrophic growth of taxa such as , , and . Community dynamics illustrate large changes yearly driven by abundance shifts of the dominant taxa in the system. Results indicate Steep Cone possesses dynamic outflow microbial communities despite stable geochemistry. These findings improve our understanding of thermal geomicrobiological dynamics and inform how we can interpret the silicified rock record.
PubMed: 37206339
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1172798 -
Scientific Reports Nov 2021An animal's social position within a group can influence its ability to perform important behaviours like eating and resting, but little is known about how social...
An animal's social position within a group can influence its ability to perform important behaviours like eating and resting, but little is known about how social position affects the ability to express what are arguably less important but still rewarding behaviors, such as grooming. We set out to assess if dominance measured at the feeder is associated with increased use of a mechanical brush. Over a 2-year period, 161 dry cows were enrolled in a dynamically changing group of 20 individuals with access to a mechanical brush. We determined dominance using agonistic behaviors at the feeder and retrospectively analyzed brush use for the 12 most, and 12 least dominant individuals during the week before calving. Cows that were more dominant at the feeder used the brush more, especially during peak feeding times. Agonistic interactions at the brush did not differ between dominants and subordinates and were not related to brushing duration. These findings indicate that social position, calculated using competition for feed, affects mechanical brush access such that subordinates use the brush less than dominant cows independent of competition or time of day.
Topics: Agonistic Behavior; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Cattle; Dairying; Feeding Behavior; Female; Grooming; Retrospective Studies; Social Dominance
PubMed: 34837005
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-02283-2 -
JACS Au Jul 2023The activity and selectivity of a copper electrocatalyst during the electrochemical CO reduction reaction (eCORR) are largely dominated by the interplay between local...
The activity and selectivity of a copper electrocatalyst during the electrochemical CO reduction reaction (eCORR) are largely dominated by the interplay between local reaction environment, the catalyst surface, and the adsorbed intermediates. characterization studies have revealed many aspects of this intimate relationship between surface reactivity and adsorbed species, but these investigations are often limited by the spatial and temporal resolution of the analytical technique of choice. Here, Raman spectroscopy with both space and time resolution was used to reveal the distribution of adsorbed species and potential reaction intermediates on a copper electrode during eCORR. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the Raman spectra revealed that a working electrocatalyst exhibits spatial heterogeneities in adsorbed species, and that the electrode surface can be divided into CO-dominant (mainly located at dendrite structures) and C-C dominant regions (mainly located at the roughened electrode surface). Our spectral evaluation further showed that in the CO-dominant regions, linear CO was observed (as characterized by a band at ∼2090 cm), accompanied by the more classical Cu-CO bending and stretching vibrations located at ∼280 and ∼360 cm, respectively. In contrast, in the C-C directing region, these three Raman bands are suppressed, while at the same time a band at ∼495 cm and a broad Cu-CO band at ∼2050 cm dominate the Raman spectra. Furthermore, PCA revealed that anodization creates more C-C dominant regions, and labeling experiments confirmed that the 495 cm band originates from the presence of a Cu-C intermediate. These results indicate that a copper electrode at work is very dynamic, thereby clearly displaying spatiotemporal heterogeneities, and that micro-spectroscopic techniques are crucial for understanding the eCORR mechanism of working electrocatalyst materials.
PubMed: 37502158
DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.3c00129 -
Scientific Reports Apr 2021The sensory dominance effect refers to the phenomenon that one sensory modality more frequently receives preferential processing (and eventually dominates consciousness...
The sensory dominance effect refers to the phenomenon that one sensory modality more frequently receives preferential processing (and eventually dominates consciousness and behavior) over and above other modalities. On the other hand, hand dominance is an innate aspect of the human motor system. To investigate how the sensory dominance effect interacts with hand dominance, we applied the adapted Colavita paradigm and recruited a large cohort of healthy right-handed participants (n = 119). While the visual dominance effect in bimodal trials was observed for the whole group (n = 119), about half of the right-handers (48%) showed a visual preference, i.e., their dominant hand effect manifested in responding to the visual stimuli. By contrast, 39% of the right-handers exhibited an auditory preference, i.e., the dominant hand effect occurred for the auditory responses. The remaining participants (13%) did not show any dominant hand preference for either visual or auditory responses. For the first time, the current behavioral data revealed that human beings possess a characteristic and persistent preferential link between different sensory modalities and the dominant vs. non-dominant hand. Whenever this preferential link between the sensory and the motor system was adopted, one dominance effect peaks upon the other dominance effect's best performance.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Auditory Perception; Functional Laterality; Humans; Psychomotor Performance; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 33846508
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87396-4 -
Social Science & Medicine (1982) Jan 2020Manual Vacuum Aspirators (MVA), Dilation and Curettage (D&C), and medical abortifacients (Misoprostol, Mifepristone and Divabo) are available in clinical settings that...
Manual Vacuum Aspirators (MVA), Dilation and Curettage (D&C), and medical abortifacients (Misoprostol, Mifepristone and Divabo) are available in clinical settings that offer abortion and post-abortion care in Uganda. While these technologies imply appropriate and safe abortion care, legal and policy ambiguities impact health outcomes. In this article, we draw on an ethnography of abortion care delivery practice conducted in one district in Eastern Uganda between August 2018 and March 2019, with data from interviews and observations, both of interactions and during quality of care improvement and training meetings. We illuminate how, in the context of a financialized healthcare system and legal restrictions, the meanings and use of medical technologies and abortion care vary across different health facility types. In public health facilities, health workers become state agents in the control of women's bodies. In private health facilities, they become transgressors, who use medical technologies to help women attain termination surreptitiously. Health workers offset risks associated with any involvement in termination, such that pecuniary interests dominate their motivation. Normalized and disciplinary power enact and reproduce unsafe and risky conditions, leading to poor abortion care outcomes. We illustrate the mechanisms of domination and tactics of resistance in abortion care, and expose conditions upon which unsafe and risky outcomes are contingent.
PubMed: 32058197
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112813 -
Reproduction (Cambridge, England) Jan 2020Social animals with hierarchical dominance systems are susceptible to changes their environment. Interactions with conspecifics can greatly affect individual's behavior... (Review)
Review
Social animals with hierarchical dominance systems are susceptible to changes their environment. Interactions with conspecifics can greatly affect individual's behavior and reproductive success. This review will show how social behavior modulates gonadal steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis in African and Neotropical cichlid fish with different social systems and how this modulation regulates reproductive capacity. Social behavior and aggressiveness are strongly linked to sex steroids, glucocorticoids and neuropeptides. The challenge hypothesis suggests that behavioral interactions increase androgen levels in response to social instability, but there is little evidence regarding estradiol levels. It has been recently demonstrated that in male Cichlasoma dimerus, a Neotropical cichlid fish, the challenge hypothesis could also be extended to estrogens. In C. dimerus, dominant males have higher gonadosomatic index than subordinated; the percentage of spermatocytes and spermatids is higher in subordinates, while dominants show a greater percentage of spermatozoa. In other species of African cichlids, socially suppressed subordinate males are not reproductively incompetent maintaining some activity at every level of their reproductive axis. Axis reactivation upon social ascent is similar to the initiation of puberty in mammals, as well as the reoccurrence of puberty observed in seasonally breeding animals. In conclusion, social behavior and reproductive strategies in females cichlids are still understudied, and Neotropical cichlids still constitute a group that deserves more attention, considering cichlids' diversity in mating systems, reproductive behavior and parental care. This review highlights the importance of performing further studies and additional research in these two areas, which still remain to be addressed.
Topics: Aggression; Animals; Cichlids; Gonadal Steroid Hormones; Male; Social Behavior; Social Dominance; Spermatogenesis
PubMed: 31426026
DOI: 10.1530/REP-18-0650 -
Society 2022The Brexit referendum in June 2016 was a momentous event in British politics. It was also highly significant in the evolution of British conservatism, bringing to the...
The Brexit referendum in June 2016 was a momentous event in British politics. It was also highly significant in the evolution of British conservatism, bringing to the fore a 'hard right' tendency. The hard right has framed the result as the initial stage of a counter-revolution against the liberal elite that, it feels, dominates the UK's key institutions. The rise of the hard right has concerned many, including even some conservatives, who see it as a nascent form of authoritarian populism. This commentary piece provides an overview of the fundamental narrative and ideas of the British hard right through some of its most prominent figureheads: Roger Scruton, Douglas Murray and Nigel Farage. It argues that while the hard right's ideas are not new, they are in process of dominating the British conservative movement to an unprecedented degree. As a consequence, other strands of conservative thinking are being marginalised. The article concludes by suggesting that the British hard right may have hubristically overinterpreted the Brexit result and recent Conservative Party electoral successes in 2019 and 2021, and this has led to a narrowing of the British conservative mind.
PubMed: 35340301
DOI: 10.1007/s12115-022-00687-y -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Feb 2022Size-based dominance hierarchies influence fitness, group size and population dynamics and link dominance structure to evolutionary and ecological outcomes. While larger...
Size-based dominance hierarchies influence fitness, group size and population dynamics and link dominance structure to evolutionary and ecological outcomes. While larger individuals often gain dominance, social status may influence growth and size in return, resulting in feedbacks among status, growth and size. Here, we present two models evaluating how these feedbacks influence the emergence of size structure in a dominance hierarchy. In the first, size influences competition for food and investment in suppressing growth of groupmates. Stable size differences emerged when suppression was greatest for similarly sized individuals and size had little effect on competition for food. The model predicted size divergence when size strongly affected competition for food. In the second model, we used a dynamic game to solve for optimal investment in growth suppression as a function of size structure. Investment in growth suppression was favoured only when dominants and subordinates were similar in size, generating size ratios different than those expected by chance. Variation in the feedbacks among growth, size and status can explain variation in emergent size structure of dominance hierarchies and its consequences for conflict within groups. This article is part of the theme issue 'The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies'.
Topics: Biological Evolution; Feedback; Humans; Social Dominance
PubMed: 35000447
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0449 -
Ecological Applications : a Publication... Jul 2022Dominant species often have disproportionately high abundance in restored communities compared to native remnants, which potentially could reduce the conservation value...
Dominant species often have disproportionately high abundance in restored communities compared to native remnants, which potentially could reduce the conservation value of restorations. Research is needed to determine how the abundance of dominant species in restoration plantings affects community assembly, species diversity, and ecosystem function. Most studies of dominant species in grasslands were modeled after experiments on keystone species, using the short-term experimental removal of dominants to test their functional role in ecosystems. However, the removal of established dominants constitutes a major disturbance that may influence the interpretation of their long-term functional impact. To address this, we experimentally assembled high-diversity tallgrass prairie communities that included or excluded the predicted dominant species (Andropogon gerardii and Sorghastrum nutans) from the seed mix at the time of planting, but without further manipulation of community composition. From 2013 to 2019, we measured several ecosystem functions and community dynamics in the presence or absence of dominants. Communities that included the dominant species had lower species richness, greater aboveground biomass, and reduced light availability at the soil surface. Dominant species presence also increased soil nutrient availability and rates of litter decomposition, although dominant grass litter decomposed more slowly than litter from other common species in both treatments. In the absence of the dominant grasses, communities were instead dominated by a common unplanted forb, Solidago altissima, and there was partial compensation in ecosystem functioning in these forb-dominated communities. The effects of dominant species exclusion may only be apparent in long-term studies of experimentally assembled communities that avoid the legacy effects associated with removal experiments. Furthermore, our results suggest that prairie restorations that limit or exclude the dominant grasses in seed mixes may achieve higher species diversity, increasing the conservation value of these systems.
Topics: Biomass; Ecosystem; Grassland; Poaceae; Soil
PubMed: 35362635
DOI: 10.1002/eap.2592 -
Heliyon Mar 2020The be a connected graph with vertex set and edge set . A subset is called a dominating set of if for every vertex in , there exists at least one vertex in such...
The be a connected graph with vertex set and edge set . A subset is called a dominating set of if for every vertex in , there exists at least one vertex in such that is adjacent to . An ordered set is called a resolving set of , if every pair of vertices and in have distinct representation with respect to . An ordered set is called a dominant resolving set of , if is a resolving set and also a dominating set of . The minimum cardinality of dominant resolving set is called a dominant metric dimension of , denoted by . In this paper, we investigate the dominant metric dimension of some particular class of graphs, the characterisation of graph with certain dominant metric dimension, and the dominant metric dimension of joint and comb products of graphs.
PubMed: 32226834
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03633