Find research datasets worth reusing

Data from: Dispersion of SARS-CoV-2 in air surrounding COVID-19 infected individuals with mild symptoms

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the transmission modes of SARS-CoV-2—particularly the role of aerosol transmission—has been much debated. Accumulating evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted by aerosols, and not only via larger respiratory droplets. In this study, we quantified SARS-CoV-2 in air surrounding 14 test subjects in a controlled setting. All subjects had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed by a recent positive PCR test and had mild symptoms when included in the study. RT-PCR and cell culture analyses were performed on air samples collected at distances of one, two, and four meters from test subjects. Oronasopharyngeal samples were taken from consenting test subjects and analyzed by RT-PCR. Additionally, total aerosol particles were quantified during air sampling trials. Air viral concentrations at one-meter distance were significantly correlated with both viral loads in the upper airways, mild coughing, and fever. One sample collected at four-meter distance was RT-PCR positive. No samples were successfully cultured. The results reported here have potential application for SARS-CoV-2 detection and monitoring schemes, and for increasing our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics.

Neural Arbitration between Social and Individual Learning Systems

Decision making requires integrating self-gathered information with advice from others. However, the arbitration process by which one source of information is selected over the other has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we formalised arbitration as the relative precision of predictions, afforded by each learning system, using hierarchical Bayesian modelling. In a probabilistic learning task, participants predicted the outcome of a lottery using recommendations from a more informed advisor and/or self-sampled outcomes. Decision confidence, as measured by the number of points participants wagered on their predictions, varied with our relative precision definition of arbitration. Functional neuroimaging demonstrated arbitration signals that were independent of decision confidence and involved modality-specific brain regions. Arbitrating in favour of self-gathered information activated the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the midbrain, whereas arbitrating in favour of social information engaged the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. These findings indicate that relative precision captures arbitration between social and individual learning systems at both behavioural and neural levels.

Data from: Individual and sex-related patterns of prolonged flights during both day and night by great reed warblers crossing the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert

A wide variety of the barrier crossing strategies exist among migrating songbirds, ranging from strict nocturnal flights to non-stop flights over a few days. We evaluate barrier crossing strategies in a nocturnally migrating songbird crossing the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert, the great reed warbler, exploring variation between the sexes and within individuals. We used data from 31 year-round light-level geolocators tracks from 26 individuals (13 males and 13 females), with four individuals tracked for 2–3.5 consecutive years. Almost all individuals (25 of 26) prolonged their flights into the day at least on one occasion. The mean duration of these prolonged flights was 19.9 h and did not differ between sexes or seasons. Fifteen birds performed non-stop flights during more than one full day and night (≥ 24 h; mean = 31.9 h; max = 55 h) in autumn and/ or spring, but these flights were generally too short to cross an entire barrier (such as the Sahara Desert) in one non-stop flight. Patterns of prolonged flights showed considerable within-individual variation in females between seasons (autumn versus spring) and in both males and females between years, suggesting high individual flexibility in migration strategy. Significantly more males than females performed prolonged flights during autumn migration, but not spring, possibly reflecting sex-specific carry-over effects. We conclude that great reed warblers have the ability to conduct prolonged continuous flights for up to several nights and days, which potentially would allow them to cross the Sahara Desert in one non-stop flight. However, they typically use a mixed strategy of several nocturnal flights with intermittent stopovers in combination with 1–3 prolonged flights. Prolonged flights covered less than half (44%) of the total flight time across the barriers, and the diurnal parts of the flights covered only 18% of this time.

Quantifying heritability and estimating evolutionary potential in the wild when individuals that share genes also share environments

Accurate heritability estimates for fitness-related traits are required to predict an organism's ability to respond to global change. Heritability estimates are theoretically expected to be inflated if, due to limited dispersal, individuals that share genes are also likely to share similar environments. However, if relatives occupy similar environments due, at least partly, to genetic variation for habitat selection, then accounting for environmental similarity in quantitative genetic models may result in diminished heritability estimates in wild populations. This potential issue has been pointed out in the literature, but has not been evaluated by empirical studies. Here, we investigate whether environmental similarity among individuals can be partly explained by genetic variation for habitat selection, and how this link potentially blurs estimates for heritability in fitness-related traits. Using intensive GPS-monitoring, we quantified home-range habitat composition for 293 roe deer inhabiting a heterogeneous landscape to assess environmental similarity. To investigate if environmental similarity might harbour genetic variation, we combined genome-wide data in a quantitative genetic framework to evaluate genetic variation for home-range habitat composition, which is partly the result of habitat selection at settlement. Finally, we explored how environmental similarity affects heritability estimates for behaviours related to the risk avoidance-resource acquisition trade-off (i.e. being in open habitat, distance to roads) and proxies of individual performance (i.e. body mass, hind foot length). We found substantial heritability for home-range habitat composition, with estimates ranging from 0.40 (proportion of meadows) to 0.85 (proportion of refuge habitat). Accounting for similarity in habitat composition between relatives decreased the heritability estimates for both behavioural and morphological traits (reduction ranging from 55% to 100% and from 22% to 41%, respectively). As a consequence, only half of these heritability estimates remained significantly different from zero. Our results show that similar genotypes occupy similar environments, which could lead to heritable variation being incorrectly attributed to environmental effects. To accurately distinguish the sources of phenotypic variation and predict the ability of organisms to respond to global change, it is necessary to develop quantitative genetic studies investigating the mechanisms underpinning environmental similarity among relatives.

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2022View details →

Individual EEG profiling of attention deficits in left spatial neglect: A pilot study

Electrophysiological group studies in brain-damaged patients can be run to capture the EEG correlates of specific cognitive impairments. Nonetheless, this procedure is not adequate to characterize the inter-individual variability present in major neuropsychological syndromes. We tested the possibility of getting a reliable individual EEG characterization of deficits of endogenous orienting of spatial attention in right-brain damaged (RBD) patients with left spatial neglect (N+). We used a single-trial topographical analysis (STTA; [39] of individual scalp EEG topographies recorded during leftward and rightward orienting of attention with central cues in RBD patients with and without (N−) neglect and in healthy controls (HC). We found that the STTA successfully decoded EEG signals related to leftward and rightward orienting in five out of the six N+, five out of the six N− patients and in all the six HC. In agreement with findings from conventional average-group studies, successful classifications of EEG signals in N+ were observed during the 400–800 ms period post-cue-onset, which reflects preserved voluntary engagement of attention resources (ADAN component).

Individual and collective encoding of risk in animal groups

The need to make fast decisions under risky and uncertain conditions is a widespread problem in the natural world. While there has been extensive work on how individual organisms dynamically modify their behavior to respond appropriately to changing environmental conditions (and how this is encoded in the brain), we know remarkably little about the corresponding aspects of collective information processing in animal groups. For example, many groups appear to show increased "sensitivity" in the presence of perceived threat, as evidenced by the increased frequency and magnitude of repeated cascading waves of behavioral change often observed in fish schools and bird flocks under such circumstances. How such context-dependent changes in collective sensitivity are mediated, however, is unknown. Here we address this question using schooling fish as a model system, focusing on 2 nonexclusive hypotheses: 1) that changes in collective responsiveness result from changes in how individuals respond to social cues (i.e., changes to the properties of the "nodes" in the social network), and 2) that they result from changes made to the structural connectivity of the network itself (i.e., the computation is encoded in the "edges" of the network). We find that despite the fact that perceived risk increases the probability for individuals to initiate an alarm, the context-dependent change in collective sensitivity predominantly results not from changes in how individuals respond to social cues, but instead from how individuals modify the spatial structure, and correspondingly the topology of the network of interactions, within the group. Risk is thus encoded as a collective property, emphasizing that in group-living species individual fitness can depend strongly on coupling between scales of behavioral organization.

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Data and code from: Correlates of individual participation in boundary patrols by male chimpanzees

Group territory defense poses a collective action problem: individuals can free-ride, benefiting without paying the costs. Individual heterogeneity has been proposed to solve such problems, as individuals high in reproductive success, rank, fighting ability, or motivation may benefit from defending territories even if others free-ride. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed 30 years of data from chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the Kasekela community, Gombe National Park, Tanzania (1978-2007). We examined the extent to which individual participation in patrols varied according to correlates of reproductive success (mating rate, rank, age), fighting ability (hunting), motivation (scores from personality ratings), costs of defecting (the number of adult males in the community), and gregariousness (sighting frequency). In contrast to expectations from collective action theory, males participated in patrols at consistently high rates (mean ± S.D. = 74.5 ± 11.1% of patrols, n=23 males). The best predictors of patrol participation were sighting frequency, age, and hunting participation. Current and former alpha males did not participate at a higher rate than males that never achieved alpha status. These findings suggest that the temptation to free-ride is low, and that a mutualistic mechanism such as group augmentation may better explain individual participation in group territorial behavior.

opennotspecifiedJan 2009View details →

Distribution. Sub-Saharan Africa; virtually eradicated from W Africa, and greatly reduced in C and NE Africa. The largest populations exist in Botswana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, which account for approximately half of the estimated number of African Wild Dogs remaining in the wild. Other populations occur in Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, and Zambia. Potential small populations (less than 100 individuals) may exist in Cameroon, Chad, Senegal, and Somalia. in Canidae

Distribution. Sub-Saharan Africa; virtually eradicated from W Africa, and greatly reduced in C and NE Africa. The largest populations exist in Botswana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, which account for approximately half of the estimated number of African Wild Dogs remaining in the wild. Other populations occur in Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, and Zambia. Potential small populations (less than 100 individuals) may exist in Cameroon, Chad, Senegal, and Somalia.

opennotspecifiedMar 2022View details →

FIGURE 8. Scolopsis curite, live individuals. A in The taxonomic identity of the monocle bream Scolopsis vosmeri species complex (Perciformes: Nemipteridae), with comments on molecular phylogenetic relationships within the genus Scolopsis

FIGURE 8. Scolopsis curite, live individuals. A: south-western Madagascar; B: Alameh, Socotra. Photos by G.R. Allen (A), S.V. Bogorodsky (B).

opennotspecifiedMar 2022View details →

FIGURE 1. Scolopsis vosmeri, live individuals. A in The taxonomic identity of the monocle bream Scolopsis vosmeri species complex (Perciformes: Nemipteridae), with comments on molecular phylogenetic relationships within the genus Scolopsis

FIGURE 1. Scolopsis vosmeri, live individuals. A: Brunei; B: Sri Lanka; C: eastern Thailand. Photos by G.R. Allen (A & C), J.E. Randall (B).

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2021View details →

Coordination of two opposite flagella allows high-speed swimming and active turning of individual zoospores

This contains the datasets of zoospores swimming in water at global scale and during a turning event. We also include the Matlab files for computing the data of global scale data and the simulation for zoospore spreading.

Subspecies and Distribution. M.g.guilleniSoisooketal.,2013—Penin-sularThailand. M. g. nicobarensis Soisook et al., 2013 — Nicobar Is (Tillangchong, Bompuka, Camorta, Trinket and Great Nicobar); individuals similar to this species were also captured on Teressa, Katchal, and Nancowry Is. in Vespertilionidae

Subspecies and Distribution. M.g.guilleniSoisooketal.,2013—Penin-sularThailand. M. g. nicobarensis Soisook et al., 2013 — Nicobar Is (Tillangchong, Bompuka, Camorta, Trinket and Great Nicobar); individuals similar to this species were also captured on Teressa, Katchal, and Nancowry Is.

Distribution. Madeira Archipelago (Madeira and Porto Santo) and W Canary Is (La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro, and Tenerife). Individuals classified as Pipistrellus sp. from the Azores have been suggested to be Madeira Pipistrelles. in Vespertilionidae

Distribution. Madeira Archipelago (Madeira and Porto Santo) and W Canary Is (La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro, and Tenerife). Individuals classified as Pipistrellus sp. from the Azores have been suggested to be Madeira Pipistrelles.

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

Heterogeneity in resource competition covaries with individual variation in long-term social relationships

Resource competition among conspecifics is central to social evolution, as it serves as one of the primary selective pressures of group living. This is because the degree of competition for resources impacts the costs and benefits of social interactions. Despite this, how heterogeneity in resource competition drives variation in the type and quantity of long-term social relationships individuals foster has been overlooked. By measuring male mating competition and female foraging competition in a highly social, long-lived mammal, we demonstrate that individual variation in long-term intrasexual social relationships covaries with preferred habitat and experienced resource competition, and this effect differs based on the sex of the individual. Specifically, greater resource competition resulted in fewer social preferences, but the magnitude of the effect varied by both habitat and sex, whereas for social avoidances, both the directionality and magnitude of the effect of resource competition varied by habitat and sex. Together our work shows how fine-scale variation in individual socioecological niches (i.e., unique physical and social environments) can drive extensive variation in individual social behavior (here long-term relationships) within a population, thereby broadening current theories of social evolution.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2022View details →

Unaltered T cell responses to common antigens in individuals with Parkinson's disease--AIM Assay FCS (1.2/3)

FCS files pertaining to the AIM analysis described and included in "Unaltered T cell responses to common antigens in individuals with Parkinson's disease". Part 1.2/3 of dataset, data key can be found in within 3/3 upload.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2022View details →

Unaltered T cell responses to common antigens in individuals with Parkinson's disease--AIM Assay FCS Data (1/3)

FCS files pertaining to the AIM analysis described and included in "Unaltered T cell responses to common antigens in individuals with Parkinson's disease". Part 1/3 of dataset, data key can be found in within 3/3 upload.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2022View details →

Unaltered T cell responses to common antigens in individuals with Parkinson's disease--AIM Assay FCS (2/3)

FCS files pertaining to the AIM analysis described and included in "Unaltered T cell responses to common antigens in individuals with Parkinson's disease". Part 2/3 of dataset, data key can be found in within 3/3 upload.

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

The landscape of fear has individual layers: an experimental test of among-individual differences in perceived predation risk during foraging

Perceived predation risk varies in space and time creating a landscape of fear. This key feature of an animal's environment is classically studied as a species-specific property. However, individuals differ in how they solve the trade-off between safety and reward and may, hence, differ consistently and predictively in perceived predation risk across landscapes. To test this hypothesis, we quantified among-individual differences in boldness and activity and exposed behaviourally phenotyped male bank voles (Myodes glareolus) individually to two different experimental landscapes of risks in large outdoor enclosures and provided resources as discrete food patches. We manipulated perceived predation risk via vegetation height between 2 and >30 cm and quantified patch use indirectly via RFID-logging and giving-up densities. We statistically disentangled among-individual differences in microhabitat use from spatially varying perceived risk, i.e. landscape of fear. We found that individuals varied in mean vegetation height of their foraging microhabitats and that this microhabitat selection matched the intrinsic individual differences in perceived risk. As predicted by the patch use model, all individual's perceived higher risks when foraging in lower vegetation. However, individuals differed in their reaction norm slopes of perceived risk to vegetation height, and these differences in slopes were consistent across two different landscapes of risks and resources. We interpret these results as evidence for individual landscapes of fear, which could be predicted by among-individual differences in activity and boldness. Since perceived predation risk affects when and where to forage, among-individual differences in fear responses could act as a mode of intraspecific niche complementarity (i.e. individual niche specialization), help explain behavioural type by environment correlations, and will likely have cascading indirect effects on lower trophic levels.

Distribution. Lowland forests of W Brazil, E Peru, and N Bolivia, S of the Amazon River. Because of abundance of individuals in the C. castanea complex, hampering precise species identification in the field and in collections, a detailed assessment ofits distribution is still needed. in Phyllostomidae

Distribution. Lowland forests of W Brazil, E Peru, and N Bolivia, S of the Amazon River. Because of abundance of individuals in the C. castanea complex, hampering precise species identification in the field and in collections, a detailed assessment ofits distribution is still needed.

Subspecies and Distribution. P.p.poeyiGundlach,1861—Cuba,includingIsladelaJuventud. P. p. obtusa G. S. Miller, 1929 — Hispaniola. A record of two individuals captured in the Florida Keys, USA could represent vagrant individuals. in Phyllostomidae

Subspecies and Distribution. P.p.poeyiGundlach,1861—Cuba,includingIsladelaJuventud. P. p. obtusa G. S. Miller, 1929 — Hispaniola. A record of two individuals captured in the Florida Keys, USA could represent vagrant individuals.