Curious Behavior Research Articles

Adaptive Significance of Long Mating With Repeated Intromissions in Zygogramma bicolorata

ABSTRACTLong matings are abundant in insects despite the range of the costs involved. The causes and consequences of the evolution of long mating remain an interesting problem for behavioural ecologists. We studied extraordinarily long mating that involves repeated intromissions interspersed with latent periods in the Parthenium beetle (Zygogramma bicolorata). We conducted a series of interrupted mating assays to examine the fitness consequences of different components of this curious mating behaviour. We tested multiple adaptive hypotheses concerning male fertility and competitive ability. We found that sperm transfer and fertility did not exhibit a linear increase with the number of intromissions. There was also no evidence of nutrient transfer by the males. Interestingly, our results showed that both sexes suffered a significant cost of long mating. Further, female remating behaviour was found to be modulated by the length of the previous mating. Additionally, males were observed performing a curious leg rubbing behaviour during the inter‐intromission latent period, putatively serving as a copulatory courtship function that reduced female resistance to the continuance of mating. Therefore, we show that while the long mating may still serve a mate‐guarding role, there are additional fitness effects of such behaviour that need careful consideration. Our study provides insights into the adaptive significance of long mating and its fitness consequences.

Human history: A socio-cultural examination of handshaking

Human history: A socio-cultural examination of handshaking Penelope J. Corfield, from Royal Holloway, University of London, offers an intriguing exploration of the social and cultural significance of handshaking throughout human history. All aspects of human life have a history. Really? All of them? Yes, really. All humans live in history and make history as they do so. Yet it’s also true that not all aspects of human history are equally easy to study. Governments, taxes and warfare between them have a significant impact – and leave many records. So they tend to be well-studied. By contrast, other aspects of human life flourish ‘under the radar’. Yet readers today who are interested in (say) the history of silence, can find an excellent book on that theme – while another fine study explains the evolutionary role of humanity’s ‘curious behaviour’, such as yawning, laughing and hiccupping.

The Banana Lady and Other Stories of Curious Behavior and Speech.

The Banana Lady and Other Stories of Curious Behavior and Speech.

A supersymmetric SYK model with a curious low energy behavior

We consider N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2, 4 supersymmetric SYK models that have a peculiar low energy behavior, with the entropy going like S = S0 + (constant)Ta, where a ≠ 1. The large N equations for these models are a generalization of equations that have been previously studied as an unjustified truncation of the planar diagrams describing the BFSS matrix quantum mechanics or other related matrix models. Here we reanalyze these equations in order to better understand the low energy physics of these models. We find that the scalar fields develop large expectation values which explore the low energy valleys in the potential. The low energy physics is dominated by quadratic fluctuations around these values. These models were previously conjectured to have a spin glass phase. We did not find any evidence for this phase by using the usual diagnostics, such as searching for replica symmetry breaking solutions.

Negative magnetization and magnetic ordering of rare earth and transition metal sublattices in NdFe0.5Cr0.5O3

We investigate the effect of alloying at the 3d transition metal site of a rare-earth-transition metal oxide, by considering NdFe0.5Cr0.5O3 mixed perovskite with two equal and random distribution of 3d ions, Cr and Fe, interacting with an early 4f rare earth ion, Nd. Employing temperature- and field- dependent magnetization measurements, temperature-dependent x-ray diffraction, neutron powder diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy, we characterize its structural and magnetic properties. Our study reveals bipolar magnetic switching (arising from negative magnetization) and magnetocaloric effect which underline the potential of the studied mixed perovskite in device application. The neutron diffraction study shows the absence of spin reorientation transition over the entire temperature range of 1.5–320 K, although both parent compounds exhibit spin orientation transition. We discuss the microscopic origin of this curious behavior. The neutron diffraction results also reveal the ordering of Nd spins at an unusually high temperature of about 40 K, which is corroborated by Raman measurements.

Collective synchronization through noise cancellation.

After decades of study, there are only two known mechanisms to induce global synchronization in a population of oscillators: Deterministic coupling and common forcing. The inclusion of independent noise in these models typically serves to drive disorder, increasing the stability of the incoherent state. Here we show that the reverse is also possible. We propose and analyze a simple general model of purely noise coupled oscillators. In the first explicit choice of noise coupling, we find the linear response around incoherence is identical to that of the paradigmatic Kuramoto model but exhibits binary phase locking instead of full coherence. We characterize the phase diagram, stationary states, and approximate low-dimensional dynamics for the model, revealing the curious behavior of this mechanism of synchronization. In the second minimal case we connect the final synchronized state to the initial conditions of the system.

Craniofacial Injury in a Child by Agricultural Fan Blade: A Case Report

AbstractFarm machine-related injuries in children are common modality of head injury. We describe here a case of threshing fan blade injury to head and its successful management. A 10-year-old male was brought to the emergency department of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Patna with the complains of accidental fall on the fan blade of the thresher machine. On arrival he had a Glasgow Coma Scale of E1VTM5 status, bilateral pupil mid-dilated and sluggish reaction to light. On secondary survey, he had a lacerated wound of size 15 × 4 × 2 cm extending from left side forehead to right temporal region exposing bone and brain parenchyma herniation through the wound. A noncontrast computed tomography head showed B/L frontal contusion with gross edema, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and intraventricular hemorrhage. There was fracture of bilateral frontal bone extending to right parietotemporal bone. Patient was taken to operating room, where after painting and draping, the wound was irrigated with normal saline. The herniated brain was removed, securing hemostasis with surgical and Bovie cautery. He underwent a prolonged neurorehabilitation and made a complete recovery after 3 months of injury. Bihar is an eastern part of India where agriculture plays a major role in rural livelihood. Winnowing fan machines are used to separate the grain from the husk. Children have peculiar behavior to inspect things and this curious behavior leads to coming in contacts with the open blade. Falling on even a stationary blade can sometimes lead to head injury. Early surgery with meticulous wound debridement and closure of dura is required. Covering the fan blade as well as careful parenting of children will prevent further injuries.

Benefits of the Curious Behavior of Bayesian Hierarchical Item Response Theory Models-An in-Depth Investigation and Bias Correction.

When using Bayesian hierarchical modeling, a popular approach for Item Response Theory (IRT) models, researchers typically face a tradeoff between the precision and accuracy of the item parameter estimates. Given the pooling principle and variance-dependent shrinkage, the expected behavior of Bayesian hierarchical IRT models is to deliver more precise but biased item parameter estimates, compared to those obtained in nonhierarchical models. Previous research, however, points out the possibility that, in the context of the two-parameter logistic IRT model, the aforementioned tradeoff has not to be made. With a comprehensive simulation study, we provide an in-depth investigation into this possibility. The results show a superior performance, in terms of bias, RMSE and precision, of the hierarchical specifications compared to the nonhierarchical counterpart. Under certain conditions, the bias in the item parameter estimates is independent of the bias in the variance components. Moreover, we provide a bias correction procedure for item discrimination parameter estimates. In sum, we show that IRT models create a unique situation where the Bayesian hierarchical approach indeed yields parameter estimates that are not only more precise, but also more accurate, compared to nonhierarchical approaches. We discuss this beneficial behavior from both theoretical and applied point of views.

Dissecting the neuroanatomy of creativity and curiosity: The subdivisions within networks matter.

Ivancovsky et al. argue that the neurocognitive mechanisms of creativity and curiosity both rely on the interplay among brain networks. Research to date demonstrates that such inter-network dynamics are further complicated by functional fractionation within networks. Investigating how networks subdivide and reconfigure in service of a task offers insights about the precise anatomy that underpins creative and curious behaviour.

Dynamics of information networks

AbstractWe explore a simple model of network dynamics which has previously been applied to the study of information flow in the context of epidemic spreading. A random rooted network is constructed that evolves according to the following rule: at a constant rate, pairs of nodes (i, j) are randomly chosen to interact, with an edge drawn from i to j (and any other out-edge from i deleted) if j is strictly closer to the root with respect to graph distance. We characterise the dynamics of this random network in the limit of large size, showing that it instantaneously forms a tree with long branches that immediately collapse to depth two, then it slowly rearranges itself to a star-like configuration. This curious behaviour has consequences for the study of the epidemic models in which this information network was first proposed.

Curious Behavior of Fe3+-As3+ Chemical Interactions and Nucleation of Clusters in Aqueous Medium.

The simultaneous presence of Fe3+ and As3+ ions in groundwater (higher ppb or lower ppm level concentrations at circumneutral pH) as well as in acid mine drainages (AMDs)/industrial wastewater (up to few thousand ppm concentration at strongly acidic pH) are quite common. Therefore, understanding the chemical interactions prevalent between Fe3+ and As3+ ions in aqueous medium leading to nucleation of ionic clusters/solids, followed by aggregation and growth, is of great environmental significance. In the present work, we attempt to probe the nucleation process of Fe3+-As3+ clusters in solutions of various concentrations and pHs (from AMD to groundwater-like) using a combination of experimental and theoretical techniques. Interestingly, our study reveals nucleation of primary FeAs clusters in nearly all of them independent of concentration or pH. Theoretical studies employed density functional theory (DFT) to predict the primary clusters as stable Fe4As4 units. The surprising resemblance of these clusters with known Fe3+-As3+ minerals at the local level was observed experimentally, which provides an important clue about solid-phase growth from a range of Fe3+-As3+ solutions. Our experimental findings are further supported by a stepwise reaction mechanism established from detailed DFT studies.

Temperature anomalies of oscillating diffusion in ac-driven periodic systems.

We analyze the impact of temperature on the diffusion coefficient of an inertial Brownian particle moving in a symmetric periodic potential and driven by a symmetric time-periodic force. Recent studies have revealed the low-friction regime in which the diffusion coefficient shows giant damped quasiperiodic oscillations as a function of the amplitude of the time-periodic force [I. G. Marchenko et al., Chaos 32, 113106 (2022)1054-150010.1063/5.0117902]. We find out that when temperature grows the diffusion coefficient increases at its minima; however, it decreases at the maxima within a finite temperature window. This curious behavior is explained in terms of the deterministic dynamics perturbed by thermal fluctuations and mean residence time of the particle in the locked and running trajectories. We demonstrate that temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient can be accurately reconstructed from the stationary probability to occupy the running trajectories.

`Tis the season

It was one of those busy days in the Children's Emergency Department (ED) in December. Concerns about Group A streptococcal infections resulted in sore throats and scarlet fever being referred to ED. There was a general air of heightened anxiety among clinicians and parents. The children were happy go lucky clients. They would come in febrile and clingy. Following a dose of antipyretics and Peppa Pig, they were pleased as punch and would go home clutching presents, compliments of the season. Lurking quietly among the many febrile children would be that one child with sepsis. One had to be watchful. Amidst all this, an innocuous looking 3-week-old arrived with a history of intermittent vomiting since birth and generalised rash. He was seen by the registrar, a diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux and cows milk protein allergy was made. The consultant reviewed the baby with the registrar. The baby's father (about 6 ft 5 in. tall) was holding a tiny incredibly alert baby with a large towel under his neck. The consultant had a fondness for babies. A quick cuddle always warms the heart especially in a busy ED setting. History was revisited again with the baby in her arms. The baby took in the proceedings with interest staring keenly at her with piercing blue eyes. He was born at term, the second child in the family. He had intermittent, small volume, non-projectile vomiting since birth. Abdominal examination was unremarkable. Hydrolysed formula and reflux medications were prescribed. The father then gave the baby a bottle. He had a small vomit, then animatedly gulped the feed, this was not quite the behaviour of a baby with reflux. The consultant watched this curious behaviour and requested a blood gas. ED became busy with an influx of febrile children, the consultant and the registrar were pulled away in different directions. An hour later, having received medications the father prepared to go home, the baby was now peacefully sleeping in his arms. He was requested to wait as the blood gas was not done as yet. The blood gas as it turned out showed hypochloremic, hypokalaemic, metabolic alkalosis suggestive of pyloric stenosis, later confirmed by ultrasound. The consultant went back to the father, apologised and explained the new plan. Father took it stoically, but expressed puzzlement. He explained that he had been feeling the baby's belly and there was no lump. Father then whipped up his shirt and showed a little scar around his umbilicus. It turned out that he had been operated for pyloric stenosis and was instructed by his mother to monitor the baby post-feed. The baby too had surgery and went home in time for Christmas. Pyloric stenosis is usually seen in infants aged 3 weeks to 3 months and can be mistaken for other conditions.1 Pyloric stenosis can run in families and a family history is a risk factor, besides this child being first born and male. The infant will usually have a period of normal feeding for the first weeks of life. However, this baby had intermittent vomiting since birth, vomiting was not forceful and the classic findings of mass abdomen and weight loss were not present. Observation in ED is as important as history and examination. The baby's feeding was the clue: there was no irritability during feeds and the voracious appetite in an alert baby was unusual. And therein lies the magic of paediatrics, there will always be the one, among many febrile children, who will come in to teach us a lesson.

Verifiable quaternion fully homomorphic encryption scheme for mitigating false data injection attacks by privacy preservation in fog environment

Fog computing as an extension of cloud computing has attracted maximum attention over the recent years due to its suitability and applicability. The Fog computing is identified to handle the issues of inadequate mobility support and location sensitiveness and maximized latency. In the Internet of Things (IoT), a collection of IoT devices needs to be connected to the Fog nodes for supporting the center of the cloud service to process and store partial data part in prior. This possibility of connecting IoT devices with Fog nodes has the maximum possibility of enhancing the service quality and minimize the pressure involved in data processing in real time. However, Fog nodes used in data processing are considered from a diversified number of challenging issues introduced by the privacy violation of IoT devices, modification attacks and false data injection attack. In this paper, a Verifiable Quaternion Fully Homomorphic Encryption (VQFHE) scheme is proposed for mitigating False Data Injection Attacks by means of privacy preservation and fault tolerance in Fog computing scenario. This proposed VQFHE scheme derives the benefits of Quaternions for ensures that data injection always happens from the legitimate devices, inspite to the honest or curious behavior of the cloud control center (CCC) and Fog nodes. The simulation results conducted using iFogSim simulator confirmed its predominance over the benchmarked schemes with respect to communication overhead and computation overhead.

Intermittent symmetry breaking and stability of the sharp Agmon–Hörmander estimate on the sphere

We compute the optimal constant and characterise the maximisers at all spatial scales for the Agmon–Hörmander L 2 L^2 -Fourier adjoint restriction estimate on the sphere. The maximisers switch back and forth from being constants to being non-symmetric at the zeros of two Bessel functions. We also study the stability of this estimate and establish a sharpened version in the spirit of Bianchi–Egnell. The corresponding stability constant and maximisers again exhibit a curious intermittent behaviour.

Complex frequency sink

As the time-reversed analog of the source, the sink is an abstraction of a device that can absorb incident symmetrical waves at a point. Such a device is useful for its ability to create an arbitrarily small focusing spot, surpassing the conventional diffraction limit. Sinks have been created using impedance matching and active cancellation; however, these techniques require the introduction of tailored loss or gain into the system. Here, we demonstrate a new method for creating a sink that requires no loss or gain but instead relies on complex frequency excitations, harmonic excitations that exponentially grow or decay in time. Recent work has shown how complex frequency excitations in Hermitian systems enable phenomena such as PT symmetry and perfect absorption that are typically only associated with non-Hermitian systems. We will discuss the theory of the complex frequency sink and analyze the case of a sink in a thin elastic plate. We will present experimental results where the scattering of a symmetric scatterer is minimized by complex frequency waves launched by piezoelectric patches. Laser-doppler vibrometer measurements of the plate shows the resonator’s curious behavior as a loss and gain free sink.

Numerical investigation of the logarithmic Schrödinger model of quantum decoherence

A logarithmic Schr\"odinger equation with time-dependent coupling to the nonlinearity is presented as a model of collisional decoherence of the wave function of a quantum particle in position space. The particular mathematical form of the logarithmic Schr\"odinger equation has been shown to follow from conditional wave theory, but the validity of the logarithmic Schr\"odinger equation has not yet been investigated numerically for general initial conditions. Using an operator-splitting approach, we solve the nonlinear equation of motion for the wave function numerically and compare it to the solution of the standard Joos-Zeh master equation for the density matrix. We find good agreement for the time-dependent behavior of the ensemble widths between the two approaches, but note curious zero-pinning behavior of the logarithmic Schr\"odinger equation, whereby the zeros of the wave function are not erased by continued propagation. By examining the derivation of the logarithmic Schr\"odinger equation from conditional wave theory, we indicate possible avenues of resolution to this zero-pinning problem.

Curious behaviour of spinning coffee cups and other spinning objects

If an empty coffee cup is spun on a horizontal surface about a vertical axis in an anti-clockwise direction, then the whole cup rotates slowly backwards, in a clockwise direction, about a vertical axis located outside the cup. Clues to this curious behaviour are presented by comparing it with other spinning objects.

An Evaluation of Project Risk Dynamics in Sino-Africa Public Infrastructure Delivery; A Causal Loop and Interpretive Structural Modelling Approach (ISM-CLD)

Africa’s growth in public infrastructure provision has been fueled by the collective effort of the government authority and foreign private investors. China, through state-owned corporations, has become one of the leading infrastructure financier springing up numerous projects in transport, energy, oil and gas, water, and sewage sectors in Africa. Infrastructure procurement in developing countries comes with complexities and uncertainties. While Sino-Africa transnational public–private partnerships (TPPP) are becoming an increasingly popular route for public infrastructure procurement, their specific project risks and dynamics are not yet fully understood due to the typical assessment of risk autonomously. This paper identifies pertinent project risks in Sino-Africa TPPPs and applies system thinking in evaluating their behaviour and dynamics. An extensive review of literature and expert opinion employing semi-structured interviews was adopted in the identification and assessment of risk factors. Additionally, the study applied causal loop and interpretive structural modelling as an integrated approach in the assessment of risk behaviour from a systems perspective. Results indicate that risk factors associated with Sino-Africa TPPPs are interactive and portray curious systemic behaviour. Risk factors like force majeure and others associated with the governance structure and stability of the host African country are most influential, and their occurrence could inhibit project success. The study recommends that in conjunction with the conventional risk assessment by impact, systems thinking can be adopted to evaluate and comprehend the dynamics and interactions amongst the risk factors. This will improve risk assessment efficiency and fair allocation and treatment of risks as a conduit for project success and promote a win–win partnership for project actors.

Metalloid Chalcogen–pnictogen σ-hole bonding competition in stibanyl telluranes

In this manuscript a curious behavior observed in the solid state of several X-ray structures retrieved from the Cambridge structural database (CSD) is described and analyzed. These structures have in common the presence of a metalloid–metalloid pnictogen (Pn)–chalcogen (Ch) covalent bond (i.e., Sb–Te bond) in the structure. The Sb–Te bond presents different σ-holes at both ends of the bond in terms of size and intensity. These compounds have a tendency to form short intermolecular Sb•••Te interactions in the solid state. The aim of this work is to investigate, by using dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3) calculations, whether the Sb•••Te contacts observed in the solid state correspond to PnB (Sb is the Lewis acid) or ChB (Te is the Lewis acid). Moreover, using two model stibanyl telluranes, the interaction energies with a series of Lewis bases and anions using both ends of the Sb–Te covalent bond have been computed to investigate which side (PnB or ChB donor) is able to establish stronger interactions with common electron rich atoms. Finally, several computational tools such as the quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM), noncovalent interaction plot (NCIPlot) index and electron localization (ELF) function (2D and 3D maps) have been used to further characterize the physical nature of the Sb•••Te interactions. The results reported herein suggest that in the Sb•••Te contacts the Te atom acts as σ-hole donor and the Sb as electron density donor.