Journal: Royal Society Open Science

Abbreviation

R. Soc. Open Sci.

Publisher

Royal Society

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ISSN

2054-5703

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2015 - 2019192020 - 202628
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Publications 1 - 10 of 47
  • The role of art knowledge training on aesthetic judgements and executive functions
    Item type: Journal Article
    Bara, Ionela; Cross, Emily S.; Ramsey, Richard (2025)
    Royal Society Open Science
    The study of how we develop art knowledge can provide valuable insights into the underlying cognitive systems that support expertise and knowledge transfer to new contexts. An important and largely unanswered question is whether art knowledge training impacts subsequent judgements of artworks and executive functions. Across three pre-registered experiments (N > 630 total), which used a training intervention and Bayesian regression modelling, we explore whether art knowledge training impacts subsequent judgements of artworks and executive functions. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed an effect of art training on aesthetic judgements for trained but not untrained artworks. These training effects were generalized to unseen artworks produced by the same artist (Experiment 1) or another artist with a similar style (Experiment 2), but not to different art styles. Experiment 2 also showed that with larger training ‘doses’ (>16 minutes), the generalization effects are stronger. Experiment 3 showed invariance of the attentional network to art training versus non-art training, suggesting similar sensitivity of executive functions to different types of training. This work shines new light on the cognitive systems that support learning and generalization of learning to new contexts. Likewise, from an applied perspective, it emphasizes that learning and generalization can occur rapidly with a relatively short (approx. 16 minutes) training video.
  • How value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption
    Item type: Journal Article
    Asikis, Thomas; Klinglmayr, Johannes; Helbing, Dirk; et al. (2021)
    Royal Society Open Science
    In a so-called overpopulated world, sustainable consumption is of existential importance. However, the expanding spectrum of product choices and their production complexity challenge consumers to make informed and value-sensitive decisions. Recent approaches based on (personalized) psychological manipulation are often intransparent, potentially privacy-invasive and inconsistent with (informational) self-determination. By contrast, responsible consumption based on informed choices currently requires reasoning to an extent that tends to overwhelm human cognitive capacity. As a result, a collective shift towards sustainable consumption remains a grand challenge. Here, we demonstrate a novel personal shopping assistant implemented as a smart phone app that supports a value-sensitive design and leverages sustainability awareness, using experts' knowledge and 'wisdom of the crowd' for transparent product information and explainable product ratings. Real-world field experiments in two supermarkets confirm higher sustainability awareness and a bottom-up behavioural shift towards more sustainable consumption. These results encourage novel business models for retailers and producers, ethically aligned with consumer preferences and with higher sustainability.
  • A method for rapid testing of social learning in vampire bats
    Item type: Journal Article
    Vrtilek, Julia K.; Carter, Gerald G.; Patriquin, Krista J.; et al. (2018)
    Royal Society Open Science
    Designing experiments on social learning using an untested behaviour or species requires baseline knowledge of how the animals will perform. We conducted a pilot study of a procedure for rapidly testing social learning in the highly social common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) using a simple maze. To create demonstrators, we allowed captive bats to learn to exit a three-dimensional maze, which reunited them with their colony as a reward. We then filmed naive bats in the same maze, comparing their ability to exit the maze before, during and after the addition of a trained demonstrator. The presence of a demonstrator increased the exit rates of naive bats, presumably by attracting the attention of the naive bats to the maze exit. Four of the five naive bats that exited in the presence of a demonstrator retained the ability to exit without the demonstrator. No naive bat exited during trials without a potential demonstrator present. This experimental procedure appears to be a promising approach for efficient tests of social learning in vampire bats because maze difficulty can be manipulated to adjust learning rates and each trial requires only 15 min.
  • Sex and gender in infection and immunity: addressing the bottlenecks from basic science to public health and clinical applications
    Item type: Journal Article
    Pasin, Chloé; Consiglio, Camila R.; Huisman, Jana; et al. (2023)
    Royal Society Open Science
    Although sex and gender are recognized as major determinants of health and immunity, their role is rarely considered in clinical practice and public health. We identified six bottlenecks preventing the inclusion of sex and gender considerations from basic science to clinical practice, precision medicine and public health policies. (i) A terminology-related bottleneck, linked to the definitions of sex and gender themselves, and the lack of consensus on how to evaluate gender. (ii) A data-related bottleneck, due to gaps in sex-disaggregated data, data on trans/non-binary people and gender identity. (iii) A translational bottleneck, limited by animal models and the underrepresentation of gender minorities in biomedical studies. (iv) A statistical bottleneck, with inappropriate statistical analyses and results interpretation. (v) An ethical bottleneck posed by the underrepresentation of pregnant people and gender minorities in clinical studies. (vi) A structural bottleneck, as systemic bias and discriminations affect not only academic research but also decision makers. We specify guidelines for researchers, scientific journals, funding agencies and academic institutions to address these bottlenecks. Following such guidelines will support the development of more efficient and equitable care strategies for all.
  • Spiking neural networks for nonlinear regression
    Item type: Journal Article
    Henkes, Alexander; Eshraghian, Jason K.; Wessels, Henning (2024)
    Royal Society Open Science
    Spiking neural networks (SNN), also often referred to as the third generation of neural networks, carry the potential for a massive reduction in memory and energy consumption over traditional, second-generation neural networks. Inspired by the undisputed efficiency of the human brain, they introduce temporal and neuronal sparsity, which can be exploited by next-generation neuromorphic hardware. Energy efficiency plays a crucial role in many engineering applications, for instance, in structural health monitoring. Machine learning in engineering contexts, especially in data-driven mechanics, focuses on regression. While regression with SNN has already been discussed in a variety of publications, in this contribution, we provide a novel formulation for its accuracy and energy efficiency. In particular, a network topology for decoding binary spike trains to real numbers is introduced, using the membrane potential of spiking neurons. Several different spiking neural architectures, ranging from simple spiking feed-forward to complex spiking long short-term memory neural networks, are derived. Since the proposed architectures do not contain any dense layers, they exploit the full potential of SNN in terms of energy efficiency. At the same time, the accuracy of the proposed SNN architectures is demonstrated by numerical examples, namely different material models. Linear and nonlinear, as well as history-dependent material models, are examined. While this contribution focuses on mechanical examples, the interested reader may regress any custom function by adapting the published source code.
  • Evolution of parasite transmission dispersion
    Item type: Journal Article
    MacDonald, Hannelore; Bonhoeffer, Sebastian; Regös, Roland Robert (2025)
    Royal Society Open Science
    An open question in epidemiology is why transmission is often overdispersed, meaning that most new infections are driven by few infected individuals. For example, around 10% of COVID-19 cases cause 80% of new COVID-19 cases. This overdispersion in parasite transmission is likely driven by intrinsic heterogeneity among hosts, i.e. variable SARS-CoV-2 viral loads. However, host heterogeneity could also indirectly increase transmission dispersion by driving parasite adaptation. Specifically, transmission variation among hosts could drive parasite specialization to highly infectious hosts. Adaptation to rare, highly infectious hosts could amplify transmission dispersion by simultaneously decreasing transmission from common, less infectious hosts. This study considers whether increased transmission dispersion can be, in part, an emergent property of parasite adaptation to heterogeneous host populations. We develop a mathematical model using a Price equation framework to address this question that follows the epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of a general host-parasite system. The results predict that parasite adaptation to heterogeneous host populations drives high transmission dispersion early in epidemics. Furthermore, parasite adaptation can maintain increased transmission dispersion at endemic equilibria if virulence differs between hosts in a heterogeneous population. More broadly, this study provides a framework for predicting how parasite adaptation determines transmission dispersion for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
  • How networks shape diversity for better or worse
    Item type: Journal Article
    Musso, Andrea; Helbing, Dirk (2024)
    Royal Society Open Science
    Socio-diversity, the variety of human opinions, ideas, behaviours and styles, has profound implications for social systems. While it fuels innovation, productivity and collective intelligence, it can also complicate communication and erode trust. So what mechanisms can influence it? This paper studies how fundamental characteristics of social networks can support or hinder socio-diversity. It employs models of cultural evolution, mathematical analysis and numerical simulations. We find that pronounced inequalities in the distribution of connections obstruct socio-diversity. By contrast, the prevalence of close-knit communities, a scarcity of long-range connections, and a significant tie density tend to promote it. These results open new perspectives for understanding how to change social networks to sustain more socio-diversity and, thereby, societal innovation, collective intelligence and productivity.
  • Non-topographic current contrast in scanning field emission microscopy
    Item type: Journal Article
    Bertolini, Gabriele; Gürlü, Oguzhan; Pröbsting, Robin; et al. (2021)
    Royal Society Open Science
    In scanning field emission microscopy (SFEM), a tip (the source) is approached to few (or a few tens of) nanometres distance from a surface (the collector) and biased to field-emit electrons. In a previous study (Zanin et al. 2016 Proc. R. Soc. A472, 20160475. (doi:10.1098/rspa.2016.0475)), the field-emitted current was found to change by approximately 1% at a monatomic surface step (approx. 200 pm thick). Here we prepare surface domains of adjacent different materials that, in some instances, have a topographic contrast smaller than 15 pm. Nevertheless, we observe a contrast in the field-emitted current as high as 10%. This non-topographic collector material dependence is a yet unexplored degree of freedom calling for a new understanding of the quantum mechanical tunnelling barrier at the source site that takes into account the properties of the material at the collector site.
  • Nanoindentation analysis of the micromechanical anisotropy in mouse cortical bone
    Item type: Journal Article
    Casanova, Michele; Balmelli, Anna; Carnelli, Davide; et al. (2017)
    Royal Society Open Science
    Studies investigating micromechanical properties in mouse cortical bone often solely focus on the mechanical behaviour along the long axis of the bone. Therefore, data on the anisotropy of mouse cortical bone is scarce. The aim of this study is the first-time evaluation of the anisotropy ratio between the longitudinal and transverse directions of reduced modulus and hardness in mouse femurs by using the nanoindentation technique. For this purpose, nine 22-week-old mice (C57BL/6) were sacrificed and all femurs extracted. A total of 648 indentations were performed with a Berkovich tip in the proximal (P), central (C) and distal (D) regions of the femoral shaft in the longitudinal and transverse directions. Higher values for reduced modulus are obtained for indentations in the longitudinal direction, with anisotropy ratios of 1.72 ± 0.40 (P), 1.75 ± 0.69 (C) and 1.34 ± 0.30 (D). Hardness is also higher in the longitudinal direction, with anisotropic ratios of 1.35 ± 0.27 (P), 1.35 ± 0.47 (C) and 1.17 ± 0.19 (D). We observed a significant anisotropy in the micromechanical properties of the mouse femur, but the correlation for reduced modulus and hardness between the two directions is low (r2 < 0.3) and not significant. Therefore, we highly recommend performing independent indentation testing in both the longitudinal and transverse directions when knowledge of the tissue mechanical behaviour along multiple directions is required.
  • Global field synchronization reveals rapid eye movement sleep as most synchronized brain state in the human EEG
    Item type: Journal Article
    Achermann, Peter; Rusterholz, Thomas; Dürr, Roland; et al. (2016)
    Royal Society Open Science
    Sleep is characterized by a loss of consciousness, which has been attributed to a breakdown of functional connectivity between brain regions. Global field synchronization (GFS) can estimate functional connectivity of brain processes. GFS is a frequency-dependent measure of global synchronicity of multi-channel EEG data. Our aim was to explore and extend the hypothesis of disconnection during sleep by comparing GFS spectra of different vigilance states. The analysis was performed on eight healthy adult male subjects. EEG was recorded during a baseline night, a recovery night after 40 h of sustained wakefulness and at 3 h intervals during the 40 h of wakefulness. Compared to non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, REM sleep showed larger GFS values in all frequencies except in the spindle and theta bands, where NREM sleep showed a peak in GFS. Sleep deprivation did not affect GFS spectra in REM and NREM sleep. Waking GFS values were lower compared with REM and NREM sleep except for the alpha band. Waking alpha GFS decreased following sleep deprivation in the eyes closed condition only. Our surprising finding of higher synchrony during REM sleep challenges the view of REM sleep as a desynchronized brain state and may provide insight into the function of REM sleep.
Publications 1 - 10 of 47