Musical Collaboration in Rhythmic Improvisation.

Despite our intimate relationship with music in every-day life, we know little about how people create music. A particularly elusive area of study entails the spontaneous collaborative musical creation in the absence of rehearsals or scripts. Toward this aim, we designed an experiment in which pairs of players collaboratively created music in rhythmic improvisation. Rhythmic patterns and collaborative processes were investigated through symbolic-recurrence quantification and information theory, applied to the time series of the sound created by the players. Working with real data on collaborative rhythmic improvisation, we identified features of improvised music and elucidated underlying processes of collaboration. Players preferred certain patterns over others, and their musical experience drove musical collaboration when rhythmic improvisation started. These results unfold prevailing rhythmic features in collaborative music creation while informing the complex dynamics of the underlying processes.

The Role of Social Interactions in Motor Performance: Feasibility Study Toward Enhanced Motivation in Telerehabilitation.

BACKGROUND: Robot-mediated telerehabilitation has the potential to provide patient-tailored cost-effective rehabilitation. However, compliance with therapy can be a problem that undermines the prospective advantages of telerehabilitation technologies. Lack of motivation has been identified as a major factor that hampers compliance. Exploring various motivational interventions, the integration of citizen science activities in robotics-based rehabilitation has been shown to increase patients' motivation to engage in otherwise tedious exercises by tapping into a vast array of intrinsic motivational drivers. Patient engagement can be further enhanced by the incorporation of social interactions. OBJECTIVE: Herein, we explored the possibility of bolstering engagement in physical therapy by leveraging cooperation among users in an environmental citizen science project. Specifically, we studied how the integration of cooperation into citizen science influences user engagement, enjoyment, and motor performance. Furthermore, we investigated how the degree of interdependence among users, such that is imposed through independent or joint termination (JT), affects participation in citizen science-based telerehabilitation. METHODS: We developed a Web-based citizen science platform in which users work in pairs to classify images collected by an aquatic robot in a polluted water canal. The classification was carried out by labeling objects that appear in the images and trashing irrelevant labels. The system was interfaced by a haptic device for fine motor rehabilitation. We recruited 120 healthy volunteers to operate the platform. Of these volunteers, 98 were cooperating in pairs, with 1 user tagging images and the other trashing labels. The other 22 volunteers performed both tasks alone. To vary the degree of interdependence within cooperation, we implemented independent and JTs. RESULTS: We found that users' engagement and motor performance are modulated by their assigned task and the degree of interdependence. Motor performance increased when users were subjected to independent termination (P=.02), yet enjoyment decreased when users were subjected to JT (P=.005). A significant interaction between the type of termination and the task was found to influence productivity (P<.001) as well as mean speed, peak speed, and path length of the controller (P=.01, P=.006, and P<.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Depending on the type of termination, cooperation was not always positively associated with engagement, enjoyment, and motor performance. Therefore, enhancing user engagement, satisfaction, and motor performance through cooperative citizen science tasks relies on both the degree of interdependence among users and the perceived nature of the task. Cooperative citizen science may enhance motivation in robotics-based telerehabilitation, if designed attentively.

How ecology shapes exploitation: a framework to predict the behavioural response of human and animal foragers along exploration-exploitation trade-offs.

Understanding how humans and other animals behave in response to changes in their environments is vital for predicting population dynamics and the trajectory of coupled social-ecological systems. Here, we present a novel framework for identifying emergent social behaviours in foragers (including humans engaged in fishing or hunting) in predator-prey contexts based on the exploration difficulty and exploitation potential of a renewable natural resource. A qualitative framework is introduced that predicts when foragers should behave territorially, search collectively, act independently or switch among these states. To validate it, we derived quantitative predictions from two models of different structure: a generic mathematical model, and a lattice-based evolutionary model emphasising exploitation and exclusion costs. These models independently identified that the exploration difficulty and exploitation potential of the natural resource controls the social behaviour of resource exploiters. Our theoretical predictions were finally compared to a diverse set of empirical cases focusing on fisheries and aquatic organisms across a range of taxa, substantiating the framework's predictions. Understanding social behaviour for given social-ecological characteristics has important implications, particularly for the design of governance structures and regulations to move exploited systems, such as fisheries, towards sustainability. Our framework provides concrete steps in this direction.

Fast-slow life history is correlated with individual differences in movements and prey selection in an aquatic predator in the wild.

Fast and slow life histories are proposed to covary with consistent individual differences in behaviour, but little is known whether it holds in the wild, where individuals experience natural fluctuations of the environment. We investigated whether individual differences in behaviour, such as movement traits and prey selection, are linked to variation in life-history traits in Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) in the wild. Using high-resolution acoustic telemetry, we collected the positional data of fish in a whole natural lake and estimated individual movement traits by fitting a two-state correlated random walk model. Prey selection was inferred from stable isotope analysis using scale samples. Life-history traits were estimated by fitting a biphasic growth model to an individual growth trajectory back-calculated from scale samples. Life-history traits were correlated with behavioural traits such as movements and prey selection. Individuals with higher reproductive effort were found to switch more frequently between active and inactive modes and show greater reliance on prey from pelagic pathways (indicated by lower δ13 C). Further, individuals with faster juvenile growth were found to stay active for a longer time during the adult stage. Our results demonstrate the link between individual behavioural differences and fast-slow life-history traits under ecologically relevant conditions.

Who directs group movement? Leader effort versus follower preference in stickleback fish of different personality.

During collective movement, bolder individuals often emerge as leaders. Here, we investigate whether this reflects a greater propensity of bold individuals to initiate movement, or a preference for shy individuals to follow a bolder leader. We set up trios of stickleback fish comprising a focal individual who was either bold or shy, and one other individual of each personality. We then recorded the movements of all individuals in and out of cover in a foraging context to determine how assiduously the focal fish followed the movements of each other partner. We found that a shy focal fish preferred to follow a leader whose personality matched its own, but we did not detect such a difference in bold fish. Despite this preference, however, the greater propensity of bold individuals to initiate movements out of cover meant that they successfully led more joint trips. Thus, when offered a choice of leaders, sticklebacks prefer to follow individuals whose personality matches their own, but bolder individuals may, nevertheless, be able to impose their leadership, even among shy followers, simply through greater effort.

A case of spontaneous acute obstructive suppurative pancreatic ductitis associated with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms.

A 77-year-old woman was referred to our hospital due to left upper abdominal pain, appetite loss and body weight loss for 1 month. Her past medical history was diabetes and intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs). She had no fever and physical examination revealed mild tenderness in the left upper abdomen. Blood tests showed elevated inflammatory response with normal serum pancreatic enzymes. Contrast-enhanced CT showed marked swelling of the pancreatic tail, increased peripancreatic fatty tissue density, multiple IPMNs and obscuration of the enlarged main pancreatic duct at the tail. EUS showed there was no obvious mass in the pancreas and protein plug was suspected in the main pancreatic duct. EUS-FNA was performed and pathology showed no malignancy. ERCP showed discharge of purulent pancreatic fluid from the major duodenal papilla and stenosis of the main pancreatic duct at the tail. The culture of the purulent pancreatic fluid revealed Streptococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, leading to diagnosis of acute obstructive suppurative pancreatic ductitis (AOSPD). Endoscopic nasopancreatic drainage and antimicrobial treatment were started. The inflammatory response improved rapidly and the patient was discharged 30 days after admission. To our knowledge, this is the second reported case of spontaneous AOSPD associated with IPMNs.

Experience overrides personality differences in the tendency to follow but not in the tendency to lead.

In many animal groups, coordinated activity is facilitated by the emergence of leaders and followers. Although the identity of leaders is to some extent predictable, most groups experience frequent changes of leadership. How do group members cope with such changes in their social role? Here, we compared the foraging behaviour of pairs of stickleback fish after a period of either (i) role reinforcement, which involved rewarding the shyer follower for following, and the bolder leader for leading, or (ii) role reversal, which involved rewarding the shyer follower for leading, and the bolder leader for following. We found that, irrespective of an individual's temperament, its tendency to follow is malleable, whereas the tendency to initiate collective movement is much more resistant to change. As a consequence of this lack of flexibility in initiative, greater temperamental differences within a pair led to improved performance when typical roles were reinforced, but to impaired performance when typical roles were reversed.

A case of dedifferentiated liposarcoma of the descending colon.

A 54-year-old man referred to our hospital for abdominal distension. He had no medical history. On physical examination, he complained lower abdominal distention, and had no spontaneous pain or tenderness. The blood tests showed that CEA and CA19-9 levels were within normal limits. Colonoscopy revealed a submucosal tumor with irregularities and mucosal defects in the descending colon. Computed tomography (CT) showed a 3-cm-diameter mass in the descending colon and ascites. Due to the presence of ascites, laparoscopic examination was performed, which revealed multiple peritoneal seeding of the tumor. Given the presence of peritoneal dissemination, the tumor was determined to be unresectable, and a histological examination was performed from the disseminated nodule. Pathologically, atypical spindle cells were observed and infiltrated into adipose tissue. Additional immunohistochemistry revealed positive expression for Murine double minute 2 (MDM2) and Cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4), and fluorescence in situ hybridization showed amplification of MDM2. Thus, the tumor was diagnosed with a dedifferentiated liposarcoma of the descending colon. Liposarcoma is a type of soft-tissue sarcoma that arises from soft tissues such as the extremities or retroperitoneum. Here, we report an extremely rare case of a dedifferentiated liposarcoma of the colon.

A case of unresectable ectopic acinar cell carcinoma developed in the portal vein in complete response to FOLFIRINOX therapy.

A 56-year-old man presented to our hospital for close examination of a mass in the portal vein. CT showed a homogeneously enhanced mass occupying the portal vein. No other lesions suggestive of a primary tumor were detected. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration revealed that the tumor was pathologically acinar cell carcinoma (ACC) based on the positive staining for both BCL-10 and trypsin. He was diagnosed with an ectopic ACC developed in the portal vein. Because the tumor invaded secondary branches of the right intrahepatic portal vein and the superior mesenteric vein, it was considered surgically un-resectable. Therefore, chemotherapy with gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel (GEM + nab-PTX) was started. After 2 courses, CT showed progressive disease, so the regimen was switched to FOLFIRINOX. After starting treatment with FOLFIRINOX, the tumor shrank gradually. After 29 courses, CT scan eventually showed disappearance of the tumor and complete response was achieved. After 34 courses, the chemotherapy was discontinued. Since then, the patient has been recurrence-free for 5 years. Our English literature review yielded 6 cases, including this case, of un-resectable ACC in which complete response was achieved by chemotherapy. Our case suggest that platinum-based regimen might be an effective therapy for un-resectable ACC, including ectopic ACC.

p53 protects against formation of extrahepatic biliary precancerous lesions in the context of oncogenic Kras.

KRAS and TP53 mutations are frequently observed in extrahepatic biliary cancer. Mutations of KRAS and TP53 are independent risk factors for poor prognosis in biliary cancer. However, the exact role of p53 in the development of extrahepatic biliary cancer remains elusive. In this study, we found that simultaneous activation of Kras and inactivation of p53 induces biliary neoplasms that resemble human biliary intraepithelial neoplasia in the extrahepatic bile duct and intracholecystic papillary-tubular neoplasm in the gall bladder in mice. However, inactivation of p53 was not sufficient for the progression of biliary precancerous lesions into invasive cancer in the context of oncogenic Kras within the observation period. This was also the case in the context of additional activation of the Wnt signaling pathway. Thus, p53 protects against formation of extrahepatic biliary precancerous lesions in the context of oncogenic Kras.

Revealing global risks of labor abuse and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

Labor abuse on fishing vessels and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing violate human rights, jeopardize food security, and deprive governments of revenues. We applied a multi-method approach, combining new empirical data with satellite information on fishing activities and vessel characteristics to map risks of labor abuse and IUU fishing, understand their relationships, and identify major drivers. Port risks were globally pervasive and often coupled, with 57% of assessed ports associated with labor abuse or IUU fishing. For trips ending in assessed ports, 82% were linked to labor abuse or IUU fishing risks. At-sea risk areas were primarily driven by fishing vessel flags linked to poor control of corruption by the flag state, high ownership by countries other than the flag state, and Chinese-flagged vessels. Transshipment risk areas were related to the gear type of fishing vessels engaged in potential transshipment and carrier vessel flags. Measures at port offer promise for mitigating risks, through the Port State Measures Agreement for IUU fishing, and ensuring sufficient vessel time at port to detect and respond to labor abuse. Our results highlight the need for coordinated action across actors to avoid risk displacement and make progress towards eliminating these socially, environmentally and economically unsustainable practices.

Scientific mobilization of keystone actors for biosphere stewardship.

The biosphere crisis requires changes to existing business practices. We ask how corporations can become sustainability leaders, when constrained by multiple barriers to collaboration for biosphere stewardship. We describe how scientists motivated, inspired and engaged with ten of the world's largest seafood companies, in a collaborative process aimed to enable science-based and systemic transformations (2015-2021). CEOs faced multiple industry crises in 2015 that incentivized novel approaches. New scientific insights, an invitation to collaborate, and a bold vision of transformative change towards ocean stewardship, created new opportunities and direction. Co-creation of solutions resulted in new knowledge and trust, a joint agenda for action, new capacities, international recognition, formalization of an organization, increased policy influence, time-bound goals, and convergence of corporate change. Independently funded scientists helped remove barriers to cooperation, provided means for reflection, and guided corporate strategies and actions toward ocean stewardship. By 2021, multiple individuals exercised leadership and the initiative had transitioned from preliminary and uncomfortable conversations, to a dynamic, operational organization, with capacity to perform global leadership in the seafood industry. Mobilizing transformational agency through learning, collaboration, and innovation represents a cultural evolution with potential to redirect and accelerate corporate action, to the benefit of business, people and the planet.

Rights and representation support justice across aquatic food systems.

Injustices are prevalent in food systems, where the accumulation of vast wealth is possible for a few, yet one in ten people remain hungry. Here, for 194 countries we combine aquatic food production, distribution and consumption data with corresponding national policy documents and, drawing on theories of social justice, explore whether barriers to participation explain unequal distributions of benefits. Using Bayesian models, we find economic and political barriers are associated with lower wealth-based benefits; countries produce and consume less when wealth, formal education and voice and accountability are lacking. In contrast, social barriers are associated with lower welfare-based benefits; aquatic foods are less affordable where gender inequality is greater. Our analyses of policy documents reveal a frequent failure to address political and gender-based barriers. However, policies linked to more just food system outcomes centre principles of human rights, specify inclusive decision-making processes and identify and challenge drivers of injustice.

Process-based approach reveals directional effects of environmental factors on movement between habitats.

1. Understanding the effects of environmental factors on animal distributions is a central issue in ecology. However, movement rules inferred from distribution patterns do not reveal the processes through which animal distribution is realized. 2. We investigated individual movement rules using a process-based approach. In experiments, coastal fish larvae (red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus) were matched with an intraspecific competitor of different sizes, and time series of habitat transition of individuals were fitted with a continuous-time Markov chain model to evaluate the effects of the presence of a competitor, behavioural interactions and habitat quality on the likelihoods of habitat transition. 3. The process-based approach revealed that these factors did not simply act as a 'slope' between habitats that makes it easier to go in one direction and more difficult to return. Rather, these factors modify the movement rules differently depending on the directions of the movement. 4. Individuals were less likely to enter a better habitat in the presence of a larger conspecific, more likely to shift to a poorer habitat when they received aggressive behaviour and more likely to stay in a better habitat in the presence of food. However, no effect was found on the transition intensity for moving in the opposite direction. 5. The process-based approach to evaluating movement rules of animals allowed us to see the contrasting directional effects of different factors on the underlying movement rules used by animals, as opposed to pattern-based fitting of observed distributions. Consideration of these rules would improve the existing habitat-choice models.

Body Size and Behavioural Plasticity Interact to Influence the Performance of Free-Foraging Bumble Bee Colonies.

Specialisation and plasticity are important for many forms of collective behaviour, but the interplay between these factors is little understood. In insect societies, workers are often developmentally primed to specialise in different tasks, sometimes with morphological or physiological adaptations, facilitating a division of labour. Workers may also plastically switch between tasks or vary their effort. The degree to which developmentally primed specialisation limits plasticity is not clear and has not been systematically tested in ecologically relevant contexts. We addressed this question in 20 free-foraging bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) colonies by continually manipulating colonies to contain either a typically diverse, or a reduced ("homogeneous"), worker body size distribution while keeping the same mean body size, over two trials. Pooling both trials, diverse colonies produced a larger comb mass, an index of colony performance. The link between body size and task was further corroborated by the finding that foragers were larger than nurses even in homogeneous colonies with a very narrow body size range. However, the overall effect of size diversity stemmed mostly from one trial. In the other trial, homogeneous and diverse colonies showed comparable performance. By comparing behavioural profiles based on several thousand observations of individuals, we found evidence that workers in homogeneous colonies in this trial rescued colony performance by plastically increasing behavioural specialisation and/or individual effort, compared to same-sized individuals in diverse colonies. Our results are consistent with a benefit to colonies of large and small specialists under certain conditions, but also suggest that plasticity or effort can compensate for reduced (size-related) specialisation. Thus, we suggest that an intricate interplay between specialisation and plasticity is functionally adaptive in bumble bee colonies.

Using demographics toward efficient data classification in citizen science: a Bayesian approach.

Public participation in scientific activities, often called citizen science, offers a possibility to collect and analyze an unprecedentedly large amount of data. However, diversity of volunteers poses a challenge to obtain accurate information when these data are aggregated. To overcome this problem, we propose a classification algorithm using Bayesian inference that harnesses diversity of volunteers to improve data accuracy. In the algorithm, each volunteer is grouped into a distinct class based on a survey regarding either their level of education or motivation to citizen science. We obtained the behavior of each class through a training set, which was then used as a prior information to estimate performance of new volunteers. By applying this approach to an existing citizen science dataset to classify images into categories, we demonstrate improvement in data accuracy, compared to the traditional majority voting. Our algorithm offers a simple, yet powerful, way to improve data accuracy under limited effort of volunteers by predicting the behavior of a class of individuals, rather than attempting at a granular description of each of them.

Matching individual attributes with task types in collaborative citizen science.

In citizen science, participants' productivity is imperative to project success. We investigate the feasibility of a collaborative approach to citizen science, within which productivity is enhanced by capitalizing on the diversity of individual attributes among participants. Specifically, we explore the possibility of enhancing productivity by integrating multiple individual attributes to inform the choice of which task should be assigned to which individual. To that end, we collect data in an online citizen science project composed of two task types: (i) filtering images of interest from an image repository in a limited time, and (ii) allocating tags on the object in the filtered images over unlimited time. The first task is assigned to those who have more experience in playing action video games, and the second task to those who have higher intrinsic motivation to participate. While each attribute has weak predictive power on the task performance, we demonstrate a greater increase in productivity when assigning participants to the task based on a combination of these attributes. We acknowledge that such an increase is modest compared to the case where participants are randomly assigned to the tasks, which could offset the effort of implementing our attribute-based task assignment scheme. This study constitutes a first step toward understanding and capitalizing on individual differences in attributes toward enhancing productivity in collaborative citizen science.

Social information and spontaneous emergence of leaders in human groups.

Understanding the dynamics of social networks is the objective of interdisciplinary research ranging from animal collective behaviour to epidemiology, political science and marketing. Social influence is key to comprehending emergent group behaviour, but we know little about how inter-individual relationships emerge in the first place. We conducted an experiment where participants repeatedly performed a cognitive test in a small group. In each round, they were allowed to change their answers upon seeing the current answers of other members and their past performance in selecting correct answers. Rather than following a simple majority rule, participants granularly processed the performance of others in deciding how to change their answers. Toward a network model of the experiment, we associated a directed link of a time-varying network with every change in a participant's answer that mirrored the answer of another group member. The rate of growth of the network was not constant in time, whereby links were found to emerge faster as time progressed. Further, repeated interactions reinforced relationships between individuals' performance and their network centrality. Our results provide empirical evidence that inter-individual relationships spontaneously emerge in an adaptive way, where good performers rise as group leaders over time.