Royal Society Open Science

Abstract A link between interoceptive accuracy, as measured by the heartbeat counting task (HCT), and psychological phenomena like anxiety, alexithymia and depression has been proposed. Previous research using the HCT alongside popular questionnaires—the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)—has shown inconsistent resu…

Abstract People often fail to notice unexpected objects or events when they focus attention on another task or different aspects of a scene. Recently, a number of studies have examined whether individual differences in cognitive abilities or personality can be used to predict who will notice and who will miss unexpected objects. Although such measures can predict performance on deliberate attenti…

Abstract At first sight, the idea of a human right to participate in science may seem absurd. Many assume science must be the preserve only of those with the training and aptitude to make a substantial contribution. However, feminist philosophy of science teaches that science is a social practice, with norms of inclusion and exclusion, and who, in fact, has the chance to participate depends on po…

Abstract Breeding ecology remains poorly understood in many elusive species because conventional field methods rarely produce samples large enough to detect broad-scale ecological patterns. Here, we show that open-source online photographs can help overcome this limitation. Using 657 photographs representing 500 nests, we quantified breeding habitat and nest-site characteristics of the Eurasian w…

Abstract Tube feet are extensions of the echinoderm water vascular system that play essential roles in feeding and ecology in living crinoids. However, only a single instance of tube foot preservation has been described across the 485-million-year fossil record of crinoids, which limits our understanding of soft-tissue morphology and functional ecology within this major clade of echinoderms. Here…

Abstract Wolbachia is a naturally occurring bacterium that can infect Aedes mosquitoes and reduce the transmission of diseases such as dengue fever, Zika and chikungunya. Field trials worldwide have explored its potential for epidemic control. We introduce a partial differential equation model to simulate the spatial spread of Wolbachia infection in mosquito populations. The model incorporates de…

Abstract Nephrotic syndrome (NS) is a common childhood glomerulopathy characterized by significant proteinuria but lacks reliable biomarkers of relapse or prognosis. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-bound particles released from stressed cells that carry molecular cargo reflective of cellular state. We previously demonstrated increased podocyte-specific urinary EVs in children with NS du…

Abstract The world is urbanizing rapidly, impacting the movements of wildlife living within ever fragmenting urban habitats. Movement tracking by biologgers can reveal the nature of these impacts for birds—particularly those that are prevalent within urban environments. We assembled and reviewed 123 studies examining the movements of birds in urban environments using movement tracking. We assumed…

Abstract Refugee and internally displaced people (IDP) settlements are highly dynamic, with rapid changes to demographic and geographical structures. Knowledge of the population size, disaggregated by demographic attributes, is essential to informing humanitarian programming and settlement planning by humanitarian organizations. However, access to such data, when formal censuses of settlements ha…

Abstract The collective behaviour of fish can promote the propagation of social information within the group, benefiting the individuals within the group. The self-organized aggregation–dispersion dynamics in the collective movement of fish schools are investigated using experimental data obtained from a ring-shaped tank under varying group sizes. We measure group cohesion, aggregation–dispersion…

Abstract Humans have drastically altered the natural environment, impacting species that rely directly on natural resources to create signals to attract mates. Male great bowerbirds (Chlamydera nuchalis) construct bowers, which they decorate with coloured objects such as fruits and sticks. In urban areas, these decorations often include anthropogenic materials, such as glass, plastic and wire. We…

Abstract Group hunting is a widespread phenomenon, fundamentally shaping predator social dynamics and trophic interactions with their prey. The foraging behaviour of killer whale (Orcinus orca) groups feeding upon herring has been described as cooperative. In this study, we used animal-borne audio and video data to evaluate cooperative interactions and feeding rates of herring-eating killer whale…

Abstract Economic literature has mostly focused on the issue of entry deterrence where incumbents have often been assumed to adopt strategies to keep entrants off the market. We show that an incumbent monopoly can comfortably accommodate a potential entrant and remarkably continue to earn monopoly-level profits (despite now being in a duopoly) provided that the entrant offers a sufficiently diffe…

Abstract Yunnanozoans are a key group of Cambrian fossils, and many specimens of these blade-shaped, soft-bodied animals show exceptional preservation. Debate continues over whether they were stem vertebrates, non-vertebrate chordates, stem deuterostomes or even protostome invertebrates. Previous studies of the yunnanozoan circulatory system were limited to optical observations and remain controv…

Abstract This work presents the Purification Water Process Algorithm (PWPA), a metaheuristic framework grounded in the physical principles of industrial water treatment rather than metaphorical inspiration. The algorithm explicitly models three canonical stages—sedimentation, filtration and final purification—as distinct search operators: a gravity-based mechanism for global exploration, a stocha…

Abstract Resource allocation trade-offs, like that between flight and fecundity, are central to the ecology and evolution of all animals and plants. Yet, research on trade-offs has traditionally focused on a single moment during ontogeny, overlooking how the continuous acquisition of resources might modulate these trade-offs. This is especially important for organisms with complex life cycles, li…

Abstract The ability of migration scholars to synthesize knowledge is increasingly hindered by the rapid expansion of the field, both in sheer volume and interdisciplinarity. This article introduces LlaMig (large language model for migration research), an open-source, local framework designed to transform massive scholarly text into a structured, queryable database. By fine-tuning the Llama 3.2 3…

Abstract Disentangling the influence of biotic interactions from abiotic environmental changes is a central challenge in macroevolution. While ants’ evolutionary history has been widely studied, often in relation to abiotic factors or plant associations, the role of intra- and inter-lineage interactions, whether competitive or facilitative, remains poorly understood. In this study, we use birth–d…

Abstract Design variables of upstream and downstream process units play a significant role in the performance of monoclonal antibody (mAb) production platforms. Plantwide optimization problems in the form of mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) must consider decision variables, process constraints and a suitable objective function to achieve meaningful solutions. Moreover, deterministic MI…

Abstract Piling is an understudied group behaviour where chickens gather in dense clusters. It appears to be widespread in commercial laying hens, leads to mortalities (smothers) and impacts production. Automated detection of piling could support: (i) stockpersons to reduce the behaviour and (ii) scientific efforts to study the behaviour. Computer vision-based classification is increasingly used …