Cultural heritage may influence choice of tools by capuchin monkeys, study suggests

The tools are pieces of quartzite and sandstone found in places referred to as processing sites. The animals frequent these sites solely to look for these stones for use as hammers and anvils.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

 

IMAGE: THE COCONUT-LIKE SHELL CONTAINING THE EDIBLE KERNELS IS VERY HARD AND HAS TO BE CRACKED OPEN WITH A STONE TOOL. NOT ALL CAPUCHIN POPULATIONS HAVE ADOPTED THIS INNOVATION view more 

CREDIT: TIAGO FALÓTICO/EACH-USP)

Capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) are among only a few primates that use tools in day-to-day activities. In the Cerrado and Caatinga, they use stones as hammers and anvils to crack open cashew nuts, seed pods of Hymenaea courbaril (West Indian locust; jatobá in Brazil) and other hard foods. 

In an article published in Scientific Reports, Brazilian researchers show that food hardness and tool size do not always correlate as closely as has been thought. 

In their study, the researchers observed three populations of bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus), measuring food hardness, tool size and weight, and local availability of stones. They concluded that culture, defined as information passed on from one generation to the next by social learning, can also influence behavior in this regard. 

“In one of the populations we analyzed, even when they have stones that are suitable for use on a particular food resource, they may use disproportionately heavy tools, possibly evidencing a cultural trait of that group,” said Tiago Falótico, a researcher at the University of São Paulo's School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (EACH-USP) supported by FAPESP.

The population to which he referred lives in Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park in Goiás, a state in Brazil’s Center-West region. In the study, this population was compared with capuchins living in Serra das Confusões National Park, in Piauí, a state in the Northeast region, and another population that lives in Serra da Capivara National Park, about 100 km away in the same state. 

The tools are pieces of quartzite and sandstone found in places referred to as processing sites. The animals frequent these sites solely to look for these stones for use as hammers and anvils. One stone is used to pound a nut or seed resting on another stone used as an anvil. 

“In Serra das Confusões, they use smaller tools to open smaller and softer fruit but use large, heavy hammers to crack coconut shells, which are very hard. In Chapada dos Veadeiros, where there are stones of varying sizes to choose from, they use the heaviest ones even for fragile foods,” Falótico said.

Not by chance, it was in this latter park that the researchers recorded the heaviest stone lifted by capuchins. An adult male weighs 3.5 kg on average, and they filmed an individual lifting a hammer stone that was later found to weigh 4.65 kg. “They’re champion weightlifters,” he chuckled.

Measurements

The findings were the result of a great deal of hard work. The researchers documented the kinds of food most frequently found in the processing sites, such as babassu (Attalea speciosa), West Indian locust, cashew, and wild cassava (Manihot spp). They also documented the stones available, as well as the sizes and weights of the tools they found, measured the hardness of each type of food using a special device, and observed and filmed tool usage in each study area.

“We expected to find a very close correlation between the type of food and the size and weight of the tool, but the population in Chapada dos Veadeiros mainly used the larger ones even though stones of all sizes are plentiful and they can choose a smaller size. They probably inherited this habit from their ancestors. It’s a cultural difference compared with the other populations,” Falótico said.

The cultural learning hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that studies in other areas, such as Serra de Itabaiana in Sergipe and Chapada Diamantina in Bahia (both states in the Northeast), involving Sapajus capuchins, stones and the same kinds of fruit and seed have not found processing sites or the use of stone tools for this purpose. In Serra das Confusões, the capuchins use tools to crack open several kinds of food except cashew nuts, which are nevertheless abundant.

“Their behavior isn’t due to the availability of resources but to cultural heritage,” Falótico said.

The researchers are now analyzing the genomes of all three populations to see if the cultural differences can be linked to genetic differences.

The study was also supported by FAPESP via a scholarship awarded to Tatiane Valença, a PhD candidate at EACH-USP.

Human evolution

A paper by Falótico and a team of archeologists from Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, reports the results of field experiments conducted to test the potential for accidental flake production during nut cracking by capuchins using various types of rock as anvils.

Some capuchins ingest or anoint themselves with powder produced by pounding stones. They may also rub the powder on their teeth. Their reasons for doing so are unknown, but the researchers believe one aim may be to combat parasites. In the experiments, flakes were also produced by fragmentation of anvils comprising homogeneous material.

The monkeys did not use the flakes, which closely resembled the lithic tools found by archeologists at digs around the world. The researchers believe the earliest hominins obtained flakes accidentally before their deliberate production for use as tools.

“Capuchins may also use flakes as tools in future if an innovative individual starts doing so, and others learn by observing. These primates can therefore serve as a model to help us understand human evolution,” Falótico said.

A previous study by the same group of researchers showed how lithic tools used by the capuchin population in Serra da Capivara displayed different patterns of wear marks depending on the activities involved (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/35251). 

Comparisons of the use-wear marks on tools used by monkeys and hominins could reveal how our earliest ancestors used lithic tools. It may therefore be possible to find out more about human evolution from the study of Brazilian capuchin monkeys.

The article “Stone tools differences across three capuchin monkey populations: food’s physical properties, ecology, and culture” is at: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-18661-3. 

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe

---

JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-022-18661-3 

ARTICLE TITLE

Stone tools differences across three capuchin monkey populations: food’s physical properties, ecology, and culture

https://www.marxist.com/classics-dialectics-of-nature/9.-the-part-played-by-labour-in-the-transition-from-ape-to-man.htm

9. The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man 

Labour is the source of all wealth, the economists assert. It is this next to nature, which supplies it with the material that it converts into wealth. But it ...

Food marketing and research on kids lacks government oversight

Lax industry self-regulation and no rules on research leave children vulnerable to marketing of unhealthy food, according to a new analysis

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Federal regulations ban tobacco companies from advertising to kids and prohibit profanity on television before 10 p.m. But what is protecting children from predatory advertising of junk food, especially with sneaky online marketing tactics like the use of influencers?

Very little, thanks to outdated and weakened government oversight, according to a new legal analysis published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics by researchers at the NYU School of Global Public Health and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

“The U.S. overwhelmingly relies on industry self-regulation, which has not kept pace with modern marketing practices,” says study author Jennifer Pomeranz, assistant professor of public health policy and management at NYU School of Global Public Health.

Self-regulation falls short in today’s marketing landscape

Commercial speech, including advertising, is largely protected by the First Amendment. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which protects consumers from deceptive and unfair business practices, has limited authority over advertising directed at kids. While the FTC gathers and reports data on food advertising to youth and brings cases against food companies for specific unfair and deceptive practices, Congress stripped the agency of its authority to regulate marketing directed at children considered unfair in 1980, after the FTC tried to limit sugary food and drinks in commercials during children’s television. The FTC has not attempted to use its authority over deceptive acts and practices, in part out of concern over similar backlash.

Instead, the U.S. largely relies on food and beverage companies to self-regulate. The industry-created Children’s Food and Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) includes voluntary—and sometimes lax—nutritional standards for marketing to kids. However, the researchers say gaps in CFBAI allows for questionable marketing that makes the nutrition standards irrelevant: the initiative only applies to children under 12 and media directed at young kids, it does not apply to packaging or stores, and allows companies to market their brands by showing somewhat healthier products that introduce kids to unhealthy brand lines.

Importantly, today’s marketing to children goes well beyond the traditional television commercial. Companies employ a variety of tactics to reach kids online, especially on YouTube. Products are often promoted using influencers and “host-selling,” where a program character delivers a commercial adjacent to children’s programming featuring the character, a practice that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibits on television but lacks a similar rule for online marketing.

“Modern marketing practices are intended to blur the distinction between an ad and entertainment,” says study author Dariush Mozaffarian, dean for policy of the Friedman School at Tufts. “Research indicates that even adults have difficulty identifying sponsored content online, so children surely need some protection from these predatory practices.”

The authors encourage Congress to reinstate the FTC’s authority to regulate unfair marketing targeting children and the FTC to examine online marketing of food and drinks, including using its authority over deceptive practices.

Studying kids with no rules

When universities want to do research involving human subjects, the studies must be reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board to protect the participants, especially vulnerable populations like children. This is required by a federal policy called the Common Rule and applies to researchers receiving federal funds.

However, there are no similar requirements for commercial research on children. For instance, a food company can have a child psychologist test tactics and messages on children to determine how to best persuade kids to want products and to influence their parents to buy them—without any oversight. This is particularly problematic when companies target their unhealthy products to racial and ethnic minority youth.

“The disparity in rules for academic institutions seeking to engage in marketing research, who must obtain children’s assent and parental consent, versus no requirements for for-profit entities engaging in the same activity, is striking,” Pomeranz and Mozaffarian write.

The researchers note that food companies, which receive millions in tax subsidies, would meet the criteria for research on children set out by the Common Rule—if the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had signed on to the Common Rule like 20 other federal agencies have. In light of the spirit and purpose of the Common Rule to protect research subjects, the authors urge the federal government and state attorneys general to take a closer look at companies’ research on children.

What about parents?

In many aspects of life, parents are expected to act as gatekeepers for their children. Opponents of government regulation of marketing to children argue that government action undermines parental control.

“While this might have made sense when children were primarily watching television and parents had more control over what their children watched, parental oversight has become less feasible in the face of covert online marketing practices such as host-selling and the use of influencers. In today’s media landscape, parents have little ability to act as the sole deciding factor in what types of food are shown to their kids,” says Pomeranz. “The U.S. needs to move away from voluntary industry self-regulation to effective policies that account for current marketing practices.”

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (2R01HL115189-06A1).

About the NYU School of Global Public Health

At the NYU School of Global Public Health (NYU GPH), we are preparing the next generation of public health pioneers with the critical thinking skills, acumen, and entrepreneurial approaches necessary to reinvent the public health paradigm. Devoted to employing a nontraditional, interdisciplinary model, NYU GPH aims to improve health worldwide through a unique blend of global public health studies, research, and practice. The School is located in the heart of New York City and extends to NYU's global network on six continents. Innovation is at the core of our ambitious approach, thinking and teaching. For more, visit: publichealth.nyu.edu

DOI

10.1017/jme.2022.92 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Food Marketing to — and Research on — Children: New Directions for Regulation in the United States

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Nov-2022

You are “what you eat”, but you are not “where you live”

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

 

IMAGE: FIGURE 1. GEOGRAPHICAL MAP OF THE SIX POPULATIONS ALONG THE SILK ROAD INVESTIGATED IN THE STUDY. COLORED DOTS REFER TO REAL GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS, CARROTS AND DNA ICONS REPRESENT INSTEAD THE “FOOD” AND “GENETIC” COORDINATES. CREDITS: SERENA ANELI view more 

CREDIT: SERENA ANELI

Genetic studies of the past 20 years have extensively shown how, across human populations worldwide, the majority of genetic differences are encountered at the individual rather than at the population level. Two random humans from a single group tend indeed to be more genetically different from each other than two different human populations on average.

Does this hold also when it comes to lifestyle and culture?

In a recently published article on PNAS from the Universities of Tartu, Turin, Trieste and Padova, the authors investigated the matter by taking dietary choices as a proxy for that and by examining food preferences over 79 different foods within six populations along the historical Silk Road route, spanning across the whole of Central Asia.
“We found that preference for certain foods was informative of the preference of other foods, or that, in other words, the food likings could be combined to assemble a discrete number of ‘food signatures’ ” said Prof. Luca Pagani, senior author of the study.

Strikingly, these signatures or profiles were not typical of a given village or country. The food signatures hence identified were instead linked with other features of the queried individuals such as age, biological sex and other cultural choices. Nevertheless, some exceptions were represented by certain foods available only in specific countries. Among them, some typical products from regional cuisines stand out, such as the Georgian brined cheese “sulguni” and “kurut”, dried yogurt balls from Central Asian nomads.

The amount of dietary information that the researchers could link to the country of origin was as little as 20%, which is big if compared with its genetic counterpart (1%) but still not sufficient to explain the observed patterns, despite the thousands of kilometers separating the investigated individuals.

As differences in genetic makeup and food preference between countries could be translated into “genetic” and “food” distances, these were plotted on a geographic map for comparison with the actual geographic distances between sampling locations. The emerging map showed culture to be only slightly more comparable to geography than genetics for the analysed groups (Figure 1), consistently with what emerged from the rest of the results.

“No matter where you live or where you were born, it turns out that your choices (at least as far as food consumption is concerned) are more dependent on your sex and age and on other cultural features” concluded Dr. Serena Aneli, the first author of the study.

---

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2209311119 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Impact of cultural and genetic structure on food choices along the Silk Road

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Nov-2022

MSU launches $15M DOE center to support fusion energy research

Grant and Award Announcement

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University’s Andrew Christlieb is leading a massive U.S. Department of Energy project to help deliver on the not-yet-realized promise of nuclear fusion. That promise? To create an unmatched source of affordable and sustainable energy.

Christlieb, an MSU Foundation Professor in the College of Natural Science, is now the director of a Mathematical Multifaceted Integrated Capability Center, or MMICC, supported by $15 million in funding from the DOE. He is joined by researchers at eight other universities and national labs across the country. Together, they’re developing new mathematical and computational tools to better model the physics needed to understand, control and sustain fusion.

The MSU-led center is one of four new MMICCs announced by the DOE.

“MMICCs enable applied mathematics researchers, working in large, collaborative teams, to take a broader view of a problem,” said Barbara Helland, DOE associate director of science for the Advanced Scientific Computing Research program, in a recent news release. “As a result of this holistic view, the researchers devise solutions by building fundamental, multidisciplinary mathematical capabilities considering existing and emerging computing capabilities.”

“We’re going to be pushing the boundaries of what can be done mathematically and computationally,” says Christlieb, who is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering.

In addition to MSU’s contingent of experts, the team includes collaborators from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the University of Colorado-Boulder, the University of Delaware, the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and the University of Washington.

“We’re asking ourselves how do we engage with things like machine learning? How do we engage with bigger, more powerful computers? How do we engage with new mathematical algorithms?” Christlieb says. “We have this lofty goal of taking a bird’s-eye view, looking down on all these different pieces and understanding how they fit together to solve big problems.”

By Matt Davenport

Read more on MSUToday. 

###

Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 165 years. One of the world's leading research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

Chemical weapons may not protect Antarctic seafloor animals and their value for drug discovery

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: MARINE BENTHIC ORGANISMS FROM SHALLOW AREAS IN DECEPTION ISLAND, ANTARCTICA, INCLUDING RED SEASTAR (ODONTASTER VALIDUS), YELLOW SEASTAR (ODONTASTER MERIDIONALIS), SEA URCHINS (STERECHINUS NEUMAYERI), PHIURA (OPHIONOTUS VICTORIAE), SEA CUCUMBER (EKMOCUCUMIS STEINENI), SNAIL (AMAUROPSIS ROSSIANA), YELLOW SPONGE (MYCALE ACERATA), ANEMONE (ISOTEALIA SP.). view more 

CREDIT: CONXITA AVILA

By Wynne Parry

Long-lived sponges, intestine-like worms, colonies of sea squirts and many other cold-loving animals populate the seafloor around Antarctica. But the arrival of outsiders — borne in ships’ ballast water, on plastic refuse or on floating kelp, or encouraged by warming temperature — threaten this menagerie.

Like their northern counterparts, benthic organisms in Antarctica make chemical compounds to defend themselves from local predators. Conxita Avila, an MBL Whitman Fellow from the University of Barcelona, wondered if these defenses might be enough to repel foreign invaders.

In a Marine Drugs paper she completed during her tenure at the MBL last summer, Avila and her colleagues put the chemical defenses of 29 Antarctic species to the test. To stand in for hungry alien species, the team used two types of predators collected from the Mediterranean: relatives of shrimp known as amphipods and hermit crabs.

The results, while not entirely negative, do not bode well. Most of the Antarctic compounds could repel the amphipods, but very few deterred the hermit crabs. These shelled crabs have diets similar to those of the larger king crabs that scientists know are encroaching on these communities from deeper waters.

“The Antarctic seafloor ecosystem is in danger for many reasons, and this is just one more,” Avila says. “If the king crabs come up, they are going to decimate these animals’ populations and completely change these communities.”

Challenges and Opportunities at the Antarctic Seafloor

Despite the cold, Antarctica’s large continental shelf is home to a diverse array of creatures, including sponges and branching moss animals that create a forest-like environment. Scientists know much less about the inhabitants of these communities, and the compounds they make, than about the marine animal forests further north. But, like chemical compounds from warmer waters, the products made by Antarctic animals have biological activity that can potentially provide the basis for therapeutic drugs. 

For their experiments, the researchers extracted the Antarctic species’ defensive compounds and incorporated them into food for the amphipods and hermit crabs. These compounds were effective against the amphipods, for the most part, perhaps because cold-water amphipods already inhabit this ecosystem, Avila says. Crabs, however, are recent invaders to Antarctic shallow communities, and only extracts from two animals deterred the Mediterranean hermits.

Because hermits and many other crabs, most notably the invading kings, have similar diets and systems for detecting food, this result suggests many Antarctic animals would be vulnerable should these crustaceans become established in this new territory.

For Avila, this predation study is a piece of a much larger picture. Through the University of Barcelona’s Challenge project, which she leads, Avila is investigating natural and human-caused changes to the Antarctic seafloor, including to its biodiversity and to the chemical interactions between its marine organisms.

Long-Term Ecological Research at the MBL

Avila’s interest in ecology is tied to her long-running relationship with MBL. The latter goes back to 1988 when, after graduating from college, she took a summer ecology course in Woods Hole. Later, she returned to MBL as a postdoctoral scientist.

Ultimately, she aims to conduct long-term research on the Antarctic seafloor akin to that led by MBL Ecosystem Center scientists in the Arctic and at Plum Island in Massachusetts. Similar long-term research stations have been established on the southernmost continent, but so far none focus on the seafloor.

MBL has “a long, long history of very good work done in ecosystems,” Avila says. As a Whitman fellow, she took advantage of this expertise to learn about monitoring and studying these ecosystems. In addition, the fellowship gave her the time and space to reflect on her current projects.

If we lose these Antarctic communities, we lose many animals — and potentially useful molecules — that we don’t even know about yet, she says, noting that such a disappearance would affect the rest of the natural world.

“Everything is related,” Avila says. “If you make a hole in a spider web, the whole thing just breaks.”

Sea stars, urchins, sponges, anemones are among the marine organisms in this benthic community in shallow areas in Deception Island, Antarctica.

CREDIT

Conxita Avila

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery – exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.

---

JOURNAL

Marine Drugs

DOI

10.3390/md20090543 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Would Antarctic Marine Benthos Survive Alien Species Invasions? What Chemical Ecology May Tell Us

Perennial rice’s next steps: Large-scale localization to adapt across different climates

Perennial rice strains are sensitive to local climate conditions. High-throughput sequencing quickly identifies rice lines with the desired agronomic traits

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BGI GENOMICS

 

IMAGE: SIX STAGES OF RICE PRODUCTION view more 

CREDIT: BGI GENOMICS

The global population is projected to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022, according to the UN's recently-released World Population Prospects 2022. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to continue growing through 2100 and to contribute more than half of the global population increase anticipated through 2050.

How can we continue to feed the world? Perhaps perennial rice, which doesn't have to be replanted every season, may be part of the answer. A new report in Nature Sustainability highlights agronomic, economic, and environmental indicators of perennial rice cultivation across Yunnan Province, China. This report was also cited in Science, earning the distinction of being simultaneously featured on these distinguished scientific journals

"Our findings show perennial rice delivers significant labor and costs savings for farmers. But it needs to be done right – that's why we emphasize promoting perennial rice technology – not just passing farmers the seeds. Farmers need to master new cultivation techniques to maintain high yields in subsequent harvests," says Dr. Shilai Zhang, professor at Yunnan University's School of Agriculture and first author of this report. He is a pioneer team member who has worked on perennial rice research for the past 13 years.

Dr. Zhang shares that after every harvest, it is essential to water and fertilize perennial rice. This helps to maintain its roots which is vital as this crop relies on rhizomes as a means of vegetative reproduction. The team teaches farmers cultivation techniques accumulated through years of research.

The team hybridized annual rice with its perennial African relative Oryza longistaminata through its research and started large-scale field experiments in 2016, and released the first commercial perennial rice variety, PR23, in 2018. From next-generation sequencing, 16.16% of the PR23 genome consists of Oryza longistaminata.

Farmers growing perennial rice put in almost 60% less labor and spent nearly half on seed, fertilizer, and other inputs while enjoying similar yields to annual rice. This is why perennial rice adoption has been rapid in the past year, cultivation hit 15,533 hectares in 2021, including 44,752 smallholder farms.

"We promoted perennial rice across Yunnan and addressed the key issues that matter most to farmers: yields, costs, taste and stable production across multiple seasons. Many of these farmers grow rice as a staple food for their families so perennial rice must compete against other rice varieties," said Dr. Zhang. 

Dr. Zhang highlights that perennial crops is gaining widespread international attention and that Jerry Glover, National Geographic Society Explorer and research pioneer in sustainable agriculture, described this report as "one of the most important research achievements in modern agriculture." Dr. Zhang comments that there remains much to do, noting that perennial rice strains are sensitive to local climate conditions-one strain may grow well in Guangxi and Guizhou which are close to Yunnan but don't do as well in other Chinese provinces.

Large-scale localization of perennial rice

In April this year, Yunnan University and BGI established a perennial rice joint venture. "Large-scale localization is the next step for perennial rice. By partnering BGI, our team may leverage on high-throughput sequencing to identify perennial rice lines more quickly with the desired agronomic traits that suits local climate conditions. In addition, BGI's network will help perennial rice go global with the right support," said Dr. Zhang.

Perennial rice has been promoted to many countries, including Uganda, Ivory Coast, Laos, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Uganda is a pioneer, starting perennial rice trials five years ago. Working with local partners, specific perennial rice varieties may be developed by Yunnan University and BGI to further raise farmers' incomes.

Dr. Zhang notes, "Taste and local climate adaptability are the top requests. For example, Myanmar consumers prefer a softer variety of rice. In areas where the average temperature is high, they seek a heat-resistant variety."

Dr. Zhang notes that Dr. Fengyi Hu, the university's research team leader, correctly forecasted that PR107 will do very well in Africa due to its' heat-resistant and blight-resistant properties, "Rice breeding is not mastered in one day. It requires a lot of experience and good understanding of local climate conditions. We look forward to working with new partners to promote perennial rice across the world to enhance global food security and farmers' incomes."  

 

Number of perennial rice production locations

CREDIT

Nature Sustainability

Optimal ecological zoning of perennial rice

CREDIT

Nature Sustainability

Perennial rice in Menghai, Yunnan

CREDIT

University of Yunnan

About Yunnan University

Yunnan University consists of 26 schools, 10 research institutes, two independent schools and a graduate school. A total of 15 papers by its professors have been published in world-famous academic publications, like Nature and Science.

About BGI Genomics

BGI Genomics, headquartered in Shenzhen China, is the world's leading integrated solutions provider of precision medicine. In July of 2017, as a subsidiary of BGI Group, BGI Genomics (300676.SZ) was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. BGI has topped the Asia Pacific and China life science corporate institution ranking table for the seventh year running, released in the 2022 Nature Index Annual Tables.

---

JOURNAL

Nature Sustainability

DOI

10.1038/s41893-022-00997-3 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Sustained productivity and agronomic potential of perennial rice

Improvisation and creativity in professional jazz musicians

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

World-renowned jazz musicians are often praised for their creative ingenuity. But how do they make up improvisations? And what makes artists’ solos  more enticing than those of less skilled players? These questions continue to puzzle not only jazz aficionados, but also psychological researchers. Two leading theories have dominated so far: Either musicians learn to master rules telling them what they can and cannot play – a sort of “secret language of jazz.” Or, each musician builds up a personal library of melodic patterns – “licks” – that they can draw upon and recombine in new and interesting ways. Over the years, musical scholars have collected many such volumes of “licks” for learners to practice. Yet, the fact that a certain combination of notes recurs many times is no proof of an underlying movement pattern stored in the brains of musicians—it could just be a sheer coincidence.

The ‘library theory’ of jazz improvisation
A new scientific study, just published in the journal Cognition, provides the first solid psychological evidence for the library theory of jazz improvisation. For the first time ever, researchers from Aarhus University and Georgia State University found that expert jazz musicians play certain note combinations with much more consistent timing and force than others. Regardless if these “licks” were played fast or slow, loud or soft, the relative rhythms and accents remained very similar. This strongly suggests that each player possesses a collection of patterns that are directly grounded in their own body and brain. Many jazz experts have called it their personal “vocabulary.” Interestingly, the new study found that these improvisation vocabularies vary between different players.

Martin Norgaard, born and raised in Denmark, now Associate Professor of Music Education at Geogia State University in Atlanta comments further: “It is fascinating that expert jazz musicians store linked audio and motor representations in the brain – that is both the sound of licks and information about how to play them. As a jazz violinist myself, I often hear licks I want to play while improvising but the motor representation is not complete so the lick doesn’t come out right. Based on our research, that should happen less as expertise develops.”

Stylistically appropriate and novel – hallmarks of creativity
Using an advanced computer model, the researchers furthermore showed that “licks” tend to occur in relatively predictable contexts but simultaneously evoke greater surprise and uncertainty in the listener. This finding fits well with leading theories in psychology and neuroscience about human creativity and what makes certain types of music particularly enjoyable to listen to. Specifically, melodies in the personal vocabularies of jazz improvisers are typically both stylistically appropriate and novel—the two hallmarks of creativity according to scientists.

“The fact that the solos of jazz experts evoke strong expectations in listeners and simultaneously surprise them might be exactly what makes these melodies so catchy and memorable. This may ultimately help us understand why some musicians become famous while others don’t,” said senior author Niels Chr. Hansen, Assistant Professor at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark.

The research results – how did they do it?

• The researchers analysed nearly 100,000 notes played on a MIDI keyboard by the artist-level jazz pianist Kevin Bales, during 11 live music gigs for audiences in the United States. This collection of solos was compared to recordings of 25 experienced jazz pianists taking part in a previous laboratory experiment.
• For each recurring 5-note sequence, the durations of notes and the force with which they were played were compared across versions of the same pattern to find the set of licks that were played the most consistently across different tempi and loudness.
• A computational model was trained on the Weimar Jazz Database consisting of more than 200,000 notes from 456 improvised songs by various jazz artists to estimate how much surprise and uncertainty each note in Kevin Bales’ improvised solos would evoke in an average jazz listener.

Where can I find the scientific article?

• Download: Until 18 December 2022, the article can be accessed freely via this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1f-OF2Hx2pj8N
• Citation: Norgaard, M., Bales, K., & Hansen, N.C. (2023). Linked auditory and motor patterns in the improvisation vocabulary of an artist-level jazz pianist. Cognition, 230. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105308

Funding

The study has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754513 and The Aarhus University Research Foundation. 

---

JOURNAL

Cognition

DOI

10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105308 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Linked auditory and motor patterns in the improvisation vocabulary of an artist-level jazz pianist

Caregivers’ coping strategies tied to anxiety, depression and quality of life

Investigators say resources are needed to support those who care for recipients of stem cell transplants

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEMATOLOGY

(Washington, Nov. 18, 2022) – November is Caregiver Awareness Month, and timely findings from a study published in Blood Advances suggest that, among caregivers of patients undergoing a stem cell transplant, how someone approaches coping can influence their levels of anxiety, depression, and poor quality of life (QOL) they experience. In particular, problem-solving and acceptance coping strategies seemed more helpful.

“This study highlights that the psychological distress caregivers experience is real, and how caregivers cope with the challenges they face in supporting their loved one affects their level of distress and their quality of life. We also know from prior research that caregivers’ psychological well-being affects patient outcomes,” said Hermioni Amonoo, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Carol C. Nadelson, MD, Distinguished Chair in Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and the study’s principal investigator.

Most stem cell transplant centers require people preparing to undergo a transplant to designate a primary caregiver – someone who will support them during the first 100 days after their transplant. In addition, before undergoing a stem-cell transplant for a blood cancer, most patients receive induction chemotherapy, which effectively wipes out their immune system, leaving them highly vulnerable to infection and other medical complications.

Caregivers have many responsibilities, Dr. Amonoo said, including taking steps to protect patients from infection due to their highly immunocompromised state, supporting patients to properly take numerous medications every day, helping patients prepare meals that adhere to post-transplant guidelines, and coordinating communication between patients and their health care teams.

“Our study underscores an urgent need for resources to help those caring for patients develop and use coping strategies that protect their mental health and quality of life and enable them to successfully fulfill this important role,” she said.

Previous studies have shown that caregivers of patients with cancer experience distress, loneliness, fatigue, sleep disturbance, financial worry, and poor QOL, and that fatigue among caregivers of patients undergoing a stem cell transplant is associated with slower growth of healthy new blood cells and poorer sleep quality for the patient. Dr. Amonoo took this research a step further by specifically studying the effects of different types of coping on caregivers and their loved ones.

“This is the largest study to date to examine caregiver coping strategies,” Dr. Amonoo said. “The whole field of caregiver research is very new,” she said. 

Researchers in this field classify caregiver coping strategies into two broad categories called “avoidant” and “approach-oriented.” Avoidant coping strategies include denial of the reality of the situation, and self-blame, in which the caregiver blames themselves if the patient misses a medication dose or is late for an appointment. By contrast, approach-oriented coping strategies include active problem solving, finding sources of emotional support, and using “positive reframing” to think about their situation in a different way.                    

For this study, Dr. Amonoo and her colleagues enrolled 170 primary caregivers of people with a blood cancer who were undergoing a stem cell transplant. A caregiver could be a spouse, relative, or friend whom the patient identified as their primary caregiver. Most caregivers were female (130, or 76.5%) and white (147, or 86.5%); their median age was 53. Shortly after the patient’s admission to the hospital for their stem cell transplant, caregivers completed questionnaires that asked about their use of different coping strategies, symptoms of anxiety or depression, and QOL. The researchers also looked at caregivers’ reliance on religious beliefs as a coping strategy.

A significant number of caregivers reported high use of acceptance (55.9%), positive reframing (45.9%), and religious (44.1%) coping strategies. Caregivers who relied on approach-oriented coping strategies such as these (49.4%) had fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression and better QOL compared with those who relied on avoidant coping strategies (32.9%).

“Strategies such as active problem-solving and positive reframing seemed to be more helpful for caregivers than strategies such as denial and self-blame,” Dr. Amonoo said. “In this study, we didn’t find an association between religious coping strategies and caregiver distress or QOL, although some previous smaller studies have found such an association.”

“Coping strategies aren’t good or bad – you have to meet people where they are,” she added. “And caregivers can be taught to use coping strategies that may be more helpful and may enable them to feel less anxious, depressed, or overwhelmed. So if a caregiver is thinking, ‘My life will never be the same again,’ we can help them reframe that in a more positive way – for example, ‘I know there will be a lot of uncertainty as my loved one recovers from their stem cell transplant, but I’m not in this alone – I can talk to the care team when questions come up or when I feel inadequate about something I need to do.’”

Dr. Amonoo said that her research group is working on developing a variety of interventions and resources for caregivers. “Our goal is to create resources that help caregivers be successful while also enabling them to take care of their own mental health,” she said.

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

# # #

Blood Advances is a peer-reviewed, online only, open access journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world’s largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders.

Blood Advances® is a registered trademark of the American Society of Hematology.

Contact:

Kira Sampson, American Society of Hematology

ksampson@hematology.org; 202-499-1796

---

JOURNAL

Blood Advances