Search results

Biological rules describe general morphological, structural and genetic patterns within and across species. Within these, ecogeographical rules correlate phenotypic variation of organisms with biogeography. The latter have been developed over the last 150 years, and recently have gained renewed attention due to climate change, as researchers try to predict how species will respond to different env

The impact of climate change on global biodiversity is firmly established, but the differential effect of climate change on populations within the same species is rarely considered. In ectotherms, melanism (i.e. darker integument due to heavier deposition of melanin) can significantly influence thermoregulation, as dark individuals generally heat more and faster than bright ones. Therefore, darker

The thermal environment can affect the evolution of morpho-behavioral adaptations of ectotherms. Heat is transferred from substrates to organisms by conduction and reflected radiation. Because brightness influences the degree of heat absorption, substrates could affect the evolution of integumentary optical properties. Here, we show that vipers (Squamata:Viperidae) inhabiting hot, highly radiative

With functions as diverse as communication, protection and thermoregulation, coloration is one of the most important traits in lizards. The ability to change colour as a function of varying social and environmental conditions is thus an important innovation. While colour change is present in animals ranging from squids, to fish and reptiles, not much is known about the mechanisms behind it. Tradit

Amniotic eggs are multifunctional structures that enabled early tetrapods to colonize the land millions of years ago, and are now the reproductive mode of over 70% of all terrestrial amniotes. Eggshell morphology is at the core of animal survival, mediating the interactions between embryos and their environment, and has evolved into a massive diversity of forms and functions in modern reptiles. Th

Venom is a key evolutionary trait, as evidenced by its widespread convergent evolution across the animal kingdom. In an escalating prey-predator arms race, venoms evolve rapidly to guarantee predatory or defensive success. Variation in venom composition is ubiquitous among snakes. Here, we tested variation in venom activity on substrates relevant to blood coagulation among Pseudonaja (brown snake)

Att odla ekologiskt istället för konventionellt bidrar till att öka den biologiska mångfalden. Den positiva effekten på biologiskmångfald är särskilt stor i odlingslandskap med få kvarvarande naturliga livsmiljöer som exempelvis naturbetesmarker. Samtidigt har sådana odlingslandskap ofta en hög jordbruksproduktion och därför är också kostnaderna i form av skördebortfall höga vid en övergång till e

Quantitative reconstructions of past land cover are necessary to determine the processes involved in climate-human-land-cover interactions. We present the first temporally continuous and most spatially extensive pollen-based land-cover reconstruction for Europe over the Holocene (last 11g€¯700g€¯calg€¯yrg€¯BP). We describe how vegetation cover has been quantified from pollen records at a 11 spatia

Why do certain countries display high gender equalities while others display low gender equalities? To what extent does gender equality foster economic growth and development? The past decade has witnessed a boom and increasing literature about the role played by women and gender in long-run economic development. The increasing awareness of economics and economic history have contributed to improv

Timber buildings are intrinsically lightweight and hence can be susceptible to low-frequency vibrations and structure-borne noise. So, within the development of technical solutions for mitigating unwanted vibrations and noise, accurate and computationally efficient numerical models are considered to be of great value. Such models should take into account all physical phenomena that are relevant fo

In this paper we provide quenched central limit theorems, large deviation principles and local central limit theorems for random U(1) extensions of expanding maps on the torus. The results are obtained as special cases of corresponding theorems that we establish for abstract random dynamical systems. We do so by extending a recent spectral approach developed for quenched limit theorems for expandi

Robust autonomy stacks require tight integration of perception, motion planning, and control layers, but these layers often inadequately incorporate inherent perception and prediction uncertainties, either ignoring them altogether or making questionable assumptions of Gaussianity. Robots with nonlinear dynamics and complex sensing modalities operating in an uncertain environment demand more carefu

A triangular system of conservation laws with discontinuous flux that models the one-dimensional flow of two disperse phases through a continuous one is formulated. The triangularity arises from the distinction between a primary and a secondary disperse phase, where the movement of the primary disperse phase does not depend on the local volume fraction of the secondary one. A particular applicatio

Induction of SRY box transcription factor 9 (SOX9) has been shown to occur in response to kidney injury in rodents, where SOX9-positive cells proliferate and regenerate the proximal tubules of injured kidneys. Additionally, SOX9-positive cells demonstrate a capacity to differentiate toward other nephron segments. Here, we characterized the role of SOX9 in normal and injured human kidneys. SOX9 exp

Late Quaternary glaciations, deglaciations, sea-level changes and aeolian activity have resulted in an abundance of clastic sediments that currently cover the three Baltic States, Northern Europe almost entirely. The chronology for these deposits has largely been established from luminescence dating. This review synthesises 201 luminescence ages obtained between 2011 and 2021 on sediments in the B