Mariano Jesús Tapia, Jose Ignacio Cuitiño, Eduardo Guillermo Ottone
et al.
During the Early Miocene (ca. 23–16 Ma), Patagonia underwent pronounced climatic reorganisations that influenced distribution patterns and biodiversity across terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Here, we explore the response of the floras from south-western Patagonia to the climatic shifts that occurred during the early Burdigalian (ca. 20 Ma–18 Ma), just before the onset of the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO), which took place between 17 Ma and 15 Ma. Using fossil spores and pollen grains recovered from the El Chacay Formation (south-western Patagonia), we found a ~ 50% increase in diversity from ~ 20 Ma to ~ 18 Ma. The major difference between the two ages lies in the number of rare species (singletons and doubletons) according to our non-asymptotic standardisation analysis. The increasing trend in richness mirrors the re-appearance of many plant species with predominantly tropical and subtropical current distributions (e.g. Cupania, Ilex, Arecaceae) that had severely declined from the high latitudes during the cooling trend of the Oligocene-Miocene Transition (~ 23 Ma). Overall, the recovered assemblages point to the dominance of closed-canopy forests although the record of open vegetation elements — that would later expand — became evident. Our finding reveals that plant richness increased prior to the onset of the MCO, though not reaching the peak levels observed during this climatic optimum.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded in human decision-making, where it can either enhance human reasoning or induce excessive cognitive dependence. This paper introduces a conceptual and mathematical framework for distinguishing cognitive amplification, in which AI improves hybrid human-AI performance while preserving human expertise, from cognitive delegation, in which reasoning is progressively outsourced to AI systems. To characterize these regimes, we define a set of operational metrics: the Cognitive Amplification Index (CAI*), the Dependency Ratio (D), the Human Reliance Index (HRI), and the Human Cognitive Drift Rate (HCDR). Together, these quantities provide a low-dimensional metric space for evaluating not only whether human-AI systems achieve genuine synergistic performance, but also whether such performance is cognitively sustainable for the human component over time. The framework highlights a central design tension in human-AI systems: maximizing short-term hybrid capability does not necessarily preserve long-term human cognitive competence. We therefore argue that human-AI systems should be designed under a cognitive sustainability constraint, such that gains in hybrid performance do not come at the cost of degradation in human expertise.
A new form of human trafficking has emerged across Chinese borders, where individuals are lured to Southeast Asia with fraudulent job offers and then coerced into operating online scams. Despite its massive economic and human toll, this scam-driven trafficking remains underexplored in academic research. Through qualitative analysis of 158 RedNote posts, we examined how Chinese online communities respond to this threat. Our findings reveal that perpetrators exploit cultural ties to recruit victims for cybercriminal roles within self-sustaining compounds, using sophisticated manipulation tactics. Survivors face serious reintegration barriers, including family rejection, as the cultural values that enable trafficking also hinder their recovery. While communities present protective strategies, efforts are complicated by doubts about the reliability of support and cross-border coordination. We discuss key implications for prevention, platform governance, and international cooperation against scam-driven trafficking. Warning: This paper contains descriptions of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.
Umberto Domanti, Lorenzo Campidelli, Sergio Agnoli
et al.
The application of generative artificial intelligence in Creativity Support Tools (CSTs) presents the challenge of interfacing two black boxes: the user's mind and the machine engine. According to Artificial Cognition, this challenge involves theories, methods, and constructs developed to study human creativity. Consistently, the paper investigated the relationship between semantic networks organisation and idea originality in Large Language Models. Data was collected by administering a set of standardised tests to ChatGPT-4o and 81 psychology students, divided into higher and lower creative individuals. The expected relationship was confirmed in the comparison between ChatGPT-4o and higher creative humans. However, despite having a more rigid network, ChatGPT-4o emerged as more original than lower creative humans. We attributed this difference to human motivational processes and model hyperparameters, advancing a research agenda for the study of artificial creativity. In conclusion, we illustrate the potential of this construct for designing and evaluating CSTs.
The main Karoo Basin of South Africa has yielded a treasure trove of fossil synapsids ranging from the middle Permian to the Early Jurassic, spanning approximately 80 Myr. Hewittia albanensis was first described by Brink (1959) based on AMG 4208 collected from the Chris Hani District Municipality (former Cradock District), Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Since then, the taxon has been mostly ignored in published research. Here, we provide a redescription of H. albanensis based on a new specimen recovered from the Chris Hani District Municipality within rocks of the Lystrosaurus maccaigi–Moschorhinus Subzone of the Daptocephalus Assemblage Zone. We propose a new genus name for this species, Cradognathus, since Hewittia Brink, 1959, is preoccupied by Hewittia de Lessert, 1928, a crab spider from Congo. The position of Cradognathus within the Akidnognathidae, as well as its generic diagnosis, are revisited and discussed. The new specimen consists of an almost complete skull with some dorsoventral distortion. Cradognathus differs from other akidnognathids by the dental formula, a sharply pointed pterygoid transverse process, a median keel anterior to a short interpterygoid vacuity, and the presence of prominent lateral tuberosities at the ends of the ventromedial pterygoid flanges. We find that Cradognathus forms a clade with Euchambersia, Cerdosuchoides, and Moschorhinus within Akidnognathidae.
The first representatives of the genus Rhabdomastix (Diptera, Limoniide) with extremely long antennae (much lon
ger than the body) is discovered in the fossil record. The paper presents new data on Eocene species of the genus
Rhabdomastix including a new species with surprisingly long and tiny antennae with characteristic almost black spots
on individual flagellomeres from Bitterfeld amber: Rhabdomastix (Rhabdomastix) woottoni sp. nov. Two other species
have been discovered and described based on inclusions in Baltic amber: Rhabdomastix (Rhabdomastix) setosa sp.
nov. and Rhabdomastix (Rhabdomastix) rafali sp. nov. Antennae with similar morphology are characteristic for the
American Recent species collectively known as “Rhabdomastix illudens”. New nomenclature decisions include a trans
fer of three species from Baltic amber with antenna longer than the body to the subgenus Rhabdomastix. These species:
Rhabdomastix (Rhabdomastix) grussica Podenas, 2006 comb. nov., Rhabdomastix (Rhabdomastix) mastix Podenas,
2006 comb. nov. and Rhabdomastix (Rhabdomastix) setix Podenas, 2006 comb. nov., were not previously classified to
any subgenus. New discovery of a species of Rhabdomastix with extremely elongate, very narrow antennae, sheds new
light on the evolutionary history of this genus. The paper also presents interpretations of the ecological preferences of
some modern representatives of the genus and their Eocene ancestors.
D. Cary Woodruff, Paul M. Barrett, Driss Ouarhache
et al.
Readily identifiable based on their large, “spatulate” teeth with diagnostic “heart”-shaped crowns, turiasaurians are non-neosauropodan eusauropods known from varied Jurassic and Cretaceous formations across Laurasia and Gondwana. Recently, three teeth with turiasaurian features were collected from the Middle Jurassic El Mers III Formation in the Middle Atlas Mountains of north-central Morocco. Although these teeth are superficially similar to those of the Late Jurassic Turiasaurus riodevensis from Spain, the absence of rounded denticles presence of a prominently peaked apex and a mesially flared margin, differ from other known turiasaurians. Turiasaurians have not previously been described from the El Mers III Formation, and the only named sauropod from the El Mers Group, which lacks preserved teeth, is the dubious taxon “Cetiosaurus mogrebiensis”. Due to lack of overlapping material and its lack of clear diagnostic characters, we refrain from referring these teeth to the latter, and identify them as Turiasauria indeterminate instead. These teeth represent the first definitive turiasaurian remains from Morocco, as well as the geologically oldest occurrence of Turiasauria from mainland Africa.
Maurice Chiodo, Dennis Müller, Paul Siewert
et al.
We use the notion of oracle machines and reductions from computability theory to formalise different Human-in-the-loop (HITL) setups for AI systems, distinguishing between trivial human monitoring (i.e., total functions), single endpoint human action (i.e., many-one reductions), and highly involved human-AI interaction (i.e., Turing reductions). We then proceed to show that the legal status and safety of different setups vary greatly. We present a taxonomy to categorise HITL failure modes, highlighting the practical limitations of HITL setups. We then identify omissions in UK and EU legal frameworks, which focus on HITL setups that may not always achieve the desired ethical, legal, and sociotechnical outcomes. We suggest areas where the law should recognise the effectiveness of different HITL setups and assign responsibility in these contexts, avoiding human "scapegoating". Our work shows an unavoidable trade-off between attribution of legal responsibility, and technical explainability. Overall, we show how HITL setups involve many technical design decisions, and can be prone to failures out of the humans' control. Our formalisation and taxonomy opens up a new analytic perspective on the challenges in creating HITL setups, helping inform AI developers and lawmakers on designing HITL setups to better achieve their desired outcomes.
AI conversational agents have demonstrated efficacy in social contact interventions for stigma reduction at a low cost. However, the underlying mechanisms of how interaction designs contribute to these effects remain unclear. This study investigates how participating in three human-chatbot interactions affects attitudes toward mental illness. We developed three chatbots capable of engaging in either one-way information dissemination from chatbot to a human or two-way cooperation where the chatbot and a human exchange thoughts and work together on a cooperation task. We then conducted a two-week mixed-methods study to investigate variations over time and across different group memberships. The results indicate that human-AI cooperation can effectively reduce stigma toward individuals with mental illness by fostering relationships between humans and AI through social contact. Additionally, compared to a one-way chatbot, interacting with a cooperative chatbot led participants to perceive it as more competent and likable, promoting greater empathy during the conversation. However, despite the success in reducing stigma, inconsistencies between the chatbot's role and the mental health context raised concerns. We discuss the implications of our findings for human-chatbot interaction designs aimed at changing human attitudes.
M. Domínguez‐Rodrigo, Marcos Pizarro-Monzo, Gabriel Cifuentes-Alcobendas
et al.
Taphonomic works aim at discovering how paleontological and archaeofaunal assemblages were formed. They also aim at determining how hominin fossils were preserved or destroyed. Hominins and other mammal carnivores have been co-evolving, at least during the past two million years, and their potential interactions determined the evolution of human behavior. In order to understand all this, taxon-specific carnivore agency must be effectively identified in the fossil record. Until now, taphonomists have been able to determine, to some degree, hominin and carnivore inputs in site formation, and their interactions in the modification of part of those assemblages. However, the inability to determine agency more specifically has hampered the development of taphonomic research, whose methods are virtually identical to those used several decades ago (lagged by a high degree of subjectivity). A call for more objective and agent-specific methods would be a major contribution to the advancement of taphonomic research. Here, we present one of these advances. The use of computer vision (CV) on a large data set of images of tooth marks has enabled the objective discrimination of taxon-specific carnivore agency up to 88% of the testing sample. We highlight the significance of this method in an interdisciplinary interplay between traditional taphonomic-paleontological analysis and artificial intelligence-based computer science. The new questions that can be addressed with this will certainly bring important changes to several ideas on important aspects of the human evolutionary process.
Sampling (or sample) bias is a widespread concern in scientific research, across several disciplines. The concept of sampling bias originated in statistical studies. The consequence of a biased sample is that scientists will conclude about a population different from their target. In paleontology, sampling bias is typically related to fieldwork context. Human factors, known as sullegic (e.g. collection method, historic resampling) and trephic (transport, and curatorial processes) factors can generate bias. Other factor is the ugly fossil syndrome (i.e. choosing based on completeness of the specimens, or according to the researcher interest). Thus, sampling implies information loss. Biased samples add artificial results and can be considered an additional taphonomic filter. Therefore, sampling bias and the collector role and choices are frequently linked and almost indistinguishable. Compared to the treatment of this topic in other research fields, little related discussion has been held in vertebrate paleontology, especially regarding what happens at the interface between the biosphere, lithosphere, and anthroposphere, and during the transition between the anthroposphere and the patrisphere (museums). Numerous questions still arise. As a community, we must pay attention, to minimize the loss of information, from field activities to cataloging.
Rebecca Brown Cooper, Bethany J Allen, Daniele Silvestro
The incompleteness of the fossil record, in particular variation in preservation and sampling through space and time, presents a barrier to estimating changes in biodiversity which standard statistical methods struggle to account for. Here we present DeepDiveR, an R package for the DeepDive program enabling estimation of biodiversity from fossil occurrence data. The method uses a simulation-trained deep neural network to generate predictions of biodiversity change through time, while accounting for temporal, spatial and taxonomic heterogeneities in preservation. DeepDiveR can be readily used to explore the extinct biodiversity of different clades. We demonstrate the pipeline to build and customise analyses, including consideration of changes in biogeography. We also further develop the model to integrate information about modern diversity in the case of extant clades and introduce a function that automatically adjusts the parameterization of the simulations to generate training data that reflect the distribution of empirical datasets. To demonstrate the software, we analyse the fossil record of the order Carnivora through the Cenozoic, finding a peak in diversity in the Late Miocene and a 37% species loss since the Pleistocene. Our implementation includes the generation summary statistics and plots that allow for an evaluation of the model performance and diversity estimations and a configuration file that captures all parameters required to guarantee the full reproducibility of the results.
Black carbon (BC) has a significantly negative impact on air quality, climate and human health. Here we investigated the sources and health effects of BC in urban area of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) based on online data measured by Aerodyne soot particle high-resolution time of flight aerosol mass spectrometer (SP-AMS). In urban PRD, BC particles mainly came from vehicle emissions especially heavy-duty vehicle exhausts (contributing 42.9 % of total BC mass concentration), long-range transport (27.6 %), and aged biomass combustion emissions (22.3 %). Indicated by source analysis using simultaneous aethalometer data, BC associated with local secondary oxidation and transport may also be originated from fossil fuel combustion, especially traffic sources in urban and surrounding areas. Size-resolved BC mass concentrations provided by SP-AMS, for the first time to our best knowledge, were used to calculate BC deposition in the human respiratory tract (HRT) of different populations (children, adults, and the elderly) by the Multiple-Path Particle Dosimetry (MPPD) model. We found that submicron BC was deposited more in the pulmonary (P) region (49.0-53.2 % of the total BC deposition dose), while less in the tracheobronchial (TB, 35.6-37.4 %) and head (HA, 10.7-13.9 %) regions. Adults suffered the highest BC deposition (1.19 μg day-1) than the elderly (1.09 μg day-1) and children (0.25 μg day-1). BC deposition rate was greater at night (especially 18:00-24:00) than during the daytime. The maximum deposition in the HRT was found for BC particles around 100 nm, mainly in deeper respiratory regions (TB and P), which may cause more serious health effects. Adults and the elderly group are confronted with the notable carcinogenic risk of BC in the urban PRD, up to 29 times higher than the threshold. Our study emphasizes the need to control BC pollution in the urban area, especially nighttime vehicle emissions.
Yaroslav V. Kuzmin, S. Leshchinskiy, V. N. Zenin
et al.
ABSTRACT A summary of the chronology for the key paleontological and archaeological site of Volchia Griva in the southern part of the West Siberian Plain is presented. Currently, 42 reliable 14C values have been generated on animal bones (37 14C dates) and charcoal (5 14C dates). Three stratigraphic levels of animal bones are established. The 14C ages of the fossils are as follows: the upper level—ca. 10,620–12,520 BP; the middle level—ca. 13,700–17,800 BP; and the lower level—ca. 18,230–19,790 BP. The majority of animal fossils and artifacts are associated with the lower level. Based on the results obtained, we suggest that Upper Paleolithic people occupied the Volchia Griva site during the second part of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), ca. 18,200–19,800 BP, and perhaps occasionally afterwards. It is obvious that these humans were well adapted to the cold and dry climate of the LGM, as well as numerous other populations in Siberia south of 58°N. It is noteworthy that the youngest 14C values on woolly mammoth are of ca. 10,620–11,815 BP, and this makes the Volchia Griva one of the latest mammoth refugia in northern Eurasia outside of the Arctic.
Heliolitines are a major tabulate coral group, which experienced their early diversification in the Katian (Late Ordovician).
Fossils of this group are well represented in the Kuruktag area of northeastern Tarim Basin, Northwest China, but detailed
studies of corals from this area are still lacking. Here, we systematically describe early Katian heliolitines of the
Tarim Block based on new material from the lower Katian Yuanbaoshan Formation of southern Kuruktag, which include
the plasmoporellids Plasmoporella xinjiangensis and Plasmoporella grandis, the sibiriolitids Mongoliolites obliterans
and Mongoliolites sp., the protoheliolitid Wormsipora sp., the proporid Acdalopora sokolovi, the pseudoplasmoporid
Navoites irregularis, and the heliolitid Apekinella zeravshanica. A faunal comparison indicates that the biogeographic
connections of Tarim Block are closest to Chu-Ili and South Tienshan, but relatively weaker with Qilian and North China.
Charlotte Morissette, Bobak H. Baghi, Francois R. Hogan
et al.
In this preliminary study, we investigate changes in handover behaviour when transferring hazardous objects with the help of a high-resolution touch sensor. Participants were asked to hand over a safe and hazardous object (a full cup and an empty cup) while instrumented with a modified STS sensor. Our data shows a clear distinction in the length of handover for the full cup vs the empty one, with the former being slower. Sensor data further suggests a change in tactile behaviour dependent on the object's risk factor. The results of this paper motivate a deeper study of tactile factors which could characterize a risky handover, allowing for safer human-robot interactions in the future.