This problem-oriented, exploratory and hypothesis-driven discourse toward the unknown combines several basic tenets: (i) a photo-active metal sulfide scenario of primal biogenesis in the porespace of shallow sedimentary flats, in contrast to hot deep-sea hydrothermal vent conditions; (ii) an inherently complex communal system at the common root of present life forms; (iii) a high degree of inte...

The case study was conducted to show the effect of milking method in goat called half day milking on the milk production and the growth of kids. Data were collected by interviewing farmers and investigating goat production in the communal goat housing from June 2008 to May 2009. The interview was conducted to collect data about goat management. The observations were conducted on 10 goats, which...

A scientific, economic relationship among self, society and nation is still not clearly known in philosophy, sociology and economics because of lack of concrete historical human data that would enable to substantiate it. Humanity experienced many conflicting economic and political systems. Consequently, philosophers, sociologists and economists have been investigating to study the economic rela...

The quality and availability of resources influence the geographical distribution of species. Social species need safe places to rest, meet, exchange information and obtain thermoregulatory benefits, but those places may also serve other important functions that have been overlooked in research. We use a large soaring bird that roosts communally in cliffs, the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus), as...

In order to discover new subsets (clusters) of a data set, researchers often use algorithms that perform unsupervised clustering, namely, the algorithmic separation of a dataset into some number of distinct clusters. Deciding whether a particular separation (or number of clusters, K) is correct is a sort of 'dark art', with multiple techniques available for assessing the validity of unsupervise...

Brucellosis is an endemic disease in Zimbabwe caused by the genus Brucella. Brucella seroprevalence was recently reported to be high in the wildlife-livestock interface in the Chiredzi district and the neighbouring Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) in Zimbabwe, and higher amongst communal cattle with an abortion history and access to grazing in GNP than amongst communal cattle with no aborti...

In many species, females have evolved behavioral strategies to reduce the risk of infanticide. For instance, polyandry can create paternity confusion that inhibits males from killing offspring they could have sired. Here, the authors propose that females could socially obtain the same benefits by nesting communally. Singly sired litters could be perceived as a large multiply sired litter once p...

In this examination of communal violence (intrastate armed conflict between two non-state groups), we examine the relationship between one aspect of state institutional strength—property rights protection (PRP) – and inequality between social groups. Using a contest success function model, we build in an assumption that increasing PRP reduces the effectiveness of appropriative effort, generally...

Kepler is an attempt to bridge the gap between established, organization-backed digital libraries and groups of researchers that wish to publish their findings under their control, anytime, anywhere yet have the advantages of an OAI-compliant digital library. We describe an architecture and implementation of the Kepler system that allows an archivelet to be installed in the order of minutes by ...

Aposematic passion-vine butterflies from the genus Heliconius form communal roosts on a nightly basis. This behaviour has been hypothesized to be beneficial in terms of information sharing and/or anti-predator defence. To better understand the adaptive value of communal roosting, we tested these two hypotheses in field studies. The information-sharing hypothesis was addressed by examining follo...