Related papers: Unexpected trends in termite survival

Antimicrobial resistance to drugs (AMR), a global threat to human and animal health, is often regarded as resulting from cooperative behaviour. Moreover, microbes generally evolve in volatile environments that, together with demographic…

In recent years it has become evident the need of understanding how failure of coordination imposes constraints on the size of stable groups that highly social mammals can live in. We examine here the forces that keep animals together as a…

We run stochastic simulations of the spatial version of the rock-paper-scissors game, considering that individuals use sensory abilities to scan the environment to detect the presence of enemies. If the local dangerousness level is above a…

While it is relatively easy to imitate and evolve natural swarm behavior in simulations, less is known about the social characteristics of simulated, evolved swarms, such as the optimal (evolutionary) group size, why individuals in a swarm…

Range expansion is a universal process in biological systems, and therefore plays a part in biological evolution. Using a quantitative individual-based method based on the stochastic process, we identify that enhancing the inherent…

Many organisms live in confined fluidic environments such as the thin liquid layers on the skin of host organisms or in partially- saturated soil. We investigate the collective behaviour of nematodes in a thin liquid layer, which was first…

Substantial empirical research has shown that the level of individualism vs. collectivism is one of the most critical and important determinants of societal traits, such as economic growth, economic institutions and health conditions. But…

Microbial populations generally evolve in volatile environments, under conditions fluctuating between harsh and mild, e.g. as the result of sudden changes in toxin concentration or nutrient abundance. Environmental variability thus shapes…

The main intreest of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of collective intelligence in an anonymous virtual environment developed for this purpose. In particular, we were interested in studiyng how dividing a fixed community in…

Collective animal movements produce spectacular natural phenomena that arise from simple local interactions among group members. Flocks of homing pigeons, Columba livia, provide a useful model for the study of collective motion and decision…

Large animal groups -- bird flocks, fish schools, insect swarms -- are often assumed to form by gradual aggregation of sparsely distributed individuals. Using a mathematically precise framework based on time-varying directed interaction…

The effects of social groups on pedestrian dynamics, especially in evacuation scenarios, have attracted some interest recently. However, due to the lack of reliable empirical data, most of the studies focussed on modelling aspects. It was…

In this work, an individual-based model of forest insect outbreaks is presented. The results obtained show that the outbreak is an emerging feature of the system. It is a common product of the characteristics of insects, the environment in…

Individual success in group-structured populations has two components. First, an individual gains by outcompeting its neighbors for local resources. Second, an individual's share of group success must be weighted by the total productivity…

The population is composed of individuals characterised by their genetic strings, phenotypes and ages. We discuss the influence of probabilities of survival of the individuals on the dynamics and phenotypic variability of the population. We…

Mentoring is a key component of scientific achievements, contributing to overall measures of career success for mentees and mentors. A common success metric in the scientific enterprise is acquiring a large research group, which is believed…

The spontaneous organization of collective activities in animal groups and societies has attracted a considerable amount of attention over the last decade. This kind of coordination often permits group-living species to achieve collective…

We study the generalised rock-paper-scissors game with five species whose organisms face local epidemic outbreaks. As an evolutionary behavioural survival strategy, organisms of one out of the species move in the direction with more enemies…

We study the dynamics of a ring of patches with vegetation-prey-predator populations, coupled through interactions of the Lotka-Volterra type. We find that the system yields aperiodic, recurrent and rare explosive bursts of predator density…

People tend to walk in groups, and interactions with those groups have a significant impact on crowd behavior and pedestrian traffic dynamics. Social norms can be seen as unwritten rules regulating people interactions in social settings.…