Collective behavior and colony persistence of social spiders depends on their physical environment

Collective behavior may be elicited or can spontaneously emerge by a combination of interactions with the physical environment and conspecifics moving within that environment. To investigate the relative contributions of these factors in a small millimeter-scale swimming organism, we observed larval zebrafish, interacting at varying densities under circular confinement. If left undisturbed, larval zebrafish swim intermittently in a burst and coast manner and are socially independent at this developmental stage, before shoaling behavioral onset. Our aim was to explore the behavior these larvae as they swim together inside circular confinements. We report here our analysis of a new observation for this well-studied species: in circular confinement and at sufficiently high densities, the larvae collectively circle rapidly alongside the boundary. This is a new physical example of self-organization of mesoscale living active matter driven by boundaries and environment geometry. We believe this is a step forward toward using a prominent biological model system in a new interdisciplinary context to advance knowledge of the physics of social interactions.

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Larval zebrafish exhibit collective motion behaviors in constrained spaces

10.1101/2021.07.09.451841 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Haider Zaki ◽

Enkeleida Lushi ◽

Kristen E Severi

Keyword(s):

Social Interactions ◽

Developmental Stage ◽

Collective Behavior ◽

Physical Environment ◽

Collective Motion ◽

Model System ◽

Self Organization ◽

Physical Mechanisms ◽

Larval Zebrafish ◽

Advance Knowledge

Collective behavior may be elicited or can spontaneously emerge by a combination of interactions with the physical environment and conspecifics moving within that environment. To investigate the relative contributions of these factors in a small millimeter-scale swimming organism, we observed larval zebrafish, interacting at varying densities under circular confinement. Our aim was to understand the biological and physical mechanisms acting on these larvae as they swim together inside circular confinements. If left undisturbed, larval zebrafish swim intermittently in a burst and coast manner and are socially independent at this developmental stage, before shoaling behavioral onset. We report here our analysis of a new observation for this well-studied species: in circular confinement and at sufficiently high densities, the larvae collectively circle rapidly alongside the boundary. This is a new physical example of self-organization of mesoscale living active matter driven by boundaries and environment geometry. We believe this is a step forward toward using a prominent biological model system in a new interdisciplinary context to advance knowledge of the physics of social interactions.

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An Application of the HFACS Method to Aviation Accidents in Africa

Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors ◽

10.1027/2192-0923/a000093 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 33-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Isaac Munene

Keyword(s):

Human Factors ◽

Physical Environment ◽

Human Factor ◽

Flight Training ◽

African Countries ◽

Causal Factors ◽

Aviation Accidents ◽

Factors Analysis ◽

Adverse Weather ◽

Decision Errors

Abstract. The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) methodology was applied to accident reports from three African countries: Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. In all, 55 of 72 finalized reports for accidents occurring between 2000 and 2014 were analyzed. In most of the accidents, one or more human factors contributed to the accident. Skill-based errors (56.4%), the physical environment (36.4%), and violations (20%) were the most common causal factors in the accidents. Decision errors comprised 18.2%, while perceptual errors and crew resource management accounted for 10.9%. The results were consistent with previous industry observations: Over 70% of aviation accidents have human factor causes. Adverse weather was seen to be a common secondary casual factor. Changes in flight training and risk management methods may alleviate the high number of accidents in Africa.

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