How colour polymorphisms are maintained in natural populations constitutes a key subject of study for evolutionary ecologists. One of the mechanisms that has been put forward to explain this phenomenon is negative frequency-dependent selection, which can be caused by different mechanisms. Among these mechanisms is mate choice, or the selection as a potential mate of the rare or dissimilar colour m

Echinolittorina malaccana, a marine gastropod living on rocky shores along the Indo-West Pacific coasts, shows consistent mate choice in which males prefer to mate with females slightly larger than themselves. Previous studies suggest that the strength of this preference is, to a certain extent, context dependent, being influenced by both demographic and individual (potentially genetic) factors. T

Recently, work conducted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre demonstrated that Ireland had the highest prevalence of loneliness of all European countries. Given the range of adverse physical and psychological consequences associated with loneliness, it is vital to ask why Ireland is experiencing such high prevalence. Here, we discuss potential contributing factors, including: Irelan

Stable isotope analysis of plant remains recovered from archaeological sites is becoming more routine. There remains a lack of consensus, however, on how to appropriately select archaeological plant remains for isotopic analysis, how to account for differences in preservation and the effect of potential contamination, and how to interpret the measured isotope values in terms of the conditions in wStable isotope analysis of plant remains recovered from archaeological sites is becoming more routine. There remains a lack of consensus, however, on how to appropriately select archaeological plant remains for isotopic analysis, how to account for differences in preservation and the effect of potential contamination, and how to interpret the measured isotope values in terms of the conditions in w

In recent times, the philosophy of science has been reinvigorated by insights from the biological and cognitive sciences. These disciplines have provided not only new perspectives to approach traditional philosophical problems but have also opened the way to new conceptual and methodological questions that call for new and innovative solutions.This book brings together some of the main debates tha

In recent times, the philosophy of science has been reinvigorated by insights from different biological and cognitive sciences. These disciplines have provided not only new approaches to traditional philosophical problems but have also opened the door to new conceptual puzzles. The fundamental aim of this volume is to bring together some of the main debates that have structured the fields of philo

Since life emerged on Earth, organisms have had to handle threats and stressors of different kinds. In freshwater ecosystems, one of these ancient stressors is the solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Life has been continuously exposed to it, and various behavioural and morphological adaptations have evolved to cope with the stressor. On the other hand, human activities have introduced novel stressor

Evolutionary biologists today debate whether it is convenient to revise the standard theory of evolution, or if an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis is necessary. However, the conceptual relationship between the standard theory of evolution (also known as the Modern Synthesis) and a putative Extended Evolutionary Synthesis is not clear. One concept in philosophy of science that has traditionally bee

Dust storms have been an increasing concern in the Middle East. Severe drought events and human activities, particularly water and land management, have led to emerging dust sources in the last few decades. This study combines spatio-temporal maps of land susceptibility to dust storm incidence with agricultural land use change data to examine the link between farming patterns and dust storm genera

Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur kvinnor framställs och används i reklamsyfte. Studien granskar om reklam har en roll i att förstärka eller skapa könsnormer. En kvalitativ analys utfördes av fyra reklambilder från tidningen Vogue och utgick från semiotikens tillvägagångssätt för att söka efter tecken och djupare mening. Med hjälp av att applicera ett antal olika teorier på den kvalitativa a

Group III-V semiconductor nanowires are a material platform with potential applications in electronics,photovoltaics and optoelectronic devices. One of the central challenges in the growth of III-V semiconductornanowires is to understand the dynamic processes that occur during crystallization. However, the growth of thesematerials is commonly performed in closed systems. There the details of the g

Biopharmaceuticals, of which monoclonal antibodies are a mainstay, have revolutionized healthcare by enabling treatments with high precision and efficacy. However, their established manufacturing processes, particularly the downstream process, are complex, resource-intensive, and expensive, limiting global access to these drugs. This thesis examines how a more efficient, sustainable, and thus less

This thesis investigates few-body quantum rings, particularly in the study of ultracold bosonic gases and nanowire quantum dots. These systems are investigated numerically using exact diagonalization methods. This dissertation contains five chapters which develop numerical and theoretical background for understanding the few-body calculations and analysis contained in the four included papers: Pap

In this dissertation I examine the main scaling challenges in autonomous driving development, discussing recent advances in the field while contributing specific solutions to key bottlenecks. The first challenge is the reliance on human labor, particularly for annotations. Here we make two key contributions: new techniques to extract additional value from existing annotations through future predic