We study the mean first passage time (MFPT) of true self-avoiding walks (TSAWs) on various networks as a measure of searching efficiency. From the numerical analysis, we find that the MFPT of TSAWs, τ^{TSAW}, approaches the theoretical minimum τ^{th}/N=1/2 on synthetic networks whose degree-degree correlations are positive. On the other hand, for biased random walks (BRWs) we find that the MFPT...

See Herms and Schön (doi10.1093/brain/awx100) for a scientific commentary on this article.

Sex allocation theory for simultaneous hermaphrodites predicts an influence of the mating group size on sex allocation. Mating group size may depend on the size of the group in which an individual lives, or on the density, but studies to date have not distinguished between the two factors. We performed an experiment in which we raised a transparent simultaneous hermaphrodite, the flatworm Macro...

A new experimental study has provided the first definitive evidence for conditional punishment of 'cheats' in a sperm-trading simultaneous hermaphrodite: the sea slug Chelidonura hirundinina. This also provides a rare unequivocal example of conditional reciprocity averting a 'tragedy of the commons' in biology.

"woe,, " ,, " "women or men-our chromosomes, our genitalia, how we (and others) are brought up to think about ourselves, or all of the above? One of the first responses to the birth of a child of ambiguous sex by clinicians, and parents, is to seek to "disambiguate" the situation: to assign the newborns identity as either female or male, surgically modify the child's genitalia to conform believ...

Pleiotropic developmental regulators have been repeatedly linked to the evolution of anatomical novelties. Known mechanisms include cis-regulatory DNA changes that alter regulator transcription patterns or modify target-gene linkages. Here, we examine the role of another form of regulation, translational control, in the repeated evolution of self-fertile hermaphroditism in Caenorhabditis nemato...

Mixed gonad dysgenesis or true hermaphroditism is the heaviest sexual chromosome syndrome in which one individual animal has simultaneously two fully functional types of reproductive tissue, which is presented with strong disorders in a dog’s sexual development. With the expansion of castration of homeless and domestic dogs, as well as with the advancement in diagnostic imaging methods various ...

Species and populations can be categorized by their sexual systems, depending on the spatial distribution of female and male reproductive structures within and among plants. Although a high diversity of sexual systems exists in Silene, their relative frequency at the genus and infrageneric level is unknown. Here, we carried out an extensive literature search for direct or indirect descriptions ...