Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mate guarding and alternative reproductive tactics in the ant Hypoponera opacior


Abstract In many animals, males have evolved weapons, elaborate courtship displays, or costly ornaments to increase their reproductive success. Ants, in contrast, commonly mate during nuptial flights, in which males do not profit from fighting or attempting to monopolize females. However, where mating occurs in the nest, males can use other reproductive tactics. We found that wingless (apterous) males of Hypoponera opacior sat on top of queen cocoons, inserted their genitalia into the cocoons and remained in copula with cocooned queens for up to 40 h. These males were tolerant of each other; fighting was never recorded. Our observations therefore suggest that wingless males of H. opacior ensure reproduction by copulatory mate guarding. This strategy, although time consuming, presumably reduces the likelihood of subsequent inseminations by other males. Apterous H. opacior males have only a limited amount of sperm available: histological preparations showed that, in contrast to Cardiocondyla fighter males, the testes degenerate in early adult life. Males of H. opacior have relatively few mating opportunities. Although some wingless males were reproductively active for more than 3 weeks, we observed a maximum of only six matings per male, with a mean slightly above one. Some H. opacior males used an alternative reproductive tactic of dispersal and outbreeding. We found colonies headed by single, dealate queens, which did not rear wingless sexuals but presumably reproduced through winged reproductives that mate in nuptial flights. The social structure of those colonies contrasted with nests containing wingless reproductives, which were highly polygynous and polydomous.
Nest predation: the relative effects of nest characteristics, clutch size and parental behaviour

Abstract The relative contribution of parental behaviour to nest predation rates in blackbirds, Turdus merula was estimated by comparing the mortality of natural nests (with parents) with the mortality of the same nests immediately after the breeding season with artificial clutches (but without parents). Nest predation rates during the egg stage were equally high (ca 5XXX per day) in both experimental and natural nests. Nest predation rates were independent of clutch size for natural nests, but clutch size was lowest in nests that were further from the edge of nest bushes. Nest predation rates of experimental nests were greater for nests that were less than 10 m apart. The probability of nest failure was independent of all measured physical characteristics for natural nests, but for experimental nests probability of nest failure was dependent on the nest's detectability, and to a lesser extent height. There was no relationship between the outcome, or the duration before predation, of a natural nest, versus the same nest used with an experimental clutch. The results suggest that nesting blackbirds altered their nest defence to compensate for the predation risk associated with a nest’s location.
EFFECTS OF COLLATERAL LEARNING ON ATTITUDE AND PERFORMANCE IN GENETICS AMONG CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS OF SULEJA EDUCATIONAL ZONE, NIGERIA

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN BIOLOGY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE EDUCATION, FACULTY OF EDUCATION, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, NIGERIA
Scalable End-to-End Autonomous Vehicle Testing via Rare-event Simulation

While recent developments in autonomous vehicle (AV) technology highlight substantial progress, we lack tools for rigorous and scalable testing. Real-world testing, the $\textit{de facto}$ evaluation environment, places the public in danger, and, due to the rare nature of accidents, will require billions of miles in order to statistically validate performance claims. We implement a simulation framework that can test an entire modern autonomous driving system, including, in particular, systems that employ deep-learning perception and control algorithms. Using adaptive importance-sampling methods to accelerate rare-event probability evaluation, we estimate the probability of an accident under a base distribution governing standard traffic behavior. We demonstrate our framework on a highway scenario, accelerating system evaluation by $2$-$20$ times over naive Monte Carlo sampling methods and $10$-$300 \mathsf{P}$ times (where $\mathsf{P}$ is the number of processors) over real-world testing.
Plasticity of aggressive signalling and its evolution in male spring peepers, Pseudacris crucifer


Abstract Acoustic communication is important for determining and maintaining intermale spacing in breeding aggregations of anurans and insects. Because the number and proximity of signalling males can show extensive temporal and spatial variation, we should expect to find mechanisms that permit males to modify their signalling behaviour in ways that balance the needs to attract females and defend their calling space. We conducted two field playback experiments to investigate the role of plasticity in male aggressive signalling in intermale spacing of spring peepers (Anura, Hylidae). In the first experiment, we found a positive correlation between the amplitude of the advertisement calls of a male's nearest neighbour and the stimulus amplitude at which the male first produced aggressive calls. In the second experiment, repeated presentations of advertisement calls above a male's aggressive threshold resulted in rapid decreases in aggressive signalling and significant, but temporary, elevations of aggressive thresholds. We suggest that short-term habituation to a neighbour's calls could function as a proximate mechanism for plasticity in aggression that would allow males to accommodate nearby callers while also tracking fluctuations in the local density of calling individuals. In a third experiment, we examined female choice as an ultimate-level explanation for plasticity in male aggression. Females preferred advertisement calls to aggressive calls, but this preference was weak and was abolished by a 6-dB reduction in the amplitude of the advertisement call. We suggest that female preferences probably function as only one possible source of selection on plasticity in male aggressive signalling and propose energetic limitations as an additional source of selection. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Inhibitory Effect of Substances Produced by Native Lactococcus lactis Strains of Tropical Fruits towards Food Pathogens

The use of peptides produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as antimicrobial agents in food emerged from the increasing need of replacing chemicals with natural substances to ensure their safety and quality. A total of 30 LAB belonging to the genus Lactococcus sp. (10) and Enterococcus sp. (20) were isolated from native fruits of Ecuador subtropical rainforest. Among Lactococcus species, the isolates assigned Gt28, Gt29, and Ella8, identified as Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis with 99% identity, showing highly inhibitory potential against four food pathogens were further characterized. The treatment of cell-free supernatant with proteolytic enzymes indicated the protein nature of released components, which displayed a broad antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and -negative bacteria. Polymerase chain reaction analysis indicated the presence of lacticin 3147 gene in all isolates, lactococcin M gene in Gt28 and Gt29 but not in Ella8 and lactococcin A gene in Gt28 only. The antimicrobial activity was not linked to the presence of structural nisin gene as no amplification product was obtained. Treatment of Salmonella enterica ATCC 51741 and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 at both vegetative and exponential phase of growth with the cell-free supernatant of Gt28 resulted in complete inactivation upon 3 h suggesting its bactericidal mode of action. An increment on inhibitory activity occurred when partial purified bacteriocin Gt28 was combined with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid rather than bacteriocin only, indicating that the cells were sensitized in vitro by the chelator agent acting synergistically to induce the killing of pathogenic cells.
Pyogenic Spondylodiscitis: Risk Factors for Adverse Clinical Outcome in Routine Clinical Practice

We aimed to describe the clinical features and outcomes of pyogenic spondylodiscitis and to identify factors associated with an unfavourable clinical outcome (defined as death, permanent disability, spinal instability or persistent pain). In our tertiary centre, 91 cases were identified prospectively and a retrospective descriptive analysis of clinical records was performed prior to binary regression analysis of factors associated with an unfavourable outcome. A median 26 days elapsed from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis and 51% of patients had neurological impairment at presentation. A microbiological diagnosis was reached in 81%, with Staphylococcus aureus most commonly isolated. Treatment involved prolonged hospitalisation (median stay 40.5 days), long courses of antibiotics (>6 weeks in 98%) and surgery in 42%. While this was successful in eradicating infection, only 32% of patients had a favourable clinical outcome and six patients (7%) died. Diabetes mellitus, clinical evidence of neurological impairment at presentation, a longer duration of symptoms and radiological evidence of spinal cord or cauda equina compression were independent factors associated with an unfavourable outcome. Our data indicate that spondylodiscitis is associated with significant morbidity and suggest that adverse outcomes may be predicted to an extent by factors present at the time of diagnosis.
PENGARUH GAYA KEPEMIMPINAN, MOTIVASI DAN LOYALITAS TERHADAP KINERJA KARYAWAN

Penelitian bertujuan untuk menganalisis pengaruh gaya kepemimpinan, motivasi dan loyalitas kerja terhadap kinerja karyawan.Penelitian dilakukan pada CV Anugerah. Penelitian menggunakan 40 sampel penelitian yang merupakan anggota dari seluruh populasi. Data penelitian diperoleh dengan instrument kuesioner. Data hasil penelitian dianalisis menggunakan analisis desktiptif dan verifikatif.Penelitian menghasilkan model persamaan regresi linier ganda Ŷ = 1.428 - 0,238X1 + 0,312X2 + 0.507X3 dimana Gaya Kepemimpinan, Motivasi dan Loyalitas Kerja mampu menjelaskan 37,30% variabilitas Kinerja karyawan. 1) Gaya Kepemimpinan tidak berpengaruh terhadap Kinerja; artinya baik buruknya gaya kepemimpinan tidak akan menyebabkan terjadinya perubahan pada kinerja karyawan. 2) Motivasi memiliki pengaruh terhadap Kinerja dengan arah positif; artinya makin tinggi Motivasi maka makin tinggi pula Kinerja karyawan. 3) Loyalitas Kerja memiliki pengaruh terhadap Kinerja dengan arah positif; artinya makin tinggi Loyalitas kerja maka makin tinggi pula Kinerja karyawan CV Anugerah. Kata kunci:Gaya Kepemimpinan, Motivasi, Loyalitas Kerja, Kinerja Karyawan
The Value of Monitoring the Behavior of Circulating Tumor Cells at the End of Endocrine Therapy in Breast Cancer Patients

After five years of endocrine therapy, patients with ER+ (estrogen receptor positive) breast cancer face the question of the benefit of further treatment. Ten years of endocrine therapy has been demonstrated to improve survival compared to five years. However, the individual benefit of continuation remains unclear. Therefore, markers for predicting benefit from endocrine treatment and extended endocrine treatment are desperately needed. In this study the dynamics over time of the tumor cells circulating in peripheral blood of patients, circulating tumor cells/ circulating epithelial tumor cells (CTC/CETC), as the systemic part of the tumor were investigated in 36 patients with ER+ primary breast cancer. CTC/CETCs were monitored serially during and after endocrine therapy. After termination of endocrine therapy 12 patients showed an increase in CTC/CETCs, with 8 of 12 suffering relapse. No change or a reduction was observed in 24 patients, with 2 of 24 suffering relapse. Initial tumor size was marginally prognostic (p = 0.053) but not nodal status nor the mere number of CTC/CETCs. Only the trajectory of CTC/CETCs was a statistically significant predictor of relapse free survival (increasing cell numbers: mean = 940 days vs. stable/decreasing cell numbers mean not reached). Individual cases demonstrated that an increase of CTC/CETCs after discontinuation of tamoxifen therapy could be stopped by resuming the endocrine therapy.
Social odours, hormone modulation and resistance to disease in male laboratory mice,
 Mus musculus
 


Abstract Abstract. Isolated adult male CFLP mice were exposed in their home cage to the odours of unfamiliar males and females. Their immunocompetence and resistance to subsequent experimental infection with Babesia microti were lower than those of control animals. Males that had held high social rank in previously established groups had a more severer infection than those that had been low rankers. The reduction in resistance among high rankers was most pronounced when female odours were combined with the odours of another male. Analysis of changing serum hormone concentrations over the period of exposure to odours suggested that hormone-related resistance reflected the degree of modulation of immunodepressive hormones in relation to current immune status. The results are interpreted in terms of adaptive trade-offs between immune function and competing metabolic demands.
Shot noise in electrically-gated silicene nanostructures

We have theoretically studied fundamental shot noise properties in single- and dual-gated silicene nanostructures. It is demonstrated here that due to the intrinsic spin–orbit gap, the Fano factor (F) in the biased structures does not coincide with the characteristic value F = 1/3, a value frequently reported for a graphene system. Under gate-field modulations, the F in the gated structure can be efficiently engineered and the specific evolution of the F versus the field strength is symmetric with the center of spectra oppositely shifting away from the zero field condition for the valley or spin-coupled spinor states. This field-dependent hysteretic loop thus offers some flexible methods to distinguish one spinor state from its valley or spin-coupled state via their numerical difference in the F once the incident beam is spin or valley-polarized.
Spatial memory and searching efficiency

Abstract Abstract. By combining elementary orientation mechanisms with a path-integration process, two spatial memory-based searching mechanisms were modelled. These mechanisms make it possible to account for the behaviour of many animals which locally increase their search effort in the vicinity of a given memorized location to discover with maximal efficiency a small target which is likely to be close to this location. Common examples are provided by desert arthropods searching for their burrow entrance or predators searching for clustered prey items. The spatial distributions of the search effort generated by the two spatial memory-based searching mechanisms were derived using computer simulations. The efficiency of a predator searching for clustered prey items with a mechanism of this type was computed in four habitat types with differing grains and/or heterogeneity levels. A predator exhibiting optimal spatial memory-based area-concentrated searching behaviour was able to harvest about 1·6 times more prey items (whatever the habitat type) than if it exhibited optimal area-concentrated searching behaviour without referring to a spatial memory, and almost three to five (depending on the habitat type) times more than if it did not exhibit any area-concentrated searching behaviour but moved in a straight line with an optimal constant speed.
A bird's-eye view on coherence, and a worm's-eye view on cohesion

Generating coherent and cohesive long-form texts is a challenging problem in natural language generation. Previous works relied on a large amount of human-generated texts to train language models, however, few attempted to explicitly model the desired linguistic properties of natural language text, such as coherence and cohesion. In this work, we train two expert discriminators for coherence and cohesion, respectively, to provide hierarchical feedback for text generation. We also propose a simple variant of policy gradient, called 'negative-critical sequence training', using margin rewards, in which the 'baseline' is constructed from randomly generated negative samples. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through empirical studies, showing significant improvements over the strong baseline -- attention-based bidirectional MLE-trained neural language model -- in a number of automated metrics. The proposed discriminators can serve as baseline architectures to promote further research to better extract, encode essential linguistic qualities, such as coherence and cohesion.
Foraging in agricultural fields: local ‘sit-and-move’ strategy scales up to risk-averse habitat use in a wolf spider

Abstract By making field observations on the movement pattern of the agrobiont wolf spider Pardosa agrestis at two spatiotemporal scales, we explored how fine-scale foraging movements scale up to medium-scale habitat use by the spiders. For fine-scale observations, we followed individuals for several metres and for up to 1–2 h. For medium-scale observations we used marking and recapture in live-trapping pitfall grids, which allowed us to detect movements up to 70 m and for 4 weeks. The analysis of fine-scale movement indicated that spiders followed a ‘sit-and-move’ foraging strategy, which consisted of variable periods of waiting (mean 2.5 min) and brief bouts of movements between the waiting sites. Spiders spent over 90% of the total observation time waiting. Prey capture (or capture attempts) was initiated only from waiting sites. Movement between consecutive waiting sites was more directional than predicted by the correlated random walk model. At medium (2-day) timescales the mean displacement of marked spiders was 7.4 m. Simulations suggested that such a displacement could be achieved if movement observed at the fine scale followed a random path for 2 days. We concluded that movement became less directional with increasing scale. Such a phenomenon might be related to avoidance of revisiting food patches locally and an efficient sampling of the habitat at higher scales. High movement activity in a species that is primarily adapted to ephemeral habitats might increase its likelihood of colonizing new habitat patches. Copyright 2003 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Validation of Housekeeping Genes as Reference for Reverse-Transcription-qPCR Analysis in Busulfan-Injured Microvascular Endothelial Cells

Endothelial cells (ECs) could express some important cytokines and signal molecules which play a key role in normal hematopoiesis and repopulation. Busulfan-induced vascular endothelial injury is an important feature after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). But the molecular mechanism of how the injured ECs affect hematopoietic reconstruction is still unknown. It is possibly through modulation of the change of some gene expression. RT-qPCR is one of the most popular methods used to accurately determine gene expression levels, based on stable reference gene (RG) selection from housekeeping genes. So our aim is to select stable RGs for more accurate measures of mRNA levels during Busulfan-induced vascular endothelial injury. In this study, 14 RGs were selected to investigate their expression stability in ECs during 72 hours of EC injury treated with Busulfan. Our results revealed extreme variation in RG stability compared by five statistical algorithms. ywhaz and alas1 were recognized as the two idlest RGs on account of the final ranking, while the two most usually used RGs (gapdh and actb) were not the most stable RGs. Next, these data were verified by testing signalling pathway genes ctnnb1, robo4, and notch1 based on the above four genes ywha, alas1, gapdh, and actb. It shows that the normalization of mRNA expression data using unstable RGs greatly affects gene fold change, which means the reliability of the biological conclusions is questionable. Based on the best RGs used, we also found that robo4 is significantly overexpressed in Busulfan-impaired ECs. In conclusion, our data reaffirms the importance of RGs selection for the valid analysis of gene expression in Busulfan-impaired ECs. And it also provides very useful guidance and basis for more accurate differential expression gene screening and future expanding biomolecule study of different drugs such as cyclophosphamide and fludarabine-injured ECs.
Does interspecific competition with introduced grey squirrels affect foraging and food choice of Eurasian red squirrels?

Abstract Grey squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis, introduced from North America, have replaced red squirrels, S. vulgaris, over much of Britain and parts of north Italy, but the reasons why are unclear. Spatial and temporal changes in the quantity and quality of their primary foods, namely tree seeds, may provide the focus for interspecific resource competition and hence go some way to explain the replacement process. To investigate whether grey squirrels have a competitive advantage over red squirrels, we used radiotelemetry and direct behavioural observations to examine the activity budget, foods, feeding behaviour and body condition of adult red squirrels in two mature, mixed-woodland sites in northern Italy, one site where there were only red squirrels, and one where both red and grey squirrels were present. The studies were carried out between July 1996 and October 1998. We found few differences in the activity and foraging patterns and food choice of red squirrels with and without grey squirrels present, although we could not eliminate possible interspecific competition effects on food choice by red squirrels in summer (June–August) and autumn–winter (September–February). Foraging time and rate of energy intake of red squirrels in the mixed-species site were lower than in the red-only site in winter (December–February). This may have resulted from interspecific competition, but a more plausible explanation is that these site differences resulted from the distribution of preferred tree seeds and home range size. Overall, our results provide little support for the food competition hypothesis. Differences in body size between sites suggest that interspecific competition occurs during the growth phase of red squirrels, when juveniles and subadults disperse and look for a place to settle.
Human Sensitivity to Perturbations Constrained by a Model of the Natural Image Manifold

Humans are remarkably well tuned to the statistical properties of natural images. However, quantitative characterization of processing within the domain of natural images has been difficult because most parametric manipulations of a natural image make that image appear less natural. We used generative adversarial networks (GANs) to constrain parametric manipulations to remain within an approximation of the manifold of natural images. In the first experiment, 7 observers decided which one of two synthetic perturbed images matched a synthetic unperturbed comparison image. Observers were significantly more sensitive to perturbations that were constrained to an approximate manifold of natural images than they were to perturbations applied directly in pixel space. Trial by trial errors were consistent with the idea that these perturbations disrupt configural aspects of visual structure used in image segmentation. In a second experiment, 5 observers discriminated paths along the image manifold as recovered by the GAN. Observers were remarkably good at this task, confirming that observers were tuned to fairly detailed properties of an approximate manifold of natural images. We conclude that human tuning to natural images is more general than detecting deviations from natural appearance, and that humans have, to some extent, access to detailed interrelations between natural images.