Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ranging behaviour and habitat selection of Alpine chamois

Ranging behaviour and habitat selection of 23 male and 6 female adult (5–10 years old) Alpine chamois Rupicapra rupicapra (Linnaeus 1758) were monitored from February 2000 to December 2002, in an area of the Western Alps. The chamois were radio-located for a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 35 months, until failure of radio transmitters. A mean number of 13 locations/individual/month was recorded for a total of 7902 fixes. Adult males were divided in 19 residents (territorial males, with overlapping or adjacent warm and cold month ranges) and four migrants (with non-overlapping warm and cold month ranges, as well as attending higher altitude areas in the warm months). Home range and core area (kernel 95 and 50%, respectively) sizes of each individual were significantly greater in the warm (June–November) than in the cold (December–May) periods. During the warm period, home range and core area sizes significantly differed between resident (median home range: 49 ha; Q1–Q3: 31–110 ha) and migrant males (median home range: 749 ha; Q1–Q3: 539–850 ha), as well as between females (median home range: 711 ha; Q1–Q3: 388–1842 ha) and resident males. No significant difference was observed in the cold period. Home range size was not correlated to the presence of snow cover (≥ 70%). Throughout the year, nearly all chamois used south- to south-east-facing slopes. Resident males strongly preferred pastures and meadows, but four of them used alder shrublands on the north-east slope more than expected, in the warm months. Females kept nearly always at altitudes greater than those used by resident males and inhabited higher-quality areas.
Origin of Polyploidy in Parthenogenetic Weevils

Abstract Parthenogenesis and, in particular, polyploidy are rare in animals. A number of cases are known among weevils. Previous models have assumed that parthenogenesis originated in a diploid lineage, involving first an automictic (meiotic) mechanism that then evolves into apomixis. New degrees of polyploidy are added through hybridization events with males of the same or related species. A model is advanced here that proposes that triploidy and parthenogenesis arise through a single event and the first stage is a diploid gamete that has arisen through defective meiosis that fuses with a haploid gamete. New degrees of polyploidy arise through disjunction events that involve one or several haploid chromosome sets. This model is in accord with the available evidence.
Overwintering strategy of endoparasitoids in Chilo suppressalis: a perspective from the cold hardiness of a host

Although parasitoids ultimately kill their host, koinobiont parasitoids must protect not only themselves but also their hosts against extreme environments. In this study, the parasitism rate of Chilo suppressalis Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) was investigated, and the average body weights, supercooling points, and concentrations of glycerol (acting as a cryoprotectant) in the hemolymph were compared between parasitized and non‐parasitized larvae. Five species of koinobiont endoparasitoids parasitized the overwintering C. suppressalis larvae and the total parasitism rate was 47.6% (n = 1 537). Average body weight of parasitized larvae was significantly lower than that of non‐parasitized larvae, and the parasitism rate of the lighter group (20–30 mg) was highest. The supercooling point of parasitized C. suppressalis larvae (−15.7 ± 0.3 °C) was significantly lower than that of the non‐parasitized larvae (−14.3 ± 0.2 °C). In addition, supercooling points were not correlated with body weights between parasitized and non‐parasitized larvae, indicating that cold hardiness of parasitized larvae was enhanced by endoparasitoids. Furthermore, the concentration of glycerol in the hemolymph was significantly higher in parasitized larvae (205.0 ± 7.1 μmol ml−1) than in non‐parasitized larvae (169.8 ± 14.4 μmol ml−1), which suggests that the mechanism that decreases the supercooling point of parasitized larvae was associated with glycerol. All these results indicated that the cold hardiness of parasitized C. suppressalis larvae was enhanced by their endoparasitoids, which benefitted overwintering endoparasitoids.
Reproduction and diversity of the endangered Salix lapponum L. populations in Eastern Poland

The main aim of the study was to increase the knowledge on the ecology and biology of the boreal relict Salix lapponum L. , an endangered plant in Poland, in order to create an effective protection program. An important aspect was to determine the within- and among-population genetic diversity of the studied species in order to evaluate whether the basic stages of the generative reproduction cycle in the populations were correct. The results confirmed that S. lapponum pollen viability and germinability, for both fresh and stored pollen, were high and so were the seed germination ability and dynamics. All individuals were of sexual origin and the expected heterozygosity was moderate. In spite of this, young individuals were observed in only 1 out of 5 studied populations and it was the most numerous one. Although the genetic diversity among the populations was not very high (PhiPT = 0.12), it accumulated in a quite short period of time, probably during the second part of the 20th century, as a consequence of habitat fragmentation. A lack of gene flow, either by pollen or seeds, may lead to further differentiation of the populations and extinction of the smallest ones. For this reason, preventive measures should be undertaken in order to enlarge the existing populations and to reconstruct S. lapponum populations in selected sites where environmental conditions are the most similar to those preferred by this species.
VARIABILIDADE ESPACIAL DE ARGILA, SILTE E ATRIBUTOS QUÍMICOS EM UMA PARCELA EXPERIMENTAL DE UM LATOSSOLO ROXO DE CAMPINAS (SP)

The majority of experiments on soil management and soil fertility uses experimental and statistical procedures which require statistically independent samples and uniform experimental plots. This hypothesis can only be satisfied and verified in practice with geostatistical calculations such as semivariograms. The objective of this paper was to study the spatial variability, within an experimental plot, and to show the use of geostatistical analysis. The field selected for this study is located at the Centro Experimental de Campinas, Instituto Agronomico, Campinas (SP), Brazil, on a Dusky Red Latosol, which had been on conventional tillage for the previous 10 years. A 30 m by 30 m plot was marked on a square grid of 5 m, resulting in 49 sampling points, in which bulk soil samples were collected at the depths of 0-25 cm and 25-50 cm, taken to the laboratory, air dried, sieved on the 2 mm sieve, and submitted to routine chemical and particle size analysis in order to obtain the clay content, silt content, delta pH, sum of bases, cation exchange capacity, and base saturation. Geostatistics was used for the spatial variability analysis. The coefficients of variation found indicate higher variability for all properties at 0-25 cm than at 25-50 cm, probably due to soil tillage depth. Spatial dependence was also stronger at 0-25 cm than at 25-50 cm depth. It was concluded that the spatial variability for the chemical properties was high considering the plot size of 30 m by 30 m and that random sampling would fail to detect it.
Community Detection Based on Node Similarity without thresholds

To identify communities in social networks represented by a graph, we simply need to detect the edges that connect vertices of diﬀerent communities and remove them, but the problem is what measure has to be used to identify these edges? and, how we use it? To tackle this problem, this paper proposes an eﬃcient algorithm based on node similarity. This algorithm neither needs a predeﬁned number of communities nor threshold to determine which edges to be deleted. The algorithm tries to add new edges for the most similar nodes to strengthen intra-community links and remove edges between the least similar nodes to weaken links between communities. In order to prove its eﬃciency, the algo-rithm was evaluated with synthetic and real-world networks.
Proposal of an udder health genetic index for the Italian Holstein Friesian based on first lactation data

Abstract Genetic correlations between udder conformation traits and SCS were estimated in Italian Holstein Friesian data. A total of 1,268,762 first parity Italian Holstein cows had information both on conformation traits and SCC. Test day SCC were transformed to SCS and they were geometrically averaged from 5 to 305 days to obtain a lactation measure (LSCS). Two data sets were analysed. The first data set included 11.203 records and was used in 8 two-trait analyses, considering information on LSCS, and one conformation trait at a time. Models used included the fixed effect of herd-year-season for LSCS, and for conformation traits the fixed effect of herd-year-date of scoring and the interaction of age at calving in months by season of calving. Heritabilities ranged from 0.05 (udder balance) to 0.24 (udder depth) for conformation traits and 0.14 for LSCS. Genetic correlations with LSCS were -0.31 for udder depth and 0.28 for rear udder width. Other genetic correlations for conformation traits and LSCS varied from -0.16 to -0.03. A second data set, including 4398 records was extracted to estimate genetic correlations between 5 traits that are being considered for inclusion in an udder health index. Using these estimates, and literature estimates for direct mastitis resistance, an udder health index (UHI) for the Italian Holstein was proposed : UHI = -15 EBVscs + 1.5 EBVfua + 0.15 EBVudd, where EBV are the estimated breeding values for SCS, fore udder attachment (FUA), and udder depth (UDD). Selection for lower value of SCS, shallow udder with stronger fore attachment should result in increased mastitis resistance. The inclusion of milking speed in the udder health index was not proposed because of its non-linear relationship with SCS and the low reliability of data collection in Italy for this trait.
SOME EFFECTS OF LACTOBACILLUS CONTAMINATION IN SCOTCH WHISKY FERMENTATIONS

The growth of representative strains of lactobacilli in a laboratory scale distillery fermentation has been examined. Some strains were particularly deliterious to the fermentation and were responsible for reducing the final pH, increasing the final gravity and reducing the alcohol concentration in fermented wash. The effects of varying degrees of infection by one deliterious strain and one innocuous strain were studied in more detail. Spirit yield depended on strain and inoculum size. In all cases the concentration of lactic acid was increased and the balance of other organic acids was disturbed by the presence of the bacteria.
A Study in Practical Solutions to Sarcasm Detection with Machine Learning and Knowledge Engineering Techniques

In this paper we tackle the problem of sarcasm detection with the use of machine learning and knowledge engineering techniques. Sarcasm detection is considered a complex and challenging task in Natural Language Processing and has been studied by various researchers in the past decade. To get a grasp on the present state of the art in sarcasm detection, we review the important previous research in this ﬁeld, with a focus on text-based sarcasm detection in English texts. In the proposed method, we compare various dataset preprocessing techniques on the proposed Deep Convolutional Neural Network model. As a result, the most speciﬁc, or least pre-processed dataset ranked as the one with the highest performance. However, we observed that some level of data preprocessing could become useful in the task of sarcasm detection.
Mitigating Bias in Deep Nets with Knowledge Bases: the Case of Natural Language Understanding for Robots

In this paper, we tackle the problem of lack of understandability of deep learning systems by integrating heterogeneous knowledge sources, and in the specific we present how we used FrameNet to guarantee the correct learning for an LSTM-based semantic parser in the task of Spoken Language Understanding for robots. The problem of the explainability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, i.e. their ability to explain decisions to both experts and end users, has attracted growing attention in the latest years, affecting their credibility and trustworthiness. Trusting these systems is fundamental in the context of AI-based robotic companions interacting in natural language, as the users’ acceptance of the robot also relies on the ability to explain the reasons behind its actions. Following similar approaches, we first use the values of the neural attention layers employed in the semantic parser as a clue to analyze and interpret the model’s behavior and reveal the intrinsic bias induced by the training data. We then show how the integration of knowledge from external resources such as FrameNet can help minimizing, or mitigating, such bias, and consequently guarantee the model to provide the correct interpretations. Our preliminary, but promising results suggest that (i) attention layers can improve the model understandability; (ii) the integration of different knowledge bases can help overcoming the limitations of machine learning models; and (iii) an approach combining the strengths of both knowledge engineering and machine learning can foster the development of more transparent, understandable intelligent systems.
Using Concepts to Understand Intelligent Agents

Intelligent agents using reinforcement learning offer interesting capabilities for optimizing processes, products, and services in various branches of industry. Developing such applications at an economically viable level, however, is still a major challenge: Regardless of the potential offered by reinforcement learning, many solutions suffer from a lack of ex-plainability. Deploying an application that makes unexplain-able decisions is a potential risk to a project’s success. Despite the ongoing effort, most reinforcement learning solutions remain a black box. In this position paper, we motivate to use concepts derived from human knowledge to unveil the inner workings of an intelligent agent on a more meaningful level without having to limit the algorithms themselves.
European phenological response to climate change matches the warming pattern

Global climate change impacts can already be tracked in many physical and biological systems; in particular, terrestrial ecosystems provide a consistent picture of observed changes. One of the preferred indicators is phenology, the science of natural recurring events, as their recorded dates provide a high‐temporal resolution of ongoing changes. Thus, numerous analyses have demonstrated an earlier onset of spring events for mid and higher latitudes and a lengthening of the growing season. However, published single‐site or single‐species studies are particularly open to suspicion of being biased towards predominantly reporting climate change‐induced impacts. No comprehensive study or meta‐analysis has so far examined the possible lack of evidence for changes or shifts at sites where no temperature change is observed. We used an enormous systematic phenological network data set of more than 125 000 observational series of 542 plant and 19 animal species in 21 European countries (1971–2000). Our results showed that 78% of all leafing, flowering and fruiting records advanced (30% significantly) and only 3% were significantly delayed, whereas the signal of leaf colouring/fall is ambiguous. We conclude that previously published results of phenological changes were not biased by reporting or publication predisposition: the average advance of spring/summer was 2.5 days decade−1 in Europe. Our analysis of 254 mean national time series undoubtedly demonstrates that species' phenology is responsive to temperature of the preceding months (mean advance of spring/summer by 2.5 days°C−1, delay of leaf colouring and fall by 1.0 day°C−1). The pattern of observed change in spring efficiently matches measured national warming across 19 European countries (correlation coefficient r=−0.69, P<0.001).
Diurnal and nocturnal ranging behaviour by moorland-breeding Short-eared Owls Asio flammeus in Scotland

Capsule The total area encapsulated by the hunting ranges of breeding Short-eared Owls Asio flammeus was broadly similar between day and night and also through the season, but activity was concentrated more on lower altitude graminoid-dominated areas during daylight and early in the breeding season. Aims To assess the representativeness of diurnal observations alone for determining ranging behaviour and habitat-use of breeding Short-eared Owls. Methods The diurnal and nocturnal ranging behaviours of four radiotagged Short-eared Owls were compared. Further diurnal field observations were used to assess the representativeness of the behaviour of the radiotagged birds. Results Short-eared Owls tended to hunt more over higher ground (where there was a greater ericaceous component within the moorland vegetation) at night and also later in the breeding season; the area of the total hunting range remained similar through the season (mean about 200 ha). Nocturnal activity rates closely matched those during peak diurnal activity periods. Conclusion Diurnal observations of breeding Short-eared Owls could provide representative data to inform breeding population densities and distribution but they may not be representative of overall habitat-use or ranging behaviour within home-ranges. Assessments of the risks to breeding Short-eared Owls of developments on moorland (e.g. forestry, wind turbine construction, grazing changes) based on diurnal observations alone may not reflect the true scale of potential impacts, which would also need to consider nocturnal behaviour.
Chromosome numbers of Thai Rubiaceae

Chromosome numbers for 14 taxa of indigenous Thai Rubiaceae are presented. They include first counts for 3 genera: Aphaenandra (A. uniflora), Prismatomeris (P. tetrandra subsp. malayana) and Tarennoidea (T. wallichii); all show diploidy on x=11. The remaining counts are first counts for species: Argostemma diversifolium, A. neurocalyx and A. pictum, Coptosapelta flavenscens, Gardenia saxtilis, Ixora sp. , Morinda sp. , Mussaenda sanderiana, Oxyceros horridus, Rothmannia wittii (first count for an Asiatic species of the genus) (all diploid on x=11), and Canthium sp. (tetraploid on x=11). The poor state of karyological knowledge of indigenous Thai Rubiaceae is discussed, and a table including all relevant known chromosome counts is presented. Chromosome data are only known for 38 genera (ca. 41% of all Rubiaceae genera occurring in Thailand); chromosome numbers are often only available for one or few taxa of each genus [in sum, for only about 50 (or for roughly 10% of all) taxa]. Of only 14 genera (ca. 15%), chromosomes were counted from Thai material (for the others, counts originate from elsewhere, i.e. refer to more widely distributed taxa also extending into Thailand).
Chemical cues from Spodoptera litura larvae elicit prey‐locating behavior by the predatory stink bug, Eocanthecona furcellata

Two chemical compounds eliciting prey‐locating behavior of the predatory stink bug, Eocanthecona furcellata, were isolated from solvent extracts of Spodoptera litura larvae and identified. A hexane eluted fraction from silica gel chromatography of the solvent extracts of S. litura larvae was attractive to E. furcellata nymphs when assayed with a linear track olfactometer. The hexane fraction was found to contain n‐pentadecane (2500 ng/larva), n‐tetracosane (54 ng/larva), n‐heptadecane (41 ng/larva), n‐heptacosane (61 ng/larva), n‐nonacosane (147 ng/larva), n‐hentriacontane (200 ng/larva) and squalene (323 ng/larva). The synthetic n‐pentadecane was attractive to the bugs, although its activity was slightly lower than that of the hexane fraction. A mixture of synthetic n‐pentadecane and the other six hydrocarbons was also attractive, although no improved attractiveness was observed by the addition of the latter compounds. On the other hand, a 15%‐ether‐in‐ hexane eluted fraction from silica gel chromatography stimulated bugs to display a proboscis‐protruding behavior. A neutral‐layer fraction of the 15% fraction, which contained E‐phytol (480 ng/larva), also elicited this behavior. Synthetic E‐phytol had the same effect on the predators as the neutral‐layer fraction.
Estimating the size of spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) populations through playback recordings allowing for non‐response

Conventional census techniques are inappropriate for estimating numbers of nocturnal animals such as the spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta). A technique based on attracting animals by taped sounds to calling stations is described. A simple independent experiment to estimate the probability of response to the sounds, as well as a probability model for estimating the population size in a given habitat based on the response counts, is proposed. The model allows for the possibility that some animals may not respond to sounds. The estimate of the population size has a simple form and the sensitivity of the estimate to changes in the response probability can be assessed. The model allows statistical comparisons to be made between different habitats or different times. Likelihood‐based confidence intervals can be found for all estimates. The results of surveys in the Kruger National Park illustrate the technique which can be applied in different areas and possibly to other species.
Biochemical properties of different entomopathogenic fungi and their virulence against Chilo suppressalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) larvae

We determined the virulence of Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae, Isaria fumosoroseus and Lecanicilium lecanii against larvae of Chilo suppressalis Walker by bioassay and evaluated several enzymatic and non-enzymatic components. LC50 values of the entomopathogenic fungi revealed 90, 32, 45,000, 4600, 42,000 and 1,540,000 spores/larva for isolates BB1–BB3 of B. bassiana, I. fumosoroseus, M. anisopliae and L. lecanii, respectively. Isolate BB3 and I. fumosoroseus had the highest amounts of total protein and hydrophobin and isolates BB3 and M. anisopliae showed the highest activities of lipases and chitinases. In case of proteases, the highest activities were observed for Pr1 of BB1 and Pr2 of L. lecanii. The highest general esterase activities were obtained in I. fumosoroseus and BB1 when 1-naphtyl acetate and 2-naphtyl acetate were used as substrates. The highest activity of glutathione S-transferase (GST) was observed in I. fumosoroseus by using both reagents but BB1 demonstrated the highest activities of alkaline phosphatase and acid phosphatase. Clustering of the fungi using biochemical enzymes revealed BB2 and BB3 as a separate group of entomopathogenic fungi. In another group, I. fumosoroseus and L. lecanii had the most similarity and were separated from BB1 and M. anisopliae. The fungi exhibited different virulence on larvae of C. suppressalis by producing adhering protein and extracellular enzymes. Overall, results of the bioassays and clustering based on enzymatic activities revealed that isolate BB2 was the most effective fungus against larvae of C. suppressalis.