Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PARENTAL CARE AND PARENTAGE IN MONOGAMOUS GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS (PICOIDES MAJOR) AND MIDDLE SPOTTED WOODPECKERS (PICOIDES MEDIUS)

Paternal effort is high in some monogamous mating systems. Trivers' (1972) model predicts that high male investment in brood care should evolve only when males have a high certainty of paternity. For this study, we chose two woodpecker species: the great spotted woodpecker ( Picoides major ) and the middle spotted woodpecker ( Picoides medius ). Both species were socially monogamous despite a very high breeding density in the study area. We used DNA fingerprinting to determine whether these two species were also genetically monogamous. We found that in great spotted and middle spotted woodpeckers paternal effort was high. Multi-locus DNA-fingerprinting showed that its actual paternity was also very high. In P. major all 161 young from 36 broods and in P. medius all 61 young from 13 broods were sired by the male feeding at the nest hole. There were also no cases of intraspecific brood parasitism or quasi parasitism ( P. major : 114 chicks from 24 broods; P.medius : 33 chicks from 8 broods). We further found no case of mate switching during the fertile period of the female. Great spotted and middle spotted woodpeckers are typical of a group of monogamous nonpasserine birds with high male investment in brood care having low frequencies of EPP. We did not find efficient paternity guards. High certainty of paternity may be explained by paternal care being essential for female reproductive success, as in many seabirds and birds of prey. Females rarely engage in extra-pair copulations probably because they are constrained by male care. Males in both species spend little effort in acquiring mates as well as in extrapair copulations. They expend their reproductive effort in defending territories and in parental care. Females compete intensely with members of their own sex for pair formation before the time of frequent copulation. Choosing and securing a high quality partner is the only possibility to achieve high reproductive success for both sexes.
Sensitivity of comparative analyses to population variation in trait values : clutch size and cavity excavation tendencies

Importance of within-species (population) variation in trait values to correlations of traits among species has received very little attention in comparative analyses. We use randomization and bootstrapping techniques to provide a sensitivity analysis of the influence of population variation on correlations between clutch size and propensity to excavate. These traits are predicted to be negatively correlated under the limited breeding opportunities hypothesis, but opposing results have been found by two studies using different population estimates for western Palearctic Paridae. Our analyses support the limited breeding opportunities hypothesis and suggest low sensitivity to within-species variation in trait values. Yet, a small proportion of population data provide non-significant results. Checking for the effects of this variation on the postulated association between traits is necessary in comparative studies if one wishes to avoid type I and type II errors.
Taxonomy and relationships of myobatrachine frogs (Leptodactylidae) : A numerical approach

The current generic classification of Australian myobatrachine leptodactylids is essentially unchanged from that of Parker (1940). Since then, however, the concept of the genus has altered, and many new species have been described in this subfamily. Some of these species were erected on the basis of differentiation in only one character (male mating-call structure). Hence a re-examination of generic boundaries and species relationships is warranted. Specimens of the five myobatrachine genera Crinia Tschudi, Metacrinia Parker, Pseudophryne Fitzinger, Taudactylus Straughan & Lee, and Uperoleia Gray were collected and studied. Numerical strategies employing a large array of characters (morphological, anatomical, ecological, and ethological) were used to develop a series of phenetic classifications and ordinations of the specimens. Interpretation of the results has led to a taxonomic revision which splits the genus Crinia into three separate genera, returns Metacrinia nichollsi to its former classification in Pseudophryne, and confirms the generic status of Taudactylus and Uperoleia. In addition, a hypothetical phylogeny of these genera is proposed.
Genetic relatedness of mycoplasmalike organisms detected in Ulmus spp. in the United States and Italy by means of DNA probes and polymerase chain reactions

DNA fragments of an elm yellows (EY) mycoplasmalike organism (MLO) from diseased periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) were cloned in plasmid vector pSP6 and Escherichia coli strain JM83. DNA probes were prepared by nick translation of EY-specific recombinant plasmids with biotinylated nucleotides. None of the EY probes hybridized with DNA from four representative strains of the aster yellows MLO strain cluster. None of the probes tested at 50 C hybridized with DNA of the MLOs of ash yellows, potato witches'-broom, Canadian peach X, clover proliferation, and beet leafhopper-transmitted virescence diseases, but two tested at 42 C hybridized with DNA of one or another of these MLOs [. ]
Characterization of the crustose red alga Peyssonnelia japonica (Rhodophyta, Gigartinales) and its taxonomic relationship with Peyssonnelia boudouresquei based on morphological and molecular data

The vegetative and reproductive morphology of the crustose red alga Peyssonnelia japonica (Segawa) Yoneshigue was re‐examined based on the holotype specimen and recent collections from various localities in Japan, including the type locality, and Hawaii. This species is characterized by the following features: thallus with appressed margins, perithallial filaments arising from the entire upper surface of each hypothallial cell (the Peyssonnelia rubra‐type), easily separable perithallial filaments in a gelatinous matrix, hypothallial filaments arranged in parallel rows, unicellular rhizoids, hypobasal calcification, gonimoblasts derived mainly from connecting filaments, and spermatangia produced in a series of whorls comprised of one to four paired spermatangia surrounding each central cell (the Peyssonnelia dubyi‐type). In addition to these features, the dimensions of the vegetative and reproductive structures of Peyssonnelia boudouresquei Yoneshigue described from Brazil were consistent with those of P. japonica. Molecular phylogenetic analyses using partial 26S rDNA, rbcL, and cox2‐3 spacer DNA sequences also supported the monophyly of P. japonica (from 16 localities in Japan and one locality in Hawaii) and P. boudouresquei (from two localities in Brazil). Therefore, P. boudouresquei may be a taxonomic synonym of P. japonica. However, considering the relatively high sequence divergences between the two taxa (2.1–2.5% in partial 26S rDNA, 5.9–6.7% in rbcL, and 5.8–6.7% in cox2‐3 spacer), and the relatively limited geographic sampling ranges, we reserve the taxonomic conclusion until further morphological and genetic data of the specimens from other geographic areas connecting Japan and Brazil become available.
Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotope Ratios Differ among Invertebrates from Field Crops, Forage Crops, and Non-Cropped Land Uses

Abstract: Stable isotopes are an important tool for studying invertebrate food webs and movement of invertebrates in farmland. However, stable isotope values of farmland invertebrates have been reported for only a few crop types, and rarely for other land uses within farmland. We compared &dgr;O13C and &dgr;15N of invertebrates captured in corn, soybean, hay, and hedgerows in eastern Ontario, Canada. &dgr;13C was significantly lower in invertebrates captured in hay and hedgerows than in invertebrates captured in soybean and corn, but was not different between invertebrates captured in corn and soybean. This suggests invertebrates may be moving between crop fields during the growing season, using alternative food sources within crop fields, or retaining &dgr;13C values from the previous year. When all invertebrates were examined together, &dgr;15N was significantly higher in invertebrates captured in manured corn than in those captured in soybeans, hedgerows, or manured or unmanured hay, but there was no difference between invertebrates captured in manured or unmanured corn. However, spiders from manured corn had significantly higher &dgr;15N than those from unmanured corn. Spiders had less variable &dgr;15N than other taxa in this study, because they occupy a single trophic level. This may make spiders more suitable for detecting changes in fertilization regimes. By demonstrating how invertebrate &dgr;13C and &dgr;15N vary with land use, this study will contribute to the understanding of agricultural food webs and of responses of invertebrates to land use change.
First Genotype Characterization of Giardia intestinalis Assemblage E from Goat Kids in Bangladesh

Giardiasis is an important protozoan disease caused by Giardia and manifested as life-threatening diarrhea in animals and humans worldwide. No study has performed to see zoonotic epidemiology and diversity of Giardia in animals in Bangladesh. Hence, there is a room to characterize Giardia protozoan parasite in animals to find out their roles as a source of human infection. To address this hurdle, fecal samples of 100 goat kids were genotyped by nested PCR amplification of β-giardin gene fragment followed by sequencing and analysis. The total prevalence of Giardia in goat kids was 3% (3/100) and the infection is more widespread in younger, Black Bengal breed and female goat kids. Further analysis of β-giardin gene locus has shown and clustered the Giardia in Assemblage E rather than Assemblages A and B. It suggests the low zoonotic transmission frequency from the goat kids and has least epidemiological significance to humans. Further study on this field is prerequisite in terms of broad geographical areas, age groups, sex and evaluates zoonotic significance along with genetic diversity in other host species as well.
A review of the nutritional value of lupins for dairy cows

Australia is the world’s leading source of lupin grain, producing ~1 million tonnes annually, of which 30% is used by the domestic livestock industry and the rest is exported for use in animal diets, including dairy cows. The domestic dairy industry uses ~70 000 tonnes annually, mainly as a supplementary feed source in pasture-based systems. Although much published information exists on the nutritive value of lupins for dairy cows, it tends to be fragmented and, in some important instances, exists only in the form of reports or publications outside the mainstream scientific journals. This paper aims to present a critical assessment of the current knowledge regarding the nutritional value of lupins as a feed for dairy cows, and offers recommendations for future research. For cows grazing pasture or fed diets based on conserved pasture or cereal hay, the mean fractional response to lupin feeding was 0.53 kg milk/kg DM lupins, with a range of 0–0.97 kg/kg. The mean fractional forage substitution rate was 0.54 kg DM/kg lupins, and this appeared to be independent of the type of basal forage. In experiments using cows fed iso-nitrogenous and iso-energetic total mixed rations, substituting oilseed protein such as soybean meal with cracked lupin grain had no significant effects on yield of milk, fat, and protein, but it reduced milk protein concentration and had mixed effects on fat concentration. There were no significant differences in milk yield or in fat or protein concentration when lupins were substituted for other pulse grains such as faba beans or peas. Treatment of lupin grain with heat or formaldehyde reduced lupin protein degradability in the rumen, but was not shown to have consistent benefits over untreated lupins in terms of increased milk yield. Substitution of cereal grains with an equivalent weight of lupins in dairy concentrate rations generally resulted in increased yield of milk, fat, and protein, and a higher fat concentration. The higher yield responses in most cases could be explained on the basis of the higher metabolisable energy content of lupins compared with cereal grains, although the contribution from a potentially lower incidence of rumen lactic acidosis could not be discounted. Feeding Lupinus albus lupins to cows significantly increased the concentration of C18 : 1 in milk and reduced that of C12 : 0–C16 : 0, thus shifting the fatty acid profile of milk towards national dietary guidelines for improved cardiovascular health in human populations. Although the review lists some recommendations for improving the nutritive value of lupins, current commercially available cultivars possess characteristics that make them attractive as a feedstuff for dairy cows.
Environmental relationships of woody vegetation patterns in the Australian monsoon tropics

Indirect gradient analysis was applied to 48 vegetation samples taken from a mosaic of woody vegetation at Berry Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Compositional variation among the samples was effectively summarised by a two-dimensional ordination by non-metric multidimensional scaling. Subsequent rotational correlation analysis revealed marked relationships between the vegetation pattern and edaphic variables which reflect two aspects of the moisture regime: water availability during the dry season and the degree of inundation during the wet season. Moisture availability is principally determined by topographic position, through its relationship with soil texture and water table depth. Poor drainage during the wet season appears to separate Melaleuca communities from those dominated by eucalypts. Shrubby and grassy open forests appear to be differentiated by the intensity of the winter drought. The grassy understoreys, which occur on upslope positions well above the water table, die off shortly after the end of the wet season thus providing fuel for fires. A closed Carpentaria forest, located on the slopes above a spring, was found to have relatively organic-rich, fertile, fine-textured soils, possibly reflecting the superior nutrient cycling of the closed forest compared with the frequently burnt surrounding open communities. We suggest that the dense evergreen vegetation presents a barrier to fires from the open communities. This would account for the greater proportion of woody, closed forest species that regenerate exclusively from seed. The fires in the eucalypt forests are of low intensity and plants have vegetative mechanisms to recover from damage. We conclude that the edaphically determined vegetation controls fire regime rather than the converse.
Predation cost of rapid growth: behavioural coupling and physiological decoupling

Summary 1. Despite its prominent role in life-history theory, there is no direct empirical evidence for a behaviourally mediated predation cost of rapid growth. Moreover, we know little about how digestive physiology may also influence the shape of the growth/predation risk trade-off function. 2. We determined the role of behaviour and digestive physiology in experiments in which damselfly larvae were induced to grow slowly or rapidly by manipulating photoperiod (time stress), and exposure to a fish predator. 3. We showed that larvae under time stress grew more rapidly. Rapid-growing larvae had a higher foraging activity and a higher growth efficiency. 4. Under predation risk, larvae not only had a lower foraging activity but also a lower growth efficiency. 5. Rapid-growing larvae (i.e. those under time stress) balanced the growth/predation risk trade-off differently and took more risk in the presence of a predator, which resulted in a behaviourally mediated higher predation cost compared to slow-growing larvae. Their higher growth efficiency, however, made this cost smaller compared to a completely behaviourally mediated rapid-growth strategy. 6. Our results provide the first explicit experimental proof of a behaviourally mediated predation cost of rapid growth. Besides a behavioural coupling of growth and predation risk, resulting in the well-known trade-off, we also found a partial decoupling of these two processes by digestive physiology.
Major components of grizzly bear diet across North America

We measured stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in guard hair of 81 populations of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos L., 1758) across North America and used mixing models to assign diet fractions of salmon, meat derived from terrestrial sources, kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka (Walbaum in Artedi, 1792)), and plants. In addition, we examined the relationship between skull size and diet of bears killed by people in British Columbia. The majority of carbon and nitrogen assimilated by most coastal grizzly bear populations was derived from salmon, while interior populations usually derived a much smaller fraction of their nutrients from salmon, even in areas with relatively large salmon runs. Terrestrial prey was a large part of the diet where ungulates were abundant, with the highest fractions observed in the central Arctic, where caribou (Rangifer tarandus (L., 1758)) were very abundant. Bears in some boreal areas, where moose (Alces alces (L., 1758)) were abundant, also ate a lot of meat. Bears in dryer areas w.
Spatial and Temporal Variation in Fishes of the Upper Red River Drainage (Oklahoma–Texas)

Abstract We investigated variation in environmental conditions and fish assemblages over space and time in the upper Red River drainage (Oklahoma–Texas) using samples from eight sites (three tributaries and five mainstems) collected monthly in 1989–1990 and again in 1998–1999. Fish assemblages varied spatially, with geographically ubiquitous and ecologically tolerant taxa dominating tributaries and obligate species of prairie minnows common in mainstems. At the regional scale, fish assemblages were predictable between time periods. This resulted from strong longitudinal structuring in fishes across sites, which likely was influenced by spatial variation in environmental conditions across the drainage. These patterns suggested that at the regional scale strong forcing of fish by their environment influenced predictability of fishes between time periods. At the local scale, predictability in fish assemblages between time periods differed across type of habitat. Specifically, assemblages in tributary sites varied randomly over time, whereas mainstem assemblages were predictable. We believe that local environmental conditions favored different suites of taxa in tributaries between time periods. When we compared variation in fish assemblages to variation in environmental conditions at both regional and local scales, we detected that structure of fish assemblages tracked environmental variability at the regional scale. However, at the local scale, fish assemblages did not track environmental conditions. This suggests that environmental variation may affect fishes in a relative sense across the drainage, whereas, within sites, fishes may be decoupled from environmental structuring-forces. Based on the predictable patterns in fishes within the Red River drainage, we propose that monitoring efforts, aimed at detecting human-induced changes in this system, should include a range of mainstem sites that capture the strong structuring forces that vary longitudinally within this river system.
Family board ownership, generational involvement and performance in family SMEs

Purpose In order to deepen our knowledge of governance of family firms, the purpose of this paper is to focus our attention on the relation between family owners who are members of the board of directors and firm performance. Also, this study sheds more light on how the generation in charge of the family firm affects that relationship, as generational involvement may be a unique predictor of governance behavior in these firms. Design/methodology/approach The authors applied a cross-sectional ordinary least squares regression model to test the hypotheses on a sample of 313 non-listed Spanish family SMEs. The authors suggest the possibility of a non-linear relationship between the percentage of ownership by family members of the board of directors and firm performance, and specifically, the authors propose an S-shaped effect that implies two breakpoints. Findings The authors find not only that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists, but also an S-shaped relationship between family board members’ ownership and firm performance in family SMEs. Nevertheless, the results are different in comparing first-, second- and later-generation family firms. Originality/value This is one of the few empirical studies that examine the relationship between family board ownership and firm performance in the context of non-listed family SMEs. The authors consider that the influences of family directors on the board of directors as well as the concentration of family ownership on the board of directors are worth studying in non-listed family SMEs. Moreover, previous studies have focused mainly on large listed family firms but not on unlisted ones.
Source Code Preparing Data Transaction Database Mining Inferring Rules Detecting Violations Function Entropy Bugs Negative Rules Frequent and Infrequent Itemsets

Inferring programming rules from source code based on datamining techniques has been proven to be effective to detect software bugs. Existing studies focus on discovering positive rules in the form of A ⇒ B, indicating that when operation A appears, operation B should also be here. Unfortunately, the negative rules (A ⇒ ¬B), indicating the mutual suppression or conflict relationships among program elements, have not gotten the attention they deserve. In fact, violating such negative rules can also result in serious bugs. In this paper, we propose a novel method called NAR-Miner to automatically extract negative association programming rules from large-scale systems, and detect their violations to find bugs. However, mining negative rules faces a more serious rule explosion problem than mining positive ones. Most of the obtained negative rules are uninteresting and can lead to unacceptable false alarms. To address the issue, we design a semantics-constrained mining algorithm to focus rule mining on the elements with strong semantic relationships. Furthermore, we introduce information entropy to rank candidate negative rules and highlight the interesting ones. Consequently, we effectively mitigate the rule explosion problem. We implement NAR-Miner and apply it to a Linux kernel (v4.12-rc6). The experiments show that the uninteresting rules are dramatically reduced and 17 detected violations have been confirmed as real bugs and patched by kernel community. We also apply NAR-Miner to PostgreSQL, OpenSSL and FFmpeg and discover six real bugs.
An SINR-Aware Joint Mode Selection, Scheduling, and Resource Allocation Scheme for D2D Communications

In this paper, a new mode selection (MS) scheme for device-to-device (D2D) enabled cellular networks is proposed. The MS is carried out using a predefined signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) threshold and it aims to guarantee a minimum level of quality of service. With the new scheme, interfering effects are taken into consideration, while realistic assumptions for the acquisition of the channel information are made. Assuming a single-user case, an analytical framework is developed, which is based on the Markov-chain theory, and is used to study the system's performance. The various performance results obtained reveal that with the proposed MS, the probability of mode switching can be reduced (as compared to other systems), and thus, an increase on the overhead and signal processing is avoided. Moreover, a new approach is applied in a multi-user communication scenario, where a joint MS, resource allocation (RA), and scheduling optimization problem is formulated. The solution to this problem is based on a greedy heuristic algorithm that properly assigns the available resources among cellular users and D2D pairs. The joint MS, RA, and scheduling algorithm considers limited SINR awareness and it provides significant performance improvement in terms of sum-rate.