Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Previous experiences shape adaptive mate preferences

Existing models of mate choice assume that individuals have perfect knowledge of their own ability to attract a mate and can adjust their preferences accordingly. However, real animals will typically be uncertain of their own attractiveness. A potentially useful source of information on this is the feedback from previous encounters with potential mates. Here, we develop a dynamic model of mutual mate choice in which both males and females are initially ignorant of their own attractiveness. Individuals sequentially sample potential mates and retain some information about the outcome of these encounters (e.g., the number of times they are accepted or rejected). We use a simplified process of mutation and selection to evolve an adaptive strategy for mate choice under these conditions. The stable strategy we find is the one in which individuals are sensitive to this previous experience, adjusting their mate preferences according to the interest received from members of the opposite sex. In general, experiences of rejection tend to reduce choosiness, whereas experiences of acceptance tend to increase it. Sensitivity to previous experiences allows individuals to exercise a prudent mate-choice strategy in which their preferences are gradually tuned to their prospects on the mating market. This flexibility is based on simple rules and does not require sophisticated cognitive abilities. Our basic predictions can be tested in systems where both males and females are choosy, and it is possible to manipulate the level of interest shown by potential mates. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.
Activity and Reaction Mechanism of the Initial Enzymatic Step Specifying the Microbial Degradation of 2,4‐Dichlorophenoxyacetate

The capability of Delftia acidovorans MC1010 (SdpA+, RdpA–) to degrade the herbicides 2,4‐dichlorophenoxyacetate (2,4‐D) and 4‐chloro‐2‐methylphenoxyacetate (MCPA) was investigated in batch degradation experiments and interpreted in the light of the catalytic activity of the initial enzyme SdpA, an α‐ketoglutarate‐dependent dioxygenase, catalyzing the cleavage of the ether bond. Dense inocula of this strain degraded high initial 2,4‐D concentrations quickly to below the detection limit. The specific degradation rate became slower and the degradation remained incomplete when low initial biomass concentrations and/or 2,4‐D concentrations were used. With low initial 2,4‐D concentrations, the degradation rate became nearly concentration‐independent. This effect was less pronounced with MCPA, a substrate that is more readily degraded by SdpA than 2,4‐D. (S)‐2‐(2,4‐dichlorophenoxy)propionate ((S)‐2,4‐DP), the favored substrate of SdpA used as comparison, was almost completely utilized under the various conditions. The observed differences were attributed to the easier regeneration of the essential co‐substrate α‐ketoglutarate with MCPA and above all (S)‐2,4‐DP as a substrate compared to 2,4‐D. Decreasing SdpA activity, which was observed during the starvation of MC1010, will contribute to the apparent recalcitrance of 2,4‐D. Degradation of 2,4‐D by Bradyrhizobium sp. RD5‐C2, a strain initiating 2,4‐D cleavage by a monooxygenase not requiring an organic intermediate as a co‐substrate, proceeded to completion despite the approximately 20‐fold lower degradation rates compared to those obtained with strain MC1010. However, lowering of biomass concentrations resulted in restricted degradation also with strain RD5‐C2. The results were discussed in terms of the kind of co‐substrate in the cleavage reaction, the availability of essential intracellular metabolites, and the cells' maintenance demands.
Fertility, Biology, and Behavior: An Analysis of the Proximate Determinants

Fertility, Biology, and Behavior: An Analysis of the Proximate Determinants presents the proximate determinants of natural fertility. This book discusses the biological and behavioral dimensions of human fertility that are linked to intermediate fertility variables. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the mechanisms through which socioeconomic variables influence fertility. This text then examines the absolute and relative age-specific marital fertility rates of selected populations. Other chapters consider the trends in total fertility rates of selected countries, including Colombia, Kenya, Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, France, and United States. This book discusses as well the effects of deliberate marital fertility control through contraception and induced abortion. The final chapter deals with the management of sex composition and implications for birth spacing. This book is a valuable resource for reproductive physiologists, social scientists, demographers, statisticians, biologists, and graduate students with an interest in the biological and behavioral control of human fertility.
Sexual harassment in live-bearing fishes (Poeciliidae): comparing courting and noncourting species

Sexual harassment by males has been reported from several live-bearing fishes (Poeciliidae) and has been shown to inflict costs on females. For example, poeciliid females have reduced feeding opportunities when accompanied by a male because females dedicate attention to avoiding male copulation attempts. Poeciliid species differ considerably in male mating behavior, such as the presence or absence of courtship. Courting males display in front of the females, but males attempting to sneak-copulate approach females from behind, that is, in the blind portion of their visual field, and force copulations, which can be viewed as a male persistence trait. We predicted that poeciliid females need to be more vigilant in the presence of noncourting males, and costs of harassment by noncourting males might be stronger. In a comparative approach we examined the costs of male sexual harassment for females as reduced feeding time in 9 species of live-bearing fishes, including courting (Poecilia latipinna, Poecilia reticulata, Xiphophorus cortezi, Xiphophorus variatus) and noncourting species (Poecilia mexicana [surface- and cave-dwelling form], Poecilia orri, Gambusia affinis, Gambusia geiseri, Heterandria formosa). In all species examined except for the cave form of P. mexicana, focal females spent significantly less time feeding in the presence of a male than when together with another female. The time females spent feeding was found to significantly decline with increasing male mating activity (sum of all sexual behaviors), but there was no support for the idea that females would spend more time feeding in the presence of courting males compared with noncourting ones. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.
Antifungal activities of neem (Azadirachta indica) seed kernel extracts on postharvest diseases in fruits.

To learn the antifungal effects of neem seed kernel extract (NE) on the post harvest diseases, pathogens of Monilinia fructicola, Penicillium expansum, Trichothecium roseum and Alternaria alternate isolated from the infected fruit were treated with NE in vitro. Results showed that growth of the four pathogens could be significantly (P < 0.05) reduced by NE. The diseases in fruit of plum (Prunus salicina) or Yali pear (Pyrus bertschneideri) inoculated with the pathogens could be prevented remarkably by treated fruit with NE. Key words: Neem seed kernel extracts, antifungal, fruits, post harvest, pathogens
Viróides e virusóides: relíquias do mundo de RNA

Viroids and virusoids: relics of the RNA world By the middle of the last century, viruses were considered as the simplest biological entities. The discovery of satellite RNAs and viroids by 1970 was surprising because it revealed the existence of a novel class of self-replicating molecules even simpler, named subviral agents. There are evidences that viroids and virusoids (a class of satellite RNAs) were part of the so-called “RNA world” (that preceded our present world based on DNA and proteins) and for this reason they can be considered as molecular fossils of this ancient period. The simplicity of these subviral agents and the fact that the RNA molecule must interact directly with host factors for completing their infective cycle make these pathogens a model for the study of cellular processes. In the last years, a large number of publications have widened our knowledge of the viroid-host interactions, including pathogenesis mechanisms, movement through the host, gene silencing and ribozyme activity. Recent changes have been introduced in the taxonomy of these pathogens, with the creation of families, genera and species, and new viroids have also been found. The purpose of this review is to present the reader with these recent advances in viroid research, mainly on taxonomy, phylogeny and in molecular aspects of the viroid-host interaction. Some characteristics of virusoids and their evolutionary relationship with viroids are also included. Additional keywords: plant pathogen interaction, gene silencing, evolution, rybozime, satellite RNA, taxonomy, TXDVLVSHFLHV�
A rock-ramp fishway expands nursery grounds of the endangered Macquarie perch (Macquaria australasica)

Abstract. Prior to installation of a fishway at a road crossing in 2001, a remnant population of endangered Macquarie perch (Macquaria australasica) was confined to a 6-km section of the Cotter River, Australian Capital Territory. The purpose of the fishway was to provide passage past a barrier and to increase the extent of spawning grounds for M. australasica to an additional 22 km of river. The aim of the current study was to quantify the extent of nursery grounds of M. australasica in the Cotter River catchment by developing and applying a rapid, non-destructive technique for surveying juvenile M. australasica. From October to January in 2006–07 and 2007–08, pools were surveyed by snorkelling in the lower Cotter River to detect juvenile and larval M. australasica. The 9-km study reach consisted of the four pools immediately upstream of Cotter Reservoir, seven pools further upstream but still downstream of the rockramp fishway and 14 pools upstream of the fishway. In 2006–07, juvenile M. australasica were detected at 22 of 25 pools, including 13 of 14 pools upstream of the fishway. In spring/summer 2007–08, low visibility conditions frequently occurred throughout the river preventing survey on several occasions. However, recruitment of M. australasica was again detected upstream of the fishway. The increased extent of the nursery grounds of this M. australasica population has proven to be timely as an enlargement of the Cotter Reservoir, due for completion in 2012, will inundate more than 90% of prefishway nursery grounds in the Cotter River. Our study has demonstrated the benefit of installing a fishway in expanding the nursery grounds and the number of recruits of a remnant population of the endangered M. australasica. We also demonstrate the benefits of employing a visual survey technique to quantify the extent of the riverine nursery grounds of a fish population.
Rapid Range Expansion of the Wool-Carder Bee, Anthidium manicatum (Linnaeus) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), in North America

Abstract Anthidium manicatum (L.) is an adventive species of European origin first recorded in North America in the late 1960's; from that point until 2001 its range on the continent was restricted to the northeast-central USA and central Canada (Ontario, more recently Québec). In 2005, this species was reported from Nova Scotia, a rapid and wide increase in its distribution. In this paper, we document a similar rapid spread of A. manicatum into western North America, including British Columbia and Idaho, and discuss the potential risks of this species in eastern Canada. In addition, the potential of DNA barcoding as a rapid and reliable means of recognizing adventive bee species is advocated.
Yield responses of sesame (Sesamium indicum L) to rates of poultry manure application and time of planting in a derived savannah ecology of south eastern Nigeria

A study was conducted in the year 2009 and repeated in 2010 to determine the response of sesame ( Sesamum indicum L.) to date of planting and rates of poultry manure application in derived savannah ecology of south eastern Nigeria. The experiment was laid out in a 3 x 3 factorial experiment in randomized complete block design in three replications. The factors considered are time of planting and manure rates. Three planting seasons (July, August and September) and three poultry manure rates (0.0, 5.0 and 10.0 tons/ha) were chosen. In the second year, times of planting were June, July and August, while manure application rates remained the same. The results show that early planting and poultry manure application in both years promoted the yield attributes measured. Seed yield/ha decreased by 41.6 and 91.1% as planting was delayed from July to August and to September in 2009, while in 2010, it decreased by 16.4 and 31.8% as planting was delayed from June to July and to August. Application of 5.0 and 10.0 tons/ha of poultry manure increased seed yield by 33.55 and 76.9%, respectively in 2009 season, while in 2010, it increased by 156.6 and197.4%, with the application of 5.0 and 10.0 tons/ha of poultry manure. The interaction of time of planting and manure rates showed a trend of increased seed yield as planting was done early with high manure rate, hence, the highest seed yield was obtained from July planting with 10.0 tons/ha manure in 2009 and from June with 10.0 tons/ha manure in 2010. Key words: Sesame, poultry manure, time of planting, interaction.
A Simple Bioassay for Brassinosteroids: A Wheat Leaf-unrolling Test

Brassinolide is a plant growth-promoting steroidal lactone that has been isolated from rape pollen.1} Brassinolide and its related brassinosteroids have been found in various plant sources by Japanese researchers.2 ~13) The ubiquitousness of brassinostroids in higher plants suggests that endogenous brassinosteroids have an important function in the regulation of plant growth. Wehave previously reported that brassinolide and its synthetic derivatives showed strong activity in the rice lamina inclination test,14'15) and that this
Pathogen accumulation and long‐term dynamics of plant invasions

The diversity of pathogens on highly abundant introduced hosts has been positively correlated with time since introduction, geographical range of the introduced species and diversity of invaded habitats. However, little is known about the ecological effects of pathogen accumulation on non‐native invasive plants. Pathogen accumulation on invasive plant species may result from ecological processes such as high plant densities, expanding geographical ranges and pathogen dispersal from the native range, or evolutionary mechanisms such as host range shifts and adaptation of native pathogens to invasive species. Over time pathogen accumulation may cause decline in the density and distribution of invasive plants and facilitate recovery of native species. Alternatively, pathogens might build up on invasive species and then spill back onto co‐occurring native species, further exacerbating the effects of invasions. Synthesis. Research efforts should focus on determining the long‐term outcomes of pathogen accumulation on invasive species. Such research will require multifaceted approaches including comparative studies of diverse invasive species and habitats, experimental manipulations of hosts and pathogens in nature and controlled environments, and predictive models of host‐pathogen interactions within an invasion framework. Results of this research will improve our understanding and ability to predict the outcomes of biological invasions.
Ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with Pinus sylvestris seedlings respond differently to increased carbon and nitrogen availability: implications for ecosystem responses to global change

The ectomycorrhizal (ECM) symbiosis can cause both positive and negative feedback with trees under elevated CO2. Positive feedback arises if the additional carbon (C) increases both nutrient uptake by the fungus and nutrient transfer to the plant, whereas negative feedback results from increased nutrient uptake and immobilization by the fungus and reduced transfer to the plant. Because species of ECM fungi differ in their C and nitrogen (N) demand, understanding fungal species‐specific responses to variation in C and N supply is essential to predict impacts of global change. We investigated fungal species‐specific responses of ECM Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) seedlings under ambient and elevated CO2 (350 or 700 μL L−1 CO2) and under low and high mineral N availability. Each seedling was associated with one of the following ECM species: Hebeloma cylindrosporum, Laccaria bicolor and Suillus bovinus. The experiment lasted 103 days. During the final 27 days, seedlings were labeled with 14CO2 and 15N. Most plant and fungal parameters were significantly affected by fungal species, CO2 level and N supply. Interactions between fungal species and CO2 were also regularly significant. At low N availability, elevated CO2 had the smallest impact on the photosynthetic performance of seedlings inoculated with H. cylindrosporum and the largest impact on seedlings with S. bovinus. At ambient CO2, increasing N supply had the smallest impact on seedlings inoculated with S. bovinus and the largest on seedlings inoculated with H. cylindrosporum. At low N availability, extraradical hyphal length increased after doubling CO2 level, but this was significant only for L. bicolor. At ambient CO2, increasing N levels reduced hyphal length for both H. cylindrosporum and S. bovinus, but not for L. bicolor. We discuss the potential interplay of two major elements of global change, elevated CO2 and increased N availability, and their effects on plant growth. We conclude that increased N supply potentially relieves mycorrhiza‐induced progressive N limitation under elevated CO2.
A review and vision on authentication and privacy preservation schemes in smart grid network

Security and privacy preservation are important research challenges in Internet of Things (IoT) applications, wherein the information related to customers' habit is seamlessly collected for further analytics. One such IoT application; Smart grid (SG) network uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to automate the traditional electricity network between customers and utility companies. In the SG setting, on one side, there is a seamless exchange of energy consumption information, demand change and price change messages between customers and utility grid; on the other side, it offers various cyber security challenges. To avoid some‐one intercepting these messages and modify personal information, it is necessary to communicate these messages using an appropriate security and privacy preservation scheme. The objective of this article is conduct a comprehensive survey on existing security and privacy techniques being developed for the SG network. The survey presented in this article is motivated by the earlier research attempts on cyber security issues in SG, key management techniques, authentication schemes and privacy preservation techniques in SG network. The paper provides a wide review on various authentication techniques till recent developments on lightweight authentication and the privacy preservation techniques including encryption based privacy preservation using homomorphic encryption, elliptic curve cryptography, and lattice cryptography. Furthermore, the article presents our vision on privacy and utility trade‐off issues, privacy enhancement using blockchains, lightweight cryptography, and security challenges in fog node.
Enhancing land cover classification for multispectral images using hybrid polarimetry SAR data

ABSTRACT The recent development of hybrid polarimetry synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with decomposition techniques has improved land cover mapping. The generation of land cover maps using land cover classifications of different scenarios was carried out for Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India using optical and hybrid polarimetry SAR data. The present study focuses on evaluating the capability and contribution of hybrid decomposition techniques from Radar Imaging Satellite-1 (RISAT-1) data to improve the optical image classification accuracy. Hybrid decomposition techniques such as m-delta (m-δ), m-chi (m-χ) and m-alpha (m-α) were extracted using Stokes parameters from circular fine resolution stripmap-1 (cFRS-1) mode of RISAT-1 data. Grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) textural bands were extracted from backscattering images of RISAT-1 and spectral bands of linear imaging self scanning sensor – IV (LISS-IV) image. The hybrid decomposition parameters were used to improve the classification accuracies of SAR and optical images and compared with GLCM textural bands. Support vector machine (SVM) classifier was performed for different scenarios and accuracy assessment was evaluated for all the classified images using confusion matrix with help of reference data. The study observed that the RISAT-1 derived products provided reasonable classification accuracy (54%) and also provided better results when added to spectral bands of LISS-IV (74%). The mean and dissimilarity of GLCM textural bands provided best classification, when added individually with RISAT-1 (66%) and LISS-IV (82%), and combined with RISAT-1 and LISS-IV (80%). The results indicate that the optical sensor performs better for the classification of water bodies, fallow land and settlement, however, plantation and rice crops are better classified when combined with SAR hybrid decomposition parameters. The study also observed that GLCM textural bands may change the pixel values based on the window size. The changed pixel values contributed to improving the classification accuracy by 15%. The selected classification and processing methods resulted in reasonable accuracy in land cover mapping in a hilly area with intermittent plains.
Comparison of Two Life History Strategies after Impoundment of a Historically Anadromous Stock of Columbia River Redband Trout

Abstract In this study we collected information on abundance, age structure, migration, and exploitation to characterize the population demographics and reproductive characteristics of a historically anadromous Columbia River Redband Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri population now isolated in a southwestern Idaho reservoir and limited to resident and adfluvial life histories. We estimated there were 3,905 adfluvial individuals in Mann Creek Reservoir in October 2008 based on a mark–recapture population estimate. The adfluvial population sex ratio of 2.78 females per male captured at a weir, peak spawn timing near the peak of the hydrograph (late April), age at spawning (4–6 years), and growth patterns (slow growth in the stream followed by rapid growth in the reservoir) were all characteristic of an anadromous population. Resident fish abundance was not estimated, but the fish were characterized by relatively slow growth, earlier sexual maturity, and a reverse sex ratio (0.23 females per male) compared.