A test set of N,N,N',N'-tetrasubstituted p-phenylenediamines are experimentally explored using ESR (electron spin resonance) spectroscopy and analysed from a computational standpoint thereafter. This ...computational study aims to further aid structural characterisation by comparing experimental ESR hyperfine coupling constants (hfccs) with computed values calculated using ESR-optimised "J-style" basis sets (6-31G(d,p)-J, 6-31G(d,p)-J, 6-311++G(d,p)-J, pcJ-1, pcJ-2 and cc-pVTZ-J) and hybrid-DFT functionals (B3LYP, PBE0, TPSSh, ωB97XD) as well as MP2. PBE0/6-31g(d,p)-J with a polarised continuum solvation model (PCM) correlated best with the experiment, giving an Rsup.2 value of 0.8926. A total of 98% of couplings were deemed satisfactory, with five couplings observed as outlier results, thus degrading correlation values significantly. A higher-level electronic structure method, namely MP2, was sought to improve outlier couplings, but only a minority of couples showed improvement, whilst the remaining majority of couplings were negatively degraded.
Based on prior results showing strong population-level footedness in Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) fish-carrying behavior, we sought to investigate how much geographic variation in Osprey footedness ...exists. We scored 342 photographs from the Macaulay Library in which an Osprey carried a fish with 1 foot in front and the other in back. Unlike the prior study, we did not find evidence of strong footedness at a population level, and indeed were unable to reject the null hypothesis of no footedness despite a large sample. We were also unable to reject the null hypothesis that New World and Old World Ospreys exhibit similar orientation frequencies. Received 18 March 2023. Accepted 23 September 2023.
Argiope anasuja Thorell, 1887 is a species of orb-weaving spider found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Despite its widespread distribution, little is known about its natural history ...and mating behavior. In this study, I describe some aspects of the natural history and mating behaviors of A. anasuja in captivity and in natural habitats. The spiders were found to occupy less shady areas close to water bodies, building their webs between 50 to 200 cm above the ground level. Web decorations were common in female webs, primarily in the central area, and consisted of dense zigzag bands of silk. A significant difference in copulation duration was observed between cannibalized and non-cannibalized individuals. Furthermore, a significant difference in copulation duration was found between individuals in natural environments and laboratory conditions. However, no significant difference was observed in courtship duration between individuals in natural environment and laboratory conditions. Understanding the mating behaviors of A. anasuja is important because they play a key role in determining the success of mating. This study highlights the natural history and mating behavior of A. anasuja, contributing to our understanding of this species in Sri Lanka.
Usurpation and Brooding of Least Tern Sullivan, Jeffery D; Irons, Jonathan; Treadway, Anna ...
Diversity (Basel),
12/2023, Volume:
16, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
While nest usurpation and subsequent incubation of eggs and even brooding of chicks from other species has been reported for Common Terns (Sterna hirundo), such behavior is considered rare. We report ...an observation of a Common Tern pair usurping the Least Tern (Sternula antillarum) nest and brooding the Least Tern chicks. While the Least Tern pair attempted to provide care for the chicks, the Common Terns displayed aggressive behavior and defended the nest. Though both species attempted to feed the chicks, no feeding events were observed due to harassment from the other species. Neither pair was observed nesting prior to or following this event, and all chicks are believed to have been lost to predation. We discuss the possible scenarios leading to the observed usurpation event, the possibility that usurpations are more common than previously believed, and the need for different monitoring methods to elucidate the causes of usurpations.
This paper presents a modelling of nanofluid flow using Caputo fractional derivatives through conservative equations of mass and momentum, and provides an exact solution on un-steady convective flow ...over a vertical plate with the mass diffusion effect, in association with an energy equation. Hsub.2O is the base liquid with clay nanoparticles floating in it in a uniform way. Boussinessq’s approach is used in the momentum equation for pressure gradient. The non-dimensional fluid temperature, species concentration and fluid transport are derived together with Jacob Fourier sine and Laplace transform techniques in terms of exponential decay function, and the inverse is computed further in terms of the Mittag-Leffler function. The impact of various physical quantities is interpreted with the fractional order of the Caputo derivatives. The obtained temperature, transport and species concentration profiles show behaviors for 0 < α < 1, where α is the fractional parameter. The rate of heat and mass transfer coefficients for the significance of physical quantities of interest are also obtained and presented through graphs. The impact of the nanoparticle volume fraction on the flow field is observed. At larger values of the fractional parameter, the velocity, temperature, and concentration distributions grow more quickly. In addition to that, it is found the concentration profiles behave in the opposite way for the volume fraction of nanofluids.
This is the first study to investigate the spatial distribution and population structure of the tub gurnard (Chelidonichthys lucerna) in different regions of the northeast Atlantic. To analyze fish ...body shape, a morphometry-based method, which helps identify variations in fish body shape that may exist due to genetic factors or environmental adaptability, was used. This study relied on C. lucerna individuals captured in the following three fishing areas: Conwy Bay (United Kingdom), Biscay Bay (Spain) and Matosinhos (Portugal). The findings indicate the existence of significant regional differences in fish bodies, thus highlighting the existence of distinct fish populations in the three regions. Results also suggest that the Spanish and British populations may inhabit similar habitats, as some similarities in body shape were found. To confirm these findings, we recommend future research using a holistic approach with alternative and complimentary stock assessment tools. The study of geometric morphometrics among stocks has proven to be a valuable tool in delineating fish spatial distributions and discriminating distinct population units. Variations in fish body morphology can be linked to genetic factors or to phenotypic adaptability in response to environmental variables. The tub gurnard (Chelidonichthys lucerna) is a demersal species that usually lives in the bottom of the continental shelf, being widely distributed along the northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black seas. Worldwide interest in the species has increased since 2006, when ICES recognized its potential for commercial exploitation. However, despite its broad geographic occurrence, to date, research on C. lucerna population structure at large spatial scales is still lacking. In this paper, body geometric morphometrics, using a landmark-based truss network, was applied in order to discriminate C. lucerna populations caught in three different fishery grounds areas along the northeast Atlantic: Conwy Bay (United Kingdom), Biscay Bay (Spain) and Matosinhos (Portugal). The results obtained in this study revealed a high overall relocation success (95%) of samples to their original locations, thus demonstrating the existence of significant regional differences and indicating that we are dealing with different fish population units. Moreover, the data revealed a partial overlap between individuals from Spain and United Kingdom, suggesting that in geographically distant areas these populations may inhabit similar environments. However, to corroborate these findings, future works using a holistic approach with alternative and complimentary stock assessment tools (e.g., genetic and phenotypic natural tags) are highly recommended.
Behavioral analysis of animals in the wild plays an important role for ecological research and conservation and has been mostly performed by researchers. We introduce an action detection approach ...that automates this process by detecting animals and performing action recognition on the detected animals in camera trap videos. Our action detection approach is based on SWIFT (segmentation with filtering of tracklets), which we have already shown to successfully detect and track animals in wildlife videos, and MAROON (mask-guided action recognition), an action recognition network that we are introducing here. The basic ideas of MAROON are the exploitation of the instance masks detected by SWIFT and a triple-stream network. The instance masks enable more accurate action recognition, especially if multiple animals appear in a video at the same time. The triple-stream approach extracts features for the motion and appearance of the animal. We evaluate the quality of our action recognition on two self-generated datasets, from an animal enclosure and from the wild. These datasets contain videos of red deer, fallow deer and roe deer, recorded both during the day and night. MAROON improves the action recognition accuracy compared to other state-of-the-art approaches by an average of 10 percentage points on all analyzed datasets and achieves an accuracy of 69.16% on the Rolandseck Daylight dataset, in which 11 different action classes occur. Our action detection system makes it possible todrasticallyreduce the manual work of ecologists and at the same time gain new insights through standardized results.
The current study aimed to evaluate the presence of chemical variations in essential oils (EOs) extracted from Artemisia scoparia growing at different altitudes and to reveal their antibacterial, ...mosquito larvicidal, and repellent activity. The gas chromatographic–mass spectrometric analysis of A. scoparia EOs revealed that the major compounds were capillene (9.6–31.8%), methyleugenol (0.2–26.6%), β-myrcene (1.9–21.4%), γ-terpinene (1.5–19.4%), trans-β-caryophyllene (0.8–12.4%), and eugenol (0.1–9.1%). The EO of A. scoparia collected from the city of Attock at low elevation was the most active against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria (minimum inhibitory concentration of 156–1250 µg/mL) and showed the best mosquito larvicidal activity (LCsub.50, 55.3 mg/L). The EOs of A. scoparia collected from the high-altitude areas of Abbottabad and Swat were the most repellent for females of Ae. aegypti and exhibited repellency for 120 min and 165 min, respectively. The results of the study reveal that different climatic conditions and altitudes have significant effects on the chemical compositions and the biological activity of essential oils extracted from the same species.
Trachinus draco and Trachinus radiatus are two bycatch species of low commercial value and no sufficient knowledge on their biological features. In the present study, the weight–length relationship, ...age, growth, and ten otolith morphometric variables of these species were investigated in the southwestern Aegean Sea for the first time. Positive allometric and isometric growth in the weight were defined in T. draco and T. radiatus. The weight–length relationship was described by the parameters α = 0.002415 and b = 3.35745 in T. draco and α = 0.007582 and b = 3.09452 in T. radiatus. The von Bertalanffy growth function parameters were L∞ = 44.51 cm, k = 0.15 yearsup.−1, and t sub.0 = −1.31 years for T. draco and L∞ = 58.47 cm, k = 0.16 yearsup.−1, and t sub.0 = −0.78 years for T. radiatus. Ten otolith variables (radius, length, width, area, perimeter, roundness, circularity, form factor, rectangularity, and ellipticity) showed a significant relationship with size for both species, except the ellipticity in T. radiatus. The mean values of all the otolith variables were higher in T. radiatus than in T. draco. The otolith of T. radiatus was found to become more rectangular with size as compared to the otolith of T. radiatus. The results of this work can support further research on the behavioral and ecological features of the two species.
Biology is always data intensive, and technology has accelerated Biology through newer means of observation. The earliest microscope allowed us only to observe cells. Now we can manipulate cells, ...identify each component at the molecular level and document their behaviors in different contexts, even in a whole animal. With every new technology, the throughput, and resolution of our observations have increased. These tools allow us to identify cause-effect relations that were hitherto hidden from us. Data from high-throughput experiments also allows us to look beyond the average behavior of cells or population and explore the heterogeny in a biological phenomenon. This also gave impetus to the concept of personalized medicine that envisions customizing treatments for each patient. But all these high-throughput experiments burden us with large data sets, that are often indirect, convoluted and require extensive mathematical tools for analysis. In this talk, we will discuss different types of 'large-scale' data relevant to basic research in biology as well as in clinical practice. We will discuss both structured and unstructured data. We will explore how mathematical tools are now used to process, clean and to extract meaning out of those data. We will also discuss some of the misconceptions, and pitfalls that lurk behind such data-intensive biology.
