•We present JABBA: a new open-source software for biomass dynamic stock assessment.•JABBA rapidly generates reproducible stock status estimates of interest for fisheries management.•Exclusive visual ...diagnostic tools to aid in identifying data conflicts.•Option to automatically produce future projections and retrospective analysis.
This study presents a new, open-source modelling software entitled ‘Just Another Bayesian Biomass Assessment’ (JABBA). JABBA can be used for biomass dynamic stock assessment applications, and has emerged from the development of a Bayesian State-Space Surplus Production Model framework, already applied in stock assessments of sharks, tuna, and billfishes around the world. JABBA presents a unifying, flexible framework for biomass dynamic modelling, runs quickly, and generates reproducible stock status estimates and diagnostic tools. Specific emphasis has been placed on flexibility for specifying alternative scenarios, achieving high stability and improved convergence rates. Default JABBA features include: 1) an integrated state-space tool for averaging and automatically fitting multiple catch per unit effort (CPUE) time series; 2) data-weighting through estimation of additional observation variance for individual or grouped CPUE; 3) selection of Fox, Schaefer, or Pella-Tomlinson production functions; 4) options to fix or estimate process and observation variance components; 5) model diagnostic tools; 6) future projections for alternative catch regimes; and 7) a suite of inbuilt graphics illustrating model fit diagnostics and stock status results. As a case study, JABBA is applied to the 2017 assessment input data for South Atlantic swordfish (Xiphias gladius). We envision that JABBA will become a widely used, open-source stock assessment tool, readily improved and modified by the global scientific community.
There is an increasing use of the procedure, anatomical endoscopic enucleation of the prostate, as an alternative to conventional transurethral resection of prostate for surgical treatment of benign ...prostatic hyperplasia. However, barriers to adoption of this procedure remain and no prior studies explored this important aspect till date. The aim of this study is to identify the predictors and barriers of surgeon‐related practices in this area. The study findings may also provide valuable insight into current practice trends worldwide. To achieve the objectives, we conducted an online, cross‐sectional, questionnaire‐based study between 1st September 2019 and 5th October 2019 to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices among urologists worldwide. Our findings showed that the main barriers for adoption of the procedure were lack of mentorship, a steep learning curve, and unavailability of morcellator, bipolar or laser energy sources. Fear of urinary incontinence, bleeding and bladder injury were not major hindrance to adoption of this technique. The results also demonstrated that there will be continued increase in utility of the procedure in the future.
Establishment of the radial distribution function by solving the Ornstein-Zernike equation is still an important problem, even more than a hundred years after the original paper publication. New ...strategies and approximations are common in the literature. A crucial step in this process consists in defining a closure relation which retrieves correlation functions in agreement with experiments or molecular simulations. In this paper, the functional Taylor expansion, as proposed by J. K. Percus, is applied to introduce two new closure relations: one that modifies the Percus‑Yevick closure relation and another one modifying the Hypernetted-Chain approximation. These new approximations will be applied to a hard sphere system. An improvement for the radial distribution function is observed in both cases. For some densities a greater accuracy, by a factor of five times compared to the original approximations, was obtained.
Termites are key components of tropical ecosystems, particularly in the Cerrado biome, where they dominate animal biomass and play crucial roles in nutrient cycling and soil formation. Their ...abundance and nutritional value make them primary food sources for various Cerrado animals, influencing predator diversity and several ecological interactions. Additionally, termite mounds serve as essential shelters for a wide range of fauna, aiding in thermoregulation and providing refuge from harsh environmental conditions, including wildfires. In this scenario, termitaria survival, diversity, and availability have several effects on the Cerrado fauna ecology. We present novel insights into the interaction between Actinobolus beetles and epigeous termite mounds in the Cerrado. Our field observations revealed Actinobolus beetles utilizing termite mounds for feeding and reproduction in several localities of Cerrado. These beetles access the inner portion of the termitaria, where the colony nest is located and protected by the termitaria's harder external layer and their larvae consume the termite nest structure. Actinobolus attack leads to partial or complete destruction of the colony and the creation of large hollows inside the mounds, causing deep changes in its structure. Despite the defensive mechanisms of termites, Actinobolus larvae thrive within the nest and likely ingest termites’ eggs, nymphae and adults. Furthermore, we found that the Actinobolus capsule are made of faecal pellets, instead of termitaria debris. We suggest that the interaction between Actinobolus beetles and epigeous termitaria impacts the role of termitaria in providing microclimate regulation, food and shelter for Cerrado fauna, likely having poorly understood effects on the conservation and management of Cerrado ecosystems.
Resumo
Os cupins são componentes‐chave dos ecossistemas tropicais, especialmente no bioma Cerrado, onde dominam a biomassa animal e desempenham papéis cruciais na ciclagem de nutrientes e na formação do solo. Sua abundância e valor nutricional os tornam fontes primárias de alimento para diversos animais do Cerrado, influenciando a diversidade de predadores e diversas interações ecológicas. Além disso, os cupinzeiros são abrigos essenciais para diversos animais, auxiliando na termorregulação e proporcionando refúgio contra condições ambientais adversas, incluindo incêndios florestais. Nesse cenário, a sobrevivência, a diversidade e a disponibilidade dos cupins têm vários efeitos na ecologia da fauna do Cerrado. Apresentamos novos observações sobre a interação entre besouros Actinobolus e cupinzeiros epígeos no Cerrado. Besouros do gênero Actinobolus utilizam cupinzeiros para alimentação e reprodução em diversas localidades do Cerrado. Esses besouros acessam a porção interna do cupinzeiro, onde o ninho da colônia está localizado e protegido pela camada externa mais dura do cupinzeiro, e suas larvas consomem a estrutura do ninho. O ataque de Actinobolus leva à destruição da colônia, criando grandes cavidades no interior dos cupinzeiros e causando alterações profundas em sua estrutura. Apesar dos mecanismos defensivos dos cupins, as larvas de Actinobolus prosperam dentro do ninho e provavelmente ingerem ovos, ninfas e adultos dos cupins. Além disso, observamos que capsulas de Actinobolus são feitas de pelotas fecais, em vez de restos de material vegetal encontrado no ninho. Sugerimos que a interação entre os besouros Actinobolus e os cupinzeiros epígeos impacta o papel dos cupinzeiros no fornecimento de regulação do microclima, alimento e abrigo para a fauna do Cerrado, provavelmente causando efeitos pouco compreendidos na conservação e manejo dos ecossistemas do Cerrado.
Abstract
Early diagnosis of COVID-19 in suspected patients is essential for contagion control and damage reduction strategies. We investigated the applicability of attenuated total reflection (ATR) ...Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy associated with machine learning in oropharyngeal swab suspension fluid to predict COVID-19 positive samples. The study included samples of 243 patients from two Brazilian States. Samples were transported by using different viral transport mediums (liquid 1 or 2). Clinical COVID-19 diagnosis was performed by the RT-PCR. We built a classification model based on partial least squares (PLS) associated with cosine k-nearest neighbours (KNN). Our analysis led to 84% and 87% sensitivity, 66% and 64% specificity, and 76.9% and 78.4% accuracy for samples of liquids 1 and 2, respectively. Based on this proof-of-concept study, we believe this method could offer a simple, label-free, cost-effective solution for high-throughput screening of suspect patients for COVID-19 in health care centres and emergency departments.
There has been a recent growth of interest in determining whether sound (specifically music and soundscapes) can enhance not only the basic taste attributes associated with food and beverage items ...(such as sweetness, bitterness, sourness, etc.), but also other important components of the tasting experience, such as, for instance, crunchiness, creaminess, and/or carbonation. In the present study, participants evaluated the perceived creaminess of chocolate. Two contrasting soundtracks were produced with such texture-correspondences in mind, and validated by means of a pre-test. The participants tasted the same chocolate twice (without knowing that the chocolates were identical), each time listening to one of the soundtracks. The ‘creamy’ soundtrack enhanced the perceived creaminess and sweetness of the chocolates, as compared to the ratings given while listening to the ‘rough’ soundtrack. Moreover, while the participants preferred the creamy soundtrack, this difference did not appear to affect their overall enjoyment of the chocolates. Interestingly, and in contrast with previous similar studies, these results demonstrate that in certain cases, sounds can have a perceptual effect on gustatory food attributes without necessarily altering the hedonic experience.
PurposeAversion linked to disgust and neophobia is the primary reason for human reluctance towards edible insects as a sustainable food source. Stimulating positive emotions may overcome these mental ...barriers. Cute visuals and claims on product packaging can trigger positive affective responses in consumers whilst modulating taste expectations. This study investigated how these elements influence emotions, perceptions and attitudes towards insect-based foods.Design/methodology/approachAn online cross-cultural study involving French (n = 747) and Colombian (n = 695) consumers was conducted using two insect-based products: chips (hedonic) and bread (functional). Ten visual packaging variations were created per product, emphasising palatability, sustainability, nutrition and popularity (plus a control: no claim) affixed to the image of a cute anthropomorphic cricket or its silhouette. Visual appreciation and associations were assessed along with the participants' degree of food variety seeking, familiarity with entomophagy and openness to consuming edible insects.FindingsDifferences were reported in emotions, perceptions and attitudes based on the combination of packaging elements, product type and consumer segments. The findings suggest that food marketers should use cute insect depictions linked to palatability-focussed claims to alleviate young French adults' reluctance towards insect-based foods (IFs). Colombians responded better to pro-social claims and neutrally to cuteness.Practical implicationsThe results should be valuable to stakeholders seeking to enhance food marketing strategies related to IFs amongst target consumer segments.Originality/valueThis study is the first to assess how baby schema cuteness induces emotional changes towards IFs and how it affects perceptions and attitudes amongst distinct populations and age segments.
Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) is a minimally invasive and size‐independent treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia with excellent long‐term surgical outcome. Considered ...difficult to learn, different modifications of the technique have been proposed in the last 21 years to overcome the most common problems encountered during this procedure. We present a step‐by‐step technique including the reasons and advantages of each modification we have progressively adopted until we evolved into our totally en‐bloc no‐touch low‐power HoLEP.
The purpose of this study was to examine the acute effects of 3 different stretching methods combined with a warm-up protocol on vertical jump performance. Sixteen young tennis players (14.5 ± 2.8 ...years; 175 ± 5.6 cm; 64.0 ± 11.1 kg) were randomly assigned to 4 different experimental conditions on 4 successive days. Each session consisted of a general and specific warm-up, with 5 minutes of running followed by 10 jumps, accompanied by one of the subsequent conditions: (a) Control Condition (CC)-5 minutes of passive rest; (b) Passive Stretching Condition (PSC)-5 minutes of passive static stretching; (c) Active Stretching Condition (ASC)-5 minutes of active static stretching; and (d) Dynamic Stretching Condition (DC)-5 minutes of dynamic stretching. After each intervention, the subjects performed 3 squat jumps (SJs) and 3 countermovement jumps (CMJs), which were measured electronically. For the SJ, 1-way repeated measures analysis of variance (CC × PSC × ASC × DC) revealed significant decreases for ASC (28.7 ± 4.7 cm; p = 0.01) and PSC (28.7 ± 4.3 cm; p = 0.02) conditions when compared with CC (29.9 ± 5.0 cm). For CMJs, there were no significant decreases (p > 0.05) when all stretching conditions were compared with the CC. Significant increases in SJ performance were observed when comparing the DC (29.6 ± 4.9 cm; p = 0.02) with PSC (28.7 ± 4.3 cm). Significant increases in CMJ performance were observed when comparing the conditions ASC (34.0 ± 6.0 cm; p = 0.04) and DC (33.7 ± 5.5 cm; p = 0.03) with PSC (32.6 ± 5.5 cm). A dynamic stretching intervention appears to be more suitable for use as part of a warm-up in young athletes.
Upper-limb movements are often composed of regular submovements, and neural correlates of submovement frequencies between 1 and 4 Hz have been found in the motor cortex. The temporal profile of ...movements is usually assumed to be determined by extrinsic factors such as limb biomechanics and feedback delays, but another possibility is that an intrinsic rhythmicity contributes to low frequencies in behavior. We used multielectrode recordings in monkeys performing an isometric movement task to reveal cyclic activity in primary motor cortex locked to submovements, and a distinct oscillation in premotor cortex. During ketamine sedation and natural sleep, cortical activity traversed similar cycles and became synchronized across areas. Because the same cortical dynamics are coupled to submovements and also observed in the absence of behavior, we conclude that the motor networks controlling the upper limb exhibit an intrinsic periodicity at submovement frequencies that is reflected in the speed profile of movements.
•Local field potentials (LFPs) and neural firing are phase locked to submovements•Movement kinematics can be decoded from the areal velocity of LFP trajectories•The same dynamic patterns are seen during free reaching, sleep, and sedation•An intrinsic periodicity in motor circuits imposes temporal structure on behavior
Hall et al. find that a common 3 Hz oscillation in the motor cortex of monkeys explains both the speed profile of movements and slow-wave activity during sleep and sedation. These results reveal how intrinsic network dynamics shape upper-limb behaviors.
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