Search results for "computer"

Cost-efficiency assessments of marine monitoring methods lack rigor—a systematic mapping of literature and an end-user view on optimal cost-efficienc…

2021

Global deterioration of marine ecosystems, together with increasing pressure to use them, has created a demand for new, more efficient and cost-efficient monitoring tools that enable assessing changes in the status of marine ecosystems. However, demonstrating the cost-efficiency of a monitoring method is not straightforward as there are no generally applicable guidelines. Our study provides a systematic literature mapping of methods and criteria that have been proposed or used since the year 2000 to evaluate the cost-efficiency of marine monitoring methods. We aimed to investigate these methods but discovered that examples of actual cost-efficiency assessments in literature were rare, contr…

The application of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing machinery in food and agricultural science: Current status, future perspectives, and associated cha…

2019

The recent progress in genetic engineering has brought multiple benefits to the food and agricultural industry by enhancing the essential characteristics of agronomic traits. Powerful tools in the field of genome editing, such as siRNA-mediated RNA interference for targeted suppression of gene expression and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) for DNA repair have been widely used for commercial purposes. However, in the last few years, the discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 system has revolutionized genome editing and has attracted attention as a powerful tool for several industrial applications. Herein, we review current progresses in the uti…

Cross inhibition improves activity selection when switching incurs time costs

2015

Abstract We consider a behavioural model of an animal choosing between two activities, based on positive feedback, and examine the effect of introducing cross inhibition between the motivations for the two activities. While cross-inhibition has previously been included in models of decision making, the question of what benefit it may provide to an animal’s activity selection behaviour has not previously been studied. In neuroscience and in collective behaviour cross-inhibition, and other equivalent means of coupling evidence-accumulating pathways, have been shown to approximate statistically-optimal decision-making and to adaptively break deadlock, thereby improving decision performance. Sw…

Individual-Based Tracking Systems in Ornithology: Welcome to the Era of Big Data

2016

Technological innovations have led to exciting fast-moving developments in science. Today, we are living in a technology-driven era of biological discovery. Consequently, tracking technologies have facilitated dramatic advances in the fundamental understanding of ecology and animal behaviour. Major technological improvements, such as the development of GPS dataloggers, geolocators and other bio-logging technologies, provide a volume of data that were hitherto unconceivable. Hence we can claim that ornithology has entered the era of big data. In this paper, which is particularly addressed to undergraduate students and starting researchers in the emerging field of movement ecology, I summaris…

Management Elements for Two Alburninae Species, Alburnus alburnus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Alburnoides bipunctatus (Bloch, 1782) Based on a Decision-Supp…

2019

Abstract ADONIS:CE has been used as a base to create a support-system management decision-making model for Alburnus alburnus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Alburnoides bipunctatus (Bloch, 1782) species. Investigation of the habitat necessities and the identification of the necessary elements for a good status of conservation of these two fish species populations has revealed the pressures and threats to these congener species, for which specific management activities have been finally recommended.

Decision support systems (DSS) for wastewater treatment plants - A review of the state of the art.

2019

The use of decision support systems (DSS) allows integrating all the issues related with sustainable development in view of providing a useful support to solve multi-scenario problems. In this work an extensive review on the DSSs applied to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is presented. The main aim of the work is to provide an updated compendium on DSSs in view of supporting researchers and engineers on the selection of the most suitable method to address their management/operation/design problems. Results showed that DSSs were mostly used as a comprehensive tool that is capable of integrating several data and a multi-criteria perspective in order to provide more reliable results. Only …

On the Role of Perception: Understanding Stakeholders’ Collaboration in Natural Resources Management through the Evolutionary Theory of Innovation

2021

Natural resources management deals with highly complex socioecological systems. This complexity raises a conundrum, since wide-ranging knowledge from different sources and types is needed, but at the same time none of these types of knowledge is able by itself to provide the basis for a viable productive system, and mismatches between the two of them are common. Therefore, a growing body of literature has examined the integration of different types of knowledge in fisheries management. In this paper, we aim to contribute to this ongoing debate by integrating the evolutionary theory of innovation—and specifically the concept of proximity—and the theory of perception. We set up a theoretical …

Modeling dense inflorescences

2016

Showy inflorescences - clusters of flowers - are a common feature of many plants, greatly contributing to their beauty. The large numbers of individual flowers (florets), arranged in space in a systematic manner, make inflorescences a natural target for procedural modeling. We present a suite of biologically motivated algorithms for modeling and animating the development of inflorescences with closely packed florets. These inflorescences share the following characteristics: (i) in their ensemble, the florets form a relatively smooth, often approximately planar surface; (ii) there are numerous collisions between petals of the same or adjacent florets; and (iii) the developmental stage and ty…

Persistence of submerged macrophytes in a drying world: Unravelling the timing and the environmental drivers to produce drought-resistant propagules

2018

Onset of natal dispersal in Peregrine Falcon from Mediterranean islands (Italy)

2018

Abstract Basic information on natal dispersal of Peregrine Falcons is virtually lacking in Europe, despite increased attention on this species, and the sensitivity of this stage in the Peregrines’ life history. In this study, we collected satellite telemetry data during the onset of natal dispersal of 19 Peregrine Falcons tagged in Sicily and the Aeolian archipelago (Italy). We divided the onset of dispersal into the following 3 periods: post-fledging dependence period (PFDP), wandering, and wintering. PFDP lasted on average 47±16 days, during which young peregrines moved very little (0.167 km), and explored small areas (0.226 km2) far from the nest cliff, and showed no sex differences. The…