Search results for "selection"
showing 10 items of 1940 documents
Mammalian nest predator feces as a cue in avian habitat selection decisions
2012
Breeding habitat selection is expected to be adaptive. Animals should respond to strong agents of natural selection, such as expected offspring mortality due to nest predators, in their settlement decisions. In birds, mammalian nest predators are a significant mortality source and birds are known to respond to their presence. However, the mechanism used by birds to perceive mammalian nest predators and estimate the nest predation risk remains unknown, in particular at larger spatial scales while comparing potential breeding habitat patches. We experimentally tested whether the farmland bird community can detect and perceive cues of a mammalian nest predator (urine and feces), and how this p…
An improved version of the Atlantic cod genome and advancements in functional genomics: implications for the future of cod farming
2016
Abstract Recent advancements within state-of-the-art genomic tools and the generation of the first version of the Atlantic cod genome (Star et al., 2011) have proven to be valuable resources, improving our understanding of this species’ biology. In this chapter we describe some aspects and implications of using these resources to identify genes and molecular pathways involved in Atlantic cod growth and development, as well as responses to nutritional changes, pathogens and other immune stimuli, and environmental stressors (e.g., temperature, stress, or pollutants). Additionally, we highlight the immunological puzzle of the Atlantic cod that lacks components of the adaptive immune system pre…
Selecting networks of nature reserves: methods do affect the long-term outcome
1999
Data on vascular plants of boreal lakes in Finland were used to compare the efficiency of reserve selection methods in representing four aspects of biodiversity over a 63 year period. These aspects included species richness, phylogenetic diversity, restricted range diversity and threatened species. Our results show that the efficiency of reserve selection methods depends on the selection criteria used and on the aspect of biodiversity under consideration. Heuristic methods and optimizing algorithms were nearly equally efficient in selecting lake networks over a small geographical range. In addition, a scoring procedure was observed to be efficient in maintaining different aspects of biodive…
Multiplicity and history have a detrimental effect on survival in patients with T1G3 bladder tumors selected for conservative treatment.
2008
Purpose: In the absence of Tis tumor we assessed whether history and multiplicity have a detrimental effect on conservative treatment in carefully selected patients with T1G3 bladder carcinoma. Materials and Methods: Between January 1976 and December 1999, 165 select patients with T1G3 bladder tumors were conservatively treated with transurethral resection plus adjuvant intravesical therapy. Patients with concomitant or previous Tis, previous T1G3, tumor size greater than 3 cm and more than 3 lesions were excluded from analysis. Repeat transurethral resection was not routinely performed. However, cytology had to be negative for atypia before the start of adjuvant intravesical therapy. Resul…
Non-linear neuro-inspired circuits and systems: Processing and learning issues
2018
In this chapter the main elements useful for the design and realization of the neural architectures reported in the following chapters will be presented. Considering spiking and non-spiking neurons, the models used for implementing each of them, the synaptic models, the basic learning and plasticity algorithms and the network architectures will be introduced and analysed. The key elements that led to their selection and application in the developed neuro-inspired systems will be discussed briefly.
Model-Based Transfer Entropy Analysis of Brain-Body Interactions with Penalized regression techniques
2020
The human body can be seen as a functional network depicting the dynamical interactions between different organ systems. This exchange of information is often evaluated with information-theoretic approaches which comprise the use of vector autoregressive (VAR) and state space (SS) models, normally identified with the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). However, the number of time series to be included in the model is strictly related to the length of data recorded thus limiting the use of the classical approach. In this work, a new method based on penalized regressions, the so-called LASSO, was compared with OLS on physiological time-series extracted from 18 subjects during different stress condi…
An adaptive prudent-daring evolutionary algorithm for noise handling in on-line PMSM drive design
2007
This paper studies the problem of the optimal control design of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives taking into account the noise due to sensors and measurement devices. The problem is analyzed by means of an experimental approach which considers noisy data returned by the real plant (on-line). In other words, each fitness evaluation does not come from a computer but from a real laboratory experiment. In order to perform the optimization notwithstanding presence of the noise, this paper proposes an Adaptive Prudent- Daring Evolutionary Algorithm (APDEA). The APDEA is an evolutionary algorithm with a dynamic parameter setting. Furthermore, the APDEA employs a dynamic penalty ter…
Optimal signal selection of wide area damping controller considering time delay in multi-machine power system
2015
This paper presents a validation of selection process for selecting the most effective stabilizing signal to improve damping of inter area oscillations in a multi-machine power system by different signal selection methods. This paper also deals with wide area damping controller scheme compensating time latency of feedback signal in order to damp low frequency inter area oscillations in large power system. Pade approximation to time delay is used with controller synthesis. Eigenvector based coherent machine identification method has been adapted in this research for coherent area identification in multi-machine power system. The selected control signal is tested on the 4 machine 11 bus syste…
A Sliding Window-Based Method to Detect Selective Constraints in Protein-Coding Genes and Its Application to RNA Viruses
2002
Here we present a new sliding window-based method specially designed to detect selective constraints in specific regions of a multiple protein-coding sequence alignment. In contrast to previous window-based procedures, our method is based on a nonarbitrary statistical approach to find the appropriate codon-window size to test deviations of synonymous (d(S)) and nonsynonymous (d(N)) nucleotide substitutions from the expectation. The probabilities of d(N) and d(S) are obtained from simulated data and used to detect significant deviations of d(N) and d(S) in a specific window region of the real sequence alignment. The nonsynonymous-to-synonymous rate ratio (w = d(N)/d(S)) was used to highlight…
Population genetics of cucumber mosaic virus infecting medicinal, aromatic and ornamental plants from northern Italy
2012
An epidemiological survey carried at the Herb Garden of Casola Valsenio (Emilia Romagna region; Northern Italy) from 2006 to 2009 resulted in finding Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) as the infectious agent of several ornamental, medicinal and aromatic plants. All CMV-infected plant species showed leaf symptoms followed, in some cases, by flower colour-breaking and stunting. Genetic analysis consisted in the characterization of movement protein gene of each CMV-isolate by single strand polymorphism analysis and sequencing. Phylogenetic trees identified only two isolates as member of subgroup II, while all other isolates were part of subgroup IA. This survey confirms an unexpected increment of CM…