BRASIL, Michelle de Oliveira Guimarães. Aspectos da biologia de nidificação de abelhas solitárias no maciço de Baturité, Ceará. 2015. 120 f. Tese (doutorado em zootecnia)- Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza-CE, 2015. / Submitted by Elineudson Ribeiro (elineudsonr@gmail.com) on 2016-04-22T17:47:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_tese_mogbrasil.pdf: 7322164 bytes, checksum: 9a7a4044002d62b21c67dd8529b90857 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by José Jairo Viana de Sousa (jairo@ufc.br) on 2016-05-27T17:46:41Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_tese_mogbrasil.pdf: 7322164 bytes, checksum: 9a7a4044002d62b21c67dd8529b90857 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-27T17:46:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_tese_mogbrasil.pdf: 7322164 bytes, checksum: 9a7a4044002d62b21c67dd8529b90857 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / The aim of this thesis was to study the structure of the community of bees which nest in pre-existing cavities in remnants of Atlantic Forest of Maciço de Baturité - Ceará. Therefore, it was verified the occupation and emergency of bees which nesting in trap-nests and assessed the aspects of the structure of such nests, sex ratio, mortality, preference for different kinds of substrates and diameters besides the presence of natural enemies of these species in four areas of the region, aiming their use in pollination management programs. The samples were carried out using three types of trap-nests: buds of dried bamboo, cardstock tubes and rational boxes. In the four areas of humid mountain forest studied were occupied 34 artificial nests by bees. Six species of nesting bees were sampled, distributed in five genera (Centris, Mesocheira, Euglossa, Megachile and Coelioxys) and two families (Apidae and Megachilidae). Out of the total of nests recorded with emergency it was obtained 139 individuals, being 131 bees and 8 coleopterans. In the 34 nests obtained, 162 bee brood cells were built, with the number of cells per nest-trap ranging from 1 to 13 brood cells and the length of these ranging from 2.4 to 14 cm. Thirteen nests were parasitized by hymenopterans (Apidae and Megachilidae) and coleopterans (Meloidae), resulting in a parasitism rate of 38.2% of nests founded. In addition, mortality has occurred from unknown causes in 29.4% of subjects before reaching adult stage. The bees nested in the three types of traps available, being buds of dried bamboo the most widely used by the species of bees to build their nests (p <0.05), corresponding to 82% out of the total used. The bees showed a greater preference for nesting into holes with smaller diameters. It is concluded that the data presented are important for the performance of practices that aim at maintenance and conservation of these species, and may be useful for pollination services of native and agricultural plants of that region. / O objetivo desta tese foi estudar a estrutura da comunidade de abelhas que nidificam em cavidades preexistentes em resquícios de Mata Atlântica na região do maciço de Baturité – Ceará. Para tanto foram verificados a ocupação e emergência de abelhas que nidificam em ninhos-armadilha, bem como avaliados os aspectos sobre a estrutura dos ninhos, razão sexual, mortalidade, preferência por diferentes tipos de substratos e diâmetros além da presença de inimigos naturais dessas espécies, em quatro áreas da região, visando sua utilização em programas de manejo de polinização. As amostragens foram realizadas utilizando três tipos de ninhos-armadilha: gomos de bambu secos, tubos de cartolina e caixas racionais. Nas quatro áreas de mata serrana úmida estudadas foram ocupados 34 ninhos artificiais pelas abelhas. Foram amostradas seis espécies de abelhas nidificantes, distribuídas em cinco gêneros (Centris, Mesocheira, Euglossa, Megachile e Coelioxys) e duas famílias (Apidae e Megachilidae). Do total de ninhos registrados com emergência foram obtidos 139 indivíduos, sendo 131 abelhas e 8 coleópteros. Nos 34 ninhos de abelhas obtidos, foram construídas 162 células de cria, com o número de células por ninho-armadilha variando de 1 a 13 células de cria e o comprimento desses ninhos variando de 2,4 a 14 cm. Treze ninhos foram parasitados por himenópteros (Apidae e Megachilidae) e coleópteros (Meloidae), resultando em uma taxa de parasitismo de 38,2 % do total de ninhos fundados. Além disto, ocorreu mortalidade por causas desconhecidas em 29,4 % dos indivíduos, antes de chegar na fase adulta. As abelhas nidificaram nos três tipos de ninhos-armadilhas oferecidos, sendo os gomos de bambu os mais utilizados pelas espécies de abelhas para a construção de seus ninhos (p < 0,05), correspondendo a 82% do total utilizado. As abelhas revelaram uma maior preferência de nidificação em orifícios com diâmetros menores. Conclui-se, que os dados apresentados são importantes para realização de práticas que objetivem a manutenção e conservação dessas espécies, podendo também serem úteis para serviços de polinização de plantas nativas e agrícolas da região.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2015-12-09T14:08:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelleleandrodias.pdf: 1744229 bytes, checksum: ebdd44aa0c6ad443f4b47401fc2106ae (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2015-12-09T14:55:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelleleandrodias.pdf: 1744229 bytes, checksum: ebdd44aa0c6ad443f4b47401fc2106ae (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-09T14:55:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelleleandrodias.pdf: 1744229 bytes, checksum: ebdd44aa0c6ad443f4b47401fc2106ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-25 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Dentre os grupos de insetos associados às bromélias, encontram-se as vespas sociais. Estudos que verificam se plantas são um substrato adequado para nidificação destas vespas e quais espécies de vespas as utilizam ainda são escassos. Trabalhos dessa natureza ajudam a compreender a escolha do local de nidificação, que é um elemento muito importante na defesa por ocultamento, a fim de proteger a prole contra predação. Além disso, apresentam um crescente interesse como agentes polinizadores e atuam como visitantes florais sobrepondo-se às abelhas na exploração dos recursos em áreas tropicais. Apesar da elevada importância ecológica, ainda existe pouco conhecimento sobre muitos aspectos que envolvam a associação entre vespas e bromélias. Neste contexto, a presente dissertação está estruturada em dois tópicos, onde os estudos foram conduzidos em um fragmento urbano de Floresta Atlântica no município de Juiz de Fora (MG), Sudeste do Brasil. O primeiro tópico teve como objetivos identificar as espécies de vespas que nidificam nas espécies Billbergia horrida Regel e Portea petropolitana (Wawra) Mez e verificar se elas são um bom substrato para esses ninhos. Foi encontrado um total de 34 ninhos de vespas sob as folhagens das bromélias P. petropolitana e B. horrida. As espécies mais frequentes foram Mischocyttarus drewseni com 7 ninhos e indivíduos não identificados da subfamília Eumeninae com 7 ninhos. Entre as duas espécies de bromélia, P. petropolitana foi considerada um bom substrato de nidificação para as vespas levando em consideração a análise do sucesso dos ninhos. O segundo tópico trata da identificação das espécies de vespas que compõem a parcela de visitantes da bromélia P. petropolitana e descreve os comportamentos exibidos durante a visitação. Duas espécies de vespas foram registradas utilizando recurso floral de P. petropolitana: Polybia platycephala (Richards) e Agelaia vicina (De Sausurre) em meio à presença de formigas e abelhas. Cinco atos comportamentais foram observados durante a visitação das vespas: pouso em flor, procura pela fonte de néctar, retirada do recurso, autolimpeza e saída da flor. Em suma, este trabalho pode servir de base para novos estudos que abordam um número maior de registros para ampliar o conhecimento sobre aspectos da biologia das bromélias e principalmente do comportamento das vespas, sugerindo assim, a conservação das mesmas que são peças importantes para a manutenção do ambiente onde se encontram. / Social wasps are among the insect groups associated to the bromeliads. Studies dealing with the potential of plants be a suitable substrate to nesting of social wasps are scarce. Such studies contribute to the comprehension of the choice of nesting site, which is a very important element in defense by hiddenness, in order to protect the offspring against predation. Besides, these insects present a growing interest as pollinating agents, acting as floral visitors and overlapping the bees in the exploitation of resources in tropical areas. Despite the high ecological importance, little is know about the aspects involving the association between wasps and bromeliads. So, the present dissertation is structured in two topics, and the studies were conducted in an urban fragment of Atlantic Forest of the municipality of Juiz de Fora (MG), Southeastern Region of Brazil. The first topic aimed to identify the species of wasps that nest in the bromeliads Billbergia horrida Regel and Portea petropolitana (Wawra) Mez and verify if these plants represent a good substrate to the nests. A total of 34 nests of wasps were found below the leaves of P. petropolitana and B. horrida. The most frequent species were Mischocyttarus drewseni (De Sausurre) and unidentified specimens of the subfamily Eumeninae with seven nests, each. Among the bromeliad species, P. petropolitana was considered a good nesting substrate to the wasps, taking in account the analysis of success of the nests. The second topic deals with the identification of the species of wasps that visit the bromeliad P. petropolitana and describes the exhibited behavior during the visitation. Two species of wasps were recorded using floral resources of P. petropolitana: Polybia platycephala (Richards) and Agelaia vicina (De Sausurre), besides ants and bees. Five behavioral acts were observed during the visitation of the wasps: landing on flower, searching for the nectar source, removal of the resource, self cleaning and leave the flower. In summary, this study can be a base to new studies that approach a larger number of records in order to enhance the knowledge about aspects of the biology of bromeliads and mainly about the behavior of the wasps, suggesting its conservation, which are important part for the maintenance of the environment where live.

The relationship between water-level fluctuations and wading bird nest numbers and nesting location is well documented, yet species-specific reproductive responses of wading birds to environmental drivers and nesting habitat type is poorly understood. Here, I compared the reproductive responses of two ecologically similar species, Snowy Egret and Tricolored Heron, to foraging conditions influenced by water management and examined the effect of nestling island type on the reproductive success of three wading bird species. Reproductive responses to foraging conditions were broadly similar between Snowy Egrets and Tricolored Herons, however this study revealed specific-specific differences that could lead to different population dynamics in response to management over the long-term. I also found that these two species had lower productivity at spoil islands than marsh colonies, whereas Great Egret productivity did not vary by colony type. This study demonstrates the importance of establishing species-species relationships between productivity and environmental conditions / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) are endemic to Gulf Coastal United States and Mexico. Birds from Florida, Louisiana, and Texas were released in coastal South Carolina from 1975-1983, and banding data suggest an expanding South Carolina population. We radio-marked 116 females in August 2010-2011 in the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto (ACE) Rivers Basin and used radio telemetry to study habitat selection, searched for nests of non-radiomarked females, and conducted indicated breeding pair surveys of mottled ducks at various wetlands. Overall, radiomarked mottled duck females selected managed wetland impoundments, wetlands containing planted corn, and brackish wetlands. Overall nest success of 42 nests of unmarked females was 19%. Modeling results indicated that the area of an island on which a nest was located was the only variable influencing nest success. Indicated breeding pair surveys revealed that the size of the wetland was the primary influence of breeding mottled duck immigration into a wetland.

No description available.

Abstract Not Provided / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

I investigated the maternal effects that take place in a joint-nesting bird: the smooth-billed ani. Female anis were shown to respond to increasing group size by increasing the number of eggs produced per capita, by tossing and burying more eggs per capita, and by taking longer to reach the dedicated incubation phase. These results support the hypothesis that females respond to increased egg laying competition by trying to skew the contents of the final incubated clutch of eggs in their own favor. I showed that in ani groups, yolk testosterone and estradiol deposited by females in eggs increased from early- to late-laid eggs. Increases in yolk steroid levels over the laying sequence may function to mitigate the disadvantage of being a later-hatched chick. This maternal influence may not be a mere reflection of a female's hormonal status as female plasma circulating levels of testosterone and estradiol did not vary in the same direction as yolk hormone profiles. I showed that yolk corticosterone levels, an indicator of maternal physiological stress, increased with laying order in multi-female groups, but not in single-female groups. Results suggest that laying females experience higher levels of stress in multifemale groups. The above results suggest that communal life in anis generates competition and egg production waste that likely reduces short-term per capita reproductive benefits. Female anis can vary egg quality via deposition of hormones in eggs, and also lay eggs of different sizes. I showed that circulating plasma testosterone levels were higher in nestlings with better begging abilities. Furthermore, nestlings hatched from eggs laid late in the laying sequence had better begging abilities. These results suggest that testosterone is an important controlling mechanism of begging behaviour, and that female testosterone depositions in eggs rave long lasting effects on offspring development and behavior. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Lichen and moss are the dominant ground cover on the Canadian Shield rock barrens of eastern Georgian Bay, and they provide many ecosystem services. Lichen and moss mats are essential for developing and accumulating soil on the bedrock landscape, and as the mats establish they moderate soil temperature and reduce soil water losses, thereby improving the microclimate for more complex vegetation. In addition to pioneering ecosystem succession, the lichen and moss mats provide essential nesting habitat for turtle species-at-risk. These lichen and moss mats are not well understood on rock barrens landscapes, and as such this thesis aims to increase knowledge of the growth, persistence and restoration approaches for these valuable ecosystem resources. We quantified the ecohydrological controls on the growth of lichen and moss mats by measuring the CO2 exchange of lichen and moss under varying environmental conditions. From these results we determined that key growth periods for lichen and moss were during the wet portions of the growing season (spring and fall), and that growth was limited or non-existent during the dry period (summer). Further, we determined that soil moisture was the most important control on lichen and moss CO2 exchange, and that this relationship differed among cover type (lichen, moss, mix of lichen and moss). Moss was able to continue CO2 uptake at a lower water content than lichen, suggesting that lichen would have a greater decline in productivity under drier conditions. A decline in lichen and moss productivity would also likely lead to a decline in soil development through chemical weathering which, in turn, could affect the availability of turtle nesting habitat. We also used CO2 exchange measurements to compare lichen and moss productivity between natural and transplanted mats. Transplanting in-tact patches of lichen and moss has not been widely studied, and as such we tested this approach on a rock barrens landscape. We determined that natural and transplant productivity did not differ for lichen, and that there were some differences between treatments for mixed and moss plots. We also used the tea bag index method to compare relative decomposition rates between treatments (natural, transplant), where we found that decomposition rates did not differ. Our results indicate that it is feasible to remove lichen mats from the footprint of a planned disturbance such as construction and transplant them successfully to nearby undisturbed areas. This approach would restore the lichen cover and the ecosystem services that lichens provide immediately rather than waiting decades for natural regrowth or fragment establishment. As a whole, this thesis will increase knowledge of both the growth and persistence, as well as the restoration of lichen and moss on rock barrens landscapes. Given that lichens and mosses of these genera grow globally, our findings can be applied widely to enhance and protect lichen and moss mats, and the ecosystem services they provide / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Distributed Transactional Memory (DTM) is an emerging synchronization abstraction thatpromises to alleviate the scalability, programmability, and composability challenges of lock-based distributed synchronization. With DTM, programmers organize code that read/writeshared memory objects, both local and remote, as memory transactions. An underlying DTMframework guarantees atomicity, isolation, and consistency properties for those transactionsthrough speculative concurrency control. In DTM, restarting an aborted transaction from the beginning can degrade performance astransactional conflicts may have occurred in the later part of the transaction, wasting work.The partial abort method alleviates this difficulty by enabling a transaction to be rolled backto the point where objects in the transaction's read-set and write-set are still consistent.In this thesis, we present protocols for supporting partial aborts in QR-DTM, a fault-tolerant DTM that uses quorum protocols for distributed concurrency control in the presence offailures. We focus on two partial abort models: closed nesting, which allows transactions to be nested and inner transactions to be rolled back without rolling back outer transactions;and checkpointing, which allows the transaction state to be saved in checkpoints throughout execution and transactions to be rolled back to those checkpoints. We present protocols that support these partial abort models in QR-DTM, called QR-CN and QR-CHK. We implemented these protocols and conducted experimental studies using macro-benchmarks(e.g., distributed versions of STAMP benchmark), and micro-benchmarks (e.g., distributed data structures). Our studies reveal that QR-CN improves throughput by as much as 101% over flat nesting in specific cases, with an average improvement of 53%. We also develop QR-ACN, a framework that automatically decomposes programmer-writtentransactions into closed nested transactions, at run-time, to improve performance. The composition of a closed nested transaction depends on the contention of objects, which can change at run-time depending upon the workload at hand. Our implementation and experimental studies reveal that QR-ACN consistently outperforms flat nesting by an averageof 51% on benchmarks including TPC-C. False conflicts occur when high-level operations, even though semantically independent, traverse the same set of objects during transaction execution. Such conflicts can lead torepeated aborts, increasing transaction execution time and degrading performance, which can be significant in DTM, since transaction execution also includes network communication. ii We consider the approach of reducing validation cost for resolving false conflicts. We presentthree protocols for reducing validation cost in DTM. Our first protocol, QR-ON, incorporatesthe open nesting model into QR-DTM. Open nesting allows inner-nested transactions tocommit independently of their parent transaction, releasing objects in the transaction read-set and write-set early, minimizing aborts due to false conflicts. We then present QR-OON,in which open-nested transactions commit asynchronously so that subsequent transactionscan proceed without waiting for the commit of previous transactions. Finally, we presentan early release methodology, QR-ER, in which objects that do not affect the final state ofthe shared data are dropped from the transaction's read-set, which avoids false conflicts andreduces communication costs. Our implementation and experimental studies revealed that QR-OON outperforms QR-ON by up to 43%, and that QR-ER outperforms QR-ON and QR-OON by up to 10% on micro- and macro-benchmarks. / Master of Science

Ce manuscrit de thèse rapporte quelques études méthodologiques sur la régionalisation du climat par l’approche dynamique. Le domaine géographique couvre une large zone allant du milieu de l’Atlantique Nord à l’Europe de l’Est, et du Sahel à l’Arctique. La quête à tout prix d’une amélioration du climat régional n’est pas au cœur du manuscrit. Pourtant, l’accent est mis sur trois points clefs, généralement rencontrés par toutes tentatives de régionalisation du climat. Le premier point concerne le schéma d’imbrication : imbrication du sens unidirectionnel du GCM vers le RCM (one-way nesting, OWN) ou bidirectionnelle entre le GCM et le RCM (two-way nesting, TWN). Le deuxième point examine la réalisation technique d’imbrication, qui est généralement une opération de relaxation newtonienne ajoutée aux équations pronostiques du modèle. Le troisième point est sur l’effet du raffinement de maille dans le RCM. L’esprit général du manuscrit consiste à conceptualiser et réaliser des simulations numériques pour traiter ces trois points avec astuces afin de les isoler et quantifier. Le modèle de circulation générale LMDZ est utilisé pour l’ensemble des expériences. Il joue à la fois le rôle du GCM et celui du RCM. Dans les deux cas, il conserve strictement ses paramétrisations physique et sa configuration dynamique, ainsi que tous les forçages ou paramètres externes. La stratégie d’expérimentation, qualifiée comme Master versus Slave, consiste à réaliser des simulations sous deux protocoles reliés l’un et l’autre : « DS-300-to-300 » désigne Downscaling du GCM à 300 km de résolution horizontale au RCM qui est identique au GCM, aussi à 300 km de résolution spatiale ; « DS-300-to-100 » désigne Downscaling de 300 km (GCM) à 100 km (RCM). Il est clair que « DS-300-to-300 » est un cadre idéalisé, particulièrement approprié pour évaluer l’effet de l’opération de relaxation. Le protocole « DS-300-to-100 », soustrait du « DS-300-to-300 », permet d’évaluer très précisément l’effet de la résolution du RCM augmentée. Dans chaque protocole, deux schémas de communication entre le RCM et le GCM ont été implémentés, l’un (OWN) est la méthodologie classique du sens unique qui consiste à piloter le RCM par les sorties du GCM, l’autre (TWN) est d’établir un échange mutuel entre les deux modèles. Le climat régional est sensible au choix des schémas de communication entre le RCM et le GCM, surtout aux moyennes latitudes. TWN apporte une nette amélioration sur la représentation des informations frontalières. Au niveau des modes régionaux de circulation atmosphérique, exprimés en structures d’EOF, OWN et TWN sont tous deux capables de les reproduire, mais avec de légères déformations dans l’espace. La relaxation newtonienne, largement utilisée dans la régionalisation du climat, permet au RCM de bien suivre la trajectoire synoptique du GCM. Pourtant, la concomitance temporelle et la ressemblance spatiale sont dépendantes des variables considérées, des saisons, des régimes de temps, et des échelles spatio-temporelles de circulations atmosphériques. Des cas de dé-corrélation sont remarquables quand la circulation dominante de la région est de petites échelles. Le raffinement de maille augmente la liberté du RCM à développer sa dynamique interne, surtout aux petites échelles, mais aussi à l’ensemble du spectre de la circulation à travers l’interaction des échelles. Ainsi le RCM devient plus indépendant et s’écarte davantage du GCM. Cette thèse, autour des aspects méthodologiques de la régionalisation du climat, aide à avoir une meilleure compréhension sur la pratique. Elle adresse aussi un message de précaution à la communauté RCM et l’invite à bien vérifier leur méthodologie de régionalisation. / The work developed in this thesis explores through methodological modelling studies the current techniques of climate regionalization. In this case, the regionalization focuses on a geographical domain covering from the North Atlantic to Eastern Europe longitudinal wise, and from the Sahel to the Arctic as a latitudinal interval. The aim of this thesis is not the improvement of regional climate modelling per se, but tackling three key questions that are commonly met by all attempts when trying to improve climate regionalization. Firstly, the choice and advantages of the nesting scheme: one-way nesting (OWN) versus two-way nesting (TWN). Secondly, the evaluation of the nesting method, which is generally a Newtonian relaxation operation added to the prognostic equations of the model. And finally, the consequences of the mesh refinement in Regional Circulation Models (RCM). The objective of this manuscript consists in conceptualizing and carrying out numerical simulations to answer these three questions by isolating each individual effect and quantifying the consequences of each of the effects. The general circulation model LMDZ is used for all experiments. It is able to play the role of the General Circulation Model (GCM) and the RCM, keeping the same physical parameterizations and the same dynamical configuration, as well as the same external forcings and model parameters. Our experimental set-up, referred as “Master versus Slave”, consists on two related protocols: “DS-300-to-300” and “DS-300-to-100”. The former implies the downscaling of the GCM at 300 km of horizontal resolution while the RCM has the identical resolution of 300 km. The latter implies the downscaling from 300 km (GCM) to 100 km (RCM). We have assumed the “DS-300-to-300” as an idealized framework, particularly appropriate to evaluate the relaxation operation effect. In parallel, the “DS-300-to-100” protocol, subtracted from the “DS-300-to-300”, allows assessing the effect of the increased resolution for the RCM. In each protocol, two communication schemes between the RCM and the GCM have been implemented. The first one -OWN- is the classic one-way methodology to control the RCM by the outputs of the GCM. The second one -TWN- is used to establish a mutual exchange between the two models (RCM and GCM). This thesis has found that climate regionalization is highly sensitive to the choice of the communication scheme between the RCM and the GCM, especially at mid-latitudes. TWN clearly improves the representation at the boundaries. For the regional atmospheric circulation modes, expressed in EOF structures, both OWN and TWN are able to reproduce them, but with a slight deformation in space. Newtonian relaxation, widely used in climate regionalization, allows the RCM to follow the GCM’s synoptic trajectory. However, temporal concomitance and spatial resemblance of the two depend on the variables considered, on the particular seasons selected, on the weather regimes, and on the spatiotemporal scales of atmospheric circulation. De-correlation cases are remarkable when the dominant circulation on a regional scale is small. Moreover, mesh refinement increases the freedom of the RCM to develop its internal dynamic circulation, especially at small scales, and also across the whole spectrum of circulation regimes through the scales in which the RCM operates. Thus, when resolution increases, the RCM becomes more independent from the GCM behavior and the model results deviate significantly from the GCM. Focused on the methodological aspects of climate regionalization, this thesis helps to gain a better understanding on the regionalization practice. Il also sends a precautionary message to the RCM community, kindly inviting to verify their regionalization strategy.