Parasite-host systems provide excellent opportunities to explore ecological dynamics such as competition, competitive exclusion, and co-occurrence. The distribution of streblid bat flies on their host bats were examined for patterns of species co-occurrence and to understand mechanisms driving these patterns. The purpose of this study was to determine patterns of co-occurrence among individuals of different Neotropical bat fly species. After establishing patterns of co-occurrence, tests on whether variation in fly morphology was linked to observed patterns of co-occurrence were performed. Co-occurrence patterns were determined using null model analyses, and a predominant pattern of aggregation was detected. To examine the relationship between co-occurrence and morphology, geometric morphometric analyses were performed to compare morphologies of co-occurring individuals of different species. Examination of ratios of species-pairs with significant differences in their morphology relative to speciespairs without significant differences resulted in both insight and more questions. Species segregation may result from morphological similarity between co-occurring streblid species, potentially reflecting historical niche overlap leading to competitive exclusion of one species from infesting the host individual. Aggregation of multiple streblid species however, does not appear to be due to differences in morphology. Results also indicate that explanations of co-occurrence patterns are not straightforward, and that multiple mechanisms may underlie patterns of co-occurrence. These results underscore important potential connections between morphology and patterns of co-occurrence, but future research is needed to verify these conclusions and examine other possible contributing mechanisms to patterns of co-occurrence in this biological system.

Submitted by Ricardo Cedraz Duque Moliterno (ricardo.moliterno@uefs.br) on 2015-07-29T22:02:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o Final_Patr?cia Herc?lia de Almeida.pdf: 2058812 bytes, checksum: f101704775fb70cb9a74a8e794349727 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-29T22:02:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o Final_Patr?cia Herc?lia de Almeida.pdf: 2058812 bytes, checksum: f101704775fb70cb9a74a8e794349727 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-27 / Funda??o de Amparo ? Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia - FAPEB / The African snail Achatina fulica Bowdich, 1822, is an invasive species that cause environmental and economic damage, as to human and animal health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence and parasitological aspects of A. fulica in Feira de Santana (BA). To assess the occurrence of A. fulica, sampling was made from January to June 2013 at four points in the urban perimeter of the city. In the laboratory animals were measured as the total length of the shell and the total mass. From these data the degree of development of the population was estimated, and the relationships between morphometric and climatic variables and the condition factor were calculated. During this period were collected 600 snails showing predominant length in the range of 57.0 to 47.6 mm. Results allowed to infer that the population of A. fulica in these sampling points is in decline, since in these areas were found juvenile and young animals. There was no association between climatic and morphometric variables. The relationship between total length and weight showed that A. fulica presented a negative allometric growth. The condition factor presented variations on time over the six months of collection. In order to evaluate parasitological aspects in A. fulica, animals were collected from may 2012-to june 2013 in eight areas in the urban perimeter of the city.The animals were collected early in the morning and transported to the laboratory of the Zoonoses and Public Health Research Group -UEFS. Each clam was analyzed individually using the artificial digestion technique in hydrochloric acid solution with identification of larvae found. The larvae have been identified as Metastrongylidae were submitted to the polymerase chain reaction for the identification of the genus Angyostrongylus. 220 animals were tested and in 28 (12.7; 95: 8.6 -17.9) were found at least one of four morphotypes of nematodes. Angyostrongylus has not been registered in snails examined. There was no association between climatic variables and the presence of larvae. The location of collection and the size of the snail influenced in the larvae of nematodes. Both parasited and not parasitised animals have negative allometric growth. The relative condition factor did not differ significantly between the groups. Nested-PCR has been used to search Cryptosporidium ssp and Sarcocystidae DNA in fecal samples of Achatina fulica. Amplicons compatibles with Cryptosporidium ssp were found in 2 of 223 stool samples analyzed. Of the 223 stool samples analysed, in 58 samples we found the 290 base pair fragment expected for Sarcocystidae, and then subjected to RFLP. Of these, 41 samples were cleaved by enzymes used in this study, producing a profile compatible with T. gondii. The other 17 samples were not compatible with Sarcocystidae. This is the first record of the occurrence of A. fulica in Feira de Santana (BA), with research of association of climatic variables to the biometric parameters of the animals. These results indicate the presence of animal and humana parasites in Achatina fulica in the municipality of Feira de Santana, demonstrating the potential of these animals in the maintenance and spread of these agents in the environment. / O caramujo africano Achatina fulica Bowdich, 1822, ? uma esp?cie invasora que causa preju?zos ambientais, econ?micos e a sa?de humana e animal. O objetivo desse estudo foi avaliar a ocorr?ncia e os aspectos parasit?rios de Achatina fulica no munic?pio de Feira de Santana (BA). Para avalia??o da ocorr?ncia de A. fulica foram feitas coletas de janeiro a junho de 2013 em quatro pontos no per?metro urbano do munic?pio. No laborat?rio os animais foram mensurados quanto ao comprimento total da concha e a massa total. A partir desses dados o grau de desenvolvimento da popula??o foi estimado, as rela??es entre as vari?veis morfom?tricas e clim?ticas e o fator de condi??o foram calculados. Durante esse per?odo foram coletados 600 caramujos apresentando comprimento predominante no intervalo de 47,6-57,0mm. Os resultados permitiram inferir que a popula??o de A. fulica nos pontos de coleta estudados est? em decl?nio, j? que nessas ?reas foram encontrados animais juvenis e jovens. N?o houve associa??o entre as vari?veis clim?ticas e morfom?tricas. A rela??o entre o comprimento total e a massa corporal mostrou que A. fulica apresentou um crescimento alom?trico negativo. O fator de condi??o apresentou varia??es pontuais ao longo dos seis meses de coleta. A fim de avaliar os aspectos parasit?rios em A. fulica foram realizadas coletas de maio de 2012 a junho de 2013 em oito ?reas no per?metro urbano do munic?pio, com registro de observa??es sobre os locais de coleta. Cada molusco foi analisado individualmente utilizando a t?cnica de digest?o artificial em solu??o de ?cido clor?drico, com identifica??o das larvas encontradas. As larvas identificadas como Metastrongylidae foram submetidas ? rea??o em cadeia pela polimerase para a identifica??o do g?nero Angyostrongylus. Foram analisados 220 animais e em 28 (12,7%; IC95%: 8,6-17,9) foram encontrados pelo menos um de quatro morfotipos de nemat?deos. Angyostrongylus n?o foi registrado nos caramujos examinados. N?o houve associa??o entre vari?veis clim?ticas e a presen?a de larvas. O local de coleta e o tamanho do caramujo influenciaram no encontro de larvas de nemat?deos. Tanto animais parasitados quanto n?o parasitados apresentaram um crescimento alom?trico negativo. O fator de condi??o relativo n?o diferiu significamente entre os grupos. A fim de pesquisar a presen?a de DNA Cryptosporidium ssp. e Sarcocystidae nas amostras fecais de Achatina fulica foi utilizada a t?cnica de nested-PCR (nPCR). Para Cryptosporidium ssp., amplicons compat?veis com este parasito foram encontrados em 2 de 223 amostras de fezes analisadas. Das 223 amostras de fezes de Achatina fulica submetidas ? nPCR para detec??o de Sarcocystidae, 58 amostras amplificaram o fragmento esperado de 290 pares de base, sendo ent?o submetidas ? RFLP. Destas, 41 amostras foram clivadas pelas enzimas utilizadas nesse estudo, produzindo um perfil compat?vel com T. gondii. As outras 17 amostras n?o foram compat?veis com o Sarcocystidae. Este ? o primeiro registro da ocorr?ncia de A. fulica no munic?pio de Feira de Santana (BA), com pesquisa da associa??o das vari?veis clim?ticas aos par?metros biom?tricos dos animais estudados. Estes resultados indicam que h? presen?a de parasitos de interesse em sa?de animal e humana em Achatina fulica no munic?pio de Feira de Santana, Bahia, demonstrando o potencial destes animais na manuten??o e dispers?o destes agentes no ambiente.

Abstract available in the Medicine and Sciences in Sports and Exercise.

While the Information Structure (IS) is most naturally interpreted as 'structure of information', some may argue that it is structure of something else, and others may object to the use of the word 'structure'. This paper focuses on the question of whether the informational component can have structural properties such that it can be called 'structure'. The preliminary conclusion is that, although there are some vague indications of structurehood in it, it is perhaps better understood to be a representation that encodes a finite set of information-based partitions, rather than structure.

Three experiments were conducted to examine the effect of association strength on TOT (tip-of-the-tongue states) and recall. Two hundred nineteen undergraduate students studied pictures and names of 24 imaginary animals that were presented on a large computer screen. The strength of association between the cue and target was manipulated by varying the number of times the picture and the name were presented simultaneously, while keeping the number of presentations for each picture or the target constant across conditions. After the study phase, participants were cued by each picture to recall the imaginary animal names. Participants were asked to rate their strength of TOT on a scale ranging 0 to 3 for each item if they could not think of the name at the moment. Participants also made subjective judgments as to how many times they saw the picture and name of the animal co-occur on the same screen at the study phase, and then they performed a recognition test at the end. The results indicated that the frequency and strength of TOTs linearly increased as a function of number of co-occurrences; the correlation between TOT strength and the participants?? subjective estimation of number of co-occurrences was greater than the correlation between TOT strength and the actual number of co-occurrences. This pattern of results was found even when recall increased along with the increase in number of co-occurrences and was more pronounced particularly when recall was reduced either by interference (Experiment 1) or by increased number of critical items (Experiments 2 & 3) and also by a reduced number of co-occurrence conditions and an increased gap between one level to the next (Experiment 3). Results suggest that an increase in association strength concomitantly increases TOT strength especially when the activation of the target is under threshold for recall and that people may use rules of thumb, or heuristic when they report TOTs by estimating the strength of the cue-target association.

The advantages that a side-scan sonar can offer include large-scale survey areas and high-resolution imagery which can provide the detection and positioning of underwater targets effectively. The purpose of image analysis, classification and positioning in this research was presented by the development of an automated recognition and classification system based on sonographs collected off Kenting area. Major components of the system include gray level co-occurrence matrix method, Baysian classification and cluster analysis. The sonograph classified by the automated recognition and classification system was split into two stages. The first stage divided the seafloor into three categories: (1) Rocky seafloor. (2) Sandy seafloor. (3) Acoustic shadow seafloor. Based on the characteristics of the rocky seafloor, the rocky seafloor was subdivided into five types in the second stage: (1) Flank reef and small independent reef. (2) Smooth reef. (3) Small coral on reef. (4) Coral on independent reef. (5) Large coral on reef. Analysis and proof of the system was conducted by underwater photographs collected off Kenting area in August 4, to 6, 2004. The identification accuracy of the first stage can reach 93% in Shiniuzai area. The characteristic features selected in this research (i.e., entropy and homogeneity) for the classification of various coral reef seafloors was proved adequate and the results was described in map within a Geographic Information System in the second stage. The results of this research illustrated that the rocky area identified in Shiniuzai was 98,863 m2. Due to image resolution restrictions, only 62,199 m2 of the total rocky area could be defined and classified properly. Among them, the flank reef and small independent reef covered an area of 15,954 m2 (26.3%); the smooth reef covered 3,133 m2 (5.0%); the small coral on reef covered 8,021 m2 (12.8%); the coral on independent reef covered 25,504 m2 (40.7%) and the large coral on reef covered 9,587 m2 (15.3%). Key words:side scan sonar,coral reef,gray level co-occurrence matrix

Emerging pathogens are organisms whose incidence has increased within the past two decades. In the last 40 years, several pathogens have emerged to cause infectious waterborne and foodborne diseases, thus causing a significant public health concern. Enterobacter sakazakii and Naegleria fowleri are emerging pathogens that have been documented to cause fatal infections. E. sakazakii is an emerging foodborne pathogen that represents a significant health risk by causing infections resulting in septicemia, meningitis and necrotizing enterocolitis in neonates, premature infants and also elderly immunocompromised individuals. Naegleria fowleri is a water-based protozoan flagellate that is the cause of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis; a fatal disease that mostly infects children and young adults through water-related recreational activities. The focus of this dissertation is to identify environmental reservoirs of Enterobacter sakazakii and to determine inactivation strategies to control Naegleria fowleri by chlorine and ultraviolet disinfection. In Appendix A, samples from various household kitchens were collected to determine the presence of E.sakazakii. The highest percentage of E.sakazakii was isolated from kitchen sponges (8%; n=50) and dishrags (10%; n=50). This study provided information on the presence of E.sakazakii on environmental surfaces in the kitchen. In Appendix B, our recent research has determined that N. fowleri is present in 8% (n=143) of municipal drinking water wells in central and southern Arizona. Therefore, guidelines need to be established for treatment of water with various disinfectants to control the growth and proliferation of N.fowleri. In Appendix C, the Ct values (concentration (mg/l) × exposure time) for chlorine inactivation of N. fowleri trophozoites and cysts were determined using the Efficiency Hom Kinetic Model (EHM). The Ct values for 99% inactivation of trophozoites and cysts were estimated to be 9 and 31, respectively. The ultraviolet light dose required for the 99% inactivation of N.fowleri trophozoites and cysts was determined to be 63 mW.sec/cm² and 13 mW.sec/cm², respectively.

On two farms in a two-year period (spring 2005,autumn 2005, spring 2006, autumn 2006) calves faecal samples from the rectum or from the floor were obtained for parasitologic examination. A total of 560 samples from 209 calves were examined using the floatation method in Sheather's sugar solution. In positive samples the presence of Giardia intestinalis cysts, Cryptosporidium parvum, C. andersoni and Eimeria spp. oocysts was found. The infection by C. parvum was the highest from the 1st to the 3rd week and the infection by C. andersoni was the highest from the 7th to the 8th week of the calves age. In both breedings Coccidia Eimeria spp. was the most diagnosed, followed by G. intestinalis. With calves bred in stables by two a higher probability of parasitic infection was detected (46,9 %) compared to breeding of calves in outer individual boxes (17,6). The excrements of the calves were mainly of pasty or even of mushy consistence and the prevalence of the parasites was in most cases diagnosed in single infections.

Background: Trees play crucial roles in the biosphere and societies worldwide, with a total of 60,065 tree species currently identified. Increasingly, a large amount of data on tree species occurrences is being generated worldwide: from inventories to pressed plants. While many of these data are currently available in big databases, several challenges hamper their use, notably geolocation problems and taxonomic uncertainty. Further, we lack a complete picture of the data coverage and quality assessment for open/public databases of tree occurrences. Methods: We combined data from five major aggregators of occurrence data (e.g. Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Botanical Information and Ecological Network v.3, DRYFLOR, RAINBIO and Atlas of Living Australia) by creating a workflow to integrate, assess and control data quality of tree species occurrences for species distribution modeling. We further assessed the coverage - the extent of geographical data - of five economically important tree families (Arecaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, Fagaceae, Myrtaceae, Pinaceae). Results: Globally, we identified 49,206 tree species (84.69% of total tree species pool) with occurrence records. The total number of occurrence records was 36.69 M, among which 6.40 M could be considered high quality records for species distribution modeling. The results show that Europe, North America and Australia have a considerable spatial coverage of tree occurrence data. Conversely, key biodiverse regions such as South-East Asia and central Africa and parts of the Amazon are still characterized by geographical open-public data gaps. Such gaps are also found even for economically important families of trees, although their overall ranges are covered. Only 15,140 species (26.05%) had at least 20 records of high quality. Conclusions: Our geographical coverage analysis shows that a wealth of easily accessible data exist on tree species occurrences worldwide, but regional gaps and coordinate errors are abundant. Thus, assessment of tree distributions will need accurate occurrence quality control protocols and key collaborations and data aggregation, especially from national forest inventory programs, to improve the current publicly available data.

Landscape change and biodiversity decline is a global problem and has sparked world-wide initiatives promoting biological conservation techniques such as reintroductions, protected area networks, and both preservation and restoration of landscape connectivity. Despite the increasing abundance of such working landscapes (i.e. “human-modified” landscapes), we know relatively little about their ecological mechanics; these landscapes can be vast, encompassing areas too large to obtain high resolution ecological data to test ecological process. To investigate the ecological mechanics of working landscapes, I use a small, tractable, landscape mesocosm situated in east-central Alberta, Canada, The Cooking Lake Moraine (a.k.a. the Beaver Hills Biosphere). The chapters within this dissertation quantify biodiversity across a hierarchy of measurements (from genes to communities) and investigate consistencies in ecological processes generating patterns in these biodiversity measurements across spatial scales. As a result, I investigate both a depth, and breadth, of spatial ecological processes underlying the efficacy of biodiversity conservation techniques in heterogeneous working landscapes. In Chapter I, I explore between-landscape functional connectivity by investigating the genetic contribution of reintroduced individuals to an ostensibly successfully reintroduced population within the mesocosm. I find that contemporary animals are the result of recolonization from adjacent sources rather than putative reintroduction founding individuals, indicating greater mesocosm functional connectivity to adjacent landscapes than previously thought. In Chapter II, I probe within-landscape functional connectivity by quantifying the contribution of protected areas, natural, and anthropogenic landscape features to animal movement across the mesocosm. I find that natural features had the largest effect on animal movements, despite the presence of protected areas. Chapter III investigates protected area network efficacy on biodiversity conservation by quantifying the contribution of protected areas, natural, and anthropogenic landscape features to mammalian functional diversity across multiple spatial scales within the mesocosm. I find that protected areas rarely predict functional diversity across spatial scales; instead natural features positively predict functional diversity at small spatial scales while anthropogenic features are negatively associated with biodiversity at large spatial scales. Finally, Chapter IV ties the previous three chapters together by testing implicit assumptions of the species occurrence data collected in each. I compare GPS collar data (Chapter II) to species occurrence data collected on wildlife cameras (Chapter III) to demonstrate that the magnitude of animal movements better predict species occurrence than the commonly assumed proximity of animal space use. Across chapters, two central themes emerge from this dissertation. First, the importance of natural features at small spatial scales, and anthropogenic features at large spatial scales, within the landscape matrix is predominant in predicting multiple measures of biodiversity. And second, we cannot assume predictable efficacy of conservation strategies or even the ecological process inferred from the data collected to test these strategies. / Graduate