Behavior Of Colonies Research Articles

Profit Optimization in Spatial Crowdsourcing: Effectiveness and Efficiency

In Spatial crowdsourcing, mobile users perform spatio-temporal tasks that involve travel to specified locations. Spatial crowdsourcing (SC) is enabled by SC platforms that support mobile worker recruitment and retention, as well as task assignment, which is essential to maximize profits that are accrued from serving task requests. Specifically, how to best achieve task assignment in a cost-effective manner while contending with spatio-temporal constraints is a key challenge in SC. To address this challenge, we formalize and study a novel Profit-driven Task Assignment problem. We first establish a task reward pricing model that takes into account the temporal constraints (i.e., expected completion time and deadline) of tasks. Then we adopt an optimal algorithm based on tree decomposition to achieve an optimal task assignment and propose greedy algorithms based on Random Tuning Optimization to improve the computational efficiency. To balance effectiveness and efficiency, we also provide a heuristic task assignment algorithm based on Ant Colony Optimization that assigns tasks by simulating behavior of ant colonies foraging for food. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments using real and synthetic data, offering detailed insight into effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed methods.

Decoupled evolution of mating biology and social structure in Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants

Insect societies vary greatly in their social structure, mating biology, and life history. Polygyny, the presence of multiple reproductive queens in a single colony, and polyandry, multiple mating by females, both increase the genetic variability in colonies of eusocial organisms, resulting in potential reproductive conflicts. The co-occurrence of polygyny and polyandry in a single species is rarely observed across eusocial insects, and these traits have been found to be negatively correlated in ants. Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants are well-suited for investigating the evolution of complex mating strategies because both polygyny and polyandry co-occur in this genus. We used microsatellite markers and parentage inference in five South American Acromyrmex species to study how different selective pressures influence the evolution of polygyny and polyandry. We show that Acromyrmex species exhibit independent variation in mating biology and social structure, and polygyny and polyandry are not necessarily negatively correlated within genera. One species, Acromyrmex lobicornis, displays a significantly lower mating frequency compared to others, while another species, A. lundii, appears to have reverted to obligate monogyny. These variations appear to have a small impact on average intra-colonial relatedness, although the biological significance of such a small effect size is unclear. All species show significant reproductive skew between patrilines, but there was no significant difference in reproductive skew between any of the sampled species. We find that the evolution of social structure and mating biology appear to follow independent evolutionary trajectories in different species. Finally, we discuss the evolutionary implications that mating biology and social structure have on life history evolution in Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants.Significance statementMany species of eusocial insects have colonies with multiple queens (polygyny), or queens mating with multiple males (polyandry). Both behaviors generate potentially beneficial genetic diversity in ant colonies as well as reproductive conflict. The co-occurrence of both polygyny and polyandry in a single species is only known from few ant species. Leaf-cutting ants have both multi-queen colonies and multiply mated queens, providing a well-suited system for studying the co-evolutionary dynamics between mating behavior and genetic diversity in colonies of eusocial insects. We used microsatellite markers to infer the socio-reproductive behavior in five South American leaf-cutter ant species. We found that variation in genetic diversity in colonies was directly associated with the mating frequencies of queens, but not with the number of queens in a colony. We suggest that multi-queen nesting and mating frequency evolve independently of one another, indicating that behavioral and ecological factors other than genetic diversity contribute to the evolution of complex mating behaviors in leaf-cutting ants.

Determination of the Shortest Route on the Distribution System using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) Algorithm (Case Study: Alfamidi Palu Branch – PT. Midi Utama Indonesia)

The distribution system of goods is one of the most important parts for every company. The company certainly has many route options to visit, and this is expected to be conducted efficiently in terms of time. In the distribution of goods by Alfamidi company in Palu City which has 51 outlets include into the category of Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) because of many route options that can be visited. The problem can be solved by employing the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) method which is one of the algorithms Ant Colony System (ACS). The ACS acquires principles based on the behavior of ant colonies and applies three characteristics to determine the shortest route namely status transition rules, local pheromone renewal and global pheromones. The result showed that the shortest route of the distribution of goods based on the calculation of selected iterations was ant 1 with the shortest total distance obtained 86.98 km.

Disentangling cadherin-mediated cell-cell interactions in collective cancer cell migration

Cell dispersion from a confined area is fundamental in a number of biological processes, including cancer metastasis. To date, a quantitative understanding of the interplay of single-cell motility, cell proliferation, and intercellular contacts remains elusive. In particular, the role of E- and N-cadherin junctions, central components of intercellular contacts, is still controversial. Combining theoretical modeling with in vitro observations, we investigate the collective spreading behavior of colonies of human cancer cells (T24). The spreading of these colonies is driven by stochastic single-cell migration with frequent transient cell-cell contacts. We find that inhibition of E- and N-cadherin junctions decreases colony spreading and average spreading velocities, without affecting the strength of correlations in spreading velocities of neighboring cells. Based on a biophysical simulation model for cell migration, we show that the behavioral changes upon disruption of these junctions can be explained by reduced repulsive excluded volume interactions between cells. This suggests that in cancer cell migration, cadherin-based intercellular contacts sharpen cell boundaries leading to repulsive rather than cohesive interactions between cells, thereby promoting efficient cell spreading during collective migration.

Asymmetric Antipredator Behaviour in a Mixed-Species Colony of Two Non-Mobbing Bird Species

Avian species have a variety of antipredator strategies in response to predator threats of different levels. Mobbing behaviour is most common in colonial birds, although the defensive behaviour and interspecific relationships in mixed-species colonies composed of non-mobbing species are still unclear. In a mixed-species colony of Great Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo and Grey Herons Ardea cinerea, we investigated defensive responses to potential avian predators and to actual avian predators. Our observations revealed that the birds distinguished between potential predators and reacted to particular predator species that could prey on large birds. Moreover, we found that the two colonial species showed different defensive antipredator behaviours: Herons exhibited aggressively defensive behaviours; whereas Cormorants, though vigilant, remained on the nest. To our knowledge this is the first report to suggest the possibility of commensalism in the Phalacrocoracidae, whereby Great Cormorants benefit from the defensive behaviour of Grey Herons.

Comparison of foraging tool use in two species of myrmicine ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Many ant species are known to exhibit foraging tool use, during which ants place various debris items (e.g., pieces of soil, leaves, pine needles, etc.) into liquid food, and then they carry the food-soaked tools back to the nest. In the present study, we compared the tool-using behavior in captive colonies of two closely related myrmicine ants with different feeding preferences: Aphaenogaster subterranea, an omnivorous species, and Messor structor, a mainly granivorous seed-harvester species. We supplied foraging ants with honey-water baits and six types of objects they could use as tools: sand grains, small soil grains, large soil grains, pine needles, leaves, and sponges. We found that the workers of A. subterranea both dropped more tools into honey-water baits and retrieved more of these tools than the workers of M. structor. While A. subterranea preferred smaller tools over larger ones, tool preferences for M. structor did not differ significantly from random. In addition, tool dropping was significantly faster in A. subterranea, and both the dropping and retrieving of tools began significantly earlier than in M. structor. For Aphaenogaster species that regularly utilize and compete for liquid food sources, the ability to efficiently transport liquid food via tools may be more important than it is for seed-harvester ants. Dropping tools into liquids, however, may still be useful for seed-harvester species as a means to supplement diet with liquid food during periods of seed shortage and also to serve as a means of getting rid of unwanted liquids close to the nest.

Effect of population size and Season on the expression of hygienic and aggressive behaviors in lorestan honey bee colonies

Healthy behavior is an appropriate alternative method in combating honey bee pests and diseases to reduce the use of chemical pesticides. In this study, the effect of population size (5, 7 and 10 frames), season (spring and summer) and the interaction between population size and season were investigated on the incidence of health and invasive behaviors of lorestan honey bee colonies. For this purpose, 21 colonies belonging to Lorestan province, Khorramabad city, were used. Liquid nitrogen was used to kill pupae in order to determine the incidence of uncapping and removing traits. In the following, the percentage of uncapping and removing cells was counted 48 hours after pouring liquid nitrogen. The mean of cell removing and uncapping were 94.48%, 92.67%, 91.81% and 88.33% in spring and summer, respectively, but these differences was not significant (p>0.05). The 5 frames populations had the lowest mean of cap uncapping (88.29) and removing (84.43) compared to 7 and 10 frames populations. The incidence of health behavior was affected by the interaction of population size and season so that 7 frame populations had the best health behavior in spring. There was no significant difference between treatments in the occurrence of aggressive behavior. A significant positive correlation was observed between uncapping and removing. In general, the results of this study showed that the lorestan honey bee colonies show good health behavior and they can be used in breeding programs to build resistant populations.

Individual and Colony Level Effects of Interactions between Two Common Forest Ant Species, Aphaenogaster carolinensis (Wheeler) and Nylanderia faisonensis (Forel)

The purpose of this project was to isolate and describe the behaviors of individuals of two ant species, Aphaenogaster carolinensis Wheeler and Nylanderia faisonensis Forel, during their interference interactions, and to relate those to effects on colonies and their access to resources. Videos were taken of baited index cards from within the shared habitat of the ant species in northeast Georgia forests. Two measures of individual behavior, change in speed and deflection, and three measures of colony behavior, time to first ant, recruitment time and maximum number of individuals, were collected from video. Nest occurrence for each species within a specified distance of baits was determined for both species as well. Nylanderia faisonensis saw greater change in speed and deflection angle in response to species interactions than A. carolinensis. Locations with N. faisonensis nests had a higher maximum number of individuals of both species. Nylanderia faisonensis had longer recruitment times at locations with A. carolinensis nests. Although N. faisonensis was always the aggressor, they experienced clear negative consequences of their interactions.

Growth Response and Recovery of Corynebacterium glutamicum Colonies on Single-Cell Level Upon Defined pH Stress Pulses.

Bacteria respond to pH changes in their environment and use pH homeostasis to keep the intracellular pH as constant as possible and within a small range. A change in intracellular pH influences enzyme activity, protein stability, trace element solubilities and proton motive force. Here, the species Corynebacterium glutamicum was chosen as a neutralophilic and moderately alkali-tolerant bacterium capable of maintaining an internal pH of 7.5 ± 0.5 in environments with external pH values ranging between 5.5 and 9. In recent years, the phenotypic response of C. glutamicum to pH changes has been systematically investigated at the bulk population level. A detailed understanding of the C. glutamicum cell response to defined short-term pH perturbations/pulses is missing. In this study, dynamic microfluidic single-cell cultivation (dMSCC) was applied to analyze the physiological growth response of C. glutamicum to precise pH stress pulses at the single-cell level. Analysis by dMSCC of the growth behavior of colonies exposed to single pH stress pulses (pH = 4, 5, 10, 11) revealed a decrease in viability with increasing stress duration w. Colony regrowth was possible for all tested pH values after increasing lag phases for which stress durations w were increased from 5 min to 9 h. Furthermore, single-cell analyses revealed heterogeneous regrowth of cells after pH stress, which can be categorized into three physiological states. Cells in the first physiological state continued to grow without interruption after pH stress pulse. Cells in the second physiological state rested for several hours after pH stress pulse before they started to grow again after this lag phase, and cells in the third physiological state did not divide after the pH stress pulse. This study provides the first insights into single-cell responses to acidic and alkaline pH stress by C. glutamicum.

Defensive Behavior and Morphometric Variation in Apis mellifera Colonies From Two Different Agro-Ecological Zones of North-Western Argentina

European lineages of Apis mellifera were first introduced into America for beekeeping purposes. A subsequent introduction and accidental release of A. m. scutellata resulted in hybridization events that gave rise to Africanized populations that rapidly spread throughout the continent. In Argentina, Africanized honey bees (AHBs) have been mostly detected in northern regions of the territory, and represent a valuable genetic resource for the selection of stocks with advantageous characteristics for beekeeping. The objective of the present study was to profile honey bee colonies of wild origin with potential beneficial traits for apiculture using morphological, molecular and behavioral traits. Honey bee colonies chosen for evaluation were located in two different agro-ecological regions in north-western Argentina (Tucumán province): The Chaco Depressed Plain (Leales apiary) and the Piedmont (Famaillá apiary). Each apiary was surveyed three times during the 2017–2018 season (mid-season, wintertime, and early spring) for: brood population, phoretic Varroa level and defensive behavior (run, fly, sting, and hang). At the midpoint of the beekeeping season colonies were also characterized by morphometry (45 variables) and mitochondrial haplotypes (COI–COII intergenic region). Apiaries studied showed similar patterns throughout the beekeeping season, for most of the characteristics monitored. However, significant variation in defensive behavior parameters was found between apiaries at the different times of evaluation. Twelve of 45 morphometric variables also showed significant differences between apiaries. The mitochondrial haplotype analysis revealed a high representation of African A4 and A1 haplotypes (91%) in both apiaries. Haplotype variation was associated with morphometric and behavioral traits. Multivariate analyses [principal component analysis (PCA) and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA)] including morphometric and behavior variables explained 65.3% (PCA) and 48.1% (PCoA) of the variability observed between colonies in the first two components. Several morphometric parameters and “fly” behavior were mainly associated with the separation of the colonies. The results from this study point to a possible association between morphometric and behavioral variation and the adaptation of honey bee colonies to differential agro-ecological conditions. We discuss how the detected variation between apiaries can be used for the selection and preservation of honey bee ecotypes in regional breeding programs.

Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the AnthropoceneAfter Extinction

Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the AnthropoceneAfter Extinction

Effect of probiotic supplement feed on the foraging activity of Indian honeybee (Apis cerana indica F.)

Aim: To investigate the effect of probiotic supplement feed on the foraging behaviour Indian honeybee colonies to resolve the excessive usage of antibiotics. Methodology: The effect of sugar syrup feed (Untreated hives) and sugar syrup + probiotic supplement feed @ 10 ml 100 ml-1 syrup (Treated hives) on Indian honeybees was tested. The foraging activity and foraging rate were recorded and subjected to paired t- test analysis. Results: The present observation showed a significant difference in the foraging rate between the colonies fed with sugar syrup + probiotic supplement (2.33 ± 0.11 min-1) than the colonies that received sugar syrup alone (1.35 ± 0.06 min-1). The highest foraging rate (2.80 ± 0.39 min-1) was recorded in treated hives. Interpretation: The experiment revealed that the brood development was directly proportional to brood pheromone levels, which positively affects the foragers, consequently foraging rate and honey production. Thus, the probiotic supplement feeding may influence the foraging behaviour of honeybee colonies.

IoT-Driven Workflows for Risk Management and Control of Beehives

The internet of things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 technologies are becoming widely used in the field of apiculture to enhance honey production and reduce colony losses using connected scales combined with additional data, such as relative humidity and internal temperature. This paper exploits beehive weight measurements and builds appropriate business rules using two instruments. The first is an IoT fixed scale installed on one hive, taking rich continuous measurements, and used as a reference. The second is a portable nomad scale communicating with a smartphone and used for the remaining hives. A key contribution will be the run and triggering of a business process model based on apicultural business rules learned from experience and system observed events. Later, the evolution of the weight of each individual hive, obtained by either measurement or inference, will be associated with a graphical workflow diagram expressed with the business process model and notation (BPMN) language, and will trigger events that inform beekeepers to initiate relevant action. Finally, the BPMN processes will be transformed into executable models for model driven decision support. This contribution improves amateur and professional user-experience for honeybee keeping and opens the door for interoperability between the suggested model and other available simulations (weather, humidity, bee colony behavior, etc.).

Cryptanalysis of Merkle-Hellman cipher using ant colony optimization

<p class="Abstract"><span id="docs-internal-guid-d3fe8e21-7fff-17fc-df0e-00893428243c"><span>The Merkle-Hellman (MH) cryptosystem is one of the earliest public key cryptosystems, which is introduced by Ralph Merkle and Martin Hellman in 1978 based on an NP-hard problem, known as the subset-sum problem. Furthermore, ant colony optimization (ACO) is one of the most nature-inspired meta-heuristic optimization, which simulates the social behaviour of ant colonies. ACO has demonstrated excellent performance in solving a wide variety of complex problems. In this paper, we present a novel ant colony optimization (ACO) based attack for cryptanalysis of MH cipher algorithm, where two different search techniques are used. Moreover, experimental study is included, showing the effectiveness of the proposed attacking scheme. The results show that ACO based attack is more suitable than many other algorithms like genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO).</span></span></p>

A Joint Tracking Approach via Ant Colony Evolution for Quantitative Cell Cycle Analysis.

In this paper, we use an ant colony heuristic method to tackle the integration of data association and state estimation in the presence of cell mitosis, morphological change and uncertainty of measurement. Our approach first models the scouting behavior of an unlabeled ant colony as a chaotic process to generate a set of cell candidates in the current frame, then a labeled ant colony foraging process is modeled to construct an interframe matching between previously estimated cell states and current cell candidates through minimizing the optimal sub-pattern assignment metric for track (OSPA-T). The states of cells in the current frame are finally estimated using labeled ant colonies via a multi-Bernoulli parameter set approximated by individual food pheromone fields and heuristic information within the same region of support, the resulting trail pheromone fields over frames constitutes the cell lineage trees of the tracks. A four-stage track recovery strategy is proposed to monitor the history of all established tracks to reconstruct broken tracks in a computationally economic way. The labeling method used in this work is an improvement on previous techniques. The method has been evaluated on publicly available, challenging cell image sequences, and a satisfied performance improvement is achieved in contrast to the state-of-the-art methods.

An accurate cell tracking approach with self-regulated foraging behavior of ant colonies in dynamic microscopy images

An accurate cell tracking approach with self-regulated foraging behavior of ant colonies in dynamic microscopy images

A Framework for Implementing Metaheuristic Algorithms Using Intercellular Communication.

Metaheuristics (MH) are Artificial Intelligence procedures that frequently rely on evolution. MH approximate difficult problem solutions, but are computationally costly as they explore large solution spaces. This work pursues to lay the foundations of general mappings for implementing MH using Synthetic Biology constructs in cell colonies. Two advantages of this approach are: harnessing large scale parallelism capability of cell colonies and, using existing cell processes to implement basic dynamics defined in computational versions. We propose a framework that maps MH elements to synthetic circuits in growing cell colonies to replicate MH behavior in cell colonies. Cell-cell communication mechanisms such as quorum sensing (QS), bacterial conjugation, and environmental signals map to evolution operators in MH techniques to adapt to growing colonies. As a proof-of-concept, we implemented the workflow associated to the framework: automated MH simulation generators for the gro simulator and two classes of algorithms (Simple Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing) encoded as synthetic circuits. Implementation tests show that synthetic counterparts mimicking MH are automatically produced, but also that cell colony parallelism speeds up the execution in terms of generations. Furthermore, we show an example of how our framework is extended by implementing a different computational model: The Cellular Automaton.

Chitosan Pesticides for Control Aphids (Aphis craccivora) on High Population in Long Bean (Vigna sesquipedalis) Cultivation

Pesticides with chitosan as an alternative are still relevant for aphids which are important pesticides in vegetable crops. This research was conducted to see the effect of several types of pesticides with chitosan active ingredients, the concentration of pesticides, and interactions between types of pesticides and concentrations of aphids on long bean plants. The study used factorial methods with randomized block designs. The first factor was the type of pesticide made from chitosan, which consisted of control (JO), pure chitosan (Jl), soft guard (J2), super biovit (13). The second factor was the concentration of pesticides that consisted of 0.1% (Kl), 0.3% (K2), and 1% (K3). There were 48 experimental units consisting of 12 treatment combinations and 4 replications. Data were analysed using Analysis of variance (ANOVA), and comparison between averages using Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). The results showed the effect of the treatment was single or there was no interaction between the types of pesticides made from chitosan with an active concentration in all parameters of observation. Furthermore, the effect of the type of pesticide with active chitosan was significantly different only on the average aphid population I and 3 days after the first application. Whereas pesticides made from active chitosan soft guard type tended to control the aphid population higher than other types of pesticides, then the effect of pesticide concentration was not significantly different from all parameters. However, the concentration of 1% indicated to inhibit the population of aphids higher than other concentrations. The high early aphid population, the behaviour of aphid colonies, the application method, and the nature of the active ingredient of chitosan were thought to be factors that reduce the ability of pesticides to control aphids on long bean plants.

Advances in the Study of Olfaction in Eusocial Ants.

Simple SummaryIn contrast to solitary insects such as the fruit fly or mosquito, eusocial ants form colonial societies comprised of reproductives (female queens and short-lived males) and thousands of sterile female offspring known as workers. Social behaviors such as nursing the queen’s offspring, foraging for food, and nest defense emerge from the collective behavior of the workers. Importantly, these behaviors critically depend on the exchange of information through the detection of chemical cues in the environment. While research efforts have historically aimed to understand the chemical ecology of these social insects, advances in the application of molecular technology over the past decade have facilitated novel studies that bridge the gap between social behaviors and olfaction. Here, we review major advances in the study of molecular olfaction in eusocial ants and highlight potential avenues for future research.Over the past decade, spurred in part by the sequencing of the first ant genomes, there have been major advances in the field of olfactory myrmecology. With the discovery of a significant expansion of the odorant receptor gene family, considerable efforts have been directed toward understanding the olfactory basis of complex social behaviors in ant colonies. Here, we review recent pivotal studies that have begun to reveal insights into the development of the olfactory system as well as how olfactory stimuli are peripherally and centrally encoded. Despite significant biological and technical impediments, substantial progress has been achieved in the application of gene editing and other molecular techniques that notably distinguish the complex olfactory system of ants from other well-studied insect model systems, such as the fruit fly. In doing so, we hope to draw attention not only to these studies but also to critical knowledge gaps that will serve as a compass for future research endeavors.

Effect of the oscillating magnetic field on airborne fungal.

This study shows that some species of fungi are affected by the magnetic field, which should be taken into account in studies of airborne fungal and air quality. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the effect of the oscillating magnetic field (OMF) on the behavior of colonies of three fungi genus growth in different culture mediums. The stains were: Aspergillus niger, Cladosporium cladosporioides and Penicillium citrinum and were inoculated in 90mm Petri dishes with: Malt Extract Agar (MEA), Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA) and Czapek-Dox Agar (CDA). Was applied them OMF of 60Hz/220V between 1 and 5 mT during 2h and then they were incubated 7days to 28°C. Colonies size (mm) every day was measured. Stimulation in the colonies size of all experimental conditions was showed; the greatest size of A. niger in MEA was notorious. It was demonstrated by statist analyze that only colonies size with 1mT was significance respect to the control. The effect of OMF on the cellular metabolism was evidenced, as well as: less exudation and major pigmentation of P. citrinum in MEA; variation of pigmentation of A. niger and C. cladosporioides in CDA and increase of conidiogenesis of A. niger in SDA. Was concluded that the applied OMF had a major influence on size colony and mycelia pigmentation of A. niger that C. cladosporioides and P. citrinum, independently of the nutritional state according to the culture medium employed in this study.