Mean Divergence Research Articles

Molecular identification and genetic analysis of Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato of dogs in Nigeria, West Africa.

The brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato, is a ubiquitous and taxonomically controversial pest of dogs with immense veterinary and public health significance. Genetic analyses of specimens from various geographical origins reveal intraspecific diversity within the taxon. Little information is available on the genetic characteristics of R. sanguineus s.l. in Nigeria, West Africa. In this study, 460bp of the mitochondrial 16S rDNA gene of R. sanguineus s.l. collected from dogs in different ecological zones of Nigeria was amplified, sequenced and characterized. Phylogenetic and pairwise analyses were used to compare the sequences generated in this study to each other and to sequences in GenBank. The sequences in this study were highly similar (>98%) to each other and clustered with sequences of the R. sanguineus s.l. tropical lineage in GenBank. None of the sequences in this study clustered with the 'southeastern Europe' or temperate lineage. The mean intraspecific divergence among R. sanguineus s.l. in this study was 1.7% (range: 0-8.0%). Furthermore, the sequences in this study showed mean divergence of 1.5% (0-10%), 5.0% (3.8-13.9%) and 9.7% (6.9-19.8%) from sequences of the tropical, southeastern Europe and temperate lineages, respectively. Interestingly, sequences in this study showed a mean divergence of 9.3% (1.0-17.8%) from the Rhipicephalus sp. morphotype 4 (GenBank acc. nr. KC243850) earlier identified from cattle in Nigeria, suggesting diversity in this taxon in Nigeria. Further studies are needed to elucidate the veterinary and public health significance of R. sanguineus s.l. in Nigeria taking into cognizance the existence of intraspecific variation in vector competence.

Solvent Effects on the Electrochemistry of Nickel (II) Diethyldithiocarbamate

Multielectron molecular redox couples have been used both as anolytes and catholytes in redox flow batteries (RFBs). The energy stored in an RFB is proportional to the number of electrons transferred per molecule. Thus, increasing the number of electrons transferred per molecule can enhance the amount of stored energy. Previous works in this field mostly looked for molecules containing multiple 1e- redox couples. The advantage of a single 2e- redox couple over multiple 1e- redox couples is that both electrons are stored and released at the same potential. Nickel (II) diethyldithiocarbamate, NiII(Et2dtc)2 undergoes 2e- oxidation at a single potential to form [NiIV(Et2dtc)3]+.1 In different nonaqueous solvents NiII(Et2dtc)2 can offer divergent redox behavior based on their coordination properties.2 This divergent redox behavior means significant changes on the electrochemistry of the complex during oxidation and reduction. Pyridine, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethyl formamide (DMF), acetonitrile (MeCN), methanol (MeOH), acetone, and dichloromethane (DCM) have been studied in this work as they have dissimilar donor numbers with different coordination abilities towards the Ni center. Both cyclic voltammetry and spectroscopic data in the above-mentioned solvents show distinct behavior which is expected as solvent coordination ability varies. Due to its highest coordination ability among the solvents used in this study, pyridine hinders the Ni (II) to Ni (IV) oxidation by coordinating strongly to the Ni (III) center to form [NiIII(Et2dtc)2(Py)2]+. On the contrary, noncoordinating DCM allows oxidation to Ni (IV) albeit through two distinguishable 1e- oxidation processes. MeCN and acetone allow Ni (II)→(IV) oxidation at a single potential. DMSO, DMF, and MeOH show intermediate redox behavior between 1e- and 2e- transfer reactions. These studies point to the ability of solvent to aid or hinder multielectron redox strategies which use Ligand Coupled Electron Transfer where changes in coordination environment are necessary.3 Mazumder, M. M.; Burton, A.; Richburg, C.; Saha, S.; Cronin, B.; Duin, E.; Farnum, B., Controlling One-Electron vs Two-Electron Pathways in the Multi-Electron Redox Cycle of Nickel Diethyldithiocarbamate. Inorganic Chemistry 2021.Islam, R.; Mazumder, M. M. R.; Farnum, B. H., Solvent Dependent Spectroscopic and Electrochemical Studies of Nickel (II) Diethyldithiocarbamate for Energy Storage, ECS Meeting s, IOP Publishing: 2021; p 54. Saha, S.; Sahil, S. T.; Mazumder, M. M. R.; Stephens, A. M.; Cronin, B.; Duin, E. C.; Jurss, J. W.; Farnum, B. H., Synthesis, characterization, and electrocatalytic activity of bis (pyridylimino) isoindoline Cu (II) and Ni (II) complexes. J Dalton Transactions 2021, 50 (3), 926-935. Figure 1

Distorted and Limiting Semantically Divergent Translated Meaning of Arabic Loanwords in the Malay Language as Educational Instrument

Historically, the language contact contributed by Muslim preachers among the Arab traders of diverse origins that some of them opted to migrate and intermarry with the local Malays, thus, intermingled with the locals that had influenced the Malay/Malaysian language to borrow more Arabic words. Some semantic properties of the loanwords are adopted, but some are adapted. This study concerns with the divergent meaning of some adapted ones. 18 Malay-Arabic homophonous loanwords were purposely sampled – (the limited sample is due to the journal words limit). It is observed that despite of their similar utterance and spelling/transliteration but they have partially or fully dissimilar meanings when being compared between the two languages. Generally, it may confuse users of both languages, specifically the Arabian students who are compulsory to pass the Malay language in order to pass their study in Malaysia as well as Malay students who are studying in Arabian countries. Moreover, it may affect their meaning in the Malay translation for the Holy Qur’an/Prophetic Tradition (Hadith). So, it is essential to engage academics of the Islamic studies, and the Malay-Arabic linguists alike with the crucial issue stemmed from the bilingual mastery level that involved both languages departing from the rising movement of re-examining and re-envision criticality in language studies. Henceforth, the Malaysian Muslim society could dynamically develop further ahead after more than 10 centuries exposed to the Arabic language rather than being stagnant in minimalism evermore.

Novel regularization method for the class imbalance problem

In neural network models, obtaining a high-quality dataset is critical because they are generally reliant on training data. A common problem that occurs is class imbalance, in which models tend to be biased to the majority class when the training data is not balanced. To overcome this problem, we propose a novel regularization method that provides a penalty to the loss function, using two facets of the distribution of the model’s output p(ŷ|x): (1) skewed mean and (2) variance divergence between p(ŷ|x∈D+) and p(ŷ|x∈D−). The experimental results demonstrate that our methods consistently improve the performance on imbalanced datasets. Moreover, the combination of two regularization methods provides a substantial performance improvement on five sentence classification datasets and also an image classification dataset; notably, state-of-the-art performances are achieved on the WikiQA and SelQA datasets.

Eyes and speech in English, Finnish and Czech children’s literature

This study explores cross-linguistically, in English, Czech and Finnish, eye-behaviour that occurs in children’s fiction in the vicinity of character speech. We explore how authentic eye behaviour, as an important part of non-verbal communication, is rendered in fictional worlds. While there are more similarities than differences across the languages in the characteristics and narrative functions of fictional eye-behaviour, the linguistic encoding differs substantially due to typological differences between the languages. The same semantic roles are often expressed by divergent syntactic means. The divergence is reflected primarily in the relative weight of different word-order principles, the different means of indicating simultaneity, as well as the role of inflection in Finnish and Czech.

Making sense of heterogeneous innovative social action: co-constructing the past and imagining the future

ABSTRACT Currently, countries, organizations and individual actors are increasingly pushed towards an ‘innovation imperative’ that presents innovation as an unequivocal promoter of multi-level success. However, it remains to be addressed whether innovation actors have homogenously incorporated this narrative, or rather, attribute divergent meanings to previous innovative social action. Inspired by critical innovation studies and sensemaking research, this paper addresses whether specific contextual aspects translate into heterogeneous sensemaking processes, and shape actors’ expectations for the future. For this purpose, focusing on the Information and Communication Technology sector and having the organizational unit as the level of analysis, it addresses top managers’ discourses through their perceptions on past innovation. Cluster analysis identified two profiles, mostly discriminated by actors’ perceptions of their firms’ role in previous innovation. These profiles were associated with innovation performance with firms with more outputs presenting themselves as the ‘builders of their success’, while the ones with less successful trajectories expressing their powerlessness. Logistic regression analysis revealed that such discourses mediate the impact of firms’ empowerment culture and assets on confidence in the future. This study adds to previous literature a first comparative analysis of heterogeneous sensemaking discourses through which actors contextualize previous innovative social action and co-construct futures’ expectations.

Framing in interactive academic talk

AbstractFraming involves how language users conceptualize what is happening in interaction for situated interpretation of roles, purposes, expectations, and sequences of action, thus show significant conceptual relevance to the analysis of routinized institutional communication. Having established a working definition offramingbased on an intensive review of previous research, this study investigates university students’ and tutors’ framing behaviors in interactive small group talk. Two types of framing-in-interaction, -alternate framingof a single situation andco-framingwithin/beyond speaker role boundary-, are identified, examined, and characterized from a conversation-analytic perspective. The findings suggest that alternate framings co-occur with traceable interactional devices for sequential organization when the single situation at talk takes on divergent meaning potentials to be accessed. Co-framings happen when at least one (group) of participants is highly goal-oriented, showing conditional relevance to the prior courses of action and more explicit negotiation of epistemic stances. Framing, therefore, can be arguably taken as a global organization resource to characterize contextualization in institutional communication.

Getting to the Pink Picket Fence: How LGB Migrants Negotiate Same-Sex Marriage

Despite the increasing legalization trend, same-sex marriage remains inaccessible to couples in most countries. Such exclusions, however, can be circumvented by migrants who, in the process, also negotiate diverse and even divergent meanings of marriage embedded in different socio-institutional contexts. This study examines such diverse meanings of marriage among LGB transnational migrants based on biographic narrative interviews with nine individuals married to same-sex partners in Belgium and the Netherlands and coming from Central and Eastern European countries with constitutional protection of heterosexual marriage. The study highlights the negotiations of intimate relationships in the context of the new institutional opportunity of marriage and stresses how the similarities between migrants and non-migrants testify to the strengthening of same-sex marriage as a social institution. Focusing further on migrants' unique experiences of marriage in divergent socio-institutional contexts, this study also shows how same-sex marriage empowers LGB migrants even where it is (still) not available.

DNA barcoding and phylogenetic relationship of shrimps (Crustacea: Decapoda) of Bangladesh

We adopted DNA barcoding technique using a 658-bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene to identify shrimp species collected from the different areas of Bangladesh. A total of 24 sequences were generated belonging to 14 species including four new records- Macrobrachium nipponense, Macrobrachium kistnense, Exopalaemon carinicauda and Alpheus malleator. Genetic distance measured with Kimura 2 parameter showed that genetic divergence increased with higher taxonomic rank. The mean genetic divergence was evaluated and found to be 0.935%, 22.67% and 30.92% within species, genus and family, respectively. In addition to the barcode-based species identification system, phylogenetic relationships were established where individuals belonging to the same species were grouped under the same clade. Maximum likelihood (ML) was preferred as the statistical method and as expected, the phylogenetic tree complemented and ensured the conventional taxonomy. The present study evidently showed that DNA barcoding can be served as an effective tool to discriminate the shrimp species and this will enhance the understanding on evolution and conservation biology.
 Bioresearch Commu. 7(1): 941-946, 2021 (January)

High genetic divergence but low morphological differences in a keelback snake Rhabdophis subminiatus (Reptilia, Colubridae)

Integrative taxonomy based on multiple data sets plays an important role in species classification, especially in the case of cryptic species. Rhabdophis subminiatus is a colubrid snake with broadly geographical distribution, and two subspecies (Rhabdophis subminiatus subminiatus and Rhabdophis subminiatus helleri) are currently recognized within this species. Based on external morphological comparison, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)-based phylogeny, single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based phylogeny, and population structure analysis, we explored the intraspecific taxonomy of R. subminiatus. Phylogenetic analysis based on mtDNA and SNPs consistently uncovered two highly supported lineages separated by a large genetic distance, with SNP-based principal component analysis (PCA) and population structure analysis displaying similar results. Despite the fact that PCA based on morphological data did not show population differentiation, unlike the molecular data, we suggest that R. s. helleri should be elevated to the specific rank as Rhabdophis helleri based on all lines of evidence. The distributional boundary between the two species R. helleri and R. subminiatus is tentatively proposed. 结合多种类型数据的整合分类对物种的分类, 尤其是具有隐含物种的复合物种分类具有重要的作用。红脖颈槽蛇(Rhabdophis subminiatus)是一种具有广泛地理分布的游蛇, 目前一般认为具有两个亚种: 指名亚种(R.s. subminiatus)和北方亚种 (R. s. helleri)。基于外部形态比较、分子 (线粒体基因和SNP) 系统关系重建和种群结构分析, 本文探讨了红脖颈槽蛇的种下分类。线粒体片段和SNP数据的系统进化关系一致揭示该种存在遗传分化较大的两个种群。SNP数据的基本组成成分分析 (PCA) 和种群结构分析呈现出相似的结果。尽管形态比较未发现该种存在显著地理分化, 基于分子数据分析结果,我们认为红脖颈槽蛇北方亚种R. s. helleri应该提升为种级, 成为北方颈槽蛇 (R. helleri) 。本文对红脖颈槽蛇和北方颈槽蛇的分布范围进行了初步划定。 Figure S1. Principal component analysis of external morphological characters of Rhabdophis subminiatus. Table S1. Oligonucleotide primers used for amplification and sequencing of cytochrome b (Cyt b) and NADH submit (ND4). Table S2. Measured specimen information of Rhabdophis subminiatus. Table S3. A list of morphological characters recorded and their abbreviation. Table S4. Average sequence divergence (mean uncorrected p-distances, %) between three lineages of Rhabdophis subminiatus defined by the mitochondrial DNA phylogeny. Table S5. Results of characters screening for significant differences between the sexes in Rhabdophis subminiatus. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

Solvent Dependent Spectroscopic and Electrochemical Studies of Nickel (II) Diethyldithiocarbamate for Energy Storage

In the field of electrochemical energy storage, multielectron molecular redox couples play significant roles. These redox couples have been used both as anolytes and catholytes in redox flow batteries (RFBs). The energy stored in an RFB is proportional to the number of electrons transferred per molecule. Thus, increasing the number of electrons transferred per molecule can enhance the amount of stored energy. Previous works in this field mostly looked for molecules containing multiple 1e- redox couples. The advantage of a single 2e- redox couple over multiple 1e- redox couples is that both electrons are stored and released at the same potential. In the case of multiple 1e- redox couples, two redox potentials are usually separated by more than 0.3 V. This can cause significant shifts in battery voltage and power during charging and discharging of an RFB. Nickel (II) diethyldithiocarbamate, NiII(Et2dtc)2 undergoes 2e- oxidation at a single potential to form [NiIV(Et2dtc)3]+. In different nonaqueous solvents NiII(Et2dtc)2 can offer divergent redox behavior based on their coordination properties. This divergent redox behavior means significant changes on the electrochemistry of the complex during oxidation and reduction. Pyridine, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethyl formamide (DMF), acetonitrile (MeCN), methanol (MeOH), acetone, and dichloromethane (DCM) have been studied in this work as they have dissimilar donor numbers with different coordination abilities towards the Ni center. Both cyclic voltammetry and spectroscopic data in the above-mentioned solvents show distinct behavior which is expected as solvent coordination ability varies. Due to its highest coordination ability among the solvents used in this study, pyridine hinders the Ni (II) to Ni (IV) oxidation by coordinating strongly to the Ni (III) center to form [NiIII(Et2dtc)2(Py)2]+. On the contrary, noncoordinating DCM allows oxidation to Ni (IV) albeit through two distinguishable 1e- oxidation processes. MeCN and acetone allow Ni (II)→(IV) oxidation at a single potential. DMSO, DMF, and MeOH show intermediate redox behavior between 1e- and 2e- transfer reactions. The presence of Ni (III) in the case of highly coordinating solvents was confirmed by low temperature EPR and UV-vis absorbance spectroscopy with the use of a chemical oxidant. These studies point to the ability of solvent to aid or hinder multielectron redox strategies which use Ligand Coupled Electron Transfer where changes in coordination environment are necessary.

Performance Evaluation of LSA, NMF and ILSA in Electronic Assessment of Free Text Document

Aims: To evaluate the performance of an Improved Latent Semantic Analysis (ILSA), Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) algorithms in an Electronic Assessment Application using metrics, Term Similarity, Precision, Recall and F-measure functions, Mean divergence, Assessment Accuracy and Adequacy in Semantic Representation.
 Methodology: The three algorithms were separately applied in developing an Electronic Assessment application. One hundred students’ responses to a test question in an introductory artificial intelligence course were used. Their performance was measured based on the following metrics, Term Similarity, Precision, Recall and F-measure functions, Mean divergence and Assessment Accuracy.
 Results: ILSA outperformed the LSA and NMF with an assessment accuracy of 96.64, mean divergence from manual score of 0.03, and recall, precision and f-measure value of 0.83, 0.85 and 0.87 respectively.
 Conclusion: The research observed the performance of an improved algorithm ILSA for electronic Assessment of free text document using Adequacy in Semantic Representation, Retrieval Quality and Assessment Accuracy as performance metrics. The results obtained from the experimental designs shows the adequacy of the improved algorithm in semantic representation, better retrieval quality and improved assessment accuracy.

Diagnosing surfzone impacts on inner-shelf flow spatial variability using realistic model experiments with and without surface gravity waves

AbstractRip currents are generated by surfzone wave breaking and are ejected offshore inducing inner-shelf flow spatial variability (eddies). However, surfzone effects on the inner-shelf flow spatial variability have not been studied in realistic models that include both shelf and surfzone processes. Here, these effects are diagnosed with two nearly identical twin realistic simulations of the San Diego Bight over summer to fall where one simulation includes surface gravity waves (WW) and the other that does not (NW). The simulations include tides, weak to moderate winds, internal waves, submesoscale processes, and have surfzone width Lsz of 96(±41) m (≈ 1 m significant wave height). Flow spatial variability metrics, alongshore root mean square vorticity, divergence, and eddy cross-shore velocity, are analyzed in a Lsz normalized cross-shore coordinate. At the surface, the metrics are consistently (> 70%) elevated in the WW run relative to NW out to 5Lsz offshore. At 4Lsz offshore, WW metrics are enhanced over the entire water column. In a fixed coordinate appropriate for eddy transport, the eddy cross-shore velocity squared correlation betweenWWand NW runs is < 0.5 out to 1.2 km offshore or 12 time-averaged Lsz. The results indicate that the eddy tracer (e.g., larvae) transport and dispersion across the inner-shelf will be significantly different in the WW and NW runs. The WW model neglects specific surfzone vorticity generation mechanisms. Thus, these inner-shelf impacts are likely underestimated. In other regions with larger waves, impacts will extend farther offshore.

Consumer Protection in Jordanian Discount Sales: A Comparative Study with the Legislations of France, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates

Abstract This article compares consumer protection in the framework of discounts with the constituent elements of such sales and the relevant methods of protecting consumer rights, according to French, Emirati, Jordanian, and Tunisian legislation and judicial practice. The findings shed light on the operation of consumer rights and market protection, and argues that each legal system has developed divergent means to attain the same goal. While some legal systems have organised sales with detailed rules, others have engaged in very limited market intervention; in the latter case, consumers are prevented from enjoying an important set of rights, as consumer rights and market protection are determined by the merchants.

DIACHRONIC APPROACH TO STUDYING WORD FORMATION SYNONYMY (ON THE EXAMPLE OF VERBS OF THE LEXICO-SEMANTIC GROUP "VERBS OF PLACING AN OBJECT ANYWHERE AS A RESULT OF A CERTAIN ACTION")

This study is devoted to the consideration of the processes of the emergence and destruction of synonymy in the diachronic aspect between languages of units of two levels - lexical and educational. Moreover, both levels are interconnected and interdependent, since changes in one of them are necessarily on the other. An important role is given to the value of the context in the processes under study. Recognizing the symbolic nature of the language as an exponent of the linguistic picture of the world of its speakers, the authors analyze the reasons for the convergence and divergence of meanings at different time intervals of both the same word and the same root different affix lexemes. The material for the study was the verbs of the lexico-semantic group «Verbs of placing an object anywhere as a result of a certain action», taken in the same context from the lists of the biographies of the Russian saints Boris and Gleb, created at different times and subsequently translated from Old Russian into modern Russian tongue. The main criterion for the selection of linguistic material was the principle of interchangeability of lexemes in the same contexts, since in relation to diachronic synonymy it is fundamental and objectively reflects the linguistic situation of the linguistic period under consideration. In the course of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the development of synonymous relations between the analyzed verbs «обертеть», «увертеть» and «ввертеть» influenced by the grammatical characteristics of lexemes and their lexical meaning associated with contextual use. And the frequency or singularity of their use is associated not only and not so much with the dictionary meaning, but with the genre of the text in which this or that verb is used.

Semicovariance Coefficient Analysis of Spike Proteins from SARS-CoV-2 and Other Coronaviruses for Viral Evolution and Characteristics Associated with Fatality.

Complex modeling has received significant attention in recent years and is increasingly used to explain statistical phenomena with increasing and decreasing fluctuations, such as the similarity or difference of spike protein charge patterns of coronaviruses. Different from the existing covariance or correlation coefficient methods in traditional integer dimension construction, this study proposes a simplified novel fractional dimension derivation with the exact Excel tool algorithm. It involves the fractional center moment extension to covariance, which results in a complex covariance coefficient that is better than the Pearson correlation coefficient, in the sense that the nonlinearity relationship can be further depicted. The spike protein sequences of coronaviruses were obtained from the GenBank and GISAID databases, including the coronaviruses from pangolin, bat, canine, swine (three variants), feline, tiger, SARS-CoV-1, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 (including the strains from Wuhan, Beijing, New York, German, and the UK variant B.1.1.7) which were used as the representative examples in this study. By examining the values above and below the average/mean based on the positive and negative charge patterns of the amino acid residues of the spike proteins from coronaviruses, the proposed algorithm provides deep insights into the nonlinear evolving trends of spike proteins for understanding the viral evolution and identifying the protein characteristics associated with viral fatality. The calculation results demonstrate that the complex covariance coefficient analyzed by this algorithm is capable of distinguishing the subtle nonlinear differences in the spike protein charge patterns with reference to Wuhan strain SARS-CoV-2, which the Pearson correlation coefficient may overlook. Our analysis reveals the unique convergent (positive correlative) to divergent (negative correlative) domain center positions of each virus. The convergent or conserved region may be critical to the viral stability or viability; while the divergent region is highly variable between coronaviruses, suggesting high frequency of mutations in this region. The analyses show that the conserved center region of SARS-CoV-1 spike protein is located at amino acid residues 900, but shifted to the amino acid residues 700 in MERS spike protein, and then to amino acid residues 600 in SARS-COV-2 spike protein, indicating the evolution of the coronaviruses. Interestingly, the conserved center region of the spike protein in SARS-COV-2 variant B.1.1.7 shifted back to amino acid residues 700, suggesting this variant is more virulent than the original SARS-COV-2 strain. Another important characteristic our study reveals is that the distance between the divergent mean and the maximal divergent point in each of the viruses (MERS > SARS-CoV-1 > SARS-CoV-2) is proportional to viral fatality rate. This algorithm may help to understand and analyze the evolving trends and critical characteristics of SARS-COV-2 variants, other coronaviral proteins and viruses.

When the law meets feminisms: The shortcomings of contemporary prostitution policies across the European Union

Prostitution is a multi-faceted reality at the intersection of divergent meanings. Some feminism narratives have led to its polarised interpretation, conflating prostitution with a practice of gender oppression or an instance of personal autonomy. Framed according to legal principles, such binary has been transposed into three legal frameworks that are currently in force across the European Union; namely, neo-prohibitionism (where the purchase of sexual services is criminalised), abolitionism (where all the ancillary activities to prostitution are criminally prosecuted) and neo-regulamentarism (where prostitution is decriminalised and regulated by law). Against this background, this article will attempt to understand to what extent the legal reasonings behind these frameworks are divergent and whether the legal solutions in force are suitable within the multi-faceted realm of prostitution. Its final aim will be to posit an alternative set of legal principles able to address the contemporary shortcomings and form the basis for more inclusive regulation. By doing so, it will also seek to integrate the legal discourse with the feminist literature that the national legislators have traditionally disregarded, as well as the claims shared by sex workers' organisations in fighting for their legal protection at the international and European level.

Mountains act as museums and cradles for hemipteran insects in China: Evidence from patterns of richness and phylogenetic structure

AbstractAimThis study aims to test whether the diversity centres of hemipteran insects are mainly concentrated in mountains and whether spatial variation exists in the relationship between species richness and environmental factors, and investigate the spatio‐temporal divergence patterns of hemipteran insects in China to infer underlying mechanisms and the role of different regions as museums and/or cradles.LocationChina.Time periodPresent day.Major taxa studiedHemipteran insects.MethodsA comprehensive species distribution dataset consisting of 7,822 hemipteran species was compiled, and a dated molecular phylogeny of hemipteran insects was reconstructed. We analysed the richness and spatio‐temporal divergence patterns of hemipteran insects based on grid cells with a resolution of 1° × 1°. The relative effects of environmental factors on species richness were analysed by general linear models, multivariate spatial autoregressive models and a spatial random forest model. Phylogenetic diversity, phylogenetic structure, and mean divergence times were calculated and evaluated.ResultsThe mountains of central to southern China have the highest hemipteran diversity. Multiple environmental factors together determine the diversity patterns, but relative effects of different factors vary across China's terrain. Central and southern China primarily preserve older lineages and present phylogenetic overdispersion, while northern China shows more recent divergence and phylogenetic clustering. The eastern Himalayas and Hengduan Mountains have high diversity of both ancient and young lineages.Main conclusionsThe diversity patterns of hemipteran insects in China obviously tend to concentrate in mountains and result from combined effects of multiple environmental factors, but the effects vary in different areas. The mountains of central and southern China act as museums, and the mountains of northern China represent evolutionary cradles for Hemiptera diversity, while the eastern Himalayas and Hengduan Mountains are probably being both cradles and museums. Our results identify areas of high richness and phylogenetic diversity, which provide a foundation for insect conservation in China.

An Improved LSA Model for Electronic Assessment of Free Text Document

Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) is a statistical approach designed to capture the semantic content of a document which form the basis for its application in electronic assessment of free-text document in an examination context. The students submitted answers are transformed into a Document Term Matrix (DTM) and approximated using SVD-LSA for noise reduction. However, it has been shown that LSA still has remnant of noise in its semantic representation which ultimately affects the assessment result accuracy when compared to human grading. In this work, the LSA Model is formulated as an optimization problem using Non-negative Matrix Factorization(NMF)-Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). The factors of LSA are used to initialize NMF factors for quick convergence. ACO iteratively searches for the value of the decision variables in NMF that minimizes the objective function and use these values to construct a reduced DTM. The results obtained shows a better approximation of the DTM representation and improved assessment result of 91.35% accuracy, mean divergence of 0.0865 from human grading and a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.632 which proved to be a better result than the existing ones.

A new macromedusa from the coast of Mozambique: Aurelia mozambica sp. nov. (Scyphozoa: Ulmaridae).

A new species of the cosmopolitan jellyfish genus Aurelia is described from the coastal waters of Mozambique using a combination of morphological, meristic and genetic information (COI and 18S). The species can be separated from congeners that have been recently described by a combination of bell shape, number of canal origins and anastomoses, and the shape of the manubrium and oral arms. Three types of nematocysts are present in the tissues of both the bell margin and oral arms, and this description of the cnidome will allow for future comparison. Pairwise genetic comparisons showed a mean COI divergence of 4.8% within the group, and a mean divergence ranging between 15% and 22% with all other species of Aurelia.