Generic Description Research Articles

A new cicada (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) species from Brazil with a detailed description of the genus Parnisa Stål, 1862 and key to the known species

The new cicada species Parnisa infuscata sp. nov. is described, along with its calling song, from Minas Gerais State in Brazil. The genus Parnisa Stål, 1862 is redescribed to provide additional details on its morphology since the abbreviated original generic description was based only on a few wing characters. A key for the 14 known species of the genus is provided.

Health impacts methodology in the European Commission

Abstract The state of play in the implementation of health impacts methodology within European Commission impact assessments reveals both advancements and challenges. The Commission has acknowledged the significance of assessing health impacts and has provided a generic methodological description, as outlined in Tool #32 of the Better Regulation guidelines. However, translating this guidance into practical application encounters obstacles stemming from challenges intrinsic to the policy in question, a lack of skills and knowledge, data gaps, and complexities in establishing causal links. In EU policymaking, health impacts are consistently appraised in relevant Impact Assessments across various policy areas, but the methodological intricacy varies. In the fields of public health, occupational safety, and environmental protection, econometric modelling is often employed to quantify potential health impacts rigorously. This involves sophisticated analytical tools designed to capture the complexity of the interactions. Conversely, in areas where the link between policies and health outcomes is less direct (e.g. food safety) or where data limitations pose challenges, a more qualitative appraisal is applied. This acknowledges the limitations in precisely quantifying health impacts and focuses on providing a nuanced understanding of potential health effects based on available information.

A hierarchy of thermal processes collapses under catalysis

Abstract Thermal operations (TO) are a generic description for allowed state transitions under thermodynamic restrictions. However, the quest for simpler methods to encompass all these processes remains unfulfilled. We resolve this challenge through the catalytic use of thermal baths, which are assumed to be easily accessible. We select two sets of simplified operations: elementary TO (ETO) and Markovian TO (MTO). They are known for their experimental feasibility, but fail to capture the full extent of TO due to their innate Markovianity. We nevertheless demonstrate that this limitation can be overcome when the operations are enhanced by ambient-temperature Gibbs state catalysts. In essence, our result indicates that free states within TO can act as catalysts that provide the necessary non-Markovianity for simpler operations. Furthermore, we prove that when any catalyst can be employed, different thermal processes (TO, ETO, and MTO) converge. Notably, our results extend to scenarios involving initial states with coherence in the energy eigenbasis, a notoriously difficult process to characterise.

Fairness in AI-Driven Oncology: Investigating Racial and Gender Biases in Large Language Models.

Large language model (LLM) chatbots have many applications in medical settings. However, these tools can potentially perpetuate racial and gender biases through their responses, worsening disparities in healthcare. With the ongoing discussion of LLM chatbots in oncology and the widespread goal of addressing cancer disparities, this study focuses on biases propagated by LLM chatbots in oncology. Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (Chat GPT; OpenAI, San Francisco, CA, USA) was asked to determine what occupation a generic description of "assesses cancer patients" would correspond to for different demographics. Chat GPT, Gemini (Alphabet Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA), and Bing Chat (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA) were prompted to provide oncologist recommendations in the top U.S. cities and demographic information (race, gender) of recommendations was compared against national distributions. Chat GPT was also asked to generate a job description for oncologists with different demographic backgrounds. Finally, Chat GPT, Gemini, and Bing Chat were asked to generate hypothetical cancer patients with race, smoking, and drinking histories. LLM chatbots are about two times more likely to predict Blacksand Native Americans as oncology nurses than oncologists, compared to Asians (p < 0.01 and < 0.001, respectively). Similarly, they are also significantly more likely to predict females than males as oncology nurses (p < 0.001). Chat GPT's real-world oncologist recommendations overrepresent Asians by almost double and underrepresent Blacks by double and Hispanics by seven times. Chatbots also generate different job descriptions based on demographics, including cultural competency and advocacy and excluding treatment administration for underrepresented backgrounds. AI-generated cancer cases are not fully representative of real-world demographic distributions and encode stereotypes on substance abuse, such as Hispanics having a greater proportion of smokers than Whites by about 20% in Chat GPT breast cancer cases. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to investigate racial and gender biases of such a diverse set of AI chatbots, and that too, within oncology. The methodology presented in this study provides a framework for targeted bias evaluation of LLMs in various fields across medicine.

The Steinberg character in the principal block of a finite reductive group

We give a generic description of the non-defining primes l , for which the Steinberg character lies in the principal l -block of a finite reductive group.

Piecing together the taxonomic puzzle: Generic delimitation in the Stoebe clade of Cape daisies (Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae) and a synopsis of the species

The Stoebe clade is a Cape-centred lineage comprising ca. 70 species, currently in eight genera. Despite recent generic taxonomic changes, many generic characters are ambiguous, and generic circumscription is likely to remain unstable in the absence of a robust species-level phylogeny. Here, we present a hypothesis of species relationships in the clade, based on parsimony and Bayesian analyses of DNA sequence and morphological characters, in order to assess generic monophyly. The trees based on morphology alone and plastid sequences alone are poorly resolved, with few well-supported nodes, while those based on nuclear sequences alone are better resolved. There is no evidence of phylogenetic conflict, and concatenation of all three data sources produces a well-resolved tree with many highly-supported nodes. We show that none of the currently-accepted genera are monophyletic, with the exception of Muscosomorphe, which is supported as monospecific. Amphiglossa species are recovered in two separate clades, requiring the resurrection of the genus Pterothrix to house ten of the twelve species. All the characters used to circumscribe the remaining genera, such as the possession of ray florets, are shown to be homoplasious. As a result, these remaining genera (Dicerothamnus, Disparago, Elytropappus, Myrovernix, Seriphium, and Stoebe) are here synonymised with Stoebe. The main morphological synapomorphy for this enlarged concept of Stoebe is the aggregation of the tiny capitula into conflorescences with varying degrees of complexity and congestion. The proposed taxonomy for the Stoebe clade comprises just four genera: Amphiglossa, Muscosomorphe, Pterothrix, and Stoebe. We present the new combinations, keys and generic descriptions, as well as keys to the species.

A review of the genus Neogreenia MacGillivray (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Qinococcidae) with descriptions of two new species.

The species of Neogreenia MacGillivray (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Qinococcidae) are reviewed. The genus is distributed in the Oriental and Palaearctic Regions and now contains seven species. The present study provides updated generic descriptions of all the developmental stages and a brief account of the biology and life cycle of Neogreenia. The genotype, Neogreenia zeylanica (Green, 1896), is redescribed. The following are described and illustrated for the first time: the second-instar nymph, third-instar female, and male third-instar nymph and pupa of N. zizyphi Tang; the second-instar nymph of N. lonicera Wu & Nan; and the second-instar nymph of N. sophorica Wu. Two new species are described and illustrated: Neogreenia ficus Zheng & Wu, sp. n. based on the adult female and Neogreenia tangi Zheng & Wu, sp. n. based on all female instars. These new species bring the total number of described species of Neogreenia to seven. An identification key to all the developmental stages of Neogreenia, and identification keys to species based on adult females and available nymphal instars are provided.

Perceived effects of key audit matters reporting on audit efforts, audit fees, audit quality, and audit report transparency: stakeholders’ perspectives

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the perspectives of auditors, regulators and financial report preparers on the effects of key audit matters (KAMs) reporting on audit effort, fees, quality and report transparency.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders (13 Audit Partners, 5 Chief Financial Officers and 3 regulators) and thematically analysed the interviews. They use the frame of “Paradox of Transparency” to explain the findings.FindingsAuditors perceive that the overall quality control of their audits has improved both in the planning and execution stages, and such improvement can mostly be attributed to the coercive pressures from professional bodies and regulators. Nevertheless, audit fee remains unchanged. Auditors disclose industry generic items and descriptions of KAMs, sometimes masking the real problem areas of the clients. Even after improving the performative audit quality, transparency of audit reporting has not improved. Issues that warrant going concern qualifications or audit report modifications are now reported as KAMs. Hence, KAMs reporting might make the audit report less transparent.Practical implicationsLocalised audit environments and institutions affect the transparency of KAMs reporting. Without attention to corporate governance and auditors’ independence issues, paradoxically, performative improvement in audit quality (due to the KAMs reporting requirement) does not enhance the transparency of audit reports.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide field-level evidence in Bangladesh and other developing countries about the perceptions of auditors, financial report preparers and regulators on the effects of KAMs reporting on audit efforts, fees, quality and report transparency.

Resurrection of Perilimnastes (Sonerileae, Melastomataceae) with description of a new species P.nana.

Recent research has indicated that the Phyllagathis (raphides) clade (Sonerileae, Melastomataceae) is only distantly related to the type of Phyllagathis and should be separated as a distinct genus. Phylogeny of this clade is here reconstructed with expanded taxon sampling. Four strongly supported subclades have been identified. The possible affinities of taxa that were not sampled in the analysis are discussed, based on morphological data. Perilimnastes is resurrected as the generic name of the Phyllagathis (raphides) clade. A generic description, colour figures, map of distribution, a list of included species and a key are provided for Perilimnastes. Fifteen new combinations are made plus the description of a new species. As interpreted here, Perilimnastes consists of twenty species and two varieties.

Dislocation phenomena described with free volume concept and Eyring's rate process theory.

Dislocation phenomena in solids under simple shear stress are theoretically addressed with the free volume concept and Eyring's rate process theory for obtaining a generic and unified description. The obtained equations do not have any restrictions to specific materials and are compared with various theories and empirical equations like the Hall-Petch and its inverse forms. Moreover, our equations are used to fit experimental data of mechanical properties and dislocation density against grain sizes available in the literature. A good agreement with observations is achieved, indicating that our theoretical framework is sound. Our findings provide a theoretical foundation for the very common dislocation phenomena observed among many solid materials including pure metals, metallic alloys, ceramics, and even geological scale entities, potentially clearing out many inconsistencies and puzzles in the literature.

Fast and Generic Energy Flow Analysis of the Integrated Electric Power and Heating Networks

Energy flow analysis is a fundamental tool to determine the network states of the integrated energy systems (IES). For the widely deployed IES with coupled power grids (PG) and heating networks (HN), we still lack a generic tool that can be easily employed to calculate the quasi-dynamic energy flows of it. In this paper, we have developed a generic code package (named as MATHN) for energy flow analysis of the quality-regulated HN. After that, a generic solution framework that leverages MATPOWER and MATHN to realize decomposed energy flow calculation of PG and HN is proposed. Behind the MATHN tool, a model reformulation technique is proposed to eliminate the massive indirect variables of the basic HN model discretized by finite difference, which finally derives a compact matrix formulation (similar to the network equation of power grid: I=YU) for generic description of any HN and also slashes the original model scale by around 20 times. Moreover, the solution strategy behind the MATHN tool further converts this matrix formulation into a standard system of non-homogeneous linear equations, with which some existing well-recognized algorithms can be directly applied for efficient and accurate solution. Case studies on three different scales of test systems demonstrate the generality, efficiency and accuracy of our methods. All the codes and input data are packaged into the MATHN tool and are made open-source for non-commercial use.

IMPLEMENTATION MODELS FOR FOLLOWING UP AFTER A DEMENTIA-RELATED MISSING INCIDENT

Abstract The rate of persons living with dementia who go missing is a growing concern, especially those who go missing repeatedly. Drawing upon the practices of other populations such as at-risk youth, following up with persons living with dementia and their supports after an incident could reveal contributing factors and also connect people with supports to mitigate the risk for going missing again. In Canada, models for such follow-ups are limited. The purpose of this presentation is to describe two implementation models for following up with persons living with dementia and their care partners after a missing incident has occurred. We conducted 20 individual semi-structured online interviews with police and service providers in Canada and the United Kingdom to understand the scope of and approaches to following up with this population. Generic qualitative description and conventional content analysis were used. We developed a resource guide that describes these approaches and proposes how follow-ups could be consistently employed. Two focus groups with police officers and community service providers (n= 11) were conducted to obtain feedback on the guide. We are now working with community partners in two Canadian provinces to develop implementation models unique to their existing processes, resources, and systems; these models put into practice approaches in the resource guide. Our presentation will showcase the guide and the models developed in collaboration with our partners. These models can guide police organizations, Alzheimer Societies, and communities who support persons living with dementia at risk of going missing.

The New Caledonian endemic geocorine bug genus, Nannogermalus is not monotypic anymore (Heteroptera: Lygaeoidea: Geocoridae).

Three new species of the big-eyed bug genus Nannogermalus Kondorosy & Kbor, 2020 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Lygaeoidea: Geocoridae: Geocorinae) are now described: N. herczeki sp. nov., N. pallgergelyi sp. nov. and N. webbi sp. nov. Additions and corrections to the generic description of the genus were made based on the newly acquired morphological knowledge. Key, diagnoses and distribution data for new species of the genus are provided. Ecological notes are given based on collection site data and literature regarding other geocorid taxa.

The AGED Triad: Opportunities for delaying dementia

AbstractBackgroundApathy, gait impairment, and executive dysfunction (AGED) commonly occur jointly in the elderly, sometimes masked by the generic description of “late life depression.” The recognition of the triad is clinically useful because it often results from hypertension, which is treatable and preventable. Vascular risk factors, especially hypertension, can insidiously cause brain damage which may increase the risk of dementia in older adults. Hence the AGED triad can be a behavioral marker of cerebrovascular damaging which may lead to cognitive disability. It is unclear, however, whether individuals diagnosed with the AGED triad phenotype are at higher risk of earlier conversion to dementia compared with non‐AGED triad phenotype. We also tested the hypothesis that AGED triad would have better predictive capability than each of the three components separately.MethodAfter baseline assessments 275 community‐dwelling older individuals (72.15±6.68 years of age; 58% women) from the Gait and Brain Study underwent face‐to‐face interviews every 6 months for up to 7 years (22.93±20.33 months; 6∼105). Gait performance was assessed electronically; apathy was assessed through the Geriatric Depression Scale‐3A; dysexecutive function was assessed trough the Trail Making test‐part B; dementia was diagnosed through the clinical dementia rating scale. Adjusted Cox‐regression models were used to determine early dementia risk in each exposure group.ResultA greater percentage of AGED triad individuals at baseline had more than 2 vascular risk factors (p&lt;.01) including hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, obesity and smoking history. Incidence of dementia in the AGED triad was 16.8% vs. 6% in the non‐AGED triad. AGED triad significantly increased the risk of earlier conversion to dementia compared with non‐AGED triad by 323% independently of the number of vascular risk factors at baseline. AGED triad predicted earlier conversion to dementia more than the three components separately (HR = 6.60 95%CI 1.48 to 29.46; p = .01; see figure 1).ConclusionAGED triad phenotype predicts earlier conversion to dementia compared with non‐AGED triad; and earlier than slow gait, apathy and dysexecutive function separately. AGED triad may be a behavioral marker of severe insidious brain damage over of an individual’s life course likely caused by unmanaged modifiable vascular risk factors.

Temporal Link Prediction: A Unified Framework, Taxonomy, and Review

Dynamic graphs serve as a generic abstraction and description of the evolutionary behaviors of various complex systems (e.g., social networks and communication networks). Temporal link prediction (TLP) is a classic yet challenging inference task on dynamic graphs, which predicts possible future linkage based on historical topology. The predicted future topology can be used to support some advanced applications on real-world systems (e.g., resource pre-allocation) for better system performance. This survey provides a comprehensive review of existing TLP methods. Concretely, we first give the formal problem statements and preliminaries regarding data models, task settings, and learning paradigms that are commonly used in related research. A hierarchical fine-grained taxonomy is further introduced to categorize existing methods in terms of their data models, learning paradigms, and techniques. From a generic perspective, we propose a unified encoder-decoder framework to formulate all the methods reviewed, where different approaches only differ in terms of some components of the framework. Moreover, we envision serving the community with an open-source project OpenTLP 1 that refactors or implements some representative TLP methods using the proposed unified framework and summarizes other public resources. As a conclusion, we finally discuss advanced topics in recent research and highlight possible future directions.

The Nereididae (Annelida) - diagnoses, descriptions, and a key to the genera.

Nereididae is among the most familiar of marine annelid families, common and well-studied in most marine environments but paradoxically no recent key or identification guide exists to the world's genera. Here updated generic descriptions, a list of characters, a linear key to genera, and minimal diagnoses that distinguish each genus from all others in the family are provided. This information is generated from a Delta database of 186 morphological characters and a link is provided to downloadable software allowing the same data to be interrogated using the open-source Delta program Intkey - a nonlinear multiple entry point computerised interactive key. For each genus the recent literature is also summarised, comments on taxonomic status provided, and published keys to species cited. Nexus format matrices are provided for all 45 genera and 158 Nereididae species, representing all genera, scored for 146 multistate characters from the same character list to facilitate future phylogenetic studies.

It is a balancing act: understanding the key audit matters disclosure in the context of a developing country

PurposeThis study aims to examine the strategies that auditors in Bangladesh follow in identifying and reporting key audit matters (KAMs). The study also examines the factors affecting auditors’ strategies in the identification and disclosures of KAMs.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have conducted interviews with audit partners, chief financial officers (CFOs) and regulators involved in KAMs reporting and monitoring. The authors have used the lens of institutional theory of coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism and the concept of decoupling.FindingsAuditors have used a decoupling strategy by identifying and reporting greater number of industry-generic KAMs than that of other countries in an effort to minimize risks and avoid regulatory scrutiny, although they disclose remote risks as KAMs and mask severe problem areas of the client. Because of the principle-based approach of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) 701 and because of the pressure and misunderstanding from the audit committee, auditors report industry-generic items and generic descriptions of KAMs.Practical implicationsThe findings have important implications for the standard setters and local and global audit firms for the diffusion of new auditing standards in different jurisdictions. Without the development of audit firm-level capability and the corporate governance environment, changes in standards may not be effective in achieving the objectives of the standards.Social implicationsAlthough auditors consider that the KAMs reporting requirements provide with opportunities to enhance audit profession’s legitimacy and public trusts, the actual KAMs reporting practices are driven by the market logic, an urge to maintain the status quo with clients and eventual rationalization of the impairment of professional independence.Originality/valueGiven the dearth of prior research on the implementation and diffusion patterns of ISA 701 KAMs reporting, this study fills the gap in the literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known study to examine auditors’ strategic responses to balance among conflicting priorities in reporting KAMs.

A New Species of Matelea (Apocynaceae, Gonolobinae) from Bolivia and an Assessment of Matelea in Bolivia

Matelea anomala Morillo, Meve &amp; Liede (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadeae, Gonolobinae) is here described and illustrated. The new taxon, known only from a single locality in eastern central Bolivia, is characterized by very small flowers with a campanulate corolla and recurved, abaxially pubescent and not ocellate corolla lobes, an annular corona with fimbriate-crenulate margins, and a terete stipe carrying the gynostegium. The new species is recognized in Matelea Aubl. s. str., for which a generic description is provided as well as a key to the species occurring in Bolivia.

Phylogenomics of Lasiodoriforms: reclassification of the South American genus Vitalius Lucas, Silva and Bertani and allied genera (Araneae: Theraphosidae)

Theraphosinae is the most diverse subfamily of Theraphosidae spiders, but their evolutionary history remains unresolved to date. This problem is common in taxonomic groups with phylogenetic hypotheses that have often been based only on qualitative morphological characters and, rarely, on molecular analyses. Phylogenomics has significantly contributed to the understanding of the evolution of many non-model groups, such as spiders. Herein, we employed ultraconserved elements (UCEs) phylogenomics to propose a new hypothesis for a group of Theraphosinae genera, namely Lasiodoriforms: Vitalius, Lasiodora, Eupalaestrus, Pterinopelma, Proshapalopus, and Nhandu. We propose three genera and their respective morphological diagnoses are provided. Our phylogeny supports the transfer of species from the genus Vitalius to Pterinopelma and Proshapalopus and from Proshapalopus to Eupalaestrus. Finally, we describe a new species of Vitalius from Southern Brazil. Based on these three new generic descriptions and transferred species, the Lasiodoriform tarantulas comprise nine genera from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and the genus Vitalius now includes seven species.

On some “Hemicyclopora” Norman, 1894 and “Escharella” Gray, 1848 species (Bryozoa, Cheilostomatida) from the Atlantic-Mediterranean region. Re-examination of their generic status and description of new species and a new genus

Sur quelques espèces d'“Hemicyclopora” et d'“Escharella” (Bryozoa, Cheilostomatida) de la région atlanticoméditerranéenne. Réexamen de leur statut générique et description de nouvelles espèces et d'un nouveau genre. Il est admis depuis longtemps que les genres de bryozoaires chéilostomes Hemicyclopora Norman, 1894 et Escharella Gray, 1848 se différencient par la présence d'une lyrule dans l'orifice des autozooides d'Escharella. L'examen d'un abondant matériel de Méditerranée et de l'Atlantique NE en utilisant des critères spécifiques réévalués a révélé une diversité insoupçonnée impliquant plusieurs espèces non-décrites, typiques du genre Hemicyclopora, mais aussi des espèces présentant des caractères morphologiques intermédiaires entre les deux genres ci-dessus. Globalement, la diversité du matériel examiné comprend dix espèces, dont cinq nouvelles (Hemicyclopora neatonensis n. sp., H. hexaspinae n. sp., “Hemicyclopora” celtica n. sp., “H.” pytheasi n. sp., “Escharella” massiliana n. sp.), et deux espèces non décrites par manque de matériel suffisant. Un nouveau genre, Scutocyclopora n. gen., est érigé pour l'espèce méditerranéenne Hemicyclopora dentata López de la Cuadra & García-Gómez, 1991, dont les caractères divergent par l'absence d'épines orales et la production d'une ancestrule non tatiforme. Six espèces sont considérées dans le matériel méditerranéen (5-205 m) et sept espèces dans le matériel atlantique (128-1050 m). Toutes ces espèces vivent en eau profonde sur des petits substrats peu éclairés, principalement d'origine biogène, à l'exception de deux espèces en Méditerranée (H. hexaspinae n. sp., S. dentata (López de la Cuadra & García-Gómez, 1991) n. comb.), qui peuvent aussi vivre à faible profondeur dans des grottes sous-marines obscures.