Search results for "LDC"
showing 10 items of 51 documents
Wildcat scats: Taphonomy of the predator and its micromamal prey
2019
Small sized felids, such as wild and domestic cats, are one of the most common predators in the nature and in sites occupied by humans in archaeological and historical contexts. Wildcats have ingestion/ digestion traits highly destructive for their prey, i.e.: teeth to chew causing extreme breakage, and digestion along the entire digestive tract with low pH gastric juices causing extreme bone corrosion. Small sized cats are also well known to play with the prey and select skeletal parts to ingest. The present study is focused on the taphonomic analysis of micromammal remains recovered from scats produced by European wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris) during several months and years. Exc…
The value of by-catch data: how species-specific surveys can serve non-target species
2019
Camera trapping has a wide range of research application, but, while research designs are often focused on the study of a single focal species, cameras can also record other non-target species. Occupancy modeling using by-catch data can be a valuable resource to gain information on these species maximizing the scientific effort and efficiency of wildlife surveys. In this study, we used by-catch data from a European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) survey in Southern Italy to assess the habitat covariates determinant for the occupancy of the crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata). We recorded 33 detections at 17 out of 51 cameras (naive occupancy = 0.33). The best models fitted the data w…
Anthropogenic threats drive spatio-temporal responses of wildcat on Mt. Etna
2021
Human expansion can cause disturbance and intrusion of invasive species, which are detrimental to small carnivores. We investigated how European wildcats responded to disturbance from mushroom collectors, cattle and feral pigs in Sicily, Italy. We used detections from 76 cameras over 2 surveys (2015–2016 and 2018; camera days = 1985) to run occupancy and co-occurrence models and estimate overlap in activity patterns between species pairs. During 2015–2016, wildcats were detected at the same location with cattle, mushroom hunters and feral pigs at 14.4%, 26.3% and 17.1% of cameras. During 2018, wildcats were detected at the same location with cattle, mushroom hunters and feral pigs at 7.8%, …
Habitat fragmentation and anthropogenic factors affect wildcat Felis silvestris silvestris occupancy and detectability on Mt Etna
2019
International audience; Knowledge of patterns of occupancy is crucial for planning sound biological management and for identifying areas which require paramount conservation attention. The European wildcat Felis silvestris is an elusive carnivore and is classified as ‘least concern' on the IUCN red list, but with a decreasing population trend in some areas. Sicily hosts a peculiar wildcat population, which deserves conservation and management actions, due to its isolation from the mainland. Patterns of occupancy for wildcats are unknown in Italy, and especially in Sicily. We aimed to identify which ecological drivers determined wildcat occurrence on Mt Etna and to provide conservation actio…
Record of a 10-year old European Wildcat Felis silvestris silvestris Schreber, 1777 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) from Mt. Etna, Sicily, Italy
2020
Longevity data for wild felids are lacking in the literature. Here we report a camera trap recapture of a European Wildcat Felis silvestris at Mt. Etna in Sicily, Italy after nine years. This individual was clearly identifiable as its tail ended with a white ring rather than the typical black ring and had a unique shape of the dorsal stripe. At first capture on 26 May 2009, this cat was assessed as an adult, so that the likely minimum age of this individual at the time of recapture on 10 June 2018 must have been be at least 10 years. This finding represents the oldest known European Wildcat in the wild and provides insight into age structure in wildcat populations.
Childhood Environment and Adult Height among Polish University Students
2010
The objective of the study is to assess whether the choice of a childcare type (i.e., a mother giving up a professional career to take care of her child, employing a childminder, day care centre and kindergarten) depends on a child's family socio-economic status and to investigate whether the childcare type affects an adult's height. The material for the study was gathered in the cross-section research carried out among 783 female students and 535 male students of universities in Krakow and Opole (southern Poland). The height was measured with standard anthropometric instruments. To assess a socio-economic status (SES), the following factors were analysed: a place of living before entering …
Sense and sensibility: using a model to examine the relationship between public pre-school places and fertility
2019
This paper presents a stochastic dynamic mathematical model, in which a Family Policy Index (XFPI) is included to measure and compare two different models of provision of resources to support families with children from 0 to 3 years old. The main variables in this model are the XFPI, fertility, mortality, emigration and immigration rates. This mathematical model was validated in two different countries, Spain and Norway, during the 2007–2015 period. A sensitivity analysis was applied to simulate the future trend (2016–2030), examining the influence of providing public pre-school services (0 to 3 years) on (XISF). The results obtained show that these services may indeed have an influence on …
Seasonal and daily variation in physical activity among three-year-old Finnish preschool children
2013
The purposes of this study were to assess seasonal, daily, and gender variations in children’s physical activity (PA). ActiGraph GT3X accelerometers were used to record the three-year-old children’s PA levels for five consecutive days in autumn and winter. Complete data for both seasons were obtained for 47 children. Despite a significant difference in seasonal temperatures (p < .001), differences were only found for weekdays light PA (p = .021). No difference in PA was observed between weekdays and weekend days. Only 20% of the sample had ≥120 minutes light-to-vigorous PA (LMVPA), and 46% of children had ≥60 minutes moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). Boys spent more minutes in LMVPA (p = .001…
Indexing a sequence for mapping reads with a single mismatch
2014
Mapping reads against a genome sequence is an interesting and useful problem in computational molecular biology and bioinformatics. In this paper, we focus on the problem of indexing a sequence for mapping reads with a single mismatch. We first focus on a simpler problem where the length of the pattern is given beforehand during the data structure construction. This version of the problem is interesting in its own right in the context of the next generation sequencing. In the sequel, we show how to solve the more general problem. In both cases, our algorithm can construct an efficient data structure in time and space and can answer subsequent queries in time. Here, n is the length of the s…
Automated detection of lung nodules in low-dose computed tomography
2007
A computer-aided detection (CAD) system for the identification of pulmonary nodules in low-dose multi-detector computed-tomography (CT) images has been developed in the framework of the MAGIC-5 Italian project. One of the main goals of this project is to build a distributed database of lung CT scans in order to enable automated image analysis through a data and cpu GRID infrastructure. The basic modules of our lung-CAD system, consisting in a 3D dot-enhancement filter for nodule detection and a neural classifier for false-positive finding reduction, are described. The system was designed and tested for both internal and sub-pleural nodules. The database used in this study consists of 17 low…