Integrating voice and phenotype in a revision of the brush cuckoo Cacomantis variolosus (Aves: Cuculidae) complex

Brush cuckoos of the Cacomantis variolosus complex, which range from Southeast Asia to Australia and the Solomon Islands, have undergone much taxonomic upheaval. Here we examine 389 vocal recordings, 832 skins, and records of brood parasitism and habitat partitioning to shed light on their species and subspecies taxonomy. Bioacoustic analysis revealed seven distinct vocal groups. Among morphological markers, shape and proportions of the tail were found to be supporting indicators, in addition to plumage tone and pattern. Integration of the resulting data set distinguished six species-level taxa within the complex: sepulcralis in the Philippines and Sundaland east to central Nusa Tenggara, virescens in Sulawesi and the Sula Archipelago, aeruginosus in the Moluccas, variolosus in east Nusa Tenggara, the Moluccas, north and east Australia, New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago, blandus in the Admiralty Islands, and addendus in the Solomon Islands. Our review of infra-specific differentiation among species leads us to distinguish 13 subspecies. All taxa identified are listed in a summary classification of the complex. Taxon diversity is greatest in the Moluccas, where two habitat-partitioned species and five allopatric subspecies occur, of which one species and three subspecies are endemic to this region.

Genetic diversity of black mangrove (Rhizophora mucronata Lamk.) based on morphological markers in Maros, Pangkep, and Barru Provenances

Mangrove forests are tropical and subtropical forests that grow typically along the coast or river estuaries. Black mangroves are a type of mangrove found in South Sulawesi, precisely in Maros, Pangkep, and Barru Districts. The decline in black mangrove populations overcomes the threat limit to germplasm which can lead to reduced genetic diversity in black mangrove plants. To reduce the incidence of extinction in black mangroves, information on genetic diversity using one of the markers is required, namely morphological markers in taking samples of tree parts taken, namely the leaves, stems, and roots which are then for monitoring carried out in the Biotechnology Laboratory and tree breeding. The method used in this study is based on the literature on the development of the Tropical Fruit Descriptor information system. The results of the three studies proved that there is a difference between the evidence and the interprovenencies. The very close morphological kinship between them proved to be found in Pangkep. Pangkep’s provenance has a high coefficient compared to the proof of Maros and Barru, which is at the time level of 70%, while the proof of Maros has the lowest coefficient compared to the proof of Barru and Pangkep, which is at the gathering level of 64%.

Acquisition of morphology by L2 children in naturalistic environments: a case of Japanese case markers

This study investigated the second language (L2) acquisition of Japanese case markers among children in naturalistic environments. L2 Japanese children with Chinese backgrounds (n = 187) and monolingual Japanese children (n = 280) were tested on their productive knowledge of four case markers: ga, o, ni, and de. Test scores correlated more strongly with length of residence (LOR) than age of acquisition in the current L2 group (LOR mean = 4.98 years). Most L2 children reached age-matched monolingual norms after an LOR of 2–5 years, although some did not reach the norms within this time frame. The nominative and accusative case markers, ga and o, were generally easier than the other two case markers, even though there are no equivalent morphological markers in Chinese. This indicates that the absence of these markers in the first language is not always a determining factor for the difficulty in naturalistic child L2 acquisition.

Morphological Diversity among Accessions of Apple Tree (Malus × Domestica Borkh)

Worldwide, apple ranks fourth in terms of economic importance after citrus, grapes, and bananas with a world production of above 71 million tonnes per year. Apple accessions that are in cultivation throughout the world appear to have come from a genetically similar source. Their diversity has further been decreased through the use of preferred few accessions in breeding programmes. Determination of morphological diversity among the accessions maintained at Nyanga Experimental Station is key for identification and informed use of the accessions in adaptive research. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of morphological diversity among apple accessions conserved at Nyanga Experimental Station, Zimbabwe, and identify promising accessions for use as cultivars in warmer environments. Sixty-eight Malus domestica accessions of worldwide provenance all maintained at Nyanga Experimental Station were evaluated in a complete randomized design with three replications. The experiment was managed following the standard cultural practices for apples. Characterization using morphological markers was done following the format of the International Board for Plant and Genetic Resources (IBPGR). Data were subjected to cluster analysis based on the unweighted paired group method using arithmetic averages (UPGMA) method. A narrow genetic diversity was observed as reflected by the pairwise genetic similarity matrix that ranged from 80 to 100%. Promising accessions such as Anna, Mayaan, Michal, Elah, Tydeman’s Early Worcester, Discovery, and Mollies Delicious were identified for use as cultivars in warmer areas.

Morphological Characterization of High Grain Iron and Zinc Concentration Bio-fortified lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus subsp. culinaris) in Nepal

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus subsp. culinaris) is the wonderful, most popular & preferred food legume of Nepalese people and commonly grown in the rice and maize based cropping system. Morphological characters have been frequently used in order to know the diversity in germplasm collections. The main objectives of the study were to characterize the bio-fortified lentil accessions using morphological markers and select the DUS accession for using targeted the best utilization in hybridization program. Plant breeders can use these morphological variations to make decision regarding the choice for selecting superior genotypes for improvement or to be utilized as parents for the development of future cultivars through hybridization. Furthermore, important morphological markers like, plant type, foliage color, testa color, testa pattern and cotyledon colors can also be used for testing hybridity and keeping genetic purity at genetic level. The information obtained by the identification keys at seed and plant levels may be useful for discrimination and verification of varieties, hybridity testing and maintenance of genetic purity at genetic level during seed production and certification programme. Out of 25 lentil accessions, 18 accessions were observed as erect and compact growth habit, 22 accessions had green stem color, 21 accessions had dense leaf pubescence and dark foliage, 7 accessions had prominent tendril, 3 accessions had white blue veins flower and 4 accessions had large seeded accession.

Nominal number in cushitic

Cushitic languages have a number of interesting properties in the category of number. None of these are valid for all Cushitic languages. Number is not obligatorily expressed in various Cushitic languages which have a general number form that is unspecified for number. Nonetheless morphological number marking in the noun is often complex in two ways: there are many competing lexically determined morphological markers and many different constellations of derived singular and derived plurals. Number and gender show complex interactions in Cushitic. Number formatives impose gender and hence different gender values for different number forms in the same lexeme, sometimes apparent gender polarity (singular and plural having opposite values for gender). A theoretically challenging property of some languages is that that there is a third gender, here labelled ‘plural’ because it takes the agreement morphology of 3pl pronouns.

ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL OF PEDUNCULATE OAK BREEDING BASED ON CYTOGENETIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL MARKERS

The article discusses the issues of creating an organizational model of selection based on cytogenetic and mor-phological markers for reforestation in the conditions of the central forest-steppe. The results of the development of an organizational model are presented, presented by a complex of context diagrams, created in the software product Busi-ness Studio 4.0. The decomposition of selection processes based on cytogenetic and morphological markers in the form of context diagrams made it possible to visualize the identification process of pedigree genotypes of pedunculate oak and to build in space and time a sequential process of using additional selection markers in conjunction with classical breeding approaches, selection of methods and means of achieving breeding goals. Providing the visibility of the pe-dunculate oak breeding process based on cytogenetic and morphological markers allows, due to the technological de-scription of the composition of the processes, the characteristics of the consumed resources (material, labor and finan-cial), to get an idea of the process under study and quickly draw a logical conclusion from the large amount of data obtained. The model organization of the process of creating forest plantations of fast-growing species was carried out with the aim of the most efficient use of technology and an increase in labor productivity, which determines its promising use as a selection tool and makes it possible to accelerate the selection process of Quercus robur L. offspring when creating forest crops

Formation of Numerals in the Romance Languages

The Romance languages have a rich numeral system that includes cardinals—providing the bases on which the other types of numeral series are built—ordinals, fractions, collectives, approximatives, distributives, and multiplicatives. Latin plays a decisive and continued role in their formation, both as the language to which many numerals go back directly and as an ongoing source for lexemes and formatives. While the Latin numeral system was synthetic, with a distinct ending for each type of numeral, the Romance numerals often feature more than one (unevenly distributed) marker or structure per series, which feature varying degrees of inherited, borrowed, or innovative elements. Formal consistency is strongest in cardinals, followed by ordinals and then the other types of numeral, which also tend to be more analytic or periphrastic. From a morphological perspective, Romance numerals overall have moved away from the inherited syntheticity, but several series continue to be synthetic formations—at least in part—with morphological markers drawn from Latin that may have undergone functional change (e.g. distributive > ordinal > collective). The underlying syntax of Romance numerals is in line with the overall grammatical patterns of Romance languages, as reflected in the prevalence of word order (with arithmetical correlates), connectors, (partial) loss of agreement, and analyticity. Innovation is prominent in the formation of higher numerals with bases beyond ‘thousand’, of teens and decads in Romanian, and of vigesimals in numerous Romance varieties.

Pesticide Exposure During Development Does Not Affect the Larval Pheromones, Feeding Rates, or Morphology of Adult Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Queens

Recent work demonstrated that honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queens reared in pesticide-laden beeswax exhibit significant changes in the composition of the chemicals produced by their mandibular glands including those that comprise queen mandibular pheromone, which is a critical signal used in mating as well as queen tending behavior. For the present study, we hypothesized that pesticide exposure during development would alter other queen-produced chemicals, including brood pheromone in immature queens, thus resulting in differential feeding of queen larvae by nurse workers, ultimately impacting adult queen morphology. We tested these hypotheses by rearing queens in beeswax containing field-relevant concentrations of (1) a combination of tau-fluvalinate and coumaphos, (2) amitraz, or (3) a combination of chlorothalonil and chlorpyrifos. These pesticides are ubiquitous in most commercial beekeeping operations in North America. We observed nurse feeding rates of queen larvae grafted into pesticide-laden beeswax, analyzed the chemical composition of larval queen pheromones and measured morphological markers in adult queens. Neither the nurse feeding rates, nor the chemical profiles of immature queen pheromones, differed significantly between queens reared in pesticide-laden wax compared to queens reared in pesticide-free wax. Moreover, pesticide exposure during development did not cause virgin or mated adult queens to exhibit differences in morphological markers (i.e., body weight, head width, or thorax width). These results were unexpected given our previous research and indicate that future work is needed to fully understand how pesticide exposure during development affects honey bee queen physiology, as well as how various adult queen quality metrics relate to each other.