Locomotion and searching behaviour in the honey bee larva depend on nursing interaction

Although honey bee brood does not need to seek shelter or food and restricts its movements to small wax cells, larvae have some degree of motility. Previously, other studies described how honey bee larvae showed analogous behaviours to the wandering period in holometabolous insects. The current research aimed to measure locomotion of the honey bee brood at different conditions of food supply and larval stadia. Besides, we developed an actometry assay to describe the larval behaviour under laboratory conditions. Our results suggested that the satiety and developmental program of larvae modulated their locomotion. Before they pupated, larval speed increased sharply and then it dropped until quiescence. However, starvation also induced an increase in angular velocity of brood. Starved larvae were between three and five times faster than the satiated ones. Moreover, fifth instars left their wax cells after 2 h of starvation without nurse bees. In the actometry assay, larvae showed behaviours of dispersion and changes in their kinematic parameters after detecting a tactile stimulus like the edge of arenas.

The effects of induced optical blur on visual search performance and training

Visual search is a task often used in the rehabilitation of patients with cortical and non-cortical visual pathologies such as visual field loss. Reduced visual acuity is often comorbid with these disorders, and it remains poorly defined how low visual acuity may affect a patient’s ability to recover visual function through visual search training. The two experiments reported here investigated whether induced blurring of vision (from 6/15 to 6/60) in a neurotypical population differentially affected various types of feature search tasks, whether there is a minimal acceptable level of visual acuity required for normal search performance, and whether these factors affected the degree to which participants could improve with training. From the results, it can be seen that reducing visual acuity did reduce search speed, but only for tasks where the target was defined by shape or size (not colour), and only when acuity was worse than 6/15. Furthermore, searching behaviour was seen to improve with training in all three feature search tasks, irrespective of the degree of blurring that was induced. The improvement also generalised to a non-trained search task, indicating that an enhanced search strategy had been developed. These findings have important implications for the use of visual search as a rehabilitation aid for partial visual loss, indicating that individuals with even severe comorbid blurring should still be able to benefit from such training.

Risk Communication and the Prevention of COVID-19 Transmission in Dangerous Zones, Jabota

Until the beginning of June 2020, the COVID-19 virus has spread to more than 215 countries, infected more than 6 million people and killed more than 300,000 people in the world. This causes public panic and misperceptions about COVID-19. Under circumstances like this, risk communication is needed to control and mitigate information about this plague to reduce the spread of this disease and manage public fear. The main objective of this study is to assess COVID-19 information searching behaviour and explore how risk communication is associated with personal hygiene habits in preventing transmission of COVID-19 in dangerous zones. This study was conducted among a community of educators in Jakarta, Bogor, and Tangerang, Indonesia. Questionnaires were distributed to 132 respondents, consisting of lecturers and teachers who are living in the red zone area. The results showed that there was no relationship between the perception of risk communication, both on personal hygiene habits and prevention of COVID-19 transmission. This can be attributed to two possibilities. Firstly, the risk communication message strategy is seen as irrelevant to people’s personal hygiene habits and prevention of COVID-19 transmission. Secondly, personal hygiene habits and prevention of COVID-19 transmission are not influenced by risk communication from the government and at media level. Keywords: Risk communication, prevention, COVID-19, transmission, dangerous zones.

Securing Hospital Data with Blockchain and AI

In cyber world everything is dependent on data and all Artificial Intelligence algorithms discover knowledge from past data only, With the development of information technologies, the trend of integrating cyber, physical and social (CPS) systems to a highly unified information society, rather than just a digital Internet, is becoming increasing obvious. An increasing amount of personal data, including location information, web-searching behaviour, user calls, user preference, is being silently collected by the built-in sensors inside the products from those big companies, which brings in huge risk on privacy leakage of data owners. In this paper, we aim at securing data by combining blockchain and AI together, and design a Secure Networking architecture (termed as SecNet) to significantly improve the security of data sharing, and then the security of the whole network. In SecNet, to protect data, one of the biggest challenges is where and how to store data, because users have to give their data to service providers if they want to use certain services or applications.

Pengaruh algoritma filter bubble dan echo chamber terhadap perilaku penggunaan internet

Introduction. This study aims to explore effects of bubble filter and echo chamber on information searching behaviour on the internet, how it affects the scope of the internet ecosystem and users, and what we can see from the behaviour. Data Collection Method. The paper used a mixed-methods approach with surveys, online discussions, and literature research. Twenty respondents between 19-21 years old participated in this exploratory study. Analysis Data. Data was obtained and calculations have automatically accumulated through Google Form. The user data analysis and discussion were conducted manually by considering aspects of rationality concerning the literature and previous research. Results and Discussions. The analysis results obtained were bubble filter and echo chambers were proven to affect internet users both in positive and negative ways. Conclusions. Bubble filter and echo chamber may have both positive and negative effects simultaneously, however, it depends on the user because the system has provided control features to reduce both features. Using internet wisely is also parts of the important aspect.

Dogs display owner-specific expectations based on olfaction

Most current knowledge about dogs’ understanding of, and reacting to, their environment is limited to the visual or auditory modality, but it remains unclear how olfaction and cognition are linked together. Here we investigate how domestic dogs search for their owners using their excellent olfactory sense. We raise the question whether dogs have a representation of someone when they smell their track. The question is what they expect when they follow a trail or whether they perceive an odour as a relevant or non-relevant stimulus. We adopted a classical violation-of-expectation paradigm—and as targets we used two persons that were both important to the dog, usually the owners. In the critical condition subjects could track the odour trail of one target, but at the end of the trail they find another target. Dogs showed an increased activity when the person did not correspond with the trail compared to a control condition. Moreover, we found huge individual differences in searching behaviour supporting the assumption that dogs are only able to smell when they really sniff, and that the temperature has an influence on dogs performance. Results are discussed in the light of how cognitive abilities, motivation and odour perception influence each other.

Effective Ways of Enhancing the Quality of Question Generating and Spontaneous Information Search Outside the Classroom

This study examined how to enhance the quality of students’ question generating and to encourage their spontaneous information searches after classroom instruction in university. The teacher assigned One Minute Paper as homework, and students answered three questions; “Q1: What was the most important thing that you learned today?”, “Q2: What important question remains unanswered?”, and “Q3: What information did you search for after the classroom instruction?”. While it was necessary to answer Q1 and Q2 for submission, answering Q3 was not necessary and they could answer it if they wished to do so. The teacher, however, realized that some students were not generating questions actively and the quality of their questions were not adequately improved. After 7 weeks, he changed his intervention and gave feedback on some students’ questions to enhance their question quantity and quality. The latent growth curve modelling showed that question quality, spontaneous searching behaviour, and the link between question generation and conducting searches increased after the intervention change. The result also showed that post-intervention change slopes were larger for the feedback group than the class without feedback. The results indicate that besides assigning homework tasks, it is also important to connect learning outside along with inside the classroom to enhance question quality and encourage spontaneous information search.

Microgaster godzilla (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae), an unusual new species from Japan which dives underwater to parasitize its caterpillar host (Lepidoptera, Crambidae, Acentropinae)

A new species of Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) parasitoid wasp, Microgaster godzilla Fernandez-Triana & Kamino, is described from Japan. From a biological and morphological perspective this is a very unusual species. It represents only the third known microgastrine to be aquatic, and the first one to be found entering the water. The female wasp searches for its hosts, aquatic larvae of Elophila turbata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), mostly by walking over floating plants, but occasionally diving underwater for several seconds to force the larva out of its case, when it is quickly parasitized (parasitization was always observed above water). The unique searching behaviour of M. godzilla as well as its parasitization of aquatic larvae was filmed and it is presented here. The wasp has simple tarsal claws, which are elongate and strongly curved, similar to those found in the related genus Hygroplitis; they seem to represent an adaptation for gripping to the substrate when entering the water. The new species is described based on morphological, molecular (DNA barcoding), biological and ethological data. Additionally, we provide detailed diagnoses to recognize M. godzilla from all other described species of Microgaster and Hygroplitis in the Palearctic, Nearctic and Oriental regions.

Cercarial swimming performance and its potential role as a key variable of trematode transmission

Trematode transmission in aquatic habitats from molluscan intermediate host to vertebrate or invertebrate target host is typically undertaken by a free-living stage known as cercariae. Active locomotion by cercariae is a key aspect of the transmission process with the swimming speed potentially contributing to infection success. Individual cercarial species swim at different speeds but the significance of this to infection potential has not been determined. This study, using data from the scientific literature, investigates the role of swimming speed in relation to cercarial morphology, host-searching strategies and target host species. Larger cercariae swim faster than smaller ones with tail length being the principal factor controlling locomotion rates. Different cercarial morphotypes swim at different speeds, in particular, furcocercariae, with the exception of the schistosomes, being faster swimmers than mono-tailed cercariae. Host-searching behaviour has a significant influence on swimming speeds with ‘active-searching’ strategies swimming slower than those adopting ‘active-waiting’ or ‘prey mimcry’ strategies. Vertebrate-infecting cercariae swim faster than those infecting invertebrates with species targeting fish demonstrating the highest locomotion rates and those targeting arthropods the slowest speeds. The adaptions of individual cercarial swimming speeds to biological variables and their interactions with the physical processes of aquatic habitats are discussed.