Atlas of the Songwe River Basin: Thematic Maps with Explanatory Text Sheets

This atlas presents a comprehensive set of thematic maps depicting a wide range of aspects of the Songwe river area. It includes baseline maps (such as topographic overview, hillshade), satellite images (years 1991, 2001, 2004), land cover and land cover change, biomass and biomass change, priority conservation areas, resource management (watershed classification, watershed classification combined with biomass, soil erosion), accessibility and special maps (such as historical river course). Map clippings of the most important maps facilitate the readability of the maps. The accompanying explanatory text sheets contain graphics and information about material, methods, results and interpretation.

Metabolism, oxidative stress and territorial behaviour in a female colour polymorphic cichlid fish

Intrasexual selection on body coloration is thought to play an important role in the evolution of colour polymorphism, but its physiological underpinnings have received limited attention. In the colour polymorphic cichlid Neochromis omnicaeruleus, three fully sympatric female colour morphs— a plain morph (P) and two conspicuously coloured blotched morphs, black-and-white blotched (WB) and orange blotched (OB)—differ in agonistic behaviour. We compared routine metabolic rate (when females were housed in social isolation), short-term energetic costs of interacting with a same-colour rival housed in an adjacent transparent chamber and oxidative stress between the three female colour morphs. WB females had a lower routine metabolic rate compared with the other colour morphs. WB females also had a lower active metabolic rate during inter-female interactions than OB females, while OB females used more oxygen per unit aggressive act than the other two colour morphs. However, there were no consistent differences in oxidative stress between the three morphs. Concerted divergence in colour, behaviour and metabolism might contribute to the evolution of these polymorphisms in sympatry.

Synchronizing Mind Maps with Fuzzy Cognitive Maps for Decision-Finding in Cognitive Cities

Synchronizing mind maps with fuzzy cognitive maps can help to handle complex problems with many involved stakeholders by taking advantage of human creativity. The proposed approach has the capacity to instantiate cognitive cities by including cognitive computing. A use case in the context of decision-finding (concerning a transportation system) is presented to illustrate the approach.

The bona fide mouse U7 snRNA gene maps to a different chromosome than two U7 pseudogenes.

The U7 snRNA, together with both common and unique snRNP proteins, forms the U7 snRNP particle. This particle is a major component of the 3' processing machinery that converts histone pre-mRNA into mature mRNA in the eukaryotic nucleus. The genes for many snRNAs are present in multiple copies and often have many pseudogenes. Southern blot experiments using U7 oligonucleotide and gene probes have identified only one strongly hybridizing band and three weakly hybridizing bands in mouse genomic DNA. Previously, two laboratories isolated genomic clones encoding one functional U7 gene and three presumed pseudogenes. Since all the genes were isolated on separate, nonoverlapping genomic fragments, the four genes are not tightly clustered in the mouse genome. In this study, we use fluorescence in situ hybridization to determine the chromosomal locations of these clones and their possible linkage to histone loci. Two of the pseudogenes map to mouse Chromosome 1, but are many megabases apart, whereas the active U7 gene maps to Chromosome 6. Possible mechanisms for this localization pattern are discussed.

Dear Enemies Elicit Lower Androgen Responses to Territorial Challenges than Unfamiliar Intruders in a Cichlid Fish

In many territorial species androgen hormones are known to increase in response to territorial intrusions as a way to adjust the expression of androgen-dependent behaviour to social challenges. The dear enemy effect has also been described in territorial species and posits that resident individuals show a more aggressive response to intrusions by strangers than by other territorial neighbours. Therefore, we hypothesized that the dear enemy effect may also modulate the androgen response to a territorial intrusion. Here we tested this hypothesis in male cichlid fish (Mozambique tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus) using a paradigm of four repeated territorial intrusions, either by the same neighbour or by four different unfamiliar intruders. Neighbour intruders elicited lower aggression and a weaker androgen response than strangers on the first intrusion of the experiment. With repeated intrusions, the agonistic behaviour of the resident males against familiar intruders was similar to that displayed towards strangers. By the fourth intrusion the androgen response was significantly reduced and there was no longer a difference between the responses to the two types of intruders. These results suggest that the dear enemy effect modulates the androgen response to territorial intrusions and that repeated intrusions lead to a habituation of the androgen response.

Intra- and interspecific social challenges modulate the levels of an androgen precursor in a seasonally territorial tropical damselfish.

Studies on different vertebrate groups have provided evidence that androgen levels in males increase after competitive social interactions during the breeding season, as postulated by the Challenge Hypothesis. However, social modulation of androgen levels may vary with latitude and may differ between species holding seasonal versus year-round territories. Here, we tested the Challenge Hypothesis on a seasonal tropical damselfish, Abudefduf sexfasciatus, where males temporarily defend territory and eggs against both intra- and interspecific individuals. Carrying out simulated territorial intrusions (STIs) in the laboratory, we document for the first time a consistent increase in the plasma level of the androgen precursor 11-ketoandrostenedione (11KA) in fish confronted to either intra- or interspecific challenges. Collecting samples in the field also revealed higher 11KA levels in fish facing frequent territorial interactions than in non-territorial individuals. Levels of 11-ketotestosterone (11KT) were high in territorial males in the field, but were not incremented after simulated territorial intrusions in the laboratory. Plasma levels of cortisol and testosterone were not affected by challenges but were different in wild and captive specimens. Although the endocrine responses to STIs did not differ between intra- and interspecific challenges, agonistic displays expressed by resident fish were more intense towards intraspecific intruders. Taken together, our study emphasizes the need to incorporate androgen precursor concentrations to advance our understanding on the physiology of territorial interactions.

No scope for social modulation of steroid levels in a year-round territorial damselfish.

Both latitude and mating system have been proposed to shape relationships between steroid hormone levels and social behavior. Recently it has been postulated that species with long lasting non-seasonal territorial behavior have low androgen responsiveness. Tropical damselfishes are an ideal family to test this proposition because they show a large variety in mating systems. Here we contribute to the comparative dataset by measuring the response in steroid levels after social modulation in the banded sergeant, Abudefduf septemfasciatus, a species with non-seasonal territoriality. In highly territorial and brooding males, we found low androgen and cortisol levels that did not increase after experimental intraspecific simulated territorial intrusions (STI tests). No relationship was found between the variation in steroid hormone levels and territorial responses to naturally occurring territorial intrusions. Although steroid levels were low, male A. septemfasciatus were highly territorial both to STI challenges and to fishes that passed the territory. They often chased intruders for several meters away from the territory. This indicates that during nest defence in a non-seasonal territorial damselfish species, territorial behaviors are shown independent of variation in androgen and cortisol levels.

Temporally Coherent Disparity Maps Using CRFs with Fast 4D Filtering

State of the art methods for disparity estimation achieve good results for single stereo frames, but temporal coherence in stereo videos is often neglected. In this paper we present a method to compute temporally coherent disparity maps. We define an energy over whole stereo sequences and optimize their Conditional Random Field (CRF) distributions using mean-field approximation. We introduce novel terms for smoothness and consistency between the left and right views, and perform CRF optimization by fast, iterative spatio-temporal filtering with linear complexity in the total number of pixels. Our results rank among the state of the art while having significantly less flickering artifacts in stereo sequences.

Lipschitz extensions of maps between Heisenberg groups

Let $\H^n$ be the Heisenberg group of topological dimension 2n+1 . We prove that if n is odd, the pair of metric spaces $(\H^n, \H^n)$ does not have the Lipschitz extension property.

Enhanced Knowledge Management by Synchronizing Mind Maps and Fuzzy Cognitive Maps

This paper presents a conceptual approach to enhance knowledge management by synchronizing mind maps and fuzzy cognitive maps. The use of mind maps allows taking advantage of human creativity, while the application of fuzzy cognitive maps enables to store information expressed in natural language. By applying cognitive computing, it makes possible to gather and extract relevant information out of a data pool. Therefore, this approach is supposed to give a framework that enhances knowledge management. To demonstrate the potential of this framework, a use case concerning the development of a smart city app is presented.