A guild-based protocol to target potential natural enemies of philaenus spumarius (Hemiptera: Aphrophoridae), a vector of xylella fastidiosa (xanthomonadaceae): A case study with spiders in the olive grove

The olive grove is a key landscape across the Mediterranean basin. This agroecosystem is threatened by Xylella fastidiosa, the causal agent of the olive tree quick decline syndrome, Philaenus spumarius being the main vector. A way to limit pest populations relies on the use of biological control agents such as arthropods. Among them, spiders are generalist predators with di erent hunting strategies that feed mostly on insects and can contribute to limit pests. In this work, field and laboratory data were used to provide a protocol aiming to facilitate the selection of species of spiders among di erent guilds that could represent potential natural enemies of P. spumarius. Sampling of spiders was conducted in olive groves in northeastern Portugal. Two species, namely the orb-weaver Araniella cucurbitina and the ambusher Synema globosum, were selected according to the dominant guilds of spiders inhabiting the olive crop. We tested the di erences of potential predatory e ciency using classical functional response tests with P. spumarius as prey. A type-II functional response was found for A. cucurbitina, whereas a type-I response was found for S. globosum. This di erence uncovers a di erent potential e ciency among the two species as natural enemies of P. spumarius with relevant implications at high prey density in the field. A conceptual workflow to follow the fieldwork and selection of species for further work (i.e., laboratory assays) is provided and discussed. Standardized methods regarding the assessment of the suitability and e ciency of potential natural enemies are essential for the integration of results at di erent geographical extents and crops. Selecting functional counterparts such as di erent species of predators occurring at di erent locations that use the same prey (e.g., a pest) in the same way (e.g., hunting strategy) would facilitate developing biological control schemes.This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement N. 727987 “Xylella fastidiosa Active Containment Through a multidisciplinary-Oriented Research Strategy XF-ACTORS”, the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science under the RETOS programme grant AGL2017-89604R and strategic project PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2019 – CIMO, funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The global atmospheric electrical circuit and climate

Evidence is emerging for physical links among clouds, global temperatures, the global atmospheric electrical circuit and cosmic ray ionisation. The global circuit extends throughout the atmosphere from the planetary surface to the lower layers of the ionosphere. Cosmic rays are the principal source of atmospheric ions away from the continental boundary layer: the ions formed permit a vertical conduction current to flow in the fair weather part of the global circuit. Through the (inverse) solar modulation of cosmic rays, the resulting columnar ionisation changes may allow the global circuit to convey a solar influence to meteorological phenomena of the lower atmosphere. Electrical effects on non-thunderstorm clouds have been proposed to occur via the ion-assisted formation of ultra-fine aerosol, which can grow to sizes able to act as cloud condensation nuclei, or through the increased ice nucleation capability of charged aerosols. Even small atmospheric electrical modulations on the aerosol size distribution can affect cloud properties and modify the radiative balance of the atmosphere, through changes communicated globally by the atmospheric electrical circuit. Despite a long history of work in related areas of geophysics, the direct and inverse relationships between the global circuit and global climate remain largely quantitatively unexplored. From reviewing atmospheric electrical measurements made over two centuries and possible paleoclimate proxies, global atmospheric electrical circuit variability should be expected on many timescale

Using argumentation in expert's debate to analyze multi-criteria group decision making method results

Recent multi-criteria group decision making methods focus their analysis on the experts preferences. They do not take into account the reasons why each expert has provided a specific set of preferences. In this paper, a method that introduces novel measures capable of explaining the reasons behind experts decisions is presented. A novel concept, the arguments are presented. They represent the experts have for maintaining a certain position in the debate. Several measures related to the arguments are proposed. These new argumentation measures, along with consensus measures, help us to get a clear idea about how and why a specific resolution has been reached. They help us to determine which is the most influential expert, that is, the expert whose contributions to the debate have inspired the rest. Also, the proposed method allows us to determine which are the arguments that most of the experts have followed. A clear overview about how the debate is evolving in terms of arguments is also provided. The novel presented analysis indicate how the experts change their opinions in every round and what was the reason for it, which changes have occurred between rounds and they also provide global analysis results. © 2021 The Author(s

An automatic procedure to create fuzzy ontologies from users’ opinions using sentiment analysis procedures and multi-granular fuzzy linguistic modelling methods

The high amount of information that users continually provides to the Internet is unorganized and difficult to interpret. Unluckily, there is no point in having high amounts of information that we cannot work with. Therefore, there is a need of methods that sort this information and stores it in a way that can be easily accessed and processed. In this paper, a novel method that uses sentiment analysis procedures in order to automatically create fuzzy ontologies from free texts provided by users in social networks is presented. Moreover, multi-granular fuzzy linguistic modelling methods are used in order to select the best representation mean to store the information in the fuzzy ontology. Thanks to the presented method, information is transformed and presented in an organized way making it possible to properly work with it. © 2018 Elsevier Inc

Carrying out consensual Group Decision Making processes under social networks using sentiment analysis over comparative expressions

Social networks are the most preferred mean for the people to communicate. Therefore, it is quite usual that experts use them to carry out Group Decision Making processes. One disadvantage that recent Group Decision Making methods have is that they do not allow the experts to use free text to express themselves. On the contrary, they force them to follow a specific user–computer communication structure. This is against social network nature where experts are free to express themselves using their preferred text structure. This paper presents a novel model for experts to carry out Group Decision Making processes using free text and alternatives pairwise comparisons. The main advantage of this method is that it is designed to work using social networks. Sentiment analysis procedures are used to analyze free texts and extract the preferences that the experts provide about the alternatives. Also, our method introduces two ways of applying consensus measures over the Group Decision Making process. They can be used to determine if the experts agree among them or if there are different postures. This way, it is possible to promote the debate in those cases where consensus is low. © 2018 The Author

A group decision making support system for the Web: How to work in environments with a high number of participants and alternatives

One of the main challenges that the appearance of Web 2.0 and the overall spreading of the Internet have generated is how to tackle with the high number of users and information available. This problem is also inherited by the group decision making problems that can be carried out over the Web. In this article, to solve this issue, a group decision making support system that allows the use of a high number of participants and alternatives is presented. This method allows any number of participants to join the decision making process at any time. Furthermore, they let them provide information only about a certain subset of alternatives. The high participation rate can provide enough information for the decision process to be carried out even if the participants do not provide information about all the high number of available alternatives. © 2018 Elsevier B.V

Ultrasound analysis of the eye of chick embryos exposed to low-frequency magnetic fields.

Ultrasonography was used to measure different ocular parameters in chick embryos exposed to low-frequency (50Hz) magnetic fields with flow intensities of 1 µT, 0.1 mT, 0.5 mT, or 1 mT throughout their incubation. In comparison with unexposed control embryos, a significant reduction was observed in corneal thickness and in the anteroposterior diameter of the lens at 21 days of incubation (hatching) during exposure to the highest intensities (0.5 mT and 1 mT). By contrast, there was an increase in the antero posterior diameter of the anterior eye chamber in embryos exposed to the lower magnetic field intensities (1 µT and 0.1 mT). The anteroposterior diameter of the eye was smaller at 21 days of incubation in all the embryos exposed to magnetic fields as compared with the controls. The antero posterior diameter of the lens was significantly smaller in embryos exposed to intensities of 0.5 mT and 1 mT in comparison with the controls