The ACM Multimedia 2023 Computational Paralinguistics Challenge: emotion share & requests

The ACM Multimedia 2023 Computational Paralinguistics Chal- lenge addresses two different problems for the first time in a re- search competition under well-defined conditions: In the Emotion Share Sub-Challenge, a regression on speech has to be made; and in the Requests Sub-Challenges, requests and complaints need to be de- tected. We describe the Sub-Challenges, baseline feature extraction, and classifiers based on the ‘usual’ ComParE features, the auDeep toolkit, and deep feature extraction from pre-trained CNNs using the DeepSpectrum toolkit; in addition, wav2vec2 models are used

Foliage maturity of Quercus ilex affects the larval development of a Croatian coastal population of Lymantria dispar (Lepidoptera: Erebidae)

Gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) is one of the most important forest pests in the world. Numerous previous studies focused only on different host tree species, but small number of them on foliage age. Since recent genetic analyses showed that there are significant differences between Croatian continental and coastal population we investigated coastal population since there was no previous research. For this research juvenile and mature foliage of Holm oak (Quercus ilex) was used. Larval development was investigated in two laboratory experiments. One experiment involved rearing trials consisting of 50 individual larvae per treatment while a parallel experiment investigated gregarious feeding conditions using 120 larvae in a rearing treatment. Larval mortality was lower and development time shorter for individuals reared on juvenile foliage. High pupation success in both the individual and group rearing experiment for larvae reared on juvenile foliage was also observed. To conclude, our results showed high mortality, poor larval development and low pupation success in larvae reared on mature foliage. This research is significant because in the aspect of ongoing climate changes there is a possibility that gypsy moth will move to the north and shift its distribution by expanding into new climatic area.(VLID)232599

Worldwide diversity of endophytic fungi and insects associated with dormant tree twigs

International trade in plants and climate change are two of the main factors causing damaging tree pests (i.e. fungi and insects) to spread into new areas. To mitigate these risks, a large-scale assessment of tree-associated fungi and insects is needed. We present records of endophytic fungi and insects in twigs of 17 angiosperm and gymnosperm genera, from 51 locations in 32 countries worldwide. Endophytic fungi were characterized by high-throughput sequencing of 352 samples from 145 tree species in 28 countries. Insects were reared from 227 samples of 109 tree species in 18 countries and sorted into taxonomic orders and feeding guilds. Herbivorous insects were grouped into morphospecies and were identified using molecular and morphological approaches. This dataset reveals the diversity of tree-associated taxa, as it contains 12,721 fungal Amplicon Sequence Variants and 208 herbivorous insect morphospecies, sampled across broad geographic and climatic gradients and for many tree species. This dataset will facilitate applied and fundamental studies on the distribution of fungal endophytes and insects in trees.Datapaper</p