151 research outputs found
BUILDING WEB-BASED INTERACTIVE KEYS TO THE HYMENOPTERAN FAMILIES AND SUPERFAMILIES
Traditionally manufacturing job shops either have a process layout or a product layout. The advantages of one type of layout tend to be a disadvantage for the other. Hybrid cellular constructs represents a novel fusion of process and product layouts. In this thesis, hybrid cellular constructs specifically Hybrid Flow Shops and Reoriented andamp; Reshaped Cells are clearly described in terms of their structure, key features, and modes of operation. An engineering procedure is illustrated by cases and particular manufacturing circumstances where each concept would be most useful are identified. This thesis then defines the lean practices that are compatible with the structure in question and identifies what practices are incompatible. It suggests how to modify lean practices to fit and at least obtain some benefits for the incompatible ones. Finally, a procedure for design of logistics management systems for assembly cells and lines is presented
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Utilizing Surface Area to Volume ratios and Thermal Tolerance of Various Bee Species to Predict their Performance under Rising Global Temperatures
The purpose of this research project is to investigate how rising temperatures, for instance climate change, can affect bees of various body sizes given their essential role in the global food supply through pollination of agricultural crops. To achieve this I utilized 3D imaging and 3D modeling techniques to calculate surface area-to-volume (SA/V) ratios of the bees that otherwise cannot be obtained using conventional methods. SA/V ratios were calculated for 4 different families (Halictidae, Colletidae, Apidae, and Megachilidae) in the order Hymenoptera and were analyzed alongside the bee’s Critical Thermal Maximum (CT Max) data, the maximum heat a bee can withstand before losing mobility, to gain insight on the bee's ability to survive in extreme hot temperatures. It is evident from the data that larger bees, characterized by smaller SA/V ratios, presented a higher CT Max suggesting their greater chance of survival in higher temperatures than smaller bees due to less heat exchange relative to their body size. This data implies that with earth’s rising global temperatures larger bees will likely perform better than smaller bees.This poster was presented at the UCSB Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships (CSEP) summer colloquium in 2023
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Variation in Bee Body Size Due to Anthropogenic Land Use
This study investigates the impact of anthropogenic land use on the body size of bees across 18 different species. Adult bee body size, primarily influenced by developmental nutrition, is significantly affected by the availability of floral resources. Developed land often has reduced floral diversity and density is hypothesized to produce smaller bees due to limited food resources. Specimens from the UCSB Invertebrate Zoology Collection were categorized based on their collection sites into three land use types: developed, agricultural, and forest using USGS National Land Cover Database. Measurements of head width, intertegular distance (ITD), and dry mass were taken to assess body size. A body size index was calculated as the average of these measurements. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were done in Python version 3.12.4. Results indicate that bees from agricultural habitats are significantly larger than those from developed and forest habitats across all metrics (head width, ITD, dry mass, and body size index). These findings highlight the influence of landscape changes on bee functional traits, providing essential insights into the ecological consequences of land use on bee health.This poster was presented at the UCSB CSEP summer colloquium 2024
A Gross Anatomy Ontology for Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera is an extraordinarily diverse lineage, both in terms of species numbers and morphotypes, that includes sawflies, bees, wasps, and ants. These organisms serve critical roles as herbivores, predators, parasitoids, and pollinators, with several species functioning as models for agricultural, behavioral, and genomic research. The collective anatomical knowledge of these insects, however, has been described or referred to by labels derived from numerous, partially overlapping lexicons. The resulting corpus of information—millions of statements about hymenopteran phenotypes—remains inaccessible due to language discrepancies. The Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology (HAO) was developed to surmount this challenge and to aid future communication related to hymenopteran anatomy. The HAO was built using newly developed interfaces within mx, a Web-based, open source software package, that enables collaborators to simultaneously contribute to an ontology. Over twenty people contributed to the development of this ontology by adding terms, genus differentia, references, images, relationships, and annotations. The database interface returns an Open Biomedical Ontology (OBO) formatted version of the ontology and includes mechanisms for extracting candidate data and for publishing a searchable ontology to the Web. The application tools are subject-agnostic and may be used by others initiating and developing ontologies. The present core HAO data constitute 2,111 concepts, 6,977 terms (labels for concepts), 3,152 relations, 4,361 sensus (links between terms, concepts, and references) and over 6,000 text and graphical annotations. The HAO is rooted with the Common Anatomy Reference Ontology (CARO), in order to facilitate interoperability with and future alignment to other anatomy ontologies, and is available through the OBO Foundry ontology repository and BioPortal. The HAO provides a foundation through which connections between genomic, evolutionary developmental biology, phylogenetic, taxonomic, and morphological research can be actualized. Inherent mechanisms for feedback and content delivery demonstrate the effectiveness of remote, collaborative ontology development and facilitate future refinement of the HAO
A semantically enriched taxonomic revision of Gryonoides Dodd, 1920 (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae), with a review of the hosts of Teleasinae
Teleasinae are commonly collected scelionids that are the only known egg parasitoids of carabid beetles and therefore play a crucial role in shaping carabid populations in natural and agricultural ecosystems. We review the available host information of Teleasinae, report a new host record, and revise Gryonoides Dodd, 1920, a morphologically distinct teleasine genus. We review the generic concept of Gryonoides and provide diagnoses and descriptions of thirteen Gryonoides species and two varieties: G. glabriceps Dodd, 1920, G. pulchellus Dodd, 1920 (= G. doddi Ogloblin, 1967, syn. nov. and G. pulchricornis Ogloblin, 1967, syn. nov.), G. brasiliensis Masner & Miko, sp. nov., G. flaviclavus Masner & Miko, sp. nov., G. fuscoclavatus Masner & Miko, sp. nov., G. garciai Masner & Miko, sp. nov., G. mexicali Masner & Miko, sp. nov., G. mirabilicornis Masner & Miko, sp. nov., G. obtusus Masner & Miko, sp. nov., G. paraguayensis Masner & Miko, sp. nov., G. rugosus Masner & Miko, sp. nov., G. uruguayensis Masner & Miko, sp. nov. We treat Gryonoides scutellaris Dodd, 1920, as status uncertain. Gryonoides mirabilicornis Masner & Miko, sp. nov. is the only known teleasine with tyloids on two consecutive flagellomeres, a well-known trait of Sparasionidae. An illustrated identification key to species of Gryonoides, a queryable semantic representation of species descriptions using PhenoScript, and a simple approach for making Darwin Core Archive files in taxonomic revisions accessible are provided.Peer reviewe
Developing a vocabulary and ontology for modeling insect natural history data: example data, use cases, and competency questions
Insects are possibly the most taxonomically and ecologically diverse class of multicellular organisms on Earth. Consequently, they provide nearly unlimited opportunities to develop and test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. Currently, however, large-scale studies of insect ecology, behavior, and trait evolution are impeded by the difficulty in obtaining and analyzing data derived from natural history observations of insects. These data are typically highly heterogeneous and widely scattered among many sources, which makes developing robust information systems to aggregate and disseminate them a significant challenge. As a step towards this goal, we report initial results of a new effort to develop a standardized vocabulary and ontology for insect natural history data. In particular, we describe a new database of representative insect natural history data derived from multiple sources (but focused on data from specimens in biological collections), an analysis of the abstract conceptual areas required for a comprehensive ontology of insect natural history data, and a database of use cases and competency questions to guide the development of data systems for insect natural history data. We also discuss data modeling and technology-related challenges that must be overcome to implement robust integration of insect natural history data
On Dorsal Prothoracic Appendages in Treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracidae) and the Nature of Morphological Evidence
A spectacular hypothesis was published recently, which suggested that the “helmet” (a dorsal thoracic sclerite that obscures most of the body) of treehoppers (Insecta: Hemiptera: Membracidae) is connected to the 1st thoracic segment (T1; prothorax) via a jointed articulation and therefore was a true appendage. Furthermore, the “helmet” was interpreted to share multiple characteristics with wings, which in extant pterygote insects are present only on the 2nd (T2) and 3rd (T3) thoracic segments. In this context, the “helmet” could be considered an evolutionary novelty. Although multiple lines of morphological evidence putatively supported the “helmet”-wing homology, the relationship of the “helmet” to other thoracic sclerites and muscles remained unclear. Our observations of exemplar thoraces of 10 hemipteran families reveal multiple misinterpretations relevant to the “helmet”-wing homology hypothesis as originally conceived: 1) the “helmet” actually represents T1 (excluding the fore legs); 2) the “T1 tergum” is actually the anterior dorsal area of T2; 3) the putative articulation between the “helmet” and T1 is actually the articulation between T1 and T2. We conclude that there is no dorsal, articulated appendage on the membracid T1. Although the posterior, flattened, cuticular evagination (PFE) of the membracid T1 does share structural and genetic attributes with wings, the PFE is actually widely distributed across Hemiptera. Hence, the presence of this structure in Membracidae is not an evolutionary novelty for this clade. We discuss this new interpretation of the membracid T1 and the challenges of interpreting and representing morphological data more broadly. We acknowledge that the lack of data standards for morphology is a contributing factor to misinterpreted results and offer an example for how one can reduce ambiguity in morphology by referencing anatomical concepts in published ontologies
Finding Our Way through Phenotypes
Despite a large and multifaceted effort to understand the vast landscape of phenotypic data, their current form inhibits productive data analysis. The lack of a community-wide, consensus-based, human- and machine-interpretable language for describing phenotypes and their genomic and environmental contexts is perhaps the most pressing scientific bottleneck to integration across many key fields in biology, including genomics, systems biology, development, medicine, evolution, ecology, and systematics. Here we survey the current phenomics landscape, including data resources and handling, and the progress that has been made to accurately capture relevant data descriptions for phenotypes. We present an example of the kind of integration across domains that computable phenotypes would enable, and we call upon the broader biology community, publishers, and relevant funding agencies to support efforts to surmount today's data barriers and facilitate analytical reproducibility
A hymenopterists' guide to the hymenoptera anatomy ontology: utility, clarification, and future directions
Hymenoptera exhibit an incredible diversity of phenotypes, the result of ~240 million years of evolution and the primary subject of more than 250 years of research. Here we describe the history, development, and utility of the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology (HAO) and its associated applications. These resourc¬es are designed to facilitate accessible and extensible research on hymenopteran phenotypes. Outreach with the hymenopterist community is of utmost importance to the HAO project, and this paper is a direct response to questions that arose from project workshops. In a concerted attempt to surmount barriers of understanding, especially regarding the format, utility, and development of the HAO, we discuss the roles of homology, “preferred terms”, and “structural equivalency”. We also outline the use of Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs) and posit that they are a key element necessary for increasing the objectivity and repeatability of science that references hymenopteran anatomy. Pragmatically, we detail a mechanism (the “URI table”) by which authors can use URIs to link their published text to the HAO, and we describe an associated tool (the “Analyzer”) to derive these tables. These tools, and others, are available through the HAO Portal website (http://portal.hymao.org). We conclude by discussing the future of the HAO with respect to digital publication, cross-taxon ontology alignment, the advent of semantic phenotypes, and community-based curation.Katja C. Seltmann... Andrew D. Austin... John T. Jennings... et al
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