The effects of forest disturbance on diversity of tropical soil nematodes

Author: Bloemers, G. F.; Hodda, M.; Lambshead, P. J. D.; Lawton, J. H.; Wanless, F. R. Description: We provide the first account of the effects of forest disturbance on species richness of nematodes in tropical forest soils, from 24 sites along gradients of disturbance and regeneration in the Mbalmayo Forest Reserve, Cameroon. Species richness was very high. Samples of 200 nematodes from individual soil cores contained a maximum of 89 and an average of 61 species; in total we recorded 431 species and approximately 194 genera. The model of Siemann…

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Influences of Trees on Savanna Productivity: Tests of Shade, Nutrients, and Tree-Grass Competition

Author: Belsky, A. Joy Description: To determine why herbaceous productivity in tropical and subtropical savannas is often significantly higher under crowns of isolated trees than in adjacent grasslands, experimental plots were established in three concentric zones, crown, tree-root, and grassland, surrounding isolated trees of Acacia tortilis in low-rainfall and high-rainfall savannas in Tsavo National Park, Kenya. Plots were fertilized (to determine the importance of nutrient enrichment by trees), shaded (to determine the importance of crown shade), fertilized and shaded (to identify fertilizer x shade interactions), or trenched (tree roots entering…

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Evolutionary Ecology across Three Trophic Levels: Goldenrods, Gallmakers, and Natural Enemies

Author: Abrahamson, Warren G.; Weis, Arthur E. Description: In a work that will interest researchers in ecology, genetics, botany, entomology, and parasitology, Warren Abrahamson and Arthur Weis present the results of more than twenty-five years of studying plant-insect interactions. Their study centers on the ecology and evolution of interactions among a host plant, the parasitic insect that attacks it, and the suite of insects and birds that are the natural enemies of the parasite. Because this system provides a model that can be subjected to experimental manipulations, it has allowed…

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Effect of fire on hard-coated Cistaceae seed banks and its influence on techniques for quantifying seed banks

Author: Ferrandis, Pablo; Herranz, Jose M.; Martinez-Sanchez, Juan J. Description: The impact of fire on hard-coated Cistaceae (Halimium ocymoides, Cistus ladanifer, and C. salvifolius) soil seed banks in a Mediterranean ‘maquis’ shrubland, and its effect on seed germinability were studied. The study also contrasts the effectiveness of two widely used techniques for quantifying seed banks, the seedling emergence and the physical separation methods, in relation to fire. The null hypothesis that a massive enhancement of physically-dormant Cistaceae seed germination by fire would make use of the time-consuming physical separation technique…

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Numbers and Biomass of Selected Insect Groups on Burned and Unburned Sand Prairie

Author: Anderson, Roger C.; Leahy, Theresa; Dhillion, Shivcharn S. Description: Abundance and biomass of selected insect groups were sampled on adjacent burned and unburned sand prairie for 3 years following a single spring burn. The abundance of all insects combined was significantly lower on the burned site than on the unburned site in the 1st yr postburn but not in subsequent years of the study. Of the selected insect groups, ants were significantly (P < 0.05) more abundant on the burned site than the unburned site for the 1st yr…

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Perceived Trustworthiness of Natural Language Generators

Author: Cabrero-Daniel, Beatriz; Cabrero, Andrea Sanagustin Description: Natural Language Generation tools, such as chatbots that can generate human-like conversational text, are becoming more common both for personal and professional use. However, there are concerns about their trustworthiness and ethical implications. The paper addresses the problem of understanding how different users (e.g., linguists, engineers) perceive and adopt these tools and their perception of machine-generated text quality. It also discusses the perceived advantages and limitations of Natural Language Generation tools, as well as users’ beliefs on governance strategies. The main findings of…

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Artificial Intelligence, Trust, and Perceptions of Agency

Author: Vanneste, Bart S.; Puranam, Phanish Description: Modern artificial intelligence (AI) technologies based on deep learning architectures are often perceived as agentic to varying degrees–typically, as more agentic than other technologies but less agentic than humans. We theorize how different levels of perceived agency of AI affect human trust in AI. We do so by investigating three causal pathways. First, an AI (and its designer) perceived as more agentic will be seen as more capable, and therefore will be perceived as more trustworthy. Second, the more the AI is perceived…

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Risks and Benefits of AI-generated Text Summarization for Expert Level Content in Graduate Health Informatics

Author: Merine, Regina; Purkayastha, Saptarshi Description: AI-generated text summarization (AI-GTS) is now a popular topic in applied computer science education. It has proven helpful in various sectors, but its benefits and risks in education have not been thoroughly investigated. Few researchers have demonstrated the benefits of employing AI-generated text summaries in learning to generate ideas swiftly and to explore insights and hidden knowledge. AI-GTS has made it easier for students to understand electronically-available critical information. On the other hand, the risks linked with its implementation in education are understudied. Some…

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Does distrust in humans predict greater trust in AI? Role of individual differences in user responses to content moderation

Author: Molina, Maria D.; Sundar, S. Shyam Description: When evaluating automated systems, some users apply the “positive machine heuristic” (i.e. machines are more accurate and precise than humans), whereas others apply the “negative machine heuristic” (i.e. machines lack the ability to make nuanced subjective judgments), but we do not know much about the characteristics that predict whether a user would apply the positive or negative machine heuristic. We conducted a study in the context of content moderation and discovered that individual differences relating to trust in humans, fear of artificial…

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On problem-solving

Author: Duncker, Karl Description: To study productive thinking where it is most conspicuous in great achievements is certainly a temptation, and without a doubt, important information about the genesis of productive thought could be found in biographical material. A problem arises when a living creature has a goal but does not know how this goal is to be reached. Whenever one cannot go from the given situation to the desired situation simply by action, then there has to be recourse to thinking. The subjects (Ss), who were mostly students of…

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