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We compared methods commonly used in the field of river otter (Lontra canadensis) ecology to estimate visitation rates. We evaluated visitation rates estimated from 2 survey protocols based on video detection—individual visitation rate (IVR) and recording visitation rate (RVR)—and one indirect method based on scat detection—scat visitation rate (SVR). From August 2011 through August 2012, overall scat detection and cumulative video data from 403 camera‐days in 2 latrine sites (River and Pond, at a study site adjacent to the Salt Fork of the Vermilion River near Fairmount, Illinois, USA) located <50 m apart did not reveal monthly or seasonal differences between SVR and video detection methods. We identified positive correlations among the 3 visitation rates and differences between overall IVR and RVR. All 3 methods resulted in peak visitation rates during winter. However, when these data were stratified by latrine site, we found both positive and negative correlations at the River latrine. Our work supports that SVR, IVR, and RVR are valuable methods to estimate otter visitation rates at latrine sites. However, it is clear that even within such a short distance between these 2 latrines, these methods detected differences in site utilization. The significant positive correlation observed between IVR and RVR (overall and by latrine site) suggests these methods can be used interchangeably. Otter detection using SVR may serve as a complementary assessment tool for IVR and RVR. To optimize cross‐study comparisons and interpretation of results, future studies should detail the type of otter detection and visitation rate used, how variables are measured, formulas used in the calculation of the visitation rates, and detailed descriptions of scat counting efforts when using scat as a tool to evaluate otter visitation rates. © 2019 The Authors. Wildlife Society Bulletin Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Different survey techniques used to estimate river otter visitation rates at latrine sites make it difficult to compare and extrapolate results among studies. We compared 3 of these survey techniques using a single dataset; although our results indicate that the 3 methods provide reliable otter activity information and 2 methods are interchangeable, we confirm the value of reporting detailed methodological descriptions for effective comparisons across studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The designer of a computing system should adopt explicit criteria for accepting or rejecting proposed system features. Three possible criteria af this kind are input recordability, input specifiability, and asynchronous reproducibility of output. These criteria imply that a user can, if he desires, either know or control all the influences affecting the content and extent of his computer's output. To define the scope of the criteria, the notion of an abstract machine of a programming language and the notion of a virtual computer are explained. Examples of applications of the criteria concern the reading of a time-of-day clock, the synchronization of parallel processes, protection in multipragrammed systems, and the assignment of capability indexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parasitism in wild mammals can vary according to myriad intrinsic and extrinsic factors, many of which vary seasonally. However, seasonal variation in parasitism is rarely studied using repeated samples from known individuals. Here we used a wild population of individually recognized red deer (Cervus elaphus) on the Isle of Rum to quantify seasonality and intrinsic factors affecting gastrointestinal helminth parasitism over the course of a year. We collected 1020 non-invasive faecal samples from 328 known individuals which we then analysed for propagules of three helminth taxa: strongyle nematodes, the common liver fluke Fasciola hepatica and the tissue nematode Elaphostrongylus cervi. Zero-inflated Poisson models were used to investigate how season, age and sex were associated with parasite prevalence and count intensity, while Poisson models were used to quantify individual repeatability within and between sampling seasons. Parasite intensity and prevalence varied according to all investigated factors, with opposing seasonality, age profiles and sex biases between parasite taxa. Repeatability was moderate, decreased between seasons and varied between parasites; both F. hepatica and E. cervi showed significant between-season repeatability, while strongyle nematode counts were only repeatable within-season and showed no repeatability within individuals across the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent evolution of processors and hardware accelerators, compilers, compiler options and other elements of the execution context of a simulation, produce a lack of repeatability of computational experiments. This subject is gaining attention in many scientific fields. The search for numerical reproducibility is essential for all scientific experimentations, but it is many times overlooked. In this article we propose an analysis of the challenges of numerical reproducibility. Then we identify the main obstacles to its implementation. To overcome these obstacles,we propose, in the case of parallel stochastic simulations, a set of recommendations and a method which helps maintaining repeatability and reproducibility of parallel stochastic simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the reliability of the multi-criteria evaluation model included in the Welfare Quality® protocol for growing pigs to aggregate the animal-based indicators, first to criteria, then to principle level and finally to an overall welfare score. This assessment was carried out in a practical application study on a sample of 24 farms in Germany. Altogether, 102 protocol assessments were carried out in repeated visits to these farms in order to evaluate the inter-observer and test-retest repeatability of the overall scores calculated by the multi-criteria evaluation system. Reliability is then assessed by the calculation of different reliability and agreement parameters: Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficients (RS), Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC), Smallest Detectable Changes (SDC) and Limits of Agreement (LoA). Inter-observer repeatability was insufficient for the criteria comfort around resting, absence of injuries, expression of social behaviours, expression of other behaviours, good human-animal relationship and positive emotional state as well as for the principles good housing and appropriate behaviour. This is probably due in the main to insufficient repeatability of the underlying indicators that have been revealed in previous studies. Test-retest repeatability is predominantly insufficient. Overall, the present results highlight the importance of absolutely reliable indicators at the baseline level. Furthermore, it could be shown that the calculation procedure is partly incorrect and consequently needs correction. Therefore, this study is an important contribution to the future progression of the Welfare Quality® protocols and animal welfare assessment tools in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns in parasite community structure are often observed in natural systems and an important question in parasite ecology is whether such patterns are repeatable across time and space. Field studies commonly look at spatial or temporal repeatability of patterns, but they are rarely investigated in conjunction. We use a large dataset on the macroparasites of the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus L., collected from 14 locations on North Uist, Scotland over an 8-year period to investigate: (1) repeatability of patterns in parasite communities among populations and whether variation is consistent across years, (2) whether variation between years can be explained by climatic variation and progression of the season and (3) whether variation in habitat characteristics explain population differences. Differences in relative abundance and prevalence across populations were observed in a number of parasites investigated indicating a lack of consistency across years in numerous parasite community measures; however, differences between populations in the prevalence and abundance of some parasites were consistent throughout the study. Average temperature did not affect parasite community, and progression of the season was only significant for two of 13 community measures. Two of the six habitat characteristics investigated (pH and calcium concentration) significantly affected parasite presence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT Reliable diagnostic tests are essential for disease investigation and management. This is particularly true for diseases of free-ranging wildlife where sampling is logistically difficult precluding retesting. Clinical assays for wildlife diseases frequently vary among laboratories because of lack of appropriate standardized commercial kits. Results of diagnostic testing may also be called into question when investigators report different etiologies for disease outbreaks, despite similar clinical and pathologic findings. To evaluate reliability of diagnostic testing for respiratory pathogens of bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis), we conducted a series of ring tests across 6 laboratories routinely involved in detection of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, Pasteurellaceae, lktA (the Pasteurellaceae gene encoding leukotoxin), and 3 reference laboratories. Consistency of results for replicate samples within laboratories was high (median agreement = 1.0). Agreement between laboratories was high for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection of M. ovipneumoniae and culture isolation of Mannheimia spp. and Bibersteinia trehalosi (median agreement = 0.89-0.95, Kappa = 0.65-0.74), and lower for PCR detection of Mannheimia spp. lktA (median agreement = 0.58, Kappa = 0.12). Most errors on defined status samples were false negatives, suggesting test sensitivity was a greater problem than specificity. However, tests for M. haemolytica and lktA yielded some false positive results. Despite differences in testing protocols, median agreement among laboratories and correct classification of controls for most agents was ≥0.80, meeting or exceeding the standard required by federal proficiency testing programs. This information is valuable for interpreting test results, laboratory quality assessments, and advancing diagnosis of respiratory disease in wild sheep. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wild and domestic animals, gastrointestinal parasites can have significant impacts on host development, condition, health, reproduction and longevity. Improving our understanding of the causes and consequences of individual-level variation in parasite load is therefore of prime interest. Here we investigated the relationship between strongyle fecal egg count (FEC) and body condition in a unique, naturalized population of horses that has never been exposed to anthelmintic drugs (Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada). We first quantified variation in FEC and condition for 447 individuals according to intrinsic (sex, age, reproductive status, social status) and extrinsic (group size, location, local density) variables. We then quantified the repeatability of measurements obtained over a field season and tested for covariance between FEC and condition. FECs were high relative to other horse populations (mean eggs per gram ± SD = 1543·28 ± 209·94). FECs generally decreased with age, were higher in lactating vs non-lactating females, and unexpectedly lower in males in some part of the island. FECs and condition were both spatially structured, with patterns depending on age, sex and reproductive status. FECs and condition were both repeatable. Most notably, FECs and condition were negatively correlated, especially in adult females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's consumers desire sunscreens that are not only more effective against UV radiation, but also provide water, sand, sweat and rub resistance. These authors propose a new in vitro test to assess and compare rub resistance factors, which they illustrate here by testing 20 sun care products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bragantia is the property of Instituto Agronomico de Campinas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses a comparative study on locomotion scoring of dairy cows performed by experienced and inexperienced raters using live or video observation methods. Topics discussed include a description and impact of lameness on dairy production, distribution of locomotion scores, and intra-rater reliability. Also mentioned is the study finding which suggests that experienced raters performed better than unexperienced raters when locomotion scoring was done from video.

The replication crisis has gained traction in the scientific community over the past decade. Basic researchers have shown the reproducibility of key data from the lab is low and there is a clear need to improve lab protocol and technique.

Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are emerging as hardware security primitives. So-called strong PUFs provide a mechanism to authenticate chips which is inherently unique for every manufactured sample. To prevent cloning, modeling of the challenge-response pair (CRP) behavior should be infeasible. Machine learning (ML) algorithms are a well-known threat. Recently, repeatability imperfections of PUF responses have been identified as another threat. CMOS device noise renders a significant fraction of the CRPs unstable, hereby providing a side channel for modeling attacks. In previous work, 65 nm arbiter PUFs have been modeled as such with accuracies exceeding 97%. However, more PUF evaluations were required than for state-of-the-art ML approaches. In this work, we accelerate repeatability attacks by increasing the fraction of unstable CRPs. Response evaluation faults are triggered via environmental changes hereby. The attack speed, which is proportional to the fraction of unstable CRPs, increases with a factor 2.4 for both arbiter and ring oscillator (RO) sum PUFs. Data originates from a 65 nm silicon chip and hence not from simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repeatability and reproducibility are crucial to validate any test method. In order to master these criteria, the authors developed an automated spreading device and compared it with human spreading. Application of the device in eight laboratories and using 36 sunscreens revealed great improvements via automated spreading, ensuring good intra- and inter-laboratory variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that evaluates inter- and intra-observer reliability of the Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) for dairy cattle. The study involves eighteen experienced and inexperienced observers, and uses two series of video clips to test the reliability. It reveals that inter-observer reliability was slight to high for individual QBA descriptors and slight to moderate for QBA scores.

Parasites are often aggregated on a minority of the individuals in their host populations. Although host characteristics are commonly presumed to explain parasite aggregation on hosts, spatio-temporal aggregation of parasites during their host-seeking stages may have a dominant effect on the aggregation on hosts. We aimed to quantify, using mixed models, repeatability and autocorrelation analyses, the degree to which the aggregation of blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) on white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) is influenced by spatio-temporal distributions of the host-seeking ticks and by heterogeneity among mice. Host-seeking ticks were spatially aggregated at both the larval and nymphal life-stages. However, this spatial aggregation accounted for little of the variation in larval and nymphal burdens observed on mice (3% and 0%, respectively). Conversely, mouse identity accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in tick burdens. Mouse identity was a significant explanatory factor as the majority of ticks parasitized a consistent set of mice throughout the activity seasons. Of the characteristics associated with mouse identity investigated, only gender affected larval burdens, and body mass and home range sizes in males were correlated with nymphal burdens. These analyses suggest that aggregation of ticks on a minority of mice does not result from the distribution of host-seeking ticks but from characteristics of the hosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares inter-observer reliability (IOR) and user-preference of a standard three-point ordinal scale with a modified visual analogue scale (VAS) for scoring lameness in cattle from video. The study shows that IOR was higher for the modified VAS compared to the three-point categorical scale. Researchers also reveals that IOR for VAS was positively linked with the self-reported level of experience in examining cattle lameness.

Purpose: Recent studies showing a lack of internal consistency for the Holmes-wright Type A Lantern (HWA) raise the issue as to whether the lantern test is repeatable. This study determines the HWA repeatability for several scoring criteria. Methods: There were 78 individuals with normal color vision (NCV) and 80 individuals with defective color vision (DCV) who were tested during two separate visits. Three runs of the test lights were always presented in dim room illumination. An additional dark-adapted run was presented during both visits for a subset of 61 subjects. Repeatability was evaluated for the following pass/fail criteria: the Joint Aviation Requirements, Farnsworth's criterion, the Commission Internationale de 'Eclairage criterion for the HwA, a perfect performance, and the 99th and 100th percentile scores of the NCV sample. Results: The NCV agreement for passing both sessions was high, with 96% having a perfect score at both sessions. The DCV agreement for passing both sessions was lower, ranging from 0.62 to 0.80. Criteria which stopped the test after a perfect performance on the first run had the lowest values. The DCV agreement for failing both sessions was high, ranging from 0.97 to 0.99. Conclusions: Stopping the test after a perfect performance on the first run should be abandoned. Presenting three runs of the nine test lights and allowing no more than two errors is repeatable, passes all the NCV, and minimizes the number of individuals who pass the lantern at the first session and fail at a later session. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Trophically-transmitted parasites frequently alter multiple aspects of their host's phenotype. Correlations between modified characteristics may suggest how different traits are mechanistically related, but these potential relationships remain unexplored. We recorded 5 traits from individual isopods infected with an acanthocephalan (Acanthocephalus lucii): hiding, activity, substrate colour preference, body (pereon) coloration, and abdominal (pleon) coloration. Infected isopods hid less and had darker abdominal coloration than uninfected isopods. However, in 3 different experiments measuring hiding behaviour (time-scales of observation: 1 h, 8 h, 8 weeks), these two modified traits were not correlated, suggesting they may arise via independent mechanisms. For the shorter experiments (1 h and 8 h), confidence in this null correlation was undermined by low experimental repeatability, i.e. individuals did not behave similarly in repeated trials of the experiment. However, in the 8-week experiment, hiding behaviour was relatively consistent within individuals, so the null correlation at this scale indicates, less equivocally, that hiding and coloration are unrelated. Furthermore, the difference between the hiding behaviour of infected and uninfected isopods varied over 8 weeks, suggesting that the effect of A. lucii infection on host behaviour changes over time. We emphasize the importance of carefully designed protocols for investigating multidimensionality in host manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we present a number of enhancements to the Kadir/Brady salient region detector which result in a significant improvement in performance. The modifications we make include: stabilising the difference between consecutive scales when calculating the inter-scale saliency, a new sampling strategy using overlap of pixels, partial volume estimation and parzen windowing. Repeatability is used as the criterion for evaluating the performance of the algorithm. We observe the repeatability for distinctive regions selected from an image and from the same image after applying a particular transformation. The transformations we use include planar rotation, pixel translation, spatial scaling, and intensity shifts and scaling. Experimental results show that the average repeatability rate is improved from 46% to approximately 78% when all the enhancements are applied. We also compare our algorithm with other region detectors on a set of sequences of real images, and our detector outperforms most of the state of the art detectors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article investigates how professional training age (PTA) affects the composite strength profile of the knee and ankle joint in soccer players. Findings affirmed the theory of asymmetry in the strength adaptations that occur at the knee and ankle joint of soccer players mainly along with short and intermediate PTA. Those with a longer PTA reportedly seem to adopt a more balanced utilization of their lower extremities to cope with musculoskeletal asymmetries and reduce risk of injury.