Search

Purpose. To investigate the reproduction ecology of the great warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus in the territory of the drainage canal of the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant in order to preserve the species in the conditions of a technogenic landscape. Methods. Field: bird counts on permanent routes. Statistical: processing of the obtained data. Results. The ecological features of large warblers within the drainage canal were studied. Biotope conditions, nesting adaptations, and population dynamics of the species were analyzed. A decrease in the nesting density of warblers from 11.8 pairs/km2 (2022) and 9.5 pairs/km2 (2023) to 6.2 pairs/km2 (2024) has been established, it is associated with several factors, but most of all it is due to disturbance during the nesting period and abiotic factors. It has been proven that drainage canals with dense riparian vegetation provide a favorable environment for nesting and feeding birds. The behavioral nesting strategies of warblers and their response to parasitism by the cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) have been studied. The reproductive period of the Great Warbler was approximately 41 days, depending on external environmental conditions (natural factors, food availability). The nests are located at a height of 120–160 cm above the water level to avoid flooding during rising water levels in the drainage canal. The average distance between neighboring nests was 28.3±3.5 m. Appropriate measures should be implemented to increase the number of the Great Warbler nesting population on the drainage canal. Conclusions. The role of artificial wetlands in maintaining biodiversity is described. Recommendations are proposed for the conservation of greater warblers by minimizing negative impacts, maintaining the stability of the drainage canal ecosystem, and regular monitoring of this man-made area.

Automated sandbox-based analysis systems are dominantly focused on sequences of API calls, which are widely acknowledged as discriminative and easily extracted features. In this paper, we argue that an extension of the feature set beyond API calls may improve the malware detection performance. For this purpose, we apply the Cuckoo open-source sandbox system, carefully configured for the production of a novel dataset for dynamic malware analysis containing 22,200 annotated samples (11,735 benign and 10,465 malware). Each sample represents a full-featured report generated by the Cuckoo sandbox when a corresponding binary file is submitted for analysis. To support our position that the discriminative power of the full-featured sandbox reports is greater than the discriminative power of just API call sequences, we consider samples obtained from binary files whose execution induced API calls. In addition, we derive an additional dataset from samples in the full-featured dataset, whose samples contain only information on API calls. In a three-way factorial design experiment (considering the feature set, the feature representation technique, and the random forest model hyperparameter settings), we trained and tested a set of random forest models in a two-class classification task. The obtained results demonstrate that resorting to full-featured sandbox reports improves malware detection performance. The accuracy of 95.56 percent obtained for API call sequences was increased to 99.74 percent when full-featured sandbox reports were considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Diederik cuckoo, Chrysococcyx caprius, is a small Afrotropical bird in the family Cuculidae. It is taxonomically related to 13 other species within the genus Chrysococcyx and is migratory in sub‐Saharan Africa. It has a unique breeding behaviour of being a brood parasite: Breeding pairs lay their eggs in the nests of a host species and hatchlings expel the eggs of the host species. The aim of the present study was to investigate diversity in two circadian clock genes, Clock and Adcyap1, to probe for a relationship between genetic polymorphisms and their role in circannual timing and habitat selection (phenology) in intra‐African migrants. DNA extracted from blood was used for the PCR amplification and sequencing of clock genes in 30 Diederik cuckoos. Three alleles were detected for Clock with similar genotypes between individuals from the Northern and Southern breeding ranges while 10 alleles were detected for Adcyap1, having shorter alleles in the North and longer alleles in the South. Population genetic analyses, including allele frequency and zygosity analysis, showed distinctly higher frequencies for the most abundant Clock allele, containing 10 polyglutamine repeats, as well as a high degree of homozygosity. In contrast, all individuals were heterozygous for Adcyap1 and alleles from both regions showed distinct differences in abundance. Comparisons between both clock genes and phenology found several phenotypic correlations. This included evidence of a relationship between the shorter alleles and habitat selection as well as a relationship between longer alleles and timing. In both instances, evidence is provided that these effects may be sex‐specific. Given that these genes drive some of the synchronicity between environments and the life cycles of birds, they provide valuable insight into the fitness of species facing global challenges including climate change, urbanisation and expanding agricultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In theory, emancipation from parental care is expected to favor promiscuous mating systems. However, in avian brood parasites, monogamy is surprisingly widespread, and it has been proposed that this may be favored by factors such as low population density and territoriality. Correspondingly, our previous research revealed that brood parasitic Horsfield's bronze-cuckoos (Chalcites basalis) , which occur at low population densities and defend territories, are monogamous. Here, we contrast this study with the mating system of the congeneric little bronze-cuckoo (C. minutillus) , an obligate brood parasite that exploits more concentrated hosts and is, therefore, likely to occur at higher population densities. We use single nucleotide polymorphisms to characterize the reproductive patterns of unsampled adults by inferring sibling relationships among 30 offspring. We show that (1) little bronze-cuckoos occurred at high densities, (2) polygamy was the most common mating pattern found in this study in both sexes, and (3) where multiple cuckoo eggs are laid in the same nest, they were unrelated. These results indicate that females do not defend exclusive territories, and males do not defend multiple females (polygyny). Instead, little bronze-cuckoos appear to have a non-territorial, promiscuous mating system. Our results are consistent with theoretical predictions that polygamy is more likely to evolve in species that are emancipated from parental care, where there are plenty of available mates, and where home ranges are not defended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractCloud computing is a technique for developing systems that rely on dynamic sharing to enable the integration of several systems to provide services. For the purpose of completing their intended work, cloud users may literally access the cloud resources over the internet. The tasks that cloud users submit and the time it takes to do them determine the effectiveness and efficiency of cloud computing services. Task scheduling is essential to improving a cloud system’s efficacy and performance since it optimizes resource allocation and utilization. In this context, cloud computing offers a variety of advantages, including cost savings, security, mobility, flexibility, disaster recovery, quality control, automated software updates, and sustainability. Therefore, the requirement to control resource allocation has increased along with the number of cloud users. However, cloud task scheduling requires a quick and intelligent algorithm that can identify available resources and plan out tasks that different people desire. Therefore, a quick, effective work scheduling method is needed for improved resource allocation and scheduling. Grey Wolf Job Optimization (GWO) and Cuckoo Search Optimization (CSO) are used for the Optimized Efficient Job Scheduling Resource (OEJSR). The "grey wolf optimization" (GWO) ensemble with OEJSR has provided the best resource allocation models. The prior research was compared using computation time, make span, iteration-based performance, fitness, and success rate. Studies demonstrate the superiority of the suggested approach.

We revisit the problem of building static hash tables on the GPU and present an efficient implementation of bucketed hash tables. By decoupling the probing scheme from the hash table in-memory representation, we offer an implementation where the number of probes and the bucket size are the only factors limiting performance. Our analysis sweeps through the hash table parameter space for two probing schemes: cuckoo and iceberg hashing. We show that a bucketed cuckoo hash table (BCHT) that uses three hash functions outperforms alternative methods that use iceberg hashing and a cuckoo hash table that uses a bucket size of one. At load factors as high as 0.99, BCHT enjoys an average probe count of 1.43 during insertion. Using three hash functions only, positive and negative queries require at most 1.39 and 2.8 average probes per key, respectively.

Holme I and II were contemporary, adjacent Early Bronze Age (EBA) oak-timber enclosures exposed intertidally at Holme-next-the-sea, Norfolk, England, in 1998. Holme I enclosed a central upturned tree-stump, its function and intent unknown. Holme II is thought a mortuary structure. Both are proposed here best explained as independent ritual responses to reverse a period of severe climate deterioration recorded before 2049 BC when their timbers were felled. Holme I is thought erected on the summer-solstice, when the cuckoo traditionally stopped singing, departing to the ‘Otherworld’. It replicated the cuckoo’s supposed overwintering quarters: a tree-hole or the ‘bowers of the Otherworld’ represented by the tree-stump, remembered in folklore as ‘penning-the-cuckoo’ where a cuckoo is confined to keep singing and maintain summer. The cuckoo symbolised male-fertility being associated with several Indo-European goddesses of fertility that deified Venus - one previously identified in EBA Britain. Some mortal consorts of these goddesses appear to have been ritually sacrificed at Samhain. Holme II may be an enclosure for the body of one such ‘sacral king’. These hypotheses are considered, using abductive reasoning, as ‘inferences to the best explanations’ from the available evidence. They are supported with environmental data, astronomic and biological evidence, regional folklore, toponymy, and an ethnographic analogy with indigenous Late Iron Age practices that indirect evidence indicates were undertaken in EBA Britain. Cultural and religious continuity is supported by textual sources, the material record and ancient DNA (aDNA) studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, low-cost, low-power sensors have made wireless communication possible for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), which are growing in popularity and bringing about tremendous improvement. Nevertheless, their autonomy eventually wanes because WSN nodes run entirely on batteries. The network lifetime is affected by this energy constraint. Therefore, the proposed method uses Quantum-based Optical sensors with the CUCKOO-ANN method for Enhanced Energy-Efficient Wireless Communication to overcome the existing issues. Initially, the Quantum-based optical sensors helped collect the data from the location and were also used for energy-efficient communication. It transfers the data very quickly and securely without any interruption. Next, the CUCKOO-ANN method optimises the real-time data and provides efficiency. Therefore, it helps to find an optimal route between the user and the Base station. The concept that has been presented exhibits excellent potential as it can efficiently fulfil customer service level agreements, lower average execution times, and improve data centre energy efficiency. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed energy-efficient method minimises energy consumption, optimises data transmission, improves the network lifetime, and enhances the scalability of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) dependent on parental care for post-hatching demonstrate an intriguing ability to modify their begging vocalizations to ensure maximum care and resources from their interspecific foster parents. Here, we compared begging calls of the Common Cuckoo nestlings fed by four host species, the Grey Bushchat (Saxicola ferreus), Siberian Stonechat (Saxicola maurus), Daurian Redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus), and Oriental Magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis). Results showed that begging calls of the stonechat-, redstart-, and robin-cuckoo resemble those of host species' nestlings in various aspects like low frequency, high frequency, frequency bandwidth and peak frequency, while the bushchat-cuckoo chicks' begging calls were only comparable to their host species in terms of how long they lasted and their peak frequency. In addition, cuckoo nestlings raised in different host nests displayed significant variations in their begging calls in low and peak frequency. This study suggests that cuckoo nestlings do not mimic host species nestlings' begging calls throughout the nestling period, but may tune their begging calls according to host species, while begging calls vary with cuckoo and host species nestlings' ages. Future research should study the parents' reactions to these calls in different host species for a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying such adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing is a technique for developing systems that rely on dynamic sharing to enable the integration of several systems to provide services. For the purpose of completing their intended work, cloud users may literally access the cloud resources over the internet. The tasks that cloud users submit and the time it takes to do them determine the effectiveness and efficiency of cloud computing services. Task scheduling is essential to improving a cloud system's efficacy and performance since it optimizes resource allocation and utilization. In this context, cloud computing offers a variety of advantages, including cost savings, security, mobility, flexibility, disaster recovery, quality control, automated software updates, and sustainability. Therefore, the requirement to control resource allocation has increased along with the number of cloud users. However, cloud task scheduling requires a quick and intelligent algorithm that can identify available resources and plan out tasks that different people desire. Therefore, a quick, effective work scheduling method is needed for improved resource allocation and scheduling. Grey Wolf Job Optimization (GWO) and Cuckoo Search Optimization (CSO) are used for the Optimized Efficient Job Scheduling Resource (OEJSR). The "grey wolf optimization" (GWO) ensemble with OEJSR has provided the best resource allocation models. The prior research was compared using computation time, make span, iteration-based performance, fitness, and success rate. Studies demonstrate the superiority of the suggested approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matching the timing of spring arrival to the breeding grounds with hosts and prey is crucial for migratory brood parasites such as cuckoos. Previous studies have focused mostly on phenological mismatch between a single cuckoo species and its hosts but information regarding climate-driven mismatch between multiple sympatric cuckoo species and their hosts and invertebrate prey is still lacking. Here, we analysed long-term data (1988–2023) on the first arrival date of two declining migratory cuckoo species and their 14 migratory host species breeding in sympatry and prey emergence date in Tatarstan (southeast Russia). We found that the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus; wintering in Africa) generally arrived on breeding grounds earlier than the oriental cuckoo (Cuculus optatus; wintering in southeast Asia and Australia). Both cuckoos have advanced their arrival dates over 36 years but less than their hosts, potentially resulting in an increasing arrival mismatch between cuckoos and their hosts. Moreover, cuckoo arrival advanced less than the emergence date of their prey over time. These observations indicate that climate change may disrupt co-fluctuation in the phenology of important life stages between multiple sympatric brood parasites, their hosts and prey with potential cascading consequences for population dynamics of involved species.

This manuscript gives a contribution to the optimization of a hybrid Photovoltaic-Wind Turbine system with a storage system. In order to capture the maximum power that can be produced by each source, while maintaining the rotor speed of the wind turbine at its maximum values according to wind variations, the Neuro-Fuzzy-Particle Swarm Optimization (NF-PSO) controller is proposed. The Neuro-Fuzzy method is used here because it allows an automatic generation of fuzzy rules, and the Particle Swarm Optimization to find an optimal gain allowing to readjust the dynamics of the fuzzy rules by reducing the power losses (oscillations). For the proper functioning of such a system, we have developed a fuzzy supervisor in order to have an optimal control of the system according to the variations of the requested load and the produced power by considering the storage system and the load shedding. The simulation results of the system confirmed the better performance of this method in terms of speed with a response time of 0.2s on the wind side and 0.025s on the side photovoltaic, of efficiency with 99.87% on the photovoltaic side and 99.6% on the wind side, and above all in term of oscillation reduction with practically a negligible oscillation rate compared to the NF and the Cuckoo algorithm.

Common Cuckoos Cuculus canorus are obligate brood parasites, laying eggs in nests of other species. Cuckoo nestlings are often thought to be insatiable, compared to host broods. However, in Reed Warblers Acrocephalus scirpaceus and a few other species, cuckoo nestlings are fed at most only as frequently as a host brood. To add to the small body of knowledge on feeding frequencies and body mass development of Cuckoo nestlings, I studied Cuckoos using another host, the Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis, in the Dutch dunes (2019–2021). By filming feeding parents (hosts) I determined the provisioning frequency for broods of Pipits and for nestling Cuckoos. I found that nestling Cuckoos receive on average fewer feeds per hour than broods of Meadow Pipits. Furthermore, overall Cuckoos received as many feeds during their 22-day nestling period as a brood of Pipits during their 13 days in the nest. At 13 days of age (day 1 is the day of hatching), the single Cuckoo was as heavy as a brood of four Meadow Pipits. At 22 days, the maximum weights of the nestling Cuckoos were greater than the Meadow Pipit broods and varied between 91 and 105 g. Thus, although Cuckoos are being fed less frequently, young Cuckoos are heavier at fledging than a whole brood of Pipits. This could be because Cuckoos are fed larger prey. Alternatively, Cuckoos may require less food because their thermoregulatory costs could be smaller: they have almost black skin which absorbs solar radiation efficiently, do not have to compete with siblings in the nest and, once older and feathered, have a smaller surface-to-volume ratio than a Pipit brood of four nestlings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction/purpose: This paper reports on a pilot comparative analysis of the Cuckoo and Drakvuf sandboxes. These sandboxes are selected as the subjects of the analysis because of their popularity in the professional community and their complementary approaches to analyzing malware behavior. Methods: Both sandboxes were set up with basic configurations and confronted with the same set of malware samples. The evaluation was primarily conducted with respect to the question of to what extent a sandbox is helpful to the human analyst in malware analysis. Thus, only the information available in Web console reports was considered. Results: Drakvuf is expected to perform better when confronted with evasive malware and so-called “file-less” malware. Although still not mature in terms of integration, customization and tools, this sandbox is considered a second generation sandbox because of its agentless design. On the other hand, the Cuckoo sandbox creates a better overall experience: it is supported through good documentation and strong professional community, better integrated with various tools, support more virtualization, operating system and sample types, and generates more informative reports. Even with a smaller capacity to prevent evasive malware, its Python 2 agent script makes it more powerful than Drakvuf. Conclusion: To achieve the optimal open-source sandbox-based protection, it is recommended to apply both the Cuckoo and Drakvuf sandboxes. In circumstances of limited resources, applying the Cuckoo sandbox is preferable, especially if exposure to malware deploying evading techniques is not frequently expected.

Parasites face a trade-off if the highest quality hosts are also most resistant to exploitation. For brood parasites, well-defended host nests may be both harder to parasitize and harder to predate, leading to better survival of parasitic chicks. This trade-off could be accentuated if brood-parasitic adaptations to reduce front-line defences of hosts, such as mimicry of hawks by Cuculus cuckoos, do not deter hosts which aggressively mob raptors. Here we investigate the costs and benefits to the African cuckoo (Cuculus gularis) of specializing on a highly aggressive host species, the fork-tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis). Field experiments showed that drongos strongly attacked and mobbed both cuckoo and hawk models, implying that hawk mimicry does not deter front-line defences against African cuckoos. Attacks on cuckoo and hawk models generally declined after the egg stage but attacks on snake models sharply increased, suggesting drongos may treat hawks more like cuckoos than predators. We suggest that the cost to cuckoos of parasitizing an aggressive host may be alleviated by subsequent benefits to their offspring, since drongo nests survived better than nests of other species with similar nesting ecology. These results are indicative of a trade-off between host quality and susceptibility for a brood parasite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sacred kings of Late Iron Age northern Britain are thought to have symbolised fertility and considered responsible for the wellbeing of the lands and people; components of a system of governance maintained by conservative religious beliefs and champions of a local goddess of sovereignty, also associated with the cuckoo and the planet Venus. Their regicide was undertaken by their successors with a sacred spear at cult-sites at eight-year intervals when Venus set at its evening extreme at Samhain. Titled after the cuckoo, the symbol of male fertility across Europe, they mimicked the cuckoo's polygynous behaviour. Others have suggested their exploits were based on myths about the cuckoo. They are recalled in Irish legends, Arthurian tales and the writings of contemporary authors, depicted on stones and confirmed in recent place-name and archaeoastronomy studies, but not previously recognised. This paper explores the evidence for, and significance of, British, Irish and continental European warrior-champions named after the cuckoo. The study strongly suggests a continuity of cosmological beliefs, celestial associations, myths and legends, religious symbolism, sacred kingship and governance of tribal societies from the Indo-European immigrants to Britain until the adoption of Christianity and its associated form of kingship by the Picts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships between avian brood parasites and their hosts are widely recognised as model systems for studying coevolution. However, while most brood parasites are known to parasitise multiple species of host and hosts are often subject to parasitism by multiple brood parasite species, the examination of multispecies interactions remains rare. Here, we compile data on all known brood parasite–host relationships and find that complex brood parasite–host systems, where multiple species of brood parasites and hosts coexist and interact, are globally commonplace. By examining patterns of past research, we outline the disparity between patterns of network complexity and past research emphases and discuss factors that may be associated with these patterns. Drawing on insights gained from other systems that have embraced a multispecies framework, we highlight the potential benefits of considering brood parasite–host interactions as ecological networks and brood parasitism as a model system for studying multispecies interactions. Overall, our results provide new insights into the diversity of these relationships, highlight the stark mismatch between past research efforts and global patterns of network complexity, and draw attention to the opportunities that more complex arrangements offer for examining how species interactions shape global patterns of biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eighteenth-century Tibetan narrative The Tale of Moon Cuckoo and its subsequent adaptation as a Mongolian traditional opera was performed from the nineteenth century up to the early twentieth. The story is based on the motif of a prince who is tricked into entering the body of a cuckoo; later on, he is not able to regain his human form, stolen by his evil-minded companion. The narrative, along with its Mongolian-language versions and operatic adaptation, is a vivid example of Tibet-Mongolian literary transmission. The underlying motif of the tale is also closely linked to the so-called frame narratives of Indian origin concerning King Vikramāditya; the popularity of these narratives was very widespread in Central and Inner Asia in times past. This paper describes some of the literary contacts concerning the narrative and motifs of The Tale of Moon Cuckoo in Central and Inner Asia and beyond, with a view as well to cross-genre considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Signal Processing is the property of Journal of Signal Processing 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.)

Copyright of Military Technical Courier / Vojnotehnicki Glasnik is the property of Military Technical Courier / Vojnotehnicki Glasnik 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.)

Recognition of malware is critical in cybersecurity as it allows for avoiding execution and the downloading of malware. One of the possible approaches is to analyze the executable's Application Programming Interface (API) calls, which can be done using tools that work in sandboxes, such as Cuckoo or CAPEv2. This chain of calls can then be used to classify if the considered file is benign or malware. This work aims to compare six modern shallow learning and deep learning techniques based on tabular data, using two datasets of API calls containing malware and goodware, where the corresponding chain of API calls is expressed for each instance. The results show the quality of shallow learning approaches based on tree ensembles, such as CatBoost, both in terms of F1-macro score and Area Under the ROC curve (AUC ROC), and training time, making them optimal for making inferences on Edge AI solutions. The results are then analyzed with the explainable AI SHAP technique, identifying the API calls that most influence the process, i.e., those that are particularly afferent to malware and goodware. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of its parasitic habits, reproduction costs of the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) are mostly spent in pre-laying activities. Female costs are limited to searching host nests and laying eggs, whereas, males spend time in performing intense vocal displays, possibly with territorial purpose. This last aspect, together with a sexual plumage dimorphism, points to both intra- and inter-sexual selections operating within this species. One element triggering sexual selection is a differential fitness accrued by different phenotypes. Before analyzing possible sexual selection mechanisms operating in cuckoos, it is therefore necessary to verify whether there is a variability among male secondary characters by describing and quantifying them. Here we aimed to quantitatively characterize the main two potential candidates of sexual selection traits, i.e., calls and displays, shown by males at perches. During the 2019 breeding season, in a site within the Po Plain, we both audio and video recorded cuckoo males at five different perches. We analyzed acoustic variables as well as display sequences searching for potential correlations. We found a significant variation among calls that could be clustered into four vocal types. We also found that no visual displays were associated with vocal displays; cuckoo males were either vocal and motionless or soundless and active. We discuss our results under the perspective of the potential value of sexual selection in brood parasites and its role in its parasitic habit.

Egg rejection behaviour is a host strategy adopted by birds against brood parasitism. The optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis predicts that, when the frequency or risk of parasitism increases, host acceptance thresholds should become more restrictive. Here, we investigated egg rejection behaviour in the Daurian redstart, a cavity-nesting host of the common cuckoo, Cuculus canorus. In a Daurian redstart population located in the northern cold-temperate zone of China where redstarts have two peaks of egg laying during the breeding season, cuckoos can only parasitize redstart nests during the second egg-laying peak due to their late arrival on the breeding grounds. We artificially simulated brood parasitism by introducing a model cuckoo egg into a redstart nest during both egg-laying peaks to test the prediction that redstarts should reject eggs at a greater rate during the second than the first egg-laying peak. In accordance with the optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis, Daurian redstarts showed significantly higher egg rejection rates during the second egg-laying peak. This result indicates that temporal variation in egg rejection behaviour by Daurian redstarts may be an adaptive response to seasonal change in risk of cuckoo parasitism. To our knowledge, this is the first study showing that the egg rejection rate of a host population increases with increasing risk of cuckoo parasitism within a breeding seas. • Egg rejection may vary with risk of brood parasitism spatially and temporally. • Daurian redstarts are cavity-nesting hosts of cuckoos with two egg-laying peaks. • Cuckoos can only parasitize redstart nests during their second egg-laying peak. • Redstarts showed higher egg rejection rates during the second egg-laying peak. • The result supports the correlation between egg rejection and parasitism risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the prevailing cropping pattern, adopted by the farmers of the study area under consideration. It aims at improving the net benefits from the farming activities with present irrigation water allocation. To arrive at the optimal cropping pattern, various swarm intelligence techniques, genetic algorithm (GA), cuckoo search (CS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) techniques are used to formulate an efficient cropping pattern for maximizing net return for the part of Hirakud command area, in India. Maximum available land area, water for irrigation and cropping area for different crops were considered as constraints. The results are compared with the output from linear programming (LP) to evaluate the efficiency of the models. The results reveal that the net economic return arrived at by adopting the optimal cropping pattern derived with the use of PSO works out to be 230.120 Billion Rupees, whereas it is 132.2 Billion Rupees from the prevailing crop pattern adopted by farmers; 199.271 Billion Rupees with the application of LP; 210.19 billion rupees with GA and 229.895 billion rupees with CS. Weightage is given to a given crop under consideration by allocating suitable land area as per the type of land and water availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Literatura Medieval is the property of Instituto Universitario de Investigacion en Estudios Medievales 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.)

Object Detection has been a great challenge over the years. The reason behind is that, it is applied for numerous real time applications like vision based control, traffic control, video surveillance, sports analysis, etc. But, object detection in a video sequence is a highly challenging task. It has various problems like occlusion, fast moving objects, shadow, poor lighting, color contrast and other static background objects. This reason brought the object detection to be a thrust research area in the field of image processing. In the previous researches the conventional methods of object detection like Frame Difference, Mixture of Gaussian (MoG), Optical Flow etc., still have the above problems. Hence the research focuses on a different approach in object detection using Metaheuristic algorithm for the video sequence of volley ball player in the practice session. In this research three Metaheuristic Algorithms, namely Firefly, Teaching and Learning Based Optimization (TLBO) and Cuckoo Search Algorithm are used. These algorithms are evaluated and compared with the parameters like accuracy, precision, and recall. The result shows Cuckoo Search Algorithm is best suited to object detection especially in this application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That the cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of other species and does not build its own nest or raise its own offspring, is one of the oldest known facts about Natural History and has been abundantly and eloquently immortalised in myths and stories, art and literature, music and poetry, philosophy and morals. Attempts to understand this curious phenomenon in any rational way began just about 100 years ago. With a landmark study consisting of a few simple and elegant experiments that needed no laboratory or funding, Nick Davies and Michael Brooke at Cambridge University in the UK ushered in its modern scientific study as recently as 1988. In this article, I will describe their experiments and their results and conclusions, accompanied by a running commentary relating their work to the theme of this series and end with some more general reflections on the pursuit of the science of animal behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the mechanisms responsible for maintenance of host-specific gentes in the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). Some of them expect that when adult cuckoos return to lay their eggs to their natal site (natal philopatry hypothesis) or habitat in which they were reared (habitat-imprinting hypothesis), there is a higher probability of finding nests of the host species by which they were reared. Since published evidence is ambiguous, we here evaluate the natal philopatry and habitat-imprinting hypotheses using information on habitat homogeneity and cross-continental long-term ringing data. We found no evidence for the natal philopatry hypothesis—instead of returning to their natal site, juvenile cuckoos exhibited longer dispersal movements than adults, and the difference was even larger in comparison with a wide array of cuckoo host species. On the contrary, we found support for the habitat-imprinting hypothesis—juvenile cuckoos followed similar levels of natal habitat homogeneity at 5- and 25-km scale when returning to breed in the next years. Our results suggest that preference for the particular habitat structures may help cuckoos to find appropriate hosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition of malware is critical in cybersecurity as it allows for avoiding execution and the downloading of malware. One of the possible approaches is to analyze the executable’s Application Programming Interface (API) calls, which can be done using tools that work in sandboxes, such as Cuckoo or CAPEv2. This chain of calls can then be used to classify if the considered file is benign or malware. This work aims to compare six modern shallow learning and deep learning techniques based on tabular data, using two datasets of API calls containing malware and goodware, where the corresponding chain of API calls is expressed for each instance. The results show the quality of shallow learning approaches based on tree ensembles, such as CatBoost, both in terms of F1-macro score and Area Under the ROC curve (AUC ROC), and training time, making them optimal for making inferences on Edge AI solutions. The results are then analyzed with the explainable AI SHAP technique, identifying the API calls that most influence the process, i.e., those that are particularly afferent to malware and goodware.

Micro hydro has been chosen because it has advantages both economically, technically and as well as in terms of environmental friendliness. Micro hydro is suitable to be used in areas that difficult to be reached by the grid. Problems that often occur in the micro hydro system are not the constant rotation of the generator that caused by a change in load demand of the consumer. Thus causing frequency fluctuations in the system that can lead to damage both in the plant and in terms of consumer electrical appliances. The appropriate control technology should be taken to support the optimum performance of micro hydro. Therefore, this study will discuss a strategy of load frequency control by using Energy Storage. Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) and capacitor energy storage (CES) are devices that can store energy in the form of a fast magnetic field in the superconducting coil. For the optimum performance, it is necessary to get the optimum tuning of SMES and CES parameters. The artificial intelligence methods, Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA) are used to obtain the optimum parameters in the micro hydro system. The simulation results show that the application of the CSA that use to tune the parameters of hybrid SMES-CES-PID can reduce overshoot oscillation of frequency response in micro hydro power plant.

Cloud computing technology has transformed the information and communication technology industry by authorizing on-demand resource delivery to the cloud users. Datacenters are the major resource storage places from where the resources are disseminated to the requesters. When several requests are received by datacenters, the available resources are to be handled in an optimized way; otherwise the datacenters suffer from resource wastage. Virtualization is the technology that helps the cloud providers to handle several requests in an optimized way. In this regard, virtual machine placement, i.e., the process of mapping virtual machines to physical machines is considered to be the major research issue. In this paper, we propose to apply fuzzy hybrid bio-inspired meta-heuristic techniques for solving the virtual machine placement problem. The cuckoo search technique is hybridized with the fuzzy ant colony optimization and fuzzy firefly colony optimization technique. The experimental results obtained show competing performance of the proposed algorithms.

Pengontrolan kecepatan motor dc merupakan hal yang sangat penting untuk menjaga stabilitas operasi motor. Salah satu metode pengontrolan yang sering digunakan adalah kontroler proportional integral derivative (PID). Agar dapat beroperasi dengan optimal, kontroler PID membutuhkan penalaan parameter yang tepat. Salah satu permasalahan dalam penggunaan kontroler PID adalah penentuan parameter PID yang tepat. Dalam penentuan parameter kontroler PID selama ini masih dilakukan secara konvensional, sehingga kinerja PID menjadi tidak optimal. Untuk itu pada penelitian ini akan diusulkan salah satu metode penalaan parameter PID dengan menggunakan metode cerdas berbasis Firefly Algorithm (FA), untuk mengoptimasi dan menentukan parameter yang tepat dari PID. FA adalah salah satu metode cerdas yang terinspirasi dari perilaku firefly yang bergerak dimalam hari dengan kebiasaan berkedip, yang kemudian diadaptasi dan diterapkan menjadi algoritma cerdas untuk menyelesaikan masalah optimasi. Dari hasil yang diperoleh metode Firefly dapat dengan baik menala parameter PID, sehingga overshoot yang dihasilkan tidak ada dan settling time sangat cepat. Sebagai pembanding, pada penelitian ini juga akan dibahas penggunaan metode cerdas berbasis Bee Colony dan Cuckoo Search.

Nestlings of the obligate brood-parasitic common cuckoo, Cuculus canorus , use diverse signals to manipulate host parents into feeding them. Begging calls, one of the most prominent parent–offspring communication signals, have been suggested to differ between cuckoos parasitizing different host species but the call characteristics involved differ between studies. We studied nestling begging calls of the cuckoo and two closely related cuckoo hosts breeding in sympatry, the great reed warbler, Acrocephalus arundinaceus , and the reed warbler, Acrocephalus scirpaceus , to determine whether cuckoo nestlings adjust their begging calls according to the host species and if these calls vary with cuckoo age and sex. We found that begging calls of host nestlings differed markedly between species but there was no difference in the begging calls of cuckoo nestlings raised by great reed warblers and those raised by reed warblers. These results suggest that cuckoo nestlings do not adjust begging vocalizations to match host species but rather use general begging call features to solicit food. However, their call frequency band narrowed, syllable duration shortened and call rate tended to increase with increasing age. None of the begging call characteristics differed between the sexes. The rapid development of cuckoo begging call parameters during ontogeny suggests that any comparisons of begging calls of cuckoo nestlings raised by different host species must control for nestling age. Finally, some discordant conclusions of this and other studies emphasize how little we understand parasite–host communication. • Common cuckoo uses general begging features to solicit food. • Begging call changes considerably with increasing cuckoo age. • Begging call characteristics do not differ between cuckoo sexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

K. V. Dominic’s “God’s Tribunal” is a One Act Play which stands as a good example in Indian English literature for the departure from the reality. Reality is one thing / aspect and departure is another. Reality narrates one as it exists, prevails and functions. Departure is a deviant one deviating for the present position/existence. This One Act Play presents a complicated issue – man mishandling the problems on the earth, about which animals (cow, tiger), bird (cuckoo), Nature (tree), fish, the earth, why even women complain to God for justice. What are their complaints against man and how God reacts to them are truthfully narrated by the writer. Has the earth become unlivable? Is the earth for human beings only? What are the problems in the human kind? Is man doing more harm than good? The 9 characters (God, Earth, Man, Woman, Cow, tiger, cuckoo, tree and fish) also present a deviant argument and picture which are lively and true. The paper presents a vivisection of the One Act Play and also a reality of departure – a novel portrait in words by the playwright. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study aims to investigate the transfiguring states provided by people to the cuckoo, within various forms of folklore: carols, beliefs, and superstitions, folk music, legends, and short stories. The first part of the study investigates the presence of the cuckoo in a wide repertoire of beliefs and superstitions revealing the functions of this strange bird: oracular, the mythical donor, harbinger of spring, "good and the honest " sacred bird. Afterwards we analysed the peculiarity that distinguishes this bird from other birds, which is singing in the time of nature's rebirth and the ascension of plant life. We also analysed how this bird is reflected in folk beliefs compared to the folklore of other nations. The last part of the study focuses on the cuckoo's transfiguration in a varied and rich repertoire of legends and short stories, some versions getting closer and closer to a fairy tale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, experiments in Electrochemical Micromachining (ECMM) were conducted to produce micro-holes of high aspect ratio using a cathode 'Polymer Graphite Electrode' (PGE). The effect of electrochemical dissolution of ASTM A240 type 304 stainless steel is comparatively studied using cryogenically treated PGE (CTPGE) tool and non-treated PGE tool (NTPGE) that owes to enhance the overall quality of micro-hole produced, which is assessed on the basis of the most imperative output responses namely the material removal rate (MRR), and the Overcut (Oc) in relation to the predominant input process parameters namely, Voltage (S1), Electrolytic concentration (S2) and the Duty cycle (S3). Response surface modeling based on Box-Behnken (BB) DoE was used to obtain the corresponding responses for the process factors. Numerical models were developed to study and effects of process factors individually and their interactional effect. ANOVA was used to study the statistical significant process factors. The outcome of the multi-objective optimization based on cuckoo search algorithm (MOCS) was found to be enhanced, owing to better surface characteristics of the workpiece machined using the CTPGE tool. The effect of the micro spark and stray current have dwindled when using CTPGE electrode that can be visually seen via SEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brood parasitism of Hooded Warblers (Setophaga citrina) by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) has been well documented, but brood parasitism of this host by other bird species has not been recorded. Hooded Warblers are known to abandon nests with parasitic eggs early in the egg-laying phase, but are not known to remove parasitic eggs from their nests or to replace these foreign eggs with their own. In June 2017, a Hooded Warbler nest in northeastern Pennsylvania was observed to contain a cuckoo (Coccyzus sp.) egg. Within a span of 6 days, the cuckoo egg was gone and a third Hooded Warbler egg was observed in its place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital investigators often get involved with cases, which seemingly point the responsibility to the person to which the computer belongs, but after a thorough examination malware is proven to be the cause, causing loss of precious time. Whilst Anti-Virus (AV) software can assist the investigator in identifying the presence of malware, with the increase in zero-day attacks and errors that exist in AV tools, this is something that cannot be relied upon. The aim of this paper is to investigate the behaviour of malware upon various Windows operating system versions in order to determine and correlate the relationship between malicious software and OS artifacts. This will enable an investigator to be more efficient in identifying the presence of new malware and provide a starting point for further investigation. The study analysed several versions of the Windows operating systems (Windows 7, 8.1 and 10) and monitored the interaction of 90 samples of malware (across three categories of the most prevalent (Trojan, Worm, and Bot) and 90 benign samples through the Windows Registry. Analysis of the interactions has provided a rich source of knowledge about how various forms of malware interact with key areas of the Registry. Using this knowledge, the study sought to develop an approach to predict the presence and type of malware present through an analysis of the Registry. To this end, different classifiers such as Neural Network, Random forest, Decision tree, Boosted tree and Logistic regression were tested. It was observed that Boosted tree was resulting in a correct classification of over 72% – providing the investigator with a simple approach to determining which type of malware might be present independent and faster than an Antivirus. The modelling of these findings and their integration in an application or forensic analysis within an existing tool would be useful for digital forensic investigators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results obtained by a heuristic or an exact method remains insufficient for a combinatorial optimization problem, so we use metaheuristics which is an algorithm inspired by natural phenomena, in this paper we will see two recent metaheuristics which are the cuckoo search (CS) and Fireworks Algorithm (FWA) as well as a proposal to hybridize them in order to improve their performance, and to test all this we will try to solve the vehicle routing problem [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]