239 Results Found

Hyperprolific sows often experience increased oxidative stress during late gestation and lactation periods, which can adversely affect the farrowing process and overall lactation performance. This study examines the influence of providing a coconut c...

Our research examined the nest-building characteristics of two mouse species native to Hungary, the mound-building mouse (Mus spicilegus) and the house mouse (Mus musculus), under laboratory housing conditions. In indoor housing, the nest-building ma...

Nest bacterial environment influences avian reproduction directly because it might include pathogenic- or antibiotic-producing bacteria or indirectly because predators or ectoparasites can use volatile compounds from nest bacterial metabolism to dete...

With the popularization of small batch production, the main cutting method for sheet metal parts has changed. Laser cutting has become the main production method for coil material cutting. Developing an irregular part nesting method for the continuou...

Osmia bicornis L. is a widespread and valued pollinator species. It is considered to be easy to breed, provided that the nesting material in which the bees build their nests is of sufficient quality and quantity. The aim of this study was to tes...

Ensuring the welfare of captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) is crucial, in part because they can act as a conservation resource in the case of wild populations becoming extinct. One strategy often adopted to ensure animal welfare is environmental e...

In any industry, maximizing the use of raw materials is essential to reduce waste and costs, which also positively impacts the environment. In footwear production, components are typically derived from cutting processes, requiring optimized systems t...

Uropodina mites are organisms regularly found in the breeding sites of vertebrates. However, studies devoted to the nest dwellers of hole-nesting birds have been performed nearly exclusively in artificial places, i.e., nest boxes. Here, we describe a...

European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus) populations have declined precipitously over the last 70 years. Its protection cannot be ensured solely by protecting its habitat; it is also necessary to protect the animals ex situ. In our study, wit...

Ants belonging to the Formica rufa group build large nest mounds, which aid their survival during severe winters. We investigated whether different environmental features of the habitats affected the nest mound shape and the population structure. We...

We investigated the effect of different farrowing systems on the behavior of sows and piglets. In total, 22 hybrid sows (Yorkshire × Landrace) were randomly assigned into three farrowing systems, farrowing crate (FC), free farrowing pen with sl...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the application and development of CAD/CAM technologies in the modern metal cutting industry, with a focus on their role in increasing production accuracy, efficiency, and sustainability. The study presents an...

N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA) is a key ingredient in bird’s nest, as well as in health products and infant formulas. However, the absence of suitable reference materials (RMs) makes it challenging to ensure the quality of these products. Curre...

Hazel dormice (Muscardinus avellanarius) construct summer nests for resting and breeding. The nests are built directly in the vegetation, in tree hollows, or in nest boxes. The availability of nest materials and vegetation coverage may affect the lik...

Stingless bees (Hymenoptera; Apidae; Meliponini), with a biodiversity of 605 species, harvest and transport corbicula pollen to the nest, like Apis mellifera, but process and store the pollen in cerumen pots instead of beeswax combs. Therefore, the m...

Discussions of conceptual art both East and West have focused on the notion of “dematerialization” of the artwork and the substitution of “art as idea” for concrete works of art. Yet such an approach oversimplifies the role of...

An algorithm named ASR-BL-SA is proposed to solve the impact of a rectangular-part nesting sequence on final material utilization. Based on the Bottom Left principle, a coefficient, k, is defined as the ratio of the shape factor to 0.785 plus the squ...

The study was conducted within a well-managed beef cattle operation in northeastern Mexico. Each nest was weighed and dissected to obtain the plant and animal material used to build the nests. The number of materials present per nest and relative fre...

During an optimization process which uses a metaheuristic strategy applied to the nesting problem, it is required to apply a repair method if the random solution contains overlapping items. In this paper, a repair method is proposed to avoid the over...

This study investigates the internal architecture of Asian hornet nests (AHNs) using advanced imaging techniques, such as CT scanning and X-ray radiography, to understand their construction and function. The primary objective and significance of this...

GPR37 is an orphan G-protein-coupled receptor, a substrate of parkin which is linked to Parkinson’s disease (PD) and affective disorders. In this study, we sought to address the effects of early life stress (ELS) by employing the paradigm of li...

Ants as social insects live in groups, which increases the risk of contagious diseases. In response to the threat of pathogens, ants have evolved a variety of defense mechanisms, including incorporating antimicrobial chemicals into nest material for...

Underground ant nests are typically made of soil and rubble mixed with dead plant bodies, ant secretions, and other organic substances. The clay content is high, and the natural clay materials show pozzolanic activity after calcination. In this study...

Snake sloughs in bird nests can reduce nest predation and serve as an anti-predator strategy. However, the anti-predator function of snake sloughs in nests has only been tested twice, and it is difficult to speculate around the origin of the differen...

Wild European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) give birth in an underground nursery burrow where the kits are hermetically closed into the nest chamber for several weeks except for the three minutes of daily nursing. Given this confinement, the nest q...

Vespa velutina accidentally arrived in Europe (France) in 2004, and rapidly expanded throughout the entire country. Its presence in mainland Portugal was first noticed in 2011. Being an invasive species with no natural predators in the region to cont...

We compared the species composition of seedlings germinated on ten recently abandoned Formica polyctena nests with the plant species on active nests and the plant species composition of the forest floor around the nests. Compared to no plants at all,...

Urbanization affects the natural world, with implications for habitat availability and wildlife behavior, notably in the context of South Korea. This study investigates the effects of urbanization on the nest sizes and materials of barn swallows, a m...

Research into the geometric nests built by white-spotted pufferfish indicated the nest’s potential for flow control and reduction in flow velocity. However, studies to date have only focused on the construction process and behaviour of the male...

The authors have obtained original material on the fauna and population structure of oribatid mites inhabiting nests of the European Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca, Passeriformes, hollow-nesting bird) on the territory of the taiga zone of the Eu...

The breeding ecology of birds is the cornerstone of bird life-history theory, and breeding success directly affects the survival and development of populations. We studied the breeding ecology of a secondary cavity-nesting bird, the chestnut-vented n...

The presence of nest boxes not only increases the reproductive success of many passerine birds in transformed forest habitats, but they also constitute important artificial microhabitats for many groups of invertebrates. One of such groups which have...

Spiders are common inhabitants of tree hollows, as well as bird nesting boxes, especially in autumn and winter. Some species of spiders use bird nesting boxes for overwintering. We investigated spider assemblages in nesting boxes and how temperature...

This paper discusses the latest progress in research on ant nests and explores innovative scientific concepts associated with underground ant nests from the perspective of bionics. The methods used by scholars to study the structure of ant nests and...

Acromyrmex fracticornis grass-cutting ants construct conspicuous chimney-shaped nest turrets made of intermeshed grass fragments. We asked whether turrets are constructed by merely piling up nearby materials around the entrance, or whether ants incor...

Bird and mammal nests and nest boxes constitute microenvironments in which various groups of invertebrates can live, including mites from the suborder Uropodina (Acari: Mesostigmata). The main aim of the current study was to ascertain the characteris...

Wasps are a group of social insects that build a house, known as a nest, from locally available building materials cemented by their saliva and secretions. Similar to termite nests, there could be many beneficiary bacteria present in their house that...

Porous materials and structures, such as subterranean fire ant nests, are abundant in nature. It is hypothesized that these structures likely have evolved biological adaptations that enhance their collapse resistance. This research aims to elucidate...

More than 40 hypotheses predict associations between features of nest architecture and at least one measure of reproductive success. However, quantitative studies of reproductive consequences of nest characteristics remain scarce. In addition, most s...

The White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) and the Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) are well-known model organisms for the study of bird migration, as well as the selectivity of nesting sites and the choice of living environment. The former breeds mainly in open a...

For the first time, studies have been conducted aiming at the diversity of the oribatid mites (Oribatida) that inhabit the nests of open-nesting birds of the genus thrushes (Turdus), particularly fieldfare (T. pilaris Linnaeus, 1758) and redwing (T. ...

Ants have strict requirements on the building materials of the nest, such as the size, weight, luster and color of soil particles. The soil of underground ant nests is composed of clay particles cemented together to form a hard brick-like material. T...

Megachilidae are crucial pollinators of cultivated and wild vegetation, playing a vital role in ecosystem pollination services, however, there is still a lack of information regarding the ecology and behavior of these species. This study aims to anal...

Insect pollination services amount to USD 235–577 billion. Seventy five percent of agricultural production for human consumption depends on pollination, mainly by bees. A decline in pollinators, including Meliponini tribe bees, will impact the...

Vespa velutina nigrithorax, a species of hornet, is spreading globally, with increasingly negative effects on human health. To effectively eliminate V. velutina, its nest should be destroyed and its queen removed; however, the nests are difficult to...

The West European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is in decline, and it is important to identify its challenges. We used VHF-telemetry to monitor pre-hibernation space use, nest use, and hibernation sites in a suburban area in Norway. Based on nine ad...

The in-plane loading conditions of carbon fiber/epoxy composite (CFRP) and aluminum nested-tube-reinforced expanded polypropylene (EPP) blocks were empirically examined. This study used crashworthiness metrics to estimate the best design configuratio...

The nested sampling (NS) method was originally proposed by John Skilling to calculate the evidence in Bayesian inference. The method has since been utilised in various research fields, and here we focus on how NS has been adapted to sample the Potent...

The mining industry is the leading supplier of raw materials in modern society. This sector of human activity has experienced a severe crisis due to the energy transition and has been revived in recent years due to the need for critical metals that a...

Vespa velutina is an invasive species that exhibits flexible social behavior, which may have contributed to its introduction in several European countries. It is important to understand its behavior in order to combat the effects of its introduction...