An undisturbed natural reserve area iocated in a tropical montane rain forest at about 1800 m altitude in Sri Lanka served as a study site to investigate and assess the natural background concentration levels of As, Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in plants representing different taxonomic groups (divisions) in the plant kingdom. The plants selected were: the lichen,Usnea barbata (old man's beard);Po...

Animals must move to find food and mates, and to avoid predators; movement thus influences survival and reproduction, and ultimately determines fitness. Precise description of movement and understanding of spatial and temporal patterns as well as relationships with intrinsic and extrinsic factors is important both for theoretical and applied reasons. We applied hidden semi-Markov models (HSMM) ...

Ayça Dilruba Aslanger1, Aynur Akbulut2, Gül Tokgöz3, Sakine Türkmen4, Kanay Yararbaş5 1 Kocaeli Derince Training and Research Hospital, Medical Genetics Department, Kocaeli, Turkey 2 Kocaeli Derince Training and Research Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Kocaeli, Turkey 3 Kocaeli Derince Training and Research Hospital, Department of Hematology, Kocaeli, Turkey 4 Hemoglobinopathy Screening Cen...

BACKGROUND Clustering time-series data into discrete groups can improve prediction and provide insight into the nature of underlying, unobservable states of the system. However, temporal variation in probabilities of group occupancy, or the rates at which individuals move between groups, can obscure such signals. We use finite mixture and hidden Markov models (HMMs), two standard clustering tec...

In this contribution, new data concerning bryophytes, fungi and lichens of the Italian flora are presented. It includes records confirmations for algal genus Chara , bryophyte genera Bryum Grimmia Cephaloziella Hypnum Nogopterium Physcomitrium Polytrichastrum Rhynchostegiella Saelania Schistostega fungal Cortinarius Lentinellus Omphalina Xerophorus lichen Acarospora Agonimia Candelariella Clado...