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Masked Lapwings, Vanellus miles, often come into 'conflict' with humans, because they often breed in close proximity to humans and actively defend their ground nests through aggressive behaviour, which typically involves swooping. This study examined whether defensive responses differed when nesting birds were confronted with different human stimuli ('pedestrian alone' vs. 'person pushing a law...

Navigating an autonomous agent outdoors can be a challenging task. As a basis for this research, the autonomous agent in question is that of an autonomous robotic lawnmower. Mowing a lawn can be a difficult, tedious, and sometimes hazardous chore for the human operator. The goal of this paper is to report on ongoing research of using the visual property of texture to design a system which gives...

A simple, quantitative plate assay has been developed for use in the enumeration of Acanthamoeba. The technique uses an agarose overlay and low-nutrient medium to support the growth of amoebae on a bacterial lawn. The authors found that in this assay, individual trophozoites or dormant cysts will cause plaques to form in an Enterobacter aerogenes lawn. With the assay, it is possible to quantita...

Fungal endophytes are found inside host plants but do not produce any noticeable disease symptoms in their host. In the present study, endophytic Fusarium species were isolated from roots of lawn grass (Axonopus compressus). A total of 51 isolates were recovered from 100 root segments. Two Fusarium species, F. oxysporum (53%) and F. solani (47%), were identified based on macroconidia and conidi...