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The amphibians of the Indonesian island of Sumatra are poorly known, despite it being recognized as a biodiversity hotspot. For determining conservation priorities, up-to-date knowledge of the state of amphibian diversity in Sumatra is crucial, particularly considering the high deforestation rate on the island. To address this, I compiled and analysed a comprehensive dataset for amphibians known from Sumatra, to identify knowledge gaps and assess the significance of these data for conservation on the island and, more broadly, across Indonesia. The compilation indicates there are 135 amphibian species currently recorded for Sumatra, 55% more than the number known in 1923. Approximately 44 species have been described since 2000. Associated data on larvae and calls is lacking for many species. Although 66% of the amphibians of Sumatra are categorized as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, this may not represent the actual conservation status of these species because many of the assessments are outdated. In addition, 14% of species have not yet been evaluated. This study highlights the need for more comprehensive studies on the amphibians of Sumatra.

The acoustic repertoires of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) in the Mediterranean Sea are poorly understood. This study aims to create a catalogue of calls, analyse acoustic parameters, and propose a classification tree for future research. An acoustic database was compiled using recordings from the Alboran Sea, Gulf of Lion and Ligurian Sea (Western Mediterranean Basin) between 2008 and 2022, totalling 640 calls. Using a deep neural network, the calls were clustered based on frequency contour similarities, leading to the identification of 40 distinct call types defining the local population’s vocal repertoire. These categories encompass pulsed calls with varied complexities, from simplistic to highly intricate structures comprising multiple elements and segments. This study marks the initial documentation of the vocal catalogue of long-finned pilot whales in the Mediterranean Sea. Subsequent research should delve deeper into this multifaceted communication system and explore its potential linkages with social structures.

Abstract The reaction of birds to the nest parasite, the European cuckoo Cuculus canorus, has been the subject of extensive testing in various aspects. However, while the cuckoo is a long-distance migrant, some of its hosts are sedentary species. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether species, primarily hosts, react to the presence of the cuckoo also in the winter season. This behaviour may involve an attempt to drive the parasite away from locations that will subsequently become their breeding sites. During playback experiments conducted in the winter of 2021/2022 in Poland, we demonstrated that numerous bird species react to the male cuckoo calls in winter. These calls may be perceived as a source of danger, particularly by cuckoo hosts, who responded to this call more frequently than non-hosts and the control species (pigeon). Nonetheless, the birds’ reactions were not strong, as they did not approach the source of the call. However, our results are constrained by the limited number of cuckoo host species wintering in Poland. To better evaluate the intensity of bird responses to the male cuckoo’s call during the non-breeding season, further studies should be conducted in regions where a greater variety of species, especially those most susceptible to parasitism, overwinter.

INTRODUCTION: Poland’s healthcare systems is based on insurance and universal and equal access. The first component of the system is primary healthcare. At night and on holidays, the medical help can be obtained by means of After Hours Medical Services. Private paid visits can also be arranged. In emergencies, and cases of risk to health or life, emergency medical team can be called at 112 or 999, or a patient can go to the hospital emergency department (ED) on their own. There are also pharmacies where selected over-the-counter medicines can be bought. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted in the first quarter of 2023 using a proprietary questionnaire with 5 sociodemographic questions and 20 case descriptions for which the participants indicated the type of medical help which they would use. The expert panel prepared a set of cases (accidents and illnesses), taking into account patient’s age and gender, time of day and working days and holidays when the incident occurred. The group of participants was selected using the snowball sampling method. The results were subjected to statistical analysis using nonparametric tests, the Spearman’s rho test and the Wilcoxon test. The used significance level was p

Abstract Acoustic communication plays a key role in the life of birds and it is useful in phylogenetic and evolutionary investigations. This study described the structure and function of Polioptila dumicola´s call repertoire in riparian environments from the Mid-eastern of Argentina. Male calls (N=644) were recorded in the field during the pairs nuptial interactions; nests exploration and previously capture of male. Then, specific function was assigned to different calls using standardized methods of acoustic classification and behavioral observations. Twelve different types of calls were classified. Alert and call to female were the most frequent calls and they represented 12.04% and 10.24% of recordings. Anguish call was also recorded in this species. These are the first results regarding to the calls and repertoire of P. dumicola. These data could be used for new studies on environmental selection pressures and for conservation of this species and its habitats.

Asian black francolin (Francolinus francolinus asiae) is an important bird species in the northwestern Himalayan region, inhabiting diverse subtropical to lower temperate habitat types. The relative abundance, habitat preference, and some aspects of breeding ecology are studied here at eleven sites in different habitat types along elevation gradient. The abundance of species at different altitude was worked both through transect trails of different lengths and point counts at some spots. At each study site, maximum activity habitats were marked and selected for breeding ecology study. Sighting of black francolin was minimal in April (0.585±0.185 birds/Km) and maximum in May (2.339±0.015 birds/Km). Data on breeding timings, nest site selection, clutch size, incubation period, and hatching success were collected. Breeding period of black francolin extended from March up to late July with peak egg-laying between May to June. Twelve nests were monitored throughout the breeding season using binoculars from a distance and camera traps, wherever possible and without disturbing the species. The average size of nest was 20.063±1.452 cm ranging from of 18.80 cm to 22.30 cm in width. Mean clutch size was 5.417±0.793 eggs/nest. The hatching success was 86.15% with 56 successfully hatched eggs, whereas the fledging success was 83.92%.

Vocalisations can be used as reliable indicators of pain, but little information is available in rabbits, where acoustic tools for farming environments can be used for welfare judgements. The aim of this study was to compare vocalisations produced during copula ejaculation and electro-ejaculation (EE), with or without general anaesthesia, in domestic rabbits. Vocalisations of nine New Zealand white adult males were digitally recorded. The number of males vocalising and vocal characteristics including high, low, maximum and fundamental frequencies and duration of the vocalisations were analysed. There were no differences in the number of males vocalising or any vocalisation parameter between the 1st and 2nd ejaculation while copulating, even though the fundamental frequency increased in all males in the 2nd ejaculation (P=0.008). More males vocalised while mating than while being electro-ejaculated (P=0.03), and all vocalisation parameters were greater during EE than while mating (P=0.004). The use or not of anaesthesia during EE did not modify any of the parameters evaluated. It was concluded that: 1) more males vocalised during copula ejaculation than while being electro-ejaculated; 2) bio-acoustic analysis allowed us to identify aversive utterance vocalisations, which are characterised with higher frequencies, that those from non-aversive stimulus; and 3) at least with the anaesthetic combination and the responses studied, anaesthesia had no effect on the acoustic characteristics of the vocalisation emitted during EE in rabbits.

Abstract Vocal communication is an important method squirrels (Sciuridae) use to transfer information from one individual to others. While behaviors associated with vocal communication have been explored in individual species or single call‐types in specific groups of squirrels, no comprehensive review of these behaviors exists for Sciuridae. Herein, I review the current literature to describe behaviors associated with vocal communication in three groups of squirrels: ground squirrels, tree squirrels, and flying squirrels. I discuss the behavioral functions of squirrel vocalizations. A wide variety of behaviors are associated with particular call‐types produced by squirrels, including alarm, agonistic, discomfort, affiliative, mating, and neonatal calls. There are large knowledge gaps in cataloging the vocal repertoires and associated behaviors of many species of squirrels, including commonly studied species such as marmots and ground squirrels, as alarm calls are typically focused on and other call‐types are understudied or ignored. Since vocal communication is important to the development, reproduction, and survival of squirrels, further understanding the biological and ecological drivers behind vocal repertoires is critical to evaluating the ethology of this family as a whole.

Virginia Woolf was a keen preserver of some Victorian values, and among these the art of Charles Dickens, with his representation of London, its voices, sounds, music and noises. Dickens’s Little Dorrit and its closing sentence opens up my critical track by suggesting that Woolf’s reconstruction of the past must give to Victorian sounds a role that is neither ancillary nor merely impressionistic. This article focuses on Woolf’s portrayal of Victorian urban life in her fiction, especially in The Years (1937), where London sounds are everywhere present and deployed to create the polyphony—an exciting cacophony in modernist terms—of the great city. In Woolf’s fiction sounds are meant to convey symbolic meanings, to bring myth to the foreground, while also adding to the realism of the text. Sounds function like the many voices of an organ—the baroque instrument par excellence—suggesting at once order and chaos, norm and transgression: they frame representation and yet also break the frame by directly affecting the reader. This effect of discordia concors as acoustic experience is implemented within the verbal context, emphasizing the dialogic relationship between the source of sound, its reception, and the performative function sounds obtain within the texture of The Years.

Our understanding of the behavioral and physiological mechanisms of monogamy largely comes from studies of behavioral interactions unique to pair-bonded individuals. By focusing on these highly marked behaviors, a remarkable conservation in the mechanisms underlying pair bonding has been revealed; however, we continue to know very little about the range of behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms that could explain the great diversity of pair-bonding phenotypes that exists both within and across species. In order to capture the dynamic nature of bonds over time and across contexts, we need specific, operationally-defined behavioral variables relevant across such a diversity of scenarios. Additionally, we need to be able to situate these behavioral variables within broader frameworks that allow us to interpret and compare patterns seen across species. Here I review what is known about behavioral synchrony with respect to pair bonding and discuss using synchrony as such a variable as well as a framework to expand on our understanding of pair bonding across timescales, contexts and species. First, I discuss the importance of behavioral synchrony and parental coordination for reproductive success in monogamous biparental bird species. Second, I highlight research documenting the critical importance of interpersonal coordination for human social relationships. Finally, I present recent work that experimentally bridges these lines of research by quantifying moment-to-moment behavioral synchrony during brief social interactions in zebra finch dyads. All together, these distinct perspectives support the notion that synchrony (1) is a shared premise for sociality across species, (2) is deeply shaped by social experiences, and (3) exists across timescales, behaviors, and levels of physiology. Conceptualizing pair bonding through the framework of behavioral synchrony is likely to facilitate a deeper understanding of the nuances of how social experiences and interactions impact the brain and behavior.

Development of digital economy of Russia is influenced by regularly arising calls and threats. The sphere of their emergence extensive and difficult predicted. The reasons of their emergence are connected with prob-lems of development of digital economy. In article the calls and threats arising on the way of development of digital economy which can rather conditionally be united in two groups are considered: the first group - organi-zational, technical and technological and the second group - information security. Similar division of the arising calls and threats promotes definition and the choice of forms and methods of fight against each of them. In article development barriers which often are a subject of calls and threats are considered and generalized. The first barrier - unavailability of the enterprises and organizations to be engaged in development of production and representation of services with use of network technologies. The second barrier is the lack of the qualified IT experts. The third barrier - ensuring cyber security. The fourth - threat of mass unemployment owing to introduction and development of IT technologies. Further the threats and calls connected with overcoming the fourth barrier, concerning perspective changes of labor market, the increasing role and influence of robotics are in more detail considered. Besides, increase of changes upon completion of which, by different estimates, tech-nologies of the Industry 4.0 will lead about 610 000 jobs to reduction is noted begun in the industry, under the influence of technological shift, but during the same period can also about 960 000 new vacancies will appear. A number of risks which are born in itself by «digitalization» and which are connected with possible loss of national originality, culture and language are considered. In article measures which, as a result of their application will allow to operate the arising technological hazards are brought and recommended and to increase the general scientific and technological level. Management of the arising calls and threats is a component of management of development of digital economy, but there are some features connected with uncertainty of their emergence both on time and in the direction and in the place. But it doesn’t exclude a possibility of risk management and threats according to the scheme of manage-ment of development of digital economy of an object

The notion of ‘illocutionary silencing’ has been given a key role in defining the harms of pornography by several feminist philosophers. Though the literature on silencing focuses almost exclusively on the speech act of sexual refusal, oddly enough, it lacks a thorough analysis of that very act. My first aim is to fill this theoretical gap. I claim that refusals are “second-turn illocutions”: they cannot be accomplished in absence of a previous interrogative (or open) call by the hearer. Furthermore, I maintain that refusals constitute authoritative illocutions only when preceded by requests for permission. The secondary goal of my paper is to assess Mary Kate McGowan’s (2009) account of silencing as authority denial. Despite its virtues, I argue that ultimately it should be rejected on two grounds: (i) it entails an objectification of female sexuality; (ii) if sexual advances are requests for permission (as McGowan implies), a man who asks a woman for sex cannot fail to ratify her authority over her own body. I conclude by sketching an alternative explanation for the failure of women’s refusals, according to which women may be unable to refuse sex for their interlocutors’ advances are intended as imperative (or closed) calls.

In the current moment that we are living now, the use of Big Data is taken a strength and a very important relevance. The biggest companies of social sector and service sector are using Big Data technologies that allow to store and treat all the information that they have of users and, in a second way, the incorporation of the knowledge of the treatment of this information in the life of the users, in the way of improve the services offered and go to the next step in the relationship of customer/company. In telecare, with the IP technology in Telecare Unit, the communication between the unit and control centre will be done using internet instead of telephony cable. The companies will start to use these technologies to store all the information that the unit will send to the control center. With all this information, the companies will be able to discover patterns of user’s behavior, detect some illnesses like, for example, alzheimer. The most important action that the companies will be able to have is to have more information related to the situation of all devices and sensors installed in user’s home when the emergency alarm is raised.

Much research on animal communication has addressed how costs or constraints determined by the oxidative status of an individual can assure the honesty of visual signals, such as sexually selected color ornaments. However, acoustic communication has been largely overlooked in this respect. Here, we describe the few available studies that have considered the role of oxidative status in mediating vocal behavior in adult and nestling birds. Further, we discuss the theoretical principles of how the honesty of avian acoustic signals may be maintained by an organism’s oxidative status. We here distinguish between studies that considered songs and begging calls as indicators of oxidative status and studies where vocalizations were assumed to be the source of oxidative costs. We outline experimental and methodological issues related to the study of bird vocalizations and oxidative stress and describe opportunities for future work in this field of research. Investigating the interactions between acoustic signals and redox state may help address some unresolved questions in avian vocalization, thereby increasing our understanding of the evolutionary pressures shaping animal communication. Finally, we argue that it will be important to extend this line of research beyond birds and include other taxa as well.