ORCID Profile
0000-0002-7331-0400
Current Organisations
Università degli Studi di Bari
,
University of Melbourne
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.2139/SSRN.4300497
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-04-2017
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.03642
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-04-2017
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 02-03-2023
DOI: 10.3390/S23052757
Abstract: The overwhelming popularity of technology-based solutions and innovations to address day-to-day processes has significantly contributed to the emergence of smart cities. where millions of interconnected devices and sensors generate and share huge volumes of data. The easy and high availability of rich personal and public data generated in these digitalized and automated ecosystems renders smart cities vulnerable to intrinsic and extrinsic security breaches. Today, with fast-developing technologies, the classical username and password approaches are no longer adequate to secure valuable data and information from cyberattacks. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) can provide an effective solution to minimize the security challenges associated with legacy single-factor authentication systems (both online and offline). This paper identifies and discusses the role and need of MFA for securing the smart city ecosystem. The paper begins by describing the notion of smart cities and the associated security threats and privacy issues. The paper further provides a detailed description of how MFA can be used for securing various smart city entities and services. A new concept of blockchain-based multi-factor authentication named “BAuth-ZKP” for securing smart city transactions is presented in the paper. The concept focuses on developing smart contracts between the participating entities within the smart city and performing the transactions with zero knowledge proof (ZKP)-based authentication in a secure and privacy-preserved manner. Finally, the future prospects, developments, and scope of using MFA in smart city ecosystem are discussed.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 05-02-2021
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 12-09-2019
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 28-10-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-07-2021
Abstract: The genus Gambusia represents approximately 45 species of polyandrous livebearing fishes with reversed sexual size dimorphism (i.e. males smaller than females) and with copulation predominantly via male coercion. Male body size has been suggested as an important sexually selected trait, but despite abundant research, evidence for sexual selection on male body size in this genus is mixed. Studies have found that large males have an advantage in both male–male competition and female choice, but that small males perform sneaky copulations better and at higher frequency and thus may sire more offspring in this coercive mating system. Here, we synthesized this inconsistent body of evidence using pre‐registered methods and hypotheses. We performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis of summary and primary (raw) data combining both published ( n = 19 studies, k = 106 effect sizes) and unpublished effect sizes ( n = 17, k = 242) to test whether there is overall selection on male body size across studies in Gambusia . We also tested several specific hypotheses to understand the sources of heterogeneity across effects. Meta‐analysis revealed an overall positive correlation between male size and reproductive performance ( r = 0.23, 95% confidence interval: 0.10–0.35, n = 36, k = 348, 4,514 males, three Gambusia species). Despite high heterogeneity, the large‐male advantage appeared robust across all measures studied (i.e. female choice, mating success, paternity, sperm quantity and quality), and was considerably larger for female choice ( r = 0.43, 95% confidence interval: 0.28–0.59, n = 14, k = 43). Meta‐regressions found several important factors explaining heterogeneity across effects, including type of sperm characteristic, male‐to‐female ratio, female reproductive status and environmental conditions. We found evidence of publication bias however, its influence on our estimates was attenuated by including a substantial amount of unpublished effects, highlighting the importance of open primary data for more accurate meta‐analytic estimates. In addition to positive selection on male size, our study suggests that we need to rethink the role and form of sexual selection in Gambusia and, more broadly, to consider the ecological factors that affect reproductive behaviour in livebearing fishes.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2023
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-08-2020
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.13479
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-09-2019
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.5648
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-10-2020
DOI: 10.1111/BRV.12655
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-09-2021
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.08201
Abstract: The outcomes of interspecific and intraspecific ecological interactions can be considered to fall along continua from cooperative (mutually beneficial) to antagonistic (detrimental to one or both parties). Furthermore, the position of an interaction outcome along the continuum, for ex le whether a symbiont provides net costs or benefits to its host, or whether two conspecifics cooperatively forage or compete for food, is often not fixed but can change over time or across contexts. In this systematic review, we investigate the role of intraspecific trait variation (‘ITV') in one or both interacting parties in determining the cooperative‐antagonistic outcome of inter‐ and intraspecific ecological interactions. Based on a literature collection of 96 empirical and theoretical publications meeting our inclusion criteria, we give an overview of the types of interaction continua involved traits related to outcome variance and mechanisms as well as constraints on shifts in interactions outcomes. We propose that ITV can lead to shifts in interaction outcomes via two interrelated mechanisms. First, trait frequency effects occur when there are changes in a population's composition of traits linked to cooperation or antagonism (e.g. aggressive personality types, cheater phenotypes etc.), leading to net shifts in interaction outcomes. Second, systemic variance effects occur where the level of ITV in a trait in a population (as opposed to the mean value) is the factor that influences the cooperative‐antagonistic outcome. Heritable trait differences and phenotypic plasticity are sources of phenotypic variation among in iduals, and both the degree of heritability and plasticity of the trait involved may determine whether shifts between cooperation and antagonism are likely to be short‐term (i.e. context‐dependent) or lead to more persistent shifts (e.g. mutualism breakdown). To guide future research, we describe knowledge gaps and ergences between empirical and theoretical literature, highlighting the value of applying evidence synthesis methods in ecology and evolution.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2016
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-08-2017
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-017-3924-2
Abstract: Intraspecific trait variation, including animal personalities and behavioural syndromes, affects how in idual animals and populations interact with their environment. Within-species behavioural variation is widespread across animal taxa, which has substantial and unexplored implications for the ecological and evolutionary processes of animals. Accordingly, we sought to investigate in idual behavioural characteristics in several populations of a desert-dwelling fish, the Australian desert goby (Chlamydogobius eremius). We reared first generation offspring in a common garden to compare non-ontogenic ergence in behavioural phenotypes between genetically interconnected populations from contrasting habitats (isolated groundwater springs versus hydrologically variable river waterholes). Despite the genetic connectedness of populations, fish had ergent bold-exploratory traits associated with their source habitat. This demonstrates ergence in risk-taking traits as a rapid phenotypic response to ecological pressures in arid aquatic habitats: neophilia may be suppressed by increased predation pressure and elevated by high intraspecific competition. Correlations between personality traits also differed between spring and river fish. River populations showed correlations between dispersal and novel environment behaviours, revealing an adaptive behavioural syndrome (related to dispersal and exploration) that was not found in spring populations. This illustrates the adaptive significance of heritable behavioural variation within and between populations, and their importance to animals persisting across contrasting habitats.
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2014
DOI: 10.1071/MF12297
Abstract: Heterotrophic organic-carbon cycling is a major source of energy to aquatic food webs, yet there are few studies into patterns of heterotrophic productivity in large lowland rivers. The Lachlan River experienced a period of extreme flow variability from September 2010 to February 2011 for ex le, daily discharge (ML day–1) at one site reached times its 10-year average. Heterotrophic cycling of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) were assessed over this period at six sites on the Lachlan River. Concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC) ranged from 7 to 30 mg L–1, of which the majority was in dissolved form. Concentration of DOC was positively correlated with daily discharge. Biochemical oxygen demand of TOC over 5 days (BOD5) showed significant variability, ranging from 0.6 to 6.6 mg O2 L–1. BOD5 did not appear related to discharge, but instead to a range of other factors, including regulation via weirs, lateral and longitudinal factors. Partitioning of DOC and POC showed that POC had an influence on BOD5 comparable to DOC. This is relevant to environmental-flow management in the Lachlan River, the Murray–Darling Basin and rivers generally, by showing that flow variability influences a fundamental ecosystem characteristic, namely organic carbon.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-07-2020
DOI: 10.1111/JEB.13661
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 18-03-2020
Publisher: ICES Scientific Reports
Date: 2022
Publisher: Pensoft Publishers
Date: 19-08-2021
DOI: 10.3897/NEOBIOTA.68.67340
Abstract: The round goby ( Neogobius melanostomus ) was first observed in the Baltic Sea in 1990 and has since displayed substantial secondary dispersal, establishing numerous dense populations where they may outcompete native fish and negatively impact prey species. There have been multiple round goby diet studies from both the Baltic Sea and the North American Great Lakes where they are similarly invasive. However, studies that quantify their effects on recipient ecosystems and, specifically, their impacts on the benthic invertebrate macrofauna are rare, particularly from European waters. In this study, we conducted the first before-after study of the potential effects of round goby on benthic invertebrate macrofauna taxa in marine-brackish habitats in Europe, focusing of two sites in the Western Baltic Sea, Denmark. Results were in line with those from the Great Lakes, indicating negative impacts on specific molluscan taxa (e.g. Cardiidae bivalves and Neritidae gastropods, which both showed a fall in detected densities of approximately 98% within the Guldborgsund Strait). In contrast, many other groups appeared to be largely unaffected or even show positive trends following invasion. Round goby gut content data were available at one of our study sites from the period immediately after the invasion. These data confirmed that round goby had in fact been preying on the subset of taxa displaying negative trends.
No related grants have been discovered for Nicholas Moran.