Agricultural investment project selection is a complex multi-criteria decision-making problem,as agricultural projects are easily influenced by various risk factors,and the evaluation information provided by decisionm...Agricultural investment project selection is a complex multi-criteria decision-making problem,as agricultural projects are easily influenced by various risk factors,and the evaluation information provided by decisionmakers usually involves uncertainty and inconsistency.Existing literature primarily employed direct preference elicitation methods to address such issues,necessitating a great cognitive effort on the part of decision-makers during evaluation,specifically,determining the weights of criteria.In this study,we propose an indirect preference elicitation method,known as a preference disaggregation method,to learn decision-maker preference models fromdecision examples.To enhance evaluation ease,decision-makers merely need to compare pairs of alternatives with which they are familiar,also known as reference alternatives.Probabilistic linguistic preference relations are employed to account for the presence of incomplete and uncertain information in such pairwise comparisons.To address the inconsistency among a group of decision-makers,we develop a pair of 0-1mixed integer programming models that consider both the semantics of linguistic terms and the belief degrees of decision-makers.Finally,we conduct a case study and comparative analysis.Results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed model in solving agricultural investment project selection problems with uncertain and inconsistent decision information.展开更多
The emergence of various new services has posed a huge challenge to the existing network architecture.To improve the network delay and backhaul pressure,caching popular contents at the edge of network has been conside...The emergence of various new services has posed a huge challenge to the existing network architecture.To improve the network delay and backhaul pressure,caching popular contents at the edge of network has been considered as a feasible scheme.However,how to efficiently utilize the limited caching resources to cache diverse contents has been confirmed as a tough problem in the past decade.In this paper,considering the time-varying user requests and the heterogeneous content sizes,a user preference aware hierarchical cooperative caching strategy in edge-user caching architecture is proposed.We divide the caching strategy into three phases,that is,the content placement,the content delivery and the content update.In the content placement phase,a cooperative content placement algorithm for local content popularity is designed to cache contents proactively.In the content delivery phase,a cooperative delivery algorithm is proposed to deliver the cached contents.In the content update phase,a content update algorithm is proposed according to the popularity of the contents.Finally,the proposed caching strategy is validated using the MovieLens dataset,and the results reveal that the proposed strategy improves the delay performance by at least 35.3%compared with the other three benchmark strategies.展开更多
A deep learning access controlmodel based on user preferences is proposed to address the issue of personal privacy leakage in social networks.Firstly,socialusers andsocialdata entities are extractedfromthe social netw...A deep learning access controlmodel based on user preferences is proposed to address the issue of personal privacy leakage in social networks.Firstly,socialusers andsocialdata entities are extractedfromthe social networkandused to construct homogeneous and heterogeneous graphs.Secondly,a graph neural networkmodel is designed based on user daily social behavior and daily social data to simulate the dissemination and changes of user social preferences and user personal preferences in the social network.Then,high-order neighbor nodes,hidden neighbor nodes,displayed neighbor nodes,and social data nodes are used to update user nodes to expand the depth and breadth of user preferences.Finally,a multi-layer attention network is used to classify user nodes in the homogeneous graph into two classes:allow access and deny access.The fine-grained access control problem in social networks is transformed into a node classification problem in a graph neural network.The model is validated using a dataset and compared with other methods without losing generality.The model improved accuracy by 2.18%compared to the baseline method GraphSAGE,and improved F1 score by 1.45%compared to the baseline method,verifying the effectiveness of the model.展开更多
Introduction: Females with sickle cell disease (SCD), despite having a delayed pubertal development, are subject to many worries relating to their abilities to conceive, their capacity to maintain a maternofetal-risk-...Introduction: Females with sickle cell disease (SCD), despite having a delayed pubertal development, are subject to many worries relating to their abilities to conceive, their capacity to maintain a maternofetal-risk-free pregnancy till term and give birth to healthy children without sickle cell disease. Knowing that unplanned pregnancies are more likely to increase maternofetal morbidity and mortality, we sought out to explore the pregnancy preferences in female patients with sickle cell disease to promote healthy conception and childbirth in this vulnerable population. Methodology: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving female patients of child-bearing age with sickle cell disease followed at Laquintinie Hospital Douala or who were members of a local sickle cell association. Pregnancy preferences were determined using the Desire to Avoid Pregnancy (DAP) scale. Factors associated with pregnancy preferences were determined using multivariable linear regression model. Threshold for significance was set at p Results: Seventy-seven patients were included with a mean age of 24.71 ± 5.53 years. Forty patients (51.95%) had one sexual partner and thirteen women (32.5%) used contraceptive methods. Most patients (46.0%) responded “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” to the statement “it would be a good thing for me if I became pregnant in the next 3 months”. The mean DAP score was 1.63 ± 0.91 [1.28 ± 0.82 in those who had a sexual partner and 1.99 ± 0.86 in those who had no sexual partner]. Factors that were positively associated with DAP score were students (b = 0.32, 95% CI [0.21, 0.95], p = 0.003), monthly income ≥ 100,000 FCFA (b = 0.24, 95% CI [0.07, 0.81], p = 0.022), and not having a sexual partner (b = 0.26, 95% CI [0.11, 0.85], p = 0.012). Conclusion: Most female patients with SCD have a low desire to avoid pregnancy. This is especially true for patients who are not students, have a partner and have a low monthly income.展开更多
Many different factors,such as species traits,socio-economic factors,geographical and environmental factors,can lead to specimen collection preference.This study aims to determine whether grassland specimen collection...Many different factors,such as species traits,socio-economic factors,geographical and environmental factors,can lead to specimen collection preference.This study aims to determine whether grassland specimen collection in China is preferred by species traits(i.e.,plant height,flowering and fruiting period),environmental range(i.e.,the temperature and precipitation range)and geographical range(i.e.,distribution range and altitudinal range).Ordinary least squares models and phylogenetic generalized linear mixed models were used to analyze the relationships between specimen number and the explanatory variables.Random Forest models were then used to find the most parsimonious multivariate model.The results showed that interannual variation in specimen number between 1900 and 2020 was considerable.Specimen number of these species in southeast China was notably lower than that in northwest China.Environmental range and geographical range of species had significant positive correlations with specimen number.In addition,there were relatively weak but significant associations between specimen number and species trait(i.e.,plant height and flowering and fruiting period).Random Forest models indicated that distribution range was the most important variable,followed by flowering and fruiting period,and altitudinal range.These findings suggest that future floristic surveys should pay more attention to species with small geographical range,narrow environmental range,short plant height,and short flowering and fruiting period.The correction of specimen collection preference will also make the results of species distribution model,species evolution and other works based on specimen data more accurate.展开更多
Point-of-interest(POI)recommendations in location-based social networks(LBSNs)have developed rapidly by incorporating feature information and deep learning methods.However,most studies have failed to accurately reflec...Point-of-interest(POI)recommendations in location-based social networks(LBSNs)have developed rapidly by incorporating feature information and deep learning methods.However,most studies have failed to accurately reflect different users’preferences,in particular,the short-term preferences of inactive users.To better learn user preferences,in this study,we propose a long-short-term-preference-based adaptive successive POI recommendation(LSTP-ASR)method by combining trajectory sequence processing,long short-term preference learning,and spatiotemporal context.First,the check-in trajectory sequences are adaptively divided into recent and historical sequences according to a dynamic time window.Subsequently,an adaptive filling strategy is used to expand the recent check-in sequences of users with inactive check-in behavior using those of similar active users.We further propose an adaptive learning model to accurately extract long short-term preferences of users to establish an efficient successive POI recommendation system.A spatiotemporal-context-based recurrent neural network and temporal-context-based long short-term memory network are used to model the users’recent and historical checkin trajectory sequences,respectively.Extensive experiments on the Foursquare and Gowalla datasets reveal that the proposed method outperforms several other baseline methods in terms of three evaluation metrics.More specifically,LSTP-ASR outperforms the previously best baseline method(RTPM)with a 17.15%and 20.62%average improvement on the Foursquare and Gowalla datasets in terms of the Fβmetric,respectively.展开更多
BACKGROUND Primary thumb carpometacarpal(CMC)osteoarthritis is one of the most common conditions encountered by hand surgeons.Of the vast number of operations that have been proposed,none have demonstrated results sig...BACKGROUND Primary thumb carpometacarpal(CMC)osteoarthritis is one of the most common conditions encountered by hand surgeons.Of the vast number of operations that have been proposed,none have demonstrated results significantly superior to trapeziectomy alone.AIM The purpose of our study was to determine why surgeons opt for their technique in treating CMC arthritis.METHODS A cross-sectional survey of active members of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand was conducted to evaluate the reasons behind their preferred technique in the treatment of isolated thumb CMC arthritis.Surgeons were contacted by email once and provided with a link to a de-identified survey consisting of 5 treatment questions and 5 demographic questions.RESULTS Of 950 responses were received.40.5%of surgeons preferred trapeziectomy+ligament reconstruction tendon interposition(LRTI),followed by trapeziectomy+suspensionplasty(28.2%),suture button suspension(5.9%),trapeziectomy alone(4.6%),prosthetic arthroplasty(3.2%),arthrodesis(1.1%),and other(6.6%).Proponents of trapeziectomy+LRTI cited familiarity(73.2%),exposure during fellowship(48.8%)and less proximal migration(60%)to be the main reasons affecting their decision.Surgeons who preferred trapeziectomy+suspensionplasty most reported simplicity(74.9%),fewer complications(45.3%),less proximal migration(43.8%),and avoidance of autogenous tissue harvest(42.7%).Advocates of suture button suspension cited avoidance of autogenous tissue harvest(80.4%),shorter immobilization(76.8%),and quicker recovery(73.2%)with their technique.Advocates of trapeziectomy alone cited simplicity(97.7%),fewer complications(86.4%),and avoidance of autogenous tissue harvest(59.1%).In their comments,45%of surgeons choosing trapeziectomy alone cited evidence as an additional rationale.Advocates of prosthetic arthroplasty cited improved pinch strength(83.3%)and improved range of motion(63.3%),while those preferring arthrodesis cited better pinch strength(90%)and frequently in their comments,durability.Of the surgeons who preferred a technique other than LRTI,41.8%reported they had tried LRTI in the past,citing complexity of the procedure,flexor carpi radialis harvest,and longer operative time as reasons for moving on.CONCLUSION Our study provides an update on current treatment trends and offers new insight into the reasons behind surgeons'decision making in the management of thumb carpometacarpal osteoarthritis.Despite strong Level 1 evidence supporting the use of trapeziectomy alone,our findings demonstrate that most surgeons continue to supplement trapeziectomy with other techniques such as LRTI or suspensionplasty.Several factors including familiarity,personal experience(Level 4 evidence),and comfort may be more influential than Level 1 evidence in determining the techniques in a surgeon's armamentarium.Further prospective studies are needed to determine the optimal technique for surgical management of Eaton stages II-IV CMC arthritis and how these studies will affect surgeons’choice.展开更多
Female grasshoppers can affect the fitness of their offspring through their selection of oviposition site. Knowledge of soil type on oviposition, and its effects on subsequent development can provide guidelines for ha...Female grasshoppers can affect the fitness of their offspring through their selection of oviposition site. Knowledge of soil type on oviposition, and its effects on subsequent development can provide guidelines for habitat manipulations that reduce the harmful effects of these pests on farmers fields. The influence of soil types on the oviposition site preference of variegated grasshopper (Zonocerus variegatus L.) reared some cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) varieties, was investigated in a cage trial carried out at the Bio factory laboratory, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Njala University, Sierra Leone during 2022/2023. The treatments comprised three soil types (Sandy, Loamy and Clay), each with three replications laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in wooden cages. Data were collected on the following development parameters including, Net reproductive growth ratio (R0), Generation time (Tc), Intrinsic rate of increase (rm), Finite rate of increase (), Doubling time (Dt), and overall survivorship. Findings revealed that, Z. variegatus L. preferred sandy soil in which, on average, most eggs were deposited (338, 6.62 4.40), followed by loamy soil, 286 (5.53 3.96), and then, clayey soil, 200 (3.91 3.85);though, the differences were not significant. This study established that Z. variegatus deposited more eggs in sandy soil > loamy soil > clayey soil, respectively;and subsequent survivorship of the immature unto mature adult insect, revealed a similar order. This indicates that the sandy soil is the most preferred substrate for oviposition and subsequent development into adult insects.展开更多
文摘Agricultural investment project selection is a complex multi-criteria decision-making problem,as agricultural projects are easily influenced by various risk factors,and the evaluation information provided by decisionmakers usually involves uncertainty and inconsistency.Existing literature primarily employed direct preference elicitation methods to address such issues,necessitating a great cognitive effort on the part of decision-makers during evaluation,specifically,determining the weights of criteria.In this study,we propose an indirect preference elicitation method,known as a preference disaggregation method,to learn decision-maker preference models fromdecision examples.To enhance evaluation ease,decision-makers merely need to compare pairs of alternatives with which they are familiar,also known as reference alternatives.Probabilistic linguistic preference relations are employed to account for the presence of incomplete and uncertain information in such pairwise comparisons.To address the inconsistency among a group of decision-makers,we develop a pair of 0-1mixed integer programming models that consider both the semantics of linguistic terms and the belief degrees of decision-makers.Finally,we conduct a case study and comparative analysis.Results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed model in solving agricultural investment project selection problems with uncertain and inconsistent decision information.
基金supported by Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant 61901070,61801065,62271096,61871062,U20A20157 and 62061007)in part by the Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission(Grant KJQN202000603 and KJQN201900611)+3 种基金in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing(Grant CSTB2022NSCQMSX0468,cstc2020jcyjzdxmX0024 and cstc2021jcyjmsxmX0892)in part by University Innovation Research Group of Chongqing(Grant CxQT20017)in part by Youth Innovation Group Support Program of ICE Discipline of CQUPT(SCIE-QN-2022-04)in part by the Chongqing Graduate Student Scientific Research Innovation Project(CYB22246)。
文摘The emergence of various new services has posed a huge challenge to the existing network architecture.To improve the network delay and backhaul pressure,caching popular contents at the edge of network has been considered as a feasible scheme.However,how to efficiently utilize the limited caching resources to cache diverse contents has been confirmed as a tough problem in the past decade.In this paper,considering the time-varying user requests and the heterogeneous content sizes,a user preference aware hierarchical cooperative caching strategy in edge-user caching architecture is proposed.We divide the caching strategy into three phases,that is,the content placement,the content delivery and the content update.In the content placement phase,a cooperative content placement algorithm for local content popularity is designed to cache contents proactively.In the content delivery phase,a cooperative delivery algorithm is proposed to deliver the cached contents.In the content update phase,a content update algorithm is proposed according to the popularity of the contents.Finally,the proposed caching strategy is validated using the MovieLens dataset,and the results reveal that the proposed strategy improves the delay performance by at least 35.3%compared with the other three benchmark strategies.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project(No.62302540)The Open Foundation of Henan Key Laboratory of Cyberspace Situation Awareness(No.HNTS2022020)+2 种基金Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province Project(No.232300420422)The Natural Science Foundation of Zhongyuan University of Technology(No.K2023QN018)Key Research and Promotion Project of Henan Province in 2021(No.212102310480).
文摘A deep learning access controlmodel based on user preferences is proposed to address the issue of personal privacy leakage in social networks.Firstly,socialusers andsocialdata entities are extractedfromthe social networkandused to construct homogeneous and heterogeneous graphs.Secondly,a graph neural networkmodel is designed based on user daily social behavior and daily social data to simulate the dissemination and changes of user social preferences and user personal preferences in the social network.Then,high-order neighbor nodes,hidden neighbor nodes,displayed neighbor nodes,and social data nodes are used to update user nodes to expand the depth and breadth of user preferences.Finally,a multi-layer attention network is used to classify user nodes in the homogeneous graph into two classes:allow access and deny access.The fine-grained access control problem in social networks is transformed into a node classification problem in a graph neural network.The model is validated using a dataset and compared with other methods without losing generality.The model improved accuracy by 2.18%compared to the baseline method GraphSAGE,and improved F1 score by 1.45%compared to the baseline method,verifying the effectiveness of the model.
文摘Introduction: Females with sickle cell disease (SCD), despite having a delayed pubertal development, are subject to many worries relating to their abilities to conceive, their capacity to maintain a maternofetal-risk-free pregnancy till term and give birth to healthy children without sickle cell disease. Knowing that unplanned pregnancies are more likely to increase maternofetal morbidity and mortality, we sought out to explore the pregnancy preferences in female patients with sickle cell disease to promote healthy conception and childbirth in this vulnerable population. Methodology: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving female patients of child-bearing age with sickle cell disease followed at Laquintinie Hospital Douala or who were members of a local sickle cell association. Pregnancy preferences were determined using the Desire to Avoid Pregnancy (DAP) scale. Factors associated with pregnancy preferences were determined using multivariable linear regression model. Threshold for significance was set at p Results: Seventy-seven patients were included with a mean age of 24.71 ± 5.53 years. Forty patients (51.95%) had one sexual partner and thirteen women (32.5%) used contraceptive methods. Most patients (46.0%) responded “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” to the statement “it would be a good thing for me if I became pregnant in the next 3 months”. The mean DAP score was 1.63 ± 0.91 [1.28 ± 0.82 in those who had a sexual partner and 1.99 ± 0.86 in those who had no sexual partner]. Factors that were positively associated with DAP score were students (b = 0.32, 95% CI [0.21, 0.95], p = 0.003), monthly income ≥ 100,000 FCFA (b = 0.24, 95% CI [0.07, 0.81], p = 0.022), and not having a sexual partner (b = 0.26, 95% CI [0.11, 0.85], p = 0.012). Conclusion: Most female patients with SCD have a low desire to avoid pregnancy. This is especially true for patients who are not students, have a partner and have a low monthly income.
基金the Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia,China(2023JQ01)the National Key R&D Program of China(2019YFA0607103)+2 种基金the Central Government Guides Local Science and Technology Development Fund Projects(2022ZY0224)the Open Project Program of Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Ecology and Resources Use of the Mongolian Plateau,Hohhot,Inner Mongolia,China(KF2023003)Major Science and Technology Project of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region:Monitoring,Assessment and Early Warning Technology Research of Biodiversity in Inner Mongolia(2021ZD0011)for financial support.
文摘Many different factors,such as species traits,socio-economic factors,geographical and environmental factors,can lead to specimen collection preference.This study aims to determine whether grassland specimen collection in China is preferred by species traits(i.e.,plant height,flowering and fruiting period),environmental range(i.e.,the temperature and precipitation range)and geographical range(i.e.,distribution range and altitudinal range).Ordinary least squares models and phylogenetic generalized linear mixed models were used to analyze the relationships between specimen number and the explanatory variables.Random Forest models were then used to find the most parsimonious multivariate model.The results showed that interannual variation in specimen number between 1900 and 2020 was considerable.Specimen number of these species in southeast China was notably lower than that in northwest China.Environmental range and geographical range of species had significant positive correlations with specimen number.In addition,there were relatively weak but significant associations between specimen number and species trait(i.e.,plant height and flowering and fruiting period).Random Forest models indicated that distribution range was the most important variable,followed by flowering and fruiting period,and altitudinal range.These findings suggest that future floristic surveys should pay more attention to species with small geographical range,narrow environmental range,short plant height,and short flowering and fruiting period.The correction of specimen collection preference will also make the results of species distribution model,species evolution and other works based on specimen data more accurate.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.62102347,62376041,62172352)Guangdong Ocean University Research Fund Project(Grant No.060302102304).
文摘Point-of-interest(POI)recommendations in location-based social networks(LBSNs)have developed rapidly by incorporating feature information and deep learning methods.However,most studies have failed to accurately reflect different users’preferences,in particular,the short-term preferences of inactive users.To better learn user preferences,in this study,we propose a long-short-term-preference-based adaptive successive POI recommendation(LSTP-ASR)method by combining trajectory sequence processing,long short-term preference learning,and spatiotemporal context.First,the check-in trajectory sequences are adaptively divided into recent and historical sequences according to a dynamic time window.Subsequently,an adaptive filling strategy is used to expand the recent check-in sequences of users with inactive check-in behavior using those of similar active users.We further propose an adaptive learning model to accurately extract long short-term preferences of users to establish an efficient successive POI recommendation system.A spatiotemporal-context-based recurrent neural network and temporal-context-based long short-term memory network are used to model the users’recent and historical checkin trajectory sequences,respectively.Extensive experiments on the Foursquare and Gowalla datasets reveal that the proposed method outperforms several other baseline methods in terms of three evaluation metrics.More specifically,LSTP-ASR outperforms the previously best baseline method(RTPM)with a 17.15%and 20.62%average improvement on the Foursquare and Gowalla datasets in terms of the Fβmetric,respectively.
文摘BACKGROUND Primary thumb carpometacarpal(CMC)osteoarthritis is one of the most common conditions encountered by hand surgeons.Of the vast number of operations that have been proposed,none have demonstrated results significantly superior to trapeziectomy alone.AIM The purpose of our study was to determine why surgeons opt for their technique in treating CMC arthritis.METHODS A cross-sectional survey of active members of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand was conducted to evaluate the reasons behind their preferred technique in the treatment of isolated thumb CMC arthritis.Surgeons were contacted by email once and provided with a link to a de-identified survey consisting of 5 treatment questions and 5 demographic questions.RESULTS Of 950 responses were received.40.5%of surgeons preferred trapeziectomy+ligament reconstruction tendon interposition(LRTI),followed by trapeziectomy+suspensionplasty(28.2%),suture button suspension(5.9%),trapeziectomy alone(4.6%),prosthetic arthroplasty(3.2%),arthrodesis(1.1%),and other(6.6%).Proponents of trapeziectomy+LRTI cited familiarity(73.2%),exposure during fellowship(48.8%)and less proximal migration(60%)to be the main reasons affecting their decision.Surgeons who preferred trapeziectomy+suspensionplasty most reported simplicity(74.9%),fewer complications(45.3%),less proximal migration(43.8%),and avoidance of autogenous tissue harvest(42.7%).Advocates of suture button suspension cited avoidance of autogenous tissue harvest(80.4%),shorter immobilization(76.8%),and quicker recovery(73.2%)with their technique.Advocates of trapeziectomy alone cited simplicity(97.7%),fewer complications(86.4%),and avoidance of autogenous tissue harvest(59.1%).In their comments,45%of surgeons choosing trapeziectomy alone cited evidence as an additional rationale.Advocates of prosthetic arthroplasty cited improved pinch strength(83.3%)and improved range of motion(63.3%),while those preferring arthrodesis cited better pinch strength(90%)and frequently in their comments,durability.Of the surgeons who preferred a technique other than LRTI,41.8%reported they had tried LRTI in the past,citing complexity of the procedure,flexor carpi radialis harvest,and longer operative time as reasons for moving on.CONCLUSION Our study provides an update on current treatment trends and offers new insight into the reasons behind surgeons'decision making in the management of thumb carpometacarpal osteoarthritis.Despite strong Level 1 evidence supporting the use of trapeziectomy alone,our findings demonstrate that most surgeons continue to supplement trapeziectomy with other techniques such as LRTI or suspensionplasty.Several factors including familiarity,personal experience(Level 4 evidence),and comfort may be more influential than Level 1 evidence in determining the techniques in a surgeon's armamentarium.Further prospective studies are needed to determine the optimal technique for surgical management of Eaton stages II-IV CMC arthritis and how these studies will affect surgeons’choice.
文摘Female grasshoppers can affect the fitness of their offspring through their selection of oviposition site. Knowledge of soil type on oviposition, and its effects on subsequent development can provide guidelines for habitat manipulations that reduce the harmful effects of these pests on farmers fields. The influence of soil types on the oviposition site preference of variegated grasshopper (Zonocerus variegatus L.) reared some cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) varieties, was investigated in a cage trial carried out at the Bio factory laboratory, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Njala University, Sierra Leone during 2022/2023. The treatments comprised three soil types (Sandy, Loamy and Clay), each with three replications laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in wooden cages. Data were collected on the following development parameters including, Net reproductive growth ratio (R0), Generation time (Tc), Intrinsic rate of increase (rm), Finite rate of increase (), Doubling time (Dt), and overall survivorship. Findings revealed that, Z. variegatus L. preferred sandy soil in which, on average, most eggs were deposited (338, 6.62 4.40), followed by loamy soil, 286 (5.53 3.96), and then, clayey soil, 200 (3.91 3.85);though, the differences were not significant. This study established that Z. variegatus deposited more eggs in sandy soil > loamy soil > clayey soil, respectively;and subsequent survivorship of the immature unto mature adult insect, revealed a similar order. This indicates that the sandy soil is the most preferred substrate for oviposition and subsequent development into adult insects.
