Large carnivores, such as gray wolves, Canis lupus, are difficult to protect in mixed-use landscapes because some people perceive them as dangerous and because they sometimes threaten human property ...and safety. Governments may respond by killing carnivores in an effort to prevent repeated conflicts or threats, although the functional effectiveness of lethal methods has long been questioned. We evaluated two methods of government intervention following independent events of verified wolf predation on domestic animals (depredation) in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA between 1998-2014, at three spatial scales. We evaluated two intervention methods using log-rank tests and conditional Cox recurrent event, gap time models based on retrospective analyses of the following quasi-experimental treatments: (1) selective killing of wolves by trapping near sites of verified depredation, and (2) advice to owners and haphazard use of non-lethal methods without wolf-killing. The government did not randomly assign treatments and used a pseudo-control (no removal of wolves was not a true control), but the federal permission to intervene lethally was granted and rescinded independent of events on the ground. Hazard ratios suggest lethal intervention was associated with an insignificant 27% lower risk of recurrence of events at trapping sites, but offset by an insignificant 78% increase in risk of recurrence at sites up to 5.42 km distant in the same year, compared to the non-lethal treatment. Our results do not support the hypothesis that Michigan's use of lethal intervention after wolf depredations was effective for reducing the future risk of recurrence in the vicinities of trapping sites. Examining only the sites of intervention is incomplete because neighbors near trapping sites may suffer the recurrence of depredations. We propose two new hypotheses for perceived effectiveness of lethal methods: (a) killing predators may be perceived as effective because of the benefits to a small minority of farmers, and (b) if neighbors experience side-effects of lethal intervention such as displaced depredations, they may perceive the problem growing and then demand more lethal intervention rather than detecting problems spreading from the first trapping site. Ethical wildlife management guided by the "best scientific and commercial data available" would suggest suspending the standard method of trapping wolves in favor of non-lethal methods (livestock guarding dogs or fladry) that have been proven effective in preventing livestock losses in Michigan and elsewhere.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Just preservation Treves, A.; Santiago-Ávila, F.J.; Lynn, W.S.
Biological conservation,
January 2019, 2019-01-00, Letnik:
229
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We are failing to protect the biosphere. Novel views of conservation, preservation, and sustainability are surfacing in the wake of consensus about our failures to prevent extinction or slow climate ...change. We argue that the interests and well-being of non-humans, youth, and future generations of both human and non-human beings (futurity) have too long been ignored in consensus-based, anthropocentric conservation. Consensus-based stakeholder-driven processes disadvantage those absent or without a voice and allow current adult humans and narrow, exploitative interests to dominate decisions about the use of nature over its preservation for futurity of all life. We propose that authentically non-anthropocentric worldviews that incorporate multispecies justice are needed for a legitimate, deliberative, and truly democratic process of adjudication between competing interests in balancing the preservation and use of nature. Legitimate arenas for such adjudication would be courts that can defend intergenerational equity, which is envisioned by many nations' constitutions, and can consider current and future generations of non-human life. We urge practitioners and scholars to disavow implicit anthropocentric value judgments in their work – or make these transparent and explicit – and embrace a more comprehensive worldview that grants future life on earth fair representation in humanity's decisions and actions today.
•We propose just preservation to reform how we balance protection and use of nature.•We propose authentic non-anthropocentrism recognizing the interests of all individuals and collectives.•We propose a deliberative, judicial process with multispecies justice and representatives for all life.•Preservation will dominate use once the interests of futurity are considered justly.•Without just preservation, the current crises affecting life on Earth will continue.
Waltherione F was totally synthesized in seven steps and 31% overall yield from 2-nitro-3-methylanisole without the use of protecting groups. Key steps in the sequence were a Suzuki–Miyaura coupling ...to attach the n-octyl chain and a microwave-promoted cyclization of an acetonyl anthranilate to give the heterocyclic core whose 3-OH was O-methylated.
In this article we analyse Michael E. Soulé's normative postulates in ‘What Is Conservation Biology?’ In the first section, we provide an exegetical reading of the normative postulates and ...demonstrate that they subordinate all sources of value to biodiversity. We question this subordinating logic because it permits, we argue, the enactment of morally wrongful policies. In the second section, we demonstrate that biodiversity and the integrity of ecosystems depend on an idealized conception of ecological communities that is morally arbitrary. Both, subordinating all sources of value to biodiversity, and this morally arbitrary conception of ecological communities leads us to conclude that protecting biodiversity ought not to be the most fundamental normative postulate of conservation biology. To end, we propose a pluralist ethic that foregrounds: self-determination, community, and social relationships; rejects human dominion over animals; and emphasizes protective, preventive and non-harmful interventions.
•This article provides an exegetical reading of Soulé’s normative postulates in ‘What Is Conservation Biology?’•The concepts of biodiversity and integrity of ecosystems depend on an idealized conception of ecological communities•This idealized conception of ecological communities is morally arbitrary•Subordinating the normative value of wild animals' social communities and individualities to biodiversity is morally wrong.•We propose a pluralist ethic that rejects dominion, centres self-determination, and emphasizes non-harmful interventions
ABSTRACT
We present the joint analysis of Neutral Hydrogen (H i) Intensity Mapping observations with three galaxy samples: the Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) and Emission Line Galaxy (ELG) samples from ...the eBOSS survey, and the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey sample. The H i intensity maps are Green Bank Telescope observations of the redshifted $21\rm cm$ emission on $100 \, {\rm deg}^2$ covering the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1.0. We process the data by separating and removing the foregrounds present in the radio frequencies with FastI ICA. We verify the quality of the foreground separation with mock realizations, and construct a transfer function to correct for the effects of foreground removal on the H i signal. We cross-correlate the cleaned H i data with the galaxy samples and study the overall amplitude as well as the scale dependence of the power spectrum. We also qualitatively compare our findings with the predictions by a semianalytical galaxy evolution simulation. The cross-correlations constrain the quantity $\Omega _{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} b_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm opt}}$ at an effective scale keff, where $\Omega _\rm {H\,\small {I}}$ is the H i density fraction, $b_\rm {H\,\small {I}}$ is the H i bias, and $r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm opt}}$ the galaxy–hydrogen correlation coefficient, which is dependent on the H i content of the optical galaxy sample. At $k_{\rm eff}=0.31 \, h\,{\rm Mpc^{-1}}$ we find $\Omega _{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} b_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm Wig}} = 0.58 \pm 0.09 \, {\rm (stat) \pm 0.05 \, {\rm (sys)}} \times 10^{-3}$ for GBT-WiggleZ, $\Omega _{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} b_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm ELG}} = 0.40 \pm 0.09 \, {\rm (stat) \pm 0.04 \, {\rm (sys)}} \times 10^{-3}$ for GBT-ELG, and $\Omega _{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} b_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm LRG}} = 0.35 \pm 0.08 \, {\rm (stat) \pm 0.03 \, {\rm (sys)}} \times 10^{-3}$ for GBT-LRG, at z ≃ 0.8. We also report results at $k_{\rm eff}=0.24$ and $k_{\rm eff}=0.48 \, h\,{\rm Mpc^{-1}}$. With little information on H i parameters beyond our local Universe, these are amongst the most precise constraints on neutral hydrogen density fluctuations in an underexplored redshift range.
Predators and their protection are controversial worldwide. Gray wolves,
, lost U.S. federal protection (delisting) and the State of Wisconsin began lethal management first among all states and ...tribes that regained authority over wolves. Here we evaluated the initial success of reaching the state's explicit objective, "…to allow for a sustainable harvest that neither increases nor decreases the state's wolf population…" We used official state figures for hunter-killed wolves, population estimates from April 2017-2020, and the latest peer-reviewed model of individual wolf survival to estimate additional deaths resulting from federal delisting. More than half of the additional deaths were predicted to be cryptic poaching under the assumption that this period resembled past periods of liberalized wolf-killing in Wisconsin. We used a precautionary approach to construct three conservative scenarios to predict the current status of this wolf population and a minimum estimate of population decline since April 2020. From our scenarios that vary in growth rates and additional mortality estimates, we expect a maximum of 695-751 wolves to be alive in Wisconsin by 15 April 2021, a minimum 27-33% decline in the preceding 12 months. This contradicts the state expectation of no change in the population size. We draw a conclusion about the adequacy of regulatory mechanisms under state control of wolves and discuss the particular governance conditions met in Wisconsin. We recommend greater rigor and independent review of the science used by agencies to plan wolf hunting quotas and methods. We recommend clearer division of duties between state wildlife agencies, legislatures, and courts. We recommend federal governments reconsider the practice of sudden deregulation of wolf management and instead recommend they consider protecting predators as non-game or transition more slowly to subnational authority, to avoid the need for emergency relisting.
Introduction
Next‐generation sequencing (NGS) has several advantages over conventional Sanger sequencing for HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) genotyping, including detection and quantitation of ...low‐abundance variants bearing drug resistance mutations (DRMs). However, the high HIV genomic diversity, unprecedented large volume of data, complexity of analysis and potential for error pose significant challenges for data processing. Several NGS analysis pipelines have been developed and used in HIVDR research; however, the absence of uniformity in data processing strategies results in lack of consistency and comparability of outputs from different pipelines. To fill this gap, an international symposium on bioinformatic strategies for NGS‐based HIVDR testing was held in February 2018 in Winnipeg, Canada, convening laboratory scientists, bioinformaticians and clinicians involved in four recently developed, publicly available NGS HIVDR pipelines. The goal of this symposium was to establish a consensus on effective bioinformatic strategies for NGS data management and its use for HIVDR reporting.
Discussion
Essential functionalities of an NGS HIVDR pipeline were divided into five analytic blocks: (1) NGS read quality control (QC)/quality assurance (QA); (2) NGS read alignment and reference mapping; (3) HIV variant calling and variant QC; (4) NGS HIVDR reporting; and (5) extended data applications and additional considerations for data management. The consensuses reached among the participants on all major aspects of these blocks are summarized here. They encompass not only recommended data management and analysis strategies, but also detailed bioinformatic approaches that help ensure accuracy of the derived HIVDR analysis outputs for both research and potential clinical use.
Conclusions
While NGS is being adopted more broadly in HIVDR testing laboratories, data processing is often a bottleneck hindering its generalized application. The proposed standardization of NGS read QC/QA, read alignment and reference mapping, variant calling and QC, HIVDR reporting and relevant data management strategies in this “Winnipeg Consensus” may serve as a starting guideline for NGS HIVDR data processing that informs the refinement of existing pipelines and those yet to be developed. Moreover, the bioinformatic strategies presented here may apply more broadly to NGS data analysis of microbes harbouring significant genomic diversity.
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