Transfrontier wildlife corridors can be successful conservation tools, connecting protected areas and reducing the impact of habitat fragmentation on mobile species. Urban wildlife corridors have ...been proposed as a potential mitigation tool to facilitate the passage of elephants through towns without causing conflict with urban communities. However, because such corridors are typically narrow and close to human development, wildlife (particularly large mammals) may be less likely to use them. We used remote-sensor camera traps and global positioning system collars to identify the movement patterns of African elephants Loxondonta africana through narrow, urban corridors in Botswana. The corridors were in three types of human-dominated land-use designations with varying levels of human activity: agricultural, industrial and open-space recreational land. We found that elephants used the corridors within all three land-use designations and we identified, using a model selection approach, that season, time of day and rainfall were important factors in determining the presence of elephants in the corridors. Elephants moved more slowly through the narrow corridors compared with their movement patterns through broader, wide-ranging corridors. Our results indicate that urban wildlife corridors are useful for facilitating elephants to pass through urban areas.
Theory predicts that inter‐patch dispersal rates and patterns of patch heterogeneity both have the potential to alter patterns of local and regional species diversity. To test this, we manipulated ...both rates of habitat connectivity and the geometric arrangement of habitat heterogeneity within regions of experimental zooplankton communities. We found no effects of habitat geometry on any metric of species diversity or composition. Additionally, we found no effect of habitat connectivity rate on local species diversity. We did, however, find that increasing connectivity led to a decrease in regional diversity, as well as an increase in the percent similarity of local communities within regions. Of all of the species in these communities, the relatively large cladoceran Ceriodaphnia reticulata significantly responded to the treatments, and had a higher probability of achieving high densities when connectance was high. As such, we suggest that this species played a large role in driving the increased local community similarity and decreased regional species richness as connectivity increased. These findings are in opposition to previous experimental studies of metacommunities, but support the notion that increased connectance among local patches may decrease regional diversity when patches are heterogeneous.
This letter reports on the design and pilot installation of GridShares, devices intended to alleviate brownouts caused by peak power use on isolated, village-scale mini-grids. A team consisting of ...the authors and partner organizations designed, built and field-tested GridShares in the village of Rukubji, Bhutan. The GridShare takes an innovative approach to reducing brownouts by using a low cost device that communicates the state of the grid to its users and regulates usage before severe brownouts occur. This demand-side solution encourages users to distribute the use of large appliances more evenly throughout the day, allowing power-limited systems to provide reliable, long-term renewable electricity to these communities. In the summer of 2011, GridShares were installed in every household and business connected to the Rukubji micro-hydro mini-grid, which serves approximately 90 households with a 40 kW nominal capacity micro-hydro system. The installation was accompanied by an extensive education program. Following the installation of the GridShares, the occurrence and average length of severe brownouts, which had been caused primarily by the use of electric cooking appliances during meal preparation, decreased by over 92%. Additionally, the majority of residents surveyed stated that now they are more certain that their rice will cook well and that they would recommend installing GridShares in other villages facing similar problems.
To determine in women with clinically stable chronic lung disease (CLD) and healthy women; (1) prevalence of urinary incontinence; (2) risk factors for urinary incontinence; (3) effects of a standard ...course of specialised physiotherapy treatment (PT) in women with CLD.
Prospective prevalence study; PT study in CLD subgroup.
Tertiary metropolitan public hospital.
Women with cystic fibrosis (CF, n=38), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, n=27) and 69 healthy women without CLD. PT study — 10 women with CLD.
Five continence PT sessions over 3 months.
Prevalence and impact of incontinence (questionnaire), number of leakage episodes (7-day accident diary), pelvic floor muscle function (ultrasound imaging) and quality of life (King’s Health Questionnaire).
The majority of women in all three groups reported episodes of incontinence (CF 71%; COPD 70%; healthy women 55%). Compared to age-matched healthy controls, women with CF reported more episodes of incontinence (P=0.006) and more commonly reported stress incontinence (P=0.001). A logistic regression model revealed that women with CLD were twice as likely to develop incontinence than healthy women (P=0.05). Women with COPD reported significantly more ‘bother’ with incontinence than age-matched women with incontinence. There was a significant reduction in incontinence episodes following treatment, which was maintained after three months.
The presence of CLD is an independent predictor of incontinence in women. In older women this is associated with more distress than in age-matched peers without CLD. Larger treatment studies are indicated for women with CLD and incontinence.
Heavy metal resistance (HMR) in Eubacteria is regulated by a variety of systems including transcription factors from the MerR family (COG0789). The HMR systems are characterized by the complex signal ...structure (strong palindrome within a 19 or 20 bp promoter spacer), and usually consist of transporter and regulator genes. Some HMR regulons also include detoxification systems. The number of sequenced bacterial genomes is constantly increasing and even though HMR resistance regulons of the COG0789 type usually consist of few genes per genome, the computational analysis may contribute to the understanding of the cellular systems of metal detoxification.
We studied the mercury (MerR), copper (CueR and HmrR), cadmium (CadR), lead (PbrR), and zinc (ZntR) resistance systems and demonstrated that combining protein sequence analysis and analysis of DNA regulatory signals it was possible to distinguish metal-dependent members of COG0789, assign specificity towards particular metals to uncharacterized loci, and find new genes involved in the metal resistance, in particular, multicopper oxidase and copper chaperones, candidate cytochromes from the copper regulon, new cadmium transporters and, possibly, glutathione-S-transferases.
Our data indicate that the specificity of the COG0789 systems can be determined combining phylogenetic analysis and identification of DNA regulatory sites. Taking into account signal structure, we can adequately identify genes that are activated using the DNA bending-unbending mechanism. In the case of regulon members that do not reside in single loci, analysis of potential regulatory sites could be crucial for the correct annotation and prediction of the specificity.
Titania nanofibers were synthesized by electrospinning and characterized with scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The nanofibers were annealed to ...773
K to achieve the anatase titania crystal structure, and to 1173
K to obtain the rutile phase. In order to create erbia-containing titania nanofibers, erbium (III) oxide particles were added to the pre-cursor solution before electrospinning. After pyrolysis the titania nanofibers supported and encapsulated the erbia particles. Temperature-dependent near-infrared emission spectra demonstrate that the erbia-containing nanofibers emit selectively in the range 6000–7000
cm
−1. Because of their large surface to volume ratios and narrow-band optical emission, these nanofibers can be used as selective emitters for thermophotovoltaic applications.
A family systems framework guided our investigation of self-injurious behavior (SIB) in adolescents. As part of a larger study, we collected data examining SIB and family functioning from 29 ...adolescents (M.sub.age = 15.66) and their caregivers. These adolescents with traits of borderline personality disorder were seeking counseling from community-based practitioners specializing in dialectical behavior therapy. Our primary aim was to better understand the family environment of these adolescents. A second aim was to elucidate interrelations among family communication, roles, problem-solving, affective involvement, affective responsiveness, behavioral control, and conflict and SIB. We found a high rate of SIB among adolescent participants. There was significant congruence between adolescent and caregiver reports of the family environment, with families demonstrating unhealthy levels of functioning in several indicators of family environment. The latent variable of family functioning significantly predicted nonsuicidal and ambivalent SIB. Counselors working with adolescents should consider family functioning when assessing risk for SIB. Keywords: self-injurious behavior, adolescents, family systems, borderline personality disorder, family functioning
Movement studies have been conducted on various giraffe subspecies across different ecological and management environments in Africa. However, prior to recent advancements in technology, studies ...were limited to identification methods relying on chance encounters of individuals (e.g. Foster, 1966; Berry, 1978; le Pendu & Ciofolo, 1999) and VHF radio-tracking (e.g. Langman, 1973; Dagg & Foster, 1982), which can underestimate movements (Fennessy, 2009). Now, GPS satellite units enable remote monitoring of movements with the increased ability to collect more accurate and copious data sets (e.g. Fennessy, 2004; Suraud, 2011). This study used GPS satellite collar technology to determine home ranges, seasonal ranges and daily movements of giraffe (G. c. giraffa) (Bock et al., 2014) in northern Botswana.
Traits that have been stringently selected to conform to specific criteria in a closed population are phenotypic stereotypes. In dogs, Canis familiaris, such stereotypes have been produced by ...breeding for conformation, performance (behaviors), etc. We measured phenotypes on a representative sample to establish breed stereotypes. DNA samples from 147 dog breeds were used to characterize single nucleotide polymorphism allele frequencies for association mapping of breed stereotypes. We identified significant size loci (quantitative trait loci QTLs), implicating candidate genes appropriate to regulation of size (e.g., IGF1, IGF2BP2 SMAD2, etc.). Analysis of other morphological stereotypes, also under extreme selection, identified many additional significant loci. Behavioral loci for herding, pointing, and boldness implicated candidate genes appropriate to behavior (e.g., MC2R, DRD1, and PCDH9). Significant loci for longevity, a breed characteristic inversely correlated with breed size, were identified. The power of this approach to identify loci regulating the incidence of specific polygenic diseases is demonstrated by the association of a specific IGF1 haplotype with hip dysplasia, patella luxation, and pacreatitis.
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