The diverse nature of island isolation and its effect on land bridge insular faunas

Aim: Isolation is a key factor in island biology. It is usually defined as the distance to the geographically nearest mainland, but many other definitions exist. We explored how testing different isolation indices affects the inference of impacts of isolation on faunal characteristics. We focused on land bridge islands and compared the relationships of many spatial and temporal (i.e., through time) isolation indices with community‐, population‐ and individual‐level characteristics (species richness, population density and body size, respectively). Location: Aegean Sea islands, Greece. Time period: Current. Taxon: Many animal taxa. Methods: We estimated 21 isolation indices for 205 islands and recorded species richness data for 15 taxa (invertebrates and vertebrates). We obtained body size data for seven lizard species and population density data for three. We explored how well indices predict each characteristic, in each taxon, by conducting a series of ordinary least squares regressions (controlling for island area when needed) and a meta‐analysis. Results: Isolation was significantly (and negatively) associated with species richness in 10 of 15 taxa. It was significantly (and positively) associated with body size in only one of seven species and was not associated with population density. The effect of isolation on species richness was much weaker than that of island area, regardless of the index tested. Spatial indices generally out‐performed temporal indices, and indices directly related to the mainland out‐performed those related mainly to neighbouring islands. No index was universally superior to others, including the distance to the geographically nearest mainland. Main conclusions: The choice of index can alter our perception of the impacts of isolation on biological patterns. The nearly automatic, ubiquitous use of distance to the geographically nearest mainland misrepresents the complexity of the effects of isolation. We recommend the simultaneous testing of several indices that represent different aspects of isolation, in order to produce more constructive and thorough investigations and avoid imprecise inference

A Pilot Trial of Universal School-Based Mental Health Screening in El Salvador: Traumatic Stress in an Underresourced School Environment

Salvadoran youth have an elevated risk of trauma exposure and related mental health problems. However, investigations of childhood trauma exposure and mental health sequelae in El Salvador are limited. The present study aimed to (a) explore the prevalence of exposure to potentially traumatic events and symptoms of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression and (b) evaluate the associations between specific trauma types and emotional functioning among Salvadoran youth. A total of 1,296 youth aged 8–21 years from seven public schools completed self-report measures of trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), anxiety, and depression. Participants reported high levels of trauma exposure, endorsing an average of 3.62 (SD = 2.32) trauma types. In total, 34.5% of participants reported clinically elevated PTSS; fewer youths reported elevated depressive (8.7%) and anxiety symptoms (8.6%). Although boys reported exposure to more trauma types than girls, d = 0.22, girls were more likely to endorse elevated PTSS, V = .11; anxiety, V = .06; and depression, V = .10. Adolescents reported exposure to more trauma types than younger children, d = 0.23, and were more likely to endorse elevated PTSS, V = .07; anxiety, V = .13; and depression, V = .16. Undergoing a frightening medical procedure, OR = 2.30; female sex, OR = 1.92; witnessing domestic violence, OR = 1.70; and experiencing war between gangs, OR = 1.61, were strong predictors of elevated PTSS. This broad, school-based screening was a critical step toward better understanding the rate of trauma exposure and trauma-related symptoms among Salvadoran youth

A Hierarchy of Scheduler Classes for Stochastic Automata

Stochastic automata are a formal compositional model for concurrent stochastic timed systems, with general distributions and non-deterministic choices. Measures of interest are defined over schedulers that resolve the nondeterminism. In this paper we investigate the power of various theoretically and practically motivated classes of schedulers, considering the classic complete-information view and a restriction to non-prophetic schedulers. We prove a hierarchy of scheduler classes w.r.t. unbounded probabilistic reachability. We find that, unlike Markovian formalisms, stochastic automata distinguish most classes even in this basic setting. Verification and strategy synthesis methods thus face a tradeoff between powerful and efficient classes. Using lightweight scheduler sampling, we explore this tradeoff and demonstrate the concept of a useful approximative verification technique for stochastic automata

Ethnobotanical research under the COVID-19 pandemic: assessing a remote method for documenting Indigenous plant-related knowledge

NWOVI.Veni.191T.007Descriptive and Comparative Linguistic

Experimental analysis of gas-sensitive Braitenberg vehicles

This article addresses the problem of localizing a static gas source in an indoor environment by a mobile robot. In contrast to previous works, the environment is not artificially ventilated to produce a strong unidirectional airflow. Here, the dominant transport mechanisms of gas molecules are turbulence and convection flow rather than diffusion, which results in a patchy, chaotically fluctuating gas distribution. Two Braitenberg-type strategies (positive and negative tropotaxis) based on the instantaneously measured spatial concentration gradient were investigated. Both strategies were shown to be of potential use for gas source localization. As a possible solution to the problem of gas source declaration (the task of determining with certainty that the gas source has been found), an indirect localization strategy based on exploration and concentration peak avoidance is suggested. Here, a gas source is located by exploiting the fact that local concentration maxima occur more frequently near the gas source compared to distant regions

Detailed α-decay study of 180Tl

International audienceA detailed $\alpha$-decay spectroscopy study of $^{180}\mathrm{Tl}$ has been performed at ISOLDE (CERN). $Z$-selective ionization by the Resonance Ionization Laser Ion Source (RILIS) coupled to mass separation provided a high-purity beam of $^{180}\mathrm{Tl}$. Fine-structure $\alpha$ decays to excited levels in the daughter $^{176}\mathrm{Au}$ were identified and an $\alpha$-decay scheme of $^{180}\mathrm{Tl}$ was constructed based on an analysis of $\alpha$-$\gamma$ and $\alpha$-$\gamma$-$\gamma$ coincidences. Multipolarities of several $\gamma$-ray transitions deexciting levels in $^{176}\mathrm{Au}$ were determined. Based on the analysis of reduced $\alpha$-decay widths, it was found that all $\alpha$ decays are hindered, which signifies a change of configuration between the parent and all daughter states

Laser-assisted decay spectroscopy for the ground states of 180,182Au^180,182Au

status: publishe

betabeta-delayed fission of isomers in 188Bi^188Bi

status: publishe

Hyperfine anomaly in gold and magnetic moments of Ipi=11/2−I^pi=11/2^- gold isomers

status: publishe

Laser-assisted decay spectroscopy and mass spectrometry of 178Au^178Au

A comprehensive study of the isotope 178Au has been made at the CERN-ISOLDE facility, using resonance laser ionization. Two long-lived states in 178Au were identified—a low-spin ground state and a high-spin isomer—each of which were produced as pure beams. Using the ISOLTRAP precision Penning trap, the excitation energy of the isomeric state in 178Au was determined to be E∗=189(14)keV. The α-decay fine structure patterns of the two states were studied using the Windmill decay station, providing information on the low-lying states in the daughter nucleus 174Ir. Nuclear spin assignments of I(178Aug)=(2,3) and I(178Aum)=(7,8) are made based on the observed β-decay feeding and hyperfine structure intensity patterns. These spin assignments are used for fitting the hyperfine structures of the two states from which values for the magnetic dipole moments are extracted. The extracted moments are compared with calculations using additivity relations to establish the most probable configurations for 178Aug,m