Integrating sustainable hunting in biodiversity protection in central Africa: Hot spots, weak spots, and strong spots

© 2014 Fa et al. Wild animals are a primary source of protein (bushmeat) for people living in or near tropical forests. Ideally, the effect of bushmeat harvests should be monitored closely by making regular estimates of offtake rate and size of stock available for exploitation. However, in practice, this is possible in very few situations because it requires both of these aspects to be readily measurable, and even in the best case, entails very considerable time and effort. As alternative, in this study, we use high-resolution, environmental favorability models for terrestrial mammals (N = 165) in Central Africa to map areas of high species richness (hot spots) and hunting susceptibility. Favorability models distinguish localities with environmental conditions that favor the species' existence from those with detrimental characteristics for its presence. We develop an index for assessing Potential Hunting Sustainability (PHS) of each species based on their ecological characteristics (population density, habitat breadth, rarity and vulnerability), weighted according to restrictive and permissive assumptions of how species' characteristics are combined. Species are classified into five main hunting sustainability classes using fuzzy logic. Using the accumulated favorability values of all species, and their PHS values, we finally identify weak spots, defined as high diversity regions of especial hunting vulnerability for wildlife, as well as strong spots, defined as high diversity areas of high hunting sustainability potential. Our study uses relatively simple models that employ easily obtainable data of a species' ecological characteristics to assess the impacts of hunting in tropical regions. It provides information for management by charting the geography of where species are more or less likely to be at risk of extinction from hunting. Copyright

Exclusive selection of B^0_d -> D^{*-}pi^+

The decay $B^{0}_{d}$ $\rightarrow$ $D^{*-

LHCb RICH 2 engineering design review report

Many decentralized and peer-to-peer applications require some sort of data management. Besides P2P file-sharing, there are already scenarios (e.g. BRICKS project) that need management of finer-grained objects including updates and, keeping them highly available in very dynamic communities of peers. In order to achieve project goals and fulfill the requirements, a decentralized/P2P XML storage on top of a DHT (distributed hash table) overlay has been proposed. Unfortunately, DHTs do not provide any guarantees that data will be highly available all the time. A self-managed approach is proposed where availability is stochastically guaranteed by using a replication protocol. The protocol recreates periodically missing replicas dependent on the availability of peers. We are able to minimize generated costs for requested data availability. The protocol is fully decentralized and adapts itself on changes in community maintaining the requested availability. Finally, the approach is evaluated and compared with replication mechanisms embedded in other decentralized storages

Differential pulse polarography of some herbicides derived from 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid - I. Nitration and polarographic behaviour of the resulting nitro-derivatives

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Synthesising bushmeat research effort in West and Central Africa: A new regional database

Unsustainable hunting threatens both biodiversity and local livelihoods. Despite high levels of research effort focused on understanding the dynamics of bushmeat trade and consumption, current research is largely site specific. Without synthesis and quantitative analysis of available case studies, the national and regional characteristics of bushmeat trade and consumption remain largely speculative, impeding efforts to inform national and regional policy on bushmeat trade. Here we describe the structure and content of the West and Central African bushmeat database which holds quantitative data on bushmeat sales, consumption and offtake for 177 species from 275 sites across 11 countries in two regions, spanning three decades of research. Despite this wealth of available data, we found important biases in research effort. The majority of studies in West and Central Africa have collected market data, which although providing a useful record of bushmeat sales, are limited in their ability to track changes in hunting offtake. In addition, few data exist for West Africa, and few studies have tracked changes over time, using repeat sampling. With new initiatives in the regions to track bushmeat hunting, this database represents an opportunity to synthesise current and future data on bushmeat hunting, consumption and trade in West and Central Africa, identify gaps in current understanding, and systematically target future monitoring efforts

Species diversification – which species should we use?

Large detector systems for particle and astroparticle physics; Particle tracking detectors; Gaseous detectors; Calorimeters; Cherenkov detectors; Particle identification methods; Photon detectors for UV. visible and IR photons; Detector alignment and calibration methods; Detector cooling and thermo-stabilization; Detector design and construction technologies and materials. The LHCb experiment is dedicated to precision measurements of CP violation and rare decays of B hadrons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva). The initial configuration and expected performance of the detector and associated systems. as established by test beam measurements and simulation studies. is described. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA

LHCb RICH1 Engineering Design Review Report

This document describes the concepts of the engineering design to be adopted for the upstream Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector (RICH1) of the reoptimized LHCb detector. Our aim is to ensure that coherent solutions for the engineering design and integration for all components of RICH1 are available, before proceeding with the detailed design of these components

LHCb RICH 2 engineering design review report

The LHCb detector is a single arm spectrometer designed to exploit the large number of b-hadrons produced at the LHC in order to make precision studies of CP asymmetries and of rare decays in the B-meson system. It is therefore essential for the experiment that the detector configuration includes a particle identification system with high separation power between kaons and pions. We will present in this note the engineering solutions for the lightweight, high precision Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector, RICH2, of the spectrometer. The design is built around a large space frame used as a high stability support for the optical system and as a supporting structure for the magnetic shielding needed for the photon detectors. All material not essential for the operation of the detector is located outside the acceptance of the spectrometer. The space frame also defines the Cherenkov gas volume