Just bird food? – On the value of invertebrate macroecology

Recent reviews have highlighted the dominance of vertebrates and plants in macroecological and biogeographical publications while invertebrates are underrepresented despite their global ecological relevance and vast diversity. We argue that although the study of invertebrate biogeography and macroecology has data limitations and thus lags behind in global research coverage, it has left a strong mark on the development of the discipline and has continuing potential to significantly shape its future. First, we detail how historical collecting and identification impediments caused decelerated progress at the macro-scale. Second, we show the quantitative impact of early invertebrate studies in contrast to lowered current representation. Third, we discuss ways in which authors, editors, and reviewers may foster invertebrate studies in macroecology. These include an honest appreciation of the value of study replication, of understudied but diverse taxa, and of the ecological traits that make invertebrates unique in comparison to vertebrates (e.g., wider array of life cycles, symbioses, and ecological niches), as well as the expanded potential for experimentation and manipulation

Utilizing the SAFE-T Model and Anti-racist Counseling Principles for Suicide Assessment and Teaching Counselors in Training

Training on suicide assessment and intervention in college counseling centers is crucial. The SAFE-T model is effective when teaching counselors in training (CITs) in training clinics on college campuses as students learn how to assess clients’ suicide risk level. We share how the SAFE-T model, in tandem with anti-racist counselor education practices, can enhance training in programs with training clinics based on our clinic at The Pennsylvania State University, followed by a case study to exemplify how to synthesize both practices for robust clinical outcomes

Recent trends in UK financial sector regulation and possible implications for the EU, including its approach to equivalence

Brexit poses unique challenges for policymakers in the EU as the most important financial centre in Europe is now outside its regulatory framework. We expect significant divergence over the medium- to long-term, given recent legislative and regulatory initiatives in the UK, but also developments of the regulatory framework in the EU. However, there seem to be limited concerns of an easing of the tax evasion and Anti-Money Laundering framework in the UK. We expect a limited use of the EU equivalence regime for the UK.This document was provided by the Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies at the request of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON)

The SAMPLE Experiment and Weak Nucleon Structure

One of the key elements to understanding the structure of the nucleon is the role of its quark-antiquark sea in its ground state properties such as charge, mass, magnetism and spin. In the last decade, parity-violating electron scattering has emerged as an important tool in this area, because of its ability to isolate the contribution of strange quark-antiquark pairs to the nucleon's charge and magnetism. The SAMPLE experiment at the MIT-Bates Laboratory, which has been focused on s-sbar contributions to the proton's magnetic moment, was the first of such experiments and its program has recently been completed. In this paper we give an overview of some of the experimental aspects of parity-violating electron scattering, briefly review the theoretical predictions for strange quark form factors, summarize the SAMPLE measurements, and place them in context with the program of experiments being carried out at other electron scattering facilities such as Jefferson Laboratory and the Mainz Microtron.Comment: 61 pages, review articl

Measurements of electron-proton elastic cross sections for 0.4<Q2<5.5(GeV/c)20.4 < Q^2 < 5.5 (GeV/c)^2

We report on precision measurements of the elastic cross section for electron-proton scattering performed in Hall C at Jefferson Lab. The measurements were made at 28 unique kinematic settings covering a range in momentum transfer of 0.4 $<$ $Q^2$ $<$ 5.5 $(\rm GeV/c)^2$. These measurements represent a significant contribution to the world's cross section data set in the $Q^2$ range where a large discrepancy currently exists between the ratio of electric to magnetic proton form factors extracted from previous cross section measurements and that recently measured via polarization transfer in Hall A at Jefferson Lab.Comment: 17 pages, 18 figures; text added, some figures replace

Behavioral differences following ingestion of large meals and consequences for management of a harmful invasive snake: A field experiment

Many snakes are uniquely adapted to ingest large prey at infrequent intervals. Digestion of large prey is metabolically and aerobically costly, and large prey boluses can impair snake locomotion, increasing vulnerability to predation. Cessation of foraging and use of refugia with microclimates facilitating digestion are expected to be strategies employed by free-ranging snakes to cope with the demands of digestion while minimizing risk of predation. However, empirical observations of such submergent behavior from field experiments are limited. The brown treesnake (Serpentes: Colubridae: Boiga irregularis) is a nocturnal, arboreal, colubrid snake that was accidentally introduced to the island of Guam, with ecologically and economically costly consequences. Because tools for brown treesnake damage prevention generally rely on snakes being visible or responding to lures or baits while foraging, cessation of foraging activities after feeding would complicate management. We sought to characterize differences in brown treesnake activity, movement, habitat use, and detectability following feeding of large meals (rodents 33% of the snake’s unfed body mass) via radio telemetry, trapping, and visual surveys. Compared to unfed snakes, snakes in the feeding treatment group showed drastic decreases in hourly and nightly activity rates, differences in refuge height and microhabitat type, and a marked decrease in detectability by trapping and visual surveys. Depression of activity lasted approximately 5–7 days, a period that corresponds to previous studies of brown treesnake digestion and cycles of detectability. Our results indicate that management strategies for invasive brown treesnakes need to account for cycles of unavailability and underscore the importance of preventing spread of brown treesnakes to new environments where large prey are abundant and periods of cryptic behavior are likely to be frequent. Characterization of postfeeding behavior changes provides a richer understanding of snake ecology and foraging models for species that consume large prey

Parity Violation in Elastic Electron-Nucleon Scattering: Strangeness Content in the Nucleon

Parity violation in elastic electron-nucleon scattering is studied with the basic goal of improving the understanding of electroweak hadronic structure with special emphasis on the strangeness content in the nucleon. Models for the parity-violating (PV) asymmetry are provided and compared with the world data measured at very different kinematics. The effects introduced in the PV asymmetry due to alternative descriptions of the hadronic structure are analyzed in detail. In particular, a wide selection of prescriptions for dealing with the electromagnetic and neutral current weak interaction nucleon form factors, including the most recent ones used in the literature, is considered.Comment: 73 pages, 20 figures. To be published in Physics Report

Revealing the short-range structure of the "mirror nuclei" 3^3H and 3^3He

When protons and neutrons (nucleons) are bound into atomic nuclei, they are close enough together to feel significant attraction, or repulsion, from the strong, short-distance part of the nucleon-nucleon interaction. These strong interactions lead to hard collisions between nucleons, generating pairs of highly-energetic nucleons referred to as short-range correlations (SRCs). SRCs are an important but relatively poorly understood part of nuclear structure and mapping out the strength and isospin structure (neutron-proton vs proton-proton pairs) of these virtual excitations is thus critical input for modeling a range of nuclear, particle, and astrophysics measurements. Hitherto measurements used two-nucleon knockout or ``triple-coincidence'' reactions to measure the relative contribution of np- and pp-SRCs by knocking out a proton from the SRC and detecting its partner nucleon (proton or neutron). These measurementsshow that SRCs are almost exclusively np pairs, but had limited statistics and required large model-dependent final-state interaction (FSI) corrections. We report on the first measurement using inclusive scattering from the mirror nuclei $^3$H and $^3$He to extract the np/pp ratio of SRCs in the A=3 system. We obtain a measure of the np/pp SRC ratio that is an order of magnitude more precise than previous experiments, and find a dramatic deviation from the near-total np dominance observed in heavy nuclei. This result implies an unexpected structure in the high-momentum wavefunction for $^3$He and $^3$H. Understanding these results will improve our understanding of the short-range part of the N-N interaction