The effects of resource availability on territorial behavior of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris).

BirdsRuby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) often migrate to their summer breeding grounds, sometimes before their main food source, nectar from flowers, becomes available. On Douglas Lake at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI, we explored how resource availability affected aggressive behavior in hummingbirds. Eight lakeside sites had either a single or triple set of hummingbird feeders. We predicted that the richness of a resource site would determine the number of aggressive interactions initiated by males, with the more resource-rich sites experiencing higher frequencies of male-initiated territorial behavior. We also hypothesized that males would express more territorial behavior (chases and vocalizations) than females. We counted two types of territorial behavior in both males and females: chasings and vocalizations. Our results showed that more male aggression occurred at the resource-rich triple feeder sites, but there were more instances of female aggression than male aggression, especially at single feeder sites. Resource availability of a given site seems to be a determining factor affecting the distribution of each sex. Ihttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109734/1/Biswas_Dollison_French_Roos_2014.pd

A study on adverse drug reactions to non-ionic contrast medium in an Indian population: a 1-year experience

Background: To the best of our understanding, very few studies focusing on the adverse drug reaction (ADR) profile of non-ionic contrast medium (NICM) has been carried out until date among the Indian population. Hence, this study was planned. We sincerely believe that the knowledge gathered from this study can improve safer usage of these agents among the patients of Indian origin. The objective was to evaluate the incidence and severity of ADRs of non-ionic radio contrast media (CM) used in tertiary care hospital in Eastern India.Methods: For the duration of 1-year from July 2011 to July 2012, we prospectively recorded all the ADRs associated with the administration of NICM (iohexol and ioversol) in 3708 patients of Indian origin undergoing computed tomography scan at the hospital. The average median age, weight, dose used; types of ADRs, concomitant medication, final diagnosis, reasons for use were recorded and analyzed with appropriate statistical tools. Causality assessment was performed using Naranjo scale.Results: Eleven of 3708 patients who received either ioversol or iohexol developed ADRs (i.e. 0.3% of patients). The most common ADR was rigor. The incidences of mild, moderate and severe reactions were 55%, 36% and 9%, respectively. Average median age, weight, and dose used were 35 years, 66 kg and 70 ml, respectively. All the ADRs were early (occurred within 1 hr of CM administration). Due to logical constraints, the follow-up of these patients was not possible and hence late ADRs were not captured. The common concomitant medication used was pantoprazole (63.63% of patients). The difference in the incidence of ADRs by age distribution (Group 1 - Iohexol, Group 2 - Ioversol) and weight distribution was not statistically significant (p=0.75 and p=0.18, respectively). Causality analysis revealed that all the ADRs were possible (Score of 4). Interestingly, the incidence of reactions was noted to be higher in patients with a history of gastro intestinal disorders (45.45%).Conclusions: This pilot study reveals that adverse reactions to NICM are rare and severe reactions are less common among the patients of Indian origin. However, a larger multicentric study across the country should be carried out to understand the safety profile of these CM better among the Indian population

Prairie Learning: Integrating the Arts and Environmental Education with Ecological Restoration in Ann Arbor, Michigan

This practicum was centered around the ecological restoration of study plots located in a former athletic field of non-native turf grasses at the Freeman Environmental Education Center in the Ann Arbor Public School District in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The objectives of the project included increasing the biodiversity and ecological function of the site by creating the beginnings of an educational prairie in study plots, using ecological restoration as a tool for environmental education and fostering human-land relationships, providing a management plan for restoration expansion based upon observations of the plots, and integrating the arts as a key component of restoration and environmental education practices. Site preparation methods tested included smothering and repeated tilling to eradicate turf grass, and propagation methods included planting native seedlings and broadcasting native seed mixes. Environmental education curriculum and programming for K12 students was developed and implemented throughout the process. This included the development and implementation of an educational module which culminated in a collaborative sculpture built with students who learned about prairie ecosystems and stewardship. This educational module was developed to be place-based, interdisciplinary, exploratory, collaborative, and multi-sensory. The final component of this project was a children’s book written and illustrated to tell the story of a community of humans and other animals who work together to restore a prairie. The book is a tool for people of all ages to learn about prairie restoration and stewardship, and includes an educational guide to promote further action.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/192865/1/Biswas_Esha_Practicum.pdfSEL

Linked Open Data Validity -- A Technical Report from ISWS 2018

Linked Open Data (LOD) is the publicly available RDF data in the Web. Each LOD entity is identfied by a URI and accessible via HTTP. LOD encodes globalscale knowledge potentially available to any human as well as artificial intelligence that may want to benefit from it as background knowledge for supporting their tasks. LOD has emerged as the backbone of applications in diverse fields such as Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, Computer Vision, Speech Recognition, and many more. Nevertheless, regardless of the specific tasks that LOD-based tools aim to address, the reuse of such knowledge may be challenging for diverse reasons, e.g. semantic heterogeneity, provenance, and data quality. As aptly stated by Heath et al. Linked Data might be outdated, imprecise, or simply wrong": there arouses a necessity to investigate the problem of linked data validity. This work reports a collaborative effort performed by nine teams of students, guided by an equal number of senior researchers, attending the International Semantic Web Research School (ISWS 2018) towards addressing such investigation from different perspectives coupled with different approaches to tackle the issue

Linked Open Data Validity -- A Technical Report from ISWS 2018

Linked Open Data (LOD) is the publicly available RDF data in the Web. Each LOD entity is identfied by a URI and accessible via HTTP. LOD encodes globalscale knowledge potentially available to any human as well as artificial intelligence that may want to benefit from it as background knowledge for supporting their tasks. LOD has emerged as the backbone of applications in diverse fields such as Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, Computer Vision, Speech Recognition, and many more. Nevertheless, regardless of the specific tasks that LOD-based tools aim to address, the reuse of such knowledge may be challenging for diverse reasons, e.g. semantic heterogeneity, provenance, and data quality. As aptly stated by Heath et al. Linked Data might be outdated, imprecise, or simply wrong": there arouses a necessity to investigate the problem of linked data validity. This work reports a collaborative effort performed by nine teams of students, guided by an equal number of senior researchers, attending the International Semantic Web Research School (ISWS 2018) towards addressing such investigation from different perspectives coupled with different approaches to tackle the issue