Landscape Characteristics Predict Locations for Potential Human–Wildlife Interactions With Timber Rattlesnakes in Minnesota, USA

While management measures cannot eliminate human–wildlife conflicts, they have the potential to minimize the damage done to both parties, especially if areas where the nature of the potential interaction can be predicted before an encounter occurs. The timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) represents a wildlife species associated with public misconceptions that may foster unwarranted fears and retribution. This species is native to the eastern and southern regions of the United States, including a small population remnant in the southeastern region of Minnesota. To gain a better understanding of the environmental predictors relevant to human–snake encounters in Minnesota (that require action such as relocation), we studied point locations of human–snake interactions requiring human intervention in Winona County in southeastern Minnesota over a 13-year period between 2006 and 2019. We used the points to create a model to predict areas of increased potential for human–snake interactions. Our analysis identified areas with high potential for such contact between humans and rattlesnakes. This research highlighted environmental factors favorable to timber rattlesnake encounters with humans and may serve as a guide for management efforts to mitigate human–snake conflicts

Improving the Evaluation of the Competitive Ability of the National Market of Meat and Meat Products of Kazakhstan

This article considers the economic nature of competition and competitive ability in modern conditions of economic development, reveals features of the competitive environment of the meat market, identifies factors for increasing the competitive ability of meat industry. The methodological foundations of increasing the competitiveness of the national market of meat products in Kazakhstan are examined. The provisions and principles of a systematic approach to ensuring the development of the meat industry in the agro-industrial complex are examined. The performance rating of livestock and poultry meat production in the countries of Central Asia is determined

Hitchhikers on floats to Arctic freshwater: Private aviation and recreation loss from aquatic invasion

This study of aviation-related recreation loss shows that a survey primarily aimed at collecting information on invasive species’ pathways can also be used to estimate changes in pathway-related ecosystem services. We present a case study for Elodea spp. (elodea), Alaska’s first known aquatic invasive plant, by combining respondents’ stated pre-invasion actual flights with stated post-invasion contingent behavior, plane operating costs, and site quality data. We asked pilots about the extent of continued flights should destinations become invaded and inhibit flight safety. We estimate a recreation demand model where the lost trip value to the average floatplane pilot whose destination is an elodea-invaded lake is US$185 (95$157, $211). Estimates of ecosystem damages incurred by private actors responsible for transmitting invaders can nudge actors to change behavior and inform adaptive ecosystem management. The policy and modeling implications of quantifying such damages and integration into more complex models are discussed.Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund [Award 44907, 2013], Alaska Sea Grant [Award R/112-03, 2014], Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association.Ye

Prevalence-Dependent Costs of Parasite Virulence

Costs of parasitism are commonly measured by comparing the performance of infected groups of individuals to that of uninfected control groups. This measure potentially underestimates the cost of parasitism because it ignores indirect costs, which may result from the modification of the competitiveness of the hosts by the parasite. In this context, we used the host-parasite system consisting of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti and the microsporidian parasite Vavraia culicis to address this question: Do infected individuals exert a more or less intense intraspecific competition than uninfected individuals? Our experimental results show that, indeed, infected hosts incur a direct cost of parasitism: It takes them longer to become adults than uninfected individuals. They also incur an indirect cost, however, which is actually larger than the direct cost: When grown in competition with uninfected individuals they develop even slower. The consequence of this modification of competitiveness is that, in our system, the cost of parasitism is underestimated by the traditional measure. Moreover, because the indirect cost depends on the frequency of interactions between infected and uninfected individuals, our results suggest that the real cost of parasitism, i.e., virulence, is negatively correlated with the prevalence of the parasite. This link between prevalence and virulence may have dynamical consequences, such as reducing the invasion threshold of the parasite, and evolutionary consequences, such as creating a selection pressure maintaining the host's constitutive resistance to the parasite

Virus Infection Suppresses Nicotiana benthamiana Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity

Competition and parasitism are two important selective forces that shape life-histories, migration rates and population dynamics. Recently, it has been shown in various pathosystems that parasites can modify intraspecific competition, thus generating an indirect cost of parasitism. Here, we investigated if this phenomenon was present in a plant-potyvirus system using two viruses of different virulence (Tobacco etch virus and Turnip mosaic virus). Moreover, we asked if parasitism interacted with the shade avoidance syndrome, the plant-specific phenotypic plasticity in response to intraspecific competition. Our results indicate that the modification of intraspecific competition by parasitism is not present in the Nicotiana benthamiana – potyvirus system and suggests that this phenomenon is not universal but depends on the peculiarities of each pathosystem. However, whereas the healthy N. benthamiana presented a clear shade avoidance syndrome, this phenotypic plasticity totally disappeared when the plants were infected with TEV and TuMV, very likely resulting in a fitness loss and being another form of indirect cost of parasitism. This result suggests that the suppression or the alteration of adaptive phenotypic plasticity might be a component of virulence that is often overlooked

EXPLORING THE CAPABILITIES OF KAFKA STREAMS FOR REAL-TIME STREAM PROCESSING: A PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION

The ultimate goal of my research is to explore the capabilities of Apache Kafka, Kafka Streams API and Java 8 to process data streams in real time. As you know, the volume of data generated by modern applications is growing faster than traditional processing methods can process it. Many IT companies, including those in Kazakhstan, have problems processing big data in real time, especially in the financial sector and payroll departments, where calculation errors can have serious consequences as financial losses due to incorrect data processing. As part of the study, I studied the architecture, functionality and capabilities of Kafka Streams, as well as studied the literature and examples of using Kafka Streams in real projects. As a result, several demonstrative projects have been developed and implemented, as well as a practical system for calculating the payroll of employees, which shows the benefits of using Kafka Streams to process data streams in real time. To evaluate the effectiveness of the system, several experiments were carried out and the corresponding metrics were analyzed. In particular, I compared the performance of batch processing and real-time processing using several metrics: number of messages processed along with latency, throughput, and fetch requests. These metrics allow to evaluate the performance of messaging system and understand how well it is performing. Overall, this paper is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners interested in using Apache Kafka, the Kafka Streams API, and Java 8 to process real-time data streams and solve real-time big data processing problems