Raccoons: Wildlife Damage Management Series

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are found across the United States largely due to their excellent ability to adapt and take advantage of new habitats. Raccoons, although not native to Utah, are abundant throughout much of the state. They are most commonly found in wooded areas along rivers, marshes or lakes. In urban areas, raccoons will make dens in attics, chimneys, under houses, in abandoned buildings, and in woodpiles

Geometric and dynamic perspectives on phase-coherent and noncoherent chaos

Statistically distinguishing between phase-coherent and noncoherent chaotic dynamics from time series is a contemporary problem in nonlinear sciences. In this work, we propose different measures based on recurrence properties of recorded trajectories, which characterize the underlying systems from both geometric and dynamic viewpoints. The potentials of the individual measures for discriminating phase-coherent and noncoherent chaotic oscillations are discussed. A detailed numerical analysis is performed for the chaotic R\"ossler system, which displays both types of chaos as one control parameter is varied, and the Mackey-Glass system as an example of a time-delay system with noncoherent chaos. Our results demonstrate that especially geometric measures from recurrence network analysis are well suited for tracing transitions between spiral- and screw-type chaos, a common route from phase-coherent to noncoherent chaos also found in other nonlinear oscillators. A detailed explanation of the observed behavior in terms of attractor geometry is given.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure

Partisan Asymmetries in Online Political Activity

We examine partisan differences in the behavior, communication patterns and social interactions of more than 18,000 politically-active Twitter users to produce evidence that points to changing levels of partisan engagement with the American online political landscape. Analysis of a network defined by the communication activity of these users in proximity to the 2010 midterm congressional elections reveals a highly segregated, well clustered partisan community structure. Using cluster membership as a high-fidelity (87% accuracy) proxy for political affiliation, we characterize a wide range of differences in the behavior, communication and social connectivity of left- and right-leaning Twitter users. We find that in contrast to the online political dynamics of the 2008 campaign, right-leaning Twitter users exhibit greater levels of political activity, a more tightly interconnected social structure, and a communication network topology that facilitates the rapid and broad dissemination of political information.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 6 table

High connectivity among locally adapted populations of a marine fish (Menidia menidia)

Author Posting. © Ecological Society of America, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of Ecological Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ecology 91 (2010): 3526–3537, doi:10.1890/09-0548.1.Patterns of connectivity are important in understanding the geographic scale of local adaptation in marine populations. While natural selection can lead to local adaptation, high connectivity can diminish the potential for such adaptation to occur. Connectivity, defined as the exchange of individuals among subpopulations, is presumed to be significant in most marine species due to life histories that include widely dispersive stages. However, evidence of local adaptation in marine species, such the Atlantic silverside, Menidia menidia, raises questions concerning the degree of connectivity. We examined geochemical signatures in the otoliths, or ear bones, of adult Atlantic silversides collected in 11 locations along the northeastern coast of the United States from New Jersey to Maine in 2004 and eight locations in 2005 using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and isotope ratio monitoring mass spectrometry (irm-MS). These signatures were then compared to baseline signatures of juvenile fish of known origin to determine natal origin of these adult fish. We then estimated migration distances and the degree of mixing from these data. In both years, fish generally had the highest probability of originating from the same location in which they were captured (0.01–0.80), but evidence of mixing throughout the sample area was present. Furthermore, adult M. menidia exhibit highly dispersive behavior with some fish migrating over 700 km. The probability of adult fish returning to natal areas differed between years, with the probability being, on average, 0.2 higher in the second year. These findings demonstrate that marine species with largely open populations are capable of local adaptation despite apparently high gene flow.This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (grant OCE-0425830 to D. O. Conover and grant OCE- 0134998 to S. R. Thorrold) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Is Fed Policy Still Relevant for Investors?

Using 38 years of data, we show that U.S. monetary policy has had, and continues to have, a strong relationship with security returns. Specifically, we find that U.S. stock returns are consistently higher and less volatile during periods when the Federal Reserve is following an expansive monetary policy. Further, firms considered to be more sensitive to changes in monetary conditions, such as small firms and cyclicals, exhibit monetary-policy-related return patterns that are much more pronounced than average. Lastly, the influence of U.S. monetary policy is shown to be a global phenomenon, as international indices have return patterns similar to those for the U.S. market. Overall, our evidence suggests that investment professionals should continue to use monetary conditions when performing fundamental analysis of both U.S. and international securities

Tomorrow\u27s banking: Four perspectives

Illustration not included in Web versio

The topology of a discussion: the #occupy case

We analyse a large sample of the Twitter activity developed around the social movement 'Occupy Wall Street' to study the complex interactions between the human communication activity and the semantic content of a discussion. We use a network approach based on the analysis of the bipartite graph @Users-#Hashtags and of its projections: the 'semantic network', whose nodes are hashtags, and the 'users interest network', whose nodes are users In the first instance, we find out that discussion topics (#hashtags) present a high heterogeneity, with the distinct role of the communication hubs where most the 'opinion traffic' passes through. In the second case, the self-organization process of users activity leads to the emergence of two classes of communicators: the 'professionals' and the 'amateurs'. Moreover the network presents a strong community structure, based on the differentiation of the semantic topics, and a high level of structural robustness when a certain set of topics are censored and/or accounts are removed. Analysing the characteristics the @Users-#Hashtags network we can distinguish three phases of the discussion about the movement. Each phase corresponds to specific moment of the movement: from declaration of intent, organisation and development and the final phase of political reactions. Each phase is characterised by the presence of specific #hashtags in the discussion. Keywords: Twitter, Network analysisComment: 13 pages, 9 figure

The Association of Early Dietary Supplementation with Vitamin E with the Incidence of Ulcerative Dermatitis in Mice on a C57BL/6 Background

The purpose of this study was to ascertain if prophylactic ingestion of a diet rich in vitamin E would prevent  or impede the development of ulcerative dermatitis in mice on a C57BL/6 background. Mice were fed after  weaning a standard mouse diet, vitamin E (99 IU/kg), or a mouse diet fortified with vitamin E (3000 IU/  kg). Cases of ulcerative dermatitis were recorded by individuals (i.e. aware of) the diet assignment. The  incidence of ulcerative dermatitis in a retrospective cohort of mice on standard diet was compared with the  group on the diet fortified with vitamin E. Age was associated with ulcerative dermatitis in standard diet  and vitamin E fortified diet groups, r = 0.43, p-value < 0.0001 and r = 0.18, p-value < 0.02, respectively.  The average age of incidence for ulcerative dermatitis in the mice fed the standard diet was 89 weeks and  for the mice fed the vitamin E diet it was 41 weeks. The unadjusted odds ratio comparing the incidence of  ulcerative dermatitis between the two diet groups was 4.6 with a 95% confidence interval of (2.44, 8.58),  x2 p-value < 0.0001. Therefore, there was an association between the diets and ulcerative dermatitis, with  the mice on the vitamin E fortified diet having almost five times the odds of having ulcerative dermatitis  compared with mice on the standard diet. Incidence of ulcerative dermatitis was not influenced by sex or  genotype. Our study results show that a diet fortified in vitamin E initiated at weaning does not prevent or  impede the development of ulcerative dermatitis in mice on a C57BL/6 background and on the contrary  accelerate development when administered to young mice.

Training tomorrow\u27s specialists in wildlife damage management

In 1990, Utah State University (USU) established a U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Animal Damage Control (ADC)-funded center dedicated to research, education, and extension in wildlife damage management. USU\u27 s Program in Wildlife Damage Management is designed to increase appreciation for wildlife damage management among wildlife professionals, provide superior training for future practitioners of wildlife damage management through education and innovative research, and create better public understanding of the role of wildlife damage management in today\u27s society

White matter changes and confrontation naming in retired aging national football league athletes

Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), we assessed the relationship of white matter integrity and performance on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) in a group of retired professional football players and a control group. We examined correlations between fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) with BNT T-scores in an unbiased voxelwise analysis processed with tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). We also analyzed the DTI data by grouping voxels together as white matter tracts and testing each tract's association with BNT T-scores. Significant voxelwise correlations between FA and BNT performance were only seen in the retired football players (p < 0.02). Two tracts had mean FA values that significantly correlated with BNT performance: forceps minor and forceps major. White matter integrity is important for distributed cognitive processes, and disruption correlates with diminished performance in athletes exposed to concussive and subconcussive brain injuries, but not in controls without such exposure