Development of a Mammal Hair Identification Guide for Common Species in New York

Identifying mammals by hair characteristics is valuable for wildlife management applications, law enforcement, and regulation of international treaties. Researchers use hair identification in scat-and gastrointestinal-based diet studies, genetic-based hair-snare collections, and monitoring trade of rare and protected species. No accessible mammalian hair identification key exists for New York or other northeastern states. Identification keys are beneficial for researchers, wildlife managers and interested members of the general public that attempt to identify specific taxa. We created a guard-hair identification key for common mammalian species in New York State. This key was needed to identify diet components during a suburban coyote study. We collected hair samples of common mammal species in New York from private fur collections, road-killed specimens, and museum archives. Hair samples were characterized using 10 categorical variables. We then used single-fusion, hierarchical cluster analysis (Program JMP 7.0) to rapidly facilitate the identification of unique patterns, similarities, and dissimilarities of the hair characteristics. This statistical-based analysis produced a dendrogram that was used as a road map for the structural organization of the hair key. JMP\u27s dynamical interface allowed us to select specific branches of the dendrogram, thus highlighting the observations in the data table, and quickly identifying the important characteristics that differentiated mammal groupings and subsets. This is a new application of a multivariate technique, hierarchical cluster analysis, to rapidly develop a mammalian guard-hair identification key. This method could be used to develop locally-customized identification keys for wildlife damage research and management

Behavioral Ecology and Management of Suburban Coyotes in Westchester County, New York

The coyote (Canis latrans) is now established as a relatively common inhabitant of nearly all landscapes in the northeastern United States. However, the ecology and management of this larger, mid-sized carnivore in urban areas is poorly understood, and creates much uncertainty for residents and wildlife managers alike. Detailed behavioral ecology studies are important to understand the role of the coyote in urbanized landscapes and their interactions with humans. We are studying the behavioral ecology of coyotes in Westchester County, N.Y., a predominantly urban county directly north of New York City. We investigated the diet of coyotes through trail-based fecal collections to identify potential anthropogenic food items that could lead to negative human-coyote interactions. Concurrently, we examined the spatial ecology of coyotes using both VHF-and GPS-based telemetry. Preliminary results from the diet analysis indicated that \u3e50% of the scats collected contained white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) remains. Other natural food items accounted for most of the remaining food items. No domestic dog remains have been identified in scats and only 4 scats contained domestic cat remains-3 of which were collected during the same day along the same collection trail. Spatial ecology data indicated that coyote home ranges (n = 26) averaged 5.53 km2 ± 3.18 SD, and ranged from 1.16-12.02 km2. Habitat use revealed that 71% of coyote locations (n = 1,987) were in natural lands, and 28% were in residential, recreational and agricultural areas. While these findings indicated the risk for negative interactions was lower than for other areas of the U.S., potential does remain for conflicts to occur. Overall, resident coyotes appear to be living natural lives and remain embedded in natural processes, while avoiding human interactions in developed landscapes

Investigating a Possible Treatment of Duchene Muscular Dystrophy with a Novel Calpain Inhibitor [abstract]

Abstract only availableFaculty Mentor: Dr. Martin K. Childers, Physical Medicine & RehabilitationDuchene Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is the most common lethal X-linked recessive muscle disease, affecting nearly one out of every 3,500 newborn males.  Symptoms appear before age three and by eleven, most children are unable to walk.  Few live past the age of 25.The genetic disorder is caused by a mutation in the dystrophin gene, eradicating the body's ability to produce the cytoskeletal protein, dystrophin.  In normal muscle cells, dystrophin is part of a molecular complex that adds mechanical integrity to the sarcolemma by linking the cytoskeleton to the extracellular matrix.  When the complex is disrupted, as in the case of DMD, the membrane is easily torn during regular muscle use.  Damage to the membrane causes aberrant influxes of Ca++, initiating a cascade of devastating molecular events in the sarcomere.  Elevated Ca++ over activates a family of proteases known as calpains. Calpains cleave proteins at specific sites.  Over-active calpains are thought to contribute to pathology in DMD.  Compounds that hinder calpain activity present a possible treatment for the disease.  A novel protease inhibitor has shown promising results in preliminary investigations in mice and this study was proposed to further explore the compound's effect on gene expression in canine muscle. An Affymetrix canine microarray was used to compare mRNA expression between normal dogs, dogs with golden retriever muscular dystrophy (GRMD), and inhibitor-treated GRMD dogs.  By comparing these expression levels, we are able to speculate whether calpain inhibitor treatment is able to mitigate aberrant gene expression in GRMD dogs.  Analysis of raw data is ongoing.  Further study is required to determine if mRNA levels equate with the protein expression levels using PCR, Western Blotting, or other methods

Seasonality and predictability shape temporal species diversity

Temporal environmental fluctuations, such as seasonality, exert strong controls on biodiversity. While the effects of seasonality are well known, the predictability of fluctuations across years may influence seasonality in ways that are less well understood. The ability of a habitat to support unique, non‐nested assemblages of species at different times of the year should depend on both seasonality (occurrence of events at specific periods of the year) and predictability (the reliability of event recurrence) of characteristic ecological conditions. Drawing on tools from wavelet analysis and information theory, we developed a framework for quantifying both seasonality and predictability of habitats, and applied this using global long‐term rainfall data. Our analysis predicted that temporal beta diversity should be maximized in highly predictable and highly seasonal climates, and that low degrees of seasonality, predictability, or both would lower diversity in characteristic ways. Using stream invertebrate communities as a case study, we demonstrated that temporal species diversity, as exhibited by community turnover, was determined by a balance between temporal environmental variability (seasonality) and the reliability of this variability (predictability). Communities in highly seasonal mediterranean environments exhibited strong oscillations in community structure, with turnover from one unique community type to another across seasons, whereas communities in aseasonal New Zealand environments fluctuated randomly. Understanding the influence of seasonal and other temporal scales of environmental oscillations on diversity is not complete without a clear understanding of their predictability, and our framework provides tools for examining these trends at a variety of temporal scales, seasonal and beyond. Given the uncertainty of future climates, seasonality and predictability are critical considerations for both basic science and management of ecosystems (e.g., dam operations, bioassessment) spanning gradients of climatic variability

Cryptotomography: reconstructing 3D Fourier intensities from randomly oriented single-shot diffraction patterns

We reconstructed the 3D Fourier intensity distribution of mono-disperse prolate nano-particles using single-shot 2D coherent diffraction patterns collected at DESY's FLASH facility when a bright, coherent, ultrafast X-ray pulse intercepted individual particles of random, unmeasured orientations. This first experimental demonstration of cryptotomography extended the Expansion-Maximization-Compression (EMC) framework to accommodate unmeasured fluctuations in photon fluence and loss of data due to saturation or background scatter. This work is an important step towards realizing single-shot diffraction imaging of single biomolecules.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

GEO 600 and the GEO-HF upgrade program: successes and challenges

The German-British laser-interferometric gravitational wave detector GEO 600 is in its 14th year of operation since its first lock in 2001. After GEO 600 participated in science runs with other first-generation detectors, a program known as GEO-HF began in 2009. The goal was to improve the detector sensitivity at high frequencies, around 1 kHz and above, with technologically advanced yet minimally invasive upgrades. Simultaneously, the detector would record science quality data in between commissioning activities. As of early 2014, all of the planned upgrades have been carried out and sensitivity improvements of up to a factor of four at the high-frequency end of the observation band have been achieved. Besides science data collection, an experimental program is ongoing with the goal to further improve the sensitivity and evaluate future detector technologies. We summarize the results of the GEO-HF program to date and discuss its successes and challenges

The conservation status of the world’s freshwater molluscs

With the biodiversity crisis continuing unchecked, we need to establish levels and drivers of extinction risk, and reassessments over time, to effectively allocate conservation resources and track progress towards global conservation targets. Given that threat appears particularly high in freshwaters, we assessed the extinction risk of 1428 randomly selected freshwater molluscs using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, as part of the Sampled Red List Index project. We show that close to one-third of species in our sample are estimated to be threatened with extinction, with highest levels of threat in the Nearctic, Palearctic and Australasia and among gastropods. Threat levels were higher in lotic than lentic systems. Pollution (chemical and physical) and the modification of natural systems (e.g. through damming and water abstraction) were the most frequently reported threats to freshwater molluscs, with some regional variation. Given that we found little spatial congruence between species richness patterns of freshwater molluscs and other freshwater taxa, apart from crayfish, new additional conservation priority areas emerged from our study. We discuss the implications of our findings for freshwater mollusc conservation, the adequacy of a sampled approach and important next steps to estimate trends in freshwater mollusc extinction risk over time

Microcondylaea bonellii as a new host for the European bitterling Rhodeus amarus

We report for the first time that the freshwater mussel Microcondylaea bonellii (Ferussac, 1827) functions as a suitable host for the European bitterling Rhodeus amarus (Bloch, 1782). Given the recent expansion of R. amarus in Europe, the possible physiological cost (e.g. competition for oxygen, reduction in water circulation, and consequent impairment of filter-feeding) of this interaction may further affect the already poor conservation status of M. bonellii populations.We acknowledge the two anonymous referees for the helpful suggestions that improve the clarity of our manuscript. This research was funded by FCT under project ConBiomics No NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030286, cofinanced by COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and the European Union through the ERDF