Influence of Climate Change and Postdelisting Management on Long‐term Population Viability of the Conservation‐reliant Kirtland\u27s Warbler

Rapid global climate change is resulting in novel abiotic and biotic conditions and in‐ teractions. Identifying management strategies that maximize probability of long‐term persistence requires an understanding of the vulnerability of species to environmen‐ tal changes. We sought to quantify the vulnerability of Kirtland\u27s Warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii), a rare Neotropical migratory songbird that breeds almost exclusively in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and winters in the Bahamian Archipelago, to pro‐ jected environmental changes on the breeding and wintering grounds. We devel‐ oped a population‐level simulation model that incorporates the influence of annual environmental conditions on the breeding and wintering grounds, and parameter‐ ized the model using empirical relationships. We simulated independent and addi‐ tive effects of reduced breeding grounds habitat quantity and quality, and wintering grounds habitat quality, on population viability. Our results indicated the Kirtland\u27s Warbler population is stable under current environmental and management condi‐ tions. Reduced breeding grounds habitat quantity resulted in reductions of the stable population size, but did not cause extinction under the scenarios we examined. In contrast, projected large reductions in wintering grounds precipitation caused the population to decline, with risk of extinction magnified when breeding habitat quan‐ tity or quality also decreased. Our study indicates that probability of long‐term per‐ sistence for Kirtland\u27s Warbler will depend on climate change impacts to wintering grounds habitat quality and contributes to the growing literature documenting the importance of considering the full annual cycle for understanding population dynam‐ ics of migratory species

Desarrollo larval y variación de la forma de la doncellita Myxodes viridis (Teleostei: Clinidae)

Larval development and shape ontogeny of the kelpfish Myxodes viridis (Clinidae) are described for the first time. A total of 214 individuals ranging between 3.51 and 23.09 mm standard length collected off central Chile were assessed employing classic and geometric morphometrics, illustration with camera lucida and a double-staining technique for cartilaginous and bone structure observation. Based on characteristics such as yolk sac presence and fin formation, six stages of larval development were differentiated: yolk sac, preflexion, flexion, early postflexion, late postflexion and juvenile. Shape changes during development are subtle and occur smoothly, being more significant in the head and preanal length, and ontogenetic allometry accounts for almost 15%. Cartilage formation takes place first at the branchial arches and cranium; then hypural, haemal and neural arches are consecutively formed. Bony structure ossification occurs late in the development. Vertebral centra ossify directly, without cartilaginous matrix replacement.Se describe por primera vez el desarrollo larval y la ontogenia de la forma de la doncellita Myxodes viridis (Clinidae). Se utilizaron 214 individuos, que variaron entre 3.51 y 23.09 mm LE, recolectados frente a Chile central, para describir la morfometría clásica, geométrica, ilustraciones con cámara lucida y observación de estructuras cartilaginosas y óseas teñidas. Se diferenciaron 6 estados de desarrollo larvario basada en características como la presencia de saco vitelino y la formación de aletas: larva con saco vitelino, preflexión, postflexión temprana, postflexión tardía y juvenil. Los cambios de forma a través del desarrollo fueron sutiles y cambiaron levemente, siendo más significativos en la cabeza y longitud preanal y la alometría ontogenética correspondió a un 15% de los cambios de forma. La formación de cartílago ocurre primero en los arcos branquiales y el cráneo, luego se forman consecutivamente los elementos hipurales y los arcos hemales y neurales. La osificación de las estructuras ocurre tarde en el desarrollo. Los centros vertebrales se osifican directamente, sin reemplazo de la matriz cartilaginosa

Causality and the AdS Dirichlet problem

The (planar) AdS Dirichlet problem has previously been shown to exhibit superluminal hydrodynamic sound modes. This problem is defined by bulk gravitational dynamics with Dirichlet boundary conditions imposed on a rigid timelike cut-off surface. We undertake a careful examination of this set-up and argue that, in most cases, the propagation of information between points on the Dirichlet hypersurface is nevertheless causal with respect to the induced light cones. In particular, the high-frequency dynamics is causal in this sense. There are however two exceptions and both involve boundary gravitons whose propagation is not constrained by the Einstein equations. These occur in i) AdS$_3$, where the boundary gravitons generally do not respect the induced light cones on the boundary, and ii) Rindler space, where they are related to the infinite speed of sound in incompressible fluids. We discuss implications for the fluid/gravity correspondence with rigid Dirichlet boundaries and for the black hole membrane paradigm.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures. v2: added refs. v3: minor clarification

The McDonald Observatory search for pulsating sdA stars : asteroseismic support for multiple populations

Context. The nature of the recently identified “sdA” spectroscopic class of stars is not well understood. The thousands of known sdAs have H-dominated spectra, spectroscopic surface gravity values between main sequence stars and isolated white dwarfs, and effective temperatures below the lower limit for He-burning subdwarfs. Most are likely products of binary stellar evolution, whether extremely low-mass white dwarfs and their precursors or blue stragglers in the halo. Aims. Stellar eigenfrequencies revealed through time series photometry of pulsating stars sensitively probe stellar structural properties. The properties of pulsations exhibited by sdA stars would contribute substantially to our developing understanding of this class. Methods. We extend our photometric campaign to discover pulsating extremely low-mass white dwarfs from the McDonald Observatory to target sdA stars classified from SDSS spectra. We also obtain follow-up time series spectroscopy to search for binary signatures from four new pulsators. Results. Out of 23 sdA stars observed, we clearly detect stellar pulsations in 7. Dominant pulsation periods range from 4.6 min to 12.3 h, with most on timescales of approximately one hour. We argue specific classifications for some of the new variables, identifying both compact and likely main sequence dwarf pulsators, along with a candidate low-mass RR Lyrae star. Conclusions. With dominant pulsation periods spanning orders of magnitude, the pulsational evidence supports the emerging narrative that the sdA class consists of multiple stellar populations. Since multiple types of sdA exhibit stellar pulsations, follow-up asteroseismic analysis can be used to probe the precise evolutionary natures and stellar structures of these individual subpopulations

Genetic Studies of Sulfadiazine-resistant and Methionine-requiring \u3cem\u3eNeisseria\u3c/em\u3e Isolated From Clinical Material

Deoxyribonucleate (DNA) preparations were extracted from Neisseria meningitidis (four isolates from spinal fluid and blood) and N. gonorrhoeae strains, all of which were resistant to sulfadiazine upon primary isolation. These DNA preparations, together with others from in vitro mutants of N. meningitidis and N. perflava, were examined in transformation tests by using as recipient a drug-susceptible strain of N. meningitidis (Ne 15 Sul-s Met+) which was able to grow in a methionine-free defined medium. The sulfadiazine resistance typical of each donor was introduced into the uniform constitution of this recipient. Production of p-aminobenzoic acid was not significantly altered thereby. Transformants elicited by DNA from the N. meningitidis clinical isolates were resistant to at least 200 μg of sulfadiazine/ml, and did not show a requirement for methionine (Sul-r Met+). DNA from six strains of N. gonorrhoeae, which were isolated during the period of therapeutic use of sulfonamides, conveyed lower degrees of resistance and, invariably, a concurrent methionine requirement (Sul-r/Met−). The requirement of these transformants, and that of in vitro mutants selected on sulfadiazine-agar, was satisfied by methionine, but not by vitamin B12, homocysteine, cystathionine, homoserine, or cysteine. Sul-r Met+ and Sul-r/Met− loci could coexist in the same genome, but were segregated during transformation. On the other hand, the dual Sul-r/Met− properties were not separated by recombination, but were eliminated together. DNA from various Sul-r/Met− clones tested against recipients having nonidentical Sul-r/Met− mutant sites yielded Sul-s Met+ transformants. The met locus involved is genetically complex, and will be a valuable tool for studies of genetic fine structure of members of Neisseria, and of genetic homology between species

Empathy, engagement, entrainment: the interaction dynamics of aesthetic experience

A recent version of the view that aesthetic experience is based in empathy as inner imitation explains aesthetic experience as the automatic simulation of actions, emotions, and bodily sensations depicted in an artwork by motor neurons in the brain. Criticizing the simulation theory for committing to an erroneous concept of empathy and failing to distinguish regular from aesthetic experiences of art, I advance an alternative, dynamic approach and claim that aesthetic experience is enacted and skillful, based in the recognition of others’ experiences as distinct from one’s own. In combining insights from mainly psychology, phenomenology, and cognitive science, the dynamic approach aims to explain the emergence of aesthetic experience in terms of the reciprocal interaction between viewer and artwork. I argue that aesthetic experience emerges by participatory sense-making and revolves around movement as a means for creating meaning. While entrainment merely plays a preparatory part in this, aesthetic engagement constitutes the phenomenological side of coupling to an artwork and provides the context for exploration, and eventually for moving, seeing, and feeling with art. I submit that aesthetic experience emerges from bodily and emotional engagement with works of art via the complementary processes of the perception–action and motion–emotion loops. The former involves the embodied visual exploration of an artwork in physical space, and progressively structures and organizes visual experience by way of perceptual feedback from body movements made in response to the artwork. The latter concerns the movement qualities and shapes of implicit and explicit bodily responses to an artwork that cue emotion and thereby modulate over-all affect and attitude. The two processes cause the viewer to bodily and emotionally move with and be moved by individual works of art, and consequently to recognize another psychological orientation than her own, which explains how art can cause feelings of insight or awe and disclose aspects of life that are unfamiliar or novel to the viewer