Synthesising and utilising complex evidence to inform policy in education and health.

Oslo, Norway, May 19 to 21, 200

Using the Scientific Method to Improve Game Bird Management and Research: Time

Aware of the time lag that frequently exists between declines in biodiversity and effective conservation to correct and reverse the declines, I examine some reasons behind this problem. Experience with species as diver se as the shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) and grey partridge (Perdix perdix) shows the main problem to be the long period of time needed to detect problems, to define causation, to install effective change s in policy and, finally, to bring about restoration. The time needed to conduct research and implement policy to solve such problems often exceeds the time span of a career in ecology. Speedier results are therefore essential, but they will depend in part on removing the barriers between practitioners and theorists on the one hand and between practical applied ecologists and bureaucratic policy maker s on the other

Studies on a marked population of the shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), with special reference to the breeding biology of birds of known age

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Restoring a Gray Partridge (Perdix perdix) Population and the Future of Predation Control

For the past quarter century, the author’s partridge (Perdix perdix) population simulation model has been a useful guide, incorporating annual variation in chick survival rate, nesting habitat quality, nest predation, pesticides affecting the supply of insect food for the chicks and shooting. The 2 most important variables, density dependent nest predation and effect of insect food supply have been experimentally verified and all parts of the model have been extensively validated. However some very high densities achieved in northern France have not been fully explained. An ongoing conservation research project within the Sussex Downs Study (U.K.) area is described. The area is small (155 ha) but the numbers of partridges have increased ten-fold since 2003, with 57 per 100-ha in the autumn of 2005. Despite a very high density of pheasants no adverse effect of a caecal nematode (Heterakis gallinarum) has been detected. This project has been successful so far, but it has involved the removal of large numbers of meso-predators. Although legal, this predation control is unpopular and difficult. Moreover the smaller raptors are increasing and cannot be controlled. The question of whether the return of some top-predators could improve the situation for the partridge is explored by reference to experience in the USA and other countries. Few species have been studied more than the partridge yet, even more vigorous research will be necessary in future to meet the many challenges ahead

Improved electromechanical master-slave manipulator

Electric master-slave manipulator uses force multiplication and allows the operator to remotely control the slave arm. Both the master and slave arms execute seven distinct motions by a specially designed force-reflecting servo having a one to one correspondence between the motion at the master and slave

QUASAT: An orbiting very long baseline interferometer program using large space antenna systems

QUASAT, which stands for QUASAR SATELLITE, is the name given to a new mission being studied by NASA. The QUASAT mission concept involves a free flying Earth orbiting large radio telescope, which will observe astronomical radio sources simultaneously with ground radio telescopes. The primary goal of QUASAT is to provide a system capable of collecting radio frequency data which will lead to a better understanding of extremely high energy events taking place in a variety of celestial objects including quasars, galactic nuclei, interstellar masers, radio stars and pulsars. QUASAT's unique scientific contribution will be the increased resolution in the emission brightness profile maps of the celestial objects

Top, Bottom Quarks and Higgs Bosons

In this talk, I will discuss possible new physics effects that modify the interaction of Higgs boson(s) with top and bottom quarks, and discuss how to detect such effects in current and future high energy colliders.Comment: LaTeX, 16 pages including 5 figure

Animal movements in the Kenya Rift and evidence for the earliest ambush hunting by hominins

Animal movements in the Kenya Rift Valley today are influenced by a combination of topography and trace nutrient distribution. These patterns would have been the same in the past when hominins inhabited the area. We use this approach to create a landscape reconstruction of Olorgesailie, a key site in the East African Rift with abundant evidence of large-mammal butchery between ~1.2 and ~0.5 Ma BP. The site location in relation to limited animal routes through the area show that hominins were aware of animal movements and used the location for ambush hunting during the Lower to Middle Pleistocene. These features explain the importance of Olorgesailie as a preferred location of repeated hominin activity through multiple changes in climate and local environmental conditions, and provide insights into the cognitive and hunting abilities of Homo erectus while indicating that their activities at the site were aimed at hunting, rather than scavenging

Restoration of a wild grey partridge shoot: a major development in the Sussex study, UK

Restauración de la caza de la perdiz pardilla: un importante progreso en el estudio de Sussex, Reino Unido Desde hace una generación se conoce la base científica de la gestión de la perdiz pardilla. Ésta incluye el control de los depredadores de nidos, la provisión de material para la nidificación, tener suficientes insectos para alimentar a las crías, y un control adecuado de la caza. Más recientemente también se ha considerado importante proveer alimento para las aves adultas y y hábitats para protegerlas de las aves rapaces. El abastecimiento del hábitat puede ser caro, pero en el Reino Unido los costos pueden recuperarse parcialmente mediante proyectos agro-medioambientales. El propietario de la tierra aún tiene que pagar por los servicios de los guardabosques. Desde 2003/2004, una parte del área de estudio de Sussex de la GWCT ha puesto en práctica estos principios de gestión ambiental, con la intención de restaurar la caza de la perdiz pardilla en esta zona del sur de Inglaterra. Los resultados han sido impresionantes, con un aumento de la densidad de parejas en primavera de 0,3/100 ha en 2003 hasta casi 20 parejas/100 ha en el 2010, en un área total de más de 10 km2. Durante los últimos dos años se ha practicado la caza de la perdiz pardilla y los propietarios de las tierras y sus equipos se han ganado el reconocimiento nacional por su labor conservacionista.Restauración de la caza de la perdiz pardilla: un importante progreso en el estudio de Sussex, Reino Unido Desde hace una generación se conoce la base científica de la gestión de la perdiz pardilla. Ésta incluye el control de los depredadores de nidos, la provisión de material para la nidificación, tener suficientes insectos para alimentar a las crías, y un control adecuado de la caza. Más recientemente también se ha considerado importante proveer alimento para las aves adultas y y hábitats para protegerlas de las aves rapaces. El abastecimiento del hábitat puede ser caro, pero en el Reino Unido los costos pueden recuperarse parcialmente mediante proyectos agro-medioambientales. El propietario de la tierra aún tiene que pagar por los servicios de los guardabosques. Desde 2003/2004, una parte del área de estudio de Sussex de la GWCT ha puesto en práctica estos principios de gestión ambiental, con la intención de restaurar la caza de la perdiz pardilla en esta zona del sur de Inglaterra. Los resultados han sido impresionantes, con un aumento de la densidad de parejas en primavera de 0,3/100 ha en 2003 hasta casi 20 parejas/100 ha en el 2010, en un área total de más de 10 km2. Durante los últimos dos años se ha practicado la caza de la perdiz pardilla y los propietarios de las tierras y sus equipos se han ganado el reconocimiento nacional por su labor conservacionista.The scientific basis of wild grey partridge management has been known for a generation. This includes controlling nest predators, providing nesting cover, having sufficient insect food for chicks and appropriate rates of shooting. More recently, measures such as providing food for adult birds and habitats for protection from birds of prey have also been considered important. Habitat provision can be expensive, but in the UK costs can be partially recovered through governmental agri–environment schemes. The landowner still needs to pay for the essential gamekeeper. Since 2003/04, one part of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s (GWCT) Sussex Study area has put these principles of environmental management into practice with the aim of restoring a wild grey partridge shoot to this part of Southern England. Results have been impressive, with the spring pair density increasing from 0.3 pairs/100 ha in 2003 to nearly 20 pairs/100 ha in 2010 on an area of just over 10 km2. Over the past two years a wild grey partridge shoot has taken place, and the landowner and his team have gained national recognition for their conservation work