Camera trap distance sampling for terrestrial mammal population monitoring: lessons learnt from a UK case study

Accurate and precise density estimates are crucial for effective species management and conservation. However, efficient monitoring of mammal densities over large spatial and temporal scales is challenging. In the United Kingdom, published density estimates for many mammals, including species considered to be common, are imprecise. Camera trap distance sampling (CTDS) can estimate densities of multiple species at a time and has been used successfully in a small number of studies. However, CTDS has typically been used over relatively homogeneous landscapes, often over large time scales, making monitoring changes (by repeating surveys) difficult. In this study, we deployed camera traps at 109 sites across an area of 2725 km2 of varied habitat in North-East England, United Kingdom. The 4-month survey generated 51 447 photos of wild mammal species. Data were sufficient for us to use CTDS to estimate the densities of eight mammal species across the whole-survey area and within four specific habitats. Both survey-wide and habitat-specific density estimates largely fell within previously published density ranges and our estimates were amongst the most precise produced for these species to date. Lower precision for some species was typically due to animals being missed by the camera at certain distances, highlighting the need for careful consideration of practical and methodological decisions, such as how high to set cameras and where to left-truncate data. Although CTDS is a promising methodology for determining densities of multiple species from one survey, species-specific decisions are still required and these cannot always be generalized across species types and locations. Taking the United Kingdom as a case study, our study highlights the potential for CTDS to be used on a national scale, although the scale of the task suggests that it would need to be integrated with a citizen science approach

Improvement of information technology tools to collect, process and analyse data on wildlife population

ENETWILD consortium with the collaboration of the MammalNet project2 has promoted some informatic tools to improve the data collection of wildlife distribution and abundance: iMammalia; MammalWeb and Agouti. Here we update the activities in relation to (i) the new languages implemented; (ii) new functionalities, (iii) and the improvement and testing of the artificial intelligence module to identify species in Agouti. The iMammalia app is now available in 17 languages with at least two more to be added soon. MammalWeb is available in six languages with more to be added soon. Agouti is available in seven languages. iMammalia automates data transfer to the global database GBIF, and MammalWeb will consider a similar approach in the near future. Technical improvements were made to meet the needs of iMammalia as a carcass reporting app for wild boar, which will favour early awareness in case of ASF outbreak. As for density estimation through camera trapping, processing of big number of images by hand is tedious, and to facilitate the annotation process Agouti offers and has continuously improved automatic species recognition using Artificial Intelligence (AI). We summarize several topics for the further development of Agouti

Production and Decay of D_1(2420)^0 and D_2^*(2460)^0

We have investigated $D^{+}\pi^{-}$ and $D^{*+}\pi^{-}$ final states and observed the two established $L=1$ charmed mesons, the $D_1(2420)^0$ with mass $2421^{+1+2}_{-2-2}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $20^{+6+3}_{-5-3}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and the $D_2^*(2460)^0$ with mass $2465 \pm 3 \pm 3$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $28^{+8+6}_{-7-6}$ MeV/c$^{2}$. Properties of these final states, including their decay angular distributions and spin-parity assignments, have been studied. We identify these two mesons as the $j_{light}=3/2$ doublet predicted by HQET. We also obtain constraints on {\footnotesize $\Gamma_S/(\Gamma_S + \Gamma_D)$} as a function of the cosine of the relative phase of the two amplitudes in the $D_1(2420)^0$ decay.Comment: 15 pages in REVTEX format. hardcopies with figures can be obtained by sending mail to: [email protected]

Mental health training for community maternity workers in Nepal

Background: Mental health is a difficult topic to discuss in Nepal. This makes it hard for front-line maternity-care providers to start a discussion about mental health issues with women. As Nepal has not yet recognised midwifery as a profession, this UK-funded programme (THET) aims to train community health workers i.e. Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) on mental health issues related to pregnancy. Purpose/Objective: This needs assessment, of all ANMs working in one district, assesses knowledge of perinatal mental health issues and future training needs. Method: This quantitative study used a structure questionnaire in Nepali at the start of the training of ANMs. The questions covered knowledge, views on mental health and illness and previous training on the topic. Ethical approval was granted by the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC). Key Findings: In total 74 questionnaires were returned (out of 76). With 97% of ANMSs reporting they never had specific training issues around perinatal mental health. Their knowledge on perinatal mental health is poor, half of them are not aware that pregnancy and childbirth can cause mental illness. People do not talk openly about mental health problem in their local community. Most ANM thought specialised training on perinatal mental health would be useful. Discussion: Mental health in pregnancy/childbirth is often ignored especially in low-income countries like Nepal. In a country without recognised midwives there is a great need to improve attitudes and skills among community-based maternity workers who lacking training on maternity-related mental health issues. There is a great need for a national curriculum to facilitate relevant training

High-spin study of rotational structures in 72Br

High-spin states in 3572Br37 were studied using the 40Ca(36Ar, 3pn) reaction. The existing level scheme has been significantly modified and extended. Evidence has been found for a spin reassignment of -1ℏh to the previously observed negative-parity band, which carries implications for the interpretation of a signature inversion in this structure. One signature of the previously assigned positive-parity band is interpreted as negative parity and has been extended to I π=(22-) and its signature partner has been observed up to Iπ = (19-) for the first time. The remaining positive-parity band has been extended to Iπ=(29+). A sequence of states observed to Iπ=(22+) may be the signature partner of this structure. Configurations have been assigned to each of these three structures through comparisons to cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations

Comprehensive Cancer-Predisposition Gene Testing in an Adult Multiple Primary Tumor Series Shows a Broad Range of Deleterious Variants and Atypical Tumor Phenotypes.

Multiple primary tumors (MPTs) affect a substantial proportion of cancer survivors and can result from various causes, including inherited predisposition. Currently, germline genetic testing of MPT-affected individuals for variants in cancer-predisposition genes (CPGs) is mostly targeted by tumor type. We ascertained pre-assessed MPT individuals (with at least two primary tumors by age 60 years or at least three by 70 years) from genetics centers and performed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) on 460 individuals from 440 families. Despite previous negative genetic assessment and molecular investigations, pathogenic variants in moderate- and high-risk CPGs were detected in 67/440 (15.2%) probands. WGS detected variants that would not be (or were not) detected by targeted resequencing strategies, including low-frequency structural variants (6/440 [1.4%] probands). In most individuals with a germline variant assessed as pathogenic or likely pathogenic (P/LP), at least one of their tumor types was characteristic of variants in the relevant CPG. However, in 29 probands (42.2% of those with a P/LP variant), the tumor phenotype appeared discordant. The frequency of individuals with truncating or splice-site CPG variants and at least one discordant tumor type was significantly higher than in a control population (χ2 = 43.642; p ≤ 0.0001). 2/67 (3%) probands with P/LP variants had evidence of multiple inherited neoplasia allele syndrome (MINAS) with deleterious variants in two CPGs. Together with variant detection rates from a previous series of similarly ascertained MPT-affected individuals, the present results suggest that first-line comprehensive CPG analysis in an MPT cohort referred to clinical genetics services would detect a deleterious variant in about a third of individuals.JW is supported by a Cancer Research UK Cambridge Cancer Centre Clinical Research Training Fellowship. Funding for the NIHR BioResource – Rare diseases project was provided by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR, grant number RG65966). ERM acknowledges support from the European Research Council (Advanced Researcher Award), NIHR (Senior Investigator Award and Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre), Cancer Research UK Cambridge Cancer Centre and Medical Research Council Infrastructure Award. The University of Cambridge has received salary support in respect of EM from the NHS in the East of England through the Clinical Academic Reserve. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS or Department of Health. DGE is an NIHR Senior Investigator and is supported by the all Manchester NIHR Biomedical Research Centre

A Measurement of the Proton Structure Function F ⁣2(x,Q2)F_{\!2}(x,Q^2)

A measurement of the proton structure function $F_{\!2}(x,Q^2)$ is reported for momentum transfer squared $Q^2$ between 4.5 $GeV^2$ and 1600 $GeV^2$ and for Bjorken $x$ between $1.8\cdot10^{-4}$ and 0.13 using data collected by the HERA experiment H1 in 1993. It is observed that $F_{\!2}$ increases significantly with decreasing $x$, confirming our previous measurement made with one tenth of the data available in this analysis. The $Q^2$ dependence is approximately logarithmic over the full kinematic range covered. The subsample of deep inelastic events with a large pseudo-rapidity gap in the hadronic energy flow close to the proton remnant is used to measure the "diffractive" contribution to $F_{\!2}$.Comment: 32 pages, ps, appended as compressed, uuencoded fil

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of multiple myeloma among men and women of African ancestry

Persons of African ancestry (AA) have a twofold higher risk for multiple myeloma (MM) compared with persons of European ancestry (EA). Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) support a genetic contribution to MM etiology in individuals of EA. Little is known about genetic risk factors for MM in individuals of AA. We performed a meta-analysis of 2 GWASs ofMMin 1813 cases and 8871 controls and conducted an admixture mapping scan to identify risk alleles. We fine-mapped the 23 known susceptibility loci to find markers that could better capture MM risk in individuals of AA and constructed a polygenic risk score (PRS) to assess the aggregated effect of known MM risk alleles. In GWAS meta-analysis, we identified 2 suggestive novel loci located at 9p24.3 and 9p13.1 at P < 1 × 10-6; however, no genome-wide significant association was noted. In admixture mapping, we observed a genome-wide significant inverse association between local AA at 2p24.1-23.1 and MM risk in AA individuals. Of the 23 known EA risk variants, 20 showed directional consistency, and 9 replicated at P < .05 in AA individuals. In 8 regions, we identified markers that better captureMMrisk in persons with AA. AA individuals with a PRS in the top 10% had a 1.82-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.56-2.11) increased MM risk compared with those with average risk (25%-75%). The strongest functional association was between the risk allele for variant rs56219066 at 5q15 and lower ELL2 expression (P = 5.1 × 10-12). Our study shows that common genetic variation contributes to MM risk in individuals with AA