Black bear population size and habitat use on Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina

I estimated American black bear (Ursus americanus) density, sex and age structure, home ranges, and habitat use from May 1993 to August 1996 on Alhgator River National Wildlife Refuge (ARNWR) and the Dare County Range (DCR), an 841-km2 area, in northeastern North Carolina. I captured 218 bears on 330 occasions, and fitted 44 with radio transmitters. The overall sex ratio of captured bears was 3M:1F, and was skewed towards males during all sampling periods. The overall mean and median age of captured bears was 5.15 (± 2.66) and 5.25 (± 2.60) years, respectively. The mean age of female bears (5.90 ± 2.56) was older than males (4.90 ± 2.65) (z = 2.67582, P = 0.00271). I used 3 methods for population estimation: calendar of captures, Lincoln-Petersen, and the Jolly-Seber. The JoUy-Seber technique provided the most precise estimate: 372±57.14 (86 bears/100km2). A controlled harvest is one method to reduce the number of bears on the refuge. A harvest strategy to increase the probability of harvesting male bears may reduce the chance of overharvest. Food abundance may influence the sex and age structure of harvested bears. Permitting the hunting of bears in and adjacent to the Farmmg Unit may increase the number of male bears harvested. I used 1,379 location estimates of 28 bears (16 F, 12 M) for home range and habitat use analyses. I used the 95% convex polygon (CP) and 95% adaptive kernel (AK) methods to estimate seasonal home ranges. Mean fall home ranges did not differ between male and female bears (z = -0.930, P = 0.926). However, the mean spring ranges of male bears were larger than those of females (z = 3.047, P = 0.0023). Home ranges of male Vll bears did not differ among seasons (χ2 = 2.501, d.f. = 2, P = 0.286). Using both the CP and AK home range estimators, mean seasonal ranges of female bears differed by season (CP, P = 0.008; AK, P = 0.016), which was primarily a result of small spring ranges. I used a geographic information system (GIS) and land use/land cover (LULC) data, to determine habitat use patterns. By use of compositional analysis, I ranked 8 habitat types at 2 scales: (1) comparing proportion of habitats on the entire study area to the proportion of habitat within each bears\u27 home range (SAHR), and (2) comparing proportion of habitats within each home range to the proportion of locations in each habitat type (HRLOC). Telemetry error did not bias the results of habitat analyses at the SAHR scale (F7,118 = 1.59, P = 0.1439), although it did significantly bias the results at the HRLOC scale (F7,118 = 11.80, P \u3c 0.0001). Habitat rankings differed between sexes and seasons (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.0001, respectively). At the SAHR scale, females used pine more than any other cover type during spring. Pine and pocosin ranked highest during summer. During fall, there was no difference in the proportional use of bottomland hardwood, pocosin, pine/hardwood, or pine. Atlantic white cedar and low-density vegetation generally were the lowest ranked cover types for females at the SAHR scale. During the spring, males used pine, pocosin, agriculture, and pine/hardwood proportionately at the SAHR scale. Agriculture was used most during the fall by male bears. During the winter, agriculture and pine ranked highest. Overall, marsh, low density vegetation, and Atlantic white cedar were the least used by male bears at the SAHR scale. Differences between cover types were not as pronounced at the HRLOC scale. During spring, pine and bottomland hardwood ranked highest for Vlll female bears. During the summer, females used pine, agriculture, pocosin, and bottomland hardwood equally, during the summer. During the fall, female bears did not use any cover types disproportionately. Atlantic white cedar and pine/hardwood were generally the least used LULCs by females at the HRLOC scale. During the spring, male bears used pine, agriculture, and bottomland hardwood more than any other LULC, at the HRLOC scale. During the fall, pine and bottomland hardwood received the greatest use by males. Pine was used disproportionately by male bears, during the winter. Overall, the least used LULCs by male bears at the HRLOC scale were low density vegetation, pine/hardwood, marsh, and Atlantic white cedar. One should be cautious when interpreting the high ranking of the pine cover type. Stands of tall pocosin with a canopy closure ≥75% was classified as pine. Thus radio locations in tall pocosins classified as pine would inflate the observed use of pine. Large stands of taU pocosin occurred on the refuge. The understory was comprised of mast producing species such as sweet gallberry (Ilex coriacea) and bitter gallberry (I. glabra). An overall assessment of habitat use patterns fi-om this study would indicate habitat diversity of cover types would ensure a continuous supply of food such as soft mast, blackgum fimits, insects, and agricultural crops. Because black bears are high mobile animals and have relatively large home ranges managers should strive to maintain habitat diversity at the landscape scale by developing habitat management goals for a large area (i.e., the entire refuge)

The Bibliometric Properties of Article Readership Information

The NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS), along with astronomy's journals and data centers (a collaboration dubbed URANIA), has developed a distributed on-line digital library which has become the dominant means by which astronomers search, access and read their technical literature. Digital libraries such as the NASA Astrophysics Data System permit the easy accumulation of a new type of bibliometric measure, the number of electronic accesses (``reads'') of individual articles. We explore various aspects of this new measure. We examine the obsolescence function as measured by actual reads, and show that it can be well fit by the sum of four exponentials with very different time constants. We compare the obsolescence function as measured by readership with the obsolescence function as measured by citations. We find that the citation function is proportional to the sum of two of the components of the readership function. This proves that the normative theory of citation is true in the mean. We further examine in detail the similarities and differences between the citation rate, the readership rate and the total citations for individual articles, and discuss some of the causes. Using the number of reads as a bibliometric measure for individuals, we introduce the read-cite diagram to provide a two-dimensional view of an individual's scientific productivity. We develop a simple model to account for an individual's reads and cites and use it to show that the position of a person in the read-cite diagram is a function of age, innate productivity, and work history. We show the age biases of both reads and cites, and develop two new bibliometric measures which have substantially less age bias than citationsComment: ADS bibcode: 2005JASIS..56..111K This is the second paper (the first is Worldwide Use and Impact of the NASA Astrophysics Data System Digital Library) from the original article The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Sociology, Bibliometrics, and Impact, which went on-line in the summer of 200

Communities, Knowledge Creation, and Information Diffusion

In this paper, we examine how patterns of scientific collaboration contribute to knowledge creation. Recent studies have shown that scientists can benefit from their position within collaborative networks by being able to receive more information of better quality in a timely fashion, and by presiding over communication between collaborators. Here we focus on the tendency of scientists to cluster into tightly-knit communities, and discuss the implications of this tendency for scientific performance. We begin by reviewing a new method for finding communities, and we then assess its benefits in terms of computation time and accuracy. While communities often serve as a taxonomic scheme to map knowledge domains, they also affect how successfully scientists engage in the creation of new knowledge. By drawing on the longstanding debate on the relative benefits of social cohesion and brokerage, we discuss the conditions that facilitate collaborations among scientists within or across communities. We show that successful scientific production occurs within communities when scientists have cohesive collaborations with others from the same knowledge domain, and across communities when scientists intermediate among otherwise disconnected collaborators from different knowledge domains. We also discuss the implications of communities for information diffusion, and show how traditional epidemiological approaches need to be refined to take knowledge heterogeneity into account and preserve the system's ability to promote creative processes of novel recombinations of idea

Exploration and Exploitation of Victorian Science in Darwin's Reading Notebooks

Search in an environment with an uncertain distribution of resources involves a trade-off between exploitation of past discoveries and further exploration. This extends to information foraging, where a knowledge-seeker shifts between reading in depth and studying new domains. To study this decision-making process, we examine the reading choices made by one of the most celebrated scientists of the modern era: Charles Darwin. From the full-text of books listed in his chronologically-organized reading journals, we generate topic models to quantify his local (text-to-text) and global (text-to-past) reading decisions using Kullback-Liebler Divergence, a cognitively-validated, information-theoretic measure of relative surprise. Rather than a pattern of surprise-minimization, corresponding to a pure exploitation strategy, Darwin's behavior shifts from early exploitation to later exploration, seeking unusually high levels of cognitive surprise relative to previous eras. These shifts, detected by an unsupervised Bayesian model, correlate with major intellectual epochs of his career as identified both by qualitative scholarship and Darwin's own self-commentary. Our methods allow us to compare his consumption of texts with their publication order. We find Darwin's consumption more exploratory than the culture's production, suggesting that underneath gradual societal changes are the explorations of individual synthesis and discovery. Our quantitative methods advance the study of cognitive search through a framework for testing interactions between individual and collective behavior and between short- and long-term consumption choices. This novel application of topic modeling to characterize individual reading complements widespread studies of collective scientific behavior.Comment: Cognition pre-print, published February 2017; 22 pages, plus 17 pages supporting information, 7 pages reference

Spatio-temporal elements of articulation work in the achievement of repeat prescribing safety in UK general practice

Prescribing is the most common healthcare intervention, and is both beneficial and risky. An important source of risk in UK general practice is the management of ‘repeat prescriptions’, which are typically requested from and issued by non-clinically trained reception staff with only intermittent reauthorisation by a clinical prescriber. This paper ethnographically examines the formal and informal work employed by GPs and receptionists to safely conduct repeat prescribing work in primary care using Strauss's (1985, 1988, 1993) concept of ‘articulation work’ across eight UK general practices. The analytical lens of articulation work provided an investigative framing to contextually map the informal, invisible resources of resilience and strength employed by practice team members in the achievement of repeat prescribing safety, where risk and vulnerability were continually relocated across space and time. In particular, the paper makes visible the micro-level competencies and collaborative practices that were routinely employed by both GPs and receptionists across different socio-cultural contexts, with informal, cross-hierarchical communication usually considered more effective than the formal structures of communication that existed (e.g. protocols). While GPs held formal prescribing authority, this paper also examines the key role of receptionists in both the initiation and safe coordination of the repeat prescribing routine

Introducing StatHand: A Cross-Platform Mobile Application to Support Students' Statistical Decision Making

Although essential to professional competence in psychology, quantitative research methods are a known area of weakness for many undergraduate psychology students. Students find selecting appropriate statistical tests and procedures for different types of research questions, hypotheses and data types particularly challenging, and these skills are not often practiced in class. Decision trees (a type of graphic organizer) are known to facilitate this decision making process, but extant trees have a number of limitations. Furthermore, emerging research suggests that mobile technologies offer many possibilities for facilitating learning. It is within this context that we have developed StatHand, a free cross-platform application designed to support students' statistical decision making. Developed with the support of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching, StatHand guides users through a series of simple, annotated questions to help them identify a statistical test or procedure appropriate to their circumstances. It further offers the guidance necessary to run these tests and procedures, then interpret and report their results. In this Technology Report we will overview the rationale behind StatHand, before describing the feature set of the application. We will then provide guidelines for integrating StatHand into the research methods curriculum, before concluding by outlining our road map for the ongoing development and evaluation of StatHand

A Pilot Randomized-Controlled Trial on the Effect of CPAP Treatment on Glycemic Control in Gestational Diabetes: Study Design and Methods

Background: Gestational diabetes (GDM) is associated with adverse short- and long-term maternal and fetal outcomes. Observational data support a link between sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) during pregnancy and GDM. However, it is unknown whether treatment of SDB with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) improves glucose control in this patient population. In addition, CPAP adherence and feasibility as a treatment option in pregnancy is unknown. This pilot randomized, controlled trial aims to primarily determine the feasibility of CPAP treatment in pregnant women with SDB and GDM. This study is also investigating the effect of SDB treatment on 24-h glucose profiles as an exploratory outcome.Objectives: To describe the study methodology in this ongoing study of pregnant women with GDM and SDB.Patients and Methods: Pregnant women with GDM and SDB defined by apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥10 (Chicago Scoring Criteria) on level 2 polysomnography are randomized to either auto titrating CPAP (experimental group) or a nasal dilator strip (control group) until delivery. The primary outcome, objectively-assessed adherence to CPAP, is measured over the course of the treatment period using device-specific software. Recruitment and retention rates will be calculated to assess the feasibility for planning future trials. Twenty-four hour glucose profiles are measured over a 72-h period using the continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system, before and after the intervention.Conclusion: The results of this study will be highly informative to determine whether CPAP is a feasible treatment for pregnant women with GDM and SDB, a specialized population at risk for substantial comorbidity. The trial results will ultimately be useful in planning future SDB treatment trials in pregnancy and GDM.The study is registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02245659)

The Effects of Multiple Dimensions of Risk and Protective Factors on Depressive Symptoms Among Nonresident African American Fathers

Compared to other groups, African American men experience proportionately greater adverse social and economic circumstances, which have been linked to poor mental health. A growing body of literature has begun to examine depressive symptoms among African American men; however, limited literature has examined the concurrent contributions of risk and protective factors among nonresident African American fathers. This study examined the relative contribution of perceived financial strain, perceived neighborhood characteristics, and interpersonal stress on depressive symptoms among 347 nonresident African American fathers. Social support was examined as a protective factor for depressive symptoms. Results from hierarchical regression analyses indicated interpersonal stress was associated with depressive symptoms even after controlling for perceived financial strain, perceived neighborhood characteristics, and specific sociodemographic factors. Additionally, among fathers with high interpersonal stress, having more social support buffered the negative effect of interpersonal stress on depressive symptoms. Findings suggest experiencing strain from multiple dimensions can increase the risk of depressive symptoms among nonresident African American fathers. We also found that interpersonal stress was especially harmful for mental health. Family service providers and mental health professionals should incorporate stress management techniques to reduce stressful interpersonal relationships as a way to lower depressive symptoms among nonresident African American fathers.HighlightsMultiple risk factors influence depressive symptoms for nonresident African American fathers.Interpersonal stressors are especially harmful for their mental health.Interpersonal stress management techniques should be considered for reducing depressive symptoms.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146878/1/ajcp12275_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146878/2/ajcp12275.pd