The HSR on chromosome 1 of the house mouse, Mus domesticus: distribution and frequency in Switzerland

A total of 357 house mice (Mus domesticus) from 83 localities uniformly distributed throughout Switzerland were screened for the presence of a homogenously staining region (HSR) on chromosome 1. Altogether 47 mice from 11 localities were HSR/ + or HSR/HSR. One sample of 11 individuals all had an HSR/HSR karyotype. Almost all mice with the variant were collected from the Rhone valley (HSR frequency: 61%) and Val Bregaglia (HSR frequency: 81%). For samples from most of thearea of Switzerland, the HSR was absent. There was no strong association between the geographic distribution of the HSR and the areas of occurrence of metacentrics. However, at Chiggiogna the HSR was found on Rb (1·3). Possible explanations for the HSR polymorphism are discusse

Regularity of Bound States

We study regularity of bound states pertaining to embedded eigenvalues of a self-adjoint operator $H$, with respect to an auxiliary operator $A$ that is conjugate to $H$ in the sense of Mourre. We work within the framework of singular Mourre theory which enables us to deal with confined massless Pauli-Fierz models, our primary example, and many-body AC-Stark Hamiltonians. In the simpler context of regular Mourre theory our results boils down to an improvement of results obtained recently in \cite{CGH}.Comment: 70 page

A novel approach for reliable qualitative and quantitative prey spectra identification of carnivorous plants combining DNA metabarcoding and macro photography

Prey spectra (the number and composition of captured arthropods) represent a crucial aspect of carnivorous plant ecology, yet remain poorly studied. Traditional morphology-based approaches for prey identification are time-intensive, require specialists with considerable knowledge of arthropod taxonomy, and are hampered by high numbers of unidentifiable (i.e., heavily digested) prey items. We examined prey spectra of three species of closely-related annual Drosera (Droseraceae, sundews) from tropical northern Australia using a novel DNA metabarcoding approach with in-situ macro photography as a plausibility control and to facilitate prey quantity estimations. This new method facilitated accurate analyses of carnivorous plant prey spectra (even of heavily digested prey lacking characteristic morphological features) at a taxonomic resolution and level of completeness far exceeding morphology-based methods and approaching the 100% mark at arthropod order level. Although the three studied species exhibited significant differences in detected prey spectra, little prey specialisation was observed and habitat or plant population density variations were likely the main drivers of prey spectra dissimilarity

Monitoring Annoyance and Stress Effects of Wind Turbines on Nearby Residents: A Comparison of U.S. and European Samples

As wind turbines and the number of wind projects scale throughout the world, a growing number of individuals might be affected by these structures. For some people, wind turbine sounds and their effects on the landscape can be annoying and could even prompt stress reactions. This comparative study analyzed a combined sample of survey respondents from the U.S., Germany and Switzerland. It utilized a newly developed assessment scale (ASScale) to reliably characterize these stress-impacted individuals living within populations near turbines. Findings indicate low prevalence of annoyance, stress symptoms and coping strategies. Noise annoyance stress (NASScale) was negatively correlated with the perceptions of a lack of fairness of the wind project\u27s planning and development process, among other subjective variables. Objective indicators, such as the distance from the nearest turbine and sound pressure level modeled for each respondent, were not found to be correlated to noise annoyance. Similar result patterns were found across the European and U.S. samples

Review of German Spilomicrus Westwood (Hymenoptera, Diapriidae, Spilomicrini)

This study provides an integrative taxonomy-based review for the genus Spilomicrus Westwood in Germany using DNA barcoding and classic morphology.Spilomicrus simplex Tomsik, 1947 is placed in synonymy with S. antennatus Jurine, 1807; Spilomicrus thomsoni Kieffer, 1911 is removed from synonymy with S. hemipterus Marshall, 1868. A lectotype is designated for Spilomicrus nigripes Thomson, 1858. Newly recorded for Germany are the following species: S. thomsoni Kieffer, 1911, S. crassiclavis Marshall, 1868, S. lusitanicus Kieffer, 1910 and S. diversus Chemyreva, 2021. Three species, Spilomicrus brevimalaris sp. nov., S. flavecorpus sp. nov. and S. politus sp. nov. are described as new to science. The 23 DNA-barcodes with species identification present a substantial addition over the previous German checklist. This study aims to update the number of nationwide known Spilomicrus species from fifteen to twenty. Furthermore, a new key to identify all European Spilomicrus species is provided

Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on Geodiapria longiceps Kieffer, 1911 (Hymenoptera, Diapriidae) and synonymy of the genus Geodiapria Kieffer, 1910

This paper reviews the status of Geodiapria and its nominotypical and only included species G. longiceps. Geodiapria was previously understood to be very similar to, and doubtfully separated from the genus Basalys. We use integrative taxonomy (morphology, DNA-barcoding, phylogenetic tree building) to show that the valid name for what was G. longiceps Kieffer, 1911 is now Basalys rufocinctus (Kiefer, 1911) and that Geodiapria is consequently a junior synonym of Basalys syn. nov. The following taxa are new synonyms of B. rufocinctus: Loxotropa longiceps Wasmann, 1909, syn. nov., G. longiceps Kieffer, 1911, syn. nov., L. rufosignata Kieffer, 1911, syn. nov. Basalys rufocinctus is newly reported from Corsica, Germany, Norway and Spain

Reconsidering Barriers to Wind Power Projects: Community Engagement, Developer Transparency and Place

In 2016, we undertook a nationally representative wind power perceptions survey of individuals living within 8?km of over 600 projects in the United States, generating 1705 telephone, web, and mail responses. We sought information on a variety of topics, including procedural fairness and its relationship to project attitude, the foci of the present analysis. We present a series of descriptive statistics and regression results, emphasizing those residents who were aware of their local project prior to construction. Sample weighting is employed to account for stratification and non-response. We find that a developer being open and transparent, a community being able to influence the outcome, and having a say in the planning process are all statistically significant predictors of a process perceived as being ‘fair,’ with an open and transparent developer having the largest effect. We also find developer transparency and ability to influence outcomes to have statistically significant relationships to a more positive attitude, with those findings holding when aesthetics, landscape, and wind turbine sound considerations are controlled for. The results indicate that jurisdictions might consider developing procedures, which ensure citizens are consulted and heard, and benchmarks or best practices for developer interaction with communities and citizens

Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on Geodiapria longiceps Kieffer, 1911 (Hymenoptera, Diapriidae) and synonymy of the genus Geodiapria Kieffer, 1910

This paper reviews the status of Geodiapria and its nominotypical and only included species G. longiceps. Geodiapria was previously understood to be very similar to, and doubtfully separated from the genus Basalys. We use integrative taxonomy (morphology, DNA-barcoding, phylogenetic tree building) to show that the valid name for what was G. longiceps Kieffer, 1911 is now Basalys rufocinctus (Kiefer, 1911) and that Geodiapria is consequently a junior synonym of Basalys syn. nov. The following taxa are new synonyms of B. rufocinctus: Loxotropa longiceps Wasmann, 1909, syn. nov., G. longiceps Kieffer, 1911, syn. nov., L. rufosignata Kieffer, 1911, syn. nov. Basalys rufocinctus is newly reported from Corsica, Germany, Norway and Spain