An Attack by a Polar Bear on a Juvenile Beluga

Cunningham Inlet, Somerset Island, in the Canadian Arctic is frequented each summer by large numbers of beluga (Delphinapterus leucas). They migrate to the head of the inlet, and then invade the mouths of the two streams which drain into it. … On 26 July 1974, a sexually-immature female beluga was discovered stranded on a gravel bar at the head of the inlet. Because it could not be manhandled back to water, and would have died from suffocating and dehydration, the whale was shot. The brown colour, shape of head and length (271 cm) of the animal suggested that it was between three and four years old, while the five to six growth layers present in the teeth indicated an age of 2½-3 years. The stomach was found to contain a few amphipods and some seaweed. The carcass carried deep but well-healed scars on the left dorso-lateral aspect caudal to the dorsal ridge. Their depth, and the fact that they were parallel in three cases, strongly suggested that the animal had been attacked by a large-clawed animal, probably a polar bear (Ursus maritimus). … To our knowledge this paper constitutes only the third documented account of an attack on a beluga by a polar bear in the Canadian Arctic …. [All previously reported attacks, including an attack of captive belugas near Churchill, are also discussed in this article.

Development of a hybrid model to interpolate monthly precipitation maps incorporating the orographic influence

[EN] This paper proposes an interpolation model for monthly rainfall in large areas of complex orography. It has been implemented in the Iberian Peninsula (continental territories of Spain and Portugal), Balearic and Canary Islands covering a territory of almost 600.000km(2). To do this a data set that comprises a total number of 11,822 monthly precipitation series has been created (11,042 provided by the Spanish Meteorological Agency and 780 provided by the National Water Resources Information System of the Portuguese Water Institute). The data set covers the period from October 1940 until September 2005. The interpolation model has been based on the assumption of two different components on monthly precipitation. The first component reflects local and seasonal characteristics and 24 different mean monthly precipitation maps (12) and SDs maps (12) compose it. It considers the varying influence of physiographic variables such as altitude and orientation. The second precipitation component reflects the synoptic pattern that dominated each month of the series and it is composed by series of anomalies of monthly precipitation (780). Anomalies have been interpolated by means of ordinary kriging once local spatial continuity was assumed. Gridded maps of each variable have been developed at 200m resolution following a hybrid methodology that implements two different interpolation techniques. The first technique applies a regression analysis to derive maps depending on altitude and orientation; the second one is a weighting technique to consider the non-linearity of the precipitation/altitude dependence. Cross validation has been applied to estimate the goodness of both techniques. Results show an average annual precipitation of 655mm/year. Although this figure is only 4% less than the estimate of MAGRAMA (2004), regional and local differences are highlighted when the spatial distribution is considered. The model constitutes a comprehensive implementation considering the availability of historical records and the need of avoiding slow calculations in large territories.Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, Grant/Award Number: CGL2014-52571-RÁlvarez-Rodríguez, J.; Llasat, M.; Estrela Monreal, T. (2019). Development of a hybrid model to interpolate monthly precipitation maps incorporating the orographic influence. International Journal of Climatology. 39(10):3962-3975. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.6051S396239753910AEMET.2011Atlas Climático Ibérico. (Iberian Climate Atlas) VV.AA. Agencia Estatal de Meteorología. Ministerio de Medio Ambiente. ISBN: 978‐84‐7837‐079‐5. Available at:http://www.aemet.es/documentos/es/conocermas/publicaciones/Atlas-climatologico/Atlas.pdf[Accessed 14th February 2018]Álvarez‐Rodríguez J.2011.Estimación de la distribución espacial de la precipitación en zonas montañosas mediante métodos geoestadísticos (Analysis of spatial distribution of precipitation in mountainous areas by means of geostatistical analysis). PhD Thesis. Polytechnic University of Madrid Higher Technical School of Civil EngineeringÁlvarez-Rodríguez, J., Llasat, M. C., & Estrela, T. (2017). Analysis of geographic and orographic influence in Spanish monthly precipitation. International Journal of Climatology, 37, 350-362. doi:10.1002/joc.5007Barros, A. P., Kim, G., Williams, E., & Nesbitt, S. W. (2004). Probing orographic controls in the Himalayas during the monsoon using satellite imagery. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 4(1), 29-51. doi:10.5194/nhess-4-29-2004Barstad, I., Grabowski, W. W., & Smolarkiewicz, P. K. (2007). Characteristics of large-scale orographic precipitation: Evaluation of linear model in idealized problems. Journal of Hydrology, 340(1-2), 78-90. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2007.04.005Creutin, J. D., & Obled, C. (1982). Objective analyses and mapping techniques for rainfall fields: An objective comparison. Water Resources Research, 18(2), 413-431. doi:10.1029/wr018i002p00413Daly, C., Neilson, R. P., & Phillips, D. L. (1994). A Statistical-Topographic Model for Mapping Climatological Precipitation over Mountainous Terrain. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 33(2), 140-158. doi:10.1175/1520-0450(1994)0332.0.co;2Daly, C., Halbleib, M., Smith, J. I., Gibson, W. P., Doggett, M. K., Taylor, G. H., … Pasteris, P. P. (2008). Physiographically sensitive mapping of climatological temperature and precipitation across the conterminous United States. International Journal of Climatology, 28(15), 2031-2064. doi:10.1002/joc.1688Daly, C., Slater, M. E., Roberti, J. A., Laseter, S. H., & Swift, L. W. (2017). High-resolution precipitation mapping in a mountainous watershed: ground truth for evaluating uncertainty in a national precipitation dataset. International Journal of Climatology, 37, 124-137. doi:10.1002/joc.4986Dhar, O. N., & Nandargi, S. (2004). Rainfall distribution over the Arunachal Pradesh Himalayas. Weather, 59(6), 155-157. doi:10.1256/wea.87.03Falivene, O., Cabrera, L., Tolosana-Delgado, R., & Sáez, A. (2010). Interpolation algorithm ranking using cross-validation and the role of smoothing effect. A coal zone example. Computers & Geosciences, 36(4), 512-519. doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2009.09.015Fiering, B., & Jackson, B. (1971). Synthetic Streamflows. Water Resources Monograph. doi:10.1029/wm001Gambolati, G., & Volpi, G. (1979). A conceptual deterministic analysis of the kriging technique in hydrology. Water Resources Research, 15(3), 625-629. doi:10.1029/wr015i003p00625Gómez-Hernández, J. J., Cassiraga, E. F., Guardiola-Albert, C., & Rodríguez, J. Á. (2001). Incorporating Information from a Digital Elevation Model for Improving the Areal Estimation of Rainfall. geoENV III — Geostatistics for Environmental Applications, 67-78. doi:10.1007/978-94-010-0810-5_6Goovaerts, P. (2000). Geostatistical approaches for incorporating elevation into the spatial interpolation of rainfall. Journal of Hydrology, 228(1-2), 113-129. doi:10.1016/s0022-1694(00)00144-xHanson, C. L. (1982). DISTRIBUTION AND STOCHASTIC GENERATION OF ANNUAL AND MONTHLY PRECIPITATION ON A MOUNTAINOUS WATERSHED IN SOUTHWEST IDAHO. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 18(5), 875-883. doi:10.1111/j.1752-1688.1982.tb00085.xLloyd, C. D. (2005). Assessing the effect of integrating elevation data into the estimation of monthly precipitation in Great Britain. Journal of Hydrology, 308(1-4), 128-150. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.10.026Marquı́nez, J., Lastra, J., & Garcı́a, P. (2003). Estimation models for precipitation in mountainous regions: the use of GIS and multivariate analysis. Journal of Hydrology, 270(1-2), 1-11. doi:10.1016/s0022-1694(02)00110-5Martínez-Cob, A. (1996). Multivariate geostatistical analysis of evapotranspiration and precipitation in mountainous terrain. Journal of Hydrology, 174(1-2), 19-35. doi:10.1016/0022-1694(95)02755-6Mitáš, L., & Mitášová, H. (1988). General variational approach to the interpolation problem. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 16(12), 983-992. doi:10.1016/0898-1221(88)90255-6Naoum, S., & Tsanis, I. K. (2004). Orographic Precipitation Modeling with Multiple Linear Regression. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 9(2), 79-102. doi:10.1061/(asce)1084-0699(2004)9:2(79)Ninyerola, M., Pons, X., & Roure, J. M. (2006). Monthly precipitation mapping of the Iberian Peninsula using spatial interpolation tools implemented in a Geographic Information System. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 89(3-4), 195-209. doi:10.1007/s00704-006-0264-2Pebesma, E. J. (2004). Multivariable geostatistics in S: the gstat package. Computers & Geosciences, 30(7), 683-691. doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2004.03.012Rotunno, R., & Ferretti, R. (2001). Mechanisms of Intense Alpine Rainfall. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 58(13), 1732-1749. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(2001)0582.0.co;2Singh, P., Ramasastri, K. S., & Kumar, N. (1995). Topographical Influence on Precipitation Distribution in Different Ranges of Western Himalayas. Hydrology Research, 26(4-5), 259-284. doi:10.2166/nh.1995.0015Tabios, G. Q., & Salas, J. D. (1985). A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TECHNIQUES FOR SPATIAL INTERPOLATION OF PRECIPITATION. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 21(3), 365-380. doi:10.1111/j.1752-1688.1985.tb00147.xTHIESSEN, A. H. (1911). PRECIPITATION AVERAGES FOR LARGE AREAS. 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Reproductive Isolation in a Threespine Stickleback Hybrid Zone

In many estuarine sites, morphological and genetic differences between anadromous and freshwater threespine sticklebacks are maintained despite breeding in sympatry. Here, we investigate the maintenance of this morphological divergence in a natural hybrid zone in the River Tyne, Scotland. We provide a morphological description of the hybrid zone, and using a Bayesian MCMC approach, identified distinct anadromous and freshwater genetic clusters. Anadromous and freshwater sticklebacks breed in spatial and temporal sympatry in the lower reaches of the River Tyne. The frequency of hybrids within these sites (33%) indicates prezygotic isolation is not complete, and suggests that assortative mating is not strong. However, significant heterozygote deficit and cytonuclear disequilibrium in juveniles collected from sympatric sites confirms that barriers to gene flow exist between the morphs in the wild. In addition, we found no evidence of a directional bias in hybridisation, although hybrids with anadromous mothers were more common because anadromous females outnumbered freshwater females within the hybrid zone. We discuss the potential contribution of temporal, spatial, and sexual prezygotic barriers to the observed reproductive isolation as well as postzygotic selection against hybrid zygotes or fry

A Review of the fossil record of turtles of the clade Baenidae

The fossil record of the turtle clade Baenidae ranges from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian—Albian) to the Eocene. The group is present throughout North America during the Early Cretaceous, but is restricted to the western portions of the continents in the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene. No credible remains of the clade have been reported outside of North America to date. Baenids were warmadapted freshwater aquatic turtles that supported high levels of diversity at times through niche partitioning, particularly by adapting to a broad range of dietary preferences ranging from omnivorous to molluscivorous. Current phylogenies place Baenidae near the split of crown-group Testudines. Within Baenidae three more inclusive, named clades are recognized: Baenodda, Palatobaeninae and Eubaeninae. A taxonomic review of the group concludes that of 49 named taxa, 30 are nomina valida, 12 are nomina invalida and 7 are nomina dubia

Diffusion of School-Based Prevention Programs in Two Urban Districts: Adaptations, Rationales, and Suggestions for Change

The diffusion of school-based preventive interventions involves the balancing of high-fidelity implementation of empirically-supported programs with flexibility to permit local stakeholders to target the specific needs of their youth. There has been little systematic research that directly seeks to integrate research- and community-driven approaches to diffusion. The present study provides a primarily qualitative investigation of the initial roll-out of two empirically-supported substance and violence prevention programs in two urban school districts that serve a high proportion of low-income, ethnic minority youth. The predominant ethnic group in most of our study schools was Asian American, followed by smaller numbers of Latinos, African Americans, and European Americans. We examined the adaptations made by experienced health teachers as they implemented the programs, the elicitation of suggested adaptations to the curricula from student and teacher stakeholders, and the evaluation of the consistency of these suggested adaptations with the core components of the programs. Data sources include extensive classroom observations of curricula delivery and interviews with students, teachers, and program developers. All health teachers made adaptations, primarily with respect to instructional format, integration of real-life experiences into the curriculum, and supplementation with additional resources; pedagogical and class management issues were cited as the rationale for these changes. Students and teachers were equally likely to propose adaptations that met with the program developers’ approval with respect to program theory and implementation logistics. Tensions between teaching practice and prevention science—as well as implications for future research and practice in school-based prevention—are considered

The ‘mosaic habitat’ concept in human evolution: past and present

The habitats preferred by hominins and other species are an important theme in palaeoanthropology, and the ‘mosaic habitat’ (also referred to as habitat heterogeneity) has been a central concept in this regard for the last four decades. Here we explore the development of this concept – loosely defined as a range of different habitat types, such as woodlands, riverine forest and savannah within a limited spatial area– in studies of human evolution in the last sixty years or so. We outline the key developments that took place before and around the time when the term ‘mosaic’ came to wider palaeoanthropological attention. To achieve this we used an analysis of the published literature, a study of illustrations of hominin evolution from 1925 onwards and an email survey of senior researchers in palaeoanthropology and related fields. We found that the term mosaic starts to be applied in palaeoanthropological thinking during the 1970’s due to the work of a number of researchers, including Karl Butzer and Glynn Isaac , with the earliest usage we have found of ‘mosaic’ in specific reference to hominin habitats being by Adriaan Kortlandt (1972). While we observe a steady increase in the numbers of publications reporting mosaic palaeohabitats, in keeping with the growing interest and specialisation in various methods of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, we also note that there is a lack of critical studies that define this habitat, or examine the temporal and spatial scales associated with it. The general consensus within the field is that the concept now requires more detailed definition and study to evaluate its role in human evolution

A General Framework for Architecture Composability

Architectures depict design principles: paradigms that can be understood by all, allow thinking on a higher plane and avoiding low-level mistakes. They provide means for ensuring correctness by construction by enforcing global properties characterizing the coordination between components. An architecture can be considered as an operator A that, applied to a set of components B, builds a composite component A(B) meeting a characteristic property Φ. Architecture composability is a basic and common problem faced by system designers. In this paper, we propose a formal and general framework for architecture composability based on an associative, commutative and idempotent architecture composition operator ⊕. The main result is that if two architectures A1 and A2 enforce respectively safety properties Φ1 and Φ2 , the architecture A1 ⊕ A2 enforces the property Φ1 ∧ Φ2 , that is both properties are preserved by architecture composition. We also establish preservation of liveness properties by architecture composition. The presented results are illustrated by a running example and a case study

Soil-landscape and climatic relationships in the middle Miocene of the Madrid Basin

The Miocene alluvial-lacustrine sequences of the Madrid Basin, Spain, formed in highly varied landscapes. The presence of various types of palaeosols allows assessment of the effects of local and external factors onsedimentation, pedogenesis and geomorphological development. In the northern, more arid, tectonicallyactive arca, soils were weakly developed in aggrading alluvial fans, dominated by mass flows. reflecting high sedimentation rates. In more distal parts of the fans and in playa lakes calcretes and dolocretes developed: the former were associated with Mg-poor fan sediments whitc: the latter formed on Mg-rich lake clays exposed during minar lake lowstands. The nonh-east part of the basin had a less arid climate. Alluvial fans in this area were dominated by stream Aood deposits, sourced by carbonate terrains. Floodplain and freshwater lakc deposits formed in distal areas. The high local supply of calcium carbonate may have contributed to the preferential developmenl on calcretes on the fans. Both the fan and floodplain palaeosols exhibit pedofacies relationships and more mature soils developed in settings more distant from the sediment sources. Palaeosols also developed on pond and lake margin carbonates, and led to the formation of palustrine limestones. The spatial distributions and stratigraphies of palaeosols in the Madrid Basin alluvial fans suggest that soil formation was controlled by local factors. These palaeosols differ from those seen in Quatemary fans. Which are characterized by climatically induced periods of stability and instability