Bat response to differing fire severity in mixed-conifer forest California, USA

Wildlife response to natural disturbances such as fire is of conservation concern to managers, policy makers, and scientists, yet information is scant beyond a few well-studied groups (e.g., birds, small mammals). We examined the effects of wildfire severity on bats, a taxon of high conservation concern, at both the stand (<1 ha) and landscape scale in response to the 2002 McNally fire in the Sierra Nevada region of California, USA. One year after fire, we conducted surveys of echolocation activity at 14 survey locations, stratified in riparian and upland habitat, in mixed-conifer forest habitats spanning three levels of burn severity: unburned, moderate, and high. Bat activity in burned areas was either equivalent or higher than in unburned stands for all six phonic groups measured, with four groups having significantly greater activity in at least one burn severity level. Evidence of differentiation between fire severities was observed with some Myotis species having higher levels of activity in stands of high-severity burn. Larger-bodied bats, typically adapted to more open habitat, showed no response to fire. We found differential use of riparian and upland habitats among the phonic groups, yet no interaction of habitat type by fire severity was found. Extent of high-severity fire damage in the landscape had no effect on activity of bats in unburned sites suggesting no landscape effect of fire on foraging site selection and emphasizing stand-scale conditions driving bat activity. Results from this fire in mixed-conifer forests of California suggest that bats are resilient to landscape-scale fire and that some species are preferentially selecting burned areas for foraging, perhaps facilitated by reduced clutter and increased post-fire availability of prey and roost

Concanavalin A-mediated affinity film for Treponema pallidum.

Freshly extracted Treponema pallidum bound to glass cover slips preexposed to specific lectins, permitting biological testing in the absence of complex tissue fluids

The atypical chemokine receptor Ackr2 constrains NK cell migratory activity and promotes metastasis

Chemokines have been shown to be essential players in a range of cancer contexts. In this study, we demonstrate that mice deficient in the atypical chemokine receptor Ackr2 display impaired development of metastasis in vivo in both cell line and spontaneous models. Further analysis reveals that this relates to increased expression of the chemokine receptor CCR2, specifically by KLRG1+ NK cells from the Ackr2−/− mice. This leads to increased recruitment of KLRG1+ NK cells to CCL2-expressing tumors and enhanced tumor killing. Together, these data indicate that Ackr2 limits the expression of CCR2 on NK cells and restricts their tumoricidal activity. Our data have important implications for our understanding of the roles for chemokines in the metastatic process and highlight Ackr2 and CCR2 as potentially manipulable therapeutic targets in metastasis

Trends in heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls and toxicity from sediment cores of the inner River Thames estuary, London, UK

River islands (Ait or Eyot) within the inner tidal Thames serve as unique recorders of current and historical estuarine chemical pollution. Sediment cores from Chiswick Ait were assessed for contamination using Microtox® solid phase bioassay, stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N), heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Microtox® classified these sediments as non-toxic to moderately toxic and bulk isotopes identified a change in organic input. Metals Cu, Zn, Cr, Ni, Cd, Hg and Ag showed parallel rise, peak and fall profiles which when allied to a 207/208Pb and 137Cs based chronology supported major changes in trace metal contributions corresponding to approximate input times of 1940 (rise), 1963 (peak) and 1985 (fall). Metals ranged from Cu 15 to 373 mg kg−1 (mean 141 mg kg−1), Zn 137 to 1331 mg kg−1 (mean 576 mg kg−1), Cr 14–351 mg kg−1 (mean 156 mg kg−1), Pb 10 to 1506 mg kg−1 (mean 402 mg kg−1), As 1 to 107 (mean 38 mg kg−1), Ni 11 to 113 mg kg−1 (mean 63 mg kg−1), Cd 0.2 to 53 mg kg−1 (mean 9 mg kg−1), Hg 1 to 8 mg kg−1 (mean 4.6 mg kg−1) and Ag from 0.7 to 50 mg kg−1 (mean 7.5 mg kg−1). Down core total PCBs ranged from 10.5 to 121 μg kg−1 and mean of 39 μg kg−1. The rise, peak and fall of Cu, Zn, Cr, Ni, Cd and Ag pollution matched local sewage works' treatment discharge records. Whereas the Hg, Pb and As profiles were disconnected, reflecting alternative historic sources and or partitioning behaviour. Comparison to marine sediment quality guidelines indicate that Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd and Hg exceed action level 2, whereas sedimentary Cu, Cr and As concentrations were above action level 1 (no action) but below action level 2 (further investigation required). The river islands of the tidal Thames capture a unique contaminant chemistry record due in part to their location in the tidal frame (salinity minimum) and close proximity to west London

Carbon cycle uncertainty in the Alaskan Arctic

Climate change is leading to a disproportionately large warming in the high northern latitudes, but the magnitude and sign of the future carbon balance of the Arctic are highly uncertain. Using 40 terrestrial biosphere models for the Alaskan Arctic from four recent model intercomparison projects – NACP (North American Carbon Program) site and regional syntheses, TRENDY (Trends in net land atmosphere carbon exchanges), and WETCHIMP (Wetland and Wetland CH4 Inter-comparison of Models Project) – we provide a baseline of terrestrial carbon cycle uncertainty, defined as the multi-model standard deviation (o) for each quantity that follows. Mean annual absolute uncertainty was largest for soil carbon (14.0±9.2 kgCm−2), then gross primary production (GPP) (0.22±0.50 kgCm−2 yr−1), ecosystem respiration (Re) (0.23±0.38 kgCm−2 yr−1), net primary production (NPP) (0.14±0.33 kgCm−2 yr−1), autotrophic respiration (Ra) (0.09±0.20 kgCm−2 yr−1), heterotrophic respiration (Rh) (0.14±0.20 kgCm−2 yr−1), net ecosystem exchange (NEE) (−0.01±0.19 kgCm−2 yr−1), and CH4 flux (2.52±4.02 g CH4 m−2 yr−1). There were no consistent spatial patterns in the larger Alaskan Arctic and boreal regional carbon stocks and fluxes, with some models showing NEE for Alaska as a strong carbon sink, others as a strong carbon source, while still others as carbon neutral. Finally, AmeriFlux data are used at two sites in the Alaskan Arctic to evaluate the regional patterns; observed seasonal NEE was captured within multi-model uncertainty. This assessment of carbon cycle uncertainties may be used as a baseline for the improvement of experimental and modeling activities, as well as a reference for future trajectories in carbon cycling with climate change in the Alaskan Arctic and larger boreal region

Recognition of unfamiliar faces

People are excellent at identifying faces familiar to them, even from very low quality images, but are bad at recognising, or even matching, faces that are unfamiliar. In this review we shall consider some of the factors which affect our abilities to match unfamiliar faces. Major differences in orientation (e.g. inversion) or greyscale information (e.g. negation) affect face processing dramatically, and such effects are informative about the nature of the representations derived from unfamiliar faces, suggesting that these are based on relatively low-level image descriptions. Consistent with this, even relatively minor differences in lighting and viewpoint create problems for human face matching, leading to potentially important problems over the use of images from security video images. The relationships between different parts of the face (its "configuration") are as important to the impression created of an upright face as local features themselves, suggesting further constraints on the representations derived from faces. The review then turns to consider what computer face recognition systems may contribute to understanding both the theory and the practical problems of face identification. Computer systems can be used as an aid to person identification, but also in an attempt to model human perceptual processes. There are many approaches to computer recognition of faces, including ones based on low-level image analysis of whole face images, which have potential as models of human performance. Some systems show significant correlations with human perceptions of the same faces, for example recognising distinctive faces more easily. In some circumstances, some systems may exceed human abilities on unfamiliar faces. Finally, we look to the future of work in this area, that will incorporate motion and three-dimensional shape information

Towards a standardized protocol to assess natural capital and ecosystem services in solar parks

1. Natural capital and ecosystem services have emerged as fundamental concepts of ecosystem management strategies in the past two decades, particularly within major international land assessment frameworks, including the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services' Global Assessment Report. 2. Despite the recent development of several analytical methods and models to quantify changes in natural capital and ecosystem services resulting from land use change, incorporating them into the land planning process can be challenging from a practical point of view without guidance on standard methods. 3. In an attempt to decarbonize energy supply systems to meet internationally agreed targets on climate change, solar energy production, in the form of ground-mounted solar parks, is emerging as one of the dominant forms of temporary land use for renewable energies globally. 4. We propose 19 directly measurable indicators associated with 16 ecosystem services within three major stocks of natural capital (biodiversity, soil and water) that are most likely to be impacted by the development of solar parks. Indicators are supported by well-established methods that have been widely used in pure and applied land use research within terrestrial ecosystems. Moreover, they can be implemented flexibly according to interest or land management objectives. 5. Whilst not intended as a precise recipe for how to assess the effects of solar park development on hosting ecosystems, the protocol will guide the solar energy industry and all actors involved, be they researchers, practitioners, ecological consultancies or statutory bodies, to implement a standardized approach to evaluate temporal and spatial changes in natural capital and ecosystem services resulting from solar park development and operation, with the ultimate aim of generating comparable and reproducible data on ecosystem impact assessment across the solar energy sector

Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV

A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81 GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure

Search for the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) in gamma gamma collisions

Data taken with the ALEPH detector at LEP1 have been used to search for gamma gamma production of the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) via their decay to pi+pi-. No signal is observed and upper limits to the product of gamma gamma width and pi+pi- branching ratio of the f0(1500) and the fJ(1710) have been measured to be Gamma_(gamma gamma -> f0(1500)). BR(f0(1500)->pi+pi-) < 0.31 keV and Gamma_(gamma gamma -> fJ(1710)). BR(fJ(1710)->pi+pi-) < 0.55 keV at 95% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

D* Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

This paper presents measurements of D^{*\pm} production in deep inelastic scattering from collisions between 27.5 GeV positrons and 820 GeV protons. The data have been taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The decay channel $D^{*+}\to (D^0 \to K^- \pi^+) \pi^+$ (+ c.c.) has been used in the study. The $e^+p$ cross section for inclusive D^{*\pm} production with $5<Q^2<100 GeV^2$ and $y<0.7$ is 5.3 \pms 1.0 \pms 0.8 nb in the kinematic region {$1.3<p_T(D^{*\pm})<9.0$ GeV and $| \eta(D^{*\pm}) |<1.5$}. Differential cross sections as functions of p_T(D^{*\pm}), $\eta(D^{*\pm}), W$ and $Q^2$ are compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations based on the photon-gluon fusion production mechanism. After an extrapolation of the cross section to the full kinematic region in p_T(D^{*\pm}) and $\eta$(D^{*\pm}), the charm contribution $F_2^{c\bar{c}}(x,Q^2)$ to the proton structure function is determined for Bjorken $x$ between 2 $\cdot$ 10$^{-4}$ and 5 $\cdot$ 10$^{-3}$.Comment: 17 pages including 4 figure