Population Response of Three Quail Species to Habitat Restoration in South Texas

Maintaining and increasing usable space is paramount for maintaining and increasing wild quail. Aside from weather and other factors that can temporarily reduce densities, range-wide, no factor has as much influence on quail populations as the amount of habitat present across the landscape. In the field of quail management, ‘‘bad news’’ is the norm, as many articles begin by explaining how a select species has declined. Here we provide good news and use 4 empirical examples of population increases for 3 quail species following creation of usable space and restoration of patch connectivity. From 2008–2014, a suite of independent projects aimed at increasing usable space for quail was initiated across South Texas. These projects included 3 focused on northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus), 1 focused on scaled quail (Callipepla squamata), and 1 landowner-executed project focused on Montezuma quail (Cyrtonyx montezumae). Through the correction of attributes limiting habitat, bobwhite numbers increased 22–378% across 2 studies. On one particular study site, native grassland restoration resulted in the colonization of bobwhites from adjacent areas to 1 bobwhite/1.2 ha from nearly 0. For scaled quail in South Texas, reducing buffelgrass standing crop via grazing from about 2,240 kg/ha to 1,008 kg/ha resulted in the recolonization of a previously unoccupied habitat patch to a density of 1 scaled quail/6 ha. Finally, clearing monotypic stands of the invasive native plant, ash juniper (Juniperus ashei) in the Edwards Plateau of Texas, resulted in the reestablishment of native grasses and forbs and thus recolonization by Montezuma quail from nearby areas. Although habitat restoration and management can be a painstaking and lengthy process, addressing limiting factors to quail occupancy is the only known way to increase wild quail populations. We hope that highlighting these particular studies will provide inspiration to those interested in restoring and increasing quail across the US

State of deworming coverage and equity in low-income and middle-income countries using household health surveys: a spatiotemporal cross-sectional study

Mass deworming against soil-transmitted helminthiasis, which affects 1 billion of the poorest people globally, is one of the largest public health programmes for neglected tropical diseases, and is intended to be equitable. However, the extent to which treatment programmes for deworming achieve equitable coverage across wealth class and sex is unclear and the public health metric of national deworming coverage does not include representation of equity. This study aims to measure both coverage and equity in global, national, and subnational deworming to guide future programmatic evaluation, investment, and metric design.; We used nationally representative, geospatial, household data from Demographic and Health Surveys that measured mother-reported deworming in children of preschool age (12-59 months). Deworming was defined as children having received drugs for intestinal parasites in the previous 6 months before the survey. We estimated deworming coverage disaggregated by geography, wealth quintile, and sex, and computed an equity index. We examined trends in coverage and equity index across countries, within countries, and over time. We used a regression model to compute the household correlates of deworming and ecological correlates of equitable deworming.; Our study included 820 883 children living in 50 countries from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe that are endemic for soil-transmitted helminthiasis using 77 Demographic and Health Surveys from December, 2003, to October, 2017. In these countries, the mean deworming coverage in preschool children was estimated at 33·0% (95% CI 32·9-33·1). The subnational coverage ranged from 0·5% to 87·5%, and within-country variation was greater than between-country variation. Of the 31 countries reporting that they reached the WHO goal of more than 75% national coverage, 30 had inequity in deworming, with treatment concentrated in wealthier populations. We did not detect systematic differences in deworming equity by sex.; Substantial inequities in mass deworming programmes are common as wealthier populations have consistently higher coverage than that of the poor, including in countries reporting to have reached the WHO goal of more than 75% national coverage. These inequities seem to be geographically heterogeneous, modestly improving over time, with no evidence of sex differences in inequity. Future reporting of deworming coverage should consider disaggregation by geography, wealth, and sex with incorporation of an equity index to complement the conventional public health metric of national deworming coverage.; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Stanford University Medical Scientist Training Program

Modelling the effects of calcium waves and oscillations on saliva secretion

An understanding of Ca2+Ca2+ signalling in saliva-secreting acinar cells is important, as Ca2+Ca2+ is the second messenger linking stimulation of cells to production of saliva. Ca2+Ca2+ signals affect secretion via the ion channels located both apically and basolaterally in the cell. By approximating Ca2+Ca2+ waves with periodic functions on the apical and basolateral membranes, we isolate individual wave properties and investigate them for their effect on fluid secretion in a mathematical model of the acinar cell. Mean Ca2+Ca2+ concentration is found to be the most significant property in signalling secretion. Wave speed was found to encode a range of secretion rates. Ca2+Ca2+ oscillation frequency and amplitude had little effect on fluid secretion

International home economics

The conference was planned to serve the interests of those who wish to work in home economics programs abroad and those who are concerned with the education of international students in the universities and colleges of the United States. Approximately 165 home economists from other states and from foreign countries I including the African and Latin American countries I participated in the conference.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/card_reports/1026/thumbnail.jp

The Snake King

Book [4] p. ; 31 cm.Text printed on a folded leaf with deckled edges. Title superimposed on sprays of leaves. A poem. Limited ed. of 50 copies. 'The Root River Mill abaca papers result from trying the untried, pushing the medium past what we can comfortably accomplish ... The Arboret type is from The Los Angeles Type Founders, the Spectrum, M&H.' -- Colophon. Printed in grey; 1 folded sheet; hand-sewn pamphlet stitch with white thread, tied on the exterior, partially dyed, with approximately 40 cm. in length left hanging; in dark grey paper wrappers which have been wrinkled to create a decorative effect.No. 24 of a limited ed

Pagan Babies

Book; 1 v. (unpaged) ; 24 cm."This book is an account of a missions fund-raising technique used by the Catholic Church in the 1940s and 1950s. ... Containing four short oral histories of the pagan baby activity, the book is printed letterpress on Root River Mill abaca and the pages of a 19th century bible (also printed letterpress)." -- Colophon. Printed pages are interleaved with the pages of a 19th century Bible with stitched binding. Limited ed. of 59 copies.Colophon and page from a 19th century bible laid in. No. 24 of a limited ed

PRODUCTION DESIGN OF GOVERNMENT STANDARDIZED SPECTRALLY EFFICIENT FQPSK TRANSMITTERS©

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, CaliforniaHerley Industries has applied state of the art design for production techniques to develop of a line of dual use spectrally efficient digital data transmitters. Herley has been a global leader in the design and production of high tech RF and microwave products for more than 30 years. The resulting transmitters support variable data rates up to 20 Mbps and output power levels to 10 Watts in both the L and S frequency bands. The transmitter product line implements Feher’s-patented Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (FQPSK) modulation technique, effectively doubling the spectral efficiency of conventional PCM-FM techniques. While the development of this transmitter product line represents the initial offering of Herley in the blossoming FQPSK industry, the design team has relied upon its extensive experience in producing RF and microwave products that represent the state of the art in design and manufacturing techniques. The end result has been the production of cost effective transmitters that meet the vibration, shock, EMI, altitude, and temperature requirements of missile and aircraft environments.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection

High resolution measurement of DUF1220 domain copy number from whole genome sequence data

<p>This is the source code used for the manuscript: </p> <p>Astling, DP, Heft IE, Jones, KL, Sikela, JM. "High resolution measurement of DUF1220 domain copy number from whole genome sequence data" BMC Genomics (2017)</p> <p>This archive contain the source code used to process and analyze the whole genome sequence data from the 1000 Genomes project, carry out the simulations of the DUF1220 regions, test several alignment and summarization strategies, and annotate the latest human genome reference hg38</p> <p>version v.1.0.2</p

Additional file 4: of High resolution measurement of DUF1220 domain copy number from whole genome sequence data

PF06758 seed domains. (TXT 7 kb