Innovations in Camera Trapping Technology and Approaches: The Integration of Citizen Science and Artificial Intelligence

Camera trapping has become an increasingly reliable and mainstream tool for surveying a diversity of wildlife species. Concurrent with this has been an increasing effort to involve the wider public in the research process, in an approach known as ‘citizen science’. To date, millions of people have contributed to research across a wide variety of disciplines as a result. Although their value for public engagement was recognised early on, camera traps were initially ill‐suited for citizen science. As camera trap technology has evolved, cameras have become more user‐friendly and the enormous quantities of data they now collect has led researchers to seek assistance in classifying footage. This has now made camera trap research a prime candidate for citizen science, as reflected by the large number of camera trap projects now integrating public participation. Researchers are also turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist with classification of footage. Although this rapidly‐advancing field is already proving a useful tool, accuracy is variable and AI does not provide the social and engagement benefits associated with citizen science approaches. We propose, as a solution, more efforts to combine citizen science with AI to improve classification accuracy and efficiency while maintaining public involvement

Counselling in primary care : a systematic review of the evidence

Primary objective: To undertake a systematic review which aimed to locate, appraise and synthesise evidence to obtain a reliable overview of the clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and user perspectives regarding counselling in primary care. Main results: Evidence from 26 studies was presented as a narrative synthesis and demonstrated that counselling is effective in the short term, is as effective as CBT with typical heterogeneous primary care populations and more effective than routine primary care for the treatment of non-specific generic psychological problems, anxiety and depression. Counselling may reduce levels of referrals to psychiatric services, but does not appear to reduce medication, the number of GP consultations or overall costs. Patients are highly satisfied with the counselling they have received in primary care and prefer counselling to medication for depression. Conclusions and implications for future research: This review demonstrates the value of counselling as a valid choice for primary care patients and as a broadly effective therapeutic intervention for a wide range of generic psychological conditions presenting in the primary care setting. More rigorous clinical and cost-effectiveness trials are needed together with surveys of more typical users of primary care services

Camera trap distance sampling for terrestrial mammal population monitoring: lessons learnt from a UK case study

Accurate and precise density estimates are crucial for effective species management and conservation. However, efficient monitoring of mammal densities over large spatial and temporal scales is challenging. In the United Kingdom, published density estimates for many mammals, including species considered to be common, are imprecise. Camera trap distance sampling (CTDS) can estimate densities of multiple species at a time and has been used successfully in a small number of studies. However, CTDS has typically been used over relatively homogeneous landscapes, often over large time scales, making monitoring changes (by repeating surveys) difficult. In this study, we deployed camera traps at 109 sites across an area of 2725 km2 of varied habitat in North-East England, United Kingdom. The 4-month survey generated 51 447 photos of wild mammal species. Data were sufficient for us to use CTDS to estimate the densities of eight mammal species across the whole-survey area and within four specific habitats. Both survey-wide and habitat-specific density estimates largely fell within previously published density ranges and our estimates were amongst the most precise produced for these species to date. Lower precision for some species was typically due to animals being missed by the camera at certain distances, highlighting the need for careful consideration of practical and methodological decisions, such as how high to set cameras and where to left-truncate data. Although CTDS is a promising methodology for determining densities of multiple species from one survey, species-specific decisions are still required and these cannot always be generalized across species types and locations. Taking the United Kingdom as a case study, our study highlights the potential for CTDS to be used on a national scale, although the scale of the task suggests that it would need to be integrated with a citizen science approach

On the Two Species Asymmetric Exclusion Process with Semi-Permeable Boundaries

We investigate the structure of the nonequilibrium stationary state (NESS) of a system of first and second class particles, as well as vacancies (holes), on L sites of a one-dimensional lattice in contact with first class particle reservoirs at the boundary sites; these particles can enter at site 1, when it is vacant, with rate alpha, and exit from site L with rate beta. Second class particles can neither enter nor leave the system, so the boundaries are semi-permeable. The internal dynamics are described by the usual totally asymmetric exclusion process (TASEP) with second class particles. An exact solution of the NESS was found by Arita. Here we describe two consequences of the fact that the flux of second class particles is zero. First, there exist (pinned and unpinned) fat shocks which determine the general structure of the phase diagram and of the local measures; the latter describe the microscopic structure of the system at different macroscopic points (in the limit L going to infinity in terms of superpositions of extremal measures of the infinite system. Second, the distribution of second class particles is given by an equilibrium ensemble in fixed volume, or equivalently but more simply by a pressure ensemble, in which the pair potential between neighboring particles grows logarithmically with distance. We also point out an unexpected feature in the microscopic structure of the NESS for finite L: if there are n second class particles in the system then the distribution of first class particles (respectively holes) on the first (respectively last) n sites is exchangeable.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures. Changed title and introduction for clarity, added reference

Possible Z2 phase and spin-charge separation in electron doped cuprate superconductors

The SU(2) slave-boson mean-field theory for the tt'J model is analyzed. The role of next-nearest-neighbor hopping t' on the phase-diagram is studied. We find a pseudogap phase in hole-doped materials (where t'<0). The pseudo-gap phase is a U(1) spin liquid (the staggered-flux phase) with a U(1) gauge interaction and no fractionalization. This agrees with experiments on hole doped samples. The same calculation also indicates that a positive t' favors a Z2 state with true spin-charge separation. The Z2 state that exists when t' > 0.5J can be a candidate for the pseudo-gap phase of electron-doped cuprates (if such a phase exists). The experimental situation in electron-doped materials is also addressed.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX4. Homepage http://dao.mit.edu/~wen

Progress in the Preclinical Discovery and Clinical Development of Class I and Dual Class I/IV Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase (PI3K) Inhibitors

The phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) constitute an important family of lipid kinase enzymes that control a range of cellular processes through their regulation of a network of signal transduction pathways, and have emerged as important therapeutic targets in the context of cancer, inflammation and cardiovascular diseases. Since the mid-late 1990s, considerable progress has been made in the discovery and development of small molecule ATP-competitive PI3K inhibitors, a number of which have entered early phase human trials over recent years from which key clinical results are now being disclosed. This review summarizes progress made to date, primarily on the discovery and characterization of class I and dual class I/IV subtype inhibitors, together with advances that have been made in translational and clinical research, notably in cancer

Randomized multicentre pilot study of sacubitril/valsartan versus irbesartan in patients with chronic kidney disease: United Kingdom Heart and Renal Protection (HARP)- III—rationale, trial design and baseline data

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at risk of progression to end-stage renal disease and cardiovascular disease. Data from other populations and animal experiments suggest that neprilysin inhibition (which augments the natriuretic peptide system) may reduce these risks, but clinical trials among patients with CKD are required to test this hypothesis. METHODS: UK Heart and Renal Protection III (HARP-III) is a multicentre, double-blind, randomized controlled trial comparing sacubitril/valsartan 97/103 mg two times daily (an angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor) with irbesartan 300 mg one time daily among 414 patients with CKD. Patients ≥18 years of age with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of ≥45 but &lt;60 mL/min/1.73 m2 and urine albumin:creatinine ratio (uACR) &gt;20 mg/mmol or eGFR ≥20 but &lt;45 mL/min/1.73 m2 (regardless of uACR) were invited to be screened. Following a 4- to 7-week pre-randomization single-blind placebo run-in phase (during which any current renin-angiotensin system inhibitors were stopped), willing and eligible participants were randomly assigned either sacubitril/valsartan or irbesartan and followed-up for 12 months. The primary aim was to compare the effects of sacubitril/valsartan and irbesartan on measured GFR after 12 months of therapy. Important secondary outcomes include effects on albuminuria, change in eGFR over time and the safety and tolerability of sacubitril/valsartan in CKD. RESULTS: Between November 2014 and January 2016, 620 patients attended a screening visit and 566 (91%) entered the pre-randomization run-in phase. Of these, 414 (73%) participants were randomized (mean age 63 years; 72% male). The mean eGFR was 34.0 mL/min/1.73 m2 and the median uACR was 58.5 mg/mmol. CONCLUSIONS: UK HARP-III will provide important information on the short-term effects of sacubitril/valsartan on renal function, tolerability and safety among patients with CKD

Newton-Hooke type symmetry of anisotropic oscillators

The rotation-less Newton--Hooke - type symmetry found recently in the Hill problem and instrumental for explaining the center-of-mass decomposition is generalized to an arbitrary anisotropic oscillator in the plane. Conversely, the latter system is shown, by the orbit method, to be the most general one with such a symmetry. Full Newton-Hooke symmetry is recovered in the isotropic case. Star escape from a Galaxy is studied as application.Comment: Updated version with more figures added. 34 pages, 7 figures. Dedicated to the memory of J.-M. Souriau, deceased on March 15 2012, at the age of 9

Stringent constraints on the scalar K pi form factor from analyticity, unitarity and low-energy theorems

We investigate the scalar K pi form factor at low energies by the method of unitarity bounds adapted so as to include information on the phase and modulus along the elastic region of the unitarity cut. Using at input the values of the form factor at t=0 and the Callan-Treiman point, we obtain stringent constraints on the slope and curvature parameters of the Taylor expansion at the origin. Also, we predict a quite narrow range for the higher order ChPT corrections at the second Callan-Treiman point.Comment: 5 pages latex, uses EPJ style files, 3 figures, replaced with version accepted by EPJ