Interclutch variability in egg characteristics in two species of rail: Is maternal identity encoded in eggshell patterns?

© 2022 Johnson, McRae. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Maternal signatures are present in the eggs of some birds, but quantifying interclutch variability within populations remains challenging. Maternal assignment of eggs with distinctive appearances could be used to non-invasively identify renesting females, including hens returning among years, as well as to identify cases of conspecific brood parasitism. We explored whether King Rail (Rallus elegans) eggs with shared maternity could be matched based on eggshell pattern. We used NaturePatternMatch (NPM) software to match egg images taken in the field in conjunction with spatial and temporal data on nests. Since we had only a small number of marked breeders, we analyzed similar clutch images from a study of Eurasian Common Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus chloropus) with color-banded breeders for which parentage at many nests had been verified genetically to validate the method. We ran 66 King Rail clutches (n = 338 eggs) and 58 Common Moorhen clutches (n = 364 eggs) through NPM. We performed non-metric multidimensional scaling and permutational analysis of variance using the best egg match output from NPM. We also explored whether eggs could be grouped by clutch using a combination of egg dimensions and pattern data derived from NPM using linear discriminant analyses. We then scrutinized specific matches returned by NPM for King Rail eggs to determine whether multiple matches between the same clutches might reveal maternity among nests and inform our understanding of female laying behavior. To do this, we ran separate NPM analyses for clutches photographed over several years from two spatially distant parts of the site. With these narrower datasets, we were able to identify four instances where hens likely returned to breed among years, four likely cases of conspecific brood parasitism, and a within-season re-nesting attempt. Thus, the matching output was helpful in identifying congruent egg patterns among clutches when used in conjunction with spatial and temporal data, revealing previously unrecognized site fidelity, within-season movements, and reproductive interference by breeding females. Egg pattern data in combination with nest mapping can be used to inform our understanding of female reproductive effort, success, and longevity in King Rails. These methods may also be applied to other secretive birds and species of conservation concern.ECU ALS PLOS Institutional Account Progra

Gathering and Sending: Welcome, Greetings, Blessings, Webinar 2

These words of Gathering and Sending: Welcome, Greetings, Blessings, were part of Webinar 2 (November 15, 2022) of the Webinar Series “For the Sake of the Gospel” hosted by the Remembering Today for the Church of Tomorrow Project in partnership with Martin Luther University College and Lutheran Theological Seminary. Endnotes by Karen Kuhnert. Kuhnert opened with an Acknowledgement of Indigenous Neighbours and Territories

Indians and Equal Protection

This article analyzes the recent Indian equal protection cases in an attempt to formulate the equal protection doctrine as applied to Indians, to examine the theoretical foundation for that doctrine, and to indicate how that doctrine will likely be applied in situations not yet addressed by the courts

Indians and Equal Protection

This article analyzes the recent Indian equal protection cases in an attempt to formulate the equal protection doctrine as applied to Indians, to examine the theoretical foundation for that doctrine, and to indicate how that doctrine will likely be applied in situations not yet addressed by the courts

Do Bills of Rights Matter? An Examination of Court Change, Judicial Ideology, and the Support Structure for Rights in Canada

Competing theories regarding the development of a rights revolution in Canada have appeared in the judicial and constitutional literature in recent years. On the one hand, scholars argue that the profound effects often attributed to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are substantially overstated, and conventional analyses have overlooked the more important role of changes in what is called the support structure for rights. Others have advanced a competing theory that the Charter created an expansion of civil liberties. We take advantage of an extensive dataset on the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada to provide a more systematic test of these competing theories. We conclude that the adoption of the Charter had effects on both the rights agenda and the constitutional issues agenda of the Court, which were both substantively large and statistically significant. There was some indication that changes in agenda control mattered, but the effects were not consistent across our time-series models. The more limited claim that increases in the support structure are one of multiple factors that are associated with agenda change received only mixed support. In short, we found that bills of rights do matter

Do Bills of Rights Matter? An Examination of Court Change, Judicial Ideology, and the Support Structure for Rights in Canada

Competing theories regarding the development of a rights revolution in Canada have appeared in the judicial and constitutional literature in recent years. On the one hand, scholars argue that the profound effects often attributed to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are substantially overstated, and conventional analyses have overlooked the more important role of changes in what is called the support structure for rights. Others have advanced a competing theory that the Charter created an expansion of civil liberties. We take advantage of an extensive dataset on the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada to provide a more systematic test of these competing theories. We conclude that the adoption of the Charter had effects on both the rights agenda and the constitutional issues agenda of the Court, which were both substantively large and statistically significant. There was some indication that changes in agenda control mattered, but the effects were not consistent across our time-series models. The more limited claim that increases in the support structure are one of multiple factors that are associated with agenda change received only mixed support. In short, we found that bills of rights do matter

Do Bills of Rights Matter?: An Examination of Court Change, Judicial Ideology, and the Support Structure for Rights in Canada

Competing theories regarding the development of a “rights revolution” in Canada have appeared in the judicial and constitutional literature in recent years. On the one hand, scholars argue that the profound effects often attributed to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are substantially overstated, and conventional analyses have overlooked the more important role of changes in what is called the “support structure” for rights. Others have advanced a competing theory that the Charter created an expansion of civil liberties. We take advantage of an extensive dataset on the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada to provide a more systematic test of these competing theories. We conclude that the adoption of the Charter had effects on both the rights agenda and the constitutional issues agenda of the Court, which were both substantively large and statistically significant. There was some indication that changes in agenda control mattered, but the effects were not consistent across our time-series models. The more limited claim that increases in the support structure are one of multiple factors that are associated with agenda change received only mixed support. In short, we found that bills of rights do matter

Standoff Methods for the Detection of Threat Agents: A Review of Several Promising Laser-Based Techniques

Detection of explosives, explosive precursors, or other threat agents presents a number of technological challenges for optical sensing methods. Certainly detecting trace levels of threat agents against a complex background is chief among these challenges; however, the related issues of multiple target distances (from standoff to proximity) and sampling time scales (from passive mines to rapid rate of march convoy protection) for different applications make it unlikely that a single technique will be ideal for all sensing situations. A number of methods for spanning the range of optical sensor technologies exist which, when integrated, could produce a fused sensor system possessing a high level of sensitivity to threat agents and a moderate standoff real-time capability appropriate for portal screening of personnel or vehicles. In this work, we focus on several promising, and potentially synergistic, laser-based methods for sensing threat agents. For each method, we have briefly outlined the technique and report on the current level of capability

Standoff Methods for the Detection of Threat Agents: A Review of Several Promising Laser-Based Techniques

Detection of explosives, explosive precursors, or other threat agents presents a number of technological challenges for optical sensing methods. Certainly detecting trace levels of threat agents against a complex background is chief among these challenges; however, the related issues of multiple target distances (from standoff to proximity) and sampling time scales (from passive mines to rapid rate of march convoy protection) for different applications make it unlikely that a single technique will be ideal for all sensing situations. A number of methods for spanning the range of optical sensor technologies exist which, when integrated, could produce a fused sensor system possessing a high level of sensitivity to threat agents and a moderate standoff real-time capability appropriate for portal screening of personnel or vehicles. In this work, we focus on several promising, and potentially synergistic, laser-based methods for sensing threat agents. For each method, we have briefly outlined the technique and report on the current level of capability

Judicial Decision Making In the Supreme Court of Canada: Updating the Personal Attribute Model

This study seeks to add to the current understanding of the political nature of the Supreme Court of Canada. We analyze a data set consisting of all nonunanimous published Supreme Court decisions for the period 1949 to 2000. A prior study by Tate and Sittiwong (1989) suggested a model of judge attributes for the period 1949 to 1985. We build on that analysis by extending the time period to 2000, which allows the impact of gender also to be assessed. We find that since the Court gained substantial docket control, the types of cases the Court hears has changed from the period studied by Tate and Sittiwong. In the more recent period, civil rights and liberties cases are much more substantial in number. We conclude some of the variables in the Tate and Sittiwong study may be time bound and we suggest a new model of attitudinal voting