A framework for managing airport grasslands and birds amidst conflicting priorities

Management of modern airports is a task beset by conflicting priorities. Airports are vital to the global market economy, but impose costly environmental disturbances including habitat loss, noise, reduced air quality, erosion, introduction of invasive organisms, and polluted storm-water runoff (Blackwell et al. 2009). Airport environments also attract some wildlife hazardous to aviation safety, namely species involved in wildlife-aircraft collisions or ‘strikes’ (ICAO 2001, Blackwell et al. 2009, DeVault et al. 2011). Since 1912 at least 276 human lives have been lost due to bird strikes (Thorpe 2010), and from 1990 to 2010, more than 106 000 bird strikes involving civil aircraft were reported to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA; http://wildlife-mitigation. tc.faa.gov/wildlife/). Dolbeer (2006) reported that for strikes resulting in substantial aircraft damage (ICAO 1989), 66% occurred below 152 m altitude and within 1.5 km of a runway for airports servicing piston-powered aircraft only, and within 3 km of a runway for airports servicing turbine-powered aircraft (FAA 2009). Consequently, aviation authorities prioritize human safety over wildlife conservation in management of airport habitats (ICAO 2001, FAA 2009). Despite these problems, airports have been proposed as candidates for biodiversity conservation (Kelly & Allan 2006, Blackwell et al. 2009). For example, Kutschbach- Brohl et al. (2010) report that airport grasslands can provide habitat for a range of arthropod communities (e.g. Lepidoptera), and suggest the possibility of conserving these communities while minimizing provision of prey resources to birds recognized as hazardous to aviation. Moreover, declines in grassland bird populations in Europe and North America due to agricultural intensification and development have focused attention on enhancing quality and quantity of remnant grasslands (Herkert 1994, Vickery et al. 2004), including airport grasslands. In North America, airport properties have been identified as key areas of remnant grasslands important to obligate grassland bird species; species that both nest and forage in grasslands (Vickery et al. 1994, Askins et al. 2007). Airport properties in the contiguous USA include \u3e 330 000 ha of grassland, mostly annually mown areas, constituting 39–50% of airport property (DeVault et al. 2012). However, there is little research specific to airport environments that considers food resources for birds (Bernhardt et al. 2010, Kutschbach-Brohl et al. 2010), how birds perceive and react to predation risk (Baker & Brooks 1981) or disturbance (Kershner & Bollinger 1996), and no adequate assessment of how grassland management might affect strike risk (Blackwell et al. 2009, Martin et al. 2011). In this context, we contend that promoting conservation of obligate grassland birds and managing to reduce bird hazards to aviation safety combines two potentially conflicting objectives in a single management framework. Ecologically based guidance to solve this potential conflict is limited, if not oversimplified. Here, we question the potential use of airports to conserve grassland birds, and assess the challenges in managing airport grasslands in light of current ecological and behavioral frameworks. We consider conditions for conservation of obligate grassland birds on airports, and evidence on the use of airports by frequently struck, grassland birds (both obligate and facultative). We also provide a framework to manage grassland birds at airports, given current information and uncertainty. Because of the availability of strike data via the FAA, our focus is on North America. However, problems associated with bird use of airport grasslands are international (ICAO 2001). Therefore, our ultimate purpose is better to inform current management, but also identify research gaps and establish specific predictions that will guide future studies on the ecological basis of use of airport grasslands by birds

Crystal structures of the GH18 domain of the bifunctional peroxiredoxin-chitinase CotE from Clostridium difficile

CotE is a coat protein that is present in the spores of Clostridium difficile, an obligate anaerobic bacterium and a pathogen that is a leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in hospital patients. Spores serve as the agents of disease transmission, and CotE has been implicated in their attachment to the gut epithelium and subsequent colonization of the host. CotE consists of an N-terminal peroxiredoxin domain and a C-terminal chitinase domain. Here, a C-terminal fragment of CotE comprising residues 349-712 has been crystallized and its structure has been determined to reveal a core eight-stranded β-barrel fold with a neighbouring subdomain containing a five-stranded β-sheet. A prominent groove running across the top of the barrel is lined by residues that are conserved in family 18 glycosyl hydrolases and which participate in catalysis. Electron density identified in the groove defines the pentapeptide Gly-Pro-Ala-Met-Lys derived from the N-terminus of the protein following proteolytic cleavage to remove an affinity-purification tag. These observations suggest the possibility of designing peptidomimetics to block C. difficile transmission

Hadronic B decays: Supersymmetric enhancement and a simple spectator model

Two aspects of hadronic B decays are investigated. Firstly, the supersymmetric enhancement of hadronic b decays by gluino penguin processes is studied through their effect on the Wilson coefficients of the effective Hamiltonian. Secondly, hadronization of the final state quarks is studied through a simple phase space spectator model.Comment: 24 pages, REVTEX, minor additional text and some references adde

Suppression of Phase Separation in LiFePO4 Nanoparticles During Battery Discharge

Using a novel electrochemical phase-field model, we question the common belief that LixFePO4 nanoparticles separate into Li-rich and Li-poor phases during battery discharge. For small currents, spinodal decomposition or nucleation leads to moving phase boundaries. Above a critical current density (in the Tafel regime), the spinodal disappears, and particles fill homogeneously, which may explain the superior rate capability and long cycle life of nano-LiFePO4 cathodes.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure

Predicting mental imagery based BCI performance from personality, cognitive profile and neurophysiological patterns

Mental-Imagery based Brain-Computer Interfaces (MI-BCIs) allow their users to send commands to a computer using their brain-activity alone (typically measured by ElectroEncephaloGraphy— EEG), which is processed while they perform specific mental tasks. While very promising, MI-BCIs remain barely used outside laboratories because of the difficulty encountered by users to control them. Indeed, although some users obtain good control performances after training, a substantial proportion remains unable to reliably control an MI-BCI. This huge variability in user-performance led the community to look for predictors of MI-BCI control ability. However, these predictors were only explored for motor-imagery based BCIs, and mostly for a single training session per subject. In this study, 18 participants were instructed to learn to control an EEG-based MI-BCI by performing 3 MI-tasks, 2 of which were non-motor tasks, across 6 training sessions, on 6 different days. Relationships between the participants’ BCI control performances and their personality, cognitive profile and neurophysiological markers were explored. While no relevant relationships with neurophysiological markers were found, strong correlations between MI-BCI performances and mental-rotation scores (reflecting spatial abilities) were revealed. Also, a predictive model of MI-BCI performance based on psychometric questionnaire scores was proposed. A leave-one-subject-out cross validation process revealed the stability and reliability of this model: it enabled to predict participants’ performance with a mean error of less than 3 points. This study determined how users’ profiles impact their MI-BCI control ability and thus clears the way for designing novel MI-BCI training protocols, adapted to the profile of each user

How to transition to reduced-meat diets that benefit people and the planet

Initiation Grant of IIT Kanpur, India (project number 2018386); Wellcome Trust, Our Planet Our Health (Livestock, Environment and People - LEAP), award number 205212/Z/16/Z. L.E.R.; research program NE/N018125/1 LTS-M ASSIST -Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems, funded by NERC and BBSRC

Parental attributions of control for child behaviour and their relation to discipline practices in parents of children with and without developmental delays

Children with developmental delays (DD) are at risk for developing behavior problems. Research suggests that parents’ causal attributions for child behavior are related to parenting. This study investigated this association in parents of children with DD compared to parents of typically developing (TD) children. It specifically focused on attributions of child control by separating these from attributions of responsibility, blame and intent, and from attributions of parent control and responsibility. Fifty-one parents of children with DD and 69 parents of TD children completed two questionnaires. The Written Analogue Questionnaire measured causal attributions. The Parenting Scale measured dysfunctional discipline practices. Parents of children with DD viewed the child’s role in problematic behavior more positively while also viewing misbehavior as more fixed than parents of TD children. Parents of TD children who viewed their child as more in control over misbehavior used less dysfunctional discipline, but this association was not found for parents of children with DD. The results advance understanding of how parents perceive behavior problems in children with DD and the important role these perceptions play in parental behavior management strategies. More importantly, these perceptions relate to discipline practices differently for parents of children with DD compared to parents of TD children, highlighting that parent interventions should be adapted to the specific needs of parents of children with DD

Spatiotemporal Patterns in Nest Box Occupancy by Tree Swallows Across North America

Data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) suggest that populations of aerial insectivorous birds are declining, particularly in northeastern regions of the continent, and particularly since the mid-1980s. Species that use nest boxes, such as Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor), may provide researchers with large data sets that better reveal finer-scale geographical patterns in population trends. We analyzed trends in occupancy rates for ca. 40,000 Tree Swallow nest-box-years from 16 sites across North America. The earliest site has been studied intensively since 1969 and the latest site since 2004. Nest box occupancy rates declined significantly at five of six (83%) sites east of -78° W longitude, whereas occupancy rates increased significantly at four of ten sites (40%) west of -78° W longitude. Decreasing box occupancy trends from the northeast were broadly consistent with aspects of a previous analysis of BBS data for Tree Swallows, but our finding of instances of increases in other parts of the continent are novel. Several questions remain, particularly with respect to causes of these broad-scale geographic changes in population densities of Tree Swallows. The broad geographic patterns are consistent with a hypothesis of widespread changes in climate on wintering, migratory, or breeding areas that in turn may differentially affect populations of aerial insects, but other explanations are possible. It is also unclear whether these changes in occupancy rates reflect an increase or decrease in overall populations of Tree Swallows. Regardless, important conservation steps will be to unravel causes of changing populations of aerial insectivores in North America

Rac1-Dependent Collective Cell Migration Is Required for Specification of the Anterior-Posterior Body Axis of the Mouse

Live imaging and analysis of conditional mutants show that the embryonic organizer that determines the anterior-posterior axis in the mouse embryo moves by Rac1-dependent collective cell migration