Parrots, people and plants : urban tree removal and habitat loss for the endangered swift parrot, Lathamus discolor

Swift Parrots, Lathamus discolor, breed predominantly in southeastern Tasmania, including around the city of Hobart. While breeding, they feed mostly on the nectar and pollen of Tasmanian Blue Gum, Eucalyptus globulus, and Black Gum, E. ovata, trees. Swift Parrots are regularly observed foraging on these floral products in the Hobart suburb of Mt Nelson, where the trees produce more flowers than those in adjacent bushland. To investigate trends in the availability of food for Swift Parrots breeding near Hobart, we surveyed people who live in Mt Nelson to ascertain the extent of removal of large eucalypt trees from their properties. The 294 respondents to our questionnaire reported the presence of 263 large E. globulus and 109 large E. ovata on their properties. However, respondents also stated that they had removed 88 large E. globulus and 25 large E. ovata trees in the past five to 10 years, and intended felling a further 13 large E. globulus and 15 large E. ovata trees in the near future. This represents the removal of almost 30% of large trees of both species within a decade, and suggests a decline in foraging habitat for Swift Parrots while breeding near Hobart

Autonomous Bee Colony Optimization for Multi-objective Function

An Autonomous Bee Colony Optimization (A-BCO) algorithm for solving multi-objective numerical problems is proposed. In contrast with previous Bee Colony algorithms, A-BCO utilizes a diversity-based performance metric to dynamically assess the archive set. This assessment is employed to adapt the bee colony structures and flying patterns. This self-adaptation feature is introduced to optimize the balance between exploration and exploitation during the search process. Moreover, the total number of search iterations is also determined/optimized by A-BCO, according to user pre-specified conditions, during the search process. We evaluate A-BCO upon numerical benchmark problems and the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed algorithm when compared with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II and the latest Multi-objective Bee Colony Algorithm proposed to date

Speciation of phosphorus in a fertilized, reduced-till soil system: in-field treatment incubation study

Citation: Khatiwada, Raju, Ganga M. Hettiarachchi, David B. Mengel, and Mingwei Fei. “Speciation of Phosphorus in a Fertilized, Reduced-Till Soil System: In-Field Treatment Incubation Study.” Soil Science Society of America Journal 76, no. 6 (2012): 2006–18. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2011.0299.Phosphorus management in reduced-tillage systems is a great concern for farmers. Conclusive positive results of deep-banding P fertilizers compared with broadcast application and the chemistry of reduced-tillage systems remain unclear. Knowledge of the dominant solid P species present in soil following application of P fertilizers and the resulting potential P availability would help us understand and efficiently manage P in reduced-tillage systems. The objective of this research was to study the influence of placement (broadcast vs. deep-band P), fertilizer source (granular vs. liquid P), and time on the reaction products of P under field conditions. Changes in soil pH, resin-extractable P, total P, and speciation of P were determined at different distances from the point of fertilizer application at 5 wk and 6 mo after P application at a rate of 75 kg ha−1 to a soil system that was under long-term reduced tillage. Resin-extractable P was lower for broadcast treatments compared with deep-band treatments for both time periods. Resin-extractable P was greater in the liquid P-treated soils than in the granular P-treated soils. Speciation results showed that granular P fertilizers tended to form Fe–P-like forms, whereas liquid forms remained in adsorbed P-like forms in the soil 5 wk after application; moreover, speciation results showed granular P fertilizers precipitated less when deep-banded. During the 6-mo period following application, reaction products of broadcast granular, broadcast liquid, and deep-band granular fertilizers transformed to Ca-phosphate or mixtures of Ca-, Fe- and adsorbed-phosphate-like forms, whereas deep-band liquid P remained as mainly adsorbed P-like forms. Deep-banding of P would most likely provide a solution that is both agronomically and environmentally efficient for reduced-till farmers

The type numbers of closed geodesics

A short survey on the type numbers of closed geodesics, on applications of the Morse theory to proving the existence of closed geodesics and on the recent progress in applying variational methods to the periodic problem for Finsler and magnetic geodesicsComment: 29 pages, an appendix to the Russian translation of "The calculus of variations in the large" by M. Mors

Do you see what I see? Identification of child protection concerns by hospital staff and general dental practitioners

Aim An exploration of the threshold that dentists, doctors and nurses recognise for dental and child protection (CP) actions in sample clinical cases, and any differences between these professional groups. Method We present a cross-sectional survey of dentists, doctors and nurses (50 each), who regularly examine children, utilised five fictitious vignettes, combining an oral examination image and clinical history reflecting dental and CP issues. Demographics were collected, and each participant gave their likely action for the cases presented. Results Dentists were significantly better at answering the dental element than the doctors and nurses, (P <0.0001) with no significant difference between these two; only 8% of the latter had undergone any training in assessment of dental health. Although 90.6% of all professionals had undergone CP training, dentists were significantly less accurate at identifying the CP component than doctors and nurses, (P <0.0001) between whom there were no significant differences. Those with higher levels of CP training were most accurate at identifying correct CP actions. Conclusions CP training is effective at improving recognition of child maltreatment, although there remains a worrying lack of knowledge about thresholds for action among dentists. Doctors and nurses have minimal training in, or knowledge of, dental health in children, thus precluding appropriate onward referrals

Symplectically degenerate maxima via generating functions

We provide a simple proof of a theorem due to Nancy Hingston, asserting that symplectically degenerate maxima of any Hamiltonian diffeomorphism of the standard symplectic 2d-torus are non-isolated contractible periodic points or their action is a non-isolated point of the average-action spectrum. Our argument is based on generating functions.Comment: 25 pages, thoroughly revised version, new titl

The Conley Conjecture and Beyond

This is (mainly) a survey of recent results on the problem of the existence of infinitely many periodic orbits for Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms and Reeb flows. We focus on the Conley conjecture, proved for a broad class of closed symplectic manifolds, asserting that under some natural conditions on the manifold every Hamiltonian diffeomorphism has infinitely many (simple) periodic orbits. We discuss in detail the established cases of the conjecture and related results including an analog of the conjecture for Reeb flows, the cases where the conjecture is known to fail, the question of the generic existence of infinitely many periodic orbits, and local geometrical conditions that force the existence of infinitely many periodic orbits. We also show how a recently established variant of the Conley conjecture for Reeb flows can be applied to prove the existence of infinitely many periodic orbits of a low-energy charge in a non-vanishing magnetic field on a surface other than a sphere.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figur