Development of Future Habitat Suitability Models for the Swift fox (Vulpes velox) in the American Southwest

The Swift fox (Vupes velox) is a habitat specialist species of short or mixed grass prairie. We used bioclimatic envelope models and habitat suitability models under three future climate scenarios (based on CO2 emission rates) from "www.climatewizard.org":http://www.climatewizard.org to fit species distribution models, using the maximum entropy method. Current suitable habitat for the swift fox covers an area of 161,984 km2. Under the future climate scenarios the habitat decreases by 27% in the low emission scenario, 63% for medium emissions, and 53% in the high emissions scenario. This decrease in suitable habitat corresponded to an overall decrease in total grassland landcover. The current total area of grassland is 423,440 km2. Under the future climate scenarios the grassland decreased by 12% in the low emissions scenario, 24% for medium emissions, and 16% in the high emissions scenario

The Demand for Agricultural Water in Utah

Water is recognized as an essential element in Utah\u27s agricultural economy. It is the subject of much controvery and litigation and yet most discussion of the subject is based on opinions and prejudice rather than upon the basis of sound scientific evidence. This paper attempts to provide some of the economic information necessary for sound decisions in the development and use of Utah\u27s water resources with respect to agriculture. Utah has been divided into ten drainage regions (hydrologi subregions) and the presently irrigated and potentially irrigable land according to land class were estimated for each country or portion of a county within each of the regions. Water use factors, crop rotation constraints, costs of porductions, yields, product prices, and costs of bringing new land into production were also estiamted. These values were then used in a linear programming model to estiamte a normalized demand (marginal value product) schedule for water to be used in agricultural production within each regions. The amount of water made available to the production model for each hydrologic subregion was varied so that the model created a shadow price (marginal value product) at each level. These were then combined to estiamte the relationship between the quantity of water and its economic value (a demand schedule or function). The general conclusions from the study indicate that most parts of the state suffer from a water shortage in that more production could be obtained from the presently irrigated land through the use of more water and/or the tranfer of water from lands with low productivity to higher quality land. There are, however, many cases of water waste. The model is not designed to adequately evaluate the economic feasibility of water importation projects but those regions with the greatest potential for development are identified. The models indicate that, given the present cost and price structure, agriculture alone probably could not economically justify most water importation schemes at this time

Runoff and focused groundwater recharge response to flooding rains in the arid zone of Australia

A groundwater recharge investigation in the arid zone of Australia is presented. The investigation used a wide range of hydrogeological techniques including geological mapping, surface and borehole geophysics, groundwater hydraulics, streambed temperature and pressure monitoring, and hydrogeochemical and environmental tracer sampling, and it was complemented by analysis of rainfall intensity from 18 tipping-bucked rain gauges, climate data and stream runoff measurements. Run-off and recharge from a 200-mm rainfall event in January 2015, the largest daily rainfall in the local 50-year record, were investigated in detail. While this major storm provided substantial run-off as a potential source for focused, indirect recharge, it only produced enough actual recharge to the shallow aquifer to temporarily halt a long-term groundwater recession. A series of smaller rainfall-runoff events in 2016 produced a similar recharge response. The results suggest that the total magnitude of a flood event is not the main control on indirect groundwater recharge at this location. A deeper aquifer shows no hydraulic response to surface-water flow events and is isolated from the shallow system, consistent with its Pleistocene groundwater age. This supports a growing body of evidence indicating that attributing or predicting generalised changes in recharge to changes in climate in dryland environments should not be attempted without first unravelling the dynamic processes governing groundwater recharge in the locality of interest. The results should prompt more detailed and long-term field investigation in other arid zone locations to further understand the episodic and nonlinear nature of recharge in such environments

The worm in the world and the world in the worm

Caenorhabditis elegans is a preeminent model organism, but the natural ecology of this nematode has been elusive. A four-year survey of French orchards published in BMC Biology reveals thriving populations of C. elegans (and Caenorhabditis briggsae) in rotting fruit and plant stems. Rather than being simply a 'soil nematode', C. elegans appears to be a 'plant-rot nematode'. These studies signal a growing interest in the integrated genomics and ecology of these tractable animals

Gender differences in the distribution of children’s physical activity: evidence from nine countries

Background: Physical activity in childhood is thought to influences health and development. Previous studies have found that boys are typically more active than girls, yet the focus has largely been on differences in average levels or proportions above a threshold rather than the full distribution of activity across all intensities. We thus examined differences in the distribution of physical activity between girls and boys in a multi-national sample of children. // Methods: We used the harmonised International Children Accelerometry Database (ICAD), including waist-worn accelerometry data from 15,461 individuals (Boys: 48.3%) from 9 countries. Employing Generalised Additive Models of Location, Shape, and Scale (GAMLSS) we investigated gender differences in the distribution of individuals, including comparisons of variability (SD) and average physical activity levels (mean and median) and skewness. We conducted this analysis for each activity intensity (Sedentary, Light, and Moderate-to-Vigorous (MVPA)) and a summary measure (counts per minute (CPM)). // Results: Sizable gender differences in the distribution of activity were found for moderate to vigorous activity and counts per minute, with boys having higher average levels (38% higher mean volumes of MVPA, 20% higher CPM), yet substantially more between-person variability (30% higher standard deviation (SD) for MVPA, 17% higher SD for CPM); boys’ distributions were less positively skewed than girls. Conversely, there was little to no difference between girls and boys in the distribution of sedentary or light-intensity activity. // Conclusions: Inequality in activity between girls and boys was driven by MVPA. The higher mean volumes of MVPA in boys occurred alongside greater variability. This suggests a need to consider the underlying distribution of activity in future research; for example, interventions which target gender inequality in MVPA may inadvertently lead to increased inequality within girls

Intracellular neutralisation of rotavirus by VP6-specific IgG

Funder: Wellcome Trust; funder-id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004440Rotavirus is a major cause of gastroenteritis in children, with infection typically inducing high levels of protective antibodies. Antibodies targeting the middle capsid protein VP6 are particularly abundant, and as VP6 is only exposed inside cells, neutralisation must be post-entry. However, while a system of poly immune globulin receptor (pIgR) transcytosis has been proposed for anti-VP6 IgAs, the mechanism by which VP6-specific IgG mediates protection remains less clear. We have developed an intracellular neutralisation assay to examine how antibodies neutralise rotavirus inside cells, enabling comparison between IgG and IgA isotypes. Unexpectedly we found that neutralisation by VP6-specific IgG was much more efficient than by VP6-specific IgA. This observation was highly dependent on the activity of the cytosolic antibody receptor TRIM21 and was confirmed using an in vivo model of murine rotavirus infection. Furthermore, mice deficient in only IgG and not other antibody isotypes had a serious deficit in intracellular antibody-mediated protection. The finding that VP6-specific IgG protect mice against rotavirus infection has important implications for rotavirus vaccination. Current assays determine protection in humans predominantly by measuring rotavirus-specific IgA titres. Measurements of VP6-specific IgG may add to existing mechanistic correlates of protection

A comparison of hospital readmission rates between two general physicians with different outpatient review practices

BACKGROUND: There has been a relentless increase in emergency medical admissions in the UK over recent years. Many of these patients suffer with chronic conditions requiring continuing medical attention. We wished to determine whether conventional outpatient clinic follow up after discharge has any impact on the rate of readmission to hospital. METHODS: Two consultant general physicians with the same patient case-mix but markedly different outpatient follow-up practice were chosen. Of 1203 patients discharged, one consultant saw twice as many patients in the follow-up clinic than the other (Dr A 9.8% v Dr B 19.6%). The readmission rate in the twelve months following discharge was compared in a retrospective analysis of hospital activity data. Due to the specialisation of the admitting system, patients mainly had cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease or had taken an overdose. Few had respiratory or infectious diseases. Outpatient follow-up was focussed on patients with cardiac disease. RESULTS: Risk of readmission increased significantly with age and length of stay of the original episode and was less for digestive system and musculo-skeletal disorders. 28.7% of patients discharged by Dr A and 31.5 % of those discharged by Dr B were readmitted at least once. Relative readmission risk was not significantly different between the consultants and there was no difference in the length of stay of readmissions. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing the proportion of patients with this age- and case-mix who are followed up in a hospital general medical outpatient clinic is unlikely to reduce the demand for acute hospital beds