Human Dimensions of Migratory Wildlife in Greater Yellowstone

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Collective Aspects of Mitigating Interactions Between Large Carnivores and Humans

Understanding how to coexist with wildlife is of critical importance for successful conservation, particularly for large carnivores, who pose risks to human safety, livestock, and game species. In Montana (USA), black and grizzly bears occur across much of the western half of the state. In particular, grizzly bears are protected by the Endangered Species Act and their populations and ranges are expanding, resulting in increased overlap between humans and bears. Interactions with bears can be mitigated when landowners take certain actions to secure bear attractants – such as using bear resistant garbage cans and feed storage, using electric fences, removing livestock carcasses, and taking down bird feeders in the spring and fall. Few studies have examined what drives uptake of these actions, but factors include perceived risks and benefits and personal experience at the individual level. This research aims to understand how individual and collective aspects drive uptake of actions to secure bear attractants. We administered a mail-back questionnaire to Montana landowners and used the collective interest model to determine the relative effects of collective and individual factors in influencing whether landowners secure bear attractants. We developed logistic regression models for each behavior. Collective aspects that drove behavior included social norms (i.e., what individuals think they should do and what others are doing) and network centrality (i.e., how much social influence an individual has). This research suggests that outreach campaigns that only highlight the risks of large carnivores could be substantially improved by describing the collective aspects of mitigation

TOI-3785 b: A Low-Density Neptune Orbiting an M2-Dwarf Star

Using both ground-based transit photometry and high-precision radial velocity (RV) spectroscopy, we confirm the planetary nature of TOI-3785 b. This transiting Neptune orbits an M2-Dwarf star with a period of ~4.67 days, a planetary radius of 5.14 +/- 0.16 Earth Radii, a mass of 14.95 +4.10, -3.92 Earth Masses, and a density of 0.61 +0.18, -0.17 g/cm^3. TOI-3785 b belongs to a rare population of Neptunes (4 Earth Radii < Rp < 7 Earth Radii) orbiting cooler, smaller M-dwarf host stars, of which only ~10 have been confirmed. By increasing the number of confirmed planets, TOI-3785 b offers an opportunity to compare similar planets across varying planetary and stellar parameter spaces. Moreover, with a high transmission spectroscopy metric (TSM) of ~150 combined with a relatively cool equilibrium temperature of 582 +/- 16 K and an inactive host star, TOI-3785 b is one of the more promising low-density M-dwarf Neptune targets for atmospheric follow-up. Future investigation into atmospheric mass loss rates of TOI-3785 b may yield new insights into the atmospheric evolution of these low-mass gas planets around M-dwarfs.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, 6 tables, Submitted to A

TOI-5205b: A Jupiter transiting an M dwarf near the Convective Boundary

We present the discovery of TOI-5205b, a transiting Jovian planet orbiting a solar metallicity M4V star, which was discovered using TESS photometry and then confirmed using a combination of precise radial velocities, ground-based photometry, spectra and speckle imaging. The host star TOI-5205 sits near the eponymous `Jao gap', which is the transition region between partially and fully-convective M dwarfs. TOI-5205b has one of the highest mass ratio for M dwarf planets with a mass ratio of almost 0.3$\%$, as it orbits a host star that is just $0.392 \pm 0.015$ $M_{\odot}$. Its planetary radius is $1.03 \pm 0.03~R_J$, while the mass is $1.08 \pm 0.06~M_J$. Additionally, the large size of the planet orbiting a small star results in a transit depth of $\sim 7\%$, making it one of the deepest transits of a confirmed exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star. The large transit depth makes TOI-5205b a compelling target to probe its atmospheric properties, as a means of tracing the potential formation pathways. While there have been radial velocity-only discoveries of giant planets around mid M dwarfs, this is the first transiting Jupiter with a mass measurement discovered around such a low-mass host star. The high mass of TOI-5205b stretches conventional theories of planet formation and disk scaling relations that cannot easily recreate the conditions required to form such planets.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. Comments are welcome. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2203.0717

The Role of Wilderness Orientation Programs: What purpose do they serve?

Understanding the Freshman Wilderness Experience (FWE) at the University of Montana provides insight into the resilience of first-year college students. Prior research on the effects of outdoor orientation programs in student retention suggests positive outcomes from these experiences. The extant literature concerning orientation programs suggests that the successful adaptation of students, a sense of belonging, social adjustment, self-efficacy, goal orientation, and positively responding to rapidly changing circumstances are all key mediators of understanding student resilience. The present study looked specifically at resilience and self-efficacy. Students were asked to participate in a survey before and after FWE and again at the end of their first semester. A comparison group of students who only attended the standard fall orientation was also sampled at the beginning and end of the semester. Two main constructs were used in the survey; the CD-RISC Resilience Measure and a college self-efficacy measure (Gore et. al, 2005). No significant differences in resilience or self-efficacy were found over time or between the two orientation groups. This is not, however, insignificant data. Prior research demonstrates the beneficial effects of outdoor orientation programs on students, and the FWE program has high regards from many of its students. The program also boasts higher retention rates than the average at UM. The question then remains, if not resilience and self-efficacy, what mediators are at work in this program? A second wave of data collection through semi-structured interviews with students who participated in FWE three years prior provides some insight. These data suggest that a sense of place and strong connections to social groups are two crucial parts of the program that could be leading to a stronger ability to navigate stressors. These findings are important in continuing to understand how to promote successful adaptation and navigation of the first semester of freshman year

Collaboration on the Upper Clark Fork River: a case study from the Montana CREWS project

Ecosystem restoration projects are collaborative undertakings and often involve scientists and professionals from varied backgrounds working together across agencies, academia, and the private sector. Successful outcomes are a result of effective collaborative processes, and monitoring how collaboration evolves over the course of a project can provide important insights for management. We present a measurement tool for assessing team collaboration processes and discuss validation and results from a survey of the CREWS project, a large-scale research project in Montana focusing on environmental water quality. We adapted a survey instrument used in the health sciences for relevance to our large interdisciplinary science team and validated our scale for this context. This work is part of a larger project using social network analysis to explore social factors involved in collaborative science and their relationships to project outcomes. Because this study is still in progress, the recording is not included here. For more information on this ongoing study, contact [email protected]

Fish oil and post-operative atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Dariush Mozaffarian, Jason H. Y. Wu, Marcia C. de Oliveira Otto, Chirag M. Sandesara, Robert G. Metcalf, Roberto Latini, Peter Libby, Federico Lombardi, Patrick T. O’Gara, Richard L. Page, Maria G. Silletta, Luigi Tavazzi, Roberto Marchiol

Fish oil and post-operative atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Dariush Mozaffarian, Jason H. Y. Wu, Marcia C. de Oliveira Otto, Chirag M. Sandesara, Robert G. Metcalf, Roberto Latini, Peter Libby, Federico Lombardi, Patrick T. O’Gara, Richard L. Page, Maria G. Silletta, Luigi Tavazzi, Roberto Marchiol

Rotational Modulation of Spectroscopic Zeeman Signatures in Low-mass Stars

Accurate tracers of the stellar magnetic field and rotation are cornerstones for the study of M dwarfs and for reliable detection and characterization of their exoplanetary companions. Such measurements are particularly challenging for old, slowly rotating, fully convective M dwarfs. To explore the use of new activity and rotation tracers, we examined multiyear near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic monitoring of two such stars-GJ 699 (Barnard's Star) and Teegarden's Star-carried out with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder spectrograph. We detected periodic variations in absorption line widths across the stellar spectrum, with higher amplitudes toward longer wavelengths. We also detected similar variations in the strength and width of the 12435.67 Å neutral potassium (K i) line, a known tracer of the photospheric magnetic field. Attributing these variations to rotational modulation, we confirm the known 145 ± 15 day rotation period of GJ 699, and measure the rotation period of Teegarden's Star to be 99.6 ± 1.4 days. Based on simulations of the K i line and the wavelength dependence of the line-width signal, we argue that the observed signals are consistent with varying photospheric magnetic fields and the associated Zeeman effect. These results highlight the value of detailed line profile measurements in the NIR for diagnosing stellar magnetic field variability. Such measurements may be pivotal for disentangling activity and exoplanet-related signals in spectroscopic monitoring of old, low-mass stars. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]