8,289 research outputs found
AMPHIBIAN RESPONSE TO A LARGE-SCALE HABITAT RESTORATION IN THE PRAIRIE POTHOLE REGION
Over the next half-century, scientists anticipate that nearly one third of the currently recognized 7,450 amphibian species will become extinct. Many organizations have responded to the challenge of conserving amphibian biodiversity, some indirectly. Under the auspices of the Iowa Great Lakes Management Plan, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Natural Resources, and their partners have been implementing habitat restoration efforts designed to protect water quality, provide recreational opportunities, and benefit wildlife at the regional level. With this program, over 130 wetlands have been created in the past 30 years on recently purchased public lands—one of the largest wetland restoration projects conducted in the Prairie Pothole Region of the Great Plains. While amphibians were not the main target of these restorations, we show that in response, 121 new breeding populations of native Northern Leopard Frogs (Lithobates pipiens; n = 80) and Eastern Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum; n = 41) have been established; in addition, we found 19 populations of non-native American Bullfrogs (L. catesbeianus). Using the program PRESENCE, we show that leopard frog occupancy was greatest in newer (<18 years old), intermediate-sized wetlands, and that tiger salamander occupancy was greatest in small wetlands without fish and larval bullfrogs. These data imply that because native amphibians responded positively to these newly established wetlands, habitat availability has likely been a factor in limiting population numbers. Further, these data suggest the presence of fishes and introduced bullfrogs interferes with the ability of tiger salamanders to colonize restored wetlands
On the Minimum Distance of Generalized Spatially Coupled LDPC Codes
Families of generalized spatially-coupled low-density parity-check (GSC-LDPC)
code ensembles can be formed by terminating protograph-based generalized LDPC
convolutional (GLDPCC) codes. It has previously been shown that ensembles of
GSC-LDPC codes constructed from a protograph have better iterative decoding
thresholds than their block code counterparts, and that, for large termination
lengths, their thresholds coincide with the maximum a-posteriori (MAP) decoding
threshold of the underlying generalized LDPC block code ensemble. Here we show
that, in addition to their excellent iterative decoding thresholds, ensembles
of GSC-LDPC codes are asymptotically good and have large minimum distance
growth rates.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory
201
New Codes on Graphs Constructed by Connecting Spatially Coupled Chains
A novel code construction based on spatially coupled low-density parity-check
(SC-LDPC) codes is presented. The proposed code ensembles are described by
protographs, comprised of several protograph-based chains characterizing
individual SC-LDPC codes. We demonstrate that code ensembles obtained by
connecting appropriately chosen SC-LDPC code chains at specific points have
improved iterative decoding thresholds compared to those of single SC-LDPC
coupled chains. In addition, it is shown that the improved decoding properties
of the connected ensembles result in reduced decoding complexity required to
achieve a specific bit error probability. The constructed ensembles are also
asymptotically good, in the sense that the minimum distance grows linearly with
the block length. Finally, we show that the improved asymptotic properties of
the connected chain ensembles also translate into improved finite length
performance.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor
Error Propagation Mitigation in Sliding Window Decoding of Braided Convolutional Codes
We investigate error propagation in sliding window decoding of braided
convolutional codes (BCCs). Previous studies of BCCs have focused on iterative
decoding thresholds, minimum distance properties, and their bit error rate
(BER) performance at small to moderate frame length. Here, we consider a
sliding window decoder in the context of large frame length or one that
continuously outputs blocks in a streaming fashion. In this case, decoder error
propagation, due to the feedback inherent in BCCs, can be a serious problem.In
order to mitigate the effects of error propagation, we propose several schemes:
a \emph{window extension algorithm} where the decoder window size can be
extended adaptively, a resynchronization mechanism where we reset the encoder
to the initial state, and a retransmission strategy where erroneously decoded
blocks are retransmitted. In addition, we introduce a soft BER stopping rule to
reduce computational complexity, and the tradeoff between performance and
complexity is examined. Simulation results show that, using the proposed window
extension algorithm, resynchronization mechanism, and retransmission strategy,
the BER performance of BCCs can be improved by up to four orders of magnitude
in the signal-to-noise ratio operating range of interest, and in addition the
soft BER stopping rule can be employed to reduce computational complexity.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1801.0323
Brain Differences in the Prefrontal Cortex, Amygdala, and Hippocampus in Youth with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
Context: Classical Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency results in hormone imbalances present both prenatally and postnatally that may impact the developing brain.
Objective: To characterize gray matter morphology in the prefrontal cortex and subregion volumes of the amygdala and hippocampus in youth with CAH, compared to controls.
Design: A cross-sectional study of 27 CAH youth (16 female; 12.6 ± 3.4 year) and 35 typically developing, healthy controls (20 female; 13.0 ± 2.8 year) with 3-T magnetic resonance imaging scans. Brain volumes of interest included bilateral prefrontal cortex, and nine amygdala and six hippocampal subregions. Between-subject effects of group (CAH vs control) and sex, and their interaction (group-by-sex) on brain volumes were studied, while controlling for intracranial volume (ICV) and group differences in body mass index and bone age.
Results: CAH youth had smaller ICV and increased cerebrospinal fluid volume compared to controls. In fully-adjusted models, CAH youth had smaller bilateral, superior and caudal middle frontal volumes, and smaller left lateral orbito-frontal volumes compared to controls. Medial temporal lobe analyses revealed the left hippocampus was smaller in fully-adjusted models. CAH youth also had significantly smaller lateral nucleus of the amygdala and hippocampal subiculum and CA1 subregions.
Conclusions: This study replicates previous findings of smaller medial temporal lobe volumes in CAH patients, and suggests that lateral nucleus of the amygdala, as well as subiculum and subfield CA1 of the hippocampus are particularly affected within the medial temporal lobes in CAH youth
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