Implementation of an occupancy-based monitoring protocol for a widespread and cryptic species, the New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis)

Context. Designing effective long-term monitoring strategies is essential for managing wildlife populations. Implementing a cost-effective, practical monitoring program is especially challenging for widespread but locally rare species. Early successional habitat preferred by the New England cottontail (NEC) has become increasingly rare and fragmented, resulting in substantial declines from their peak distribution in the mid-1900s. The introduction of a possible competitor species, the eastern cottontail (EC),may also have played a role. Uncertainty surrounding how these factors have contributed to NEC declines has complicated management and necessitated development of an appropriate monitoring framework to understand possible drivers of distribution and dynamics. Aims. Because estimating species abundance is costly, we designed presence–absence surveys to estimate species distributions, test assumptions about competitive interactions, and improve understanding of demographic processes for eastern cottontails (EC) and New England cottontails (NEC). The survey protocol aimed to balance long-term management objectives with practical considerations associated with monitoring a widespread but uncommon species. Modelling data arising from these observations allow for estimation of covariate relationships between species status and environmental conditions including habitat and competition. The framework also allows inference about species status at unsurveyed locations. Methods. Wedesigned a monitoring protocol to collect data across six north-easternUSAstates and, using data collected from the first year of monitoring, fit a suite of single-season occupancy models to assess how abiotic and biotic factors influence NEC occurrence, correcting for imperfect detectability. Key results. Models did not provide substantial support for competitive interactions between EC and NEC. NEC occurrence patterns appear to be influenced by several remotely sensed habitat covariates (land-cover classes), a habitatsuitability index, and, to a lesser degree, plot-level habitat covariates (understorey density and canopy cover). Conclusions. We recommend continuing presence–absence monitoring and the development of dynamic occupancy models to provide further evidence regarding hypotheses of competitive interactions and habitat influences on the underlying dynamics of NEC occupancy. Implications. State and federal agencies responsible for conserving this and other threatened species can engage with researchers in thoughtful discussions, based on management objectives, regarding appropriate monitoring design to ensure that the allocation of monitoring efforts provides useful inference on population drivers to inform management intervention

Implementation of an occupancy-based monitoring protocol for a widespread and cryptic species, the New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis)

Context. Designing effective long-term monitoring strategies is essential for managing wildlife populations. Implementing a cost-effective, practical monitoring program is especially challenging for widespread but locally rare species. Early successional habitat preferred by the New England cottontail (NEC) has become increasingly rare and fragmented, resulting in substantial declines from their peak distribution in the mid-1900s. The introduction of a possible competitor species, the eastern cottontail (EC),may also have played a role. Uncertainty surrounding how these factors have contributed to NEC declines has complicated management and necessitated development of an appropriate monitoring framework to understand possible drivers of distribution and dynamics. Aims. Because estimating species abundance is costly, we designed presence–absence surveys to estimate species distributions, test assumptions about competitive interactions, and improve understanding of demographic processes for eastern cottontails (EC) and New England cottontails (NEC). The survey protocol aimed to balance long-term management objectives with practical considerations associated with monitoring a widespread but uncommon species. Modelling data arising from these observations allow for estimation of covariate relationships between species status and environmental conditions including habitat and competition. The framework also allows inference about species status at unsurveyed locations. Methods. Wedesigned a monitoring protocol to collect data across six north-easternUSAstates and, using data collected from the first year of monitoring, fit a suite of single-season occupancy models to assess how abiotic and biotic factors influence NEC occurrence, correcting for imperfect detectability. Key results. Models did not provide substantial support for competitive interactions between EC and NEC. NEC occurrence patterns appear to be influenced by several remotely sensed habitat covariates (land-cover classes), a habitatsuitability index, and, to a lesser degree, plot-level habitat covariates (understorey density and canopy cover). Conclusions. We recommend continuing presence–absence monitoring and the development of dynamic occupancy models to provide further evidence regarding hypotheses of competitive interactions and habitat influences on the underlying dynamics of NEC occupancy. Implications. State and federal agencies responsible for conserving this and other threatened species can engage with researchers in thoughtful discussions, based on management objectives, regarding appropriate monitoring design to ensure that the allocation of monitoring efforts provides useful inference on population drivers to inform management intervention

Implementation of an occupancy-based monitoring protocol for a widespread and cryptic species, the New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis)

Context. Designing effective long-term monitoring strategies is essential for managing wildlife populations. Implementing a cost-effective, practical monitoring program is especially challenging for widespread but locally rare species. Early successional habitat preferred by the New England cottontail (NEC) has become increasingly rare and fragmented, resulting in substantial declines from their peak distribution in the mid-1900s. The introduction of a possible competitor species, the eastern cottontail (EC),may also have played a role. Uncertainty surrounding how these factors have contributed to NEC declines has complicated management and necessitated development of an appropriate monitoring framework to understand possible drivers of distribution and dynamics. Aims. Because estimating species abundance is costly, we designed presence–absence surveys to estimate species distributions, test assumptions about competitive interactions, and improve understanding of demographic processes for eastern cottontails (EC) and New England cottontails (NEC). The survey protocol aimed to balance long-term management objectives with practical considerations associated with monitoring a widespread but uncommon species. Modelling data arising from these observations allow for estimation of covariate relationships between species status and environmental conditions including habitat and competition. The framework also allows inference about species status at unsurveyed locations. Methods. Wedesigned a monitoring protocol to collect data across six north-easternUSAstates and, using data collected from the first year of monitoring, fit a suite of single-season occupancy models to assess how abiotic and biotic factors influence NEC occurrence, correcting for imperfect detectability. Key results. Models did not provide substantial support for competitive interactions between EC and NEC. NEC occurrence patterns appear to be influenced by several remotely sensed habitat covariates (land-cover classes), a habitatsuitability index, and, to a lesser degree, plot-level habitat covariates (understorey density and canopy cover). Conclusions. We recommend continuing presence–absence monitoring and the development of dynamic occupancy models to provide further evidence regarding hypotheses of competitive interactions and habitat influences on the underlying dynamics of NEC occupancy. Implications. State and federal agencies responsible for conserving this and other threatened species can engage with researchers in thoughtful discussions, based on management objectives, regarding appropriate monitoring design to ensure that the allocation of monitoring efforts provides useful inference on population drivers to inform management intervention

Micromanipulation of InP lasers with optoelectronic tweezers for integration on a photonic platform

The integration of light sources on a photonic platform is a key aspect of the fabrication of self-contained photonic circuits with a small footprint that does not have a definitive solution yet. Several approaches are being actively researched for this purpose. In this work we propose optoelectronic tweezers for the manipulation and integration of light sources on a photonic platform and report the positional and angular accuracy of the micromanipulation of standard Fabry-Pérot InP semiconductor laser die. These lasers are over three orders of magnitude bigger in volume than any previously assembled with optofluidic techniques and the fact that they are industry standard lasers makes them significantly more useful than previously assembled microdisk lasers. We measure the accuracy to be 2.5 ± 1.4 µm and 1.4 ± 0.4° and conclude that optoelectronic tweezers are a promising technique for the micromanipulation and integration of optoelectronic components in general and semiconductor lasers in particular

A New Metaheuristic Bat-Inspired Algorithm

Metaheuristic algorithms such as particle swarm optimization, firefly algorithm and harmony search are now becoming powerful methods for solving many tough optimization problems. In this paper, we propose a new metaheuristic method, the Bat Algorithm, based on the echolocation behaviour of bats. We also intend to combine the advantages of existing algorithms into the new bat algorithm. After a detailed formulation and explanation of its implementation, we will then compare the proposed algorithm with other existing algorithms, including genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization. Simulations show that the proposed algorithm seems much superior to other algorithms, and further studies are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Lip, a Human Gene Detected by Transfection of DNA From a Human Liposarcoma Encodes a Protein With Homology to Regulators of Small G Proteins

Purpose/Method. Transfection experiments have been used to identify activated oncogenes in a wide variety of tumour types. Here we describe the use of transfection experiments utilizing DNA from a human pleomorphic liposarcoma to identify a novel gene, designated lip which maps to chromosome 19