Climate change drives migratory range shift via individual plasticity in shearwaters.

How individual animals respond to climate change is key to whether populations will persist or go extinct. Yet, few studies investigate how changes in individual behavior underpin these population-level phenomena. Shifts in the distributions of migratory animals can occur through adaptation in migratory behaviors, but there is little understanding of how selection and plasticity contribute to population range shift. Here, we use long-term geolocator tracking of Balearic shearwaters (Puffinus mauretanicus) to investigate how year-to-year changes in individual birds' migrations underpin a range shift in the post-breeding migration. We demonstrate a northward shift in the post-breeding range and show that this is brought about by individual plasticity in migratory destination, with individuals migrating further north in response to changes in sea-surface temperature. Furthermore, we find that when individuals migrate further, they return faster, perhaps minimizing delays in return to the breeding area. Birds apparently judge the increased distance that they will need to migrate via memory of the migration route, suggesting that spatial cognitive mechanisms may contribute to this plasticity and the resulting range shift. Our study exemplifies the role that individual behavior plays in populations' responses to environmental change and highlights some of the behavioral mechanisms that might be key to understanding and predicting species persistence in response to climate change

Investigation of the Photoneutron Cross Section in Lead-206 and Lead-208 From 9 to 16 Mev (Photon, Statistical, Decay, Giant Resonance)

140 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1985.The time of flight of photoneutrons from ('206)Pb and ('208)Pb was observed at scattering angles of 55(DEGREES), 90(DEGREES), and 125(DEGREES). Photons with energies between 9 and 16 MeV were used to excite the target nuclei. The incident photon beam was provided by the University of Illinois Tagged Photon Facility and had an effective energy resolution of around 400 keV. Neutron energies were determined by time of flight through a 1.5 meter path. The effective energy resolution of the neutrons was between 7.6% at 1 MeV and 12.5% at 5 MeV. Neutron detector efficiency was determined by measuring the photo-disintegration of deuterium. The resulting efficiency was found to be constant across the neutron energy range of interest. The fraction of neutrons with energy insufficient to pass the detector threshold was estimated to be 10.7%.The total cross section for both ('206)Pb and ('208)Pb are well described by Lorentzian curves with widths of 4.12 (+OR-) 0.24 MeV for ('206)Pb and 4.09 (+OR-) 0.38 MeV for ('208)Pb. The peak positions of the curves were determined to be 13.70 (+OR-) 0.06 MeV for ('206)Pb and 13.53 (+OR-) 0.05 MeV in ('208)Pb. No angular asymmetry about 90(DEGREES) in the differential cross sections was detected in either element above 11 MeV. Below 11 MeV the asymmetry varied with energy between alternate positive and negative values for each element.The time-of-flight spectra could be parameterized for low energy neutrons by a statistical decay with a nuclear temperature of 0.9 MeV. There was an excess of high energy neutrons above this distribution. A more detailed analysis of the spectra using the Hauser-Feshbach formalism suggests that this excess is also from the statistical decay of the nucleus.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Investigation of the photoneutron cross section in 206Pb and 208 Pb from 9 to 16 MeV

The time of flight of photoneutrons from 206Pb and 208Pb was observed at scattering angles of 55 0 90 0 , and 125 o. Photons with energies between 9 and 16 MeV were used to excite the target nuclei. The incident photon beam was provided by the University of Illinois Tagged Photon Facility and had an effective energy resolution of around 400 keY. Neutron energies were determined by time of flight through a 1.5 meter path. The effective energy resolution of the neutrons was between 7.6% at 1 MeV and 12.5% at 5 MeV. Neutron detector efficiency was determined by measuring the photo-disintegration of deuterium. The resulting efficiency was found to be constant across the neutron energy range of interest. The fraction of neutrons with energy insufficient to pass the detector threshold was estimated to be 10.7%. The total cross section (or both 206Pb and 208Pb are well described by Lorentzian curves with widths of 4.12 ± 0.24 MeV for 206Pb and 4.09 ± 0.38 MeV for 208Pb. The peak positions of the curves were determined to be 13.70 ± 0.06 MeV for 206Pb and 13.53 ± 0.05 MeV in 208Pb. No angular asymmetry about 90 in the differential cross sections was detected in either element above 11 MeV. Below 11 MeV the asymmetry varied with energy between alternate positive and negative values for each element. The time-of-flight spectra could be parameterized for low energy neutrons by a statistical decay with a nuclear temperature of O,g MeV. There was an excess of high energy neutrons above this distribution. A more detailed analysis of the spectra using the Hauser-Feshbach formalism suggests that this excess is also from the statistical decay of the nucleus.U of I OnlyThesi

Neural networks reveal emergent properties of collective learning in democratic but not despotic groups

Collective learning, the improvement of behaviours through experience of collective actions, is an area of animal learning that has received little attention. We investigated how individual learning during collective actions could produce improvements in collective performance, and how collective decision-making processes, including leadership dynamics, could impact upon learning. We trained artificial neural networks, either solo or paired, at an orientation task, based upon collective navigation in animals. In pairs, we implemented two rules of collective decision making: ‘democratic’ (weighted average of individual propositions) or ‘despotic’ (one individual's proposition, determined randomly with weighted probabilities in each trial). Decision-making weightings were varied between pairs, but fixed for a given pair, with asymmetric weightings generating ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’. We found nearly all pairs improved their orientation, but more slowly than solo learners. Within pairs, leaders learnt more quickly than followers (‘the passenger–driver effect’). In democratic pairs, collective performance improved through individuals learning to compensate for partner error. This emergent process was not observed in pairs with despotic decision making, in which individuals learnt similarly to solo learners. Our model helps to clarify the links between individual learning, collective decision making and collective performance, in the context of collective navigation, and collective behaviour, more generally

How might magnetic secular variation impact avian philopatry?

A tendency to return to the natal/breeding site, ‘philopatry’, is near ubiquitous amongst migratory birds. It has long been suggested that a magnetic ‘map’ could underpin such movements, though it is unclear how a magnetic map might be impacted by gradual drift in the Earth’s magnetic field (‘secular variation’). Here, using the International Geomagnetic Reference Field, we quantified how secular variation translates to movement in the implied positions at which combinations of different magnetic cues (inclination, declination and intensity) intersect, noting that the magnitude of such movements is determined by the acute intersection angle between the isolines in question, and the direction of one isoline’s movement relative to the other. We propose that magnetic parameters varying in a near-parallel arrangement are unlikely to be used as a bi-coordinate map during philopatry, but that birds could use near-orthogonal magnetic gradient cues as a bi-coordinate map if augmented with navigation using more local cues. We further suggest that the use of uni-coordinate magnetic information may provide a philopatry mechanism that is substantially less impacted by secular variation than a bi-coordinate ‘map’. We propose that between-year shifts in the position of magnetic coordinates might provide a priori predictions for changes in the breeding sites of migratory birds

Few-shot bioacoustic event detection at the DCASE 2023 challenge

International audienceFew-shot bioacoustic event detection consists in detecting sound events of specified types, in varying soundscapes, while having access to only a few examples of the class of interest. This task ran as part of the DCASE challenge for the third time this year with an evaluation set expanded to include new animal species, and a new rule: ensemble models were no longer allowed. The 2023 few shot task received submissions from 6 different teams with F-scores reaching as high as 63% on the evaluation set. Here we describe the task, focusing on describing the elements that differed from previous years. We also take a look back at past editions to describe how the task has evolved. Not only have the F-score results steadily improved (40% to 60% to 63%), but the type of systems proposed have also become more complex. Sound event detection systems are no longer simple variations of the baselines provided: multiple few-shot learning methodologies are still strong contenders for the task

Health-status outcomes with invasive or conservative care in coronary disease

BACKGROUND In the ISCHEMIA trial, an invasive strategy with angiographic assessment and revascularization did not reduce clinical events among patients with stable ischemic heart disease and moderate or severe ischemia. A secondary objective of the trial was to assess angina-related health status among these patients. METHODS We assessed angina-related symptoms, function, and quality of life with the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) at randomization, at months 1.5, 3, and 6, and every 6 months thereafter in participants who had been randomly assigned to an invasive treatment strategy (2295 participants) or a conservative strategy (2322). Mixed-effects cumulative probability models within a Bayesian framework were used to estimate differences between the treatment groups. The primary outcome of this health-status analysis was the SAQ summary score (scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better health status). All analyses were performed in the overall population and according to baseline angina frequency. RESULTS At baseline, 35% of patients reported having no angina in the previous month. SAQ summary scores increased in both treatment groups, with increases at 3, 12, and 36 months that were 4.1 points (95% credible interval, 3.2 to 5.0), 4.2 points (95% credible interval, 3.3 to 5.1), and 2.9 points (95% credible interval, 2.2 to 3.7) higher with the invasive strategy than with the conservative strategy. Differences were larger among participants who had more frequent angina at baseline (8.5 vs. 0.1 points at 3 months and 5.3 vs. 1.2 points at 36 months among participants with daily or weekly angina as compared with no angina). CONCLUSIONS In the overall trial population with moderate or severe ischemia, which included 35% of participants without angina at baseline, patients randomly assigned to the invasive strategy had greater improvement in angina-related health status than those assigned to the conservative strategy. The modest mean differences favoring the invasive strategy in the overall group reflected minimal differences among asymptomatic patients and larger differences among patients who had had angina at baseline

Initial invasive or conservative strategy for stable coronary disease

BACKGROUND Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, whether clinical outcomes are better in those who receive an invasive intervention plus medical therapy than in those who receive medical therapy alone is uncertain. METHODS We randomly assigned 5179 patients with moderate or severe ischemia to an initial invasive strategy (angiography and revascularization when feasible) and medical therapy or to an initial conservative strategy of medical therapy alone and angiography if medical therapy failed. The primary outcome was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina, heart failure, or resuscitated cardiac arrest. A key secondary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or myocardial infarction. RESULTS Over a median of 3.2 years, 318 primary outcome events occurred in the invasive-strategy group and 352 occurred in the conservative-strategy group. At 6 months, the cumulative event rate was 5.3% in the invasive-strategy group and 3.4% in the conservative-strategy group (difference, 1.9 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8 to 3.0); at 5 years, the cumulative event rate was 16.4% and 18.2%, respectively (difference, 121.8 percentage points; 95% CI, 124.7 to 1.0). Results were similar with respect to the key secondary outcome. The incidence of the primary outcome was sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction; a secondary analysis yielded more procedural myocardial infarctions of uncertain clinical importance. There were 145 deaths in the invasive-strategy group and 144 deaths in the conservative-strategy group (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.32). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, we did not find evidence that an initial invasive strategy, as compared with an initial conservative strategy, reduced the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events or death from any cause over a median of 3.2 years. The trial findings were sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction that was used