Invasive Wild pigs as primary nest predators for Wild turkeys

Depredation of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) nests is a leading cause of reduced recruitment for the recovering and iconic game species. invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are known to depredate nests, and have been expanding throughout the distributed range of wild turkeys in north America. We sought to gain better insight on the magnitude of wild pigs depredating wild turkey nests. We constructed simulated wild turkey nests throughout the home ranges of 20 GPS-collared wild pigs to evaluate nest depredation relative to three periods within the nesting season (i.e., early, peak, and late) and two nest densities (moderate = 12.5-25 nests/km2, high = 25-50 nests/km2) in south-central Texas, USA during March–June 2016. Overall, the estimated probability of nest depredation by wild pigs was 0.3, equivalent to native species of nest predators in the study area (e.g., gray fox [Urocyon cinereoargenteus], raccoon [Procyon lotor], and coyote [Canis latrans]). female wild pigs exhibited a constant rate of depredation regardless of nesting period or density of nests. However, male wild pigs increased their rate of depredation in areas with higher nest densities. Management efforts should remove wild pigs to reduce nest failure in wild turkey populations especially where recruitment is low

Pollinator preferences and the persistence of crop genes in wild radish populations (Raphanus raphanistrum, Brassicaceae)

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141490/1/ajb20333.pd

A Current Mode Detector Array for Gamma-Ray Asymmetry Measurements

We have built a CsI(Tl) gamma-ray detector array for the NPDGamma experiment to search for a small parity-violating directional asymmetry in the angular distribution of 2.2 MeV gamma-rays from the capture of polarized cold neutrons by protons with a sensitivity of several ppb. The weak pion-nucleon coupling constant can be determined from this asymmetry. The small size of the asymmetry requires a high cold neutron flux, control of systematic errors at the ppb level, and the use of current mode gamma-ray detection with vacuum photo diodes and low-noise solid-state preamplifiers. The average detector photoelectron yield was determined to be 1300 photoelectrons per MeV. The RMS width seen in the measurement is therefore dominated by the fluctuations in the number of gamma rays absorbed in the detector (counting statistics) rather than the intrinsic detector noise. The detectors were tested for noise performance, sensitivity to magnetic fields, pedestal stability and cosmic background. False asymmetries due to gain changes and electronic pickup in the detector system were measured to be consistent with zero to an accuracy of $10^{-9}$ in a few hours. We report on the design, operating criteria, and the results of measurements performed to test the detector array.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figures, 2 table

Formaldehyde over the central Pacific during PEM-Tropics B

Formaldehyde, CH2O, mixing ratios are reported for the central Pacific troposphere from a series of 41 flights, which took place in March-April 1999 as part of the NASA Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM) -Tropics B mission. Ambient CH2O was collected in aqueous media and quantified using an enzyme-derivatization fluorescence technique. Primary calibration was performed using aqueous standards and known flow rates. Occasionally, CH2O gas standard additions to ambient air were performed as a secondary calibration. Analytical blanks were determined by replacing ambient air with pure air. The estimated precision was ±30 pptv and the estimated accuracy was the sum of ±30 parts per trillion by volume (pptv) ±15% of the measured value. Approximately 25% of the observations were less than the instrumental detection limit of 50 pptv, and 85% of these occurred above 6 km. CH2O mixing ratios decreased with altitude; for example, near the equator the median value in the lowest 2 km was 275 pptv, decreased to 150 pptv by 6 km and was below 100 pptv above 8 km. Between 130 and 170 W and below 1km, a small variation of CH2O mixing ratio with latitude was noted as near-surface median mixing ratios decreased near the equator (275 pptv) and were greater on either side (375 pptv). A marked decrease in near-surface CH2O (200 pptv) was noted south of 23° S on two flights. Between 3° and 23° S, median CH2O mixing ratios were lower in the eastern tropical Pacific than in the western or central Pacific; nominal differences were >100 pptv near the surface to ∼100 pptv at midaltitude to ∼50 pptv at high altitude. Off the coast of Central America and Mexico, mixing ratios as high as 1200 pptv were observed in plumes that originated to the east over land. CH2O observations were consistently higher than the results from a point model constrained by other photochemical species and meteorological parameters. Regardless of latitude or longitude, agreement was best at altitudes above 4 km where the difference between measured and modeled CH2O medians was less than 50 pptv. Below 2 km the model median was approximately 150 pptv less than the measured median. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union

Automatic Synonym Discovery with Knowledge Bases

Recognizing entity synonyms from text has become a crucial task in many entity-leveraging applications. However, discovering entity synonyms from domain-specific text corpora (e.g., news articles, scientific papers) is rather challenging. Current systems take an entity name string as input to find out other names that are synonymous, ignoring the fact that often times a name string can refer to multiple entities (e.g., "apple" could refer to both Apple Inc and the fruit apple). Moreover, most existing methods require training data manually created by domain experts to construct supervised-learning systems. In this paper, we study the problem of automatic synonym discovery with knowledge bases, that is, identifying synonyms for knowledge base entities in a given domain-specific corpus. The manually-curated synonyms for each entity stored in a knowledge base not only form a set of name strings to disambiguate the meaning for each other, but also can serve as "distant" supervision to help determine important features for the task. We propose a novel framework, called DPE, to integrate two kinds of mutually-complementing signals for synonym discovery, i.e., distributional features based on corpus-level statistics and textual patterns based on local contexts. In particular, DPE jointly optimizes the two kinds of signals in conjunction with distant supervision, so that they can mutually enhance each other in the training stage. At the inference stage, both signals will be utilized to discover synonyms for the given entities. Experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed framework

Tocilizumab in COVID-19: a meta-analysis, trial sequential analysis, and meta-regression of randomized-controlled trials

PURPOSE: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels discriminate between patients with mild and severe COVID-19, making IL-6 inhibition an attractive therapeutic strategy. We conducted a systematic review, meta-analysis, trial sequential analysis (TSA), and meta-regression of randomized-controlled trials to ascertain the benefit of IL-6 blockade with tocilizumab for COVID-19. METHODS: We included randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) allocating patients with COVID-19 to tocilizumab. Our control group included standard care or placebo. Trials co-administering other pharmacological interventions for COVID-19 were not excluded. Primary outcome was 28–30 day mortality. Secondary outcomes included progression-to-severe disease defined as need for mechanical ventilation, intensive-care unit (ICU) admission, or a composite. RESULTS: We identified 10 RCTs using tocilizumab, 9 of which reported primary outcome data (mortality), recruiting 6493 patients with 3358 (52.2%) allocated to tocilizumab. Tocilizumab may be associated with an improvement in mortality (24.4% vs. 29.0%; OR 0.87 [0.74–1.01]; p = 0.07; I2 = 10%; TSA adjusted CI 0.66–1.14). Meta-regression suggested a relationship between treatment effect and mortality risk, with benefit at higher levels of risk (logOR vs %risk beta = −0.018 [−0.037 to −0.002]; p = 0.07). Tocilizumab did reduce the need for mechanical ventilation and was associated with a benefit in the composite secondary outcome but did not reduce ICU admission. CONCLUSIONS: For hospitalized COVID-19 patients, there is some evidence that tocilizumab use may be associated with a short-term mortality benefit, but further high-quality data are required. Its benefits may also lie in reducing the need for mechanical ventilation

Hard X-ray flares in IGR J08408-4503 unveil clumpy stellar winds

Context : A 1000-s flare from a new hard X-ray transient, IGR J08408-4503, was observed by INTEGRAL on May 15, 2006 during the real-time routine monitoring of IBIS/ISGRI images performed at the INTEGRAL Science Data Centre. The flare, detected during a single one-hour long pointing, peaked at 250 mCrab in the 20-40 keV energy range. Aims : Multi-wavelength observations, combining high-energy and optical data, were used to unveil the nature of IGR J08408-4503. Methods : A search in all INTEGRAL public data for other bursts from IGR J08408-4503 was performed, and the detailed analysis of another major flare is presented. The results of two Swift Target of Opportunity observations are also described. Finally, a study of the likely optical counterpart, HD 74194, is provided. Results : IGR J08408-4503 is very likely a supergiant fast X-ray transient (SFXT) system. The system parameters indicate that the X-ray flares are probably related to the accretion of wind clumps on a compact object orbiting about 1E13 cm from the supergiant HD 74194. The clump mass loss rate is of the order of 1E-6 solar mass/yr. Conclusions : Hard X-ray flares from SFXTs allow to probe the stellar winds of massive stars, and could possibly be associated with wind perturbations due to line-driven instabilities.Comment: 5 pages with 5 figures. Published as a Letter in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Resolving Anger toward God: Lament as an Avenue toward Attachment

Psychologists have mostly overlooked the topic of anger toward God. The current study tested an intervention based on the biblical psalms of lament, a consisting of 20 devotional readings and weekly experiential assignments, delivered electronically over a four-week period. A total of 192 college students at Christian institutions across the United States completed the study, and were randomly assigned to the experimental condition, an attention control condition, or a no-contact condition. The expected findings--that the experimental intervention would cause decreased feelings of anger and complaint toward God, as well as increased intimacy with God over time--were not confirmed. However, those participants who reported maximum compliance with the intervention showed increased ratings on Communion with God. Implications are discussed