Long-distance movements of feral cats in semi-arid South Australia and implications for conservation management

Movements that extend beyond the usual space use of an animal have been documented in a range of species and are particularly prevalent in arid areas. We present long-distance movement data on five feral cats (Felis catus) GPS/VHF-collared during two different research projects in arid and semi-arid Australia. We compare these movements with data from other feral cat studies. Over a study period of three months in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, 4 out of 19 collared cats moved to sites that were 31, 41, 53 and 86 km away. Three of the cats were males, one female; their weight was between 2.1 and 4.1 kg. Two of the cats returned to the area of capture after three and six weeks. During the other study at Arid Recovery, one collared male cat (2.5 kg) was relocated after two years at a distance of 369 km from the area of collar deployment to the relocation area. The movements occurred following three years of record low rainfall. Our results build on the knowledge base of long-distance movements of feral cats reported at arid study sites and support the assertion that landscape-scale cat control programs in arid and semi-arid areas need to be of a sufficiently large scale to avoid rapid reinvasion and to effectively reduce cat density. Locally, cat control strategies need to be adjusted to improve coverage of areas highly used by cats to increase the efficiency of control operations.Jeroen Jansen, Hugh McGregor, Geoff Axford, Abbey T. Dean, Sebastien Comte, Chris N. Johnson, Katherine E. Moseby, Robert Brandle, David E. Peacock, and Menna E. Jone

A critical analysis of high-redshift, massive galaxy clusters: I

We critically investigate current statistical tests applied to high redshift clusters of galaxies in order to test the standard cosmological model and describe their range of validity. We carefully compare a sample of high-redshift, massive, galaxy clusters with realistic Poisson sample simulations of the theoretical mass function, which include the effect of Eddington bias. We compare the observations and simulations using the following statistical tests: the distributions of ensemble and individual existence probabilities (in the >M,>z sense), the redshift distributions, and the 2d Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Using seemingly rare clusters from Hoyle et al. (2011), and Jee et al. (2011) and assuming the same survey geometry as in Jee et al. (2011, which is less conservative than Hoyle et al. 2011), we find that the (>M,>z) existence probabilities of all clusters are fully consistent with LCDM. However assuming the same survey geometry, we use the 2d K-S test probability to show that the observed clusters are not consistent with being the least probable clusters from simulations at >95% confidence, and are also not consistent with being a random selection of clusters, which may be caused by the non-trivial selection function and survey geometry. Tension can be removed if we examine only a X-ray selected sub sample, with simulations performed assuming a modified survey geometry.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, modified to match accepted version (JCAP); title changed, main analysis unchanged, additional analysi

Riociguat treatment in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: Final safety data from the EXPERT registry

Objective: The soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator riociguat is approved for the treatment of adult patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and inoperable or persistent/recurrent chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) following Phase

Evidence for the importance of `small' faults on block rotation

Field and earthquake data are presented which show that small faults can be important during block rotation. `Small' here means those faults which are at least an order of magnitude smaller than the largest faults at a particular scale of observation. The NW–SE-trending dextral faults of SW England have millimetres to kilometres of displacement. The largest of these faults, such as the Sticklepath–Lustleigh fault, do not appear to cause more than a few degrees of rotation from the general E–W strike of beds. Tens of degrees of rotation are often visible, however, on faults with millimetres of displacement. Similarly, the apparent rotation of beds in the Badajoz–Cordoba Shear Zone, Spain, increases as the resolution of the faults is increased. The power-law scaling relationship of earthquake magnitudes in the San Andreas fault zone illustrates that small faults can also be important in regions of active block rotation. `Small' faults can allow deformation within rotating blocks and can allow high displacement gradients to occur on the block-bounding faults. This would reduce the need for void creation, which is a requirement of rigid block rotation models. A tentative model is presented which incorporates the concept that fault behaviour is fractal, emphasising the contribution of small faults. It is suggested that future studies of block rotation should rigorously test the contribution of `small' faults, and that particular care is needed when comparing palaeomagnetic data with regional-scale structures

Beryllium plasma facing components JET experience

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