Avian Survey Methods for Use on Airports

Management of wildlife, whether to mitigate damage, enhance safety, or effect conservation goals, requires identification of hazards posed by or to members of a particular species population or guild, and prioritization of management goals. We examined the special problem of managing birds to reduce hazards to aviation, particularly those species known to cause structural damage to aircraft when struck, as well as posing problems to airport facilities. Our objectives were to synthesize sampling theory and methods to provide airport biologists with 1) means to design and implement an avian survey on an airport that will maximize accuracy in quantifying avian hazards; 2) an understanding of bias and precision, and their influences on quantification of avian hazards; 3) suggestions on how to quantify avian hazards and use these data to estimate relative risk posed to aviation safety by a particular species or guild by time period and habitat type; and 4) knowledge of how data can be used to prioritize management goals. Our recommendations are intended to compliment U.S. Federal Aviation Administration procedures for Wildlife Hazard Assessments and subsequent management on airports. We stress the need for survey data to be ecologically relevant and accurate, such that management guidelines are defensible. However, we recognize that “real world” issues, such as regulatory, labor, and financial constraints, as well as the dynamics of airport environments, inevitably influence survey methods. Though we do not advocate use of naive count data in estimating relative abundance or habitat use, we recognize that animal observations obtained by airport biologists outside of a standardized sampling protocol are critical for identifying potential hazards to aviation safety. We recommend field testing of our suggestions and development of training materials for airport biologists that distill the information that we will present in light of constraints affecting survey design and conduct

Avian Survey Methods for Use at Airports

Adverse effects and damage caused by interactions between humans and wildlife are increasing (DeStephana and DeGraaf 2003). To manage wildlife effectively- whether to mitigate damage. to enhance safety, or to reach conservation goals-wildlife biologists must identify hazards posed by or to members of a particular species (i.e., a population) or guild, and then prioritize management goals and specific actions. We examine the special problem of managing birds to reduce hazards to aviation, particularly those species known to cause structural damage to aircraft when struck and that ·pose problems to airport facilities (Dolbeer et al. 2000, Cleary and Dolbeer 2005, DeVault et al. 2011). Effective management of hazardous species at airports requires knowledge of species abundance and how abundance varies over time. In this context, the quality of the sampling methodology used will influence a biologist\u27s ability to accurately quantify avian hazards and to understand the ecological interactions of populations or guilds using airport environments

A framework for managing airport grasslands and birds amidst conflicting priorities

Management of modern airports is a task beset by conflicting priorities. Airports are vital to the global market economy, but impose costly environmental disturbances including habitat loss, noise, reduced air quality, erosion, introduction of invasive organisms, and polluted storm-water runoff (Blackwell et al. 2009). Airport environments also attract some wildlife hazardous to aviation safety, namely species involved in wildlife-aircraft collisions or ‘strikes’ (ICAO 2001, Blackwell et al. 2009, DeVault et al. 2011). Since 1912 at least 276 human lives have been lost due to bird strikes (Thorpe 2010), and from 1990 to 2010, more than 106 000 bird strikes involving civil aircraft were reported to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA; http://wildlife-mitigation. tc.faa.gov/wildlife/). Dolbeer (2006) reported that for strikes resulting in substantial aircraft damage (ICAO 1989), 66% occurred below 152 m altitude and within 1.5 km of a runway for airports servicing piston-powered aircraft only, and within 3 km of a runway for airports servicing turbine-powered aircraft (FAA 2009). Consequently, aviation authorities prioritize human safety over wildlife conservation in management of airport habitats (ICAO 2001, FAA 2009). Despite these problems, airports have been proposed as candidates for biodiversity conservation (Kelly & Allan 2006, Blackwell et al. 2009). For example, Kutschbach- Brohl et al. (2010) report that airport grasslands can provide habitat for a range of arthropod communities (e.g. Lepidoptera), and suggest the possibility of conserving these communities while minimizing provision of prey resources to birds recognized as hazardous to aviation. Moreover, declines in grassland bird populations in Europe and North America due to agricultural intensification and development have focused attention on enhancing quality and quantity of remnant grasslands (Herkert 1994, Vickery et al. 2004), including airport grasslands. In North America, airport properties have been identified as key areas of remnant grasslands important to obligate grassland bird species; species that both nest and forage in grasslands (Vickery et al. 1994, Askins et al. 2007). Airport properties in the contiguous USA include \u3e 330 000 ha of grassland, mostly annually mown areas, constituting 39–50% of airport property (DeVault et al. 2012). However, there is little research specific to airport environments that considers food resources for birds (Bernhardt et al. 2010, Kutschbach-Brohl et al. 2010), how birds perceive and react to predation risk (Baker & Brooks 1981) or disturbance (Kershner & Bollinger 1996), and no adequate assessment of how grassland management might affect strike risk (Blackwell et al. 2009, Martin et al. 2011). In this context, we contend that promoting conservation of obligate grassland birds and managing to reduce bird hazards to aviation safety combines two potentially conflicting objectives in a single management framework. Ecologically based guidance to solve this potential conflict is limited, if not oversimplified. Here, we question the potential use of airports to conserve grassland birds, and assess the challenges in managing airport grasslands in light of current ecological and behavioral frameworks. We consider conditions for conservation of obligate grassland birds on airports, and evidence on the use of airports by frequently struck, grassland birds (both obligate and facultative). We also provide a framework to manage grassland birds at airports, given current information and uncertainty. Because of the availability of strike data via the FAA, our focus is on North America. However, problems associated with bird use of airport grasslands are international (ICAO 2001). Therefore, our ultimate purpose is better to inform current management, but also identify research gaps and establish specific predictions that will guide future studies on the ecological basis of use of airport grasslands by birds

A Cross-Sectional Evaluation of Perimenopausal Depression

Overall, the clinical spectrum of depression during the perimenopause is not well characterized. This cross-sectional study examined the following: 1) clinical characteristics of women who presented to the NIMH midlife mood disorders clinic (between March 1990 and January 2004) with perimenopausal major and minor depressions; 2) the impact on these measures of either a prior episode of depression or the presence of hot flushes

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at s√=8 TeV with ATLAS

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations