Semi-automated detection of eagle nests: an application of very high-resolution image data and advanced image analyses to wildlife surveys

Very high-resolution (VHR) image data, including from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms, are increasingly acquired for wildlife surveys. Animals or structures they build (e.g. nests) can be photointerpreted from these images, however, automated detection is required for more efficient surveys. We developed semi-automated analyses to map white-bellied sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) nests in VHR aerial photographs of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia, an important breeding site for many seabird species. Nest detection is complicated by high environmental heterogeneity at the scale of nests (~1–2 m), the presence of many features that resemble nests and the variability of nest size, shape and context. Finally, the rarity of nests limits the availability of training data. These challenges are not unique to wildlife surveys and we show how they can be overcome by an innovative integration of object-based image analyses (OBIA) and the powerful machine learning one-class classifier Maxent. Maxent classifications using features characterizing object texture, geometry and neighborhood, along with limited object color information, successfully identified over 90% of high quality nests (most weathered and unusually shaped nests were also detected, but at a slightly lower rate) and labeled <2% of objects as candidate nests. Although this overestimates the occurrence of nests, the results can be visually screened to rule out all but the most likely nests in a process that is simpler and more efficient than manual photointerpretation of the full image. Our study shows that semi-automated image analyses for wildlife surveys are achievable. Furthermore, the developed strategies have broad relevance to image processing applications that seek to detect rare features differing only subtly from a heterogeneous background, including remote sensing of archeological remains. We also highlight solutions to maximize the use of imperfect or uncalibrated image data, such as some UAV-based imagery and the growing body of VHR imagery available in Google Earth and other virtual globes

Restoration of native vegetation and re-introduction of Malva preissiana on Penguin Island – Preliminary findings

Penguin Island’s vegetation in southwestern Australia has been degraded by anthropogenic activities and breeding silver gulls (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae). However, native vegetation cover is important for breeding seabirds such as bridled terns (Onychoprion anaethetus). This pilot project aimed to restore native vegetation cover around artificial nest tubes for bridled terns using tubestock of berry salt bush (Rhagodia baccata) and bower spinach (Tetragonia implexicoma), and to re-introduce the Australian hollyhock (Malva preissiana), an ornithocoprophilic coastal plant that disappeared from Penguin Island in the 1970s due to competition with introduced Malva spp. and other nitrophilous weeds (Rippey et al. 2002). A total of 80 R. baccata or T. implexicoma seedlings and 980 M. preissiana seeds were planted, but less than 4% of the tubestock survived and less than 1% of the M. preissiana seeds germinated. Disturbance by breeding silver gulls was identified as a major issue, therefore seedling protection from these birds is now being used for ongoing restoration projects

Forest specialist species in the urban landscape: Do different levels of urbanization affect the movements of Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksii naso)?

Anthropogenic landscape modification which leads to the displacement of species, is arguably one of the most profound impacts on animal movement globally. In urban landscapes, animal movement is generally impacted by varying levels of increased urbanization. However, this is species dependent and is mostly guided by the surrounding habitat. Fragmentation and habitat patch isolation must be considered at scales appropriate to the study species. Using telemetry, we test these assumptions investigating movement patterns of flocks of Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksii naso; RTBC) between three regions: urban, peri-urban, and forest using GPS and satellite PTT. This species occurs at varying levels of urbanization, however, how this might affect its movements is largely unknown. We did not find evidence that RTBC movement was impaired in the urban region compared with peri-urban or forest regions. It found, however, a significant within-region variation in movement extent among flocks and across regions depending on foraging resource availability and location. Differences in daily movement distance (Av. 4.96 - 16.41 km) and home range size (6.02 - 52.57 km2) between urban flocks appeared to be associated with the proximity of green spaces as roosts and foraging sites, with roadside vegetation providing important foraging resources and movement corridors. Key urban habitats were predominantly located in public nature reserves and private properties, with roadside vegetation connecting these sites for RTBC. The findings of this study highlight that conservation management for this and many other threatened species should regard the urban landscape as a critical habitat for urban adapted species. This would include management of its green spaces with connectivity and offsets from roads in mind. Furthermore, future research should focus on identifying additional key habitat sites (resource selection) and species distribution modeling, which will facilitate an active and adaptive approach towards this species' conservation management

Zonotopes and four-dimensional superconformal field theories

The a-maximization technique proposed by Intriligator and Wecht allows us to determine the exact R-charges and scaling dimensions of the chiral operators of four-dimensional superconformal field theories. The problem of existence and uniqueness of the solution, however, has not been addressed in general setting. In this paper, it is shown that the a-function has always a unique critical point which is also a global maximum for a large class of quiver gauge theories specified by toric diagrams. Our proof is based on the observation that the a-function is given by the volume of a three dimensional polytope called "zonotope", and the uniqueness essentially follows from Brunn-Minkowski inequality for the volume of convex bodies. We also show a universal upper bound for the exact R-charges, and the monotonicity of a-function in the sense that a-function decreases whenever the toric diagram shrinks. The relationship between a-maximization and volume-minimization is also discussed.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figures, reference added, typos corrected, version published in JHE

Haemorrhoidal artery ligation versus rubber band ligation for the management of symptomatic second-degree and third-degree haemorrhoids (HubBLe): a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Optimum surgical intervention for low-grade haemorrhoids is unknown. Haemorrhoidal artery ligation (HAL) has been proposed as an efficacious, safe therapy while rubber band ligation (RBL) is a commonly used outpatient treatment. We compared recurrence after HAL versus RBL in patients with grade II-III haemorrhoids. METHODS: This multicentre, open-label, parallel group, randomised controlled trial included patients from 17 acute UK NHS trusts. We screened patients aged 18 years or older presenting with grade II-III haemorrhoids. We excluded patients who had previously received any haemorrhoid surgery, more than one injection treatment for haemorrhoids, or more than one RBL procedure within 3 years before recruitment. Eligible patients were randomly assigned (in a 1:1 ratio) to either RBL or HAL with Doppler. Randomisation was computer-generated and stratified by centre with blocks of random sizes. Allocation concealment was achieved using a web-based system. The study was open-label with no masking of participants, clinicians, or research staff. The primary outcome was recurrence at 1 year, derived from the patient's self-reported assessment in combination with resource use from their general practitioner and hospital records. Recurrence was analysed in patients who had undergone one of the interventions and been followed up for at least 1 year. This study is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN41394716. FINDINGS: From Sept 9, 2012, to May 6, 2014, of 969 patients screened, 185 were randomly assigned to the HAL group and 187 to the RBL group. Of these participants, 337 had primary outcome data (176 in the RBL group and 161 in the HAL group). At 1 year post-procedure, 87 (49%) of 176 patients in the RBL group and 48 (30%) of 161 patients in the HAL group had haemorrhoid recurrence (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2·23, 95% CI 1·42-3·51; p=0·0005). The main reason for this difference was the number of extra procedures required to achieve improvement (57 [32%] participants in the RBL group and 23 [14%] participants in the HAL group had a subsequent procedure for haemorrhoids). The mean pain 1 day after procedure was 3·4 (SD 2·8) in the RBL group and 4·6 (2·8) in the HAL group (difference -1·2, 95% CI -1·8 to -0·5; p=0·0002); at day 7 the scores were 1·6 (2·3) in the RBL group and 3·1 (2·4) in the HAL group (difference -1·5, -2·0 to -1·0; p<0·0001). Pain scores did not differ between groups at 21 days and 6 weeks. 15 individuals reported serious adverse events requiring hospital admission. One patient in the RBL group had a pre-existing rectal tumour. Of the remaining 14 serious adverse events, 12 (7%) were among participants treated with HAL and two (1%) were in those treated with RBL. Six patients had pain (one treated with RBL, five treated with HAL), three had bleeding not requiring transfusion (one treated with RBL, two treated with HAL), two in the HAL group had urinary retention, two in the HAL group had vasovagal upset, and one in the HAL group had possible sepsis (treated with antibiotics). INTERPRETATION: Although recurrence after HAL was lower than a single RBL, HAL was more painful than RBL. The difference in recurrence was due to the need for repeat bandings in the RBL group. Patients (and health commissioners) might prefer such a course of RBL to the more invasive HAL. FUNDING: NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme

Migration strategies revealed by satellite tracking among descendants of a population of European white stork (Ciconia ciconia) reintroduced to Belgium

Migration in the European white stork (Ciconia ciconia) has historically described a predictable annual cycle. The white stork is extensively distributed across continental Europe, which diverges to eastern and western wintering flyways. Within the western European population, some ring recovery and anecdotal information suggests that birds are giving up their traditional wintering grounds in the Sahel and are remaining in alternative sites in the Iberian Peninsula. Here we report on long-term satellite tracking of juvenile and adult stork collected between 2000 and 2011, whose natal site is in Belgium in the northern range of the western migration path. We identified three distinct migration patterns, two of which diverged from traditional expectations. Juvenile birds showed unique migration profiles both individually across migration cycles and when compared to one another, whereas adults showed consistent migrations but failed to migrate to Africa in any of the years surveyed. Stopover and wintering locations within Iberia were strongly associated with refuse sites or modified agricultural land. Overall, non-traditional migration movements appeared to be most strongly linked to artificial food sources rather than alternate drivers such as climate or habitat

Search for Exotic Mesons in pi- P Interactions at 18 GeV/c

The recent search for non $q \bar{q}$ mesons in $\pi^{-}p$ interactions at Brookhaven National Laboratory is summarized. Many final states such as $\eta \pi$, $\eta' \pi^{-}$, $a_{0} \pi$, $f_{1} \pi$, $a_{2} \pi$, $b_{1} \pi$, which are favored decay modes of exotics, are under investigation.Comment: 9 pages, PostScript, Presented at the International School of Nuclear Physics, Erice, Sicily, Italy, September 199

Confirmation of a pi_1^0 Exotic Meson in the \eta \pi^0 System

The exclusive reaction $\pi^- p \to \eta \pi^0 n$, $\eta \to \pi^+ \pi^- \pi^0$ at 18 GeV$/c$ has been studied with a partial wave analysis on a sample of 23~492 $\eta \pi^0 n$ events from BNL experiment E852. A mass-dependent fit is consistent with a resonant hypothesis for the $P_+$ wave, thus providing evidence for a neutral exotic meson with $J^{PC} = 1^{-+}$, a mass of $1257 \pm 20 \pm 25$ MeV$/c^2$, and a width of $354 \pm 64 \pm 60$ MeV$/c^2$. New interpretations of the meson exotics in neutral $\eta \pi^0$ system observed in E852 and Crystal Barrel experiments are discussed.Comment: p3, rewording the paragraph (at the bottom) about the phase variations. p4, rewording paragrath "The second method ..." . p4, at the bottom of paragrath "The third method ..." added consistent with the results of methods 1 and 2

Exotic Meson Production in the f1(1285)π−f_{1}(1285)\pi^{-} System observed in the Reaction π−p→ηπ+π−π−p\pi^{-} p \to \eta\pi^{+}\pi^{-}\pi^{-} p at 18 GeV/c

This letter reports results from the partial wave analysis of the $\pi^{-}\pi^{-}\pi^{+}\eta$ final state in $\pi^{-}p$ collisions at 18GeV/c. Strong evidence is observed for production of two mesons with exotic quantum numbers of spin, parity and charge conjugation, $J^{PC} = 1^{-+}$ in the decay channel $f_{1}(1285)\pi^{-}$. The mass $M = 1709 \pm 24 \pm 41$ MeV/c^2 and width $\Gamma = 403 \pm 80 \pm 115$ MeV/c^2 of the first state are consistent with the parameters of the previously observed $\pi_{1}(1600)$. The second resonance with mass $M = 2001 \pm 30 \pm 92$ MeV/c^2 and width $\Gamma = 333 \pm 52 \pm 49$ MeV/c^2 agrees very well with predictions from theoretical models. In addition, the presence of $\pi_{2}(1900)$ is confirmed with mass $M = 2003 \pm 88 \pm 148$ MeV/c^2 and width $\Gamma = 306 \pm 132 \pm 121$ MeV/c^2 and a new state, $a_{1}(2096)$, is observed with mass $M = 2096 \pm 17 \pm 121$ MeV/c^2 and width $\Gamma = 451 \pm 41 \pm 81$ MeV/c^2. The decay properties of these last two states are consistent with flux tube model predictions for hybrid mesons with non-exotic quantum numbers