Assessing the effectiveness of a national protected area network for carnivore conservation

Protected areas (PAs) are essential to prevent further biodiversity loss yet their effectiveness varies largely with governance and external threats. Although methodological advances have permitted assessments of PA effectiveness in mitigating deforestation, we still lack similar studies for the impact of PAs on wildlife populations. Here we use an innovative combination of matching methods and hurdle-mixed models with a large-scale and long-term dataset for Finland's large carnivore species. We show that the national PA network does not support higher densities than non-protected habitat for 3 of the 4 species investigated. For some species, PA effects interact with region or time, i.e., wolverine densities decreased inside PAs over the study period and lynx densities increased inside eastern PAs. We support the application of matching methods in combination of additional analytical frameworks for deeper understanding of conservation impacts on wildlife populations. These methodological advances are crucial for preparing ambitious PA targets post-2020. Assessing the effectiveness of protected areas for wildlife conservation is challenging. Here, Terraube et al. combine statistical matching and hurdle mixed-effects models to show that PAs have limited impact on population densities of large carnivores across Finland.Peer reviewe

Archeologische begeleiding van een waterbassin aan de Oude Heerestraat in Oud-Turnhout

Dit rapport werd ingediend bij het agentschap samen met een aantal afzonderlijke digitale bijlagen. Een aantal van deze bijlagen zijn niet inbegrepen in dit pdf document en zijn niet online beschikbaar. Sommige bijlagen (grondplannen, fotos, spoorbeschrijvingen, enz.) kunnen van belang zijn voor een betere lezing en interpretatie van dit rapport. Indien u deze bijlagen wenst te raadplegen kan u daarvoor contact opnemen met: [email protected]

Accounting for seasonality in a soil moisture change detection algorithm for ASAR Wide Swath time series

A change detection algorithm is applied on a three year time series of ASAR Wide Swath images in VV polarization over Calabria, Italy, in order to derive information on temporal soil moisture dynamics. The algorithm, adapted from an algorithm originally developed for ERS scatterometer, was validated using a simple hydrological model incorporating meteorological and pedological data. Strong positive correlations between modelled soil moisture and ASAR soil moisture were observed over arable land, while the correlation became much weaker over more vegetated areas. In a second phase, an attempt was made to incorporate seasonality in the different model parameters. It was observed that seasonally changing surface properties mainly affected the multitemporal incidence angle normalization. When applying a seasonal angular normalization, correlation coefficients between modelled soil moisture and retrieved soil moisture increased overall. Attempts to account for seasonality in the other model parameters did not result in an improved performance

Phylogeny and androgenesis in the invasive <i>Corbicula</i> clams (Bivalvia, Corbiculidae) in Western Europe

Background The genus Corbicula is one of the most invasive groups of molluscs. It includes both sexual and androgenetic lineages. The present study re-assessed the different morphotypes and haplotypes of West European Corbicula in order to clarify their taxonomic identification and phylogenetic relationships with American and Asian Corbicula clams. We studied several populations from West European river basins (Meuse, Seine, Rhine and Rhône) through an "integrative taxonomy" approach. We combined morphology, partial mitochondrial COI and cyt b sequences and eleven microsatellite loci. Furthermore, we looked for discrepancies between mtDNA and nrDNA/morphology, indicative of androgenesis between lineages. Results There are three Corbicula morphotypes in Western Europe associated to three mitochondrial lineages and three genotypes. Form R shares the same COI haplotype as the American form A and the Japanese C. leana. Form S and the American form C have the same haplotype, although their morphologies seem divergent. The European form Rlc belongs to the same mitochondrial lineage as both the American form B and the Asian C. fluminea. Interestingly, within each haplotype/genotype or lineage, no genetic diversity was found although their invasive success is high. Moreover, we detected rare mismatches between mtDNA and nrDNA/morphology, indicative of androgenesis and mitochondrial capture between form R and form S and therefore challenging the phylogenetic relatedness and the species status within this genus. The global phylogenetic analysis revealed that the sexual Corbicula lineages seem restricted to the native areas while their androgenetic relatives are widespread and highly invasive. Conclusions We clarified the discrepancies and incongruent results found in the literature about the European morphotypes of Corbicula and associated mitochondrial lineages. The three West European morphotypes belong to three distinct nuclear and mitochondrial lineages. However mitochondrial capture occurs in sympatric populations of forms R and S. The species status of the morphotypes therefore remains doubtful. Moreover the androgenetic lineages seem widely distributed compared to their sexual relatives, suggesting that androgenesis and invasive success may be linked in the genus Corbicula

Assessing the effectiveness of a national protected area network for carnivore conservation

Protected areas (PAs) are essential to prevent further biodiversity loss yet their effectiveness varies largely with governance and external threats. Although methodological advances have permitted assessments of PA effectiveness in mitigating deforestation, we still lack similar studies for the impact of PAs on wildlife populations. Here we use an innovative combination of matching methods and hurdle-mixed models with a large-scale and long-term dataset for Finland's large carnivore species. We show that the national PA network does not support higher densities than non-protected habitat for 3 of the 4 species investigated. For some species, PA effects interact with region or time, i.e., wolverine densities decreased inside PAs over the study period and lynx densities increased inside eastern PAs. We support the application of matching methods in combination of additional analytical frameworks for deeper understanding of conservation impacts on wildlife populations. These methodological advances are crucial for preparing ambitious PA targets post-2020. Assessing the effectiveness of protected areas for wildlife conservation is challenging. Here, Terraube et al. combine statistical matching and hurdle mixed-effects models to show that PAs have limited impact on population densities of large carnivores across Finland

Fallen fragment sign

A 16-year-old boy presented at the emergency room after he fell on his left shoulder while playing American football. Plain radiographs showed a pathological fracture through a well- defined expansile radiolucent lesion within the proximal meta-diaphysis of the left humerus (Fig. A). The lesion caused cortical thinning and contained multiple linear cortical fragments within the central part of the lesion (arrows in Fig. A). Based on the age, location and the plain radiographic characteristics (“fallen fragment sign”), the diagnosis of a solitary bone cyst (SBC) was suggested

Floristic composition and across-track reflectance gradient in Landsat images over Amazonian forests

Remotely sensed image interpretation or classification of tropical forests can be severely hampered by the effects of the bidirectional reflection distribution function (BRDF). Even for narrow swath sensors like Landsat TM/ETM+, the influence of reflectance anisotropy can be sufficiently strong to introduce a cross track reflectance gradient. If the BRDF could be assumed to be linear for the limited swath of Landsat, it would be possible to remove this gradient during image preprocessing using a simple empirical method. However, the existence of natural gradients in reflectance caused by spatial variation in floristic composition of the forest can restrict the applicability of such simple corrections. Here we use floristic information over Peruvian and Brazilian Amazonia acquired through field surveys, complemented with information from geological maps, to investigate the interaction of real floristic gradients and the effect of reflectance anisotropy on the observed reflectances in Landsat data. In addition, we test the assumption of linearity of the BRDF for a limited swath width, and whether different primary non-inundated forest types are characterized by different magnitudes of the directional reflectance gradient. Our results show that a linear function is adequate to empirically correct for view angle effects, and that the magnitude of the across-track reflectance gradient is independent of floristic composition in the non-inundated forests we studied. This makes a routine correction of view angle effects possible. However, floristic variation complicates the issue, because different forest types have different mean reflectances. This must be taken into account when deriving the correction function in order to avoid eliminating natural gradients. (C) 2016 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Performance of photon reconstruction and identification with the CMS detector in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

A description is provided of the performance of the CMS detector for photon reconstruction and identification in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the CERN LHC. Details are given on the reconstruction of photons from energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) and the extraction of photon energy estimates. The reconstruction of electron tracks from photons that convert to electrons in the CMS tracker is also described, as is the optimization of the photon energy reconstruction and its accurate modelling in simulation, in the analysis of the Higgs boson decay into two photons. In the barrel section of the ECAL, an energy resolution of about 1% is achieved for unconverted or late-converting photons from Hγγ decays. Different photon identification methods are discussed and their corresponding selection efficiencies in data are compared with those found in simulated events

Search for new phenomena with the MT2 variable in the all-hadronic final state produced in proton-proton collisions at s=13 TeV.

A search for new phenomena is performed using events with jets and significant transverse momentum imbalance, as inferred through the MT2 variable. The results are based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb-1 . No excess event yield is observed above the predicted standard model background, and the results are interpreted as exclusion limits at 95% confidence level on the masses of predicted particles in a variety of simplified models of R-parity conserving supersymmetry. Depending on the details of the model, 95% confidence level lower limits on the gluino (light-flavor squark) masses are placed up to 2025 (1550) GeV . Mass limits as high as 1070 (1175) GeV are set on the masses of top (bottom) squarks. Information is provided to enable re-interpretation of these results, including model-independent limits on the number of non-standard model events for a set of simplified, inclusive search regions