Unprecedented Migratory Bird Die-Off: A Citizen-Based Analysis on the Spatiotemporal Patterns of Mass Mortality Events in the Western United States

Extensive, severe wildfires, and wildfire-induced smoke occurred across the western and central United States since August 2020. Wildfires resulting in the loss of habitats and emission of particulate matter and volatile organic compounds pose serious threatens to wildlife and human populations, especially for avian species, the respiratory system of which are sensitive to air pollutions. At the same time, the extreme weather (e.g., snowstorms) in late summer may also impact bird migration by cutting off their food supply and promoting their migration before they were physiologically ready. In this study, we investigated the environmental drivers of massive bird die-offs by combining socioecological earth observations data sets with citizen science observations. We employed the geographically weighted regression models to quantitatively evaluate the effects of different environmental and climatic drivers, including wildfire, air quality, extreme weather, drought, and land cover types, on the spatial pattern of migratory bird mortality across the western and central US during August-September 2020. We found that these drivers affected the death of migratory birds in different ways, among which air quality and distance to wildfire were two major drivers. Additionally, there were more bird mortality events found in urban areas and close to wildfire in early August. However, fewer bird deaths were detected closer to wildfires in California in late August and September. Our findings highlight the important impact of extreme weather and natural disasters on bird biology, survival, and migration, which can provide significant insights into bird biodiversity, conservation, and ecosystem sustainability

Tuning the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction in Pt/Co/MgO heterostructures through MgO thickness

The interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in the ferromagnetic/heavy metal ultra-thin film structures , has attracted a lot of attention thanks to its capability to stabilize Neel-type domain walls (DWs) and magnetic skyrmions for the realization of non-volatile memory and logic devices. In this study, we demonstrate that magnetic properties in perpendicularly magnetized Ta/Pt/Co/MgO/Pt heterostructures, such as magnetization and DMI, can be significantly influenced through both the MgO and the Co ultrathin film thickness. By using a field-driven creep regime domain expansion technique, we find that non-monotonic tendencies of DMI field appear when changing the thickness of MgO and the MgO thickness corresponding to the largest DMI field varies as a function of the Co thicknesses. We interpret this efficient control of DMI as subtle changes of both Pt/Co and Co/MgO interfaces, which provide a method to investigate ultra-thin structures design to achieve skyrmion electronics.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figure

Applying TOC in the production planning and control of a knitwear manufacturer

Purpose – This study seeks to discuss the theory of constraint (TOC)’s application and implications in a knitwear manufacturer, especially on production planning and control, to improve its operational performance and consequently achieve the goal of making money. Design/methodology/approach – This report presents a case study of a specific company in the textile and clothing industry. In-depth interviews have been used to describe the current business scenario of the company and help to analyse the feasibility of applying TOC. Originality/value – In this study, the feasibility of applying TOC is analysed based on a specific real-world knitwear manufacturer, investigating the application of TOC methods to deal with production planning and control problems. In addition to the effectiveness of TOC, it also points out some challenging in using TOC successfully in this business scenario, providing a more comprehensive understanding in practicing the TOC methods in a small and medium sized textile and clothing manufacturer. Keywords-Production planning and control, theory of constraint, textile and clothing manufacturer, knitwear Paper type-Company projec

Satellite-detected ammonia changes in the United States: Natural or anthropogenic impacts

Ammonia (NH3) is the most abundant alkaline component and can react with atmospheric acidic species to form aerosols that can lead to numerous environmental and health issues. Increasing atmospheric NH3 over agricultural regions in the US has been documented. However, spatiotemporal changes of NH3 concentrations over the entire US are still not thoroughly understood, and the factors that drive these changes remain unknown. Herein, we applied the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) monthly NH3 dataset to explore spatiotemporal changes in atmospheric NH3 and the empirical relationships with synthetic N fertilizer application, livestock manure production, and climate factors across the entire US at both regional and pixel levels from 2002 to 2016. We found that, in addition to the US Midwest, the Mid-South and Western regions also experienced striking increases in NH3 concentrations. NH3 released from livestock manure during warmer winters contributed to increased annual NH3 concentrations in the Western US. The influence of temperature on temporal evolution of NH3 concentrations was associated with synthetic N fertilizer use in the Northern Great Plains. With a strong positive impact of temperature on NH3 concentrations in the US Midwest, this region could possibly become an atmospheric NH3 hotspot in the context of future warming. Our study provides an essential scientific basis for US policy makers in developing mitigation strategies for agricultural NH3 emissions under future climate change scenarios

Inter-organellar and systemic responses to impaired mitochondrial matrix protein import in skeletal muscle

Effective protein import from cytosol is critical for mitochondrial functions and metabolic regulation. We describe here the mammalian muscle-specific and systemic consequences to disrupted mitochondrial matrix protein import by targeted deletion of the mitochondrial HSP70 co-chaperone GRPEL1. Muscle-specific loss of GRPEL1 caused rapid muscle atrophy, accompanied by shut down of oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation, and excessive triggering of proteotoxic stress responses. Transcriptome analysis identified new responders to mitochondrial protein import toxicity, such as the neurological disease-linked intermembrane space protein CHCHD10. Besides communication with ER and nucleus, we identified crosstalk of distressed mitochondria with peroxisomes, in particular the induction of peroxisomal Acyl-CoA oxidase 2 (ACOX2), which we propose as an ATF4-regulated peroxisomal marker of integrated stress response. Metabolic profiling indicated fatty acid enrichment in muscle, a shift in TCA cycle intermediates in serum and muscle, and dysregulated bile acids. Our results demonstrate the fundamental importance of GRPEL1 and provide a robust model for detecting mammalian inter-organellar and systemic responses to impaired mitochondrial matrix protein import and folding.Peer reviewe

A model for leveraging animal movement to understand spatio-temporal disease dynamics

The ongoing explosion of fine-resolution movement data in animal systems provides a unique opportunity to empirically quantify spatial, temporal and individual variation in transmission risk and improve our ability to forecast disease outbreaks. However, we lack a generalizable model that can leverage movement data to quantify transmission risk and how it affects pathogen invasion and persistence on heterogeneous landscapes. We developed a flexible model ‘Movement-driven modelling of spatio-temporal infection risk’ (MoveSTIR) that leverages diverse data on animal movement to derive metrics of direct and indirect contact by decomposing transmission into constituent processes of contact formation and duration and pathogen deposition and acquisition. We use MoveSTIR to demonstrate that ignoring fine-scale animal movements on actual landscapes can mis-characterize transmission risk and epidemiological dynamics. MoveSTIR unifies previous work on epidemiological contact networks and can address applied and theoretical questions at the nexus of movement and disease ecology

Human Mobility to Parks Under the COVID-19 Pandemic and Wildfire Seasons in the Western and Central United States

In 2020, people's health suffered a great crisis under the dual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the extensive, severe wildfires in the western and central United States. Parks, including city, national, and cultural parks, offer a unique opportunity for people to maintain their recreation behaviors following the social distancing protocols during the pandemic. However, massive forest wildfires in western and central US, producing harmful toxic gases and smoke, pose significant threats to human health and affect their recreation behaviors and mobility to parks. In this study, we employed the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) Models to investigate how COVID-19 and wildfires jointly shaped human mobility to parks, regarding the number of visits per capita, dwell time, and travel distance to parks, during June - September 2020. We detected strong correlations between visitations and COVID-19 incidence in southern Montana, western Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah before August. However, the pattern was weakened over time, indicating the decreasing trend of the degree of concern regarding the pandemic. Moreover, more park visits and lower dwell time were found in parks further away from wildfires and less air pollution in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, and New Mexico, during the wildfire season, suggesting the potential avoidance of wildfires when visiting parks. This study provides important insights on people's responses in recreation and social behaviors when facing multiple severe crises that impact their health and wellbeing, which could support the preparation and mitigation of the health impacts from future pandemics and natural hazards.This study is supported by a Microsoft AI for Earth Microsoft Azure Compute Grant, no. 00010003601. Open Access fees paid for in whole or in part by the University of Oklahoma Libraries.Ye

Transmission of antibiotic resistance at the wildlife-livestock interface

Antibiotic-resistant microorganisms (ARMs) are widespread in natural environments, animals (wildlife and livestock), and humans, which has reduced our capacity to control life threatening infectious disease. Yet, little is known about their transmission pathways, especially at the wildlife-livestock interface. This study investigated the potential transmission of ARMs and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) between cattle and wildlife by comparing gut microbiota and ARG profiles of feral swine (Sus scrofa), coyotes (Canis latrans), cattle (Bos taurus), and environmental microbiota. Unexpectedly, wild animals harbored more abundant ARMs and ARGs compared to grazing cattle. Gut microbiota of cattle was significantly more similar to that of feral swine captured within the cattle grazing area where the home range of both species overlapped substantially. In addition, ARMs against medically important antibiotics were more prevalent in wildlife than grazing cattle, suggesting that wildlife could be a source of ARMs colonization in livestock

Optimising response to an introduction of African swine fever in wild pigs

African swine fever virus (ASFv) is a virulent pathogen that threatens domestic swine industries globally and persists in wild boar populations in some countries. Persistence in wild boar can challenge elimination and prevent disease-free status, making it necessary to address wild swine in proactive response plans. In the United States, invasive wild pigs are abundant and found across a wide range of ecological conditions that could drive different epidemiological dynamics among populations. Information on the size of the control areas required to rapidly eliminate the ASFv in wild pigs and how this area should change with management constraints and local ecology is needed to optimize response planning. We developed a spatially explicit disease transmission model contrasting wild pig movement and contact ecology in two ecosystems in Southeastern United States. We simulated ASFv spread and determined the optimal response area (reported as the radius of a circle) for eliminating ASFv rapidly over a range of detection times (when ASFv was detected relative to the true date of introduction), culling capacities (proportion of wild pigs in the culling zone removed weekly) and wild pig densities. Large radii for response areas (14 km) were needed under most conditions but could be shortened with early detection (≤ 8 weeks) and high culling capacities (≥ 15% weekly). Under most conditions, the ASFv was eliminated in less than 22 weeks using optimal control radii, although ecological conditions with high rates of wild pig movement required higher culling capacities (≥ 10% weekly) for elimination within 1 year. The results highlight the importance of adjusting response plans based on local ecology and show that wild pig movement is a better predictor of the optimal response area than the number of ASFv cases early in the outbreak trajectory. Our framework provides a tool for determining optimal control plans in different areas, guiding expectations of response impacts, and planning resources needed for rapid elimination

Role of social structure in establishment of an invasive large mammal after translocation

Background Data on the movement behavior of translocated wild pigs is needed to develop appropriate response strategies for containing and eliminating new source populations following translocation events. We conducted experimental trials to compare the home range establishment and space-use metrics, including the number of days and distance traveled before becoming range residents, for wild pigs translocated with their social group and individually. Results We found wild pigs translocated with their social group made less extensive movements away from the release location and established a stable home range ~5 days faster than those translocated individually. We also examined how habitat quality impacted the home range sizes of translocated wild pigs and found wild pigs maintained larger ranges in areas with higher proportion of low-quality habitat. Conclusion Collectively, our findings suggest translocations of invasive wild pigs have a greater probability of establishing a viable population near the release site when habitat quality is high and when released with members of their social unit compared to individuals moved independent of their social group or to low-quality habitat. However, all wild pigs translocated in our study made extensive movements from their release location, highlighting the potential for single translocation events of either individuals or groups to have far-reaching consequences within a much broader landscape beyond the location where they are released. These results highlight the challenges associated with containing populations in areas where illegal introduction of wild pigs occurs, and the need for rapid response once releases are identified