Animal welfare outcomes of professional vehicle-based shooting of peri-urban rusa deer in Australia

Context: Vehicle-based shooting has been widely used to kill deer, but the animal-welfare outcomes of this technique have not been evaluated in Australasia. Aim: To assess the animal-welfare outcomes of peri-urban deer culling by quantifying the fates of deer seen and shot at, the duration of procedures, and the number and location of bullet wounds in deer. Methods: We assessed vehicle-based night shooting of peri-urban rusa deer (Cervus timorensis) by professional contractors in eastern Australia. Shooters targeted the heads of deer using .223 Remington® rifles and 55 grain bullets. Independent veterinarians conducted ante-mortem (i.e. from the shooting vehicle) and post-mortem (i.e. inspecting the carcass) observations. The ante-mortem data were used to estimate the proportion of deer seen that were shot at, killed, wounded, and escaped. The influence of variables predicted to affect shooting outcomes was assessed. The numbers and locations of bullet wounds were recorded post-mortem. Key results: Of the 269 deer seen in 21 nights, 48% were shot at and 85% of those shot at were killed by either one (87%), two (10%) or three (3%) shots. The frequency of non-fatal wounding (i.e. escaping wounded) was 3.5% for those shot at and hit, and the median time to insensibility for the deer that were shot multiple times was 289 s. There was variation among shooters in their ability to hit a deer, and also to do so with a killing shot. The number of bullet wounds per deer ranged from 1 to 3 (mean = 1.1), with 83% of shots striking the brain and 17% striking the anterior skull, neck and jaw. Conclusions: The animal welfare outcomes we observed were comparable to those reported from other professional ground-based shooting programs for ungulates, but were poorer than those reported for professional ground-based shooting of peri-urban kangaroos. Implications: Our results suggest that one way to improve the animal welfare outcomes of vehicle-based shooting of peri-urban deer is by improving shooter training. Assessment of shooter performance should be a routine part of ground-based shooting programs

How many to sample? Statistical guidelines for monitoring animal welfare outcomes

There is increasing scrutiny of the animal welfare impacts of all animal use activities, including agriculture, the keeping of companion animals, racing and entertainment, research and laboratory use, and wildlife management programs. A common objective of animal welfare monitoring is to quantify the frequency of adverse animal events (e.g., injuries or mortalities). The frequency of such events can be used to provide pass/fail grades for animal use activities relative to a defined threshold and to identify areas for improvement through research. A critical question in these situations is how many animals should be sampled? There are, however, few guidelines available for data collection or analysis, and consequently sample sizes can be highly variable. To address this question, we first evaluated the effect of sample size on precision and statistical power in reporting the frequency of adverse animal welfare outcomes. We next used these findings to assess the precision of published animal welfare investigations for a range of contentious animal use activities, including livestock transport, horse racing, and wildlife harvesting and capture. Finally, we evaluated the sample sizes required for comparing observed outcomes with specified standards through hypothesis testing. Our simulations revealed that the sample sizes required for reasonable levels of precision (i.e., proportional distance to the upper confidence interval limit (delta) of 300). Larger sample sizes are required for adverse events with low frequency (i.e., <5%). For comparison with a required threshold standard, even larger samples sizes are required. We present guidelines, and an online calculator, for minimum sample sizes for use in future animal welfare assessments of animal management and research programs

Results of the First Coincident Observations by Two Laser-Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors

We report an upper bound on the strain amplitude of gravitational wave bursts in a waveband from around 800Hz to 1.25kHz. In an effective coincident observing period of 62 hours, the prototype laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors of the University of Glasgow and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, have set a limit of 4.9E-16, averaging over wave polarizations and incident directions. This is roughly a factor of 2 worse than the theoretical best limit that the detectors could have set, the excess being due to unmodelled non-Gaussian noise. The experiment has demonstrated the viability of the kind of observations planned for the large-scale interferometers that should be on-line in a few years time.Comment: 11 pages, 2 postscript figure

Long-term changes to the frequency of occurrence of British moths are consistent with opposing and synergistic effects of climate and land-use changes

1. Species’ distributions are likely to be affected by a combination of environmental drivers. We used a data set of 11 million species occurrence records over the period 1970–2010 to assess changes in the frequency of occurrence of 673 macro-moth species in Great Britain. Groups of species with different predicted sensitivities showed divergent trends, which we interpret in the context of land-use and climatic changes. 2. A diversity of responses was revealed: 260 moth species declined significantly, whereas 160 increased significantly. Overall, frequencies of occurrence declined, mirroring trends in less species-rich, yet more intensively studied taxa. 3. Geographically widespread species, which were predicted to be more sensitive to land use than to climate change, declined significantly in southern Britain, where the cover of urban and arable land has increased. 4. Moths associated with low nitrogen and open environments (based on their larval host plant characteristics) declined most strongly, which is also consistent with a land-use change explanation. 5. Some moths that reach their northern (leading edge) range limit in southern Britain increased, whereas species restricted to northern Britain (trailing edge) declined significantly, consistent with a climate change explanation. 6. Not all species of a given type behaved similarly, suggesting that complex interactions between species’ attributes and different combinations of environmental drivers determine frequency of occurrence changes. 7. Synthesis and applications. Our findings are consistent with large-scale responses to climatic and land-use changes, with some species increasing and others decreasing. We suggest that land-use change (e.g. habitat loss, nitrogen deposition) and climate change are both major drivers of moth biodiversity change, acting independently and in combination. Importantly, the diverse responses revealed in this species-rich taxon show that multifaceted conservation strategies are needed to minimize negative biodiversity impacts of multiple environmental changes. We suggest that habitat protection, management and ecological restoration can mitigate combined impacts of land-use change and climate change by providing environments that are suitable for existing populations and also enable species to shift their ranges

Vortex structure in chiral p-wave superconductors

We investigate the vortex structure in chiral p-wave superconductors by the Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory on a tight-binding model. We calculate the spatial structure of the pair potential and electronic state around a vortex, including the anisotropy of the Fermi surface and superconducting gap structure. The differences of the vortex structure between $\sin p_x + {\rm i} \sin p_y$-wave and $\sin p_x - {\rm i} \sin p_y$-wave superconductors are clarified in the vortex lattice state. We also discuss the winding $\mp 3$ case of the $\sin{(p_x+p_y)} \pm {\rm i} \sin{(-p_x+p_y)}$-wave superconductivity.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Vortex with Fractional Quantum Numbers in Chiral p-Wave Superconductor

We show that a vortex in a chiral p-wave superconductor, which has the p_{x}+ i p_{y}-wave pairing state and breaks U(1), parity and time reversal symmetry simultaneously, has fractional charge -{n e}/{4} and fractional angular momentum -n^{2}/{16} (n; vorticity). This suggests that the vortex could be anyon and could obey fractional statistics. Electromagnetic property of the vortex is also discussed and we find that an electric field is induced near the vortex core.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The relative effects of prey availability, anthropogenic pressure and environmental variables on lion (Panthera leo) site use in Tanzania's Ruaha landscape during the dry season

African lion (Panthera leo) populations have been reduced by almost half in the past two decades, with national parks and game reserves maintaining vital source populations, particularly in East Africa. However, much of the habitats necessary to support lion populations occur in unprotected lands surrounding protected areas. There is an ongoing need for understanding the ecological determinants of lion occurrence in these unprotected habitats, where lions are most vulnerable to extinction. This study evaluated variations in lion site use along a gradient of anthropogenic pressure encompassing the Ruaha National Park, Pawaga‐Idodi Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and unprotected village lands via camera‐trapping. We collected lion occurrence data in the dry seasons of 2014 and 2015, and modelled lion site use as a function of environmental and anthropogenic variables under a Bayesian framework. We recorded 143 lion detections within the national park, 14 in the WMA and no detections in village lands. This result does not imply that lions never use the village lands, but rather that we did not detect them in our surveys during the dry season. Our findings suggest that lion site use was primarily associated with high seasonal wild prey biomass in protected areas. Thus, we infer that human‐induced prey depletion and lion mortality are compromising lion site use of village lands. Seasonal prey movements, and a corresponding concentration inside the park during sampling, could also play an important role in lion site use. These findings reinforce the need to secure large‐bodied prey base to conserve lions, and the importance of protected areas as key refugia for the species

Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia in Children of Rural Areas of The Gambia, 2008–2015

Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia is a substantial cause of childhood disease and death, but few studies have described its epidemiology in developing countries. Using a population-based surveillance system for pneumonia, sepsis, and meningitis, we estimated S. aureus bacteremia incidence and the case-fatality ratio in children <5 years of age in 2 regions in the eastern part of The Gambia during 2008–2015. Among 33,060 children with suspected pneumonia, sepsis, or meningitis, we performed blood culture for 27,851; of 1,130 patients with bacteremia, 198 (17.5%) were positive for S. aureus. S. aureus bacteremia incidence was 78 (95% CI 67–91) cases/100,000 person-years in children <5 years of age and 2,080 (95% CI 1,621–2,627) cases/100,000 person-years in neonates. Incidence did not change after introduction of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. The case-fatality ratio was 14.1% (95% CI 9.6%–19.8%). Interventions are needed to reduce the S. aureus bacteremia burden in The Gambia, particularly among neonates

Chiral Lagrangian with confinement from the QCD Lagrangian

An effective Lagrangian for the light quark in the field of a static source is derived systematically using the exact field correlator expansion. The lowest Gaussian term is bosonized using nonlocal colorless bosonic fields and a general structure of effective chiral Lagrangian is obtained containing all set of fields. The new and crucial result is that the condensation of scalar isoscalar field which is a usual onset of chiral symmetry breaking and is constant in space-time, assumes here the form of the confining string and contributes to the confining potential, while the rest bosonic fields describe mesons with the q\bar q quark structure and pseudoscalars play the role of Nambu-Goldstone fields. Using derivative expansion the effective chiral Lagrangian is deduced containing both confinement and chiral effects for heavy-light mesons. The pseudovector quark coupling constant is computed to be exactly unity in the local limit,in agreement with earlier large N_c arguments.Comment: LaTeX2e, 17 page

Is there anybody out there? Occupancy of the carnivore guild in a temperate archipelago

Carnivores are important components of ecological communities with wide-ranging effects that vary with carnivore size, natural history, and hunting tactics. Researchers and managers should strive to understand both the presence and distribution of carnivores within their local environment. We studied the carnivore guild in the Apostle Islands, where the distribution and occupancy of carnivores was largely unknown. We monitored 19 islands with 160 functioning camera traps from 2014-2017, from which we collected 203,385 photographs across 49,280 trap nights. We documented 7,291 total wildlife events with 1,970 carnivore events, and detected 10 of the 12 terrestrial carnivores found in Wisconsin. Detection rates for species were generally higher in summer than winter, except for coyotes (Canis latrans) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Finitesample occupancy estimates for carnivores varied across islands, with mean estimated occupancy across islands varying from a high of 0.73 for black bears to a low of 0.21 for gray wolves. Of the potential island biogeography explanatory variables for carnivore occupancy we considered, island size was the most important, followed by distance to the mainland, and then interisland distance. We estimated that terrestrial carnivore species varied in the number of islands they were detected on from 1 island for gray wolves to 13 islands for black bears. Estimated carnivore richness across islands (i.e., the number of carnivores occupying an island) also varied substantively from 1 species on Michigan Island to 10 species on Stockton Island. Island size and connectivity between islands appear important for the persistence of the carnivore community in the Apostle Islands