Population and genetic impacts of a 4-lane highway on black bears in eastern North Carolina

A 19.3-km section of U.S. Highway 64 in Washington County, North Carolina was rerouted to a 4-lane, divided highway with 3 wildlife underpasses during 2001–2005. I determined the short-term population and genetic impacts of the new highway on American black bears (Ursus americanus). I used DNA from hair samples collected during 7 weekly sampling periods within the project area of the new highway and a nearby control area during 2000 (pre-construction phase) and 2006 (post-construction phase; n = 70 sites for each study area). DNA from the hair samples was used to obtain genotypes of sampled bears using 10 microsatellite markers. I created capture histories of all identified individuals and used closed mark-recapture models in Program MARK to estimate abundance. Population abundance decreased on the treatment area from 68 (CI = 53–82) before construction to 20 (CI = 14–26) after completion of the highway. On the control area, population abundance decreased from 144 to 101. Using permutation procedures, I determined that the decrease in population abundance on the treatment area was greater compared with the control area (P = 0.0012). Additionally, I used bear visits to the sampling sites with multi-season occupancy models in Program MARK to determine if site occupancy decreased following the construction of the highway and if any decrease was a function of distance from the highway. Following highway construction, site occupancy decreased more on the treatment area than the control area but was not a function of distance from the highway. Finally, I used the microsatellite data to compare gene flow, isolation by distance, heterozygosity, allelic diversity, population assignment, and genetic structure (Fst) before and after completion of the highway. I did not observe any treatment effects for these genetic measures. I speculate that displacement during the construction of the highway and mortality due to bear-vehicle collisions contributed to the population decline and decrease in site occupancy. Although the wildlife underpasses facilitated genetic and demographic connectivity, my study indicates that the potential impact of new highways on black bear population abundance is an important consideration for transportation infrastructure planning

Responding to sustainability: A model exploring the impacts of boards of directors and organisational strategic flexibility

As the strategic apex of decision making, boards of directors have ultimate responsibility in ensuring that firms address economic, environmental and social sustainability. We contend that board information-processing activities act as the mediational pathway by which board composition affects sustainability. Further, because of the complexity of the sustainability paradigm, strategic flexibility is posited to moderate relationships between information-processing activities and sustainable outcomes. The model proposed in this paper offers original insight into the drivers of sustainability in organisations and thus, we conclude the discussion with implications for both research and practice

K-OPLS package: Kernel-based orthogonal projections to latent structures for prediction and interpretation in feature space

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Kernel-based classification and regression methods have been successfully applied to modelling a wide variety of biological data. The Kernel-based Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures (K-OPLS) method offers unique properties facilitating separate modelling of predictive variation and structured noise in the feature space. While providing prediction results similar to other kernel-based methods, K-OPLS features enhanced interpretational capabilities; allowing detection of unanticipated systematic variation in the data such as instrumental drift, batch variability or unexpected biological variation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We demonstrate an implementation of the K-OPLS algorithm for MATLAB and R, licensed under the GNU GPL and available at <url>http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/kopls/</url>. The package includes essential functionality and documentation for model evaluation (using cross-validation), training and prediction of future samples. Incorporated is also a set of diagnostic tools and plot functions to simplify the visualisation of data, e.g. for detecting trends or for identification of outlying samples. The utility of the software package is demonstrated by means of a metabolic profiling data set from a biological study of hybrid aspen.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The properties of the K-OPLS method are well suited for analysis of biological data, which in conjunction with the availability of the outlined open-source package provides a comprehensive solution for kernel-based analysis in bioinformatics applications.</p

Hippurate: the natural history of a mammalian-microbial co-metabolite

Hippurate, the glycine conjugate of benzoic acid, is a normal constituent of the endogenous urinary metabolite profile and has long been associated with the microbial degradation of certain dietary components, hepatic function and toluene exposure, and is also commonly used as a measure of renal clearance. Here we discuss the potential relevance of hippurate excretion with regards to normal endogenous metabolism and trends in excretion relating to gender, age, and the intestinal microbiota. Additionally, the significance of hippurate excretion with regards to disease states including obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, impaired renal function, psychological disorders and autism, as well as toxicity and parasitic infection, are considered