DIET OF A RECENTLY REINTRODUCED RIVER OTTER (\u3cem\u3eLONTRA CANADENSIS\u3c/em\u3e) POPULATION IN TAOS COUNTY, NEW MEXICO

North American river otters (Lontra canadensis), native to every U.S. state and Canada, experienced extensive population decreases and range reduction until the mid-20th century as a result of overexploitation and habitat loss during European colonization. The last known river otter in New Mexico was killed on the Gila River in 1953, although unverified reports continued thru 2008. After a nearly 60-year absence from New Mexico, 33 adult river otters were reintroduced to the Rio Pueblo de Taos in the northern part of the state between 2008-2010; however, they were not subsequently monitored or studied. I characterized diet of this reintroduced otter population by collecting 877 scat samples from 20 latrine sites located on major rivers (Rio Grande = 16, Red River = 2, Rio Pueblo = 2) in Taos County, New Mexico between February, and December 2018. Hard prey remains were identified to family for fish and order for crayfish. Crayfish (66.2%) and fish (61.8%) were the most frequently occurring prey items in this study. Other prey items included mollusks and clams, birds, reptiles, and mammals. Salmonidae (39.6%) and Catostomidae (37.1%) were the most frequently identified fish families in otter scats, followed by Esocidae (14.3%), Cyprinidae (12.4%), and Centrarchidae (3.2%). Significant seasonal differences in occurrence of scat prey items was found for fish as a main prey group (p \u3c 0.001), including the families Salmonidae (p \u3c 0.001), Catostomidae (p \u3c 0.001), Esocidae (p \u3c 0.01), and Cyprinidae (p \u3c 0.001), and for crayfish (p \u3c 0.001). In summary, otters in the Upper Rio Grande appear to similarly consume prey to that found in other studies conducted in the U.S. My study provides the first dietary description of river otters in New Mexico and should inform otter management in the state

Smart Homes as a Means to Sustainable Energy Consumption: A Study of Consumer Perceptions

European and national policies are aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and increasing energy efficiency - also in the household sector. For this purpose, new solutions for private homes based on information and communication technologies (ICT) are being developed and tested. However, up to now, hardly anyone has seen, experienced or lived in an environment that offers the full range of ICT-based energy management solutions. In this study, consumer reactions to a fully furnished and equipped smart home are analysed using focus groups (four groups with a total of 29 participants). The analysis looks at consumer perceptions of and reactions to an energy management system which optimizes electricity consumption based on different ICT solutions. The topics that were demonstrated in practice and then discussed with the participants included variable tariffs, smart metering, smart appliances, and home automation. In general, there were positive group reactions to the smart home environment. Consumers saw many advantages for themselves; especially the chance to save money. However, giving up high levels of flexibility and adapting everyday routines to fit in with electricity tariffs were regarded as difficult. Smart appliances and smart meters were therefore considered to be necessary elements by most participants. Concerns regarding data privacy played a major role in one of the groups

Von ›besseren Kindern‹ und pränataldiagnostischen Verunsicherungen – Perspektiven Schwangerer auf den NIPT

In dieser ethnographischen Feldforschung zum nicht-invasiven pränatalen Bluttest (NIPT) kommen Schwangere selbst zu Wort. Die verunsichernden Erfahrungen in der konkreten Entscheidungssituation prägen Vorannahmen zu (womöglich behinderten) Föten sowie einen feldeigenen Begriff von Sicherheit.In this ethnographic field study about non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) pregnant women speak for themselves. The unsettling experiences in the direct situation of decision-making shapes biased perspectives on the (potentially disabled) fetus and a field specific understanding of safety

Von ›besseren Kindern‹ und pränataldiagnostischen Verunsicherungen – Perspektiven Schwangerer auf den NIPT

In dieser ethnographischen Feldforschung zum nicht-invasiven pränatalen Bluttest (NIPT) kommen Schwangere selbst zu Wort. Die verunsichernden Erfahrungen in der konkreten Entscheidungssituation prägen Vorannahmen zu (womöglich behinderten) Föten sowie einen feldeigenen Begriff von Sicherheit.In this ethnographic field study about non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) pregnant women speak for themselves. The unsettling experiences in the direct situation of decision-making shapes biased perspectives on the (potentially disabled) fetus and a field specific understanding of safety

Auditory Motion Capturing Ambiguous Visual Motion

In this study, it is demonstrated that moving sounds have an effect on the direction in which one sees visual stimuli move. During the main experiment sounds were presented consecutively at four speaker locations inducing left or rightward auditory apparent motion. On the path of auditory apparent motion, visual apparent motion stimuli were presented with a high degree of directional ambiguity. The main outcome of this experiment is that our participants perceived visual apparent motion stimuli that were ambiguous (equally likely to be perceived as moving left or rightward) more often as moving in the same direction than in the opposite direction of auditory apparent motion. During the control experiment we replicated this finding and found no effect of sound motion direction on eye movements. This indicates that auditory motion can capture our visual motion percept when visual motion direction is insufficiently determinate without affecting eye movements

Nicht schwieriger, aber anders? Herausforderungen des unverpackt-Einkaufens aus Kundensicht

Angesichts wachsender Plastikverschmutzung und steigendem Verpackungsaufkommen ist die Gründung von immer mehr sogenannten unverpackt-Läden zu beobachten, die Ware lose oder ohne Einwegverpackungen anbieten. Dieses Konzept bietet viele Vorteile für Kunden, birgt aber gleichzeitig diverse Herausforderungen und ist – zumindest zu Beginn – nicht immer einfach in den Alltag zu integrieren. Eine Kundenstudie und eine Masterarbeit betrachten die Routinen hinter dem unverpackten Einkaufen sowie bestehende Hürden und Möglichkeiten, wie die Integrierung in den Alltag besser gelingen kann. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Vorbereitung und Planung des Einkaufs, das Behältermanagement und die Veränderung von Gewohnheiten die größten Herausforderungen darstellen – aber auch, dass tägliche Routinen sich tatsächlich ändern lassen und sich so nachhaltigere Konsumgewohnheiten etablieren können. Hierfür sind nicht nur Informationen und persönliche Überzeugung notwendig, vielmehr spielen die Alltagskompatibilität des Einkaufsprozesses sowie Übung und Erfahrung eine wichtige Rolle

On the road to an electric mobility mass market - How can early adopters be characterized?

Different field trials and corresponding acceptance studies with new technologies have been carried out between 2010 and 2013 at the Chair of Energy Economics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Those involved Elec-tric Vehicle (EV) users, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicle users as well as persons with strong interest in EV and smart home technologies. In order to characterize early adopters the same item-sets con-cerning attitudes regarding climate change, prices and innovations as well as cor-responding socio-demographic characteristics, were used throughout all these studies and have been joined now and analyzed together. Additionally, regression methods have been applied in order to characterize early EV adopters based on a subsample of EV company car users in the French-German context. A binary logit model explaining private EV purchase intention has been developed. According to this model, early private EV adopters are likely to have a higher level of income, to have a household equipped with two or more cars and to travel more than 50 kilometers a day, not necessarily by car. This model additionally shows that possi-bilities to experience EV (e.g. by test drives) are important leverages to support adoption of EV by private car buyers. Respondents who already decided to pri-vately purchase an EV show significantly lower general price sensitivities than the LPG and CNG vehicle users