A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations

Wet grassland wader populations in the United Kingdom have experienced severe declines over the last three decades. To help mitigate these declines, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has restored and managed lowland wet grassland nature reserves to benefit these and other species. However, the impact that these reserves have on bird population trends has not been experimentally evaluated, as appropriate control populations do not readily exist. In this study, we compare population trends from 1994 ‐ 2018 for five bird species of conservation concern that breed on these nature reserves with counterfactual trends using matched breeding bird survey observations. Our results showed positive effects of conservation interventions for all four wader species that these reserves aim to benefit: Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), Redshank (Tringa totanus), Curlew (Numenius arquata) and Snipe (Gallinago gallinago). There was no positive effect of conservation interventions on reserves for the passerine, Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava). We compared reserve trends with three different counterfactuals, based on different scenarios of how reserve populations could have developed in the absence of conservation, and found that reserve trends performed better regardless of the counterfactual used. Our approach using monitoring data to produce valid counterfactual controls is a broadly applicable method allowing large‐scale evaluation of conservation impact

Choice of biodiversity indicators may affect societal support for conservation programs

Preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity brings multiple health, societal and economic benefits, including life-supporting services. Biodiversity indicators are important in framing the benefits of conservation and management programs and monitoring progress toward their outcomes. Biodiversity indicators therefore provide useful tools for policymakers in helping to communicate the benefits of conservation to society but also in garnering public support for conservation. This research aimed to help improve our understanding of the role of biodiversity indicators in the way that they influence preferences towards conservation programs. A discrete choice experiment was used to estimate relative societal preferences towards multilevel dimensions of biodiversity in relation to the conservation of pine forests in the Spanish Iberian Peninsula. Results show that (i) the level of biodiversity indicator (within species, between species and within ecosystems) matters, (ii) indicators related to the biodiversity within ecosystems are valued the most, and (iii) the use of several biodiversity indicators together is generally better at delivering benefits to society, but the value of these is reduced where there is redundancy between them. Overall, the most preferred indicators were the area of land covered by the conservation project, the status of keystone ecosystem components, and the number of native species. Some indicators such as invasive alien species and genetic diversity are least preferred and may be less helpful to how conservation efforts are perceived by the citizens. By careful consideration of which biodiversity indicators to use, policymakers and conservation managers can maximize societal acceptability of public investments in conservation efforts

Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain

ience, this issue p. eaap8757 Structured Abstract INTRODUCTION Brain disorders may exhibit shared symptoms and substantial epidemiological comorbidity, inciting debate about their etiologic overlap. However, detailed study of phenotypes with different ages of onset, severity, and presentation poses a considerable challenge. Recently developed heritability methods allow us to accurately measure correlation of genome-wide common variant risk between two phenotypes from pools of different individuals and assess how connected they, or at least their genetic risks, are on the genomic level. We used genome-wide association data for 265,218 patients and 784,643 control participants, as well as 17 phenotypes from a total of 1,191,588 individuals, to quantify the degree of overlap for genetic risk factors of 25 common brain disorders. RATIONALE Over the past century, the classification of brain disorders has evolved to reflect the medical and scientific communities' assessments of the presumed root causes of clinical phenomena such as behavioral change, loss of motor function, or alterations of consciousness. Directly observable phenomena (such as the presence of emboli, protein tangles, or unusual electrical activity patterns) generally define and separate neurological disorders from psychiatric disorders. Understanding the genetic underpinnings and categorical distinctions for brain disorders and related phenotypes may inform the search for their biological mechanisms. RESULTS Common variant risk for psychiatric disorders was shown to correlate significantly, especially among attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia. By contrast, neurological disorders appear more distinct from one another and from the psychiatric disorders, except for migraine, which was significantly correlated to ADHD, MDD, and Tourette syndrome. We demonstrate that, in the general population, the personality trait neuroticism is significantly correlated with almost every psychiatric disorder and migraine. We also identify significant genetic sharing between disorders and early life cognitive measures (e.g., years of education and college attainment) in the general population, demonstrating positive correlation with several psychiatric disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa and bipolar disorder) and negative correlation with several neurological phenotypes (e.g., Alzheimer's disease and ischemic stroke), even though the latter are considered to result from specific processes that occur later in life. Extensive simulations were also performed to inform how statistical power, diagnostic misclassification, and phenotypic heterogeneity influence genetic correlations. CONCLUSION The high degree of genetic correlation among many of the psychiatric disorders adds further evidence that their current clinical boundaries do not reflect distinct underlying pathogenic processes, at least on the genetic level. This suggests a deeply interconnected nature for psychiatric disorders, in contrast to neurological disorders, and underscores the need to refine psychiatric diagnostics. Genetically informed analyses may provide important "scaffolding" to support such restructuring of psychiatric nosology, which likely requires incorporating many levels of information. By contrast, we find limited evidence for widespread common genetic risk sharing among neurological disorders or across neurological and psychiatric disorders. We show that both psychiatric and neurological disorders have robust correlations with cognitive and personality measures. Further study is needed to evaluate whether overlapping genetic contributions to psychiatric pathology may influence treatment choices. Ultimately, such developments may pave the way toward reduced heterogeneity and improved diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders

Developing an Artificial Pancreas (semester?), IPRO 308: Artificial Pancreas IPRO 308 Project Plan Sp07

The objective of this IPRO is to improve the existing prototype to successfully extract interstitial fluid from pig’s skin and effectively measure the glucose level in the interstitial fluid through both electrical impedance and light transmittance measurement and to secure grants in order to fund the testing and further completion of the prototype.Deliverables for IPRO 308: Developing an Artificial Pancreas for the Spring 2007 semeste

Developing an Artificial Pancreas (semester?), IPRO 308: Artificial Pancreas IPRO 308 Abstract Sp07

The objective of this IPRO is to improve the existing prototype to successfully extract interstitial fluid from pig’s skin and effectively measure the glucose level in the interstitial fluid through both electrical impedance and light transmittance measurement and to secure grants in order to fund the testing and further completion of the prototype.Deliverables for IPRO 308: Developing an Artificial Pancreas for the Spring 2007 semeste

Developing an Artificial Pancreas (semester?), IPRO 308: Artificial Pancreas IPRO 308 IPRO Day Presentation Sp07

The objective of this IPRO is to improve the existing prototype to successfully extract interstitial fluid from pig’s skin and effectively measure the glucose level in the interstitial fluid through both electrical impedance and light transmittance measurement and to secure grants in order to fund the testing and further completion of the prototype.Deliverables for IPRO 308: Developing an Artificial Pancreas for the Spring 2007 semeste

Developing an Artificial Pancreas (semester?), IPRO 308: Artificial Pancreas IPRO 308 Midterm Report Sp07

The objective of this IPRO is to improve the existing prototype to successfully extract interstitial fluid from pig’s skin and effectively measure the glucose level in the interstitial fluid through both electrical impedance and light transmittance measurement and to secure grants in order to fund the testing and further completion of the prototype.Deliverables for IPRO 308: Developing an Artificial Pancreas for the Spring 2007 semeste

Developing an Artificial Pancreas (semester?), IPRO 308

The objective of this IPRO is to improve the existing prototype to successfully extract interstitial fluid from pig’s skin and effectively measure the glucose level in the interstitial fluid through both electrical impedance and light transmittance measurement and to secure grants in order to fund the testing and further completion of the prototype.Deliverables for IPRO 308: Developing an Artificial Pancreas for the Spring 2007 semeste