Year-round tracking of small trans-Saharan migrants using light-level geolocators

Since 1899 ringing (or banding) remained the most important source of information about migration routes, stopover sites and wintering grounds for birds that are too small to carry satellite-based tracking systems. Despite the large quantity of migrating birds ringed in their breeding areas in Europe, the number of ring recoveries from sub-Saharan Africa is very low and therefore the whereabouts of most small bird species outside the breeding season remain a mystery. With new miniaturized light-level geolocators it is now possible to look beyond the limits of ring recovery data. Here we show for the first time year round tracks of a near passerine trans-Saharan migrant, the European Hoopoe (Upupa epops epops). Three birds wintered in the Sahel zone of Western Africa where they remained stationary for most of the time. One bird chose a south-easterly route following the Italian peninsula. Birds from the same breeding population used different migration routes and wintering sites, suggesting a low level of migratory connectivity between breeding and wintering areas. Our tracking of a near passerine bird, the European Hoopoe, with light-level geolocators opens a new chapter in the research of Palaearctic-African bird migration as this new tool revolutionizes our ability to discover migration routes, stopover sites and wintering grounds of small birds

Naturschutzforschung am Auerhuhn in der Schweiz: eine Übersicht

The Western Capercaille Tetrao urogallus is a large forest grouse with narrow habitat preferences and large home ranges. As Capercaille populations are declining in most of their central European range and the species has been shown to be an umbrella for high species richness, a profound knowledge of the species' ecology is essential for the conservation of the charismatic bird

PENGARUH MEDIA AUDIOVISUAL DAN MINAT SISWA TERHADAP HASIL BELAJAR IPA DI KELAS VI SD SWASTA HKBP NO. 1 BALIGE

This study describes the effect of learning audiovisual media on student learning outcomes. The effect of high learning interest with students who have low learning interest on student learning outcomes, and a significant interaction between the use of learning videos and learning interest on student learning outcomes. The research population was all grade VI students of HKBP Private Elementary School No. 1 Balige. The sample was set at 60 people consisting of 2 (two) classes, with details of class VI-A totaling 30 people, class VI-C totaling 30 people. The research design used in this study was an experimental design with a 2x2 factorial. In this study, the first independent variable consisted of two, namely audiovisual media and conventional media. While the second independent variable (moderator variable) consists of high learning interest and low learning interest and the dependent variable is science learning outcomes. The results of the study stated that there was an effect of using audiovisual media with conventional media on student learning outcomes. There is an influence of high learning interest by having low learning interest on student learning outcomes. There is an interaction of learning methods and interest in learning in influencing students' science learning outcomes

PENGARUH MEDIA AUDIOVISUAL DAN MINAT SISWA TERHADAP HASIL BELAJAR IPA DI KELAS VI SD SWASTA HKBP NO. 1 BALIGE

This study describes the effect of learning audiovisual media on student learning outcomes. The effect of high learning interest with students who have low learning interest on student learning outcomes, and a significant interaction between the use of learning videos and learning interest on student learning outcomes. The research population was all grade VI students of HKBP Private Elementary School No. 1 Balige. The sample was set at 60 people consisting of 2 (two) classes, with details of class VI-A totaling 30 people, class VI-C totaling 30 people. The research design used in this study was an experimental design with a 2x2 factorial. In this study, the first independent variable consisted of two, namely audiovisual media and conventional media. While the second independent variable (moderator variable) consists of high learning interest and low learning interest and the dependent variable is science learning outcomes. The results of the study stated that there was an effect of using audiovisual media with conventional media on student learning outcomes. There is an influence of high learning interest by having low learning interest on student learning outcomes. There is an interaction of learning methods and interest in learning in influencing students' science learning outcomes

Transmission Dynamics of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza at Lake Constance (Europe) During the Outbreak of Winter 2005-2006

Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) H5N1 poses a serious threat to domestic animals. Despite the large number of studies on influenza A virus in waterbirds, little is still known about the transmission dynamics, including prevalence, behavior, and spread of these viruses in the wild waterbird population. From January to April 2006, the HPAI H5N1 virus was confirmed in 82 dead wild waterbirds at the shores of Lake Constance. In this study, we present simple mathematical models to examine this outbreak and to investigate the transmission dynamics of HPAI in wild waterbirds. The population dynamics model of wintering birds was best represented by a sinusoidal function. This model was considered the most adequate to represent the susceptible compartment of the SIR model. The three transmission models predict a basic reproduction ratio (R 0) with value of approximately 1.6, indicating a small epidemic, which ended with the migration of susceptible wild waterbirds at the end of the winter. With this study, we quantify for the first time the transmission of HPAI H5N1 virus at Lake Constance during the outbreak of winter 2005-2006. It is a step toward the improvement of the knowledge of transmission of the virus among wild waterbird

Quantifying uncertainty of taxonomic placement in DNA barcoding and metabarcoding

A crucial step in the use of DNA markers for biodiversity surveys is the assignment of Linnaean taxonomies (species, genus, etc.) to sequence reads. This allows the use of all the information known based on the taxonomic names. Taxonomic placement of DNA barcoding sequences is inherently probabilistic because DNA sequences contain errors, because there is natural variation among sequences within a species, and because reference data bases are incomplete and can have false annotations. However, most existing bioinformatics methods for taxonomic placement either exclude uncertainty, or quantify it using metrics other than probability. In this paper we evaluate the performance of the recently proposed probabilistic taxonomic placement method PROTAX by applying it to both annotated reference sequence data as well as to unknown environmental data. Our four case studies include contrasting taxonomic groups (fungi, bacteria, mammals and insects), variation in the length and quality of the barcoding sequences (from individually Sanger-sequenced sequences to short Illumina reads), variation in the structures and sizes of the taxonomies (800–130 000 species) and variation in the completeness of the reference data bases (representing 15–100% of known species). Our results demonstrate that PROTAX yields essentially unbiased probabilities of taxonomic placement, which means its quantification of species identification uncertainty is reliable. As expected, the accuracy of taxonomic placement increases with increasing coverage of taxonomic and reference sequence data bases, and with increasing ratio of genetic variation among taxonomic levels over within taxonomic levels. We conclude that reliable species-level identification from environmental samples is still challenging and that neglecting identification uncertainty can lead to spurious inference. A key aim for future research is the completion of taxonomic and reference sequence data bases and making these two types of data compatible

Inkluusio varhaiskasvatuksen opettajien kertomuksissa:näkökulmana asiantuntijuus

Tiivistelmä. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on tutkia varhaiskasvatuksen opettajien kertomuksia inkluusiosta ja heidän kokemuksiaan inkluusion vaikutuksesta heidän asiantuntijuuteensa. Inkluusio on tutkimusaiheena ajankohtainen ja siihen liittyviä hankkeita on käynnissä myös opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriössä. Inkluusiotutkimus on lisääntynyt varhaiskasvatuksen osalta viimeisen vuosikymmen aikana. Inkluusion tarkasteleminen varhaiskasvatuksen opettajan asiantuntijuuden kautta on aikaisempien tutkimusten valossa uudenlainen näkökulma, joka korostaa tutkimuksellemme tärkeää varhaiskasvatuksen opettajan kokemusta. Tutkimuksellamme haluamme antaa opettajille mahdollisuuden kertoa omista kokemuksista ja nostaa esiin nykyisen tilanteen varhaiskasvatuksen kentältä, jossa inkluusiota määritellään yhä vaihtelevasti. Tutkimuksemme teoreettinen näkökulma tarkastelee inkluusiota ja asiantuntijuutta aikaisemmista tutkimuksista esiin nousseiden keskeisten käsitteiden avulla. Tutkimuskysymyksenä selvitämme, mitä varhaiskasvatuksen opettajat kertovat inkluusiosta ja sen vaikutuksista asiantuntijuuteen. Tutkielmamme on laadullinen tutkimus, jonka tutkimusmetodologiana toimii narratiivinen tutkimusote. Analysoimme aineiston temaattisen analyysin avulla. Tutkimuksemme aineisto koostuu kymmenen varhaiskasvatuksen opettajan avoimesta kirjoitelmasta. Kirjoitelmat pyydettiin kahdesta suomalaisesta kaupungista ja lisäksi täydensimme aineistoa pyytämällä kirjoitelmia näiden alkuperäisten tutkimuskaupunkien ulkopuolelta. Tuloksemme muodostuvat kolmesta pääteemasta: inkluusion toteutuminen, resurssit varhaiskasvatusyksikössä ja inkluusion tuomien muutosten vaikutus asiantuntijuuteen. Pääteemat sisältävät myös useampia alateemoja. Inkluusion toteutumisen alateemat ovat inkluusion määrittely, myönteiset kokemukset ja kielteiset kokemukset. Resurssit varhaiskasvatusyksikössä alateemoja ovat henkilöstöresurssit ja lapsiryhmiin vaikuttavat resurssit. Inkluusion tuomien muutosten vaikutus asiantuntijuuteen alateemat ovat käytännön pedagogiikka, tuen toteuttaminen, lisäkoulutuksen tarve ja yhteistyö eri asiantuntijoiden kanssa

Transmission Dynamics of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza at Lake Constance (Europe) During the Outbreak of Winter 2005–2006

Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) H5N1 poses a serious threat to domestic animals. Despite the large number of studies on influenza A virus in waterbirds, little is still known about the transmission dynamics, including prevalence, behavior, and spread of these viruses in the wild waterbird population. From January to April 2006, the HPAI H5N1 virus was confirmed in 82 dead wild waterbirds at the shores of Lake Constance. In this study, we present simple mathematical models to examine this outbreak and to investigate the transmission dynamics of HPAI in wild waterbirds. The population dynamics model of wintering birds was best represented by a sinusoidal function. This model was considered the most adequate to represent the susceptible compartment of the SIR model. The three transmission models predict a basic reproduction ratio (R0) with value of approximately 1.6, indicating a small epidemic, which ended with the migration of susceptible wild waterbirds at the end of the winter. With this study, we quantify for the first time the transmission of HPAI H5N1 virus at Lake Constance during the outbreak of winter 2005–2006. It is a step toward the improvement of the knowledge of transmission of the virus among wild waterbirds

Dietary supplementation with Bifidobacterium lactis NCC2818 from weaning reduces local immunoglobulin production in lymphoid-associated tissues but increases systemic antibodies in healthy neonates

Weaning is associated with a major shift in the microbial community of the intestine, and this instability may make it more acquiescent than the adult microbiota to long-term changes. Modulation achieved through dietary interventions may have potentially beneficial effects on the developing immune system, which is driven primarily by the microbiota. The specific aim of the present study was to determine whether immune development could be modified by dietary supplementation with the human probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis NCC2818 in a tractable model of weaning in infants. Piglets were reared by their mothers before being weaned onto a solid diet supplemented with B. lactis NCC2818, while sibling controls did not receive supplementation. Probiotic supplementation resulted in a reduction in IgA (P0·05). Probiotic-supplemented pigs had more mast cells than unsupplemented littermates (P<0·0001), although numbers in both groups were low. In addition, the supplemented piglets made stronger serum IgG responses to fed and injected antigens (P<0·05). The present findings are consistent with B. lactis NCC2818 reducing intestinal permeability induced by weaning, and suggest that the piglet is a valuable intermediate between rodent models and human infants. The results also strongly suggest that measures of the effect of probiotic supplementation on the immune system need to be interpreted carefully as proxy measures of health benefit. However, they are useful in developing an understanding of the mechanism of action of probiotic strains, an important factor in predicting favourable health outcomes of nutritional interventio