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Success stories and emerging themes in conservation physiology
Get PDFThe potential benefits of physiology for conservation are well established and include greater specificity of management techniques, determination of cause–effect relationships, increased sensitivity of health and disturbance monitoring and greater capacity for predicting future change. While descriptions of the specific avenues in which conservation and physiology can be integrated are readily available and important to the continuing expansion of the discipline of ‘conservation physiology’, to date there has been no assessment of how the field has specifically contributed to conservation success. However, the goal of conservation physiology is to foster conservation solutions and it is therefore important to assess whether physiological approaches contribute to downstream conservation outcomes and management decisions. Here, we present eight areas of conservation concern, ranging from chemical contamination to invasive species to ecotourism, where physiological approaches have led to beneficial changes in human behaviour, management or policy. We also discuss the shared characteristics of these successes, identifying emerging themes in the discipline. Specifically, we conclude that conservation physiology: (i) goes beyond documenting change to provide solutions; (ii) offers a diversity of physiological metrics beyond glucocorticoids (stress hormones); (iii) includes approaches that are transferable among species, locations and times; (iv) simultaneously allows for human use and benefits to wildlife; and (v) is characterized by successes that can be difficult to find in the primary literature. Overall, we submit that the field of conservation physiology has a strong foundation of achievements characterized by a diversity of conservation issues, taxa, physiological traits, ecosystem types and spatial scales. We hope that these concrete successes will encourage the continued evolution and use of physiological tools within conservation-based research and management plans."This work was supported by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology; the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada; Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada; and the Canadian Society of Zoologists. C.L.M. was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada PGS-D (427552). S.J.C. and O.P.L. are supported by the Canada Research Chairs program. E.J.C. was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BCS-1134687). K.R.H. was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation’s MacroSystems Biology program (award no. 1340856) and the US Department of Agriculture (NRI 2015-67013-23138). J.R.R. was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (EF-1241889), National Institutes of Health (R01GM109499, R01TW010286), US Department of Agriculture (NRI 2006-01370, 2009-35102-0543) and US Environmental Protection Agency (CAREER 83518801)."https://academic.oup.com/conphys/article/4/1/cov057/295129
Breeding Ecology of Wild and Captive-released Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) in Southwestern Manitoba
Get PDFBurrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) once occupied grassland ecosystems in the western Provinces of Canada, as far east as Winnipeg, Manitoba, and west into the southern interior of British Columbia (B.C.). No single factor has been identified as causing the decline of the Burrowing Owl in Manitoba nor in Canada, however, multiple, inter-related factors are thought to be responsible for its gradual and persistent decline over the last century. These factors include habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation; considerable changes in land use practices; anthropogenic changes to the prairie ecosystem resulting in the loss of species like America bison (Bison bison), Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus), Black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus); roads and vehicular traffic contributing to increased mortality on summer, migration, and winter ranges; increased mortality and reduced nesting success from increased predation rates; and decreased prey abundance and availability that has lowered productivity and survival. Burrowing Owl population declines have been most noticeable the extremes of their range in both B.C. and Manitoba where precipitous declines have been evident over the last 50 years. Large-scale reintroductions have taken place in B.C. resulting in small numbers of released owls returning annually. Reintroductions of Burrowing Owls were also conducted in Manitoba from 1987-1996, but low overall return rates, combined with continued declines in wild populations eventually led to the program being discontinued. Few Burrowing Owls were detected in Manitoba for the next decade, but a rather sudden and unexpected return of breeding pairs was noticed after 2005 with a resurgence totaling 35 nesting pairs (cumulative total) through 2006-2009. This prompted the development of a current reintroduction and breeding ecology/diet comparison study of wild and captive-released owls in southwestern Manitoba.
In this three year (2010-2012) study, I compared post-emergence/pre-fledging foraging ecology of male adult captive-released and wild owls and related it to clutch size, hatching, and fledging success. I also collected data on adult and post-fledging mortality, burrow re-occupancy and return rates, home-range size and diet. I hypothesized that wild Burrowing Owls would have larger clutches, hatch and fledge more young, have larger home-ranges, and have more of a variety of prey items in their diet than captive-released owls. First clutches were 37% larger for wild Burrowing Owls than for released owls. Overall, wild owls raised 77% more young than captive-released owls in the first two seasons (2010-2011). Hatching success (number of eggs that hatched in each nest) was variable for captive-released owls from 22% in 2010 to 70% in 2012. Fledging success (young between 35-42 days) was 100% for both groups in all three seasons. Low adult and juvenile post-fledging mortality rates were observed with only three captive-released owl deaths recorded (3 of 47 owls). Wild and captive-released male Burrowing Owls concentrated their movements during the post-emergence/pre-fledging stage near the nest burrow and nearby favoured roosting spots (i.e., fence line posts near roadside ditches and satellite burrow mounds). Diet varied between groups in both biomass and frequency. Captive-released owl pairs had lower frequency of vertebrate prey in their pellets compared to wild owls. Even with less vertebrate remains observed in their diet, biomass percentages were similar to other studies. The greatest threat to both wild and captive-released Burrowing Owl nests during my study was extreme summer storms resulting in the flooding of nests. Eight of 23 first and replacement clutches (35%) containing 62 eggs were lost from flooding. Despite the small numbers of captive-released and wild owls that were monitored during this study in Manitoba, several results point to captive-released owls readily adapting to the wild and in many respects behaving like wild owls."My project was supported by the Sustainable Development Innovations Fund through the Province of Manitoba, EcoAction Community Fund through the Government of Canada, Critical Wildlife Habitat Program, TD Friends of the Environment Fund, The Canadian Wildlife Federation Endangered Species Fund, and the Lady Gray’l Fund under the auspices of The Winnipeg Foundation."Master of Science in Bioscience, Public Policy and Technolog
Measuring the nearness of layered flow graphs: Application to Content Based Image Retrieval
Get PDFPreprint version.Rough set based flow graphs represent the flow of information for a given data set where
branches of these could be constructed as decision rules. However, in the recent years, the
concept of flow graphs has been applied to perceptual systems (also called perceptual flow
graphs) where they play a vital role in determining the nearness among disjoint sets of perceptual objects. Perceptual flow graphs were first introduced to represent and reason about sufficiently near visual points in images. In this paper, we have given a practical implementation of flow graphs induced by a perceptual system, defined with respect to digital images, to perform Content-Based Image Retrieval(CBIR). Results are generated using the SIMPLicity dataset, and our results are compared with the near-set based tolerance nearness measure(tNM)."This research has been supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) discovery grants 194376 and 418413.
"This course is like paying to volunteer" or is it? Effects of a mandatory service learning university course on pre-service teachers' civic attitudes
No full textOne hundred teacher candidates enrolled in a mandatory course on service learning were surveyed pre- and post-course to determine their civic attitudes and willingness to take the service learning course. Quantitative analysis indicated significant growth in civic attitudes in all students, and this growth was not differentially affected by the students’ willingness to take the course. Qualitative data were analyzed to determine the underpinnings for students’ perceptions, and recommendations about the wisdom of making such courses mandatory in teacher preparation programs are provided.https://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/910
Legendre Moments Explorations via Image Reconstruction
Get PDFA Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Ful.lment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science, Department of Applied Computer Science, University of Winnipeg.Legendre Moment has been applied in image reconstruction since early years. In this research, a numerical integration method is proposed to improve the computational accuracy of Legendre moments. To clarify the improved computation scheme, image reconstructions from higher orders of Legendre moments, up to 240, are conducted. With the more accurate generated moments, the distributions of image information in a finite set of Legendre moments is investigated. We have concluded that each individual finite set of Legendre moments will represent the unique image features independently, while the even orders of Legendre moments describe most of image characteristics.Master of Science in Applied Computer Scienc
Contemporary Water Governance: Navigating Crisis Response and Institutional Constraints through Pragmatism
Get PDFWater has often been the source of crises and their frequency will intensify due to climate
change impacts. The Niagara River Watershed provides an ideal case to study water crises as it is an international transboundary system (Canada-United States) and has both historical and current challenges associated with water quantity and quality, which resonates broadly in water basins throughout the world. The aim of this study was to understand how stakeholders perceive ecosystems and the relationship with preferences for governance approaches in the context of water governance. An online survey instrument was employed to assess perceptions of the system in terms of resilience
(engineering, ecological, social-ecological, or epistemic), preferences for governance approaches (state, citizen, market, and hybrid forms), and the most pressing issues in the watershed. Responses showed that, despite demographic differences and adherence to different resilience perspectives, support was strongest for governance approaches that focused on state or state-citizen hybrid forms. The validity of the resilience typology as a grouping variable is discussed. The roles of institutional constraints, pragmatism in governance approach preferences, and the influence of multiple crises are explored in
relation to the context of the study site, as well as to water governance scholarship more broadly.Funding for this work, as part of the Climate Change Adaptation and Water Governance (CADWAGO) project, from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Volkswagen Stiftung and
Compagnia di San Paolo through the Europe and Global Challenges programme.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/22
A Characterization of Wilson-Lerch Primes
Get PDFThis note presents criteria in terms of Bernoulli numbers for a prime to be simultaneously a Wilson prime and a Lerch prime.http://www.integers-ejcnt.org/q51/q51.Abstract.htm
Not of African Descent: Dental Modification among Indigenous Caribbean People from Canímar Abajo, Cuba
Get PDFDental modifications in the Caribbean are considered to be an African practice introduced to the Caribbean archipelago by the influx of enslaved Africans during colonial times. Skeletal remains which exhibited dental modifications are by default considered to be Africans, African descendants, or post-contact indigenous people influenced by an African practice. Individual E-105 from the site of Canímar Abajo (Cuba), with a direct 14C AMS date of 990– 800 cal BC, provides the first unequivocal evidence of dental modifications in the Antilles prior to contact with Europeans in AD 1492. Central incisors showing evidence of significant crown reduction (loss of crown volume regardless of its etiology) were examined macroscopically and with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to determine if the observed alterations were due to deliberate modification or other (unintentional) factors considered: postmortem breakage, violent accidental breakage, non-dietary use of teeth, and wear caused by habitual or repeated actions. The pattern of crown reduction is consistent with deliberate dental modification of the type commonly encountered among African and African descendent communities in post-contact Caribbean archaeological assemblages. Six additional individuals show similar pattern of crown reduction of maxillary incisors with no analogous wear in corresponding mandibular dentition.The research was funded under SSHRC Standard Research Grant SSHRC - 410-2011-1179 to MR and IR (http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/homeaccueil-eng.aspx).http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.015353
Ideology Critique and Film Criticism in the New Media Ecology
Get PDFhttps://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/13761232.0040.11