Looking at the unseen: combining animal bio‐logging and stable isotopes to reveal a shift in the ecological niche of a deep diving predator

Understanding how marine top predators exploit their environment is a central topic in marine ecology. Among all methodologies used to investigate this part of ecology, electronic devices are very useful to track animals' movements and foraging habitats, but they do not provide any dietary information. Stable isotopes provide information on trophic levels but remain imprecise to identify small spatial‐scale habitats. In this study, we combined the two approaches to obtain a synoptic view of the foraging behaviour variability of southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina. Our results suggested marked differences in distribution, diving behaviour, foraging habitats, trophic levels, and dietary habits of elephant seals according to their sex and age. Thus, we characterized main foraging habitats over the Kerguelen‐Heard Plateau and the Antarctic shelf for juvenile males, while females foraged mainly in oceanic waters of the Polar Frontal Zone and the Antarctic Zone. In addition, we highlighted the ontogeny of niche partitioning in this sexually dimorphic species. While females did not exhibit a major dietary shift in relation to their age and their breeding status, a different picture emerged for males. Young males had a trophic level identical to that of all females. However, at 3–4 yr of age, males showed a progressive increase in trophic level. The inter‐annual combination of bio‐logging and stable isotopes could provide a powerful tool to investigate possible shifts in ecological niche between years according to environmental changes.     

Behavioral monitoring in zoos and aquariums: a tool for guiding husbandry and directing research

Behavioral monitoring is the scientific collection of animal behavior data to understand normal patterns of behavior and changes in these patterns. This tool is underutilized in the zoo industry although it can be an effective indicator of many potential problems that compromise zoo animal well-being. We suggest that a behavioral monitoring program should be a core component of a zoological institution's care program. We detail the benefits of such a program and describe its components. We provide guidelines for implementing such a program and make recommendations that will help institutions to employ behavioral monitoring programs with reasonable expense. We argue that the benefits of such a program, primarily increased detection of rising or potential problems, far outweigh the minor costs of implementation. Zoo Biol 28:35–48, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Personal exposure to mobile communication networks and well‐being in children—A statistical analysis based on a functional approach

The MobilEe‐study was the first cross‐sectional population‐based study to investigate possible health effects of mobile communication networks on children using personal dosimetry. Exposure was assessed every second resulting in 86,400 measurements over 24 h for each participant. Therefore, a functional approach to analyze the exposure data was considered appropriate. The aim was to categorize exposure taking into account the course of the measurements over 24 h. The analyses were based on the 480 maxima of each 3 min time interval. Exposure was classified using a nonparametric functional method. Heterogeneity of a sample of functional data was assessed by comparing the functional mode and mean of the distribution of a functional variable. The partition was built within a descending hierarchical method. The resulting exposure groups were compared with categories derived from a standard method, which used the average exposure over 24 h and set the cut‐off at the 90th percentile. The functional classification resulted in a splitting of the exposure data into two groups. Plots of the mean curves showed that the groups could be interpreted as children with “low exposure” (88%) and “higher exposure” (12%). These groups were comparable with categories of the standard method. No association between the categorized exposure and well‐being was observed in logistic regression models. The functional classification approach yielded a plausible partition of the exposure data. The comparability with the standard approach might be due to the data structure and should not be generalized to other exposures. Bioelectromagnetics 30:261–269, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Change of enclosure in langur monkeys: implications for the evaluation of environmental enrichment

A group of Hanuman langurs (Presbytis entellus) was studied before and after it was moved from an old cage‐style enclosure to a novel naturalistic environment at the London Zoo. Eating and locomotion occupied more of the langurs' time in their new enclosure, whereas dozing, allogrooming, and aggression decreased, along with an increase in inter‐individual distances. These changes are attributed to the larger area, the stimulating new environment, and the langurs' increased distance from visitors. Nevertheless, the study raises questions about how to define standards of desirable environmental enrichment, as the activity patterns recorded in both the old and new enclosures are within the variation observed in the wild. Zoo Biol 21:549–559, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The Fate of Organic Sources of Carbon in Moss‐rich Tundra Soil Microbial Communities: A Laboratory Experimental Study

Effects of glucose‐carbon supplementation on soil respiration and bacterial and protist biomass were investigated in laboratory studies of three soil samples from Alaskan tundra: spring tussock sample 1 (thin surface moss), spring tussock sample 2 (thick surface moss), and a summer tundra open field sample. Addition of 1% (w/v) glucose solution produced an immediate, pronounced two to three fold increase in respiration above basal rate, which declined over 4 h to baseline levels. Less than 1% (w/w) of glucose‐C supplement was respired during the respiratory spike, relative to the 89 μg/g added. A more substantial amount of the glucose‐C became incorporated in microbial biomass. The total difference in microbial carbon (μg/g) between the experimental treatments and controls without glucose after 1 wk was as follows: spring sample 1 (8), spring sample 2 (31), and summer sample (70). The percent (w/w) of glucose‐C incorporated was: spring sample 1 (5%), spring sample 2 (17%), and summer sample (39%), most attributed to biomass of bacteria and heterotrophic nanoflagellates. Although respiratory response to pulsed glucose‐C was minimal, the overall mean basal rate after 1 wk ranged between 4 and 6 nmol/min/g soil, indicating a significant assimilation and respiration of constituent soil organic carbon.     

A review of thermochemical upgrading of pyrolysis bio‐oil: Techno‐economic analysis,life cycle assessment,and technology readiness

Technologies for upgrading fast pyrolysis bio‐oil to drop‐in fuels and coproducts are under development and show promise for decarbonizing energy supply for transportation and chemicals markets. The successful commercialization of these fuels and the technologies deployed to produce them depend on production costs, scalability, and yield. To meet environmental regulations, pyrolysis‐based biofuels need to adhere to life cycle greenhouse gas intensity standards relative to their petroleum‐based counterparts. We review literature on fast pyrolysis bio‐oil upgrading and explore key metrics that influence their commercial viability through life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno‐economic analysis (TEA) methods together with technology readiness level (TRL) evaluation. We investigate the trade‐offs among economic, environmental, and technological metrics derived from these methods for individual technologies as a means of understanding their nearness to commercialization. Although the technologies reviewed have not attained commercial investment, some have been pilot tested. Predicting the projected performance at scale‐up through models can, with industrial experience, guide decision‐making to competitively meet energy policy goals. LCA and TEA methods that ensure consistent and reproducible models at a given TRL are needed to compare alternative technologies. This study highlights the importance of integrated analysis of multiple economic, environmental, and technological metrics for understanding performance prospects and barriers among early stage technologies.     

A roadmap for high‐throughput sequencing studies of wild animal populations using noninvasive samples and hybridization capture

Large‐scale genomic studies of wild animal populations are often limited by access to high‐quality DNA. Although noninvasive samples, such as faeces, can be readily collected, DNA from the sample producers is usually present in low quantities, fragmented, and contaminated by microorganism and dietary DNAs. Hybridization capture can help to overcome these impediments by increasing the proportion of subject DNA prior to high‐throughput sequencing. Here we evaluate a key design variable for hybridization capture, the number of rounds of capture, by testing whether one or two rounds are most appropriate, given varying sample quality (as measured by the ratios of subject to total DNA). We used a set of 1,780 quality‐assessed wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) faecal samples and chose 110 samples of varying quality for exome capture and sequencing. We used multiple regression to assess the effects of the ratio of subject to total DNA (sample quality), rounds of capture and sequencing effort on the number of unique exome reads sequenced. We not only show that one round of capture is preferable when the proportion of subject DNA in a sample is above ~2%–3%, but also explore various types of bias introduced by capture, and develop a model that predicts the sequencing effort necessary for a desired data yield from samples of a given quality. Thus, our results provide a useful guide and pave a methodological way forward for researchers wishing to plan similar hybridization capture studies.     

A day and a night in the life of a cleft-foot clam: Protovirgularia-Lockeia-Lophoctenium

A remarkable specimen of a compound trace fossil in Pennsylvanian sandstone comprises three very different ichnotaxa in conjunction: Protovirgularia dichotoma, Lockeia siliquaria and Lophoctenium isp. The combined activities represented by these ichnotaxa reflect the locomotion, resting and feeding behavior of a cleft-foot, protobranch clam (bivalve) that burrowed through the sediment, paused five times to deposit-feed, and then burrowed on to a new location, possibly as a reaction to a depositional event. It is estimated that the complete trace fossil was made in 24 hours or less. The three ichnotaxa also provide morphologic details of the bivalve's shell and soft parts (foot and labial palps).     

Open questions and recent advances in the control of a multi‐host infectious disease: animal tuberculosis

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Approval policies for modifications to machine learning‐based software as a medical device: A study of bio‐creep

Successful deployment of machine learning algorithms in healthcare requires careful assessments of their performance and safety. To date, the FDA approves locked algorithms prior to marketing and requires future updates to undergo separate premarket reviews. However, this negates a key feature of machine learning—the ability to learn from a growing dataset and improve over time. This paper frames the design of an approval policy, which we refer to as an automatic algorithmic change protocol (aACP), as an online hypothesis testing problem. As this process has obvious analogy with noninferiority testing of new drugs, we investigate how repeated testing and adoption of modifications might lead to gradual deterioration in prediction accuracy, also known as “biocreep” in the drug development literature. We consider simple policies that one might consider but do not necessarily offer any error‐rate guarantees, as well as policies that do provide error‐rate control. For the latter, we define two online error‐rates appropriate for this context: bad approval count (BAC) and bad approval and benchmark ratios (BABR). We control these rates in the simple setting of a constant population and data source using policies aACP‐BAC and aACP‐BABR, which combine alpha‐investing, group‐sequential, and gate‐keeping methods. In simulation studies, bio‐creep regularly occurred when using policies with no error‐rate guarantees, whereas aACP‐BAC and aACP‐BABR controlled the rate of bio‐creep without substantially impacting our ability to approve beneficial modifications.     

Contamination detection by optical measurements in a real‐life environment: A hospital case study

Organic dirt on touch surfaces can be biological contaminants (microbes) or nutrients for those but is often invisible by the human eye causing challenges for evaluating the need for cleaning. Using hyperspectral scanning algorithm, touch surface cleanliness monitoring by optical imaging was studied in a real‐life hospital environment. As the highlight, a human eye invisible stain from a dirty chair armrest was revealed manually with algorithms including threshold levels for intensity and clustering analysis with two excitation lights (green and red) and one bandpass filter (wavelength λ = 500 nm). The same result was confirmed by automatic k‐means clustering analysis from the entire dirty data of visible light (red, green and blue) and filters 420 to 720 nm with 20 nm increments. Overall, the collected touch surface samples (N = 156) indicated the need for cleaning in some locations by the high culturable bacteria and adenosine triphosphate counts despite the lack of visible dirt. Examples of such locations were toilet door lock knobs and busy registration desk armchairs. Thus, the studied optical imaging system utilizing the safe visible light area shows a promising method for touch surface cleanliness evaluation in real‐life environments.     

Age‐related inequalities in health and healthcare: the life stages approach

How should healthcare systems prepare to care for growing numbers and proportions of older people? Older people generally suffer worse health than younger people do. Should societies take steps to reduce age‐related health inequalities? Some express concern that doing so would increase age‐related inequalities in healthcare. This paper addresses this debate by (1) presenting an argument in support of three principles for distributing scarce resources between age groups; (2) framing these principles of age group justice in terms of life stages; and (3) indicating policy implications that merit further attention in light of rapidly aging societies.     

Pace‐of‐life: Relationships among locomotor activity,life history,and circadian rhythm in the assassin bug,Amphibolus venator

The pace‐of‐life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis means that animal behavior is correlated with life history strategies. Studies have reported that the free‐running period of the circadian rhythm (length of the period) is correlated with life history strategies in some animals. Although the length of the circadian rhythm may be associated with the POLS hypothesis, few studies have investigated the relationships among animal behavior, life history traits, and circadian rhythm. We tested the POLS hypothesis in the assassin bug, Amphibolus venator, which shows individual variation in locomotor activity. We found higher repeatability of differences in locomotor activity between individuals. Moreover, we found a trade‐off between locomotor activity and developmental period such that active individuals developed faster. However, locomotor activity was not correlated with the length of the circadian rhythm in A. venator. Therefore, this study suggests that the length of the circadian rhythm in A. venator does not support the POLS hypothesis.