The available tools and approaches to inform conservation decisions commonly assume detailed distribution data. We examine how well-established ecological concepts about patterns in local richness and community turnover can help overcome data limitations when planning future protected areas. To inform our analyses, we surveyed tree species in protected areas in the southern Appalachian Mountains in the eastern USA. We used the survey data to construct predictive models for alpha and beta diversity based on readily observed biophysical variables and combined them to create a heuristic that could predict among-site richness in trees (gamma diversity). The predictive models suggest that site elevation and latitude in this montane system explain much of the variation in alpha and beta diversity in tree species. We tested how well resulting protected areas would represent species if a conservation planner lacking detailed species inventories for candidate sites were to rely only on our alpha, beta and gamma diversity predictions. Our approach selected sites that, when aggregated, covered a large proportion of the overall species pool. The combined gamma diversity models performed even better when we also accounted for the cost of protecting sites. Our results demonstrate that classic community biogeography concepts remain highly relevant to conservation practice today.

Motivated by our experimental observations of nanofibre formation via the centrifugal spinning process, we develop a string model to study the behaviours of a Newtonian, viscous curved jet, in a non-orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system including both air-drag effects and solvent evaporation for the first time. In centrifugal spinning a polymeric solution emerges from the nozzle of a spinneret rotating at high speeds around its axis of symmetry and thins as it moves away from the nozzle exit until it finally lands on the collector. Except for the Newtonian fluid assumption, our model includes the key parameters of the curved jet flow, e.g. viscous, inertial, rotational, surface tension, gravitational, mass diffusion within the jet, mass diffusion into air and aerodynamic effects, via Rossby ($Rb$), Reynolds ($Re$), Weber ($We$), Froude ($Fr$), Péclet ($Pe$), air Reynolds ($Re^{\ast }$) and air Péclet ($Pe^{\ast }$) numbers, and the collector radial position (${\mathcal{R}}$). Our results, including comparison to experiments, reveal that the aerodynamic effects must be considered to enable a correct prediction of the jet trajectory and radius. Decreasing $Rb$ not only renders the jet thinning much faster, but also forces the jet to wrap tighter around the rotation axis. Increasing $Re$, $Re^{\ast }$ and ${\mathcal{R}}$ leads to a longer jet. Decreasing $We$ causes the jet to wrap tighter around the spinneret but it shows trivial effects on the solvent evaporation. Changes in $Pe$ and $Pe^{\ast }$ do not significantly affect the jet trajectory. Finally, we propose simple relations to estimate the jet radius and the jet breakup length.

We conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis to determine the comparative efficacy of antibiotics used to control bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in beef cattle on feedlots. The information sources for the review were: MEDLINE®, MEDLINE In-Process and MEDLINE® Daily, AGRICOLA, Epub Ahead of Print, Cambridge Agricultural and Biological Index, Science Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index – Science, the Proceedings of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, World Buiatrics Conference, and the United States Food and Drug Administration Freedom of Information New Animal Drug Applications summaries. The eligible population was weaned beef cattle raised in intensive systems. The interventions of interest were injectable antibiotics used at the time the cattle arrived at the feedlot. The outcome of interest was the diagnosis of BRD within 45 days of arrival at the feedlot. The network meta-analysis included data from 46 studies and 167 study arms identified in the review. The results suggest that macrolides are the most effective antibiotics for the reduction of BRD incidence. Injectable oxytetracycline effectively controlled BRD compared with no antibiotics; however, it was less effective than macrolide treatment. Because oxytetracycline is already commonly used to prevent, control, and treat BRD in groups of feedlot cattle, the use of injectable oxytetracycline for BRD control might have advantages from an antibiotic stewardship perspective.

Vaccination against putative causal organisms is a frequently used and preferred approach to controlling bovine respiratory disease complex (BRD) because it reduces the need for antibiotic use. Because approximately 90% of feedlots use and 90% of beef cattle receive vaccines in the USA, information about their comparative efficacy would be useful for selecting a vaccine. We conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis of studies assessing the comparative efficacy of vaccines to control BRD when administered to beef cattle at or near their arrival at the feedlot. We searched MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Process, MEDLINE Daily Epub Ahead of Print, AGRICOLA, Cambridge Agricultural and Biological Index, Science Citation Index, and Conference Proceedings Citation Index – Science and hand-searched the conference proceedings of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and World Buiatrics Congress. We found 53 studies that reported BRD morbidity within 45 days of feedlot arrival. The largest connected network of studies, which involved 17 vaccine protocols from 14 studies, was included in the meta-analysis. Consistent with previous reviews, we found little compelling evidence that vaccines used at or near arrival at the feedlot reduce the incidence of BRD diagnosis.

Much of the global population lacks access to basic public sanitation, energy and fertilizers. Micro-scale anaerobic digestion presents an opportunity for low-cost decentralized waste management that creates valuable co-products of renewable energy and organic fertilizer. However, field-based assessments of system performance and clearly articulated guidelines for digestate management and field application are needed. Feedstocks and effluent from seven digesters in Kampala, Uganda were monitored for standard wastewater and fertilizer metrics including indicator organisms (Escherichia coli and fecal coliform), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD5), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), total phosphorous (TP), heavy metals, pH, temperature and total solids (TS) over 2 yr. Results reveal that digester effluent does not meet standards for wastewater discharge or international safety standards for field application. Data indicate that digestate could be a suitable source of fertilizer (TKN = 1467 mg L−1, TP = 214 mg L−1) but poses issues for water quality if not managed properly (TS = 26,091 mg L−1, COD = 3471 mg L−1 and BOD5 = 246 mg L−1). While effluent from the digester contained pathogen indicator organisms (fecal coliform = 8.13 × 105 CFU/100 ml, E. coli = 3.27 × 105 CFU/100 ml), they were lower than the influent concentrations, and lower than reported concentrations in drainage canals. All digestate samples contained little to no heavy metals suggesting effective source separation. Data suggest that micro-scale biogas systems have potential to improve waste handling and meet standards associated with fertilizer application with proper post-digestion treatment.

Dietary Zn has significant impacts on the growth and development of breeding rams. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of dietary Zn source and concentration on serum Zn concentration, growth performance, wool traits and reproductive performance in rams. Forty-four Targhee rams (14 months; 68 ± 18 kg BW) were used in an 84-day completely randomized design and were fed one of three pelleted dietary treatments: (1) a control without fortified Zn (CON; n = 15; ~1 × NRC); (2) a diet fortified with a Zn amino acid complex (ZnAA; n = 14; ~2 × NRC) and (3) a diet fortified with ZnSO4 (ZnSO4; n = 15; ~2 × NRC). Growth and wool characteristics measured throughout the course of the study were BW, average daily gain (ADG), dry matter intake (DMI), feed efficiency (G : F), longissimus dorsi muscle depth (LMD), back fat (BF), wool staple length (SL) and average fibre diameter (AFD). Blood was collected from each ram at four time periods to quantify serum Zn and testosterone concentrations. Semen was collected 1 to 2 days after the trial was completed. There were no differences in BW (P = 0.45), DMI (P = 0.18), LMD (P = 0.48), BF (P = 0.47) and AFD (P = 0.9) among treatment groups. ZnSO4 had greater (P ≤ 0.03) serum Zn concentrations compared with ZnAA and CON treatments. Rams consuming ZnAA had greater (P ≤ 0.03) ADG than ZnSO4 and CON. There tended to be differences among groups for G : F (P = 0.06), with ZnAA being numerically greater than ZnSO4 and CON. Wool staple length regrowth was greater (P < 0.001) in ZnSO4 and tended to be longer (P = 0.06) in ZnAA treatment group compared with CON. No differences were observed among treatments in scrotal circumference, testosterone, spermatozoa concentration within ram semen, % motility, % live sperm and % sperm abnormalities (P ≥ 0.23). Results indicated beneficial effects of feeding increased Zn concentrations to developing Targhee rams, although Zn source elicited differential responses in performance characteristics measured.

This essay examines how disability interacts with gender in public discourse about sexual violence by investigating the ableist implications of two popular labels commonly applied to people who have experienced rape or sexual assault: survivors and liars. Using a rhetorical approach in conjunction with disability theory, I analyze how discourses of compulsory survivorship ask people who experience sexual assault to overcome disability and appear nondisabled, whereas rape‐hoax narratives frame others as mentally ill, mad, or irrational. Taken together, I argue, these frameworks form a discursive paradox for people who experience sexual assault, specifically marking their mental fitness and placing them in a rhetorically impossible situation when attempting to disclose sexual assault. Demonstrating how these frameworks silence articulations of pain and the realities of mental illness that can result from sexual trauma brings debates about mental disability and pain more centrally into disability studies through a feminist lens.

Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with cognitive impairment but the relationships between specific biomarkers and neurocognitive domains remain unclear. The present study examined the influence of common health comorbidities on these relationships. Adults with suspected OSA (N=60; 53% male; M age=52 years; SD=14) underwent neuropsychological evaluation before baseline polysomnography (PSG). Apneic syndrome severity, hypoxic strain, and sleep architecture disturbance were assessed through PSG. Methods: Depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, CESD), pain, and medical comorbidity (Charlson Comorbidity Index) were measured via questionnaires. Processing speed, attention, vigilance, memory, executive functioning, and motor dexterity were evaluated with cognitive testing. A winnowing approach identified 9 potential moderation models comprised of a correlated PSG variable, comorbid health factor, and cognitive performance. Results: Regression analyses identified one significant moderation model: average blood oxygen saturation (AVO2) and depression predicting recall memory, accounting for 31% of the performance variance, p<.001. Depression was a significant predictor of recall memory, p<.001, but AVO2 was not a significant predictor. The interaction between depression and AVO2 was significant, accounting for an additional 10% of the variance, p<.001. The relationship between low AVO2 and low recall memory performance emerged when depression severity ratings approached a previously established clinical cutoff score (CESD=16). Conclusions: This study examined sleep biomarkers with specific neurocognitive functions among individuals with suspected OSA. Findings revealed that depression burden uniquely influence this pathophysiological relationship, which may aid clinical management. (JINS, 2018, 28, 864–875)

The Hell Gap National Historic Landmark, located on the northwestern plains of Wyoming, is one of the most important Paleoindian archaeological sites in North America because it contains a stratified sequence of occupations spanning nearly the entirety of the Paleoindian period. Although Hell Gap is central to archaeological knowledge concerning North American Paleoindian chronology, consistently assigning component ages has been problematic due to conflicting radiocarbon determinations from individual strata, stratigraphic age reversals in age-depth relationships, and other issues related to the stratified open campsite. Toward resolving the Hell Gap chronology, we devised a procedure for correcting age-depth relationships for incorporation in chronostratigraphic models and then used the Bayesian age-depth modeling qprocedures in Bchron to estimate the ages of 11 stratified components present at Hell Gap Locality 1. We present these age estimates and discuss their significance to Paleoindian chronology. Notable aspects of our chronology include a revised age estimate for the Goshen complex, the identification of three Folsom components spanning the entirety of the Folsom temporal range, and relatively young age estimates for the Late Paleoindian Frederick/Lusk component(s) at Locality 1. More broadly, our study demonstrates a procedure for creating chronometric models of stratigraphically complicated open stratified sites of any type.

We present the first demonstration of a general method for the chemical characterization of small surface features at high magnification via simultaneous collection of mass spectrometry (MS) imaging and tandem MS imaging data. High lateral resolution tandem secondary ion MS imaging is employed to determine the composition of surface features on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) that precipitate during heat treatment. The surface features, probed at a lateral resolving power of<200 nm using a surface-sensitive ion beam, are found to be comprised of ethylene terephthalate trimer at a greater abundance than is observed in the surrounding polymer matrix. This is the first chemical identification of PET surface precipitates made without either an extraction step or the use of a reference material. The new capability employed for this study achieves the highest practical lateral resolution ever reported for tandem MS imaging.

We develop a general regularized thin-fibre (string) model to predict the properties of non-Newtonian fluid fibres generated by centrifugal spinning. In this process the fibre emerges from a nozzle of a spinneret that rotates rapidly around its axis of symmetry, in the presence of centrifugal, Coriolis, inertial, viscous/shear-thinning, surface tension and gravitational forces. We analyse the effects of five important dimensionless groups, namely, the Rossby number ($Rb$), the Reynolds number ($Re$), the Weber number ($We$), the Froude number ($Fr$) and a power-law index ($m$), on the steady state trajectory and thinning of fibre radius. In particular, we find that the gravitational force mainly affects the fibre vertical angle at small arc lengths as well as the fibre trajectory. We show that for small $Rb$, which is the regime of nanofibre formation in centrifugal spinning methods, rapid thinning of the fibre radius occurs over small arc lengths, which becomes more pronounced as $Re$ increases or $m$ decreases. At larger arc lengths, a relatively large $We$ results in a spiral trajectory regime, where the fibre eventually recovers a corresponding inviscid limit with a slow thinning of the fibre radius as a function of the arc length. Viscous forces do not prevent the fibre from approaching the inviscid limit, but very strong surface tension forces may do so as they could even result in a circular trajectory with an almost constant fibre radius. We divide the spiral and circular trajectories into zones of no thinning, intense thinning and slow or ceased thinning, and for each zone we provide simple expressions for the fibre radius as a function of the arc length.