Monsters in the city: multiple deformities increase in terrestrial-breeding urban salamanders

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Guillermo Velo-Antón ◽  
David Alvarez ◽  
Lucía Alarcón-Ríos
Keyword(s):  
Common Factors ◽  
Environmental Stressors ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Local Extinctions ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
The Common ◽  
Morphological Deformities ◽  
The City

Abstract Amphibians are subjected to an assortment of environmental stressors responsible for their population declines and malformations. Deciphering the underlying causes of amphibian deformities is challenging due to the complex nature and interplay among factors. We evaluated morphological deformities in 9 urban and 9 woodland populations of terrestrial-breeding fire salamanders. We report several types of malformations and higher incidences among urban populations. This model system allowed us to tease apart some of the common factors responsible for amphibian deformations, suggesting airborne/terrestrial pollutants, predation, and/or inbreeding as potential environmental stressors. Yet, the putative underlying factors of fire salamander deformities need to be properly addressed in thorough studies linking habitat quality and the prevalence of morphological abnormalities, as well as predator-prey interactions. Reporting deformation rates among amphibians is key to identify warning signals of population declines and preventing local extinctions.

scholarly journals Skateboarding as a tool for reading the city

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polina Yu. Krutskikh
Keyword(s):  
Urban Youth ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Youth Sports ◽  
Urban Infrastructure ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
The Common ◽  
The City

Modern urban youth sports cultures are notable for their diverse and complex nature. The question arises as to what analytical approach should be used to study their multifaceted character. Using the St Petersburg skateboard scene as an example, the article shows the advantages in applying the concept of the post-sport cultures to understand how the common functions of urban infrastructure are redefined, what trends exist on the scene, how they shape the meanings attributed to them by the scene participants, and how those signs are read.  The study also employs the solidarity approach to describe the interactions between the scene participants through the ideas and ideological controversies shared by them. The focus of the paper is how to apply solidarity approach to study the nature of urban post-sport cultures based on St Petersburg skateboard scene case study. Given the lack of Russian publications on the topic, the study is also aimed at inscribing the Russian skateboarding experience into the Western academic context.

scholarly journals N-soliton solutions and the Hirota conditions in (1 + 1)-dimensions

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Xiu Ma
Keyword(s):  
Common Factors ◽  
Soliton Solutions ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Kdv Equations ◽  
The Common ◽  
Bilinear Formulation ◽  
Generalized Kdv Equations ◽  
Hirota Bilinear

Abstract We analyze N-soliton solutions and explore the Hirota N-soliton conditions for scalar (1 + 1)-dimensional equations, within the Hirota bilinear formulation. An algorithm to verify the Hirota conditions is proposed by factoring out common factors out of the Hirota function in N wave vectors and comparing degrees of the involved polynomials containing the common factors. Applications to a class of generalized KdV equations and a class of generalized higher-order KdV equations are made, together with all proofs of the existence of N-soliton solutions to all equations in two classes.

scholarly journals A Spatial Panel Structural Vector Autoregressive Model with Interactive Effects and Its Simulation

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 883
Author(s):  
Yaqing Liu ◽  
Hongbing Ouyang ◽  
Xiaolu Wei
Keyword(s):  
Autoregressive Model ◽  
Common Factors ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Vector Autoregressive Model ◽  
Finite Sample ◽  
Vector Autoregressive ◽  
Spatial Panel ◽  
The Common ◽  
Structural Vector Autoregressive Model ◽  
Structural Vector

The existing spatial panel structural vector auto-regressive model can effectively capture the time and spatial dynamic dependence of endogenous variables. However, the hypothesis that the common factors have the same effect for all spatial units is unreasonable. Therefore, incorporating time effects, spatial effects, and time-individual effects, this paper develops a more general spatial panel structural vector autoregressive model with interactive effects (ISpSVAR) that can reflect the different effects of common factors on different spatial units. Additionally, based on whether or not the common factors can be observed, this paper proposes procedures to estimate ISpSVAR separately and studies the finite sample properties of estimators by Monte Carlo simulation. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed ISpSVAR model and its estimation procedures.

Metabolic response to temperature stress in the Colombian freshwater crab Neostrengeria macropa (H. Milne Edwards, 1853) (Decapoda: Brachyura: Pseudothelphusidae)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Response ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Temperature Range ◽  
Indicator Group ◽  
Response To Temperature ◽  
Performance Results ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract Freshwater crustaceans are distributed throughout the montane and lowland areas of Colombia, and are therefore a useful indicator group for how aquatic species will respond to climate change. As such, metabolic determination of physiological performance was evaluated for the Colombian pseudothelphusid crab, Neostrengeria macropa (H. Milne Edwards, 1853), over a temperature range inclusive of current temperatures and those predicted by future scenarios in the plateau around the city of Bogotá, namely from 8 °C to 30 °C. The performance results mostly aligned with previous exploratory behavioral determination of the ideal temperature range in the same species, although the metabolism increased at the highest temperature treatments, a point when exploratory behavior declined. These results indicate that this species of montane crab behaviorally compensates for increased thermal stress by decreasing its physical activity, which could have negative predator-prey consequences with changes to community structure as different species undergo climate-mediated geographic range shifts in the region. As this species is endemic to the plateau surrounding Bogotá, it also experiences a number of other stressors to its survival, including infrastructure development and invasive species.

unrechtliche peinliche schmehung oder dem gemeinen nutz nuetzlich?Eine Fallstudie zur Normenkonkurrenz im Schmähschriftprozess des 16. Jahrhunderts

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-149
Author(s):  
Jan Siegemund
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The City ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractLibel played an important and extraordinary role in early modern conflict culture. The article discusses their functions and the way they were assessed in court. The case study illustrates argumentative spaces and different levels of normative references in libel trials in 16th century electoral Saxony. In 1569, Andreas Langener – in consequence of a long stagnating private conflict – posted several libels against the nobleman Tham Pflugk in different public places in the city of Dresden. Consequently, he was arrested and charged with ‘libelling’. Depending on the reference to conflicting social and legal norms, he had therefore been either threatened with corporal punishment including his execution, or rewarded with laudations. In this case, the act of libelling could be seen as slander, but also as a service to the community, which Langener had informed about potentially harmful transgression of norms. While the common good was the highest maxim, different and sometimes conflicting legally protected interests had to be discussed. The situational decision depended on whether the articulated charges where true and relevant for the public, on the invective language, and especially on the quality and size of the public sphere reached by the libel.

A More Effective Formulation of the Path Generation Mechanism Synthesis Problem

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irfan Ullah ◽  
Sridhar Kota
Keyword(s):  
Objective Function ◽  
Error Function ◽  
Mathematical Optimization ◽  
Optimization Methods ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Mechanism Synthesis ◽  
Structural Error ◽  
Crank Angle ◽  
The Common ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract Use of mathematical optimization methods for synthesis of path-generating mechanisms has had only limited success due to the very complex nature of the commonly used Structural Error objective function. The complexity arises, in part, because the objective function represents not only the error in the shape of the coupler curve, but also the error in location, orientation and size of the curve. Furthermore, the common introduction of timing (or crank angle), done generally to facilitate selection of corresponding points on the curve for calculating structural error, has little practical value and unnecessarily limits possible solutions. This paper proposes a new objective function, based on Fourier Descriptors, which allows search for coupler curve of the desired shape without reference to location, orientation, or size. The proposed objective function compares overall shape properties of curves rather than making point-by-point comparison and therefore does not requires prescription of timing. Experimental evidence is provided to show that it is much easier to search the space of the proposed objective function compared to the structural error function.

scholarly journals Does the vicinity of the Black-Headed Gull colony (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) increase the breeding success of the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) on the islands of the middle Vistula?

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-50
Author(s):  
Dariusz Bukackiński ◽  
Monika Bukacińska ◽  
Milena Grabowska
Keyword(s):  
Hatching Success ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Common Tern ◽  
Egg Mass ◽  
Chick Survival ◽  
Effective Protection ◽  
Vistula River ◽  
Nesting Site ◽  
The Common ◽  
The City

We conducted our study in the Common Tern colony (STH) located on an island in the middle Vistula River course, at the height of the city of Dęblin (km 393–394 of the waterway), in 2017. Our goal was to investigate some aspects of the biology and reproductive ecology of this species. Due to the fact that STH breeds both in single-species as well as in two- or multi-species colonies, in associations with Little Terns (Sternula albifrons), Black-Headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) (LAR) and/or Mew Gulls (Larus canus), we wanted to investigate whether the neighborhood of other species (in this case LAR) affected hatching success and chick survival in STH. Our results clearly show that the presence of breeding terns in the neighborhood of the LAR colony was not accidental and/or caused by the lack of space on the island and/or the possibility of nesting elsewhere. The height of nesting site, type of nesting habitat, clutch size, mean egg volume and mean egg mass of these STH pairs did not differ significantly from those that formed a single species colony, on the same island but several hundred meters away. However, STH nests in the neighborhood of the LAR colony were established much earlier and both the hatching success and chick survival of STH during the early-chick stage were twice as high. Thus, we can conclude that the LAR colony could provide an effective protection against predation of crows, magpies and gulls, dangers which accounted for the vast majority of STH nest failures in the year of our study.

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