Foxes at your front door? Habitat selection and home range of urban red foxes (Vulpes vulpes)

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is one of the most adaptable carnivorans, thriving in cities across the globe. Understanding movement patterns and habitat use by urban foxes will assist with their management to address wildlife conservation and public health concerns. Here we tracked five foxes across the suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. Three females had a core home range (50% kernel density estimate; KDE) averaging 37 ± 20 ha (range 22–60 ha) or a 95% KDE averaging 174 ± 130 ha (range 92–324 ha). One male had a core home range of 95 ha or a 95% KDE covering 352 ha. The other male covered an area of ~ 4 or ~ 6 times this: having a core home range of 371 ha or 95% KDE of 2,062 ha. All five foxes showed statistically significant avoidance of residential locations and significant preference for parkland. Bushland reserves, golf courses, and water reserves were especially preferred locations. Foxes moved quickest (i.e. commuting) when they were in close proximity to roads and slowest (i.e. foraging) when they were further from roads. We compare these findings with a review of the literature for urban fox home ranges. The movement patterns we describe are likely to be common for urban foxes, with half of the published home range estimates for urban foxes (principally based on VHF data) excluding data for ‘lost’ individuals or animals that showed ‘excursions’. It is likely that the home range estimates for these urban exploiters have therefore been grossly underestimated to date. Further application of GPS trackers that allow remote download will vastly improve our understanding of the space use of urban foxes.

Distribuição espacial dos casos de febre chikungunya na área urbana de Mossoró-RN e sua correlação com a vulnerabilidade socioambiental

Historicamente o desenvolvimento urbano e econômico vivenciado no Brasil tem favorecido a proliferação do Aedes Aegypti, mosquito causador da febre chikungunya. Assim, este estudo objetiva descrever e analisar a distribuição espacial dos casos de febre chikungunya, na área urbana de Mossoró-RN, buscando as possíveis correlações entre a vulnerabilidade socioambiental da população e a incidência da doença. Foi desenvolvido em duas Unidades de Pronto Atendimento (UPA) do município de Mossoró-RN, Brasil, a partir da obtenção dos endereços dos indivíduos identificados como caso de febre chikungunya atendidos no período de 2015 a 2017 e da realização de visitas in loco nos bairros onde se identificou o maior número de casos da doença. Foram obtidos 2878 endereços dos indivíduos atendidos na UPA Conchecita Ciarlini e 1260 dos atendidos na UPA Raimundo Benjamim Franco. A geocodificação da localização dos endereços foi realizada através do uso do Geocode Cells e para a espacialização das coordenadas geográficas foi utilizado o software livre QGIS 2.18 “Las Palmas”. A espacialização dos casos foi feita a partir da estimativa de densidade Kernel. Observou-se uma maior incidência da febre chikungunya nos bairros Santo Antônio, Barrocas, Bom Jardim, Paredões, Boa Vista, Lagoa do Mato, Alto da Conceição, Belo Horizonte e Aeroporto. O estudo mostrou quais as regiões da cidade necessitam de maiores investimentos em ações de combate a febre chikungunya e identificou que existe maior incidência da doença em bairros vulneráveis e com saneamento precário, demonstrando a necessidade de ações intersetoriais de curto, médio e longo prazo. Spatial Distribution of Chikungunya Fever Cases in the Urban Area of Mossoró-RN and its Correlation with Socio-environmental Vulnerability A B S T R A C T Historicaly, the urban and economic development experienced in Brazil has favored the proliferation of Aedes Aegypti, a mosquito that causes chikungunya fever. Thus, this study aims to describe and analyze the spatial distribution of chikungunya fever cases, in the urban area of Mossoró-RN, looking for possible correlations between the population’s socio-environmental vulnerability and the incidence of the disease. It was developed in two Emergency Care Units (ECU) in the municipality of Mossoró-RN, Brazil, from obtaining the addresses of individuals identified as a case of chikungunya fever attended in the period from 2015 to 2017 and conducting on-site visits in the neighborhoods where the highest number of cases were identified. 2878 addresses were obtained form individuals attended at ECU Conchecita Ciarlini and 1260 from those attended at ECU Raimundo Benjamim Franco. The geocoding of the addresses’ location was carried out using Geocode Cells and for the spatialization of the geographical coordinates, the free software QGIS 2.18 “Las Palmas” was used. The spatialization of the cases was made from the Kernel density estimate. A higher incidence of chikungunya fever was observed in the neighborhoods of Santo Antônio, Barrocas, Bom Jardim, Paredões, Boa Vista, Lagoa do Mato, Alto da Conceição, Belo Horizonte and Aeroporto. The study showed which regions of the city need greater investments in actions in order to com bat chikungunya fever and identified that there is a higher incidence of the diseases in vulnerable neighborhoods with poor sanitation, demonstrating the need for short, medium and long-term intersectoral actions.Keywords: Chikungunya Fever, Spatial Analysis, Geocoding, Emerging Communicable Diseases, Vulnerability

Supplemental Material: Intrabasinal sediment recycling from detrital strontium isotope stratigraphy

Sample screening, trace element analysis, strontium isotope measurements, histogram, and kernel density estimate.<br>

Supplemental Material: Intrabasinal sediment recycling from detrital strontium isotope stratigraphy

Sample screening, trace element analysis, strontium isotope measurements, histogram, and kernel density estimate.<br>

Real-Time Artifact Compensation for Depth Images of Multi-Frequency ToF

During the last few years, Time-of-Flight(TOF) sensor achieved a significant impact onto research and industrial fields due to that it can capture depth easily. For dynamic scenes and phase fusion, ToF sensor's working principles can lead to significant artifacts, therefore an efficient method to combine motion compensation and kernel density estimate multi-frequency unwrapping is proposed. Firstly, the raw multi-phase images are captured, then calculate the optical flow between each frequency. Secondly, by generating multiple depth hypotheses, uses a spatial kernel density estimation is used to rank them with wrapped phase images. Finally, the accurate depth from fused phase image is gotten. The algorithm on Kinect V2 is validated and the pixel-wise part is optimized using GPU. The method shows its real time superior performance on real datasets.

Exploration of the Meaning of A Place by Volunteered Geographic Information

Geographers view place as a projection of one’s inner perceptions of space and is socially constructed and personally experienced. It is not merely a spatial location but something with meaning. Traditional GIS has implemented space of physical environment successfully based on computational geometry. However, how GIS can implement place which is formed through human experience from the interaction between their social activities and natural environment is still in developing stage. This research employed VGI (volunteered geographic information) concept and used geo-tagged photos from Flickr web album to delineate the meaning of a place - Gongguan. A native place located in southern part of Taipei city. The Alpha Shape, Kernel Density Estimate and Social Network Analysis were employed for analysis. Results imply that the VGI approach can be an innovative method for study of place.