Possible environmental and meteorological factors underlying scaly-breasted munia Lonchura punctulata (L.) mass mortality events in Southeast Asia urban and rural areas in September 2021

Mass bird mortality is a rare event. This event could be happened and could be a combination of numerous factors. It could be something that's still completely unknown to us. In September 2021 in SE Asia, there were 2 mass bird mortality events of Lonchura punctulata. The first event happens on 9 September in rural area at 08.00 AM and second happens on 14 September at 12.00 PM in urban area. The results show that precipitation combined with the wind gust might be correlated with mass mortality. The results showed precipitation factors have contributed 71.18% (R2 = 0.714, P = 0.008) to the mortality and followed by wind gust with 28.81% contribution (R2 = 0.41, P = 0.08). The meteorological parameter was not the only factors affecting the mortality events. The landscapes in urban and rural areas have experienced fragmentations. Urban areas have severe fragmentation of vegetation covers with remaining vegetation covers were only 17.4% and patch density indices of 0.29. In contrast rural areas still have higher vegetation cover remnants about 21.12% and patch density indices of 0.93. Then severe meteorological events combined with the fragmented habitats of L. punctulata may explain the mass mortality of this bird species.

Pyrus calleryana (Callery pear) allometric equations and stand structure in southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky

Pyrus calleryana Decne. (Callery pear), a native of eastern Asia, has recently emerged as an important woody invader in much of the eastern U.S. Little is known about its ecology in its new range. Its shade tolerance may be an important indicator of areas it is likely to invade. In this study, allometric equations were first developed to predict aboveground biomass components, including wood, branches, bark, leaves, and fruit, from diameter at stump height (dsh; 25 cm), by destructively harvesting 13 trees, ranging from 0.1 to 19.3 cm dsh. Then, a total of 23 wild-grown stands in the northern Kentucky/southwestern Ohio region were surveyed, with diameters of all woody stems sampled. Pyrus calleryana density, basal area, aboveground biomass, stand density index, size distribution inequality, and importance value were calculated for each site. Two-factor Weibull distributions were fit to diameter distributions. Allometric equations provided good fits for total aboveground biomass as well as individual components. Aboveground biomass levels fell below mean levels of native forest stands found in the US. Stand density indices yielded values typical of shade-intolerant or midtolerant species. Stands with smaller trees generally had steeply declining monotonic diameter distributions, while stands with larger, trees trended toward positively-skewed monotonic distributions. These findings are consistent with a species that is either shade-intolerant or midtolerant. Thus, while this species is expected to invade open or disturbed areas, it is not expected to be an important invader under forest canopies. However, its extended deciduous habit is one shared by other understory woody invaders, and so this may allow it to survive under forest canopies. Management Implications Callery pear, which has been used in landscape plantings for decades, is now being recognized as important woody invader in much of the eastern U.S. However, little is known now about its impact on native forest stands. Here, we developed allometric equations to predict aboveground biomass components, including wood, branches, bark, leaves, and fruit, as well as total aboveground biomass, from diameter at stump height (dsh; 25 cm) measurements; dsh often works better than dbh (diameter at breast height; 1.37 m) with this species because pear stems often fork below breast height. However, there is a strong relationship between dsh and dbh, so these allometric equations can used with dbh measurements. Most biomass equations were log-log regressions, and they were corrected for bias using the UMVU estimator. However, this estimator does not give a ready-to-use equation; the original data must be used along with collected data in an R routine. Thus, we also report equations corrected with the smearing estimate, which, while not as good as the UMVU estimator, performs better than most commonly used estimators. The allometric equations will allow managers to estimate biomass of stands dominated by Callery pear. Diameter distributions from 23 wild-grown stands in the northern Kentucky/southwestern Ohio region were fit to two-factor Weibull distributions, which indicated a species that is either shade-intolerant or midtolerant, which was also indicated by relatively low stand density indices. For managers, this suggests that control efforts for Callery pear should focus on disturbed or open areas, as our results suggest that it will not become an important invader in closed-canopy forests.

Monitoring change in a dynamic environment: spatiotemporal modelling of calibrated data from different types of fisheries surveys of Pacific halibut

Monitoring distributional shifts in Arctic and subarctic fish species as environmental conditions change can be difficult due to sparse or infrequent surveys. Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) are found as far north as the Bering Strait, and future changes in sea temperatures and prey distribution may lead to an expanded range. For this and other species, it is therefore important to use as much survey data as is available when estimating density indices and other quantities of interest. Setline and trawl surveys in the eastern Bering Sea provide partial coverage each year, but the two gear types capture different size distributions of fish. We apply a calibration method to data from the setline and trawl surveys to produce consistent, spatially indexed estimates of indices of local density. The resulting estimates are then combined through spatiotemporal models that can incorporate environmental covariates to provide reliable density indices and to map the dynamic distribution of Pacific halibut. Such approaches may become increasingly important as climate change affects species distribution relative to historical survey footprints, and scientists must adapt to the use of new and variable data sources.

Morphological and adhesive properties of Klebsiella pneumoniae biofilms

Background and Aim: The study of biofilm-forming ability of Gram-negative microflora has great practical importance for assessing the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy and finding new ways to diagnose and inhibit the growth of biofilms. This is because poor penetration of antibacterial drugs into the biofilm can lead to the selection of resistant strains and has a consequence evident by the occurrence of relapse of infection in animals. This study aimed to evaluate morphological and densitometric indicators of biofilm formation as well as adhesive properties of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Materials and Methods: K. pneumoniae was cultured at 37°C for 2-144 h in vitro. The specimens for optical microscopy were prepared by fixation with a 1:1 alcohol-ether mixture for 10 min and stained with a 0.5% solution of gentian violet for 2 min, and the optical density index was evaluated at a wavelength of 490 nm. Further, the adhesive properties of the microorganisms were determined at a concentration of 1 billion/ml and a suspension of ram erythrocytes at a concentration of 100 million/ml when cultured at 37°C for 24 h. Blood smears were prepared and stained with 0.5% gentian violet. Results: K. pneumonia cultured at 37°C after 24 h on the meat peptone agar formed large, convex, mucous, and white colonies (d=3.0-6.0 mm). With the growth in the meat and peptone broth, uniform turbidity of the medium was observed. Analyzing the optical density indices (density, D), it was found that K. pneumoniae were good producers of biofilms (D=0.528±0.31). Data for indicators of adhesive properties of K. pneumoniae were as follows: Average adhesion index, 4.56±0.14; adhesion coefficient, 1.07±0.52; and adhesion index, 4.26±0.07. The studied bacteria had high adhesive activity. A direct correlation dependence (R=0.94) of the optical density of biofilms (D≥0.514-0.551) and AAI (4.15±0.28-4.76±0.75) was established. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that K. pneumoniae had high adhesive activity, was strong producer of biofilms, and the optical density of the sample exceeded the optical density of the control by more than 4 times.

Investigating Syntactic Complexity in EFL Learners' Writing across Common European Framework of Reference Levels A1, A2, and B1

The study investigates the linguistic basis of Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) levels in English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing. Specifically, it examines whether CEFR levels can be distinguished with reference to syntactic complexity (SC) and whether the results differ between two groups of EFL learners with different first languages (Sindhi and Finnish). This sheds light on the linguistic comparability of the CEFR levels across L1 groups. Informants were teenagers from Pakistan (N = 868) and Finland (N = 287) who wrote the same argumentative essay that was rated on a CEFR-based scale. The essays were analysed for 28 SC indices with the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer and Coh-Metrix. Most indices were found to distinguish CEFR levels A1, A2, and B1 in both language groups: the clearest separators were the length of production units, subordination, and phrasal density indices. The learner groups differed most in the length measures and phrasal density when their CEFR level was controlled for. However, some indices remained the same, and the A1 level was more similar than A2 and B2 in terms of SC across the two groups.

Can an Exponential Function Be Applied to the Asymptotic Density–Size Relationship? Two New Stand-Density Indices in Mixed-Species Forests

This study presents two stand-density indices (SDIs) based on exponential density decline as a function of quadratic mean diameter for all species combined in mixed-species forests with 22 species mix grouped in four species groups. The exponential-based density–diameter relationship, as well the density index corresponding to the slope or instantaneous mortality rate parameters, was compared with those based on power-law density–diameter relationship. A dataset of 202 fully stocked circular plots at maximum density was used for fitting the models, and a dataset of 122 circular plots was used for validation stand density index for all species combined of mixed-species stands. The dataset for validation was independent of dataset for model development. The first stand-density index showed a density management graphic (DMG) with a variable intercept and common instantaneous mortality rate, and the second index showed a DMG with common intercept and variable mortality rate. Additionally, the value of the initial density of the fitted line was more realistic than those generated by the potential model for all species combined. Moreover, the density management diagrams showed a curvilinear trend based on the maximum stand density index in graphical log–log scale. The DMGs could be interpreted as forest scenarios based on variable initial density and common management objectives or the same density and different management objectives for forest-rotation periods involving all species combined in mixed-species stands. The fitting of exponential and potential equations for species or species groups showed that the density–size relationships in mixed-species forests should be modeled for all species combined because the disaggregation of mixture species represented a weak tendency for each species or species group and the resultant fitted equations were unrealistic.

Visualizing international author collaboration characteristics and topic burst on transportation management: A bibliometric analysis

Background: Whether the international author collaboration and keywords on the topic of transportation management has been changed in the last several decades remains unclear. Along with the big data and API(allocation programming interface) emerged as a field of research with increasing attention being paid to it by scientific researchers and a rapid increase in related literature being reported using the bibliometric analysis, the international author collaboration and keywords should be explored to analyze the current state of research, including publication outputs, in-depth collaboration characteristics and keyword topics of transportation management research.Methods: The authors collected two published papers in Medline library and downloaded their 206 similar articles without duplication since 1977. Various statistical techniques and bibliometric measures were employed, including publication growth analysis; journal distribution; and collaboration network analysis at the author country/area collaboration level. The visualization maps of international author collaboration and burst terms were drawn on Google maps using social network analysis(SNA) and cluster analysis. Gini coefficient(GC) was applied to measure inequality of density indices among clusters.Results: A total of 208 bibliographic records on transportation management were collected. The earliest paper was published in 1977, with the number of papers sharply rising at the inflection point of the year 2014. We found that (1) the most number of papers on the topic of transportation management are from the U.S.( 43,27.04%), Spain(21,13.21%), and China(18, 11.32%); (2) the most linked keywords are organization & administration, analysis, education, and statistics & numerical data, and trends; (3) keyword networks presents lower GC that author collaborations among their respective clusters. Conclusions: The collaboration of international authors on transportation management is not tight and stable. The focus of research topics on transportation management is centralized(Gini=0.48) more than that of author collaboration(Gini=0.33). Our study might provide a potential guide for future research on the topic of transportation management.