Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape.

Wildlife must adapt to human presence to survive in the Anthropocene, so it is critical to understand species responses to humans in different contexts. We used camera trapping as a lens to view mammal responses to changes in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across 163 species sampled in 102 projects around the world, changes in the amount and timing of animal activity varied widely.

Integrating robotics into wildlife conservation: testing improvements to predator deterrents through movement.

Background: Agricultural and pastoral landscapes can provide important habitat for wildlife conservation, but sharing these landscapes with wildlife can create conflict that is costly and requires managing. Livestock predation is a good example of the challenges involving coexistence with wildlife across shared landscapes. Integrating new technology into agricultural practices could help minimize human-wildlife conflict.

Facilitating biodiversity conservation through partnerships to achieve transformative outcomes.

Conservation biology is a mission-driven discipline that must navigate a new relationship between conservation and science. Because conservation is a social and political as well as an ecological project, conservation biologists must practice interdisciplinarity and collaboration. In a comparative study of 7 cases (Jaguars in the Chaco, Grevy's zebra in Kenya, Beekeeping in Tanzania, Andean cats in Argentina, Jaguars in Mexico, Lobster fishing, and Black bears in Mexico), we examined motivations for collaboration in conservation, who can collaborate in conservation, and how conservation professionals can work well together.

Drivers of human-megaherbivore interactions in the Eastern and Western Ghats of southern India.

The global effort to protect megaherbivore populations is largely dependent on how human-wildlife conflict is identified, prioritized, and remedied. We examined the socio-ecological and landscape-scale factors determining spatial patterns of human-megaherbivore (Asian elephant Elephas maximus and gaur Bos gaurus) interactions across sixteen Forest Divisions in Tamil Nadu, India. Using a systematic grid-based design, we conducted questionnaire-based surveys of 1460 households at the human-wildlife interface adjacent to Protected Areas, Reserve Forest and Fringe Areas.

Carnivores and their prey in Sumatra: Occupancy and activity in human-dominated forests.

Understanding the effect of anthropogenic disturbance, and its interaction with carnivores and their prey, is crucial to support the conservation of threatened carnivores, particularly in rapidly changing landscapes. Based on systematic camera-trap sampling of four protected areas in Riau Province of central Sumatra, we assessed the habitat occupancy and spatiotemporal overlap between people, potential carnivore prey, and four threatened species of medium-sized or large carnivores: Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae), Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus), dholes (Cuon alpinus), and Sunda clouded leopards (Neofelis diardi). To assess spatial overlap of target species, we used single-species occupancy models and applied a Species Interaction Factor (SIF) to conditional two-species occupancy models.

Quantitative photogrammetric methodology for measuring mammalian belly score in the painted dog.

The use of "belly scoring" can offer a novel, non-invasive objective management tool to gauge food intake between individuals, groups, and populations, and thus, population fitness. As food availability is increasingly affected by predation, ecological competition, climate change, habitat modification, and other human activities, an accurate belly scoring tool can facilitate comparisons among wildlife populations, serving as an early warning indicator of threats to wildlife population health and potential population collapse. In social species, belly scores can also be a tool to understand social behavior and ranking.

Potential-Modulated Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence for Measurement of the Electron Transfer Kinetics of Submonolayers on Optically Transparent Electrodes.

An electroreflectance method to determine the electron transfer rate constant of a film of redox-active chromophores immobilized on an optically transparent electrode when the surface coverage of the film is very low (<0.1 monolayer) is described herein. The method, potential-modulated total internal reflection fluorescence (PM-TIRF) spectroscopy, is a fluorescence version of potential-modulated attenuated total reflection (PM-ATR) spectroscopy that is applicable when the immobilized chromophores are luminescent.

Wild dogs at stake: deforestation threatens the only Amazon endemic canid, the short-eared dog ().

The persistent high deforestation rate and fragmentation of the Amazon forests are the main threats to their biodiversity. To anticipate and mitigate these threats, it is important to understand and predict how species respond to the rapidly changing landscape. The short-eared dog is the only Amazon-endemic canid and one of the most understudied wild dogs worldwide.

Innovations in Camera Trapping Technology and Approaches: The Integration of Citizen Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Camera trapping has become an increasingly reliable and mainstream tool for surveying a diversity of wildlife species. Concurrent with this has been an increasing effort to involve the wider public in the research process, in an approach known as 'citizen science'. To date, millions of people have contributed to research across a wide variety of disciplines as a result.

Anesthesia and ventilation options for flex robotic assisted laryngopharyngeal surgery.

Background: Transoral treatment of benign and malignant lesions of laryngopharynx has limitations in exposure and access, partially due to the endotracheal tube (ETT). With a proper airway control to tailor ventilation and maximize exposure, transoral Flex robotic surgery (FLEX), using its 3D camera and instruments, can expand its ability. Choosing the right ETT, including a novel concept of using jet ventilation (JV) in FLEX, and placement technique can allow augmentation of the advantages that robotic surgery offers.

A Randomized, Double-Blind Study of the Effects of a Sustained Release Formulation of Sodium Nitrite (SR-nitrite) on Patients with Diabetic Neuropathy.

Background: Sodium nitrite has been reported to be effective in reducing chronic peripheral pain.

Objectives: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of 40 and 80 mg, BID, of an oral sustained release formulation of sodium nitrite (SR-nitrite) in patients suffering from diabetic neuropathy, and to determine whether SR-nitrite would reduce the frequency of headaches reported previously by subjects receiving the same doses of an immediate release formulation.

Study Design: Phase II, single-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial.

Lowland biotic attrition revisited: body size and variation among climate change 'winners' and 'losers'.

The responses of lowland tropical communities to climate change will critically influence global biodiversity but remain poorly understood. If species in these systems are unable to tolerate warming, the communities-currently the most diverse on Earth-may become depauperate ('biotic attrition'). In response to temperature changes, animals can adjust their distribution in space or their activity in time, but these two components of the niche are seldom considered together.

Phosphonic Acids for Interfacial Engineering of Transparent Conductive Oxides.

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), such as indium tin oxide and zinc oxide, play an important role as electrode materials in organic-semiconductor devices. The properties of the inorganic-organic interface-the offset between the TCO Fermi level and the relevant transport level, the extent to which the organic semiconductor can wet the oxide surface, and the influence of the surface on semiconductor morphology-significantly affect device performance. This review surveys the literature on TCO modification with phosphonic acids (PAs), which has increasingly been used to engineer these interfacial properties.

Surgical Resection of Bilateral Coalition of the Third and Fourth Metatarsals: A Case Report.

An intermetatarsal coalition is an uncommon pathologic entity, previously reported in published studies as being primarily unilateral, most commonly between the first and second metatarsals and less so between the third and fourth metatarsals. We report an unusual case of a bilateral coalition of the third and fourth metatarsals in a 43-year-old male who presented with nonspecific dorsolateral foot pain. Conservative therapy initially failed, and resolution of pain was noted bilaterally after coalition resection.

PM-IRRAS Determination of Molecular Orientation of Phosphonic Acid Self-Assembled Monolayers on Indium Zinc Oxide.

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of phosphonic acids (PAs) on transparent conductive oxide (TCO) surfaces can facilitate improvement in TCO/organic semiconductor interface properties. When ordered PA SAMs are formed on oxide substrates, interface dipole and electronic structure are affected by the functional group properties, orientation, and binding modes of the modifiers. Choosing octylphosphonic acid (OPA), F13-octylphosphonic acid (F13OPA), pentafluorophenyl phosphonic acid (F5PPA), benzyl phosphonic acid (BnPA), and pentafluorobenzyl phosphonic acid (F5BnPA) as a representative group of modifiers, we report polarization modulation-infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) of binding and molecular orientation on indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) substrates.

Organometallic dimers: application to work-function reduction of conducting oxides.

The dimers of pentamethyliridocene and ruthenium pentamethylcyclopentadienyl mesitylene, (IrCp*Cp)2 and (RuCp*mes)2, respectively, are shown here to be effective solution-processable reagents for lowering the work functions of electrode materials; this approach is compared to the use of solution-deposited films of ethoxylated poly(ethylenimine) (PEIE). The work functions of indium tin oxide (ITO), zinc oxide, and gold electrodes can be reduced to 3.3-3.

Correlation and persistence of hunting and logging impacts on tropical rainforest mammals.

Humans influence tropical rainforest animals directly via exploitation and indirectly via habitat disturbance. Bushmeat hunting and logging occur extensively in tropical forests and have large effects on particular species. But how they alter animal diversity across landscape scales and whether their impacts are correlated across species remain less known.

Evaluating multispecies landscape connectivity in a threatened tropical mammal community.

Habitat corridors are important tools for maintaining connectivity in increasingly fragmented landscapes, but generally they have been considered in single-species approaches. Corridors intended to facilitate the movement of multiple species could increase persistence of entire communities, but at the likely cost of being less efficient for any given species than a corridor intended specifically for that species. There have been few tests of the trade-offs between single- and multispecies corridor approaches.

Speed dependence of thermochemical nanolithography for gray-scale patterning.

Thermochemical nanolithography (TCNL) is a high-resolution lithographic technique and, owing to its fast speed, versatility, and unique ability to fabricate arbitrary, gray-scale nanopatterns, this scanning probe technique is relevant both for fundamental scientific research as well as for nanomanufacturing applications. In this work, we study the dependence of the TCNL driven chemical reactions on the translation speed of the thermal cantilever. The experimental data compares well with a model of the chemical kinetics for a first-order reaction.

Fabricating nanoscale chemical gradients with ThermoChemical NanoLithography.

Production of chemical concentration gradients on the submicrometer scale remains a formidable challenge, despite the broad range of potential applications and their ubiquity throughout nature. We present a strategy to quantitatively prescribe spatial variations in functional group concentration using ThermoChemical NanoLithography (TCNL). The approach uses a heated cantilever to drive a localized nanoscale chemical reaction at an interface, where a reactant is transformed into a product.