The significance of region-specific habitat models as revealed by habitat shifts of grey-faced buzzard in response to different agricultural schedules.

To determine large scales habitat suitability for focal species, habitat models derived from one region are often extrapolated to others. However, extrapolation can be inappropriate due to regional variation of habitat selection. Accounting for the ecological mechanisms causing such variation is necessary to resolve this problem.

Analysis of the Genetic Diversity and Structure of the Grey-Faced Buzzard () in Japan, Based on mtDNA.

The grey-faced buzzard () is a raptor that inhabits East Asia, including Japan. Because the number of individuals has decreased by 75% over the last 40 years, this species is classified as vulnerable (VU) in Japan. In the present study, wesought to reveal the genetic structure of the Japanese grey-faced buzzard population at several breeding sites, and to assess the levels of genetic diversity within the Japanese population.

Context Dependent Effect of Landscape on the Occurrence of an Apex Predator across Different Climate Regions.

In studies of habitat suitability at landscape scales, transferability of species-landscape associations among sites are likely to be critical because it is often impractical to collect datasets across various regions. However, limiting factors, such as prey availability, are not likely to be constant across scales because of the differences in species pools. This is particularly true for top predators that are often the target for conservation concern.

A stress analysis of the proximal tibia after insertion of the endoprosthesis.

Detailed investigation for the local stress increment at the fixation post bottom of an artificial knee joint was performed by two-dimensional finite element method. A strain measurement was also conducted by wire strain gauges on a cancellous bone with a special method. It was made clear that a curvature with a certain extent of radius was necessary for the corner of a fixation post and application of acrylic cement with a certain extent of thickness (3 mm less than or equal to) was effective for stress relaxation, and that an optimum value (10(-1)-10 GPa) existed for elastic modulus of bone cement.