Multi-marker DNA metabarcoding reveals spatial and sexual variation in the diet of a scarce woodland bird.

Avian diet can be affected by site-specific variables, such as habitat, as well as intrinsic factors such as sex. This can lead to dietary niche separation, which reduces competition between individuals, as well as impacting how well avian species can adapt to environmental variation. Estimating dietary niche separation is challenging, due largely to difficulties in accurately identifying food taxa consumed.

Herbivorous dietary selection shown by hawfinch () within mixed woodland habitats.

Knowledge of diet and dietary selectivity is vital, especially for the conservation of declining species. Accurately obtaining this information, however, is difficult, especially if the study species feeds on a wide range of food items within heterogeneous and inaccessible environments, such as the tree canopy. Hawfinches (), like many woodland birds, are declining for reasons that are unclear.

A Stabilizer Framework for the Contextual Subspace Variational Quantum Eigensolver and the Noncontextual Projection Ansatz.

Quantum chemistry is a promising application for noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. However, quantum computers have thus far not succeeded in providing solutions to problems of real scientific significance, with algorithmic advances being necessary to fully utilize even the modest NISQ machines available today. We discuss a method of ground state energy estimation predicated on a partitioning of the molecular Hamiltonian into two parts: one that is and can be solved classically, supplemented by a component that yields quantum corrections obtained via a Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) routine.

Zeroing out on zero-COVID.

There is no such thing as "zero-COVID." As the Omicron variant spreads to China's capital city, Beijing, the question is not if, but when and how, China will begin to "live with COVID-19" rather than continue to impose endless lockdowns. The problem is that under China's stifling political climate, this notion cannot be uttered, let alone debated.