Evaluating land use and climate change impacts on Ravi river flows using GIS and hydrological modeling approach.

The study investigates the interplay of land use dynamics and climate change on the hydrological regime of the Ravi River using a comprehensive approach integrating Geographic Information System (GIS), remote sensing, and hydrological modeling at the catchment scale. Employing the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, simulations were conducted to evaluate the hydrological response of the Ravi River to both current conditions and projected future scenarios of land use and climate change. This study differs from previous ones by simulating future land use and climate scenarios, offering a solid framework for understanding their impact on river flow dynamics.

Hybrid machine learning approach integrating GMDH and SVR for heavy metal concentration prediction in dust samples.

In agricultural regions prone to dust storms, heavy metal contamination of soil and crops from airborne particulates poses significant risks to food safety and public health. This study has assessed the potential of machine learning models for predicting concentrations of toxic heavy metals like arsenic, chromium, and lead in dust from the agricultural Sistan region of southeastern Iran. This region experiences frequent dust storms mobilizing particulates from local dried lakes onto agricultural lands.

Sailfish generate foraging opportunities for seabirds in multi-species predator aggregations.

While various marine predators form associations, the most commonly studied are those between subsurface predators and seabirds, with gulls, shearwaters or terns frequently co-occurring with dolphins, billfish or tuna. However, the mechanisms underlying these associations remain poorly understood. Three hypotheses have been proposed to explain the prevalence of these associations: (1) subsurface predators herd prey to the surface and make prey accessible to birds, (2) subsurface predators damage prey close to the surface and thereby provide food scraps to birds, and (3) attacks of underwater predators lower the cohesion of prey groups and thereby their collective defences making the prey easier to be captured by birds.

SALOS-A UWB Single-Anchor Indoor Localization System Based on a Statistical Multipath Propagation Model.

Among other methods, UWB-based multi-anchor localization systems have been established for industrial indoor localization systems. However, multi-anchor systems have high costs and installation effort. By exploiting the multipath propagation of the UWB signal, the infrastructure and thus the costs of conventional systems can be reduced.

A streamlined approach to structure elucidation using in cellulo crystallized recombinant proteins, InCellCryst.

With the advent of serial X-ray crystallography on microfocus beamlines at free-electron laser and synchrotron facilities, the demand for protein microcrystals has significantly risen in recent years. However, by in vitro crystallization extensive efforts are usually required to purify proteins and produce sufficiently homogeneous microcrystals. Here, we present InCellCryst, an advanced pipeline for producing homogeneous microcrystals directly within living insect cells.

Auditory Spatial Bisection of Blind and Normally Sighted Individuals in Free Field and Virtual Acoustics.

Sound localization is an important ability in everyday life. This study investigates the influence of vision and presentation mode on auditory spatial bisection performance. Subjects were asked to identify the smaller perceived distance between three consecutive stimuli that were either presented via loudspeakers (free field) or via headphones after convolution with generic head-related impulse responses (binaural reproduction).

The TR-icOS setup at the ESRF: time-resolved microsecond UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy on protein crystals.

The technique of time-resolved macromolecular crystallography (TR-MX) has recently been rejuvenated at synchrotrons, resulting in the design of dedicated beamlines. Using pump-probe schemes, this should make the mechanistic study of photoactive proteins and other suitable systems possible with time resolutions down to microseconds. In order to identify relevant time delays, time-resolved spectroscopic experiments directly performed on protein crystals are often desirable.

Multispecies collective waving behaviour in fish.

Collective behaviour is widely accepted to provide a variety of antipredator benefits. Acting collectively requires not only strong coordination among group members, but also the integration of among-individual phenotypic variation. Therefore, groups composed of more than one species offer a unique opportunity to look into the evolution of both mechanistic and functional aspects of collective behaviour.

Current Status of Measurement Accuracy for Total Hemoglobin Concentration in the Clinical Context.

Objective: The main objective of this investigation is to provide data about the accuracy of total hemoglobin concentration measurements with respect to clinical settings, and to devices within the categories of point-of-care and reference systems. In particular, tolerance of hemoglobin concentrations below 9 g/dL that have become common in clinical practice today determines the need to demonstrate the limits of measurement accuracy in patient care.

Methods: Samples extracted from six units of heparinized human blood with total hemoglobin concentrations ranging from 3 to 18 g/dL were assigned to the test devices in a random order.

Mechanisms of prey division in striped marlin, a marine group hunting predator.

Many terrestrial group-hunters cooperate to kill prey but then compete for their share with dominance being a strong predictor of prey division. In contrast, little is known about prey division in group-hunting marine predators that predominately attack small, evasive prey (e.g.

Refining the stress gradient hypothesis for mixed species groups of African mammals.

Species interactions such as facilitation and predation influence food webs, yet it is unclear how they are mediated by environmental gradients. Here we test the stress gradient hypothesis which predicts that positive species interactions increase with stress. Drawing upon spatially-explicit data of large mammals in an African savanna, we tested how predation risk and primary productivity mediate the occurrence of mixed species groups.

Lacunae rostralis: A new structure on the rostrum of sailfish Istiophorus platypterus.

Recent comparative studies of billfishes (Istiophoridae and Xiphiidae) have provided evidence of differences in the form and function of the rostra (bill) among species. Here, we report the discovery of a new structure, lacuna rostralis, on the rostra of sailfish Istiophorus platypterus, which is absent on the rostra of swordfish Xiphias gladius, striped marlin Kajikia audax and blue marlin Makaira nigricans. The lacunae rostralis are small cavities that contain teeth.

Fish waves as emergent collective antipredator behavior.

The collective behavior of animals has attracted considerable attention in recent years, with many studies exploring how local interactions between individuals can give rise to global group properties. The functional aspects of collective behavior are less well studied, especially in the field, and relatively few studies have investigated the adaptive benefits of collective behavior in situations where prey are attacked by predators. This paucity of studies is unsurprising because predator-prey interactions in the field are difficult to observe.

Eigenmodes of a disordered FeCo magnonic crystal at finite temperatures.

In this report we present a systematic study of the magnonic modes in the disordered FeCoalloy based on the Heisenberg Hamiltonian using two complementary approaches. In order to account for substitutional disorder, on the one hand we directly average the transverse magnetic susceptibility in real space over different disorder configurations and on the other hand we use the coherent potential approximation (CPA). While the method of direct averaging is numerically exact, it is computationally expensive and limited by the maximal size of the supercell which can be simulated on a computer.

Causal evidence for the adaptive benefits of social foraging in the wild.

Sociality is a fundamental organizing principle across taxa, thought to come with a suite of adaptive benefits. However, making causal inferences about these adaptive benefits requires experimental manipulation of the social environment, which is rarely feasible in the field. Here we manipulated the number of conspecifics in Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) in the wild, and quantified how this affected a key benefit of sociality, social foraging, by investigating several components of foraging success.

An interaction mechanism for the maintenance of fission-fusion dynamics under different individual densities.

Animals often show high consistency in their social organisation despite facing changing environmental conditions. Especially in shoaling fish, fission-fusion dynamics that describe for which periods individuals are solitary or social have been found to remain unaltered even when density changed. This compensatory ability is assumed to be an adaptation towards constant predation pressure, but the mechanism through which individuals can actively compensate for density changes is yet unknown.

Linking hunting weaponry to attack strategies in sailfish and striped marlin.

Linking morphological differences in foraging adaptations to prey choice and feeding strategies has provided major evolutionary insights across taxa. Here, we combine behavioural and morphological approaches to explore and compare the role of the rostrum (bill) and micro-teeth in the feeding behaviour of sailfish () and striped marlin () when attacking schooling sardine prey. Behavioural results from high-speed videos showed that sailfish and striped marlin both regularly made rostrum contact with prey but displayed distinct strategies.

Broadband polarimetric glucose determination in protein containing media using characteristic optical rotatory dispersion.

One of the major challenges during polarimetric determination of glucose concentration is the spectral superposition with other optically active molecules, especially proteins like albumin. Since each of those substances has a characteristic optical rotatory dispersion (ORD), we developed a broadband polarimeter setup to distinguish between glucose and albumin. A partial least squares (PLS) regression with 5 components was applied to the polarimeter signal in the wavelength range of .

Females facilitate male food patch discovery in a wild fish population.

Responding to the information provided by others is an important foraging strategy in many species. Through social foraging, individuals can more efficiently find unpredictable resources and thereby increase their foraging success. When individuals are more socially responsive to particular phenotypes than others, however, the advantage they obtain from foraging socially is likely to depend on the phenotype composition of the social environment.

Real-time compensation method for robust polarimetric determination of glucose in turbid media.

Polarimetric determination of glucose is known to be strongly affected by scattering in turbid media. Other effects like fluctuations of light source emission and sample absorption also deteriorate glucose predictability. This work presents a measurement setup using a real-time data processing method to address these problems.

Individual- and population-level drivers of consistent foraging success across environments.

Individual foraging is under strong natural selection. Yet, whether individuals differ consistently in their foraging success across environments, and which individual- and population-level traits might drive such differences, is largely unknown. We addressed this question in a field experiment, conducting over 1,100 foraging trials with subpopulations of guppies, Poecilia reticulata, translocated across environments in the wild.

Evaluation of the Repeatability and Accuracy of the Wideband Real-Ear-to-Coupler Difference.

Background: The real-ear-to-coupler difference (RECD) is an ANSI standardized method for estimating ear canal sound pressure level (SPL) thresholds and assisting in the prediction of real-ear aided responses. It measures the difference in dB between the SPL produced in the ear canal and the SPL produced in an HA-1 2-cc coupler by the same sound source. Recent evidence demonstrates that extended high-frequency bandwidth, beyond the hearing aid bandwidth typically measured, is capable of providing additional clinical benefit.