A meta-analysis of studies on attitudes toward bears and wolves across Europe 1976-2012.

The ranges of wolves (Canis lupus) and bears (Ursus arctos) across Europe have expanded recently, and it is important to assess public attitudes toward this expansion because responses toward these species vary widely. General attitudes toward an object are good predictors of broad behavioral patterns; thus, attitudes toward wolves and bears can be used as indicators to assess the social foundation for future conservation efforts. However, most attitude surveys toward bears and wolves are limited in scope, both temporally and spatially, and provide only a snapshot of attitudes. To extend the results of individual surveys over a much larger temporal and geographical range so as to identify transnational patterns and changes in attitudes toward bears and wolves over time, we conducted a meta-analysis. Our analysis included 105 quantitative surveys conducted in 24 countries from 1976 to 2012. Across Europe, people's attitudes were more positive toward bears than wolves. Attitudes toward bears became more positive over time, but attitudes toward wolves seemed to become less favorable the longer people coexisted with them. Younger and more educated people had more positive attitudes toward wolves and bears than people who had experienced damage from these species, and farmers and hunters had less positive attitudes toward wolves than the general public. For bears attitudes among social groups did not differ. To inform conservation of large carnivores, we recommend that standardized longitudinal surveys be established to monitor changes in attitudes over time relative to carnivore population development. Our results emphasize the need for interdisciplinary research in this field and more advanced explanatory models capable of capturing individual and societal responses to changes in large carnivore policy and management.

Spatial and temporal predictions of moose winter distribution.

Herbivores are usually distributed unevenly across the landscape often because of variation in resource availability. We used zero-inflated generalised additive models (to account for data with a high number of zeros) that include georeferences to predict winter distribution of a large herbivore (moose Alces alces). Moose distribution was analysed in relation to forage availability and distance to neighbouring sites. Our results showed that the ability to explain moose distribution indexed by pellet count data at a local scale increased when spatial information (longitude and latitude) was added to the model compared to the model only including food availability. By using the relationship between moose and forage distribution, and the spatial information, we predicted patch choice by moose reasonably well in 2 out of 4 years. However, the distribution of moose was also influenced by weather conditions, as it was most clumped in the year with most snow. In conclusion, our study lends support for a non-linear approach using georeferences for a comprehensive understanding of herbivore distribution at a small scale. This result also indicates that the use of a certain patch by moose not only depends on the selected patch itself but is also influenced by the neighbouring patch and factors at a larger spatial scale, such as moose management influencing the density above moose home range level. The relatively high proportion of unexplained variation suggests that the use of a certain patch is also influenced by other factors such as topography, predation, competition, weather conditions, and wildlife management strategies.

Fusion product measurements by nuclear diagnostics in the Joint European Torus deuterium-tritium 2 campaign (invited).

A new deuterium-tritium experimental, DTE2, campaign has been conducted at the Joint European Torus (JET) between August 2021 and late December 2021. Motivated by significant enhancements in the past decade at JET, such as the ITER-like wall and enhanced auxiliary heating power, the campaign achieved a new fusion energy world record and performed a broad range of fundamental experiments to inform ITER physics scenarios and operations. New capabilities in the area of fusion product measurements by nuclear diagnostics were available as a result of a decade long enhancement program. These have been tested for the first time in DTE2 and a concise overview is provided here. Confined alpha particle measurements by gamma-ray spectroscopy were successfully demonstrated, albeit with limitations at neutron rates higher than some 1017 n/s. High resolution neutron spectroscopy measurements with the magnetic proton recoil instrument were complemented by novel data from a set of synthetic diamond detectors, which enabled studies of the supra-thermal contributions to the neutron emission. In the area of escaping fast ion diagnostics, a lost fast ion detector and a set of Faraday cups made it possible to determine information on the velocity space and poloidal distribution of the lost alpha particles for the first time. This extensive set of data provides unique information for fundamental physics studies and validation of the numerical models, which are key to inform the physics and scenarios of ITER.

New method for time alignment and time calibration of the TOFOR time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET.

The TOFOR time-of-flight (TOF) neutron spectrometer at the Joint European Torus (JET) is composed of 5 start (S1) and 32 stop (S2) scintillation detectors. Recently, the data acquisition system (DAQ) of TOFOR was upgraded to equip each of the 37 detectors with its own waveform digitizer to allow for correlated time and pulse height analysis of the acquired data. Due to varying cable lengths and different pulse processing pathways in the new DAQ system, the 160 (5 · 32) different TOF pairs of start-stop detectors must be time-aligned to enable the proper construction of a summed TOF spectrum. Given the time (energy) resolution required by the entire spectrometer system to measure different plasma neutron emission components, it is of importance to align the detector pairs to each other with sub-nanosecond precision. Previously, the alignment partially depended on using fusion neutron data from Ohmic heating phases of JET experimental pulses. The dependence on fusion neutron data in the time alignment process is, however, unsatisfactory as it involves data one would wish to include in an independent analysis for physics results. In this work, we describe a method of time-aligning the detector pairs by using gamma rays. Given the known geometry and response of TOFOR to gamma rays, the time alignment of the detector pairs is found by examining gamma events interacting in coincidence in both S1-S1 and S1-S2 detector combinations. Furthermore, a technique for separating neutron and gamma events in the different detector sets is presented. Finally, the time-aligned system is used to analyze neutron data from Ohmic phases for different plasma conditions and to estimate the Ohmic fuel ion temperature.

Forward modeling of pile-up events in liquid scintillator detectors for neutron emission spectroscopy.

When using liquid scintillator detectors to measure the neutron emission spectrum from fusion plasmas, the problem of pile-up distortion can be significant. Because of the large neutron rates encountered in many fusion experiments, some pile-up distortion can remain even after applying traditional pile-up elimination methods, which alters the shape of the measured light-yield spectrum and influences the spectroscopic analysis. Particularly, pile-up events appear as a high-energy tail in the measured light-yield spectrum, which obfuscates the contribution that supra-thermal ions make to the energy spectrum. It is important to understand the behavior of such "fast ions" in fusion plasmas, and it is hence desirable to be able to measure their contribution to the neutron spectrum as accurately as possible. This paper presents a technique for incorporating distortion from undetected pile-up events into the analysis of the light-yield spectrum, hence compensating for pile-up distortion. The spectral contribution from undetected pile-up events is determined using Monte Carlo methods and is included in the spectroscopic study as a pile-up component. The method is applied to data from an NE213 scintillator detector at JET and validated by comparing with results from the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR, which is not susceptible to pile-up distortion. Based on the results, we conclude that the suggested analysis method helps counteract the problem of pile-up effects and improves the possibilities for extracting accurate fast-ion information from the light-yield spectrum.

Thin foil proton recoil spectrometer performance study for application in DT plasma measurements.

The Thin foil Proton Recoil (TPR) technique has previously been used for deuterium-tritium fusion neutron diagnostics [N. P. Hawkes et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 70, 1134 (1999)] and is one of the candidates put forward for use in ITER as part of the high resolution neutron spectrometer (HRNS) system [E. A. Sundén et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 701, 62 (2013)]. For ITER, the neutron spectrometer's main purposes are to determine the fuel ion density ratio as well as the ion temperature in DT plasma. This work focuses on testing the capability of a proton telescope detector intended for use as part of the TPR spectrometer. The proton telescope has been tested using proton energies in the range of 3-8 MeV. The experimental results cover energy calibration, resolution estimation, and testing the spectrometer's capability to perform background separation using ΔE - E energy cuts. In addition, spectrometer performance in terms of signal to background ratios for ITER-like DT plasma conditions is estimated using Monte-Carlo simulations. Results show that the TPR spectrometer geometry dominates in determining the energy resolution and the ΔE - E energy cuts will significantly reduce the background. In addition, the estimated spectrometer count rates in ITER-like conditions fall below 20 kHz per detector segment.

Observation of the alpha particle "Knock-On" neutron emission from magnetically confined DT fusion plasmas

Suprathermal fuel ions from alpha-particle knock-on collisions in fusion DT plasmas are predicted to cause a weak feature in the neutron spectrum of d+t-->alpha+n. The knock-on feature has been searched for in the neutron emission of high ( >1 MW) fusion-power plasmas produced at JET and was found using a magnetic proton recoil type neutron spectrometer of high performance. Measurement and predictions agree both in absolute amplitude and in plasma-parameter dependence, supporting the interpretation and model. Moreover, the results provide input to projecting alpha-particle diagnostics for future self-heated fusion plasmas.

High concentrations of the neuroleptic remoxipride block voltage-activated Na+ channels in central and peripheral nerve membranes.

The actions of the neuroleptic compounds remoxipride, haloperidol and (-)-sulpiride on Na+ and K+ ion current flow were examined in rat CNS and frog PNS, using 86Rb+ ion flux and voltage-clamp techniques, respectively. By combining veratridine and high K(+)-evoked 86Rb+ efflux, it was determined that remoxipride blocked Na+ current flow in a concentration-dependent fashion in tissue pieces from either cerebral cortex or striatum (IC50 approximately 20 microM), leaving K+ current flow virtually unaffected. Similarly, haloperidol concentration dependently blocked Na+ current flow in both tissues (IC50 approximately 50 microM). (-)-Sulpiride did not have a significant effect. Direct actions of the compounds on voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels were determined in voltage-clamp experiments. The findings confirmed the results of the ion flux measurements in that remoxipride (Kd approximately 300 microM) and haloperidol (Kd approximately 1.5 microM) reduced mainly the Na+ current, having little effect on the K+ current, whereas (-)-sulpiride did not have a measurable action. The relatively high concentrations of remoxipride or haloperidol needed to alter the Na+ current makes it unlikely that these actions are of importance at clinically relevant doses.

Esophageal dysfunction in patients with contact ulcer of the larynx.

Vocal abuse is the best-known etiological factor in contact ulcer. Other factors, such as hiatus hernia and gastroesophageal reflux have been discussed. A 12-year study of 58 male patients (mean age 52 years) with present or previous contact ulcers, is reported. Forty-three patients were investigated with esophageal function tests, ie, esophageal manometry including pH monitoring, acid-perfusion test, and acid-clearing test. Esophageal dysfunction was found in 74% which is significantly higher than the 30% found in the general population.

Effects of enalapril on exercise tolerance and longevity in dogs with heart failure produced by iatrogenic mitral regurgitation.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of enalapril on exercise capacity and longevity in dogs with left-sided heart failure produced by iatrogenic mitral regurgitation. After surgical creation of mitral regurgitation, 18 dogs were allocated into replicates according to exercise capacities. One dog in each replicate received placebo, and the other received 0.5 mg/kg of enalapril sid for 9 days and bid thereafter. Exercise tolerance was studied after 10, 19, 52 to 53, and 80 to 81 days, respectively. Finally, the percentage of dogs in each group that survived 357 days was compared. The duration of exercise for dogs in the placebo and enalapril groups did not differ at baseline (P > .1) or after 19 days (P > .1). Dogs that received enalapril had significantly reduced (P < .001) exercise tolerance at day 10, and significantly increased (P = .002) exercise tolerance at days 52 to 53 and 80 to 81 when compared with controls. At 357 days, 22% of dogs receiving placebo were alive, compared with 67% of dogs receiving enalapril; however, these differences were not statistically significant (P = .124). This study shows that enalapril increases exercise tolerance in dogs with left-sided heart failure induced by iatrogenic mitral regurgitation.

Effect of efrotomycin on gain and feed efficiency for pigs from weaning until market weight.

Six studies involving 700 pigs were conducted in five separate swine research facilities to evaluate weight gain and efficiency of feed utilization in pigs fed the antibiotic efrotomycin. Pigs averaging 8.4 kg at the beginning of the studies were fed fortified corn-soybean meal diets that contained efrotomycin at 0, 2, 4, 8 or 16 ppm for an average of 120 d to market weight, about 92.1 kg. Pigs fed efrotomycin gained 5.9 to 8.9% faster (P less than .01) and were 1.7 to 4.0% more efficient (P less than .01) than those fed control diets. The improvement in growth rate was linear from 2 through 16 ppm, while feed efficiency (gain/feed) plateaued at 4 ppm efrotomycin. Treatment X study interactions were not significant for average daily gain or feed efficiency, showing that the response to efrotomycin was similar in each study. These studies indicate that efrotomycin is effective in improving gain and efficiency of feed utilization in swine from weaning until market weight.

Efficacy of an in-feed ivermectin formulation against gastrointestinal helminths, lungworms, and sarcoptic mites in swine.

The efficacy of ivermectin as an in-feed formulation was evaluated against naturally acquired gastrointestinal helminths, lungworms, and sarcoptic mites (experiment 1; n = 24) and against induced infection with intestinal nematodes (experiment 2; n = 24) in pigs. Treatments consisted of ivermectin administered in feed at concentrations calculated to provide 100 or 200 micrograms/kg of body weight/d for 7 days or of nonmedicated feed (controls) for 7 days. At concentration of 100 micrograms of ivermectin/kg/d, efficacy against naturally acquired infections was 97.7% for Ascaris suum, 97.8% for Metastrongylus spp, greater than 99% for Oesophagostomum spp, 100% for Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus, and 89.7% for Ascarops strongylina. Against induced infections (fourth-stage larvae), efficacy was 100% for A suum and 96.9% for Oesophagostomum spp. At concentration of 200 micrograms of ivermectin/kg/d, efficacy against naturally acquired infections was 100% for A suum, Hyostrongylus rubidus, Metastrongylus spp, and Ascarops strongylina; greater than 99% for Oesophagostomum spp; and 85.9% for Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus. Against induced infections (fourth-stage larvae), efficacy was 100% for A suum and 95% for Oesophagostomum spp. At concentrations of 100 and 200 micrograms of ivermectin/kg/d, efficacy against Sarcoptes scabiei var suis was evidenced by elimination of the mite by posttreatment day 14.

Effects of enalapril maleate on survival of dogs with naturally acquired heart failure. The Long-Term Investigation of Veterinary Enalapril (LIVE) Study Group.

OBJECTIVE: To test the long-term effect of enalapril maleate treatment on progression of clinical signs of heart disease in dogs with moderate or severe naturally acquired heart failure associated with chronic degenerative mitral valvular disease (mitral regurgitation [MR]) or dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). DESIGN: Prospective multicenter study. ANIMALS: 110 dogs enrolled at 15 locations in the United States. PROCEDURE: All dogs enrolled in this study were maintained on their randomly allocated treatment regimen until death, treatment failure (deterioration of condition requiring additional medication), or termination of the study. All dogs entered in the study received standard heart failure treatment (furosemide with or without digoxin). Statistical analysis (log-rank test) was performed to compare the distribution of number of days in the study between dogs that received placebo tablets and dogs that received enalapril tablets. RESULTS: When dogs with MR and DCM were grouped together, mean number of days until treatment failure was significantly different between those receiving enalapril and those given placebo tablets (157.5 and 77.0 days, respectively). For dogs with MR, mean number of days until treatment failure was significantly different between those receiving enalapril and placebo tablets (159.5 and 86.6 days, respectively). Mean number of days until treatment failure among dogs with DCM receiving enalapril and placebo tablets was 142.8 and 56.5, respectively. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Use of enalapril in combination with standard treatment (diuretics with or without digoxin) appears to be beneficial over an extended period, compared with standard treatment alone.

An evaluation of the potential effects of ivermectin on the decomposition of cattle dung pats.

The parasiticide ivermectin has been administered to domestic livestock since 1981 to control internal and external parasites, including insects; some of the ivermectin is excreted unchanged in faeces. Concerns over the effects of ivermectin on dung-utilising insect populations and the potential for consequent persistence of dung on pastures have been raised. This paper presents the results of a study over two grazing seasons of the rate of decomposition of cattle dung pats exposed to normal environmental influences. The cattle had been treated at therapeutic levels with either an injectable or a sustained release bolus formulation of ivermectin. It was concluded that the rate of decomposition of the dung pats, the extent of their avoidance by the cows, the organic matter content of the soil and the populations of earthworms in the pastures were not affected by the use of ivermectin.

Evaluation of the persistence of the effect of ivermectin and abamectin against gastrointestinal and pulmonary nematodes in cattle.

The persistence of the effect of ivermectin and abamectin against gastrointestinal nematodes and lungworm in cattle was evaluated in two trials, each involving 28 animals. Groups of seven cattle either remained untreated, or were treated topically with ivermectin at 500 micrograms/kg bodyweight or subcutaneously with either ivermectin or abamectin at 200 micrograms/kg bodyweight. Starting on the day of treatment the cattle were given daily trickle infections with various infective nematode larvae for two weeks (Haemonchus species, Trichostrongylus axei and Cooperia species), three weeks (Ostertagia ostertagi and Oesophagostomum radiatum) and four weeks (Dictyocaulus viviparus). The cattle were killed 49 to 51 days after treatment and their worm burdens measured. An efficacy of > 99 per cent was recorded in all the groups demonstrating that the products controlled Haemonchus species, T axei, C oncophora, C punctata and C surnabada for at least two weeks, O ostertagi and O radiatum for at least three weeks and D viviparus for at least four weeks.

Significance of primary T wave aberrations in the electrocardiogram of asymptomatic young men. Part 1. Electrocardiographic data.

The electrocardiogram (ECG) at rest and during orthostasis and exercise in 51 healthy men 18-19 years of age without history or symptoms of heart disease, but with T wave aberrations in the ECG (group T) were compared to the normal ECGs of 112 controls of the same age. These aberrations (which literature suggests to be due to organic heart disease) consisted of either a notch in the T wave, especially in the midprecordial leads, that sometimes became inverted, or a low T wave without concomitant ST depression. The T wave aberrations at rest in group T were similar to what 25% of the controls evidenced during orthostasis (group B). Both group T and group B had signs of increased sympathetic tone at rest with a higher heart rate and systolic blood pressure than did the subjects with normal ECG both at rest and during orthostasis. These T wave aberrations disappeared for the majority during exercise. Both group T and group B had prolonged QTc intervals. Group T had increased R wave amplitudes which did not correlate to the severity of the T wave aberration or to systolic blood pressure. Our opinion is that primary T wave aberrations in the majority of these young men were because of increased sympathetic tone.

Significance of primary T wave aberrations in the electrocardiogram of asymptomatic young men. Part II. Working capacity and anthropometric data.

Fifty-one healthy men, 18 - 19 years of age, with "organic" T wave aberrations (group T) were compared to 112 controls of the same age with normal electrocardiograms (Group A + B). Group T had increased heart rate and higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Their lower physical work capacity could be "explained" in multivariate analysis by their shorter height, smaller heart volume and lower total hemoglobin (the latter not constituting a significant difference between the groups). Multiple regression analysis indicated that differences in heart rate, systolic blood pressure and blood volumes explained differences between subjects with and without primary T wave aberrations. These variables are all influenced by changes in sympathetic discharge, whereas no variable representing performance or body dimensions contributed to the explanation.

Determination of hydrogen/deuterium ratio with neutron measurements on MAST.

On MAST, compressional Alfvén eigenmodes can be destabilized by the presence of a sufficiently large population of energetic particles in the plasma. This dependence was studied in a series of very similar discharges in which increasing amounts of hydrogen were puffed into a deuterium plasma. A simple method to estimate the isotopic ratio nH/nD using neutron emission measurements is here described. The inferred isotopic ratio ranged from 0.0 to 0.6 and no experimental indication of changes in radial profile of nH/nD were observed. These findings are confirmed by TRANSP/NUBEAM simulations of the neutron emission.

Deuterium density profile determination at JET using a neutron camera and a neutron spectrometer.

In this work we estimate the fuel ion density profile in deuterium plasmas at JET, using the JET neutron camera, the neutron time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR, and fusion reactivities modeled by the transport code TRANSP. The framework has been tested using synthetic data, which showed that the density profile could be reconstructed with an average accuracy of the order of 10 %. The method has also been applied to neutron measurements from a neutral beam heated JET discharge, which gave nd/ne ≈ 0.6 ± 0.3 in the plasma core and nd/ne ≈ 0.4 ± 0.3 towards the edge. Correction factors for detector efficiencies, neutron attenuation, and back-scattering are not yet included in the analysis; future work will aim at refining the estimated density.

Forward fitting of experimental data from a NE213 neutron detector installed with the magnetic proton recoil upgraded spectrometer at JET.

In this paper, we present the results obtained from the data analysis of neutron spectra measured with a NE213 liquid scintillator at JET. We calculated the neutron response matrix of the instrument combining MCNPX simulations, a generic proton light output function measured with another detector and the fit of data from ohmic pulses. For the analysis, we selected a set of pulses with neutral beam injection heating (NBI) only and we applied a forward fitting procedure of modeled spectral components to extract the fraction of thermal neutron emission. The results showed the same trend of the ones obtained with the dedicated spectrometer TOFOR, even though the values from the NE213 analysis were systematically higher. This discrepancy is probably due to the different lines of sight of the two spectrometers (tangential for the NE213, vertical for TOFOR). The uncertainties on the thermal fraction estimates were from 4 to 7 times higher than the ones from the TOFOR analysis.