Mitigating human-wildlife conflict and monitoring endangered tigers using a real-time camera-based alert system.

The recovery of wild tigers in India and Nepal is a remarkable conservation achievement, but it sets the stage for increased human-wildlife conflict where parks are limited in size and where tigers reside outside reserves. We deployed an innovative technology, the TrailGuard AI camera-alert system, which runs on-the-edge artificial intelligence algorithms to detect tigers and poachers and transmit real-time images to designated authorities responsible for managing prominent tiger landscapes in India. We successfully captured and transmitted the first images of tigers using cameras with embedded AI and detected poachers. Notifications of tiger images were received in real time, approximately 30 seconds from camera trigger to appearing in a smart phone app. We review use cases of this AI-based real-time alert system for managers and local communities and suggest how the system could help monitor tigers and other endangered species, detect poaching, and provide early warnings for human-wildlife conflict.

Patterns of coexistence between two mesocarnivores in presence of anthropogenic disturbances in Western Himalaya.

Species' coexistence depends on species-specific resource utilization in a given habitat. Human disturbances in this context can constrain the realized niche by altering their community dynamics. In this study, we considered Western Himalaya as a case study to test the hypothesis that human disturbances influence mesocarnivore coexistence patterns. We regarded red fox and leopard cat as the focal species and assessed the coexistence patterns in low and high human disturbance areas in three dimensions: spatial, temporal, and dietary habit. We used camera trap detections and mitochondrial DNA-based species identification of fecal samples. We used generalized linear mixed-effect modelling (GLMM), activity overlap, Levin's niche breadth, and Pianka's overlap index to capture the spatial, temporal, and dietary interactions respectively. We found that red fox and leopard cat coexisted by spatial segregation in low human disturbance area, whereas dietary segregation was the means of coexistence in high human disturbance area. We observed a broader dietary breadth for red fox and a narrower for leopard cat in high human disturbance area. The altered coexistence pattern due to differential human disturbances indicates intensive anthropogenic activities adjacent to natural forests. It can link to increased opportunities for shared spaces between mesocarnivores and humans, leading to future disease spread and conflicts. Our study contributes to scant ecological knowledge of these mesocarnivores and adds to our understanding of community dynamics in human-altered ecosystems. The study elucidates the need for long-term monitoring of wildlife inhabiting interface areas to ensure human and wildlife coexistence.

Multiphasic movement and step-selection patterns of dispersed tigers in the central Indian landscape.

Large carnivores play a crucial role in the ecosystem, though their conservation needs a landscape-level approach due to their wide range of habitats and dispersal events. The study of tigers in a human-dominated landscape matrix and their adaptation and adjustment of movement behaviours during the dispersal phase is essential for long-term conservation planning and management policy. We studied the dispersal event of five VHF/GPS collared individuals during 2009-2020. We investigated movement parameters (step length), and the effects of anthropogenic pressures (distance from village), distance from water and vegetation cover, on behavioural phase under a Hidden Markov Model framework. We also tested the effects of distance from village, vegetation cover, and habitat types on animal movement using an integrated Step Selection Function framework. The mean step length (405.44±10.63 m/hr) varied widely by different time of day. Displacement was high during the night (665.28±21.36 m/hr) compared to day (434.16±17.37 m/hr). Tigers moved fast (872.7m; 95% CI 839.1-906.3m) with longer step length and a directional turning angle in non-forested areas (i.e. the human-dominated landscape), likely to avoid conflict with humans. Individuals distinctly exhibited two behavioural states: encamping (~32% of the time) and travelling (~68% of the time). Further, they avoided the human-dominated landscape and mostly remained in and forested areas, especially during nighttime. Our study is the first attempt to understand behavioural transition of dispersal tigers and their habitat selection. Lesser anthropogenic disturbance and high vegetation cover positively influenced the tiger dispersal, while water availability did not affect their state transitional probability. Additionally, dispersers showed high affinity towards forested land during nighttime for travelling.The findings of this study show the importance of functional corridors and stepping stones (mostly encamping areas), and also provide baseline knowledge for integrated landscape management planning and policymaking for the long-term survival of tigers in metapopulation framework.

Predator in proximity: how does a large carnivore respond to anthropogenic pressures at fine-scales? Implications for interface area management.

Background: Driven by habitat loss and fragmentation, large carnivores are increasingly navigating human-dominated landscapes, where their activity is restricted and their behaviour altered. This movement, however, raises significant concerns and costs for people living nearby. While intricately linked, studies often isolate human and carnivore impacts, hindering effective management efforts. Hence, in this study, we brought these two into a common framework, focusing on an interface area between the critical tiger habitat and the human-dominated multiple-use buffer area of a central Indian protected area. Methods: We employed a fine-scale camera trap survey complemented by GPS-collar movement data to understand spatio-temporal activity patterns and adjustments of tigers in response to anthropogenic pressures. We used an occupancy framework to evaluate space use, Bayesian circular GLMs to model temporal activity, and home range and step length analyses to assess the movement patterns of tigers. Further, we used predation-risk models to understand conflict patterns as a function of tiger presence and other habitat variables. Results: Despite disturbance, a high proportion of the sampled area was occupied by 17 unique tigers (ψ = 0.76; CI [0.73-0.92]). The distance to villages (ß ± SE = 0.63 ± 0.21) and the relative abundance of large-bodied wild prey (ß ± SE = 0.72 ± 0.37) emerged as key predictors of tiger space use probability, indicating a preference for wild prey by tigers, while human influences constrained their habitat utilisation. Distance to villages was also identified as the most significant predictor of the tigers' temporal activity (µ ± σ = 3.03 ± 0.06 rad) that exhibited higher nocturnality near villages. A total of 11% of tiger home ranges were within village boundaries, accompanied by faster movement in these areas (displacement 40-82% higher). Livestock depredation probability by tigers increased with proximity to villages (P = 0.002) and highway (P = 0.003). Although tiger space use probability (P = 0.056) and wild prey abundance (P = 0.134) were non-significant at the 0.05 threshold, their presence in the best-fit predation-risk model suggests their contextual relevance for understanding conflict risk. The results highlight the importance of appropriately managing livestock near human infrastructures to effectively mitigate conflict. Conclusions: Shared space of carnivores and humans requires dynamic site-specific actions grounded in evidence-based decision-making. This study emphasises the importance of concurrently addressing the intricate interactions between humans and large carnivores, particularly the latter's behavioural adaptations and role in conflict dynamics. Such an integrated approach is essential to unravel cause-effect relationships and promote effective interface management in human-dominated landscapes.

Lessons from the 2006 Louisiana health and population survey.

The 2005 hurricane season caused extensive damage and induced a mass migration of approximately 1.1 million people from southern Louisiana in the United States. Current and accurate estimates of population size and demographics and an assessment of the critical needs for public services were required to guide recovery efforts. Since forecasts using pre-hurricane data may produce inaccurate estimates of the post-hurricane population, a household survey in 18 hurricane-affected parishes was conducted to provide timely and credible information on the size of these populations, their demographics and their condition. This paper describes the methods used, the challenges encountered, and the key factors for successful implementation. This post-disaster survey was unique because it identified the needs of the people in the affected parishes and quantified the number of people with these needs. Consequently, this survey established new population and health indicator baselines that otherwise would have not been available to guide the relief and recovery efforts in southern Louisiana.

Community assembly, functional traits, and phylogeny in Himalayan river birds.

Heterogeneity in riverine habitats acts as a template for species evolution that influences river communities at different spatio-temporal scales. Although birds are conspicuous elements of these communities, the roles of phylogeny, functional traits, and habitat character in their niche use or species' assembly have seldom been investigated. We explored these themes by surveying multiple headwaters over 3000 m of elevation in the Himalayan Mountains of India where the specialist birds of montane rivers reach their greatest diversity on Earth. After ordinating community composition, species traits, and habitat character, we investigated whether river bird traits varied with elevation in ways that were constrained or independent of phylogeny, hypothesizing that trait patterns reflect environmental filtering. Community composition and trait representation varied strongly with increasing elevation and river naturalness as species that foraged in the river/riparian ecotone gave way to small insectivores with direct trophic dependence on the river or its immediate channel. These trends were influenced strongly by phylogeny as communities became more clustered by functional traits at a higher elevation. Phylogenetic signals varied among traits, however, and were reflected in body mass, bill size, and tarsus length more than in body size, tail length, and breeding strategy. These variations imply that community assembly in high-altitude river birds reflects a blend of phylogenetic constraint and habitat filtering coupled with some proximate niche-based moulding of trait character. We suggest that the regional co-existence of river birds in the Himalaya is facilitated by this same array of factors that together reflect the highly heterogeneous template of river habitats provided by these mountain headwaters.

Understanding the distribution and fine-scale habitat selection of mesocarnivores along a habitat quality gradient in western Himalaya.

Background: Human activities have resulted in a rapid increase of modified habitats in proximity to wildlife habitats in the Himalaya. However, it is crucial to understand the extent to which human habitat modification affects wildlife. Mesocarnivores generally possess broader niches than large carnivores and adapt quickly to human activities. Here, we use a case study in the western Himalaya to test the hypothesis that human disturbance influenced mesocarnivore habitat use. Methods: We used camera trapping and mitochondrial DNA-based species identification from faecal samples to obtain mesocarnivore detections. We then compared the responses of mesocarnivores between an anthropogenic site and a less disturbed park along a contiguous gradient in habitat quality. The non-linear pattern in species-specific habitat selection and factors responsible for space usage around villages was captured using hierarchical generalized additive modelling (HGAM) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination. Results: Wildlife occurrences along the gradient varied by species. Leopard cat and red fox were the only terrestrial mesocarnivores that occurred in both anthropogenic site and park. We found a shift in habitat selection from less disturbed habitat in the park to disturbed habitat in anthropogenic site for the species detected in both the habitat types. For instance, red fox showed habitat selection towards high terrain ruggedness (0.5 to 0.7 TRI) and low NDVI (-0.05 to 0.2) in the park but no such specific selection in anthropogenic site. Further, leopard cat showed habitat selection towards moderate slope (20°) and medium NDVI (0.5) in park but no prominent habitat selections in anthropogenic site. The results revealed their constrained behaviour which was further supported by the intensive site usage close to houses, agricultural fields and human trails in villages. Conclusions: Our results indicate shifts in habitat selection and intensive site usage by mesocarnivores in the human-modified habitat. In future, this suggests the possibility of conflict and disease spread affecting both the people and wildlife. Therefore, this study highlights the requisite to test the wildlife responses to rapidly growing human expansions in modified habitats to understand the extent of impact. The management strategies need to have an integrated focus for further expansions of modified habitat and garbage disposal strategies, especially in the human-wildlife interface area.

N-mixture model-based estimate of relative abundance of sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) in response to biotic and abiotic factors in a human-dominated landscape of central India.

Reliable estimation of abundance is a prerequisite for a species' conservation planning in human-dominated landscapes, especially if the species is elusive and involved in conflicts. As a means of population estimation, the importance of camera traps has been recognized globally, although estimating the abundance of unmarked, cryptic species has always been a challenge to conservation biologists. This study explores the use of the N-mixture model with three probability distributions, i.e., Poisson, negative binomial (NB) and zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP), to estimate the relative abundance of sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) based on a camera trapping exercise in Sanjay Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh from December 2016 to April 2017. We used environmental and anthropogenic covariates to model the variation in the abundance of sloth bears. We also compared null model estimates (mean site abundance) obtained from the N-mixture model to those of the Royle-Nichols abundance-induced heterogeneity model (RN model) to assess the application of similar site-structured models. Models with Poisson distributions produced ecologically realistic and more precise estimates of mean site abundance (λ = 2.60 ± 0.64) compared with other distributions, despite the relatively high Akaike Information Criterion value. Area of mixed and sal forest, the photographic capture rate of humans and distance to the nearest village predicted a higher relative abundance of sloth bears. Mean site abundance estimates of sloth bears obtained from the N-mixture model (Poisson distribution) and the RN model were comparable, indicating the overall utility of these models in this field. However, density estimates of sloth bears based on spatially explicit methods are essential for evaluating the efficacy of the relatively more cost-effective N-mixture model. Compared to commonly used index/encounter-based methods, the N-mixture model equipped with knowledge on governing biotic and abiotic factors provides better relative abundance estimates for a species like the sloth bear. In the absence of absolute abundance estimates, the present study could be insightful for the long-term conservation and management of sloth bears.

Technological progress in electronic health record system optimization: Systematic review of systematic literature reviews.

BACKGROUND: The recent, rapid development of digital technologies offers new possibilities for more efficient implementation of electronic health record (EHR) and personal health record (PHR) systems. A growing volume of healthcare data has been the hallmark of this digital transformation. The large healthcare datasets' complexity and their dynamic nature pose various challenges related to processing, analysis, storage, security, privacy, data exchange, and usability. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a systematic review of systematic reviews to assess technological progress in EHR and PHR systems. We searched MEDLINE, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Scopus for systematic literature reviews on technological advancements that support EHR and PHR systems published between January 1, 2010, and October 06, 2020. RESULTS: The searches resulted in a total of 2,448 hits. Of these, we finally selected 23 systematic reviews. Most of the included papers dealt with information extraction tools and natural language processing technology (n = 10), followed by studies that assessed the use of blockchain technology in healthcare (n = 8). Other areas of digital technology research included EHR and PHR systems in austere settings (n = 1), de-identification methods (n = 1), visualization techniques (n = 1), communication tools within EHR and PHR systems (n = 1), and methodologies for defining Clinical Information Models that promoted EHRs and PHRs interoperability (n = 1). CONCLUSIONS: Technological advancements can improve the efficiency in the implementation of EHR and PHR systems in numerous ways. Natural language processing techniques, either rule-based, machine-learning, or deep learning-based, can extract information from clinical narratives and other unstructured data locked in EHRs and PHRs, allowing secondary research (i.e., phenotyping). Moreover, EHRs and PHRs are expected to be the primary beneficiaries of the blockchain technology implementation on Health Information Systems. Governance regulations, lack of trust, poor scalability, security, privacy, low performance, and high cost remain the most critical challenges for implementing these technologies.

Ownership and usage of insecticide-treated bed nets after free distribution via a voucher system in two provinces of Mozambique.

BACKGROUND: Insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) are an efficacious intervention for malaria prevention. During a national immunization campaign in Mozambique, vouchers, which were to be redeemed at a later date for free ITNs, were distributed in Manica and Sofala provinces. A survey to evaluate ITN ownership and usage post-campaign was conducted. METHODS: Four districts in each province and four enumeration areas (EAs) in each district were selected using probability proportional to size. Within each EA, 32 households (HHs) were selected using a simple random sample. Interviews to assess ownership and usage were conducted in each of the selected HHs using personal digital assistants. RESULTS: Valid interviews were completed for 947 (92.5%) (440 in Manica and 507 in Sofala) of the 1,024 selected HHs. Among participating HHs, 65.0% in Manica and 63.1% in Sofala reported that at least one child under five years of age slept in the house the previous night. HH ownership of at least one bed net of any kind was 20.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 7.9%-43.6%) and 35.6% (95% CI: 27.8%-44.3%) pre-campaign; and 55.1% (95% CI: 43.6%-66.1%) and 59.6 (95% CI: 42.4%-74.7%) post-campaign in Manica and Sofala, respectively. Post-campaign HH ownership of at least one ITN was 50.2% (95% CI: 41.8%-58.5%) for both provinces combined. In addition, 60.3% (95% CI: 50.6%-69.2%) of children under five years of age slept under an ITN the previous night. CONCLUSIONS: This ITN distribution increased bed net ownership and usage rates. Integration of ITN distribution with immunization campaigns presents an opportunity for reaching malaria control targets and should continue to be considered.

Bird diversity along riverine areas in the Bhagirathi Valley, Uttarakhand, India.

Natural riverine areas mark ecotonal habitats harbouring a characteristically diverse faunal assemblage, especially birds that also use these habitats as pathways crucial for their movement. Increasingly, riverine systems are subjected to large-scale habitat alterations due to climatic fluctuations and anthropogenic changes. Therefore, it is important to understand broad-scale community patterns for conservation planning and prioritisation for these ecotone habitats. The Bhagirathi river is one of the major headwaters of the river Ganges; despite its rich and diverse fauna, little is known about the bird species that inhabit this montane region. This study presents an extensive list of 281 bird species from 59 families, their seasonal distribution and habitat associations as recorded from field surveys along the riverine areas between April 2013 and May 2018. The present communication simultaneously discusses a few noteworthy sightings for the region and provides a baseline for future research on the distribution of birds in the Western Himalaya.

Transforming health care through Bhutan's digital health strategy: progress to date.

Bhutan, a landlocked country in the eastern Himalayas with some of the most rugged and mountainous terrain in the world, is actively engaged in digital health strategy reforms aimed at improving the efficiency of the health information system. Aligned with Bhutan's e-Government master plan, the National eHealth strategy and action plan aims to improve health by empowering health-care providers and citizens through technology and by enabling data exchange for service delivery. The strategy has four primary areas of focus: (i) ensuring digital health governance arrangements; (ii) concentrating on strong foundations in terms of infrastructure and standards; (iii) prioritizing improvements in the current health system in a phased, selective manner; and (iv) building the digital skills and knowledge of health workers. With support from the Asian Development Bank and the World Health Organization, phase 1 of the strategy has been completed and the blueprint for the digital health information system is in development. Phase 2 of the strategy will be implemented during 2020­2023 and will include work on (i) identity management for the health workforce; (ii) the implementation of a master patient index and a secure longitudinal patient information system; and (iii) enabling all health facilities to access the systems. Bhutan's eHealth strategy has the potential to fundamentally transform the delivery of health services, strengthen primary health care and enable the development of a "One Health" public health surveillance system.

Zimbabwe's Human Resources for health Information System (ZHRIS)-an assessment in the context of establishing a global standard.

INTRODUCTION: There have been numerous global calls to action to utilize human resources information systems (HRIS) to improve the availability and quality of data for strengthening the regulation and deployment of health workers. However, with no normative guidance in existence, the development of HRIS has been inconsistent and lacking in standardization, hindering the availability and use of data for health workforce planning and decision making (Riley et al., 2012). CDC and WHO partnered with the Ministry of Health in several countries to conduct HRIS functional requirements analyses and establish a Minimum Data Set (MDS) of elements essential for a global standard HRIS. As a next step, CDC advanced a study to examine the alignment of one of the HRIS it supports (in Zimbabwe) against this MDS. METHOD: For this study, we created a new data collection and analysis tool to assess the extent to which Zimbabwe's CDC-supported HRIS was aligned with the WHO MDS. We performed systematic "gap analyses" in order to make prioritized recommendations for addressing the gaps, with the aim of improving the availability and quality of data on Zimbabwe's health workforce. RESULTS: The majority of the data elements outlined in the WHO MDS were present in the ZHRIS databases, though they were found to be missing various applicable elements. The lack of certain elements could impede functions such as health worker credential verification or equitable in-service training allocation. While the HRIS MDS treats all elements equally, our assessment revealed that not all the elements have equal significance when it comes to data utilization. Further, some of the HRIS MDS elements exceeded the current needs of regulatory bodies and the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) in Zimbabwe. The preliminary findings of this study helped inspire the development of a more recent HRH Registry MDS subset, which is a shorter list of priority data elements recommended as a global standard for HRIS. CONCLUSION: The field-tested assessment methodology presented here, with suggested improvements to the tool, can be used to identify absent or unaligned elements in either an HRH Registry or a full HRIS. Addressing the prioritized gaps will increase the availability of critical data in the ZHRIS and can empower the MOHCC and councils to conduct more strategic analyses, improving health workforce planning and ultimately public health outcomes in the country.

Assessment of fine-scale resource selection and spatially explicit habitat suitability modelling for a re-introduced tiger (Panthera tigris) population in central India.

BACKGROUND: Large carnivores influence ecosystem functions at various scales. Thus, their local extinction is not only a species-specific conservation concern, but also reflects on the overall habitat quality and ecosystem value. Species-habitat relationships at fine scale reflect the individuals' ability to procure resources and negotiate intraspecific competition. Such fine scale habitat choices are more pronounced in large carnivores such as tiger (Panthera tigris), which exhibits competitive exclusion in habitat and mate selection strategies. Although landscape level policies and conservation strategies are increasingly promoted for tiger conservation, specific management interventions require knowledge of the habitat correlates at fine scale. METHODS: We studied nine radio-collared individuals of a successfully reintroduced tiger population in Panna Tiger Reserve, central India, focussing on the species-habitat relationship at fine scales. With 16 eco-geographical variables, we performed Manly's selection ratio and K-select analyses to define population-level and individual-level variation in resource selection, respectively. We analysed the data obtained during the exploratory period of six tigers and during the settled period of eight tigers separately, and compared the consequent results. We further used the settled period characteristics to model and map habitat suitability based on the Mahalanobis D2 method and the Boyce index. RESULTS: There was a clear difference in habitat selection by tigers between the exploratory and the settled period. During the exploratory period, tigers selected dense canopy and bamboo forests, but also spent time near villages and relocated village sites. However, settled tigers predominantly selected bamboo forests in complex terrain, riverine forests and teak-mixed forest, and totally avoided human settlements and agriculture areas. There were individual variations in habitat selection between exploratory and settled periods. Based on threshold limits of habitat selection by the Boyce Index, we established that 83% of core and 47% of buffer areas are now suitable habitats for tiger in this reserve. DISCUSSION: Tiger management often focuses on large-scale measures, but this study for the first time highlights the behaviour and fine-scale individual-specific habitat selection strategies. Such knowledge is vital for management of critical tiger habitats and specifically for the success of reintroduction programs. Our spatially explicit habitat suitability map provides a baseline for conservation planning and optimizing carrying capacity of the tiger population in this reserve.

Building the foundations of an informatics agenda for global health - 2011 workshop report.

Strengthening the capacity of public health systems to protect and promote the health of the global population continues to be essential in an increasingly connected world. Informatics practices and principles can play an important role for improving global health response capacity. A critical step is to develop an informatics agenda for global health so that efforts can be prioritized and important global health issues addressed. With the aim of building a foundation for this agenda, the authors developed a workshop to examine the evidence in this domain, recognize the gaps, and document evidence-based recommendations. On 21 August 2011, at the 2011 Public Health Informatics Conference in Atlanta, GA, USA, a four-hour interactive workshop was conducted with 85 participants from 15 countries representing governmental organizations, private sector companies, academia, and non-governmental organizations. The workshop discussion followed an agenda of a plenary session - planning and agenda setting - and four tracks: Policy and governance; knowledge management, collaborative networks and global partnerships; capacity building; and globally reusable resources: metrics, tools, processes, templates, and digital assets. Track discussions examined the evidence base and the participants' experience to gather information about the current status, compelling and potential benefits, challenges, barriers, and gaps for global health informatics as well as document opportunities and recommendations. This report provides a summary of the discussions and key recommendations as a first step towards building an informatics agenda for global health. Attention to the identified topics and issues is expected to lead to measurable improvements in health equity, health outcomes, and impacts on population health. We propose the workshop report be used as a foundation for the development of the full agenda and a detailed roadmap for global health informatics activities based on further contribution from key stakeholders. The global health informatics agenda and roadmap can provide guidance to countries for developing and enhancing their individual and regional agendas.

Quarantine Activity Reporting System (QARS).

This poster describes the Quarantine Activity Reporting System (QARS), a new web based,secure electronic system which enables tracking the presence of ill persons on inbound flights and vessels and at land border crossings, infectious disease threats, or actions related to imported pathogens.

Application of pre-programmed PDA devices equipped with global GPS to conduct paperless household surveys in rural Mozambique.

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are extending how we use software normally associated with desktop and laptop computers. As interface design improves and specialized software becomes available, health professionals are choosing to usePDAs. A logical next step to use PDAs is in remote areas where electronic data collection is needed and electricity is limited. A test of PDAs', equipped with global positioning system, ability to improve household surveys in rural Mozambique was completed in February 2006.