Winter stomach contents of South Dakota badgers

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Stomach contents of 33 hunter and trapper killed badgers, Taxidea taxus, from northeastern South Dakota were examined during the 1980–81 fur season. Mammal prey species made up the bulk of the ingested food, followed by plant materials. Approximately 40 percent of stomach contents were mammals, 35 percent were of plant origin, 10 percent were birds, 10 percent were insects, while the remainder was mostly inorganic materials. Little significant difference was found in variety of food items consumed by each sex. South Dakota badgers are opportunistic foragers in the wintertime when food is scarce. Individual food items are usually taken in quantity when encountered by badgers.     

Nesting phenology and productivity of birds in the White and Inyo Mountains, California, as assessed with nest-boxes

Nest-boxes were monitored from 1988 to 1992 on 5 grids in the pinyon-juniper ( Pinus-Juniperus ) woodlands of the White and Inyo Mountains, California, to determine breeding phenology and productivity of cavity-nesting birds, and characteristics of used and non-used nest-boxes. We found a total of 112 nests of 6 species. Bewicks Wrens ( Thryomanes bewicki i; 64 nests), Mountain Chickadees ( Poecile gambeli ; 18), Ash-throated Flycatchers ( Myiarchus cinerascens ; 12), and Juniper Titmice ( Baeolophus ridgwayi ; 11) were the most common species utilizing the boxes. Nest phenology and numbers of young were similar to values reported elsewhere in the literature for the species, although nesting success for Mountain Chickadees appeared lower in our study. Chickadees were associated with relatively dense, mature vegetation on southern slopes. Juniper Titmice used areas with tall juniper shrubs and generally sparse vegetation. Bewicks Wrens used areas with short trees, sparse vegetation, and many stumps. Nest-boxes were underutilized (< 15% use) by most species relative to their availability and relative to detected abundances of the species. We suggest that nest-boxes can provide valuable breeding biology information and can potentially increase the productivity of rare and cavity-limited species.     

Pathology of an unusual lumbar condition in a young black bear ( Ursus americanus ) from the Big Bend region of Trans-Pecos Texas

The skeleton of a young American black bear ( Ursus americanus ) possessing asymmetrical distortions of the 5 caudalmost lumbar neural spines was recovered from west Texas. We attribute this abnormality, presumed to be congenital, to the absence or atrophy of the right multifidus muscle straddling L3 and to the series of compensatory muscle adjustments required to maintain spinal alignment. This finding may have important management implications for black bears in Texas, given the possibility that our specimen originates from a partially isolated population. El esqueleto de un oso negro juvenil ( Ursus americanus ) con distorsiones asim&eacute;tricas de las cinco espinas neurales lumbares inferiores fue descubierto en el oeste de Texas. Atribuimos esta anormalidad, suponiendo que es de origen cong&eacute;nito, a la ausencia o atrofia del m&uacute;sculo multifidus derecho que se extiende a ambos lados de la v&eacute;rtebra L3 y la serie de ajustes musculares compensatorios necesarios para conservar el alineamiento espinal. Este hallazgo podr&iacute;a tener implicaciones importantes para esta especie en Texas, dada la posibilidad de que nuestro esp&eacute;cimen provenga de una poblaci&oacute;n parcialmente aislada.     

A Binary Integer Program to Maximize the Agreement Between Partitions

This research note focuses on a problem where the cluster sizes for two partitions of the same object set are assumed known; however, the actual assignments of objects to clusters are unknown for one or both partitions. The objective is to find a contingency table that produces maximum possible agreement between the two partitions, subject to constraints that the row and column marginal frequencies for the table correspond exactly to the cluster sizes for the partitions. This problem was described by H. Messatfa (Journal of Classification, 1992, pp. 5–15), who provided a heuristic procedure based on the linear transportation problem. We present an exact solution procedure using binary integer programming. We demonstrate that our proposed method efficiently obtains optimal solutions for problems of practical size. We would like to thank the Editor, Willem Heiser, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments that resulted in improvements of this article.     

Loss of the SKI proto-oncogene in individuals affected with 1p36 deletion syndrome is predicted by strain-dependent defects in Ski-/- mice.

Experiments involving overexpression of Ski have suggested that this gene is involved in neural tube development and muscle differentiation. In agreement with these findings, Ski-/- mice display a cranial neural tube defect that results in exencephaly and a marked reduction in skeletal muscle mass. Here we show that the penetrance and expressivity of the phenotype changes when the null mutation is backcrossed into the C57BL6/J background, with the principal change involving a switch from a neural tube defect to midline facial clefting. Other defects, including depressed nasal bridge, eye abnormalities, skeletal muscle defects and digit abnormalities, show increased penetrance in the C57BL6/J background. These phenotypes are interesting because they resemble some of the features observed in individuals diagnosed with 1p36 deletion syndrome, a disorder caused by monosomy of the short arm of human chromosome 1p (refs. 6-9). These similarities prompted us to re-examine the chromosomal location of human SKI and to determine whether SKI is included in the deletions of 1p36. We found that human SKI is located at distal 1p36.3 and is deleted in all of the individuals tested so far who have this syndrome. Thus, SKI may contribute to some of the phenotypes common in 1p36 deletion syndrome, and particularly to facial clefting.     

Integer Programming Methods for Seriation and Unidemensional Scaling of Proximity Matrices: A Review and Some Extensions

L ₁-norm are also presented. I conclude that the computational scaling problems depends largely on the criterion of interest, with unidimensional scaling problems depends largely on the criterion of interest, with unidimensional scaling in the L ₁-norm being especially challenging.