A new nurse frog from Southwestern Amazonian highlands,with notes on the phylogenetic affinities of Allobates alessandroi (Aromobatidae)

ABSTRACT

Few studies have focused on the diverse fauna of southwestern Brazilian Amazonia. This region, spared from large-scale human occupation until the second half of the twentieth century, has been threatened by expanding agriculture, logging, and mining. Here, we describe a new nurse frog (Allobates, Aromobatidae) from the open highland habitats of Serra dos Pacaás Novos, one of the few large remnants of relatively intact native vegetation in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. The new species is diagnosed by its metallic orange dorsal colouration, weakly expanded discs on hands, and presence of two subarticular tubercles on Finger IV. A phylogenetic analysis based on DNA sequence data recovered the new species as more closely related to nurse frogs from the Madeira and Tapajós River basins; this pattern may reflect a history of dispersal uphill from a lowland ancestor. Our results also indicate that the generic assignment of Allobates alessandroi (Grant and Rodriguez, 2001), a high-elevation species from the Andes of Peru, needs to be reassessed; we discuss the phylogenetic affinities of this species based on morphological attributes.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:79131D82-B1B6-455D-AD9A-676D7E0783BC     

Living in Conceivable Worlds

Certain cognitive and philosophical aspects of the concept of conceivability with intended or established diversion from (putative) reality are discussed. The “coherence gap problem” arises when certain fragments of the real world are replaced with imaginary situations while most details are (intentionally or not) ignored. Another issue, “the spectator problem”, concerns the participation of the conceiver himself in the world conceived. Three different examples of conceivability are used to illustrate our points, namely thought experiments in physics, a hypothetical world devoid of consciousness (zombie world), and virtual reality. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Unitary Noise and the Mermin-GHZ Game

Communication complexity is an area of classical computer science which studies how much communication is necessary to solve various distributed computational problems.Quantum information processing can be used to reduce the amount of communication required to carry out some distributed problems.We speak of pseudo-telepathy when it is able to completely eliminate the need for communication.Since it is generally very hard to perfectly implement a quantum winning strategy for a pseudo-telepathy game,quantum players are almost certain to make errors even though they use a winning strategy.After introducing a model for pseudotelepathy games,we investigate the impact of erroneously performed unitary transformations on the quantum winning strategy for the Mermin-GHZ game.The question of how strong the unitary noise can be so that quantum players would still be better than classical ones is also dealt with.     

Crustal strain field in central japan, based on the wavelet analyzed GPS time-series data

In order to estimate the secular crustal deformation in central Japan, we adopted the wavelet technique to find and remove the data discontinuities associated with earthquakes and artificial errors, and also remove seasonal variations and white noises in the GPS time series data of daily co-ordinates obtained from the continuous GPS network, GEONET of GSI. The strain components were computed based on least-squares prediction method by using improved time series data.The motion velocities of GPS sites at uniform 7 km × 7 km grids were interpolated by adopting the empirical covariance function and then differentiated with respect to space to estimate strain rates.The estimated strain field shows that there existed a compressive regime in the entire region. Higher maximum shear strain rates of about 0.2 microstrain/a are shown in and around the Izu and Boso peninsulas, and Tokyo Bay. Relatively high maximum shear strain rates are also shown in the southern Tohoku district and another notable area along the coast of the Japan Sea,which nearly corresponds to the Shinanogawa seismic zone.     

Impact of localized badger culling on tuberculosis incidence in British cattle

Pathogens that are transmitted between wildlife, livestock and humans present major challenges for the protection of human and animal health, the economic sustainability of agriculture, and the conservation of wildlife. Mycobacterium bovis, the aetiological agent of bovine tuberculosis (TB), is one such pathogen. The incidence of TB in cattle has increased substantially in parts of Great Britain in the past two decades, adversely affecting the livelihoods of cattle farmers and potentially increasing the risks of human exposure. The control of bovine TB in Great Britain is complicated by the involvement of wildlife, particularly badgers (Meles meles), which appear to sustain endemic infection and can transmit TB to cattle. Between 1975 and 1997 over 20,000 badgers were culled as part of British TB control policy, generating conflict between conservation and farming interest groups. Here we present results from a large-scale field trial that indicate that localized badger culling not only fails to control but also seems to increase TB incidence in cattle.