Island Life: Use of Activity Budgets and Visibility to Evaluate a Multi-Species Within-Zoo Exhibit Move.

Modern zoos strive to construct habitats which both enable and encourage animals to engage in species-specific behaviour, without compromising their visibility to visitors. Here, we present the findings of a within-zoo move to a custom-built exhibit (Islands at Chester Zoo, UK) with respect to the behaviour of four mammal species; the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), crested macaque (Macaca nigra), Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) and the Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus). We used full activity budgets along with Compositional Data Analysis (CoDA) to gain insight into how the move to a more naturalistic exhibit influenced behaviour. Engagement in abnormal behaviour remained low during the study period for all four species, suggesting no adverse responses to the change in environment. Following the move, both the non-human primate species spent more time engaged in positive social interactions with conspecifics, highlighting the importance of social support during enclosure moves. Time spent visible to the public was largely unaffected by the enclosure move for the Sumatran orangutan, whilst the movement to a new environment increased visibility for the Malayan sun bear and decreased visibility for the crested macaque and Malayan tapir. We demonstrate the value of monitoring behaviour throughout the translocation of zoo-housed species and outline the positive behavioral impacts of providing individuals with naturalistic, species-appropriate environments.

A descriptive study of adverse childhood experiences and depression, anxiety, and stress among undergraduate nursing students.

BACKGROUND/SIGNIFICANCE: The 10-point Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) score measures childhood exposure to traumatic events. An ACEs score of 4 or higher has been associated with long-term physical and mental health problems, and increased mortality. It is unclear if the rates of undergraduate nursing students experiencing ACEs is different from the general population, and what impact ACEs has on nursing students' depression, anxiety and stress. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the rate of ACEs in nursing students and to examine the relationship between ACEs and perceived depression, anxiety, and stress among undergraduate nursing students. METHODS: This is a descriptive correlational study to determine Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) scores and Modified Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) scores for undergraduate pre-licensure students at a private mid-western college. Students' ACEs scores were correlated with DASS-21 scores and demographic data. RESULTS: 409 students volunteered to participate in the study. Seventeen percent of students had high ACEs scores (≥4). Those students with high ACEs scores also scored statically significantly higher on the DASS-21 items relating to depression, anxiety, and stress. CONCLUSION/IMPLICATIONS: Results from this study demonstrated that many nursing students have experienced ACEs and nursing students with ACEs scores of 4 or higher had higher rates of depression, anxiety, and stress. These findings should drive faculty in nursing programs to acknowledge the prevalence of ACEs among their nursing students and recognize that impact on the mental health of students.

The ability to recognize dog emotions depends on the cultural milieu in which we grow up.

Inter-specific emotion recognition is especially adaptive when species spend a long time in close association, like dogs and humans. Here, we comprehensively studied the human ability to recognize facial expressions associated with dog emotions (hereafter, emotions). Participants were presented with pictures of dogs, humans and chimpanzees, showing angry, fearful, happy, neutral and sad emotions, and had to assess which emotion was shown, and the context in which the picture had been taken. Participants were recruited among children and adults with different levels of general experience with dogs, resulting from different personal (i.e. dog ownership) and cultural experiences (i.e. growing up or being exposed to a cultural milieu in which dogs are highly valued and integrated in human lives). Our results showed that some dog emotions such as anger and happiness are recognized from early on, independently of experience. However, the ability to recognize dog emotions is mainly acquired through experience. In adults, the probability of recognizing dog emotions was higher for participants grown up in a cultural milieu with a positive attitude toward dogs, which may result in different passive exposure, interest or inclination toward this species.

Behavioral responses to injury and death in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus).

The wounding or death of a conspecific has been shown to elicit varied behavioral responses throughout thanatology. Recently, a number of reports have presented contentious evidence of epimeletic behavior towards the dying and dead among non-human animals, a behavioral trait previously considered uniquely human. Here, we report on the behavioral responses of Barbary macaques, a social, non-human primate, to the deaths of four group members (one high-ranking adult female, one high-ranking adult male, one juvenile male, and one female infant), all caused by road traffic accidents. Responses appeared to vary based on the nature of the death (protracted or instant) and the age class of the deceased. Responses included several behaviors with potential adaptive explanations or consequences. These included exploration, caretaking (guarding, carrying, and grooming), and proximity to wounded individuals or corpses, and immediate as well as longer-lasting distress behaviors from other group members following death, all of which have been reported in other non-human primate species. These observations add to a growing body of comparative evolutionary analysis of primate thanatology and help to highlight the multifaceted impacts of human-induced fatalities on an endangered and socially complex primate.

Estimating detection and identification probabilities in maritime target acquisition.

This work describes several approaches to the estimation of target detection and identification probabilities as a function of target range. A Bayesian approach to estimation is adopted, whereby the posterior probability distributions associated with these probabilities are analytically derived. The parameter posteriors are then used to develop credible intervals quantifying the degree of uncertainty in the parameter estimates. In our first approach we simply show how these credible intervals evolve as a function of range. A second approach, also following the Bayesian philosophy, attempts to directly estimate the parameterized performance curves. This second approach makes efficient use of the available data and yields a distribution of probability versus range curves. Finally, we demonstrate both approaches using experimental data collected from wide field-of-view imagers focused on maritime targets.

Interpixel crosstalk in Teledyne Imaging Sensors H4RG-10 detectors.

Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-hybrid arrays have become competitive optical detectors for use in ground- and space-based astronomy. Interpixel capacitance (IPC) is one source of error that appears in most CMOS arrays. In this paper, we use a single-pixel-reset method to model IPC. We combine this IPC model with a model for charge diffusion to estimate the total crosstalk on H4RG-10 arrays. Finally, we compare our model results to 55Fe data obtained using an astrometric camera built to test the H4RG-10 B0 generation detectors.

The history of the outbreak of paralytic rabies in Trinidad transmitted by bats to human beings and the lower animals from 1925

In 1925 animals began to die from a disease which was erroneously diagnosed by the veterinary surgeons and the government bacteriologist, Dr. J. L. Pawan, as Botulism or Bulbar Paralysis. In 1929 Dr. J. A. Waterman diagnosed a case of "Acute Ascending Myelitis" and stated that it was probably a new disease. Twelve other cases were discovered during the year, but the diagnosis was changed from Acute Ascending Myelitis to Anterior Poliomyelitis by the senior officers of the department. The government pathologist and bacteriologist confirmed the diagnosis of Anterior Poliomyelitis. In 1931 Dr. Hurst, bacteriologist, Lister Institute discovered Negri bodies in the brain tissue forwarded to him by Dr. K. S. Wise. He suggested that the transmitting agent may be the bat. In 1931 Dr. H. Metivier, Veterinary Surgeon, inoculated a calf, a guinea pig, and a rabbit with the brain tissue of three rabid bats, all of which developed typical symptoms of the disease. To Dr. Metivier must go all the credit for establishing beyond doubt the connection between the bites of bats and the fatal disease, paralytic rabies. In July 1931, Dr. Wise, then Surgeon General, read a paper in which he stated that both diseases were due to the virus of rabies. In September 1931, Negri bodies were demonstrated by Dr. Pawan, Government Bacteriologist, in the brain of a bat with unusual habits. (Summary)