The jump-yip display of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) is contagious, spreading through a prairie dog town as 'the wave' through a stadium. Because contagious communication in primates serves to assess conspecific social awareness, we investigated whether instigators of jump-yip bouts adjusted their behaviour relative to the response of conspecifics recruited to display bouts....

It seems I am fighting a two-front war, besieged by three superb scholars. Professors Robert Delahunty and John Yoo,1 and Professor Michael Ramsey2 have authored bracing and challenging responses to Unleashing the Dogs of War (Unleashing).3 Though I have learned from these essays, their authors might say that I have not learned enough because I continue to adhere to the categorical theory’s cla...

background: toxoplasma gondii infects a wide range of animals; felines are definitive hosts and other animals including the dogs are intermediate hosts. the aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of t. gondii infection in dogs in tehran, capital of iran and to investigate possi­ble associated risk factors. m ethods: three hundreds ninety six serum samples were collected during 20...

The day-to-day experiences of aging citizens differ significantly from young, technologically savvy engineers. Yet, well-meaning engineers continue to design technologies for aging citizens, informed by skewed stereotypes of aging without deep engagements from these users. This paper describes a co-design project based on the principles of Participatory Design that sought to provide aging peopl...

Quantitatively distinguishing grassland degradation due to climatic variations from that due to human activities is of great significance to effectively governing degraded grassland and realizing sustainable utilization. The objective of this study was to differentiate these two types of drivers in the Liao River Basin during 1999-2009 using the residual trend (RESTREND) method and to evaluate ...

Although global change is known to influence plant invasion, little is known about interactions between altered precipitation and invasion. In the North American mixedgrass prairie, invasive species are often abundant in wet and nitrogen (N)-rich areas, suggesting that predicted changes in precipitation and N deposition could exacerbate invasion. Here, this possibility was tested by seeding six...

In 2008, a Trichinella spp. outbreak occurred on a small family-owned pig farm in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in northeastern Germany. To obtain epidemiologic information on this outbreak, we determined that after 2005 the prevalence of Trichinella spp. in wild boars has increased in this region of Germany. We discuss the potential role of the raccoon dog in the increase in Trichinella spp. p...

Powerline rights-of-way (ROWs) often provide habitat for early successional bird species that have suffered long-term population declines in eastern North America. To determine how the abundance of shrubland birds varies with habitat within ROW corridors and with land use patterns surrounding corridors, we ran Poisson regression models on data from 93 plots on ROWs and compared regression coeff...

Native bees are important ecologically and economically because their role as pollinators fulfills a vital ecosystem service. Pollinators are declining due to various factors, including habitat degradation and destruction. Grasslands, an important habitat for native bees, are particularly vulnerable. One highly imperiled and understudied grassland type in the United States is the Pacific Northw...