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As anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems increase, novel solutions are needed to mitigate increasing human–wildlife conflict. Aversive conditioning is one strategy that can reduce the risks of humans living alongside wildlife by modifying the behavior of animals through their experiences with humans. Although considered rare, American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) attacks on humans most often occur in human‐dominated landscapes and can be fatal. Our goal was to determine if capture and release protocols might serve as a form of aversive conditioning to reduce alligator tolerance of humans. Specifically, we compared the behavioral response of alligators in South Carolina, USA, in 2009–2018 to an approaching human for animals with 3 different levels of capture experience: alligators from a reference site where no captures occurred, alligators from a site where captures occurred that directly experienced capture and release, and alligators from the site where captures occurred that indirectly experienced capture and release (never captured but likely observed capture of others). We used a hurdle model and information‐theoretic approach to evaluate support for 8 hypotheses regarding factors that influence alligator probability of flight in response to an approaching human and the flight initiation distance (FID) of alligators that did flee. Our hypotheses considered the effects of capture experience, exposure to non‐capture (visual) surveys, alligator size, ambient temperature, and season. The best‐supported models provided strong evidence that capture experience increased the probability of flight and, to a lesser extent, increased FID of alligators that did flee, but that the strength of the effect varied with alligator size or some correlate. Furthermore, the effect of capture may extend beyond animals with direct experience. Capture and release protocols can result in an aversive conditioning response in alligators, effectively reducing habituation to humans. Given the geographic limitations of our study, more work is necessary to determine whether the utility of aversive conditioning may be site‐dependent, or similarly effective across a wider selection of developed landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The counseling experiences of 13 transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals were examined via semistructured, in-depth interviews. Using multiple standards of trustworthiness (e.g., member checking, negative case analysis), the authors analyzed each interview from an interpretative phenomenological analytic framework. Four main themes were identified: mental health professional selection process, transaffirmative approach, transnegative approach, and support systems beyond counseling. Implications for implementing culturally responsive TGNC affirmative counseling, TGNC sensitive counselor training, and social justice-oriented research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Face detection is the determination of the positions and sizes of faces, primarily human, within digital images and videos, often as a component of a broader facial recognition system. It is seen as technologically mature, yet its operational performance typically remains sub‐optimal, even within the less difficult frontal face detection tests. Empirical evidence shows that the Viola–Jones framework, a standard face detection solution with generally superior performance and other desirable properties, underdetects in some instances. Some true faces survive all but the final stages of the rejection cascade, resulting in missed faces. A hybrid framework consisting of a neural network following a truncated Viola–Jones cascade is constructed in an attempt to recover the undetected faces. Presumably, the neural network could fine tune and augment the face decision. Its inputs are a subset of the thresholding (detection) values of a rejection cascade's intermediate stages. Experiments reveal significantly improved performance, with increased detection rates if no false alarm increases are tolerated, with a greater detection rate increase if some false alarm increases are acceptable, and with a substantial false alarm reduction with no detection reduction. These improved face detection results could address shortcomings in widely‐varying applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "landscape of fear" model has been proposed as a unifying concept in ecology, describing, in part, how animals behave and move about in their environment. The basic model predicts that as an animal's landscape changes from low to high risk of predation, prey species will alter their behavior to risk avoidance. However, studies investigating and evaluating the landscape of fear model across large spatial scales (tens to hundreds of thousands of square kilometers) in dynamic, open, aquatic systems involving apex predators and highly mobile prey are lacking. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated predator- prey relationships between tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) and loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) in the North Atlantic Ocean. This included the use of satellite tracking to examine shark and turtle distributions as well as their surfacing behaviors under varying levels of home range overlap. Our findings revealed patterns that deviated from our a priori predictions based on the landscape of fear model. Specifically, turtles did not alter their surfacing behaviors to risk avoidance when overlap in shark-turtle core home range was high. However, in areas of high overlap with turtles, sharks exhibited modified surfacing behaviors that may enhance predation opportunity. We suggest that turtles may be an important factor in determining shark distribution, whereas for turtles, other life history trade-offs may play a larger role in defining their habitat use. We propose that these findings are a result of both biotic and physically driven factors that independently or synergistically affect predator-prey interactions in this system. These results have implications for evolutionary biology, community ecology, and wildlife conservation. Further, given the difficulty in studying highly migratory marine species, our approach and conclusions may be applied to the study of other predator- prey systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airway smooth muscle ( ASM) displays a hyperresponsive phenotype at young age and becomes less responsive in adulthood. We hypothesized that allergic sensitization, which causes ASM hyperresponsiveness and typically occurs early in life, prevents the ontogenetic loss of the ASM hyperresponsive phenotype. We therefore studied whether neonatal allergic sensitization, not followed by later allergen challenges, alters the ontogenesis of ASM properties. We neonatally sensitized guinea pigs to ovalbumin and studied them at 1 week, 3 weeks, and 3 months (adult). A Schultz-Dale response in isolated tracheal rings confirmed sensitization. The occurrence of inflammation was evaluated in the blood and in the submucosa of large airways. We assessed ASM function in tracheal strips as ability to produce force and shortening. ASM content of vimentin was also studied. A Schultz-Dale response was observed in all 3-week or older sensitized animals. A mild inflammatory process was characterized by eosinophilia in the blood and in the airway submucosa. Early life sensitization had no effect on ASM force generation, but prevented the ontogenetic decline of shortening velocity and the increase in resistance to shortening. Vimentin increased with age in control but not in sensitized animals. Allergic sensitization at birth without subsequent allergen exposures is sufficient to prevent normal ASM ontogenesis, inducing persistence to adulthood of an ASM hyperresponsive phenotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although satellite tracking has yielded much information regarding the migrations and habitat use of threatened marine species, relatively little has been published about the environmental niche for loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta in north-west Atlantic waters. North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, USA. We tracked 68 adult female turtles between 1998 and 2008, one of the largest sample sizes to date, for 372.2 ± 210.4 days (mean ± SD). We identified two strategies: (1) 'seasonal' migrations between summer and winter coastal areas ( n = 47), although some turtles made oceanic excursions ( n = 4) and (2) occupation of more southerly 'year-round' ranges ( n = 18). Seasonal turtles occupied summer home ranges of 645.1 km (median, n = 42; using α-hulls) predominantly north of 35 ° latitude and winter home ranges of 339.0 km ( n = 24) in a relatively small area on the narrow shelf off North Carolina. We tracked some of these turtles through successive summer ( n = 8) and winter ( n = 3) seasons, showing inter-annual home range repeatability to within 14.5 km of summer areas and 10.3 km of winter areas. For year-round turtles, home ranges were 1889.9 km. Turtles should be tracked for at least 80 days to reliably estimate the home range size in seasonal habitats. The equivalent minimum duration for 'year-round' turtles is more complex to derive. We define an environmental envelope of the distribution of North American loggerhead turtles: warm waters (between 18.2 and 29.2 °C) on the coastal shelf (in depths of 3.0-89.0 m). Our findings show that adult female loggerhead turtles show predictable, repeatable home range behaviour and do not generally leave waters of the USA, nor the continental shelf (< 200m depth). These data offer insights for future marine management, particularly if they were combined with those from the other management units in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates nine techniques of counting great blue heron nests in South Carolina. Use of accuracy and precision as criteria; Colony locations; Nesting colonies; Description of counting techniques; Estimation error; Observer bias; Comparison of estimates of colony and population size; Management implications of study results.

The article discusses the role of airway smooth muscle (ASM) in asthma and other airway hyperresponsiveness disorders. It reports on the concept called reversible obstructive airway disease, or ROAD, which unified different views on the role of ASM in the mentioned disorders. It explains how Doctor Newman Stephens argued for a role for increased ASM shortening in asthma that is independent of persistent inflammatory stimulation and presents a model developed by M.W. Kepron.