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Many animal species exhibit spatiotemporal synchrony in population fluctuations, which may provide crucial information about ecological processes driving population change. We examined spatial synchrony and concordance among population trajectories of five aerial insectivorous bird species: chimney swift Chaetura pelagica, purple martin Progne subis, barn swallow Hirundo rustica, tree swallow Tachycineta bicolor, and northern rough-winged swallow Stelgidopteryx serripennis. Aerial insectivores have undergone severe guild-wide declines that were considered more prevalent in northeastern North America. Here, we addressed four general questions including spatial synchrony within species, spatial concordance among species, frequency of declining trends among species, and geographic location of declining trends. We used dynamic factor analysis to identify large-scale common trends underlying stratum-specific annual indices for each species, representing population trajectories shared by spatially synchronous populations, from 46 yr of North American Breeding Bird Survey data. Indices were derived from Bayesian hierarchical models with continuous autoregressive spatial structures. Stratumlevel spatial concordance among species was assessed using cross-correlation analysis. Probability of long-term declining trends was compared among species using Bayesian generalized linear models. Chimney swifts exhibited declining trends throughout North America, with less severe declines through the industrialized Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes regions. Northern rough-winged swallows exhibited declining trends throughout the west. Spatial concordance among species was limited, the proportion of declining trends varied among species, and contrary to previous reports, declining trends were not more prevalent in the northeast. Purple martins, barn swallows, and tree swallows exhibited synchrony across smaller spatial scales. The extensive within-species synchrony and limited concordance suggest that population trajectories of these aerial insectivores are responding to large-scale but complex and species- and region-specific environmental conditions (e.g. climate, land use). A single driver of trends for aerial insectivores as a guild appears unlikely.

There has been substantial progress in small object detection in aerial images in recent years, due to the extensive applications and improved performances of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Typically, traditional machine learning algorithms tend to prioritize inference speed over accuracy. Insufficient samples can cause problems for convolutional neural networks, such as instability, non-convergence, and overfitting. Additionally, detecting aerial images has inherent challenges, such as varying altitudes and illuminance situations, and blurred and dense objects, resulting in low detection accuracy. As a result, this paper adds a transformer backbone attention mechanism as a branch network, using the region-wide feature information. This paper also employs a generative model to expand the input aerial images ahead of the backbone. The respective advantages of the generative model and transformer network are incorporated. On the dataset presented in this study, the model achieves 96.77% precision, 98.83% recall, and 97.91% mAP by adding the Multi-GANs module to the one-stage detection network. These three indices are enhanced by 13.9%, 20.54%, and 10.27%, respectively, when compared to the other detection networks. Furthermore, this study provides an auto-pruning technique that may achieve 32.2 FPS inference speed with a minor performance loss while responding to the real-time detection task’s usage environment. This research also develops a macOS application for the proposed algorithm using Swift development technology.

Deep learning has brought about a significant transformation in machine learning, leading to an array of novel methodologies and consequently broadening its influence. The application of deep learning in various sectors, especially biomedical data analysis, has initiated a period filled with noteworthy scientific developments. This trend has majorly influenced cancer prognosis, where the interpretation of genomic data for survival analysis has become a central research focus. The capacity of deep learning to decode intricate patterns embedded within high-dimensional genomic data has provoked a paradigm shift in our understanding of cancer survival. Given the swift progression in this field, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive review that focuses on the most influential studies from 2021 to 2023. This review, through its careful selection and thorough exploration of dominant trends and methodologies, strives to fulfill this need. The paper aims to enhance our existing understanding of applications of deep learning in cancer survival analysis, while also highlighting promising directions for future research. This paper undertakes aims to enrich our existing grasp of the application of deep learning in cancer survival analysis, while concurrently shedding light on promising directions for future research in this vibrant and rapidly proliferating field.

Magnesium is essential for many physiological functions in the human body. Its homeostasis involves dietary intake, absorption, uptake and release from bone, swifts between the intra- and extracellular compartment, and renal excretion. Renal excretion is mainly responsible for regulation of magnesium balance. In chronic kidney disease (CKD), for a long time the general policy has been limiting magnesium intake. However, this may not be appropriate for many patients. The reference ranges for magnesium are not necessarily optimal concentrations, and risks for insufficient magnesium intake exist in patients with CKD. In recent years, many observational studies have shown that higher (in the high range of “normal” or slightly above) magnesium concentrations are associated with better survival in CKD cohorts. This review gives an overview of epidemiological associations between magnesium and overall and cardiovascular survival in patients with CKD. In addition, potential mechanisms explaining the protective role of magnesium in clinical cardiovascular outcomes are described by reviewing evidence from in vitro studies, animal studies, and human intervention studies with non-clinical endpoints. This includes the role of magnesium in cardiac arrhythmia, heart failure, arterial calcification, and endothelial dysfunction. Possible future implications will be addressed, which will need prospective clinical trials with relevant clinical endpoints before these can be adopted in clinical practice.

One speaks of ecological substitutes when an introduced species performs, to some extent, the ecosystem function of an extirpated native species. We suggest that a similar case exists for habitats. Species evolve within ecosystems, but habitats can be destroyed or modified by natural and human-made causes. Sometimes habitat alteration forces animals to move to or remain in a suboptimal habitat type. In that case, the habitat is considered a refuge, and the species is called a refugee. Typically refugee species have lower population growth rates than in their original habitats. Human action may lead to the unintended generation of artificial or semiartificial habitat types that functionally resemble the essential features of the original habitat and thus allow a population growth rate of the same magnitude or higher than in the original habitat. We call such areas substitution habitats and define them as human-made habitats within the focal species range that by chance are partial substitutes for the species' original habitat. We call species occupying a substitution habitat adopted species. These are 2 new terms in conservation biology. Examples of substitution habitats are dams for European otters, wheat and rice fields for many steppeland and aquatic birds, and urban areas for storks, falcons, and swifts. Although substitution habitats can bring about increased resilience against the agents of global change, the conservation of original habitat types remains a conservation priority. Se habla de los sustitutos ecológicos cuando una especie introducida desempeña, hasta cierto punto, la función ambiental de una especie nativa extirpada. Sugerimos que existe un caso similar para los hábitats. Las especies evolucionan dentro de los ecosistemas, pero los hábitats se pueden destruir o modificar por causas humanas o naturales. Algunas veces, la alteración del hábitat obliga a los animales a mudarse o a permanecer en un tipo de hábitat sub-óptimo. En este caso, el hábitat es considerado un refugio y a la especie se le denomina refugiada. Comúnmente, las especies refugiadas tienen una tasa de crecimiento poblacional más bajo que en sus hábitats originales. La actividad humana puede llevar a la generación no intencionada de tipos de hábitats artificiales o semi-artificiales que se parecen funcionalmente en los caracteres esenciales del hábitat original y por ende permiten una tasa de crecimiento poblacional de igual o mayor magnitud que en el hábitat original. Llamamos a dichas áreas hábitats sustitutos y los definimos como los hábitats dentro de la extensión de la especie focal, causados por el humano y que por causalidad son sustitutos parciales del hábitat original de la especie. A las especies que ocupan estos hábitats las llamamos especies adoptadas. Estos son dos términos nuevos en la biología de la conservación. Las represas para la nutria europea, los campos de trigo y arroz para muchas aves acuáticas y esteparias y las áreas urbanas para las cigüeñas, los halcones y los vencejos son ejemplos de hábitats sustitutos. Aunque los hábitats sustitutos pueden traer consigo una resiliencia incrementada ante los agentes del cambio global, la conservación del hábitat original permanece como una prioridad de la conservación.

The use of accelerometers has become an important part of biologging techniques for large-sized birds with accelerometer data providing information about flight mode, wing-beat pattern, behaviour and energy expenditure. Such data show that birds using much energy-saving soaring/gliding flight like frigatebirds and swifts can stay airborne without landing for several months. Successful accelerometer studies have recently been conducted also for free-flying small songbirds during their entire annual cycle. Here we review the principles and possibilities for accelerometer studies in bird migration. We use the first annual actograms (for red-backed shrike Lanius collurio ) to explore new analyses and insights that become possible with accelerometer data. Actogram data allow precise estimates of numbers of flights, flight durations as well as departure/landing times during the annual cycle. Annual and diurnal rhythms of migratory flights, as well as prolonged nocturnal flights across desert barriers are illustrated. The shifting balance between flight, rest and different intensities of activity throughout the year as revealed by actogram data can be used to analyse exertion levels during different phases of the life cycle. Accelerometer recording of the annual activity patterns of individual birds will open up a new dimension in bird migration research.

Harvesting edible birds’ nests (EBN) produced by swiftlets from caves and purpose-built dwellings has generated a new high-value, non-timber forest product-based livelihood for rural smallholders across Indonesia. Drawing on extended fieldwork, we explore the gendered labour and livelihood outcomes for households transitioning from EBN cave harvesting to domestication in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Following calls from feminist political ecology, we investigate the more visible ‘men’s work’ associated with EBN access and labour and highlight women’s pivotal, yet often overlooked, role in managing the associated household incomes and land-based livelihoods. We show how the increasing demand for ‘wild’ EBN drove significant changes in the ownership rights of caves in the region, securitisation and scarcity of the nests, and the rise in precarious labour conditions. The increasing demand for ‘wild’ EBN has intensified extraction and securitisation of caves and nests, and the precarity of work for Dayak men working as cave guards and harvesters. In response, many Dayak women—who receive and manage their husbands’ salaries—saved to scale up their household’s EBN production using purpose-built swiftlet farmhouses. Both spouses’ labour contributions were integral to securing a sustained source of income through the EBN trade, enabling income diversification and a more hopeful future for rural households.

The current study aims to comprehend the population status and distribution of the Indian Swiftlet ( , family: Apodidae) using primary and secondary data. We acquired the population data from the secondary literature and presence data from open source (GBIF.org). We conducted surveys to document the breeding and foraging locations of the species in the Western Ghats, West Coast and Offshore islands of Maharashtra. After estimating the population, we used the presence data to create a model predicting species distribution in current and future scenarios. The Indian Swiftlet’s current distribution is from Southwest Maharashtra to Kerala and Sri Lanka. In future, the changing climate might restrict it to the southern Western Ghats and some pockets in Sri Lanka. Burnt Island, home to the largest known colony, deserves conservation attention. We recommend population surveys and immediate conservation efforts to ensure the survival of the Indian Swiftlet endemic to India and Sri Lanka.

A major challenge in biodiversity management is overharvesting by unsustainable harvesters. If a scenario could be created where sustainable harvesters benefit more than the unsustainable ones, even in the short term, the issue of overharvesting would be solved. Everyone would then follow the lead of sustainable harvesters. However, creating such a scenario is not an easy task; the difficulty is intensified if the habitat is open access and there is no property rights system. Swiftlets in Sarawak, Malaysia, present a special case where sustainable harvesters are believed to be more beneficial than unsustainable harvesters. Edible nests built by adult Swiftlets are used as ingredients for a traditional luxurious soup in Chinese cuisine. A rise in nest prices has increased the instances of unsustainable harvesters wrongfully collecting nests along with the eggs and fledglings, which are then abandoned. Swiftlets live in caves and build nests on cave ceilings. It is known that Swiftlets escape from cave ceilings when these harvesters take the nests, never to return to the same place. This ecological feature appears to work as the Swiftlet’s indirect punishment against unsustainable harvesters. This study constructs a stage-structured population model and examines the effect of property rights and the indirect punishment by Swiftlets on the population dynamics of the bird, and on the economic return of both sustainable and unsustainable harvesters. Our findings are as follows: the indirect punishment by Swiftlets provides sustainable harvesters a higher short-term return than unsustainable harvesters under the property rights system, as long as Swiftlets return to their original cave after escaping from the unsustainable harvesters. While previous studies regarding the management of the commons have stressed the importance of rules and regulations for sustainable harvesting without considering the ecological uniqueness of each species, this study suggests that ecological exploration and the discovery of ecological features are also essential for designing a sustainable framework.

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl) spirochetes include the agents of Lyme borreliosis in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and merge their transmission cycles mainly with ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex. Twenty genospecies compose Bbsl currently, and with the exception of Borrelia chilensis, and Borrelia garinii, all have been described only for North America, Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Here, we collected specimens of Ixodes paranaensis, a tick associated with swifts in a Brazilian natural park from the state of Minas Gerais, and performed a molecular characterization of 11 borrelial genes. Based on comparisons of inter and intraspecific genetic divergences, and Bayesian phylogenetic trees inferred for 16S rRNA, flaB, p66, and concatenated clpA, clpX, pepX, pyrG, recG, nifS rlpB, and uvrA genes, we demonstrate the occurrence of a new genospecies of Bbsl. “Candidatus Borrelia ibitipoquensis” Ip37 is closely related to Borrelia sp. Am501, and Borrelia valaisiana, a spirochete transmitted by ticks of the I. ricinus complex in Eurasia that uses birds as reservoirs. In a similar ecological scenario involving ticks and avian hosts, the migratory swift Streptoprocne biscutata is the sole-documented bird associated with I. paranaensis, and, although not assessed in this study, could correspond to the vertebrate reservoir of this newly described genospecies in Brazil. Pathogenic roles of “Ca. B. ibitipoquensis” are still unknown. However, its possible vector I. paranaensis is not an anthropophilic tick, so human infections would be unlikely to occur. Our finding enhances the knowledge on Bbsl in South America, highlights the occurrence of ecologically and genetically related genospecies with vastly separated geographical distributions, and calls for the attention to explore a barely known diversity of spirochetes of this group in the region. anthropophilic tick, so human infections would be unlikely to occur. Our finding enhances the knowledge on Bbsl in South America, highlights the occurrence of ecologically and genetically related genospecies with vastly separated geographical distributions, and calls for the attention to explore a barely known diversity of spirochetes of this group in the region.