The study was focused on study of diversity of Cryptosporidium spp. in wild canines and bears in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland and Romania. A total of 359 faecal samples were collected from 179 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), 83 grey wolves (Canis lupis), 63 brown bears (Ursus arctos) and 34 jackals (Canis aureus). Faecal samples were screened for Cryptosporidium by microscopy and PCR/sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis of small-subunit rRNA, actin and 60-kDa glycoprotein sequences revealed the presence of C. tyzzeri, C. andersoni in red foxes, C. canis and C. ubiquitum in gray wolves and C. galli in a brown bear and a red fox. Subtyping of C. ubiquitum and C. tyzzeri isolate by sequence analysis of the 60-kDa glycoprotein gene showed that isolates belonged to the XIId and IXa subtype family, respectively. Detection of host-non-specific cryptosporidia, except C. canic and C. ubiquitum, in wild canine and bears shows rather a food preference of screened carnivors than on an active infection.

Historically, kit foxes (Vulpes macrotis) once occupied the desert and semi-arid regions of southwestern North America, ranging from Idaho to central Mexico. Their range-wide decline has warranted the kit fox to be listed as endangered in Colorado, threatened in California and Oregon, and designated as a state sensitive species in Idaho and Utah. Once considered the most abundant carnivore in western Utah, the kit fox has been in steep decline over the past decade, creating a demand to determine kit fox presence. Currently there is little consensus on which survey methodology is best to detect kit fox presence. We tested 4 survey methods (scat deposition, scent station, spotlight, trapping) along 15 5-km transects within a minimum known population of radio collar kit fox. Home range sizes for kit foxes on the study site were extremely large, averaging 20.5 km2. Scat deposition surveys had both the highest detection probabilities (= 0.88) and were the most closely related to known fox abundance (r2 =0.50, P = 0.001). For detecting kit foxes in a low density population we suggest using scat deposition transects during the breeding season. This method had low costs, was resilient to weather, had low labor requirements, and entailed no risk to the study animals.Next in determining kit fox presence is estimating kit fox distribution. We developed resource selection functions (RSF) using presence data from the noninvasive scat surveys to model kit fox distribution. We evaluated the predictive performance of RSFs built using three popular techniques (Maxent, fixed-effects and mixed-effects general linear models) combined with common environmental parameters (slope, aspect, elevation, soil type). Both the Maxent and fixed-effects models performed to an acceptable level with relatively high area under the curve (AUC) scores of 0.83 and 0.75, respectively. The mixed-effects model over valued higher elevations and had poor model fit. This study demonstrated that it was possible to create valid and informative predictive maps of a species distribution using a noninvasive survey method for detecting a carnivore existing at low density. By demonstrating the application of noninvasive surveying to model habitat quality for a small mesocarnivore, wildlife management agencies will be able to develop predictive maps for species of interest and provide more knowledge to help guide future management decisions.

<p>Imajući u vidu opasnost od zoonotske i antropozoonotske transmisije<em> Capillaria aerophila&nbsp;</em>po&nbsp;zdravlje životinja i ljudi, u ovom radu je ispitivana prevalencija kapilarijaze kod lisica&nbsp;poreklom sa različitih lokaliteta područja Vojvodine. Istraživanjem je bilo obuhvaćeno 146&nbsp;le&scaron;eva lisica. Uzorci lisica su prikupljani od decembra meseca 2009. do decembra meseca&nbsp;2012. godine. Sagledavanjem rezultata patolo&scaron;ke sekcije traheja i bronhija pluća 146 lisica,&nbsp;dobijena je izuzetno visoka prevalencija kapilarijaze od 77%, na osnovu čega se može&nbsp;zaključiti, da je područje Vojvodine novo područje u svetu sa izuzetno visokom prevalencom&nbsp;<em>C.</em> <em>aerophila&nbsp;</em>kod crvene lisice. Primenom koprolo&scaron;kog metoda ispitivanja kapilarijaza je&nbsp;dokazana kod 55 (41%) od ukupno 133 ispitivane lisice. Najveći broj lisica pozitivnih na&nbsp;prisustvo <em>C.</em> <em>aerophila&nbsp;</em>je bio iz Južnobačkog (24,7%) i Sremskog okruga (21,2%), a najmanji&nbsp;iz Južnobanatskog okruga (1,4%). Lisice Vojvodine su visoko infestirane kapilaridama.&nbsp;Ukupno je izolovano 1249 jedinki respiratorne nematode <em>C.</em> <em>aerophila</em>. Srednji broj nađenih&nbsp;parazita u traheji je bio 11,0, sa varijacijama od 1 do 60 kod pojedinih lisica. Među&nbsp;kapilaridama dominirale su ženke (67%), visoko reproduktivno sposobne, u odnosu na&nbsp;mužjake (33%). Korelativnom analizom između sezonskih količina padavina u Vojvodini i&nbsp;srednjeg broja nađenih adulta <em>C. aerophila&nbsp;</em>u traheji i bronhijama lisica utvrđeno je postojanje&nbsp;srednje značajne povezanosti. Patohistolo&scaron;kom analizom sluzokože traheja i tkiva pluća kod&nbsp;14 lisica, nisu bile utvrđene značajne patolo&scaron;ke promene. Ni u jednom slučaju nije bilo&nbsp;utvrđeno prisustvo parazitskih elemenata u tkivu pluća, koji bi ukazali na postojanje&nbsp;verminozne pneumonije kod lisica.&nbsp;</p> / <p>Having in mind an animal or human health hazard from zoonotic and anthropozoonotic transmissions of <em>Capillaria aerophila</em>, this paper is investigating a prevalence of capillariasis in foxes from different sites in Vojvodina.<br />Research included 146 fox corpses. Samples were gathered from December 2009 to December 2012. The resulting extremely high prevalence kapilarijaze of 77%, based on the results of pathologicalsections of the trachea and bronchi of the lung in 146 foxes, on the grounds thatit can be concluded that the area of Vojvodina new area in the world with an extremely high prevalence of&nbsp; <em>C. aerophila&nbsp;</em>in red foxes. Coprology proved capillariasis in 55 (41%) out of&nbsp; 133 examined foxes. The majority of positive foxes were from the South Bačka District (24,7%) and Syrmia (21,2%), and the smallest number of positive ones were from South Banat District (1,4%). Foxes in Vojvodina were highly infested with capillary worms. A total of 1249 <em>C. aerophila&nbsp;</em>nematode has been found. Average number of found parasites in trachea was 11,0 with variations from 1 to 60 in somefoxes. Among capillary worms, females prevailed (67%), very reproductivly capable, compared to males (33%). Correlative analysis showed the existence medium significance level of correlation between seasonal precipitation in Vojvodina, and the mean number found nematode <em>C. aerophila</em> in the trachea and bronchi fox. Pathohistology of tracheal mucosa and lung tissue in 14 foxes did not determine significant pathological changes. In neither one of the cases was determined the presence ofparasite elements in lung tissue, which would point to the existance of fox verminous pneumonia.</p>

This study explores the application of object detection models for detecting Arctic Foxes in camera trap images, a crucial step towards automating wildlife monitoring and enhancing conservation efforts. The study involved training models on You Only Look Once version 7(YOLOv7) architecture across different locations using k-fold cross-validation technique and evaluating their performance in terms of mean Average Precision (mAP), precision, and recall. The models were tested on both validation and unseen data to assess their accuracy and generalizability. The findings revealed that while certain models performed well on validation data, their effectiveness varied when applied to unseen data, with significant differences in performance across the datasets. While one of the datasets demonstrated the highest precision (88%), and recall (94%) on validation data, another one showed superior generalizability on unseen data (precision 76%, recall 95%). The models developed in this study can aid in the efficient identification of Arctic Foxes in diverse locations. However, the study also identifies limitations related to dataset diversity and environmental variability, suggesting the need for future research to focus on training models during different seasons and having different aged Arctic Foxes. Recommendations include expanding dataset diversity, exploring advanced object detection architectures to go one step further and detect Arctic Foxes with skin diseases, and testing the models in varied field conditions.

abstract: Rabies is an infectious viral disease. It is usually fatal if a victim reaches the rabid stage, which starts after the appearance of disease symptoms. The disease virus attacks the central nervous system, and then it migrates from peripheral nerves to the spinal cord and brain. At the time when the rabies virus reaches the brain, the incubation period is over and the symptoms of clinical disease appear on the victim. From the brain, the virus travels via nerves to the salivary glands and saliva. A mathematical model is developed for the spread of rabies in a spatially distributed fox population to model the spread of the rabies epizootic through middle Europe that occurred in the second half of the 20th century. The model considers both territorial and wandering rabid foxes and includes a latent period for the infection. Since the model assumes these two kinds of rabid foxes, it is a system of both partial differential and integral equations (with integration over space and, occasionally, also over time). To study the spreading speeds of the rabies epidemic, the model is reduced to a scalar Volterra-Hammerstein integral equation, and space-time Laplace transform of the integral equation is used to derive implicit formulas for the spreading speed. The spreading speeds are discussed and implicit formulas are given for latent periods of fixed length, exponentially distributed length, Gamma distributed length, and log-normally distributed length. A number of analytic and numerical results are shown pertaining to the spreading speeds. Further, a numerical algorithm is described for the simulation of the spread of rabies in a spatially distributed fox population on a bounded domain with Dirichlet boundary conditions. I propose the following methods for the numerical approximation of solutions. The partial differential and integral equations are discretized in the space variable by central differences of second order and by the composite trapezoidal rule. Next, the ordinary or delay differential equations that are obtained this way are discretized in time by explicit continuous Runge-Kutta methods of fourth order for ordinary and delay differential systems. My particular interest is in how the partition of rabid foxes into territorial and diffusing rabid foxes influences the spreading speed, a question that can be answered by purely analytic means only for small basic reproduction numbers. I will restrict the numerical analysis to latent periods of fixed length and to exponentially distributed latent periods. The results of the numerical calculations are compared for latent periods of fixed and exponentially distributed length and for various proportions of territorial and wandering rabid foxes. The speeds of spread observed in the simulations are compared to spreading speeds obtained by numerically solving the analytic formulas and to observed speeds of epizootic frontlines in the European rabies outbreak 1940 to 1980. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Applied Mathematics 2018

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-149). / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / vi, 149 leaves, bound ill. (some col.), col. map 29 cm

It is my belief that theatre is the telling of stories, and that playwrighting is the creation of those stories. Regardless of the underlying motives (to make the audience think, to make them feel, to offend them or to draw them in,) the core of the theatre world is the storyline. Some critics write of the importance of audience effect and audience reception; after all, a performance can only be so named if at least one person is there to witness it. So much of audience effect is based the storyline itself - that structure of which is created by the power characters have over others. Theatre generalists learn of Aristotle's well-made play structure. Playwrights quickly learn to distinguish between protagonists and antagonists. Actors are routinely taught physicalizations of creating "status" onstage. A plotline is driven by the power that people, circumstances, and even fate exercise over protagonists. Most audience members naturally sympathize with the underdog or victim in a given storyline, and so the submissive or oppressed character becomes (largely) the most integral. By what process, then, is this sense of oppression created in a play? How can oppression/victimization be analyzed with regard to character development? With emerging criticism suggesting that the concept of character is dying, what portrayals of victim have we seen in the late 20th century? What framework can we use to fully understand this complex concept? What are we to see in the future, and how will the concept evolve? In my attempt to answer these questions, I first analyze the definition of "victim" and what categories of victimization exist - the victim of a crime, for example, or the victim of psychological oppression. "Victim" is a word with an extraordinarily complex definition, and so for the purposes of this study, I focus entirely on social victimization - that is, oppression or harm inflicted on a character by their peers or society. I focus on three major elements of this sort of victimization: harm inflicted on a character by another (not by their own actions), harm inflicted despite struggle or protest, and a power or authority endowed on the victimizer by the victim. After defining these elements, I analyze the literary methods by which playwrights can represent or create victimization - blurred lines of authority, expressive text, and the creation of emotion through visual and auditory means. Once the concept of victim is defined and a framework established for viewing it in the theatre, I analyze the victimization of one of American theatre's most famous sufferers - Eugene O'Neill's Yank in The Hairy Ape. To best contextualize this character, I explore the theories of theatre in this time period - reflections of social struggles, the concept of hierarchy, and clearly drawn class lines. I also position The Hairy Ape in its immediate historical and theoretical time period, to understand if O'Neill created a reflection on or of his contemporaries. Finally, I look at the concept of victim through the nonrealistic and nonlinear plays of the 20th century - how it has changed, evolved, or even (as Eleanor Fuchs may suggest) died. I found that my previously established framework for "making victim" has change dramatically to apply to contemporary nonlinear theatre pieces. Through this study, I have found that the lines of victimization and authority are as blurred today in nonrealistic and nonlinear theatre as they were in the seemingly "black and white" dramas of the 1920s and 30s. In my research, I have found the very beginnings of an extraordinarily complex definition of "victim".

Dans l'Arctique, le risque de transmission de maladies zoonotiques comme la rage est encore une préoccupation pour la santé publique, avec plusieurs cas rapportés chaque année chez différentes espèces animales. L’interface entre la faune sauvage, les animaux domestiques et les humains pour la transmission de maladies sera en augmentation en raison des pressions grandissantes du développement anthropique et du réchauffement climatique. Les interactions directes entre les chiens domestiques des villages nordiques et les renards sauvages, les principales sources d’exposition à la rage, sont des évènements critiques pour l’exposition des humains au virus, mais très peu d’études se sont attardées à ce sujet. Les objectifs de ce projet sont 1- de décrire et de quantifier l’activité spatiale et temporelle des renards et des chiens libres et d’identifier les facteurs anthropiques et environnementaux qui influencent leur présence à proximité et dans les villages nordiques, 2- de quantifier les contacts directs et le potentiel d’interactions entre les renards et les chiens libres afin de mieux identifier les périodes et les zones avec un risque de transmission de la rage, 3- de comparer et discuter des résultats de l’activité des renards et des chiens libres et leur potentiel d’interactions entre les deux villages nordiques à l’étude et 4- d’identifier des méthodes de gestion pour diminuer les opportunités d’interactions entre les renards et les chiens libres. Afin de détecter la présence des deux carnivores, un réseau de caméras automatiques a été installé sur une grille spatiale autour et à l’intérieur de deux villages typiques du Nord, Kuujjuaq (près de la limite des arbres) et Inukjuak (à > 100 km de la limite des arbres). Pour chaque station caméra, différents facteurs anthropiques et environnementaux ont été évalués (distance au dépotoir, distance à l’aéroport, densité d’habitations, densité de chiens de traîneau, distance aux rues, distance à l’eau, indice de végétation). Les contacts directs et les indices d’interaction ont été calculés pour évaluer le potentiel d’interactions entre les renards et les chiens libres. Les opportunités d’interactions entre les renards et les chiens sont plus élevées à l’aube et au crépuscule pendant les mois d'octobre et de novembre en périphérie des deux villages, particulièrement près des chiens de traîneau et légèrement près du dépotoir municipal (KU) et de l’aéroport (IN). Les renards roux et les renards arctiques ont été observés à proximité et dans les deux villages, mais les renards roux sont plus souvent observés à Kuujjuaq (87% des observations) qu’à Inukjuak (renards arctiques : 74% des observations), ce qui reflète également des particularités biotiques et abiotiques uniques à chaque village. Les résultats suggèrent que les opportunités d’interactions entre les renards et les chiens représentent un risque d’exposition à la rage pour les chiens et les humains, et possiblement pour d’autres pathogènes nordiques transmissibles entre les chiens et la faune. Cependant, les évènements de contacts directs interspécifiques renard-chien sont rares et les opportunités d’interactions sont concentrées dans le temps et dans des zones restreintes, ce qui peut aider à cibler des mesures préventives visant à limiter les évènements de transmission. Cette étude fournit la première documentation sur l'activité des renards et leurs interactions avec les chiens libres dans les villages de l'Arctique. L’application d’une approche « Une seule Santé » devrait être utilisée pour prévenir ou diminuer le risque de transmission de la rage entre les renards et les chiens. / In the Arctic, the risk of transmission of zoonotic diseases like rabies is still a public health concern, with several cases reported each year in different animal species. The interface between wildlife, domestic animals and humans for disease transmission will be increasing due to pressures from anthropogenic development and global warming. Direct interactions between domestic dogs in northern communities and wild foxes, the main source of rabies exposure, are critical of human exposure to the virus, but very few studies have focused on this. The objectives of this project are 1- to describe and quantify the spatial and temporal activity of free-ranging dogs and foxes, and identify the anthropogenic and environmental factors that influence their presence near and within northern villages, 2- to quantify direct contacts and the potential for interactions between free-ranging dogs and foxes in order to better identify periods and areas of higher risk of rabies transmission, 3- to compare and contrast dog-fox activity and interactions between the two northern villages under study, and 4- to identify management methods to reduce opportunities for fox-dog interactions. To detect the presence of the two carnivores, we set up a network of automatic cameras near and within two typical northern villages, i.e., Kuujjuaq (near the tree line) and Inukjuak (> 100 km from the tree line). For each camera, different anthropogenic and environmental factors were evaluated (distance to the landfill, distance to the airport, density of dwellings, density of sled dogs, distance to streets, distance to water, vegetation index). Direct contacts and interaction index were calculated to assess the potential for interactions between foxes and free-roaming dogs. Interaction opportunities between foxes and dogs are more likely to occur at dawn and dusk during the months of October and November, and on the outskirts of both villages, particularly near sled dogs and slightly nearer to the landfill (KU) and the airport (IN). Red and Arctic foxes were observed in and around both villages, but red foxes were more frequently observed in Kuujjuaq (87% of observations) while Arctic foxes were more frequent in Inukjuak (74% of observations), which also reflects the biotic and abiotic particularities specific to each village. These results suggest that fox-dog contacts around and within the village are likely, posing a real risk of peri-domestic rabies transmission to dogs and humans, and possibly for other northern pathogens transmissible between wildlife and dogs. Nevertheless, interspecific direct contact events are rare and interaction opportunities are concentrated in time and space, which may help target preventive measures aimed at limiting transmission events. This study provides the first documentation on the activity of foxes and their interactions with dogs and humans in Arctic communities. Considering the potential risk-by-proximity described in our study, a “One Health” approach could be applied to prevent or lower fox-dog rabies transmission.