Chhattisgarh, India, harbours a metapopulation of 250–300 Asian elephants Elephas maximus that has expanded its range from neighbouring states since 2000. Elephants in the state occur across a mosaic of forests interspersed with agricultural settlements, leading to frequent interactions with people, some of which culminate in conflict. We assessed patterns of crop losses as a result of elephant incursions, at two spatial scales. We found widespread crop losses, with 1,426 settlements in and around 10 forest divisions and four protected areas reporting elephant-related crop losses during 2015–2020. At the landscape scale, spanning c. 39,000 km2, intensity of habitat use by elephants, forest cover and number of forest patches explained variations in intensity of crop losses. At a finer spatial scale, covering c. 1,200 km2 of forest–agriculture matrix in Surguja, probability of crop loss was low near roads but high close to forest patches and was also affected by patch heterogeneity. Both male and female elephant groups fed on crops. As areas with high crop losses are also areas used intensively by elephants, management to increase elephant occupancy in relatively large and connected forest patches is imperative, to minimize crop losses and improve elephant conservation. Concomitantly, expansion of elephant range into agricultural areas that lack forests should be discouraged. In forest divisions, options to reduce negative human–elephant interactions include institutionalizing elephant monitoring, transparent and prompt ex gratia payment for crop losses, and the use of portable physical barriers.

Evidence indicates that ketamine is highly effective, has a lower side effect profile and is better tolerated compared to many augmentation strategies for refractory depression. This, combined with data on psychiatric treatment outcome mediators, suggests that earlier intervention with ketamine could improve outcomes for patients suffering from refractory depression.

Path loss prediction (PLP) is an important feature of wireless communications because it allows a receiver to anticipate the signal strength that will be received from a transmitter at a given distance. The PLP is done by using machine learning models that take into account numerous aspects such as the frequency of the signal, the surroundings, and the type of antenna. Various machine learning methods are used to anticipate path loss propagation but it is difficult to predict path loss in unknown propagation conditions. In existing models rely on incomplete or outdated data, which can affect the accuracy and reliability of predictions and they do not take into account the effects of environmental factors, such as terrain, foliage, and weather conditions, on path loss. Furthermore, existing models are not robust enough to handle the real-world variability and uncertainty, leading to significant errors in predictions. To tackle this issue, a novel ultrahigh frequency (UHF) PLP based on K-nearest neighbors (KNNs) is developed for predicting and optimizing the path loss for UHF. In this proposed model, a KNN-based PLP has been used to predict the path loss in the UHF. This technique is used for high-accuracy PLP through KNN forecast route loss by determining the K-nearest data points to a particular test point based on a distance metric. Moreover, the existing models were not able to optimize path loss due to complex and large-scale machine learning models. Therefore, the stochastic gradient descent technique has been used to minimize the objective function, which is often a measure of the difference between the model’s predictions and the actual output that will fine-tune the parameters of the KNN model, by measuring the similarity between data points. This model is implemented using Python to make it a lot more convenient.

The Tarim red deer Cervus hanglu has been recently recognized as a separate deer species with populations in China, Central Asia and Kashmir. These populations are few, isolated and at risk of extinction. The documented range of the Kashmir population of the hangul, now recognized as Cervus hanglu hanglu, is restricted to c. 808 km2 and comprises < 200 individuals, confined mainly to the 141 km2 Dachigam National Park. A few relict herds inhabit the surrounding landscape. Here we analyse the results of almost 20 years of population monitoring (January 2001–March 2020). We found that this population is unable to increase despite full protection within Dachigam National Park. We performed a population viability analysis using both deterministic and stochastic simulations and found that further population decrease is likely. We recommend the use of improved monitoring methods to investigate the population dynamics of the hangul and the implementation of measures to reduce the risk of extinction faced by this small population. Science-based conservation policies, including ex situ conservation and reintroduction programmes, will be required to increase the hangul population size and range.

Grassland habitats currently face severe anthropogenic exploitation, thereby affecting the survival of grassland-dependent biodiversity globally. The biodiversity-rich grasslands of India lack quantitative spatiotemporal information on their status. We evaluated the status of upper Gangetic Plains grasslands in 2015 and compared it with those from 1985, 1995 and 2005. On-ground mapping and visual classifications revealed a 57% decline in these grasslands between 1985 (418 km2) and 2015 (178 km2), mostly driven by habitat conversion (74% contribution by cropland). Limited radiotelemetry data from endemic swamp deer indicated a possible grassland-dominated average home range size of 1.02 km2, and these patches were highly preferred (average Ivlev’s index = 0.85) over other land-use classes at both spatial and temporal scales. Camera-trapping within the core habitats suggests the critical use of these patches as fawning/breeding grounds. Habitat suitability analysis indicates only c. 17% of the area along the Ganges is suitable as swamp deer habitat. We recommend the protection of these critical grassland patches to maintain ‘dynamic corridors’, with restoration and other management approaches involving multiple stakeholders to ensure the survival of this critical ecosystem.

Elephant ranges in Asia overlap with human-use areas, leading to frequent and often negative two-way interactions, a fraction of which result in human fatalities. Minimizing such negative interactions rests on gaining a mechanistic understanding of their patterns and underlying processes. In Chhattisgarh (India), a rewilding population of 250–300 elephants that have recently expanded their range from neighbouring states through dispersal has been causing annual losses of >60 human lives. Using logistic regression models, we examined the influences of eight plausible predictors of the occurrence of elephant-related human fatality incidents. We found that 70% of incidents occurred in areas with high-intensity habitat use by elephants; the other 30% were in areas of intermediate and sporadic elephant habitat use. The probability of human fatalities was high along the roads connecting settlements and in areas with frequent house break-ins by elephants, and this probability was also affected by the spatial geometry of forest patches. Immediate practical options to minimize fatal interactions include community-based early-warning systems and the use of portable barriers around settlements. Judicious landscape-level land-use planning aimed at maintaining the resilience of remnant intact elephant habitats will be critical to preventing the dispersal of elephants into suboptimal habitats, which can create complex conflict situations.

Given the complexity of cyber-physical systems (CPS), such as swarms of drones, often deviations, from a planned mission or protocol, occur which may in some cases lead to harm and losses. To increase the robustness of such systems, it is necessary to detect when deviations happen and diagnose the cause(s) for a deviation. We build on our previous work on soft agents, a formal framework based on using rewriting logic for specifying and reasoning about distributed CPS, to develop methods for diagnosis of CPS at design time. We accomplish this by (1) extending the soft agents framework with Fault Models; (2) proposing a protocol specification language and the definition of protocol deviations; and (3) development of workflows/algorithms for detection and diagnosis of protocol deviations. Our approach is partially inspired by existing work using counterfactual reasoning for fault ascription. We demonstrate our machinery with a collection of experiments.

Prior research has shown that buoyant jets and plumes ‘puff’ at a frequency that depends on the balance of momentum and buoyancy fluxes at the inlet, as parametrized by the Richardson number. Experiments have revealed the existence of scaling relations between the Strouhal number of the puffing and the inlet Richardson number, but geometry-specific relations are required when the characteristic length is taken to be the diameter (for round inlets) or width (for planar inlets). Similar to earlier studies of rectangular buoyant jets and plumes, in the present study we use the hydraulic radius of the inlet as the characteristic length to obtain a single Strouhal–Richardson scaling relation for a variety of inlet geometries over Richardson numbers that span three orders of magnitude. In particular, we use adaptive mesh numerical simulations to compute puffing Strouhal numbers for circular, rectangular (with three different aspect ratios), triangular and annular high-temperature buoyant jets and plumes over a range of Richardson numbers. We then combine these results with prior experimental data for round, planar and rectangular buoyant jets and plumes to propose a new scaling relation that describes puffing Strouhal numbers for various inlet shapes and for hydraulic Richardson numbers spanning over four orders of magnitude. This empirically motivated scaling relation is also shown to be in good agreement with prior results from global linear stability analyses.

The swamp deer Rucervus duvaucelii is the largest grassland-dwelling endemic cervid of India and Nepal. With a declining population trend across its range, this species is found in fragmented habitats of northern, north-eastern and central India and south-western Nepal. The northern swamp deer subspecies Rucervus duvaucelii duvaucelii occurs in small wetland patches across the states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh in India and has lost most of its habitat in the last century. Information about the distribution of the swamp deer in the upper Gangetic plains is limited, except in the Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Reserve in Uttarakhand and around the Bijnor barrage area of Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh. We surveyed the upper Gangetic plains between the Reserve and the Sanctuary, including some adjoining areas and three tributaries of the Ganges, to assess the status of these habitats, current swamp deer distribution and the threats faced by the species. We found several areas harbouring swamp deer within non-protected wetlands along the entire surveyed stretch of the upper Ganges and a previously unreported population in Uttar Pradesh. We documented major threats including habitat conversion, livestock grazing, poaching, conflict and other anthropogenic disturbances. We recommend community driven conservation and management of Rucervus duvaucelii duvaucelii in this fragmented landscape to ensure survival of this species and other threatened fauna of these wetlands and grasslands.

Linear logical frameworks with subexponentials have been used for the specification of, among other systems, proof systems, concurrent programming languages and linear authorisation logics. In these frameworks, subexponentials can be configured to allow or not for the application of the contraction and weakening rules while the exchange rule can always be applied. This means that formulae in such frameworks can only be organised as sets and multisets of formulae not being possible to organise formulae as lists of formulae. This paper investigates the proof theory of linear logic proof systems in the non-commutative variant. These systems can disallow the application of exchange rule on some subexponentials. We investigate conditions for when cut elimination is admissible in the presence of non-commutative subexponentials, investigating the interaction of the exchange rule with the local and non-local contraction rules. We also obtain some new undecidability and decidability results on non-commutative linear logic with subexponentials.

Demodex canis infestation in dogs remains one of the main challenges in veterinary dermatology. The exact pathogenesis of canine demodicosis is unknown but an aberration in immune status is considered very significant. No studies have underpinned the nexus between induction of demodicosis and neural immunosuppressive pathways so far. We have evaluated the involvement of cholinergic pathways in association with cytokines regulation as an insight into the immuno-pathogenesis of canine demodicosis in the present study. Remarkable elevations in circulatory immunosuppressive cytokine interleukin-10 and cholinesterase activity were observed in dogs with demodicosis. Simultaneously, remarkable reduction in circulatory pro-inflammatory cytokine tumour necrosis factor-alpha level was observed in dogs with demodicosis. Findings of the present study evidently suggest that Demodex mites might be affecting the cholinergic pathways to induce immunosuppression in their host and then proliferate incessantly in skin microenvironment to cause demodicosis.

We reconstruct centennial scale quantitative changes in surface seawater temperature (SST), evaporation-precipitation (from Mg/Ca and δ18O of surface dwelling planktic foraminifera), productivity (from relative abundance of Globigerina bulloides), carbon burial (from %CaCO3 and organic carbon [%Corg]) and dissolved oxygen at sediment-water interface, covering the entire Holocene, from a core collected from the eastern Arabian Sea. From the multi-proxy record, we define the timing, consequences and possible causes of the mid-Holocene climate transition (MHCT). A distinct shift in evaporation-precipitation (E-P) is observed at 6.4 ka, accompanied by a net cooling of SST. The shift in SST and E-P is synchronous with a change in surface productivity. A concurrent decrease is also noted in both the planktic foraminiferal abundance and coarse sediment fraction. A shift in carbon burial, as inferred from both the %CaCO3 and %Corg, coincides with a change in surface productivity. A simultaneous decrease in dissolved oxygen at the sediment-water interface, suggests that changes affected both the surface and subsurface water. A similar concomitant change is also observed in other cores from the Arabian Sea as well as terrestrial records, suggesting a widespread regional MHCT. The MHCT coincides with decreasing low-latitude summer insolation, perturbations in total solar intensity and an increase in atmospheric CO2.

The problem of flow past a thin wing of circular plan form when the undisturbed flow is along the x-axis, U(z)=Az+V has been solved.

The solutions for potential flow past a wing of circular plan form have been given in terms of spheroidal co-ordinates using the concept of acceleration potential. The solutions can be easily adapted to the case when the undisturbed flow is weakly sheared. In the particular case when the undisturbed velocity U(z) = Az+V, where A and V are constants, the pressure equation can be simplified by a simple substitution and the solution for a thin wing of circular plan form can be easily constructed from the solution for potential flow. If the wings in the two cases develop the same lift, it is found that the wing in shear flow should be slightly cambered (potential wing is un-cambered). The results are shown graphically in Fig. 1.

The direct problem of aerodynamics (profile of the aerofoil is given—calculate the aerodynamic characteristics) has been studied for thin aerofoils with small camber. Given the undisturbed stream function

V, ω, α being the constant velocity, vorticity and angle of incidence respectively, the pressure distribution, lift coefficient and pitching moment have been calculated for a general profile.

Activities such as clinical investigations (CIs) or financial processes are subject to regulations to ensure quality of results and avoid negative consequences. Regulations may be imposed by multiple governmental agencies as well as by institutional policies and protocols. Due to the complexity of both regulations and activities, there is great potential for violation due to human error, misunderstanding, or even intent. Executable formal models of regulations, protocols and activities can form the foundation for automated assistants to aid planning, monitoring and compliance checking. We propose a model based on multiset rewriting where time is discrete and is specified by timestamps attached to facts. Actions, as well as initial, goal and critical states may be constrained by means of relative time constraints. Moreover, actions may have non-deterministic effects, i.e. they may have different outcomes whenever applied. We present a formal semantics of our model based on focused proofs of linear logic with definitions. We also determine the computational complexity of various planning problems. Plan compliance problem, for example, is the problem of finding a plan that leads from an initial state to a desired goal state without reaching any undesired critical state. We consider all actions to be balanced, i.e. their pre- and post-conditions have the same number of facts. Under this assumption on actions, we show that the plan compliance problem is PSPACE-complete when all actions have only deterministic effects and is EXPTIME-complete when actions may have non-deterministic effects. Finally, we show that the restrictions on the form of actions and time constraints taken in the specification of our model are necessary for decidability of the planning problems.