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Resource availability pre‐hibernation and post‐hibernation may be crucial phases for the survival of hibernators. However, the effects of grazing on food availability in pre‐hibernation and on the winter survival of hibernating rodents remains unstudied. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of domestic sheep grazing on northern three‐toed jerboa (Dipus sagitta) populations pre‐, post‐, and during hibernation. We conducted a grazing exclusion experiment with randomized complete block design in the Alxa Desert, Inner Mongolia, China, from April to October 2006 to 2011. We live‐trapped jerboas in 3 grazed plots and 3 ungrazed plots. We measured the quantity of vegetation in grazed and ungrazed plots to determine the relationship between jerboas and plant food resources. We observed higher jerboa densities both pre‐ and post‐hibernation, and heavier individual body mass pre‐hibernation, in ungrazed sites. More food availability contributed to higher jerboa body mass in ungrazed areas during pre‐hibernation, and attracted more jerboas immigrating to ungrazed areas during the post‐hibernation period. These results demonstrate that grazing negatively affects the northern three‐toed jerboa population by adjusting food availability pre‐ and post‐hibernation; survival rates were not affected by grazing. © 2018 The Wildlife Society. Grazing exclusion is beneficial for northern three‐toed jerboas by providing increased total food biomass and preferred food biomass before and after hibernation. In grassland management, excluding livestock in overgrazed areas may contribute to an increase in the northern three‐toed jerboa population. To achieve an ecological balance between grass, northern three‐toed jerboa, and livestock, it is necessary to adjust the traditional grazing strategy before and after hibernation in the Alxa Desert.

The evaluation of megakaryocytes is an important part of the work up on bone marrow smear examination. It has significance in the differential diagnosis, therapeutic efficacy assessment, and predication of prognosis of many hematologic diseases. The process of manual identification of megakaryocytes are tedious and lack of reproducibility; therefore, a reliable method of automated megakaryocytic identification is urgently needed. Three hundred and thirty-three bone marrow aspirate smears were digitized by Morphogo system. Pathologists annotated megakaryocytes on the digital images of marrow smears are applied to construct a large dataset for testing the system's predictive performance. Subsequently, we obtained megakaryocyte count and classification for each sample by different methods (system-automated analysis, system-assisted analysis, and microscopic examination) to study the correlation between different counting and classification methods. Morphogo system localized cells likely to be megakaryocytes on digital smears, which were later annotated by pathologists and the system, respectively. The system showed outstanding performance in identifying megakaryocytes in bone marrow smears with high sensitivity (96.57%) and specificity (89.71%). The overall correlation between the different methods was confirmed the high consistency (r≥ 0.7218, R2≥ 0.5211) with microscopic examination in classifying megakaryocytes. Morphogo system was proved as a reliable screen tool for analyzing megakaryocytes. The application of Morphogo system shows promises to advance the automation and standardization of bone marrow smear examination.

This study aimed to reveal the causal relationships of dietary and lifestyle habits with socio-economic status (SES) and three health-related factors (physical, mental and social health) in elderly urban dwellers in Japan. All the elderly urban dwellers aged 65 years or more in an urban area of Tokyo were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire in September 2001. There were 13,195 respondents with a response rate of 80.2%. And then, two follow-up surveys were conducted in 2004 and 2007, respectively. Finally, 8162 respondents were included as analysis subjects. Data analysis was performed using factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM). As a result of an exploratory factor analysis, three latent variables (‘dietary and lifestyle habits in 2004’, ‘SES in 2001’ and ‘three health-related factors in 2001’) were defined and applied in the SEM. From the best-fit models, dietary and lifestyle habits in 2004 were well explained by SES and three health-related factors in 2001 (R2 = 0.44 for elderly men and R2 = 0.61 for elderly women). The results showed that dietary and lifestyle habits in 2004 were not only directly affected by SES and the three health-related factors in 2001, but also indirectly by SES via the three health-related factors. Moreover, the causal relationships between the three latent variables depended on sex and age. In conclusion, SES as a basic determinant – enough income, high education level and good physical, mental and social health – favoured both directly and indirectly the practice of healthy or desirable lifestyle habits of the elderly late in life. It will be necessary to construct a model with higher external validity in a future study.

Abstract: Surfing is a technique for implementing high-speed digital pipelines that exploits the analog dynamics of the underlying circuits. Thus, verification must consider the analog behaviour of the design. We have presented a method for analysing the robustness of surfing circuits. We formulate noise margin analysis as a non-linear optimization problem where we find the smallest disturbance waveform that results in a qualitative change in the behavior of the circuit. We present a practical method for solving these optimization problems based on deriving a sensitivity matrix for the small-signal response of the circuit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]