Millions of nocturnally migrating birds die each year from collisions with built structures, especially brightly illuminated buildings and communication towers. Reducing this source of mortality requires knowledge of important behavioral, meteorological, and anthropogenic factors, yet we lack an understanding of the interacting roles of migration, artificial lighting, and weather conditions in causing fatal bird collisions. Using two decades of collision surveys and concurrent weather and migration measures, we model numbers of collisions occurring at a large urban building in Chicago. We find that the magnitude of nocturnal bird migration, building light output, and wind conditions are the most important predictors of fatal collisions. The greatest mortality occurred when the building was brightly lit during large nocturnal migration events and when winds concentrated birds along the Chicago lakeshore. We estimate that halving lighted window area decreases collision counts by 11× in spring and 6× in fall. Bird mortality could be reduced by ∼60% at this site by decreasing lighted window area to minimum levels historically recorded. Our study provides strong support for a relationship between nocturnal migration magnitude and urban bird mortality, mediated by light pollution and local atmospheric conditions. Although our research focuses on a single site, our findings have global implications for reducing or eliminating a critically important cause of bird mortality.

We used the Automatic Domain Decomposition Algorithm (ADDA) to generate a database of protein domain families with complete coverage of all protein sequences. Sequences are split into domains and domains are grouped into protein domain families in a completely automated process. The current database contains domains for more than 1.5 million sequences in more than 40 000 domain families. In particular, there are 3828 novel domain families that do not overlap with the curated domain databases Pfam, SCOP and InterPro. The data are freely available for downloading and querying via a web interface (http://ekhidna.biocenter.helsinki.fi:9801/sqgraph/pairsdb).

This platform has immense potential to be a useful and translatable in vitro testing tool for drug discovery and myelination studies.

Monitoring avian migration within subarctic regions of the globe poses logistical challenges. Populations in these regions often encounter the most rapid effects of changing climates, and these seasonally productive areas are especially important in supporting bird populations—emphasizing the need for monitoring tools and strategies. To this end, we leverage the untapped potential of weather surveillance radar data to quantify active migration through the airspaces of Alaska. We use over 400 000 NEXRAD radar scans from seven stations across the state between 1995 and 2018 (86% of samples derived from 2013 to 2018) to measure spring and autumn migration intensity, phenology and directionality. A large bow-shaped terrestrial migratory system spanning the southern two-thirds of the state was identified, with birds generally moving along a northwest–southeast diagonal axis east of the 150th meridian, and along a northeast–southwest axis west of this meridian. Spring peak migration ranged from 3 May to 30 May and between, 18 August and 12 September during the autumn, with timing across stations predicted by longitude, rather than latitude. Across all stations, the intensity of migration was greatest during the autumn as compared to spring, highlighting the opportunity to measure seasonal indices of net breeding productivity for this important system as additional years of radar measurements are amassed.

Sheehan syndrome, also called postpartum hypopituitarism, is primarily caused by ischemic necrosis of the pituitary resulting from a complicated pregnancy. As the clinical presentations occur years after the complication, it is difficult to diagnose this condition. In this report, we discuss the case of a 35-year-old female with altered mental status, generalized edema, and loss of appetite. The condition was complicated due to the comorbidities of multiple medical conditions such as massive pericardial effusion and untreated jaundice. Her anorexic condition perfectly masked the malnourished appearance of the patient. After multiple laboratory tests and diagnostic imaging, the empty sella turcica of the patient propounded Sheehan syndrome. Replacement of the deficient hormones improved her condition after two weeks. Patients with complicated pregnancy history should be advised for diagnostic imaging early in life to appropriately manage Sheehan syndrome. A delay in diagnosis can have significant health and financial loss. Hormone replacement therapy is the only viable option as there is no cure to treat necrosed pituitary.