Trace elements status of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and moose (Alces alces) in Nova Scotia
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The province of Nova Scotia is considered to have two moose (Alces alces) populations. In 2003, the moose of the mainland area of the province were formally listed “ENDANGERED” under the Nova Scotia Endangered Species Act. To date, the specific causes of the Mainland moose population decline have not been determined. Trace element imbalances have been considered as a potential etiology for the population decline. Liver and kidney samples were collected from white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and moose throughout Nova Scotia during the fall and winter 2000-01 to compare trace element concentrations between the two species, in relation to age, gender and location and to other areas. All samples were analysed for arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, nickel, selenium and zinc. Tissue concentrations of trace elements in deer and moose in Nova Scotia appear to be generally similar to levels reported in cervid populations elsewhere in North America and Europe with the exception of zinc and possibly cobalt which appear to be lower in Nova Scotia. Kidney cadmium concentrations are high in some Nova Scotia moose (geometric mean: 60.4 μg/g dry weight [95%CI: 40.3 - 90.6]), however, similar or higher concentrations have been reported in other regions. Relative to reference values for domestic cattle, cobalt, copper, manganese, selenium and zinc levels in some animals are deficient or marginally deficient. At the present time, there appears to be little supporting evidence that clinical deficiencies of any of these trace elements are occurring in Nova Scotia moose or deer populations. However, the possibility that marginal or deficient levels of these or other trace elements and high levels of cadmium may impact the health of individual animals either directly or through interactions with other factors (eg. infectious and non-infectious diseases, harsh environmental conditions, habitat limitations) cannot be dismissed. Recommendations for continued monitoring of trace element concentrations in these populations are made.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".