Nuclear and ionic charge distribution experiment on ISEE-1 and ISEE-3

The experimental work carried out under this contract is a continuation of that originally performed under Contracts NAS5-20062 and NAS5-26739. The data analyzed are from the Max-Planck Institut/Univ. of Maryland experiment on ISEE-1 and ISEE-3. Each spacecraft experiment consists of a nearly identical set of three sensors (designated the ULECA, ULEWAT, and ULEZEQ sensors) designed to measure the energy spectra and composition of suprathermal and energetic ions over a broad energy range (less than 3 keV/e to more than 20 MeV/nucleon). Since the launch of ISEE's 2 and 3, the MPI/Univ. of Maryland experiments have generally performed as expected except for a partial failure of the ULEWAT sensor on ISEE-1 in August 1978. A number of scientific studies have either been completed, initiated or are at various stages of completion. A brief summary of Primary Results is given, followed by a more detailed summary of the major accomplishments at the Univ. of Maryland

Social-Ecological Innovations and Outcomes of Community-Based Conservation in Africa: Implications for the Future

Community-based conservancies (CBCs) are growing in numbers throughout Africa, particularly in the arid and semi-arid (ASAL) regions where pastoralists raise livestock and live among much of Africa’s remaining wildlife. CBCs emerge around national parks and other protected areas of wildlife spaces apart from people. Community conservancies, in contrast to national parks, are land tenure and land use governance arrangements to conserve wildlife while providing for the livelihoods of African pastoralists. Some conservancies develop by communities in partnership with public agencies, while others are associated with non-government organizations and/or the private sector. Others are more top-down in origin, supported by large international donors and governments. Conservancies tend to develop in nation states that, until recently, have ignored the ASALs. Currently however, ASALs are converting to towns and croplands as human populations and consumption grow. Shifting market incentives encourage different livestock strategies away from local production to commercial livestock products. Energy extraction and renewable energy production are expanding into these areas, transforming landscapes, communities, and rural cultures. Formerly communal rangelands are increasingly privatizing and subdividing as pastoralists permanently settle. Fragmentation of communal lands is the result. We assess the goals of formation of community-based conservation, the partnerships, and outcomes for pastoralists

FIRE: Agent of Change

Self immolation protests have been used over the course of history for expressions of personal protest and religious persecution, but more recent ones have been focused on political protest and been chained to revolution as in Tunisia. Even in the face of constant harassment and repression, Mohamed Bouazizi was a compassionate man. He chose to react with violence on no one but himself in response to the harassment he had experienced all his life. Having used every channel of complaint available to him and receiving no respite from his woes, Mohamed Bouazizi self immolated. Social networks are not a new thing, but the addition of social media to social networks is, and the incredibly visual image of his burning as well as video of violent reaction from security forces on the very first protests by his friends and family were uploaded to Twitter and Facebook and told the story in an almost minute by minute accounting of the beginnings of a revolution. Without the social media component there would not have been a Tunisian revolution for there would have been no Twitter to upload a photo to, nowhere to share the picture that was taken of Bouazizi’s self immolation. Like no other revolution before it social media was the tipping point, and the peaceful Tunisian uprising that began as a small protest in the city of Sidi Bouzid had begun

On the independence ratio of distance graphs

A distance graph is an undirected graph on the integers where two integers are adjacent if their difference is in a prescribed distance set. The independence ratio of a distance graph $G$ is the maximum density of an independent set in $G$. Lih, Liu, and Zhu [Star extremal circulant graphs, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 12 (1999) 491--499] showed that the independence ratio is equal to the inverse of the fractional chromatic number, thus relating the concept to the well studied question of finding the chromatic number of distance graphs. We prove that the independence ratio of a distance graph is achieved by a periodic set, and we present a framework for discharging arguments to demonstrate upper bounds on the independence ratio. With these tools, we determine the exact independence ratio for several infinite families of distance sets of size three, determine asymptotic values for others, and present several conjectures.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures, 6 table

Iron charge states observed in the solar wind

Solar wind measurements from the ULECA sensor of the Max-Planck-Institut/University of Maryland experiment on ISEE-3 are reported. The low energy section of approx the ULECA sensor selects particles by their energy per charge (over the range 3.6 keV/Q to 30 keV/Q) and simultaneously measures their total energy with two low-noise solid state detectors. Solar wind Fe charge state measurements from three time periods of high speed solar wind occurring during a post-shock flow and a coronal hole-associated high speed stream are presented. Analysis of the post-shock flow solar wind indicates the charge state distributions for Fe were peaked at approx +16, indicative of an unusually high coronal temperature (3,000,000 K). In contrast, the Fe charge state distribution observed in a coronal hole-associated high speed stream peaks at approx -9, indicating a much lower coronal temperature (1,400,000 K). This constitutes the first reported measurements of iron charge states in a coronal hole-associated high speed stream

Wildlife Conservation and the Role of the Indigenous Communities Living around Conservation Areas

The Indigenous Kenyan Maasai community has coexisted with the wildlife surrounding it for decades from Nairobi National Park, Maasai Mara and Amboseli. These parks border Maasai lands. Although the northern, eastern, and western perimeters of the Nairobi National Park are fenced, the southern part is not. It is at this point that the Maasai community’s land meets the park. This area also acts as a wildlife dispersal area where wildlife can freely migrate to other parks, including Maasai Mara and Amboseli. The park is only 117sq kms and its vitality depends on the plains to the south where the Maasai live so that the animals can migrate in and out. Without that open space, the park would be little more than a zoo. The fact is that approximately 60 to 80 percent of wildlife in Kenya is outside formally protected areas. For the Maasai community, wildlife poses an enormous threat. As herbivores migrate during the wet season, they are followed by predators such as lions. Livestock are an easy target for them. A lion attack can be devastating, ruining family lives and livelihoods. Lions have traditionally been the Maasai tribe’s greatest adversaries; they are a deadly threat to the cattle and other livestock that are both an integral part of the Maasai culture and the tribe’s greatest source of wealth. Despite the ongoing livestock predation, lions may be the tribe’s strongest hope of preserving their way of life. With these in mind, it becomes imperative that we think of systems for better correlation between all aspects of conservation and understand that the wildlife, livestock, and the surrounding pastoral communities play a key role in each other’s survival

Ethical Ideology, Animal Rights Activism, and Attitudes Toward the Treatment of Animals

In two studies, we used the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) to investigate the relationship between individual differences in moral philosophy, involvement in the animal rights movement, and attitudes toward the treatment of animals. In the first, 600 animal rights activists attending a national demonstration and 266 nonactivist college students were given the EPQ. Analysis of the returns from 157 activists and 198 students indicated that the activists were more likely than the students to hold an absolutist moral orientation (high idealism, low relativism). In the second study, 169 students were given the EPQ with a scale designed to measure attitudes toward the treatment of animals. Multiple regression showed that gender and the EPQ dimension of idealism were related to attitudes toward animal use

Animals, Archetypes, and Popular Culture: Tales from the Tabloid Press

This paper characterizes the portrayal of animals and human-animal relations in one genre of American popular culture—the “supermarket” tabloid press. A total of 789 animal-related stories and photographs in 82 issues of four tabloid magazines were analyzed according to theme. The items fell into nine categories in which animals were portrayed as objects of affection, saviors, threats, victims, things to be used, sex objects, imaginary and mythological beings, surrogate humans, and objects of wonder. It is argued that these themes represent archetypes reflecting the roles that animals have had in human cultural and psychological life since the historical origins of our species