Do terraces and coconut mats affect seeds and submerged aquatic vegetation at Sabine National Wildlife Refuge?

Terraces are a widely used wetland restoration tools in coastal Louisiana, yet the benefits of terraces are poorly documented. Like terraces, coconut mats also may increase abundance of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), but their benefits are undocumented. I compared SAV and seed abundance in a marsh pond among three treatments: terrace, coconut mat, and marsh. I evaluated terraces constructed in 1999 and coconut mats installed in 2001 in portions of unit 7 of Sabine National Wildlife Refuge that converted from emergent marsh to open water between 1956 and 1978. I randomly selected 3 terrace, marsh, and coconut mat stations. I evaluated transects 0 meters, 5 meters, and 50 meters (here after open water) from emergent vegetation at each station. Submerged aquatic vegetation was evaluated on the terrace and marsh by harvesting SAV from 10-cm diameter cores, harvesting SAV from 1-m2 plots, and raking: only 1-m2 plot sampling was conducted on coconut mat treatments. I evaluated seed abundance on terrace and marsh transects with 10-cm diameter cores, which could not be used on the coconut mats. Submerged aquatic vegetation biomass differed between treatments and sampling dates. Biomass of SAV, as estimated by the cores, was greater on the marsh transects than the terrace transects. The SAV biomass, as estimated by 1-m2 plots, was greatest during September 2002. Biomass of SAV, as estimated by 1-m2 plots, was greater on coconut mats than terrace or marsh transects. Raking indicated that in September 2002, the percent occurrence of SAV was greater on the marsh transects than on the terrace transects. Seed biomass was greater adjacent to marsh than to terraces, which was similar to that in open water. Seeds of sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense Crantz) accounted for 87% of the seed biomass but did not germinate in a greenhouse. My results indicated that terraces failed to increase SAV abundance above levels found in open water as was predicted. I concluded that restoration planners should no longer assume that terraces increase SAV abundance. Coconut mats increased SAV abundance. Additional studies on a variety of areas and configurations are needed to determine if my observations are typical

Candidate control design metrics for an agile fighter

Success in the fighter combat environment of the future will certainly demand increasing capability from aircraft technology. These advanced capabilities in the form of superagility and supermaneuverability will require special design techniques which translate advanced air combat maneuvering requirements into design criteria. Control design metrics can provide some of these techniques for the control designer. Thus study presents an overview of control design metrics and investigates metrics for advanced fighter agility. The objectives of various metric users, such as airframe designers and pilots, are differentiated from the objectives of the control designer. Using an advanced fighter model, metric values are documented over a portion of the flight envelope through piloted simulation. These metric values provide a baseline against which future control system improvements can be compared and against which a control design methodology can be developed. Agility is measured for axial, pitch, and roll axes. Axial metrics highlight acceleration and deceleration capabilities under different flight loads and include specific excess power measurements to characterize energy meneuverability. Pitch metrics cover both body-axis and wind-axis pitch rates and accelerations. Included in pitch metrics are nose pointing metrics which highlight displacement capability between the nose and the velocity vector. Roll metrics (or torsion metrics) focus on rotational capability about the wind axis

Sampling random graphs with specified degree sequences

The configuration model is a standard tool for uniformly generating random graphs with a specified degree sequence, and is often used as a null model to evaluate how much of an observed network's structure can be explained by its degree structure alone. A Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm, based on a degree-preserving double-edge swap, provides an asymptotic solution to sample from the configuration model. However, accurately and efficiently detecting this Markov chain's convergence on its stationary distribution remains an unsolved problem. Here, we provide a solution to detect convergence and sample from the configuration model. We develop an algorithm, based on the assortativity of the sampled graphs, for estimating the gap between effectively independent MCMC states, and a computationally efficient gap-estimation heuristic derived from analyzing a corpus of 509 empirical networks. We provide a convergence detection method based on the Dickey-Fuller Generalized Least Squares test, which we show is more accurate and efficient than three alternative Markov chain convergence tests.Comment: Same as version v3 but with corrected white spaces between paragraph

Equitable allocations in northern fisheries: bridging the divide for Labrador Inuit

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Kourantidou, M., Hoagland, P., Dale, A., & Bailey, M. Equitable allocations in northern fisheries: bridging the divide for Labrador Inuit. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, (2021): 590213, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.590213.Canada has undertaken commitments to recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples in fisheries through policies and agreements, including Integrated Fishery Management Plans, the Reconciliation Strategy, and Land Claim Agreements (LCAs). In addition to recognizing rights, these commitments were intended to respect geographic adjacency principles, to enhance the economic viability of Indigenous communities, and to be reflective of community dependence on marine resources. We examined the determinants of quota allocations in commercial fisheries involving Nunatsiavut, Northern Labrador, the first self-governing region for the Inuit peoples in Canada. It has been argued that current fishery allocations for Nunatsiavut Inuit have not satisfied federal commitments to recognize Indigenous rights. Indicators that measure equity in commercial allocations for the turbot or Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) and northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) fisheries were identified and assessed. In these two cases, historical allocations continue to predominate for allocations based upon equity or other social or economic considerations. We illustrate equity-enhancing changes in the quota distribution under scenarios of different levels of inequality aversion, and we make qualitative assessments of the effects of these allocations to Nunatsiavut for socioeconomic welfare. This approach could benefit fisheries governance in Northern Labrador, where federal commitments to equity objectives continue to be endorsed but have not yet been integrated fully into quota allocations.This research was undertaken with funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund through the Ocean Frontier Institute (MK and MB) and the Johnson Endowment of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (WHOI) Marine Policy Center (PH)

A Systematic Mapping Review of Health Promotion and Well-being Concepts in Physical Therapy

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The American Physical Therapy Association adopted the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) in 2008. ICF provided universal terminology for health professions, defined health in bio-psychosocial terms, and introduced neutral language and contextual influences on health (World Health Organization, 2001). The primary purpose of this study was to create a descriptive map of the physical therapy (PT) literature specific to the areas of health promotion (HP), prevention, and well-being and the use of ICF terminology. The secondary intent was to explore the status of research and topics of interest physical therapy pertaining to these areas. METHODS: A systematic mapping review aims to evaluate the knowledge of or evidence for specific areas (Evidence for Policy and Practice Information Centre, 2010). It allows researchers to conduct an in-depth review and construct a descriptive map of the literature, gain an understanding of the state of affairs pertaining to scholarship of a particular concept or topic, and identify gaps and directions for future study (Grant & Booth, 2009). Comprehensive database searches were conducted using combinations of the search terms “physical therapy,” “health promotion,” “wellness,” and “well-being.” Ultimately, 132 articles met study criteria and were analyzed. A coding sheet was created using ICF terminology and tested for inter-rater reliability, and each article was reviewed. Articles were classified as primary prevention for healthy populations or secondary/tertiary prevention for those with a diagnosis. The coded articles were charted for further descriptive analysis and identification of themes. RESULTS: Four major subcategories were identified in the articles: wellness, well-being, quality of life (QOL), or HP. The distribution of articles for well-being, wellness, and HP were fairly even for primary prevention, and only 10% of the articles involved QOL. However, the majority of articles related to secondary/tertiary prevention coded for well-being (48.4%) or QOL (45.3%). Both primary prevention and secondary/tertiary prevention articles most commonly coded for exercise (75% and 87.5, respectively) and mood (55% and 81%, respectively). Other recurring primary prevention article codes were balance (32%), musculoskeletal (29%), and neuromuscular (26%). Secondary/tertiary prevention articles had common codes of neuromuscular (53%), pain (50%), and mobility (47%). CONCLUSIONS: The composition of PT literature on primary prevention in healthy individuals and secondary/tertiary prevention in individuals with diagnosis is markedly different. It appears that researchers associate HP and wellness with healthy populations, and QOL and well-being with populations with a diagnosis. The inconsistent and interchangeable use of language was a challenge for systematic analysis

Green Chemistry Using Bismuth Salts Bismuth (III) Iodide Catalyzed Deprotection of Acetals and Ketals in H2O

Since the Pollution Prevention Act was passed in 1990, synthetic organic chemists have focused on the use of environmentally friendly reagents. Often, many synthetic labs use metal catalysts (compounds containing Hg, Ni, Pb, & Sn) that are toxic to or have detrimental effects on the environment. Unlike many heavy metal compounds, bismuth and its compounds have been found to be relatively non-toxic and environmentally friendly. Due to poor shielding of the nucleus by the f electrons bismuth compounds have been shown to be efficient Lewis acid catalysts for many reactions. The goal of this project to utilize bismuth compounds, specifically bismuth(III) iodide, as catalysts for the deprotection of acetals in water. Water is an attractive solvent because it is inexpensive, non-toxic, and non-flammable. The deprotections of cyclic and acyclic acetals and ketals were carried out in good yields using catalytic amounts of bismuth(III) iodide. Furthermore, it has been observed that these reactions exhibit chemoselectivity, for e.g. an acetal can be selectively cleaved in the presence of a TBDMS (tert-butyldimethyl silyl) group