Hunter Activities, Conflicts, and Opinions Following Implementation of a Controlled Waterfowl Hunting Program on the Rend Lake Public Hunting Area in 1995-96

Waterfowl Program Periodic Report no. 90Report issued on: 2 December 199

Hard Times Ahead: Creating Alternative Revenue Streams for Extension

Many 4-H professionals have overlooked the largest source of charitable funding in the United States--individual donors. Former members and volunteers are a likely source of donations. Many former members and volunteers fall into two main generational cohorts: Generation X and the Millennials. Understanding the characteristics of these two groups can improve your chances of turning them from prospective donors to actual donors

A Method for Broad-Scale Environmental Evaluation as Applied in an Environmental Analysis of Central Ohio

Author Institution: Ohio Biological SurveyA general but comprehensive environmental analysis of the environmental resources of a large region may be conducted utilizing an analysis/index matrix and maps of the analyzed resources. This methodology, previously applied to the 10,976 square mile Central Ohio Water Development Region, incorporates ecologically sound data in a format intelligible to decision makers. Resource maps of the region were completed with features rated, where possible, according to relative significance. Two gridded, summary, composite maps, one for natural components and one for human components, were then compiled. Each grid cell on the natural composite map indexes the significant features in that cell and the land use analog of the ecological serai stage (one of four categories) predominant in that cell. The analog is a comprehensive indicator of the relative degree of natural ecological integrity in the cell. Each grid cell on the human composite map indexes the significant features in that cell and the fair market land value category (one of four categories) predominant in the cell. The land value category is a comprehensive indicator of the human value attributed to that area. The two values for each grid cell on both composite maps are inserted into an analysis/index matrix to yield one of three final analysis/index values. These values, one from a natural perspective and one from a human perspective, indicate areas of overall, relative environmental importance. The natural and the human composite maps may be combined to indicate the areas of potential conflict and tradeoff between these two value systems

GLOBAL DIFFUSION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:A REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE

This study investigates some important dimensions of Information Technology (IT) transfer and the development of a global IT policy. Information Technology professionals employed in New England corporations are surveyed to provide a regional perspective on these dimensions. The analysis of 62 responses obtained from a survey questionnaire demonstrates that significant differences exist between the perceptions of IT professionals in different industries, with varying levels of experience, and positions in the organizational hierarchy. Implications of these differences are discussed in the paper. Since New England corporations have traditionally played a defining role in global technology diffusion, it is argued that the views of these professionals are important to understand the growing importance of information technology in the emerging multinational context. [This research was supported by a grant from the Center for International Business Education jointly sponsored by Bentley College and Tufts Universit

Teaching Business Process Management with Simulation in Graduate Business Programs: An Integrative Approach

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a graduate level Business Process Management (BPM) course with process modeling and simulation as its integral component, being offered at an accredited business university in the Northeastern U.S. Our approach is similar to that found in other Information Systems (IS) education papers, and can best be described as Design Science Research applied to pedagogical innovation. We use a survey of 95 graduate business students, classified as Information Technology (IT)-oriented and Business (non-IT)-oriented, to evaluate how the proposed artifact – the BPM course and its modeling and simulation components – supports student learning. The survey explores process analysis, course design, and process integration issues. Statistically significant differences between the two student groups on the value of modeling and simulation are found on five out of 15 survey items: analyzing process performance, creating process models, mapping process structure, understanding process concepts, and implementing process controls. The paper discusses implications of these differences for designing and delivering graduate BPM courses in colleges of business administration

Enhancing structure relaxations for first-principles codes: an approximate Hessian approach

We present a method for improving the speed of geometry relaxation by using a harmonic approximation for the interaction potential between nearest neighbor atoms to construct an initial Hessian estimate. The model is quite robust, and yields approximately a 30% or better reduction in the number of calculations compared to an optimized diagonal initialization. Convergence with this initializer approaches the speed of a converged BFGS Hessian, therefore it is close to the best that can be achieved. Hessian preconditioning is discussed, and it is found that a compromise between an average condition number and a narrow distribution in eigenvalues produces the best optimization.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, added references, expanded optimization sectio

Mechanisms regulating large-scale seasonal fluctuations in Alexandrium fundyense populations in the Gulf of Maine : results from a physical–biological model

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2005. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B. V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 52 (2005): 2698-2714, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2005.06.021.Observations of Alexandrium fundyense in the Gulf of Maine indicate several salient characteristics of the vegetative cell distributions: patterns of abundance are gulf-wide in geographic scope; their main features occur in association with the Maine Coastal Current; and the center of mass of the distribution shifts upstream from west to east during the growing season from April to August. The mechanisms underlying these aspects are investigated using coupled physical-biological simulations that represent the population dynamics of A. fundyense within the seasonal mean flow. A model that includes germination, growth, mortality, and nutrient limitation is qualitatively consistent with the observations. Germination from resting cysts appears to be a key aspect of the population dynamics that confines the cell distribution near the coastal margin, as simulations based on a uniform initial inoculum of vegetative cells across the Gulf of Maine produces blooms that are broader in geographic extent than is observed. In general, cells germinated from the major cyst beds (in the Bay of Fundy and near Penobscot and Casco Bays) are advected in the alongshore direction from east to west in the coastal current. Growth of the vegetative cells is limited primarily by temperature from April through June throughout the gulf, whereas nutrient limitation occurs in July and August in the western gulf. Thus the seasonal shift in the center of mass of cells from west to east can be explained by changing growth conditions: growth is more rapid in the western gulf early in the season due to warmer temperatures, whereas growth is more rapid in the eastern gulf later in the season due to severe nutrient limitation in the western gulf during that time period. A simple model of encystment based on nutrient limitation predicts deposition of new cysts in the vicinity of the observed cyst bed offshore of Casco and Penobscot Bays, suggesting a pathway of re-seeding the bed from cells advected downstream in the coastal current. A retentive gyre at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy tends to favor re-seeding that cyst bed from local populations.We gratefully acknowledge the support of the US ECOHAB Program, sponsored by NOAA, NSF, EPA, NASA, and ONR

A quantitative assessment of the role of the parasite Amoebophrya in the termination of Alexandrium fundyense blooms within a small coastal embayment

© The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS One 8 (2013): e81150, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0081150.Parasitic dinoflagellates of the genus Amoebophrya infect free-living dinoflagellates, some of which can cause harmful algal blooms (HABs). High prevalence of Amoebophrya spp. has been linked to the decline of some HABs in marine systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of Amoebophrya spp. on the dynamics of dinoflagellate blooms in Salt Pond (MA, USA), particularly the harmful species Alexandrium fundyense. The abundance of Amoebophrya life stages was estimated 3–7 days per week through the full duration of an annual A. fundyense bloom using fluorescence in situ hybridization coupled with tyramide signal amplification (FISH- TSA). More than 20 potential hosts were recorded including Dinophysis spp., Protoperidinium spp. and Gonyaulax spp., but the only dinoflagellate cells infected by Amoebophrya spp. during the sampling period were A. fundyense. Maximum A. fundyense concentration co-occurred with an increase of infected hosts, followed by a massive release of Amoebophrya dinospores in the water column. On average, Amoebophrya spp. infected and killed ~30% of the A. fundyense population per day in the end phase of the bloom. The decline of the host A. fundyense population coincided with a dramatic life-cycle transition from vegetative division to sexual fusion. This transition occurred after maximum infected host concentrations and before peak infection percentages were observed, suggesting that most A. fundyense escaped parasite infection through sexual fusion. The results of this work highlight the importance of high frequency sampling of both parasite and host populations to accurately assess the impact of parasites on natural plankton assemblages.L. Velo-Sua´rez was supported by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (IOF; grant agreement: MOHAB PIOF-GA-252260). This work was supported in part by NSF grants OCE-0430724 and OCE-0911031 and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grants 1P50-ES01274201 and 1P01ES021923-01 to D.M. Anderson and D.J. McGillicuddy through the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health, National Park Service Cooperative Agreement H238015504 to D.M. Anderson