HABITAT UTILIZATION BY THE TEXAS HORNED LIZARD (PHRYNOSOMA CORNUTUM) FROM TWO SITES IN CENTRAL TEXAS

The Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) is found in a variety of habitats. Although several studies have been conducted on habitat use by this species, none have been performed in central Texas, a more mesic habitat than most of those previously studied. This area is of special interest because horned lizard populations have been experiencing sharp declines in central Texas over the last approximately 50 years. We collected habitat data at two sites in central Texas, Camp Bowie and Blue Mountain Peak Ranch. Microhabitat data included canopy cover and ground cover from digitized photographs of Daubenmire quadrats; macrohabitat variables included vegetation height and length, cactus height, soil penetrability, woody plant species richness, tree density, tree diameter at breast height (DBH), and density of ant mounds collected along 100-m by 2-m transects. Similar patterns of habitat use were observed between the two sites. At Blue Mountain Peak Ranch, lizards appeared to be located in areas with a diversity of ground cover types, as observed in previous studies. At Camp Bowie, vegetation encroachment limited lizards in some areas to the use of roads and road margins. Implementation of prescribed burns or other vegetation management could create the preferred ground cover mosaic at such sites

Operator Evolution via the Similarity Renormalization Group I: The Deuteron

Similarity Renormalization Group (SRG) flow equations can be used to unitarily soften nuclear Hamiltonians by decoupling high-energy intermediate state contributions to low-energy observables while maintaining the natural hierarchy of many-body forces. Analogous flow equations can be used to consistently evolve operators so that observables are unchanged if no approximations are made. The question in practice is whether the advantages of a softer Hamiltonian and less correlated wave functions might be offset by complications in approximating and applying other operators. Here we examine the properties of SRG-evolved operators, focusing in this paper on applications to the deuteron but leading toward methods for few-body systems. We find the advantageous features generally carry over to other operators with additional simplifications in some cases from factorization of the unitary transformation operator.Comment: 33 pages, 19 figures. Improved figures 17 and 18. Expanded comments on OPE in tex

Operator Evolution via the Similarity Renormalization Group I: The Deuteron

Similarity Renormalization Group (SRG) flow equations can be used to unitarily soften nuclear Hamiltonians by decoupling high-energy intermediate state contributions to low-energy observables while maintaining the natural hierarchy of many-body forces. Analogous flow equations can be used to consistently evolve operators so that observables are unchanged if no approximations are made. The question in practice is whether the advantages of a softer Hamiltonian and less correlated wave functions might be offset by complications in approximating and applying other operators. Here we examine the properties of SRG-evolved operators, focusing in this paper on applications to the deuteron but leading toward methods for few-body systems. We find the advantageous features generally carry over to other operators with additional simplifications in some cases from factorization of the unitary transformation operator.Comment: 33 pages, 19 figures. Improved figures 17 and 18. Expanded comments on OPE in tex

Examining the Impact of Parental Socialization on the Coping Styles of Black Graduate Students Faced with Microaggressions

This article explores case examples of two graduate students who endure microaggressions from their math professor at a predominantly White university. The role that parental socialization plays in how these students developed their racial identities and the coping strategies they employed, is analyzed through the lens of Triple Quandary theory (Boykin and Toms 1 985). Findings from this investigation suggest that parental socialization is critical in preparing these students to cope with and respond to microaggressions in protective and adaptive ways. This paper illuminates coping styles, although divergent, that served these graduate students\u27 needs and protected their individual racial identities. Further, the support these students received from their faculty advisor who is also Black, exemplifies the importance of mentorship and advocacy from faculty of color to Black college students\u27 success. Direction for continuity in parental teachings for K-12 and university level educators are discussed

Grand narratives then and now: can we still conceptualise history?

Reading the Communist Manifesto today, it is impossible not to be struck by the confidence with which it conceptualises history. The positive energy of this bold grand narrative stands in such stark contrast to the negative and jaded mentality of our times, which conceives of grand narratives only to tell us that there can be none. Such talk as there is of history today is more likely to be of "the end of history". There are three senses in which references to the end of history feature in contemporary debates: apocalyptic prediction, postmodernist pronouncement and capitalist triumphalism. This paper addresses the crisis of historicity in our time in relation to these positions and asks what is it about our age that produces them. It explores the widespread rejection of grand narratives, as well as grand narratives, which nevertheless persist, implicit and explicit, right and left. It looks at the position of marxism in the 1990s, counterposing it to postmarxism and postmodernism in particular on the question of grand narratives. It calls for resistance to the detotalising pressures of the age and revival of a totalising (as opposed to totalised) philosophy of history

Diffusion of Computer Applications Among Physicians: A Quasi-Experimental Study

An experimental program involving the use of a hospital information system was implemented and evaluated on four services at Methodist Hospital of Indiana, a 1120-bed, private teaching hospital. Ten other hospital services were assigned to a control group. The program utilized educationally influential physicians to disseminate information concerning the advantages of using predesigned computer-stored personal order sets for the entry of medical orders into a hospital information system. Data from the hospital information system\u27s tapes were collected at three times in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the program resulted in a significant increase in personal order set use by physicians, physician assistants, and unit secretaries on the experimental services. The results of the study suggest that the identification and use of educationally influential physicians is an effective means of introducing medical innovations into clinical settings

No increase in radiation-induced chromosome aberration complexity detected by m-FISH after culture in the presence of 5’-bromodeoxyuridine

The thymidine analogue, 5’-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), is a known mutagen that is routinely introduced into culture media for subsequent Harlequin stain analysis and determination of cell cycle status. Previously, we examined the induction of chromosome aberrations in human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) known to be in their 1st cell division following exposure to a low dose (0.5 Gy, average one -particle per cell) of high-LET α-particles. We found complex chromosome aberrations to be characteristic of exposure to high-LET radiation and suggested the features of complex exchange to reflect qualitatively the spatial deposition of this densely ionising radiation. To exclude the possibility that BrdU addition post-irradiation influenced the complexity of chromosomal damage observed by m-FISH, the effect of increasing BrdU concentration on aberration complexity was investigated. Comparisons between BrdU concentration (0, 10, and 40 M) and between sham- and α-particle irradiated PBL, were made both independently and in combination to enable discrimination between BrdU and high-LET radiation effects. Aberration type, size, complexity and completeness were assessed by m-FISH, and the relative progression through cell division was evaluated. We found no evidence of any qualitative difference in the complexity of damage as visualized by m-FISH but did observe an increase in the frequency of complex exchanges with increasing BrdU concentration indicative of altered cell cycle kinetics. The parameters measured here are consistent with findings from previous in vitro and in vivo work, indicating that each complex aberration visualised by m-FISH is characteristic of the structure of the high-LET α-particle track and the geometry of cell irradiated