Raptors on the East Coast: A Shift in the Timing of Autumn Migration

I tested whether or not raptors on the east coast are shifting the timing of their autumn migration. I analyzed 38 years of passage data at three count sites across New England: Hawk Mountain, Quaker Ridge, and Lighthouse Point. I studied four raptors with diverse natural history traits: Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus), Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), and Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus). I also investigated possible factors associated with any documented shift, including climate, distance of migration, diet, and population trend. Long-distance migrants should advance their migration and short-distance migrants should delay their migration, as reported for numerous taxa, including raptors, in Europe. Raptors that feed primarily on birds should advance their migration. Species advancing their migration should advance it further in warm years, while species delaying their migration should delay it further in warm years. Finally, I predicted that species in decline would show little or no shift in migration timing; species unable to adjust to climate change may be at a disadvantage. The Red-tailed Hawk and Northern Harrier delayed their autumn migrations past these three count sites, while the Sharp-shinned Hawk advanced and the Broad-winged Hawk showed no shift in its migration phenology. Some of these results match my predictions based on the raptors\u27 life history traits, but some do not, suggesting that North American raptors are responding to climate change differently from European raptors. The Broad-winged Hawk is the only raptor among the four species I studied that is not shifting and it is currently declining in population in the Northeast. This species may be more hard-wired to migrate at roughly the same time every year, and that inability to shift may be contributing to population decline

The Story of Colonialism, or Rethinking the Ox-Hide Purchase in Native North America and Beyond

In this paper I offer a comparative assessment of the ox-hide purchase narrative (tale type AT 2400, ATU 927C*; Motif K185.1) in Native North America. Drawing on my own fieldwork and the beginnings of a historic-geographic treatment, I consider the story from the perspective of work on historical consciousness in Native North America and treat it as an opportunity to establish a link between folkloristics and other fields concerned with interpreting the legacies of colonialism

Chinese Vernacular Culture in the Global Midwest: A Workshop Held at Indiana University, September 4-6, 2014

A report on a project planning workshop--Chinese Vernacular Culture in the Global Midwest--held at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, September 4-6, 2014.(1) College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University. (2) The Humanities without Walls Consortium with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Spirit Medicine: Native American Uses of Common Everlasting (Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium) in Eastern North America

Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium (L.) (= Gnaphalium obtusifolium L.) is an important plant used in the practice of traditional medicine among many Native American groups in eastern North America. This essay documents use of this plant among the Yuchi, an American Indian people from the Southeast now residing in eastern Oklahoma. This use is contextualized within a survey of published and unpublished sources on the plant as utilized by other peoples in the Eastern Woodlands. This survey finds several clusters of practices and beliefs that are widely held across the region. Viewed more broadly, these findings suggest the value of a comparative study of American Indian ethnobotany and the place such study might have for reassessing anthropological understandings of American Indian life throughout the region and general models of regional social patterning. As a preliminary test case in the comparative ethnobotany of eastern North America, the study of P. obtusifolium contradicts previous findings that have suggested that the pharmacopoeia of individual groups tended to be unique

Ethnography and Ethnographers in Museum-Community Partnerships

The Fund for Folk Culture, Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Community Folklife Program, Oklahoma Arts Council, CITGO Petroleum Corporation, Gilcrease Museu

The Causes of Armature Surface Fracturing Within Helical Flux-Compression Generators

Aluminum and copper tubes filled with explosive were tested during this study of high strain rate effects, as an adjunct to helical flux-compression generator research at the University of Missouri-Rolla, directly affecting the understanding of flux cutoff and high strain-rate changes in generator armatures. Longitudinal cracks characteristically developed in the outer surface of armatures at a smaller expansion ratio than predicted. These cracks occurred within two diameters of the detonator end of the armature but did not extend when the tubing expanded under explosive pressurization. Such cracks appear to cause magnetic flux cutoff, and flux losses seriously affect energy conversion efficiency. Energy, timing, and structural analyzes showed that detonation pressurization was not the cause of fracturing. A two-dimensional Lagrangian finite-difference numerical model was used to analyze the effect of detonation waves on the armature, and demonstrated that the cracking resulted from the stress field caused by the waves. Compressive detonation waves cause both compressive and tensile regions in armatures. This complex stress field causes low-cycle metal fatigue, affecting how the tube fractures when it is impulsively loaded by high-pressure detonation gases. Isolation of shock wave effects during operation is demonstrated in the paper, allowing for more efficient generators in practice

Surface Fracturing of Armatures Within Helical Flux-Compression Generators

Tubes of aluminum and of copper filled with C-4 high-explosive were tested during this study of high strain rate effects within thin metallic structures performed as an adjunct to helical flux-compression generator research at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Focusing on the stresses within a relatively thin metallic structure when brisant explosives abutting the structure are detonated, this study directly affects the understanding of flux cutoff and high strain-rate resistivity changes in an expanding armature. The detonation wave is compressive, and the shock waves resulting from its transmission into a thin metallic structure cause both compressive and tensile regions, posing an extremely complex stress field within the structure. This stress field bears directly upon how the tube structure fractures when it is impulsively loaded by high pressure gases as a result of the detonation. Longitudinal cracks characteristically develop in the outer surface of the armature tubing within about two diameters of the end containing the detonator, but the cracks do not extend as the tubing expands under explosive pressurization. Such cracks are a cause of flux cutoff in the generators, a cause that can be isolated during generator operation given proper generator construction. Surface cracking of the armatures was modified by the utilization of bimetallic armature construction, and by the introduction of polymeric materials between the explosive charge and the armature tube