Inventory of wetland habitat using remote sensing for the proposed Oahe irrigation unit in eastern South Dakota

An inventory of wetlands for the area included in the proposed Oahe irrigation project was conducted to provide supplemental data for the wildlife mitigation plan. Interpretation techniques for inventoring small wetlands in the low relief terrain of the Lake Dakota Plain were documented and data summaries included. The data were stored and tabulated in a computerized spatial data analysis system

Spatio-Temporal Patterning in Primary Motor Cortex at Movement Onset

Voluntary movement initiation involves the engagement of large populations of motor cortical neurons around movement onset. Despite knowledge of the temporal dynamics that lead to movement, the spatial structure of these dynamics across the cortical surface remains unknown. In data from 4 rhesus macaques, we show that the timing of attenuation of beta frequency local field potential oscillations, a correlate of locally activated cortex, forms a spatial gradient across primary motor cortex (MI). We show that these spatio-temporal dynamics are recapitulated in the engagement order of ensembles of MI neurons. We demonstrate that these patterns are unique to movement onset and suggest that movement initiation requires a precise spatio-temporal sequential activation of neurons in MI

Comparing Offline Decoding Performance in Physiologically Defined Neuronal Classes

Objective: Recently, several studies have documented the presence of a bimodal distribution of spike waveform widths in primary motor cortex. Although narrow and wide spiking neurons, corresponding to the two modes of the distribution, exhibit different response properties, it remains unknown if these differences give rise to differential decoding performance between these two classes of cells. Approach: We used a Gaussian mixture model to classify neurons into narrow and wide physiological classes. Using similar-size, random samples of neurons from these two physiological classes, we trained offline decoding models to predict a variety of movement features. We compared offline decoding performance between these two physiologically defined populations of cells. Main results: We found that narrow spiking neural ensembles decode motor parameters better than wide spiking neural ensembles including kinematics, kinetics, and muscle activity. Significance: These findings suggest that the utility of neural ensembles in brain machine interfaces may be predicted from their spike waveform widths

Transfer Function Approximations for Large Highly Coupled Elastic Boosters with Fuel Slosh

Transfer function approximations for large highly coupled flexible body launch vehicles with liquid fuel slos

Blind spots in IPE : marginalized perspectives and neglected trends in contemporary capitalism

Which blind spots shape scholarship in International Political Economy (IPE)? That question animates the contributions to a double special issue—one in the Review of International Political Economy, and a companion one in New Political Economy. The global financial crisis had seemed to vindicate broad-ranging IPE perspectives at the expense of narrow economics theories. Yet the tumultuous decade since then has confronted IPE scholars with rapidly-shifting global dynamics, many of which had remained underappreciated. We use the Blind Spots moniker in an attempt to push the topics covered here higher up the scholarly agenda—issues that range from institutionalized racism and misogyny to the rise of big tech, intensifying corporate power, expertise-dynamics in global governance, assetization, and climate change. Gendered and racial inequalities as blind spots have a particular charge. There has been a self-reinforcing correspondence between topics that have counted as important, people to whom they matter personally, and the latter’s ability to build careers on them. In that sense, our mission is not only to highlight collective blind spots that may dull IPE’s capacity to theorize the current moment. It is also a normative one—a form of disciplinary housekeeping to help correct both intellectual and professional entrenched biases

The host galaxies of radio-loud AGN: mass dependencies, gas cooling and AGN feedback

The properties of the host galaxies of a well-defined sample of 2215 radio-loud AGN with redshifts 0.03 < z < 0.3, defined from the SDSS, are investigated. These are predominantly low radio luminosity sources, with 1.4GHz luminosities of 10^23 to 10^25 W/Hz. The fraction of galaxies that host radio-loud AGN with L(1.4GHz) > 10^23 W/Hz is a strong function of stellar mass, rising from nearly zero below a stellar mass of 10^10 Msun to more than 30% at 5x10^11 Msun. The integral radio luminosity function is derived in six ranges of stellar and black hole mass. Its shape is very similar in all of these ranges and can be well fitted by a broken power-law. Its normalisation varies strongly with mass, as M_*^2.5 or M_BH^1.6; this scaling only begins to break down when the predicted radio-loud fraction exceeds 20-30%. There is no correlation between radio and emission line luminosities for the radio-loud AGN in the sample and the probability that a galaxy of given mass is radio-loud is independent of whether it is optically classified as an AGN. The host galaxies of the radio-loud AGN have properties similar to those of ordinary galaxies of the same mass. All of these findings support the conclusion that the optical AGN and low radio luminosity AGN phenomena are independent and are triggered by different physical mechanisms. Intriguingly, the dependence on black hole mass of the radio-loud AGN fraction mirrors that of the rate at which gas cools from the hot atmospheres of elliptical galaxies. It is speculated that gas cooling provides a natural explanation for the origin of the radio-loud AGN activity, and it is argued that AGN heating could plausibly balance the cooling of the gas over time. [Abridged]Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. LaTeX, 16 pages. Figure 10 is in colou

Large-scale Spatiotemporal Spike Patterning Consistent with Wave Propagation in Motor Cortex

Aggregate signals in cortex are known to be spatiotemporally organized as propagating waves across the cortical surface, but it remains unclear whether the same is true for spiking activity in individual neurons. Furthermore, the functional interactions between cortical neurons are well documented but their spatial arrangement on the cortical surface has been largely ignored. Here we use a functional network analysis to demonstrate that a subset of motor cortical neurons in non-human primates spatially coordinate their spiking activity in a manner that closely matches wave propagation measured in the beta oscillatory band of the local field potential. We also demonstrate that sequential spiking of pairs of neuron contains task-relevant information that peaks when the neurons are spatially oriented along the wave axis. We hypothesize that the spatial anisotropy of spike patterning may reflect the underlying organization of motor cortex and may be a general property shared by other cortical areas

Fluvio-deltaic avulsions during relative sea-level fall.

Understanding river response to changes in relative sea level (RSL) is essential for predicting fluvial stratigraphy and source-to-sink dynamics. Recent theoretical work has suggested that rivers can remain aggradational during RSL fall, but field data are needed to verify this response and investigate sediment deposition processes. We show with field work and modeling that fluvio-deltaic systems can remain aggradational or at grade during RSL fall, leading to superelevation and continuation of delta lobe avulsions. The field site is the Goose River, Newfoundland-Labrador, Canada, which has experienced steady RSL fall of around 3–4 mm yr⁻¹ in the past 5 k.y. from post-glacial isostatic rebound. Elevation analysis and optically stimulated luminescence dating suggest that the Goose River avulsed and deposited three delta lobes during RSL fall. Simulation results from Delft3D software show that if the characteristic fluvial response time is longer than the duration of RSL fall, then fluvial systems remain aggradational or at grade, and continue to avulse during RSL fall due to superelevation. Intriguingly, we find that avulsions become more frequent at faster rates of RSL fall, provided the system response time remains longer than the duration of RSL fall. This work suggests that RSL fall rate may influence the architecture of falling-stage or forced regression deposits by controlling the number of deposited delta lobes

Red galaxy overdensities and the varied cluster environments of powerful radio sources with z~1.6

The environments of a complete subsample of 6 of the most powerful radio-loud AGN at redshifts z~1.6 are investigated, using deep RJK imaging to depths of R~26, J~22.4 and K~20.6. An excess of galaxy counts in the K-band is seen across these fields; these are predominantly associated with red galaxies (R-K>4) of magnitudes 17.5<K<20.5 found within radial distances of ~1 Mpc of the AGN host. These are exactly (though not uniquely) the magnitudes, colours and locations that would be expected of old passive elliptical galaxies in cluster environments at the redshifts of these AGN. Using both an Abell-style classification scheme and investigations of the angular and spatial cross-correlation functions of the galaxies, the average environment of the fields around these AGN is found to be consistent with Abell cluster richness classes 0 to 1. The amplitude of the angular cross-correlation function around the AGN is a strong function of galaxy colour, and is highest when only those galaxies with the colours expected of old elliptical galaxies at these redshifts are considered. The galaxy overdensities are found on two scales around the AGN: (i) pronounced central concentrations on radial scales within 150 kpc; where present, these are composed almost entirely of red (R-K>4) galaxies, suggesting that the morphology-density relation is imprinted into the centres of clusters at a high redshift. (ii) weaker large-scale excesses extending out to between 1 and 1.5 Mpc radius. The presence or absence of galaxy excesses on these two scales, however, differs greatly between the six different fields. The implications of these results for both cluster formation and the nature of high redshift AGN are discussed (abridged).Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. LaTeX, 16 pages, plus 12 additional jpeg figures, 6 in colour. A version with all figures in the postscript file is available from http://www.roe.ac.uk/~pnb/eso_clus.p

The bridge between social identity and community capital on the path to recovery and desistance

It has long been recognised that changes in social networks (and the underpinning changes in personal and social identity) are strong predictors of both desistance from crime and recovery from substance use. Building on existing work attempting to measure and shift social networks and transitions to prosocial groups, the current study provides pilot data from prisoners and family members about a visualisation technique widely used in specialist addiction treatment (node-link mapping) to map opportunities for linkage to prosocial groups and networks. The data presented in the paper are from a small-scale feasibility pilot. This suggests both bonding and bridging capital in prisoner populations due for release and the diversity of community capital opportunities that exists in this population. The implications of this work are significant for substance users and offenders pending return to the community, and has implications around resettlement and reintegration support for probation staff in prisons and in the community. The paper emphasises the importance of mapping connectedness as a key component of planning for reintegration back into the community for those working with offenders who are aspiring to achieve desistance and recovery