Assessing Changes in Freshwater and Marine Food Web Connections Following Restoration on the Penobscot River, Maine, Using Stable Isotope Analysis

Oiadromous fish provide ecological subsidies to freshwater and marine food webs, connecting both ecosystems. A main goal of the Penobscot River Restoration Project was to increase connectivity between food webs by removing two mainstem dams, improving fish passage, and reintroducing river herring through stocking. Oiadromous fish now reach historic spawning habitat that was not accessible for centuries. As a result, river herring runs in the Penobscot River increased from 2,336 fish in 2009 to over 3 million fish by 2018. To assess food web connectivity in the Penobscot watershed, I analyzed stable isotopes from samples collected before (2009-2010) and after (2020-2021) dam removals by sampling species ranging in trophic level from piscivorous fish to baseline primary consumers from three mainstem and three major upstream tributary sites. I targeted top fish predators that can consume adult river herring directly. Pre-restoration, I found little evidence of marine derived nutrient (MON) assimilation in freshwater food webs, with the exception of a mainstem site below all dams. Post-restoration, MON assimilation increased only below what is now the lowest dam on the river, likely due to migration delays aggregating more fish for a longer period of time than in free-flowing river sections. Where changes in MON assimilation occurred, I saw evidence of bottom-up enrichment of the food web. This pattern of enrichment has been measured in smaller rivers with spawning runs dominated by river herring. These results may be one of the first in a river of this size (watershed area 22,300 km2) and restoration of this magnitude, suggesting that even in larger rivers with greater dilution effects, effects of river herring on the transfer of nutrients from marine to freshwaters are detectable. In the Penobscot Watershed, river herring currently dominates the sea-run fish population but only comprise 20% of conservative estimates of historic run size based on spawning habitat available before dam construction. As sea-run species increase in abundance, I expect MDN to be detectable beyond points of aggregation

Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS, Oral History Interview, 2006 June 14

Major Topics Covered: Personal and educational background Contributions to care of in-patient care of head and neck patients. Views of nursing at MD Anderson in the 1970shttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/1224/thumbnail.jp

Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS, Oral History Interview, 2019 May 16

Major Topics Covered: Personal and educational background; a childhood in rural Texas and Dallas under segregation Views of male nurses in the 1960s/1970s Historical perspective on nursing at MD Anderson in the 1970shttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/1225/thumbnail.jp

Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS, Oral History Interview, 2019 June 06

Major Topics Covered: Nursing leadership and development of nursing: Renilda Hilkemeyer [oral history interview], Joyce Alt [oral history interview], John Crosley, Donna Sollenberger [oral history interview]; development of the Center Administrative Directors; career ladder for nursing development; advances in patient care practices, in-patient and out-patienthttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/1226/thumbnail.jp

Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS, Oral History Interview, 2019 June 20

Major Topics Covered: Nursing leadership and development of nursing: Renilda Hilkemeyer [oral history interview], Joyce Alt [oral history interview], John Crosley, Donna Sollenberger [oral history interview]; development of the Center Administrative Directors; career ladder for nursing development; advances in patient care practices, in-patient and out-patient Contributions to care of in-patient care of head and neck patients.https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/1227/thumbnail.jp

Clinically Competent Peers and Support for Education: Structures and Practices that Work

The preceding excerpts from interviews with staff nurses in magnet hospitals reflect the key messages reported in this article. (Unless otherwise stated, all excerpts are from staff nurses who were interviewed for this study. The professional role of the speaker is cited for physicians [MDs] and nurse managers [NMs].) Competency is multifaceted and evident through actions. Clinically competent peers is all about competent performance, not the potential for performance. Both performance and potential are important for quality patient care, but here we focus solely on what others see or hear that leads to the judgment or conclusion that nurses on the front line in acute care hospitals are clinically competent

Regional techno‐economic and life‐cycle analysis of the pyrolysis‐bioenergy‐biochar platform for carbon‐negative energy

This study investigates the sensitivity of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the minimum fuel selling price for a 2000 metric ton day−1 integrated pyrolysis‐bioenergy‐biochar platform with respect to the biorefinery location and biomass types. The regional techno‐economic and life‐cycle analysis is evaluated in three US counties using representative crops: rice in Glenn County (California), corn in Hamilton County (Iowa), and peanuts in Jackson County (Florida). We evaluate the biochar selling price considering crop yield increases of 0.6%, 2.9%, and 10% after biochar application over 20 years in Glenn County, Hamilton County, and Jackson County, respectively. The biochar prices are calculated under low and high commodity prices to determine upper and lower bounds. Jackson County has the most economically beneficial scenario with an average minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) of $1.55 gal−1 of biofuel produced whereas Hamilton County has the highest average MFSP of$3.82 gal−1. The life‐cycle analysis shows that woody biomass has a strong potential to produce carbon‐negative energy compared to grass and straw. Of the 304 cases scenarios considered for this platform, 64% could produce biofuel with negative GHG emissions, which would meet the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) target for cellulosic biofuels

Moral Framing and Ideological Bias of News

News outlets are a primary source for many people to learn what is going on in the world. However, outlets with different political slants, when talking about the same news story, usually emphasize various aspects and choose their language framing differently. This framing implicitly shows their biases and also affects the reader's opinion and understanding. Therefore, understanding the framing in the news stories is fundamental for realizing what kind of view the writer is conveying with each news story. In this paper, we describe methods for characterizing moral frames in the news. We capture the frames based on the Moral Foundation Theory. This theory is a psychological concept which explains how every kind of morality and opinion can be summarized and presented with five main dimensions. We propose an unsupervised method that extracts the framing Bias and the framing Intensity without any external framing annotations provided. We validate the performance on an annotated twitter dataset and then use it to quantify the framing bias and partisanship of news

Behind film performance in China’s changing institutional context:The impact of signals

Grounded in signaling theory, this paper investigates the signals reflecting product quality, innovativeness, reputation and cultural background which influence film performance, i.e. film survival (duration on cinema screen) and box office success, in China’s changing institutional context. This market has grown substantially and still possesses potential for further development. However, China’s unique institutional context presents challenges. By examining an expanded range of potential signals, two of which have not previously been examined in the literature, namely imported films and enhanced format film formats such as 3D and IMAX, we develop a conceptual framework and argue that signaling theory needs to be combined with institutional context. Similar to findings for film industries in other countries, we find quality and reputational signals including budget, star power, sequels, and online consumer reviews to be important in China. However, unique results are also revealed. Chinese consumers react to an innovativeness signal in that they are specifically attracted to enhanced format films. Film award nominations and prizes are insignificant reputational signals. Once other signals are taken into account, imported films on average do not perform as well as domestic films. We link these findings to China’s unique institutional setting and offer important implications for management, recognizing the challenges to film companies of competing in an increasingly globalized market. The paper is also of relevance to policymakers given their continued efforts in shaping the development of China’s film industry

Fast Benchtop Fabrication of Laminar Flow Chambers for Advanced Microscopy Techniques

Background: Fluid handling technology is acquiring an ever more prominent place in laboratory science whether it is in simple buffer exchange systems, perfusion chambers, or advanced microfluidic devices. Many of these applications remain the providence of laboratories at large institutions with a great deal of expertise and specialized equipment. Even with the expansion of these techniques, limitations remain that frequently prevent the coupling of controlled fluid flow with other technologies, such as coupling microfluidics and high-resolution position and force measurements by optical trapping microscopy. Method: Here we present a method for fabrication of multiple-input laminar flow devices that are optically clear [glass] on each face, chemically inert, reusable, inexpensive, and can be fabricated on the benchtop in approximately one hour. Further these devices are designed to allow flow regulation by a simple gravity method thus requiring no specialized equipment to drive flow. Here we use these devices to perform total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy measurements as well as position sensitive optical trapping experiments. Significance: Flow chamber technology needs to be more accessible to the general scientific community. The method presented here is versatile and robust. These devices use standard slides and coverslips making them compatible with nearly all types and models of light microscopes. These devices meet the needs of groups doing advanced optical trapping experiments, but could also be adapted by nearly any lab that has a function for solution flow coupled with microscopy