FOOD AID TARGETING, SHOCKS AND PRIVATE TRANSFERS AMONG EAST AFRICAN PASTORALISTS

Public transfers of food aid are intended largely to support vulnerable populations in times of stress. We use high frequency panel data among Ethiopian and Kenyan pastoralists to test the efficacy of food aid targeting under three different targeting modalities, food aid's responsiveness to different types of shocks, and its relationship to private transfers. We find that self-targeting food-for-work or indicator-targeted free food distribution more effectively reach the poor than does food aid distributed according to community-based targeting. Food aid flows do not respond significantly to either covariate, community-level income or asset shocks, nor to idiosyncratic, household-level income or asset shocks. Rather, food aid flows appear to respond mainly to more readily observable rainfall measures. Finally, food aid does not appear to affect private transfers in any meaningful way, either by crowding out private gifts to recipient households nor by stimulating increased gifts by food aid recipients.Food Security and Poverty,

Aspects of the Feeding Ecology of the Bonneville Cisco of Bear Lake, Utah-Idaho

The Bonneville cisco (Prosopium gemmiferum), a small planktivorous whitefish, is an important part of the distinctive fish community of Bear Lake, Utah-Idaho. The Bonneville cisco plays a key role in the trophic structure by converting zooplankton to fish biomass and providing a major forage source for cutthroat and lake trout. Aspects of cisco feeding ecology studied include characterization of the zooplankton community composition and dynamics and cisco feeding habits and prey select ion

U.S. Food Aid and Agricultural Cargo Preference Policy

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/20/10.Food Aid Policy, Cargo Preference, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty,

A Case of Reactive Cervical Lymphadenopathy with Fat Necrosis Impinging on Adjacent Vascular Structures.

A tender neck mass in adults can be a diagnostic challenge due to a wide differential diagnosis, which ranges from reactive lymphadenopathy to malignancy. In this report, we describe a case of a young female with an unusually large and tender reactive lymph node with fat necrosis. The diagnostic imaging findings alone mimicked that of scrofula and malignancy, which prompted a complete workup. Additionally, the enlarged lymph node was compressing the internal jugular vein in the setting of oral contraceptive use by the patient, raising concern for Lemierre's syndrome or internal jugular vein thrombosis. This report shows how, in the appropriate clinical context, and especially with the involvement of adjacent respiratory or neurovascular structures, aggressive diagnostic testing can be indicated

Acceleration of a stratified current over a sloping bottom, driven by an alongshelf pressure gradient

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 35 (2005): 1305-1317, doi:10.1175/JPO2744.1.An idealized theoretical model is developed for the acceleration of a two-dimensional, stratified current over a uniformly sloping bottom, driven by an imposed alongshelf pressure gradient and taking into account the effects of buoyancy advection in the bottom boundary layer. Both downwelling and upwelling pressure gradients are considered. For a specified pressure gradient, the model response depends primarily on the Burger number S = Nα/f, where N is the initial buoyancy frequency, α is the bottom slope, and f is the Coriolis parameter. Without stratification (S = 0), buoyancy advection is absent, and the alongshelf flow accelerates until bottom stress balances the imposed pressure gradient. The e-folding time scale to reach this steady state is the friction time, h/r, where h is the water depth and r is a linear bottom friction coefficient. With stratification (S ≠ 0), buoyancy advection in the bottom boundary layer produces vertical shear, which prevents the bottom stress from becoming large enough to balance the imposed pressure gradient for many friction time scales. Thus, the alongshelf flow continues to accelerate, potentially producing large velocities. The acceleration increases rapidly with increasing S, such that even relatively weak stratification (S > 0.2) has a major impact. These results are supported by numerical model calculations.Funding was provided by the Division of Ocean Sciences of the National Science Foundation under Grant OCE-0241292. DCC also received some support from the Office of Naval Research under Grants N00014-00-1-0210 and N00014-02-1-0767

Prosodic markers of satirical imitation

Satirical imitation is a popular format of late-night comedy shows and can provide political entertainment and education. However, little research has been conducted on how satirists mark their satirical intent to clue audiences in on their intended messaging. This study investigates the prosodic marking of satirical imitation and contrasts it with prosodic marking of irony. We conducted a detailed case study of the prosodic marking in Alec Baldwin's satirical imitation of Donald Trump in his audiobook You Can't Spell America Without Me contrasted with both Baldwin's and Trump's regular voices. The analyzed corpus contained six hours of audio material across the three sources. Through a combination of automatic and manual coding, we measured average pitch, pitch variation, and speech rate. Our analysis did not reveal marking of satirical imitation by pitch or pitch variation. The satirical imitation was only marked by a faster speech rate than both baseline voices. These findings contrast with previous studies that identified a lower pitch, less pitch variation, and a slower speech rate as markers of verbal irony. Our study provides first evidence that satirical imitation is prosodically marked differently from verbal irony, with a faster speech rate as one potential marker

Toward Five-dimensional Core-collapse Supernova Simulations

The computational difficulty of six-dimensional neutrino radiation hydrodynamics has spawned a variety of approximations, provoking a long history of uncertainty in the core-collapse supernova explosion mechanism. Under the auspices of the Terascale Supernova Initiative, we are honoring the physical complexity of supernovae by meeting the computational challenge head-on, undertaking the development of a new adaptive mesh refinement code for self-gravitating, six-dimensional neutrino radiation magnetohydrodynamics. This code--called {\em GenASiS,} for {\em Gen}eral {\em A}strophysical {\em Si}mulation {\em S}ystem--is designed for modularity and extensibility of the physics. Presently in use or under development are capabilities for Newtonian self-gravity, Newtonian and special relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (with `realistic' equation of state), and special relativistic energy- and angle-dependent neutrino transport--including full treatment of the energy and angle dependence of scattering and pair interactions.Comment: 5 pages. Proceedings of SciDAC 2005, Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing, San Francisco, CA, 26-30 June 200

Along-shelf current variability on the Catalan inner-shelf (NW Mediterranean)

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 117 (2012): C09027, doi:10.1029/2012JC008182.We examine the circulation over the inner-shelf of the Catalan Sea using observations of currents obtained from three Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (two at 24 m and one at 50 m) during March–April 2011. The along-shelf current fluctuations during that period are mainly controlled by local wind stress on short time scales and by remote pressure gradients on synoptic time scales. Different forcing mechanisms are involved in the along-shelf momentum balance. During storm conditions, wind stress, sea level gradients and the nonlinear terms dominate the balance. During weak wind conditions, the momentum balance is controlled by the pressure gradient, while during periods of moderate wind in the presence of considerable stratification, the balance is established between the Coriolis and wind stress terms. Vertical variations of velocity are affected by the strong observed density gradient. The increased vertical shear is accompanied by the development of stratified conditions due to local heating when the wind is not able to counteract (and break) stratification. The occasional influence of the Besòs River plume is observed in time scales of hours to days in a limited area in near the city of Barcelona. The area affected by the plume depends on the vertical extent of the fresher layer, the fast river discharge peak, and the relaxation of cross-shore velocities after northeast storm events. This contribution provides a first interpretation of the inner-shelf dynamics in the Catalan Sea.The research leading to these results has received funding fromthe European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007/2013) under grant agreement 242284 (Field_ac project).2013-03-2

A textural examination of the Yamato 980459 and Los Angeles shergottites using crystal size distribution analysis

The basaltic shergottite group is the most plentiful of the Martian meteorite types. Within that compositional category are three distinct textural groups, each suggesting distinct crystallization histories. We present results of a textural study, using crystal size distribution (CSD) analysis, of Yamato (Y) 980459 and Los Angeles, the most primitive and evolved shergottites respectively, and we compare these results to previous CSD work on basaltic shergottites. Y980459 resembles picritic shergottites (e.g. DaG 476), with large zoned olivine set in a groundmass dominated by orthopyroxene. It is unique in having a glassy mesostasis with dendritic olivine and pyroxene, rather than maskelynite. Los Angeles resembles other co-saturated shergottites (e.g. QUE 94201) with a subophitic intergrowth of zoned clinopyroxene and maskelynite. CSD results show Y980459 pyroxenes grew in one stage of steady-state nucleation and growth, cooling at 3-7°C /hr. A CSD of the olivine population suggests slower cooling rates during megacryst formation with an increase during groundmass olivine growth, probably reflecting magma ascent. A CSD plot of Los Angeles pyroxenes shows a smooth downward curvature, also noted in previous analyses of QUE 94201 and EETA79001B. The plot reflects co-crystallization of plagioclase and pyroxene, and supports a single continuous interval of growth