Length-weight relationships for some important forage crustaceans from South Africa

The diet of marine animals is usually determined by stomach content analysis. Although partially digested prey fragments can often be identified to species level, it is difficult to estimate the original mass of the prey organism. This information, however, is essential for calculating both the total food intake as well as the relative contribution of each prey item. In this study we present regression equations that can be used to estimate the original mass of 18 common South African crustaceans from various indigestible fragments such as the carapace (length and width), chelae (length and width of left and right dactylus) and eye (length and width)

Kids' Share 2010: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children

Examines 1960-2009 trends in federal spending and tax expenditures on children, including food stamps, tax credits, and Head Start. Analyzes the effects of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, projected funding through 2020, and implications

How Targeted Are Federal Expenditures on Children? A Kids' Share Analysis of Expenditures by Income in 2009

Analyzes the distribution of government spending on children by family income; category, such as health, social services, and education; and program, such as Medicaid; and the extent to which it is targeted to low-income children. Considers implications

Delivering Affordable Dwellings for Key Workers: The Shared-Ownership Option in Sub-Saharan Africa

Achieving „value for money‟ is a main concern on housing construction projects particularly for average income earners employed in key sectors such as the police force, education, and healthcare. This paper reviews a yet uncommon way of delivering dwelling units for this category of „Key workers’. The scheme-Shared-Ownership- allows the end user to engage in a staged (gradual) process of ownership (Stair-casing), and has proved to be a viable option for providing housing units in the United Kingdom mainly via housing associations. The scheme can be a viable option in the urban African affordable housing market, with a main proviso; that its adaptation must be compatible with the operation of small scale property developers. Its success rests on the premises that a) Governments motivate financing institutions to develop mortgages more suited to the financial capability of this range of salaried workers and b) Maintenance programmes via the use of service charges are incorporated into the legal documentation for the sale/rental of such units. This paper argues that the shared-ownership model has real potential and can be suitably adapted to various scales of housing developers, and significantly, facilitates a gradual ownership proces

Patterns of gene expression in schistosomes: localization by whole mount in situ hybridization

rom the identification of genes to the characterization of their functions and interactions. Developmental biologists have long used whole mount in situ hybridization (WISH) to determine gene expression patterns, as a vital tool for formulating and testing hypotheses about function. This paper describes the application of WISH to the study of gene expression in larval and adult schistosomes. Fixed worms were permeablized by proteinase K treatment for hybridization with digoxygenin-labelled RNA probes, with binding being detected by alkaline phosphatase-coupled anti-digoxygenin antibodies, and BM Purple substrate. Discrete staining patterns for the transcripts of the molecules Sm29, cathepsin L, antigen 10.3 and chorion were observed in the tegument cell bodies, gut epithelium, oesophageal gland and vitelline lobules, respectively, of adult worms. Transcripts of the molecules SGTP4, GP18-22 and cathepsin L were localized to tegument cell bodies and embryonic gut, respectively, of lung schistosomula. We also showed that Fast Red TR fluorescent substrate can refine the pattern of localization permitting use of confocal microscopy. We believe that method of WISH will find broad application, in synergy with other emerging post-genomic techniques, such as RNA interference, to studies focused at increasing our molecular understanding of schistosomes

A Classification of Infographics

Classifications are useful for describing existing phenomena and guiding further investigation. Several classifications of diagrams have been proposed, typically based on analytical rather than empirical methodologies. A notable exception is the work of Lohse and his colleagues, published in Communications of the ACM in December 1994. The classification of diagrams that Lohse proposed was derived from bottom-up grouping data collected from sixteen participants and based on 60 diagrams. Mean values on ten Likert-scales were used to predict diagram class. We follow a similar methodology to Lohse, using real-world infographics (i.e. embellished data charts) as our stimuli. We propose a structural classification of infographics, and determine whether infographics class can be predicted from values on Likert scales

Estimating the Supply Curve for Nutria Pelts From Coastal Louisiana and the Impacts Associated with Declining Prices

Nutria harvests vary with price. As pelt prices declined, nutria populations - and wetland degradation have risen. This paper develops a nutria supply model to predict harvests at various prices which are incorporated into a wetland loss model to determine how alternative incentive programs affect changes in wetland degradation.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,