Trout Culture in the North Central Region

Trout have been raised in the United States for about 150 years. Initially, trout were raised to replace wild stocks that were declining because of over fishing, loss of habitat and pollution. United States trout farming began in the North Central Region with the establishment of Ackley’s Farm near Cleveland, OH. This farm was run by Theodatus Garlick, M.D., and H.A. Ackley, M.D., who developed ways to spawn brook trout and incubate the eggs in glass jars. Today, trout are still raised in the North Central Region in state, federal and private fish farms to stock lakes, ponds and streams. Trout are also raised and sold through fee fishing operations and as food fish through restaurants and supermarkets. Rainbow trout are the most commonly raised trout followed by brook and brown trout. Private commercial trout farms range from small owner/operator farms to large farms with many employees

Earnouts: A Study of Financial Contracting in Acquisition Agreements

We empirically examine earnout contracts, which provide for contingent payments in acquisition agreements. Our analysis reveals considerable heterogeneity in the terms of earnout contracts, i.e. the potential size of the earnout, the performance measure on which the contingent payment is based, the period over which performance is measured, the frequency with which performance is measured, and the form of payment for the earnout. Consistent with the costly contracting hypothesis, we find that the terms of earnout contracts are associated with measures of target valuation uncertainty, target growth opportunities, and the degree of post-acquisition integration between target and acquirer. We conclude that earnouts are structured to minimize the costs of adverse selection and moral hazard in acquisition negotiations.

Feature weighting techniques for CBR in software effort estimation studies: A review and empirical evaluation

Context : Software effort estimation is one of the most important activities in the software development process. Unfortunately, estimates are often substantially wrong. Numerous estimation methods have been proposed including Case-based Reasoning (CBR). In order to improve CBR estimation accuracy, many researchers have proposed feature weighting techniques (FWT). Objective: Our purpose is to systematically review the empirical evidence to determine whether FWT leads to improved predictions. In addition we evaluate these techniques from the perspectives of (i) approach (ii) strengths and weaknesses (iii) performance and (iv) experimental evaluation approach including the data sets used. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review of published, refereed primary studies on FWT (2000-2014). Results: We identified 19 relevant primary studies. These reported a range of different techniques. 17 out of 19 make benchmark comparisons with standard CBR and 16 out of 17 studies report improved accuracy. Using a one-sample sign test this positive impact is significant (p = 0:0003). Conclusion: The actionable conclusion from this study is that our review of all relevant empirical evidence supports the use of FWTs and we recommend that researchers and practitioners give serious consideration to their adoption

Image Deblurring and Near-real-time Atmospheric Seeing Estimation through the Employment of Convergence of Variance

A new image reconstruction algorithm is presented that will remove the effect of atmospheric turbulence on motion compensated frame average images. The primary focus of this research was to develop a blind deconvolution technique that could be employed in a tactical military environment where both time and computational power are limited. Additionally, this technique can be employed to measure atmospheric seeing conditions. In a blind deconvolution fashion, the algorithm simultaneously computes a high resolution image and an average model for the atmospheric blur parameterized by Fried’s seeing parameter. The difference in this approach is that it does not assume a prior distribution for the seeing parameter, rather it assesses the convergence of the image’s variance as the stopping criteria and identification of the proper seeing parameter from a range of candidate values. Experimental results show that the convergence of variance technique allows for estimation of the seeing parameter accurate to within 0.5 cm and often even better depending on the signal to noise ratio

On the informational content of wage offers

This article investigates signaling and screening roles of wage offers in a single-play matching model with two-sided unobservable characteristics. It generates the following predictions as matching equilibrium outcomes: (i) “good” jobs offer premia if “high-quality” worker population is large; (ii) “bad” jobs pay compensating differentials if the proportion of “good” jobs to “low-quality” workers is large; (iii) all firms may offer a pooling wage in markets dominated by “high-quality” workers and firms; or (iv) Gresham’s Law prevails: “good” types withdraw if “bad” types dominate the population. The screening/signaling motive thus has the potential of explaining a variety of wage patterns

A robust automated method to analyze rodent motion during fear conditioning

A central question in the study of LTP has been to determine what role it plays in memory formation and storage. One valuable form of learning for addressing this issue is associative fear conditioning. In this paradigm an animal learns to associate a tone and shock, such that subsequent presentation of a tone evokes a fear response (freezing behavior). Recent studies indicate that overlapping cellular processes underlie fear conditioning and LTP. The fear response has generally been scored manually which is both labor-intensive and subject to potential artifacts such as inconsistent or biased results. Here we describe a simple automated method that provides unbiased and rapid analysis of animal motion. We show that measured motion, in units termed significant motion pixels (SMPs), is both linear and robust over a wide range of animal speeds and detection thresholds and scores freezing in a quantitatively similar manner to trained human observers. By comparing the frequency distribution of motion during baseline periods and to the response to fox urine (which causes unconditioned fear), we suggest that freezing and non-freezing are distinct behaviors. Finally, we show how this algorithm can be applied to a fear conditioning paradigm yielding information on long and short-term associative memory as well as habituation. This automated analysis of fear conditioning will permit a more rapid and accurate assessment of the role of LTP in memory

Biomarkers of Heavy Metal Effects in Two Species of Caddisfly Larvae from Clark Fork River, Montana: Stress Proteins (HSP70) and Lysosomal Membrane Integrity

Potential sublethal effects of heavy metals in stream macroinvertebrates were examined with two cellular and biochemical biomarkers in larvae of two caddisflies indigenous to the Clark Fork River, Montana, - Hydropsyche spp. and Arctopsyche grandis. Stress proteins, in particular members of the HSP70 family, are involved in cellular protein homeostasis and repair, and are induced by a variety of stressors, which either damage cellular proteins directly or cause cells to synthesize aberrant proteins. Lysosomes are intracellular organelles that play key roles in the detoxification of both organic and inorganic xenobiotic compounds. Larvae of Hydropsyche spp. were collected from four sites on the Clark Fork (Galen Gage--4.7 km, Goldcreek--85.6 km, Turah--189.7 km, above Flathead--381 km) and a reference site (the Blackfoot River). Larvae of A. grandis were collected from the same sites minus the Galen site. Samples were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen for HSP70 analysis, or preserved with Tissue Tek, then frozen in liquid nitrogen for the lysosomal stability assay. HSP70 was analyzed by western blotting using monoclonal antibodies. Lysosomal integrity was measured in cryosections by acid labilization with acid phosphatase as a marker enzyme. Results to date show elevated tissue concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn and significantly increased levels of HSP70 in Arctopsyche from Goldcreek compared to reference samples. Lysosomal integrity also was compromised in samples from Goldcreek. In Hydropsyche, tissue concentrations of Cd, Cu and Pb from Galen Gage were elevated (4-7 times) relative to the Blackfoot River, but levels of HSP70 did not differ between the two sites. These preliminary results indicate that sublethal effects of metal exposure may differ between species

Deciphering interplay between Salmonella invasion effectors

Bacterial pathogens have evolved a specialized type III secretion system (T3SS) to translocate virulence effector proteins directly into eukaryotic target cells. Salmonellae deploy effectors that trigger localized actin reorganization to force their own entry into non-phagocytic host cells. Six effectors (SipC, SipA, SopE/2, SopB, SptP) can individually manipulate actin dynamics at the plasma membrane, which acts as a ‘signaling hub’ during Salmonella invasion. The extent of crosstalk between these spatially coincident effectors remains unknown. Here we describe trans and cis binary entry effector interplay (BENEFIT) screens that systematically examine functional associations between effectors following their delivery into the host cell. The results reveal extensive ordered synergistic and antagonistic relationships and their relative potency, and illuminate an unexpectedly sophisticated signaling network evolved through longstanding pathogen–host interaction