2,088 research outputs found
Restoring the eastern oyster: how much progress has been made in 53 years?
Coastal ecosystem restoration is accelerating globally as a means of enhancing shoreline protection, carbon storage, water quality, fisheries, and biodiversity. Among the most substantial of these efforts have been those focused on re-establishing oyster reefs across the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Despite considerable investment, it is unclear how the scale of and approaches toward oyster restoration have evolved. A synthesis of 1768 projects undertaken since 1964 reveals that oyster substrate restoration efforts have primarily been concentrated in the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf Coast, have been heavily reliant on oyster shell, and have re-established 4.5% of the reef area that has been lost across all regions. By comparing costs to ecosystem service benefits, we discovered that the return-on-investment of oyster restoration varies widely, but generally increases with project size. To facilitate the recovery of coastal ecosystems and their services, scientists and resource managers must adopt a new restoration paradigm prioritizing investment in sites that maximize economic and ecological benefits and minimize construction costs
Gerontechnology: Providing a Helping Hand When Caring for Cognitively Impaired Older Adults—Intermediate Results from a Controlled Study on the Satisfaction and Acceptance of Informal Caregivers
The incidence of cognitive impairment in older age is increasing, as is the number of cognitively impaired older adults living in their own homes. Due to lack of social care resources for these adults and their desires to remain in their own homes and live as independently as possible, research shows that the current standard care provisions are inadequate. Promising opportunities exist in using home assistive technology services to foster healthy aging and to realize the unmet needs of these groups of citizens in a user-centered manner. ISISEMD project has designed, implemented, verified, and assessed an assistive technology platform of personalized home care (telecare) for the elderly with cognitive impairments and their caregivers by offering intelligent home support services. Regions from four European countries have carried out long-term pilot-controlled study in real-life conditions. This paper presents the outcomes from intermediate evaluations pertaining to user satisfaction with the system, acceptance of the technology and the services, and quality of life outcomes as a result of utilizing the services
Global Spiral Modes in NGC 1566: Observations and Theory
We present an observational and theoretical study of the spiral structure in
galaxy NGC 1566. A digitized image of NGC 1566 in I-band was used for
measurements of the radial dependence of amplitude variations in the spiral
arms. We use the known velocity dispersion in the disk of NGC 1566, together
with its rotation curve, to construct linear and 2D nonlinear simulations which
are then compared with observations. A two-armed spiral is the most unstable
linear global mode in the disk of NGC 1566. The nonlinear simulations are in
agreement with the results of the linear modal analysis, and the theoretical
surface amplitude and the velocity residual variations across the spiral arms
are in qualitative agreement with the observations. The spiral arms found in
the linear and nonlinear simulations are considerably shorter than those
observed in the disk of NGC 1566. We argue therefore, that the surface density
distribution in the disk of the galaxy NGC 1566 was different in the past, when
spiral structure in NGC 1566 was linearly growing.Comment: 41 pages, 20 figures, to be published in the Astrophysical Journa
Has the QCD RG-Improved Parton Content of Virtual Photons been Observed?
It is demonstrated that present and DIS ep data on the structure of
the virtual photon can be understood entirely in terms of the standard `naive'
quark--parton model box approach. Thus the QCD renormalization group (RG)
improved parton distributions of virtual photons, in particular their gluonic
component, have not yet been observed. The appropriate kinematical regions for
their future observation are pointed out as well as suitable measurements which
may demonstrate their relevance.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, 5 figure
Quark Mass Corrections to the Perturbative Thrust and its Effect on the determination of
We consider the effects of quark masses to the perturbative thrust in
annihilation. In particular we show that perturbative power
corrections resulting from non-zero quark masses considerably alters the size
of the non-perturbative power corrections and consequently, significantly
changes the fitted value of .Comment: Latex, 6 pages, 2 figures, minor change in text, added one referenc
Nuclear muon capture by 3He: meson exchange currents for the triton channel
Exchange current corrections are calculated using currents found from the
hard-pion model and AV14+3BF wavefunctions. Results are given for the rate and
spin observables. Their sensitivity to g_P, the nucleon pseudoscalar form
factor, is reported.Comment: 35 pages, uuencoded gz-compressed tar file 42 Kbyte
Tracking a Medically Important Spider: Climate Change, Ecological Niche Modeling, and the Brown Recluse (Loxosceles reclusa)
Most spiders use venom to paralyze their prey and are commonly feared for their potential to cause injury to humans. In North America, one species in particular, Loxosceles reclusa (brown recluse spider, Sicariidae), causes the majority of necrotic wounds induced by the Araneae. However, its distributional limitations are poorly understood and, as a result, medical professionals routinely misdiagnose brown recluse bites outside endemic areas, confusing putative spider bites for other serious conditions. To address the issue of brown recluse distribution, we employ ecological niche modeling to investigate the present and future distributional potential of this species. We delineate range boundaries and demonstrate that under future climate change scenarios, the spider's distribution may expand northward, invading previously unaffected regions of the USA. At present, the spider's range is centered in the USA, from Kansas east to Kentucky and from southern Iowa south to Louisiana. Newly influenced areas may include parts of Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. These results illustrate a potential negative consequence of climate change on humans and will aid medical professionals in proper bite identification/treatment, potentially reducing bite misdiagnoses
Echinoderms have bilateral tendencies
Echinoderms take many forms of symmetry. Pentameral symmetry is the major
form and the other forms are derived from it. However, the ancestors of
echinoderms, which originated from Cambrian period, were believed to be
bilaterians. Echinoderm larvae are bilateral during their early development.
During embryonic development of starfish and sea urchins, the position and the
developmental sequence of each arm are fixed, implying an auxological
anterior/posterior axis. Starfish also possess the Hox gene cluster, which
controls symmetrical development. Overall, echinoderms are thought to have a
bilateral developmental mechanism and process. In this article, we focused on
adult starfish behaviors to corroborate its bilateral tendency. We weighed
their central disk and each arm to measure the position of the center of
gravity. We then studied their turning-over behavior, crawling behavior and
fleeing behavior statistically to obtain the center of frequency of each
behavior. By joining the center of gravity and each center of frequency, we
obtained three behavioral symmetric planes. These behavioral bilateral
tendencies might be related to the A/P axis during the embryonic development of
the starfish. It is very likely that the adult starfish is, to some extent,
bilaterian because it displays some bilateral propensity and has a definite
behavioral symmetric plane. The remainder of bilateral symmetry may have
benefited echinoderms during their evolution from the Cambrian period to the
present
Species' geographic distributions through time: Playing catchup with changing climates
This is the author's accepted manuscript.Species’ ranges are often treated as a rather fixed characteristic, rather than a fluid, ever-changing manifestation of their ecological requirements and dispersal abilities. Paleontologists generally have had a more flexible point of view on this issue than neontologists, but each perspective can improve by appreciating the other. Here, we provide an overview of paleontological and neontological perspectives on species’ geographic distributions, focusing on what can be learned about historical variations in distributions. The cross-disciplinary view, we hope, offers some novel perspectives on species-level biogeography
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