Flint Hills\u27 Night Sky

We can still see the sky the way our ancestors and Native Americans did. It is still there, unchanged. Because of light pollution, for many people it is a whole new realm to be discovered. It is as much a part of the prairie as the land and animals and deserves just as much to be experienced. It\u27s important to hold on to all of our heritages and the awe, serenity, soul, and profundity of the heavens are among those heritages

Denitrification and availability of carbon and nitrogen in a well-drained pasture soil amended with particulate organic carbon

A well-drained soil in N-fertilized dairy pasture was amended with particulate organic carbon (POC), either sawdust or coarse woody mulch, and sampled every 4 wk for a year to test the hypothesis that the addition of POC would increase denitrification activity by increasing the number of microsites where denitrification occurred. Overall mean denitrifying enzyme activity (DEA), on a gravimetric basis, was 100% greater for the woody mulch treatment and 50% greater for the sawdust treatment compared with controls, indicating the denitrifying potential of the soil was enhanced. Despite differences in DEA, no difference in denitrification rate, as measured by the acetylene block technique, was detected among treatments, with an average annual N loss of ∼22 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ Soil water content overall was driving denitrification in this well-drained soil as regression of the natural log of volumetric soil water content (VWC) against denitrification rate was highly significant (r ² = 0.74, P < 0.001). Addition of the amendments, however, had significant effects on the availability of both C and N. An additional 20 to 40 kg N ha⁻¹ was stored in POC-amended treatments as a result of increases in the microbial biomass. Basal respiration, as a measure of available C, was 400% greater than controls in the sawdust treatment and 250% greater than controls in the mulch. Net N mineralization, however, was significantly lower in the sawdust treatment, resulting in significantly lower nitrate N levels than in the control. We attribute the lack of measured response in denitrification rate to the high temporal variability in denitrification and suggest that diffusion of nitrate may ultimately have limited denitrification in the amended treatments. Our data indicate that manipulation of denitrification by addition of POC may be possible, particularly when nitrate levels are high, but quantifying differences in the rate of denitrification is difficult because of the temporal nature of the process (particularly the complex interaction of N availability and soil water content)

The Effects of Age, Anxiety, and Family Size on Wing-Tail Flicking in American Crows

Wing tail flicking, a sharp coordinated movement of wingtips and tail, is a common, yet little understood behavior of American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos). It may be an expression of anxiety, a signal to other crows, or both. We recognize three levels of intensity, differentiated by height of wing tip flicks and involvement of tail, and propose that fledgling crows will wing tail flick (WTF) less because they may not recognize danger and thus will be less anxious. If also a signal, adults may wing-tail flick to alert other family members to danger. Here, we analyzed over 14.5 hours of video of nine wild crow families with between two and six members. Four experimental trials were conducted with each family: three baseline trials with food alone, and one trial with both food and a novel stimulus, included to induce anxiety. We recorded the number and intensity of wing tail flicks, the age class of the individual, and the amount of time it was in view using BorisTM software. While the behavior of individuals varied within and between families, adults tended to WTF more than fledglings and at higher rates in novel stimulus relative to baseline trials. This supports the hypothesis that adults are more responsive to danger and that learning about perceived threats may increase WTF rates with age. We also found a weak, positive relationship between WTF rate and family size that suggests that WTFs could be socially contagious, spreading through a group once one individual expresses anxiety.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2022/1116/thumbnail.jp

Have You Seen My Henry Brown?

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/1413/thumbnail.jp

Representations of palliative care, euthanasia and assisted dying within advocacy declarations

It is well known that there are disagreements between the proponents of palliative care and of euthanasia or assisted dying, often with little common ground,shaping the end of life discourse internationally. Advocacy documents or ‘declarations’constitute a significant feature of this discourse. The aim of this study was to explore the content of such declarations and to focus on what they can tell us about palliative care and assisted dying and their dispositions towards one another. 104 declarations were identified and included in the study, covering the period 1974 to 2017. These declarations were analysed following the principles of thematic content analysis. We classified them based on their primary purpose: those with the goal of advocating for palliative care services, education and research were grouped under ‘palliative care declarations’; those with the primary objective of advocating for or against euthanasia/assisted dying were classified as “euthanasia/assisted dying declarations”. Our analysis revealed that the content of the declarations could be broadly categorised into three dimensions: framing, claiming and demanding. We demonstrate that these declarations reveal a struggle over the construction of meanings relating to palliative care and assisted dying and constitute a valuable resource for the analysis of an unfolding debate

Real-time Water Quality Monitoring Using Remote Sensing

2010 South Carolina Water Resource Conference. Informing strategic water planning to address natural resource, community and economic challenges