Hubble Space Telescope Design Engineering Knowledgebase (HSTDEK)

The research covered here pays specific attention to the development of tools to assist knowledge engineers in acquiring knowledge and to assist other technical, engineering, and management personnel in automatically performing knowledge capture as part of their everyday work without adding any extra work to what they already do. Requirements for data products, the knowledge base, and methods for mapping knowledge in the documents onto the knowledge representations are discussed, as are some of the difficulties of capturing in the knowledge base the structure of the design process itself, along with a model of the system designed. The capture of knowledge describing the interactions of different components is also discussed briefly

Russia and Britain in Persia: Imperial Ambitions in Qajar Iran. By Firuz Kazemzadeh. (New York, NY: I. B. Tauris, 2013. Pp. xvii, 711. $85.00.)

This is a reprint of the author\u27s classic study of British and Russian policies and intervention in Iran from the 1860s to 1914. For this edition, Firuz Kazemzadeh has consulted Russian archive materials and books that became accessible after the fall of the Soviet Union. Yet he maintains that those sources confirmed his earlier conclusions, and he has made no changes to this edition. The book is basically “a case study in imperialism,” tracing the steady increase in penetration that occurred, and it largely relies upon British and Russian primary sources (vii). The few Persian sources that are cited are almost always secondary ones

Constitutionalists and Cossacks: The Constitutional Movement and Russian Intervention in Tabriz, 1907–11

It is well known to the students of Iranian history that the great powers of Britain and Russia played important roles in shaping events and their course during the period of the Constitutional Movement (1905-11). And nowhere was Russia\u27s involvement greater than in the northwestern province of Azerbaijan, the closest Iranian to Russian territory in the Caucasus. Beginning in 1907, the extent of her involvement in the province increased, although it continued to be restricted to material support for the royalists in their struggles with the province\u27s constitutionalists. The first example of direct intervention on the part of the Russians came when their forces arrived to lift the royalist siege of Tabriz in 1909 and deliver food to a starving population. That action brought the unwelcome arrival of troops into the province. Thereafter followed an uneasy two years of coexistence wherein the Russians repeatedly tried to weaken the constitutionalists. That came to an end in December when the troops went on the offensive, defeated the constitutionalists, and executed many of those whom they apprehended. The overall result of that victory was the elimination of the most radical exponents of constitutionalism in Iran, the end of the second phase of the Movement, the severing of Azerbaijan from the rest of Iran, and the beginning of a Russian occupation of the province that lasted for the next six years

Remote measurement of turbidity and chlorophyll through aerial photography

Studies were conducted utilizing six different film and filter combinations to quantitatively detect chlorophyll and turbidity in six farm ponds. The low range of turbidity from 0-35 JTU correlated well with the density readings from the green band of normal color film and the high range above 35 JTU was found to correlate with density readings in the red band of color infrared film. The effect of many of the significant variables can be reduced by using standardized procedures in taking the photography. Attempts to detect chlorophyll were masked by the turbidity. The ponds which were highly turbid also had high chlorophyll concentrations; whereas, the ponds with low turbidity also had low chlorophyll concentrations. This prevented a direct correlation for this parameter. Several suggested approaches are cited for possible future investigations

Analysis of Arkansas Fur Harvest Records - 1942-1984: II. Species Accounts

Fur harvest records were maintained by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission on the following 16 furbearers: badger, beaver, bobcat, eastern spotted skunk (civet), coyote, gray fox, long-tailed weasel, mink, muskrat, nutria, opossum, raccoon, red fox, red wolf, river otter, and striped skunk. These harvest records were analyzed for each species in terms of mean pelt price and numbers of pelt sold by region (Ozark Mountains, Ouachita Mountains, Gulf Coastal Plain, and Mississippi Delta) per year. Historical or biological influences important in interpreting species accounts are presented

Analysis of Arkansas Fur Harvest Records - 1942-1984: III. Harvest-Price Relationships

Correlation and linear regression analyses between mean annual pelt price and total harvest of 13 Arkansas furbearer species between 1965 and 1983 were performed for state and regions (Ozark Mountains, Ouachita Mountains, Gulf Coastal Plain, and Mississippi Delta). Statewide, strong correlations (r \u3e 0.80) were identified for bobcat (Felis rufus), coyote (Canis latrans), gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), mink (Mustela vison), nutria (Myocastor coypus), opossum (Didelphis virginiana), and raccoon (Procyonlotor). Moderate correlations (r = 0.55 - 0.79) were identified for eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), river otter (Lutra canadensis), and striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis). Nonsignificant correlations (r \u3c 0.468) were shown for beaver (Castor canadensis) and long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata). Regional differences were noted for each species

Analysis of Factors Affecting Farmers’ Willingness to Adopt Switchgrass Production

In the United States, biomass is the largest source of renewable energy accounting for over 3 percent of the energy consumed domestically and is currently the only source for liquid, renewable, transportation fuels. Continued development of biomass as a renewable energy source is being driven in large part by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which mandates that by 2022 at least 36 billion gallons of fuel ethanol be produced, with at least 16 billion gallons being derived from cellulose, hemi-cellulose, or lignin. However, the market for cellulosic biofuels is still under development. As such, little is known about producer response to feedstock prices paid for dedicated energy crops. While there have been some studies done on factors that determine farmers’ willingness to produce switchgrass, these have been very regional in nature. This study will provide information regarding potential switchgrass adoption by agricultural producers in twelve southeastern states. The objectives of this research are 1) to determine the likelihood of farmers growing switchgrass as a biomass feedstock and the acres they would be willing to devote to switchgrass production and 2) to evaluate some of the factors that are likely to influence these decisions, including the price of switchgrass.Switchgrass, Farmer Adoption, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q12, Q16,

Movement Patterns of Large Brown Trout in the Mainstream Au Sable River, Michigan

We used radiotelemetry to monitor spring and summer movements of 11 brown trout Salmo trutta (442–584 mm) for up to 904 d in a Michigan stream. Individual brown trout used a few specific locations near cover (referred to as home sites) as resting locations during the day, moved across various distances at night, and generally returned to the same home site the next morning. Home sites were predominantly artificial cover (88%) rather than natural sites, as natural cover was very limited in the study area. Some fish used multiple home sites, and the average separation between multiple home sites for individual fish was over 500 m. Fish tracked for more than 1 year used the same home sites each summer and generally exhibited similar behavior each year. Fish belonged to two general categories of daily movement behavior: mobile or stationary. Mobile fish tended to move frequently and were found within their home sites only 43% of the time at night. Stationary fish did not move far from home sites, even at night. There was a negative correlation between the average gradient and the maximum distance fish moved from their home sites during nocturnal periods. Stationary fish resided in areas of steeper gradient (usually about 0.20%) and moved less often nocturnally than did mobile fish. Three fish were tracked extensively over 36 d to quantify diel activity patterns. The hourly activity of fish increased dramatically at dusk, continued at a lower level overnight, and then increased again at dawn before declining to near zero during the day. This behavior pattern was similar among all individuals tracked and also between the months of June, July, and August for an individual fish. Nocturnal movements involved significantly greater distances than diurnal movements for these fish. The relationship between movement and gradient may indicate energetic tradeoffs between the cost of moving against a current and the energy gained during active foraging. Also, the dominant use of artificial home sites has implications for the value of habitat improvements meant to increase abundance of large brown trout.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141462/1/tafs0034.pd

Contribution of Freshwater Bivalves to Muskrat Diets in the Green River, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

Muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) are known to prey on freshwater bivalves (mussels and clams) and can negatively impact imperiled mussel species. However, factors that infl uence muskrat predation on bivalves are poorly understood. We evaluated the feeding ecology of muskrats at Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky by using stable isotope analysis of muskrat hair samples and by monitoring bivalve shell deposition at muskrat middens. Bayesian mixing-model analysis of stable isotope δ15N and δ13C ratios revealed that the median muskrat biomass derived from bivalves was 51.4% (5th and 95th percentiles were 39.1 to 63.4%, respectively), a much higher dietary proportion than previously reported. Shell depositions by muskrats at middens decreased with the availability of seasonal emergent vegetation, suggesting that the consumption of animal matter is in response to a scarcity of plant foods. Our results add to the growing body of evidence that muskrats have the potential to impact mussel population growth and recovery in some environments