Birch Hill Park: A Case Study of Interpretive Planning

The Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation Department is responsible for the planning, acquisition, development, improvement, and maintenance of lands and facilities to meet the community's needs for park and open space lands in accordance with established standards. 1 Current department emphasis is on sports facilities and programs. Some small neighborhood parks and the Growden Park and Picnic Area are the only significantly developed areas in which organized sports are not emphasized. Birch Hill Park was acquired to expand the spectrum of recreational resources and opportunities available to borough residents. Cross-country skiing, both competitive and recreational, is an important winter activity, but the area's size and its natural environment provide for a variety of other uses. The park has a summer youth camp, and planned developments will enhance the opportunities for visitors of all ages to picnic, hike, and study nature. This paper presents a direct contribution to the diversification of the borough's recreational program by highlighting the interpretive resources and opportunities of the park and by making specific recommendations for the implementation of an interpretive program. The interpretive plan proposed here can be integrated with the comprehensive development planning for Birch Hill Park now underway at the Parks and Recreation Department. Preliminary research for this study was done as a University of Alaska class project in the spring semester of 1976. The students in LR 493, Interpretive Services, developed basic information on the natural and cultural resources of Birch Hill and its surrounding region. They also identified policy gaps and provided general guidance for interpretation in the park.2 The plan presented here is a fo llow-up to that work. Additional fieldwork and library research have been done to supplement the earlier effort, and the implementation aspects have been made more specific with regard to the trail and visitor center recommendations. The process followed in this study is adapted from Perry J. Brown's Procedures for Developing an Interpretive Master Plan

Prospects for Uganda's Dairy Industry

The East African country of Uganda might not be thought of as the location of a viable, growing dairy industry. However, Uganda recorded a threefold increase in milk production from 1991 to 2004. While Uganda's dairy industry faces important challenges, the industry possesses advantages that can lead to further increases in milk production if additional, profitable markets can be found for Uganda's milk and dairy products. A major advantage possessed by Uganda's dairy industry is a favorable climate for milk production. Uganda's farmers also have demonstrated a willingness to accept new technologies that can increase milk production. The biggest challenges facing the industry are those associated with poor milk quality and pronounced seasonality of milk production.Uganda Dairy Industry, Uganda's Political and Economic Environment, Pasture-Based Dairy Industry, Poor Milk Quality, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use, Political Economy, Public Economics,

Short-term rentals in Canada: Uneven growth, uneven impacts

In the last several years, Airbnb and other short-term rental services have grown precipitously across Canada, but very little is known about the scale and character of this activity or its impact on housing. Relying on spatial analysis of big data, this study presents the first comprehensive analysis of Airbnb in Canada, with an emphasis on the interaction between the short-term rental market and long-term housing. Airbnb activity is highly concentrated geographically—nearly half of all active listings are located in the Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver metropolitan areas—and highly concentrated among hosts, the top 10% of whom earn a majority of all revenue. Contrary to the rhetoric of “home sharing”, almost 50% of all Airbnb revenue last year was generated by commercial operators who manage multiple listings. Moreover, between 17,000 to 43,000 entire homes were rented frequently enough last year that they are unlikely to house a permanent resident. This housing pressure disproportionately affects West Coast cities: between 10% and 70% of Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, and Abbotsford-Mission residents live in neighbourhoods whose rental vacancy rate is exceeded by the proportion of housing units that are frequently rented on Airbnb. While current Airbnb activity is concentrated in major cities, active listings, total revenue, hosts with multiple listings, and frequently rented entire-home listings are all growing at substantially higher rates in small towns and rural areas.Au cours des dernières années, Airbnb et d’autres services de location à court terme ont connu une croissance fulgurante à travers le Canada, mais on en sait très peu sur l’ampleur et le caractère de cette activité ou de son impact sur le logement. S’appuyant sur l’analyse spatiale du big data, cette étude présente la première analyse complète d’Airbnb au Canada, en mettant l’accent sur l’interaction entre les marchés locatif à court terme et logement à long terme. L’activité Airbnb est très concentrée géographiquement - près de la moitié de toutes les inscriptions actives sont situées dans les régions métropolitaines de Toronto, Montréal et Vancouver - et fortement concentrées parmi les hôtes, dont 10% des plus riches gagnent la majorité de tous les revenus. Contrairement à la rhétorique du « partage à domicile », près de 50% de tous les revenus d’Airbnb l’année dernière ont été générés par des opérateurs commerciaux qui gèrent plusieurs inscriptions location à court terme. De plus, 31 000 logements en entiers ont été loués de façon si fréquemment l’an dernier que l’on doute qu’ils sont habité par un résident permanent. Cette pression immobilière affecte de façon disproportionnée les villes de la Colombie-Britannique. Alors que l’activité Airbnb actuelle est concentrée dans les grandes villes, les listes actives, le total les revenus, les hôtes avec plusieurs inscriptions et les annonces de maisons entières souvent louées augmentent tous à des taux sensiblement plus élevés dans les petites villes et les zones rurales

Annuloplasty MTI: Improved Tooling for Annuloplasty Ring Manufacturing

The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time

Microearthquake distribution and mechanisms of faulting in the Fontana-San Bernardino area of Southern California

The major, historically active San Jacinto and San Andreas fault systems pass through the San Bernardino Valley area of southern California. An array of six portable, high-gain seismographs was operated for five 2-week recording sessions during the summer of 1972 and winter and spring of 1973 in order to detail the microseismicity of the region. A crustal model for the Valley, modified after Gutenberg, was established using a 6-km reversed seismic refraction profile and a series of monitored quarry blasts. Fifty-five microearthquakes were used to establish a magnitude scale (1.5 to 3.3) based on coda lengths recorded by instruments peaked at 20 Hz. Forty-five hypocenters from the analysis of over 6,000 hr of low-noise records define two northeast trending lineations within the western portion of the Valley. A composite first-motion plot of 22 microearthquakes from these lineations indicates left-lateral strike-slip faulting. Fluctuations in microseismicity appear to reflect rapid changes in the stress patterns of southern California. Minor activity along the strike of the San Jacinto fault zone suggests a purely right-lateral strike-slip motion. Only minimal strain release was observed along the San Andreas fault zone

The MANTA: An RPV design to investigate forces and moments on a lifting surface

The overall goal was to investigate and exploit the advantages of using remotely powered vehicles (RPV's) for in-flight data collection at low Reynold's numbers. The data to be collected is on actual flight loads for any type of rectangular or tapered airfoil section, including vertical and horizontal stabilizers. The data will be on a test specimen using a force-balance system which is located forward of the aircraft to insure an undisturbed air flow over the test section. The collected data of the lift, drag and moment of the test specimen is to be radioed to a grand receiver, thus providing real-time data acquisition. The design of the mission profile and the selection of the instrumentation to satisfy aerodynamic requirements are studied and tested. A half-size demonstrator was constructed and flown to test the flight worthiness of the system

Multiple courses of stereotactic re-irradiation in recurrent oligodendroglioma: a case report

INTRODUCTION: High grade gliomas are an insidious disease associated with an extremely poor prognosis. The role of re-irradiation for recurrent gliomas is unclear but several retrospective studies have indicated mild toxicity and modest outcomes with this regimen. With subsequent progression, it is unclear what options remain and more radiotherapy is rarely offered for fear of surpassing normal central nervous system tissue tolerance and causing significant side effects without significant benefit. CASE PRESENTATION: In this report, we describe a 37-year-old Caucasian male initially diagnosed with a grade IV oligodendroglioma, who received multiple courses of re-irradiation and experienced a survival of 10 years with minimal cognitive or neurologic deficits. CONCLUSION: Significant toxicity with multiple courses of radiation does not always occur. Re-irradiation should be considered in a salvage setting

Aircraft empennage structural detail design

The purpose of this project is to provide an empennage structural assembly that will withstand the operational loads defined in FAR Part 23, as well as those specified in the statement of work, i.e. snow, rain, humidity, tiedown forces, etc. The goal is to provide a simple yet durable lightweight structure that will transfer the aerodynamic forces produced by the tail surfaces through the most efficient load path to the airframe. The structure should be simple and cost-effective to manufacture and repair. All structures meet or exceed loading and fatigue criteria. The structure provides for necessary stiffness and ease of maintenance

Forage nutritive value and predicted fiber digestibility of Kernza intermediate wheatgrass in monoculture and in mixture with red clover during the first production year

Kernza intermediate wheatgrass is thefirst perennial grain crop in the world and has been de-veloped with conventional breeding to increase seed yield of forage intermediate wheatgrass(Thinopyrum intermedium(Host) Barkworth & D.R. Dewey). When managed for dual-use (grainand forage), Kernza intermediate wheatgrass can produce grain, crop residue (straw) in thesummer, and green forage in the spring and fall. Mixtures of this grass with legumes could in-crease forage yield and nutritive value and provide other environmental and economic benefits.Despite the growing interest in these dual-use production systems, forage nutritive value ofKernza intermediate wheatgrass forage in a dual-use system in the Upper Midwest is unknown. Areplicatedfield experiment was established in two locations in southern Wisconsin (Arlingtonand Lancaster) with two treatments: Kernza intermediate wheatgrass grown in monoculture andmixture with red clover (Trifolium pratenseL.). Forage samples were collected at late vegetativestage in the spring, at grain harvest in the summer, and at the end of the regrowth period in thefall. Forage nutritive value of the monoculture was greatest in the spring with 456, 249 and 225 gkg−1for neutral detergentfiber (NDF), acid detergentfiber (ADF) and crude protein (CP), re-spectively; lowest in the summer with 702, 427 and 51 g kg−1NDF, ADF and CP, respectively,and intermediate in the fall with 590, 337 and 119 g kg−1NDF, ADF and CP, respectively.Predicted total-tract neutral detergentfiber digestibility (ttNDFD) was 0.53 for the spring forageand averaged 0.37 for the summer and fall forage, with no differences between the mixture andmonoculture. The relative forage quality (RFQ) for the monoculture was 175 for the springforage, 65 for the summer residue, and 116 for the fall. Intercropping red clover with Kernzaintermediate wheatgrass increased CP of the summer crop residue by 69%, and increased CP andRFQ of the fall forage by 49% and 11%, respectively, while reducing NDF and ADF of the fallforage by 25% and 18%, respectively. Therefore, Kernza intermediate wheatgrass forage is sui-table for lactating beef cows, dairy cows, and growing heifers when harvested in the spring andfall, and it offers high potential for dual-use grain and forage systems