Hunter Participation, Harvest, and Hunting Behavior During the 2015 Illinois Conservation Order Season

Harvest of light geese(Chen caerulescens, Chen rossii)during the 2015Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order season was estimated at 123,944. An estimated 2,599 hunters participated in the 2015 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order season. Hunters spent an estimated 30,360days afield during 2015, and the majority (53%) of the snow goose harvest occurred during the month of February. Due to changes in sampling of addresses and calculation of estimates,comparisons should not be made to years2013 and before in figures and tables. Addresses were sampled from Harvest Information Program (HIP)registrants who reported they hunted snow and other light geese (including Ross’ and Blue geese) during the 2014Light Goose Conservation Order seasons. Electronic calls were used by 78% of hunters, 77% used unplugged shotguns, and 60% reported hunting between sunset and ½ hour after sunset. Forty-five percent of snow goose hunters indicated an increase in effort over the past five years, and 39% of hunters perceived an increase in snow goose abundance during the regular goose seasons. A majority of the hunters(80%) were interested in snow goose hunting to extend their hunting season.Federal Aid Project Number W-112-R-24IDNR Division of WildlifeU.S. Fish & Wildlife Serviceunpublishednot peer reviewe

2014-2015 Illinois Waterfowl Hunter Report: Harvest, Youth Hunts, and Season Preferences

A total of 2,212(48%response rate) Illinois waterfowl hunters responded to the 2014-15Illinois Waterfowl Hunter Survey. An estimated 50,698waterfowl hunters spent982,193days afield, adecreaseof6.7% from the 1,052,728days devoted during the 2013-2014license year. Waterfowl harvest decreased9.0%, from 605,720 during 2013-14to 550,946 during 2014-15.Duck harvest estimates for the regular duck season were as follows: 197,997mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), 48,216wood ducks (Aix sponsa), and 138,615other ducks. A total of 29,058teal (Anasspp.) were harvested during the September teal season. Goose hunters harvested 87,672Canada geese (Branta canadensis) during the regular Canada goose season, a 16.4% decreasefrom the 104,887Canadageese harvested during the 2013-14regular goose season. Hunters harvested 19,089Canada geese during the September Canada goose season, a 22.0% increasefrom the previous year. During the Youth Waterfowl Hunting Season, 6,405adults took 8,572youths waterfowl hunting, a 24.1% decrease in adult participation and a less than 1.0% decrease in youth participation from the 2013-14Youth Waterfowl Hunting Season.Duck huntercommitment to waterfowl hunting, preferences for season and zones,and satisfaction with the waterfowl seasons are also discussed.Federal Aid Project Number W-112-R-24IDNR Division of WildlifeU.S. Fish & Wildlife Serviceunpublishednot peer reviewe

New measurements of total ionizing dose in the lunar environment

[1] We report new measurements of solar minimum ionizing radiation dose at the Moon onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) from June 2009 through May 2010. The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) instrument on LRO houses a compact and highly precise microdosimeter whose design allows measurements of dose rates below 1 micro-Rad per second in silicon achieved with minimal resources (20 g, ∼250 milliwatts, and ∼3 bits/second). We envision the use of such a small yet accurate dosimeter in many future spaceflight applications where volume, mass, and power are highly constrained. As this was the first operation of the microdosimeter in a space environment, the goal of this study is to verify its response by using simultaneous measurements of the galactic cosmic ray ionizing environment at LRO, at L1, and with other concurrent dosimeter measurements and model predictions. The microdosimeter measured the same short timescale modulations in the galactic cosmic rays as the other independent measurements, thus verifying its response to a known source of minimum-ionizing particles. The total dose for the LRO mission over the first 333 days was only 12.2 Rads behind ∼130 mils of aluminum because of the delayed rise of solar activity in solar cycle 24 and the corresponding lack of intense solar energetic particle events. The dose rate in a 50 km lunar orbit was about 30 percent lower than the interplanetary rate, as one would expect from lunar obstruction of the visible sky

Orbital and physical parameters of eclipsing binaries from the ASAS catalogue -- III. Two new low-mass systems with rapidly evolving spots

We present the results of our spectroscopic and photometric analysis of two newly discovered low-mass detached eclipsing binaries found in the All-Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) catalogue: ASAS J093814-0104.4 and ASAS J212954-5620.1. Using the GIRAFFE instrument on the 1.9-m Radcliffe telescope at SAAO and the UCLES spectrograph on the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope, we obtained high-resolution spectra of both objects and derived their radial velocities (RVs) at various orbital phases. The RVs of both objects were measured with the TODCOR technique using synthetic template spectra as references. We also obtained V and I band photometry using the 1.0-m Elizabeth telescope at SAAO and the 0.4-m PROMPT instruments located at the CTIO. The orbital and physical parameters of the systems were derived with PHOEBE and JKTEBOP codes. We compared our results with several sets of widely-used isochrones. Our multi-epoch photometric observations demonstrate that both objects show significant out-of-eclipse modulations, which vary in time. We believe that this effect is caused by stellar spots, which evolve on time scales of tens of days. For this reason, we constructed our models on the basis of photometric observations spanning short time scales (less than a month). Our modeling indicates that (1) ASAS-09 is a main sequence active system with nearly-twin components with masses of M1 = 0.771(33) Msun, M2 = 0.768(21) Msun and radii of R1 = 0.772(12) Rsun and R2 = 0.769(13) Rsun. (2) ASAS-21 is a main sequence active binary with component masses of M1 = 0.833(17) Msun, M2 = 0.703(13) Msun and radii of R1 = 0.845(12) Rsun and R2 = 0.718(17) Rsun. Both systems confirm the characteristic of active low-mass stars, for which the observed radii are larger and the temperatures lower than predicted by evolutionary models. Other parameters agree within errors with the models of main sequence stars.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables, to appear in A&

The lensing properties of subhaloes in massive elliptical galaxies in sterile neutrino cosmologies

We use high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations run with the EAGLE model of galaxy formation to study the differences between the properties of - and subsequently the lensing signal from - subhaloes of massive elliptical galaxies at redshift 0.2, in Cold and Sterile Neutrino (SN) Dark Matter models. We focus on the two 7 keV SN models that bracket the range of matter power spectra compatible with resonantly produced SN as the source of the observed 3.5 keV line. We derive an accurate parametrization for the subhalo mass function in these two SN models relative to cold dark matter (CDM), as well as the subhalo spatial distribution, density profile, and projected number density and the dark matter fraction in subhaloes. We create mock lensing maps from the simulated haloes to study the differences in the lensing signal in the framework of subhalo detection. We find that subhalo convergence is well described by a lognormal distribution and that signal of subhaloes in the power spectrum is lower in SN models with respect to CDM, at a level of 10-80 per cent, depending on the scale. However, the scatter between different projections is large and might make the use of power spectrum studies on the typical scales of current lensing images very difficult. Moreover, in the framework of individual detections through gravitational imaging a sample of ≃30 lenses with an average sensitivity of Msub = 5 × 107 M☉ would be required to discriminate between CDM and the considered sterile neutrino models

2014-2015 Illinois Hunter Harvest Report

A random sample of 3,000 hunters wasselected from 2014Illinois resident Habitat Stampand hunting licenseholdersandmailed an 8-page self-administered questionnaire designed to query hunters about their hunting activities and harvest in Illinois. We received1,296questionnaires,1,207of which were usable, for a 43% response rate. Illinois resident license salesdecreased1.0% from 2013(281,399) to the 2014seasons(278,546).Total days afield decreased for 12 game species (rabbit, dove, snipe, rail, crow, turkey, deer, raccoon, coyote, opossum, red and gray fox) from 2013-14, but increased for 4 species (woodcock, groundhog, and red and gray squirrel).Harvest decreased for 9game species(dove, woodcock, snipe, crow, raccoon, red and gray fox, coyote, and opossum) from 2013-2014, butincreasedfor 3species (groundhog, gray squirrel and fox squirrel). Harvestdid not change for onegame species (rail)and could not be compared for fourgame species (rabbit, wild quail, wild pheasant, and wild gray partridge).Hunters were also asked about small game hunting, applying for Free Upland Game Permits, and the effects of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) and Blue Tongue Virus (BTV) on deer hunting, as well as their opinionsabouthunting experiences and regulationsin Illinois.Federal Aid Project Number W-112-R-24IDNR Division of WildlifeU.S. Fish & Wildlife Serviceunpublishednot peer reviewe

Atomic Scale Memory at a Silicon Surface

The limits of pushing storage density to the atomic scale are explored with a memory that stores a bit by the presence or absence of one silicon atom. These atoms are positioned at lattice sites along self-assembled tracks with a pitch of 5 atom rows. The writing process involves removal of Si atoms with the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. The memory can be reformatted by controlled deposition of silicon. The constraints on speed and reliability are compared with data storage in magnetic hard disks and DNA.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Nanotechnolog