Development and application of operational techniques for the inventory and monitoring of resources and uses for the Texas coastal zone

The author has identified the following significant results. The most significant ADP result was the modification of the DAM package to produce classified printouts, scaled and registered to U.S.G.S., 71/2 minute topographic maps from LARSYS-type classification files. With this modification, all the powerful scaling and registration capabilities of DAM become available for multiclass classification files. The most significant results with respect to image interpretation were the application of mapping techniques to a new, more complex area, and the refinement of an image interpretation procedure which should yield the best results

Measurement of complex fragments and clues to the entropy production from 42-137-MeV/nucleon Ar + Au

Intermediate-rapidity fragments with A=1-14 emitted from 42-137-MeV/nucleon Ar + Au have been measured. Evidence is presented that these fragments arise from a common moving source. Entropy values are extracted from the mass distributions by use of quantum statistical and Hauser-Feshbach theories. The extracted entropy values of S/A≈2-2.4 are much smaller than the values expected from measured deuteron-to-proton ratios, but are still considerably higher than theoretically predicted values

Light particle spectra from 35 MeV/nucleon 12C-induced reactions on 197Au

Energy spectra for p, d, t, 3He, 4He, and 6He from the reaction 12C+197Au at 35 MeV/nucleon are presented. A common intermediate rapidity source is identified using a moving source fit to the spectra that yields cross sections which are compared to analogous data at other bombarding energies and to several different models. The excitation function of the composite to proton ratios is compared with quantum statistical, hydrodynamic, and thermal models

Widespread and persistent invasions of terrestrial habitats coincident with larval feeding behavior transitions during snail-killing fly evolution (Diptera: Sciomyzidae)

BACKGROUND: Transitions in habitats and feeding behaviors were fundamental to the diversification of life on Earth. There is ongoing debate regarding the typical directionality of transitions between aquatic and terrestrial habitats and the mechanisms responsible for the preponderance of terrestrial to aquatic transitions. Snail-killing flies (Diptera: Sciomyzidae) represent an excellent model system to study such transitions because their larvae display a range of feeding behaviors, being predators, parasitoids or saprophages of a variety of mollusks in freshwater, shoreline and dry terrestrial habitats. The remarkable genus Tetanocera (Tetanocerini) occupies five larval feeding groups and all of the habitat types mentioned above. This study has four principal objectives: (i) construct a robust estimate of phylogeny for Tetanocera and Tetanocerini, (ii) estimate the evolutionary transitions in larval feeding behaviors and habitats, (iii) test the monophyly of feeding groups and (iv) identify mechanisms underlying sciomyzid habitat and feeding behavior evolution. RESULTS: Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood analyses of molecular data provided strong support that the Sciomyzini, Tetanocerini and Tetanocera are monophyletic. However, the monophyly of many behavioral groupings was rejected via phylogenetic constraint analyses. We determined that (i) the ancestral sciomyzid lineage was terrestrial, (ii) there was a single terrestrial to aquatic habitat transition early in the evolution of the Tetanocerini and (iii) there were at least 10 independent aquatic to terrestrial habitat transitions and at least 15 feeding behavior transitions during tetanocerine phylogenesis. The ancestor of Tetanocera was aquatic with five lineages making independent transitions to terrestrial habitats and seven making independent transitions in feeding behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The preponderance of aquatic to terrestrial transitions in sciomyzids goes against the trend generally observed across eukaryotes. Damp shoreline habitats are likely transitional where larvae can change habitat but still have similar prey available. Transitioning from aquatic to terrestrial habitats is likely easier than the reverse for sciomyzids because morphological characters associated with air-breathing while under the water\u27s surface are lost rather than gained, and sciomyzids originated and diversified during a general drying period in Earth\u27s history. Our results imply that any animal lineage having aquatic and terrestrial members, respiring the same way in both habitats and having the same type of food available in both habitats could show a similar pattern of multiple independent habitat transitions coincident with changes in behavioral and morphological traits

The physiological and clinical importance of cardiorespiratory fitness in people with abdominal aortic aneurysm

NEW FINDINGS: What is the topic of this review? This review focuses on the physiological impact of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) on cardiorespiratory fitness and the negative consequences of low fitness on clinical outcomes in AAA. We also discuss the efficacy of exercise training for improving cardiorespiratory fitness in AAA. What advances does it highlight? We demonstrate the negative impact of low fitness on disease progression and clinical outcomes in AAA. We highlight potential mechanistic determinants of low fitness in AAA and present evidence that exercise training can be an effective treatment strategy for improving cardiorespiratory fitness, postoperative mortality and disease progression. ABSTRACT: An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an abnormal enlargement of the aorta, below the level of the renal arteries, where the aorta diameter increases by >50%. As an aneurysm increases in size, there is a progressive increase in the risk of rupture, which ranges from 25 to 40% for aneurysms >5.5 cm in diameter. People with AAA are also at a heightened risk of cardiovascular events and associated mortality. Cardiorespiratory fitness is impaired in people with AAA and is associated with poor (postoperative) clinical outcomes, including increased length of hospital stay and postoperative mortality after open surgical or endovascular AAA repair. Although cardiorespiratory fitness is a well‐recognized prognostic marker of cardiovascular health and mortality, it is not assessed routinely, nor is it included in current clinical practice guidelines for the management of people with AAA. In this review, we discuss the physiological impact of AAA on cardiorespiratory fitness, in addition to the consequences of low cardiorespiratory fitness on clinical outcomes in people with AAA. Finally, we summarize current evidence for the effect of exercise training interventions on cardiorespiratory fitness in people with AAA, including the associated improvements in postoperative mortality, AAA growth and cardiovascular risk. Based on this review, we propose that cardiorespiratory fitness should be considered as part of the routine risk assessment and monitoring of people with AAA and that targeting improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness with exercise training might represent a viable adjunct treatment strategy for reducing postoperative mortality and disease progression

A Record of Antarctic Climate and Ice Sheet History Recovered

Antarctica’s late Cenozoic (the past ~15 million years) climate history is poorly known from direct evidence, owing to its remoteness, an extensive sea ice apron, and an ice sheet cover over the region for the past 34 million years. Consequently, knowledge about the role of Antarctica’s ice sheets in global sea level and climate has relied heavily upon interpretations of oxygen isotope records from deep-sea cores. Whereas these isotopic records have revolutionized our understanding of climate-ice-ocean interactions, questions still remain about the specific role of Antarctic ice sheets in global climate. Such questions can be addressed from geological records at the marine margin of the ice sheets, recovered by drilling from floating ice platforms [e.g., Davey et al., 2001; Harwood et al., 2006; Barrett, 2007]. During the austral summer of 2006–2007, a new Antarctic geological drilling program (ANDRILL) successfully recovered a 1285- meter-long record of climate and ice sheet variability spanning the past 13 million years from beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf (Figure 1). The cores contain sedimentary rocks deposited by the ice sheets grounded in the sea, and they provide the best direct evidence to date of past Antarctic ice sheet and climate fluctuations for this period of Earth’s history. The new geological evidence is being used to provide direct physical calibrationfor deep-sea isotope records, low-latitude continental margin sea level records, and numerical climate and ice sheet models, especially for times of past global warmth. Such analogs are becoming increasingly important because of the difficulties in predicting the dynamic response of ice sheets to global warming [Vaughan and Athern, 2007]. In this article we summarize the initial results of the ANDRILL program’s first drilling project from the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) site [Naish et al., 2007a, 2007b], with an emphasis on the potential of the record for improving our knowledge of Antarctica’s influence on, and response to, global climate change

Managing soil carbon and nitrogen for productivity and environmental quality

Includes bibliographical references (pages 774-775).In this study, we investigated the impact of cropping system management on C and N pools, crop yield, and N leaching in a long-term agronomic experiment in Southwest Michigan. Four management types, conventional (CO), integrated fertilizer (IF), integrated compost (IC), and transitional organic (TO) were applied to two crop sequences, a corn (Zea mays L.)–corn–soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]–wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) rotation and continuous corn, which were grown with and without cover crops in the IF, IC, and TO managements. Using compost as a fertility source and reducing the use of herbicides and other chemicals resulted in long-term changes in soil organic matter pools such TO ≥ IC > IF ≥ CO for total C and N and for the labile C and N measured through aerobic incubations at 70 and 150 d. Mineralizable N varied within the rotation, tending to increase after soybean and decrease after corn production in all systems. Corn yield was closely associated with 70-d N mineralization potential, being greatest for first-year corn with cover and least for continuous corn without cover under all management types. Although the TO and IC systems produced the lowest yield for second-year or continuous corn, the combination of soybean and wheat plus red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) always supported high yield for first-year corn. Fall nitrate level and nitrate leaching were higher for commercially fertilized corn than for any other crop or for compost-amended corn