The Economic Impact of Increased Congestion for Freight-Dependent Businesses in Washington State

Congestion in the transportation system necessitates select businesses to operate on a less efficient production function. A survey of freight-dependent businesses in Washington State was used to calculate the costs of congestion and economic impact of increased congestion. As these businesses spend more to provide goods, responses suggest consumers would pay 60% to 80% of the increased cost. Primary areas of increased cost were identified as additional trucking and inventory costs. Results identify an additional $8.7 billion in consumer costs for a 20$3.3 billion in total output and over 27,000 jobs

Evaluating Hunting Success of Pen-Reared and Wild Northern Bobwhite in a Reclaimed Kentucky Mineland

Northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) have experienced severe population declines across their distribution. In order to address population declines and to continue providing hunting opportunities, multi-state efforts have been undertaken to stabilize and restore bobwhite populations. Ongoing efforts using the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative’s quail focus area approach have so far demonstrated success throughout Kentucky. However, population increases in the Peabody Bobwhite Focal Area, in western Kentucky, have not been correlated to increases in perceived hunter success. Consequently, some sportsmen question the effectiveness of focal area conservation. In response to hunter concerns, we tested dog hunting ability with wild and pen-reared bobwhites. We also measured evasive behaviors of wild bobwhite using radiotelemetry. During the 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 hunting seasons we conducted 114 dog trials. Dogs detected bobwhite during 46 of 59 (78.0%) pen-reared trials and 16 of 55 (29.1%) wild bird trials. When dogs did not detect wild quail, birds ran away 64.1% of the time and remained motionless 20.5% of the time. Using an information-theoretic approach, we determined that bird type (wild vs. pen-reared) had a significant effect on bird detection, with dogs 8.62 times more likely to detect pen-reared birds than wild birds. We recommend that hunters be informed about differences in dog detection rates between pen-reared and wild bobwhite so that public support needed for wild bobwhite restoration can persist

Temperature Assessment on a Reclaimed Surface Mine During Northern Bobwhite Breeding Season: Considerations for Habitat Management

Ground-level air temperatures were assessed within 4 distinct habitat areas on a managed reclaimed surface mine at Peabody Wildlife Management Area, Kentucky, 26 June–17 July 2015, during the northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) brood season. Habitat consisted of disked and nondisked areas of native grass and an invasive species, sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata). Disked areas offered more open space for bobwhite mobility and experienced higher average temperatures than nondisked sites. Although statistically significant, differences in air temperature between disked and nondisked areas were likely too small to have practical implications for bobwhite habitat management in Kentucky under current climatic conditions. This will likely change in the future as the regional climate warms and periods of excessive heat are more likely to occur. Consequently, managers may want to consider microclimate when making management decisions

The Economic Impact of Increased Congestion for Freight-Dependent Businesses in Washington State

Congestion in the transportation system necessitates select businesses to operate on a less efficient production function. A survey of freight-dependent businesses in Washington State was used to calculate the costs of congestion and economic impact of increased congestion. As these businesses spend more to provide goods, responses suggest consumers would pay 60% to 80% of the increased cost. Primary areas of increased cost were identified as additional trucking and inventory costs. Results identify an additional $8.7 billion in consumer costs for a 20economic impact is a loss of$3.3 billion in total output and over 27,000 jobs

Effects of Biscriptuality on Graphomotor Coordination Dynamics

International audienceBiscriptuality is the ability to write in two different writing systems. The aim of this study was toexamine the effects of biscriptuality on graphomotor coordination dynamics in right-handed adults.Thirty-four French monoscriptuals and 34 French-Arabic biscriptual participants traced series of loopsin two writing directions, and in two directions of rotation. We found that biscriptuals displayed ageneral advantage over monoscriptuals in terms of tracing frequency, while both groups displayed apreference for the left to right direction. These results provide novel evidence on the effects of writingdirection and type of expertise on graphomotor performance by showing that biscriptuality could be anasset

Chapitre 4 : Traiter des données de langage écrit recueillies avec tablette graphique

L'étude de la graphonomie (Graphonomics) dans le domaine du langage écrit est le pendant de l'étude de la parole dans le domaine du langage oral. Mais contrairement à la parole où le processus de production sonore caractérise la performance, la performance d'écriture s'étudie à partir de l'analyse conjointe du produit, c'est-à-dire de la trace écrite, et du processus, mouvement qui génère cette trace. Les tablettes graphiques, utilisées avec un ordinateur, ou les tablettes numériques, véritables ordinateurs portables sous forme d'écrans tactiles sans clavier, permettent de recueillir les coordonnées spatiales de la pointe du stylo, la pression exercée par la pointe du stylo sur la tablette, et l'inclinaison latérale et antéro-postérieure du stylo. Grâce à l'enregistrement de ces variables toutes les 5 ou 10 ms (selon la fréquence d'acquisition de 200 ou 100 Hz, respectivement), il est possible de calculer des variables spatiales relatives à la trace écrite, ainsi que des variables temporelles, cinématiques et dynamiques relatives au mouvement d'écriture. Ce chapitre expose les problématiques relatives à l'utilisation des tablettes et décrit la manière d'acquérir et d'analyser l'ensemble des variables de l'écriture manuscrite grâce à un logiciel gratuit et en libre accès que nous avons développé

Chapitre 4 : Traiter des données de langage écrit recueillies avec tablette graphique

L'étude de la graphonomie (Graphonomics) dans le domaine du langage écrit est le pendant de l'étude de la parole dans le domaine du langage oral. Mais contrairement à la parole où le processus de production sonore caractérise la performance, la performance d'écriture s'étudie à partir de l'analyse conjointe du produit, c'est-à-dire de la trace écrite, et du processus, mouvement qui génère cette trace. Les tablettes graphiques, utilisées avec un ordinateur, ou les tablettes numériques, véritables ordinateurs portables sous forme d'écrans tactiles sans clavier, permettent de recueillir les coordonnées spatiales de la pointe du stylo, la pression exercée par la pointe du stylo sur la tablette, et l'inclinaison latérale et antéro-postérieure du stylo. Grâce à l'enregistrement de ces variables toutes les 5 ou 10 ms (selon la fréquence d'acquisition de 200 ou 100 Hz, respectivement), il est possible de calculer des variables spatiales relatives à la trace écrite, ainsi que des variables temporelles, cinématiques et dynamiques relatives au mouvement d'écriture. Ce chapitre expose les problématiques relatives à l'utilisation des tablettes et décrit la manière d'acquérir et d'analyser l'ensemble des variables de l'écriture manuscrite grâce à un logiciel gratuit et en libre accès que nous avons développé

Effects of Biscriptuality on Graphomotor Coordination Dynamics

International audienceBiscriptuality is the ability to write in two different writing systems. The aim of this study was toexamine the effects of biscriptuality on graphomotor coordination dynamics in right-handed adults.Thirty-four French monoscriptuals and 34 French-Arabic biscriptual participants traced series of loopsin two writing directions, and in two directions of rotation. We found that biscriptuals displayed ageneral advantage over monoscriptuals in terms of tracing frequency, while both groups displayed apreference for the left to right direction. These results provide novel evidence on the effects of writingdirection and type of expertise on graphomotor performance by showing that biscriptuality could be anasset

Writing letters in two graphic systems : Behavioral and neural correlates in French/Arabic biscripters

International audienceBiscriptuality is the ability to read and write using two scripts. Despite the increasing number of biscripters, this phenomenon remains poorly understood. Here, we focused on investigating graphomotor processing in French–Arabic biscripters. We chose the French and Arabic alphabets because they have comparable visuospatial complexity and linguistic features, but differ dramatically in their graphomotor characteristics. In a first experiment we describe the graphomotor features of the two alphabets and showed that while Arabic and Latin letters are produced with the same velocity and fluency, Arabic letters require more pen lifts, contain more right-to-left strokes and clockwise curves, and take longer to write than Latin letters. These results suggest that Arabic and Latin letters are produced via different motor patterns. In a second experiment we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to ask whether writing the two scripts relies upon partially distinct or fully overlapping neural networks, and whether the elements of the previously described handwriting network are recruited to the same extent by the two scripts. We found that both scripts engaged the so-called “writing network”, but that within the network, Arabic letters recruited the left superior parietal lobule (SPL) and the left primary motor cortex (M1) more strongly than Latin letters. Both regions have previously been identified as holding scale-invariant representations of letter trajectories. Arabic and Latin letters also activated distinct regions that do not belong to the writing network. Complementary analyses indicate that the differences observed between scripts at the neural level could be driven by the specific graphomotor features of each script. Overall, our results indicate that particular features of the practiced scripts can lead to different motor organization at both the behavioral and brain levels in biscripters

Chemical control of spin–lattice relaxation to discover a room temperature molecular qubit

Elucidating the role of specific vibrational modes in spin lattice relaxation is a key step to designing room temperature qubits. We executed an experimental and theoretical study on a series of Cu2+ qubits to increase their operating temperature