Effects of a road system on caribou distribution during calving

In winter 1981 - 82, a 29-km road system was built in a high-use caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) calving area near Milne Point, Alaska. Aerial surveys of this area were conducted annually during the calving period for 4 years before and 4 years after road construction. Effects of the road system on the distribution of caribou were investigated by comparing survey data obtained during these two periods. The 41 400-ha study area was partitioned into 40 quadrats; after construction (1982 - 85), significantly fewer caribou were observed within quadrats encompassing the present road system than before construction (1978 - 81). The area within 6 km of the road system was stratified into six 1-km intervals, and differences in the distribution of caribou among those strata were examined using linear regression analysis. After construction, the density of maternal females was positively correlated with distance, whereas no such relationship was apparent before construction. Density of nonmaternal adults was unrelated to distance during both periods. The results suggest that a local displacement of maternal caribou has occurred in response to roads and associated human activity

Evaluating Behavioral Health Service Need for Sexual and Gender Minorities: A Community-Based Qualitative Study

The LGBTQ community experiences mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders, at rates higher than heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. Given these disparities in mental health, it is crucial that the LGBTQ population has access to mental health services. However, LGBTQ individuals face barriers to accessing mental health care due to service affordability, availability, and/or lack of LGBT-inclusivity. A Place to Nourish your Health (APNH), formerly known as AIDS Project New Haven, has historically provided care to those in New Haven who live with HIV and AIDS. APNH is now seeking to re-define itself as an organization by expanding services to support those experiencing stigma related to gender identity, sexual orientation, addiction, and mental health. Thus, to aid APNH in their service expansion to stigmatized populations, we performed a qualitative community needs assessment in the greater New Haven area to inform where APNH’s priorities should lie in their expansion of services. Findings provided insight into the current mental health landscape of New Haven’s LGBTQ community and led to reccomendatios regarding APNH\u27s expanion of behavoral health services.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysph_pbchrr/1024/thumbnail.jp

Set-Codes with Small Intersections and Small Discrepancies

We are concerned with the problem of designing large families of subsets over a common labeled ground set that have small pairwise intersections and the property that the maximum discrepancy of the label values within each of the sets is less than or equal to one. Our results, based on transversal designs, factorizations of packings and Latin rectangles, show that by jointly constructing the sets and labeling scheme, one can achieve optimal family sizes for many parameter choices. Probabilistic arguments akin to those used for pseudorandom generators lead to significantly suboptimal results when compared to the proposed combinatorial methods. The design problem considered is motivated by applications in molecular data storage and theoretical computer science

Redistribution of Calving Caribou in Response to Oil Field Development on the Arctic Slope of Alaska

Aerial surveys were conducted annually in June 1978-87 near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to determine changes in the distribution of calving caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) that accompanied petroleum-related development. With construction of an oil field access road through a calving concentration area, mean caribou density (no./sq. km) decreased from 1.41 to 0.31 (P=0.05) with 1 km and increased from 1.41 to 4.53 (P=0.04) 5-6 km from the road. Concurrently, relative caribou use of the adjacent area declined (P<0.02), apparently in response to increasing surface development. We suggest that perturbed distribution associated with roads reduced the capacity of the nearby area to sustain parturient females and that insufficient spacing of roads may have depressed overall calving activity. Use of traditional calving grounds and of certain areas therein appears to favor calf survival, principally through lower predation risk and improved foraging conditions. Given the possible loss of those habitats through displacement and the crucial importance of the reproductive process, a cautious approach to petroleum development on the Arctic Slope is warranted.Key words: Alaska, calving, caribou, disturbance, oil fieldRÉSUMÉ. Des photographies aériennes ont été prises au mois de juin chaque année de 1978 à 1987 près de la baie Prudhoe en Alaska, en vue de déterminer les changements dans la distribution des caribous (Rangifer tarandus granti) qui mettaient bas, changements accompagnant les projets de mise en valeur reliés au pétrole. Avec la construction d’une route d’accès à un champ pétrolifère à travers une zone importante de mise bas, la densité moyenne du caribou (nombre d’individus/km2) diminuait de 1,41 à 0,31 (P = 0,OS) à moins d’1 km de la route et augmentait de 1,41 à 4,53 (P = 0,04) à une distance de 516 km de la route. En même temps, l’utilisation relative de la zone adjacente par le caribou diminuait (P < 0,02), apparemment enréponse à l’augmentation de la mise en valeur de surface. On suggère que la perturbation de la distribution associée à la construction de routes diminuait la capacité de la zone environnante à supporter des femelles parturientes et qu’un espacement insuffisant des routes aurait pu faire chuter l’activité générale de mise bas. L’utilisation de terrains traditionnels de mise bas ainsi que de certaines zones à l’intérieur de ces terrains semble favoriser la survie des veaux, en particulier grâce à une baisse de la prédation et à de meilleures conditions de pâturage. Étant donné que le caribou pourrait être évincé de cet habitat et vu l’importance cruciale du processus de reproduction, on recommande une approche prudente à l’exploitation du pétrole sur le versant arctique.Mots clés: Alaska, mise bas, caribou, perturbation, champ pétrolifèr

Tuning of Human Modulation Filters Is Carrier-Frequency Dependent

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Electrical detection of spin accumulation in a p-type GaAs quantum well

We report on experiments in which a spin-polarized current is injected from a $GaMnAs$ ferromagnetic electrode into a $GaAs$ quantum well through an AlAs barrier. The resulting spin polarization in the GaAs well is detected by measuring how the current, tunneling to a second $GaMnAs$ ferromagnetic electrode, depends on the orientation of its magnetization. Our results can be accounted for the non-relaxed spin splitting of the chemical potential, that is spin accumulation, in the $GaAs$ well. We discuss the conditions on the hole spin relaxation time in GaAs that are required to obtain the large effects we observe.Comment: 4 pages - 2 figues; one added note; some numbers corrected on page