Bliadhna nan Caorach/The Year of the Sheep: Reading Highland Protest in the 1790s

Describes Bliadhna nan Caorach, the Year of the Sheep, in Ross-shire in the summer of 1792 when about 200 Highland farmers from Strathrusdale and other communities drove as many as 10,000 cheviot and blackface sheep toward Inverness to protest their intrusion on to Highland lands; discusses the difference between protest, riot, and insurrection; and examines a poetic response by Ailean Dughallach (Allan MacDougall) and two sympathetic prose reactions, by Anne Grant, of Laggan, and a touring English clergyman John Lettice (who attended the subsequent trials, but took some of his information from the Statistical Account)

Presettlement forest types in Iowa

A study of the primeval forest cover was made of three Iowa counties, Allamakee, Jackson and Lee, three belt transects across the state east-west and a number of townships on the Des Moines and Missouri Rivers, using the original land survey notes of witness and on-line trees;A total of 15,291 trees was recorded and described by surveyors from the three counties, the three transects and the river townships. Thirty-six genera and species were recorded, with the smallest number in the northern county and transect and the largest number in the southern. Quercus spp. made up about 67 percent of all the trees recorded;The average diameters of the trees in the counties comprising at least 2 percent of the total, with the exception of Ulmus spp., were found to increase from north to south;Quercus macrocarpa was found to be the dominant species near the prairie-forest ecotone. It was also found to have a smaller average diameter and a larger average distance away from the corner than Quercus alba and Quercus velutina, indicating oak-barrens vegetation and recent or current invasion;The primeval forest cover in the areas studied appeared to be scattered, except for the oak-maple-linden communities, and to be evenly divided by rivers and streams. This uniform distribution suggests little effect of wind-sorted outwash (19) or fire (9, 10, 11) on forest distribution in these areas;The mean diameters of the witness trees recorded in the transects also showed a decrease to the north. The percentage of trees falling on line decreased sharply to the north in the transects;There was found to be a definite decrease in a westerly direction of both mean diameters of the trees and percentage of trees falling on line;The number of tree species appears to have increased since the original survey from a comparison of two studies made on the timber of the Des Moines and Missouri River valleys;The forest-soil relationships indicate that the forest was advancing over prairie soils 100 years ago in the areas studied

Linking Network and Neuron-level Correlations by Renormalized Field Theory

It is frequently hypothesized that cortical networks operate close to a critical point. Advantages of criticality include rich dynamics well-suited for computation and critical slowing down, which may offer a mechanism for dynamic memory. However, mean-field approximations, while versatile and popular, inherently neglect the fluctuations responsible for such critical dynamics. Thus, a renormalized theory is necessary. We consider the Sompolinsky-Crisanti-Sommers model which displays a well studied chaotic as well as a magnetic transition. Based on the analogue of a quantum effective action, we derive self-consistency equations for the first two renormalized Greens functions. Their self-consistent solution reveals a coupling between the population level activity and single neuron heterogeneity. The quantitative theory explains the population autocorrelation function, the single-unit autocorrelation function with its multiple temporal scales, and cross correlations

Fenceline Weaning on Pasture and Forage Barley to Extend the Grazing Season for Replacement Heifers - a Three-year Summary

In a three-year study at the SDSU Cow/Calf Teaching and Research Unit, Brookings, SD, heifer calves were allotted to two weaning management treatments in early October. The pasture-weaned group was separated from their dams and grazed a grass pasture across the fence from their dams for two weeks. Then, until early December, they grazed “Robust” barley (forage type) that had been no-till planted into oat stubble in early August. The drylot-weaned group was fed a traditional weaning diet of grass hay, corn and protein supplement from weaning until early December. Heifers received the same diet and were managed as one group from December until April. The effect of management on heifer weight gain depended on year. In the first two years gains for two and four weeks after weaning were affected by weaning treatment, but gains from weaning to December and April were similar. In the third year gains of heifers while grazing forage barley were less from weaning to December and April than those in dry lot. Pasture weaning appeared to cause less stress for both cows and calves, but no differences in incidence of disease were observed. Antibody titers for IBR, BVD type 1 and BVD type 2 were determined at weaning and two and four weeks after weaning to measure the development of immunity from vaccinations administered about two months prior to and at weaning. There was no overall effect of treatment on antibody titers, but there was an interaction of treatment and year for BVD type 1 at 2 weeks after weaning but not by 4 weeks. The percentage of heifers with positive titers was similar at all three sampling times. Heifers fed in drylot had more backfat, larger rib eye area, and % intramuscular fat in April. The results of this study indicate fenceline weaning on pasture combined with small grain pasture to extend the grazing system is a feasible alternative for managing replacement heifers compared to a traditional drylot weaning system. As would be expected, forage conditions as affected by year can influence performance. Weight of calves at weaning and forage conditions influence the need for supplementation

Scotland's Independent Expert Commission on Oil and Gas : Maximising the Total Value Added

Publisher PD

Ecological impacts of invasive alien species along temperature gradients: testing the role of environmental matching

Invasive alien species (IAS) can cause substantive ecological impacts, and the role of temperature in mediating these impacts may become increasingly significant in a changing climate. Habitat conditions and physiological optima offer predictive information for IAS impacts in novel environments. Here, using meta-analysis and laboratory experiments, we tested the hypothesis that the impacts of IAS in the field are inversely correlated with the difference in their ambient and optimal temperatures. A meta-analysis of 29 studies of consumptive impacts of IAS in inland waters revealed that the impacts of fishes and crustaceans are higher at temperatures that more closely match their thermal growth optima. In particular, the maximum impact potential was constrained by increased differences between ambient and optimal temperatures, as indicated by the steeper slope of a quantile regression on the upper 25th percentile of impact data compared to that of a weighted linear regression on all data with measured variances. We complemented this study with an experimental analysis of the functional response - the relationship between predation rate and prey supply - of two invasive predators (freshwater mysid shrimp, Hemimysis anomala and Mysis diluviana) across relevant temperature gradients; both of these species have previously been found to exert strong community-level impacts that are corroborated by their functional responses to different prey items. The functional response experiments showed that maximum feeding rates of H. anomala and M. diluviana have distinct peaks near their respective thermal optima. Although variation in impacts may be caused by numerous abiotic or biotic habitat characteristics, both our analyses point to temperature as a key mediator of IAS impact levels in inland waters and suggest that IAS management should prioritize habitats in the invaded range that more closely match the thermal optima of targeted invaders

Eaten alive: cannibalism is enhanced by parasites

Cannibalism is ubiquitous in nature and especially pervasive in consumers with stage-specific resource utilization in resource-limited environments. Cannibalism is thus influential in the structure and functioning of biological communities. Parasites are also pervasive in nature and, we hypothesize, might affect cannibalism since infection can alter host foraging behaviour. We investigated the effects of a common parasite, the microsporidian Pleistophora mulleri, on the cannibalism rate of its host, the freshwater amphipod Gammarus duebeni celticus. Parasitic infection increased the rate of cannibalism by adults towards uninfected juvenile conspecifics, as measured by adult functional responses, that is, the rate of resource uptake as a function of resource density. This may reflect the increased metabolic requirements of the host as driven by the parasite. Furthermore, when presented with a choice, uninfected adults preferred to cannibalize uninfected rather than infected juvenile conspecifics, probably reflecting selection pressure to avoid the risk of parasite acquisition. By contrast, infected adults were indiscriminate with respect to infection status of their victims, probably owing to metabolic costs of infection and the lack of risk as the cannibals were already infected. Thus parasitism, by enhancing cannibalism rates, may have previously unrecognized effects on stage structure and population dynamics for cannibalistic species and may also act as a selective pressure leading to changes in resource use

Early Contrast Enhancement: a novel Magnetic Resonance Imaging biomarker of pleural malignancy

Introduction: Pleural Malignancy (PM) is often occult on subjective radiological assessment. We sought to define a novel, semi-objective Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) biomarker of PM, targeted to increased tumour microvessel density (MVD) and applicable to minimal pleural thickening. Materials and methods: 60 consecutive patients with suspected PM underwent contrast-enhanced 3-T MRI then pleural biopsy. In 58/60, parietal pleura signal intensity (SI) was measured in multiple regions of interest (ROI) at multiple time-points, generating ROI SI/time curves and Mean SI gradient (MSIG: SI increment/time). The diagnostic performance of Early Contrast Enhancement (ECE; which was defined as a SI peak in at least one ROI at or before 4.5 min) was compared with subjective MRI and Computed Tomography (CT) morphology results. MSIG was correlated against tumour MVD (based on Factor VIII immunostain) in 31 patients with Mesothelioma. Results: 71% (41/58) patients had PM. Pleural thickening was <10 mm in 49/58 (84%). ECE sensitivity was 83% (95% CI 61–94%), specificity 83% (95% CI 68–91%), positive predictive value 68% (95% CI 47–84%), negative predictive value 92% (78–97%). ECE performance was similar or superior to subjective CT and MRI. MSIG correlated with MVD (r = 0.4258, p = .02). Discussion: ECE is a semi-objective, perfusion-based biomarker of PM, measurable in minimal pleural thickening. Further studies are warranted

Effect of tsDCS applied with different electrode configurations on the lumbar spinal circuits

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is a severe injury to the central nervous system (CNS) which, despite a heavy post injury rehabilitation regime, often leaves patients bound to a wheelchair or with other impairments diminishing their quality of life. Trans-spinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS) is a promising new technique for the treatment of SCI. During tsDCS a small direct current is applied to the spinal cord via two or more stimulation electrodes, placed over the backbone of a subject. The technique aims to alter the response of the neural pathways in the spinal cord, which is hypothesized to have a positive effect on the recovery of the damaged spinal cord neuronal networks. The objective of this study, is to assess how tsDCS modulates the excitability of the spinal cord and whether this modulation is dependent on the electrode placement configurations. The primary goal is to compare a new electrode placement configuration with one that is commonly used in previous tsDCS studies. This is assessed using the H- Reflex, whereby the novel configuration is hypothesized to have a larger modulatory effect on the spinal circuits. The two different configurations are: 1) cathode and anode placed on the T11 vertebra and the left shoulder blade respectively (commonly used) and 2) the two electrodes placed over the spinal cord, 7 centimeters apart and centered around the 11 thoracic vertebra. TsDCS is applied on the lumbar spinal cord for a period of 15 minutes with a current of 2,5mA. The ascending part of the H-reflex recruitment curve is measured before, during and after tsDCS. We hereby present the outcome of the aforementioned study as well as the current progress of our laboratory with respect to the effect of tsDCS on the spinal circuits. We hope that our work will be able to contribute to the effectivity of tsDCS, which could possibly be applied in the rehabilitation of spinal cord injured subjects in the future