Aquatic Biological Survey, Oak Orchard Harbor: Final Report to the Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District

This report evaluates the potential environmental impact of proposed maintenance dredging at Oak Orchard Harbor, New York, by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Field samples were obtained in autumn 1978 and spring and summer 1979. Data reports based on these sampling efforts were submitted earlier to the Buffalo District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The impact of dredging was considered in relation to physical and chemical conditions, terrestrial vegetation/wetlands, aquatic macrophytes, macrobenthos, phytoplankton and zooplankton, fish, birds, endangered species, toxic chemicals and seiches. For each factor considered, sections entitled Existing Conditions are followed by our Assessment of Impact. The last section presents our conclusions and recommendations concerning the general impact of dredging

Final Report: Aquatic Biological Survey, Cape Vincent Harbor

This report evaluates the potential environmental impact of proposed maintenance dredging at Cape Vincent Harbor, New York, by the u.s. Army Corps of Engineers. Field samples were obtained in autumn 1978 and spring and summer 1979. Data reports based on these sampling efforts were submitted earlier to the Buffalo District of the U,.!S. Army Corps of Engineers. In this report, the impact of dredging at Cape Vincent Harbor is considered in relation to physical and chemical conditions, terrestrial vegetation/wetlands, aquatic macrophytes, macrobenthos, phytoplankton and zooplankton, fish, birds, endangered species and toxic chemicals. For each factor considered, sections entitled Existing Conditions are followed by our Assessment of Impact. The last section presents our conclusions and recommendations concerning the general impact of dredging on the Cape Vincent – St. Lawrence ecosystem

Biological Survey Buffalo River and Outer Harbor of Buffalo, N.Y.

The shoreline of the Buffalo River is developed with heavy industry such as Republic Steel, Allied Chemical, Mobil Oil and numerous grain elevators. Similarly, on southeast shore o f the Outer Harbor, heavy industry such as Bethlehem Steel, Huron Cement and Lackawanna Steel is evident. On the eastern shore o f the Outer Harbor, freighters unload salt, taconite, coal, etc. into large storage piles for later use by the area industries. Large lake-going freighters and oilers routinely use the previously dredged channel existing along the entire length of the study area (Fig. 1) while servicing the industries located along the water front. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering the feasibility of dredging the Outer Harbor and Buffalo River channels deeper to accommodate deeper draft vessels and/or to construct alternative means of transshipment of raw materials. An intensive study of the Buffalo River, Ship Canal and Outer Harbor of Buffalo, New was undertaken between April 1981 and May 1982 with the following general objectives: (1) To evaluate existing conditions in the river and harbor and to evaluate the biological impact of dredging the channel deeper in the Buffalo River and Outer Harbor; (2) To evaluate the biological impact of alternative proposals to dredging such as transshipment of raw materials by conveyor; (3) To evaluate the biological impact of removal of debris, old pilings, etc. along the Buffalo shoreline; (4) To evaluate existing conditions in potential disposal areas (Fig. 2) and to evaluate the biological impact of spoil disposal in these areas; and (5) To provide a functional assessment of the ecological components studied and evaluate their significance with and without project implementation to the area ecosystem. In Volume 1, the Final Report, our analysis and interpretation of existing conditions and our assessment of impacts are presented. In Volume 2, the Data Report, the raw field data is presented in tabular form

Duality for Finite Multiple Harmonic q-Series

We define two finite q-analogs of certain multiple harmonic series with an arbitrary number of free parameters, and prove identities for these q-analogs, expressing them in terms of multiply nested sums involving the Gaussian binomial coefficients. Special cases of these identities--for example, with all parameters equal to 1--have occurred in the literature. The special case with only one parameter reduces to an identity for the divisor generating function, which has received some attention in connection with problems in sorting theory. The general case can be viewed as a duality result, reminiscent of the duality relation for the ordinary multiple zeta function.Comment: 12 pages AMSLaTeX. Submitted for publication October 26, 2003; revised September 14, 2004. New title reflects change in emphasis and new section devoted to connections with inverse pairs and Hoffman duality. References added and typos correcte

Full-length genome sequence of Ntaya virus

Presentation of pyrosequencing data and phylogenetic analysis for the full genome of Ntaya virus, type virus of the Ntaya virus group of the Flaviviridae isolated in Cameroon in 1966

Confusions in orbivirus protein classification

An extensive comparative analysis of orbivirus genomes revealed four cases of unclear numeration and protein designation, due to confused reference to protein size or segment size by which they are encoded. A concise nomenclature based on type species, sequence homology and functional characteristics independent of segment or protein size is suggested

Perturbative Hamiltonian constraints for higher order theories

We present a method for constructing a consistent low energy canonical formalism for higher order time-derivative theories, extending the Dirac method to include perturbative Hamiltonian constraints. We apply it to two paradigmatic examples: the Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator and the Bernard-Duncan scalar field. We also compare the results, both at the classical and quantum level, with the ones corresponding to a direct perturbative construction applied to the exact higher order theory. This comparison highligths the soundness of the present formalism.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures; review section shortened and appendices change

The pangenome of the Anticarsia gemmatalis multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AgMNPV)

The alphabaculovirusAnticarsia gemmatalismultiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AgMNPV) is the world’s most successful viral bioinsecticide. Through the 1980s and 1990s, this virus was extensively used for biological control of populations ofAnticarsia gemmatalis(Velvetbean caterpillar) in soybean crops. During this period, genetic studies identified several variable loci in the AgMNPV; however, most of them were not characterized at the sequence level. In this study we report a full genome comparison among 17 wild-type isolates of AgMNPV. We found the pangenome of this virus to contain at least 167 hypothetical genes, 151 of which are shared by all genomes. The genebro-athat might be involved in host specificity and carrying transporter is absent in some genomes, and new hypothetical genes were observed. Among these genes there is a uniquernf12-likegene, probably implicated in ubiquitination. Events of gene fission and fusion are common, as four genes have been observed as single or split open reading frames. Gains and losses of genomic fragments (from 20 to 900 bp) are observed within tandem repeats, such as in eight direct repeats and four homologous regions. Most AgMNPV genes present low nucleotide diversity, and variable genes are mainly located in a locus known to evolve through homologous recombination. The evolution of AgMNPV is mainly driven by small indels, substitutions, gain and loss of nucleotide stretches or entire coding sequences. These variations may cause relevant phenotypic alterations, which probably affect the infectivity of AgMNPV. This work provides novel information on genomic evolution of the AgMNPV in particular and of baculoviruses in general

Genetic characterization of Yug Bogdanovac virus

We present pyrosequencing data and phylogenetic analysis for the full genome of Yug Bogdanovac virus (YBV), a member of the Vesicular stomatitis virus serogroup of the Rhabdoviridae isolated from a pool of Phlebotomus perfiliewi sandflies collected in Serbia in 1976. YBV shows very low nucleotide identities to other members of the Vesicular stomatitis virus serogroup and does not contain a reading frame for C′/C proteins

World-line Quantisation of a Reciprocally Invariant System

We present the world-line quantisation of a system invariant under the symmetries of reciprocal relativity (pseudo-unitary transformations on ``phase space coordinates" $(x^\mu(\tau),p^\mu(\tau))$ which preserve the Minkowski metric and the symplectic form, and global shifts in these coordinates, together with coordinate dependent transformations of an additional compact phase coordinate, $\theta(\tau)$). The action is that of free motion over the corresponding Weyl-Heisenberg group. Imposition of the first class constraint, the generator of local time reparametrisations, on physical states enforces identification of the world-line cosmological constant with a fixed value of the quadratic Casimir of the quaplectic symmetry group $Q(D-1,1)\cong U(D-1,1)\ltimes H(D)$, the semi-direct product of the pseudo-unitary group with the Weyl-Heisenberg group (the central extension of the global translation group, with central extension associated to the phase variable $\theta(\tau)$). The spacetime spectrum of physical states is identified. Even though for an appropriate range of values the restriction enforced by the cosmological constant projects out negative norm states from the physical spectrum, leaving over spin zero states only, the mass-squared spectrum is continuous over the entire real line and thus includes a tachyonic branch as well