An evaluation of some components of wood duck habitat at John Sevier Lake, Hawkins County, Tennessee

The study was conducted on John Sevier Lake, a small TennesseeValley Authority impoundment near Rogersville, Tennessee. The lake is 5.5 miles in length and covers about 810 acres.The objectives of this study were: (1) to describe the aquatic and emergent vegetation of John Sevier Lake, and (2) to relate the distribution of wood ducks (Aix sponsa) on the study area to the various components of the habitat. Field work was begun in March, 1967, and concluded in June, 1968. Five aquatic and five emergent plant communities were designated by visual inspection.- A map showing the location of the aquatic communities was prepared. Aquatic vegetation was important in the diet of wood ducks.Biomass of each aquatic community was estimated in pounds per acre.Mill-acre plots were taken in areas where the water was less than five feet deep, while 0.1-mi1-acre plots were taken in deeper areas. A sampling device was improvised for use in these deeper areas.In the emergent communities, square-meter quadrats were taken along systematically established transect lines. Density, basal area,crown cover, and maximum height of vegetation were recorded. Cattail and blue-stemmed bulrush were the most prevalent emergent species.Results indicated that the best cover was found where varied species composition and varied plant sizes prevailed. The abundance of floating masses of uprooted aquatic plants produced in the Holston River upstream from the study area was the primary attractant for wood ducks at John Sevier Lake. Shoreline cover significantly affected the distribution of theducks. Wooded shorelines received the highest use, while shoreline adjacent to cultivated or idle fields were avoided. Emergent vegetation was neither preferred nor avoided by wood ducks at John Sevier Lake

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle emissions impacts on control strategy and fuel economy

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) technologies have the potential for considerable petroleum consumption reductions, at the expense of increased tailpipe emissions due to multiple cold start events and improper use of the engine for PHEV specific operation. PHEVs operate predominantly as electric vehicles (EVs) with intermittent assist from the engine during high power demands. As a consequence, the engine can be subjected to multiple cold start events. These cold start events have a significant impact on the tailpipe emissions due to degraded catalyst performance and starting the engine under less than ideal conditions. On current hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), the first cold start of the engine dictates whether or not the vehicle will pass federal emissions tests. PHEV operation compounds this problem due to infrequent, multiple engine cold starts.The dissertation research focuses on the design of a vehicle supervisory control system for a pre-transmission parallel PHEV powertrain architecture. Energy management strategies are evaluated and implemented in a virtual environment for preliminary assessment of petroleum displacement benefits and rudimentary drivability issues. This baseline vehicle supervisory control strategy, developed as a result of this assessment, is implemented and tested on actual hardware in a controlled laboratory environment over a baseline test cycle. Engine cold start events are aggressively addressed in the development of this control system, which lead to enhanced pre-warming and energy-based engine warming algorithms that provide substantial reductions in tailpipe emissions over the baseline supervisory control strategy.The flexibility of the PHEV powertrain allows for decreased emissions during any engine starting event through powertrain torque shaping algorithms that eliminate high engine torque transients during these periods. The results of the dissertation research show that PHEVs do have the potential for substantial reductions in fuel consumption, while remaining environmentally friendly. Tailpipe emissions from a representative PHEV test platform have been reduced to acceptable levels through the development and refinement of vehicle supervisory control methods only. Impacts on fuel consumption are minimal for the emissions reduction techniques that are implemented, while in some cases, substantial fuel consumption reductions are observed

Hedonic versus Eudaimonic Conceptions of Well-Being: Evidence of Differential Associations with Self-Reported Well-Being

Conceptions of well-being are cognitive representations of the nature and experience of well-being. These conceptions can be described generally by the degree to which hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions are emphasized as important aspects of the experience of well-being. In two studies, the prediction that eudaimonic dimensions of individual conceptions of well-being are more robustly associated with self-reported well-being than hedonic dimensions was investigated. Correlational analyses indicated that both hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions were associated with well-being, with more robust associations observed between the eudaimonic dimension and each measure of well-being. In several regression analyses, only the eudaimonic dimension significantly predicted well-being, with the hedonic dimension failing to account for unique variance in well-being beyond that predicted by the eudaimonic dimension. Results thus generally suggest that conceptualizing well-being in eudaimonic terms may be relatively more important for positive psychological functioning

The Effect of Contact With Natural Environments on Positive and Negative Affect: A Meta-Analysis

A growing body of empirical research suggests that brief contact with natural environments improves emotional well-being. The current study synthesizes this body of research using meta-analytic techniques and assesses the mean effect size of exposure to natural environments on both positive and negative affect. Thirty-two studies with a total of 2,356 participants were included. Across these studies, exposure to natural environments was associated with a moderate increase in positive affect and a smaller, yet consistent, decrease in negative affect relative to comparison conditions. Significant heterogeneity was found for the effect of nature on positive affect, and type of emotion assessment, type of exposure to nature, location of study, and mean age of sample were found to moderate this effect. The implications of these findings for existing theory and research are discussed, with particular emphasis placed on potential avenues for fruitful future research examining the effects of nature on well-being

Measuring Lay Conceptions of Well-Being: The Beliefs About Well-Being Scale

A number of explicit conceptions of well-being have been provided by philosophers and psychologists, but little is known about laypersons’ conceptions of well-being. Two studies investigating the content and measurement of lay conceptions of well-being are presented. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic procedures, the 16-item Beliefs about Well-Being Scale (BWBS) was developed to measure lay conceptions of well-being along four theoretically-meaningful dimensions: (1) the Experience of Pleasure, (2) Avoidance of Negative Experience, (3) Self-Development, and (4) Contribution to Others. Initial evidence concerning the reliability and validity of the BWBS indicated that this new scale has acceptable psychometric properties. In both studies, associations between each subscale, representing the above four dimensions, and multiple self-report measures of experienced well-being were also examined. Each subscale was significantly associated with well-being, with Self-Development and Contribution to Others indicating stronger associations with measures of well-being than either Experience of Pleasure or Avoidance of Negative Experience. Implications for future research using this economical new scale are discussed

Crafting a Foundation for Computing Majors

This paper describes and evaluates a sophomore level survey course in the computing disciplines of computer science and information technology. This course is novel among ABET accredited computer science and information technology programs in the breadth of topics covered and that it serves as a common foundation to both computing disciplines. In addition, students are introduced to advanced computing topics that they may later choose to pursue further in upper-level electives. This paper discusses the motivation of a course for both programs and concludes with the results, challenges, and opportunities for future iterations. This single computing survey course helps students to ensure they selected the correct major early in their academic career. Additionally, it introduces advanced computing topics that students may choose later to pursue in electives

Use of Commercial Online Training to Augment Programming Language Education

This talk describes the motivation and utilization of commercial online training in programming languages to augment student learning. Student feedback indicated that the online training courses assisted them in achieving a basic understanding of the languages