Conservation of open-canopy-associated wildlife: multi-scale management impacts on imperiled herpetofauna

The loss of open-canopy ecosystems throughout North America has precipitated declines in reptile and amphibian species associated with these habitat types. Current efforts to restore open-canopy ecosystems are underway in many areas, but the local distributions of, habitat characteristics required by and the effects of management actions on many herpetofauna species are poorly understood or entirely unknown. Research examining relationships among herpetofauna and their environments is often complicated by the extremely low detectability seen in many studies. We used landscape-scale, assemblage-level surveys to investigate the occupancy patterns and habitat associations of open-canopy-associated herpetofauna in two regions, as well as gain a broad understanding of the effects of management actions on these assemblages. We also used a long-term monitoring program to document the direct effects of prescribed burn management on a snake community in a restored prairie site. Finally, we used advanced statistical modeling techniques to examine spatial, methodological, and species-specific variation in the detection process that can skew our understanding of species’ distributions and habitat associations when ignored. In Chapter 1, we conducted seven rounds of herpetofauna surveys at 81 open-canopy pine savanna sites under a wide range of management regimes, including working forests and conservation areas, and featuring a variety of landscape and vegetation characteristics in Northwest Louisiana. Open-canopy-pine-associated species richness and occupancy were positively related to open vegetation structure in the canopy and understory, as well as the presence of sandy soils, regardless of overstory tree species. These results suggest that working pine forests are capable of supporting open- canopy-pine-associated herpetofauna if certain structural and landscape conditions are present. In Chapter 2, we used a similar study design to examine the status and associations of prairie-associated herpetofauna at 34 remnant, restored, or degraded tallgrass prairie sites in Western Arkansas. Prairie mound density, suggesting a lack of intense anthropogenic disturbance in a site’s land-use history, had a significant positive relationship with community and species-specific occupancy of prairie-association herpetofauna, while current vegetation conditions did not strongly influence occupancy. Our findings suggest that prairie-associated herpetofauna distributions in this fragmented landscape are driven more by historic land use than by current habitat conditions. In Chapter 3, we used a long-term monitoring program to track the direct effects of prescribed burn management on a tallgrass prairie snake community. We documented direct mortality from burns in six snake species over an eight-year period, but populations did not appear to suffer meaningful declines due to these mortalities in the long-term. Finally, we used data from Chapters 1 and 2 to investigate spatial and methodological sources of variation in species-specific detection probabilities of squamate reptiles in Chapter 4. We implemented occupancy models that produce method- and species-specific detection probabilities and highlighted variation in the detection process that should be accounted for in herpetofauna research in order to avoid inaccurate inference relating to occupancy, abundance, and habitat associations. In sum, this dissertation produced applicable management guidelines, tools for conservation work, and methodological insight that we believe will advance the state of herpetofauna research

A Geochronological and Stratigraphic Reconstruction of the Middle Barataria Bay Receiving Basin

Barataria Bay, one of the largest receiving basins for the Mississippi deltaic complex, is the location of a proposed river-sediment diversion for delta restoration. In order to determine how the sediment in the receiving-basin may respond to diversion flows, twenty-five sediment vibracores were collected from a 115 km2 study area located near Myrtle Grove and Bayou Dupont, southeast of New Orleans, LA. These cores were subject to multiple tests, including gamma bulk density scans, grain size analysis, and loss-on-ignition, in order to identify the lithology and stratigraphy. In addition, 137Cs and 14C dating techniques were employed in order to construct a geochronology. A subdelta lithofacies succession was identified and stratigraphically correlated across the basin, indicating more than one subdelta cycle in the sediment record. Geochronology suggests at least one St. Bernard subdelta entered dormancy within the range of 2130 to 2770 ± 30 14C years BP, a period that lasted a minimum of 860 ± 30 14C years, followed by Plaquemines-Belize subdelta progradation that ceased between 280 to 870 ± 30 14C years BP. The presence of channel sands and surviving St. Bernard age peats in the near-surface suggests resistance to compression and subsidence at depths greater than 2 m, providing a viable foundation for stable platform development from the mineral sediment nourishment of a large-scale diversion

Experimental Study on Compression and Shear Strength of CFRP

The increasing use of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) in the aerospace industry requires a better understanding of its damage properties. Many modern aircraft under high loads are utilizing this material for their primary structures due to its high strength to weight ratio. However, CFRPs are sensitive to out-of-plane loading such as low-velocity impact and indentation. These damages can reduce the compressive strength significantly without leaving a visible mark on the surface, which is known as Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID). The behavior and residual strength of CFRPs after impact damage under compressive loading are still not fully understood. Studies of Compression After Impact (CAI) tests are still very few. The purpose of this research is to use Digital Image Correlation (DIC) to study the failure mechanism and better understand the shear properties of CFRP after impact. To account for variety of CFRP structures and to study the trend in the damages, a series of CAI and shear tests with different impact levels will be performed. The strain values from the DIC method will be validated by conventional measurement using strain gauges that will be collected concurrently. The DIC will capture damage propagation and local behavior of the material under compressive and shear loading. Based on the test results, damage sequence and damage mechanism of different composite layups and damaged will be analyzed. POSTER PRESENTATION ARIZONA SPACE GRANT AWAR

Definitions and depictions of rhetorical practice in medieval English Fürstenspiegel.

This dissertation examines how medieval authors defined rhetoric and depicted rhetorical practice in medieval English Fürstenspiegel. It begins by analyzing how the field of medieval rhetorical historiography has overlooked the Fürstenspiegel as a rhetorical genre due to its overt reliance on meta-rhetorical handbook genres as the objects of its analysis. This dissertation challenges traditional narratives that positions medieval rhetoric as a primarily academic discipline divorced from political practice by engaging in horizontal reading practices that examine the broader culture of medieval rhetorical practice alongside the definitions of rhetoric found in medieval English Fürstenspiegel. In so doing, this dissertation argues that the rhetorical theory contained in the Fürstenspiegel tradition represent novel adaptations to classical rhetorical theory that are designed to accommodate the constraints of the shifting medieval political landscape as the Aristotelian tradition was recovered. After establishing the relevance of the Fürstenspiegel as a rhetorical genre in Chapter One, the dissertation provides three cases studies on John of Salisbury, John Gower, and John Lydgate that demonstrate how the rhetorical theories communicated in their Fürstenspiegel were responsive to particular cultural moments and resonated with contemporary political practices. Chapter Two analyzes how John of Salisbury positions rhetorical knowledge as necessary for the development of higher-order learning in the individual and compares the interpretive and inventive practices that John advocates in the Metalogicon and Policraticus with emerging methodologies for determining the truth of testimony and contingent situations in contemporary English jurisprudence. Chapter Three explores how John Gower’s elevation of rhetoric to an epistemological category establishes a political paradigm in which a sovereign’s rhetorical efficacy is measured against his habituation to virtue, a paradigm that is challenged by Richard II’s attempt to canonize Edward II. Finally, Chapter Four traces the development of rhetoric as a legitimated discipline within the king’s household and details how John Lydgate leverages the professionalization of rhetoric to create a political system in which rhetorical intervention is achieved through rhetorical stylistics. In Chapter Five, the dissertation concludes by explaining how these case studies affect the field of medieval rhetorical historiography

Augustana Seniors Fall 1885: Joel L. Haff

Joel L. Haff was a senior at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, in the fall of 1885. His name appears in the college catalog of 1885-1886, along with his birthplace, the year of his birth, and a few other facts. From this start, we researched the genealogy and family history of Joel L. Haff. This paper contains a short biography of Joel, a report on his ancestors, a report on his descendants, and some open questions for further research

Derivative couplings and analytic gradients for diabatic states, with an implementation for Boys-localized configuration-interaction singles

We demonstrate that Boys-localized diabatic states do indeed exhibit small derivative couplings, as is required of quasidiabatic states. In doing so, we present a general formalism for calculating derivative couplings and analytic gradients for diabatic states. We then develop additional equations specific to the case of Boys-localized configuration-interaction singles (CIS)—in particular, the analytic gradient of the CIS dipole matrix—and we validate our implementation against finite-difference results. In a forthcoming paper, we will publish additional algorithmic and computational details and apply our method to the Closs energy-transfer systems as a further test of the validity of Boys-localized diabatic states

Derivative couplings and analytic gradients for diabatic states, with an implementation for Boys-localized configuration-interaction singles

We demonstrate that Boys-localized diabatic states do indeed exhibit small derivative couplings, as is required of quasidiabatic states. In doing so, we present a general formalism for calculating derivative couplings and analytic gradients for diabatic states. We then develop additional equations specific to the case of Boys-localized configuration-interaction singles (CIS)—in particular, the analytic gradient of the CIS dipole matrix—and we validate our implementation against finite-difference results. In a forthcoming paper, we will publish additional algorithmic and computational details and apply our method to the Closs energy-transfer systems as a further test of the validity of Boys-localized diabatic states