Evaluating the Impact of Wildfires on Mixed Conifer Forest Regeneration and the Effectiveness of USFS Management Strategies on Restoring Ecosystem Services

Wildfires are increasing in frequency, duration, and severity across Western North America. 20,438,720 acres (20.1%) of California has burned at least once since 2010. Projections suggest a statewide increase in burned area between 36% and 74% by 2085, with some forested areas in Northern California exceeding 100% in all modeled scenarios. Fire regimes have deviated far from their historical norm, significantly increasing the risk of type conversion from forest to other ecosystems. Californians rely on the myriad of ecosystem services produced by these forests to meet their basic needs. Access to these fundamental services will be severely reduced if appropriate action is not taken to ensure the regeneration of these ecosystems. This paper explores the impact of wildfire on ecosystem services and the programs and processes executed by the United States Forest Service (USFS) in response. A geospatial analysis of the North Complex fire (2020) tracks regeneration over three years and quantifies the loss of sediment retention services due to severe wildfire. The USFS invested significant resources in developing decision support tools, devising long-term reforestation strategies, and conducting assessments of post-fire conditions. However, findings reveal the stark loss of land cover to non-forest vegetation in the absence of reforestation treatments applied by the USFS. Over the last decade, only 6% of the post-wildfire reforestation activities identified by the USFS were implemented. Three years post-fire, sediment delivery to the stream networks within the boundaries of the fire perimeter increased by 15%. The USFS has considerable grounds to make up to achieve the REPLANT Act’s mandated reforestation goals. Established programs and processes are sufficiently thorough, but this research uncovered lagging execution of reforestation activities in affected areas. Consolidating existing decision support tools, commitments to long-term monitoring, and adopting new geospatial technologies are paramount to the agency’s ability to scale its reforestation program

A Program Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Fundations and Reading Strategies Professional Development

This program evaluation focused on a research-based reading intervention program implemented in a public school district. It also considered the professional development provided in reading strategies and the use of the program to increase students’ reading achievement levels. A problem I identified with using a reading intervention program was it did not identify student deficiencies, and educators lacked the knowledge of basic reading foundational skills to help identify students’ deficiencies. In my research, I examined one elementary school and the administrative team members’ implementation of the reading intervention program. The literature I presented focused on two phases of reading: the learning to read phase, which occurs in the age groups of prekindergarten to second grade, and the reading to learn phase, which must occur by third grade. Also, I focused on building the capacity and knowledge of literacy skills in educators instead of relying on a boxed reading intervention program. The research revealed what was working well with the boxed reading intervention program, what was not working well with the boxed reading intervention program, and how to improve and overcome educators\u27 challenges. I recommended implementing policies to enhance educators\u27 knowledge in reading strategies and to increase student achievement levels in reading

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF OFADA RICE PRODUCTION IN OBAFEMI-OWODE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

The paper undertook an economic analysis of ofada rice production in the prominent rice producing area of Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area in Ogun State, Nigeria. The data used for the study were elicited from 100 ofada rice farmers who were selected using two stage sampling technique. The first stage was the random selection of ten rice producing villages from two rice blocks of Someke and Obafemi in Obafemi Local Government Area, while the second stage was the random selection of ten ofada rice farmers each from the ten villages to make the sample of one hundred ofada rice farmers. The analytical techniques used were descriptive statistics of rice producers, the determination of the rate of return on capital invested (RORCI) on the enterprise after analyzing enterprise profitability and the stochastic production frontier model. The results revealed that an average rice farmer in the study area is a married male of 51 years of age, with farming experience of 19 years, cultivated 3.34 hec- tares of rice and had little access to credit, extension services and tractor services considered essen- tial for hectarage expansion. The production cost per hectare of rice was estimated as N64,565 with a revenue of N119,222 per hectare. The rate of return on invested capital (RORCI) was 85 percent and this favourably exceeded the prevailing capital lending rate of 18.38 percent. This indicated that on every naira invested in ofada rice production, there was a return of N0.85. It thus buttressed the fact that ofada rice production is a profitable venture in the study area. There was low technical inefficiency in ofada rice production in the study area during the 2008 cropping season which was investigated. Technical efficiency of the farmers varied between 0.52 and 0.98 with a mean of 0.89 and about 85% of the sampled farmers had technical efficiency above 0.80. The finding suggested that there is room for improvement in the production system. The variables that influenced ofada rice output included farm size which was significant at the probability level of Pα <0.01, pesticide Pα<0.05 and seed at Pα<0.01 level The variables were all positively related to ofada rice output level. It was therefore rec- ommended among others that the rice farmers are old and thus need a succession plan of new gen- eration farmers which should be organized into rice farmers association for easy access to credit facili- ties, extension services and provided tractor services to increase their farm size which is essential for their economic improvement

RANCANG BANGUN ANTENA ARRAY MIKROSTRIP PATCH TRIANGULAR-CIRCULAR UNTUK APLIKASI WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK (WLAN)

Pada tugas akhir ini menguraikan tentang proses perancangan, simulasi, pembuatan dan implementasi membangun antena array mikrostrip patch triangular-circular yang digunakan dalam komunikasi antar titik jaringan WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) dengan tujuan untuk memperkuat daya tangkap sinyal wireless adapter terhadap sinyal wifi. Proses rancang bangun dilakukan melalui perhitungan dimensi secara teori dan kemudian menggunakan software Ansoft HFSS v13 sebagai alat simulasi sebelum melakukan rancang bangun. Bentuk rancangan antena mikrostrip terdiri dari sebuah patch triangular-circular elemen tunggal yang di modif menjadi 4 elemen array, modifikasi elemen tunggal menjadi 4 elemen array  bertujuan untuk menaikan gain dari antena. Pada antena mikrostrip dengan bentuk patch triangular dengan spesifikasi panjang sisi segitiga a = 39,7 mm dan patch circular dengan spesifikasi jari-jari a = 17,1 mm. Spesifikasi media dasar rancangan menggunakan substrat FR-4 Epoxy dengan ketebalan 1,6 mm dengan konstanta dielektrik 4,4. Teknik pencatuan yang digunakan adalah dengan teknik micostrip line feed. Setelah melakukan beberapa simulasi diperoleh hasil yang terbaik pada frekuensi 2,45 GHz dengan return loss -19,42, VSWR sebesar 1,87 dan gain sebesar 3,13 dB dengan pola radiasi directional. Hasil simulasi tersebut telah memenuhi standar yaitu VSWR ≤ 2 dan Return Loss ≤ 10. Berdasarkan hasil pengujian di laboratorium telekomunikasi diperoleh hasil penguatan daya (gain) rata-rata dari antena pada jarak 5 meter sebesar 3,13 dBm, pada jarak 10 meter sebesar 1,93 dBm, pada jarak 15 meter sebesar 5,87 dBm, pada jarak 20 meter sebesar 10,2 dBm dan pada jarak 25 meter sebesar 6,6 dBm. Untuk meningkatkan nilai kualitas sinyal (Signal Strength) dan penguatan daya (gain) yang lebih bagus lagi, sebaiknya dilakukan penambahan jumlah elemen array patch antena menjadi 8 elemen.

A new species of Pharmacis Hübner, 1820 from Spain with a brief review of the genera Pharmacis and Korscheltellus Börner, 1920 (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae)

We here describe a new ghost moth (Hepialidae) species, Pharmacis cantabricus sp. n. from the Picos de Europa National Park, Cantabria, in northern Spain. The new species belongs to a group of mostly day-flying species that are restricted to the European Alps and some mountain ranges of southern Europe. Based on morphology and analysis of mitochondrial COI gene sequences, the new species is closely related to Pharmacis aemilianus (Constantini, 1911), an endemic of the Italian Apennines. However, Pharmacis cantabricus sp. n. can easily be distinguished from all related species based on both external and genitalic characters. We briefly review and illustrate all species of the genus Pharmacis Hübner, 1820 and discuss its relationship with the related genus Korscheltellus Börner, 1920. We reinstate Hepialus castillanus Oberthür, 1883 as a distinct species and transfer it to Korscheltellus (stat. rev., comb. n.)

Lowering of intralevel capacitance using air gap structures

Interconnect delays, arising in part from intralevel capacitance, are one of the limiting factors in the performance of advanced integrated circuits. In addition, the problem of filling the spaces between neighboring metal lines with an insulator is becoming increasingly severe as aspect ratios increase. We address these problems by intentionally creating a air gap between closely spaced metal lines. The ends of the air gap and reentrant features are then sealed using a spin on dielectric. The entire structure is then capped with silicon dioxide and planarized . Simple modeling of mechanical test structures on silicon predicts an equivalent dielectric constant of 1.9 on features similar to those expected for 0.25 micron technologies. Metal to metal test structures fabricated in a 0.5 micron CMOS technology show that the process can be readily integrated with chemical mechanical polishing and current standard CMOS processes

Development of cryogenic correlated light electron microscopy methods to study mechanisms of intracellular trafficking and their relationships to the secretory pathway

The application of cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo‐EM) to the study of cellular ultrastructure provides a resolution several orders of magnitude better than light microscopy. Although this approach is increasingly applied in situ, it suffers from limitations in our ability to target imaging to specific intracellular features including the subcellular localization of specific events of interest. Cryogenic correlated light and electron microscopy (cryo‐CLEM) helps to overcome this problem by spatially locating areas of interest inside cells using fluorescence from genetically tagged or stained cellular molecules and allows for the visualization of localized fluorescently‐tagged proteins down to the level of individual organelles. Here, we attempted to study the secretory pathway in a specialized mammalian cell line, insulin‐secreting INS‐1E cells, expressing genetically‐encoded fluorophores as a model system to develop a cryo‐CLEM methodology. We discovered that there are many bright sources of autofluorescence in frozen cells. Based on our initial observations and the current understanding in the field, we hypothesized that autofluorescence from endogenous cellular substrates exhibits a broader spectrum of fluorescence than the fluorescence range of our expressed fluorescent proteins. To test this, we developed a quantitative approach to discriminate between autofluorescence and the fluorescent signal from genetically‐encoded fluorophores by measuring fluorescent intensities across different bandwidths. To validate this new methodology, we visualized multiple fluorophore‐tagged organelle markers in our experimental cell system. We found that DsRed2‐cytochrome c oxidase and chromogranin A‐GFP proteins were targeted in INS‐1E cells to mitochondria and secretory granules by cryo‐CLEM, consistent with their respective well‐established intracellular localizations. Moreover, these fluorescent signals were clearly distinguishable from autofluorescence emanating from endogenous structures including insulin crystals and multilamellar bodies. Overall, our novel cryo‐CLEM methods open the door to the study of cellular phenomena and structures with a new degree of specificity

DMD2010-3849 DESIGN OF AN ENDOSCOPE LENS SHIELDING DEVICE FOR USE IN LAPAROSCOPIC PROCEDURES

ABSTRACT In recent years, laparoscopic surgical procedures have revolutionized many gynecological and abdominal procedures, leading to dramatic reductions in recovery time and scarring for the patient. While techniques and instruments for performing laparoscopic surgery have improved over the years, loss of vision through the endoscopic lens caused by fog, liquid, and solid debris common to laparoscopic procedures remains a significant problem. In this paper, a shielding mechanism that maintains visibility through the laparoscope by removing debris from the distal end of the lens is presented. This device provides an inexpensive and convenient alternative to the current practice of removing, cleaning, and re-inserting the laparoscope during surgical procedures. This device is shown in multiple trials to repeatably remove debris from the distal tip of the lens, thereby restoring vision for the surgeon without requiring removal or reinsertion of the endoscope. INTRODUCTION Laparoscopic surgery provides a minimally invasive alternative to often-risky open procedures. Increasingly popular in recent years, laparoscopic surgery is currently used in many medical specialties, including urology, gynecology, and gastroenterolog