Influence of Strip-Mining on the Mortality of a Wetland Caddisfly, \u3ci\u3eLimnephilus Indivisus\u3c/i\u3e (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae).

A coal mine about 2.2 km upstream from Stillfork Swamp Nature Preserve, Carroll Co., Ohio was suspected of causing a reduction in Limnephilus indivisus caddisflies in the south half of the preserve. Second instar L. indivisus larvae collected from the south half of the preserve and from two control areas were reared in cages at the site of collection and at the other two sites in a replicated experiment. Elevated total dissolved solids in water samples from within rearing enclosures displayed strong correlation (r2 = 0.864) with increased mortality when compared to larvae reared in unaffected areas. This investigation suggests that larvae of L. indivisus are useful in biomonitoring of wetlands impacted by acid-mine drainage, and potentially other perturbations

Adaptive system and method for signal generation Patent

Adaptive signal generating system and logic circuits for satellite television system

Dynamics of clade diversification on the morphological hypercube

Understanding the relationship between taxonomic and morphological changes is important in identifying the reasons for accelerated morphological diversification early in the history of animal phyla. Here, a simple general model describing the joint dynamics of taxonomic diversity and morphological disparity is presented and applied to the data on the diversification of blastozoans. I show that the observed patterns of deceleration in clade diversification can be explicable in terms of the geometric structure of the morphospace and the effects of extinction and speciation on morphological disparity without invoking major declines in the size of morphological transitions or taxonomic turnover rates. The model allows testing of hypotheses about patterns of diversification and estimation of rates of morphological evolution. In the case of blastozoans, I find no evidence that major changes in evolutionary rates and mechanisms are responsible for the deceleration of morphological diversification seen during the period of this clade's expansion. At the same time, there is evidence for a moderate decline in overall rates of morphological diversification concordant with a major change (from positive to negative values) in the clade's growth rate.Comment: 8 pages, Latex, 2 postscript figures, submitted to Proc.R.Soc.Lond.

Hung Up on Words: A Conduct-Based Solution to the Problem of Conspiracy in Military Commissions

At 9:02 a.m. on September 11, 2001, the world watched in horror as American Airlines Flight 175 slammed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on live television,\u27 ending all consideration that the first collision might have been an accident. Halfway around the world, Ali al Bahlul sat in a remote part of Afghanistan operating a radio so that Usama Bin Laden could monitor reports of the attacks. That day, Al Qaeda terrorists killed 2,977 people, caused billions of dollars of economic damage, and initiated the defining sociopolitical issue of the early 21st century. Legal practitioners have faced the difficult question of how best to hold terrorists such as Bahlul accountable while remaining true to fundamental constitutional principles and established law. After September 11, the United States quickly established military commissions to prosecute captured terrorists for violations of the law of war, but it did so in an ad hoc manner with little statutory authorization. The need for a more robust body of law to ensure consistency and fairness soon became apparent. Thus, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act ( MCA ) in 2006 to define charges and establish a comprehensive framework for the prosecution of alleged terrorists and others accused of committing war crimes in the course of hostilities against the United States. Among the crimes the MCA defined were terrorism, hijacking an aircraft, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian property, and conspiracy to commit those offenses. Those charged under the MCA soon challenged its constitutionality, as well as the constitutionality of the commissions system more generally. A prominent contention was that the MCA retroactively permitted prosecution for some crimes in violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution,10 which prohibits retroactive criminalization of previously innocent acts. Most of those charged in commissions faced trial for acts they had allegedly committed before the MCA was written. They claimed that their actions were not criminalized under domestic or international law at the time they allegedly undertook them. By retroactively applying the MCA, they contended, Congress had created a paradigmatic example of the type of ex post facto law prohibited by Article I of the Constitution

Room of Confession: An Investigation into the Challenges and Possible Applications of Primary Narrative for Use in Middle School Peer Harassment Intervention

Peer harassment is an omnipresent reality in our schools today. The literature reviewed for this paper examines harassment and victimization on several levels (e.g., individual behaviors of target and perpetrator, various forms of victimization, group processes, family dynamics, and structural characteristics of larger units such as the classroom and the school). The literature identifies a number of prevention and intervention strategies designed to address this issue in a school setting, with much of the emphasis on the classroom teacher or guidance department. One strategy not found in the current literature is storytelling in the form of primary narrative. This thesis investigates the use of harassment tales told by high school students to middle school students to create a context of confession, enabling the younger students to consider their own roles in harassment and victimization. The purpose of this study is to identify the challenges and possible applications of personal testimonials by high school students as a means of intervention in middle schools. This study involves students in an ongoing program, the Diversity Coalition at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport, Maine

A Three-dimensional Deformable Brain Atlas for DBS Targeting. I. Methodology for Atlas Creation and Artifact Reduction.

BackgroundTargeting in deep brain stimulation (DBS) relies heavily on the ability to accurately localize particular anatomic brain structures. Direct targeting of subcortical structures has been limited by the ability to visualize relevant DBS targets.Methods and resultsIn this work, we describe the development and implementation, of a methodology utilized to create a three dimensional deformable atlas for DBS surgery. This atlas was designed to correspond to the print version of the Schaltenbrand-Bailey atlas structural contours. We employed a smoothing technique to reduce artifacts inherent in the print version.ConclusionsWe present the methodology used to create a three dimensional patient specific DBS atlas which may in the future be tested for clinical utility

Acousto-optic effect compensation for optical determination of the normal velocity distribution associated with acoustic transducer radiation

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 138 (2015): 1627, doi:10.1121/1.4929372.The acousto-optic effect, in which an acoustic wave causes variations in the optical index of refraction, imposes a fundamental limitation on the determination of the normal velocity, or normal displacement, distribution on the surface of an acoustic transducer or optically reflecting pellicle by a scanning heterodyne, or homodyne, laser interferometer. A general method of compensation is developed for a pulsed harmonic pressure field, transmitted by an acoustic transducer, in which the laser beam can transit the transducer nearfield. By representing the pressure field by the Rayleigh integral, the basic equation for the unknown normal velocity on the surface of the transducer or pellicle is transformed into a Fredholm equation of the second kind. A numerical solution is immediate when the scanned points on the surface correspond to those of the surface area discretization. Compensation is also made for oblique angles of incidence by the scanning laser beam. The present compensation method neglects edge waves, or those due to boundary diffraction, as well as effects due to baffles, if present. By allowing measurement in the nearfield of the radiating transducer, the method can enable quantification of edge-wave and baffle effects on transducer radiation. A verification experiment has been designed