The preparation and kinetic studies of two sterically hindered gold (III) complexes

Previous studies indicate substitution of bromide ion for chloride ion in [Au(Et4dien~H)c.i] +occurs at a rate almost independent of the bromide ion concentration, while similar reactions with [Au(dien-H)Cl]+, [Au(Me2dien-H)c!]+ and [Au(Me4dien-H)c~+ show rates dependent on bromide ion concentration as usually encountered for square planar complexes. There is retardation of the reaction by steric and electronic effects with increased N-alkyl substitution of the triamine. It has also been postulated that substitution of [Au(Et2dien-H)cJ]+ proceeds via a ring-opening mechanism. The purpose of this research was to study further the effect of steric hindrance on rates of substitution of two additional gold(III) complexes. The complexes of Me5dien and MeEt4dien with gold(III) were prepared and investigated, As observed with other less methyl substituted gold(III) dien complexes the substitution reaction of [Au(Me5dien)C:£j 2+ with bromide ion is dependent on the bromide ion concentration. The results of the reaction rate studies on [Au(MeEt4dien)CY Z+ with bromide ion can most easily be rationalized in terms of the previously postulated ring-opening mechanism

Management of the Berea College Forest: Changes Over the Past Century

• The Berea College Forest was started in 1898 when Silas C. Mason purchased the first tract of forest land. • The land that was acquired was not ideal forest land, often having soil erosion and other problems due to previous overgrazing or over-farming, poor logging habits, and general neglect. • Mason’s main goals for the forest were to provide timber, educational opportunities, recreation, and water production for the college and surrounding areas

Rural environmental concern: Effects of position, partisanship and place

The social bases of environmental concern in rural America resemble those for the nation as a whole, but also reflect the influence of place. Some general place characteristics, such as rates of population growth or resource-industry employment, predict responses across a number of environmental issues. Other unique or distinctive aspects of local society and environment matter as well. We extend earlier work on both kinds of place effects, first by analyzing survey data from northeast Oregon. Results emphasize that “environmental concern” has several dimensions. Second, we contextualize the Oregon results using surveys from other regions. Analysis of an integrated dataset (up to 12,000 interviews in 38 U.S. counties) shows effects from respondent characteristics and political views, and from county rates of population growth and resource-based employment. There also are significant place-to-place variations that are not explained by variables in the models. To understand some of these we return to the local scale. In northeast Oregon, residents describe how perceptions of fire danger from unmanaged forest lands shape their response to the word conservation. Their local interpretation contrasts with more general and urban connotations of this term, underlining the importance of place for understanding rural environmental concern

Drier Conditions, More Wildfire, and Heightened Concerns About Forest Management in Eastern Oregon

This brief examines climate change and forest conditions in eastern Oregon. Eastern Oregon is experiencing warmer, drier conditions and increased numbers of wildfires. Surveys of the Oregon public find that forest health and wildfire threats are widely shared concerns. The more knowledgeable residents say they are about forest management, the more likely they are to say that forests are becoming less healthy. Majorities support active forest management (forest thinning, surface fuel reduction) and restoration to reduce the likelihood of high-severity wildfires that would damage forest resources and threaten local communities. The authors conclude that forests continue to be an important part of the heritage of western lands, and their management is a crucial issue of our time. Engaging private forest owners who are not actively managing their lands and developing new partnerships to support active management on public lands are essential to addressing the threats confronting the Blue Mountains and the Inland Northwest

Modeling associations between public understanding, engagement and forest conditions in theInland Northwest, USA

Opinions about public lands and the actions of private non-industrial forest owners in the western United States play important roles in forested landscape management as both public and private forests face increasing risks from large wildfires, pests and disease. This work presents the responses from two surveys, a random-sample telephone survey of more than 1500 residents and a mail survey targeting owners of parcels with 10 or more acres of forest. These surveys were conducted in three counties (Wallowa, Union, and Baker) in northeast Oregon, USA. We analyze these survey data using structural equation models in order to assess how individual characteristics and understanding of forest management issues affect perceptions about forest conditions and risks associated with declining forest health on public lands. We test whether forest understanding is informed by background, beliefs, and experiences, and whether as an intervening variable it is associated with views about forest conditions on publicly managed forests. Individual background characteristics such as age, gender and county of residence have significant direct or indirect effects on our measurement of understanding. Controlling for background factors, we found that forest owners with higher self-assessed understanding, and more education about forest management, tend to hold more pessimistic views about forest conditions. Based on our results we argue that self-assessed understanding, interest in learning, and willingness to engage in extension activities together have leverage to affect perceptions about the risks posed by declining forest conditions on public lands, influence land owner actions, and affect support for public policies. These results also have broader implications for management of forested landscapes on public and private lands amidst changing demographics in rural communities across the Inland Northwest where migration may significantly alter the composition of forest owner goals, understanding, and support for various management actions

Modelling Associations between Public Understanding, Engagement and Forest Conditions in the Inland Northwest, USA.

Abstract Opinions about public lands and the actions of private non-industrial forest owners in the western United States play important roles in forested landscape management as both public and private forests face increasing risks from large wildfires, pests and disease. This work presents the responses from two surveys, a random-sample telephone survey of more than 1500 residents and a mail survey targeting owners of parcels with 10 or more acres of forest. These surveys were conducted in three counties (Wallowa, Union, and Baker) in northeast Oregon, USA. We analyze these survey data using structural equation models in order to assess how individual characteristics and understanding of forest management issues affect perceptions about forest conditions and risks associated with declining forest health on public lands. We test whether forest understanding is informed by background, beliefs, and experiences, and whether as an intervening variable it is associated with views about forest conditions on publicly managed forests. Individual background characteristics such as age, gender and county of residence have significant direct or indirect effects on our measurement of understanding. Controlling for background factors, we found that forest owners with higher self-assessed understanding, and more education about forest management, tend to hold more pessimistic views about forest conditions. Based on our results we argue that self-assessed understanding, interest in learning, and willingness to engage in extension activities together have leverage to affect perceptions about the risks posed by declining forest conditions on public lands, influence land owner actions, and affect support for public policies. These results also have broader implications for management of forested landscapes on public and private lands amidst changing demographics in rural communities across the Inland Northwest where migration may significantly alter the composition of forest owner goals, understanding, and support for various management actions

A Weakly Supervised Approach for Estimating Spatial Density Functions from High-Resolution Satellite Imagery

We propose a neural network component, the regional aggregation layer, that makes it possible to train a pixel-level density estimator using only coarse-grained density aggregates, which reflect the number of objects in an image region. Our approach is simple to use and does not require domain-specific assumptions about the nature of the density function. We evaluate our approach on several synthetic datasets. In addition, we use this approach to learn to estimate high-resolution population and housing density from satellite imagery. In all cases, we find that our approach results in better density estimates than a commonly used baseline. We also show how our housing density estimator can be used to classify buildings as residential or non-residential.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. ACM SIGSPATIAL 2018, Seattle, US

Forest views: Northeast Oregon survey looks at community and environment

This brief reports on a survey conducted in fall 2011 as one component of the ongoing Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) project. The CAFOR project focuses on the people and landscapes of three counties in northeast Oregon (Baker, Union, and Wallowa), where landscapes and communities are changing in interconnected ways

Pyrophytic Tree Classification in Berea Forest using Unmanned Aerial Systems

Pyrophyte - Tree species adapted to endure fire. Despite its defenses, -Passive Pyrophyte - Resist the effects of fire. -Active Pyrophyte - Requires fire to spread, germinate, and regrow Despite its defenses, a pyrophyte can be overwhelmed and destroyed by fire. After decades of total fire suppression policies along with rising average temperatures as a result of climate change, forest fires have grown in intensity, frequency, and coverage. With the assistance of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), foresters can survey the distribution of pyrophytic trees and develop sustainable approaches to forest management that restore the natural ecosystem and reduce the threat of forest fires

Forest management and wildfire risk in inland northwest

This brief reports the results of a mail survey of forest landowners in northeastern Oregon conducted in the fall of 2012 by the Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) Project at the University of Colorado and the University of New Hampshire in cooperation with Oregon State University College of Forestry Extension. The mail survey--a follow-up to a telephone survey conducted for the counties of Baker, Union, and Wallowa in the fall of 2011 -was administered to understand who constituted forest landowners in these three coun¬ties and their perceptions about forest management on both public and private land, as well as risks to forests in the area and the actions they have taken to reduce those risks. The respondents indicated that they perceive wildfire as the greatest threat to their lands, and they consider cooperation with neighbors as very or extremely important for land management. Forest landowners believe public lands are managed poorly and see a greater risk of wildfire occurring on neighboring public land than on their own land. Their opinions on land management are not strongly related to background factors or ideology (for example, gender, age, political party, wealth) but may be heavily influenced by personal experience with wildfire