Age and length composition of Columbia Basin chinook, sockeye, and coho salmon at Bonneville Dam in 2000

In 2000, representative samples of adult Columbia Basin chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), sockeye (O. nerka), and coho salmon (O. kisutch), populations were collected at Bonneville Dam. Fish were trapped, anesthetized, sampled for scales and biological data, allowed to revive, and then released. Scales were examined to estimate age composition and the results contribute to an ongoing database for age class structure of Columbia Basin salmon populations. Based on scale analysis, four-year-old fish (from brood year (BY) 1996) were estimated to comprise 83% of the spring chinook, 31% of the summer chinook, and 32% of the upriver bright fall chinook salmon population. Five-year-old fish (BY 1995) were estimated to comprise 2% of the spring chinook, 26% of the summer chinook, and 40% of the fall chinook salmon population. Three-year-old fish (BY 1997) were estimated to comprise 14% of the spring chinook, 42% of the summer chinook, and 17% of the fall chinook salmon population. Two-year-olds accounted for approximately 11% of the fall chinook population. The sockeye salmon population sampled at Bonneville was predominantly four-year-old fish (95%), and the coho salmon population was 99.9% three-year-old fish (Age 1.1). Length analysis of the 2000 returns indicated that chinook salmon with a stream-type life history are larger (mean length) than the chinook salmon with an ocean-type life history. Trends in mean length over the sampling period were also analysis for returning 2000 chinook salmon. Fish of age classes 0.2, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 have a significant increase in mean length over time. Age classes 0.3 and 0.4 have no significant change over time and age 0.1 chinook salmon had a significant decrease in mean length over time. A year class regression over the past 11 years of data was used to predict spring and summer chinook salmon population sizes for 2001. Based on three-year-old returns, the relationship predicts four-year-old returns of 325,000 (± 111,600, 90% Predictive Interval [PI]) spring chinook and 27,800 (± 29,750, 90% PI) summer chinook salmon. Based on four-year-old returns, the relationship predicts five-year-old returns of 54,300 (± 40,600, 90% PI) spring chinook and 11,000 (± 3,250, 90% PI) summer chinook salmon. The 2001 run size predictions used in this report should be used with caution, these predictions are well beyond the range of previously observed data

Age and length composition of Columbia Basin chinook, sockeye, and coho salmon at Bonneville Dam in 2002

In 2002, representative samples of migrating Columbia Basin chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), sockeye (O. nerka), and coho salmon (O. kisutch) adult populations were collected at Bonneville Dam. Fish were trapped, anesthetized, sampled for scales and biological data, revived, and then released. Scales were examined to estimate age composition; the results contributed to an ongoing database for age class structure of Columbia Basin salmon populations. Based on scale analysis of chinook salmon, four-year-old fish (from brood year [BY] 1998) comprised 86% of the spring chinook, 51% of the summer chinook, and 51% of the bright fall chinook salmon population. Five-year-old fish (BY 1997) comprised 13% of the spring chinook, 43% of the summer chinook, and 11% of the bright fall chinook salmon population. The sockeye salmon population at Bonneville was predominantly five-year-old fish (55%), with 40% returning as four-year-olds in 2002. For the coho salmon population, 88% of the population was three-year-old fish of age class 1.1, while 12% were age class 1.0. Length analysis of the 2002 returns indicated that chinook salmon with a stream-type life history are larger (mean length) at age than the chinook salmon with an ocean-type life history. Trends in mean length over the sampling period for returning 2002 chinook salmon were analyzed. Chinook salmon of age classes 1.2 and 1.3 show a significant increase in mean length over the duration of the migration. A year class regression over the past 14 years of data was used to predict spring, summer, and bright fall chinook salmon population sizes for 2003. Based on three-year-old returns, the relationship predicts four-year-old returns of 54,200 (± 66,600, 90% predictive interval [PI]) spring chinook, 23,800 (± 19,100, 90% PI) summer, and 169,100 (± 139,500, 90% PI) bright fall chinook salmon for the 2003 runs. Based on four-year-old returns, the relationship predicts five-year-old returns of 36,300 (± 35,400, 90% PI) spring, 63,800 (± 10,300, 90% PI) summer, and 91,100 (± 69,400, 90% PI) bright fall chinook salmon for the 2003 runs. The 2003 run size predictions should be used with caution; some of these predictions are well beyond the range of previously observed data

Master of Science

thesisWildland firefighters are often called on to make tactical decisions under stressful conditions in order to suppress a fire. They frequently make these decisions based on their gained intuition over time, and also by considering previous specific fire experiences. This assists them in anticipating future fire behavior and developing tactics designed to suppress the fire while avoiding entrapment. These decisions can be hindered by human factors such as insufficient knowledge of surroundings and conditions, inexperience, overextension of resources, or loss of situational awareness. One potential tool for assisting fire managers in situations where human factors can hinder decision-making is the Wildland Urban Interface Evacuation (WUIVAC) model, which models minimum fire travel times to create geographic triggers for evacuation recommendations. Using a range of expected weather conditions and resource configurations, we generated a range of expected trigger buffer outcomes. Our objective was to use these outcomes to illustrate: (a) what spatial uncertainty is inherent in the geographic triggers produced by the range in expected conditions that contribute to fire behavior, and (b) after taking into account uncertainty, whether triggers are likely to be useful for rapid tactical decision-making. Utilizing 80 different tactical, weather, and fuel condition inputs, we demonstrated the use of WUIVAC for setting trigger points intended for use in planned firefighting operations to ensure entrapment avoidance. These triggers were used to determine when firefighting resources should disengage the fire and evacuate to a safety zone, shelter in place, turn down an assignment, or reengage and change tactics altogether based on predicted conditions. Using the 2007 Zaca Fire in the Los Padres National Forest, California as a case study, we show that WUIVAC can provide analytically driven physicallybased trigger points, and when coupled with intuitive decisions, it can assist in setting triggers for entrapment avoidance and ultimately contribute to firefighter safety

Virtual Battlespace Behavior Generation Through Class Imitation

Military organizations need realistic training scenarios to ensure mission readiness. Developing the skills required to differentiate combatants from non-combatants is very important for ensuring the international law of armed conflict is upheld. In Simulated Training Environments, one of the open challenges is to correctly simulate the appearance and behavior of combatant and non-combatant agents in a realistic manner. This thesis outlines the construction of a data driven agent that is capable of imitating the behaviors of the Virtual BattleSpace 2 behavior classes while our agent is configured to advance to a geographically specific goal. The approach and the resulting agent promotes and motivates the idea that Opponent and Non-Combatant behaviors inside of simulated environments can be improved through the use of behavioral imitation

NuSTAR Observations of G11.2–0.3

We present in this paper the hard X-ray view of the pulsar wind nebula in G11.2−0.3 and its central pulsar powered pulsar J1811−1925 as seen by NuSTAR. We complement the data with Chandra for a more complete picture and confirm the existence of a hard, power-law component in the shell with photon index Γ = 2.1 ± 0.1, which we attribute to synchrotron emission. Our imaging observations of the shell show a slightly smaller radius at higher energies, consistent with Chandra results, and we find shrinkage as a function of increased energy along the jet direction, indicating that the electron outflow in the PWN may be simpler than that seen in other young PWNe. Combining NuSTAR with INTEGRAL, we find that the pulsar spectrum can be fit by a power law with Γ = 1.32 ± 0.07 up to 300 keV without evidence of curvature

Securing a Healthy Future: The Commonwealth Fund State Scorecard on Child Health System Performance, 2011

Ranks states on twenty indicators of healthcare access, affordability, prevention and treatment, potential for healthy lives, and health system equity for children. Examines the need for targeted initiatives and policy implications for better performance

Why Not the Best? Results From the National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2011

Assesses the U.S. healthcare system's average performance in 2007-09 as measured by forty-two indicators of health outcomes, quality, access, efficiency, and equity compared with the 2006 and 2008 scorecards and with domestic and international benchmarks

3-Dimensional Core-Collapse

In this paper, we present the results of 3-dimensional collapse simulations of rotating stars for a range of stellar progenitors. We find that for the fastest spinning stars, rotation does indeed modify the convection above the proto-neutron star, but it is not fast enough to cause core fragmentation. Similarly, although strong magnetic fields can be produced once the proto-neutron star cools and contracts, the proto-neutron star is not spinning fast enough to generate strong magnetic fields quickly after collapse and, for our simulations, magnetic fields will not dominate the supernova explosion mechanism. Even so, the resulting pulsars for our fastest rotating models may emit enough energy to dominate the total explosion energy of the supernova. However, more recent stellar models predict rotation rates that are much too slow to affect the explosion, but these models are not sophisticated enough to determine whether the most recent, or past, stellar rotation rates are most likely. Thus, we must rely upon observational constraints to determine the true rotation rates of stellar cores just before collapse. We conclude with a discussion of the possible constraints on stellar rotation which we can derive from core-collapse supernovae.Comment: 34 pages (5 of 17 figures missing), For full paper, goto http://qso.lanl.gov/~clf/papers/rot.ps.gz accepted by Ap