ANALYSIS OF EGG-LAY DATES OF BALD EAGLES AS A POTENTIAL INDICATOR OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

The effects of climate change on many wildlife species is a new area of research. Long&ndashterm data sets on raptor populations may hold the key to documenting these impacts from local to ecosystem scales. The Michigan bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) population has been monitored continuously since 1961, and virtually all reproductive outcomes are known since 1963. The bald eagle population at Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota has been monitored continuously since 1973. Though these data sets are extensive, little is known about the effects of climate change on egg laying dates in sea eagles (Haliaeetus spp). Understanding these effects could ultimately provide valuable information regarding the overall impact of climate change on entire ecosystems. This preliminary study was conducted to determine the effects of environmental temperature change on the average lay date of bald eagle eggs in MI and MN. In addition, the relationships of change in egg lay date with elevation, water type, latitude/longitude, breeding area, and distance from the Great Lakes were evaluated in the MI study area; the relationships of change in egg lay date with ice&ndashoff and lake location were evaluated in the MN study area. In both study areas, the earliest lay dates of nesting pairs were derived utilizing morphometric measurements of nestlings. The MI study period was from 1988&ndash2008, and included 442 nest sites and over 2,300 first egg lay dates. We found both significant and inverse trends in Julian Date for the first lay date that averaged &minus0.39 d/y over this time period (P\u3c0.0001). Lay dates were further examined at three geographical scales to determine if any trends were evident: Anadromous (AN), Great Lakes (GL), and Inland (IN) breeding areas. AN lay dates averaged &minus0.95 d/y (P\u3c0.0001), GL lay dates averaged &minus0.75 d/y (P\u3c0.0001), and IN lay dates averaged &minus0.32 d/y (P\u3c0.0001) over the study period. The MN study period was from 1989&ndash2009, and included 115 nest sites. We found a decreasing but not statistically significant trend in Julian Date for the first lay date that averaged &minus0.047 d/y over this time period. After narrowing the MN data set to only nests with 5 or more years of visitation, the trend was still not significant, averaging &minus0.180 d/y. From the MI data, it is apparent that there may be a correlation between milder winters and earlier lay dates of breeding pairs. Our MN results may suggest that eagles are not responding to climate change, but the reason behind this may be that all MN lakes are inland and the power of the dataset was low. The relatively small area would have needed over 2000 records to show a significant trend. Eagles and raptors may now be warning us of the impacts of climate change, much like they did earlier with impacts of DDT and other environmental pollutants

The Effect of an Online Coping Skill Application on Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Sufferers

Many individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) are classified as having relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), a form of the illness that requires constant symptom management for suffers to achieve optimum outcomes. There are only a few community-based educational programs that exist to help RRMS sufferers cope with their illness; the effectiveness of those that have been fielded has not yet been adequately assessed. The research questions of this study were to determine if an online training development module would increase the coping skills of those affected by RRMS and if the online educational module would be more effective at improving the coping skills of mild RRMS sufferers versus severe RRMS sufferers. The theoretical foundation was based on a stress-coping model commonly utilized for chronic disease management. The research design employed 2 groups, nonrandom selection, and use of a pretest/posttest applied to the target population from the Georgia MS Chapter. SPSS was used to perform statistical analysis as well as to perform the Mann-Whitney test on study data/results. According to findings from this quantitative study, the application of the online education development module to RRMS sufferers does provide a mechanism of significantly improving their coping skills. This positive social change improvement of coping strategies helps the patients as well as family, friends, and coworkers, and this module would serve as the complement to augment coping strategy improvement efforts for RRMS suffers. This study supports improvement of RRMS sufferer coping skills in the short term, and a future area of research focus would address the long-term improvements in coping skills for RRMS sufferers from the application of this online module

Building a Peer-Learning Service for Students in an Academic Library

Academic libraries are well lauded for offering supportive spaces for students’ self-directed study, and significant resources are dedicated to librarian instruction in the classroom. What many academic libraries lack, however, is a middle ground, a routine way for students to help one another using best practices in peer-to-peer learning theory. A new, nonauthoritative, supplemental service by students and for students began at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, in fall 2012 with a cohort of “peer research consultants.” Students learn information literacy skills with a well-trained peer, untethered from the hierarchy inherent in formal instruction environments. This paper describes the program design, training, and conclusions after two academic years in operation and argues the value of peer tutoring in libraries

Concert recording 2013-12-03

[Track 01]. Adelaide / Ludwig van Beethoven -- [Track 02]. Der Kuss / L van Beethoven -- [Track 03]. Der Neugierige / Franz Schubert -- [Track 04]. Fruhlingsglaube / F. Schubert -- [Track 05]. Andenken / L. van Beethoven -- [Track 06]. Nussbaum / Robert Schumann -- [Track 07]. Er, der herrlichste von allen / R. Schumann -- [Track 08]. Das erste Veilchen / Felix Mendelssohn -- [Track 09]. O liebliche Wangen / Johannes Brahms -- [Track 10]. Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer / J. Brahms -- [Track 11]. Elfenlied / Hugo Wolf -- [Track 12]. Vergebliches Standchen / J. Brahms -- [Track 13]. Allerseelen / Richard Strauss -- [Track 14]. Die Mainacht / J. Brahms -- [Track 15]. Zueignung / R. Strauss -- [Track 16]. Der Rattenfanger / H. Wolf

Application of Reflected Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS-R) Signals in the Estimation of Sea Roughness Effects in Microwave Radiometry

In February-March 2009 NASA JPL conducted an airborne field campaign using the Passive Active L-band System (PALS) and the Ku-band Polarimetric Scatterometer (PolSCAT) collecting measurements of brightness temperature and near surface wind speeds. Flights were conducted over a region of expected high-speed winds in the Atlantic Ocean, for the purposes of algorithm development for salinity retrievals. Wind speeds encountered were in the range of 5 to 25 m/s during the two weeks deployment. The NASA-Langley GPS delay-mapping receiver (DMR) was also flown to collect GPS signals reflected from the ocean surface and generate post-correlation power vs. delay measurements. This data was used to estimate ocean surface roughness and a strong correlation with brightness temperature was found. Initial results suggest that reflected GPS signals, using small low-power instruments, will provide an additional source of data for correcting brightness temperature measurements for the purpose of sea surface salinity retrievals

Molecular Profiling of Activated Neurons by Phosphorylated Ribosome Capture

The mammalian brain is composed of thousands of interacting neural cell types. Systematic approaches to establish the molecular identity of functional populations of neurons would advance our understanding of neural mechanisms controlling behavior. Here, we show that ribosomal protein S6, a structural component of the ribosome, becomes phosphorylated in neurons activated by a wide range of stimuli. We show that these phosphorylated ribosomes can be captured from mouse brain homogenates, thereby enriching directly for the mRNAs expressed in discrete subpopulations of activated cells. We use this approach to identify neurons in the hypothalamus regulated by changes in salt balance or food availability. We show that galanin neurons are activated by fasting and that prodynorphin neurons restrain food intake during scheduled feeding. These studies identify elements of the neural circuit that controls food intake and illustrate how the activity-dependent capture of cell-type-specific transcripts can elucidate the functional organization of a complex tissue

The Development of a Content Analysis Model for Assessing Students’ Cognitive Learning in Asynchronous Online Discussions

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a content analysis model for assessing students\u27 cognitive learning in asynchronous online discussions. It adopted a fully mixed methods design, in which qualitative and quantitative methods were employed sequentially for data analysis and interpretation. Specifically, the design was a sequential exploratory (QUAL→ quan) design with priority given to qualitative data and methods. Qualitative data were 800 online postings collected in two online courses. Quantitative data were 803 online postings from the same two courses but from different discussion topics and different weeks. During the qualitative process, a grounded theory approach was adopted to construct a content analysis model based on qualitative data. During the quantitative process, chi-square tests and confirmative factor analysis (CFA) which used online postings as cases or observations and was the first of its kind were performed to test if the new model fit the quantitative data

Concert recording 2013-11-15

[Track 01]. Amarilli, mia bella / Guilio Caccini ; [Track 02]. Dein blaues auge / Johannes Brahms -- [Track 03]. Come raggio di sol / Antonio Caldara -- [Track 04]. Come ready and see me / Richard Hundley -- [Track 05]. La promessa / Giacchino Rossini -- [Track 06]. Se tu m\u27ami / Giovanni Pergolesi -- [Track 07]. Sonntag / Johannes Brahms -- [Track 08]. Le colibri / Ernest Chausson -- [Track 09]. Paulus. Jerusalem! / Felix Mendelssohn -- [Track 10]. Gia il sole dal Gange / Alessandro Scarlatti -- [Track 11]. Go, lovely Rose / Roger Quilter -- [Track 12]. Si mes vers avaient des ailes / Raynaldo Hahn -- [Track 13]. I\u27m a person too / Leonard Bernstein -- [Track 14]. Les chemins de l\u27amour / Francis Poulenc -- [Track 15]. La Boheme. Donde lieta usci al tuo... / Giacomo Puccini -- [Track 16]. Plum pudding / Leonard Bernstein -- [Track 17]. Queues de boeuf / Leonard Bernstein -- [Track 18]. Tavouk gueunksis / Leonard Bernstein -- [Track 19]. Civet a toute vitesse / Leonard Bernstein -- [Track 20]. When I have sung my songs to you / Ernest Charles -- [Track 21]. Linda di chamournix. Ah! Tardai troppo...o luce di quest\u27anima / Gaetano Donizetti