Collaborative Pacific Halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis, Bycatch Control by Canada and the United States

ABSTRACT—Bycatch mortality of Pacific halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis, in nontarget fisheries is composed primarily of immature fish, and substantial reductions in yield to directed halibut fisheries result from this bycatch. Distant-water bottomtrawl fleets operating off the North American coast, beginning in the mid 1960’s, experienced bycatch mortality of over 12,000 t annually. Substantial progress on reducing this bycatch was not achieved until the of extension fisheries jurisdictions by the United States and Canada in 1977. Bycatch began to increase again during the expansion of domestic catching capacity for groundfish, and by the early 1990’s it had returned to levels seen during the period of foreign fishing. Collaborative action by Canada and the United States through the International Pacific Halibut Commission has resulted in substantial reductions in bycatch mortality in some areas. Methods of control have operated at global, fleet, and individual vessel levels. We evaluate the hierarchy of effectiveness for these control measures and identify regulatory needs for optimum effects. New monitoring technologies offer the promise of more cost-effective approaches to bycatch reduction

A Study in the Summer Phenology of Dionychious Spiders from Northern Minnesota Forests

Dionychious ground layer spiders from Larix and Populus stands were collected by pitfall traps. The typical pattern of dominant, influent and accessory species was well marked. Populus stands had greater diversity of species than Larix stands. Those species characterized by large male:female sex ratios had sharp peaks in the first month of collecting, and others had smaller early season peaks or early season and late season peaks. Traps with an apron leading to the trap caught twice as many specimens compared to traps without an apron

EXODUS: Integrating intelligent systems for launch operations support

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is developing knowledge-based systems to automate critical operations functions for the space shuttle fleet. Intelligent systems will monitor vehicle and ground support subsystems for anomalies, assist in isolating and managing faults, and plan and schedule shuttle operations activities. These applications are being developed independently of one another, using different representation schemes, reasoning and control models, and hardware platforms. KSC has recently initiated the EXODUS project to integrate these stand alone applications into a unified, coordinated intelligent operations support system. EXODUS will be constructed using SOCIAL, a tool for developing distributed intelligent systems. EXODUS, SOCIAL, and initial prototyping efforts using SOCIAL to integrate and coordinate selected EXODUS applications are described

A development framework for artificial intelligence based distributed operations support systems

Advanced automation is required to reduce costly human operations support requirements for complex space-based and ground control systems. Existing knowledge based technologies have been used successfully to automate individual operations tasks. Considerably less progress has been made in integrating and coordinating multiple operations applications for unified intelligent support systems. To fill this gap, SOCIAL, a tool set for developing Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) systems is being constructed. SOCIAL consists of three primary language based components defining: models of interprocess communication across heterogeneous platforms; models for interprocess coordination, concurrency control, and fault management; and for accessing heterogeneous information resources. DAI applications subsystems, either new or existing, will access these distributed services non-intrusively, via high-level message-based protocols. SOCIAL will reduce the complexity of distributed communications, control, and integration, enabling developers to concentrate on the design and functionality of the target DAI system itself

Experimental and numerical analyses of laminar boundary-layer flow stability over an aircraft fuselage forebody

Fuelled by a need to reduce viscous drag of airframes, significant advances have been made in the last decade to design lifting surface geometries with considerable amounts of laminar flow. In contrast to the present understanding of practical limits for natural laminar flow over lifting surfaces, limited experimental results are available examining applicability of natural laminar flow over axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric fuselage shapes at relevantly high length Reynolds numbers. The drag benefits attainable by realizing laminar flow over nonlifting aircraft components such as fuselages and nacelles are shown. A flight experiment to investigate transition location and transition mode over the forward fuselage of a light twin engine propeller driven airplane is examined

Electricity deregulation and the valuation of visibility loss in wilderness areas: A research note.

Visibility in most wilderness areas in the northeastern United States has declined substantially since the 1970s. As noted by Hill et al. (2000), despite the 1977 Clean Air Act and subsequent amendments, human induced smog conditions are becoming increasingly worse. Average visibility in class I airsheds, such as the Great Gulf Wilderness in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, is now about one-third of natural conditions. A particular concern is that deregulation of electricity production could result in further degradation because consumers may switch to lower cost fossil fuel generation (Harper 2000). To the extent that this system reduces electricity costs, it may also affect firm location decisions (Halstead and Deller 1997). Yet, little is known about the extent to which consumers are likely to make tradeoffs between electric bills and reduced visibility in nearby wilderness areas. This applied research uses a contingent valuation approach in an empirical case study of consumers’ tradeoffs between cheaper electric bills and reduced visibility in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. We also examine some of the problems associated with uncertainty with this type of analysis; that is, how confident respondents are in their answers to the valuation questions. Finally, policy implications of decreased visibility due to electricity deregulation are discussed

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON US AGRICULTURE

There is general consensus in the scientific literature that human-induced climate change has taken place and will continue to do so over the next century. The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes with “very high confidence” that anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation have affected the global climate. The AR4 also indicates that global average temperatures are expected to increase by another 1.1°C to 5.4°C by 2100, depending on the increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases that takes place during this time. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, temperature increases, altered precipitation patterns and other factors influenced by climate have already begun to impact U.S. agriculture. Climate change will continue to have significant effects on U.S. agriculture, water resources, land resources, and biodiversity in the future as temperature extremes begin exceeding thresholds that harm crop growth more frequently and precipitation and runoff patterns continue to change. In this study, we provide an assessment of the potential long-term implications of climate change on landowner decisions regarding land use, crop mix, and production practices in the U.S., combining a crop process model (Environmental Policy Integrated Climate model) and an economic model of the U.S. forestry and agricultural sector (Forest and Agricultural Sector Optimization Model). Agricultural producers have always faced numerous production and price risks, but forecasts of more rapid changes in climatic conditions in the future have raised concerns that these risks will increase in the future relative to historical conditions.climate change, crop yields, EPIC, FASOM, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C61, Q18, Q54,

The Scaling Mindset – Shifting from Problems to Solutions. Insights from the Review of CCAFS Scaling Activities, 2019

In the frame of the review of CCAFS scaling activities in 2019, 21 project leaders and –implementers were interviewed about their scaling processes, touching a series of aspects that had been identified as crucial and/or critical by earlier research. Results were analysed with a systemic approach, to draw organisational learnings. The findings were validated with CCAFS core team during their Scaling Workshop in Madrid, May 2019, in which the Core Team also prioritized its programmatic areas of response. This working paper captures the main insights and learnings from both the interviews on project level, followed by the results’ analysis. It then summarized the Core Team workshop’s main discussion points and shortly outlines the programmatic areas of response that CCAFS identified. The learnings and insights on the realities of scaling agricultural innovations presented in this working paper can provide a rich basis for further synthesis and/or deeper research on the different aspects of innovation development and scaling

High resolution spectroscopy of the 11.3 micron emission band

High resolution spectra of the 11.3 micron emission band in M82 and NGC 7027 were obtained using the University of Texas IR echelle spectrometer on the IRTF in April 1988. The spectral resolution was 0.004 micron, with coverage from 11.0 to 11.6 microns. Spectra were measured at ten positions along a 10 min. long slit. Analysis of the data is still in progress, but initial results show no clear evidence of narrow structure within the feature. The analysis will involve comparison of the observed spectra to laboratory and predicted spectra of Polycylic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Quenched Carbonaceous Composite (QCCs) to determine which may be responsible for the emission. The spectra will be examined with a goal of determining whether the emission is caused by molecular or solid state material. The data are also examined for evidence of variations in the shape and strength of the 11.3 micron feature with position on the sky. In NGC 7027 the 10 min. long slit went across the edge of the ionized nebulae, allowing comparison of emission from both ionized and neutral regions

Serrated trailing edges for improving lift and drag characteristics of lifting surfaces

An improvement in the lift and drag characteristics of a lifting surface is achieved by attaching a serrated panel to the trailing edge of the lifting surface. The serrations may have a saw-tooth configuration, with a 60 degree included angle between adjacent serrations. The serrations may vary in shape and size over the span-wise length of the lifting surface, and may be positioned at fixed or adjustable deflections relative to the chord of the lifting surface