Habitat utilization of fish species on the Ohio River: preliminary development of a multi-metric habitat index

Development of a habitat index requires an understanding of the longitudinal distribution of habitat, fish assemblages, and how the two interact. Because of the complexity and size of the Ohio River, this understanding has not been reached. Habitat analysis has long been considered, and is essential, in assigning impaired and reference condition of habitat quality. The Ohio River is diverse in the distribution of its habitat within pool and river-wide. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze these distributions. Within pool assessment of % habitat composition revealed woody cover and vegetation types were significantly greater in the lowest quarter of each pool (p whereas river-wide, fine sediment types dominate Distribution of fish species is often Many studies have been 0.05), downstream. dependent on habitat types present, performed to develop a better understanding of the relationship between habitat and fish assemblages in smaller streams, but not in such a dynamic system like that of the Ohio River. In this study, a multi-metric fish assemblage index for large rivers was used to determine the relationship of habitat and fish composition on the Ohio River. Habitat types (sediment, depth, and woody/ vegetation cover) were found to weakly describe fish community variability as much as 19.58% individually (Pearson\u27s correlation analysis) and 25.42% as a composite (stepwise multiple regression) for particular metrics. It was found through analysis this variability was strongly explained by sediment types and depth. The influence of woody cover was minimal as a result of its location in zones assessed. Although the relationships observed were found to be weak, a better understanding of this diverse system\u27s ecology has been made. These discoveries will be useful in the future to develop a predictive model of fish community response to habitat in optimal and degraded conditions

MEASURING NET BENEFITS RESULTING FROM UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE NEW MEXICO CHILE TASK FORCE

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Family provisioning is not the only reason men hunt

pre-printGurven and Hill (2009) ask, "Why do mean hunt?" As they say, "The observation that mean hunt and women gather supported the simplistic view of marriage as a cooperative enterprise. Greater sophistication suggests that males may often be motivated by mating and status rather than offspring investment" (p.60). We agree (e.g., Hawkes 1990, 1991; Hawkes et al. 1991, 2001 a, 2001b). This is the revision we first proposed nearly 20 years ago (Hawkes 1990) and have elaborated several times since. Having endorsed our point, Gurven and Hill then reject it, expressing continuing confidence in the idea that "men's food production efforts are mainly motivated by a concern for familial welfare" (p.68). Their rejection of our argument and related reaffirmation of conventional wisdom stem from a misunderstanding of data from the Paraguayan Ache and Tanzanian Hadza and a failure to appreciate the importance of other sources of information. We elaborate this critique on four key points

Alyawara plant use and optimal foraging theory

Book ChapterVarious authors have remarked on the importance of seeds in the pre-European diet of central Australian Aborigines. The Alyawara, an Arandic-speaking group, were typical in this respect. They collected edible seeds from nearly half the eighty-five plant species in their traditional subsistence inventory. In the past thirty years, Alyawara subsistence practices have changed dramatically because of the availability of European foods. Nevertheless, native foods continue to play a small but important role in the economies of some communities. Curiously, seeds are now seldom taken by the modern Alyawara, although they are often very abundant and readily accessible. We argue here that this phenomenon is best accounted for by models drawn from the theory of optimal foraging, which seeks to explain subsistance patterns in terms of the costs and benefits of exploiting various resources. Specifically, we maintain that since seeds are expensive to take relative to their nutritional value, they should be used only when the returns from other resources are very low, regardless of their own absolute abundance. This explanation appears to account for the modem Alyawara situation. It also contradicts the commonly accepted notion that hunter-gatherers take plant and animal foods in direct proportion to their abundance or nutritional value, except where considerations of palatability, or "cultural" preference or prohibition, intervene

Simulating diverse native C4 perennial grasses with varying rainfall

AbstractRainfall is recognized as a major factor affecting the rate of plant growth development. The impact of changes in amount and variability of rainfall on growth and production of different forage grasses needs to be quantified to determine how climate change can impact rangelands. Comparative studies to evaluate the growth of several perennial forage species at different rainfall rates will provide useful information by identifying forage management strategies under various rainfall scenarios. In this study, the combination of rainfall changes and soil types on the plant growth of 10 perennial forage species was investigated with both the experimental methods, using rainout shelters, and with the numerical methods using the plant growth simulation model, ALMANAC. Overall, most species significantly increased basal diameter and height as rainfall increased. Like measured volume, simulated yields for all species generally increased as rainfall increased. But, large volume and yield increases were only observed between 350 and 850 mm/yr. Simulating all species growing together competing agrees relatively well with observed plant volumes at low rainfall treatment, while simulating all species growing separately was slightly biased towards overestimation on low rainfall effect. Both simulations agree relatively well with observed plant volume at high rainfall treatment

Making waves in education

Making Waves in Education is a book of a collaborative nature, being a collection of chapters written by undergraduates studying B.A. Hons in Education at the Universities of Plymouth and York. Thirteen chapters, each from a different student, cover topics from learning theories to sex education, home education and autism. The chapters are well-organised and written, and they cover key topics in an accessible and thoughtful way. The chapters are generally well - referenced and present critical and balanced arguments. Many use hard statistics in an effective way to back up their points and all include bibliographies as indeed one expects from a serious publication. The collection therefore addresses itself to a wide readership of anyone interested in education, and students and teachers/trainers in HE in particula

3D CFD Electrochemical and Heat Transfer Model of an Integrated-Planar Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) electrochemical model has been created to model high-temperature electrolysis cell performance and steam electrolysis in a new novel integrated planar porous-tube supported solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC). The model is of several integrated planar cells attached to a ceramic support tube. This design is being evaluated with modeling at the Idaho National Laboratory. Mass, momentum, energy, and species conservation and transport are provided via the core features of the commercial CFD code FLUENT. A solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) model adds the electrochemical reactions and loss mechanisms and computation of the electric field throughout the cell. The FLUENT SOFC user-defined subroutine was modified for this work to allow for operation in the SOEC mode. Model results provide detailed profiles of temperature, Nernst potential, operating potential, activation over-potential, anode-side gas composition, cathode-side gas composition, current density and hydrogen production over a range of stack operating conditions. Mean per-cell area-specific-resistance (ASR) values decrease with increasing current density. Predicted mean outlet hydrogen and steam concentrations vary linearly with current density, as expected. Effects of variations in operating temperature, gas flow rate, cathode and anode exchange current density, and contact resistance from the base case are presented. Contour plots of local electrolyte temperature, current density, and Nernst potential indicated the effects of heat transfer, reaction cooling/heating, and change in local gas composition. Results are discussed for using this design in the electrolysis mode. Discussion of thermal neutral voltage, enthalpy of reaction, hydrogen production, cell thermal efficiency, cell electrical efficiency, and Gibbs free energy are discussed and reported herein

Myopia in late adolescence and subsequent multiple sclerosis among men

BACKGROUND: Risk factors such as low vitamin D level has been implicated in the etiology of multiple sclerosis (MS) and may be relevant to myopia, such that there may be an association between myopia and MS. METHODS: Using linked Swedish national register data, we conducted a cohort study of men who were born in Sweden between 1950 and 1992, lived in Sweden between 1990 and 2018, and enrolled in military conscription assessment (n = 1,847,754). Myopia was defined based on the spherical equivalent refraction measured at conscription assessment, around age 18 years. Multiple sclerosis was identified using the Patient Register. Cox regression produced hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), with adjustment for demographic and childhood socioeconomic characteristics and residential region. Due to changes in the assessment of refractive error, the analysis was stratified into two groups by the year of conscription assessment: 1969-1997 and 1997-2010. RESULTS: Among 1,559,859 individuals during a maximum of 48 years of follow-up from age 20 to 68 years (44,715,603 person-years), there were 3,134 MS events, and the incidence rate 7.0 (95% CI [6.8, 7.3] per 100,000 person-years). Among individuals with conscription assessments during 1997-2010, there were 380 MS events. There was no evidence of an association between myopia and MS, with HR 1.09 (95% CI 0.83, 1.43). Among individuals who underwent conscription assessment in 1969-1997, there were 2754 MS events. After adjusting for all covariates, there was no evidence of an association between myopia and MS (HR 0.99 [95% CI 0.91, 1.09]). CONCLUSION: Myopia in late adolescence is not associated with a subsequent raised risk of MS and thus there does not appear to be important shared risk factors

The Irish hillfort

Hillforts represent the largest and arguably most impressive archaeological monuments in the Irish landscape. While the study of hillforts progressed rapidly in Britain during the twentieth century, it was not until the work of Barry Raftery in the late 1960s and 70s that these great enclosures became the focus of sustained research in Ireland. Rafteryâ s excavations at Rathgall in Co. Wicklow became the cornerstone of Irish hillfort studies, and began to reveal a different history of design and use from that recorded in Britain. Whereas hillforts in Britain and the Continent are more generally associated with Iron Age societies, their Irish counterparts have close connections with warrior societies of the later Bronze Age. As in Britain, recent research has highlighted the phenomenon of Neolithic hillforts in Ireland, and the possibility that some sites of the early medieval period should be considered in this way. This chapter discusses the developing narrative of hillfort studies in Ireland, and considers how the Irish examples compare with their British counterparts as recorded in the new Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland.