Total Mercury in Heron and Egret Eggs and Excreta

Author Institution: Ohio Cooperative Wildlife Research UnitComplete clutches of great blue heron (Ardea herodias), black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), and great egret (Casmerodius albus) eggs were collected along with excreta from nesting colonies in southwestern Lake Erie during the 1973 and 1974 breeding seasons and analyzed for total mercury content. Mercury levels in eggs ranged from 0.04 to 0.47 ppm. Mercury concentrations in excreta ranged from 0.09 to 0.48 ppm

Herring Gulls Nesting in Artificial Goose-Nesting Structures

Author Institution: Winous Point Shooting ClubHerring gull (Larus argentatus) nesting in artificial goose-nesting structures was documented at the Winous Point Shooting Club, Port Clinton, Ohio, 1974-78. Gulls and Canada geese (Branta canadensis) nested in 14—28% and 12—23% of the structures, respectively. Gulls nesting in the structures did not influence goose nesting. Clutch sizes and egg-laying dates were synchronous with other local populations of herring gulls and Canada geese. Aggressive interactions between geese and gulls resulted in geese dominating the structures

Federal financial management : accounting and auditing practices

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1701/thumbnail.jp

Results of a study of the stability of cointegrating relations comprised of broad monetary aggregates

There is strong evidence of a stable “money demand” relationship for MZM and M2 through the 1990s. Though the M2 relationship breaks down somewhere around 1990, evidence has been accumulating that the disturbance is well characterized as a permanent upward shift in M2 velocity that began around 1990 and was largely over by 1994. This paper’s results support the hypothesis that households permanently reallocated a portion of their wealth from time deposits to mutual funds. This reallocation may have been induced by depository restructuring, but it could also be explained by appropriately measured opportunity cost.Demand for money

FARMERS' VEG RISK PERCEPTIONS AND ADOPTION OF VEG CROP INSURANCE

Producer survey results are analyzed to determine factors influencing value-enhanced grain (VEG) risk perceptions and VEG crop insurance adoption. VEG production is perceived to be riskier than commodity production. VEG types, input costs, and production problems affect risk perceptions. Factors including previous insurance use impact VEG crop insurance adoption.Risk and Uncertainty,

Position Paper From the Association of Pathology Chairs: Assessing Autopsy Competency in Pathology Residency Training

Declining numbers of hospital autopsies performed in US pathology residency training programs and perceived declining practice of autopsy by many pathologists has caused stakeholder organizations to reassess the role of autopsy training in pathology residency. A working group convened by the stakeholder organizations has delivered the results of a detailed study of current practice of autopsy education in US pathology programs, along with recommendations for the future of autopsy education. Accepting the report of the Working Group, the Association of Pathology Chairs here publishes its position paper on the proposed recommendations

Position Paper From the Association of Pathology Chairs: Surgical Pathology Residency Training

Training in surgical pathology specimen dissection and microscopic diagnosis is an integral part of pathology residency training, as surgical pathology is one of the defining activities of most pathologists. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Board of Pathology policies delineate guidelines and requirements for residency training. Both the ACGME and ABP require that residents are ready for “independent practice� upon completion of training (ACGME) and for board eligibility (ABP). This position paper, developed through a consensus process involving the Association of Pathology Chairs, including the Program Directors and Graduate Medical Education committee, expands on these guidelines and the importance of gross dissection as a part of training

Did You See That? A Study of Change Blindness

OBJECTIVES Increasing concern has been expressed regarding the safety implications of drivers attempting to use in-vehicle devices other than cellular phones while driving. To address this issue, the effect of cognitive load on visual attention merits investigation. Strayer and Johnston (2001) found invehicle system use, specifically cell-phone use, disrupts performance by diverting attention to an engaging cognitive context other than the one immediately associated with driving. Recarte and Nunes (2000) demonstrated that scanning patterns and visual attention can be disrupted by cognitive load. In-vehicle systems can increase the cognitive load of the driver, making it more difficult for the driver to direct attention to the visual scene. The change blindness phenomenon may be useful way to investigate how cognitive load affects attention. Change blindness is the inability to detect scene change when the change occurs in conjunction with an action such as a blink (O’Regan, Deubel, Clark, and Rensink, 2000), eye movement (Wallis and Bulthoff, 2000), or an image that masks the onset of the change (Simons and Levin, 1998). The aim of this experiment was to study the effect of cognitive loading on individuals’ ability to detect change in their visual environment using a speech-based email task. METHODS Twenty participants completed a series of five conditions. In two of these conditions the participants did just one task: either the e-mail task or the visual search task. In the other three conditions participants completed the e-mail and the visual search tasks concurrently. In one email task condition the speech recognition system worked perfectly. In a second condition, speech recognition errors caused the wrong menu item to be selected. In a third condition, speech recognition errors caused the user to be displaced to the wrong menu. In three of the visual search task conditions participants were asked to identify changes that occurred in visual scenes, using the Rensink, et al. (1997) flicker paradigm while navigating a speech-based e-mail system. The visual task presented a series of four displays. These were: an unaltered image (300ms), a gray screen (1150ms), a second image (300ms), and a gray screen (1150ms). The second image was either the unaltered image or an image altered by the addition or removal of an element. The remaining conditions for both the e-mail task and visual search task were labeled as baseline. The baseline measurements were used to evaluate the effects of cognitive load on detection of scene changes. RESULTS Analyses showed that detection of scene changes took significantly longer when participants were cognitively loaded with the e-mail task (mean 5.05) compared to when they were not (mean 4.35), F(3,67)=11.13, p< 0.0001. Analyses also showed participants took significantly longer to determine that the scene had not changed (mean 5.99) than to detect a change had occurred (mean 3.72), F(2,67)=271.95, p <0.0001. Scene detection accuracy was significantly reduced when participants were cognitively loaded with the e-mail task, F(3,67)=5.47, p0.0010. Speech recognition errors introduced by the researcher had little effect on times to determine scene changes as well as time to detect meaningful and non-meaningful scene changes. CONCLUSION The results of this study demonstrate that change detection is sensitive to cognitive load and that endogenous control of visual attention may have been affected by the introduction of the e-mail system. It also shows that the paradigm of scenes with and without changes seems to be a promising and sensitive tool for measuring the effects of cognitive load on an individual’s ability to detect change. REFERENCES O\u27Regan, J.K., H. Deubel, J.J. Clark, & R.A. Rensink. (2000). Picture changes during blinks: Looking without seeing and seeing without looking. Visual Cognition 7(1-3), 191-211. Recarte, M.A. & Nunes, L.M. (2000). Effects of verbal and spatial imagery tasks to eye fixations while driving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied,6, 31-43 Rensink, R.A., Oregan, J.K., & Clark, J.J. (1997). To see or not see: The need for attention to perceive changes in scenes. Psychological Sciences, 8, 368-373 Simons, D.J. and D.T. Levin. (1998). Failure to detect changes to people during a real-world interaction. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 5(4), 644-649. Strayer, D.L. & Johnston, W.A. (2001). Driven to distraction: Dual-task studies of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular phone. Psychological Science, 12, 462-466 Wallis, G. and H. Bulthoff. (2000). What’s scene and not seen: Influences of movement and task upon what we see. Visual Cognition 7(1-3), 175-190