An Agent-Based Modeling Approach to Determine Overwintering Habits of American Robins and Eastern Bluebirds

American Robins (Turdus migratorius) and Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) are two species of migratory thrushes that breed in Northwest Indiana but historically are uncommonly present during the winter season (November 1 - March 1). These trends have changed recently, and both species are seen more abundantly during the winter. Recently invaded non-native fruiting plants continue to provide nutrients for the birds throughout the winter and may contribute to the increased avian populations during that time. To measure the effect these food sources contribute to thrush wintering habits, we created an agent-based computer model to simulate the birds\u27 movement in Northwest Indiana along with their food consumption over the course of the winter season. The model incorporates availability of food sources, foraging and roosting behavior, bio-energetics, and starvation, with parameter values informed by the literature. Ultimately, this model will yield a carrying capacity that could explain changes in the birds\u27 migratory patterns

A procedure for the determination of proteolytic activity

The difficulties introduced by the desire to maintain a constant pH during an enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of peptide-like substrates and at the same time to determine the extent of hydrolysis by an acid-base titration have been pointed out (1), but to date no completely satisfactory solution of the problem has been given. With those enzymes whose pH optima lie in the region between pH 7.5 to 8.5, e.g. trypsin and chymotrypsin, the poor buffering capacity of phosphate in this region prompted us, as it has others (2-5), to consider the use of organic amines whose pK’alpha values were near to or identical with the pH optimum of the enzyme being used. In the course of such studies it soon became evident that coincidental use of a suitable primary or secondary amine buffer system and a formol titration (1) would insure adequate buffering capacity with low buffer concentration during the hydrolysis and at the same time permit the final acid-base titration to be conducted under nearly ideal conditions. In this communication we shall limit the discussion to results obtained with chymotrypsin and specific acylated-a-amino acid amide substrates, since the application of the general method to other proteolytic enzymes and other types of substrates will be obvious

Hvordan kan sykepleiere ved hjelp av gode rutiner få ivaretatt tannhelsen hos pasienter med en demenssykdom, på sykehjem?

Studentarbeid i sykepleie (bachelorgrad) - Høgskolen i Bodø, 201

Modern Education and Changing Identity Constructions in Amdo

This paper examines identity constructions of young and educated Tibetans from a socio-cultural background of nomadic pastoralism in Amdo. It is based on qualitative research conducted between 2003 and 2008, comparing two generations of educated young people from a township in the Amdo region of Northern Sichuan in the People’s Republic of China. It examines developments in education policies and practices as well as economic developments from 2003 to 2008 and argues that identity constructions of school students and graduates need to be analysed against the background of such changes. Conceptualisations of nomad identity are linked to nomadic pastoralism, and when students return to their home communities after graduation or during school vacation, they do not fit easily into categories of being a nomad. This paper argues that in 2003, these graduates, who were a marginal group, underlined the usefulness of education for pastoral production by constructing an identity that showed them to be of use for the pastoral community. In 2008 increased school enrolment, changed attitudes towards education, the emergence of new and alternative sources of income in pastoral regions alongside pastoralism have widened the context for identity constructions. They seem to require less emphasis on a link to the pastoral context, as acceptance of new orderings has come into place. Those orderings are expressed in perceptions that non-educated people are the practising pastoralists while the educated are accessing and expected to access different sources of income and are linked to pastoralism by their upbringing, culture, traditions and language

Guerilla-Feldforschung im tibetischen Hochland: Ethische und praktische Herausforderungen

It is a characteristic of ethnographic field research that it seldom evolves according to plan. Once in the field, researchers must adapt their research designs in response to circumstances and people they encounter. This paper exemplifies this by discussing actual research carried out for the project presented in this paper. The project examines social and spatial transformation in Tibetan nomad communities related to motorized mobility and mobile telecommunication. Geographically, research was located in a contested region of Western China and carried out without official permission. The resulting difficulties and challenges were negotiated by doing guerilla-fieldwork, a term introduced to describe fieldwork pursued without state authorization. This article exposes some of the challenges, both practical and methodological, of guerilla-fieldwork and discusses their implications regarding research ethics. It contributes to current discussions on research ethics and argues that guerilla-fieldwork requires a heightened measure of transparency, openness and reflexivity of the researcher to maintain ethical integrit

Crustal structure across the western Barents Sea from deep seismic and potential field data. Implications for Caledonian trends and subsequent basin formation

The aim of this project is to map the deep crustal structure of the western Barents Sea in order to increase the understanding of how pre-existing structures related to the Caledonian orogeny and subsequent extensional collapse influenced Palaeozoic rift evolution. Modeling of ocean bottom seismometer data, combined with gravity and magnetic data have been utilized to generate large-scale models along three refraction seismic profiles acquired in 2014. The profiles cross the western Barents Sea with total length of more than 1450 km and include records from a total of 82 receivers. This thesis contains three papers that provide new constraints on the basement and basin configurations in the western Barents Sea. Paper 1 discusses the nature of different basement domains and the eastern limit of the Caledonian suture. The paper presents a P-wave velocity and gravity model along a 650 km long transect. Lateral velocity changes in the crystalline crust are interpreted to represent the Caledonian suture between Laurentia and Barentsia. Additionally, a change in seismic reflectivity indicates a Caledonian suture through the Barents Sea, separating Baltica and Barentsia. Local deepening of Moho creates “root structures” that can be linked to Caledonian compressional deformation or a suture zone. Our model supports the existence of a separate NE-SW Caledonian trend into the central Barents Sea, branching off the N-S trending Svalbard Caledonides, implying the existence of Barentsia as an independent microcontinent between Laurentia and Baltica. Paper 2 investigates Caledonian trends along a profile further south and provides new constraints of the proposed suture zones. Lateral velocity variations in the crystalline crust are interpreted as a transition from Caledonian basement in the west to Timanian basement in the east. Magnetic anomalies correlate well with high velocities and densities in the lower crust beneath Loppa High, suggesting that uppercrustal basement structures may not have significantly affected the magnetic anomaly pattern, and may therefore not necessarily constrain the early post-Caledonian basin formation. Paper 3 discusses the recent (2008-2016) earthquake sequence in Storfjorden south of Svalbard and its possible link to an old zone of weakness within Barentsia. A double magnetic anomaly is observed in the westernmost part of the model, coinciding with the location of a possible high-velocity body modeled in the lower crust. The positive magnetic anomalies are located in the proximity of the Storfjorden earthquake sequence, indicating that compositional and rheological variations in the crust could be related to the seismic activity. The distribution of earthquakes and fault plane solutions suggest the existence of a complex NE-SW oriented fault zone through Storfjorden, and we propose that this zone is linked to the heterogeneous crust in the western part of the model and that it represents old zones of weakness in the crystalline crust, possibly of Caledonian age. Regional and local stresses are most likely related to both thermal and post-glacial uplift that combined with the preexisting zones of weakness in the crust could explain the recent seismic activity. The research presented here provides new constraints on the crustal structure of the western Barents Sea and insights to large scale processes responsible for the post- Caledonian evolution of the Arctic region

Should the Great Food Transformation be Fake-Meat Free? Considering Strategies for a Future of Food that is Kinder to People, Animals, and the Planet

In 2019, former Trump White House adviser Sebastian Gorka infamously denounced advocates of the Green New Deal with the pithy admonishment, “They want to take away your hamburgers.” This rhetoric is ironic given that none of the politicians supporting the Deal have suggested widescale adoption of vegan diets, much less any laws or policies restricting the consumption of animal-based meat. However, given our species’ broken relationship to food, perhaps they should. The 2019 EAT-Lancet Commission Food in the Anthropocene report laid bare the scope of our current global predicament, warning that “[g]lobal food production threatens climate stability and ecosystem resilience and constitutes the single largest driver of environmental degradation and transgression of planetary boundaries. Taken together the outcome is dire.” The report argues that “global efforts are urgently needed to collectively transform diets and food production” and that, ultimately, “what is needed is rapid adoption of numerous changes and unprecedented global collaboration and commitment: nothing less than a Great Food Transformation.