308 research outputs found

    Distribution, Density, Movement, and Support for Management of Mountain Sucker, \u3cem\u3ePantosteus jordani\u3c/em\u3e, in the Black Hills of South Dakota

    Get PDF
    Mountain Sucker, Pantosteus jordani, is a cold-water species native to the Intermountain West. Fringe populations of Mountain Sucker have experienced declines in recent decades. The population of Mountain Sucker found in the Black Hills of South Dakota represents the eastern fringe of the species’ native range. Recognized as both an indicator of biologic health and as a species of greatest conservation need in South Dakota, recent studies have suggested significant declines in both distribution and abundance. Despite the recent study of Mountain Sucker in the region, increased understanding of Mountain Sucker ecology is needed to effectively manage for the conservation of this species. First, I assessed public perceptions towards the management of non-game, native species in the region. Traditional stream management has focused on the proliferation of non-native salmonids due to their recreational and economic value. Public support for management was generally positive for residents of the Black Hills region. Next, I assessed the general movements of Mountain Sucker. General movements were small, indicating high-sight fidelity and limited potential for recolonization of streams and locations where they have been extirpated. Third, we examined segment-scale habitat variable to predict distribution of Mountain Sucker throughout the Black Hills stream network in South Dakota. Previous work identified the importance of stream permanency in influencing Mountain Sucker occurrence, our results indicated that Mountains Sucker distributions were primarily impacted by mean August stream temperatures at the segment scale. We assessed the current distribution of Mountain Sucker in the Black Hills of South Dakota for comparison with the findings of the most recent research. Mountain Sucker were found in more drainages and at more locations than in the previous study, likely a result of increased detection probabilities associated with more intensive survey designs and repeated site visits. Finally, we assessed 25-year trends in Mountain Sucker density in historically sampled locations. General trends in density were negative; however, significant trends were only observed in three locations. Mountain Sucker appear to have been extirpated from three streams since the most resent assessment. Several sampling locations included high densities of Mountain Sucker that could serve as source populations for restoration efforts via translocation. Overall, this research provides insight into the status of Mountain Sucker in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and the level of public support of active management of this regionally imperiled species. Managers can use this information to guide potential conservation efforts, such as translocations

    Experimental observation of nonspherlcally-decaying radiation from a rotating superluminal source

    Get PDF
    We describe the experimental implementation of a superluminal (i.e., faster than light in vacuo) polarization current distribution that both oscillates and undergoes centripetal acceleration. Theoretical treatments predict that the radiation emitted by each volume element of the superluminally moving distribution pattern will comprise a Čerenkov-like envelope with two sheets that meet along a cusp. Correspondingly, the emission from the experimental machine is found to be tightly beamed in both the azimuthal and polar directions. The beaming is frequency independent and has a sharply defined and unchanging geometry determined only by the speed and path of the moving distribution pattern, i.e., by the parameters governing the structure of the Čerenkov-like envelopes. In addition, over a restricted range of angles, we detect the presence of cusps in the emitted radiation. These, which are due to the focusing of wave fronts on a propagating space curve, result in the reception, during a short time period, of radiation emitted over a considerably longer period of (retarded) source time. The intensity of the radiation at these angles was observed to decline more slowly with increasing distance from the source than would the emission from a conventional antenna. The angular distribution of the emitted radiation and the properties associated with the cusps are in good quantitative agreement with theoretical models of superluminal sources once the effect of reflections from the earth’s surface are taken into account. In particular, the prediction that the beaming and the slow decay should extend into the far zone has been tested to several hundred Fresnel distances (Rayleigh ranges). The excellent agreement between the theoretical calculations and the data suggests that the apparatus achieves precise and reproducible control of the polarization current and that similar machines could be of general interest for studying and utilizing the novel effects associated with superluminal electrodynamics.Publisher’s Note: The original article was published without numerous corrections submitted by the authors. The corrected version is appended to this record. The URL for the corrected version is: http://link.aip.org/link/doi/10.1063/1.183339

    Factors affecting the catch and harvest rates of paddlefish downstream of Gavins Point Dam, South Dakota, 2000–2020

    Get PDF
    Paddlefish, Polyodon spathula (Walbaum), provide an important snagging and bowfishing fishery below Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota. During 2009–2020, snagging catch rates of paddlefish decreased below Gavins Point Dam to presumed “normal” lower pre-2004 levels, while bowfishing catch (harvest) rates significantly increased during 2000–2020. Because Paddlefish are highly migratory, both local (i.e., monthly gauge height, precipitation, and air temperature near Gavins Point Dam) and remote (difference in Mississippi and Missouri River discharge near their confluence) environmental conditions were used to explain variation in snagging catch rates and bowfishing harvest rates. Snagging catch rates were related to October gauge height, whereby deeper water in October led to decreased catch rates below Gavins Point Dam. Bowfishing harvest rates increased significantly after a 2016 regulation change moved the season from July 1 to July 31, and from June 1 to June 30, likely because water clarity was greater in June than in July. Mean annual air temperature and precipitation explained variation in bowfishing harvest rates prior to the 2016 regulation change. Our findings, the first to examine both snagging and bowfishing fisheries below Gavins Point Dam, suggest that local abiotic factors are likely more important than remote discharge for explaining variation in snagging catch rates and bowfishing harvest rates in the channelised Missouri River

    Background Light in Potential Sites for the ANTARES Undersea Neutrino Telescope

    Get PDF
    The ANTARES collaboration has performed a series of {\em in situ} measurements to study the background light for a planned undersea neutrino telescope. Such background can be caused by 40^{40}K decays or by biological activity. We report on measurements at two sites in the Mediterranean Sea at depths of 2400~m and 2700~m, respectively. Three photomultiplier tubes were used to measure single counting rates and coincidence rates for pairs of tubes at various distances. The background rate is seen to consist of three components: a constant rate due to 40^{40}K decays, a continuum rate that varies on a time scale of several hours simultaneously over distances up to at least 40~m, and random bursts a few seconds long that are only correlated in time over distances of the order of a meter. A trigger requiring coincidences between nearby photomultiplier tubes should reduce the trigger rate for a neutrino telescope to a manageable level with only a small loss in efficiency.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

    Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of s√=7TeV proton-proton collisions

    Get PDF
    Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≄6 to ≄9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV

    Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

    Get PDF
    Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ Îł, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lÎœlÎœ. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined ïŹts probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

    Standalone vertex ïŹnding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

    Get PDF
    A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

    Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

    Get PDF
    A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in pppp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron ee or muon Ό\mu) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton (eeee, ΌΌ\mu\mu or eΌe\mu) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be 12.2±3.912.2 \pm 3.9 events and 2.5±0.62.5 \pm 0.6 events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde
    • 

    corecore