Introduction

It didn\u27t seem so wrong. It seemed as though I worked my whole life to get where I am, and at the same time, when it was presented to me, it was like this was the time I could start to get back some of the fruits of my labor. 1 —Paul Palmer, former star college football running back, regarding cash payments of more than $5,000 he received while a college senior from sports agent Norby Walters. This epigraph has remained in our text through multiple editions. Its continued relevance is underscored by the irony that, in a recent court ruling, a judge pegged the minimum dollar figure for college athletes to received from licensing revenues at$5,000. This book, meanwhile, focuses on the evolving sports agent industry, the issues affecting it, and how to improve and regulate it. Key issues and problems associated with sports agents are visible at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Whatever the concerns that lie at the center of the sports agent storm, it is a business that captures the attention of many

Evaluating Methods of Estimating Forage Intake by Grazing Cattle

Two methods of estimating forage intake of grazing cattle were compared to clipped estimates in 4-pasture rotational grazing systems on Sandhills subirrigated meadow from mid-May through early August over a 4-year period. Clipping standing vegetation samples within a pasture before and after cattle grazing provides for an accurate estimate of forage removal during a grazing period. A less laborious method of intake estimation commonly used is based on a percentage of an animal’s liveweight. University Extension and some federal agencies use a 2.3% factor and others such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service use a 2.7% factor. In this study on a Sandhills subirrigated meadow, the 2.3% of body weight intake factor appropriately matched the clipping estimates in 63% of the evaluations. In contrast, the 2.7% of body weight factor provided similar estimates to the clipping estimate in only 38% of the evaluations. This implies that the 2.3% estimate more accurately represents forage intake of beef cattle and has less chance of overestimating cattle intake. Allocation of surplus forage to grazing cattle reduces harvest efficiency, reduces beef production per acre, and negatively effects profitability of beef operations

Extensive Reorganization of Behavior Accompanies Ontogeny of Aggression in Male Flesh Flies

Aggression, costly in both time and energy, is often expressed by male animals in defense of valuable resources such as food or potential mates. Here we present a new insect model system for the study of aggression, the male flesh fly Sarcophaga crassipalpis, and ask whether there is an ontogeny of aggression that coincides with reproductive maturity. After establishing that reproductive maturity occurs by day 3 of age (post-eclosion), we examined the behavior of socially isolated males from different age cohorts (days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6) upon introduction, in a test arena, with another male of the same age. The results show a pronounced development of aggression with age. The change from relative indifference to heightened aggression involves a profound increase in the frequency of high-intensity aggressive behaviors between days 1 and 3. Also noteworthy is an abrupt increase in the number of statistically significant transitions involving these full-contact agonistic behaviors on day 2. This elevated activity is trimmed back somewhat by day 3 and appears to maintain a stable plateau thereafter. No convincing evidence was found for escalation of aggression nor the establishment of a dominance relationship over the duration of the encounters. Despite the fact that aggressive interactions are brief, lasting only a few seconds, a major reorganization in the relative proportions of four major non-aggressive behaviors (accounting for at least 96% of the total observation time for each age cohort) accompanies the switch from low to high aggression. A series of control experiments, with single flies in the test arenas, indicates that these changes occur in the absence of the performance of aggressive behaviors. This parallel ontogeny of aggressive and non-aggressive behaviors has implications for understanding how the entire behavioral repertoire may be organized and reorganized to accommodate the needs of the organism

A VISION of Advanced Nuclear System Cost Uncertainty

VISION (VerifIable fuel cycle SImulatiON) is the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative’s and Global Nuclear Energy Partnership Program’s nuclear fuel cycle systems code designed to simulate the US commercial reactor fleet. The code is a dynamic stock and flow model that tracks the mass of materials at the isotopic level through the entire nuclear fuel cycle. As VISION is run, it calculates the decay of 70 isotopes including uranium, plutonium, minor actinides, and fission products. VISION.ECON is a sub-model of VISION that was developed to estimate fuel cycle and reactor costs. The sub-model uses the mass flows generated by VISION for each of the fuel cycle functions (referred to as modules) and calculates the annual cost based on cost distributions provided by the Advanced Fuel Cycle Cost Basis Report1. Costs are aggregated for each fuel cycle module, and the modules are aggregated into front end, back end, recycling, reactor, and total fuel cycle costs. The software also has the capability to perform system sensitivity analysis. This capability may be used to analyze the impacts on costs due to system uncertainty effects. This paper will provide a preliminary evaluation of the cost uncertainty affects attributable to 1) key reactor and fuel cycle system parameters and 2) scheduling variations. The evaluation will focus on the uncertainty on the total cost of electricity and fuel cycle costs. First, a single light water reactor (LWR) using mixed oxide fuel is examined to ascertain the effects of simple parameter changes. Three system parameters; burnup, capacity factor and reactor power are varied from nominal cost values and the affect on the total cost of electricity is measured. These simple parameter changes are measured in more complex scenarios 2-tier systems including LWRs with mixed fuel and fast recycling reactors using transuranic fuel. Other system parameters are evaluated and results will be presented in the paper. Secondly, the uncertainty due to variation in scheduling effects is evaluated. For example, economic impacts due to increased nuclear energy growth rates and speed-ups in deployment of fuel cycle facilities and fast reactors. Preliminary results show that significant variations in the costs of the scenarios can result from variations in burnup, capacity factor and reactor power. The paper will include new results from analysis of additional system variables and due to scheduling dynamics. Reference 1. Shropshire, D.E. et al, 2007, Advanced Fuel Cycle Cost Basis, INL/EXT-07-12107, April 2007

Software Platform Evaluation - Verifiable Fuel Cycle Simulation (VISION) Model

The purpose of this Software Platform Evaluation (SPE) is to document the top-level evaluation of potential software platforms on which to construct a simulation model that satisfies the requirements for a Verifiable Fuel Cycle Simulation Model (VISION) of the Advanced Fuel Cycle (AFC). See the Software Requirements Specification for Verifiable Fuel Cycle Simulation (VISION) Model (INEEL/EXT-05-02643, Rev. 0) for a discussion of the objective and scope of the VISION model. VISION is intended to serve as a broad systems analysis and study tool applicable to work conducted as part of the AFCI (including costs estimates) and Generation IV reactor development studies. This document will serve as a guide for selecting the most appropriate software platform for VISION. This is a “living document” that will be modified over the course of the execution of this work

IncFV Plasmid pED208: Sequence Analysis and Evidence for Translocation of Maintenance/Leading Region Proteins Through Diverse Type IV Secretion Systems

Two phylogenetically distantly-related IncF plasmids, F and pED208, serve as important models for mechanistic and structural studies of F-like type IV secretion systems (T4SSFs) and F pili. Here, we present the pED208 sequence and compare it to F and pUMNF18, the closest match to pED208 in the NCBI database. As expected, gene content of the three cargo regions varies extensively, although the maintenance/leading regions (MLRs) and transfer (Tra) regions also carry novel genes or motifs with predicted modulatory effects on plasmid stability, dissemination and host range. By use of a Cre recombinase assay for translocation (CRAfT), we recently reported that pED208-carrying donors translocate several products of the MLR (ParA, ParB1, ParB2, SSB, PsiB, PsiA) intercellularly through the T4SSF. Here, we extend these findings by reporting that pED208-carrying donors translocate 10 additional MLR proteins during conjugation. In contrast, two F plasmid-encoded toxin components of toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules, CcdB and SrnB, were not translocated at detectable levels through the T4SSF. Remarkably, most or all of the pED208-encoded MLR proteins and CcdB and SrnB were translocated through heterologous T4SSs encoded by IncN and IncP plasmids pKM101 and RP4, respectively. Together, our sequence analyses underscore the genomic diversity of the F plasmid superfamily, and our experimental data demonstrate the promiscuous nature of conjugation machines for protein translocation. Our findings raise intriguing questions about the nature of T4SS translocation signals and of the biological and evolutionary consequences of conjugative protein transfer

Advanced Fuel Cycle Economic Sensitivity Analysis

A fuel cycle economic analysis was performed on four fuel cycles to provide a baseline for initial cost comparison using the Gen IV Economic Modeling Work Group G4 ECON spreadsheet model, Decision Programming Language software, the 2006 Advanced Fuel Cycle Cost Basis report, industry cost data, international papers, the nuclear power related cost study from MIT, Harvard, and the University of Chicago. The analysis developed and compared the fuel cycle cost component of the total cost of energy for a wide range of fuel cycles including: once through, thermal with fast recycle, continuous fast recycle, and thermal recycle

Central contracts in Test cricket: a model of best practice?

Across the last two decades, management of international cricket players has changed substantially, with the main Test playing nations using central contracts to guide their team selection. Increased management control over player workload has been a key focus of this. This paper aims to analyse selection in relation to performance for eight Test playing nations in 1,135 matches over thirty years (1985-2015), particularly in relation to the introduction of central contracts. The results demonstrated a relationship between selection stability (i.e. changes made) and performance (overall results and win ratio). The improvement was more pronounced immediately following the introduction of a contract system, as the competitive advantage appears to be at its highest in the two years following their introduction. The data presented argues that the implementation of central contracts as a best practice model has been a beneficial addition to nations' performance in Test matches. Despite this, team managers, coaches and selectors should focus their work on developing an organisational culture where the elite environment has long term stability as its focus. This is particularly pertinent as selection uncertainty can be a de-stabilising factor, as suggested in this paper and in previous research