Short duration reservoir-release impacts on impounded upland rivers

The increasing number and scale of river impoundments throughout the 19th and 20th centuries means that the management of these impoundments is crucial to the future of global riverine biota. Impoundments such as reservoirs can affect rivers in a variety of ways, not least through the reduction in amplitude of the natural hydrograph, depriving rivers of ecologically important spate flows. Many reservoir operators conduct regular safety tests, known as scour releases, during which large quantities of impounded water are released directly into rivers. This project assesses the impact of these releases on the hydrology and physio-chemistry of the receiving water bodies as well as upon fish movements and benthic macroinvertebrate abundance and diversity downstream of the reservoirs. The potential of such releases to mimic natural spate flows for ecological gain is also examined. The work took place in the Yorkshire Water catchment area in northern England between 2007 and 2010. Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) telemetry was used to assess the responses of brown trout Salmo trutta to these short-duration releases. Tagged fish were able to maintain position during the releases and showed no evidence of wash-out or upstream migratory movements associated with the releases. Changes to macroinvertebrate abundance, diversity and community structure associated with the release were also examined. Some sites showed significant wash-out and community change following the releases while other sites were unchanged. Communities at impacted sites returned to pre-release structures within weeks of the releases. Analysis of habitat use and characteristics suggest the responses of fish and macroinvertebrates to these reservoir releases were linked to habitat heterogeneity and the use of flow refugia. The negative impacts associated with the scour releases were minimal, while mimicked spate releases may improve salmonid spawning habitat and could re-introduce valuable flow variability to impounded catchments

Challenges faced by rural accounting teachers in implementing web-based collaborative learning

The twenty-first century has witnessed a call for teachers to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) into teaching and learning. However, creating a classroom environment that engages in active learning has proved to be a hurdle to South African teachers, as more traditional teaching methods continue to be utilised in teaching. These challenges have derailed the current efforts by the Department of Basic Education to introduce ICT in the teaching and learning process in an effort to create a learner-centred environment. This paper seeks to open epistemic access by determining the challenges faced by rural accounting teachers in implementing web-based collaborative learning. The paper reports on the findings of a qualitative study that employed interviews to generate data with five Grade 10 accounting teachers in rural South Africa. The findings reveal that accounting teachers are faced with myriad challenges that serve as a stumbling block in their attempt to implement web-based collaborative learning. Contrary to the principles of Critical Accounting Research, the teaching methods and resources used position teachers in control and authority while the learners are disempowered, marginalised and oppressed. We consequently argue that accounting teachers require support and capacity building to implement web-based collaborative learning effectively

The Narrowing Gap in New York City Teacher Qualifications and its Implications for Student Achievement in High-Poverty Schools

The gap between the qualifications of New York City teachers in high-poverty schools and low-poverty schools has narrowed substantially since 2000. Most of this gap-narrowing resulted from changes in the characteristics of newly hired teachers, and largely has been driven by the virtual elimination of newly hired uncertified teachers coupled with an influx of teachers with strong academic backgrounds in the Teaching Fellows program and Teach for America. The improvements in teacher qualifications, especially among the poorest schools, appear to have resulted in improved student achievement. By estimating the effect of teacher attributes using a value-added model, the analyses in this paper predict that observable qualifications of teachers resulted in average improved achievement for students in the poorest decile of schools of .03 standard deviations, about half the difference between being taught by a first year teacher and a more experienced teacher. If limited to teachers who are in the first or second year of teaching, where changes in qualifications are greatest, the gain equals two-thirds of the first-year experience effect.

Congenital muscular dystrophy in a dog with a LAMA2 gene deletion.

A 2-year-old female spayed dog was presented with a chronic history of short-strided gait and inability to completely open the jaw. Clinical signs were present since the dog was adopted from a humane society at a few months of age. Serum creatine kinase activity was abnormally high. Neurological examination, electromyography, muscle biopsies with immunofluorescent staining, and whole genome sequencing (WGS) were performed. A dystrophic phenotype was identified histologically in muscle biopsies, deficiency of laminin α2 protein was confirmed by immunofluorescent staining, and a deletion in the LAMA2 gene was identified by analysis of the WGS data. Congenital muscular dystrophy associated with a disease variant in LAMA2 was identified

Asset Allocation with Swarm/Human Blended Intelligence

PSO has been used to demonstrate the near-real-time optimization of frequency allocations and spatial positions for receiver assets in highly complex Electronic Warfare (EW) environments. The PSO algorithm computes optimal or near-optimal solutions so rapidly that multiple assets can be exploited in real-time and re-optimized on the fly as the situation changes. The allocation of assets in 3D space requires a blend of human intelligence and computational optimization. This paper advances the research on the tough problem of how humans interface to the swarm for directing the solution. The human intelligence places new pheromone-inspired spheres of influence to direct the final solution. The swarm can then react to the new input from the human intelligence. Our results indicate that this method can maintain the speed goal of less than 1 second, even with multiple spheres of pheromone influence in the solution space

4,5-Diazafluorene and 9,9’-Dimethyl-4,5-Diazafluorene as Ligands Supporting Redox-Active Mn and Ru Complexes

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.4,5-diazafluorene (daf) and 9,9’-dimethyl-4,5-diazafluorene (Me2daf) are structurally similar to the important ligand 2,2’-bipyridine (bpy), but significantly less is known about the redox and spectroscopic properties of metal complexes containing Me2daf as a ligand than those containing bpy. New complexes Mn(CO)3Br(daf) (2), Mn(CO)3Br(Me2daf) (3), and [Ru(Me2daf)3](PF6)2 (5) have been prepared and fully characterized to understand the influence of the Me2daf framework on their chemical and electrochemical properties. Structural data for 2, 3, and 5 from single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveal a distinctive widening of the daf and Me2daf chelate angles in comparison to the analogous Mn(CO)3(bpy)Br (1) and [Ru(bpy)3]2+ (4) complexes. Electronic absorption data for these complexes confirm the electronic similarity of daf, Me2daf, and bpy, as spectra are dominated in each case by metal-to-ligand charge transfer bands in the visible region. However, the electrochemical properties of 2, 3, and 5 reveal that the redox-active Me2daf framework in 3 and 5 undergoes reduction at a slightly more negative potential than that of bpy in 1 and 4. Taken together, the results indicate that Me2daf could be useful for preparation of a variety of new redox-active compounds, as it retains the useful redox-active nature of bpy but lacks the acidic, benzylic C–H bonds that can induce secondary reactivity in complexes bearing daf.US National Science Foundation (OIA-1833087)NSF REU Program in Chemistry at the University of Kansas (CHE-1560279)NIH T32 GM008545-25NIH S10OD016360NIH S10RR024664CHE-162592

Portland Region Parks: Measuring Equity in Access

The goal of this Capstone project is to examine equity as it applies to the Portland region. CLF defines equity as “the right of every person to have access to opportunities necessary for satisfying essential needs and advancing their well-being” (CLF, 2007). Equity as it relates to parks is a difficult concept to define. Our project specifically focused on cataloging the amenities of ninety-three newly developed parks and making observations about park access in an effort to build a better picture of what equity looks like in the Portland region

Waste-Energy: Feasibility Study of Watermelon (Endocarp) Waste as Raw-Material for Bio-Fuel Prodution

Waste to energy plays an important role in fulfilling the world’s future demands. The continuous climatic change which is primarily caused by the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases from the continuous use of fossil fuel due to high demand of energy in our society has affected the human race negatively over the years. Similarly, the improper disposal of agricultural waste (watermelon waste) in markets and environs creates pungent smell overtime and attracts harmful organisms in our environment, destroying the aesthetics of the market, therefore, making it environmentally unsafe for man. This paper therefore describes how feasible it is to produce bio-ethanol from agricultural waste with a focus on water melon. The waste was gotten from the market and processed to get the endocarp after which a locally fabricated juicing machine was utilized for extraction of the juice from the endocarp of watermelon waste. The fermentation pot housed 60 litres of juice for 5 days and laboratory test analysis was carried out during the period of fermentation, this was to monitor the progression of fermentation. The distillate produced 65.25% alcohol content with a volume of 19.5 litres. The utilization of watermelon waste for bio-ethanol production if exploited will lead to environmental sustainability, energy efficiency and waste to wealth

Accelerometer-Measured Physical Activity Data Sets (Global Physical Activity Data Set Catalogue) That Include Markers of Cardiometabolic Health: Systematic Scoping Review

Background: Cardiovascular disease accounts for 17.9 million deaths globally each year. Many research study data sets have been collected to answer questions regarding the relationship between cardiometabolic health and accelerometer-measured physical activity. This scoping review aimed to map the available data sets that have collected accelerometer-measured physical activity and cardiometabolic health markers. These data were then used to inform the development of a publicly available resource, the Global Physical Activity Data set (GPAD) catalogue.Objective: This review aimed to systematically identify data sets that have measured physical activity using accelerometers and cardiometabolic health markers using either an observational or interventional study design.Methods: Databases, trial registries, and gray literature (inception until February 2021; updated search from February 2021 to September 2022) were systematically searched to identify studies that analyzed data sets of physical activity and cardiometabolic health outcomes. To be eligible for inclusion, data sets must have measured physical activity using an accelerometric device in adults aged ≥18 years; a sample size >400 participants (unless recruited participants in a low- and middle-income country where a sample size threshold was reduced to 100); used an observational, longitudinal, or trial-based study design; and collected at least 1 cardiometabolic health marker (unless only body mass was measured). Two reviewers screened the search results to identify eligible studies, and from these, the unique names of each data set were recorded, and characteristics about each data set were extracted from several sources.Results: A total of 17,391 study reports were identified, and after screening, 319 were eligible, with 122 unique data sets in these study reports meeting the review inclusion criteria. Data sets were found in 49 countries across 5 continents, with the most developed in Europe (n=53) and the least in Africa and Oceania (n=4 and n=3, respectively). The most common accelerometric brand and device wear location was Actigraph and the waist, respectively. Height and body mass were the most frequently measured cardiometabolic health markers in the data sets (119/122, 97.5% data sets), followed by blood pressure (82/122, 67.2% data sets). The number of participants in the included data sets ranged from 103,712 to 120. Once the review processes had been completed, the GPAD catalogue was developed to house all the identified data sets.Conclusions: This review identified and mapped the contents of data sets from around the world that have collected potentially harmonizable accelerometer-measured physical activity and cardiometabolic health markers. The GPAD catalogue is a web-based open-source resource developed from the results of this review, which aims to facilitate the harmonization of data sets to produce evidence that will reduce the burden of disease from physical inactivity

Haplocheirus sollers.

44 pages : illustrations (1 color), map ; 26 cm.The basalmost alvarezsauroid Haplocheirus sollers is known from a single specimen collected in Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) beds of the Shishugou Formation in northwestern China. Haplocheirus provides important data about the plesiomorphic morphology of the theropod group Alvarezsauroidea, whose derived members possess numerous skeletal autapomorphies. We present here a detailed description of the cranial anatomy of Haplocheirus. These data are important for understanding cranial evolution in Alvarezsauroidea because other basal members of the clade lack cranial material entirely and because derived parvicursorine alvarezsauroids have cranial features shared exclusively with members of Avialae that have been interpreted as synapomorphies in some analyses. We discuss the implications of this anatomy for cranial evolution within Alvarezsauroidea and at the base of Maniraptora