Effects of urbanisation and landscape heterogeneity mediated by feeding guild and body size in a community of coprophilous beetles

Although the impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity are well studied, the precise response of some invertebrate groups remains poorly known. Dung-associated beetles are little studied in an urban context, especially in temperate regions. We considered how landscape heterogeneity, assessed at three spatial scales (250, 500 and 1000 metre radius), mediates the community composition of coprophilous beetles on a broad urban gradient. Beetles were sampled using simple dung-baited traps, placed at 48 sites stratified across three distance bands around a large urban centre in England. The most urban sites hosted the lowest abundance of saprophagous beetles, with a lower mean body length relative to the least urban sites. Predicted overall species richness and the richness of saprophagous species were also lowest at the most urban sites. Ordination analyses followed by variation partitioning revealed that landscape heterogeneity across the urban gradient explained a small but significant proportion of community composition. Heterogeneity data for a 500-metre radius around each site provided the best fit with beetle community data. Larger saprophagous species were associated with lower amounts of manmade surface and improved grassland. Some individual species, particularly predators, appeared to be positively associated with urban or urban fringe sites. This study is probably the first to examine the response of the whole coprophilous beetle community to urbanisation. Our results suggest that the response of this community to urbanisation matches expectations based on other taxonomic groups, whilst emphasising the complex nature of this response, with some smaller-bodied species potentially benefitting from urbanisation

A Comparative Case Study of the Role of the School District in Influencing School Improvement: Supporting and Turning Around Low-Performing Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine the efforts of school districts in developing and sustaining their capacity to improve student achievement in response to increased accountability. The study sought to confirm what the research says regarding the role of the school district in influencing school improvement. While there is a significant body of research identifying elements for turning around low-performing schools, limited information exists on the roles of school district leaders in influencing school improvement. The study employed comparative case study methodology to examine the details of two school districts that had engaged in turning around low-achieving schools through the viewpoint of the study’s participants (superintendents, assistant superintendents, district leaders overseeing school improvement, and school principals). This study identified the roles and practices of district leaders and determined the strategies used to successfully turn around low performing schools and sustain higher achievement. Increasing achievement across schools necessitates considering how school districts support school improvement and sustain district capacity to improve student achievement. Based on the findings, the study offers recommendations for district leadership practice in supporting school improvement and school turnaround

Gilgamesh to Blade Runner: Teaching the Catholic Intellectual Tradition in RSCC104

Professor Kelly describes his teaching of the core curriculum course in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition at Sacred Heart University. He states that our careful reading of Genesis, Augustine, Blade Runner, Gilgamesh, etc. provides them [students] with certain tools with which they will be able to reflect upon their own “contexts.” This is exactly what I ask them to do for their capstone project in the course. It is an assignment many are loathe to do because I keep it fairly vague, which requires them to do some self-initiated thinking and work. The payoff, however, has enormous potential. If I can get them to consider who it is they are and where it is they have come from it prompts them to consider who it is they want to be and what it is for which they want to stand. This, I would argue, is a central concern of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and a vital component of the education we try to offer at Sacred Heart University. If understood as process the CIT provides the means and the critical vantage point from which undergraduates at Catholic institutions can begin to consider the fundamental questions of human experience

Support for Drought Response and Community Preparedness: Filling the Gaps between Plans and Action

This chapter examines which levels of government handle various aspects of drought, as well as interactions between levels of government, providing examples from states across the western United States. It also takes a look at aspects of drought that fall outside traditional lines of authority and disciplinary boundaries. As part of a discussion on how states support local drought response, the chapter details and contrasts how California and Colorado track public water supply restrictions, and describes Colorado’s process for incorporating input from river basins across the state into its water plan. Case studies focus on drought planning in the Klamath River and Upper Colorado River basins through the lens of collaborative environmental planning. The chapter concludes that drought planning will be more effective as more states coordinate and align goals and policies at multiple levels of government

Advanced Transport Operating System (ATOPS) control display unit software description

The software created for the Control Display Units (CDUs), used for the Advanced Transport Operating Systems (ATOPS) project, on the Transport Systems Research Vehicle (TSRV) is described. Module descriptions are presented in a standardized format which contains module purpose, calling sequence, a detailed description, and global references. The global reference section includes subroutines, functions, and common variables referenced by a particular module. The CDUs, one for the pilot and one for the copilot, are used for flight management purposes. Operations performed with the CDU affects the aircraft's guidance, navigation, and display software

Correlation for the Convective and Diffusive Evaporation of a Sessile Drop

A simple correlation is developed to compute the evaporation rates of sessile drops and small puddles which are evaporating under the influences of both diffusion and natural convection of the vapor-air mixture surrounding the drop. The correlation is based on experiments conducted with eight hydrocarbons, which provide a factor of 16.6 variation in volatility as indicated by the equilibrium vapor pressures, a factor of 3.6 variation in molecular mass, and a factor of 2.2 variation in mass diffusivity, and thus the correlation is applicable for liquids having a broad range of properties. The correlation predicts the evaporation rates to within a root-mean-square (RMS) error of 6.5% over the broad range of conditions. Limitations of the correlation are investigated, and when one of the species is excluded, the RMS error is reduced to 4.9%. There are two main differences between this new correlation and the correlations that have been published previously. The first difference is the new correlation reduces to an expression for diffusion-limited evaporation as the density difference between the vapor-air mixture at the surface of the drop and the ambient air becomes negligible, or when the drop size becomes very small. The second difference is the form of the dependency on the density difference ratio, which in previous correlations is obtained solely through the Rayleigh number (Ra). This new correlation contains a term which represents the influence of natural convection on the evaporation rate and this term provides insight into the nature of the coupling of the diffusive and convective transport of the vapor

Regulation of protein kinase B and glycogen synthase kinase-3 by insulin and beta-adrenergic agonists in rat epididymal fat cells - Activation of protein kinase B by wortmannin-sensitive and -insensittve mechanisms

Previous studies using L6 myotubes have suggested that glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) is phosphoryl ated and inactivated in response to insulin by protein kinase B (PKB, also known as Akt or RAG) (Cross, D, A, E., Alessi, D, R., Cohen, P., Andjelkovic, M., and Hemmings, B, A. (1995) Nature 378, 785-789), In the present study, marked increases in the activity of PKB have been shown to occur in insulin-treated rat epididymal fat cells with a time course compatible with the observed decrease in GSK-3 activity, Isoproterenol, acting primarily through beta(3)-adrenoreceptors, was found to decrease GSK-3 activity to a similar extent (approximately 50%) to insulin, However, unlike the effect of insulin, the inhibition of GSK by isoproterenol was not found to be sensitive to inhibition by the phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase inhibitors, wortmannin or LY 294002, The change in GSK-3 activity brought about by isoproterenol could not be mimicked by the addition of permeant cyclic AMP analogues or forskolin to the cells, although at the concentrations used, these agents were able to stimulate lipolysis. Isoproterenol, but again not the cyclic AMP analogues, was found to increase the activity of PKB, although to a lesser extent than insulin. While wortmannin abolished the stimulation of PKB activity by insulin, it was without effect on the activation seen in response to isoproterenol, The activation of PKB by isoproterenol was not accompanied by any detectable change in the electrophoretic mobility of the protein on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It would therefore appear that distinct mechanisms exist for the stimulation of PKB by insulin and isoproterenol in rat fat cells