Visual_HEA: Habitat Equivalency Analysis Software to Calculate Compensatory Restoration Following Natural Resource Injury

Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA) is a means to determine the amount of compensatory restoration required to provide services that are equivalent to the interim loss of natural resource services following an injury. HEA includes a discounting procedure to account for asset valuation in that the total asset value is equal to the discounted value of the future stream of all services from the natural resource or the compensatory resource. Discounting is used to include the relative valuation of loss and gain of ecological services of the resources over time. Visual_HEA is a computer program developed to calculate the amount of compensatory resource services that would be required to match those lost following an injury to natural resources. The program accepts input of parameters necessary to determine long-term service loss from the injury and long-term service gain from the desired compensatory restoration action. HEA results are highly dependent upon assumptions, and consequently it is useful to examine sensitivity of results to a range of parameter values. Visual_HEA offers an intuitive graphical interface that allows the user to input or modify input parameters and hence quickly create or alter the lost and gain service level shape functions. The ability to calculate results of many scenarios allows ready comparisons that may assist in determination of the most appropriate compensatory action

CoralXDS - Coral X-radiograph Densitometry System

The Coral X-radiograph Densitometry System (CoralXDS) is a Windows-based program which provides a tool for measurement of linear extension, density, and calcification from coral X-radiographs. These quantities are determined for high-density, low-density, and annual bands. CoralXDS operates in two modes : full mode and extension/luminance mode. Full mode measures linear extension, density, and calcification, while extension/luminance mode measures only linear extension. Extension/luminance mode requires only a coral image with scaling information. CoralXDS allows user specification of transect location and orientation on the coral image, and provides several options for automated and manual band selection. The output measurements are provided as plots and datasets

Spatial Patterns in Arabian Gulf Coral Assemblages (Jebel Ali, Dubai, U.A.E.) in Response to Temperature-Forcing

We evaluated spatial and temporal patterns using maps from Ikonos satellite imagery in combination with 8 years of line transects and photosquares and the HadISST1 sea-surface temperature data set to explain why coral assemblages in the southern Arabian Gulf (Dubai) are impoverished and mostly do not build framework reefs. Analysis of archive sea surface temperature (SST) data confirms that the area is subjected to recurrent temperature anomalies. Frequencies of anomalies might suggest at least a partial link to the El Niño Southern Oscillation possibly via the Indian Ocean Zonal Mode. The dominant driver of local temperature was oscillations in the position of the subtropical jetstream. Classification of IKONOS satellite data showed that the spatial expression of four coral assemblages was consistent with reef development on a (multi-)decadal time-scale following recurring episodes of coral mass mortality induced by severe SST anomalies. Merging a remotely sensed map of substrate distribution with a detailed bathymetric digital elevation model revealed no evidence of significant framework development, suggesting that the cycle of temperature induced mortality has been operating for a considerable time

A Tale of Germs, Storms, and Bombs: Geomorphology and Coral Assemblage Structure at Vieques (Puerto Rico) Compared to St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands)

The former U.S. Navy range at Vieques Island (Puerto Rico, United States) is now the largest national wildlife refuge in the Caribbean. We investigated the geomorphology and benthic assemblage structure to understand the status of the coral reefs. Coral assemblages were quantified at 24 sites at Vieques and at 6 sites at St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. These sites were chosen to represent the major zones of reef geomorphology. Sites consisted of two or three 21-m-long photo-quadrate belt transects. The results revealed surprisingly little differentiation in the coral assemblages within and between reefs of comparable geomorphological and oceanographic setting at Vieques and St. Croix. At Vieques, the Acropora palmata zone was almost completely lost, and it was severely reduced at St. Croix, presumably primarily due to diseases and hurricane impacts since the 1970s. Subtle, but nonsignificant, differences with respect to the nature of the shelf margin (north adjacent to the bank, south adjacent to the open sea) and depth zone were observed at Vieques. At St. Croix, benthic assemblages differed more between depth zones but not between north and south. Effects of natural disturbances were severe at Vieques, outweighing impacts of past military activity— which were present but not quantitatively discernible at our scale of sampling. Germs and storms, rather than bombs (and associated naval activities), primarily seem to have taken the worst toll on corals at both Vieques and St. Croix

Enabling quantitative data analysis through e-infrastructures

This paper discusses how quantitative data analysis in the social sciences can engage with and exploit an e-Infrastructure. We highlight how a number of activities which are central to quantitative data analysis, referred to as ‘data management’, can benefit from e-infrastructure support. We conclude by discussing how these issues are relevant to the DAMES (Data Management through e-Social Science) research Node, an ongoing project that aims to develop e-Infrastructural resources for quantitative data analysis in the social sciences

The Lantern Vol. 51, No. 1, Fall 1984

• Sky Eyes • Flowerwait • Haiku • Sunwatch • Epitaph of A Tale • How Do You Tell A Child • Vineyard Wind • By The Sea • The Wanderer • In Back of the Real Supermarket in Collegeville • Mitosis • Smoke Dreams • On Humankind Today - A Message • Dragon • The Lull • Finale • The Sun • Three Steps in Life • Seaside • To Mark • To Father • Yesterday - Today • The Stars • The Journey • Our Shared Experience, Miles Away • Coming Home • Blossom • Life is the Teacher • Midnight Stroll in February • Eyes (Karen\u27s Poem) • Your Love • Same Welcome as Odysseus • Europa • Sinn Fein • Idle Dreams • I Can Take A Hint • In Retrospect • Rest • China and Porcelain are One in the Same • Momenthttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1125/thumbnail.jp

fMRI evidence of ‘mirror’ responses to geometric shapes

Mirror neurons may be a genetic adaptation for social interaction [1]. Alternatively, the associative hypothesis [2], [3] proposes that the development of mirror neurons is driven by sensorimotor learning, and that, given suitable experience, mirror neurons will respond to any stimulus. This hypothesis was tested using fMRI adaptation to index populations of cells with mirror properties. After sensorimotor training, where geometric shapes were paired with hand actions, BOLD response was measured while human participants experienced runs of events in which shape observation alternated with action execution or observation. Adaptation from shapes to action execution, and critically, observation, occurred in ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Adaptation from shapes to execution indicates that neuronal populations responding to the shapes had motor properties, while adaptation to observation demonstrates that these populations had mirror properties. These results indicate that sensorimotor training induced populations of cells with mirror properties in PMv and IPL to respond to the observation of arbitrary shapes. They suggest that the mirror system has not been shaped by evolution to respond in a mirror fashion to biological actions; instead, its development is mediated by stimulus-general processes of learning within a system adapted for visuomotor control

Identification and functional characterisation of CRK12:CYC9, a novel cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-cyclin complex in Trypanosoma brucei

The protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, is spread by the tsetse fly and causes trypanosomiasis in humans and animals. Both the life cycle and cell cycle of the parasite are complex. Trypanosomes have eleven cdc2-related kinases (CRKs) and ten cyclins, an unusually large number for a single celled organism. To date, relatively little is known about the function of many of the CRKs and cyclins, and only CRK3 has previously been shown to be cyclin-dependent in vivo. Here we report the identification of a previously uncharacterised CRK:cyclin complex between CRK12 and the putative transcriptional cyclin, CYC9. CRK12:CYC9 interact to form an active protein kinase complex in procyclic and bloodstream T. brucei. Both CRK12 and CYC9 are essential for the proliferation of bloodstream trypanosomes in vitro, and we show that CRK12 is also essential for survival of T. brucei in a mouse model, providing genetic validation of CRK12:CYC9 as a novel drug target for trypanosomiasis. Further, functional characterisation of CRK12 and CYC9 using RNA interference reveals roles for these proteins in endocytosis and cytokinesis, respectively