The Yosakoi Festival and Rural Revitalization in Kōchi Prefecture, Japan

Japan has been experiencing a population decline in rural areas since post World War II. Rural prefectures including Kōchi have been participating in nationwide efforts as well as local efforts to maintain population and hopefully attract more people to these areas. These efforts have been collectively categorized under the term rural revitalization. Rural revitalization has many aims: to encourage pride in local cultural practices, to attract tourists and new residents, and to boost local economies. In this study I examined how a festival might assist in rural revitalization efforts. Exploring the literature involving revitalization efforts provided the scaffolding for my project. Fieldwork was personally conducted over six weeks in Kōchi City, the capital of Kōchi prefecture. I participated in the local Yosakoi festival, on a dance team with 116 people, all from Kōchi University. The answers I found on this journey were surprising. The complexity of this subject was daunting at times, and I learned more about Japanese culture than I anticipated. I compiled my findings into a formal research paper and applied what I had learned to create a board game to introduce the issues to a general audience

Impact of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Hemiptera: Adelgidae) Infestation on the Jasmonic Acid-Elicited Defenses of Tsuga canadensis (Pinales: Pinaceae)

Hemlock woolly adelgid is an invasive piercing-sucking insect in eastern North America, which upon infestation of its main host, eastern hemlock (‘hemlock’), improves attraction and performance of folivorous insects on hemlock. This increased performance may be mediated by hemlock woolly adelgid feeding causing antagonism between the the jasmonic acid and other hormone pathways. In a common garden experiments using hemlock woolly adelgid infestation and induction with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and measures of secondary metabolite contents and defense-associated enzyme activities, we explored the impact of hemlock woolly adelgid feeding on the local and systemic induction of jasmonic acid (JA)-elicited defenses. We found that in local tissue hemlock woolly adelgid or MeJA exposure resulted in unique induced phenotypes, whereas the combined treatment resulted in an induced phenotype that was a mixture of the two individual treatments. We also found that if the plant was infested with hemlock woolly adelgid, the systemic response of the plant was dominated by hemlock woolly adelgid, regardless of whether MeJA was applied. Interestingly, in the absence of hemlock woolly adelgid, hemlock plants had a very weak systemic response to MeJA. We conclude that hemlock woolly adelgid infestation prevents systemic induction of JA-elicited defenses. Taken together, compromised local JA-elicited defenses combined with weak systemic induction could be major contributors to increased folivore performance on hemlock woolly adelgid-infested hemlock

FLAME STRUCTURE OF VITIATED FUEL-RICH INVERSE DIFFUSION FLAMES IN A CROSS-FLOW (Postprint) Combustion Branch Turbine Engine Division Spectral Energies LLC STINFO COPY AIR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY PROPULSION DIRECTORATE WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OH

The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information AFRL/RZTC SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY REPORT NUMBER(S) AFRL-RZ-WP-TP-2011-2163 DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. ABSTRACT Fuel-rich streaks or dissociated combustion products exiting from gas turbine combustors may react with jets of turbine vane cooling air. These fuel-rich vitiated inverse diffusion flames can potentially cause structural failure of turbine vanes due to the excessive heat fluxes. In this study OH planar laser induced fluorescence measurements are conducted in fuel-rich vitiated flows advecting over a flat plate with a row of cooling holes normal to the surface. Vitiated conditions are generated by burning propane at equivalence ratios between 1.1 and 1.4 in a well-stirred reactor located upstream of the test section. The structures of the flames (i.e., spatially-resolved species measurements) are compared for different equivalence ratios and blowing ratios. It is observed that the flames generated by the cooling air are inherently unsteady, with the standard deviation of the flame tip location varying by as much as 35%. The distance downstream of the slot where the flame tip was observed varies by 20% or less (with respect to the average) for a factor of 20 increase in the blowing ratio. The separation between the flame and the wall is similar for blowing ratios between 1 and 5, but increases for a blowing ratio of 10. Changing the equivalence ratio of the vitiated flow has little effect on the location where flames are observed. Fuel-rich streaks or dissociated combustion products exiting from gas turbine combustors may react with jets of turbine vane cooling air. These fuel-rich vitiated inverse diffusion flames can potentially cause structural failure of turbine vanes due to the excessive heat fluxes. In this study OH planar laser induced fluorescence measurements are conducted in fuel-rich vitiated flows advecting over a flat plate with a row of cooling holes normal to the surface. Vitiated conditions are generated by burning propane at equivalence ratios between 1.1 and 1.4 in a well-stirred reactor located upstream of the test section. The structures of the flames (i.e. spatially-resolved species measurements) are compared for different equivalence ratios and blowing ratios. It is observed that the flames generated by the cooling air are inherently unsteady, with the standard deviation of the flame tip location varying by as much as 35%. The distance downstream of the slot where the flame tip was observed varies by 20% or less (with respect to the average) for a factor of 20 increase in the blowing ratio. The separation between the flame and the wall is similar for blowing ratios between 1 and 5, but increases for a blowing ratio of 10. Changing the equivalence ratio of the vitiated flow has little effect on the location where flames are observed

Impact of chronic stylet-feeder infestation on folivore-induced signaling and defenses in a conifer

Our understanding of how conifers respond biochemically to multiple simultaneous herbivore attacks is lacking. Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis; \u27hemlock\u27) is fed on by hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae; \u27adelgid\u27) and by later-instar gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar; \u27gypsy moth\u27) caterpillars. The adelgid is a stylet-feeding insect that causes a salicylic acid (SA)-linked response in hemlock, and gypsy moth larvae are folivores that presumably cause a jasmonic acid (JA)-linked response. This system presents an opportunity to study how invasive herbivore-herbivore interactions mediated through host biochemical responses. We used a factorial field experiment to challenge chronically adelgid-infested hemlocks with gypsy moth caterpillars. We quantified 17 phytohormones, 26 phenolic and terpene metabolites, and proanthocyanidin, cell wall-bound (CW-bound) phenolic, and lignin contents. Foliage infested with adelgid only accumulated gibberellins and SA; foliage challenged by gypsy moth only accumulated JA phytohormones. Gypsy moth folivory on adelgid-infested foliage reduced the accumulation of JA phytohormones and increased the SA levels. Both herbivores increased CW-bound phenolics and gypsy moth increased lignin content when feeding alone but not when feeding on adelgid-infested foliage. Our study illustrates the importance of understanding the biochemical mechanisms and signaling antagonism underlying tree responses to multiple stresses and of disentangling local and systemic stress signaling in trees

Targeted Petroleomics: Analytical Investigation of Macondo Well Oil Oxidation Products from Pensacola Beach

Of the estimated 5 million barrels of crude oil released into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a fraction washed ashore onto sandy beaches from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. Here, we compare the detailed molecular analysis of hydrocarbons in oiled sands from Pensacola Beach to the Macondo wellhead oil (MWO) by electrospray (ESI) and atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) to identify major environmental transformation products of polar, high molecular weight (C_>25) “heavy ends” (high-boiling species) inaccessible by gas chromatography. The petrogenic material isolated from the Pensacola Beach sand displays greater than 2-fold higher molecular complexity than the MWO constituents, most notably in oxygenated species absent in the parent MWO. Surprisingly, the diverse oxygenated hydrocarbons in the Pensacola Beach sediment extracts were dominant in all ionization modes investigated, (±) ESI and (±) APPI. Thus, the molecular-level information highlighted oxygenated species for subsequent “targeted” analyses. First, time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis of model compounds attributes the unusually large oxygen signal magnitude from positive electrospray to ketone transformation products (O₁–O₈ classes). Next, negative electrospray mass spectrometry reveals carboxylic acid transformation products. Two-dimensional gas chromatography with mass spectrometry analysis of anion-exchange chromatographic fractions unequivocally verifies the presence of abundant alkyl ketone fragments in sand extracts, and FT-ICR MS analysis reveals the distribution of high-boiling ketone, carboxylic, and higher numbered (3+) oxygen-containing transformation products too polar to be analyzed by gas chromatography. The results expand compositional coverage of oxygen-containing functionalities beyond the classic naphthenic acid type species to complex/mixed ketone, hydroxyl, and carboxylic acid classes of molecules that have been recently identified in produced water, emulsions, and petroleum production deposits

Status of coral reef resources in Micronesia and American Samoa: 2008

Coral reefs in Micronesia and American Samoa appear to be amongst the most resilient in the world, despite numerous on-going threats;\ud \ud There has been considerable recovery of reefs in western Micronesia (especially Palau) that were devastated during the massive coral bleaching in 1998;\ud \ud The more remote islands support thriving communities of large reef fishes due to limited fishing pressures and habitat degradation;\ud \ud Fish populations around major population centres show clear signs of over-fishing with few large fish observed because of fishing pressure, particularly spear-fishers using scuba;\ud \ud Management and monitoring efforts are on-going throughout the region and numerous effective initiatives are promoting recovery of damaged coral reefs as well as the conservation of healthy ones;\ud \ud Lack of enforcement continues to be one of the major hindrances to effective resource management outcomes and more support is necessary