PC1643+4631A,B: The Lyman-Alpha Forest at the Edge of Coherence

This is the first measurement and detection of coherence in the intergalactic medium (IGM) at substantially high redshift (z~3.8) and on large physical scales (~2.5 h^-1 Mpc). We perform the measurement by presenting new observations from Keck LRIS of the high redshift quasar pair PC 1643+4631A, B and their Ly-alpha absorber coincidences. This experiment extends multiple sightline quasar absorber studies to higher redshift, higher opacity, larger transverse separation, and into a regime where coherence across the IGM becomes weak and difficult to detect. We fit 222 discrete Ly-alpha absorbers to sightline A and 211 to sightline B. Relative to a Monte Carlo pairing test (using symmetric, nearest neighbor matching) the data exhibit a 4sigma excess of pairs at low velocity splitting (<150 km/s), thus detecting coherence on transverse scales of ~2.5 h^-1 Mpc. We use spectra extracted from an SPH simulation to analyze symmetric pair matching, transmission distributions as a function of redshift and compute zero-lag cross-correlations to compare with the quasar pair data. The simulations agree with the data with the same strength (~4sigma) at similarly low velocity splitting above random chance pairings. In cross-correlation tests, the simulations agree when the mean flux (as a function of redshift) is assumed to follow the prescription given by Kirkman et al. (2005). While the detection of flux correlation (measured through coincident absorbers and cross-correlation amplitude) is only marginally significant, the agreement between data and simulations is encouraging for future work in which even better quality data will provide the best insight into the overarching structure of the IGM and its understanding as shown by SPH simulations.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomical Journa

Morality Legislation in North Dakota, 1920-1954

From 1920 to 1954 morality legislation was a mutual concern for many of the state\u27s voters and legislators. Liquor control and prohibition were the most conspicuous moral issues to face the legislature and the electorate, but other measures to regulate Sunday movies and baseball, smoking, and dancing were introduced. It is the purpose of this study to define these measures and to try to determine selected social and cultural traits of the defenders and opponents of morality legislation. Since North Dakota\u27s electorate had a direct voice in the legislative process through the use of the initiative and referendum, it was possible to examine the votes for and against morality legislation which appeared as referred or initiated measures. An exar.4nation of the state\u27s fifty- three counties revealed that voters in some counties consistently accepted or rejected morality legislation. Religious and ethnic compositions of eight of these counties were compared to determine any differences in the acceptance or rejection of morality legislation among religious or ethnic groups. Four additional counties which contained the state\u27s four largest cities were selected to determine any differences between the reactions of urban and rural voters to morality legislation. The ethnic, religious, urban, and rural variables which characterized the sample counties provided a gauge to compare votes on morality legislation. The study revealed that Norwegians, most of whom were Lutherans, tended to favor prohibition and other morality legislation, while German-Russians, most of whom were Roman Catholics, tended to oppose morality legislation. The study also indicated that a greater percentage of rural voters, rather than urban voters, approved morality legislation. Thus, it appeared that North Dakota voters approved morality legislation when there was an important traditional, religious, or social sanction against the use of intoxicants or other activities which were considered immoral

The Feasibility of a Cooperatively Owned Large-Scale Hog Farrowing System in North Dakota

Interest in the feasibility of a cooperatively owned large-scale hog farrowing system has been shown by hog producers in North Dakota. The producers realize the problems in securing a continuous supply of disease free feeder pigs of uniform quality during fluctuating price periods. Lack of published data concerning large-scale farrowing systems makes decisions regarding the feasibility and negotiation with lending institutions difficult. The research for this report was conducted under North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station Projects 1350 and 3337. The research was supported in part by grants from the Business and Industrial Development Department and the Economic Development Administration (Grant Project Number 05-6-01402). Special assistance in conducting the study and preparing the report was provided through the Research and Extension Rural Development Project at North Dakota State University.Agribusiness, Production Economics,

Fish Assemblage of Cedar Fork Creek, Ohio, Unchanged for 28 Years

Author Institution: Dept of Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Mansfield, OHAuthor Institution: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Dept of Ichthyology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MAA 270 m section of Cedar Fork Creek, a clear, gravel-bottomed, headwater stream of the Ohio River System in north-central Ohio, was sampled 48 times from 1975-2003. During the 28 year period 32,237 individuals of 10 fish families and 44 species were collected. Eight taxa made up 86% of the total number collected. Cyprinids (Luxilus cornutus, Campostoma anomalum, Pimephales notatus, Semotilus atromaculatus, and Notropis buccatus) accounted for 65% of the individuals. Two darter species Etheostoma caeruleum, E. nigrum) made up 17.4% of the total, and the white sucker, Catostomus commersoni, accounted for 3.3%. The same common species were abundant throughout the 28 years, and the same rare species were consistently present in small numbers. Species richness averaged 23 species per year. Margalef’s index of diversity varied only slightly from 2.8 to 3.6 during the study indicating the constancy of species composition. Two jackknife estimators (nonparametric resampling procedures) suggested that the collections detected 97-100% of the species present. Exotic species failed to make inroads into the Cedar Fork community except for carp, Cyprinus carpio, that have been in Ohio since 1879, and brown trout, Salmo trutta, that were recently stocked by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Ocean feature recognition using genetic algorithms with fuzzy fitness functions (GA/F3)

A model for genetic algorithms with semantic nets is derived for which the relationships between concepts is depicted as a semantic net. An organism represents the manner in which objects in a scene are attached to concepts in the net. Predicates between object pairs are continuous valued truth functions in the form of an inverse exponential function (e sub beta lxl). 1:n relationships are combined via the fuzzy OR (Max (...)). Finally, predicates between pairs of concepts are resolved by taking the average of the combined predicate values of the objects attached to the concept at the tail of the arc representing the predicate in the semantic net. The method is illustrated by applying it to the identification of oceanic features in the North Atlantic

Feasibility of Establishing Small Livestock Slaughter Plants in North Dakota

Agribusiness,