"Toxic electronic-waste campaign"

Faculty Advisor: David Skidmore, Professor Department of Politics and International Relations, College of Arts and Sciences Drake University. Student editorial members for the Spring 2006 issue include: Teresa Abbey, Brittany Buchholz, Brett Myrick and Jeff Scheiber.Drake Undergraduate Social Science Journal is sponsored by the Department of Economics, Department of History, Department of Politics and International Relations, Department of Psychology, Department of Culture and Society, and the International Relations Program, all within the College of Arts and Sciences at Drake University

Design criteria for canopy and hood inlet spillways (1993)

These criteria apply to the design of canopy and hood inlet spillways used as the principal spillway for ponds, irrigation reservoirs, and stabilization structures. The canopy or hood inlet spillway usually is used in conjunction with an emergency spillway

Design criteria for debris sasins (1993)

A debris basin provides storage for silt, sand, gravel, or other debris moving from adjacent lands. The debris causes damage when it moves with runoff water from its source on land adjacent to a landowner's farm and deposits as sediment in ponds, waterways, diversions, bottomland fields or other developed areas. The landowner has no means of controlling the movement of the debris at its source on land adjacent to his or her farm and therefore must develop the debris basin on his or her own land to control the sediment before it causes damage

Estimating soil losses in northern Missouri

"File: Ag. Engr. 4 12/76/8M""Soil erosion varies considerably throughout the country. A method was needed to help predict annual soil loss from an individual's land. The equation described below takes into account the variability in conditions such as rainfall, soil type, crop rotation, conservation practices used and topography. It was designed to help the individual farmer select practices that will reduce soil erosion. This equation is used by the Soil Conservation Service in developing soil conservation programs. It is used also by engineers and architects to plan erosion control. Originally designed for farmland, it is, therefore, especially valuable to the farmer in planning his own soil conservation program. New federal and state programs will encourage a more dedicated effort towards conserving the soil. Information included in this guide should be helpful in these programs."--First page.James M. Steichen (Department of Agricultural Engineering College of Agriculture

Orifice Plates to Control the Capacity of Terrace Intake Risers

This is the published version. Copyright 1989 American Society of Agricultural and Biological EngineersThe flow in the conduit from upslope terraces JL must be controlled so that there is no excess hydraulic head under a lower terrace, causing water to flow up through the riser, which could result in the terrace overtopping (Schwab et al., 1981). Based upon economic considerations, an orifice plate is used to minimize the conduit size. This experimental study was conducted to evaluate the hydraulic characteristics of different combinations of riser-orifice plate openings. One open-top and two round-hole terrace intake risers were tested under laboratory conditions using three diameters of orifice plates. The drop-inlet spillway model was used to describe discharge characteristics. Equations and curves were constructed for the head-discharge relationships of various riser-orifice plate combinations

The Moths of Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge: A Preliminary Assessment

North American prairie systems are believed to have supported substantial insect biodiversity. Loss of prairie and oak savanna habitats, however, has been severe in many Midwestern states, including Iowa. An unanswered question facing land managers interested in restoring tallgrass prairies to the Iowan landscape is the degree to which restored habitats contain native insect species that are dependent upon prairie habitat. This study reports data from a preliminary survey of the moths of Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, a 2,292-ha prairie and oak savanna restoration site in central Iowa. We identified and cataloged a total of 426 species of moths from woodlands and savanna sites throughout the refuge but few species appeared to be remnant-dependent. Of the 31 moth families observed from Neal Smith, the Noctuidae, Geometridae, Tortricidae, Crambidae, and Pyralidae contributed 75% of the species in our checklist. Slightly over half of the species we were able to identify were previously recorded from Iowa by a larger scale inventory of the states Lepidoptera by A. W. Lindsey. We estimated that \u3c 150 species remained to be sampled from our study sites, but a far greater number of species likely reside on the unsampled prairie reconstructions of the Refuge

"Species traits as predictors of lepidopteran composition in restored and remnant tallgrass prairies"

Keith S. Summerville is a professor of Environmental Science in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at Drake University. He can be contacted at [email protected] ecologists are increasingly turning to the development of trait-filter models, which predict how evolved traits limit species membership within assemblages depending on existing abiotic or biotic constraints, as a tool to explain how species move from a regional species pool into a restored community. Two often untested assumptions of these models, however, are that species traits can reliably predict species' broadscale distribution and that the effects of traits on community membership do not vary between restored and remnant habitats. The goals of this study were to determine whether combinations of ecological traits predispose moth species toward recolonization of restored prairies and to assess the degree to which restored prairies contain moth assemblages comparable with prairie remnants. In 2004, we collected 259 moth species from 13 tallgrass prairie remnants and restorations in central Iowa. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to identify significant combinations of ecological traits that were shared by groups of moth species. Logistic regression was then employed to test for significant effects of the trait combinations on the frequency of prairie sites occupied by moth species. PCA partitioned moth traits into four axes that explained a total of 81.6% of the variance. Logistic regression detected significant effects for all four PCA axes on the fraction of sites occupied by moths. Species frequently filtered from the regional species pool into prairies were those that had long flight periods and were multivoltine, displayed a feeding preference for legumes but not other forb families, and were regionally abundant but relatively small in body size. Ordination revealed significant differences in moth communities among prairies, suggesting that species traits and habitat characteristics likely interact to create observed patterns of species recolonization of restorations. Thus, the optimal approach to restoring the lepidopteran fauna of tallgrass prairies may involve locating prairie plantings adjacent to habitat remnants.© 2006 by the Ecological Society of America.The project was supported by the National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, grant number 2005-35101-15337 as well as from grants from the National Geographic Society, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, the Iowa Science Foundation, and Drake University

Design criteria for formless concrete flumes (1993)

The formless concrete flume is a spillway constructed of concrete without forms. The earth is excavated to the dimensions and shape of the structure. Concrete is placed on this earth form to the required depth and floated into shape

A systematic comparison of software dedicated to meta-analysis of causal studies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Our objective was to systematically assess the differences in features, results, and usability of currently available meta-analysis programs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Systematic review of software. We did an extensive search on the internet (Google, Yahoo, Altavista, and MSN) for specialized meta-analysis software. We included six programs in our review: Comprehensive Meta-analysis (CMA), MetAnalysis, MetaWin, MIX, RevMan, and WEasyMA. Two investigators compared the features of the software and their results. Thirty independent researchers evaluated the programs on their usability while analyzing one data set.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The programs differed substantially in features, ease-of-use, and price. Although most results from the programs were identical, we did find some minor numerical inconsistencies. CMA and MIX scored highest on usability and these programs also have the most complete set of analytical features.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In consideration of differences in numerical results, we believe the user community would benefit from openly available and systematically updated information about the procedures and results of each program's validation. The most suitable program for a meta-analysis will depend on the user's needs and preferences and this report provides an overview that should be helpful in making a substantiated choice.</p