Results of the August Roadside Survey for Upland Wildlife in Iowa: 1963-1988

Results of the August roadside survey collected from 1963 through 1988 were examined to determine if trends could be detected in the counts of ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus), northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), gray partridge (Perdix perdix), cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus), and white-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus townsendii). The counts also were compared to harvest estimates co determine if correlations exist. Statistically significant linear trends were detected statewide for pheasants, gray partridge and jackrabbits during the 1963 co 1988 period. Trends were downward for all species except gray partridge. During the late 12 years (1977 through 1988), the only significant trend detected was for gray partridge, where counts increased. The survey results also were examined for trends on a regional basis where possible. Significant correlations were found between the mean counts and harvest for all species. For cottontails, however, chis relationship appears to have changed as the correlation of the counts with harvest since 1977 is near zero

Inductive parsimony and the Methodological Argument

a b s t r a c t Studies on so-called Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness have been taken to establish the claim that conscious perception of a stimulus requires the attentional processing of that stimulus. One might contend, against this claim, that the evidence only shows attention to be necessary for the subject to have access to the contents of conscious perception and not for conscious perception itself. This ''Methodological Argument'' is gaining ground among philosophers who work on attention and consciousness, such as Christopher Mole. I find that, without the supporting evidence of inaccessible consciousness, this argument collapses into an indefensible form of inductive parsimony. The Methodological Argument is thus shown to be unsuccessful when used against the claim that attention is required for conscious perception, though I suggest that it may be successful against the more ambitious claim that attention is necessary for all conscious experience

Use of Molybdenum in the Transplant Water for Burley Tobacco

The need for adding molybdenum to tobacco arises because contents in Kentucky soils generally are on the borderline of sufficiency and because amounts of available molybdenum in soil are low when soil pH is low. Soil pH in tobacco fields at midseason often is 0.5 to 1.0 pH unit lower than prior to fertilization. primarily because of the high rates of commercial fertilizers commonly applied to tobacco. This acidity greatly lowers the availability of molybdenum to tobacco plants. That is why we recommend the use of molybdenum when soil pH before fertilization is 6.4 or below

Hyper-velocity impact test and simulation of a double-wall shield concept for the Wide Field Monitor aboard LOFT

The space mission LOFT (Large Observatory For X-ray Timing) was selected in 2011 by ESA as one of the candidates for the M3 launch opportunity. LOFT is equipped with two instruments, the Large Area Detector (LAD) and the Wide Field Monitor (WFM), based on Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs). In orbit, they would be exposed to hyper-velocity impacts by environmental dust particles, which might alter the surface properties of the SDDs. In order to assess the risk posed by these events, we performed simulations in ESABASE2 and laboratory tests. Tests on SDD prototypes aimed at verifying to what extent the structural damages produced by impacts affect the SDD functionality have been performed at the Van de Graaff dust accelerator at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg. For the WFM, where we expect a rate of risky impacts notably higher than for the LAD, we designed, simulated and successfully tested at the plasma accelerator at the Technical University in Munich (TUM) a double-wall shielding configuration based on thin foils of Kapton and Polypropylene. In this paper we summarize all the assessment, focussing on the experimental test campaign at TUM.Comment: Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 91446