The Impact of Temporary Space: A Case Study of the Chapel Hill Public Library

The Chapel Hill Library is located in University Mall while renovations are being completed on the permanent library building. The paper will discuss the impact of being in a temporary location on library services and patron experiences. A patron survey and interviews with librarians provide insight into the advantages and disadvantages of moving to a temporary space.Master of Science in Library Scienc

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory [35th ed. 2016]

The 2016 release of Foundations in Wisconsin marks the 35th edition of the print directory and the 16th edition of the online version. The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was drawn from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. Additional information was obtained from surveys, foundation websites, and annual reports. This edition paints a very positive picture of financial growth for Wisconsin foundations. Both grant and asset totals have risen to all-time highs. Of particular note, total grants broke the $600 million barrier, increasing by 8$623 million. Additionally, 58 new foundations have been identified this year. (See page 269 for the complete list.) The following table illustrates the 10-year financial pattern as documented in Foundations in Wisconsin.https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fiw/1014/thumbnail.jp

Population-specific resilience of Halophila ovalis seagrass habitat to unseasonal rainfall, an extreme climate event in estuaries

Extreme climate events are predicted to alter estuarine salinity gradients exposing habitat-forming species to more frequent salinity variations. The intensity and duration of these variations, rather than the mean salinity values ecosystems are exposed to, may be more important in influencing resilience but requires further investigation. Precipitation, including the frequency, intensity and timing of occurrence, is shifting due to climate change. A global analysis on the timing of rainfall in estuarine catchments was conducted. In 80% of the case studies, the maximum daily rainfall occurred in the dry season at least once over the 40-year period and could be classified as an extreme event. We selected an estuary in southwestern Australia and investigated the effects of an extreme rainfall event in 2017 resulting in an excess discharge of freshwater on seagrass Halophila ovalis. Adapting an approach applied for marine heatwaves using salinity data, we quantified metrics and characterised the event along the estuarine gradient. We assessed seagrass resilience by calculating resistance times based on the comparisons of biomass and leaf density data prior to, and during the event, and recovery times through assessment against historical condition. Where salinity is historically more variable, reductions in biomass were lower (higher resistance via plasticity in salinity tolerance) and meadows recovered within 9–11 months. Where salinity is historically more stable, loss of biomass was greatest (low resistance) post-event and recovery may exceed 22 months, and potentially due to the rapid decline in salinity (−3 PSU/day). As estuaries become more hydrologically variable, these metrics provide a baseline for retrospective and future comparisons. Our results suggest seagrass resilience to hyposalinity is population specific. This understanding enables more accurate predictions about ecological responses to climate change and identifies which populations may ‘future proof’ ecosystem resilience. Synthesis. Following an extreme rainfall event, we found seagrass populations that are exposed to variable salinities recovered while those from a stable salinity environment were unable to recover within the study time frame. These findings expand upon existing evidence, derived primarily from other ecosystems, that show new sources of resilience may be uncovered by accounting for between-population variation

Electronic Contract Administration – Legal and Security Issues Research Report

This Report is a deliverable for the CRC for Construction Innovation research project 2005-025-A Electronic Contract Administration – Legal and Security Issues. It considers the security and legal risks that result from the increasing adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the construction industry for e-contracting purposes and makes recommendations to minimise those risks

Sexual conflict and correlated evolution between male persistence and female resistance traits in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus

Traumatic mating (or copulatory wounding) is an extreme form of sexual conflict whereby male genitalia physically harm females during mating. In such species females are expected to evolve counter-adaptations to reduce male-induced harm. Importantly, female counter-adaptations may include both genital and non-genital traits. In this study, we examine evolutionary associations between harmful male genital morphology and female reproductive tract morphology and immune function across 13 populations of the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. We detected positive correlated evolution between the injuriousness of male genitalia and putative female resistance adaptations across populations. Moreover, we found evidence for a negative relationship between female immunity and population productivity, which suggests that investment in female resistance may be costly due to the resource trade-offs that are predicted between immunity and reproduction. Finally, the degree of female tract scarring (harm to females) was greater in those populations with both longer aedeagal spines and a thinner female tract lining. Our results are thus consistent with a sexual arms race, which is only apparent when both male and female traits are taken into account. Importantly, our study provides rare evidence for sexually antagonistic coevolution of male and female traits at the within-species level

Quantifying variation in female internal genitalia: no evidence for plasticity in response to sexual conflict risk in a seed beetle

Sexually antagonistic coevolution can drive the evolution of male traits that harm females, and female resistance to those traits. While males have been found to vary their harmfulness to females in response to social cues, plasticity in female resistance traits remains to be examined. Here, we ask whether female seed beetles Callosobruchus maculatus are capable of adjusting their resistance to male harm in response to the social environment. Among seed beetles, male genital spines harm females during copulation and females might resist male harm via thickening of the reproductive tract walls. We develop a novel micro computed tomography imaging technique to quantify female reproductive tract thickness in three-dimensional space, and compared the reproductive tracts of females from populations that had evolved under high and low levels of sexual conflict, and for females reared under a social environment that predicted either high or low levels of sexual conflict. We find little evidence to suggest that females can adjust the thickness of their reproductive tracts in response to the social environment. Neither did evolutionary history affect reproductive tract thickness. Nevertheless, our novel methodology was capable of quantifying fine-scale differences in the internal reproductive tracts of individual females, and will allow future investigations into the internal organs of insects and other animals

Climate change effects on international stability : a white paper.

This white paper represents a summary of work intended to lay the foundation for development of a climatological/agent model of climate-induced conflict. The paper combines several loosely-coupled efforts and is the final report for a four-month late-start Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project funded by the Advanced Concepts Group (ACG). The project involved contributions by many participants having diverse areas of expertise, with the common goal of learning how to tie together the physical and human causes and consequences of climate change. We performed a review of relevant literature on conflict arising from environmental scarcity. Rather than simply reviewing the previous work, we actively collected data from the referenced sources, reproduced some of the work, and explored alternative models. We used the unfolding crisis in Darfur (western Sudan) as a case study of conflict related to or triggered by climate change, and as an exercise for developing a preliminary concept map. We also outlined a plan for implementing agents in a climate model and defined a logical progression toward the ultimate goal of running both types of models simultaneously in a two-way feedback mode, where the behavior of agents influences the climate and climate change affects the agents. Finally, we offer some ''lessons learned'' in attempting to keep a diverse and geographically dispersed group working together by using Web-based collaborative tools

Improved outcomes of pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy with utilization of heart transplantation

AbstractObjectivesWe studied the outcomes of pediatric patients diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and their relation to epidemiologic and echocardiographic variables at the time of presentation.BackgroundThe outcome of pediatric DCM patients ranges from recovery to a 50% to 60% chance of death within five years of diagnosis. The impact of heart transplantation and other emerging therapies on the outcomes of pediatric DCM patients is uncertain.MethodsWe performed a retrospective study of the outcomes in 91 pediatric patients diagnosed with DCM from 1990 to 1999. Routine therapy included use of digoxin, diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and heart transplantation.ResultsAt the time of last follow-up, 11 patients (12%) had died without transplantation; 20 (22%) underwent transplantation; 27 (30%) had persistent cardiomyopathy; and 33 (36%) had recovery of left ventricular systolic function. Overall actuarial one-year survival was 90%, and five-year survival was 83%. However, actuarial freedom from “heart death” (death or transplantation) was only 70% at one year and 58% at five years. Multivariate analysis found age <1 year (hazard ratio 7.1), age >12 years (hazard ratio 4.5), and female gender (hazard ratio 3.0) to be significantly associated with a greater risk of death or transplantation and a higher left ventricular shortening fraction at presentation (hazard ratio 0.92), with a slightly decreased risk of death or transplantation.ConclusionsPediatric DCM patients continue to have multiple outcomes, with recovery of left ventricular systolic function occurring most frequently. Utilization of heart transplantation has led to improved survival after the diagnosis of pediatric DCM

SS-31 and NMN: Two paths to improve metabolism and function in aged hearts

The effects of two different mitochondrial-targeted drugs, SS-31 and NMN, were tested on Old mouse hearts. After treatment with the drugs, individually or Combined, heart function was examined by echocardiography. SS-31 partially reversed an age-related decline in diastolic function while NMN fully reversed an age-related deficiency in systolic function at a higher workload. Metabolomic analysis revealed that both NMN and the Combined treatment increased nicotinamide and 1-methylnicotinamide levels, indicating greater NA