Measuring Changes in Phenology of Oklahoma Asteraceae Using Herbarium Specimens

Analyzing shifts in plant flowering times (flowering phenology) in response to changing climate is crucial to understanding the impacts of climate change on plants. Herbaria contain the physical record of reproductive events from past seasons, making them an important source of long-term data for studies of phenology. We measured changes in flowering phenology of four Oklahoma native plants in the Asteraceae (sunflower) family: Grindelia ciliata, Liatris punctata, Ratibida columnifera, and Vernonia baldwinii. These species were selected to represent the morphological and phylogenetic diversity of the Asteraceae in Oklahoma and were represented in the Robert Bebb Herbarium (OKL) with over 100 specimens each. We created novel protocols for scoring the flowering phenology of these species into numeric categories, called phenophases. We looked for correlations between the collection date and both the year of collection and the temperature in that year. There was a significant relationship between collection date and year only in peak flowering specimens of G. ciliata. There was a significant relationship between statewide annual temperature and collection date only in peak flowering specimens of V. baldwinii. There was a significant relationship between the annual temperature of the climate division of the state where the plants were collected and collection date for peak flowering in G. ciliata, R. columnifera, and V. baldwinii, for first flowers in V. baldwinii, and for last flowers in L. punctata. More precise temperature data thus lead to an improvement of the model, but in all cases temperature or year explained relatively little of the total variation in flowering time.The authors thank the MPBIO department at the University of Oklahoma for supporting John Unterschuetz with the George L. and Cleo Cross Endowed Scholarship as an undergraduate student researcher during this investigation.Ye

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

Measuring changes in phenology of Oklahoma Asteraceae using herbarium specimens

One Read Me file explaining the formatting of the included files: read_me.txt Four data files, one each for the individual species: Grindelia_ciliata_data.txt Liatris_punctata_data.txt Ratibida_columnifera_data.txt Vernonia_baldwinii_data.txt Four R scripts: Asteraceae_phenology_seasons.R: The script with the code for all analyses, with comments explaining the different parts. This script makes the plots for the intial data exploration, but they are not as polished as the plots in the paper itself (except for the boxplots, which are the same). Asteraceae_phenology_year_plots.R: The script that makes the plots for DOY versus year, with the x-axis modified for the different species that are shown in figures 5, 7, 8, and 10. Asteraceae_phenology_seasons_Grindelia_ciliata_plots.R: The script that makes the plots for the significant temperature by DOY comparisons for Peak flowering for Grindelia ciliata, shown in figure 6. Asteraceae_phenology_seasons_Ratibida_columnifera_plots.R: The script that makes the plots for the significant temperature by DOY comparisons for Peak flowering for Ratibida columnifera, shown in figure 9. Four results files, one each for the individual species: Grindelia_ciliata_results.txt Liatris_punctata_results.txt Ratibida_columnifera_results.txt Vernonia_baldwinii_results.txtAnalyzing shifts in plant flowering times (flowering phenology) in response to changing climate is crucial to understanding the impacts of climate change on plants. Herbaria contain the physical record of reproductive events from past seasons, making them an important source of long-term data for studies of phenology. We measured changes in flowering phenology of four Oklahoma native plants in the Asteraceae (sunflower) family: Grindelia ciliata, Liatris punctata, Ratibida columnifera, and Vernonia baldwinii. These species were selected to represent the morphological and phylogenetic diversity of the Asteraceae in Oklahoma and were represented in the Robert Bebb Herbarium (OKL) with over 100 specimens each. We created novel protocols for scoring the flowering phenology of these species into numeric categories, called phenophases. We looked for correlations between the collection date and both the year of collection and the temperature in that year. There was a significant relationship between collection date and year only in peak flowering specimens of G. ciliata. There was a significant relationship between statewide annual temperature and collection date only in peak flowering specimens of V. baldwinii. There was a significant relationship between the annual temperature of the climate division of the state where the plants were collected and collection date for peak flowering in G. ciliata, R. columnifera, and V. baldwinii, for first flowers in V. baldwinii, and for last flowers in L. punctata. More precise temperature data thus lead to an improvement of the model, but in all cases temperature or year explained relatively little of the total variation in flowering time.This is the dataset for "Measuring changes in phenology of Oklahoma Asteraceae using herbarium specimens," forthcoming in Oklahoma Native Plant Record 21. doi: 10.22488/okstate.21.100002MPBIO department at the University of OklahomaYesThe article the dataset is from was reviewed by two anonymous reviewres

NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB): List Sorting Test to Measure Working Memory

The List Sorting Working Memory Test was designed to assess working memory (WM) as part of the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. List Sorting is a sequencing task requiring children and adults to sort and sequence stimuli that are presented visually and auditorily. Validation data are presented for 268 participants ages 20 to 85 years. A subset of participants (N=89) was retested 7 to 21 days later. As expected, the List Sorting Test had moderately high correlations with other measures of working memory and executive functioning (convergent validity) but a low correlation with a test of receptive vocabulary (discriminant validity). Furthermore, List Sorting demonstrates expected changes over the age span and has excellent test-retest reliability. Collectively, these results provide initial support for the construct validity of the List Sorting Working Memory Measure as a measure of working memory. However, the relationship between the List Sorting Test and general executive function has yet to be determined

Is My Test Valid? Guidelines for the Practicing Psychologist for Evaluating the Psychometric Properties of Measures

A general logic for data-based test evaluation based on Slaney andMaraun’s (2008) framework is described. On the basis of this framework and other well-known test theoretic results, a set of guidelines is proposed to aid researchers in the assessment of the psychometric properties of the measures they use in their research. The guidelines are organized into eight areas and range from general recommendations, pertaining to understanding different psychometric properties of quantitative measures and at what point in a test evaluation their respective assessments should occur, to clarifications of core psychometric concepts such as factor structure, reliability, coefficient alpha, and dimensionality. Finally, an illustrative example is provided with a databased test evaluation of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (Hare, 1991) as a measure of psychopathic personality disorder in a sample of 384 male offenders serving sentences in a Canadian correctional facility