WILDLIFE IMPACTS ON FOREST RESOURCES

The negative impacts of wildlife on forest resources can be extensive. This paper provides some insight into the economic and environmental consequences of wildlife damage to forest resources and a brief overview of the damage inflicted by select wildlife species. Probably the most thorough measure of wildlife damage to forests in the Pacific Northwest was initiated in 1963 and 1964 by the Committee on Animal Damage Survey of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association. This study estimated that 30% of the tree seedlings planted would be damaged if no preventive practices were implemented; stocking rates on unprotected sites were 75% of those on protected sites; and trees protected from animal damage were 33% taller than unprotected trees after 5 years. Updating the economic numbers to reflect present day values, this damage results in an annual financial loss in Oregon of US$333 million. The total predicted reduction in value of the forest asset in Oregon, if no animal damage management was practiced, was estimated to be US$8.3 billion. Results from a recent survey conducted by the Oregon Forest Industry Council also provides insight into economic losses due to damage by select species: mountain beaver (US$6.8 million) and bear (US$11.5 million)

Mosquito longevity, vector capacity, and malaria incidence in West Timor and Central Java, Indonesia

The aim of this paper was to relate anopheline mosquito longevity to malaria incidence in two areas in Indonesia: West Timor and Central Java. We estimated the physiological age of females captured landing on humans or resting inside and outside buildings. The estimate was based on the state of the ovaries and was used to estimate longevity. The results showed that there were large differences between the two areas surveyed. In West Timor the longevity of the anophelines ranged from 13 to 23 days, sufficient for completing the intrinsic incubation cycle and for malaria transmission, whereas in Central Java the longevity was only 3 days, insufficient both for incubation and for transmission. We concluded that the West Timor study area had a greater risk of malaria transmission than that of Central Java and this was supported by village survey data that showed greater malaria incidence in West Timor than in Central Java

1995 Nebraska Swine Enterprise Records Program Results

Data from cooperators participating in the Nebraska Swine Enterprise Records and Analysis Program were summarized for the period January to June 1995 and July 1, 1994 to June 30, 1995. Results continue to show significant variability in production and financial parameters among individual swine enterprises. The results indicate that efficient, well managed swine enterprises can be profitable and competitive in a dynamic industry

A moving-point approach to model shallow ice sheets: a study case with radially symmetrical ice sheets

Predicting the evolution of ice sheets requires numerical models able to accurately track the migration of ice sheet continental margins or grounding lines. We introduce a physically based moving-point approach for the flow of ice sheets based on the conservation of local masses. This allows the ice sheet margins to be tracked explicitly. Our approach is also well suited to capture waiting-time behaviour efficiently. A finite-difference moving-point scheme is derived and applied in a simplified context (continental radially symmetrical shallow ice approximation). The scheme, which is inexpensive, is verified by comparing the results with steady states obtained from an analytic solution and with exact moving-margin transient solutions. In both cases the scheme is able to track the position of the ice sheet margin with high accuracy

Training with StrobeSpex: Their effects on ball-catching performance

The visual enhancement effects of StrobeSpex®, a new product available to sports vision enthusiasts, was assessed. Even though this product is readily used by many teams and athletes who strongly believe in its ability to improve performance, no solid scientific documentation supports this effect. The impact that StrobeSpex® training may have on an individual\u27s ability to catch tennis balls propelled from a tennis ball machine was examined. A series of pre-testing, training, and post-testing sessions were conducted to investigate StrobeSpex® efficacy. To do so, forty-four Pacific University College of Optometry students had their ball catching ability assessed using qualitative and quantitative scales during the testing sessions. Contrary to our hypothesis upon completion of a two week training phase, it was concluded that no significant improvement in ball catching by the experimental group (StrobeSpex® training) was found after comparing their pre-training and two post-training scores. The only statistical significance revealed from the post-tests was in relation to time, meaning that the groups performances improved with every testing session. This type of finding soundly indicates a learning effect occurred with testing. Future studies on the effectiveness of StrobeSpex® training need to be performed to statistically demonstrate their worth in performance enhancement

High Frequency Radar Wind Turbine Interference Community Working Group Report

Land-based High Frequency (HF) Radars provide critically important observations of the coastal ocean that will be adversely affected by the spinning blades of utility-scale wind turbines. Pathways to mitigate the interference of turbines on HF radar observations exist for small number of turbines; however, a greatly increased pace of research is required to understand how to minimize the complex interference patterns that will be caused by the large arrays of turbines planned for the U.S. outer continental shelf. To support the U.S.’s operational and scientific needs, HF radars must be able to collect high-quality measurements of the ocean’s surface inand around areas with significant numbers of wind turbines. This is a solvable problem, but given the rapid pace of wind energy development, immediate action is needed to ensure that HF radar wind turbine interference mitigation efforts keep pace with the planned build out of turbines

The Essential Role of Integrating Technology Content and Skills into University Principal Preparation Programs

Just-in-time delivery of goods and services was the call to action phrase of the 1990\u27s, but in the 21st Century, just-in-time is too late. University leaders in principal preparation programs must not only respond to the call of the field, but also anticipate the needs even before school administrators recognize the content and skills necessary with which to lead. As building principals become increasingly accountable for integrating technology into instruction and infrastructure, principal preparation programs are more accountable to prepare principals to succeed in their leadership roles, acknowledge the impact of principals on student achievement and teacher performance, and accept our responsibility to reinvent preparation programs instead of just reforming them

Functional synonyms and environmental homologues: an empirical approach to guild delimitation

This paper presents a procedure for identifying guilds using species-in-stand data. Based on a linguistic analogy relating synonymity with functional equivalence, it develops a dissimilarity coefficient for clustering species which is suitable for measuring strength of synonymity. This coefficient combines two distinct aspects of synonymity - lack of co-occurrence of two species and similarity of context of other species where either species does occur. Synonymity is further restricted through a stand clustering to avoid confounding with environmental heterogeneity. The method is applied to data from Eucalyptus communities from sand dunes on North Stradbroke Island, Queensland. Some possible extensions are considered

Minimum message length clustering, environmental heterogeneity and the variable Poisson model

One possible explanation of variation in vegetation is based on the variable Poisson model. In this model, species occurrence is presumed to follow a Poisson distribution, but the value of the Poisson parameter for any species varies from point to point, as a result of environmental variation. As an extreme, this includes dividing the given habitat into areas favourable to a community and areas which are unfavourable, or at least not occupied. The spatial area can then be viewed as a series of patches within which each species follows a Poisson distribution, although different patchesmay have different values for the Poisson parameter for any particular species. In this paper, I use a method of fuzzy clustering (mixture modelling) based on the minimum message length principle to examine the variation in Poisson parameter of individual species. The method uses the difference between the message length for the null, 1-cluster case and the message length for the optimal cluster solution, appropriately normalised, as a measure of the amount of pattern any analysis captures. I also compare the Poisson results with results obtained by assuming the within patch distribution is Gaussian. The Poisson alternative consistently results in a greater capture of pattern than the Gaussian, but at the expense of a much larger number of clusters. Overall, the Gaussian alternative is strongly supported. Other mechanisms that might introduce extra clusters, for example within-cluster correlation or spatial dependency between observations, would presumably apply equally to both models. The variable Poisson model, in the limit, converges on the individualistic model of vegetation, the Gaussian on something like the community unit model. With these data, the individualistic model is strongly rejected. Difficulties with comparing model classes mean this conclusion must remain tentative