Ant distribution in relation to ground water in north Florida pine flatwoods

Longleaf pine savannas are one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world, yet are under-studied. Ants are a functionally important and diverse group of insects in these ecosystems. It is largely unknown how local patterns of species diversity and composition are determined through the interaction of this dominant animal group with abiotic features of longleaf pine ecosystems. Here we describe how an important abiotic variable, depth to water table, relates to ant species distributions at local scales. Pitfall trapping studies across habitat gradients in the Florida coastal plains longleaf pine flatwoods showed that the ant community changed with mild differences in habitat. In this undulating landscape, elevation differences were less than 2 m, and the depth to the water table ranged from \u3c 20 cm to 1.2 m. The plant species composing the ground cover were zoned in response to depth to water, and shading by canopy trees increased over deeper water tables. Of the 27 ant species that were analyzed, depending on the statistical test, seven or eight were significantly more abundant over a deep water table, eight to ten over a shallow one, and nine to eleven were not significantly patterned with respect to depth to water. Ant species preferring sites with shallow groundwater also preferred the shadier parts of the sites, while those preferring sites with deeper groundwater preferred the sunnier parts of the sites. This suggests that one group of species prefers hot-dry conditions, and the other cooler-moist. Factor analysis and abundance-weighted mean site characteristics generally confirmed these results. These results show that ant communities in this region respond to subtle differences in habitat, but whether these differences arise from founding preferences, survival, competition, or some combination of these is not known

Culture and Subjectivity in Neoliberal and postfeminist times

My aim in this paper is to think through a number of issues concerning the relationship between culture and subjectivity. It seems to me that exploring the relationship of changing forms of political organisation, social relations and cultural practices to changing modes and experiences of subjecthood and subjectivity are among the most important and urgent tasks for critical intellectual work. These questions go to the heart of understanding power, ideology and agency and they require research that is interdisciplinary, psychosocial and intersectional. My particular focus in this short article is on the interrelations between changing representational practices in visual culture and changing subjectivity/ies. I argue that neoliberalism and postfeminism are central to understanding contemporary media culture, and I put the case for research which does not retreat from exploring how these broader social/political/economic/cultural discourses and formations may relate to subjectivity

Semantic Memory

How is it that we know what a dog and a tree are, or, for that matter, what knowledge is? Our semantic memory consists of knowledge about the world, including concepts, facts and beliefs. This knowledge is essential for recognizing entities and objects, and for making inferences and predictions about the world. In essence, our semantic knowledge determines how we understand and interact with the world around us. In this chapter, we examine semantic memory from cognitive, sensorimotor, cognitive neuroscientific, and computational perspectives. We consider the cognitive and neural processes (and biases) that allow people to learn and represent concepts, and discuss how and where in the brain sensory and motor information may be integrated to allow for the perception of a coherent “concept”. We suggest that our understanding of semantic memory can be enriched by considering how semantic knowledge develops across the lifespan within individuals

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

The socialization of performance goals.

How are competitive goals transmitted over time? As most competence-relevant contexts (e.g., school) are hierarchy-relevant (e.g., teacher/students), supervisors’ performance-approach goals (desire to outperform others) should play a major role. We formulated a performance goals socialization hypothesis: The higher a supervisor’s performance-approach goals, the stronger the effects of time on followers’ performance-approach and -avoidance (desire not to be outperformed by others) goals. Study 1, involving coaches and their soccer players, showed that indeed a performance goals socialization phenomenon exists. Study 2, involving thesis supervisors and their Ph.D. students, showed its consequences: performance goals socialization reduced subordinates’ motivation and well-being over time. Study 3, involving video game team leaders and their players, showed its enabling condition: the stronger the subordinates’ identification to their team, the more pronounced the performance goals socialization. Study 4, involving schoolteachers and their pupils, showed its directional moderator: the higher the subordinates’ perceived self-competence, the higher the change in performance-approach goals over time, and the lower that in performance-avoidance goals. It is then crucial to consider social hierarchy when studying goal formation

CMB-S4

We describe the stage 4 cosmic microwave background ground-based experiment CMB-S4

Power System Protection Project - POWER Engineers

Our area of research is on protection for high voltage systems. We are attempting to understand how certain protection elements, such as relays and breakers, help defend system components against effects of electrical faults. These faults can cause large amounts of damage to system elements, like transformers and generation components, which can cost millions of dollars. In order to determine what must be done, we are using a program called Power Tools for Windows (PTW) to model a system and run fault analysis tests. After the model is functional, we will implement physical protective relays that utilize our design settings to verify that our model is valid

Spaceport America Cup 2023: Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition

USU entered this year’s Spaceport America Cup with a team of Seven Mechanical Engineering Seniors supported by a team from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department to design and build a payload. The competition is to design and build a rocket capable of launching an 8.8 lb payload to an altitude of 10,000 ft. The competition will take place in White Sands, New Mexico on June 19th - 24th