LANDOWNER ATTITUDES REGARDING PENNSYLVANIA\u27S EXTENDED ANTERLESS DEER SEASON ON DEER-DAMAGED FARMS

The Pennsylvania Game Commission authorized an extension of the 1990-1991 anterless white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) season to reduce deer abundance on farms having excessive crop damage. A mail survey of the 574 participating landowners was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the program. After 2 mailings 93% (n = 531) responded, and 444 returns had completed information for numbers of hunters, hectares, and harvested deer. Based on landowner responses, an estimated 2,674 deer were harvested by 35,181 hunters on 58,525 ha. An average of 4.6 deer were harvested/km2 of huntable land, which compared to a statewide estimate of f2.3 deer harvested/km2 during the 1990 4-day regular anterless-deer season. Twenty-four percent (n = 107) of respondents reported zero deer harvested. Twenty-five percent of respondents (n = 110) were satisfied with the program. Landowners who were dissatisfied (n = 331, 75%) could provide up to 5 reasons for dissatisfaction. Four hundred sixty-nine responses were provided. Three-hundred-forty-seven responses (74%) indicated too few deer were killed, while 23% (n = 106) indicated that the program was inconvenient. Satisfaction related to number and density of deer harvested, hectares of huntable land, perception of hunter density, and suggested improvements. Many respondents (n = 204, 46%)indicated they would participate again, in spite of the high degree of dissatisfaction. Number and density of deer harvested, density of hunters, perception of hunter density, satisfaction, and reason for dissatisfaction, were related to willingness to participate again. Landowner suggestions for improvements (5 allowed per respondent, n = 364 recieved) centered on harvesting more deer by involving more land (n = 201, 55%) and moving the timing of the season (n = 119, 33%). Seventy-two percent (n = 320) of responses (5 allowed per respondent, n = 625 recieved) indicated neighboring posted land was the primary reason for too many deer on their property. This remains the greatest challenge in providing relief from high deer densities

Proposal for an IMLS Collection Registry and Metadata Repository

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proposes to design, implement, and research a collection-level registry and item-level metadata repository service that will aggregate information about digital collections and items of digital content created using funds from Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grants. This work will be a collaboration by the University Library and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. All extant digital collections initiated or augmented under IMLS aegis from 1998 through September 30, 2005 will be included in the proposed collection registry. Item-level metadata will be harvested from collections making such content available using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI PMH). As part of this work, project personnel, in cooperation with IMLS staff and grantees, will define and document appropriate metadata schemas, help create and maintain collection-level metadata records, assist in implementing OAI compliant metadata provider services for dissemination of item-level metadata records, and research potential benefits and issues associated with these activities. The immediate outcomes of this work will be the practical demonstration of technologies that have the potential to enhance the visibility of IMLS funded online exhibits and digital library collections and improve discoverability of items contained in these resources. Experience gained and research conducted during this project will make clearer both the costs and the potential benefits associated with such services. Metadata provider and harvesting service implementations will be appropriately instrumented (e.g., customized anonymous transaction logs, online questionnaires for targeted user groups, performance monitors). At the conclusion of this project we will submit a final report that discusses tasks performed and lessons learned, presents business plans for sustaining registry and repository services, enumerates and summarizes potential benefits of these services, and makes recommendations regarding future implementations of these and related intermediary and end user interoperability services by IMLS projects.unpublishednot peer reviewe

An Experimental Analysis of Auctioning Emission Allowances Under a Loose Cap

The direct sale of emission allowances by auction is an emerging characteristic of cap-and-trade programs. This study is motivated by the observation that all of the major implementations of cap-and-trade regulations for the control of air pollution have started with a generous allocation of allowances relative to recent emissions history, a situation we refer to as a “loose cap.†Typically more stringent reductions are achieved in subsequent years of a program. We use an experimental setting to investigate the effects of a loose cap environment on a variety of auction types. We find that all auction formats studied are efficient in allocating emission allowances, but auction revenues tend to be lower relative to competitive benchmarks when the cap is loose. Regardless of whether the cap is tight or loose, the different auction formats tend to yield comparable revenues toward the end of a series of auctions. However, aggressive bidding behavior in initial discriminatory auctions yields higher revenues than in the other auction formats, a difference that disappears as bidders learn to adjust their bids closer to the cut-off that separates winning and losing bids.auction, carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, allowance trading, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, RGGI, cap and trade, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Precision metering of microliter volumes of biological fluids in micro-gravity

Concepts were demonstrated and investigated for transferring accurately known and reproducible microliter volumes of biological fluids from sample container onto dry chemistry slides in microgravity environment. Specific liquid transfer tip designs were compared. Information was obtained for design of a liquid sample handling system to enable clinical chemical analysis in microgravity. Disposable pipet tips and pipet devices that were designed to transfer microliter volumes of biological fluid from a (test tube) sample container in 1-G environment were used during microgravity periods of parabolic trajectories of the KC-135 aircraft. The transfer process was recorded using charge coupled device camera and video cassette equipment. Metering behavior of water, a synthetic aqueous protein solution, and anticoagulated human blood was compared. Transfer of these liquids to 2 substrate materials representative of rapidly wettable and slowly wettable dry chemistry slide surface was compared

Macrohabitat Composition Surrounding Successful and Depredated Northern Bobwhite Nests

Relationships among macrohabitat and depredation of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) nests are poorly understood. Yet, macrohabitat composition may influence the nest predator community and, therefore, the vulnerability of northern bobwhite nests to depredation. We determined if macrohabitat composition surrounding bobwhite nests influenced nest placement, nest success, and which predators were responsible for depredating nests. We characterized macrohabitats at 2 scales, 8 and 16 ha, by surrounding both bobwhite nests, and an equal number of random locations, with a circular buffer. Random points were placed within the area used by bobwhites on our study area. We then determined the acreage of each macrohabitat category within each circular buffer to determine the macrohabitat composition. Macrohabitat categories included hardwood forested drains, upland pine forests burned in March of the same calendar year, upland pine forests burned in March of the previous calendar year, and fields. We documented nest predators using infrared video cameras placed at the nest site. We monitored 104 bobwhite nests on Tall Timbers Research Station (TTRS) during 1999 and 2000. Size of the circular buffer around nests did not qualitatively affect results. Area (ha) of upland pine forests and fields were similar at depredated nests, hatched nests, and random locations. However, there was an average of 81% and 56% more area of hardwood drain in the circular buffers associated with random locations than at successful and depredated nests, respectively. Area of upland pine forests and fields were similar for nests depredated by raccoon (Procyon lotor), armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) and snake (Elaphus spp.). However, there was an average of 6.1 and 3.3 times more area of hardwood drain surrounding nests that were depredated by snakes relative to nests depredated by raccoons and armadillos, respectively. While our sample sizes were low, bobwhites exhibited a tendency to place nests in landscapes with less hardwood drain than were generally available on the study area. Macrohabitat surrounding nests influenced the type of nest predator to depredate nests. To minimize depredation of bobwhite nests by snakes, we suggest nesting cover should be developed away from drain edges

Comparison of CFD Predictions with Shuttle Global Flight Thermal Imagery and Discrete Surface Measurements

Surface temperature measurements from the STS-119 boundary-layer transition experiment on the space shuttle orbiter Discovery provide a rare opportunity to assess turbulent CFD models at hypersonic flight conditions. This flight data was acquired by on-board thermocouples and by infrared images taken off-board by the Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements (HYTHIRM) team, and is suitable for hypersonic CFD turbulence assessment between Mach 6 and 14. The primary assessment is for the Baldwin-Lomax and Cebeci-Smith algebraic turbulence models in the DPLR and LAURA CFD codes, respectively. A secondary assessment is made of the Shear-Stress Transport (SST) two-equation turbulence model in the DPLR code. Based upon surface temperature comparisons at eleven thermocouple locations, the algebraic-model turbulent CFD results average 4% lower than the measurements for Mach numbers less than 11. For Mach numbers greater than 11, the algebraic-model turbulent CFD results average 5% higher than the three available thermocouple measurements. Surface temperature predictions from the two SST cases were consistently 3 4% higher than the algebraic-model results. The thermocouple temperatures exhibit a change in trend with Mach number at about Mach 11; this trend is not reflected in the CFD results. Because the temperature trends from the turbulent CFD simulations and the flight data diverge above Mach 11, extrapolation of the turbulent CFD accuracy to higher Mach numbers is not recommended

Foraging Behavior of Northern Bobwhites in Relation to Resource Availability

Distribution of food resources may influence northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) foraging decisions and demographic rates. We tested whether covey movements were sensitive to food availability by spreading sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) every 15 days at 3 rates; high rate (174 L/ha/yr), low rate (44 L/ha/yr), and no feed on 3 sections (~240 ha each) of Tall Timbers Research Station, 2009–2010. We measured sorghum availability spread along a 17 km feeding trail every 5 days. We determined seasonal (1 Nov - 15 Mar) home ranges of radio-tagged coveys (n = 89) and daily movement rates and home ranges of a subset of coveys located every 30 mins, sunrise to sunset (1 Feb - 15 Mar). Diet was determined from harvested bobwhites. Mean sorghum availability (seeds/0.5m2) on the feed trail declined from 50 seeds at day 1 to 12 seeds at day 15, and 11 seeds at day 1 to 0 seeds at day 10, for high and low rates, respectively. Seasonal home ranges did not differ among treatments; however, daily home ranges were smaller for coveys on the high rate areas, as was dispersion of locations within home ranges. Distances to the feed trail from covey and random locations were similar. There was no difference in distance traveled (25.20 m; SE = 0.65) between consecutive covey locations among treatments. Proportion of sorghum in the diet declined precipitously when \u3c15 seeds/0.5m2. We estimated an empirical giving up density of 10–14 seeds/0.5m2, ~1.6 kcals/0.5m2. Food availability, even at high levels, marginally affected covey space use and movement rates during late winter. Other factors affecting bobwhites, such as predator avoidance, or thermal regulation, may have a more significant effect on bobwhite covey daily movements and space use