Effects of Mistletoe and Other Defects on Lumber Quality in White Fir

The presence or absence of defects, including dwarf and true mistletoes, was determined for logs from twenty white fir trees. Grade and volume were determined for all boards sawed from these logs. Differences between defect categories and logs without defect, with regard to degrade and overrun, were not statistically significant. With the exception of shop grades derived from logs containing dwarf mistletoe, differences between logs without defect and those with defect were not statistically significant after the effect of diameter was accounted for; even in this single exception, the volume derived from dwarf mistletoe logs was greater than that derived from no-defect logs. This suggests that the presence in logs of dwarf mistletoe, true mistletoe, and the other defects considered in this study either does not adversely affect lumber grade or that present quality control procedures are ineffective in detecting the changes. The latter possibility appears most likely

Estimation and inference under economic restrictions

Estimation of economic relationships often requires imposition of constraints such as positivity or monotonicity on each observation. Methods to impose such constraints, however, vary depending upon the estimation technique employed. We describe a general methodology to impose (observation-specific) constraints for the class of linear regression estimators using a method known as constraint weighted bootstrapping. While this method has received attention in the nonparametric regression literature, we show how it can be applied for both parametric and nonparametric estimators. A benefit of this method is that imposing numerous constraints simultaneously can be performed seamlessly. We apply this method to Norwegian dairy farm data to estimate both unconstrained and constrained parametric and nonparametric models

Cross-Attraction between an Exotic and a Native Pine Bark Beetle: A Novel Invasion Mechanism?

Aside from the ecological impacts, invasive species fascinate ecologists because of the unique opportunities that invasives offer in the study of community ecology. Some hypotheses have been proposed to illustrate the mechanisms that allow exotics to become invasive. However, positive interactions between exotic and native insects are rarely utilized to explain invasiveness of pests.Here, we present information on a recently formed association between a native and an exotic bark beetle on their shared host, Pinus tabuliformis, in China. In field examinations, we found that 35-40% of P. tabuliformis attacked by an exotic bark beetle, Dendroctonus valens, were also attacked by a native pine bark beetle, Hylastes parallelus. In the laboratory, we found that the antennal and walking responses of H. parallelus to host- and beetle-produced compounds were similar to those of the exotic D. valens in China. In addition, D. valens was attracted to volatiles produced by the native H. parallelus.We report, for the first time, facilitation between an exotic and a native bark beetle seems to involve overlap in the use of host attractants and pheromones, which is cross-attraction. The concept of this interspecific facilitation could be explored as a novel invasive mechanism which helps explain invasiveness of not only exotic bark beetles but also other introduced pests in principle. The results reported here also have particularly important implications for risk assessments and management strategies for invasive species

Thermal stability studies of diamond-like carbon films

Thin films of amorphous carbon/hydrogen, also known as diamond-like carbon or DLC, are of interest as an economical alternative to diamond in a variety of coatings applications. We have investigated the thermal stability of DLC films deposited onto tungsten and aluminum substrates via plasma CVD of methane. These films contain approximately 40 atom % hydrogen, and based on Auger spectra the carbon in the films is estimated to be 60% sp{sup 3} hybridized and 40% sp{sup 2} hybridized. Thermal desorption, Auger, and Raman measurements all indicate that the DLC films are stable to 250--300C. Between 300 and 500C, thermal evolution of hydrogen from the films is accompanied by the conversion of carbon from sp{sup 3} to sp{sup 2} hybridization, and Raman spectra indicate the conversion of the overall film structure from DLC to micro-crystalline graphite or so called ``glassy`` carbon. These results suggest that DLC of this type is potentially useful for applications in which the temperature does not exceed 250C