A Cascade Of Models To Guide Reservoir Operations: Application On The Deadwood River System, Idaho, USA

Adaptive management strategies are increasingly being used by resource managers to optimize complex water delivery systems at the scale of entire watersheds. A variety of models have been proposed to evaluate systems in a piecemeal approach that often times operate at different spatial and temporal scales and prove difficult to integrate with associated field data. In the Deadwood River system of Central Idaho, a series of cascading models was utilized to examine potential impacts of reservoir operations on endangered resident bull trout. Results from integrating limnologic, temperature, nutrient, hyporheic, and hydraulic models show that reservoir operations must remain dynamic depending upon the hydrologic conditions (wet vs. dry) present during any given year. Assimilating models that operate at various levels within a watershed will become increasingly important as climate change affects the regional hydrology and water resources operations must adjust to meet current and future demands

Radiation dosimetry in digital breast tomosynthesis: Report of AAPM Tomosynthesis Subcommittee Task Group 223

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134828/1/mp2600.pd

Synchronous and proportional deglacial changes in Atlantic meridional overturning and northeast Brazilian precipitation

Changes in heat transport associated with fluctuations in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) are widely considered to affect the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), but the temporal immediacy of this teleconnection has to date not been resolved. Based on a high-resolution marine sediment sequence over the last deglaciation, we provide evidence for a synchronous and near-linear link between changes in the Atlantic interhemispheric sea surface temperature difference and continental precipitation over northeast Brazil. The tight coupling between AMOC strength, sea surface temperature difference, and precipitation changes over northeast Brazil unambiguously points to a rapid and proportional adjustment of the ITCZ location to past changes in the Atlantic meridional heat transport

Modification of Mixed-Conifer Forests by Ruminant Herbivores in the Blue Mountains Ecological Province

Secondary plant succession and the accumulation of biomass and nutrients were documented at seven ruminant exclosures in Abies and Pseudotsuga forests variously disturbed by logging, burning, and grass seeding. Long-term (25 or more years) foraging by Rocky Mountain mule deer (Odocolleus hemionus) and Rocky Mountain elk (Genius elaphus) suppressed the development of deciduous shrubs. Ruminant herbivores influenced vegetation to extents equal to those of the initial episodic disturbances. Food preferences of elk were linearly correlated with longterm development of plant taxa. Accumulations of understory and forest floor biomasses were greater inside exclosures than outside. Accumulations of nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and potassium were greater inside exclosures than outside.Keywords: Abies, biomass, Bos, Cervus, cycling, disturbance, ecosystem, fire, forest, herbivory, logging, nutrients, Odocolleus, Ovis, productivity, Pseudotsuga, seeding, shrubs, site, succession, understory

Effects of long-term exposure to an electronic containment system on the behaviour and welfare of domestic cats

Free-roaming cats are exposed to a variety of risks, including involvement in road traffic accidents. One way of mitigating these risks is to contain cats, for example using an electronic boundary fence system that delivers an electric ‘correction’ via a collar if a cat ignores a warning cue and attempts to cross the boundary. However, concerns have been expressed over the welfare impact of such systems. Our aim was to determine if long-term exposure to an electronic containment system was associated with reduced cat welfare. We compared 46 owned domestic cats: 23 cats that had been contained by an electronic containment system for more than 12 months (AF group); and 23 cats with no containment system that were able to roam more widely (C group). We assessed the cats’ behavioural responses and welfare via four behavioural tests (unfamiliar person test; novel object test; sudden noise test; cognitive bias test) and an owner questionnaire. In the unfamiliar person test, C group lip-licked more than the AF group, whilst the AF group looked at, explored and interacted more with the unfamiliar person than C group. In the novel object test, the AF group looked at and explored the object more than C group. No significant differences were found between AF and C groups for the sudden noise or cognitive bias tests. Regarding the questionnaire, C group owners thought their cats showed more irritable behaviour and AF owners thought that their cats toileted inappropriately more often than C owners. Overall, AF cats were less neophobic than C cats and there was no evidence of significant differences between the populations in general affective state. These findings indicate that an electronic boundary fence with clear pre-warning cues does not impair the long term quality of life of cat

The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data.

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible

Načelo socialne države v nemški ustavi: navodilo sodstvu ali le argumentativni okras?

Zweifellos ist die Bundesrepublik Deutschland ein Sozialstaat. Sozialpolitik, die den ökonomischen Schutz der schwächeren Teile der Bevölkerung zum Ziel hat, hat bisher jede Regierung betrieben. Ein Verzicht auf Sozialpolitik ist faktisch nicht möglich, weil eine politische Partei, die dies fordern würde, keine Chancen hätte, politischen Einfluss zu gewinnen. Das sogenannte Strukturprinzip der Sozialstaatlichkeit fügt diesem Sachverhalt nichts hinzu. Würde das Wörtchen "sozial" im Grundgesetz fehlen, wären die sozialrechtlichen Strukturen in diesem Land nicht anders als sie es heute sind.In der Rechtsprechung hat das verfassungsrechtliche Sozialstaatsprinzip die Rolle bloßen Zierrats. Die Berufung auf dieses Prinzip ist so gut wie nie geeignet, eine Argumentation überzeugender zu machen als sie es ohne diese Bezugnahme wäre. Es kann aber vorkommen, dass eine Argumentation durch die Berufung auf das Sozialstaatsprinzip an Überzeugungskraft verliert. Aus juristischer Sicht ist das Sozialstaatsprinzip gänzlich überflüssig.Zvezna republika Nemčija je nedvomno socialna država. Še vsaka vlada doslej je vodila socialno politiko, ki si je prizadevala za ekonomsko zaščito šibkejših slojev prebivalstva. Socialne politike dejansko sploh ni mogoče opustiti, ker politična stranka, ki bi zahtevala kaj takšnega, ne bi imela nikakršnih možnosti, da si pridobi politični vpliv. Tako imenovano strukturno načelo socialne države temu nima kaj dodati. Tudi če v Temeljnem zakonu ne bi bila zapisana besedica "socialno", se socialno-pravne strukture v ničemer ne bi razlikovale od današnjih. V pravni praksi igra načelo socialne države tako rekoč vlogo golega okrasa. Sklicevanje na to načelo praktično nikdar ne pripomore k temu, da bi bila neka utemeljitev prepričljivejša, kakor če se na to načelo ne bi sklicevala. Lahko pa se zgodi, da argumentacija s tem, ko se sklicuje na načelo socialne države, izgubi na prepričljivosti. S pravnega vidika je načelo socialne države povsem odve