The impacts of fire on the home range and social connectivity of a tropical passerine

Fire, a pervasive influence on many landscapes worldwide, can have a range of impacts on flora and fauna. We studied the impact of fire in Northern Territory Australia with a focus on the red-backed fairy-wren (Malurus melanocephalus, hereafter RBFW). While previous studies have demonstrated that RBFWs are negatively impacted by fire, the exact mechanisms are generally unknown. We examined the relationships between fire, social connectivity, and home range utilization, factors which appear to be highly connected in the lives of RBFWs. We utilize a combination of visual tracking and radio telemetry data collected during the dry seasons of 2013 and 2014 to examine these relationships. Analyses conducted using home range maps constructed in ArcGIS revealed that fire alters habitat utilization primarily through changes to vegetative structure. While these changes appear to be short term, fire has the potential to alter RBFW distributions over time by shifting the habitat from a heterogeneous patchwork currently utilized by RBFWs to a system dominated by invasive gamba grass (Andropogen gyanus). In addition, fires alter the social structure of RBFWs through direct displacement after fires. These findings provide additional information on the impacts of fire on specific species, deepening our understanding of the impacts of fire in Northern Australian. Because fires are likely to become more prevalent in the coming future as a result of climate change, understanding species dynamics with fire will become increasingly important

Noodz: A Strategic Communication Plan for a Startup Restaurant Targeting the College Market

Advertising has evolved significantly throughout the past decade, lending to the current usage of direct response, social media, and online methods of advertising. Considering how these tactics have changed in recent years and how restaurant marketing, specifically, changes in response to a college demographic, companies must consider more in-depth communication plans. This thesis will identify the most effective methods of marketing restaurants in the United States and determine how a college demographic changes the techniques utilized in marketing communication plans. Furthermore, this thesis will develop a comprehensive strategic communication plan for a new Asian restaurant, Noodz, located in Columbia, South Carolina

Tick-Borne Pathogens in Puerto Rican Livestock: A Molecular Approach

Tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) are a significant source of health and economic burden in the Puerto Rican livestock industry. Previous research suggests that upwards of U.S. $6.7 million is lost annually to TBP related infestations. Additionally, changes in climate have been known to disrupt tick distribution and the prevalence of TBPs. This project seeks to evaluate the presence and distribution of various TBPs in ticks sampled from Puerto Rican livestock, post-Hurricane Maria in 2017. To accomplish this goal, our team collaborated with USDA-APHIS officials in Puerto Rico. To this end, USDA-APHIS veterinarians collected tick samples from livestock (cattle and horses) from different premises across the island. Samples were submitted to our laboratory and were screened for pathogens using both conventional PCR and real-time quantitative PCR. The results of this study show 81.1% of the cattle premises to be positive for Anaplasma/Ehrlichia spp., and 24.2% of the cattle premises to be positive for Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina. We also detected Babesia caballi in 9.8% of the horse premises. The results of this study will inform stakeholders of the TBP diversity affecting Puerto Rican livestock, as well as the distribution of those pathogens throughout the island. This information will be useful in future programs focused on effective eradication and management of TBP transmitting ticks

(Don\u27t) Give It Up or Turnit A Loose: State Law Copyright Protection of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings in Blank-Slate Jurisdictions Like Georgia

The issue of pre-1972 sound recordings-devoid of federal copyright protection-has emerged as an important legal issue with changes in how musicians are collecting royalties for music. Sound recordings have a complicated and fragmented history under United States copyright law. While recognized as a separate form of creative work from musical compositions since the early twentieth century, they nonetheless remained unprotected as separate works under federal law until 1972. Any sound recordings fixed prior to February 15, 1972, however, remain unprotected under federal law and are subject to common law copyright or state statutes. A majority of states, including Georgia, lack statutes and a body of common law that could adequately guide courts on what rights exist in these pre-1972 sound recordings, if any. This Note will evaluate the historical distinction between musical compositions and sound recordings under copyright law before turning to a survey of three state law approaches to sound recordings: New York common law, North Carolina statutory law, and California statutory law. This Note will ultimately conclude that the most legally sound approach for states like Georgia is to adopt a statute comparable to the California statute on pre-1972 sound recordings

Sediment Magnetic Proxies Reflect Post-Glacial Climate Change for East-Central New Hampshire

The magnetic properties of Pea Porridge Pond, NH were analyzed in an attempt to reconstruct Holocene climate change. Magnetic measurements include magnetic susceptibility (χ), anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM), isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM), saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM), coercivity distributions of IRM, and hysteresis loops. ARM/IRM and S-ratios were calculated, and a Day (Day et al., 1977) plot was created using data from the hysteresis loops. The sediment magnetic record is divided into six zones. High concentration-dependent parameters in Zone 1 (prior to 14 ka) suggest an initial unstable landscape in which erosion contributed to the input of magnetic minerals. Zone 1 is dominated by clastic, sedimentary input and detrital magnetic minerals are coarse-grained. The overall sediment magnetic properties are dominated by low-coercivity minerals. Zone 2 (14.0-13.6 ka) is characterized by an increase in organic matter and a decrease in the concentration of magnetic minerals. A warmer climate stimulates lake productivity and causes anoxic conditions in the sediment, resulting in decreasing concentration-dependent parameters. The minerals are still coarse-grained and of low-coercivity. Sediments deposited during Zone 3 (13.6 -10.0 ka) are likely affected by the processes of dilution and dissolution and show a dramatic decrease in concentrationdependent parameters (χ, ARM, IRM). The spruce maximum (~11.0 ka) occurs during this zone and may lead to the acidification of soil and the dissolution of Fe-minerals. Narrow coercivity distributions from this zone indicate the production of biogenic magnetite likely stimulated from the addition of dissolved Fe. Zone 4 (10.5-8.5 ka) shows a transition from paramagnetic clays to diamagnetic, organic matter. Zone 5 (8.5-3.0 ka) shows little change in sedimentary input but magnetic properties indicate a high-coercivity component and samples are almost entirely diamagnetic. Zone 6 (\u3c3.0 ka) indicates an increase in detrital sedimentary input, likely occurring because of erosion due to anthropogenic activities. A decreasing sediment accumulation rate from Zone 1 until Zone 5 indicates a dry climate, and increasing sediment accumulation throughout Zones 5 and 6 suggest a moister climate

Shuttle/spacelab contamination environment and effects handbook

This handbook is intended to assist users of the Spacelab/Space Transportation System by providing contamination environments and effects information that may be of value in planning, designing, manufacturing, and operating a space flight experiment. A summary of available molecular and particulate contamination data on the Space Transportation System and its facilities is presented. Contamination models, contamination effects, and protection methods information are also presented. In addition to contamination, the effects of the space environments at STS altitudes on spacecraft materials are included. Extensive references, bibliographies, and contacts are provided

Writing at the Edge of the Empire: The Poetics of Piracy in the Early Modern Atlantic World

My dissertation examines four pirate-authored texts from the early modern period, each of which centers on the development of piracy in the Atlantic world. Contrary to popular opinion, not all pirates were illiterate thugs. Many wrote about their experiences, and their narratives were immensely popular among early modern readers. I focus on the generic choices pirate-authors made as they crafted their narratives for popular consumption, particularly their use of chivalric romance, which they drew on to present "enchanted" histories of the Atlantic world. By representing themselves as chivalric knights-errant, pirate-authors transformed themselves from thieves to gallant knights, they recast their raids as knightly quests, and they re-imagined their gruesome acts of violence as heroic feats of daring at arms. The romance form thus allowed pirate-authors to create modern spaces of agency within empire that resembled the mythical landscapes of the medieval chivalric tradition. It also allowed them to fashion critiques of empire, which increasingly limited the social mobility of the lower classes from which most pirates hailed. Pirates' reflections on the violence of empire offer a disenchanting picture of the development of imperialism during the colonial American period. My dissertation begins with Sir Walter Raleigh's 1596 Discovery of Guiana, which narrates the author's voyage to Guiana simultaneously as a knightly quest for the mythical city of El Dorado and as a mercantilist voyage for England. Raleigh was met with severe criticism for his decision to frame the history of his voyage as a romance quest because the notion of the adventure-quest celebrated the freedom of the individual apart from the power of the state. The conflict between the interests of the pirate-as- knight-errant and the aims of the state became even more pronounced during the seventeenth century. I trace the evolution this conflict in three narratives written by Caribbean pirates--also known as buccaneers--during the late seventeenth century: Alexander Oliver Exquemelin's 1678 Buccaneers of America, Raveneau de Lussan's 1689 Journal of a Voyage Made into the South Sea, and William Dampier's 1697 New Voyage Round the World. Whereas Raleigh could envision his adventure-quest as part of a larger narrative of English imperial expansion, buccaneer authors understood piracy as a utopian escape from the hegemony of empire. For Exqmemelin and de Lussan, piracy represents an alternative to their lives as servants. The chivalric ethos that Exquemelin and de Lussan projected onto pirate society allows them to level a devastating critique of the debasing nature of empire. For Dampier, representing his circumnavigation of the globe as the adventure-quest of a troupe of knights-errant allows him to imagine a global space in which pirates could create a society completely free from constraints of imperial governance. Ultimately, my dissertation demonstrates that the most unlikely band of literati in the Atlantic world made significant contributions to the development of American literary forms. By adopting the Old World form of the chivalric romance to New World contexts, pirate-authors created spaces of individual agency at the edge of the imperial domain, which allowed them to offer sharp critiques of the systems of exploitation and subjugation that structured imperial culture. The narratives I treat here reveal that the history of early America cannot simply be told as the history of states and empires. Rather, my research shows that early American scholars must broaden their disciplinary horizons to include the literary contributions of trans-national, trans-Atlantic subjects whose lives at the edge of empire allowed them to pursue lives of political transgression and fashion narratives that challenged progressivist narratives of imperial history

Regulation Through the Looking Glass: Hospitals, Blue Cross, and Certificate-of-Need

A clear focus on the commitment of the public health and hospital establishments to the large teaching hospital and their belief in rationalizing the health care system through community-based planning allows us to understand the ideas and institutions that have produced our present system of hospital regulation. It can also help us to understand the structure and behavior of the hospital industry and can illuminate current controversies over health care policy. What follows is a narrative account of the development of regional planning and certificate-of-need legislation. As part of that story, we trace the evolution of the Blue Cross, explain its central role in the voluntary hospital and health insurance industries, and show how the voluntary hospital and public health establishments came to its rescue in the controversy over rising Blue Cross rates in the late 1950s. We offer a brief summary of our findings at the outset to make the Article more accessible to the general reader; at the close of the text we discuss Roemer\u27s Law, the economic theory used to justify CON legislation, and the system of voluntary sector self regulation that CON complements