Estimating Avian Populations with Passive Acoustic Technology and Song Behavior

The need for improvements in avian wildlife monitoring efficiency, accuracy, and scope has led to use of new technologies such as autonomous recording units (ARUs). As a monitoring tool, passive acoustic recording has numerous benefits, but it is still limited to use in human-accessible areas. There is also need for monitoring technologies in areas that are inaccessible. Military installations, which host a disproportionately large number of threatened, endangered, and at-risk species compared to other federal lands, pose the accessibility problem with sizeable impact areas that are too hazardous for humans to access. This thesis introduces the Balloon Aerial Recording System (BARS), a novel technology that fuses acoustic and aerial strategies to address the problem of ground-based land accessibility. The primary objectives of this thesis were to create models that could be used to predict male songbird abundance from song cue-count data and to establish and implement an analytical pathway for bird population estimation from acoustic data recorded with the BARS. ARUs were used to study the song rates/behaviors of Prairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor), Bachman’s Sparrow (Peucaea aestivalis), Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla), Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramous savannarum), and Henslow’s Sparrow (Ammodramus henslowii) across 3 military installations. Point-count and line-transect field tests were implemented to directly compare BARS data with that of human-observer techniques in both real-bird communities and simulated-bird communities (with known populations). Both thesis objectives were met for each focal species except Grasshopper Sparrow. Based on negative binomial regression models, song activity was positively related to male abundance and was negatively related to either day of breeding season or time of day. Song activity was also influenced by temperature, wind speed, or atmospheric pressure for some species. The BARS analytical method successfully predicted densities of Prairie Warbler, Bachman’s Sparrow, and Henslow’s Sparrow. Field tests of the BARS with simulated-bird communities revealed that species-specific footprints of detection are needed to further improve density estimates. Through this study, the BARS system has been validated and shown to be useful for documenting presence/absence of rare species, relative abundance of more common species, and in some cases, actual estimation of densities

Nurses\u27 Alumnae Association Bulletin, April 1955

Alumnae Notes Annual Giving Committee Reports Digest of Alumnae Meetings Graduation Awards - 1954 Legal Aspects of Nursing Marriages Necrology New Arrivals Physical Advances at Jefferson President\u27s Message School of Nursing Report The Challenge of Neurosurgical Nursin

Nurses\u27 Alumnae Association Bulletin, May 1956

Alumnae Notes Anesthesiology at Jefferson Committee Reports Digest of Alumnae Meetings Graduation Awards - 1955 Marriages Necrology New Arrivals Physical Advances at Jefferson President\u27s Message School of Nursing Report Thomas A. Shallow Memorial Fun

Forcing and Velocity Correlations in a Vibrated Granular Monolayer

The role of forcing on the dynamics of a vertically shaken granular monolayer is investigated. Using a flat plate, surprising negative velocity correlations are measured. A mechanism for this anti-correlation is proposed with support from both experimental results and molecular dynamics simulations. Using a rough plate, velocity correlations are positive, and the velocity distribution evolves from a gaussian at very low densities to a broader distribution at high densities. These results are interpreted as a balance between stochastic forcing, interparticle collisions, and friction with the plate.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

A systematic review identifying common data items in neonatal trials and assessing their completeness in routinely recorded United Kingdom national neonatal data

Background We aimed to test whether a common set of key data items reported across high impact neonatal clinical trials could be identified, and to quantify their completeness in routinely recorded United Kingdom neonatal data held in the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD). Methods We systematically reviewed neonatal clinical trials published in four high impact medical journals over 10 years (2006-2015) and extracted baseline characteristics, stratification items, and potential confounders used to adjust primary outcomes. Completeness was examined using data held in the NNRD for identified data items, for infants admitted to neonatal units in 2015. The NNRD is a repository of routinely recorded data extracted from neonatal Electronic Patient Records (EPR) of all admissions to National Health Service (NHS) Neonatal Units in England, Wales and Scotland. We defined missing data as an empty field or an implausible value. We reported common data items as frequencies and percentages alongside percentages of completeness. Results We identified 44 studies involving 32,095 infants and 126 data items. Fourteen data items were reported by more than 20% of studies (table 2). Gestational age (95%), sex (93%) and birth weight (91%) were the most common baseline data items. The completeness of data in the NNRD was high for these data with greater than 90% completeness found for 9 of the 14 most common items. Conclusion High impact neonatal clinical trials share common data items. In the United Kingdom, these items can be obtained at a high level of completeness from routinely recorded data held in the NNRD. The feasibility and efficiency using routinely recorded EPR data, such as that held in the NNRD, for clinical trials, rather than collecting these items anew, should be examined

Non-equilibrium two-phase coexistence in a confined granular layer

We report the observation of the homogenous nucleation of crystals in a dense layer of steel spheres confined between two horizontal plates vibrated vertically. Above a critical vibration amplitude, two-layer crystals with square symmetry were found to coexist in steady state with a surrounding granular liquid. By analogy to equilibrium hard sphere systems, the phase behavior can be explained through entropy maximization. However, dramatic non-equilibrium effects are present, including a significant difference in the granular temperatures of the two phases.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTex4 forma

Awareness and Preparedness of IT managers to digital disruption: A South African Exploratory Case Study

Digital disruption is breaking down long established business models. In most organisations, IT managers are charged with management of technology-enabled change. It is therefore important that IT managers understand the opportunities and challenges posed by digital disruption to aid the organisation\u27s response. The purpose of this study was to explore what South African IT managers perceive, and what their responses (or planned responses) to digital disruption within the context of a financial services organisation are. The study is interpretive, exploratory and qualitative, drawing from situational awareness theory to ground the participants’ perception of digital disruption. The study draws on Disruptive Innovation Theory to assess the participants’ actual (or planned) responses to digital disruption. The findings indicate that IT managers perceive digital disruption as both technological disruption and sense making mechanism for changes in work practices, along with posing several new opportunities and challenges

Wilson ratio in Yb-substituted CeCoIn5

We have investigated the effect of Yb substitution on the Pauli limited, heavy fermion superconductor, CeCoIn$_5$. Yb acts as a non-magnetic divalent substituent for Ce throughout the entire doping range, equivalent to hole doping on the rare earth site. We found that the upper critical field in (Ce,Yb)CoIn$_5$ is Pauli limited, yet the reduced (H,T) phase diagram is insensitive to disorder, as expected in the purely orbitally limited case. We use the Pauli limiting field, the superconducting condensation energy and the electronic specific heat coefficient to determine the Wilson ratio ($R_{W}$), the ratio of the specific heat coefficient to the Pauli susceptibility in CeCoIn$_5$. The method is applicable to any Pauli limited superconductor in the clean limit.Comment: 5 pages, 1 table, 4 figure

Nurses\u27 Alumnae Association Bulletin, May 1963

President\u27s Letter Alumnae Meetings, 1962 Building Fund Mediocrity Hospital Report Alumnae Notes Social Committee Student Activities Marriages, New Arrivals and Necrology Annual Giving Fund Driv

Nurses\u27 Alumnae Association Bulletin, September 1958

Committee Reports Digest of Alumnae Meetings Graduation Awards - 1957 List of Wrong Addresses Marriages Necrology New Arrivals Physical Advances at Jefferson President\u27s Message School of Nursing Repor