Animal behaviour: task differentiation by personality in spider groups

Dispatch: In social animals, group efficiency is often assumed to increase with task differentiation, but this requires that individuals are better than generalists at the task they specialize in. A new study finds that individual Anelosimus studiosus spiders do predominantly perform the task they excel at, in line with their individual personality type, when they are placed in groups

Methionine Addition to a Urea-Grain Supplement for Cows Grazing Dormant Winter Range

A 2-year grazing study involving 103 mature pregnant Simmental x Angus cows grazing dormant winter range was conducted to determine the effects of methionine addition to a urea-grain supplement on forage intake and digestibility and on cow performance. Four protein supplements designed to supply .8 1b crude protein per head daily were fed from mid-November to mid-February. Supplements contained (1) urea (CON), (2) urea plus methionine (MET), (3) urea plus sodium sulfate (SUL) and (4) soybean meal (SBM). Twice during the second winter (late November and late January), cows were administered controlled release chromic oxide boluses and fecal samples were collected to determine grass intake by the fecal output/indigestibility ratio technique. Organic matter intake (OMI) and digestibility (OMD) were higher in November than January. No differences in OM1 between supplemental treatments were detected. A treatment x grazing period interaction was detected for OMD. In late January and November, OMD was higher for cows fed SBM than cows fed supplements containing urea. In late January, OMD was lower for MET compared to SUL fed cows. Cows supplemented with MET gained less weight and body condition over each winter grazing period than SUL fed cows. Methionine addition to a urea-grain supplement did not improve digestibility or intake of range forage or cow weight gains

Fine-Resolution climate projections enhance regional climate change impact studies

A new data set enhances the abilities of researchers and decision-makers to assess possible future climates, explore societal impacts, and approach policy responses from a risk-based perspective. The data set, which consists of a library of 112 fine-resolution climate projections, based on 16 climate models and three greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, is now publicly available. Monthly climate projections from 1950 to 2099 were downscaled to a spatial resolution of 1/8° (about 140 square kilometers per grid cell) covering the conterminous United States and portions of Canada and Mexico

The Third Way for the Third Sector: Using Design to Transfer Knowledge and Improve Service in a Voluntary Community Sector Organisation

This paper describes a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership that concluded in September 2011. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is a UK-wide activity that helps organisations to improve their competitiveness and productivity by making better use of knowledge, technology and skills within universities, colleges and research organisations. This paper details the outcome of a KTP between Age UK Newcastle and Northumbria University’s School of Design that aimed to use Design approaches to improve the charity’s services. This paper will describe the recent context for organisations operating in the Voluntary Community Sector and discuss the relevance of a Design approach to both the improvement of customer services in this circumstance, as well as the transfer of knowledge to a capacity-starved organisation. It will also document how Design was used to achieve both of these aims, and the resulting impact of this engagement on the organisation and stakeholders

Covert singing in anticipatory auditory imagery

To date, several fMRI studies reveal activation in motor planning areas during musical auditory imagery. We addressed whether such activations may give rise to peripheral motor activity, termed subvocalization or covert singing, using surface electromyography. sensors placed on extrinsic laryngeal muscles, facial muscles, and a control site on the bicep measured muscle activity during auditory imagery that preceded singing, as well as during the completion of a visual imagery task. Greater activation was found in laryngeal and lip muscles for auditory than for visual imagery tasks, whereas no differences across tasks were found for other sensors. Furthermore, less accurate singers exhibited greater laryngeal activity during auditory imagery than did more accurate singers. This suggests that subvocalization may be used as a strategy to facilitate auditory imagery, which appears to be degraded in inaccurate singers. Taken together, these results suggest that subvocalization may play a role in anticipatory auditory imagery, and possibly as a way of supplementing motor associations with auditory imagery

tt-Martin boundary of killed random walks in the quadrant

We compute the $t$-Martin boundary of two-dimensional small steps random walks killed at the boundary of the quarter plane. We further provide explicit expressions for the (generating functions of the) discrete $t$-harmonic functions. Our approach is uniform in $t$, and shows that there are three regimes for the Martin boundary.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, to appear in S\'eminaire de Probabilit\'e

Effect of Methionine, Leucine and Isovaleric Acid on In Vitro Digestibility of Corn Stover

Two-stage in vitro fermentation was used to evaluate the amino acids methionine and leucine and a branched chain volatile fatty acid, isovaleric acid, as potential additives to a grain-urea supplement for cattle consuming corn stover. Dry matter and fiber digestibility were higher for the husks and leaves than the stalk portion of the corn plant. Providing urea as a source of nitrogen improved dry matter and fiber digestibility. There were no improvements in digestibility or fermentation rate with addition of the amino acids or volatile fatty acid evaluate

Development of Sstreamflow Projections Under Changing Climate Conditions Over Colorado River Basin Headwaters

The current drought over the Colorado River Basin has raised concerns that the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) may impose water shortages over the lower portion of the basin for the first time in history. The guidelines that determine levels of shortage are affected by relatively short-term (3 to 7 month) forecasts determined by the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) using the National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecasting System (RFS) hydrologic model. While these forecasts by the CBRFC are useful, water managers within the basin are interested in long-term projections of streamflow, particularly under changing climate conditions. In this study, a bias-corrected, statistically downscaled dataset of projected climate is used to force the NWS RFS utilized by the CBRFC to derive projections of streamflow over the Green, Gunnison, and San Juan River headwater basins located within the Colorado River Basin. This study evaluates the impact of changing climate to evapotranspiration rates and contributes to a better understanding of how hydrologic processes change under varying climate conditions. The impact to evapotranspiration rates is taken into consideration and incorporated into the development of streamflow projections over Colorado River headwater basins in this study. Additionally, the NWS RFS is modified to account for impacts to evapotranspiration due to changing temperature over the basin. Adjusting evapotranspiration demands resulted in a 6% to 13% average decrease in runoff over the Gunnison River Basin when compared to static evapotranspiration rates. Streamflow projections derived using projections of future climate and the NWS RFS provided by the CBRFC resulted in decreased runoff in 2 of the 3 basins considered. Over the Gunnison and San Juan River basins, a 10% to 15% average decrease in basin runoff is projected through the year 2099. However, over the Green River basin, a 5% to 8% increase in basin runoff is projected through 2099. Evidence of nonstationary behavior is apparent over the Gunnison and San Juan River basins

Development of Streamflow Projections Under Changing Climate Conditions Over Colorado River Basin Headwaters

The current drought over the Colorado River Basin has raised concerns that the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) may impose water shortages over the lower portion of the basin for the first time in history. The guidelines that determine levels of shortage are affected by forecasts determined by the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC). While these forecasts by the CBRFC are useful, water managers within the basin are interested in long-term projections of streamflow, particularly under changing climate conditions. In this study, a bias-corrected, statistically downscaled dataset of projected climate is used to force a hydrologic model utilized by the CBRFC to derive projections of streamflow over the Green, Gunnison, and San Juan River headwater basins located within the Colorado River Basin. This study evaluates the impact of changing climate to evapotranspiration rates. The impact to evapotranspiration rates is taken into consideration and incorporated into the development of streamflow projections over Colorado River headwater basins in this study. Additionally, the CBRFC hydrologic model is modified to account for impacts to evapotranspiration due to changing temperature over the basin. Adjusting evapotranspiration demands over the Gunnison resulted in a 6% to 13% average decrease in runoff over the Gunnison River Basin when compared to static evapotranspiration rates. Streamflow projections derived using projections of future climate and the CBRFC’s hydrologic model resulted in decreased runoff in 2 of the 3 basins considered. Over the Gunnison and San Juan River basins, a 10% to 15% average decrease in basin runoff is projected through the year 2099. However, over the Green River basin, a 5% to 8% increase in basin runoff is projected through 2099. Evidence of nonstationary behavior is apparent over the Gunnison and San Juan River basins

An Enhanced Archive Facilitating Climate Impacts and Adaptation Analysis

We describe the expansion of a publicly available archive of downscaled climate and hydrology projections for the United States. Those studying or planning to adapt to future climate impacts demand downscaled climate model output for local or regional use. The archive we describe attempts to fulfill this need by providing data in several formats, selectable to meet user needs. Our archive has served as a resource for climate impacts modelers, water managers, educators, and others. Over 1,400 individuals have transferred more than 50 TB of data from the archive. In response to user demands, the archive has expanded from monthly downscaled data to include daily data to facilitate investigations of phenomena sensitive to daily to monthly temperature and precipitation, including extremes in these quantities. New developments include downscaled output from the new Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) climate model simulations at both the monthly and daily time scales, as well as simulations of surface hydrologi- cal variables. The web interface allows the extraction of individual projections or ensemble statistics for user-defined regions, promoting the rapid assessment of model consensus and uncertainty for future projections of precipitation, temperature, and hydrology. The archive is accessible online (http://gdo-dcp.ucllnl.org/downscaled_ cmip_projections)