Spatial risk modeling of cattle depredation by black vultures in the midwestern United States

ock operations through depredation of stock are a cause of human‐wildlife conflict. Management of such conflict requires identifying environmental and non‐environmental factors specific to a wildlife species\u27 biology and ecology that influence the potential for livestock depredation to occur. Identification of such factors can improve understanding of the conditions placing livestock at risk. Black vultures (Coragyps atratus) have expanded their historical range northward into the midwestern United States. Concomitantly, an increase in concern among agricultural producers regarding potential black vulture attacks on livestock has occurred. We estimated area with greater or lesser potential for depredation of domestic cattle by black vultures across a 6‐state region in the midwestern United States using an ensemble of small models (ESM). Specifically, we identified landscape‐scale spatial factors, at a zip code resolution, associated with reported black vulture depredation on cattle in midwestern landscapes to predict future potential livestock depredation. We hypothesized that livestock depredation would be greatest in areas with intensive beef cattle production close to preferred black vulture habitat (e.g., areas with fewer old fields and early successional vegetation paired with more direct edge between older forest and agricultural lands). We predicted that the density of cattle within the county, habitat structure, and proximity to anthropogenic landscape features would be the strongest predictors of black vulture livestock‐depredation risk. Our ESM estimated the relative risk of black vulture‐cattle depredation to be between 0.154–0.631 across our entire study area. Consistent with our hypothesis, areas of greatest predicted risk of depredation correspond with locations that are favorable to vulture life‐history requirements and increased potential to encounter livestock. Our results allow wildlife managers the ability to predict where black vulture depredation of cattle is more likely to occur in the future. It is in these areas where extension and outreach efforts aimed at mitigating this conflict should be focused. Researchers and wildlife managers interested in developing or employing tools aimed at mitigating livestock‐vulture conflicts can also leverage our results to select areas where depredation is most likely to occur

Origin of depleted basalts during subduction initiation and early development of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana island arc: Evidence from IODP expedition 351 site U1438, Amami-Sankaku basin

The Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) island arc formed following initiation of subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the Philippine Sea plate at about 52 Ma. Site U1438 of IODP Expedition 351 was drilled to sample the oceanic basement on which the IBM arc was constructed, to better understand magmatism prior to and during the subduction initiation event. Site U1438 igneous basement Unit 1 (150 m) was drilled beneath 1460 m of primarily volcaniclastic sediments and sedimentary rock. Basement basalts are microcrystalline to fine-grained flows and form several distinct subunits (1a-1f), all relatively mafic (MgO = 6.5–13.8%; Mg# = 52–83), with Cr = 71–506 ppm and Ni = 62–342 ppm. All subunits are depleted in non-fluid mobile incompatible trace elements. Ratios such as Sm/Nd (0.35–0.44), Lu/Hf (0.19–0.37), and Zr/Nb (55–106) reach the highest values found in MORB, while La/Yb (0.31–0.92), La/Sm (0.43–0.91) and Nb/La (0.39–0.59) reach the lowest values. Abundances of fluid-mobile incompatible elements, K, Rb, Cs and U, vary with rock physical properties, indicating control by post-eruptive seawater alteration, but lowest abundances are typical of fresh, highly depleted MORBs. Mantle sources for the different subunits define a trend of progressive incompatible element depletion. Inferred pressures of magma segregation are 0.6–2.1 GPa with temperatures of 1280–1470 °C. New 40Ar/39Ar dates for Site U1438 basalts averaging 48.7 Ma (Ishizuka et al., 2018) are younger that the inferred age of IBM subduction initiation based on the oldest ages (52 Ma) of IBM forearc basalts (FAB) from the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. FAB are hypothesized to be the first magma type erupted as the Pacific plate subsided, followed by boninites, and ultimately typical arc magmas over a period of about 10 Ma. Site U1438 basalts and IBM FABs are similar, but Site U1438 basalts have lower V contents, higher Ti/V and little geochemical evidence for involvement of slab-derived fluids. We hypothesize that the asthenospheric upwelling and extension expected during subduction initiation occurred over a broad expanse of the upper plate, even as hydrous fluids were introduced near the plate edge to produce FABs and boninites. Site U1438 basalts formed by decompression melting during the first 3 Ma of subduction initiation, and were stranded behind the early IBM arc as mantle conditions shifted to flux melting beneath a well-defined volcanic front

Towards molecular breeding of reproductive traits in cereal crops

The transition from vegetative to reproductive phase, flowering per se, floral organ development, panicle structure and morphology, meiosis, pollination and fertilization, cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and fertility restoration, and grain development are the main reproductive traits. Unlocking their genetic insights will enable plant breeders to manipulate these traits in cereal germplasm enhancement. Multiple genes or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting flowering (phase transition, photoperiod and vernalization, flowering per se), panicle morphology and grain development have been cloned, and gene expression research has provided new information about the nature of complex genetic networks involved in the expression of these traits. Molecular biology is also facilitating the identification of diverse CMS sources in hybrid breeding. Few Rf (fertility restorer) genes have been cloned in maize, rice and sorghum. DNA markers are now used to assess the genetic purity of hybrids and their parental lines, and to pyramid Rf or tms (thermosensitive male sterility) genes in rice. Transgene(s) can be used to create de novo CMS trait in cereals. The understanding of reproductive biology facilitated by functional genomics will allow a better manipulation of genes by crop breeders and their potential use across species through genetic transformation

Coca Cola Museum

Ink, watercolor beige bd; 20" x 32"Part of the Archives' Visual Materials collectio

THE MORAL-AESTHETIC ESSAY IN AMERICA

Some of America\u27s most respected authors have contributed to a distinctive discursive tradition that expressly conjoins aesthetics and morality. Works otherwise as diverse as those by Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Jefferson, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Adams, and James Agee share an overt incitement to moral action and an explicit focus on the relations between beauty, art, and morality. Throughout their writings, morality and aesthetics emerge as nothing less than mutually constitutive. Such works I call Moral-Aesthetic Essays. Moral-Aesthetic discourse is an identifiable discursive form, and as such it requires its own poetics. The Moral-Aesthetic Essay may properly be called a genre, if we construe that term to mean not a fixed form that is discernible by unchanging elements but a construct that enables us to discuss modes of discourse customarily characterized by the presence of identifiable conventions and elements. In addition to the insistence that morality and aesthetics are interrelated and reciprocally generative, Moral-Aesthetic discourse includes a valuation of the senses, emotion, intellect, and imagination; the use of a religious idiom and first-person form to emphasize the capacity of the human being to attain the beautiful life; attention to the sublimity and beauty of nature and to the poetic potential of each individual; an exhortation to become Moral-Aesthetic individuals creating a Moral-Aesthetic life; and a disclosure of the grand difficulty of that task. Analysis throughout this study is geared toward examining increasing levels of formalization within the American Moral-Aesthetic tradition. In Edward\u27s writing one can see the emergence of Moral-Aesthetic discourse out of the field of American moral prose in general. Jefferson\u27s works furnish a grammar of Moral-Aesthetic discourse. Both Fuller and Thoreau provide examples of complication and refinement in the Moral-Aesthetic Essay. The works of Adams and Agee may be seen as Moral-Aesthetic discourse at a meta-level

Web-based Mapping Applications for Solar Energy Project Planning

Determining economically viable locations for solar energy projects depends on many factors, including the level of the solar energy resource, land ownership and use, potential environmental impacts, and grid connectivity. This forum session will highlight public and freely accessible Web-based mapping applications sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to aid in analyzing solar energy project siting decisions. We will discuss each of the Web applications and their associated projects and then demonstrate the tools. PVMapper (http://pvmapper.org) is an open-source geographic information system (GIS)-based Web application, currently under development, that will provide utility-scale solar developers with tools and data for site selection and screening of potential photovoltaic (PV) solar energy plants. The Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Commission (EISPC) Energy Zones Mapping Tool (https://eispctools.anl.gov) facilitates planning for clean energy zones and provides an extensive library of energy resources and other siting factors as mapping layers, models to map the suitability for solar energy and other technologies, and region-specific reports. Solar Energy Environmental Mapper (http://solarmapper.anl.gov) concentrates on the southwestern United States and was developed to share information relevant to siting utility-scale solar projects in the six southwestern states included in the scope of the Solar Energy Development Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. Solar Prospector (http://maps.nrel.gov/prospector) is a mapping and analysis tool designed to provide access to relevant geospatial data to the solar industry in general and for the siting of utility-scale solar plants in particular. National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) PVWatts calculator (http://pvwatts.nrel.gov) determines the energy production and cost savings of grid-connected PV energy systems, allowing homeowners, small building owners, installers, manufacturers, and researchers to easily develop estimates of the performance of hypothetical PV installations