Significant Range Extension of \u3ci\u3eLeptotes Marina\u3c/i\u3e (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) Into New York State

(excerpt) The Marine Blue, Leptotes marina (Reakirt) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), is resident from the southwestern United States south through Mexico to Guatemala, with strays reported no further northeast than extreme northwestern Indiana and extreme south-central Ohio (Opler and Krizek 1984, Scott 1986, Shull 1987, Opler and Maliku 11992, Parshall 1993). Although L. marina may be easily overlooked in the field (Iftner, Shuey and Calhoun 1992), the paucity of published records, e.g., two in Illinois (Irwin and Downey 1973), one in Indiana (Shull 1987), and one in Ohio (Parshall 1993), may truly reflect the rarity of strays in the northeastern portion of its range

Controlled Environment Agriculture: A Pilot Project

The controlled-environment agricultural (CEA) project discussed in this report was first conceived for the Wildwood Air Force Station in Kenai, Alaska, in 1972. The region contained high unemployment and a U.S. Air Force Station that had just closed. The Kenai Native Association, Inc. (KNA), was to take possession of the Air Force Station through land transfers associated with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and this corporation was interested in expanding business and employment opportunities for local people. The University of Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) contacted KNA to determine if it had a facility which might be adaptable for use in a research and development program in controlled- 1 environment agriculture. It was determined that such a facility was available. Subsequently, AES and KNA contacted the General Electric Company (GE) in Syracuse, New York, to determine its interest in such a project. GE had extensive background in lighting technology and environmental control systems and the engineering capability to develop a total system for CEA production. It was agreed that GE would provide technological expertise and AES would provide horticultural and economic expertise for the growing and marketing of a variety of salad crops. KNA would manage the project, employ the nontechnical people, and provide the building. The Wildwood site was selected because it contained two buildings which were thought to be well suited for CEA production. One building would provide sufficient inside space for a 1/4-acre pilot production plant, nine small research modules , a laboratory , offices, a training area, and space for preparing the crop for shipping. A second building near the first contained three diesel generators which were to be converted to natural gas to provide power for the production facility.The Controlled Environment Agriculture Project at Wildwood Village, Kenai, Alaska, spanned a period of five years. During that time, three agencies: Kenai Native Association, Inc.; General Electric Company; and University of Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station , were responsible for the management, research, and production activities. Many persons from these agencies who participated in all phases of the project are acknowledged for their participation and support. This report summarizes work began in 1972 and concluded in 1977 on controlled-environment agriculture in facilities located at Wildwood Village, Kenai, Alaska, managed by the Kenai Native Association , Inc. The authors wish to express their appreciation to all those who have participated in the preparation of this bulletin. Particular acknowledgment is given to: Dr. Gerald Carlson, U.S .D.A., Beltsville, Maryland; Dr. Donald Dinkel, University of Alaska, Agricultural Experiment Station; Dr. Delbert Hemphill, Oregon State University ; John Monfor, Kenai Native Association, Inc.; Dr. Eion Scott, General Electric Company; and Dr. Norman Whittlesey, Washington State University, who thoroughly reviewed the contract document

Channels with block interference

A new class of channel models with memory is presented in order to study various kinds of interference phenomena. It is shown, among other things, that when all other parameters are held fixed, channel capacity C is an increasing function of the memory length, while the cutoff rate R0 generally is a decreasing function. Calculations with various explicit coding schemes indicate that C is better than R0 as a performance measure for these channel models. As a partial resolution of this C versus R0 paradox, the conjecture is offered that R0 is more properly a measure of coding delay rather than of coding complexity

On the capacity of channels with block memory

The capacity of channels with block memory is investigated. It is shown that, when the problem is modeled as a game-theoretic problem, the optimum coding and noise distributions when block memory is permitted are independent from symbol to symbol within a block. Optimal jamming strategies are also independent from symbol to symbol within a block

Autonomous satellite command and control: A comparison with other military systems

Existing satellite concepts of operation depend on readily available experts and are extremely manpower intensive. Areas of expertise required include mission planning, mission data interpretation, telemetry monitoring, and anomaly resolution. The concepts of operation have envolved to their current state in part because space systems have tended to be treated more as research and development assets rather than as operational assets. These methods of satellite command and control will be inadequate in the future because of the availability, survivability, and capability of human experts. Because space systems have extremely high reliability and limited access, they offer challenges not found in other military systems. Thus, automation techniques used elsewhere are not necessarily applicable to space systems. A program to make satellites much more autonomous has been developed, using a variety of advanced software techniques. The problem the program is addressing, some possible solutions, the goals of the Rome Air Development Center (RADC) program, the rationale as to why the goals are reasonable, and the current program status are discussed. Also presented are some of the concepts used in the program and how they differ from more traditional approaches

Aerobic stability of heat and orchardgrass round-bale silage

In Arkansas, silage is typically stored as balage in long rows of round bales wrapped in plastic film. It is important to evaluate the aerobic stability of this fermented forage when it is exposed to air, especially during the winter months when most of it is fed to livestock or sold as a cash crop. Two types of forage, orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata) and wheat (Triticum aestivum), were harvested in May 2002 and stored as balage. Twenty-one bales of each balage type were unwrapped and exposed to air on 10 Dec. 2002 for 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, or 32 d to evaluate aerobic stability. For both orchardgrass and wheat balage, final bale weight, dry matter (DM) content, and pH were not affected (P \u3e 0.05) by exposure time. Across both balage types, DM recoveries were ≥97% for all bales, indicating that both types of balage were very stable when exposed to air. Concentrations of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and 48-h ruminal in situ digestibility were not affected (P \u3e 0.05) by exposure time for either balage type. Concentrations of N were greater (P = 0.045) for orchardgrass balage exposed to air for 16 d or longer compared to balage sampled at exposure (d 0), but this response was not observed (P \u3e 0.05) for wheat balage. These results suggest that the balage evaluated in this trial was very stable after exposure to air for up to 32 d. This should allow for considerable flexibility with respect to feeding, transport, and marketing of balage during winter months without significant aerobic deterioration

Monthly progress report

This report is the mid-year report intended for the design concepts for the communication network for the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) facility being built at Yellow Creek near Iuka, MS. The overall network is to include heterogeneous computers, to use various protocols, and to have different bandwidths. Performance consideration must be given to the potential network applications in the network environment. The performance evaluation of X window applications was given the major emphasis in this report. A simulation study using Bones will be included later. This mid-year report has three parts: Part 1 is an investigation of X window traffic using TCP/IP over Ethernet networks; part 2 is a survey study of performance concepts of X window applications with Macintosh computers; and the last part is a tutorial on DECnet protocols. The results of this report should be useful in the design and operation of the ASRM communication network

Combined analyses of steer performance from independent tall fescue grazing trials

Most of the information concerning the effects of the tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea\u3c\em\u3e Shreb.) endophytic fungus (Acremonium coenophialum\u3c\em\u3e Morgan-Jones Gams) on beef (Bos taurus\u3c\em\u3e L.) steer performance has been obtained from grazing trials conducted as independent endeavors. These trials may be related over space and time. Datasets from 12 trials conducted during the last 13 years at nine locations in seven eastern US states were pooled to provide combined estimates of steer daily gains on tall fescue pastures free (E-) of or infested (E+) with A. coenophialum\u3c\em\u3e. Treatments included E- fescue (≤ 5% E + ); moderately infested fescue (≥ 20% to ≤ 35% E+); highly infested (≥ 50% to ≤ 97% E+); and in tall fescue-clover (Trifolium\u3c\em\u3e spp. L.) mixtures, endophyte-free (E- CD, moderately infested (MECL), and highly infested (HECL) at the same E + levels with about 25% and 10% clover in spring and summer stands, respectively. Spring, summer, spring plus summer together, and fall plus winter together datasets were analyzed separately using Henderson\u27s mixed model procedure (MMP). In addition to incorporating the variance components of the random effects into the mixed model equations, mean daily gain estimates were adjusted for the initial weights and steer grazing days ha ^ covariates. Seasonal steer performance generally reflected pasture E+ level and clover incidence. Mean daily gains were variable for the treatment X location combinations, but most of the variation occurred within highly infested treatments. Mean daily gains were comparable for models analyzed with and without the steer grazing days ha ^ covariate, but the standard errors of the means were smaller for those models which included this covariate. The MMP permitted the estimation of the fixed effects of treatments and treatments X locations over a broad inference space of future years and different pastures. Since the combined analysis was able to estimate treatment effects which were not obtainable in each discrete study, combining datasets may be a feasible way to circumvent some of the financial and logistical constraints that force undesirable comprises in the conduct of grazing and other expensive or time-consuming research. The establishment of cooperative projects, using common treatments and identical protocols, would further increase the sensitivity of combined analyses