New Perspectives on the Hole Argument

This special issue of Foundations of Physics collects together articles representing some recent new perspectives on the hole argument in the history and philosophy of physics. Our task here is to introduce those new perspectives

Analysis of a ten-day wave record obtained near Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1976A bottom mounted surface wave gauge was operated in 70 m of water near Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska for 10 days in October and November 1973. Standard fast-Fourier transform techniques have been applied to the data, and a second-order lowpass Butterworth filter has been designed to examine low-frequency components in the record. During the time the wave gauge was in operation, two earthquakes were reported with epicenters near the middle of the Aleutian Islands. The first had a surface wave magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale; the second, which occurred about 9 hours later, had a surface wave magnitude of 6.3. Spectra for data taken after the occurrence of these earthquakes have shown that generation of ocean waves by these quakes is questionable. Hourly spectra from the first part of the record reveal a peak around 0.065 Hz which moves toward higher frequencies for about 18 hours. The frequency of the peak then remains constant for about 24 hours, after which it again increases. The changes are well correlated with a large storm which remained stationary in the North Pacific, then moved rapidly into the Gulf of Alaska and subsided. Wave group velocities are used to estimate possible distances of the wave source from the gauge. The actual distances of the storm from the gauge show a close correlation with wave-derived distances. Comparison with changes in wave spectra for a storm in the North Atlantic in March 1968 indicates the same time rate of change in the spectral peak as was found in the North Pacific for time periods when the storms are subsiding

Assessment Of The Macroinvertebrate Assemblages From The Mesohabitats Of A Headwater Stream-Wetland Hydrologic Restoration In Eastern Kentucky

The bulk of streams in the U.S. have been negatively impacted by anthropogenic disturbances and the streams of Kentucky are no exception. In recent decades stream restoration has become a common practice in order to improve habitat degradation resulting from land use practices such as channelization. Despite the large amount of effort and funding stream restoration projects represent, only a small portion have undergone post-restoration assessments of the ecological response in the restored streams. Slabcamp Creek, a headwater stream located in the Licking River basin in eastern Kentucky, underwent a stream-wetland hydrologic restoration in 2010 in order to improve hydrologic functioning and degraded habitat that resulted from channelization. The goal of this study was to quantify macroinvertebrate assemblages from Slabcamp Creek and compare the assemblages to a site representing Kentucky Division of Water\u27s headwater reference conditions and a pre-restoration condition control site. Specific objectives included: 1) compare macroinvertebrate assemblage structure and function across study sites, 2) determine if mesohabitats (pools and riffles) support unique macroinvertebrate assemblages within and between study sites, 3) determine if macroinvertebrate assemblages varied at the study sites seasonally between high base flow (winter) and low base flow (summer), 4) explore relationships between the macroinvertebrate assemblages and microhabitat variables at the study sites, and 5) determine how accounting for the availability of mesohabitats at the reach scale (habitat weighting the data) compares to patch scale analyses for these objectives. Overall, findings indicated restored Slabcamp Creek was more similar to the reference condition site than the pre-restoration condition control site. It appeared that habitat-specific sampling may play an important role in assessing hydrologic restoration, since invertebrate densities, biomass and assemblage structure and function from riffles were fairly similar across sites while stark differences were detected in pools. This could be a result of the restoration improving hydrologic functioning and thus the underlying fluvial geomorphological processes that create pools which are disrupted by channelization. Subsequently, improved hydrologic function may have led to increased habitat complexity, substrate stability, and organic matter retention. Post restoration monitoring should continue at these study sites to see if these results vary or persist over time

Reconstructing (super)trees from data sets with missing distances: Not all is lost

The wealth of phylogenetic information accumulated over many decades of biological research, coupled with recent technological advances in molecular sequence generation, present significant opportunities for researchers to investigate relationships across and within the kingdoms of life. However, to make best use of this data wealth, several problems must first be overcome. One key problem is finding effective strategies to deal with missing data. Here, we introduce Lasso, a novel heuristic approach for reconstructing rooted phylogenetic trees from distance matrices with missing values, for datasets where a molecular clock may be assumed. Contrary to other phylogenetic methods on partial datasets, Lasso possesses desirable properties such as its reconstructed trees being both unique and edge-weighted. These properties are achieved by Lasso restricting its leaf set to a large subset of all possible taxa, which in many practical situations is the entire taxa set. Furthermore, the Lasso approach is distance-based, rendering it very fast to run and suitable for datasets of all sizes, including large datasets such as those generated by modern Next Generation Sequencing technologies. To better understand the performance of Lasso, we assessed it by means of artificial and real biological datasets, showing its effectiveness in the presence of missing data. Furthermore, by formulating the supermatrix problem as a particular case of the missing data problem, we assessed Lasso's ability to reconstruct supertrees. We demonstrate that, although not specifically designed for such a purpose, Lasso performs better than or comparably with five leading supertree algorithms on a challenging biological data set. Finally, we make freely available a software implementation of Lasso so that researchers may, for the first time, perform both rooted tree and supertree reconstruction with branch lengths on their own partial datasets

The physiological expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the human colon

Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is expressed in the colonic epithelium in both inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. Nitric oxide (NO), the product of this enzyme, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of both conditions. However, there are conflicting data on whether iNOS is expressed in the normal, uninflamed human colon. To evaluate the expression of iNOS in histologically normal, non-inflamed human colonic mucosa. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry were used to investigate the expression of iNOS in 17 histologically normal specimens obtained at colectomy performed for colorectal neoplasia. In addition, 16 endoscopic mucosal biopsies, taken from normal individuals, were also evaluated. Eleven surgical specimens and 16 endoscopic biopsies from patients with refractory ulcerative colitis were used as inflammatory controls. All types of specimens expressed iNOS mRNA. Immunoblotting revealed a protein of approximately 130 kDa consistent with iNOS in mucosal extracts of 77% of normal individuals, and 85% of diseased controls. Immunolabelling localised this protein to the surface epithelium in most of the normal specimens and also to the crypt epithelium and inflammatory cells in the diseased controls. These findings provide evidence that iNOS is often expressed in the surface epithelium of non-inflamed human colon, suggesting that it is induced by local luminal factors, such as bacterial lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin). The resultant NO produced at this site might act as an oxidative barrier, reducing bacterial translocation and providing a means of defence against pathogenic microorganisms

Academic Perspectives of US Hospitality Programs: A Ranking Report

Administrators of hospitality programs in the US rank ordered 38 US hospitality educational institutions. The list of 38 hospitality programs was developed from ranking studies that had been recently published in academic journals by researchers and “for profit” organizations. A key distinction of this study was considering the perspectives of deans, directors, and academic program chairs hospitality programs in the US. A high degree of commonality was identified. The two key attributes that were identified as most important in ranking were experience/internships and curriculum, suggesting that the curricular and co-curricular aspects were of higher assessment value than other factors such as location, quality of facilities, program size, or numbers of faculty

Tourist Behaviors During Tourism Activities – Part Three

This series of three reports was developed to discuss tourist behaviors in three key areas of the hospitality industry: lodging, dining, and activities and events. A primary purpose was to provide insights from the user’s perspective, as the majority of content comes from the provider’s point of view. One paper focused on tourist’s behaviors in lodging and another focused on tourist’s behaviors while dining. This paper focused on tourist’s behaviors in activities and events. The goal was to provide valuable insights to assist practitioners in better understanding tourist’s behaviors and to develop strategies to provide the best experience possible

Tourist Behaviors in Lodging – Part One

This series of three reports was developed to discuss tourist behaviors in three key areas of the hospitality industry: lodging, dining, and activities and events. A primary purpose was to provide insights from the user’s perspective, as the majority of content comes from the provider’s point of view. One paper focused on tourist’s behaviors while dining and another focused on tourist’s behaviors in activities and events. This paper focused on tourist’s lodging behaviors. The goal was to provide valuable insights to assist practitioners in better understanding tourist’s behaviors and to develop strategies to provide the best experience possible