New Orthopteroid Records in Michigan Derived from Sampling a Small Field

(excerpt) A 1.8 acre sandy field in Isabella County, Michigan was sampled in 1971 and 1972 to obtain data on ecological and chronological distribution of orthopteroid species (Bland and Swayze 1973a,b). The upland field vegetation was a mosaic of numerous non- contiguous floral associations (e.g. moss-grass, grass-milkweed, goldenrod-bergamot-fern) made up of 58 plant species. The land, bordered by shrubs, trees and a road, was relatively isolated. Sampling was done both day and night once a week by using sweep nets and 7 to 21 pit traps (some containing molasses as bait)

Environments of strong/ultrastrong, ultraviolet Fe II emitting quasars

We have investigated the strength of ultraviolet (UV) Fe ii emission from quasars within the environments of large quasar groups (LQGs) in comparison with quasars elsewhere, for 1.1 ≤ z̅LQG ≤ 1.7, using the DR7QSO catalogue of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We use the Weymann et al. W2400 equivalent width, defined between the rest-frame continuum windows 2240–2255 and 2665–2695 Å, as the measure of the UV Fe ii emission. We find a significant shift of the W2400 distribution to higher values for quasars within LQGs, predominantly for those LQGs with 1.1 ≤ z̅LQG ≤ 1.5. There is a tentative indication that the shift to higher values increases with the quasar i magnitude. We find evidence that within LQGs the ultrastrong emitters with W2400 ≥ 45 Å (more precisely, ultrastrong plus with W2400 ≥ 44 Å) have preferred nearest-neighbour separations of ∼30–50 Mpc to the adjacent quasar of any W2400 strength. No such effect is seen for the ultrastrong emitters that are not in LQGs. The possibilities for increasing the strength of the Fe ii emission appear to be iron abundance, Lyα fluorescence and microturbulence, and probably all of these operate. The dense environment of the LQGs may have led to an increased rate of star formation and an enhanced abundance of iron in the nuclei of galaxies. Similarly, the dense environment may have led to more active blackholes and increased Lyα fluorescence. The preferred nearest-neighbour separation for the stronger emitters would appear to suggest a dynamical component, such as microturbulence. In one particular LQG, the Huge-LQG (the largest structure known in the early Universe), six of the seven strongest emitters very obviously form three pairings within the total of 73 members

The Regulatory Component of Health Care Reform

Explains the rationales and goals of regulatory intervention. Assesses the likelihood that proposed changes to regulations will be implemented as a component of healthcare reform or that they will help control costs and improve efficiency

URBAN CONCENTRATION: PROSPECTS AND IMPLICATIONS

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

The Economic Significance of Executive Order 13422

In January 2007, President Bush issued an Executive Order changing the procedures for undertaking benefit-cost analyses of proposed regulations. These changes have been hailed by some as dramatic improvements while criticized by others as representing the politicization of the evaluation process. This essay analyzes the major provisions of the new Executive Order, and concludes that it is unlikely to have much of an impact on the number or quality of regulations. Only one provision, subjecting major "guidelines" documents to mandatory benefit-cost analysis, potentially could be important, but even here there is no systematic evidence that agencies have used guidance documents to change the stringency of regulations and thereby to bypass the mandatory regulatory review for regulations. Moreover, the Executive Order leaves untouched the primary weaknesses of benefit-cost analysis as practiced by government agencies, such as the absence of standardization of values for key parameters, the use of inappropriate alternative regulations for comparison with a proposed regulation, and the general lack of either peer review or ex post re-evaluation of regulatory impact studies.

Gossans on Mars: Spectral features attributed to jarosite

Jarosites, which are present in terrestrial gossans capping oxidized sulfides associated with mafic igneous rocks, may also be present in Martian regolith. Spectral characteristics of jarosites are displayed in remote sensed reflectance spectra of bright regions of Mars surface. The occurrence of jarosite in the regolith would imply that acidic permafrost and sulfide ores exist beneath the surface of Mars