Winter Wheat- Finding a Balance Between Modern Agriculture and Prairie Nesting Ducks

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is a highly valuable landscape for breeding waterfowl that has been predominantly converted to some form of agriculture in the last century. This is cause for concern since the extent of cropland has been strongly associated with declining numbers and nest success of ducks. With the recent increase in economic value of some cash crops and the potential to lose highly valuable nesting habitat in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), there has been an interest in evaluating alternative farming practices as potential breeding habitat for waterfowl. While past research has shown nest success of waterfowl to be very low in spring-seeded crops, limited research has assessed the potential of winter wheat, a fall-seeded crop, as a nesting habitat. We wanted to assess and compare the use and success of prairie-nesting ducks in winter wheat to perennial cover (CRP, grassland, etc.) in the PPR of North Dakota. We monitored duck nests (Anas spp.) in winter wheat (n = 1284) and perennial cover (n = 3244) from 2010-2012. We will use a model-selection based approach to evaluate nest survival after accounting for a variety of environmental (wetland density, vegetation density, etc.) and temporal covariates (initiation date, nest age, etc.) and predict that daily nest survival will be similar in both habitats. Results from this study will provide valuable insight for wildlife managers on the benefits and weaknesses of winter wheat as a breeding habitat for waterfowl

Assessing Maternal Energetic Allocation During Lactation for the Weddell Seal Using Photogrammetric Techniques

Life history theory predicts that allocation of resources to reproduction varies across an individual’s life as one’s reproductive value changes with age. As individuals reach late life and residual reproductive value declines, they should increase the proportion of energy allocated to reproduction at a cost to future survival or reproduction, this is referred to as terminal investment. Characteristics of Weddell seal life history make this marine-mammal a model organism for investigating terminal investment. Previous research from this population has indicated that pups of older females exhibit a higher growth rate from birth to weaning compared to pups from mothers of prime and young ages. We offer three competing hypotheses that may explain observed increased growth rates of pups born to older mothers and hypothesize that this finding may be a result of terminal allocation. Maternal volume measurements obtained with photogrammetric techniques will be used to explore variation in maternal energetic allocation during lactation. A simple linear regression of maternal volume against maternal measured mass was used to obtain the prediction regression equation. We found a very strong relationship between measured masses and those estimated from our predictive equation (Adjusted R2:0.8958, n=31). Estimated mass loss of mothers and apparent mass conversion efficiency from mother to pup over the course of lactation will be used to assess support for competing hypotheses. Results from this study may improve our understanding of life history theory and highlight sources of variation in population vital rates

Sistema de soporte a las decisiones y tablero de comandos

La Obra Social de Empleados Públicos de Mendoza cuenta con sistemas informatizados desde hace mas de una década, pero no existía una herramienta de análisis de la información de fácil acceso a las áreas gerenciales. Planteada la necesidad, principalmente desde las áreas de control de gestión, se comenzó a evaluar herramientas que permitiesen realizar análisis de grandes volúmenes de datos generados por la institución y también provistos por terceros. Definidas las características mínimas necesarias se realizó la licitación para adquirir el software. Se implemento la herramienta y se comenzó a trabajar sobre las áreas sobre las cuales existía mas urgencia por obtener información gerencial. Si bien se ha logrado realizar un avance en cuanto al Sistema de Soporte a las Decisiones, aún queda mucho trabajo por delante para realizar. Actualmente tenemos en uso tableros de comando en diferentes áreas de la organización, pero falta terminar de definir indicadores y alertas. Los efectos más importantes logrados son la integración de diferentes fuentes de datos y el mejor acceso a la información por parte de los usuarios sin depender para ello del área de sistemas. También se disminuyó considerablemente el tiempo de desarrollo de reportes complejos.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Effects of Ti6Al4V mechanical and thermal surface modification on the adhesion of a chitosan-bioactive glass coating

Biomedical implants interact with human tissues introducing significant perturbation into the body. Implant surfaces can be then functionalized enabling better biocompatibility. At the same time, the additional use of a coating provides further functions such as corrosion protection, osteointegration, and drug delivery. In this context, a composite made of chitosan and bioactive glass nanoparticles has been used for coating Ti6Al4V alloy samples processed beforehand using different processes, i.e., polishing, milling, grit blasting, and electrical discharge machining. Experiments have been carried out to correlate substrate surface conditions and coating effectiveness in terms of scratch resistance with the final aim to obtain suitable guidelines to improve substrate-coating performances

Harvest and Non-Harvest Mortality Relationships for Lesser Scaup Breeding in Southwestern Montana

Since the mid-to-late 1990s, lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) populations have remained more than 20% below the population goal set forth in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.  Accordingly, considerable attention has been directed towards understanding what factors may be limiting their population, including the role of harvest.  Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (RRL) in southwestern Montana is the site of a long-term study of lesser scaup ecology and demography.  Preliminary harvest estimates indicate that this population is harvested at rates similar to the continental population with juveniles experiencing an annual average harvest rate of 9.1% (95% CI = 7.7 - 10.7%) and adults an average annual harvest rate of 3.6% (95% CI = 2.2 - 6.1%).  Since 2005, ~1,300 female have been banded on the study site and an additional ~1,000 females have been nasal-marked.  In addition, ~1,400 resightings have been collected for nasal-marked hens on the study site and ~340 dead recoveries from our study population have been reported from Canada to Mexico.  With results obtained from multistrata models that utilize these multiple encounter types, I will present (1) estimates of harvest and natural mortality rates for female lesser scaup banded and nasal-marked at RRL from 2005-2016; (2) how non-harvest mortality varies in relation to harvest mortality over the same period; (3) an assessment of how these rates respond to changes in hunting regulations.  These results will be used to help inform lesser scaup harvest demography, a key structural uncertainty in current harvest models identified in the draft Scaup Conservation Action Plan

Harvest and Non-Harvest Mortality Relationships for Lesser Scaup Breeding in Southwestern Montana

Since the mid-to-late 1990s, lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) populations have remained more than 20% below the population goal set forth in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.  Accordingly, considerable attention has been directed towards understanding what factors may be limiting their population, including the role of harvest.  Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (RRL) in southwestern Montana is the site of a long-term study of lesser scaup ecology and demography with data from which survival and harvest rates can be estimated using capture-mark-recapture statistical techniques.  The role of harvest in regulating duck population dynamics, including lesser scaup, is clouded with uncertainty.  Decades of research into the additive or compensatory nature of harvest mortality has yielded little consensus as to which of these hypotheses prevail in North American duck populations.  The most limiting factor to assessing these relationships stems from lacking estimates of population size during waterfowl hunting seasons.  We assessed the relationship between survival rates and harvest rates for lesser scaup females breeding at RRL for an 11 years, beginning in 2005.  Consistent with predictions of density dependence regulation of natural mortality rates during the non-breeding season, we found evidence suggesting adult female survival rates fluctuate in response to harvest regulations, an index of population size, and the total number of lesser scaup harvested in the Pacific and Central Flyways