Dietary variations in three co-occurring rockfish species off the Pacific Northwest during anomalous oceanographic events in 1998 and 1999

Stomach samples from three rockfish species, yellowtail (Sebastes f lavidus), widow (S. entomelas), and canary (S. pinniger) rockfish, seasonally collected off the Pacific Northwest in 1998 and 1999, provided quantitative information on the food habits of these species during and after the 1997–98 El Niño event. Although euphausiids were the most common major prey of all three predators, gelatinous zooplankton and fishes were the most commonly consumed prey items during some seasonal quarters. The influence of the El Niño event was evident in the diets. Anomalous prey items, including the southern euphausiid species Nyctiphanes simplex and juveniles of Pacific whiting (Merluccius productus) frequently appeared in the diets in the spring and summer of 1998. The results of stomach contents analyses, based on 905 stomach samples from 49 trawl hauls during seven commercial fishing trips and from 56 stations during research surveys, were consistent with the timing of occurrence and the magnitude of change in biomass of some zooplankton species reported from zooplankton studies in the northern California Current during the 1997–98 El Niño. Our findings indicate that the observed variations of prey groups in some rockfish diets may be a function of prey variability related to climate and environment changes

Active Shooter Events: The Guardian Plan

The decision on how to protect the children and youth while at schools is a serious conversation with varying agreements on the best practices. Some feel that school personnel should not be trained nor expected to be able to react to an armed person while others believe that training of school personnel and allowing them to be armed will deter armed assailants in schools. Ultimately, each school board and district leadership need to choose an emergency safety plan that fits their community. The number of school shootings has brought emergency safety discussions to the forefront again. One school district, highlighted in this article, chose the implementation of a plan called the Guardian Plan

Talent Management Practices in the State Health Services Sector in Ghana: a casestudy of nurses in three (3) health institutions

This thesis explores talent management (TM) practices in the state health services sector inGhana (SHSSG) using a case study of nurses in three (3) state healthcare institutions. Theliterature on TM has centred mainly on developed countries and there is not much in-depthresearch work carried out on TM in developing countries. Besides, empirical research on TMmostly focuses on the private sector without much attention to the public sector. This thesis seeksto fill this gap in the literature by focusing on TM strategies in the SHSSG through recruitment,and selection, staff development, promotion, and staff appraisal. A qualitative case study wasadopted for the research. The empirical focus was on three (3) state healthcare institutions at thedistrict, regional, and teaching university levels in the central region of Ghana. Data/evidencewas mainly collected through semi-structured interviews and secondary data sources. The sampleconsisted of fifty (50) respondents made up of policymakers, senior managers, nursemanagers/administrators, and nurse practitioners. The study revealed that those at the districtlevel perceived the process of TM to be effective, and those at the regional and national levelshad a different view and considered TM implementation to be ineffective. The difference inperceptions is a result of insufficient knowledge by senior managers on what happens at thedistrict level. Responses indicate there are gaps between intended TM policy development,formulation, and actual TM implementation and practices at the point of service delivery.Respondents outlined strategies such as career opportunities for staff, improved conditions ofservice, rewards for higher performance, the establishment of welfare schemes, and staffengagement in TM policies design that can constitute an ideal TM programme in the SHSSG.The thesis provides recommendations for both practice and future research on TM in the publicsector in sub-Saharan Africa

Decorum and the rural poor in English and Scots poetry, 1770-1812

This study depends on the premise that rural poetry in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries provides more reliable evidence of contemporary assumptions about poetry than of contemporary knowledge of the rural poor. According to the concept of neoclassical decorum, poetry was expected to achieve a balance between the probable and the morally admirable. As the ideals of poetry's major audience became more urban and middle-class (if the reviewers may be taken as representative), what was regarded as probable by the poet and recognized as admirable by the reader began to diverge. Consequently the poet's role, as dramatized in his poetry by his persona, began to change, from commentator to mediator to seeker after uncertain values. Early nineteenth-century reviewers tended to interpret poetry in such a way as to confirm their sense of the centrality of the urban middle classes. They would approve poetry which presented their milieu as the repository of values, the pivot of consensus, and were less responsive to poetry which defined their interests as peripheral, requiring mediation with other sets of values. Decorum began to be interpreted as a harmony not of social relations but of more private and less holistic moral values. Correspondingly it became less common for poetry to refer, by means of abstractions (the 'poetic diction' rejected by Wordsworth), to the implicit context of consensual beliefs provided by decorum. The increasing emphasis on sentiment and particularity of description in poetry suggests a weakening of decorum. It indicates a growing effort to determine the response of the reader by means of a context created by the individual poem alone. Moreover, the experimental techniques of the major poets discussed in this study point to a dissatisfaction with conventional notions of decorum. Their experiments stemmed, in part, from their concern with the rural poor and their consequent detachment from the increasingly assertive urban literary milieu. Goldsmith, for instance, attempted to amalgamate the older kind of poetry of social relations with the newer kind of poetry of individual sensibility in order to advocate a social order based on values which were less mercantile and more familial. Crabbe emphasized the irregularity and discord of contemporary society in order to expose the unreality of the ideals of harmony and uniformity basic to decorum. Similarly Cowper concentrated on apparently insignificant details in order to challenge accepted proprieties. Burns made use of the ironic and dramatic qualities of the Scots vernacular tradition to present a moral and social relativity which threatened the hierarchical assumptions of his readers. Wordsworth's poetry embodies the most thoroughgoing rejection of the implicit contract of decorum connecting the proprieties of the poem with social proprieties -r he attempted to recreate a consensus on the basis of unmediated individual experience. Although the risk of isolating idiosyncrasies led to compromises in the work of all of these poets, it was their common effort to forge a new consensus between poet and reader (rather than the celebration of the individual sensibility more commonly associated with Romanticism) which enabled them to escape the divisions which rend the poetry of Clare

Intergenerational Model of Discipleship

Some of God’s most prominent spiritual leaders are characterized by their deep intergenerational connections. People like Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Paul and Timothy, and Jesus and John exemplify it. In this study, “intergenerational” means creating opportunities for intentional dialogue and interaction cross-generationally to foster mentoring and biblical discipleship. This research aims to create an intergenerational model of ministry that will encourage churches to embrace intergenerational discipleship concepts. It is not uncommon for church ministry to seem like silos, with people compartmentalized according to age or phases of life. Silo ministry can hinder individuals from forming generational relationships. Unfortunately, churches have been taught to create learning environments based on age segregation. This conventional way of thinking faces the danger of members behaving more like strangers and less like the family of God. Therefore, this action research thesis seeks to prove that if spiritual socialization is mediated by biblical discipleship throughout generations, a biblically balanced ministry will result. The study involves developing a hybrid model incorporating the most effective aspects of Sunday school and small group settings. This study focuses on altering the format of Sunday school to incorporate participants aged 18 and above in a discipleship class environment. Classes are created where students in these age groups will engage in an intergenerational discipleship environment for learning. Each class term lasts ten weeks, after which new classes will begin. Class rotation allows for meeting new people across generations. Qualitative data were collected from a survey of participants. In addition, a focus group of no more gathered to discuss intergenerational and conventional age-segregated ministries. Furthermore, qualitative data were derived from the researcher’s observation field notes of class time and focus group

The Hudson River Valley Greenway and Beyond: How a Word Can Change the Way We Think About Our Land

“Most American places do not feel haunted…they do not play upon the imagination in such a way as to produce near tangible impressions of ages and people long gone. The Hudson River Valley is a great exception to this American rule. The windows on all its eras are nearly always open, so that despite whatever modern progress its communities may make, it is never difficult for a visitor to conjure the faces and voices of the Valley’s past. This is the river of Franklin Roosevelt, of Frederic Church and Benedict Arnold and ‘Gentleman Johnny’ Burgoyne. Washington Irving owns it still, and Hendrick Hudson forever sails upstream toward its hidden heart.”(Scheller, 1988) When I was in my early twenties, I found myself at the site of the Great Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt. There, following a camel ride into the desert, I sat at an outdoor bar with friends sipping a beer, watching the sun go down and the sky turn dark. When the night had come, spotlights came on and a deep voice, in English, began telling the history of the pyramids. This Son et Lumpier production was my first awareness that landscapes are not simply views and vistas;, our perceptions of them are shaped by history, and that if there is no context for a landscape, the viewer cannot fully understand what he/she is looking at. Why is this important? Because, as the National Park Service likes to say, people will not try to protect resources that they do not know are there. Today we call these landscapes “Cultural Landscapes”, and it is under their umbrella that we have greenways, greenline parks, and living landscapes, among others. There are probably as many definitions of cultural landscapes as there are landscapes. Here are some: -- “Landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from the strata of memory as from layers of rock.” (Schama,, 1995) -- A landscape shaped through human intervention. New York State Department of Transportation: --“A way of seeing landscapes that emphasizes the interaction between human beings and nature over time; also–Any landscape people have created, modified or protected–from historic gardens and urban parks to conservation reserves, from neighborhood streetscapes to working farms and forests.” The Institute for Landscape Studies, Harvard University My favorite, however, is not a definition at all but a description from the American Battlefield Protection Program that tells the meaning perfectly: “Battlefields are historic landscapes. Across farmers’ fields armies clashed and moved on, leaving only blackened earth, hasty burials, scattered bullets and shell fragments, the litter of combat. Residents returning to the site picked up pieces of their lives, rebuilt their burned-out homes and planted the fields anew. Hastily buried bodies were unearthed and interred in local and national cemeteries. Relics were discarded. Life went on. “Yet the passing event fundamentally altered the relationship of the community to the land. Once obscure places became associated forever with the momentous events of America’s wars. So long as the memory is nourished, people will point and say that is where the battle happened.”(Lowe, 2000

Physical and Electrical Characterization of Aluminum Polymer Capacitors

Polymer aluminum capacitors from several manufacturers with various combinations of capacitance, rated voltage, and ESR values were physically examined and electrically characterized. The physical construction analysis of the capacitors revealed three different capacitor structures, i.e., traditional wound, stacked, and laminated. Electrical characterization results of polymer aluminum capacitors are reported for frequency-domain dielectric response at various temperatures, surge breakdown voltage, and other dielectric properties. The structure-property relations in polymer aluminum capacitors are discussed

Physical and Electrical Characterization of Polymer Aluminum Capacitors

Polymer aluminum capacitors from several manufacturers with various combinations of capacitance, rated voltage, and ESR values were physically examined and electrically characterized. The physical construction analysis of the capacitors revealed three different capacitor structures, i.e., traditional wound, stacked, and laminated. Electrical characterization results of polymer aluminum capacitors are reported for frequency-domain dielectric response at various temperatures, surge breakdown voltage, and other dielectric properties. The structure-property relations in polymer aluminum capacitors are discussed

Reliability Evaluation of Base-Metal-Electrode Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors for Potential Space Applications

Base-metal-electrode (BME) ceramic capacitors are being investigated for possible use in high-reliability spacelevel applications. This paper focuses on how BME capacitors construction and microstructure affects their lifetime and reliability. Examination of the construction and microstructure of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) BME capacitors reveals great variance in dielectric layer thickness, even among BME capacitors with the same rated voltage. Compared to PME (precious-metal-electrode) capacitors, BME capacitors exhibit a denser and more uniform microstructure, with an average grain size between 0.3 and 0.5 m, which is much less than that of most PME capacitors. BME capacitors can be fabricated with more internal electrode layers and thinner dielectric layers than PME capacitors because they have a fine-grained microstructure and do not shrink much during ceramic sintering. This makes it possible for BME capacitors to achieve a very high capacitance volumetric efficiency. The reliability of BME and PME capacitors was investigated using highly accelerated life testing (HALT). Most BME capacitors were found to fail with an early avalanche breakdown, followed by a regular dielectric wearout failure during the HALT test. When most of the early failures, characterized with avalanche breakdown, were removed, BME capacitors exhibited a minimum mean time-to-failure (MTTF) of more than 105 years at room temperature and rated voltage. Dielectric thickness was found to be a critical parameter for the reliability of BME capacitors. The number of stacked grains in a dielectric layer appears to play a significant role in determining BME capacitor reliability. Although dielectric layer thickness varies for a given rated voltage in BME capacitors, the number of stacked grains is relatively consistent, typically around 12 for a number of BME capacitors with a rated voltage of 25V. This may suggest that the number of grains per dielectric layer is more critical than the thickness itself for determining the rated voltage and the life expectancy of the BME capacitor. The leakage current characterization and the failure analysis results suggest that most of these early avalanche failures are due to the extrinsic minor construction defects introduced during fabrication of BME capacitors. The concentration of the extrinsic defects must be reduced if the BME capacitors are considered for high reliability applications. There are two approaches that can reduce or prevent the occurrence of early failure in BME capacitors: (1) to reduce the defect concentration with improved processing control; (2) to prevent the use of BME capacitors under harsh external stress levels so that the extrinsic defects will never be triggered for a failure. In order to do so appropriate dielectric layer thickness must be determined for a given rated voltage