Corn Performance Tests, 1946

Corn performance tests are conducted each year by the Agronomy Department of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station to supply to those interested in corn impartial information on the yielding ability, maturity requirements and other characteristics of hybrids and open-pollinated varieties. It would be impractical to attempt to test all of the several hundred commercial hybrids sold in the state or try to locate tests in each of the various districts into which the state might be divided on the basis of soil type, elevation, rainfall and length of growing season. Therefore, hybrids which enjoyed the greatest popularity on the basis of sales volume in 1945 in each of the eight general areas in the state, were included in the 1946 tests along with several open-pollinated varieties which are still grown in each area. This makes available performance results on the most important of the hybrids being planted in South Dakota. To best determine the value of any one hybrid or variety, its average performance in any one area over a number of years is the criterion which should be used, because in any one year the hybrid may fluctuate in its relative value due to the specific environmental conditions under which the test was conducted. However, many hybrids sold in South Dakota are not too well adapted for the short growing season and the other environmental conditions which exist. This has caused a shifting in the particular hybrids offered for sale each year and not many of those included in the 1946 tests were also tested in 1945. For this reason only one year\u27s results are given below. As better adapted hybrids are developed, and are sold year after year, average performance scores will accumulate and these tests will become more valuable. If used with discretion, the 1946 data will provide readers with information valuable as an aid in selecting hybrids for various areas of the state

Development and Application of Operational Techniques for the Inventory and Monitoring of Resources and Uses for the Texas Coastal Zone

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Navy Acquisition via leasing: policy, politics, and polemics with the Maritime Prepositioned Ships

In recent months, leasing has been prominent in the press in connection with the Air Force's ill-fated attempt to obtain the use of Boeing re-fueling tankers without buying them. Gone from memory is the early 1980's controversial Navy leasing program of Maritime Pre-positioned Ships that had a different result. This paper presents an analysis of the various issues and parties to the very creative and innovative financing on behalf of the Navy's Military Sealift Command. Still in existence today, the 1983 contracts for thirteen TAKX ships were valued at approximately $2.6 billion. While the decision is often framed as a lease versus purchase choice, the facts indicate that the option to purchase was not seen as viable at the time. In hindsight, the TAKX leasing program was successful and cost effective, despite the whirlwind of political commentary and intrigue and the dueling quantitative analyses surrounding it. However, as an unintended (or, perhaps, intended) consequence, laws and policies have since been changed so that leasing is no longer viable for financing military assets. The case presented here considers altering existing laws and regulations to once again permit leasing of military resources.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Deep-Sea Debris in the Central and Western Pacific Ocean

Marine debris is a growing problem in the world’s deep ocean. The naturally slow biological and chemical processes operating at depth, coupled with the types of materials that are used commercially, suggest that debris is likely to persist in the deep ocean for long periods of time, ranging from hundreds to thousands of years. However, the realized scale of marine debris accumulation in the deep ocean is unknown due to the logistical, technological, and financial constraints related to deep-ocean exploration. Coordinated deep-water exploration from 2015 to 2017 enabled new insights into the status of deep-sea marine debris throughout the central and western Pacific Basin via ROV expeditions conducted onboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer and RV Falkor. These expeditions included sites in United States protected areas and monuments, other Exclusive Economic Zones, international protected areas, and areas beyond national jurisdiction. Metal, glass, plastic, rubber, cloth, fishing gear, and other marine debris were encountered during 17.5% of the 188 dives from 150 to 6,000 m depth. Correlations were observed between deep-sea debris densities and depth, geological features, and distance from human-settled land. The highest densities occurred off American Samoa and the main Hawaiian Islands. Debris, mostly consisting of fishing gear and plastic, were also observed in most of the large-scale marine protected areas, adding to the growing body of evidence that even deep, remote areas of the ocean are not immune from human impacts. Interactions with and impacts on biological communities were noted, though further study is required to understand the full extent of these impacts. We also discuss potential sources and long-term implications of this debris.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms

Population genomics of rapidly invading lionfish in the Caribbean reveals signals of range expansion in the absence of spatial population structure.

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Bors, E. K., Herrera, S., Morris, J. A., Jr., & Shank, T. M. Population genomics of rapidly invading lionfish in the Caribbean reveals signals of range expansion in the absence of spatial population structure. Ecology and Evolution, 9(6), (2019):3306-3320, doi:10.1002/ece3.4952.Range expansions driven by global change and species invasions may have significant genomic, evolutionary, and ecological implications. During range expansions, strong genetic drift characterized by repeated founder events can result in decreased genetic diversity with increased distance from the center of the historic range, or the point of invasion. The invasion of the Indo‐Pacific lionfish, Pterois volitans, into waters off the US East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea provides a natural system to study rapid range expansion in an invasive marine fish with high dispersal capabilities. We report results from 12,759 single nucleotide polymorphism loci sequenced by restriction enzyme‐associated DNA sequencing for nine P. volitans sampling areas in the invaded range, including Florida and other sites throughout the Caribbean, as well as mitochondrial control region D‐loop data. Analyses revealed low to no spatially explicit metapopulation genetic structure, which is partly consistent with previous finding of little structure within ocean basins, but partly divergent from initial reports of between‐basin structure. Genetic diversity, however, was not homogeneous across all sampled sites. Patterns of genetic diversity correlate with invasion pathway. Observed heterozygosity, averaged across all loci within a population, decreases with distance from Florida while expected heterozygosity is mostly constant in sampled populations, indicating population genetic disequilibrium correlated with distance from the point of invasion. Using an FST outlier analysis and a Bayesian environmental correlation analysis, we identified 256 and 616 loci, respectively, that could be experiencing selection or genetic drift. Of these, 24 loci were shared between the two methods.We thank the many participants of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute for providing lionfish samples from around the Caribbean region, as well as Dr. Bernard Castillo at the University of the Virgin Islands and Kristian Rogers at the Biscayne Bay National Park. We would like to acknowledge Alex Bogdanoff at NOAA, Beaufort NC, for assistance with sample acquisition; Camrin Braun at WHOI, for assistance with the calculation of oceanic distances between sites; Dr. Tom Schultz at Duke Marine Lab and Dr. Margaret Hunter at USGS for discussions concerning ongoing population genetic projects; and Jack Cook at the WHOI Graphics department for his assistance in generating maps of the study area. We would like to extend a special thank you to Dr. John Wakeley of Harvard University for assistance in the interpretation of data. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1122374. Sequencing funding was provided in part by the PADI Foundation Grant No. 14904. Additional research support was provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Ocean Ventures Fund, the Coastal Ocean Institute at WHOI, the National Science Foundation (OCE‐1131620 to TMS), and the James Education Fund for Ocean Exploration within the Ocean Exploration Institute at WHOI. Publication of this paper was supported, in part, by the Henry Mastin Graduate Student Fund administered by the Oregon State University Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. Finally, we sincerely thank the reviewers and editors who helped to strengthen this manuscript

A Comparative Analysis of Soccer Skill Tests on Varying Experience Levels

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Where Are We? Providing Information for the Clinical Enterprise (17th Health Sciences Lively Lunch)

If the past is prologue to the future, where are we today? Though they are diverse, most academic health sciences libraries have historically described and continue to outline their missions as being directed to serving the education, research, and clinical information needs of their user populations. Over the years, Charleston Conference Health Sciences Lively Lunches have covered many themes, and in 2012, the focus was on the point of care information tools landscape. The 2017 17th Health Sciences Lively Lunch focused on issues and challenges of providing clinicians and clinical affiliates with access not only to point of care tools, but in general, to varied types of online information resources, often in a changing or volatile marketplace. After a welcome by Wendy Bahnsen, a representative of Rittenhouse Book Distributors, Inc., the lunch host, and a traditional update by Ramune Kubilius (Northwestern University), moderator Jean Gudenas (Medical University of South Carolina) introduced this year’s hosted but no holds barred session. Panelists from health sciences libraries at three different institutions- Laura Schimming from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Jonathan Shank from Northwestern University, and Neal Nixon and Vida Vaughn from University of Louisville, outlined their experiences. They addressed demands, challenges, and best practices of issues that include but are not limited to: users’ information needs as well as academic and hospital administrators’ expectations; expanding clinical affiliate networks; budgets-projected, desired, and actual; publishers’ and consortia partners’ licensing models, guidelines, and restrictions. Ample time was left for Lively Lunch attendees to join the discussion with questions as well as shared insights and experience