Resilience Metrics at Panama City Beach, Florida

The term resilience is often used to describe coastal engineering projects, but an increase in resilience has often simply been defined by the ability for a community to recover after an adverse event. This definition is incomplete as there has not been a clear quantitative definition of resilience regarding the coastal environment. Recent research had produced a GIS-based tool that provides a quantitative resilience metric to inform decisions related to engineering in the coastal environment, especially historically. Other research has developed a similar metric that uses Beach-fx results to calculate future resilience based on nourishment alternatives. This study uses the recently developed Coastal Resilience Index (CRI) and Buffer Width (BW) metrics to better understand the historical, current, and future resilience of the coastal system at Panama City Beach in Florida. This study provides insight into how storm events, coastal storm risk management (CSRM) projects, and nourishments have played a part in the resilience of the system at Panama City Beach over the last two decades and how they may play a role in the next half century

Ana Castillo

It may seem odd to call Ana Castillo a western writer, considering she has lived most of her life in Chicago. Geographically, this city would not generally qualify as “western.” But the images, tensions, and themes that drive Castillo’s work are the same that currently challenge traditional definitions of the “west” as a place bounded strictly by geography. Historically, of course, Chicago at one time imagined itself as the prototypical western city, but the frontier moved on, and with it the American notion of what the west was, where it was located, what it looked like, and who inhabited it. Frontiers, in fact, have traditionally been vital in determining what Americans consider the west. From the perspective of Anglo New England, it was what Daniel Boone was traversing in the wilds of Kentucky. Later it was the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the deserts of Nevada, the U.S.-Mexican borderlands. California? Maybe yes, maybe no. Some argue it is the least “western” of the western states despite its location; others insist it is the most western because of everything but its longitude

The meadow spittlebug on alfalfa and red clover (1982)

"The meadow spittlebug, a small (1/4 to 3/8 inch), leafhopper-like insect, is a pest of forage crops in about the northern third of Missouri. The nymph can cause economic damage to the first cutting of oth alfalfa and red clover."--First page.R.L. Brandenburg and D.W. Spurgeon (Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture)New 6/82/10

The meadow spittlebug on alfalfa and red clover (1983)

"The meadow spittlebug, a small (1/4 to 3/8 inch), leafhopper-like insect, is a pest of forage crops in about the northern third of Missouri. The nymph can cause economic damage to the first cutting of both alfalfa and red clover."--First page.R.L. Brandenburg and D.W. Spurgeon (Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture)Revised 3/83/8

Disturbance observer based sliding mode control for a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR)

A continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) is typical of equipment found in the process control industry. The dynamics represent a wide class of second order nonlinear systems and thus as well as having specific industrial application, control of the CSTR is frequently used as a benchmark problem for application and testing of new control algorithms. Due to the high complexity of the CSTR system, the robust control design problem is challenging. This paper first establishes a mathematical model of the system. A disturbance observer is then designed to estimate the disturbance and a corresponding asymptotically stable sliding mode control is developed. Stability analysis is presented in terms of the Lyapunov method. Finally, based on experimental data, the proposed method is validated using simulation experiments

Tag Type and Location-Dependent Retention Impart Varied Levels of Bias on Mark–Recapture Parameter Estimates

Population parameter estimates from mark–recapture studies are dependent on individuals retaining marks or tags. Therefore, tag retention estimates are needed for different tag types and anatomical tagging locations. Few studies have empirically quantified the bias from tag retention on fish population parameters that are derived from mark–recapture studies. We examined differences in retention between T-bar anchor tags and PIT tags as well as among four anatomical locations for PIT tags in Brown Trout Salmo trutta in a tailwater fishery in Arkansas, USA. We also estimated the relative bias of tag type and PIT tag location on apparent survival estimates from Cormack–Jolly–-Seber models. Tag retention for the anchor tags was 15.1% lower than that for the PIT tags after 1 year and 46.1% lower after 4 years. Greater PIT tag retention resulted in less biased estimates of apparent survival for PIT tags (average −7.1%) than for anchor tags (average −37.8%). However, PIT tags that were placed in different anatomical locations had varying retention rates, so the degree of relative bias that was associated with their apparent survival estimates also varied. Inserting the PIT tags in the cheek or dorsal musculature provided the greatest retention for Brown Trout and may provide the least biased apparent survival estimates from future mark–recapture studies

Pre-Practicum Students and Cognitive Complexity

Eighteen students enrolled in a professional orientation and ethics course as part of a counseling training program participated in a study designed to assess the cognitive complexity of first semester master’s counseling students. We used the one-minute question and analyzed the results based on Bloom’s taxonomy for the cognitive domain. Results suggest a relationship between course content and level of cognitive development. Implications for counselor training and development are discussed

The Global Status of Freshwater Fish Age Validation Studies and a Prioritization Framework for Further Research

Age information derived from calcified structures is commonly used to estimate recruitment, growth, and mortality for fish populations. Validation of daily or annual marks on age structures is often assumed, presumably due to a lack of general knowledge concerning the status of age validation studies. Therefore, the current status of freshwater fish age validation studies was summarized to show where additional effort is needed, and increase the accessibility of validation studies to researchers. In total, 1351 original peer-reviewed articles were reviewed from freshwater systems that studied age in fish. Periodicity and age validation studies were found for 88 freshwater species comprising 21 fish families. The number of age validation studies has increased over the last 30 years following previous calls for more research; however, few species have validated structures spanning all life stages. In addition, few fishes of conservation concern have validated ageing structures. A prioritization framework, using a combination of eight characteristics, is offered to direct future age validation studies and close the validation information gap. Additional study, using the offered prioritization framework, and increased availability of published studies that incorporate uncertainty when presenting research results dealing with age information are needed

Si microwire-array solar cells

Si microwire-array solar cells with Air Mass 1.5 Global conversion efficiencies of up to 7.9% have been fabricated using an active volume of Si equivalent to a 4 μm thick Si wafer. These solar cells exhibited open-circuit voltages of 500 mV, short-circuit current densities (J_(sc)) of up to 24 mA cm^(-2), and fill factors >65% and employed Al_2O_3 dielectric particles that scattered light incident in the space between the wires, a Ag back reflector that prevented the escape of incident illumination from the back surface of the solar cell, and an a-SiN_x:H passivation/anti-reflection layer. Wire-array solar cells without some or all of these design features were also fabricated to demonstrate the importance of the light-trapping elements in achieving a high J_(sc). Scanning photocurrent microscopy images of the microwire-array solar cells revealed that the higher J_(sc) of the most advanced cell design resulted from an increased absorption of light incident in the space between the wires. Spectral response measurements further revealed that solar cells with light-trapping elements exhibited improved red and infrared response, as compared to solar cells without light-trapping elements