Documentation Related to a 1991 Observation of Sturgeon in the Rio Grande – Río Bravo, USA (Texas) and Mexico (Coahuila)

This digital archive provides a compilation of previously unpublished information regarding a 1991 observation of a live sturgeon (Family Acipenseridae) in the Rio Grande-Río Bravo of the USA and Mexico. Though a few specimens collected in the 19th century support occurrence of sturgeon in this river basin, lack of credible, recent records has often led to this species not being recognized as part of the basin’s native fish fauna, and certainly not part of its modern fish community. The second and third authors of this document manage the Fishes of Texas Project (Hendrickson, Dean A., & Cohen, Adam E. (2015). Fishes of Texas Project Database (version 2.0). Texas Advanced Computing Center, University of Texas at Austin. http://doi.org/10.17603/C3WC70) and knew of the unpublished 1991 observation of sturgeon reported here. They requested the content provided here from first author (Platania) who provided what follows below (verbatim as received in April 2018) and permission to archive it for public access.Integrative Biolog

Youth Minimum Wage Reform and the Labour Market

This paper analyses the effects of a large reform in the minimum wages affecting youth workers in New Zealand since 2001. Prior to this reform, a youth minimum wage, applying to 16-19 year-olds, was set at 60% of the adult minimum. The reform had two components. First, it lowered the eligible age for the adult minimum wage from 20 to 18 years, and resulted in a 69 percent increase in the minimum wage for 18 and 19 year- olds. Second, the reform raised the youth minimum wage in two annual steps from 60% to 80% of the adult minimum, and resulted in a 41 percent increase in the minimum wage for 16 and 17 year-olds over a two-year period. We use data from the New Zealand Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) to estimate the impact of these changes on a variety of labour market and related outcomes. We compare the average outcomes of these two groups of teenagers, before and after the policy reform, to those of 20-25 year- olds, who were unaffected by the reform. We find no robust evidence of adverse effects on youth employment or hours worked. In fact, we find stronger evidence of positive employment responses to the changes for both groups of teenagers, and that 16-17 year-olds increased their hours worked by 10-15 percent following the minimum wage changes. Given the absence of any adverse employment effects, we find significant increases in labour earnings and total income of teenagers relative to young adults. However, we do find some evidence of a decline in educational enrolment, and an increase in unemployment and inactivity, although these results depend on the specification adopted.Minimum wage, New Zealand, natural experiment, difference-in-differences

Youth Minimum Wage Reform and the Labour Market

This paper analyses the effects of a large reform in the minimum wages affecting youth workers in New Zealand since 2001. Prior to this reform, a youth minimum wage, applying to 16-19 year-olds, was set at 60% of the adult minimum. The reform had two components. First, it lowered the eligible age for the adult minimum wage from 20 to 18 years, and resulted in a 69 percent increase in the minimum wage for 18 and 19 year-olds. Second, the reform raised the youth minimum wage in two annual steps from 60% to 80% of the adult minimum, and resulted in a 41 percent increase in the minimum wage for 16 and 17 year-olds over a two-year period. We use data from the New Zealand Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) to estimate the impact of these changes on a variety of labour market and related outcomes. We compare the average outcomes of these two groups of teenagers, before and after the policy reform, to those of 20-25 year-olds, who were unaffected by the reform. We find no robust evidence of adverse effects on youth employment or hours worked. In fact, we find stronger evidence of positive employment responses to the changes for both groups of teenagers, and that 16-17 year-olds increased their hours worked by 10-15 percent following the minimum wage changes. Given the absence of any adverse employment effects, we find significant increases in labour earnings and total income of teenagers relative to young adults. However, we do find some evidence of a decline in educational enrolment, and an increase in unemployment and inactivity, although these results depend on the specification adopted

Returning to work from injury: longitudinal evidence on employment and earnings

New Zealand has a unique accident insurance system that pays the direct costs of all accidental injuries and compensates workers 80% of their earnings for any time post-injury that they are unable to work. Statistics New Zealand's Linked Employer-Employee Database contains monthly information on earnings, welfare benefit income, and accident-related earnings compensation for all New Zealanders from 1999-2004. Using time receiving earnings compensation as a proxy for injury severity, we estimate the effect of injuries on employment and benefit rates, and total income by comparing the observed changes in outcomes for the injured population with matched 'control' groups of non-injured individuals. We find that injuries that result in more than 3 months of earnings compensation have negative effects on future labour market outcomes. For example, individuals who receive 4 months compensation have 2% lower employment rates and 6-8% lower monthly incomes 18 months after compensation ends compared with 18 months prior to being injured than comparable non-injured workers. The magnitude of these effects increase with injury duration; individuals who receive 10-12 months of compensation have 10-15% lower employment rates, 3-4% higher benefit receipt rates, and 14-22% lower monthly incomes. We also find evidence that longer-duration injuries have larger impacts on women, older workers, and workers with lower earnings or with less stable employment histories

The Effects of Vocational Rehabilitation for People with Mental Illlness

: The public-sector Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program is a $3 billion federal-state partnership designed to provide employment-related assistance to persons with disabilities. There is, however, relatively little-known about the long-term efficacy of VR programs. This paper utilizes unique and detailed administrative and employment data to examine both short and longer-term employment impacts for all persons diagnosed with mental illness who applied for VR services in the state of Virginia in State Fiscal Year 2000. These data provide quarterly information on VR services and employment outcomes from 1995 to 2010. Estimates from our model of service provision and labor market outcomes reveal that VR services generally have positive long-run labor market outcome effects that appear to substantially exceed the cost of providing services.etraining, mental illness, treatment effects

THE ECONOMICS OF THE BASE AND YIELD UPDATE DECISION

The 2002 Farm Bill provided the one time opportunity to update base acres and counter-cyclical payment yields to more closely reflect their current crops, rotations and yield levels. This paper discusses the available options and provides case study examples to illustrate the complexity of this decision.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Cavity-enhanced absorption using an atomic line source: application to deep-UV measurements

Optical cavities are commonly used to increase the sensitivity of absorption measurements, but have not been extensively used below 300 nm, mainly owing to the limited light sources at these wavelengths. While some progress has been made using cavity ring-down spectroscopy, these systems rely on complex and expensive lasers. Here we investigate an approach combining Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (CEAS) with an inexpensive low vapour pressure mercury lamp for sensitive absorption measurements at 253.7 nm. We demonstrate that the CEAS absorption in our system is 50 times greater than the absorption found in a single-pass configuration; using this approach, we obtained limits of detection of 8.1 pptv (66 ng m(-3)) for gaseous elemental mercury and 8.4 ppbv for ozone. We evaluate the performance of the system and discuss potential improvements and applications of this approach

State vocational rehabilitation programs and federal disability insurance: An analysis of Virginia's vocational rehabilitation program

We examine the association between the receipt of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services and Federal Disability Insurance using a unique panel data source on persons who applied for assistance from Virginia's VR program in 2000. Three central findings emerge: first, VR services are associated with lower rates of participation in disability insurance programs-a nearly 2 point drop in SSDI receipt and 1 point drop in SSI receipt. Second, VR service receipt is associated with lower take-up rates of SSDI/SSI. Finally, among VR applicants on SSDI/SSI, those who receive substantive VR services are more likely to be employed

Orbital Manuvering System Design and Performance For the Magnetosperic Multiscale Constellation

The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, launched on March 13, 2015, is the fourth mission of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probe program. The MMS mission consists of four identically instrumented observatories that function as a constellation to provide the first definitive study of magnetic reconnection in space. Since it is frequently desirable to isolate electric and magnetic field sensors from stray effects caused by the spacecraft's core-body, the suite of instruments on MMS includes six radial and two axial instrument-booms with deployed lengths ranging from 5-60 meters (see Figure 1). The observatory is spin-stabilized about its positive z-axis with a nominal rate slightly above 3 rev/min (RPM). The spin is also used to maintain tension in the four radial wire-booms. Each observatory's Attitude Control System (ACS) consists of digital sun sensors, star cameras, accelerometers, and mono-propellant hydrazine thrusters-responsible for orbital adjustments, attitude control, and spin adjustments. The sections that follow describe performance requirements, the hardware and algorithms used for 6-DOF estimation, and then similarly for 6-DOF control. The paper concludes with maneuver performance based on both simulated and on-orbit telem

Learning cultures and cultural learning in high-performance sport: opportunities for sport pedagogues

High-performance sports provide athletes with a variety of learning experiences. Because athletes invest significant time and energy in training and competition over relatively long periods of time and because sport assumes high levels of significance to athletes, learning can involve intense and long-lasting changes that have consequences within and beyond sport (Barker et al. 2014; Barker-Ruchti et al. 2012). Despite the centrality of learning in high-performance sport, scholars have given this topic little attention. While there are exceptions (e.g. Gearity 2012; Light 2010; McMahon and Penney 2013; Rynne, Mallett, and Tinning 2010), many aspects of learning in high-performance sport remain unchartered. The limited body of literature on learning in high-performance sport may surprise since this topic has received considerable attention in physical education, in relation to both phys- ical education pupils (e.g. Quennerstedt et al. 2014; Quennerstedt, Öhman, and Öhman, 2011) and physical education teachers (e.g. Armour, Makopoulou, and Chambers 2012; Keay 2005, 2006; Makopoulou and Armour 2011; Sirna, Tinning, and Rossi 2008). Using socio-cultural perspectives of learning, this literature demonstrates that learning occurs continuously and regardless of, for instance, teaching method and age/career stage, but is influenced by reflexive interactions between socio-cultural, structural and situational factors and individual agency. In so doing, this existing literature points to the complex and relational nature of learning. Building on this literature, the broad aim of this special issue is to provide an entry point for investigations into learning in high-performance sport. We recognise that there are multiple potential ways to examine learning in high-performance sport; however, we are concerned with demonstrating the utility of using a cultural learning framework (Hodkinson, Biesta, and James 2008). The value of this framework in our view lies in its capacity to capture different dimensions of learning in a holistic manner. In this introduction, we present the framework as two inter-related and complementary parts: Theory of Learning Cultures and Cultural Theory of Learning. This particular cultural perspective of learning has to date not been formally presented to the physical education and sport pedagogy com- munity. As our experiences with this approach have been positive, we consider this an opportunity for further valuable scholarship.Full Tex