An Exploration Of Sexual Consent, Sexual Non-Consent, And Nonverbal Sexual Consent Communication Behaviors, Amongst Community Stakeholders.

Sexual Consent is a central concept in the field sexual violence and sexual violence prevention (Beres, 2007). However, despite disproportional rates of sexual violence amongst LGBT+ community, currently our understanding sexual consent and its practice is primarily focused on heterosexual encounters of traditional college aged students (CDC, 2017, Muehlenhard, Humphreys, Jozkowski & Peterson, 2016). The current study utilized the Delphi method to develop a better understanding of sexual consent, sexual non-consent, and nonverbal sexual consent communication behaviors among two distinct groups: sexual researchers and men who have sex with men (MSM). Thirty-five panelists (13 researchers 22 MSM) completed one- three rounds of an interactive study in which they provided 31 initial descriptions of sexual consent and 20 descriptions of sexual non-consent. Through grounded theory analysis, these descriptions were collapsed into 6 qualities of sexual consent and 5 elements of sexual non- consent and ranked for importance. Panelists reviewed, critiqued, and sorted Beres et al. (2007)’s list of nonverbal sexual consent communication behaviors. Implications of the perception of these behaviors and implications for future research and practice are discussed

Three months journeying of a Hawaiian monk seal

Hawaiian monk seals (Monachus schauinslandi) are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands and are the most endangered species of marine mammal that lives entirely within the jurisdiction of the United States. The species numbers around 1300 and has been declining owing, among other things, to poor juvenile survival which is evidently related to poor foraging success. Consequently, data have been collected recently on the foraging habitats, movements, and behaviors of monk seals throughout the Northwestern and main Hawaiian Islands. Our work here is directed to exploring a data set located in a relatively shallow offshore submerged bank (Penguin Bank) in our search of a model for a seal's journey. The work ends by fitting a stochastic differential equation (SDE) that mimics some aspects of the behavior of seals by working with location data collected for one seal. The SDE is found by developing a time varying potential function with two points of attraction. The times of location are irregularly spaced and not close together geographically, leading to some difficulties of interpretation. Synthetic plots generated using the model are employed to assess its reasonableness spatially and temporally. One aspect is that the animal stays mainly southwest of Molokai. The work led to the estimation of the lengths and locations of the seal's foraging trips.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/193940307000000473 the IMS Collections (http://www.imstat.org/publications/imscollections.htm) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Incidental Catch of a Ribbon Seal (Phoca fasciata) in the Central North Pacific

On 30 June 1981 a juvenile male ribbon seal ... was incidentally caught in the central North Pacific ... by the Japanese salmon fishing vessel Hokucho Maru No. 2. ... Before the crew cast the seal overboard, one of us (WTE) was able to photograph it ... recover its baculum and measure standard length (Scheffer, 1967) and blubber thickness. ... To our knowledge, the record we report here is only the fifth pelagic record of a ribbon seal and the first pelagic sighting south of the Aleutian Islands in the central North Pacific

Chloroplast DNA Copy Number Changes during Plant Development in Organelle DNA Polymerase Mutants

Chloroplast genome copy number is very high in leaf tissue, with upwards of 10,000 or more copies of the chloroplast DNA (ctDNA) per leaf cell. This is often promoted as a major advantage for engineering the plastid genome, as it provides high gene copy number and thus is expected to result in high expression of foreign proteins from integrated genes. However, it is also known that ctDNA copy number and ctDNA integrity decrease as cells age. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) allows measurement of organelle DNA levels relative to a nuclear gene target. We have used this approach to determine changes in copy number of ctDNA relative to the nuclear genome at different ages of Arabidopsis plant growth and in organellar DNA polymerase mutants. The mutant plant lines have T-DNA insertions in genes encoding the two organelle localized DNA polymerases (PolIA and PolIB). Each of these mutant lines exhibits some delay in plant growth and development as compared to wild-type plants, with the PolIB plants having a more pronounced delay. Both mutant lines develop to maturity and produce viable seeds. Mutants for both proteins were observed to have a reduction in ctDNA and mtDNA copy number relative to wild type plants at all time points as measured by quantitative PCR. Both DNA polymerase mutants had a fairly similar decrease in ctDNA copy number, while the PolIB mutant had a greater effect of reduction in mtDNA levels. However, despite similar decreases in genome copy number, RT-PCR analysis of PolIA mutants show that PolIB expression remains unchanged, suggesting that PolIA may not be essential to plant survival. Furthermore, genotypic analysis of plants from heterozygous parents display a strong pressure to maintain two functioning copies of PolIB. These results indicate that the two DNA polymerases are both important in ctDNA replication, and they are not fully redundant to each other, suggesting each has a specific function in plant organelles

Human Claustrum Activation During Pain

Chronic pain is one of the principal causes of disability in the world. Many if not all of us deal with or know of someone who deals with chronic pain. Interestingly, it appears that a mysterious part of the brain known as the claustrum has a hand in chronic pain. Although little is known about the actual function of the claustrum, it is hypothesized to synchronize cortical networks during tasks which have a cognitive load. Recent literature has indicated that during chronic pain conditions, neural network recruitment is modified. In addition, an analysis of an existing fMRI data set determined that chronic pain patients have altered claustrum activation as opposed to healthy controls. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect(s) of pain on claustrum activation in healthy controls using fMRI

A neural representation of continuous space using fractional binding

We present a novel method for constructing neurally imple-mented spatial representations that we show to be useful forbuilding models of spatial cognition. This method representscontinuous (i.e., real-valued) spaces using neurons, and iden-tifies a set of operations for manipulating these representa-tions. Specifically, we use “fractional binding” to construct“spatial semantic pointers” (SSPs) that we use to generate andmanipulate representations of spatial maps encoding the posi-tions of objects. We show how these representations can betransformed to answer queries about the location and identitiesof objects, move the relative or global position of items, andanswer queries about regions of space, among other things.We demonstrate that the neural implementation in spiking net-works of SSPs have similar accuracy and capacity as the math-ematical ideal

Report on Validation and Calibration of Fatty Acid Signatures in Blubber as Indicators of Prey in Hawaiian Monk Seal Diet

Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Administrative Reports are issued to promptly disseminate scientific and technical information to marine resource managers, scientists, and the general public. Their contents cover a range of topics, including biological and economic research, stock assessment, trends in fisheries, and other subjects. Administrative Reports typically have not been reviewed outside the Center. As such, they are considered informal publications. The material presented in Administrative Reports may later be published in the formal scientific literature after more rigorous verification, editing, and peer review. Other publications are free to cite Administrative Reports as they wish provided the informal nature of the contents is clearly indicated and proper credit is given to the author(s). Administrative Reports may be cited as follows: Iverson, S. J., B. S. Stewart, and P. K. Yochem. 2010. Report on validation and calibration of fatty acid signatures in blubber as indicators o

Managed Relocation: Reducing the Risk of Biological Invasion

Key Finding Any organism that is relocated to a novel ecosystem has the potential to become an invasive species or spread “hitching” invasive species, or both. Managed Relocation is not congruent with Executive Order 13112 to the extent that it might facilitate “economic or environmental harm or harm to human, animal, or plant health.” Consequently, the actions by federal agencies or those entities supported by federal funding to engage in managed relocation need to be addressed in a manner consistent with EO 13751 Section 3(3), which compels Agencies to: Refrain from authorizing, funding, or implementing actions that are likely to cause or promote the introduction, establishment, or spread and invasive species in the United States, unless pursuant to guidelines that it has prescribed, the agency has determined and made public its determination that the benefits of such actions clearly outweigh the potential harm caused by invasive species; and that all feasible and prudent measures to minimize risk of harm will be taken in conjunction with these actions

An Investigation of Certified Flight Instructor Competencies

The research literature documents distinct differences in teaching skills among instructors in a variety of fields. Some seem to be naturally skilled, whereas others seem to face more challenges in the instructional setting. Although several investigators have addressed a variety of questions concerning flight instructor training, more research is needed to elucidate the instructional competencies associated with successful instruction in this critical field. The proposed poster will present the preliminary results of an observational study designed to identify flight instructor competencies and patterns of instructional behavior. A preliminary set of essential instructor skills was developed based on instructor competencies as defined by the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (Klein, Spector, Grabowski, & de la Teja, 2004). Behaviors specific to flight instruction were then identified. During the Fall semester of 2006, 17 Certified Flight Instructor students were videotaped as they were instructing other students on a flight simulator. The researchers coded the student instructor behaviors using a data collection software product, Noldus Observer. Initial analyses revealed several distinct patterns in flight instructor behaviors. The poster will present the behavioral patterns observed in this study. The ways in which these data may be used to develop further studies to investigate methods of enhancing instructor performance will also be discussed

A Pilot Opinion Study of Lateral Control Requirements for Fighter-Type Aircraft

As part of a continuing NASA program of research on airplane handling qualities, a pilot opinion investigation has been made on the lateral control requirements of fighter aircraft flying in their combat speed range. The investigation was carried out using a stationary flight simulator and a moving flight simulator, and the flight simulator results were supplemented by research tests in actual flight. The flight simulator study was based on the presumption that the pilot rates the roll control of an airplane primarily on a single-degree-of-freedom basis; that is, control of angle of roll about the aircraft body axis being of first importance. From the assumption of a single degree of freedom system it follows that there are two fundamental parameters which govern the airplane roll response, namely the roll damping expressed as a time constant and roll control power in terms of roll acceleration. The simulator study resulted in a criterion in terms of these two parameters which defines satisfactory, unsatisfactory, and unacceptable roll performance from a pilot opinion standpoint. The moving simulator results were substantiated by the in-flight investigation. The derived criterion was compared with the roll performance criterion based upon wing tip helix angle and also with other roll performance concepts which currently influence the roll performance design of military fighter aircraft flying in their combat speed range