Master\u27s Project: An Ecological Assessment of Backcountry Ski Trails at Bolton Backcountry in Bolton, VT

The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation (FPR) acquired the 1,144-acre Bolton Valley Nordic and Backcountry Ski Trails Parcel in 2013. Backcountry skiing is a fast growing sport in Vermont and FPR is currently working on a management strategy for this new use. My project seeks to inform FPR\u27s long-term management plan of the Bolton Valley Nordic and Backcountry Ski Trail Parcel as well as provide information for state-level planning. My primary goal was an ecological assessment of gladed ski trails on wildlife habitat suitability. I used United States Fish and Wildlife Habitat Suitability Indexes as well as primary literature to analyze habitat suitability. I collected the vegetation data needed using protocols from the United States Forest Service Field Inventory and Analysis program. I collected data using randomly selected plots in a treatment (gladed) and a control (forested) area. Results suggest that there is an effect on the wildlife habitat suitability for species associated with the understory layer of the forest. To create suggestions for best management practices on the parcel I contacted experts in glade management at Mad River Glen and at the United States Forest Service. I also reached out to FPR and their partners for support on developing an education program in Bolton, which will focus on formalizing trail maintenance techniques and eventually grow to be a backcountry ski trail education hub

Biological and physical oceanographic observations pertaining to the trawl fishery in a region of persistent coastal upwelling

An upwelling episode in the Point Sal region of the central California coast is examined by using data obtained by a data buoy. The episodes was interrupted by the abrupt abatement of the strong wind which promotes coastal upwelling. The mean hourly upwelling index is calculated to be higher than the 20 year mean monthly value. During 3 days of light wind commercial bottom trawl operations were possible. Shipboard estimates of chlorophyll content in surface waters during trawling show the high concentrations that are indicative of a rich biomass of phytoplankton, a result of the upwelling episode. Satellite imagery shows the extent of the upwelling water to be of the order of 100 km offshore; the result of many upwelling episodes. Shipboard echo sounder data show the presence of various delmersal species and of zooplakton; the latter graze on the phytoplankton in the upper euphotic layers. The fish catch data are recorded according to species for 2 days of trawling, and the catch per trawl hour is recorded

RELIABILITY OF CLINICAL ISOKINETIC DYNAMOMETRY IN PATHOLOGICAL ATHLETIC SHOULDERS

There have been relatively few studies of the reliability of isokinetic shoulder testing, and only Malerba et al. (1993) have investigated patients with shoulder joint pathology (patients ranged in activity level from sedentary to highly active). Furthermore, all existing studies have involved a level of procedural standardisation which, while desirable, cannot always be achieved in a clinical environment, that is, where most isokinetic testing is performed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the reliability of isokinetic testing of pathological athletic shoulders in a clinical environment, under routine clinical conditions. Twenty-two athletic patients (mean age 26 years) presenting with a range of pathologies including post-subluxation, post-dislocation, and post-surgical reconstruction were tested. Patients were tested on two occasions, separated by a time interval during which their clinical status was not expected to change (most tests were one week apart; mean interval 10 days). Bilateral isokinetic strength of the shoulder internal and external rotators were tested on a Cybex 6000 dynamometer at 2.09 and 4.19 radianslsecond (concentric) and 2.09 radianslsecond (eccentric). Patients were tested in a seated position, in 45 degrees of shoulder abduction, and 90 degrees of elbow flexion. Tests were performed in essentially the same fashion on each occasion by the same tester. However, the constraints of a busy clinical environment meant that precise control and exact replication may not have always been achieved. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for absolute concentric peak torque, work, and average power were all above 0.9. Eccentric ICCs were generally above 0.8. These values are as high as, or higher than, those reported in the literature for studies of healthy subjects conducted under more stringent conditions than can be achieved in a clinical environment. The reliability of commonly calculated ratios, such as agonistlantagonist and involved/uninvolved, was lower than that of the constituent absolute scores, and in some cases were quite poor. Caution is therefore warranted in the use of such ratios. Malerba JL; Adam ML, Harris BA, Krebs DE (1993) Reliability of dynamic and isometric testing of shoulder external and internal rotators. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy 18543-552

Nowhere to Hide: Radio-faint AGN in the GOODS-N field. I. Initial catalogue and radio properties

(Abridged) Conventional radio surveys of deep fields ordinarily have arc-second scale resolutions often insufficient to reliably separate radio emission in distant galaxies originating from star-formation and AGN-related activity. Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) can offer a solution by identifying only the most compact radio emitting regions in galaxies at cosmological distances where the high brightness temperatures (in excess of $10^5$ K) can only be reliably attributed to AGN activity. We present the first in a series of papers exploring the faint compact radio population using a new wide-field VLBI survey of the GOODS-N field. The unparalleled sensitivity of the European VLBI Network (EVN) will probe a luminosity range rarely seen in deep wide-field VLBI observations, thus providing insights into the role of AGN to radio luminosities of the order $10^{22}~\mathrm{W\,Hz^{-1}}$ across cosmic time. The newest VLBI techniques are used to completely cover an entire 7'.5 radius area to milliarcsecond resolutions, while bright radio sources ($S > 0.1$ mJy) are targeted up to 25 arcmin from the pointing centre. Multi-source self-calibration, and a primary beam model for the EVN array are used to correct for residual phase errors and primary beam attenuation respectively. This paper presents the largest catalogue of VLBI detected sources in GOODS-N comprising of 31 compact radio sources across a redshift range of 0.11-3.44, almost three times more than previous VLBI surveys in this field. We provide a machine-readable catalogue and introduce the radio properties of the detected sources using complementary data from the e-MERLIN Galaxy Evolution survey (eMERGE).Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted in A&A. Machine-readable table available upon reques

Retailing in the United Kingdom - a synopsis

This paper illustrates the structure of, and trends in, the retail market of the United Kingdom (UK). This industry analysis describes the retail environment compared to continental Europe and considers the regulatory issues which have helped form this retail environment. By using secondary data we describe concentration and consolidation tendencies and explain specific features of the UK retail market. Major trends are identified and discussed, concluding with an outlook on future developments

Signal peptide peptidases and gamma-secretase: Cousins of the same protease family?

Signal peptide peptidase (SPIP) is an unusual aspartyl protease, which mediates clearance of signal peptides by proteolysis within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Like presenilins, which provide the proteolytically active subunit of the,gamma-secretase complex, SPP contains a conserved GxGD motif in its C-terminal domain which is critical for its activity. While SPIP is known to be an aspartyl protease of the GxGD type, several presenilin homologues/SPP-like proteins (PSHs/ SPPL) of unknown function have been identified by database searches. In contrast to SPP and SPPL3, which are both restricted to the endoplasmic reticulum, SPPL2b is targeted through the secretory pathway to endosomes/lysosomes. As suggested by the differential subcellular localization of SPPL2b and SPPL3 distinct phenotypes were found upon antisense gripNA-mediated knockdown in zebrafish. spp and sppl3 knockdowns in zebrafish result in cell death within the central nervous system, whereas reduction of sppl2b expression causes erythrocyte accumulation in an enlarged caudal vein. Moreover, expression of D/A mutants of the putative C-terminal active sites of spp, sppl2, and spp13 produced phenocopies of the respective knockdown phenotypes. These data suggest that all investigated PSHs/SPPLs are members of the novel family of GxGD aspartyl proteases. More recently, it was shown that SPPL2b utilizes multiple intramembrane cleavages to liberate the TNF(x intracellular domain into the cytosol and to release the C-terminal counterpart into the lumen. These findings suggest common principles of intramembrane proteolysis by GxGD type aspartyl proteases. In this article,we will review the similarities of SPPs and gamma-secretase based on recent findings by us and others