Development of a Comprehensive Habitat Map for the Mission Aransas NERR Using the NERRS Habitat Classification Scheme: Matagorda Island, Texas

NERRS habitat classification schemeThe National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) developed a new hierarchical classification scheme to standardize mapping techniques and terminology throughout all its reserves. The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) obtained habitat information from various sources and reclassifed habitats according to the NERRS scheme using a geographic information system (GIS). Mapping the Mission-Aransas NERR manually at a high spatial resolution was desired, but proved challenging because of its considerable size (185,708 acres) and limited accessibility to privately-owned land areas. Existing digital habitat information was identified and obtained from partner agencies in an effort to create a comprehensive habitat map of the Mission-Aransas Estuary and the adjacent watersheds. Geospatial habitat information available within the Mission-Aransas Estuary and the adjacent watersheds were identified and assessed for appropriateness of this project by the following attributes: scale, resolution, habitats identified, location, accuracy, accessibility, and temporal relevance. The University of Texas at Austin Bureau of Economic Geology (UT BEG) had a high–resolution habitat dataset of the wetlands on Texas barrier islands. A portion of this data on Matagorda Island is within the Mission-Aransas NERR boundary and was used as a case study for reclassifying data to the NERRS classification scheme. The Matagorda Island data were provided to the Mission-Aransas NERR in vector (polygon) format, and this document outlines the procedures used to reclassify this type of data. However, vector data is not the only type of data available, and an additional method of reclassification using a raster format was also explored. This document demonstrates the process of vector and raster data reclassification for geospatial habitat information. The Matagorda Island wetlands data were originally classified using the Cowardin classification scheme, which implemented codes describing specific habitats to the modifier level (Cowardin et al.1979). Reclassification of this data from a Cowardin scheme to the NERRS scheme required the data be organized into a hierarchical database structure. A look-up table was created to compare the two classification schemes. Reclassification of the vector data required the application of the join-relationship tool supplied within the GIS environment. Reclassification of the raster data required the application of the reclassification tool supplied within the GIS environment. One of the major differences in the NERR coding system to the Cowardin classification is that upland habitat is described in great detail. Since the Matagorda Island data only contained wetland habitat information, several NERR codes were not correlated to this dataset. This report documents the methods, challenges, and recommendations of reclassifying existing data to the NERRS classification scheme. It represents the first phase in the creation of a comprehensive high resolution habitat map. Future work will incorporate additional datasets for complete coverage of the Mission- Aransas NERR habitat areasUniversity of Texas Marine Science InstituteMarine Scienc

Draft genome sequences of gammaproteobacterial methanotrophs isolated from lake washington sediment.

The genomes of Methylosarcina lacus LW14(T) (=ATCC BAA-1047(T) = JCM 13284(T)), Methylobacter sp. strain 21/22, Methylobacter sp. strain 31/32, Methylomonas sp. strain LW13, Methylomonas sp. strain MK1, and Methylomonas sp. strain 11b were sequenced and are reported here. All the strains are obligately methanotrophic bacteria isolated from the sediment of Lake Washington

Community characterization of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve and Surrounding Areas

The human dimensions of our environment greatly influence the effectiveness of coastal management. The human dimension is characterized by the social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of our surrounding environment. Changes to these aspects influence human perception and behaviors, which affect resource management decisions. An examination of the human dimension can provide a better understanding of not only resource flow, but also how human perception and behaviors are linked to resource flow. This knowledge can be used to develop decision support tools that will increase state and local managers' capacity to address the human dimensions of coastal management. The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve's (NERR) geographic, biophysical and political configurations are complex; therefore, a broad-scale assessment of the human dimension is necessary to provide a comprehensive snapshot of human behavior and trends. Characterization of the human dimension for the Mission-Aransas estuary and the surrounding watershed will document the current state of knowledge and provide a baseline assessment to identify changes in future characteristics of the human dimension. This characterization will support the Mission-Aransas NERR site profile development and management planning efforts. Characterization of the human dimension will also support development of a regional action strategy for applying social science to support ecosystem-based management and watershed planning in the Mission-Aransas NERR and the South Texas coast. Characterizations of the human dimension and development of a regional action strategy will benefit coastal resource management professionals within the Mission-Aransas NERR, the State of Texas, and the NERR System. The intent of this document is to create an approach that can be applied at other NERR sites to identify human dimension data gaps and applied social science approaches necessary to support NERR site profile development and long-term management and planning efforts. This information will be used to enhance the capacity for resource managers to make better coastal management decisions."April 5, 2007. Revised May 3, 2007."Marine Scienc

Supplier Selection and Development: The Relationship between Small Manufacturing Enterprises and Mass Merchandisers

This study examines the results of a program intended to act as a selection tool for mass merchandisers and a development tool for small manufacturers. The evaluation program assessed the management practices and products of potential suppliers. Based on past experience, buyers for mass merchandisers consider small manufacturing enterprises a poor risk as potential suppliers of retail goods. As part of the evaluation process, firms were asked 34 closed-end questions regarding their management practices, and each product was evaluated on 41 specific qualities necessary for the mass merchandising market. Of the 1,690 firms that participated in this project, about 5 percent had their products accepted by a national mass merchandiser. A review of the evaluation data reveals that firms needed high performance in both areas of evaluation to be successful in the marketplace, not just a strong firm or a marketable product. However, each of these areas separately had a statistically significant effect on the success of the product in gaining a retail buyer’s attention

Nitrogen utilization and metabolic responses of horses to intense anaerobic exercise

Call number: LD2668 .T4 ASI 1989 C36Master of ScienceAnimal Sciences and Industr

The expanded diversity of methylophilaceae from Lake Washington through cultivation and genomic sequencing of novel ecotypes.

We describe five novel Methylophilaceae ecotypes from a single ecological niche in Lake Washington, USA, and compare them to three previously described ecotypes, in terms of their phenotype and genome sequence divergence. Two of the ecotypes appear to represent novel genera within the Methylophilaceae. Genome-based metabolic reconstruction highlights metabolic versatility of Methylophilaceae with respect to methylotrophy and nitrogen metabolism, different ecotypes possessing different combinations of primary substrate oxidation systems (MxaFI-type methanol dehydrogenase versus XoxF-type methanol dehydrogenase; methylamine dehydrogenase versus N-methylglutamate pathway) and different potentials for denitrification (assimilatory versus respiratory nitrate reduction). By comparing pairs of closely related genomes, we uncover that site-specific recombination is the main means of genomic evolution and strain divergence, including lateral transfers of genes from both closely- and distantly related taxa. The new ecotypes and the new genomes contribute significantly to our understanding of the extent of genomic and metabolic diversity among organisms of the same family inhabiting the same ecological niche. These organisms also provide novel experimental models for studying the complexity and the function of the microbial communities active in methylotrophy

Simple Sorting Criteria Help Find the Causal Order in Additive Noise Models

Additive Noise Models (ANM) encode a popular functional assumption that enables learning causal structure from observational data. Due to a lack of real-world data meeting the assumptions, synthetic ANM data are often used to evaluate causal discovery algorithms. Reisach et al. (2021) show that, for common simulation parameters, a variable ordering by increasing variance is closely aligned with a causal order and introduce var-sortability to quantify the alignment. Here, we show that not only variance, but also the fraction of a variable's variance explained by all others, as captured by the coefficient of determination $R^2$, tends to increase along the causal order. Simple baseline algorithms can use $R^2$-sortability to match the performance of established methods. Since $R^2$-sortability is invariant under data rescaling, these algorithms perform equally well on standardized or rescaled data, addressing a key limitation of algorithms exploiting var-sortability. We characterize and empirically assess $R^2$-sortability for different simulation parameters. We show that all simulation parameters can affect $R^2$-sortability and must be chosen deliberately to control the difficulty of the causal discovery task and the real-world plausibility of the simulated data. We provide an implementation of the sortability measures and sortability-based algorithms in our library CausalDisco (https://github.com/CausalDisco/CausalDisco).Comment: See https://github.com/CausalDisco/CausalDisco for implementation

Vermont Price Variation Analysis

Presentation to Vermont\u27s Green Mountain Care Board about a Price Variation Analysis undertaken in partnership with the University of Vermont College of Medicine and Wakely Consulting Group. The presentation outlined price variations across the state and suggested a process and methodology that the Board could use to set standard rates

A strategy to combine pathway-targeted low toxicity drugs in ovarian cancer.

Serous Ovarian Cancers (SOC) are frequently resistant to programmed cell death. However, here we describe that these programmed death-resistant cells are nonetheless sensitive to agents that modulate autophagy. Cytotoxicity is not dependent upon apoptosis, necroptosis, or autophagy resolution. A screen of NCBI yielded more than one dozen FDA-approved agents displaying perturbed autophagy in ovarian cancer. The effects were maximized via combinatorial use of the agents that impinged upon distinct points of autophagy regulation. Autophagosome formation correlated with efficacy in vitro and the most cytotoxic two agents gave similar effects to a pentadrug combination that impinged upon five distinct modulators of autophagy. However, in a complex in vivo SOC system, the pentadrug combination outperformed the best two, leaving trace or no disease and with no evidence of systemic toxicity. Targeting the autophagy pathway in a multi-modal fashion might therefore offer a clinical option for treating recalcitrant SOC