Wyoming Sage-Grouse Working Groups: Lessons Learned

The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) has been the subject of multiple status reviews under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Wyoming accounts for approximately 38% of the range-wide population. Since 2000, 2 statewide and 8 local citizen working groups have been established in Wyoming to developed conservation plans and advise state policy. The first statewide plan for the conservation of sage-grouse was formally adopted in 2003. The statewide plan established local sage-grouse working groups charged with developing and facilitating implementation of local conservation plans. Those 8 plans were completed in 2007 and 2008, and updated in 2014. From 2005-2017, the local working groups allocated nearly $7 million in legislatively appropriated funds to support conservation projects. In 2007, then Wyoming governor Dave Freudenthal appointed a statewide Sage-grouse Implementation Team. The team was statutorily sanctioned by the Wyoming legislature in 2015 and advises the current governor on all matters related to the Wyoming Greater Sage-Grouse Core Area Protection Policy. The Core Area Policy was established by Executive Order and provides mechanisms for limiting human disturbance in the most important sage-grouse habitats. Federal land management agencies have incorporated most aspects of the Core Area Policy into their land use planning decisions. Effectiveness of local and state-wide collaborative conservation has been evaluated through assessments of local working group accomplishments, research on policy effectiveness, sage-grouse population monitoring, and ESA status reviews

The Cratering History of Asteroid (21) Lutetia

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft passed by the main belt asteroid (21) Lutetia the 10th July 2010. With its ~100km size, Lutetia is one of the largest asteroids ever imaged by a spacecraft. During the flyby, the on-board OSIRIS imaging system acquired spectacular images of Lutetia's northern hemisphere revealing a complex surface scarred by numerous impact craters, reaching the maximum dimension of about 55km. In this paper, we assess the cratering history of the asteroid. For this purpose, we apply current models describing the formation and evolution of main belt asteroids, that provide the rate and velocity distributions of impactors. These models, coupled with appropriate crater scaling laws, allow us to interpret the observed crater size-frequency distribution (SFD) and constrain the cratering history. Thanks to this approach, we derive the crater retention age of several regions on Lutetia, namely the time lapsed since their formation or global surface reset. We also investigate the influence of various factors -like Lutetia's bulk structure and crater obliteration- on the observed crater SFDs and the estimated surface ages. From our analysis, it emerges that Lutetia underwent a complex collisional evolution, involving major local resurfacing events till recent times. The difference in crater density between the youngest and oldest recognized units implies a difference in age of more than a factor of 10. The youngest unit (Beatica) has an estimated age of tens to hundreds of Myr, while the oldest one (Achaia) formed during a period when the bombardment of asteroids was more intense than the current one, presumably around 3.6Gyr ago or older.Comment: Accepted by PSS, to appear on Lutetia Flyby special issu

Outburst activity in comets: II. A multi-band photometric monitoring of comet 29p/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1

We have carried out a continuous multi-band photometric monitoring of the nuclear activity of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 from 2008 to 2010. Our main aim has been to study the outburst mechanism on the basis of a follow-up of the photometric variations associated with the release of dust. We used a standardized method to obtain the 10 arc-sec nucleus photometry in the V, R, and I filters of the Johnson-Kron-Cousins system, being accurately calibrated with standard Landolt stars. Production of dust in the R and I bands during the 2010 Feb. 3 outburst has been also computed. We conclude that the massive ejection of large (optically-thin) particles from the surface at the time of the outburst is the triggering mechanism to produce the outburst. Ulterior sublimation of these ice-rich dust particles during the following days induces fragmentation, generating micrometer-sized grains that increase the dust spatial density to produce the outburst in the optical range due to scattering of sun light. The material leaving the nucleus adopts a fan-like dust feature, formed by micrometer-sized particles that are decaying in brightness as it evolved outwards. By analyzing the photometric signal measured in a standardized 10-arcsec aperture using the Phase Dispersion Minimization technique we have found a clear periodicity of 50 days. Remarkably, this value is also consistent with an outburst frequency of 7.4 outbursts/year deduced from the number of outbursts noticed during the effective observing time.Comment: 19 pages, 3 Tables, and 6 figure

The Complex Spin State of 103P-Hartley 2: Kinematics and Orientation in Space

We derive the spin state of the nucleus of Comet 103P/Hartley 2, its orientation in space, and its short-term temporal evolution from a mixture of observations taken from the DIXI (Deep Impact Extended Investigation) spacecraft and radar observations. The nucleus is found to spin in an excited long-axis mode (LAM) with its rotational angular momentum per unit mass, M, and rotational energy per unit mass, E, slowly decreasing while the degree of excitation in the spin increases through perihelion passage. M is directed toward (RA, Dec; J2000) = 8+/-+/- 4 deg., 54 +/- 1 deg. (obliquity = 48 +/- 1 deg.). This direction is likely changing, but the change is probably <6 deg. on the sky over the approx. 81.6 days of the DIXI encounter. The magnitudes of M and E at closest approach (JD 2455505.0831866 2011-11-04 13:59:47.310) are 30.0 +/- 0.2 sq. m/s and (1.56 +/- 0.02) X 10(exp -3) sq. m /sq. s respectively. The period of rotation about the instantaneous spin vector, which points in the direction (RA, Dec; J2000) = 300 +/- 3.2deg., 67 +/- 1.3 deg. at the time of closest approach, was 14.1 +/- 0.3 h. The instantaneous spin vector circulates around M, inclined at an average angle of 33.2 +/- 1.3 deg. with an average period of 18.40 +/- 0.13 h at the time of closest approach. The period of roll around the principal axis of minimum inertia (''long'' axis) at that time is 26.72 +/- 0.06 h. The long axis is inclined to M by approx. 81.2 +/- 0.6 deg. on average, slowly decreasing through encounter. We infer that there is a periodic nodding motion of the long axis with half the roll period, i.e., 13.36+/- 0.03 h, with amplitude of 1 again decreasing through encounter. The periodic variability in the circulation and roll rates during a cycle was at the 2% and 10-14% level respectively. During the encounter there was a secular lengthening of the circulation period of the long axis by 1.3 +/- 0.2 min/d, in agreement with ground-based estimates, while the period of roll around the long axis changed by approx. -4.4 min/d at perihelion. M decreased at a rate of 0.038 (sq m/s) per day in a roughly linear fashion. Assuming a bulk density between 230-300 kg/m3 and a total volume for the nucleus of 8.09 X 10(exp 8) cubic m, the net torque acting on the nucleus was in the range 0.8-1.1 X 10(exp 5) kg m(exp 2) /s(exp 2). In order to bring the spacecraft photometric and imaging data into alignment on the direction of M, the directions of the intermediate and short principal axes of inertia had to be adjusted by 33 deg (on the sky) from the values indicated by the shape model with an assumed homogeneous interior. The adjusted direction of the intermediate axis is RA, Dec = 302 deg., -16.5 deg.. The morning and evening terminators in the images are identified, and the variation of the insolation at three regions on the nucleus associated with active areas calculated. The plume of water vapor observed in the inner coma is found to be directed close to the direction of local gravity over the sub-solar region for a range of reasonable bulk densities. The plume does not follow the projected normal to the surface at the sub-solar point

The Nucleus of Comet 9P-Tempel 1: Shape and Geology from Two Flybys

The nucleus of comet Tempel 1 has been investigated at close range during two spacecraft missions separated by one comet orbit of the Sun, 5 1/2 years. The combined imaging covers 70% of the surface of this object which has a mean radius of 2.83 +/- 0.1 km. The surface can be divided into two terrain types: rough, pitted terrain and smoother regions of varying local topography. The rough surface has round depressions from resolution limits (10 m/pixel) up to 1 km across, spanning forms from crisp steep-walled pits, to subtle albedo rings, to topographic rings, with all ranges of morphologic gradation. Three gravitationally low regions of the comet have smoother terrain, parts of which appear to be deposits from minimally modified flows, with other parts likely to be heavily eroded portions of multiple layer piles. Changes observed between the two missions are primarily due to backwasting of scarps bounding one of these probable flow deposits. This style of erosion is also suggested by remnant mesa forms in other areas of smoother terrain. The two distinct terrains suggest either an evolutionary change in processes, topographically- controlled processes, or a continuing interaction of erosion and deposition

European history crossroads as pathways to intercultural and media education (EHISTO)

[EN] EHISTO (European history crossroads as pathways to intercultural and media education) is concerned with the mediation of history in popular (science) media and the question of social and political responsibility of journalists and other mediators of history, especially teachers, in the field of commercial presentation of history. The project responds to the increasing significance of a commercialised mediation of history within the public historical culture and reflects the fact that these representations, which do not always meet the EU standards for history education, can have a lasting impact on the young generation’s understanding of history. Using the example of popular history magazines, the project shall, besides the necessary basic research, develop didactically reflected materials for both history education in school as well as initial and in-service teacher training. On one hand enable a media-critical examination of history magazines and on the other hand, by working with the history magazines, the project addresses itself to popular interpretations of history from the participating countries and reflects their similarities and differences in European cultures of remembrance. Therefore, this approach not only trains mediacritical competences but furthermore enables a multi-perspective and comparative access to history. The project EHISTO will last two years and is funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme with about 300,000 euros. Partners from six European nations take part in the project

The Impossibility of a Perfectly Competitive Labor Market

Using the institutional theory of transaction cost, I demonstrate that the assumptions of the competitive labor market model are internally contradictory and lead to the conclusion that on purely theoretical grounds a perfectly competitive labor market is a logical impossibility. By extension, the familiar diagram of wage determination by supply and demand is also a logical impossibility and the neoclassical labor demand curve is not a well-defined construct. The reason is that the perfectly competitive market model presumes zero transaction cost and with zero transaction cost all labor is hired as independent contractors, implying multi-person firms, the employment relationship, and labor market disappear. With positive transaction cost, on the other hand, employment contracts are incomplete and the labor supply curve to the firm is upward sloping, again causing the labor demand curve to be ill-defined. As a result, theory suggests that wage rates are always and everywhere an amalgam of an administered and bargained price. Working Paper 06-0

The Non-existence of the Labor Demand/Supply Diagram, and Other Theorems of Institutional Economics

The most famous and influential diagram in modern (neoclassical) labor economics is the model of wage determination by supply and demand. Using concepts and ideas from institutional economics, I argue that the theory of a perfectly competitive labor market is logically contradictory and, hence, the demand/supply diagram cannot exist on the plane of pure theory. Four other fundamental theorems concerning labor markets are also derived, as are implications about the theoretical foundation of the field of industrial relations and the economic evaluation of labor and employment policy. In this article I accomplish four things of significance. The first is to demonstrate that the core diagram of neoclassical labor economics - the diagram of wage determination by demand and supply (D/S) - does not have logical coherence and thus has no existence on the plane of pure theory. The second is to deduce this conclusion using a core concept of institutional economics (i.e., transaction cost), thus demonstrating that the institutional approach to labor economics has theoretical explanatory power. The third is to use the transaction cost idea to also deduce four fundamental theorems concerning labor markets and wage determination. The fourth is to identify the core theoretical foundation of the field of industrial relations. This discussion also yields important implications for the economic evaluation of labor and employment policy, as well as interesting insights on the history of thought in labor economics. Working Paper 07-2