Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft and Infrared Technology to Detect and Monitor Greater Sage-Grouse

In wildlife management, using cutting edge technology and science to monitor greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) populations, enables land managers to better assess the impact of their management decisions. Having precise counts of sage-grouse lek attendance, and specifically male lek attendance, is an important metric used to evaluate population status and response to conservation actions (Gifford et.al, 2013, Dahlgren et al., 2016). Leks are seasonal breeding sites where males perform a ritualistic courtship dance for females. Our case study examined if a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) was effective in detecting, and counting, sage-grouse during the lek season (early March to late April). More specifically, this research used a Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera (a thermal camera) to detect sage-grouse and determine body temperatures of individual sage-grouse to determine if temperature data can be used to identify displaying male sage-grouse. These images can be used to document the activity and behavior of sage-grouse and can be revisited at future times to document changes in bird numbers as well as perform additional statistical analyses. We conducted 5 flights and on a per-flight basis, we identified an average of 4.4 displaying males, 13.4 non-displaying males, and 5.6 female sage-grouse. We found that the average size and average maximum temperature of the three sage-grouse categories differed where females were smaller with an average body size of 325 cm2, an average maximum temperature of 14.6 C ̊, and a smaller average thermal range of 2.47 C ̊. Non-displaying male body size was approximately 488 cm2, with a maximum average temperature of 17.2 C ̊, and an average thermal range of 4.66C ̊. Displaying male body size was the largest at approximately 655 cm2, an average maximum temperature of 27.5C ̊, with the largest average range of 12.39C ̊. Our study demonstrates that RPA and infrared technology can be used to conduct accurate sage-grouse lek attendance counts. Further, results of this study will also provide a guideline for the use of RPA’s to monitor sage-grouse and other lekking species

Effect of dose rate on ion beam mixing in Nb-Si

The influence of dose rate, i.e., ion flux, on ion beam mixing in Nb‐Si bilayer samples was measured at room temperature and 325 °C. At the higher temperature, an increase in dose rate of a factor of 20 caused a decrease in the thickness of the mixed layer by a factor of 1.6 for equal total doses. At room temperature, the same change in flux had no effect on mixing. These results are consistent with radiation‐enhanced diffusion theory in the recombination‐limited regime

Are UK SMEs with active websites more likely to achieve both innovation and growth?

Purpose: This paper examines the impact of developing more active Websites and increasing E-commerce on the relationship between innovation and growth performance in SMEs. Using the existing literature and empirical analysis the study considers the potential of engagement with the Internet to achieve the often hard to attain ambition of both innovation and growth. Design/methodology/approach: In order to examine the relationship, data is drawn from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) 'Lifting the Barriers to Growth Survey'. In order to establish whether the use of more sophisticated Websites is associated with being an innovative high performance business, whilst controlling for other firm and entrepreneurial characteristics, multivariate approaches in the form of multinominal logits and discriminant function analysis are utilised. Findings: The results suggest that although theoretically Websites with tools allowing interaction with customers or suppliers could benefit SMEs through a reduction in transaction costs and wider access to information, enabling them to jointly experience innovation and growth, in practice there is less evidence that this occurs. If anything those firms with active websites are more likely to be innovative, but no more likely to be both innovative and achieving growth. Implications: These results suggest that further work must be undertaken to establish whether SMEs should be encouraged to make such investments and if so what additional help is required to ensure that investments in this digital infrastructure achieves an appropriate return on investment. Originality/Value: The results are of importance to both SMEs and policy makers providing insight into the nature of potential benefits from Website development using a large dataset. A clear need to investigate further how more innovative SMEs can benefit from company Websites and ecommerce to grow is identified

Middle School Pedagogical Order: Lecture or Lab?

A study was recently conducted in a suburban middle school regarding two teaching strategies. Ninety-three eighth grade students were administered a pretest regarding plate tectonics. Forty-one of the students conducted an inquiry lab; they participated in a class discussion regarding the material. Forty-two of the students first participated in a class discussion regarding plate tectonics; afterwards they completed the laboratory exercise. A posttest was administered at the conclusion of the unit. Ten students were not in attendance for both the pretest and the posttest. Statistical analysis of the 83 remaining students through the use of t-tests indicates no statistically significant performance difference on the scores of the posttest

Breeding Season Survival and Nesting of Northern Bobwhite on Native Prairie Versus Traditionally Managed Conservation Areas in Southwestern Missouri

Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) management on Missouri Conservation Area lands has traditionally focused on providing an interspersion of grass, crop, old field and woody cover to enhance edge habitat often juxtaposed with disked idle areas and food plots. This traditional approach, or the Intensive Management Model (IMM), is often implemented with the goal of providing all essential habitat components within a 40-acre area. While this model can produce useable quail habitat in agriculture-dominated landscapes it may not be the most effective or efficient approach to producing quail in grassland-dominated landscapes found in southwest Missouri. Conservation area mangers for the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) have historically implemented IMM in these grass-dominated landscapes; however in a few areas managers have begun using historical ecological processes, such as fire with grazing, or the Extensive Management Model (EMM) in conjunction with IMM or as the primary means for producing the patchy habitat mosaic preferred by bobwhite quail. In 2015, MDC began a 5 year study radio marking 60 individuals per area on 4 areas (2 IMM and 2 EMM) to compare the utility of these two models and the habitat conditions they create on breeding season vital rates (survival and production). Over the first 2 years of this study, EMM areas had higher breeding season survival (0.414 compared to 0.275) and nesting success (0.437 compared to 0.355) relative to IMM areas. Additionally, covey break-up and nest initiation were in general earlier, and clutch sizes were larger on areas managed with EMM than on areas managed with IMM

Home Range and Space Use of Northern Bobwhite Under Two Different Management Models in Southwestern Missouri

Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) management in Missouri, USA has traditionally been focused on providing an interspersion of grass, crop, old field, and woody cover juxtaposed to disked idle areas and food plots to maintain bobwhite populations. This traditional model is implemented with the goal of providing all essential habitat components within 40-acre blocks throughout a larger area used by a population. While this model can produce usable bobwhite space in agriculture-dominated landscapes, it may not be the most effective or efficient approach to producing and maintaining bobwhite in grassland-dominated landscapes. In southwestern Missouri native tallgrass prairie conservation areas are managed primarily with historical ecological processes, such as fire and grazing, to produce the desired patchy habitat mosaic. Additionally, it has been on these native tallgrass prairie conservation areas that managers have seen the most stable and productive bobwhite populations. Over a 5-year period (2014–2018) we quantified movements of northern bobwhite on 3 traditionally managed areas (n = 185) and on 3 managed native tallgrass prairie conservation areas (n = 211) to determine whether home range sizes and space use differed between these two management models. We used the 6-month (Apr–Sep) breeding period to determine core area, home range, mean movement rate, and maximum distance moved. Overall (pooled) home ranges of bobwhite did not differ significantly between traditional and grassland managed areas; however, there were significant yearly differences between management models and study areas. Males generally had larger home range sizes and had higher movement rates than females. For the 5 years of the study few birds made long-distance movements (\u3e1.6 km; 3%), and all remained relatively close to capture locations in winter (Feb–Mar). For both traditional and grassland managed areas, bobwhite selected for areas that had disturbance (fire and grazing) in the last 2 years and for the native grassland vegetation type. These findings suggest that areas managed under the grassland management model provide preferred habitat for bobwhite and could result in significant improvement in habitat quality for tallgrass prairie wildlife

Surveying structural complexity in quantum many-body systems

Quantum many-body systems exhibit a rich and diverse range of exotic behaviours, owing to their underlying non-classical structure. These systems present a deep structure beyond those that can be captured by measures of correlation and entanglement alone. Using tools from complexity science, we characterise such structure. We investigate the structural complexities that can be found within the patterns that manifest from the observational data of these systems. In particular, using two prototypical quantum many-body systems as test cases - the one-dimensional quantum Ising and Bose-Hubbard models - we explore how different information-theoretic measures of complexity are able to identify different features of such patterns. This work furthers the understanding of fully-quantum notions of structure and complexity in quantum systems and dynamics.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Elastic Wave Scattering by Arbitrarily Shaped Voids

This work is motivated by the need for realistic ultrasonic probability of detection (POD) models in nondestructive evaluation (NDE). Past POD models have utilized flaw farfield scattering amplitudes along with other system parameters to predict the expected signal in postulated measurement geometries [1]. However, numerical evaluations of scattering amplitudes have generally been restricted to idealized flaw shapes and, to our knowledge, no scheme to calculate scattering amplitudes of arbitrary shape has ever been implemented in 3D. Volumetric shapes with an axis of symmetry have been examined with T-matrix and MOOT [2,3] but the axisyrametric limitation precludes a large portion of all expected flaw shapes. Furthermore, a quasi-plane wave assumption is often made. This assumption can become inappropriate for critical flaw sizes on the order of the beam size. A truly general POD model needs to have these assumptions removed