Bay ducks

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources published guides to many threatened animals living in the state. This guide gives information about the Bay ducks, including description, status, habitat, conservation challenges & recommendations, and measures of success

Sea ducks

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources published guides to many threatened animals living in the state. This guide gives information about Sea ducks, including description, status, habitat, conservation challenges & recommendations, and measures of success

Tundra swan

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources published guides to many threatened animals living in the state. This guide gives information about the Tundra swan, including description, status, habitat, conservation challenges & recommendations, and measures of success

Waterfowl Population Status, 2010

In the traditional survey area, which includes strata 1‒18, 20‒50, and 75‒77, the total duck population estimate was 40.9 ± 0.7 [SE] million birds. This estimate was similar to last year\u27s estimate of 42.0 ± 0.7 million birds and was 21% above the long-term average (1955‒2009). Estimated mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) abundance was 8.4 ± 0.3 million birds, which was similar to the 2009 estimate of 8.5 ± 0.2 million birds and 12% above the long-term average. Estimated abundance of gadwall (A. strepera; 3.0 ± 0.2 million) was similar to the 2009 estimate and 67% above the long-term average. Estimated abundance of American wigeon (A. americana; 2.4 ± 0.1 million) was similar to 2009 and the long-term average. The estimated abundance of green-winged teal (A. crecca) was 3.5 ± 0.2 million, which was similar to the 2009 estimate and 78% above their longterm average of 1.9 ± 0.02 million. The estimate of blue-winged teal abundance (A. discors) was 6.3 ± 0.4 million, which was 14% below the 2009 estimate and 36% above their long-term average of 4.7 ± 0.04 million. The estimate for northern pintails (A. acuta; 3.5 ± 0.2 million) was similar to the 2009 estimate, and 13% below the long-term average of 4.0 ± 0.04 million. Estimates of northern shovelers (A. clypeata; 4.1 ± 0.2 million) and redheads (Aythya americana; 1.1 ± 0.1 million) were similar to their 2009 estimates and were 76% and 63% above their long-term averages of 2.3 ± 0.02 million and 0.7 ± 0.01 million, respectively. The canvasback estimate (A. valisineria; 0.6 ± 0.05 million) was similar to the 2009 estimate and to the long-term average. The scaup estimate (A. affinis and A. marila combined; 4.2 ± 0.2 million) was similar to that of 2009 and 16% below the long-term average of 5.1 ± 0.05 million. Habitat conditions during the 2010 Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey were characterized by average to below-average moisture, a mild winter, and early spring across the traditional and eastern survey areas. The total pond estimate (Prairie Canada and U.S. combined) was 6.7 ± 0.2 million. This was similar to the 2009 estimate and 34% above the long-term average (1974‒2009) of 5.0 ± 0.03 million ponds. The 2010 estimate of ponds in Prairie Canada was 3.7 ± 0.2 million. This was similar to last year\u27s estimate (3.6 ± 0.1 million) and to the long-term average (1961‒2009; 3.4 ± 0.03 million). The 2010 pond estimate for the north central U.S. was 2.9 ± 0.1 million, which was similar to last year\u27s estimate (2.9 ± 0.1 million) and 87% above the long-term average (1974‒2009; 1.6 ± 0.02 million). The projected mallard fall-flight index is 10.3 ± 0.9 million birds. The eastern survey area was restratifed in 2005 and is now composed of strata 51‒72. Estimates of mallards, scaup, scoters (black [Melanitta nigra], white-winged [M. fusca], and surf [M. perspicillata]), green-winged teal, American wigeon, bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris), and goldeneyes (common [B. clangula] and Barrow\u27s [B. islandica]) were all similar to their 2009 estimates and long-term averages. The merganser (red-breasted [Mergus serrator], common [M. merganser], and hooded [Lophodytes cucullatus]) estimate was 386.4 thousand, which was 15% below the 2009 estimate, and 14% below the long-term average of 450.8 thousand. The American black duck (Anas rubripes) estimate was similar to the 2009 estimate and 7% below the long-term average of 478.9 thousand

Experimentally Determined Heat Transfer Coefficients for Spacesuit Liquid Cooled Garments

A Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) Portable Life Support System 2.0 (PLSS 2.0) test has been conducted at NASA Johnson Space Center in the PLSS Development Laboratory from October 27, 2014 to December 19, 2014. These closed-loop tests of the PLSS 2.0 system integrated with human subjects in the Mark III Suit at 3.7 psi to 4.3 psi above ambient pressure performing treadmill exercise at various metabolic rates from standing rest to 3000 BTU/hr (880 W). The bulk of the PLSS 2.0 was at ambient pressure but effluent water vapor from the Spacesuit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME) and the Auxiliary Membrane Evaporator (Mini-ME), and effluent carbon dioxide from the Rapid Cycle Amine (RCA) were ported to vacuum to test performance of these components in flight-like conditions. One of the objectives of this test was to determine the heat transfer coefficient (UA) of the Liquid Cooling Garment (LCG). The UA, an important factor for modeling the heat rejection of an LCG, was determined in a variety of conditions by varying inlet water temperature, flowrate, and metabolic rate. Three LCG configurations were tested: the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) LCG, the Oceaneering Space Systems (OSS) LCG, and the OSS auxiliary LCG. Other factors influencing accurate UA determination, such as overall heat balance, LCG fit, and the skin temperature measurement, will also be discussed

Experimentally Determined Overall Heat Transfer Coefficients for Spacesuit Liquid Cooled Garments

A Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) Portable Life Support System 2.0 (PLSS 2.0) test has been conducted at NASA Johnson Space Center in the PLSS Development Laboratory from October 27, 2014 to December 19, 2014. These closed-loop tests of the PLSS 2.0 system integrated with human subjects in the Mark III Suit at 3.7 psi to 4.3 psi above ambient pressure performing treadmill exercise at various metabolic rates from standing rest to 3000 BTU/hr (880 W). The bulk of the PLSS 2.0 was at ambient pressure but effluent water vapor from the Spacesuit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME) and the Auxiliary Membrane Evaporator (Mini-ME), and effluent carbon dioxide from the Rapid Cycle Amine (RCA) were ported to vacuum to test performance of these components in flight-like conditions. One of the objectives of this test was to determine the overall heat transfer coefficient (UA) of the Liquid Cooling Garment (LCG). The UA, an important factor for modeling the heat rejection of an LCG, was determined in a variety of conditions by varying inlet water temperature, flow rate, and metabolic rate. Three LCG configurations were tested: the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) LCG, the Oceaneering Space Systems (OSS) LCG, and the OSS auxiliary LCG. Other factors influencing accurate UA determination, such as overall heat balance, LCG fit, and the skin temperature measurement, will also be discussed

The utilisation of health research in policy-making: Concepts, examples and methods of assessment

The importance of health research utilisation in policy-making, and of understanding the mechanisms involved, is increasingly recognised. Recent reports calling for more resources to improve health in developing countries, and global pressures for accountability, draw greater attention to research-informed policy-making. Key utilisation issues have been described for at least twenty years, but the growing focus on health research systems creates additional dimensions. The utilisation of health research in policy-making should contribute to policies that may eventually lead to desired outcomes, including health gains. In this article, exploration of these issues is combined with a review of various forms of policy-making. When this is linked to analysis of different types of health research, it assists in building a comprehensive account of the diverse meanings of research utilisation. Previous studies report methods and conceptual frameworks that have been applied, if with varying degrees of success, to record utilisation in policy-making. These studies reveal various examples of research impact within a general picture of underutilisation. Factors potentially enhancing utilisation can be identified by exploration of: priority setting; activities of the health research system at the interface between research and policy-making; and the role of the recipients, or 'receptors', of health research. An interfaces and receptors model provides a framework for analysis. Recommendations about possible methods for assessing health research utilisation follow identification of the purposes of such assessments. Our conclusion is that research utilisation can be better understood, and enhanced, by developing assessment methods informed by conceptual analysis and review of previous studies

astroplan: An Open Source Observation Planning Package in Python

We present astroplan - an open source, open development, Astropy affiliated package for ground-based observation planning and scheduling in Python. astroplan is designed to provide efficient access to common observational quantities such as celestial rise, set, and meridian transit times and simple transformations from sky coordinates to altitude-azimuth coordinates without requiring a detailed understanding of astropy's implementation of coordinate systems. astroplan provides convenience functions to generate common observational plots such as airmass and parallactic angle as a function of time, along with basic sky (finder) charts. Users can determine whether or not a target is observable given a variety of observing constraints, such as airmass limits, time ranges, Moon illumination/separation ranges, and more. A selection of observation schedulers are included which divide observing time among a list of targets, given observing constraints on those targets. Contributions to the source code from the community are welcome

The Astropy Project: Building an inclusive, open-science project and status of the v2.0 core package

The Astropy project supports and fosters the development of open-source and openly-developed Python packages that provide commonly-needed functionality to the astronomical community. A key element of the Astropy project is the core package Astropy, which serves as the foundation for more specialized projects and packages. In this article, we provide an overview of the organization of the Astropy project and summarize key features in the core package as of the recent major release, version 2.0. We then describe the project infrastructure designed to facilitate and support development for a broader ecosystem of inter-operable packages. We conclude with a future outlook of planned new features and directions for the broader Astropy project