Evaluation of the habitat, density, and distribution of a raccoon population in East Tennessee

A study on the status of the raccoon in East Tennessee was conducted from July 1975 to November 1976. Objectives were to evaluate the habitat characteristics necessary for raccoon transplant purposes with respect to natural features, land use practices, and cultural attributes, and to determine the population density and distribution of resident raccoons. A study area within Blount, Loudon, and Monroe counties, Tennessee, covering 52,084 ha (128,602 a), was selected by officials of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) on the recommendations of local raccoon hunter clubs. Within the study area, forested areas covered approximately 23,697 ha (45.5 percent). In the tri-county area (Blount, Loudon, and Monroe counties), forests account for 201,993 ha (52.9 percent). Twenty-two percent of the total forested area of Loudon County is composed of large sawtimber hardwoods dominated by oak-hickory stands (18.4 percent). Approximately, 378 km (235 mi) of streams drain the study area, and 191 km (119 mi) flow through wooded areas 0.41 ha (1 a) or larger. The total human population in the study area in 1970 was 17,426; in the tri-county area it was 111,485. The majority of the farming enterprises is for livestock. Much of the land used for these enterprises is pasture. Within the study area, 52.2 percent (27,174 ha, 67.091 a) of the total area is devoted to agriculture. Commercial land use is concentrated mostly in the larger towns. From 21 September 1975 through 22 November 1976, 24 grids (809 ha each) were trapped on 223 different nights for a total of 3,928 tripnights. A total of 32 (17 males, 15 females) different raccoons were trapped and tagged for a capture success of one per 83.6 trip-nights (1.2 percent). On numerous occasions free-roaming dogs were observed inside the study area. From 31 December 1975 through 11 November 1976, a total of 19 simulated hunts was conducted on 18 different nights. The dogs treed 39 times out of 82 trial strikes, A total of 8 raccoons was sighted. The percentage hunter success per hunt was 42 percent; the percentage hunter success per hour was 11 percent. Trapping success in the study area indicated a low population density as compared with other studies done in open county and protected areas. The simulated hunts illustrated that hunter success is low when compared state-wide. There appear to be two general causes for the low raccoon population density in the study and surrounding areas of East Tennessee: (1) agricultural practices and (2) harassment from hunting and free roaming dogs. It is recommended that the dog training season in East Tennessee be sharply curtailed and a special dog licensing law passed to aid in identification between stray and domestic dogs

The Indian Ocean tsunami: socio-economic impacts in Thailand

On the morning of 26 December 2004 large areas of coastal southern Thailand were transformed when a tsunami, generated by a powerful submarine earthquake in the Indian Ocean, swept ashore. Officially, there were 5395 confirmed deaths in Thailand with another 2932 people listed as missing. In February 2005 a team led by Dr Ben Horton of the University of Pennsylvania was awarded an SGER grant by the National Science Foundation to undertake exploratory research on the tsunami in Malaysia and Thailand. This report summarizes the preliminary conclusions of the social science element of the Thai fieldwork. The team undertook fieldwork in three main sites during July 2005: Koh Lanta, Koh Phi Phi and Khao Lak. We chose Koh Phi Phi as a small, tourist (backpacker)-oriented island economy with high levels of damage and casualties; Koh Lanta as a site with a significant population of fisherfolk with a long presence in the area; and Khao Lak as a mainland site with the highest number of casualties in Thailand and with a mixed tourism-fishing economy

Velocity correlations in dense granular gases

We report the statistical properties of spherical steel particles rolling on an inclined surface being driven by an oscillating wall. Strong dissipation occurs due to collisions between the particles and rolling and can be tuned by changing the number density. The velocities of the particles are observed to be correlated over large distances comparable to the system size. The distribution of velocities deviates strongly from a Gaussian. The degree of the deviation, as measured by the kurtosis of the distribution, is observed to be as much as four times the value corresponding to a Gaussian, signaling a significant breakdown of the assumption of negligible velocity correlations in a granular system.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Figure

Collision statistics of driven granular materials

We present an experimental investigation of the statistical properties of spherical granular particles on an inclined plane that are excited by an oscillating side-wall. The data is obtained by high-speed imaging and particle tracking techniques. We identify all particles in the system and link their positions to form trajectories over long times. Thus, we identify particle collisions to measure the effective coefficient of restitution and find a broad distribution of values for the same impact angles. We find that the energy inelasticity can take on values greater than one, which implies that the rotational degrees play an important role in energy transfer. We also measure the distance and the time between collision events in order to directly determine the distribution of path lengths and the free times. These distributions are shown to deviate from expected theoretical forms for elastic spheres, demonstrating the inherent clustering in this system. We describe the data with a two-parameter fitting function and use it to calculated the mean free path and collision time. We find that the ratio of these values is consistent with the average velocity. The velocity distribution are observed to be strongly non-Gaussian and do not demonstrate any apparent universal behavior. We report the scaling of the second moment, which corresponds to the granular temperature, and higher order moments as a function of distance from the driving wall. Additionally, we measure long time correlation functions in both space and in the velocities to probe diffusion in a dissipative gas.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, uses revtex

Development of chip passivated monolithic complementary MISFET circuits with beam leads

Fabrication method is described for alumina passivated silicon MISFET arrays. Technique involves total passivation beam-lead approach and provides completely sealed chip with double level interconnect capability. Refractory metal alloy is used to form interconnect system and obtain metal contacts that withstand temperatures of 873 K for short periods of time