ASSESSING THE RELATIVE INFLUENCES OF ABIOTIC AND BIOTIC FACTORS ON A SPECIES’ DISTRIBUTION USING PSEUDO-ABSENCE AND FUNCTIONAL TRAIT DATA: A CASE STUDY WITH THE AMERICAN EEL (Anguilla rostrata)

Species’ distributions are influenced by abiotic and biotic factors but direct comparison of their relative importance is difficult, particularly when working with complex, multi-species datasets. Here, we present a flexible method to compare abiotic and biotic influences at common scales. First, data representing abiotic and biotic factors are collected using a combination of geographic information system, remotely sensed, and species’ functional trait data. Next, the relative influences of each predictor variable on the occurrence of a focal species are compared. Specifically, ‘sample’ data from sites of known occurrence are compared with ‘background’ data (i.e. pseudo-absence data collected at sites where occurrence is unknown, combined with sample data). Predictor variables that may have the strongest influence on the focal species are identified as those where sample data are clearly distinct from the corresponding background distribution. To demonstrate the method, effects of hydrology, physical habitat, and co-occurring fish functional traits are assessed relative to the contemporary (1950 – 1990) distribution of the American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) in six Mid-Atlantic (USA) rivers. We find that Eel distribution has likely been influenced by the functional characteristics of co-occurring fishes and by local dam density, but not by other physical habitat or hydrologic factors

Identifying biotic determinants of historic American eel (Anguilla rostrata) distributions

Traditionally, ecologists studying large scale patterns in species distributions emphasize abiotic variables over biotic interactions. Noting that both abiotic & biotic variables likely determine distributions of all organisms, many ecologists now aim for a more comprehensive view of species distributions, inclusive of both abiotic and biotic components (Soberón 2007)

Synthesis and Properties of Bio-based 3D Printable Resins

A photopolymer resin is a monomer that, when introduced to light of a certain wavelength, starts to polymerize into a solid. This has become a growing part of the 3D printing industry. There have been many advancements in the field of 3D printing, however, a lot of these resins are not environmentally friendly and even harmful if not handled in the correct manner. Plant based resins are becoming more and more popular because of their biodegradability and for the possibility of using renewable resources. Glycerol is a plant-based compound that is produced in excess in industry. Glycerol obtained from bioethanol production as waste and can be used for value-added chemicals. Also, changing the wavelength of light required to polymerize means that researchers are trying to move away from using UV light because it is very harmful to human skin and can even damage a person’s vision. Also, UV light creates ozone as a by-product which can be harmful to the environment. This combination can have multiple real-world applications, not limited to 3D printing. It can possibly be used for gas separation and even polymer batteries. In this presentation, we converted glycerol based secondary alcohol into photopolymerizable resins. For preliminary studies, we varied the alkyl groups of the secondary alcohol containing ether and photopolymerized with different amounts of crosslinkers. We also used plant-based resin to get 3D printed polymers to see their properties. Finally, our synthesized resins mixed with commercial plant-based resins will be used to get 3D printed structures. Synthesis and characterization of these resins will be shown in the presentation

From bound states to resonances: analytic continuation of the wave function

Single-particle resonance parameters and wave functions in spherical and deformed nuclei are determined through analytic continuation in the potential strength. In this method, the analyticity of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Schroedinger equation with respect to the coupling strength is exploited to analytically continue the bound-state solutions into the positive-energy region by means of Pade' approximants of the second kind. The method is here applied to single-particle wave functions of the $^{154}Sm$ and $^{131}Eu$ nuclei. A comparison of the results with the direct solution of the Schroedinger equation shows that the method can be confidently applied also in coupled-channel situations requiring high numerical accuracy.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Dual Anion-Cation Ionic Liquid Crystal for Battery Applications

Ionic liquid crystals (ILCs) are a special class of compounds that not only contains mesogens group but also have cationic and/or anionic components. ILCs can self-organize into assemblies with varying degrees of orientational order resulting into formation of unique liquid crystal phases. Thermotropic ionic liquid crystals are special subclass of liquid crystal containing ionic liquid moiety that self- assemble with application of heat to form liquid crystal phases. Thermotropic ionic liquid crystal materials may exhibit several mesogenic phases at differing temperatures, distinguishable by the degree of order. This work mainly focuses on synthesis and characterization of Ionic liquid Crystals containing imidazolium and sulfonimide functional group attached to phenyl ring containing long chain alkyl group. In this presentation we will focus on how change in alkyl tail, change in ionic component (sulfonimide vs imidazolium) , and counter ion (i.e., triethyl ammonium vs Lithium cation) present in the compound, affect the liquid crystal properties. The synthesized ILCs was characterized by TGA, DSC and SAXS data. Keywords: Ionic liquids, Liquid crystals, Dual Cation-Anion, Batterie

The Dynamics of Stress and Fatigue Across Menopause: Attractors, Coupling, and Resilience

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the regulatory dynamics between stress and fatigue experienced by women during the menopausal transition (MT) and early postmenopause (EPM). Fatigue and perceived stress are commonly experienced by women during the MT and EPM. We sought to discover relationships between these symptoms and to employ these symptoms as possible markers for resilience. Methods: Participants were drawn from the longitudinal Seattle Midlife Women\u27s Health Study. Eligible women completed questionnaires on 60+ occasions (annual health reports and monthly health diaries) (n = 56 women). The total number of observations across the sample was 4,224. STRAW+10 criteria were used to stage women in either in late reproductive, early or late transition, or EPM stage. Change values were generated for fatigue and stress and analyzed with a multilevel structural equation model; slopes indicate how quickly a person returns to homeostasis after a perturbation. Coupling of stress and fatigue was modeled to evaluate resilience, the notion of maintaining stability during change. Results: Eligible women were on average 35 years old (SD = 4.71), well educated, employed, married or partnered, and white. Fit indices suggested the model depicts the relationships of stress and fatigue (χ2(9 df) = 7.638, P = 0.57, correction factor = 4.9244; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) 90% CI = 0.000 ≤ 0.000 ≤ 0.032; comparative fit index (CFI) = 1.00). A loss in model fit across stages suggests that the four stages differed in their dynamics (χ2Δ(12 df) = 21.181, P = .048). All stages showed fixed-point attractor dynamics: fatigue became less stable over time; stress generally became more stable over time. Coupling relationships of stress on fatigue show evidence for shifts in regulatory relationships with one another across the MT. Conclusions: Results are suggestive of general dysregulation via disruptions to coupling relationships of stress and fatigue across the MT. Findings support a holistic approach to understanding symptoms and supporting women during the MT

Promoting and maintaining physical activity in the transition to retirement: a systematic review of interventions for adults around retirement age

It has been argued that transition points in life, such as the approach towards, and early years of retirement present key opportunities for interventions to improve the health of the population. Research has also highlighted inequalities in health status in the retired population and in response to interventions which should be addressed. We aimed to conduct a systematic review to synthesise international evidence on the types and effectiveness of interventions to increase physical activity among people around the time of retirement. A systematic review of literature was carried out between February 2014 and April 2015. Searches were not limited by language or location, but were restricted by date to studies published from 1990 onwards. Methods for identification of relevant studies included electronic database searching, reference list checking, and citation searching. Systematic search of the literature identified 104 papers which described study populations as being older adults. However, we found only one paper which specifically referred to their participants as being around the time of retirement. The intervention approaches for older adults encompassed: training of health care professionals; counselling and advice giving; group sessions; individual training sessions; in-home exercise programmes; in-home computer-delivered programmes; in-home telephone support; in-home diet and exercise programmes; and community-wide initiatives. The majority of papers reported some intervention effect, with evidence of positive outcomes for all types of programmes. A wide range of different measures were used to evaluate effectiveness, many were self-reported and few studies included evaluation of sedentary time. While the retirement transition is considered a significant point of life change, little research has been conducted to assess whether physical activity interventions at this time may be effective in promoting or maintaining activity, or reducing health inequalities. We were unable to find any evidence that the transition to retirement period was, or was not a significant point for intervention. Studies in older adults more generally indicated that a range of interventions might be effective for people around retirement age

Driver behaviour with adaptive cruise control

This paper reports on the evaluation of adaptive cruise control (ACC) from a psychological perspective. It was anticipated that ACC would have an effect upon the psychology of driving, i.e. make the driver feel like they have less control, reduce the level of trust in the vehicle, make drivers less situationally aware, but workload might be reduced and driving might be less stressful. Drivers were asked to drive in a driving simulator under manual and ACC conditions. Analysis of variance techniques were used to determine the effects of workload (i.e. amount of traffic) and feedback (i.e. degree of information from the ACC system) on the psychological variables measured (i.e. locus of control, trust, workload, stress, mental models and situation awareness). The results showed that: locus of control and trust were unaffected by ACC, whereas situation awareness, workload and stress were reduced by ACC. Ways of improving situation awareness could include cues to help the driver predict vehicle trajectory and identify conflicts

Statistical Properties of Gamma-Ray Burst Polarization

The emission mechanism and the origin and structure of magnetic fields in gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets are among the most important open questions concerning the nature of the central engine of GRBs. In spite of extensive observational efforts, these questions remain to be answered and are difficult or even impossible to infer with the spectral and lightcurve information currently collected. Polarization measurements will lead to unambiguous answers to several of these questions. Recent developments in X-ray and gamma-ray polarimetry techniques have demonstrated a significant increase in sensitivity enabling several new mission concepts, e.g. POET (Polarimeters for Energetic Transients), providing wide field of view and broadband polarimetry measurements. If launched, missions of this kind would finally provide definitive measurements of GRB polarizations. We perform Monte Carlo simulations to derive the distribution of GRB polarizations in three emission models; the synchrotron model with a globally ordered magnetic field (SO model), the synchrotron model with a locally random magnetic field (SR model), and the Compton drag model (CD model). The results show that POET, or other polarimeters with similar capabilities, can constrain the GRB emission models by using the statistical properties of GRB polarizations. In particular, the ratio of the number of GRBs for which the polarization degrees can be measured to the number of GRBs that are detected (N_m/N_d) and the distributions of the polarization degrees (Pi) can be used as the criteria. If N_m/N_d > 30% and Pi is clustered between 0.2 and 0.7, the SO model will be favored. If instead N_m/N_d < 15%, then the SR or CD model will be favored. If several events with Pi > 0.8 are observed, then the CD model will be favored.Comment: Replaced with accepted version in ApJ. A few minor changes done. References adde

Building development and roads: implications for the distribution of stone curlews across the Brecks

Background: Substantial new housing and infrastructure development planned within England has the potential to conflict with the nature conservation interests of protected sites. The Breckland area of eastern England (the Brecks) is designated as a Special Protection Area for a number of bird species, including the stone curlew (for which it holds more than 60% of the UK total population). We explore the effect of buildings and roads on the spatial distribution of stone curlew nests across the Brecks in order to inform strategic development plans to avoid adverse effects on such European protected sites. Methodology: Using data across all years (and subsets of years) over the period 1988 – 2006 but restricted to habitat areas of arable land with suitable soils, we assessed nest density in relation to the distances to nearest settlements and to major roads. Measures of the local density of nearby buildings, roads and traffic levels were assessed using normal kernel distance-weighting functions. Quasi-Poisson generalised linear mixed models allowing for spatial auto-correlation were fitted. Results: Significantly lower densities of stone curlew nests were found at distances up to 1500m from settlements, and distances up to 1000m or more from major (trunk) roads. The best fitting models involved optimally distance-weighted variables for the extent of nearby buildings and the trunk road traffic levels. Significance : The results and predictions from this study of past data suggests there is cause for concern that future housing development and associated road infrastructure within the Breckland area could have negative impacts on the nesting stone curlew population. Given the strict legal protection afforded to the SPA the planning and conservation bodies have subsequently agreed precautionary restrictions on building development within the distances identified and used the modelling predictions to agree mitigation measures for proposed trunk road developments