Recording the Ruckus: Field Desks and Battlefield Administration

For most people, the American Civil War calls to mind images of artillery, bayonet charges, waves of blue and gray uniforms, and daring acts of bravery and heroism. What we forget, however, is that behind every shift in an army’s position or deployment of troops was a long line of administration. Effective communication, as well as accurate record keeping of supply and personnel movements, recording the order of events of each engagement, and documenting the number of men engaged and lost, was crucial to the safety of soldiers and the success or failure of the war effort. During the Civil War, with communication and transportation methods so limited, disorganization and mismanagement of troops and supplies could (and as many scholars believe, in the Confederate case, did) lead to the loss of the war. [excerpt

Understanding the shining Ramshorn snail, Segmentina Nitida: morphology, genetics and breeding

The Shining Ramshorn Snail, Segmentina nitida, is a rare freshwater snail found predominantly in drainage ditches along field margins and in marshland. It is experiencing marked declines in distribution in the United Kingdom (UK) and mainland Europe. The species was included in the IUCN Red Data Book for Invertebrates before a guideline change in 1994 and is included on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) as a priority species for conservation. The BAP for S. nitida states that further research on the species required to inform reintroduction and translocation for its conservation. For this thesis, a modified sample evaluation method for Segmentina nitida was developed and evaluated. It increased sample assessment speed without significantly reducing accuracy in comparison to a traditional method of sample evaluation. Captive breeding of S. nitida was explored with the aim of developing simple breeding protocols that could provide stock for potential reintroduction of the species into historical locations. Breeding proved challenging due to fluctuations in water chemistry and subsequent high mortality rates. Geometric morphometric shape analyses were used to investigate variation in shell shape of the species across European populations from the UK, Germany, Poland and Sweden, and the Czech Republic. German and UK snails had similar shell morphologies, and Polish and Czech snails also clustered together morphologically, with the shape of Swedish snails being less distinct. Analysis of the population genetics of German, UK, Polish and Swedish populations using nuclear (ITS, microsatellites) and mitochondrial markers (COI) revealed two distinct lineages of S. nitida in Europe. One comprised of populations from Poland and Sweden (East), and one represented UK populations and a Swedish population (West) with the two lineages coexisting in Germany. These two lineages show no evidence of genetic admixture and can be delimited by both genetic markers and geometric morphometrics, indicating two evolutionarily distinct units, possibly equating to species. The genetic and shape differences between European populations has impacts the conservation of Segmentina nitida, especially in the UK, as previous descriptions of range may now be incorrect and the UK populations may be more significant globally than previously thought, if they are indeed S. nitida. Any future reintroduction plans in the UK and elsewhere would also need to take into account these genetic lineages, as they may result in the introduction of an invasive species or result in infertile offspring

Development of Beluga, Delphinapterus leucas, Capture and Satellite Tagging Protocol in Cook Inlet, Alaska

Attempts to capture and place satellite tags on belugas, Delphinapterus leucas, in Cook Inlet, Alaska were conducted during late spring and summer of 1995, 1997, and 1999. In 1995, capture attempts using a hoop net proved impractical in Cook Inlet. In 1997, capture efforts focused on driving belugas into nets. Although this method had been successful in the Canadian High Arctic, it failed in Cook Inlet due to the ability of the whales to detect and avoid nets in shallow and very turbid water. In 1999, belugas were successfully captured using a gillnet encirclement technique. A satellite tag was attached to a juvenile male, which subsequently provided the first documentation of this species’ movements within Cook Inlet during the summer months (31 May–17 September)

Sororities at Gettysburg College During the Haaland Era, 1990-2004

From 1990 to 2004, Gettysburg College’s Greek system dominated student social life and, due to its prominence (and notoriety), attracted the attention of not only students but also faculty and administration during the era of President Gordon A. Haaland. Although fraternities were often the more influential and problematic Greek organizations on campus, Gettysburg’s sororities played a major role in the lives of female students -- offering women a chance to join a community of other women, participate in philanthropy events, and engage in Greek social life. Throughout the Haaland era, Gettysburg’s sororities consisted of a combination of Sigma Kappa, Alpha Xi Delta, Alpha Delta Pi, Chi Omega, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, and Sigma Sigma Sigma. During the 14 years, some of these sororities were added, some disappeared, and all witnessed a reduction in membership by the end of Haaland’s presidency. Some sororities had more problematic reputations than others or hazed new members, but sororities were not often perceived as negatively as fraternities were by college faculty and administration -- primarily due to sororities’ lack of chapter houses. Nevertheless, sororities experienced the same administrative changes to Greek life that their male counterparts did, including three shifts in rush/pledge program timing. Beyond these broad changes, other transformations during the Haaland era were more specific to sororities, including the creation of new chapter rooms and the adoption of No Frills Rush

Abundance of harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in three Alaskan regions, corrected for observer errors due to perception bias and species misidentification, and corrected for animals submerged from view

Estimating the abundance of cetaceans from aerial survey data requires careful attention to survey design and analysis. Once an aerial observer perceives a marine mammal or group of marine mammals, he or she has only a few seconds to identify and enumerate the individuals sighted, as well as to determine the distance to the sighting and record this information. In line-transect survey analyses, it is assumed that the observer has correctly identified and enumerated the group or individual. We describe methods used to test this assumption and how survey data should be adjusted to account for observer errors. Harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) were censused during aerial surveys in the summer of 1997 in Southeast Alaska (9844 km survey effort), in the summer of 1998 in the Gulf of Alaska (10,127 km), and in the summer of 1999 in the Bering Sea (7849 km). Sightings of harbor porpoise during a beluga whale (Phocoena phocoena) survey in 1998 (1355 km) provided data on harbor porpoise abundance in Cook Inlet for the Gulf of Alaska stock. Sightings by primary observers at side windows were compared to an independent observer at a belly window to estimate the probability of misidentification, underestimation of group size, and the probability that porpoise on the surface at the trackline were missed (perception bias, g(0)). There were 129, 96, and 201 sightings of harbor porpoises in the three stock areas, respectively. Both g(0) and effective strip width (the realized width of the survey track) depended on survey year, and g(0) also depended on the visibility reported by observers. Harbor porpoise abundance in 1997–99 was estimated at 11,146 animals for the Southeast Alaska stock, 31,046 animals for the Gulf of Alaska stock, and 48,515 animals for the Bering Sea stock

Analysis of ZDDP content and thermal decomposition in motor oils using NAA and NMR

Zinc dialkyldithiophosphates (ZDDPs) are one of the most common anti-wear additives present in commercially-available motor oils. The ZDDP concentrations of motor oils are most commonly determined using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). As part of an undergraduate research project, we have determined the Zn concentrations of eight commercially-available motor oils and one oil additive using neutron activation analysis (NAA), which has potential for greater accuracy and less sensitivity to matrix effects as compared to ICP-AES. The 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (31P-NMR) spectra were also obtained for several oil additive samples which have been heated to various temperatures in order to study the thermal decomposition of ZDDPs.Comment: Manuscript has been accepted for publication in Physics Procedia as part of the proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry (CAARI 2014

Abundance of Belugas, Delphinapterus leucas, in Cook Inlet, Alaska, 1994–2000

Annual abundance estimates of belugas, Delphinapterus leucas, in Cook Inlet were calculated from counts made by aerial observers and aerial video recordings. Whale group-size estimates were corrected for subsurface whales (availability bias) and whales that were at the surface but were missed (detection bias). Logistic regression was used to estimate the probability that entire groups were missed during the systematic surveys, and the results were used to calculate a correction to account for the whales in these missed groups (1.015, CV = 0.03 in 1994–98; 1.021, CV = 0.01 in 1999– 2000). Calculated abundances were 653 (CV = 0.43) in 1994, 491 (CV = 0.44) in 1995, 594 (CV = 0.28) in 1996, 440 (CV = 0.14) in 1997, 347 (CV = 0.29) in 1998, 367 (CV = 0.14) in 1999, and 435 (CV = 0.23, 95% CI=279–679) in 2000. For management purposes the current Nbest = 435 and Nmin = 360. These estimates replace preliminary estimates of 749 for 1994 and 357 for 1999. Monte Carlo simulations indicate a 47% probability that from June 1994 to June 1998 abundance of the Cook Inlet stock of belugas was depleted by 50%. The decline appears to have stopped in 1998

Assessment of Economic Heavy Minerals of the Virginia Inner Continental Shelf

The Virginia Division of Mineral Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science jointly made three cruises over the Virginia continental shelf in April and July of 1985 to sample known heavy-mineral sites for minerals of potential economic and/or strategic value. In addition to sampling, side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiling surveys were performed at a site off Smith Island. At the Smith Island site, as many as four acoustic horizons were detected within the upper 6 meters of sediment. The uppermost seismostratigraphic layer consists of fine and very fine sand and contains the higher concentrations of heavy minerals. There are also higher concentrations of heavy minerals on the flanks of topographic ridges. The average content of heavy minerals for all samples collected is 8 percent by weight

AGN Feedback models: Correlations with star formation and observational implications of time evolution

We examine the correlation between the star formation rate (SFR) and black hole accretion rate (BHAR) across a suite of different AGN feedback models, using the time evolution of a merger simulation. By considering three different stages of evolution, and a distinction between the nuclear and outer regions of star formation, we consider 63 different cases. Despite many of the feedback models fitting the M-\sigma\ relationship well, there are often distinct differences in the SFR-BHAR correlations, with close to linear trends only being present after the merger. Some of the models also show evolution in the SFR-BHAR parameter space that is at times directly across the long-term averaged SFR-BHAR correlation. This suggests that the observational SFR-BHAR correlation found for ensembles of galaxies is an approximate statistical trend, as suggested by Hickox et al. Decomposing the SFR into nuclear and outer components also highlights notable differences between models and there is only modest agreement with observational studies examining this in Seyfert galaxies. For the fraction of the black hole mass growth from the merger event relative to the final black hole mass, we find as much as a factor of three variation among models. This also translates into a similar variation in the post-starburst black hole mass growth. Overall, we find that while qualitative features are often similar amongst models, precise quantitative analysis shows there can be quite distinct differences.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS. Comments welcom