Using goats to control weeds

Feral goats are common in the woodland and tall shrubland areas of arid Australia. They survive and reproduce despite regular shooting, capture and droughts. These goats are considered vermin in Western Australia because of their competition with sheep for forage and their reputation as destroyers of vegetation. Research elsewhere, however, has indicated that it is only the uncontrolled grazing by large numbers of goats that causes degradation, in the same way that uncontrolled grazing by sheep can cause erosion. To some people, however, feral goats are a valuable source of income. They have the potential for meat sales, and they form the basis of breeding programmes for mohair and cashmere. Another potential which is only now being properly studied is the use of goats to eliminate or at least reduce unwanted vegetation

The origin of the ninetyeast ridge and the northward motion of India, based on DSDP paleolatitudes

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution January, 1977This thes is is a collection of papers on the paleomagnetics of samples from several Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) sites in the Indian Ocean. These papers present the basic paleomagnetic data, discuss the statistical methods for analyzing such data from DSDP cores, and examine the implications of the paleolatitudes for the origin of the Ninetyeast Ridge and the northward motion of India. Rarely do DSDP paleolatitudes approach the reliability of good continental pole positions. However, the reliability of such paleolatitudes can be markedly improved by using comparisons with paleolatitudes of different ages from the same site, paleolatitudes of similar ages from different sites on the same plate, estimates of paleolatitude from the skewness of marine magnetic anomalies, and continental paleopole. positions. Using such comparisons, a new paleomagnetic pole of upper Cretaceous age has been defined for the Pacific plate. A middle Cretaceous pole has been defined for the Wharton Basin plate, and it suggests that there may have been left lateral motion between Australia and the Wharton Basin. Paleolatitudes from the Ninetyeast Ridge are consistent with the pole position for the Deccan Traps. These data indicate that India and the Ninetyeast Ridge moved northwards with respect to the South Pole at 14.9 ± 4.5 cm/yr from 70 to 40 mybp and at 5.2 ± .8 cm/yr from 40 mybp until the present. However, when this paleomotion is compared to the Australian paleomagnetic data (by removing the relative motion components), a major inconsistency appears between 40 and 50 mybp. The Australian data indicate that India should be 13° further north than the positions implied by the Ninetyeast Ridge data. Basal paleolatitudes on the Ninetyeast Ridge indicate that its volcanic source was approximately fixed in latitude near 50°S, supporting the hypothesis that the ridge is the trace of the Kerguelen hotspot on the northward moving Indian plate. There is considerable geologic evidence in favor of such an hypothesis, and there is none to contradict it.National Science Foundation (Grant DES-74-22552)

P- and S- wave velocities of consolidated sediments from a seafloor seismic survey in the North Celtic Sea Basin, offshore Ireland

A geophysical survey was conducted over a hydrocarbon prospect in the North Celtic Sea Basin using a small array of ocean-bottom seismographs (OBSs). The purpose of this study was to determine the ratio of (P) compressional- to (S) shear-wave velocity of consolidated sedimentary rocks in order to constrain possible subsurface variations in pore-fluid content. The ratio of VP and VS- is known to be particularly sensitive to lithology, porosity and pore-fluid content, making it a useful parameter for evaluating hydrocarbon prospects. OBSs offer a relatively cheap and time-effective means of acquiring multi-component data compared with ocean-bottom cables. In this contribution, we demonstrate the ability of an OBS survey comprising three pairs of two OBSs spaced at 1.6 km to recover lateral variations in the VP/VS ratio. A key requirement of this type of study is that S-waves will be generated by mode conversions in the subsurface, since they cannot be generated in nor travel through fluids. In this survey, the contrast in physical properties of the hard seabed of the North Celtic Sea Basin provided a means of generating converted S-waves. Two-dimensional ray-tracing and forward modeling was used to create both VP and VS models along a profile crossing the Blackrock prospect in the North Celtic Sea Basin. These models comprise four layers and extend to a maximum depth of 1.1 km. The observed northward decrease in the VP/VS ratio at depths of 500-1000 m below the seafloor in the study area is interpreted to represent lateral variation in the amount of gas present in the pore space of Upper Cretaceous chalks and shales overlying the prospective reservoir

Reconstruction Of Neets'Aii Gwich'In Land Use: A Methodological Study.

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1995This thesis attempts to determine to what extent land use patterns for the Neets'aii Gwich'in of Alaska can be spatially reconstructed from existing sources. Written narratives are reviewed, such as those related by explorers, missionaries, traders and prospectors, for information on land use. Also reviewed are data that give a broad array of subsistence, demographic, geographical or other relevant information concerning land use, including biological and geological reports, economic studies, census reports, Neets'aii Gwich'in oral narratives, archaeological studies, ethnographic studies, place name studies and maps, and land use and occupancy studies. Methodological models for gathering land use data are reviewed to establish a foundation from which the land use data discussed in this thesis can be compared. Finally, an analysis of the extent to which Neets'aii Gwich'in land use can be reconstructed using historic sources is applied to various conceptual levels of understanding Northern hunter and gatherer land use. <p

A group of new buildings for Baldpate, Inc. : a private psychiatric sanitarium in Georgetown, Massachusetts

Thesis (M.Arch.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture, 1947.Accompanying drawings held by MIT Museum.Bibliography: leaf 48.by John W. Peirce.M.Arch

Long-term performance measures of Research Skill Development with First Year Human Biology students

This presentation provides an analysis and insights from nine years of data on the performance of First Year Human Biology students when they experienced a curriculum that explicitly developed and assessed their research skills. Performance was determined by academics’ direct measures of student research skills, student pre- and post- self assessment of their research skills, student written statements about research skills and interviews with students conducted at the end of Second Year. A rich array of benefits of explicit research skill development were found from the variety of perspectives given by the data, whereas students declared very few downsides of this focus. Students were more circumspect when it came to identifying factors that helped them improve their research skills and factors that hindered this development; interviews and written comments highlighted numerous problems for the processes used, even though the overall trend was positive about the teaching methods. In addition, correlations trends were determined for student progression through their degrees when related to their final research skill measures from open-ended research conducted near the end of first year, as well as trends for correlations of marks over time

Paterson\u27s Curse management handbook

Paterson’s curse (Echium plantagineum) is one of the most damaging weeds to the Australian meat and wool industries. It infests an estimated 33 million hectares in southern Australia, at an annual cost to the sheep industry of $250 million in lost pasture productivity, control costs and wool contamination. In WA, it is found on about 5000 agricultural properties infesting some 500,000 ha. It is an extremely invasive weed, that reduces pasture productivity and stock carrying capacity by competing with and excluding more beneficial pasture species. The weed is also toxic to stock. It is important to implement control measures on isolated patches of Paterson’s curse, to limit the spread of the weed into new areas.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1091/thumbnail.jp

Computational Modeling of Interacting VEGF and Soluble VEGF Receptor Concentration Gradients

Experimental data indicates that soluble vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor 1 (sFlt-1) modulates the guidance cues provided to sprouting blood vessels by VEGF-A. To better delineate the role of sFlt-1 in VEGF signaling, we have developed an experimentally based computational model. This model describes dynamic spatial transport of VEGF, and its binding to receptors Flt-1 and Flk-1, in a mouse embryonic stem cell model of vessel morphogenesis. The model represents the local environment of a single blood vessel. Our simulations predict that blood vessel secretion of sFlt-1 and increased local sFlt-1 sequestration of VEGF results in decreased VEGF–Flk-1 levels on the sprout surface. In addition, the model predicts that sFlt-1 secretion increases the relative gradient of VEGF–Flk-1 along the sprout surface, which could alter endothelial cell perception of directionality cues. We also show that the proximity of neighboring sprouts may alter VEGF gradients, VEGF receptor binding, and the directionality of sprout growth. As sprout distances decrease, the probability that the sprouts will move in divergent directions increases. This model is a useful tool for determining how local sFlt-1 and VEGF gradients contribute to the spatial distribution of VEGF receptor binding, and can be used in conjunction with experimental data to explore how multi-cellular interactions and relationships between local growth factor gradients drive angiogenesis