Alien Registration- Baker, Albert E. (Saint Francis, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/32444/thumbnail.jp

The Introduction and Spread of Kudzu in Georgia

Kudzu’s popularity in Georgia was born of necessity; the economic ravages of the Great Depression together with persistent soil erosion and depletion had left Georgia’s farmers in need of a thrifty solution. Kudzu’s nitrogen-enriching leguminous properties, along with its success as an inexpensive grazing crop, made it an attractive solution to Georgia’s agricultural woes. Channing Cope, through his radio program and regular contributions to the Atlanta Constitution, was among kudzu’s most ardent defenders. Cope’s charisma and enthusiasm helped to popularize the vine among farmers and laymen alike. At the federal level, the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) financially incentivized farmers to plant kudzu, and in doing so further popularized the plant. The personal and governmental forces in favor of kudzu’s use (represented by Cope and the SCS, respectively) are then responsible for the vine’s wild success—and ultimate downfall—in the state of Georgia

Nonstorm time dynamics of electron radiation belts observed by the Van Allen Probes

Abstract Storm time electron radiation belt dynamics have been widely investigated for many years. Here we present a rarely reported nonstorm time event of electron radiation belt evolution observed by the Van Allen Probes during 21-24 February 2013. Within 2 days, a new belt centering around L=5.8 formed and gradually merged with the original outer belt, with the enhancement of relativistic electron fluxes by a factor of up to 50. Strong chorus waves (with power spectral density up to 10-4nT2/Hz) occurred in the region L\u3e5. Taking into account the local acceleration driven by these chorus waves, the two-dimensional STEERB can approximately reproduce the observed energy spectrums at the center of the new belt. These results clearly illustrate the complexity of electron radiation belt behaviors and the importance of chorus-driven local acceleration even during the nonstorm times

Disappearance of plasmaspheric hiss following interplanetary shock

Abstract Plasmaspheric hiss is one of the important plasma waves controlling radiation belt dynamics. Its spatiotemporal distribution and generation mechanism are presently the object of active research. We here give the first report on the shock-induced disappearance of plasmaspheric hiss observed by the Van Allen Probes on 8 October 2013. This special event exhibits the dramatic variability of plasmaspheric hiss and provides a good opportunity to test its generation mechanisms. The origination of plasmaspheric hiss from plasmatrough chorus is suggested to be an appropriate prerequisite to explain this event. The shock increased the suprathermal electron fluxes, and then the enhanced Landau damping promptly prevented chorus waves from entering the plasmasphere. Subsequently, the shrinking magnetopause removed the source electrons for chorus, contributing significantly to the several-hours-long disappearance of plasmaspheric hiss

Investigation of EMIC wave scattering as the cause for the BARREL 17 January 2013 relativistic electron precipitation event: A quantitative comparison of simulation with observations

Abstract Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves were observed at multiple observatory locations for several hours on 17 January 2013. During the wave activity period, a duskside relativistic electron precipitation (REP) event was observed by one of the Balloon Array for Radiation belt Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL) balloons and was magnetically mapped close to Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 13. We simulate the relativistic electron pitch angle diffusion caused by gyroresonant interactions with EMIC waves using wave and particle data measured by multiple instruments on board GOES 13 and the Van Allen Probes. We show that the count rate, the energy distribution, and the time variation of the simulated precipitation all agree very well with the balloon observations, suggesting that EMIC wave scattering was likely the cause for the precipitation event. The event reported here is the first balloon REP event with closely conjugate EMIC wave observations, and our study employs the most detailed quantitative analysis on the link of EMIC waves with observed REP to date. Key PointsQuantitative analysis of the first balloon REP with closely conjugate EMIC wavesOur simulation suggests EMIC waves to be a viable cause for the REP eventThe adopted model is proved to be applicable to simulating the REP event

101 Dothideomycetes genomes: A test case for predicting lifestyles and emergence of pathogens.

Dothideomycetes is the largest class of kingdom Fungi and comprises an incredible diversity of lifestyles, many of which have evolved multiple times. Plant pathogens represent a major ecological niche of the class Dothideomycetes and they are known to infect most major food crops and feedstocks for biomass and biofuel production. Studying the ecology and evolution of Dothideomycetes has significant implications for our fundamental understanding of fungal evolution, their adaptation to stress and host specificity, and practical implications with regard to the effects of climate change and on the food, feed, and livestock elements of the agro-economy. In this study, we present the first large-scale, whole-genome comparison of 101 Dothideomycetes introducing 55 newly sequenced species. The availability of whole-genome data produced a high-confidence phylogeny leading to reclassification of 25 organisms, provided a clearer picture of the relationships among the various families, and indicated that pathogenicity evolved multiple times within this class. We also identified gene family expansions and contractions across the Dothideomycetes phylogeny linked to ecological niches providing insights into genome evolution and adaptation across this group. Using machine-learning methods we classified fungi into lifestyle classes with >95 % accuracy and identified a small number of gene families that positively correlated with these distinctions. This can become a valuable tool for genome-based prediction of species lifestyle, especially for rarely seen and poorly studied species

Multi-Messenger Gravitational Wave Searches with Pulsar Timing Arrays: Application to 3C66B Using the NANOGrav 11-year Data Set

When galaxies merge, the supermassive black holes in their centers may form binaries and, during the process of merger, emit low-frequency gravitational radiation in the process. In this paper we consider the galaxy 3C66B, which was used as the target of the first multi-messenger search for gravitational waves. Due to the observed periodicities present in the photometric and astrometric data of the source of the source, it has been theorized to contain a supermassive black hole binary. Its apparent 1.05-year orbital period would place the gravitational wave emission directly in the pulsar timing band. Since the first pulsar timing array study of 3C66B, revised models of the source have been published, and timing array sensitivities and techniques have improved dramatically. With these advances, we further constrain the chirp mass of the potential supermassive black hole binary in 3C66B to less than $(1.65\pm0.02) \times 10^9~{M_\odot}$ using data from the NANOGrav 11-year data set. This upper limit provides a factor of 1.6 improvement over previous limits, and a factor of 4.3 over the first search done. Nevertheless, the most recent orbital model for the source is still consistent with our limit from pulsar timing array data. In addition, we are able to quantify the improvement made by the inclusion of source properties gleaned from electromagnetic data to `blind' pulsar timing array searches. With these methods, it is apparent that it is not necessary to obtain exact a priori knowledge of the period of a binary to gain meaningful astrophysical inferences.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by Ap