609 research outputs found
Overwintering Habitat of American Dipper, Cinclus mexicanus, Observed in an Arctic Groundwater Spring Feeding on Dolly Varden, Salvelinus malma
Perennial groundwater springs along the Alaska and Yukon North Slope provide overwintering habitat for various organisms, including birds and fishes. We observed an American Dipper, Cinclus mexicanus, in the open water of a perennial spring situated in Fish Creek, Yukon, in Ivvavik National Park on 8 March 2018. The observation at Fish Creek was among the most northern documented sightings of an American Dipper during the winter in North America. Moreover, the observation was approximately 650 km farther north than where American Dippers have been documented overwintering in Yukon, making this the most northern Canadian observation documented for this species in any season. Additionally, the American Dipper was photographed feeding on a juvenile Dolly Varden, Salvelinus malma. Although American Dippers are known to feed on small fish, our observation was a novel documentation of a trophic interaction between both species during winter. The open-water habitat in Fish Creek, which is important for both species and has not been previously described, was short (~730 m long), shallow (mean = 20 cm deep), narrow (mean = 2.8 m wide), and cold (mean water temperature = 0.34ÂșC). While there is little information regarding the ecological interactions of American Dipper overwintering in the Arctic, we note that all observations in the North Slope area during winter occurred in river systems also used by Dolly Varden, which indicates that juvenile Dolly Varden could be an important source of food for American Dipper in winter.Les sources dâeau souterraine pĂ©rennes le long du versant nord de lâAlaska et du Yukon procurent un habitat dâhivernage Ă divers organismes, y compris les oiseaux et les poissons. Le 8 mars 2018, nous avons observĂ© un cincle dâAmĂ©rique (Cinclus mexicanus) dans lâeau libre dâune source pĂ©renne situĂ©e au ruisseau Fish, dans le parc national Ivvavik, au Yukon. Lâobservation faite au ruisseau Fish figurait parmi les observations hivernales les plus nordiques du cincle dâAmĂ©rique Ă avoir Ă©tĂ© rĂ©pertoriĂ©es en AmĂ©rique du Nord. Cette observation a Ă©tĂ© faite Ă environ 650 km plus au nord que lâendroit oĂč lâhabitat dâhivernage des cincles dâAmĂ©rique a Ă©tĂ© documentĂ© au Yukon, ce qui reprĂ©sente lâobservation la plus nordique au Canada Ă avoir Ă©tĂ© consignĂ©e pour cette espĂšce Ă nâimporte quelle saison. Par surcroĂźt, le cincle dâAmĂ©rique a Ă©tĂ© photographiĂ© en train de se nourrir dâun omble malma juvĂ©nile (Salvelinus malma). Bien que lâon sache que les cincles dâAmĂ©rique se nourrissent de petits poissons, lâobservation que nous avons documentĂ©e constituait un nouveau cas dâinteraction trophique entre les deux espĂšces pendant lâhiver. Lâhabitat en eau libre du ruisseau Fish, qui est important pour les deux espĂšces et nâa pas encore Ă©tĂ© dĂ©crit, Ă©tait court (environ 730 m de long), peu profond (moyenne de 20 cm de profondeur), Ă©troit (moyenne de 2,8 m de largeur) et froid (moyenne de la tempĂ©rature de lâeau = 0,34 ÂșC). Bien quâil existe peu dâinformation sur les interactions Ă©cologiques du cincle dâAmĂ©rique hivernant dans lâArctique, notons quâen hiver, toutes les observations faites dans la rĂ©gion du versant nord ont eu lieu dans des rĂ©seaux hydrographiques oĂč vit Ă©galement lâomble malma, ce qui laisse croire que lâomble malma juvĂ©nile pourrait reprĂ©senter une source de nourriture importante pour le cincle dâAmĂ©rique en hiver
Scattering theory for the Schr\"odinger-Debye System
We study the Schr\"odinger-Debye system over iu_t+\frac
12\Delta u=uv,\quad \mu v_t+v=\lambda |u|^2 and establish the global existence
and scattering of small solutions for initial data in several function spaces
in dimensions . Moreover, in dimension , we prove a
Hayashi-Naumkin modified scattering result.Comment: 22 page
In the loop: a social network approach to the willingness to communicate in the L2 (L2 WTC)
Despite the conceptual importance of investigating the social context(s) in which second-language (L2) learning and use take place, the decade-old âsocial turnâ within the field of second-language acquisition (SLA) has yet to produce a âparsimonious system of valid and generalizable parameters to describe contextual characteristicsâ (Dörnyei, 2009a, p. 238). Accordingly, investigating social network structure has recently been suggested as a general approach to examining the link between person and environment (Beckner, et al., 2009). In the current thesis, I offer a network approach in which second-language (L2) learning and use is regarded both as purposeful and as constrained by oneâs social relationships. Subsequently, in a first-of-its-kind study within SLA, I apply social network analysis â a diverse array of formally-defined measures of social position and other socio-structural features â to conceptualize and empirically test the relationship between social structure and the willingness to communicate in the L2 (L2 WTC), defined as the âreadiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using a L2â (MacIntyre, et al., 1998, p. 547). In a study of Chinese-speaking international students at a British university, trait-like L2 WTC is found to predict cross-cultural adjustment, suggesting the role of actively engaging with oneâs new cultural surroundings in establishing an adaptive person-environment fit. Subsequently, in the first study to apply modern, graph-theoretic notions of social position to a network of L2 learners, a significant relationship is found between various notions of structural position among a network of international English-for-Academic-Purposes students, and dispositional L2 WTC. Overall, the results support L2 WTC as both purposeful and constrained, learned from oneâs past interactions, yet pushing the individual to take advantage of opportunities to communicate in the L2. Implications, limitations, and future directions of a social network approach to L2 learning and use are also discussed
Power laws, Discontinuities and Regional City Size Distributions
Urban systems are manifestations of human adaptation to the natural environment. City size distributions are the expression of hierarchical processes acting upon urban systems. In this paper, we test the entire city size distributions for the southeastern and southwestern United States (1990), as well as the size classes in these regions for power law behavior. We interpret the differences in the size of the regional city size distributions as the manifestation of variable growth dynamics dependent upon city size. Size classics in the city size distributions are snapshots of stable states within urban systems in flux
Is a Recent Surge in Global Warming Detectable?
The global mean surface temperature is widely studied to monitor climate
change. A current debate centers around whether there has been a recent
(post-1970s) surge/acceleration in the warming rate. This paper addresses
whether an acceleration in the warming rate is detectable from a statistical
perspective. We use changepoint models, which are statistical techniques
specifically designed for identifying structural changes in time series. Four
global mean surface temperature records over 1850-2023 are scrutinized within.
Our results show limited evidence for a warming surge; in most surface
temperature time series, no change in the warming rate beyond the 1970s is
detected. As such, we estimate minimum changes in the warming trend for a surge
to be detectable in the near future
Inuit observations of a tunicata bloom unusual for the amundsen gulf, western Canadian arctic
© 2020, Canadian Science Publishing. All rights reserved. Inuit are at the forefront of ecosystem change in the Arctic, yet their observations and interpretations are rarely reported in the literature. Climate change impacts are rapidly unfolding in the Arctic and there is a need for monitoring and reporting unique observations. In this short communication, we draw upon observations and experiential knowledge from western Canadian Inuit (Inuvialuit) harvesters combined with a scientific assessment to describe and interpret an unusual account of gelatinous organisms at high densities during summer 2019 in eastern Amundsen Gulf, near Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories. The gelatinous organisms were identified as primarily appendicularian larvaceans (Oikopleura spp., pelagic tunicates) and their gelatinous âhousesâ. The organisms were observed within 3â5 km of the marine coast, from âŒ1â2 m below the surface and to depths of âŒ30 m with an underwater camera. Pelagic tunicates have rarely been documented in the eastern Amundsen Gulf and, to our knowledge, this was the first time these organisms had been noted by the people of Ulukhaktok. The pelagic tunicates clogged subsistence fishing nets and Inuvialuit harvesters were concerned about negative impacts to marine mammals and fishes, which they depend on for food security. These interpretations highlight major knowledge gaps for appendicularians in the Arctic
In the loop: a social network approach to the willingness to communicate in the L2 (L2 WTC)
Despite the conceptual importance of investigating the social context(s) in which second-language (L2) learning and use take place, the decade-old âsocial turnâ within the field of second-language acquisition (SLA) has yet to produce a âparsimonious system of valid and generalizable parameters to describe contextual characteristicsâ (Dörnyei, 2009a, p. 238). Accordingly, investigating social network structure has recently been suggested as a general approach to examining the link between person and environment (Beckner, et al., 2009). In the current thesis, I offer a network approach in which second-language (L2) learning and use is regarded both as purposeful and as constrained by oneâs social relationships. Subsequently, in a first-of-its-kind study within SLA, I apply social network analysis â a diverse array of formally-defined measures of social position and other socio-structural features â to conceptualize and empirically test the relationship between social structure and the willingness to communicate in the L2 (L2 WTC), defined as the âreadiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using a L2â (MacIntyre, et al., 1998, p. 547). In a study of Chinese-speaking international students at a British university, trait-like L2 WTC is found to predict cross-cultural adjustment, suggesting the role of actively engaging with oneâs new cultural surroundings in establishing an adaptive person-environment fit. Subsequently, in the first study to apply modern, graph-theoretic notions of social position to a network of L2 learners, a significant relationship is found between various notions of structural position among a network of international English-for-Academic-Purposes students, and dispositional L2 WTC. Overall, the results support L2 WTC as both purposeful and constrained, learned from oneâs past interactions, yet pushing the individual to take advantage of opportunities to communicate in the L2. Implications, limitations, and future directions of a social network approach to L2 learning and use are also discussed
Group testing models with unknown link function
Group testing through the use of pooling has proven to be an efïŹcient method of reducing the time and cost associated with screening for a binary characteristic of interest such as infection status. A topic of key interest in this area involves the development of regression models that relate the individual level covariates to the binary pool testing responses. The research in this area has primarily focused on parametric regression models. In this poster, we will introduce a new estimation method which can handle multi-dimensional covariates while assuming the link is unknown. The asymptotic properties of our estimators are also presented. We investigate the performance of our method through simulation and by applying it to a hepatitis data set obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Improving long-term disaster recovery research in Australia through boosting dataset comparability
Emergencies and disasters are increasing in frequency and complexity in Australia and around the world.1 It is well established that the effects of these events take a long time to recover from. There is strong and growing evidence to show that different segments of society are exposed to disasters in different ways, with people and communities affected in interconnected and compounding ways
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