The Benefish consortium 24 month report WP6: productivity modelling of OWI's and welfare intervention measures

In order to accurately model all costs and benefits associated with welfare interventions for farmed fish it is necessary to establish how any welfare actions affect productivity. Productivity modelling within Benefish has been conducted in WP6. WP6 aimed to model relationships between welfare interventions, changes in OWI’s and measures of productivity. It did so focusing only on the effects which were biological in nature: economic costs and benefits attributed to changes in productivity are addressed in WP8

A noise assessment and prediction system

A system has been designed to provide an assessment of noise levels that result from testing activities at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. The system receives meteorological data from surface stations and an upper air sounding system. The data from these systems are sent to a meteorological model, which provides forecasting conditions for up to three hours from the test time. The meteorological data are then used as input into an acoustic ray trace model which projects sound level contours onto a two-dimensional display of the surrounding area. This information is sent to the meteorological office for verification, as well as the range control office, and the environmental office. To evaluate the noise level predictions, a series of microphones are located off the reservation to receive the sound and transmit this information back to the central display unit. The computer models are modular allowing for a variety of models to be utilized and tested to achieve the best agreement with data. This technique of prediction and model validation will be used to improve the noise assessment system

Development of space stable thermal control coatings Triannual report, Mar. 1 - Jul. 31, 1967

Ultraviolet irradiation effects on space stable thermal control zinc coating

Inductive and Electrostatic Acceleration in Relativistic Jet-Plasma Interactions

We report on the observation of rapid particle acceleration in numerical simulations of relativistic jet-plasma interactions and discuss the underlying mechanisms. The dynamics of a charge-neutral, narrow, electron-positron jet propagating through an unmagnetized electron-ion plasma was investigated using a three-dimensional, electromagnetic, particle-in-cell computer code. The interaction excited magnetic filamentation as well as electrostatic plasma instabilities. In some cases, the longitudinal electric fields generated inductively and electrostatically reached the cold plasma wave-breaking limit, and the longitudinal momentum of about half the positrons increased by 50% with a maximum gain exceeding a factor of 2 during the simulation period. Particle acceleration via these mechanisms occurred when the criteria for Weibel instability were satisfied.Comment: Revised for Phys. Rev. Lett. Please see publised version for best graphic

King Philip\u27s War in Maine

A study was made of the Indian war in Maine, which started in the late summer of 1675 and continued until the spring of 1678. The causes and consequences of the war are presented as they relate to the situation on the Northern colonial frontier (Maine), and as they contrast to the war and social situation in southern New England. The two major campaigns of the war in Maine are examined in detail. Three political questions are discussed as related to the war: (1) the legal control of Maine (2) the support of the war effort by the United Colonies of New England; and (3) the pacification effort of Massachusetts and New York to subdue the Maine Indians. The historiographical significance of the thesis is that it completes the story of King Philip\u27s War started in the doctoral dissertation of Douglas E. Leach at Harvard University. It is also a preliminary inquiry into the issue of French involvement in New England affairs, prior to King William\u27s War, an issue not discussed by Leach

Statistical interpretations and new findings on Variation in Cancer Risk Among Tissues

Tomasetti and Vogelstein (2015a) find that the incidence of a set of cancer types is correlated with the total number of normal stem cell divisions. Here, we separate the effects of standing stem cell number (i.e., organ or tissue size) and per stem cell lifetime replication rate. We show that each has a statistically significant and independent effect on explaining variation in cancer incidence over the 31 cases considered by Tomasetti and Vogelstein. When considering the total number of stem cell divisions and when removing cases associated with disease or carcinogens, we find that cancer incidence attains a plateau of approximately 0.6% incidence for the cases considered by these authors. We further demonstrate that grouping by anatomical site explains most of the remaining variation in risk between cancer types. This new analysis suggests that cancer risk depends not only on the number of stem cell divisions but varies enormously ($\sim$10,000 times) depending on the stem cell's environment. Future research should investigate how tissue characteristics (anatomical site, type, size, stem cell divisions) explain cancer incidence over a wider range of cancers, to what extent different tissues express specific protective mechanisms, and whether any differential protection can be attributed to natural selection

Overestimating the Role of Environment in Cancers

In a recent article, Wu and colleagues (Nature 2016;529:43-47) review previous studies and present new estimates for the contribution of extrinsic factors to cancer development. The new estimates are generally close to 100%, even for bone and brain cancers that have no known associations with lifestyle and are typically not considered to be preventable. We find that the results of Wu and colleagues are incompatible with previous estimates derived from epidemiological and genetic data. We further argue that their methods are fundamentally flawed because they overlook important effects of tissue type on cancer risk. We therefore conclude that their results give a misleading view of cancer etiology and preventability. Cancer Prev Res; 9(10); 773-6. ©2016 AACR

Joint Kernel Maps

We develop a methodology for solving high dimensional dependency estimation problems between pairs of data types, which is viable in the case where the output of interest has very high dimension, e.g. thousands of dimensions. This is achieved by mapping the objects into continuous or discrete spaces, using joint kernels. Known correlations between input and output can be defined by such kernels, some of which can maintain linearity in the outputs to provide simple (closed form) pre-images. We provide examples of such kernels and empirical results on mass spectrometry prediction and mapping between images

Characteristics of spring foraging ecology among black bears in the central coast ranges of Oregon

I studied spring food habits, focusing on cambium-feeding, of black bears (Ui-gus americanus) in the Central Coast Ranges of Oregon (1987-90) by comparing an area with high levels of timber damage caused by bears (north area) with an adjacent area of low levels of bear damage (south area). I also conducted a survey of forest stands in both areas to measure levels of bear damage, describe damage and forest stand characteristics, and determine if site characteristics were useful in predicting future bear damage. I compared the contents of black bear scats collected in spring (March - mid-July) from the north area ( = 61) with scats from the south area ( = 92). I also fed cambium to captive black bears to establish whether cainbium was readily identifiable in scats and determined it was about 50% digestible, dry matter basis. Scats from the north area had a higher percent frequency (51%) of forbs than did scats from the south area (29%) (G = 7.16, 1 df, = 0.007). Scats from the north area included small quantities (5% frequency) of many species of forbs: only clover (Trifolium repens) seemed important (12%). Cow parsnips (Heracleum lanatum) was the most common forb (10% frequency) in scats from the south area. Scats from the south area had a higher frequency (50%) of shrubs than did scats from the north area (20%) (G = 15.04, 1 df, P 40 cm dbh (F = 5.97, 1,78 df, P = 0.017), lower total basal area ( = 4.92, 1,78 df, = 0.030), occurred on less steep slopes ( = 3.80, 1,78 df, P = 0.055), and differed by aspect (cosine(aspect): F = 5.28, 1,78 df, P = 0.022) compared to forest stands without bear damage (n = 47). Forest stands had a random distribution of aspects when examined by total sample (n = 80), study area ( = 40 for each area), and all stands without bear damage. Only stands with bear damage had a non-random distribution of aspects (a = 31°; x2 = 10.5, j = 5, 4 df, P < 0.05). Average dbh of damaged trees (22 cm ± 0.98 SE) differed from the average dbh of undamaged trees (16 cm ± 0.95) within stands containing bear damage (ii = 4.23, 1 df, P = 0.0001). Bears fed on trees <10 cm dbh less than available (x2 = 65, 3 df, P < 0.005), trees 11-20 cm dbh in a ratio equal to their availability and bears selected for trees 21-30 cm dbh ( = 73, 3 df, < 0.005). Most damage (91%) occurred on trees 11-30 cm dbh. Bears damaged from 7-185 trees/ha ( = 39 ± 7.7) and 19% of trees damaged were completely girdled. Measured site characteristics were poor predictors (R2 = 0.14; correct classification rates = 70%) of a stand's potential vulnerability to damage by bears. Retaining or creating patches of known bear foods, including planting skid roads and log-landings to grasses and forbs and retaining coarse woody material as substrate for wood-nesting insects, could supplement animal damage control efforts by providing nutritious spring forage. The similarity of bear damage descriptions in the literature from regions across western North America suggest site characteristics may influence feeding behavior of bears. Identifying these characteristics, which may include parameters related to carbohydrate production, and combining them with characteristics discussed here, may allow prediction of future bear damage