125 Species Seen during Annual Spring Meeting, May 15-17, 1992

Total: 125 species. County abbreviations: C=Chase, D=Dundy, F=Frontier, H=Hayes, HI=Hitchcock, R=Red willow, AII=seen in all 5 counties. Common Loon (HI), Eared Grebe (F), Western Grebe (HI), American White Pelican (F, R), Double-crested Cormorant (F, H, HI, R), Great Blue Heron (F, H, HI, R), Green-backed Heron (D, H, R), Black-crowned Night-Heron (F, R), White-faced Ibis (H, R), Canada Goose (F, R), Wood Duck (F, H, R), Green-winged Teal (F), Mallard (D, F, HI, R), Blue-winged Teal (D, F, HI, R), Gadwall (HI), Redhead (F), Hooded Merganser (HI), Ruddy Duck (F), Turkey Vulture (All), Northern Harrier (F, HI, R), Cooper\u27s Hawk (HI), Swainson\u27s Hawk (D, F, HI), Red-tailed Hawk (All), American Kestrel (D, H, HI), Ring-necked Pheasant (All), wild Turkey (F, H, HI), Northern Bobwhite (D, F, HI), American Coot (HI), Killdeer (All), Lesser Yellowlegs (F, HI), solitary Sandpiper (F), Spotted sandpiper (All), Least Sandpiper (HI), Wilson\u27s Phalarope (F, R), Franklin\u27s Gull (F, HI), Ring-billed Gull (F), Forster\u27s Tern (F, HI), Black Tern (F, HI, R), Rock Dove (D, F, HI, R), Mourning Dove (All), Black-billed Cuckoo (HI), Yellow-billed Cuckoo (HI, R), Barn Owl (HI), Eastern Screech-Owl (D), Great Horned Owl (D, R), Burrowing Owl (F), Common Nighthawk (D, H), Chimney Swift (All), Belted Kingfisher (F, HI, R), Red-headed Woodpecker (All), Red-bellied Woodpecker (HI,R), Downy Woodpecker (All), Hairy Woodpecker (H,R), Northern Flicker (All), willow Flycatcher (HI), Least Flycatcher (H, R), Eastern Phoebe (F, H, HI, R), Say\u27s Phoebe (HI), Great Crested Flycatcher (All), Western Kingbird (All), Eastern Kingbird (All), Horned Lark (All), Purple Martin (R), Tree Swallow (F,HI,R) Northern Rough-winged Swallow (All), Bank Swallow (F, R), Cliff Swallow (D, F, R), Barn Swallow (All), Blue Jay (All), Black-billed Magpie (D, F, HI), American Crow (All), Black-capped Chickadee (All), White-breasted Nuthatch (D, F, H, R), Rock Wren (F, H, HI), House Wren (All), Eastern Bluebird (H, R), Mountain Bluebird (F, R), Swainson\u27s Thrush (D, H, HI, R), American Robin (All), Gray Catbird (HI, R), Northern Mockingbird (F), Brown Thrasher (All), Cedar Waxwing (All), Northern Shrike (F, R), Loggerhead Shrike (F, H), European Starling (All), Bell\u27s Vireo (D, F, H, HI), Warbling Vireo (All), Tennessee Warbler (R), Orange-crowned Warbler (H), Yellow Warbler (All), Blackpoll Warbler (R), Ovenbird (R), Northern Waterthrush (D), Common Yellowthroat (All), Yellow-breasted Chat (D, H, HI), Northern Cardinal (All), Rose-breasted Grosbeak (R), Black-headed Grosbeak (All), Blue Grosbeak (D, F, HI), Indigo Bunting (F, HI), Dickcissel (F, R), Rufous-sided Towhee (F, H, HI, R), Chipping Sparrow (D, F, H), Clay-colored Sparrow (All), Field Sparrow (F, R), Vesper Sparrow (F), Lark Sparrow (All), Lark Bunting (All), Savannah Sparrow (F), Grasshopper Sparrow (D, H, HI), Song Sparrow (R), Lincoln\u27s Sparrow (D, R), White-throated Sparrow (R), White-crowned Sparrow (F, HI, R), Bobolink (F), Redwinged Blackbird (All), Western Meadowlark (All), Common Grackle (All), Brown-headed Cowbird (All), Orchard Oriole (All), Northern Oriole (All), House Finch (F, H, HI, R), American Goldfinch (All), House Sparrow (All)

Fire Weather Associated with the 2019 Northern California Public Safety Power Shutoff Events

Recent high impact wildfire events across California have piloted the implementation of grid de-energization by utilities across the state. The largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), deployed this tactic on seven separate occasions during 2019, four of which occurred in October. This recent ploy has been established in the wake of many deadly wildfires such as the 2018 Camp Fire as an ignition mitigation tactic. Conditions such as the state of the fuels, meteorological conditions, and the consequent fire danger were evaluated as the primary triggers for the October de-energizations. It was determined that the fuels were critically dry and conducive for large wildfires, and three of the four events measured meteorological conditions in excess of PG&E’s pre-defined thresholds. A primary forecast tool for PG&E is the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, and this model was used for reanalysis simulations to expose the model’s proficiencies and deficiencies. The need for a properly configured WRF was confirmed. Further, sub kilometer grid resolutions were not beneficial for windspeed forecasting. Ultimately, PSPS are necessary procedures for wildfire mitigation, but they are not a long-term solution. Utility companies must implement infrastructure hardening tactics. Meanwhile, improvements in forecasting PSPS conditions with WRF are necessary

Locations in the Neocortex: A Theory of Sensorimotor Object Recognition Using Cortical Grid Cells

The neocortex is capable of anticipating the sensory results of movement but the neural mechanisms are poorly understood. In the entorhinal cortex, grid cells represent the location of an animal in its environment, and this location is updated through movement and path integration. In this paper, we propose that sensory neocortex incorporates movement using grid cell-like neurons that represent the location of sensors on an object. We describe a two-layer neural network model that uses cortical grid cells and path integration to robustly learn and recognize objects through movement and predict sensory stimuli after movement. A layer of cells consisting of several grid cell-like modules represents a location in the reference frame of a specific object. Another layer of cells which processes sensory input receives this location input as context and uses it to encode the sensory input in the object’s reference frame. Sensory input causes the network to invoke previously learned locations that are consistent with the input, and motor input causes the network to update those locations. Simulations show that the model can learn hundreds of objects even when object features alone are insufficient for disambiguation. We discuss the relationship of the model to cortical circuitry and suggest that the reciprocal connections between layers 4 and 6 fit the requirements of the model. We propose that the subgranular layers of cortical columns employ grid cell-like mechanisms to represent object specific locations that are updated through movement

Predicting future biomass yield in Miscanthus using the carbohydrate metabolic profile as a biomarker

In perennial energy crop breeding programmes, it can take several years before a mature yield is reached when potential new varieties can be scored. Modern plant breeding technologies have focussed on molecular markers, but for many crop species, this technology is unavailable. Therefore, prematurity predictors of harvestable yield would accelerate the release of new varieties. Metabolic biomarkers are routinely used in medicine, but they have been largely overlooked as predictive tools in plant science. We aimed to identify biomarkers of productivity in the bioenergy crop, Miscanthus, that could be used prognostically to predict future yields. This study identified a metabolic profile reflecting productivity in Miscanthus by correlating the summer carbohydrate composition of multiple genotypes with final yield 6 months later. Consistent and strong, significant correlations were observed between carbohydrate metrics and biomass traits at two separate field sites over 2 years. Machine-learning feature selection was used to optimize carbohydrate metrics for support vector regression models, which were able to predict interyear biomass traits with a correlation (R) of >0.67 between predicted and actual values. To identify a causal basis for the relationships between the glycome profile and biomass, a 13C-labelling experiment compared carbohydrate partitioning between high- and low-yielding genotypes. A lower yielding and slower growing genotype partitioned a greater percentage of the 13C pulse into starch compared to a faster growing genotype where a greater percentage was located in the structural biomass. These results supported a link between plant performance and carbon flow through two rival pathways (starch vs. sucrose), with higher yielding plants exhibiting greater partitioning into structural biomass, via sucrose metabolism, rather than starch. Our results demonstrate that the plant metabolome can be used prognostically to anticipate future yields and this is a method that could be used to accelerate selection in perennial energy crop breeding programmes

A Framework for Intelligence and Cortical Function Based on Grid Cells in the Neocortex

How the neocortex works is a mystery. In this paper we propose a novel framework for understanding its function. Grid cells are neurons in the entorhinal cortex that represent the location of an animal in its environment. Recent evidence suggests that grid cell-like neurons may also be present in the neocortex. We propose that grid cells exist throughout the neocortex, in every region and in every cortical column. They define a location-based framework for how the neocortex functions. Whereas grid cells in the entorhinal cortex represent the location of one thing, the body relative to its environment, we propose that cortical grid cells simultaneously represent the location of many things. Cortical columns in somatosensory cortex track the location of tactile features relative to the object being touched and cortical columns in visual cortex track the location of visual features relative to the object being viewed. We propose that mechanisms in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus that evolved for learning the structure of environments are now used by the neocortex to learn the structure of objects. Having a representation of location in each cortical column suggests mechanisms for how the neocortex represents object compositionality and object behaviors. It leads to the hypothesis that every part of the neocortex learns complete models of objects and that there are many models of each object distributed throughout the neocortex. The similarity of circuitry observed in all cortical regions is strong evidence that even high-level cognitive tasks are learned and represented in a location-based framework

Doing our work better, together: a relationship-based approach to defining the quality improvement agenda in trauma care

Article presents a study conducted at Gold Coast University Hospital that aimed to define and improve relational aspects of trauma care and facilitate co-creation of targeted interventions designed to improve team relationships and performance