Ungaliophis, U. continentalis, U. panamensis

Number of Pages: 4Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Design, development and evaluation of Stanford/Ames Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) prehensors

A summary is given of progress to date on work proposed in 1983 and continued in 1985, including design iterations on three different types of manually powered prehensors, construction of functional mockups of each and culminating in detailed drawings and specifications for suit-compatible sealed units for testing under realistic conditions

Childhood Trauma and Effective Empirically Based Interventions

Trauma affects many children in various ways globally. According to SAMHSA (2017), the “occurrence of child trauma is very prevalent, and 75% of children reported experiencing at least one traumatic event by age 16”. Traumatic events consist of “psychological, physical, or sexual abuse; community or school violence; witnessing or experiencing domestic violence; national disasters or terrorism; commercial sexual exploitation; sudden or violent loss of a loved one; refugee or war experiences; military family-related stressors; physical or sexual assault; neglect; and serious accidents or life-threatening illness” (SAMHSA, 2017). This literature review evaluates three different attachment-based, trauma-informed interventions for young children 0-7 years of age which are: Attachment and Bio-Behavioral Catchup (ABC), Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). Throughout this review, childhood trauma will be defined, and the current occurrence rates will be discussed. Furthermore, the descriptions of the above therapies, clinical trials, and research findings will be examined, and a discussion of the literature review findings will follow

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT IN WHEAT AND BARLEY: 1998-2000

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), commonly known as scab, has been a severe problem for wheat and barley producers since 1993. This study provides an update of economic losses suffered by wheat and barley producers in scab-affected regions in the United States. Emphasis is placed on estimating direct and secondary economic impacts of yield and price losses suffered by wheat and barley producers from 1998 to 2000. Nine states are included in the analysis for three wheat classes. Three of the nine states were also used for the analysis of malting and feed barley. The cumulative direct economic losses from FHB in hard red spring (HRS) wheat, soft red winter (SRW) wheat, durum wheat, and barley is estimated at $870 million from 1998 through 2000. The combined direct and secondary economic losses for all the crops were estimated at$2.7 billion. Two states, North Dakota and Minnesota, account for about 55 percent of the total dollar losses.Fusarium Head Blight, scab, vomitoxin, crop losses, wheat, barley, Crop Production/Industries,

Allele frequency misspecification: effect on power and Type I error of model-dependent linkage analysis of quantitative traits under random ascertainment

BACKGROUND: Studies of model-based linkage analysis show that trait or marker model misspecification leads to decreasing power or increasing Type I error rate. An increase in Type I error rate is seen when marker related parameters (e.g., allele frequencies) are misspecified and ascertainment is through the trait, but lod-score methods are expected to be robust when ascertainment is random (as is often the case in linkage studies of quantitative traits). In previous studies, the power of lod-score linkage analysis using the "correct" generating model for the trait was found to increase when the marker allele frequencies were misspecified and parental data were missing. An investigation of Type I error rates, conducted in the absence of parental genotype data and with misspecification of marker allele frequencies, showed that an inflation in Type I error rate was the cause of at least part of this apparent increased power. To investigate whether the observed inflation in Type I error rate in model-based LOD score linkage was due to sampling variation, the trait model was estimated from each sample using REGCHUNT, an automated segregation analysis program used to fit models by maximum likelihood using many different sets of initial parameter estimates. RESULTS: The Type I error rates observed using the trait models generated by REGCHUNT were usually closer to the nominal levels than those obtained when assuming the generating trait model. CONCLUSION: This suggests that the observed inflation of Type I error upon misspecification of marker allele frequencies is at least partially due to sampling variation. Thus, with missing parental genotype data, lod-score linkage is not as robust to misspecification of marker allele frequencies as has been commonly thought

Conserving the Mesoamerican herpetofauna: The most critical case of the priority level one endemic species

Of significant biodiversity importance, the Mesoamerican herpetofauna now increases at a rate of approximately 35 species annually. As its size increases, however, the global problem of biodiversity decline continues to worsen with time. Recently, a set of conservation priority levels was established for individual species based on a combination of physiographic distribution and Environmental Vulnerability Score (EVS). The 18 such levels identified range from level one, encompassing species that occupy a single physiographic region and with a high EVS, to level 18, including species that inhabit six physiographic regions and have a low EVS. For the Mesoamerican herpetofauna, the greatest number of species is placed in level one, amounting to 970 taxa with documentable distributions. From one to 149 priority level one species are found in 20 of the 21 physiographic regions recognized in Mesoamerica. Slightly more than three-quarters of the priority level one species of anurans, salamanders, and squamates are found in the Baja California Peninsula and six montane regions in Mexico and Central America. Conservation biology, thus far, has not been successful at reversing the steady loss of biodiversity nor at placing biodiversity decline on the global agenda. In addition, humans are becoming increasingly divorced from contact with the natural world and, thus, less aware of the life-threatening impact they are having on the planet’s life-support systems. Given this situation, the authors of this paper have become increasingly devoted to trying to understand why humans in general exhibit the highly dangerous anthropocentric worldview. As have other biologists, the authors ascribe this behavior to what is known as “the mismanagement of the human mind.” This mismanagement of the human mind is believed to result from a cascade of psychological ailments giving rise to increasingly restrictive forms of centristic thinking. In the final analysis, these types of thinking appear likely to doom to failure any efforts to establish for perpetuity protected areas that can harbor the priority level one species identified in this and earlier papers. Until and unless the anthropocentric worldview can be transformed into a worldview consonant with the realities of how life operates on planet Earth, we humans are not only endangering ourselves but also all other life. This article discusses the implications of this worldview for the potential conservation of the priority level one endemic species of the Mesoamerica herpetofauna

Corrosion of Civil War Era Sub Marine Explorer—Part 1

The Sub Marine Explorer is one of five submersibles (submarines) constructed prior to 1870 that have survived either in museums or as in situ archaeological sites around the world. Since 1869, the wreck of Explorer has emerged at low tide on the beach of Isla San Telmo, Archipiélago de las Perlas, Panama, located ~75 km southwest of Panama City in the Bay of Panama. In 2001, James Delgado visited the site. Locals described the wreck as a World War II-era Japanese midget submarine. Delgado consulted with Richard Wills, an expert on American Civil War submarines, and confirmed that the well-preserved wreck was the Sub Marine Explorer from the Civil War period

Corrosion of Civil War Era \u3ci\u3eSub Marine Explorer\u3c/i\u3e—Part 2

The Sub Marine Explorer was designed and built by Julius H. Kroehl, who was born in Prussia in 1820. After migrating to the United States in 1838 and becoming a citizen, he served in the Union Navy (United States Navy during the Civil War) as an underwater demolitions expert. He left the Navy in 1863 and began designing a “sub-marine” that would facilitate Union forces’ mine removal and obstruction clearance. At the end of the Civil War, he became an engineer for the Pacific Pearl Co., an organization interested in using the craft to recover pearls from deep sea oyster beds in the Bay of Panama. Decompression sickness (the bends), unknown at the time, began to affect the crew in 1869, which led to the abandonment of Explorer in the tidal zone of St. Elmo’s Island (Isla San Telmo) in the Archipielago de las Perlas, Panama

Corrosion of Civil War Era Sub Marine Explorer—Part 1

The Sub Marine Explorer is one of five submersibles (submarines) constructed prior to 1870 that have survived either in museums or as in situ archaeological sites around the world. Since 1869, the wreck of Explorer has emerged at low tide on the beach of Isla San Telmo, Archipiélago de las Perlas, Panama, located ~75 km southwest of Panama City in the Bay of Panama. In 2001, James Delgado visited the site. Locals described the wreck as a World War II-era Japanese midget submarine. Delgado consulted with Richard Wills, an expert on American Civil War submarines, and confirmed that the well-preserved wreck was the Sub Marine Explorer from the Civil War period