Does Money Matter? The Impact of State Political Context on the Relationship between Race/Ethnicity and Campaign Finance

Despite increasing campaign-finance legislation aimed at equalizing barriers in political campaigns, a fundraising gap persists across racial/ethnic lines. In the era of modern campaigning, with the expenses of advertising and polling, among others, ample funds are necessary but not accessible to all candidates. This study addresses the relationship between candidate race/ethnicity and campaign fundraising, and the possible moderating effect of three dimensions of the state political context: state legislative professionalism, state Republican party strength, and state culture (South vs. non-South). I evaluate fundraising totals across 15 states for more than 3,000 candidates in the 2006 state legislative elections. Ultimately, the findings suggest that after controlling for other candidate characteristics, as well as for district and state context, there is a negative statistically significant relationship between candidate race/ethnicity and fundraising. In addition, the effect of race/ethnicity is moderated by two features of the state context: legislative professionalization and state culture. This study finds that nonwhite candidates continue to fundraise less than their white counterparts and that state context is important in understanding the race/ethnicity gap in campaign finance

Onboard sampling of the rockfish and lingcod commerical passenger fishing vessel industry in northern and central California, 1992

In 1992 fishery technicians sampled 230 commercial passenger fishing vessel (CPFV) trips targeting rockfish and lingcod from the port areas of Fort Bragg, Bodega Bay, San Francisco, Monterey, and Morro Bay. The skippers of 44 vessels, and 2,190 anglers, cooperated in the study. Species composition by port area and month, catch-per-unit-effort, mean length, and length frequency of lingcod and the 18 most frequently observed rockfish species are presented, as well as fishing effort relative to time, depth, and distance from port. Total catch estimates based on unadjusted and adjusted logbook records are summarized. Average catch of kept fish per angler day was 12.6 and average catch of kept fish per angler hour was 4.0. A continuing trend of an increasing frequency of trips to deep (> 40 fm) locations was observed in the Bodega Bay, San Francisco, and Monterey areas. Bodega Bay and San Francisco showed the highest frequency of trips to distant locations. Sixty species comprised of 29,731 fish were observed caught during the study. Rockfish comprised 93.5% by number of the total observed catch. The five most frequently observed species were blue, yellowtail, widow and rosy rockfishes, and bocaccio, with lingcod ranking eighth. CPFV angler success, as determined by catch per angler hour, generally increased in all ports in 1992 compared to previous 1988-91 data (Reilly et al. 1993). However, port-specific areas of major concern were identified for chilipepper, lingcod, and black rockfish, and to a lesser extent brown, canary, vermilion, yelloweye, widow and greenspotted rockfishes. These areas of concern included steadily declining catch rate, steadily declining mean length, and/or a high percentage of sexually immature fish in the sampled catch. Recent sampling of the commercial hook-and-line fishery in northern and central California indicates that most rockfishes taken by CPFV anglers are also harvested commercially. (105pp.

Onboard sampling of the rockfish and lingcod commerical passenger fishing vessel industry in northern and central California, January through December 1993

The Central California Marine Sport Fish Project has been collecting angler catch data on board Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessels (CPFVs) fishing for rockfish or lingcod since 1987. The program depends on the voluntary cooperation of CPFV owners and operators. This third report in a series presents data collected in 1993, refers to historical data from 1987 to 1992, and documents trends in species composition, angler effort, catch per unit effort (CPUE), and, for selected species, mean length and length frequency. Angler catches on board central and northern California CPFVs were sampled from 15 ports, ranging from Crescent City in the north to Port San Luis (Avila Beach) in the south. Technicians observed a total of 2385 anglers fishing on 248 CPFV trips. These observed anglers caught 29,622 fish of which Technicians determined 27,421 were kept. Over 60% of these fish were caught at Monterey or Morro Bay area ports. Only 18 of the 58 species each comprised at least one percent of the catch. The top ten species in order of abundance were blue, yellowtail, chilipepper, rosy, widow, canary, greenspotted, bocaccio, and vermilion rockfishes and lingcod. Blue and yellowtail rockfishes, and chilipepper, together comprised over 50% of the observed catch. Overall, rockfishes represented 35 species or 59% of the 58 identified species. In general, 1993 data indicated that in all port areas CPFV fishery resources, with a few exceptions, were in a viable and sustainable condition, similar to the previous 6 years. This study identified nine species, lingcod and eight rockfishes, with areas of concern which were primarily port-specific. Six of these ranked among the 10 most frequently observed species, five were schooling or migratory species, two were nearshore species, and three were offshore species. Trends of most concern continue to be declining catch per angler hour (CPAH) - of yellowtail rockfish in the Bodega Bay area, lingcod in shallow locations near the Monterey area, and yelloweye rockfish in the San Francisco area, as well as decreasing mean lengths of canary rockfish in the Monterey area and brown rockfish in the Morro Bay area. Populations of black rockfish, the species presently of greatest concern in the CPFV fishery, showed some positive signs this year. Also on the positive side, the Monterey and Morro Bay areas experienced an increased availability of newly-recruited smaller, juvenile vermilion rockfish in observed catches. Total catch estimates were within values observed in previous years. (132pp.

Evaluation of APEX for Simulating the Effects of Tillage Practices in tropical soils

Tillage practices on agricultural fields have an impact on not only the amount of soil erosion from the fields, but also on the hydrologic and other environmental characteristics of the land. This erosion takes away soil that is necessary for sustainable agriculture, and the sediment and nutrient removal from the fields can pollute surrounding waterbodies. The Llanos Orientales of Colombia used to be a region of extended savannas and native fragile ecosystems dedicated to extended cattle ranch that has been transitioning to crop production. Agricultural expansion in this area, involving mechanization, could importantly accelerate the degradation of soils, limiting the development of sustainable agricultural systems. As a first step to understand long term effects of different tillage practices on new agricultural areas in the region, this study aims to evaluate the performance of the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model to simulate runoff, soil erosion and crop yield from fields under conventional tillage, reduced tillage, and no tillage in the Llanos Orientales of Colombia. Calibrated APEX model predictions were compared against measured runoff, soil loss and crop yield data from row crop plots established in the Experimental Station la Libertad in Colombia under conventional, reduced and no-tillage management. APEX satisfactorily predicted runoff (Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency NSE\u3e0.53, Percent Bias - [PBIAS] \u3c 21%) and crop yield for all three tillage systems (NSE\u3e0.82, [PBIAS] \u3c15%), but was not successful in predicting soil loss from the studied plots. Unsuccessful results were related to model limitations to predict erosion (USLE equations), but also to any uncertainty attributed to issues in the data collection. A calibrated APEX model could be used to predict runoff and crop yield responses under different management practices in the Llanos Orientales of Colombia, but needs improvements for prediction of soil erosion in tropical soils

Seabirds as Ecological Indicators in Late Cretaceous Marine Environments

In modern marine ecosystems, seabirds are considered indicators of ecological hotspots because their biogeographic distribution is correlated with physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic factors. Pursuit diving seabirds – those that actively pursue prey underwater – are even more limited in distribution and closely tied to oceanographic factors, as diving ability is often gained at the expense of flight capabilities. Today, pursuit diving seabirds are generally restricted to waters cooler than 15ºC. By contrast, the Late Cretaceous was characterized by greenhouse climate and high sea levels that provided marine paleoenvironments with no modern analogs. Even though waters in the Western Interior Seaway (WIS) were warmer than 15ºC, they were host to pursuit diving seabirds called hesperornithiforms. The presence of hesperornithiforms in warm waters indicates that different biotic and abiotic factors affected Late Cretaceous epicontinental ecosystems than affect modern oceans. Together, ecosystem structure and the unique oceanographic factors characterizing epicontinental seas both contribute to differences in seabird biogeography between the Late Cretaceous and today

Applications in Paleohistology: Osteohistology of Protostega gigas

Protostega gigas was a large sea turtle that lived in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway of North America. Protostega fossils are found in the Smoky Hill Member of the Niobrara Formation in Kansas. Despite their abundance, little is known about how these turtles grew and aged. The purpose of this study is to expand the knowledge of sea turtles osteohistology and determine the ontogenetic stage of the specimen at the time of death. Osteohistology is the study of bone microstructure, and is used to study bone growth rates. Microstructure and growth rates directly relate to phylogeny (evolutionary relationships), ontogeny (growth stage), biomechanics (how a bone is used), and environment. The femur of the Protostega gigas specimen analyzed is spongiose, with large networks of vascular canals and little or no open medullary cavity. Vascular canal orientation is dominated by longitudinal and circumferential canals organized in concentric layers. Vascular canals increase in circumferential organization towards the outer cortex. Overall, the Protostega bone analyzed in this study has a similar microstructure to that that described in the leatherback sea turtle. Because there are vascular canals open to the periosteal surface of the bone, with no indications of reduced vascularity and cessation in bone growth, this specimen is interpreted to have been a juvenile at the time of death. ; Histologic results contradict previous research interpreting this specimen as an adult

Why has it only become an issue now? Young drug users' perceptions of drug driving in Melbourne, Victoria

Preliminary research into drug-user perceptions of drug driving was undertaken with a sample group of drug users aged 18 to 24 from Melbourne, Victoria. Eleven males and nine females participated in semi-structured interviews and completed self-report surveys. Participants discussed their drug driving and their perceptions of the likelihood of detection by police for drug driving. This research provides further insight into young people’s perceptions and behaviours in relation to drug use and driving. The perspectives of young people are rarely included in current drug-driving debates and may have possible implications for policy development

The influence of habitat quality on the foraging strategies of the entomopathogenic nematodes Steinernema carpocapsae and Heterorhabditis megidis

Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) are soil-transmitted parasites and their foraging strategies are believed to range from ‘ambush’ to ‘cruise’ foragers. However, research on their behaviour has not considered the natural habitat of these nematodes. We hypothesized that EPN behaviour would be influenced by soil habitat quality and tested this hypothesis using 2 EPN species Steinernema carpocapsae (an ‘ambusher’) and Heterorhabditis megidis (a ‘cruiser’) in 2 contrasting habitats, sand and peat. As predicted from previous studies, in sand most S. carpocapsae remained at the point of application and showed no taxis towards hosts, but in peat S. carpocapsae dispersed much more and showed a highly significant taxis towards hosts. H. megidis dispersed well in both media, but only showed taxis towards hosts in sand. In outdoor mesocosms in which both species were applied, S. carpocapsae outcompeted H. megidis in terms of host finding in peat, whereas the opposite was true in sand. Our data suggest that these 2 EPN may be habitat specialists and highlight the difficulties of studying soil-transmitted parasites in non-soil media

In Indiana’s Senate race between Joe Donnelly and Mike Braun, personality and positions are beating partisanship

In 2012, the now Senator Joe Donnelly replaced an over 30-year incumbent Republican in Indiana. In 2018, Donnelly now faces tough competition from state legislator Mike Braun to keep his seat in the Hoosier State. Laura Merrifield Wilson writes that while the state as a whole is very red, Donnelly has generally tacked to the center as a bipartisan moderate meaning that the campaign is being fought over specific positions on issues like healthcare and immigration rather than on partisanship. Whether voters will stick with the moderate Donnelly or instead turn to the Trump-surrogate Braun remains to be seen