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The Minimization Of The Screen Bias From Ancient Western Mediterranean Air Temperature Records: An Exploratory Statistical Analysis, Manola Brunet, Jesús Asin, Javier Sigró, Manuel Bañón, Francisco García, Enric Aguilar, Juan Esteban Palenzuela, Thomas C. Peterson, Phil Jones

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Here we present an exploratory statistical analysis aimed at the minimization of the ‘screen bias’ from affected ancient air temperature time series over the Western Mediterranean. Our approach lies in the statistical analysis of about 6 years of daily paired temperature observations taken using the ancient Montsouri shelter and the modern Stevenson screen for daily maximum (T_x) and minimum (T_n) temperature data recorded at two experimental sites: the meteorological gardens of La Coruña and Murcia, Spain (locations under the influence of the Oceanic/Atlantic/Galician and Mediterranean arid and semi-arid climate types, respectively), where ongoing field trials have …

Global Mismatch Between Research Effort And Conservation Needs Of Tropical Coral Reefs, Rebecca Fisher, Ben T. Radford, Nancy Knowlton, Russell E. Brainard, Frances B. Michaelis, M. Julian Caley

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Tropical coral reefs are highly diverse and globally threatened. Management to ensure their persistence requires sound biological knowledge in regions where coral reef biodiversity and/or the threats to it are greatest. This paper uses a novel text analysis approach and Google Maps™ to examine the spatial coverage of scientific papers on coral reefs listed in Web of Science^® . Results show that research is highly clumped spatially, positively related to per capita gross domestic product, negatively related to coral species richness, and unrelated to threats to coral reefs globally; indicating a serious mismatch between conservation needs and the knowledge …

High Species Density Patterns In Macrofaunal Invertebrate Communities In The Marine Benthos, John Oliver, Kamille Hammerstrom, Erika Mcphee-Shaw, Peter Slattery, James Oakden, Stacy Kim, S. Ian Hartwell

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Species density of macrofaunal invertebrates living in marine soft sediments was highest at the shelf-slope break (100–150 m) in Monterey Bay (449 m^-2). There were 337 species m^-2 in the mid-shelf mud zone (80 m). There were fewer species along the slope: 205 m^-2 from the lower slope (950-2000 m) and 335 m^-2 on the upper slope (250-750 m). Species density was highest inside the bay (328-446 m^-2) compared to outside (336-339 m^-2), when examining samples at selected water depths (60-1000 m). There was little difference in local species density from …

Defining Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) Stocks Based On Environmental, Physical, And Behavioral Characteristics, Jacalyn L. Toth, Aleta A. Hohn, Kenneth W. Able, Antoinette M. Gorgone

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

The population structure of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, along the U.S. Atlantic coast has recently been redefined from one homogenous population into five coastal stocks. Local studies indicate even finer structure, primarily based on isolation of dolphins inhabiting estuaries.We identified population structuring of non-estuarine coastal bottlenose dolphins during a study in New Jersey, the northern range along the Atlantic Coast. Using photo-identification and distribution survey results, an analysis identified two major clusters of individuals significantly separated by five variables (distance from shoreline, group size, occurrence of the barnacle Xenobalanus globicipitis, avoidance behavior, and individual coloration). Sightings assigned to …

Climate, Fire And Carbon: Tipping Points And Landscape Vulnerability In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Erica A.H. Smithwick, Anthony L. Westerling, Monica G. Turner, William H. Romme, Michael G. Ryan

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

More frequent fires under climate warming are likely to alter terrestrial carbon (C) stocks by reducing the amount of C stored in biomass and soil. However, the thresholds of fire frequency that could shift landscapes from C sinks to C sources under future climates and whether these are likely to be exceeded during the coming century are not known. We used the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) as a case study to explore the conditions under which future climate and fire regimes would result in tipping points of C source/sink dynamics. We asked: (1) How great a change in climate and …

Laboratory Of Tree-Ring Research And School Of Natural Resources And The Environment, Thomas W. Swetnam, Donald Falk, Elaine K. Sutherland, Peter M. Brown, Timothy J. Brown

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Understanding the role of climate variation in governing fire regimes remains one of the central needs in contemporary fire science and management. Ideally, this understanding should encompass both historical and current fire-climatology, and inform both basic science and ecosystem management. In this project, Fire and Climate Synthesis (FACS) we undertook a detailed synthesis of both paleofire and modern fire based on compilations of existing data sets. We also analyzed three major thematic pathways by which climate has impacted fire policy, including direct and indirect climate effects on fire policy. Paleofire. We assembled the largest and most comprehensive data set of …

In The Garden

Nebraska Statewide Arboretum: Publications

January is a quiet month. Christmas things are packed away, the hustle of gatherings has slowed down and the pace of the new year has not yet begun. It’s time to read. Michael Pollan describes writing and gardening as “two ways of rendering the world in rows.” Both have a wonderful way of resolving things, of putting things right. Naturalist Ann Zwinger says she writes with the hope that her words will be “witnesses to grace and coherence.” And witnesses they are.

Characterizing 3d Vegetation Structure From Space: Mission Requirements, Forrest G. Hall, Kathleen Bergen, James B. Blair, Ralph Dubayah, Richard Houghton, George Hurtt, Josef Kellndorfer, Michael Lefsky, Jon Ranson, Sassan Saatchi, H.H. Shugart, Diane Wickland

United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Publications

Human and natural forces are rapidly modifying the global distribution and structure of terrestrial ecosystems on which all of life depends, altering the global carbon cycle, affecting our climate now and for the foreseeable future, causing steep reductions in species diversity, and endangering Earth's sustainability. To understand changes and trends in terrestrial ecosystems and their functioning as carbon sources and sinks, and to characterize the impact of their changes on climate, habitat and biodiversity, new space assets are urgently needed to produce high spatial resolution global maps of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of vegetation, its biomass above ground, the carbon …

Mixed-Source Reintroductions Lead To Outbreeding Depression In Second-Generation Descendents Of A Native North American Fish, David D. Huff, Loren M. Miller, Christopher J. Chizinski, Bruce Vondracek

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Reintroductions are commonly employed to preserve intraspecific biodiversity in fragmented landscapes. However, reintroduced populations are frequently smaller and more geographically isolated than native populations. Mixing genetically, divergent sources are often proposed to attenuate potentially low genetic diversity in reintroduced populations that may result from small effective population sizes. However, a possible negative tradeoff for mixing sources is outbreeding depression in hybrid offspring. We examined the consequences of mixed-source reintroductions on several fitness surrogates at nine slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus) reintroduction sites in south-east Minnesota. We inferred the relative fitness of each crosstype in the reintroduced populations by comparing …

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 23:1 — Winter 2011, Textile Society Of America

Textile Society of America: Newsletters

Lillian Elliott Award Recipient: Sharon Kallis
Symposium 2010: TSA Award and Scholarship Winners
From the President
TSA Study Tours
Symposium 2010 Photos
TSA Member News
Symposium 2010: Reports by TSA Award Recipients
Book Reviews
Conference Reviews
Textile Community News
Publication News
Calendar-Conferences & Symposia, Exhibitions, Lectures, Workshops, Tours

Plasmodium Falciparum Malaria Endemicity In Indonesia In 2010, Iqbal R.F. Elyazar, Peter W. Gething, Anand P. Patil, Hanifah Rogayah, Rita Kusriastuti, Desak M. Wismarini, Siti N. Tarmizi, J. Kevin Baird, Simon I. Hay

United States Public Health Resources

Background: Malaria control programs require a detailed understanding of the contemporary spatial distribution of infection risk to efficiently allocate resources. We used model based geostatistics (MBG) techniques to generate a contemporary map of Plasmodium falciparum malaria risk in Indonesia in 2010.

Methods: Plasmodium falciparum Annual Parasite Incidence (PfAPI) data (2006–2008) were used to map limits of P. falciparum transmission. A total of 2,581 community blood surveys of P. falciparum parasite rate (PfPR) were identified (1985–2009). After quality control, 2,516 were included into a national database of age-standardized 2–10 year old PfPR data (PfPR …

Diversity Of The Kir Gene Cluster In An Urban Brazilian Population, D. G. Augusto, L. Zehnder-Alves, M. R. Pincerati, M. P. Martin, Mary Carrington, Maria Luiza Petzl-Erler

United States Public Health Resources

The activity of natural killer cells depends on the balance between activating and inhibitory signals coming from their receptors. Among these are the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) that recognize specific HLA class I allotypes. Here we characterized KIR genetic diversity and their HLA ligands in the population of Curitiba, Paraná State (n=164), and compared it with other worldwide populations. The distribution of 2DL4 alleles was also analyzed. The Curitiba population did not differ significantly from European and Euro-descendant populations, but as an admixed population showed higher genetic diversity. We found 27 KIR profiles, many of them uncommon in European …

The Changing Structure Of Beef Production: Stockers, Calf Feds And Yearlings, Tom Brink

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Beef production is always in a state of flux. Nothing in this business stays the same for very long. The current situation is truly unique compared to anything we have experienced in the past. Demand is growing. Supply is shrinking. Cattle prices are rising and show no sign of stopping, despite reaching record highs this year. Production costs are also increasing. There are some very real opportunities in the cow-calf business and other producer segments. But financial risks exist as well. My belief is that the good outweighs the bad. Cow-calf producers could see some of the best profits during …

The Effect Of Sea Access On Economic Income Level In African Nations, Tiffany Napier

Nebraska Anthropologist

A sea border provides trading opportunities for nations and enables participation in the world market and therefore economic growth. In this essay sea access is considered a significant limiting factor in the economic success of African countries. Research of this hypothesis illustrates a positive relationship between access to the sea and the economic success of African nations when Gross National Income per capita is utilized as the economic indicator. This essay summarizes the methods utilized, results obtained, and the implications of sea access as a limiting factor in the economic success of African states.

Male Field Crickets Infested By Parasitoid Flies Express Phenotypes That May Benefit The Parasitoids, Oliver M. Beckers, William E. Wagner

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Parasites can cause changes in the phenotypes of their hosts that may benefit the parasite, the host, or both. To understand the evolutionary dynamics of host–parasite interactions it is necessary to first examine the effect of parasitic infestation on the host phenotype and whether the host or parasite benefits from these changes. The fly Ormia ochracea parasitizes the variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, and it uses male song to locate hosts for its lethal larvae. Adult flies preferentially orient to male songs with faster and longer chirps. We tested the effect of larval infestation on two types of host traits. …

Community Structures Of Fecal Bacteria In Cattle From Different Animal Feeding Operations, Orin C. Shanks, Catherine A. Kelty, Shawn Archibeque, Michael Jenkins, Ryan Newton, Sandra L. Mclellan, Susan M. Huse, Mitchell L. Sogin

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The fecal microbiome of cattle plays a critical role not only in animal health and productivity but also in food safety, pathogen shedding, and the performance of fecal pollution detection methods. Unfortunately, most published molecular surveys fail to provide adequate detail about variability in the community structures of fecal bacteria within and across cattle populations. Using massively parallel pyrosequencing of a hypervariable region of the rRNA coding region, we profiled the fecal microbial communities of cattle from six different feeding operations where cattle were subjected to consistent management practices for a minimum of 90 days. We obtained a total of …

New Records And Ecological Remarks Regarding The Tribe Stomoxyini (Diptera: Muscidae) From Israel, Günter Müller, Jerome Hogsette, Vasiliy Kravchenko, Edita Revay, Yosef Schlein

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The Stomoxyini is a small tribe with only ten genera and 49 known species worldwide (Zumpt 1973) belonging to the Muscidae, one of the largest dipteran. Apart from feeding occasionally on nectar (Müller et al. 2011a), the adult flies of this tribe are obligate blood feeders and can easily be recognized by their conspicuous proboscis adapted for biting and sucking blood (Zumpt 1973). Several members of the tribe, especially Stomoxys and Haematobia species, are major pests of domestic livestock. Two species, Stomoxys calcitrans (Linnaeus 1758) and Haematobia irritans (Linnaeus 1758), cause billions of USD in damages annually in the cattle …

Rethinking Asian Studies In The Interdisciplinary Honors Setting, Adam D. Frank

Honors in Practice Online Archive

In an interdisciplinary honors setting, especially at colleges and universities with minimal Asian studies offerings, teaching interdisciplinary Asian studies courses can present a particularly difficult challenge. The problem, as Charles Holcombe notes, is that “Asia is simply too enormous, spanning the better part of the entire Old World, and too diverse, to serve as a very meaningful label” (9). Unless students already have a background in Asian studies, have studied Asian languages and cultures, or are themselves from Asian countries, they often lack the basic, macro-level knowledge of geography, history, and politics necessary to address complex issues, particularly Orientalist stereotypes …

The Best Job In The World: Documentary Editor, Beth Luey

Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing (1979–2011)

Graduates of the Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents deserve congratulations, not only because they have learned a great deal but also because being a documentary editor is the best job in the world. I can speak of this with some authority. Although I am a 1981 graduate of the Institute, I officially became a documentary editor only after retiring from university teaching, which was my second career. My first was as a university press and textbook editor. Those were all good jobs, but documentary editing is the best. Here is why.

Ethnogenesis: The Construction And Dynamics Of The Honors Classroom Culture, Melissa Ladenheim, Kristen Kuhns, Morgan Brockington

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In 2008 the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council published a series of essays which editor Ada Long described as a “rich and varied conversation about the culture of honors” (10). The contributors, mostly honors administrators, included Charlie Slavin, Dean of the University of Maine Honors College, whose lead article provided “one cornerstone . . . that is common to the culture of honors: taking intellectual risks” (15). George Mariz echoed Slavin in his claim that honors “is, above all, a culture of intellectual effort” (24). He posits that, “while [it] is catholic and inclusive, it is also discriminating …

The Honors Differential: At Home And Abroad, Neil H. Donahue

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Study abroad constitutes already the kind of enrichment that defines honors education at home. The honors component of instruction at home in the U.S. emerges from the differential between the regular course of instruction and the extension, or rather qualitative enrichment, of the same through various types of added conceptual complexity, scope of detail, depth of inquiry, or level of skill. That honors differential can be tracked visibly and explicitly onto a syllabus in a regular course through highlighted assignments for eligible students; or can be embedded invisibly and implicitly in a designated honors course the syllabus for which makes …

Emerging From The Honors Oasis, Becky L. Spritz

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

For many of us, honors is our academic and cultural oasis—a refuge from surrounding institutional strife. Honors is not always an idyllic paradise, of course, but the ongoing intellectual stimulation coupled with the sheer joy derived from working closely with the best and brightest of students has often led me to wonder if this could all be just a mirage. Looking out from the safe haven of honors, however, I have observed a potential danger: the segregation of honors culture from the changing climate of higher education.

In her classic 1934 work Patterns of Culture, Ruth Benedict discusses the …

Academic Dishonesty Among International Students In Higher Education, Krishna K. Bista

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

University instructors address and want to eschew student academic misconduct. These educators presume that students understand fully what cheating and plagiarism are. However, the issue of academic dis-honesty among international students is complex and difficult. This study investigated the perceptions of international undergraduate and graduate students in a southern U.S. university about possible causes for academic misbehavior. Results reveal several causal variables: previous learning style, English language proficiency, unfamiliarity with American academic cultures, relationship between student and teacher, and availability of technical and educational resources associated with academic dishonesty.

Review Of Historical Atlas Of The American West: With Original Maps By Derek Hayes, J. Clark Archer

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The Historical Atlas of the American West is a visually appealing and well-organized representation of cartographic works thoughtfully selected from several centuries of map making. As demarcated for the Atlas, the American West extends from the eastern borders of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas to the Pacific coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. While some of the included maps show the entire American West, most depict smaller subregions of interest such as one or a few states or even individual cities or towns. The cartographic scales, map themes, and graphical styles of the maps reproduced vary greatly, …

"Introduction" To Conjuring The Real: The Role Of Architecture In Eighteenth- And Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Rumiko Handa, James Potter

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Buildings give an immediate presence to the historical or fictional world, which otherwise is unknown or unfamiliar to the audience. The portrayal of a building’s concrete and specific substance makes the world come alive, although the building itself is a mere segment of the world that it represents. This book will trace the genealogy of this representational role of architecture, going back through the history of film and then further in literature, art, and theater, and identify its pedigree in the nineteenth century, where authors, artists, and stage managers used thorough depictions of buildings to effectively feed the audience’s historical …

Influence Of Karst Landscape On Planetary Boundary Layer Atmosphere: A Weather Research And Forecasting (Wrf) Model–Based Investigation, Ronnie Leeper, Rezaul Mamood, Arturo I. Quintanar

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Karst hydrology provides a unique set of surface and subsurface hydrological components that affect soil moisture variability. Over karst topography, surface moisture moves rapidly below ground via sink holes, vertical shafts, and sinking streams, reducing surface runoff and moisture infiltration into the soil. In addition, subsurface cave blockage or rapid snowmelt over karst can lead to surface flooding. Moreover, regions dominated by karst may exhibit either drier or wetter soils when compared to nonkarst landscape. However, because of the lack of both observational soil moisture datasets to initialize simulations and regional land surface models (LSMs) that include explicit karst hydrological …

Homestead National Monument, Vegetation Classification [Map], United States National Park Service

United States National Park Service: Publications

Color graphic vegetation map of Homestead National Monument of America in Beatrice, Nebraska, USA. Created as part of the Homestead NM of America Vegetation Mapping Project in April and May 2011. Includes a color-coded vegetation classification.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Vegetation Mapping Project [Poster], Kelly Kindscher, Hayley Kilroy, Jennifer Delisle, Quinn Long, Hillary Loring, Kevin Dobbs, Jim Drake

United States National Park Service: Publications

The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve encompasses 10,894 acres in eastern Kansas, just north of Strong City. This park unit was created on November 12, 1996, and is the first to protect a nationally significant example of the once vast tall grass prairie ecosystem. Of the 400,000 square miles of tall grass prairie that once covered the North American continent, less than four percent remains, prin1arily in the Flint Hills. The park unit is primarily rocky upland prairies and deep-soiled prairies in the lowlands. It also contains some wet prairie ravines, riparian forests and some former cropland and restored prairie. These …

Initiatives In Context: Agricultural Productivity, Water, And The Paradox Of Ethiopia, Annie M. Cafer

Nebraska Anthropologist

This paper will look at Ethiopian policies and their effect, in most cases negative, on water issues, irrigation, and agricultural productivity in the country. Additionally, this paper will address how water issues, irrigation, and agricultural productivity affect the health of Ethiopians and the resulting food and seed aid required to help many individuals and communities survive. This paper is designed to illuminate the paradoxes Ethiopian officials, local communities, and development agencies work to solve. Many initiatives will be discussed, some in detail others more generally, and the details that render them successfitl or failures will be addressed

Uncertainty In Modelling Of Faecal Coliform Overland Transport Associated With Manure Application In Maryland, A. K. Guber, Y. A. Pachepsky, A. M. Yakirevich, D. R. Shelton, A. M. Sadeghi, D. C. Goodrich, C. L. Unkrich

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Concerns for microbial safety of surface water facilitate development of predictive models that estimate concentrations and total numbers of pathogen and indicator organisms leaving manure-fertilized fields in overland flow during runoff events. Spatial variability of bacterial concentrations in applied manure introduces high uncertainty in the model predictions. The objective of this work was to evaluate the uncertainty in model predictions of the manure-borne bacteria overland transport caused by limited information on the spatial distribution of bacteria in surface-applied manure. Experiments were carried out at the ARS Beltsville experimental watershed site (OPE3) in Maryland. Dairy bovine manure was applied at a …