Digital Commons Network^™

Phylogenetic Analyses Of Texas Isolates Indicate An Evolving Subtype Of The Clade B Feline Immunodeficiency Viruses, Eric A. Weaver, Ellen W. Collisson, Margaret Slater, Guan Zhu

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Rigorous phylogenetic analyses were used to compare the nucleotide sequences of feline immunodeficiency virus strains isolated from Texas and throughout the world. The envelope V3-V4 sequences and capsid gene of the Texas isolates formed a cluster between subtypes B and E. Statistical comparisons with other published sequences confirmed that the Texas group is a unique cluster, possibly a new subtype, arising from subtype B.

Forest Harvest Can Increase Subsequent Forest Fire Severity, Carter Stone, Andrew T. Hudak, Penelope Morgan

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The USDA Forest Service is progressing from a land management strategy oriented around timber extraction towards one oriented around maintaining healthy forested lands. The healthy Forest Initiative promotes the idea of broadscale forest thinning and fuel treatments as an effective means for mitigating hazardous fuel conditions and, by extension, fire risk. Fuels mitigation is proactive while fire suppression is reactive and expensive. Costs associated with suppressing large wildfires, as occur in the western USA with annual regularity, are astronomical and routinely exceed fire suppression budgets. It is not difficult to demonstrate that treating forest fuels is more cost effective than …

"Oskar Blumenthal And The Lessing Theater In Berlin, 1888-1904", William Grange Prof. Dr.

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Oskar Blumenthal (1852-1917) was Berlin’s most feared theatre critic in the early years of the new German Reich. He had the audacity of referring to Goethe as “an egghead” who had no understanding of what made plays effective for audiences, and in other critiques he ridiculed Kleist, Hebbel, and other “important” playwrights—prompting an adversary publicly to call him a “one-man lynch mob.” In the 1880s Blumenthal himself began writing plays, and he was so successful that many self-appointed cultural guardians accused him of damaging the German theatre beyond repair. His became the most frequently performed plays on any German stage …

Field Validation Of Burned Area Reflectance Classification (Barc) Products For Post Fire Assessment, Andrew T. Hudak, Pete Robichaud, Jeffrey S. Evans, Jess Clark, Keith Lannom, Penelope Morgan, Carter Stone

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The USFS Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC) and the USGS EROS Data Center (EDC) produce Burned Area Reflectance Classification (BARC) maps for use by Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) teams in rapid response to wildfires. BAER teams desire maps indicative of soil burn severity, but photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic vegetation also influences the spectral properties of post-fire imagery. Our objective was to assess burn severity both remotely and on the ground at six 2003 wildfires. We analyzed fire effects data from 34 field sites located across the full range of burn severities observed at the Black Mountain Two, Cooney Ridge, Robert, …

Holocene Loess Deposition And Soil Formation As Competing Processes, Matanuska Valley, Southern Alaska, Daniel R. Muhs, John P. Mcgeehin, Jossh Beann, Eric Fisher

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Although loess–paleosol sequences are among the most important records of Quaternary climate change and past dust deposition cycles, few modern examples of such sedimentation systems have been studied. Stratigraphic studies and 22 new accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages from the Matanuska Valley in southern Alaska show that loess deposition there began sometime after ~6500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. and has continued to the present. The silts are produced through grinding by the Matanuska and Knik glaciers, deposited as outwash, entrained by strong winds, and redeposited as loess. Over a downwind distance of ~40 km, loess thickness, sand content, and sand-pluscoarse- …

Invertebrate Egg Banks Of Restored, Natural, And Drained Wetlands In The Prairie Pothole Region Of The United States, Robert A. Gleason, Ned H. Euliss Jr., Daniel E. Hubbard, Walter G. Duffy

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Analogous to ‘seed banks,’ ‘egg banks’ are important for seasonal succession and maintenance of invertebrate species diversity throughout wet and dry cycles in the prairie pothole region. Further, recruitment of invertebrates from relic egg banks in the sediments and dispersal of eggs into wetlands is believed to be important for reestablishment of invertebrates in recently restored wetlands. Although tens-of thousands of wetlands have been restored in the prairie pothole region of the United States, studies have not been conducted to evaluate the recovery of invertebrate egg banks in restored wetlands. We used taxon richness and abundance as indicators of potential …

Journal Of Actuarial Practice - Volume 11 (2004) - Contents And Masthead

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

Contents

Editorial Policy: Topics suitable for this journal include AIDS, annuity products, asset-liability matching, cash-flow testing, casualty rate making, credibility theory, credit insurance, disability insurance, expense analysis, experience studies, FASB issues, financial reporting, group insurance, health insurance, individual risk taking, insurance regulations, international issues, investments, liability insurance, loss reserves, marketing, pensions, pricing issues, product development, reinsurance, reserving issues, risk-based capital, risk theory, social insurance, solvency issues, taxation, valuation issues, and workers' compensation

Review Process

Editor - Colin Ramsay, University of Nebraska

Associate Editors: Robert Brown, University of Waterloo ○ Cecil Bykerk, Mutual of Omaha ○ Ruy Cardoso, …

The Actuarial Value Of Life Insurance Backdating, James M. Carson, Krzysztof Ostaszewski

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

Backdating is a common (and legal) practice in the U.S. whereby a life insurance contract bears a policy date that is prior to the actual application date. This practice often results in the opportunity for some insureds to reduce the annual premium paid. Using cash flow projections and U.S. mortality, lapse, and interest rate data, we provide a model of the actuarial value of term life insurance backdating. Results indicate that the benefits to the applicant of backdating a term life insurance policy increase as the applicant age (and hence premium) increases. Increasing mortality, lapse, and interest rates, as well …

Decision Tree Analysis Of Terminated Life Insurance Policies, Robert Keng Heong Lian, Yuan Wu, Hian Chye Koh

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

Statistical methods such as regression and survival analysis have traditionally been used to investigate the factors affecting the duration of terminated life insurance policies. This study explores a different approach: it uses a more recently developed data mining technique called decision trees. By sequentially partitioning the data to maximize differences in the dependent variable (duration in this study), the decision trees technique is good at identifying data segments with significant differences in the dependent variable. This identification can be useful when a company is trying to understand the factors driving or associated with the termination of life insurance policies. Decision …

Rapid Calculation Of The Price Of Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefit Ratchet Options Embedded In Annuities, Eric R. Ulm

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

This paper presents a new method of obtaining quick and accurate values and deltas for discrete look back options using Taylor series expansions. This method is applied to the case of ratchet guaranteed minimum death benefits attached to annuity contracts, and the method is extended to include annuities where a fixed fund is attached to the variable account. Finally, both the speed and the accuracy of the method are compared to Monte Carlo simulation and the exact analytic solution. The Taylor expansion method is shown to be faster and, in most cases, more accurate than the alternative methods.

Approximating The Bias And Variance Of Chain Ladder Estimates Under A Compound Poisson Model, Janagan Yogaranpan, Sue Clarke, Shauna Ferris, John Pollard

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

We consider the problem of estimating the outstanding claims produced by a homogeneous general insurance portfolio. The specific model considered in this paper is one where the number of claims in any loss period follows a Poisson distribution, settlement delays follow the same multinomial distribution, and settlements are single lump sums that are independent identically distributed random variables. Simulations using this model reveal that the development ratios and the outstanding claims estimates produced using the chain ladder method are positively biased. We obtain approximate formulas for the biases using Taylor series expansions of the random variables about their means. The …

Product Innovation In Financial Services: A Survey, Christopher O'Brien

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

This paper considers product innovation in insurance and other financial services, an area where actuaries have an important role. It considers the proposition that there is no unique formula for success and that what works well in one situation may not work well in another. It first examines the sources of ideas for new products and, in particular, the role played by consumers, which is generally regarded as weak. It then looks at how ideas are implemented, with particular importance attributed to cross-functional teams and the formality of the product development process. Then it considers how success is measured (with …

Great Plains Ecosystems: Past, Present, And Future, Fred B. Samson, Fritz L. Knopf, Wayne Ostlie

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Little questions exists that the main bodies of North American prairie (i.e., the tall-grass, mixed, and shortgrass) are among the most endangered resources on the continent. The purpose of this paper is to provide a past and present biological base- line by which to understand North American prairies and to provide a platform for future conservation. Events both immediate to the end of the Pleistocene and historic suggest that the present grassland conditions are different from those within which most of the grassland organisms evolved. Our analysis suggests that few grassland landscapes remain adequate in area and distribution to sustain …

Effects Of Management Practices On Grassland Birds: American Bittern, Jill A. Dechant, Marriah L. Sondreal, Douglas H. Johnson, Lawrence D. Igl, Christopher M. Goldade, Amy L. Zimmerman, Betty R. Euliss

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Information on the habitat requirements and effects of habitat management on grassland birds were summarized from information in more than 4,000 published and unpublished papers. A range map is provided to indicate the relative densities of the species in North America, based on Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data. Although birds frequently are observed outside the breeding range indicated, the maps are intended to show areas where managers might concentrate their attention. It may be ineffectual to manage habitat at a site for a species that rarely occurs in an area. The species account begins with a brief capsule statement, which …

Executive Power Essentialism And Foreign Affairs, Martin S. Flaherty

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Three Methods Of Size Grading Channel Catfish Stockers, Bartholomew W. Green, David L. Heikes, Andrew E. Goodwin

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

The stocking of size-graded catfish into production ponds should increase production efficiency, but grading large numbers of fish with existing technology is laborious. We evaluated the effectiveness of a mechanical grader recently developed at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) relative to that of box and sock graders and assessed injuries sustained by stocker channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus during grading. Three 0.25-acre ponds were stocked at 11,777 lb/acre. Initial total length (TL) ranged from 6.3 to 15.7 in, and initial weight of individuals ranged from 0.04 to 1.10 lb. The fish population in each pond was divided into …

Spin-Dependent Tunneling From Clean And Oxidized Co Surfaces, Kirill D. Belashchenko, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Mark Van Schilfgaarde, Derek A. Stewart, I. I. Oleynik, Sitaram S. Jaswal

Kirill Belashchenko Publications

Transmission through a sufficiently thick vacuum barrier is factorized in the product of two ‘‘surface transmission functions’’ and a vacuum decay factor. Based on this factorization, we study the spin polarization of the tunneling current from clean and oxidized (1 1 1) FCC Co surfaces through vacuum into Al. The conductance is calculated using the principal-layer Green’s function approach within the tight-binding LMTO scheme. We find that for typical vacuum barrier thicknesses the tunneling current from the clean surface is dominated by minority-spin electrons. A monolayer of oxygen on top of the surface completely changes the shape of k_{ll …}

Magneto-Thermal Behavior Of A Granular Fecl2–Fe Heterostructure, Sarbeswar Sahoo, Christian Binek, Wolfgang Kleemann

Christian Binek Publications

A granular system consisting of ferromagnetic single-domain Fe particles in an antiferromagnetic FeCl₂ matrix was prepared by coevaporation in an ultra-high vacuum environment. The structural and magnetic properties were investigated by X-ray diffractometry and superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry, respectively. The heterostructure combines the properties of superparamagnetic Fe granules and the antiferromagnetism of the FeCl₂ matrix. In addition, dipolar interaction-induced giant moments are observed below the Néel temperature of the FeCl₂ matrix. The thermomagnetic properties of the giant moments are studied.

Ianr Recognition Luncheon, John Owens

John Owens: Speeches and Appearances

What a pleasure it is to come together here to recognize and celebrate Outstanding work of members of our IANR community. It is even more of a treat to have three reasons to celebrate today as we recognize excellence with two IANR Exemplary Service Awards, two Dinsdale Family Faculty Awards, and the IANR Team Award.

Moving Ahead In Lean Times: Nebraska Ag Relations Council, John Owens

John Owens: Speeches and Appearances

One day a rancher's prize bull was missing from the section of his land the railroad passed through. He filed suit against the railroad, wanting only to be paid a fair-price of the bull. A big-city lawyer arrived in the rancher's small town to represent the railroad in the case and quickly cornered the rancher, pressuring him to settle out of court.

Ag At The Crossroads, John Owens

John Owens: Speeches and Appearances

Thank you for inviting me to be here with you today. It is always such a pleasure to be asked to talk about the ways the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources benefits Nebraskans, Nebraska, and our state's economy. I am proud of the real difference our work makes in Nebraska's future and in Nebraskans' lives.

Cracks In The Foundation: The New Internet Legislation's Hidden Threat To Privacy And Commerce, Joshua Fairfield

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Scholarship to date has focused on the legal significance of the novelty of the Internet. This scholarship does not describe or predict actual Internet legislation. Instead of asking whether the Internet is so new as to merit new law, legislators and academics should re-evaluate the role of government in orchestrating collective action and change the relative weight of enforcement, deterrence, and incentives in Internet regulations.

A perfect example of the need for this new approach is the recent CANSPAM Act of 2003, which was intended to protect personal privacy and legitimate businesses. However, the law threatens both of these interests, …

The Southwestern Association Of Parasitologists: The First 35 Years: 1967–2002, Donald W. Duszynski

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

First two paragraphs:

It is likely that the idea to organize southwestern parasitologists into a regional group originated over cocktails one night in the late 1950s during a regional or national meeting. What is clear is that two men—Drs. Robert E. Kuntz and Donald V. Moore— were instrumental in turning the idea into what has become, in reality, the Southwestern Association of Parasitologists (SWAP).

Dr. J. Teague Self (personal communication, 1981) stated, “The beginning of SWAP was an idea of Robert Kuntz who felt that something could be gained if several of us here in the southwest could get together …

Cardicola Forsteri (Digenea: Sanguinicolidae) From The Heart Of A Northern Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus Thynnus (Scombridae), In The Northwest Atlantic Ocean, Stephen A. Bullard, Robert J. Goldstein, Robert H. Goodwin Iii, Robin M. Overstreet

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

We report a specimen of Cardicola forsteri Cribb, Daintith, and Munday, 2000 (Digenea: Sanguinicolidae) from the lumen of the heart of a northern bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Scombridae), that was 218 cm in total length (TL) and caught in the northwest Atlantic Ocean 12 km south of Cape Lookout, North Carolina. The hearts of 12 similarly sized northern bluefin tuna (127–262 cm TL) from George’s Bank, northwest Atlantic Ocean, were not infected. This is the first report of C. forsteri from a wild host and of a sanguinicolid from any scombrid in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. Bluefin tuna …

Positive Psychological Capital: Beyond Human And Social Capital, Fred Luthans, Kyle W. Luthans, Brett C. Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

With the rising recognition of human resources as a competitive advantage in today’s global economy, human capital and, more recently, social capital are being touted in both theory, research, and practice. To date, however, positive psychological capital has been virtually ignored by both business academics and practitioners. “Who I am” is every bit as important as “what I know” and “who I know.” By eschewing a preoccupation with personal shortcomings and dysfunctions and focusing instead on personal strengths and good qualities, today’s leaders and their associates can develop confidence, hope, optimism, and resilience, thereby improving both individual and organizational performance.

Human, Social, And Now Positive Psychological Capital Management: Investing In People For Competitive Advantage, Fred Luthans, Carolyn M. Youssef

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

There is growing evidence that human resources are crucial to organizational success, and may offer the best return on investment for sustainable competitive advantage. Jeffery Pfeffer’s extensive work, summarized in his book The Human Equation, discusses substantially supported but unfortunate findings that only about half of today’s organizations and their managers believe that human resources really do matter. Moreover, only half of those organizations act upon their beliefs beyond paying lip service to this vital resource. Few organizations have adopted high performance work practices, such as 360-degree feedback, pay-for-performance, self-managed teams, employee empowerment, and other human-oriented initiatives. Furthermore, Pfeffer shows …

Recognition And Development Of Hope For South African Organizational Leaders, Fred Luthans, René Van Wyk, Fred Walumbwa

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The significant challenges faced by South Africa at present are well known. How to deal with the problems from a political and economic perspective abound, but taking a psychological approach has been neglected. This paper proposes a positive approach to South African organizational leadership based on the psychological capacity of hope. After giving a brief background on the context surrounding South African organizations, the theory, research, and application of hope relevant to organizational leadership in the “Rainbow Nation” are presented and analyzed. Such an overlooked positive approach represented by hopeful organizational leaders seems needed at this juncture of South Africa’s …

Unlocking The Mask: A Look At The Process By Which Authentic Leaders Impact Follower Attitudes And Behaviors, Bruce Avolio, William L. Gardner, Fred Walumbwa, Fred Luthans, Douglas R. May

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The conceptual and empirical links between authentic leadership and follower attitudes, behaviors, and performance outcomes have not been fully developed. Although we have a number of articles developing the theory of authentic leadership and testing propositions that will appear in a forthcoming special issue of The Leadership Quarterly (Vol. 16, Issue 3, 2005), the focus of this article is to provide some of the initial foundation work for the broader theoretical framework of how authentic leaders influence follower attitudes, behaviors, and performance. Here, we draw from positive organizational behavior, trust, hope, emotion, identification, and identity theories to describe the processes …

Transitioning To The Learning Organization, Joan Giesecke, Beth Mcneil

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Peter Senge popularized the concept of the learning organization, and several libraries have tried, with varying degrees of success, to adopt the learning organization model. This article explores why organizations consider attempting to become learning organizations, includes an overview of the theory of learning organizations, presents steps to becoming a learning organization, and describes examples of learning organization efforts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries and other libraries.

Global Climate And The Evolution Of Large Mammalian Carnivores During The Later Cenozoic In North America, Robert Hunt Jr.

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Taxon ranges of larger mammalian carnivores can be grouped into seven temporal intervals during the later Cenozoic. These intervals are of varied duration and seem to correspond to periodic faunal reorganizations that accompanied the progressive climatic deterioration occurring from the late Eocene to the Pleistocene. Recent oxygen isotope records from deep-sea cores serve as proxy for the pattern of global climate during the Cenozoic and compare reasonably well with the large carnivore intervals. Intervals A, B, and the early part of C characterize a time of cooler global climate (δ¹⁸O: +1.3 to +3.0‰) following the early Eocene climatic …