Digital Commons Network^™

High-Resolution Ocean Color Remote Sensing Of Benthic Habitats: A Case Study At The Roatan Island, Honduras, Deepak R. Mishra, Sunil G. Narumalani, Donald Rundquist, Merlin P. Lawson

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Natural resource managers clamor for detailed reef habitat maps for monitoring smaller scale disturbances in reef communities. Coastal ocean color remote sensing techniques permit benthic habitats to be explored with higher resolution than ever before. The objective of this research was to develop an accurate benthic habitat map for an area off the northwest coast of Roatan Island, Honduras, using high-resolution multispectral IKONOS data. Atmospheric (Rayleigh and aerosol path radiance) and water column corrections (water depth and water column attenuation) were applied to the imagery, making it a robust method for mapping benthic habitats. Water depth for each pixel was …

Groundwater Irrigation In The Development Of The Grand Prairie Rice Industry, 1896-1950, John B. Gates

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Elucidates some of the ways in which groundwater and groundwater irrigation have affected the Grand Prairie's rice industry over time and conversely how the development of the industry has altered the region's groundwater conditions. Concentrates on aspects of the industry's history that have often been overlooked in favor of rice cultivation's social dimensions and consider hydrological systems not just as resources awaiting exploitation or as simple constraints on production but as variables whose roles and effects can change over time.

New Stratigraphic Subdivision, Depositional Environment, And Age Estimate For The Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation, Southern Ulan Nur Basin, Mongolia, Demberelyin Dashzeveg, Lowell Dingus, David B. Loope, Carl C. Swisher Iii, Togtokh Dulam, Mark R. Sweeney

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Studies of key and newly discovered sections of the Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation along the southern margin of the Ulan Nur Basin allow a new subdivision based on lithology. The formation and its members were mapped at both Bayn Dzak, an area that includes the Flaming Cliffs, and Tugrugyin Shireh, an area about 50 km to the northwest of Bayn Dzak. Stratigraphic sections at both localities were remeasured. The considerably enlarged formation comprises a lower Bayn Dzak Member, dominated by moderate reddish orange sands with subordinate mudstone units, and an upper Tugrugyin Member, composed of pale orange to light gray …

Do Meteorologists Suppress Thunderstorms? Radar-Derived Statics And The Behavior Of Moist Convection, Matthew D. Parker, Jason C. Knievel

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Most meteorologists are acquainted with the no- tion of a weather hole—that is, a place that receives less exciting weather than does its surroundings. Exciting weather takes many forms, but when people use the term weather hole, they tend to mean a place that thunderstorms often barely miss, or near which approaching storms often dissipate. For this paper, that is the meaning we adopt.

In our experience, many meteorologists and lay weather enthusiasts genuinely believe that they live in weather holes, and this belief, almost without fail, seems to stem from countless hours spent gazing at displays of radar reflectivity. …

Performance Of Quality Assurance Procedures For An Applied Climate Information System, K. G. Hubbard, S. Goddard, Bill Sorensen, N. Wells, Thomas Osugi

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Valid data are required to make climate assessments and to make climate-related decisions. The objective of this paper is threefold: to introduce an explicit treatment of Type I and Type II errors in evaluating the performance of quality assurance procedures, to illustrate a quality control approach that allows tailoring to regions and subregions, and to introduce a new spatial regression test. Threshold testing, step change, persistence, and spatial regression were included in a test of three decades of temperature and precipitation data at six weather stations representing different climate regimes. The magnitude of thresholds was addressed in terms of the …

Details And Description Of Industrial Engineering, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This content paper addresses key questions for students interested in pursuing industrial engineering as an academic major: What is industrial engineering? What personality characteristics do Industrial Engineers have? What types of projects do Industrial Engineers work on? What types of jobs do Industrial Engineers have? Where do Industrial Engineers work once they graduate? How much can Industrial Engineers earn? I have never heard of IE, is it a new area? How do Industrial Engineers benefit society and business? What classes will I take as an industrial engineering student? What are examples of problems I will learn how to solve? Are …

Range Imaging Observations Of Pmse Using The Eiscat Vhf Radar: Phase Calibration And First Results, J. R. Fernandez, R. D. Palmer, P. B. Chilson, I. Haggstrom, M. T. Rietveld

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

A novel phase calibration technique for use with the multiple-frequency Range IMaging (RIM) technique is introduced based on genetic algorithms. The method is used on data collected with the European Incoherent SCATter (EISCAT) VHF radar during a 2002 experiment with the goal of characterizing the vertical structure of Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes (PMSE) over northern Norway. For typical Doppler measurements, the initial phases of the transmitter and receiver are not required to be the same. The EISCAT receiver systems exploit this fact, allowing a multistatic configuration. However, the RIM method relies on the small phase differences between closely spaced frequencies. …

Phased-Array Design For Biological Clutter Rejection: Simulation And Experimental Validation, B.L. Cheong, Michael Hoffman, R.D. Palmer, Stephen J. Frasier, F.J. Lopez-Dekker

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper highlights recent results obtained with the Turbulent Eddy Profiler (TEP), which was devel- oped by the University of Massachusetts. This unique 915-MHz radar has up to 64 spatially separated receiving elements, each with an independent receiver. The calibrated raw data provided by this array could be processed using sophisticated imaging algorithms to resolve the horizontal structures within each range gate. After collecting all of the closely spaced horizontal slices, the TEP radar can produce three- dimensional images of echo power, radial velocity, and spectral width. From the radial velocity measure- ments, it is possible to estimate the three-dimensional …

Generalized Williamson And Wallis-Whiteman Constructions For Improved Square Order-8 Cois Stbc, Le Chung Tran, Tadeusz Wysocki, Jennifer Seberry, Alfred Mertins, Sarah A. Spence

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications (to 2015)

Constructions of square, maximum rate Complex Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes (CO STBCs) are well known, however codes constructed via the known methods include numerous zeros, which impede their practical implementation. By modifying the Williamson and Wallis-Whiteman arrays to apply to complex matrices, we propose two methods of construction of square, order-4n CO STBCs from square, order-n codes which satisfy certain properties. Applying the proposed methods, we construct square, maximum rate, order-8 CO STBCs with no zeros, such that the transmitted symbols equally disperse through transmit antennas. Those codes, referred to as the improved square …

Utilizing Device Slack For Energy-Efficient I/O Device Scheduling In Hard Real-Time Systems With Non-Preemptible Resources, Hui Cheng, Steve Goddard

School of Computing: Technical Reports

The challenge in conserving energy in embedded real-time systems is to reduce power consumption while preserving temporal correctness. Much research has focused on power conservation for the processor, while power conservation for I/O devices has received little attention. In this paper, we analyze the problem of online energy-aware I/O scheduling for hard real-time systems based on the preemptive periodic task model with non-preemptible shared resources. We extend the concept of device slack proposed in [2] to support non-preemptible shared resources; and propose an online energy-aware I/O scheduling algorithm: Energy-efficient Device Scheduling with Non-preemptible Resources (EEDS NR). The EEDS NR algorithm …

On Finding Consecutive Test Vectors In A Random Sequence For Energy-Aware Bist Design, Sheng Zhang, Sharad C. Seth, Bhargab B. Bhattacharya

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

During pseudorandom testing, a significant amount of energy and test application time is wasted for generating and for applying “useless” test vectors that do not contribute to fault dropping. For low-power testing, modification logic/ROM may be used to skip the LFSR states that generate useless test patterns. The overhead of extra logic increases rapidly with the number of such jumps. Since identification of useless patterns strongly depends on the order in which incremental fault simulation is performed, an elegant solution to this problem would be to find a minimum set of segments in the LFSR sequence, where each segment corresponds …

A Model For Predicting The Evolution Of Damage In Viscoelastic Particle-Reinforced Composites, G. D. Seidel, D. H. Allen, K. L. E. Helms, S. E. Groves

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Faculty Publications

A viscoelastic cohesive zone model is employed within the framework of a finite element code to analyze a two-phase viscoelastic particle-reinforced composite material consisting of a relatively stiff aggregate embedded in a copolymer binder. The composite of interest, LX17, is noted to have a very large aggregate volume fraction and as such, aggregate grain boundaries were generated within finite element meshes along which viscoelastic cohesive zones have been embedded to model the binder. It has been observed experimentally that the majority of damage in LX17 occurs within the binder, and thus, a damage evolution law has been applied to the …

Science Priorities For Reducing The Threat Of Invasive Species To Sustainable Forestry, Elizabeth A. Chornesky, Ann M. Bartuska, Gregory H. Aplet, Kerry O. Britton, Jane Cummings-Carlson, Frank W. Davis, Jessica Eskow, Doria R. Gordon, Kurt W. Gottschalk, Robert A. Haack, Andrew J. Hansen, Richard N. Mack, Frank J. Rahel, Margaret A. Shannon, Lisa A. Wainger, T. Bently Wigley

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

Invasive species pose a major, yet poorly addressed, threat to sustainable forestry. Here we set forth an interdisciplinary science strategy of research, development, and applications to reduce this threat. To spur action by public and private entities that too often are slow, reluctant, or unable to act, we recommend (a) better integrating invasive species into sustainable forestry frameworks such as the Montréal Process and forest certification programs; (b) developing improved cost estimates to inform choices about international trade and pest suppression efforts; and (c) building distributed information systems that deliver information on risks, identification, and response strategies. To enhance the …

The Geographically Contiguous And Expanding Coastal Range Of The Northern Curlytail Lizard (Leiocephalus Carinatus Armouri ) In Florida, Walter E. Meshaka Jr., Henry T. Smith, Richard M. Engeman, Christopher L. Dean, Jon A. Moore, William E. O'Brien

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We surveyed for the presence of the Northern Curlytail Lizard, Leiocephalus carinatus armouri, from Port Salerno, Martin County, FL, northward to the Indian River-Brevard county line to determine the extent to which this species occurs along the Florida East Coast. The geographic range of L. c. armouri appears to be uninterrupted along the coast from northern Broward County through Palm Beach County. The heavily modified coastal habitat provided this species with the open sunny conditions and cement analogues to the rocky substratum to which it is adapted. Its ubiquity, rate of geographic expansion, combined with its carnivorous habits and large …

Maternal Yolk Steroids: A Potential Compensatory Mechanism For Red-Winged Blackbirds (Agelaius Phoeniceus) In North Dakota, Rachel M. Bush, Mark E. Clark, Wendy L. Reed, George M. Linz

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Many of the suggested management techniques directed at reducing blackbird breeding populations fail to incorporate the underlying mechanisms regulating populations. Theoretically, removal of individuals from the breeding population should lower the breeding densities and presumably reduce recruitment. However, compensatory responses might occur with decreased breeding densities, but no empirical data are available to test this hypothesis. Much of the underlying compensatory theory is based on differential allocation of resources to reproduction vs. self maintenance at different breeding densities, mainly in the form of depensatory effects of resource limitation on growth and survival. However, as the breeding density in an area …

Blackbird Use And Damage Of Wildlife Conservation Sunflower Plots, Jonathan M. Raetzman, George M. Linz, William J. Bleier

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Annual blackbird damage to sunflower is valued at $5 to $10 million. Perhaps more importantly, the National Sunflower Association has identified blackbirds as the key reason for growers to abandon sunflower in areas of prime production. North Dakota and South Dakota together produce approximately 70% of sunflower grown in the United States. This crop adds $906 million to the regional economy. To date, cost effective and environmentally safe methods to reduce bird damage to sunflower remain elusive. In the 1980’s, scientists from the National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) showed that “decoy” sunflower plots can greatly reduce bird damage to local …

Wildlife Disease Research At The Aphis National Wildlife Research Center, R. G. Mclean, L. Clark, M. R. Dunbar, K. C. Vercauteren, T. A. Campbell

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Research on wildlife diseases at the newly formed Wildlife Disease Program (WDP) at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Wildlife Services (WS), National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) concentrates on wildlife diseases of importance to domestic animal and human health. We are conducting studies on wildlife rabies, bovine tuberculosis (TB), chronic wasting disease (CWD), West Nile virus (WNV), pathogenic bacteria of birds, and pseudorabies (PR). The goal of the research is to develop innovative methods for surveillance, intervention, prevention, and control of these diseases.

Historic And Current Status Of The American White Pelican Breeding At Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge, North Dakota, Marsha A. Sovada, D. Tommy King, Michael Erickson, Cheryl Gray

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge currently supports the largest breeding colony of the American White Pelican ( Pelecanus erythrorhynchos ) in North America. The first written account of the colony’s status was in 1905, when approximately 500 pelicans nested on two islands in Chase Lake. The colony grew to nearly 34,000 breeding birds by 2002. Surveys of breeding pelicans in the colony were sporadic from 1905 until 1972. Because the availability of foraging areas affects recruitment, pond counts from south-central North Dakota were used as an index of the relative availability of foraging areas. Pond counts varied widely in the …

Interactions Between The American White Pelican And Aquaculture In The Southeastern United States: An Overview, D. Tommy King

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The eastern metapopulation of the American White Pelican ( Pelecanus erythrorhynchos ) breeds mainly in the Northern Great Plains, migrates through the Great Plains and along the Mississippi River and winters in the lower Mississippi River Valley and along the Gulf of Mexico. The production of farm-raised Channel Catfish ( Ictalurus punctatus ) in the southeastern United States has increased dramatically in the last 25 years. In 1990, U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services offices in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi began receiving complaints concerning the foraging of pelicans in commercial Channel Catfish ponds. Because of the relatively shallow depth and …

Recent Population Status Of The American White Pelican: A Continental Perspective, D. Tommy King, Daniel W. Anderson

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Breeding bird surveys were conducted at most American White Pelican ( Pelecanus erythrorhynchos ) colonies in North America from 1979-81 and the number of American White Pelicans was estimated at >109,000 breeding individuals in 55 colonies. Although many pelican colonies have not been surveyed since the early 1980s, we present the most current survey numbers available for North American colonies. Using available data (1998-2001) and the North American Continental Divide to delineate eastern from western metapopulations, 27 colonies and 48,240 nests in the East and 15 colonies and 18,790 nests in the West were documented, giving a total of about …

Introduction: Biology And Conservation Of The American White Pelican, Daniel W. Anderson, D. Tommy King

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Two separate, large-scale management units for the American White Pelican ( Pelecanus erythrorhynchos ) in North America are proposed: the eastern and western metapopulations, separated by the North American Continental Divide. The populations on either side of this barrier are subject to contrasting ecological conditions, movement patterns suggest strong geographic separation and each is likely demographically distinct. Subdivisions within these demographic units need to be more precisely defined in the future. Yet, because of the highly colonial nesting habits of the American White Pelican, conservation can still be effective if directed toward separate breeding colonies. Our intent is to provide …

Preface [To Special Issue Of Wildlife Research: ‘Use Of Indices To Monitor Wildlife Population’], Richard M. Engeman

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Developing Relative Abundance Techniques (Rats) For Monitoring Rodent Populations, Desely A. Whisson, Richard M. Engeman, Kellie Collins

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Accurate density estimates of rodents are frequently difficult or cost-prohibitive to determine. Thus, a number of techniques (track plates, monitoring blocks, chew cards/sticks, apple slice index, trapping) are often used to index rodent populations. Theoretically, the sensitivity of these indexing techniques could be improved if they applied continuous measurements rather than simple binary measurements (presence/absence). Development of a relative abundance technique that is simple to apply and sensitive to changes in population density is critical for the operational management of rodent pests. In addition to providing a quantitative measure of abundance with statistical parameters, an indexing technique that does not …

The Impact Of Disease In The American White Pelican In North America, Tonie Rocke, Kathryn Converse, Carol Meteyer, Bob Mclean

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Records of reported die-offs of the American White Pelican ( Pelicanus erythrorhynchos ) held by the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center from 1978 through 2003 indicate that type C botulism (caused by Clostridium botulinum ) was the major cause of mortality. In 1996, over 15,000 birds, including 8,500 American White Pelicans, were estimated to have died from type C botulism at the Salton Sea in California. This was the largest documented die-off of any pelican species and was estimated to represent 15-20% of the western metapopulation. This event was also notable in that it was the first time …

Husbandry Of Wild-Caught Greater Sage-Grouse, Paul Oesterle, Robert Mclean, Michael Dunbar, Larry Clark

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

This study reports the first successful husbandry and breeding in captivity of wild-caught greater sage-grouse (Ccntroccrcus urophasianus). In October 2003, 2 1 hatch-year greater sage-grouse were trapped in northwestern Nevada and transported to Fort Collins, Colorado. We held grouse in pens at the United States Department of Agriculture's National Wildlife Research Center for 8 months. We offered a varied diet, including native food items such as sagebrush (Arternisia tridentata and A. tripartita) and yarrow (Achilles millefolium). We housed grouse in a large flight pen and allowed to them freerange as one flock. Mortdlity rate was 16.7%. Several of the grouse …

Stability Of The Tranquilizer Drug Propionylpromazine Hydrochloride In Formulated Products, Thomas M. Primus, Bruce A. Kimball, Jerome Hurley, John J. Johnston, Sherm Blom, Peter J. Savarie

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

An analytical method to evaluate propionylpromazine hydrochloride (PPZHCl) in tranquilizer formulations was developed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). During analysis of aged quality-control samples, a previously unreported chromatographic response was observed at a shorter retention time than PPZHCl. Further investigation of formulations stored in trap tap devices at temperatures ranging from 5 to 40 ◦C during field trials at four different locations confirmed the degradation of the active ingredient. Further investigation using HPLC/tandem mass spectrometry revealed two to five degradates, with the major degradates being oxidation products of the active ingredient, PPZHCl. As PPZHCl formulations must be stable when stored …

Coyote Movements And Social Structure Along A Cryptic Population Genetic Subdivision, Benjamin N. Sacks, Brian R. Mitchell, Christen L. Williams, Holly B. Ernest

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

A recent region-wide study determined that the central California coyote ( Canis latrans ) population was genetically subdivided according to habitat bioregions, supporting the hypothesis that coyotes exhibit a dispersal bias toward their natal habitat type. Here, we further investigated this hypothesis using radio-collared coyotes captured on a 150-km 2 study site on the border of (i.e. overlapping) two bioregions (Great Valley and Cascade Mountains). As predicted, most coyotes were assigned (based on a priori genetic criteria) to genetic clusters corresponding to one of these two bioregions. All of those assigned to the Great Valley genetic cluster were caught in …

Gnrh Irnmunocontraception Of Male Cats, Megan K. Ross, Julie K. Levy, Lowell A. Miller, Cynda Crawford, Jerry W. Ritchey, Kathleen A. Fagerstone

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The develop~llenot f nonsurgical co~ltraceptivesf or cats may facilitate population control of the species. The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of GI&H for iinillu~locontraceptioo~fl male cats. Male cats (11=12) were divided into groups of tlxee and were inunuilized once with 0 (sham), 50, 200, or 400 i g synthetic GI&H coupled to keyhole limpet hernocyanin and combined with a nlycobacterial adjuvant to e~lhance inullunogenicity. GI&H ailtibody titer, serunl testostero~lec oncentration, and scrota1 size were detenniiled monthly. At 6 1110, semen was collected by electroejaculation and testes were examined histologically. GnRH antibodies were detected in all cats …

From The Field: Field Searches Versus Vaginal Implant Translocating Elk Calves, Nathan W. Seward, David S. Maehr, Jonathan W. Gassett, John J. Cox, Jeffrey L. Larkin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We compared the utility of vaginal implant transmitters (VITs) and field searches for locating elk (Cervus elaphus) calves in southeastern Kentucky during the spring of 2001. Retention of VITs among 40 adult females ranged from 1–276 days (x - =61.6±8.4 [SE] days). Approximately half of the transmitters (n=19) were expelled prematurely or malfunctioned. Two of 37 (5%) transmitters in translocated females performed as designed and led to calf capture. We captured more calves (n=9 in 2001; n=16 in 2002) by searching areas where elk exhibited parturition behavior. We suggest that manufacturers refine the current VIT design to increase its application …

Foraging Behavior And Monetary Impact Of Wading Birds At Arkansas Baitfish Farms, Scott J. Werner, J. Brett Harrel, David E. Wooten

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

WP rnnrlurted fnraging ob,ervations, food habits studie~, and producer aurveys to determine the foraging behavior and monetary impact of great blue herons Ardca hr.rodia5, great egrets A. alba, and little blue heron5 E m t r a cnurulua lora-g in-e at Arkansas haiffish farms. Although great egrets captured most baitfishlminute, captureslstrike were nearlj identical among the three wadine bird snecies. American eizzard shad Dorosoma crordinnum. eoldfish Carossius nuratul. D - . - and giant water bugs Hemiplera: Beloston~atidaew ere collected from the gastro-intestinal tract of grent blue herons. Only golden shiners ,Votrrni~onuc,~ry soleucur and goldfish were found in great egrets. …