1025 research outputs found
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Assessing the Body Condition of Brook Trout (\u3cem\u3eSalvelinus\u3c/em\u3e \u3cem\u3efontinalis\u3c/em\u3e) in the Loyalsock Creek Watershed
Full text linkThe body condition of an animal is an indicator of their health based on their size and weight. Assessing body condition can be useful for evaluating populations and tracing ecological disturbances. This study assessed the body condition of brook trout in the Loyalsock Creek watershed after Tropical Storm Lee in September 2011. The storm brought heavy rainfall to central Pennsylvania and triggered a catastrophic flood that disrupted the streams and trout populations. Fish populations were surveyed annually at 30 sites in the Loyalsock Creek watershed from 2011 to 2020. Fish were electroshocked, following procedures from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, and the weight and lengths were recorded for trout individuals. Body condition was predicted with Fulton’s condition factor and a relative weight equation. The overall body condition of the brook trout populations declined considerably after the flooding event. Brook trout had the lowest body condition in 2013, two years after the flood. Condition improved over the 10-year period, but overall body condition has still remained below the median body condition in 2011. This study revealed how predicting body condition reveals how animal populations respond and recover from ecological disturbances. The brook trout populations in the Loyalsock Creek watershed were strongly impacted by Tropical Storm Lee, and it will take several more years for the populations to recover from this catastrophic flood
Dark Tourist
No full textDark tourism—visiting sites of war, violence, and other traumas experienced by others—takes different forms in Hasanthika Sirisena’s stunning excavation of the unexpected places (and ways) in which personal identity and the riptides of history meet. The 1961 plane crash that left a nuclear warhead buried near her North Carolina hometown, juxtaposed with reflections on her father’s stroke. A visit to Jaffna in Sri Lanka—the country of her birth, yet where she is unmistakably a foreigner—to view sites from the recent civil war, already layered over with the narratives of the victors. A fraught memory of her time as a young art student in Chicago that is uneasily foundational to her bisexual, queer identity today. The ways that life-changing impairments following a severe eye injury have shaped her thinking about disability and self-worth. Deftly blending reportage, cultural criticism, and memoir, Sirisena pieces together facets of her own sometimes-fractured self to find wider resonances with the human universals of love, sex, family, and art—and with language’s ability to both fail and save us. Dark Tourist becomes then about finding a home, if not in the world, at least within the limitless expanse of the page.https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/facultybooks/1095/thumbnail.jp
Narcos in Jesús María: Dystopian empowerment in the amateur exploitation film Corazón cubano / Cuban Heart (2014)
No full textThis article analyses the film Corazón cubano/Cuban Heart (Liyuen Valdés 2014), a story about drug traffickers in the Jesús María neighbourhood of Havana, circulated only through the Paquete Semanal (Weekly Package). Examining the creators\u27 symbolic identification with the figure of the narco, this article explores Corazón as an example of amateur, alternative and informal media within the Paquete and its relationship with exploitation, cult and trash cinema. It argues that Corazón\u27s appropriation of narconarratives through reparteros (the inhabitants of Havana\u27s peripheric and poorest neighbourhoods) is linked to the relationship between reparteros, rap and reggaeton and points to the filmmakers\u27 will to combine social criticism and entertainment. Corazón also reproduces controversial practices and discourses like \u27necroempowerment\u27 (Valencia) or \u27fascinating violence\u27 (Valencia and Sepúlveda), developing dystopian empowerment by appropriating the narco as a \u27cultural persona\u27 (Edberg)
The effect of herbicide on activity level and chemically-mediated antipredator responses in wolf spiders
Full text linkSpiderlings of the wolf spider Rabidosa rabida show innate effective antipredator responses (freezing) in the presence of silk and excreta cues of the syntopic intraguild predatory spider, Pardosa milvina. Both species are commonly found in agricultural systems where herbicides may interfere with predator-prey dynamics within these species. Published studies indicate that a variety of environmental factors may degrade or modify spider silk and therefore could potentially influence the ability of predator cues to inform antipredator decisions in prey spiders. Some herbicides may act as a stimulant and increase the activity level of wolf spiders. We tested the effect of dicamba on three aspects of Rabidosa and Pardosa behavior. We measured the effect of spraying dicamba on the ability of Rabidosa spiderlings to detect silk and excreta cues from Pardosa. We also tested if dicamba sprayed before or after Pardosa silk deposition influenced freezing responses and subsequent predation in Rabidosa when paired with a live Pardosa predator. In a second experiment we measured both activity level and predation frequency of Pardosa on Rabidosa when Pardosa, Rabidosa, or both spiders were chronically exposed to herbicide-treated soils over a one-week period. Dicamba sprayed on substrates with predator cues from Pardosa did not significantly influence Rabidosa survival or Pardosa attack latency when Rabidosa wasn’t previously exposed to predator cues; however, Rabidosa and Pardosa both increased activity level when exposed for one week to dicamba substrates. We also found significant differences in Rabidosa survival with a live Pardosa when exposed for at least 24 hours with predator cues depending on if the predator and/or prey was exposed to dicamba. Our findings suggest that dicamba may mediate silk-cued predator-prey interactions in these species particularly when the prey have been previously primed with predator silk cue
Do Auditory Stimuli Affect Visual Search in Related Categories?
Full text linkPrevious research suggests that relevant sound cues facilitate successful visual search. The current study investigates whether target-consistent sounds facilitate visual search when the target is placed among related objects. Participants completed a computer-based visual search task where they indicated, as quickly and accurately as possible, the quadrant location of the target stimuli in a four-object visual display. The target appeared among categorically-related distractors or unrelated distractors. One of 5 sound cues was heard concurrently with presentation of the display: a target characteristic sound, the target stimuli name, a distractor characteristic sound, distractor target name, or a beep (control). Overall, participants responded faster in unrelated visual searches (M = 572.83ms) than categorically-related visual searches (M = 629.75ms). Participants were also more accurate in categorically-unrelated visual searches (M = 68.7%) than categorically-related visual searches (M = 58.3%). Participants responded more accurately to artifact stimuli (M = 65.3%) than natural stimuli (M = 61.7%), but there was no significant difference in reaction time. Contrary to expectation, all sound cues inhibited reaction time compared to the control cue. However, most sound cues facilitated accuracy more than the control cue. Distractor characteristic cues (M = 64.8%) inhibited accuracy compared to the control (M = 62.8%). The cues’ meaningful associations may have required additional processing, which delayed response. Participant fatigue from the extended number of trials may have increased response latencies and contributed to lack of differences in reaction time. Eye-tracker data may provide insight into how sound cues influences eye-movements during visual search
Investigation of Microwave Assisted Hydrogenations Using Frustrated Lewis Pairs
Full text linkSeveral ketones and aldehydes were hydrogenated with Frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) conditions using microwave irradiation. Several of these products were characterized by spectroscopic techniques. Cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME) was found to be the most efficient solvent under microwave conditions. Stereoselectivity of hydride addition was varied with cyclohexanone derivatives and depended on the proximity of large groups to the electrophilic center. The reaction rates of benzaldehyde and acetophenone derivatives were calculated to compare effects of electron withdrawing groups. The use of the microwave successfully reduced reaction times from several hours to just a few minutes in the most extreme cases
The Impact of Immigrant Education Levels on the Host Nation\u27s Economy
Full text linkMost research on the effects of changes in the educational composition of immigration on the host nation’s economy has focused on how an increase in the supply side, more specifically the labor supply, affects domestic wages. This paper seeks to understand how the demand side is affected by immigrant’s educational composition, by looking at the impact on inflation. This is done through a review of previous immigration research, as well as a regression analysis between immigration and inflation. This paper seeks to understand if there has been a shift in the composition of immigrants into the developed world, and if and how that compositional shift has affected those nations’ economies
Teacher\u27s Tone of Voice in the Classroom and How it Affects Students.
Full text linkThe purpose of this study was to see how my tone of voice can affect my students in the classroom. It also looked at how my tone of voice can help motivate students in the classroom in different learning settings. My self-study was able to be implanted throughout my practicum experience to improve and change my tone of voice in the classroom, which resulted in more effective and efficient practice within the classroom as an educator
A Study of Old Field Succession at the Center for Environmental Education and Research (CEER)
Full text linkUsing the successional plots located at the Center for Environmental Education and Research (CEER), the species composition and distribution of woody plant species were determined for four of these plots. Old field succession has large implications conservation considering how much land is used by humans for agricultural practice. Invasive species are also a growing threat to conservation, particularly in early successional environments, such as old fields, that allow them to have a foothold to grow. How these invasives impact native populations and the trajectory of succession is critical to conserving biodiversity of native organisms. Understanding how species abundance and distribution changes through time is particularly helpful for implementing restoration on sites that are degraded. The pattern found in this instance is that invasive species invade early in the successional time scale and woody plant species diversity decreases with time
