475 research outputs found
Landscape and population ecology of ring-necked pheasants
No full textSpecies inhabiting intensively farmed landscapes are dependent on private and public lands managed for the benefit of wildlife. While the benefits of different management approaches at the field- and landscape scale are well-recognized, how to prioritize actions is less clear. Much of this difficulty arises from a lack of information about the mechanisms linking field- and landscape-scale management to population-level responses. I collected detailed demographic data on ring-necked pheasants on 14 public and private grasslands in east-central Illinois. I monitored 108 nests, 38 broods, and the survival and habitat use of 108 adult female ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) throughout the year between May 2014 and August 2016. My goal was to better understand how field- and landscape-scale habitat features affected stage-specific demographic parameters and population growth in ring-necked pheasants. I found that field- and landscape-scale habitat features often had contrasting effects on chick survival, adult survival, and nest success. Increasing the proportion of grassland in the surrounding landscape improved nest success, but had a negative effect on chick survival. Similarly, the amount native grasses within fields had a positive effect on adult survival, but a negative effect on chick survival. Still, population growth was most sensitive to increases in native grass, but peaked at intermediate amounts of native grass cover. I also sought to identify the predators of pheasants and clarify how vegetation, field size, and landscape composition affect predation risk. I used automatic telemetry to determine the time of death and classify predators of male and female pheasants inhabiting 5 grassland fields. I classified the time of death for 70 pheasants and related field- and landscape-scale habitat conditions to predator identity for 32. My results showed that raptors were the most common predators of pheasants. Both raptors and mesopredators were more likely to prey on pheasants in large fields than small ones. Predation by raptors could be minimized by increasing the amount of native grasses within fields. Still, pheasant populations were growing during my study, suggesting that raptors were not limiting population growth. Overall, my research demonstrates the need for a mechanistic understanding of how field- and landscape conditions can affect the population demography of wildlife. By incorporating more detailed information about the relationship between habitat characteristics, predation patterns, and demography across multiple life-stages, wildlife managers can make more effective decisions.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2019-12-01The student, Timothy Lyons, accepted the attached license on 2017-11-30 at 13:25.The student, Timothy Lyons, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2017-11-30 at 13:32.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2017-12-01 at 14:59.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #11793 on 2018-03-13 at 09:56:21Made available in DSpace on 2018-03-13T15:25:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 2017-12-01Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 105177
Lift date: 2020-03-13T15:25:40Z
Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemEmbargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 105177
Lift date: 2020-03-13T15:28:52Z
Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemU of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 105177 on 2020-03-14T09:15:25Z
Evaluating Research Impact through Open Access to Scholarly Communication
No full textScientific research is a competitive business – in order to secure funding, promotion and tenure researchers must demonstrate their work has impact in their field. To maximise impact researchers undertake high priority research, aim to get results first, and publish in the highest impact journals. The Internet now presents a new opportunity to the scholarly author seeking higher impact: s/he can now make their work instantly accessible on the Web through author self-archiving. This growing body of open access literature (coupled with new publishing models that make journals available for-free to the reader) maximises research impact by maximising the number of people who can read it, and making it available sooner. Open access also provides a new opportunity for bibliometric research. This thesis describes the relatively recent phenomenon of open access to research literature, tools that were built to collect and analyse that literature, and the results of analyses of the effect of open access and its effect on author behaviour. It shows that articles self-archived by authors receive between 50-250% more citations, that rapid pre-printing on the Web has dramatically reduced the peak citation rate from over a year to virtually instant and how citation-impact – now widely used for evaluation – can be expanded to include a new web metric of download impact
St. Patrick\u27s celebration
No full textGrab a lassie and kick up your heels! Famed Irish music duo Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill join us for some festive fiddling in honor of St. Patrick\u27s Day. They talk about staying true to traditional Irish music, and touring around the world. They play in our studios — along with author Tim O\u27Grady and singer Aine Meenaghan — so get ready to break out a jig
St. Patrick\u27s celebration
No full textGrab a lassie and kick up your heels! Famed Irish music duo Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill join us for some festive fiddling in honor of St. Patrick\u27s Day. They talk about staying true to traditional Irish music, and touring around the world. They play in our studios — along with author Tim O\u27Grady and singer Aine Meenaghan — so get ready to break out a jig
Sarshaothar
No full textSarshaothar (pronounced sar-show-thar) is a Gaelic word meaning masterpiece. Music composition follows a long practiced tradition of the master-apprentice system. When an apprentice wished to become a practicing professional, a masterpiece was required. Sarshaothar is a seven minute composition for full orchestra, and was written in Houston, Texas. The work uses an expanded octatonic pitch collection, and a thirteen chord progression. These two elements start independent, then are woven together to form a complex piece with a wild finish. The work is dedicated to Judith Patrick, the mother of the author
Structural changes in metals consumption
No full textFor 15 years the metals market has been characterized by slow growth - in some cases, even decline - in consumption. To test the proposition that structural changes in demand were the main cause of the slowdown, the author - drawing on U.S. data - uses an extended metals demand model that recognizes energy, labor, capital, and other materials as major inputs. The traditional model explains metals consumption in terms only of output and the prices of metal and its substitutes. It is inadequate to address the issue of structural change because it ignores other factors of production, such as energy, which have experienced dramatic changes. With the extended model, the null hypothesis of no structural change cannot be rejected for most metals. With the conventional model, the null hypothesis of no structural change is strongly rejected. Results with the extended model show that the downturn can be explained mostly by changes in the input variables, particularly such nonmetal inputs as capital and energy, which are much more important cost items than metals and have undergone drastic cost changes over the period.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Montreal Protocol,Mining&Extractive Industry (Non-Energy),Primary Metals
Interoperability and market foreclosure in the European Microsoft case.
No full textIn this paper we discuss some of the most important economic issues raised in European Commission vs. Microsoft (2004) concerning the market for work group servers. In our view, the most important economic issues relate to (a) foreclosure incentives and (b) innovation effects of the proposed remedy. We discuss the economic basis for the Commission’s claims that Microsoft had incentives to exclude rivals in the work group server market through degrading the interoperability of their server operating systems with Windows. We also examine the impact of compulsory disclosure of information on interoperability and argue that the effects on innovation are not unambiguously negative as Microsoft claim. We conclude with some general implications of the case for anti-trust enforcement in high innovation sectors.
Power, value, and the individual exchange: towards an improved conceptualization of terrorist finance
No full textThis thesis finds that the term ‘terrorist financing’ is a misnomer in that much of the activity encompassed by that term involves neither terrorism nor money. Instead, terrorist financing more accurately refers either to the flow of economic and material value to ‘terrorist’ actors or specific material expressions of support to ‘terrorism,’ however that contested term is defined. This finding not only directly challenges the dominant ways terrorist finance is now conceptualized, but also provides the first unified coherent conceptual framework capable of supporting systematic analysis of the topic. This thesis arrives at this conclusion by first critically examining the various – and often contradictory or incoherent – normative, legal, and political contexts that dominate ‘orthodox’ thinking on terrorism and terrorist finance, and then relocating the financing of terrorism squarely in context of the everyday realities of how terrorism and terrorist actors interact with global and local political economies. This thesis goes beyond existing critical works on terrorist financing, and constructs the necessary conceptual foundation for a vastly more coherent, systematic, and ultimately useful understanding of the financial and economic dimensions of terrorism
COMPUTER STUDIES OF HEAT TRACER EXPERIMENTS IN FRACTURED ROCK
No full textRights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author
00-03 "Trade Liberalization and Pollution Intensive Industries in Developing Countries: A Partial Equilibrium Approach."
No full textEconomic theory suggests that liberalization of trade between countries with differing levels of environmental protection could lead pollution-intensive industry to concentrate in the nations where regulations are lax. This effect, often referred to as the "pollution haven" hypothesis, is much discussed in theory, but finds only ambiguous support in empirical research to date. Methodologies used for research on trade and environment differ widely; many are difficult to apply to practical policy questions. We develop a simple, partial equilibrium model explicitly designed to analyze the effects of a change in trade policy. Our model analyzes the relative concentrations of "clean" and "dirty" industries in two nations or regions, before and after the policy change. While lacking the theoretical rigor and mathematical intricacy of other modeling methods, our approach has the advantages of transparency and accessibility to a broad range of analysts and policy makers.
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