1,720,979 research outputs found
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Student Perception of Feral Cats and Their Effects on Campus Wildlife
No full textUndergraduate thesis exploring feral cat management. In many urban areas, feral cat (Felis catus) populations are so large that they have become a nuisance. The goal of this thesis is to understand student perception of the University of North Texas Feral Cat Rescue Group (FCRG) program, a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program on campus. In particular, the author focuses on the role that ecological information has in shaping student opinions about cats and conservation
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Faunal Exploitation during the Depopulation of the Mesa Verde Region (A. D. 1300): A Case Study of Goodman Point Pueblo (5MT604)
Full text linkThis analysis of faunal remains from Goodman Point Pueblo (5MT604), a large village occupied just before the ancestral Puebloans permanently left southwestern Colorado at the end of the thirteenth century, explores the effect of dietary stress during abandonment in the Four Corners region. As archaeologists, we interpret what these former cultures were like and what resources they used through what they left behind. By specifically looking at faunal remains, or remains from food resources, environmental change and dietary stress can be assessed. Identifications of taxa identified at Goodman Point are made explicit via a systematic paleontology. This is followed by site-level taxonomic abundances and spatial analysis. Then, effects of technological innovations, environmental change, and sample quality are examined as alternate explanations of shifts in foraging efficiency, particularly related to animal hunting. Analyzing why and if the availability of faunal resources changes over time helps to clarify why the ancestral Puebloans left southwestern Colorado
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Ecological Significance and Underlying Mechanisms of Body Size Differentiation in White-tailed Deer
Full text linkBody size varies according to nutritional availability, which is of ecological and evolutionary relevance. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that differences in adult body size are realized by increasing juvenile growth rate for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Harvest records are used to construct growth rate estimates by empirical nonlinear curve fitting. Results are compared to those of previous models that include additional parameters. The rate of growth increases during the study period. Models that estimate multiple parameters may not work with harvest data in which estimates of these parameters are prone to error, which renders estimates from complex models too variable to detect inter-annual changes in growth rate that this simpler model capture
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Developing a Wildlife Tracking Extension for ArcGIS
Full text linkWildlife tracking is an essential task to gain better understanding of the migration pattern and use of space of the wildlife. Advances in computer technology and global positioning systems (GPS) have lowered costs, reduced processing time, and improved accuracy for tracking wild animals. In this thesis, a wildlife tracking extension is developed for ArcGIS 9.x, which allows biologists and ecologists to effectively track, visualize and analyze the movement patterns of wild animals. The extension has four major components: (1) data import; (2) tracking; (3) spatial and temporal analysis; and (4) data export. Compared with existing software tools for wildlife tracking, the major features of the extension include: (1) wildlife tracking capabilities using a dynamic data layer supported by a file geodatabase with 1 TB storage limit; (2) spatial clustering of wildlife locations; (3) lacunarity analysis of one-dimensional individual animal trajectories and two-dimensional animal locations for better understanding of animal movement patterns; and (4) herds evolvement modeling and graphic representation. The application of the extension is demonstrated using simulated data, test data collected by a GPS collar, and a real dataset collected by ARGOS satellite telemetry for albatrosses in the Pacific Ocean
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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An Evaluation of Chironomidae Pupal Exuviae as Indicators of Changing Environmental Quality in North Central Texas Ponds along an Urban Gradient
No full textStormwater retention ponds, constructed primarily for services such as flood control, are abundant in urban landscapes and documented hotspots of aquatic biodiversity. A previous study completed in our lab measured benthic community structure in several stormwater retention ponds in North Central Texas along an urban gradient. Results showed that larval chironomids (Diptera: Chironomidae) were the dominant macroinvertebrates in all of the ponds. It was also determined that differences in pond conditions associated with urban development could only be determined when chironomids were identified to the genus-level. However, collection and identification of chironomid larvae is often time-consuming. The objective of this current study is to evaluate the efficacy of the Chironomidae pupal exuviae technique (CPET) to detect changes in water quality in the same series of urban ponds in North Central Texas over one year. Based on results, CPET is an effective method of analyzing chironomid community response to environmental changes associated with anthropogenic impact. A total of 16,635 pupal exuviae were collected during this study representing 80 chironomid taxa, which included 40 genera across three subfamilies. The chironomid communities differed between ponds in proportion to the intensity of the urban development within their watersheds. Additionally, CPET provided the emergence phenology of a highly diverse chironomid assemblage. Results indicated that urban ponds in North Central Texas can provide refuge for biodiversity in a semi-arid region. As urbanization is projected to increase globally, it is critical to monitor how rapid urban expansion affects biodiversity and freshwater ecosystem conditions
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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Annual Survivorship and Movement Ecology of Migrant American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) Overwintering in North Texas
No full textAmerican Kestrels (Falco sparverius) are a small falcon with an expansive range across North America. However, kestrels have been reported to be declining since the 1960s, with the primary cause of decline unknown. With previous research focusing on the summer breeding season, researchers have called for additional investigation in understudied wintering and migratory periods. In Chapter 2, I quantified annual survivorship against five covariates of migrant kestrels wintering in north Texas to contribute to population level analyses across the kestrel's expansive range. Notably, I found that juvenile survival is similar to that of adults once on the wintering grounds, and that aspects of urbanization may increase survival in wintering kestrels. In Chapter 3, I outlined kestrel movement ecology by quantifying migration phenology, performance, and patterns. Additionally, I identified breeding and stopover sites and analyzed both winter and summer home ranges. In this analysis, I contributed three additional migration tracks to the five currently published. Further, I reported the first loop and indirect migration patterns to our knowledge. Overall, this research highlights understudied aspects of the kestrel full annual cycle in the winter and migratory periods, providing insight into possible causes for kestrel declines
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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