Diel Vertical Migration of Round Goby Larvae in the Great Lakes

One hypothesis for the transcontinental and intra-Great Lakes basin transfer of round gobies (Neogobius melanostomus) has been that round gobies were pumped into the ballast water of ships. During June 2005 in Lake Erie, we obtained evidence of a vertical migration of round goby larvae, when we collected 167 round goby larvae in surface ichthyoplankton net tows at night and zero during day. These results complemented similar findings from the Muskegon River estuary of Lake Michigan during 2003 and 2004, documenting diel vertical migration for the first time in larval round gobies. We suggest vertical migration behavior may have allowed larval round gobies to be transported to and within the Great Lakes via ballast water and dispersed in the Great Lakes via advection of 6.5–8.5-mm long larvae at the surface. Based on our results, if ballast water was only taken on near the surface during daylight hours from May through September when larval round gobies were present, it would have mitigated the spread of round gobies throughout the Great Lakes.     

THE LOW CYCLE IMPACT FATIGUE PROPERTIES OF PEARLITIC PLAIN CARBON STEELS

The results of Stan ton and Bairstow (1908) have been reanalyzed to yield information on the composition dependence of the low cycle impact fatigue properties of pearlitic plain carbon steels. It has been found that the energy absorbed per impact, E_i, and the number of impacts are failure, N_f, are related by the equation: In this equation q is determined by the carbon, manganese and silicon contents of the steel; E_o is the impact endurance limit; and C and D are constants. The curve represented by this equation intersects that representing the Johnson-Keller high cycle impact fatigue equation at a value of log_eN_f equal to 1/C. Thus, the transition from low to high cycle impact fatigue occurs at this value of log_eN_f.     

Recovering spectral data from natural scenes with an RGB digital camera and colored filters

Many spectral‐recovery methods using RGB digital cameras assume the underlying smoothness of illuminant and reflectance spectra, and apply low‐dimensional linear models. The aim of the present work was to test whether a direct‐mapping method could be used instead of a linear‐models approach to recover spectral radiances and reflectances from natural scenes with an RGB digital camera and colored filters. In computer simulations, a conventional RGB digital camera with up to three colored filters was used to image scenes drawn from a hyperspectral image database. Three measures were used to evaluate recovery with the direct‐mapping method: goodness‐of‐fit, root‐mean‐square error, and a color‐difference metric. It was found that with two and three filters both spectral radiances and reflectances could be recovered sufficiently accurately for many practical applications. With little increase in computational complexity, an RGB camera and a few colored filters can provide significantly better recovery of natural scenes than an RGB camera alone. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 32, 352–360, 2007     

CO2 emissions,energy consumption,and output in France

This paper examines the dynamic causal relationships between pollutant emissions, energy consumption, and output for France using cointegration and vector error-correction modelling techniques. We argue that these variables are strongly inter-related and therefore their relationship must be examined using an integrated framework. The results provide evidence for the existence of a fairly robust long-run relationship between these variables for the period 1960–2000. The causality results support the argument that economic growth exerts a causal influence on growth of energy use and growth of pollution in the long run. The results also point to a uni-directional causality running from growth of energy use to output growth in the short run.     

XML data update management in XML-enabled database

With the increasing demand for a proper and efficient XML data storage, XML-Enabled Database (XEnDB) has emerged as one of the popular solutions. It claims to combine the pros and limit the cons of the traditional Database Management Systems (DBMS) and Native XML Database (NXD). In this paper, we focus on XML data update management in XEnDB. Our aim is to preserve the conceptual semantic constraints and to avoid inconsistencies in XML data during update operations. In this current era when XML data interchange mostly occurs in a commercial setting, it is highly critical that data exchanged be correct at all times, and hence data integrity in XML data is paramount. To achieve our goal, we firstly classify different constraints in XML documents. Secondly, we transform these constraints into XML Schema with embedded SQL annotations. Thirdly, we propose a generic update methodology that utilizes the proposed schema. We then implement the method in one of the current XEnDB products. Since XEnDB has a Relational Model as the underlying data model, our update method uses the SQL/XML as a standard language. Finally, we also analyze the processing performance.     

The Role of Acceptance and Job Control in Mental Health, Job Satisfaction, and Work Performance.

Acceptance, the willingness to experience thoughts, feelings, and physiological sensations without having to control them or let them determine one's actions, is a major individual determinant of mental health and behavioral effectiveness in a more recent theory of psychopathology. This 2-wave panel study examined the ability of acceptance also to explain mental health, job satisfaction, and performance in the work domain. The authors hypothesized that acceptance would predict these 3 outcomes 1 year later in a sample of customer service center workers in the United Kingdom (N = 412). Results indicated that acceptance predicted mental health and an objective measure of performance over and above job control, negative affectivity, and locus of control. These beneficial effects of having more job control were enhanced when people had higher levels of acceptance. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical relevance of this individual characteristic to occupational health and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collection and evaluation of existing data: an ecological risk assessment perspective.

All scientific disciplines rely to some degree upon existing data to design new studies, test hypotheses, and make decisions. Because existing data can take many forms, a framework for addressing the quality of these data must be general and comprehensive. By nature of this inclusiveness, quality categories for existing data are necessarily broad. Effective employment of existing data requires the development of specific acceptance criteria from broad data quality categories. A framework is presented for collecting and evaluating existing data with examples of Environmental Protection Agency projects employing a tiered data review. The systematic planning inherent in a tiered review is described and attendant data quality considerations are developed in the context of an ecological risk assessment; specifically, the process is illustrated by defining an ecologically protective concentration of a chemical in soil.