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Butterfly abundances are declining globally, with meta‐analysis showing a rate of −2% per year. Agriculture contributes to butterfly decline through habitat loss and degradation. Prairie strips—strips of farmland actively restored to native perennial vegetation—are a conservation practice with the potential to mitigate biodiversity loss, but their impact on butterfly biodiversity is not known.Working within a 30‐year‐old experiment that varied land use intensity, from natural areas to croplands (maize–soy–wheat rotation), we introduced prairie strips to less intensely managed crop treatments. Treatments included conservation land, biologically based (organic) row crops with prairie strips, reduced input row crops with prairie strips, no‐till row crops and conventional row crops. We measured butterfly abundance and richness: (1) within prairie strips and (2) across the gradient of land use intensity at the plot level.Butterfly abundance was higher within prairie strips than in all other treatments. Across the land use intensity gradient at the plot level, the conservation land treatment had the highest abundance, treatments with prairie strips had intermediate levels and no‐till and conventional treatments had the lowest abundances. Also across entire plots, butterfly richness increased as land use intensity decreased. Treatments with prairie strips, which also had reduced land use intensity, had distinct butterfly communities as they harboured several butterfly species that were not found in other row crop treatments.In addition to the known effects of prairie strips on ecosystem services including erosion control and increased water quality, prairie strips can increase biodiversity in multifunctional landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an essay which offers information on the identity of the woman who hosted a tea party attended by American lawyer and politician Abraham Lincoln in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in August 1856. According to the article, the woman, whom Lincoln referred to as the "wife of an M.C." in a letter addressed to Michigan Republican Party leader Zachariah Chandler, was most likely Eliza Taggart Walbridge, wife of Kalamazoo's congressman David S. Walbridge.

This article presents an application of the Kalman filtering technique to estimate loads on a wind turbine. The approach combines a mechanical model and a set of measurements to estimate signals that are not available in the measurements, such as wind speed, thrust, tower position, and tower loads. The model is severalfold faster than real time and is intended to be run online, for instance, to evaluate real-time fatigue life consumption of a field turbine using a digital twin, perform condition monitoring, or assess loads for dedicated control strategies. The mechanical model is built using a Rayleigh-Ritz approach and a set of joint coordinates. We present a general method and illustrate it using a 2-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) model of a wind turbine and using rotor speed, generator torque, pitch, and tower-top acceleration as measurement signals. The different components of the model are tested individually. The overall method is evaluated by computing the errors in estimated tower-bottom-equivalent moment from a set of simulations. From this preliminary study, it appears that the tower-bottom-equivalent moment is obtained with about 10% accuracy. The limitation of the model and the required steps forward are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to counter the threat of a coup, states often undertake a number of strategies to “coup-proof” their militaries, such as creating institutional redundancy, severely limiting interbranch communications, and basing promotions on loyalty rather than merit. As a result of such policies, however, the fighting effectiveness of these armed forces is degraded, and the marginal return on military investment is greatly reduced. We argue that leaders who have coup-proofed their militaries undertake several substitution policies in order to offset their military weakness when faced with external threats. These policies include pursuing chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons and forging alliances. We find support for these theoretical predictions in quantitative tests on data with global coverage between 1970 and 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of the current state of cyber criminological study with regard to theory, research, and teaching. In contrast to the vast knowledge about technical aspects of cyber crimes, behavioral research on these offenses is currently still in its infancy with few data sources or publication outlets. This article will detail the fundamental issues and problems facing researchers involved in the young discipline of cyber criminology, ranging from definitional to methodological problems. There remains argument amongst cyber crime scholars over how best to define the focus of the field and numerous theoretical explanations compete for preference with the scholarly community. These issues pose significant obstacles and need to be addressed for the discipline to advance. Suggestions of how to address some of the primary issues are provided and potential solutions are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how social and demographic trends will affect the public support of the U.S. for Israel. These trends include and partisan and general gaps in support for Israel, the decline in religiosity, and the rise of Latinos. Recommendations for Israel and its supporters to deal with the trends and maintain Israel's strong public standing are offered.