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Conservation organizations undertaking ecological restoration and the lands they manage constitute a social-ecological system (SES). We implemented SES analysis to examine the relationship between diversity in organizational structure and restoration planning processes, and vegetation outcomes on the ground. Understanding the restoration consequences of multiple approaches to planning and implementation is relevant to assessing the resilience of this SES, especially if disagreements about the effectiveness of some approaches lead to conflict in the socio-political arena. We studied 10 conservation organizations in the Chicago Wilderness region that are restoring Midwestern oak woodlands of global conservation concern. Despite the institutional diversity of these organizations, we found little relationship between restoration planning and vegetation outcomes. This result has implications for the resilience of restoration as an SES, since similar outcomes from diverse processes should increase resilience of this SES, especially when controversial restoration practices are employed, and when priorities and funding levels change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enteric Septicemia of Catfish (ESC) is a ruinous bacterial disease affecting the U.S. catfish industry. Previous attempts to develop ESC vaccines have failed to achieve industry acceptance, largely attributed to difficulties in delivering the vaccine to immunocompetent fish. Recently, a live attenuated ESC vaccine has been developed, coupled with a mechanized platform designed to accurately deliver measured doses of vaccine with feed. This delivery scheme for vaccine-feed admixture has shown tremendous promise under controlled research settings. This study evaluated the economic effects of on-going commercial-vaccination trials on catfish fingerling operations in Mississippi. Commercial-vaccination trials for both channel and hybrid catfish demonstrated significant improvement in survival, growth, feed consumption, feed conversion and gross yield. At a realistic vaccination cost of $750/ha, the net economic benefits to channel and hybrid catfish fingerling-production phases were $3199 and $6145/ha, respectively. Whole-farm models showed additional profit ranging from $71,758 to $133,887/400-ha on farms that integrate fingerling production to their production strategies due to appropriation of more of the otherwise incumbent fingerling production acreage into foodfish production. Commercial adoption of the oral-vaccination platform would greatly enhance profitability while laying the foundation for development and delivery of polyvalent vaccines against other catfish diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes how newspapers covered the scientific controversy surrounding the health effects of exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA). Specifically, it examines whether framing, sources of scientific information, and balancing of competing sides in the debate differed across national political contexts and journalistic approaches. In regard to the former, it compares coverage in Canada (represented by theGlobe and Mail), which had banned BPA in baby bottles and cups, to coverage in the United States (represented by theNew York TimesandWashington Post), which had not. In regard to the latter, it compares coverage in two US newspapers that took a conventional journalistic approach (theNew York TimesandWashington Post) to coverage in a US newspaper that launched an investigative series regarding BPA (theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel). The study concludes by considering what the findings suggest about how social forces shape coverage of scientific controversies involving environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effects of goal framing on opinion about a public health issue. A content analysis of newspaper coverage regarding a New York City trans fat ban identified four frames, each of which invoked a policy goal (promoting public health or protecting business). An experiment tested the effects of goal framing on support for banning trans fat, as well as the effects of competition between frames invoking the same goal and competition between frames invoking different goals. The findings suggest that goal framing can shape opinion about public health issues but that competitive framing can undermine these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines press metacoverage (i.e., news about news) on traditional broadcast network evening news programs, political talk programs on cable television, and political comedy programs. A content analysis found that 2008 presidential primary campaign stories on The O'Reilly Factor, Countdown, and The Daily Show were more likely to cover the news media and to present the news media in a negative light than were stories on NBC Nightly News. The results suggest that people who view political talk and political comedy programs will be exposed to a distinctively unflattering view of the ways in which the press covers elections. Such exposure, in turn, may carry consequences for public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Educational Doctorate (EdD) at the University of Wolverhampton offers educational practitioners the opportunity to design a research enquiry based in, on or around their professional work. The cohort, reported on here, embarked upon their EdD studies during the 2007/08 academic year. This study reports on seven participants' learning experiences. It was anticipated that for these teacher educators, reflecting on others' studies and engaging with developing their own particular enquiries on, with or through their practice has significantly impacted upon their understandings of the research process and supported development of their research identities. Transformative personal and professional learning was evidenced by the Enquiry Design module outcomes. Dilemmas relating to the professional identity of the participants arising through reflection on existing perceptions of practice and pedagogy, evolving knowledge, understanding and constructs of research and associated ethical issues were anticipated and supported by social constructivist processes. The findings of the study indicate how a social constructivist approach to teaching research design can support teacher enquiries focused on a range of issues including developing the nature of reflectivity, enhancing professional learning, emancipating practice, enhancing constructive collaborative discussions, improving problem-solving pedagogy, making judgements about effectiveness of training and supporting affective accreditation. This article provides an ethnographic insight to the nature of these teacher educators' research-led learning journeys. Applying interpretative lenses to reflective narratives, including the use of visual metaphors, illuminates the meanings made of and through research endeavours, whilst also revealing the development of researcher identity. Analysis of the metaphors and other textual artefacts uncovered aspects of, and progress in, personal and professional learning related to research. The article argues that shared meaning-making processes supported teacher educators whilst endeavouring to achieve parallel research goals when embarking on a research learning journey. Development of beliefs about research and researcher identity were transactional rather than transmissional, subjectively complex and dynamic rather than technical, and paid much more attention to the process rather than the 'end product'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recursive algorithms, like quick-sort and recursive data structures, like trees, play a central role in programming. In the context of scientific computing, recursive algorithms and memory layouts are shown here to provide excellent cache and Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) locality independently of the platform. We show how, for the first time, generic programming and object-oriented programming allow us to abstract a multitude of dense-matrix memory layouts: from conventional row-major and column-major layouts over Z- and И-Morton orders to block-wise combinations of them. All are provided by a single class that is based on our new matrix abstraction. The algorithmic recursion is supported in generic fashion by classes modelling the new recursator, an analogue of the Standard Template Library iterator. Although this concept supports recursion in general, we focus again on matrix operations. Results are presented for matrix multiplication, on both conventional and tiled representations using both homogeneous and heterogeneous matrix representations. Reaching about 60% peak performance in portable C++ code establishes competitive performance without explicit prefetching and other platform-specific tuning. Comparisons with the manufacturers' libraries show superior locality. These new techniques are embedded in the Matrix Template Library, Version 4 (MTL4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses six initiatives to promote private saving in the U.S. The future retirement security of American workers depends not so much on narrowly defined pension policies, but on the vitality of the country's economy as a whole. An expanding economy would facilitate a reversal in the decline in contributions to private pension programs. Similarly, a vibrant economy would make it far easier to support the Social Security system financially in the face of an aging population. Yet, the same trends that threaten the public and private pension systems are also having a pernicious effect on the country's prospects for economic growth. In 1973, Americans saved 10.8 percent of net national product, a rate that has now fallen to only 2.7 percent. The country ranks eighteenth in savings out of nineteen industrial countries. The savings rate of Americans is only 40 percent that of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development average and is surpassed two and one-half times by Europe and five times by Japan.

The bloom found on three late nineteenth century unvarnished paintings by W H Chariton, all on commercially prepared grounds was investigated. The grounds, paint media and bloom were analysed using gas chromotography ‐ mass spectrometry and differential scanning calorimetry. Raman microscopy, energy‐dispersive x‐ray analysis and other techniques were used to identify the pigments. It was found that the bloom on these paintings consisted of a mixture of free palmitic and stearic acids. The effect of pigments used in the paintings and in the underlying compositions on the density of the surface bloom was investigated. The presence of an impervious material, Melinex was a possible contributory factor in the formation of the bloom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nitrite-induced methemoglobin concentrations were lower in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) fed a diet containing 7,720–7,950 mg ascorbic acid/kg than in fish fed a diet containing 63 mg ascorbic acid/kg. The lower methemoglobin levels were evident after the fish were fed the higher ascorbic acid diet for 1 week. Fish were exposed to 2.5–5.0 mg nitrite-N/L for 22 h. Ascorbic acid exhibited a protective effect if fish were fed 48 h or less before blood was sampled, but no protective effect was evident if fish were last fed 65 h before sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Construction of a biofiltration system for hatchery troughs is described. Plates of corrugated plastic are used as the substrate for the biolfilter. The design of the system allows for easy removal when the trough is needed for use as a conventional flow-through system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines how Raman microspectroscopy can be used to differentiate between organic dyes and therefore identify dyes used as pigments in works of art. Noting that Raman offers a nondestructive method of analysis, the author describe how it was used to examine two sets of yellow dye-based pigments in an effort to distinguish between natural and synthetic dyes.

The article comments on the Chancellor of the Exchequer's speech about the employment in Great Britain. The author does not conform to the theory implied by the chancellor in his speech: that workers who prefer to price themselves into jobs are a powerful regime of employment. Nevertheless, the theory is different in practical setting — there is a little evidence of employees negotiating with employers for smaller wage increases in return for increase employment. Most companies usually budget for wages and salaries costs in the previous year plus provision for expected increases. The author establishes his contention that the there is need for the government to prove that link between labor cost and employment can be used create jobs, to strengthen employee-employer relationship, and that the government has control over employment policy.