Intercept Data Research Articles

Climate‐influenced shifts in a highly migratory species recreational fishery

AbstractThe distribution of marine species is changing as a direct result of climate change. Large pelagic highly migratory species (HMS), like tunas, billfishes, and sharks, are particularly sensitive to environmental change due to their migratory nature and use of large‐scale ocean features. These temporal and spatial shifts are likely reflected in the Atlantic HMS recreational fishery and could have downstream effects on coastal communities. We utilized dockside intercept data from the Large Pelagics Survey (LPS) from 2002 to 2019, which conducts sampling from June to October and spans Maine to Virginia, USA. We assessed how species catch composition has changed and developed spatiotemporal models to understand latitudinal and temporal shifts in the recreational catch of 12 HMS groups. Latitudinal shifts were significantly affected by Northeast Shelf SST for 11 of the 12 HMS groups and ranged from 3 ± 1 km°C−1 for the large bluefin tuna to 40 ± 1 km°C−1 for the blue shark. In addition, the estimated day of the year when the first 25% of bigeye tuna intercepts occurred, happened over 50 days earlier in 2019 compared to 2002, suggesting the initial catch is happening earlier in recent years. These results suggest that changes in species distribution and phenology are affecting where and when HMS recreational catch occurs. Understanding these shifts would allow managers to be more responsive and flexible and also help communities prepare for changes, whether it would be a switch to a new species or shifts in the fishing season.

Ethnic minority cultural festival experience: Visitor–environment fit, cultural contact, and behavioral intention

This study aims to identify significant factors that influence visitors’ experience in ethnic minority cultural festival and to examine the underlying relationship between attendees’ experience and their future behavioral intention. The study used an exploratory sequential mixed method combining qualitative and quantitative stages. A grounded theory approach was adopted in analyzing the qualitative data collected from 20 in-depth interviews with past festival attendees and 453 online review posts from social network platforms. The developed conceptual framework was empirically tested by a quantitative study of 276 additional festival attendees through intercept data collection. The results indicate that cultural contact determines festival attendees’ future behavioral intention, while visitor–environment fit, including facilities, environmental functions, and activity knowledge, influences attendees’ experience of cultural contact. The study provides a non-Western perspective regarding ethnic minority cultural festival experience.

Monitoring Geomorphic and Traditional Post-Mine Reclamation using Digital Imagery: Vegetative Heterogeneity and Sampling Efficiency

Geomorphic reclamation creates variable topography and surface architecture, including rolling hillslopes and drainages. In contrast, traditional methods of reclamation result in landscapes susceptible to erosion due to steep, linear gradients. Geomorphic approaches to surface mine reclamation are relatively new, and hypotheses suggest the use of geomorphic principles in reclamation will improve vegetation outcomes relative to traditional methods. Topographic variability created by geomorphic reclamation likely results in more environmental heterogeneity, which should correlate with greater plant diversity. We examined revegetation outcomes of traditional and geomorphic reclamation on two reclaimed surface mines in Wyoming using nadir image sampling. Functional group diversity and measures of cover were compared between reclamation methods and undisturbed rangeland. Geomorphic reclamation supported greater total richness and greater native functional group richness relative to traditional reclamation. Native species cover on geomorphic reclamation, particularly for native perennial grasses, was either similar to undisturbed rangeland or greater than undisturbed rangeland and traditional reclamation. Reclamation shrub cover differed significantly from undisturbed sites, but was greater in geomorphic treatments. Results of nadir image analysis are compared to line-point intercept data from the same locations and outcomes are discussed in light of different reclamation techniques and sampling methods. Significant differences in cover categories were observed between nadir image and line-point intercept methods, however both methods revealed similar patterns between study sites.

Data Management of Indonesian Warship’s Electronic Support Measures in Supporting Naval Operation

The development of science and technology is very influential in all fields of life, including the military sector. This encourages countries throughout the world competing to compete in the sophistication of military defense equipment. Competition in the military field has the potential for a new style of warfare so there was a new threat. One such threat is Electronic Warfare, this is a war model in the era of modern technology. Electronic Support Measure is part of the Electronic Warfare that is passive, but very decisive in excellence in battle. Data of Electronic Support Measure processed in a Big Data that can be used in Indonesian Naval Operation. For this reason, a good Electronic Support Measure Intercept Data Management is needed in the context of readiness of Indonesian fleet command in naval operation. Keywords: Data Management; Electronic Support Measure (ESM); Naval Operation; Electronic Warfare (EW), Big Data. DOI : 10.7176/IKM/10-1-03 Publication date: January 31 st 2020

Application of Ground-Based Lidar and Gap Intercept Measurements to Quantify a Shrub Configuration Metric within Greater Sage-Grouse Nesting Habitat

Vegetation composition (i.e., relative proportion of species) and configuration (i.e., horizontal and vertical arrangement of the plant components) in sagebrush-steppe ecosystems are fundamental determinants of the suitability of nesting habitat for Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). The spatial arrangement of shrub and herbaceous canopy cover conceals Greater Sage-Grouse from predators and protects the nest from natural hazards, and gaps in vegetative cover provide escape routes for hens. Most sage-grouse habitat studies quantify vegetation composition, but few quantify habitat configuration at fine scales. We used ground-based lidar (light detection and ranging) data from Greater Sage-Grouse nesting habitat to test the applicability of a metric calculated from the traditional canopy gap intercept measurements to quantify shrub canopy configuration (shrub patchiness). Vegetation surveys were conducted on 30 randomly selected nest and non-nest sites (15 of each); we acquired high-resolution ground-based lidar data for 12 plots at 3 nest locations. Variation in canopy gap size was used as a metric to represent shrub configuration characteristics. We measured the variability in gap size among shrubs within lidar point cloud data sets using a lacunarity index at multiple scales. We measured variability of gaps from line transects by calculating the variance to mean-square ratio of gap size. Correlations (r) between measures of gap size variation from the 2 techniques ranged from 0.76 to 0.83 (r2 = 0.58–0.69). Our results support the use of canopy gap intercept measures to quantify configuration (patchiness) of shrub cover and thus complement vegetative composition metrics. Gap sizes were more variable at nest sites than at non-nest sites, suggesting that gap size variability may be a useful vegetative configuration metric to characterize sage-grouse nesting habitat. The fine-scale habitat metrics we evaluated provide a more refined tool for land managers to characterize local variation in wildlife habitat within shrubland ecosystems and can be derived from the existing gap intercept data.

Data Analytics of Social Networking sites using Game Theory Model

Decision making tools provides substantial supports to companies as to optimize their strategies with respect to their competitors. The end users or say the consumers’ satisfaction plays the key role in the Decision making. The application under this research work is based on two giants of the social networking sites viz Facebook and Instagram. The primary requirement of a Game theory model is to have such competitors or says players and their interaction parameters. The first step is to identify the common features between these two players which satisfy the interaction criterion. These are the called interactive strategies under consideration. A heterogeneous group of frequent users of these two social networking sites is selected using simple random sampling. The reliability of the questionnaire, formed on the basis of interactive parameters, is tested by using Cronbach's alpha test. The graphical and descriptive statistics give the initial trends of the end users. The regression analysis is carried out where the intercept data is collected as payoff values. This leads to the formation of the two player Game theory model. As the final result, the optimum strategies of each player and the value of the game are calculated. The interpretation of the calculated values reflects the influence of decision making for the optimum strategies under the game theory model.

Elastic reflectivity vectors and the geometry of intercept-gradient crossplots

Reflectivities of elastic properties can be expressed as a sum of the reflectivities of P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity, and density, as can the amplitude-variation-with-offset (AVO) parameters, intercept, gradient, and curvature. This common format allows elastic property reflectivities to be expressed as a sum of AVO parameters. Most AVO studies are conducted using a two-term approximation, so it is helpful to reduce the three-term expressions for elastic reflectivities to two by assuming a relationship between P-wave velocity and density. Reduced to two AVO components, elastic property reflectivities can be represented as vectors on intercept-gradient crossplots. Normalizing the lengths of the vectors allows them to serve as basis vectors such that the position of any point in intercept-gradient space can be inferred directly from changes in elastic properties. This provides a direct link between properties commonly used in rock physics and attributes that can be measured from seismic data. The theory is best exploited by constructing new seismic data sets from combinations of intercept and gradient data at various projection angles. Elastic property reflectivity theory can be transferred to the impedance domain to aid in the analysis of well data to help inform the choice of projection angles. Because of the effects of gradient measurement errors, seismic projection angles are unlikely to be the same as theoretical angles or angles derived from well-log analysis, so seismic data will need to be scanned through a range of angles to find the optimum.

Is cash always king? Bundling product–cause fit and product type in cause‐related marketing

AbstractIn traditional cause‐related marketing (CRM) campaigns, companies support a cause by donating a portion of the proceeds from product sales (i.e., monetary giving). Recently, some companies have used the funds to buy something or just donate their own products for the beneficiaries (i.e., nonmonetary giving). We compare these two giving styles along with two moderators: product–cause fit and product type. Three experiments with various sampling methods (mall intercept data and online pool) and donation information (percentage of sales price, the amount of the product price, or one‐for‐one campaign) are conducted to enhance the robustness of the results. Study 1 shows that when the product and the cause fit well together, the nonmonetary giving strategy evokes a more positive consumer attitude and a stronger purchase intention than does the monetary giving strategy. When the product–cause fit is low, the opposite holds true. Studies 2 and 3 consider product type and product–cause fit simultaneously. When the product–cause fit is high, nonmonetary giving is more effective than monetary giving, regardless of the product type. On the other hand, when the product–cause fit is low, nonmonetary giving is more effective in promoting utilitarian products, but monetary giving is more effective in promoting hedonic products. In Study 3, consumer attributions regarding the company's motives for making the donation (i.e., inferred motives) is used to explain the underlying mechanism.

Resistance and resilience: ten years of monitoring shrub and prairie communities in Orange County, CA, USA

AbstractMediterranean‐climate natural systems have high ecological value, yet the extent of their cover has diminished greatly due to changes in land use. Other stressors, ranging from intense short‐term disturbances such as wildfire to more gradual events such as extended drought and continuous pressures including competition with invasive species, test the resistance and resilience of community composition and structure. Data from long‐term monitoring provided an opportunity to evaluate the responses of three Southern California plant communities (chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and grassland) to disturbances. We analyzed ten years of point intercept and quadrat data from Orange County to describe trends through time and assess community resistance and resilience. We found that grassland communities, which were more degraded from the start of our study, were generally resistant to change. Chaparral was also fairly resistant to disturbance, while coastal sage scrub exhibited more variation, with some transects exhibiting more resilience than others. Transects with fewer native shrubs experienced less of a decline in shrub cover during drought than those with dense shrubs. Grasslands had the lowest native diversity. There were increases in native diversity in years with more precipitation that were preceded by dry years. There was a decline in native perennial bunchgrasses during our monitoring. Our analyses demonstrated the resilience of native shrub cover to fire and the susceptibility (low resistance) of dense native shrubs and native grasses to drought and increases in non‐native species. We encourage academic ecologists to embrace diverse data sources available for hypothesis testing, especially monitoring efforts associated with regulatory purposes, to advance the goal of understanding long‐term dynamics.

Accurate trajectory tabulations for benchmark electrostatic geometries

The lack of accurate data on trajectories that originate from or pass through equipotential surfaces as in the hemispherical deflector or cylindrical mirror analyzers is apparent. This absence of trajectory data is remedied in this report by defining a set of benchmark geometries and determining accurate intercept values for selected rays through these geometries. Accurate tables of intercept values have been thus created and are presented allowing the testing of any simulation software against these trajectory solutions. In addition preliminary studies using a generic BEM for both the centric HDA and SC have found that the trajectory intercept data for a given number of segments in BEM is similar to an order 2 FDM solution using an equivalent mesh spacing. The implication is that BEM seems to be an order 2 process when considering trajectory errors in these geometries.

Health impacts of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway: a natural experimental study

BackgroundImproving transport infrastructure to support walking and cycling on the journey to and from work – active commuting – could help to promote physical activity and improve population health.AimsTo assess whether or not investment in new high-quality transport infrastructure was associated with an increase in active commuting; wider health impacts of changes in travel behaviour; determinants of the use and uptake of active commuting; and how changes in travel behaviour were distributed in the population and related to the wider social context.DesignThe Commuting and Health in Cambridge study, comprising a quasi-experimental cohort study combined with both nested and supplementary in-depth quantitative and qualitative studies.SettingCambridgeshire, UK.ParticipantsA cohort of 1143 adults living within 30 km of Cambridge, working in the city and recruited in 2009; and a separate sample of 1710 users intercepted on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway in 2012.InterventionThe Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, comprising a new bus network using 22 km of guideway (segregated bus track) accompanied by a traffic-free path for pedestrians and cyclists, opened in 2011.Main outcome measureChange in time spent in active commuting from 2009 to 2012, using a self-reported measure validated using georeferenced combined heart rate and movement sensor data.MethodsA delay from 2009 to 2011 in completing the intervention entailed some changes to the original design and attrition of the cohort. A period of methodological and observational research on active commuting preceded the evaluation, which was based on a quasi-experimental cohort analysis together with the intercept and qualitative data. A graded measure of each participant’s exposure to the intervention, based on the proximity of the busway to his or her home, served as the basis for controlled comparisons.ResultsCommuting practices were complex and shaped by various changeable social and environmental factors. Walking and cycling were often incorporated into longer commuting journeys made predominantly by car or public transport. In multivariable multinomial regression analyses, exposure to the intervention was associated with a greater likelihood of a large increase in the proportion of commuting trips involving any active travel [adjusted relative risk ratio (RRR) 1.80, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.27 to 2.55], of a large decrease in the proportion of trips made entirely by car (RRR 2.09, 95% CI 1.35 to 3.21), and of an increase in weekly cycle commuting time (RRR 1.34, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.76). There was a mixed pattern of effects at the individual level, with the intervention providing a more supportive environment for active commuting for some and not for others. There was some evidence that the effect was most pronounced among those who reported no active commuting at baseline, and observational evidence suggesting a relationship between active commuting, greater overall physical activity, and improved well-being and weight status.ConclusionsThese findings provide new empirical support and direction for reconfiguring transport systems to improve population health and reduce health inequalities. They should be combined with evidence from research evaluating related environmental changes in other settings, preferably using longer periods of observation and controlled comparisons, to support more generalisable causal inference.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme.

A secure and energy-efficient stochastic multipath routing for self-organized mobile ad hoc networks

A wireless mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is an autonomous system of mobile nodes connected by wireless links. MANET is infrastructureless and dynamic in nature. As the nodes have limited battery power and communicate through shared wireless channel, it is hard to design a secure and energy efficient routing protocol in a MANET. In this paper11This paper has been presented in part at IEEE 20th NCC’14, Kanpur, India, February 2014., we propose a secure and energy-efficient stochastic multipath routing protocol based on a Markov chain for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). The proposed routing protocol computes multiple paths between source– destination pairs and selects an energy-efficient path stochastically from those paths to forward the data packets. In addition, this protocol also secures data flow in the network as the packets are forwarded through random paths from the source node to the destination node. The random data flow paths make it difficult to jam, intercept, and hijack data packets as this will require the attacker to listen to all possible paths from the source to the destination. The performance analysis and numerical results show that our proposed protocol achieves significant performance gains in terms of energy consumption, delay, throughput, and security of routing protocols.

Use of the alpha shape to quantify finite helical axis dispersion during simulated spine movements

In biomechanical studies examining joint kinematics the most common measurement is range of motion (ROM), yet other techniques, such as the finite helical axis (FHA), may elucidate the changes in the 3D motion pathology more effectively. One of the deficiencies with the FHA technique is in quantifying the axes generated throughout a motion sequence. This study attempted to solve this issue via a computational geometric technique known as the alpha shape, which bounds a set of point data within a closed boundary similar to a convex hull. The purpose of this study was to use the alpha shape as an additional tool to visualize and quantify FHA dispersion between intact and injured cadaveric spine movements and compare these changes to the gold-standard ROM measurements. Flexion–extension, axial rotation, and lateral bending were simulated with five C5–C6 motion segments using a spinal loading simulator and Optotrak motion tracking system. Specimens were first tested intact followed by a simulated injury model. ROM and the FHAs were calculated post-hoc, with alpha shapes and convex hulls generated from the anatomic planar intercept points of the FHAs. While both ROM and the boundary shape areas increased with injury (p<0.05), no consistent geometric trends in the alpha shape growth were identified. The alpha shape area was sensitive to the alpha value chosen and values examined below 2.5 created more than one closed boundary. Ultimately, the alpha shape presents as a useful technique to quantify sequences of joint kinematics described by scatter plots such as FHA intercept data.

Quality of Life, Event Impacts, and Mega-Event Support among South African Residents before and after the 2010 FIFA World Cup

The purpose of the study was to explore the role of mega-event impacts on perceived satisfaction with quality of life and support among South African residents before and after the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Limited research has empirically tested whether quality of life (QOL) is perceived as an exchange benefit that facilitates resident support of mega-events. Intercept data were collected from residents in five host cities three months before (March 2010) and eight months after (March 2011) the event (N = 3,789). Results indicate significant differences in perceived impacts before and after the event. Before the event, the influence of political impacts, psychological impacts, and social benefits on perceived QOL was significant, while QOL mediated the relationships between political, psychological, and social benefit impacts and resident support. After the event, economic impacts emerged as a significant predictor of QOL in contrast to the preevent sample.

A Sault-outlet-referenced mid- to late-Holocene paleohydrograph for Lake Superior constructed from strandplains of beach ridges

The most detailed Lake Superior paleohydrograph relative to the current outlet near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario–Michigan, was constructed from four strandplains of beach ridges. This provides a history of water-level, glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), and the active outlet prior to monitoring and regulation. Four relative paleohydrographs that are offset and subparallel owing to differences in GIA were produced from 321 basal foreshore elevations and 56 optically stimulated luminescence ages. Subtracting modeled elevations in defined millennial lake phases between relative paleohydrographs and similarity between an inferred Sault Ste. Marie (hereinafter, Sault) paleohydrograph and data near the zero isobase corroborates rates of GIA derived from water-level gauges. A change in trend in the Sault paleohydrograph is related to the final separation of Lake Superior from Lakes Michigan and Huron and is the youngest age reported at 1060 ± 100 years. A near-horizontal trend in the Sault paleohydrograph for the past millennium has an intercept that is close to the historical average for Lake Superior. A consistently linear trend from about 2 to 1 ka suggests a relatively stable outlet similar to the past millennium, but a decreasing trend from 3 to 1 ka suggests an outlet other than the Sault. Although intercept data beyond the last millennium are similar in elevation to the reported bedrock sill near Chicago (Hansel et al. 1985), we argue that the Port–Huron outlet was the active outlet during this time and the inferred paleohydrograph of Baedke and Thompson (2000) requires reevaluation.

Angler Heterogeneity and the Species-Specific Demand for Marine Recreational Fishing

Abstract In this study we assess the ability of the Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey (MRFSS) to support single-species recreation demand models. We use the 2000 MRFSS southeast intercept data combined with the economic add-on. We determine that the MRFSS data will support only a few species-specific recreation demand models. Considering species of management interest in the Southeast, we focus on dolphinfish, king mackerel, red snapper, and red drum. We examine single-species recreational fishing behavior using random utility models of demand. We explore mixed logit (i.e., random parameter logit) and finite mixture (i.e., latent class logit) models for dealing with angler heterogeneity. We compare these to the commonly used conditional and nested logit models in terms of the value of catching (and keeping) one additional fish. Mixed logit models illustrate that the value of catch can be highly heterogeneous and, in some cases, can include both positive and negative values. The finite mixture ...

Comparison of Two Quantitative Methods of Discerning Airspace Enlargement in Smoke-Exposed Mice

In this work, we compare two methods for evaluating and quantifying pulmonary airspace enlargement in a mouse model of chronic cigarette smoke exposure. Standard stereological sample preparation, sectioning, and imaging of mouse lung tissues were performed for semi-automated acquisition of mean linear intercept (Lm) data. After completion of the Lm measurements, D2, a metric of airspace enlargement, was measured in a blinded manner on the same lung images using a fully automated technique developed in-house. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows that although Lm was able to separate the smoke-exposed and control groups with statistical significance (p = 0.034), D2 was better able to differentiate the groups (p<0.001) and did so without any overlap between the control and smoke-exposed individual animal data. In addition, the fully automated implementation of D2 represented a time savings of at least 24x over semi-automated Lm measurements. Although D2 does not provide 3D stereological metrics of airspace dimensions as Lm does, results show that it has higher sensitivity and specificity for detecting the subtle airspace enlargement one would expect to find in mild or early stage emphysema. Therefore, D2 may serve as a more accurate screening measure for detecting early lung disease than Lm.

A Novel Methodological Approach for the Analysis of Host–Ligand Interactions

Traditional analysis of drug-binding data relies upon the Scatchard formalism. These methods rely upon the fitting of a linear equation providing intercept and gradient data that relate to physical properties, such as the binding constant, cooperativity coefficients and number of binding sites. However, the existence of different binding modes with different binding constants makes the implementation of these models difficult. This article describes a novel approach to the binding model of host-ligand interactions by using a derived analytical function describing the observed signal. The benefit of this method is that physically significant parameters, that is, binding constants and number of binding sites, are automatically derived by the use of a minimisation routine. This methodology was utilised to analyse the interactions between a novel antitumour agent and DNA. An optical spectroscopy study confirms that the pentacyclic acridine derivative (DH208) binds to nucleic acids. Two binding modes can be identified: a stronger one that involves intercalation and a weaker one that involves oriented outer-sphere binding. In both cases the plane of the bound acridine ring is parallel to the nucleic acid bases, orthogonal to the phosphate backbone. Ultraviolet (UV) and circular dichroism (CD) data were fitted using the proposed model. The binding constants and the number of binding sites derived from the model remained consistent across the different techniques used. The different wavelengths at which the measurements were made maintained the coherence of the results.

Head to Head

White et al. (2005) estimated the area occupied by colonies of black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) in Colorado as 255,398 ha (95% CI of±9.5%) based on data collected with aerial transect surveys during 2001-2002 by staff of the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW). During 2004 we conducted on-the-ground examinations of a sample of the colony intercept data used by White et al. (2005) and found evidence of misclassifications that would yield significant overestimation bias. We found that 25.4% of the total length of the colony intercepts we examined was incorrectly classified as being a prairie dog colony (these segments had no prairie dog burrows of any age). We also found that 50.3% of the length of examined intercepts fell on currently inactive colonies or portions of colonies (vacant burrows but no living prairie dogs) and only 24.3% fell on active prairie dog colonies with signs of living prairie dogs at our exami- nations 2 years after the survey reported by White et al. (2005). Further, in Bent and Kiowa counties, where plague (Yertsina pestus) and poisoning were active, we examined 36.9 km of reported active prairie dog intercepts and subjectively classified only 1.6% as active at normal-appearing prairie dog densities. Our fieldwork demonstrated that the estimate by White et al. (2005) was based on data with substantial errors as well as over- estimation biases that will be repeated if protocols are not modified for future surveys.

Change in Cognitive Mediators of Rape's Impact on Psychosocial Health Across 2 Years of Recovery.

A previously published cross-sectional model of cognitive mediation of rape's impact on health (M. P. Koss, A. J. Figueredo, & R. J. Prince, 2002) was replicated longitudinally. Rape survivors (n = 59) were assessed 4 times at 3-24 months postrape. Growth curve analysis demonstrated significant change in all mediators and outcomes. Previously reported effects of Characterological Self-Blame, Behavioral Self- Blame, and Maladaptive Beliefs on Psychosocial Distress were partially cross-validated in intercept and slope data. The results suggest that Characterological Self-Blame sets the initial level of Psychosocial Distress and that reduction in Behavioral Self-Blame drives recovery. These effects on distress were wholly mediated through self-blame's association with alterations in beliefs about self and others.