Preliminary Inventories Research Articles

Arts Entrepreneurship in Higher Education: Preliminary Inventories and Examinations

Arts Entrepreneurship in Higher Education: Preliminary Inventories and Examinations

Reinventory of the vascular plants of Mormon Island Crane Meadows after forty years of restoration, invasion, and climate change

The majority of tallgrass prairie has been lost from North America's Great Plains, but remaining tracts often support significant biodiversity. Despite permanent protections for some remnants, they continue to face anthropogenic threats including habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change. Conservationists have sought to buffer remnants from threats using prairie restoration but limited research has assessed such practices at the landscape-level. We reexamine the flora of Mormon Island, the largest tract of lowland tallgrass prairie remaining in the Central Platte River Valley (CPRV) of Nebraska, USA, nearly 40-years after it was initially inventoried and following widespread restoration. We also conducted preliminary inventories of nearby Shoemaker Island and adjacent off-island habitats using an ecotope-based stratified random sampling approach. We examined change at Mormon Island between 1980-1981 and 2015–2020 and compared it to adjacent conservation lands using a number of vegetation indices. We documented 389 vascular plant species on Mormon Island, 405 on Shoemaker Island, and 337 on off-island habitats from 2015-2020, which represented an increase in native and exotic species richness on Mormon Island compared to 1980–1981 results. Floristic quality index (FQI) values increased at Mormon Island between 1980-1981 and 2015–2020. Paradoxically, the distribution of exotic-invasive species also expanded. Mormon Island from 2015-2020 was more similar to Shoemaker Island and off-island habitats from 2015-2020 than Mormon Island from 1980-1981. Widespread restoration introduced a number of high conservation value species native to Nebraska but novel to the CPRV, which improved FQIs despite increased exotic species invasion. These concurrent trends appear to have driven biological homogenization across the study area. Restoration did not fully buffer Mormon Island from exotic species invasion but it may have partially mitigated the impact considering the persistence of most native species across a 40-year period. We recommend using “local ecotype” seed for restorations to preserve distinctive local communities.

Ship Graffiti on the Islands of the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and Puerto Rico: A Comparative Analysis

Across the Caribbean and adjacent regions, systematic inventories of historical ship graffiti remain markedly incomplete. Previous studies had identified several islands in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos associated with ship graffiti primarily within colonial period structures. We expanded the range of these preliminary inventories, recording a diverse array of ship graffiti specific to plantation era structures across seven islands in the Bahamian Archipelago, as well as the sole cave site known to harbor such imagery. Examples were also associated with Spanish colonial era fortifications in Old San Juan and found within a set of nine of the numerous caves found on Isla de Mona and two caves on the Puerto Rican mainland. Many of the nautical images encountered were previously unrecorded as they have only recently been revealed through systematic exploration and detailed site surveys, demonstrating that the phenomenon is regionally more widespread and complex than previously known. In this interregional study of ship graffiti in the Puerto Rican and Bahamian Archipelagos, we examine image distribution patterns, techniques, preservation status and historical context unique to each area, contrasting the respective Euro-colonial cultural arcs reflected in these distinctive nautical iconographies. Although each act of mark-making is historically and contextually unique, we consider what this imagery has in common, namely that the majority were produced under conditions of slavery, confinement, and/or hard labor.

Arts Entrepreneurship in Higher Education: Preliminary Inventories and Examinations

This paper examines and identifies arts entrepreneurship curricula in higher education using interview and online data gathered primarily in the summer of 2014, with the purpose of illustrating trends and trains of thought. An additional goal of this article is to encourage further research and interaction among educators to create the most influential and effective curricula possible.

Development and Validation of a Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Method for the Determination of PCBs in Transformer Oil Samples-Application on Real Samples from Botswana

A procedure in which a retention time window for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) congeners including those not presented in this study but of similar molar masses in transformer oil has been developed and validated. This procedure was successfully applied in the determination of transformer oil samples from Botswana for comparison with a preliminary inventory for PCB levels in transformer oil and other receptacles suspected to contain PCBs and developed during the formulation of the Botswana National Implementation Plan (NIP) for the sound management of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Recoveries in the developed procedure initially meant for 39 PCB congeners ranged from 44.53±0.31 to 111.93±4.75% uncorrected for bias, while linearities i.e. r 2 values ranged from 0.9624 to 0.9999 with method detection limits (MDLs) varying from 0.02 to 0.13 ppm (w/v). Application of this procedure on real samples from Botswana showed that the transformer oil contained no PCBs although the preliminary data using screening equipment and kits for indicative inventory data showed high PCB contents in some cases of as much as 456 ppm (w/v). It is proposed here that this method be adopted in the SADC region for confirmation of presence and determination of the levels of PCBs where they are detected in order to improve on the preliminary inventories that were developed during the NIP development exercise for the Stockholm Convention (SC) in these countries.

Plants and butterflies of a small urban preserve in the Central Valley of Costa Rica

Costa Rica's most populated area, the Central valley, has lost much of its natural habitat, and the little that remains has been altered to varying degrees. Yet few studies have been conducted to assess the need for conservation in this area. We present preliminary inventories of plants, butterflies, and day-flying moths of the Reserva Ecologica Leonelo Oviedo (RELO), a small Premontane Moist Forest preserve within the University of Costa Rica campus, located in the urbanized part of the valley. Butterflies are one of the best bio-indicators of a habitat's health, because they are highly sensitive to environmental changes and are tightly linked to the local flora. A description of the RELO's physical features and its history is also presented with illustrations. Approximately 432 species of ca. 334 genera in 113 families of plants were identified. However, only 57 % of them represent species native to the Premontane Moist Forest of the region; the rest are either exotic or species introduced mostly from lowland. More than 200 species of butterflies in six families, including Hesperiidae, have been recorded. Rev. Biol. Trop. 57 (Suppl. 1): 31-67. Epub 2009 November 30.

The Trans-Mississippi West, 1804-1912: A Guide to Federal Records for the Territorial Period Part IV, a Guide to Records of the Dept. of the Interior for the Territorial Period, Section 3, Records of the General Land Office by Robert M. Kvasnicka

an overview of lookouts and the people who staffedthem, as well as to general discussion of thevarious typesof lookout structures, life at the lookout, the much-neglected women on lookouts, especially duringWorld War II, and several other interestingshort chapters. Newman collected many manuscripts and oral histories from the lookouts, took thousands of photographs, gave enthusiastic support to lookout repair and recoveryefforts, and most of all, loved the out-of-doors and lookouts. Plagued with polio since early child hood, Newman died a tragicdeath in 1992.This book was inmanuscript form until the Lane County Historical Society decided that,with lightediting, itshould be published. The author of thisbook, himself a former fire lookout, has given lookouts (that is, the people who staff the lookout buildings) an opportunity to share some of their experi ences. Personal stories from lookouts have been woven into a narrative that covers the yearswhen there were lookouts on nearly every mountain top.Lookout life was lonely.Lookout houses were staffedonly during the summer seasons. Work by the lookouts entailed spotting smoke and fires in the forests,then reporting these "smokes" to the appropriate firefighting crews.The lookouts receivedvisitors and tried their best to explain operations and duties. They were proud of thework theydid. Finding Fire servesas a great introduction to the challenges and hardships, aswell as humor and personal tragedy, of lookout lifein western Oregon. Ken Metzler wrote a nice foreword to the book, recounting Doug Newmans lifeas an avid lookout researcher, author, and out door writer for theEugene Register-Guard. By narrowing the subject down to Lane County, particularly theWillamette National Forest portion,Newman sbook gives an intimate look atwhat ittook tobe a lookout in theheyday of lookoutwork from the1940s to 1970s.Itcompli ments severalotherbroader-scope books on fire lookouts, such asRay Kresek's 1985book cover ingall lookouts in Washington andOregon (Fire Lookouts ofOregon and Washington). Finding Firedoes not cover every lookout site,or person who served as lookout, during thepast almost one hundred years ? no book could. The photographs in the book, for themost part, are poorly reproduced, with many having a very softfocus. The Lookout Designs chapter is okay,but not comprehensive. I assume that Newman's many storiesfrom oral histories and other sources are stored in the Lane County Museum, but there isno way to tell.There is no index and no bibliography. Gerald W. Williams Portland, Oregon THETRANS-MISSISSIPPI WEST, 1804 1912:AGUIDE TO FEDERAL RECORDS FORTHETERRITORIAL PERIODPARTIV, AGUIDE TO RECORDSOF THEDEPT. OF THE INTERIOR FORTHETERRITORIAL PERIOD,SECTION 3,RECORDSOF THE GENERALLANDOFFICE by Robert M. Kvasnicka National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., 2007. Photographs, index. 1130pages. $49.00 paper. In 1935, the Department of State began an ambitious undertaking, the publication of the Territorial Papers of the United States. For most of the lifeof the project, Clarence E. Carter skillfully edited many volumes of documents pertaining to the government of several territories, mostly those lying east of theMississippi River. In 1950, the project was transferred towhat was then known as the National Archives and Records Service (now theNational Archives and Records Admin istration, NARA). Unfortunately, Congress "suspended" (a better term would be "killed") the project in 1975, justifying the action on the high cost of publishing the large number of documents produced by territories in the 494 OHQ vol. 109, no. 3 lateryears of the nineteenth and early twen tieth centuries. The last volumes published were those for Wisconsin Territory, which was admitted to statehood in 1848. This left the papers of thegreatmajority of territories west of the Mississippi unedited and unpublished. Scholars wishing to examine thepapers of, for example, Oregon Territory, stillneed to go to theNational Archives or order copies from the Archives.Microfilm versions of the territorial papers are also available. In 1989, NARA launched the seriesofwhich thisvolume isa part, intending ittobe a "con tinuation" of theTerritorialPapers project (p. xv). Italso builds on previous guides, lists,and preliminary inventories. This series consists of guides to records of federal agencies rather than edited versions of the records themselves. Volumes that have appeared thus far cover records of theDepartments of State, Justice, Agriculture, and Interior. The publication reviewedhere isone of three"sections"pertain ing to Interior records. The two volumes...

Transborder Lives: Indigenous Oaxacans in Mexico, California, and Oregon by Lynn Stephen

lateryears of the nineteenth and early twen tieth centuries. The last volumes published were those for Wisconsin Territory, which was admitted to statehood in 1848. This left the papers of thegreatmajority of territories west of the Mississippi unedited and unpublished. Scholars wishing to examine thepapers of, for example, Oregon Territory, stillneed to go to theNational Archives or order copies from the Archives.Microfilm versions of the territorial papers are also available. In 1989, NARA launched the seriesofwhich thisvolume isa part, intending ittobe a "con tinuation" of theTerritorialPapers project (p. xv). Italso builds on previous guides, lists,and preliminary inventories. This series consists of guides to records of federal agencies rather than edited versions of the records themselves. Volumes that have appeared thus far cover records of theDepartments of State, Justice, Agriculture, and Interior. The publication reviewedhere isone of three"sections"pertain ing to Interior records. The two volumes are devoted toRecord Group 49, the recordsof the General Land Office, theprincipal predecessor of theBureau ofLandManagement. The other two sections deal with thefilesof theOffice of theSecretaryof the Interiorand theCommis sioner of Railroads and "Select Agencies" of thedepartment. The "Territorial Period" as defined here spans the years from the Louisiana Purchase to the admission ofArizona and New Mexico to statehood. The records of a particular ter ritorydescribed extend to 1912and, inmany cases, beyond ? even though most of the territorieshad achieved statehood by the end of thenineteenth century.This guide includes therecordsofAlaska Territorybut not thoseof the territoriesofHawaii and Puerto Rico and other overseas possessions. The firstvolume describes the records by activity rather than by territoryand state. We find, for example, descriptions of "Records Concerning Boundary Surveys," "Records Relating toMilitary Bounty Land Warrants," and "General Records Relating toPrivate Land Claims." Figures are given showing thephysical extentof thevarious series,such as thenumber of linearfeet. The first volume concludes with a useful "Glossary of Public Land Terms." The second volume contains lists"intended to acquaint theusers of thisguidewith a quick introduction to thekinds of records available to researchers interested in the activities of theGeneral Land Office in a particular State or Territory" (p. 1).The volume consists of six appendixes, the first two being "File Lists, by State, of Selected Series ofRecords," and "Sur veyorsGeneral of Public Lands States West of the Mississippi River." Both volumes, for themost part, treat records found atNational Archives facilities in the Washington, D.C., area. The justifica tion given fornot including those atNAR?s regional branches is that records there are mostly duplicates of, or similar to, those in the Washington area. Nevertheless, research ers should check tomake certain theyare not overlooking something.The regional branches hold a good many unique treasures. This guide offers users of the archives a great, painstakingly compiled research tool. The editor and his staff deserve the thanks of all scholars using theNARA system. Michael J.Brodhead U.S. Army Corps ofEngineers,Virginia TRANSBORDER UVES: INDIGENOUS OAXACANS IN MEXICO, CALIFORNIA, ANDOREGON byLynnStephen Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2007. Illustrations, photographs, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. 397 pages. $23.95 paper. The increased scholarly attention to diaspora, circularmigration, and transnationalism has illuminated excitingways to consider social Reviews 495 change. Ithas also underscored the importance of examining the mechanics of domination in discursive practices,modes ofmarket integra tion,and the mutations of statepower atdiffer ent spatial and temporal scales. Lynn Stephen's Transborder Lives productively engages these terms through "collaborative activist ethno graphic research" to investigate the displace ment, dispersal, and circulation of Zapotee and Mixtee Indigenous communities of the Mexican state of Oaxaca to rural and urban sites inCalifornia and Oregon (p. 321). This work ispropelled by its simultaneity and geographic scope, which can be seen in statements such as: "In order tohavemultisited communities, we must have multisited histo ries" (p. 66). Through the ethnographic infor mation sheprovides about Zapotee andMixtee communities, Stephen argues that transnation alism appears tobe a subset ofwhat she refers to as a more complex transborder experience. She argues that international migration, through the lens of transnationalism, misses different types of crossings that indigenous migrants encounter. For her, the experiences ofZapotee andMixtee migrations suggest"the borders they cross are ethnic, class, cultural, colonial, and state borders within Mexico as well as at...

Canopy dieback in lower montane forests of Alto Urimán, Venezuelan Guayana

Canopy dieback in patches was discovered in an otherwise undisturbed very humid lower montane forest on a quartzitic sandstone plateau of the middle Caroni river basin, Venezuela. The patches vary in size from about 0.1 to 2 ha (50 to 700 upper story dead trees per ha). Preliminary inventories were carried out at 3 selected sites comparing 4 dieback patches (M) with adjacent not affected (V) forests. In the M plots, 40 to 61% of all trees with dbh ≥ 10 cm were dead. They consisted mostly (81–100%) of the endemic tree species Terminalia quintalata of the upper story (dbh > 20 to 60 cm, height up to 30 m), which is much sparser in the V stands. Data on stand structure and species composition are presented. They seem to indicate a spatial variation in the density of Terminalia quintalata, but also of other dominant species, and reproductive problems of Terminalia, which is hardly present in the diameter classes below 10 cm dbh. V and M stands grow on similar soils with a perched high water table. They are practically free of clay and rich in humus. The exchange complex is dominated by H+. Low pH and dilution of base cations represent the main chemical stress factors. Different concepts of the dieback process are discussed, including cyclic reproductive patterns, nutrient sequestering and drought frequency.

Records of the Bureau of Ships. By Elizabeth Bethel and others. (Preliminary Inventories, No. 133, National Archives Publication 61–11.) Washington: National Archives, 1961. Pp. viii, 241.

Records of the Bureau of Ships. By Elizabeth Bethel and others. (Preliminary Inventories, No. 133, National Archives Publication 61–11.) Washington: National Archives, 1961. Pp. viii, 241. - Volume 23 Issue 1

Reviews

Scriptures Regis. By T. A. M. Bishop. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1961.86 pp., 40 pls. £3.15s. od. A Newe Booke Of Copies, 1574: A Facsimile Of A Unique Elizabethan Writing Book In The Bodleian Library, Oxford. Edited with an introduction and notes by Berthold Wolpe. London, Oxford University Press, 1962. 100 pp. 30s. The Colonial Office In The Early Nineteenth Century. By D. M. Young. For the Royal Commonwealth Society, by Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd., 1961. x + 310 pp. 35s. Catalogue Of The Manuscripts Of Jeremy Bentham In The Library Of The University College, London. Compiled by A. Taylor Milne. 2nd edit. London, Athlone Press, 1962. vii + 104 pp. 12S. 6d. Captains Outrageous: Seven Centuries Of Piracy. By Neville Williams. London, Barrie & Rockliff, 1961. xii + 243 pp. 8 plates. 25s. (cloth‐bound). Tudor Secretary. Sir William Petre At Court And Home. By F. G. Emmison. London, Longmans, 1961. xx + 364 pp. Mus. 45s. (cloth‐bound). Somerset 1625‐1640. A County'S Government During The ‘Personal Rule‘. By Thomas Garden Barnes. London, Harvard University Press, and Oxford University Press, xiii and 369 pp. Maps. 40s. Guide To The Nottinghamshire County Records Office. By P. A. Kennedy. Nottinghamshire County Council, 1962, xii + 180 pp., 9 pls. 15s. Kentish Sources. Iii. Aspects Of Agriculture And Industry. A Collection of examples from original sources in the Kent Archives Office from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Edited by Elizabeth Melling. Maidstone, Kent County Council. 1961. viii + 150 pp., illus., maps. 6s. 6d. Royal Progress. The Essex Record Office, 1956–61. A Report...by F. G. Emmison...County Archivist. Chelmsford, Essex County Council, 1962. (Essex Record Office Publications No. 37.) 20 pp., illus. 1s. 6d. Preliminary Inventory Of The Records Of The Bureau Of Public Roads. (Record Group 30). Compiled by Truman R. Strobridge. Washington. U.S. National Archives. 1962. (Preliminary Inventories No. 134). National Archives Publication No. 62–5. v + 34 pp.