Showing papers by "University of South Florida published in 1971"

Animal-sediment relations in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts II. Reworking by Molpadia oolitica (Holothuroidea)

Abstract: Populations of Molpadia oolitica (Holothuroidea) were sampled over an area of 440 km2 in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts, USA. This species occurs in silt-clay muds in densities of 2 to 6/m2, and is limited to depths greater than 22 m where the highest annual temperature does not exceed 10°C. M. oolitica lives within the mud, with its anterior end located approximately 20 cm below the surface. This species ingests only fine-grained particles at depth in the sediment, and deposits uncompacted feces at the surface, producing a fecal mound around the anal opening. This reworking produces vertical sediment sorting, high sediment-water content, and topographic relief of the sea floor. The fecal cones of M. oolitica provide a relatively stable surface for settlement and growth of the suspension feeders Euchone incolor (polychaete), Aeginina longicornis (amphipod), and Thyasira gouldi (bivalve) Uncompacted feces, accumulated in depressions between the mounds, form an unstable substratum frequently resuspended by tidal flow. Suspension feeders are absent from intercone areas.

Animal-sediment relations in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts I. A transect study

Abstract: Benthic macrofauna and bottom sediments were sampled at 7 stations along a 24 km long onshore-offshore transect ranging in depth from 12 to 42 m in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts, USA. High faunal density, biomass and species diversity were recorded at stations densely populated by tubicolous polychaetes. These tube mats bind and stabilize the substratum, providing solid surfaces for attachment of epizoans. Three suspension-feeding species, Euchone incolor (polychaete), Thyasira gouldi (bivalve) and Aeginina longicornis (amphipod), co-occur with deposit-feeding species on muds resuspended by tidal currents. Hydrographic profiles of temperature, salinity and turbidity indicate that resuspended silt-clay particles are entrapped in dense water below the summer thermocline, which persists from mid-April to mid-October. The zone of intersection of the thermocline with the sea floor in about 22 m of water defines a major biofacies-lithofacies transition. This ecotone is characterized by high faunal density, biomass, and species diversity. Benthic populations of macrofauna from Cape Cod Bay are larger than those from Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, and have a widely different taxonomic and trophic composition.

Dissolution of clay minerals in dilute organic acids at room temperature

Abstract: TWO GRAMS EACH OF REPRESENTATIVE CLAY MINERALS WERE SHAKEN AT ROOM TEMPERATURE IN DISTILLED WATER, AND IN 0.01M ASPARTIC, CITRIC, SALICYLIC, TARTARIC, AND TANNIC ACIDS (REPRESENTATIVE OF COMPONENTS OF HUMIC ACID). ALIQUOTS OF CENTRIFUGED SOLUTION, UP TO 102 DAYS DISSOLUTION, WERE ANALYZED FOR SILICON, IRON, ALUMINUM, IRON, MAGNESIUM, CALCIUM, SODIUM, AND POTASSIUM. THE TOTAL WEIGHT OF CLAY MINERALS DISSOLVED BY STRONGLY COMPLEXING ORGANIC ACIDS EXCEEDS THAT DISSOLVED BY DISTILLED WATER BY FACTORS 5 TO 75. DISSOLVED SILICON IN STRONGLY COMPLEXING ACID SOLUTIONS EXCEEDED 2-35 TIMES ITS CONCENTRATION IN DISTILLED WATER; DISSOLVED ALUMINUM, 3-500 TIMES. ASPARTIC, AN AMINO-ACID, DISSOLVED CALCUM AND MAGNESIUM BEST. CLAY MINERALS DISSOLVE INCONGRUENTLY IN DISTILLLED WATER, SILICON PREFERENTIALLY TO A ALUMINUM. IN ALL ACIDS USED, SILICON INCONGRUENTLY EXCEEDS ALUMINUM DISSOLVED FROM ARIZONA AND WYOMING SMECTITES, SEMI-PLASTIC REFRACTORY CLAY, ALSO FOR ILLITES IN SALICYLIC ACID, AND KEOKUK KAOLINITE IN CITRIC AND TANNIC ACID. CONGRUENT DISSOLUTION, OR ALUMINUM INCONGRUENTLY EXCEEDING SILICON, 1.3-1.6:1, OCCURRED WITH BUEKER FLINT CLAY, GEORGIA KAOLINITE, AND ILLITES IN CITRIC, TARTARIC, AND TANNIC ACIDS. PREFERENTIAL SOLUBILITIES OF EITHER SILICON OR A ALUMINUM FROM CLAY MINERALS INDICATE GENETIC MECHANISMS FOR POSSOLS, LATERITES, KAOLIN (ESPECIALLY MOORVERWITTERUNG TYPE), AND BAUXITES. GEOLOGIC AND PEDOLOGIC EXAMPLES ARE CITED. /AUTHOR/

Defenses of the Florida Apple Snail Pomacea Paludosa

Abstract: 1. Pomacea paludosa exhibits a variety of defenses against predation, including aposematic eggs and dropoff-burial responses to odors of turtles, odors of crushed conspecific snails, and mechanical disturbance. 2. The conspicuous pinkish-white eggs are laid out of the water and hatch after several weeks incubation. Distastefulness is strong at first but disappears by hatching time. After hatching, snails are apparently tasty food items for a great variety of predators. The brightly colored eggs of other species of Pomacea may also be aposematic, though we have direct evidence for unpalatability in only one other species, Pomacea dolioides. 3. The self-burial alarm responses to turtle odors and intraspecific juices appear identical in form but are not identical in ontogeny. Response to intraspecific juice is not present on hatching, develops gradually over the first few weeks of free existence, and continues throughout the life of the snail. Burial responses to turtle odors are present in snails prior to the normal hatching date and continue for varying lengths of time after hatching. Response to Sternotherus minor odor continues until snails are about 3 grams in weight; response to Chelydra serpentina odor continues until snails are at least 20 grams in weight. Ontogeny of response to other turtle odors has not yet been investigated, though young Pomacea paludosa have been reactive to odors of all turtles tested to date. 4. The ontogenies of response to Sternotherus minor and Chelydra serpentina odors correlate closely with the abilities of adults of these turtles to eat snails. Adult Sternotherus minor in the laboratory have been unable to eat snails much larger than about 3 grams in weight, while an adult Chelydra serpentina has eaten snails over 20 grams in weight. Snails apparently discriminate between the odors of these two turtles on the basis of qualitative rather than quantitative differences in odor, and preliminary evidence suggests that snails do not discriminate between different-sized turtles within a species. 5. Intraspecific juice is potent in producing alarm in total darkness just as in the light. Response to turtle odors is almost completely inhibited by darkness, red light, or dim incandescent light. 6. Odors of most predators other than turtles produced no response in young Pomacea paludosa. Weak, inconsistent responses were seen to alligator and crocodile odors. 7. Both intraspecific juice and odor of Sternotherus minor are stable to 5 minutes boiling, but both lose potency after varying lengths of time in water solution. 8. Threshold to intraspecific juice is about .000,000,2 grams crude snail juice per liter. Threshold to Sternotherus minor odor can best be expressed as the amount of water a turtle can make alarming in a given length of time. For a 54 gram Sternotherus minor this figure was about 1500 liters in 10 minutes. 9. Attempts to detect active release of alarm substance in snails stimulated with alarm substance failed. 10. Other species of Pomacea also have analogous (homologous?) alarm reactions. Pomacea dolioides has a response to intraspecific juice similar in its ontogeny to the response of Pomacea paludosa to intraspecific juice, but Pomacea dolioides lacks a response to odor of Sternotherus minor. Pomacea glauca has no response to intraspecific juice but responds strongly to odor of Sternotherus minor during a short period of youth. Both Pomacea glauca and Pomacea dolioides also have alarm responses to mechanical disturbance.

Existence theory for generalized nonlinear complementarity problems

Abstract: The nonlinear complementarity problem is generalized by replacing the usual nonnegative ordering ofRn by an ordering generated by a convex cone. Two new classes of operators are introduced, each of which is used to guarantee the existence of a solution to the generalized problem. The new classes can be seen to be broader than previously studied classes. In addition, conditions are presented under which the solution set of the generalized linear complementarity problem is shown to have at most a finite number of solutions.

Red Photoreceptor in Butterflies

Abstract: IT has recently been suggested1 that modifications of the tracheoles beneath the photoreceptors of the compound eye of the butterfly Heliconius erato specifically reflect red light and that this increases the sensitivity of the eye to red light. Because H. erato has a red forewing patch which plays a role in the release of courtship activity, it was also proposed that the reflexions were related to the behavioural responsiveness of the animal to the colour red. We wish to comment on the behavioural and physiological implications of this observation.

Prediction of the Florida Red Tide by Means of the Iron index

Abstract: (1971). Prediction of the Florida Red Tide by Means of the Iron index. Environmental Letters: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 69-74.

Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO): A yoked-control comparison.

Abstract: After training to press a lever on a variable-interval 30-sec schedule, one group of rats was shifted to a differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior 10-sec schedule, while a second group was shifted to a noncontingent yoked-control schedule that provided the same frequency and distribution of reinforcement. Then, both groups were extensively retrained on the variable-interval schedule, after which the first group was shifted to a series of differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior 30-sec sessions alternating daily with variable-interval 30-sec sessions, while the second group was treated like the first on variable-interval days and yoked with the first as before on differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior days. In both phases, response-decrement was more rapid and more marked in the differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior animals than in the controls. The difference was due, at least in large measure, to sustainment of response in the control animals by adventitious reinforcement. All the differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior animals developed “other” behavior—the same distinctive pattern of waiting at the foodcup—but there was no direct evidence that it contributed in any way to the decrement in lever pressing.

Articulation of /s/ as a Function of Cluster and Word Frequency of Occurrence

Abstract: This study examined frequency-of-occurrence effects on the articulatory productions of /s/ in words by 76 normal and 18 /s/-defective second graders. The stimuli, monosyllabic CCVC and CVCC words, ...

Occultation of Beta Scorpii C by Io on May 14, 1971

Abstract: PHOTOELECTRIC observations of the occultation of the fifth magnitude star β Scorpii C by the satellite Io (Jupiter I) on May 14, 1971, were made in Florida, Jamaica and the Virgin Islands. Some visual observations were also made. This was the first occasion on which accurate observations of such a rare event have been obtained, although several visual observations of the occultation of a star by Ganymede (Jupiter III) were made in 1911. The predictions1 were only issued a few weeks before the event, and the track of the occultation was then very uncertain owing primarily to the uncertainty in the declination of Jupiter. It has been estimated that Io will occult a star as bright as β Scorpii C only once per millenium on average.

Classical conditioning of goldfish in the shuttlebox

Abstract: Goldfish trained in a shuttlebox with light as CS and brief shock as US acquire the shuttling response to light whether or not an avoidance contingency is in effect. That the change in behavior produced by the classical procedure is not due merely to sensitization is demonstrated by a discriminative control. The results suggest the usefulness of the shuttlebox for the study of classical conditioning in goldfish and call into question the instrumental interpretation of the change in behavior produced by the avoidance procedure.

Idempotent measures on locally compact semigroups

Abstract: The structure of the support F of an idempotent probability measure Μ on a locally compact semigroup S is considered. It is shown that if S satisfies the condition (L): AB−1 is compact whenever A and B are compact subsets of S, then F is a completely simple semigroup and has the canonical representation X ×G×Y of which G and Y are compact. Moreover, Μ is a product measure Μ X ×Μ G ×Μ Y where Μ X and Μ Y are probability measures and Μ G is the Haar measure on the group G. We conjecture that a similar result remains true even without the condition (L). We give also a relation between our conjecture and a conjecture of Argabright on the support of an r*-invariant measure.

Possible black hole in Beta Lyrae.

Abstract: β LYRAE is one of the most controversial and puzzling of binary systems1. The central issue concerns the absolute masses of the two components. The one-spectrum radial-velocity curve does not reveal what those masses are, but any pair of masses satisfying its mass function make the system remarkable. Table 1 gives pairs of masses which satisfy the observed 8.5 M⊙ mass function2. Here q=MBRT/MFNT and the entries in the table are the minimum masses allowable—that is, the orbital inclination angle is assumed to be 90°. Early investigators, faced with the absence of the secondary component in the spectrograms at all phases, assumed that the components of the system obey a mass-luminosity law and favoured a mass ratio considerably larger than unity. This, however, results in very large masses, especially for the B8 primary. Three arguments have since been put forward which make the choice q > 1 dubious. First, Sahade3 has called attention to the behaviour of the unusual emission features present in the spectrograms, noting that, should they be associated with the secondary star, a value for the mass ratio considerably less than unity results. Second, a similar small value comes from a distance determination by Abt4, which was based on β Lyrae's co-motion with few stars. As these were found to be ordinary main sequence objects, the absolute magnitude of β Lyrae was determined to be Mv=−3.4, which agrees with the spectroscopic luminosity class. So modest a luminosity can hardly be associated with such a massive primary component as indicated for q > 1. Finally, Woolf5 has used Abt's distance in combination with an assumed brightness temperature to find the absolute area of the primary star and thus its absolute “radius”. Further, assuming that β Lyrae A fills its Roche lobe, this “radius” is compared to the observed value of a1 sin i to obtain the mass ratio of the system, again giving q<1.

Further Evidence for a Black Hole in β Lyrae

Abstract: DEVINNEY1 has shown that the observational peculiarities of the binary system β Lyrae can best be understood in terms of the secondary mass being a collapsed star (black hole) surrounded by an opaque or nearly opaque disk. This communication points out that the recently released2 ultraviolet photometry from the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) leads to the same conclusion. Fig. 1 shows the light curves of β Lyrae given in ref. 2, for which the stated accuracy is ± 0.01 magnitude. One might have some reservations about these observations because the shorter wavelength light curves fail to close after one cycle and the presentation (hand-drawn curves instead of the original observation points) is counter to normal practice. It may, however, be a very long time before confirming observations of this extremely interesting binary can be gathered, and they do relate in an important way to the question of whether β Lyrae contains a collapsed star. Kondo et al.2 mentioned briefly the possible presence of a black hole in the system, but not for the reason advanced here.

Anomalous Resistivity and Ion-Acoustic Turbulence

Abstract: We evaluate anomalous resistivity and steady-state turbulent spectra for ion-acoustic waves driven unstable by an electron drift. The model assumes that long-wavelength unstable waves couple to short-wavelength damped waves to reach a steady state. The anomalous resistivity turns out to be a very rapidly increasing function of the electron drift velocity.

Evidence of interaction between deprivation effects and stimulus control

Abstract: Discriminative responding in pigeons was studied under multiple variable-interval extinction and variable-ratio extinction schedules, as deprivation was varied. Generally, the greater the accuracy of discrimination that developed during training, the smaller the effect of deprivation upon subsequent performance. This was true both in terms of changes in response rates, and in the relationship between response rates during food reinforcement and extinction. When discrimination was inaccurate, increases in deprivation resulted in disproportionate increases in responding during extinction, as compared to increases during food reinforcement components of the schedule. The results suggest that as stimulus control (accuracy) of responding increases, discriminative performance becomes less and less susceptible to influence by deprivation.

Statistical Analysis of Three Critical Thinking Tests.

Abstract: Introduction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric characteristics of three critical thinking tests by determining their item difficulty and discrimination indices, reliability coefficients, item validities, and basic dimensions. A Test of Critical Thinking Form G (Form G) (American Council on Education, 1951) ; the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Form Z (Form Z) (Ennis, 1961); and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Form ZM (Form ZM) (Watson and Glaser, 1964) were the tests used. The tests were administered to students in a junior level educational psychology course at Wisconsin State University, Oshkosh in May, 1967. The numbers of subjects for the different analyses ranged from 190 to 227. Form G has 52 items, Form Z has 52 items, and Form ZM has 100 items.

Physiological Chemistry of Non-Leguminous Symbioses

Abstract: A general lack of familiarity of biochemists and microbiologists with non-cultivated plants coupled with interest in the leguminous symbioses, which were of obvious agronomic importance, has delayed study of the non-leguminous plants from the viewpoint of the physiology and biochemistry of nitrogen fixation, the physiological basis of the symbioses, and their ecological importance. Although the non-leguminous symbioses were discussed in the monograph of Fred et al., (1932), it was not until the pioneering work of Bond and his associates (much of this recently reviewed by Bond 1967a, 1968), that the attention of the scientific community was drawn to these diverse and important organisms. Other reviews have appeared (for example, Lange, 1966; Allen and Allen, 1957) but the emphasis has been on the biological aspects of the symbioses. In this review the emphasis will be related to the biochemistry of nitrogen fixation; however, due to a scarcity of data of a fundamentally biochemical nature, much biological information must be included to present a unified picture of the current state of our knowledge.

Visual probability learning in the rat

Abstract: The mean asymptotic choice ratios of three groups of rats trained in 100:0, 70:30, and 50:50 visual problems corresponded closely to the reinforcement ratios. A fourth group of rats, which was shifted to 70:30 after some 100:0 training, continued for many trials to show a preference for the 70% alternative which substantially exceeded that of the 70:30 group. Examination of individual performances revealed a variety of systematic tendencies quite different from the random probability matching found in submammalian forms.