AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE RELATIVE MOTIONS BETWEEN A FLOATING HARBOUR TRANSHIPPER AND A FEEDER VESSEL IN REGULAR WAVES

The Floating Harbour Transhipper (FHT) is a pioneering logistics solution that was designed to meet the growing demands for coastal transhipment in the mining sector as well as commercial port operations. The primary advantage of the FHT system is that it can reduce transhipment delays caused by inclement weather, by reducing relative motions between the FHT and feeder vessel. The feeder is sheltered when inside the FHT well dock when compared to the more exposed location when a feeder is in a traditional side-by-side mooring arrangement. This paper discusses previously published studies into the relative motions of vessels engaged in side-by-side mooring arrangements and also presents details and results from a series of physical scale model experiments. In these experiments, both side-by-side and aft well dock mooring arrangements are investigated. The results provide strong evidence that the FHT well dock concept can significantly reduce the heave, pitch and roll motions of feeder vessels when transhipping in open seas – this being the cornerstone of any successful open water transhipment operation.

The impact of snowfall on crashes, traffic volume, and revenue on the New York State Thruway

Snow has numerous effects on traffic, including reduced traffic volumes, greater crash risk, and increased travel times. This research examines how snow affects crash risk, traffic volume, and toll revenue on the New York State Thruway. Daily data from January for a ten-year period (2010-2019) were analyzed for the Thruway from the Pennsylvania state line in western New York to Syracuse.Anywhere from 35-50 percent of crashes are associated with inclement weather, with smaller impacts, proportionally, in areas with greater traffic volumes. As expected, snow was almost always involved when weather was a factor. “Unsafe speed” was the most common cause of crashes in inclement weather with all other factors (e.g., animals, drowsiness) much less likely to play a role. The percentage of crashes resulting in an injury did not change significantly with inclement conditions when compared to crashes occurring in fair conditions, and there were too few fatal crashes to make any inferences about them.Daily snowfall rates predicted about 30 percent of the variation in crash numbers, with every 5.1 cm of snowfall resulting in an additional crash, except in Buffalo where 5.1 cm of snow resulted in an additional 2.6 crashes. Confirming earlier results, daily snowfall had a large impact on passenger vehicle counts while commercial vehicle counts were less affected. Revenue data showed a similar pattern, with passenger revenue typically decreasing by 3-5 percent per 2.5 cm of snow, while commercial revenue decreases were 1-4 percent per 2.5 cm of snow.

Interacting effects of cold snaps, rain, and agriculture on the fledging success of a declining aerial insectivore

Climate change predicts the increased frequency, duration, and intensity of inclement weather periods, such as unseasonably low temperatures and prolonged precipitation. Many migratory species have advanced the phenology of important life history stages, and as a result are likely exposed to these periods of inclement spring weather more often, thus risking reduced fitness and population growth. For declining avian species, including aerial insectivores, anthropogenic landscape changes such as agricultural intensification are another driver of population declines. These landscape changes may affect the foraging ability of food provisioning parents, as well as reduce the probability a nestling will survive periods of inclement weather, through for example pesticide exposure impairing thermoregulation and punctual anorexia. Breeding in agro-intensive landscapes may thus exacerbate the negative effects of inclement weather under climate change. We used daily temperatures related to significant reductions of insect prey availability (cold snaps), combined with measures of precipitation, and assessed their impact on Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) fledging success, a declining aerial insectivore breeding across a gradient of agricultural intensification. Fledging success decreased with the number of cold snap days experienced by a brood, and this relationship was worsened during periods of prolonged precipitation. We further found the overall negative effects of experiencing periods of inclement weather are exacerbated in more agro-intensive landscapes. Our results indicate that two of the primary hypothesized drivers of many avian population declines may interact to further increase the rate of declines in certain landscape contexts.

Patrolling Public Areas under Extreme Warm and Extreme Cold Weather Conditions, Protecting Police Personnel, Civilian Populace, Service Animals and Technical EquipmentAnimals Equipment

Nowadays in the extreme weather conditions accompanying the climate change caused by global warming, it has become a challenge to perform patrolling in public areas. Since patrolling public areas must be carried out regardless of the weather conditions, in my paper I intend to describe and review the police tasks in relation to protection against extreme hot and cold weather together with their consequences. In addition to reviewing the current statutory rules and regulations, I formulate proposals to be used during adaptation to inclement weather conditions.

Passive acoustic monitoring for detecting the Yellow-bellied Glider, a highly vocal arboreal marsupial

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is increasingly being used for the survey of vocalising wildlife species that are otherwise cryptic and difficult to survey. Our study aimed to develop PAM guidelines for detecting the Yellow-bellied Glider, a highly vocal arboreal marsupial that occurs in native Eucalyptus forests in eastern and south-eastern Australia. To achieve this, we considered the influence of background noise, weather conditions, lunar illumination, time since sunset and season on the probability of detecting vocalisations. We deployed Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) at 43 sites in the Central Highlands of Victoria during two periods: spring/summer (October 2018 to January 2019), and autumn/winter (May to August 2019). ARUs were programmed to record for 11 hours from sunset for 14 consecutive days during each period. Background noise resulted from inclement weather (wind and rain) and masked vocalisations in spectrograms of the recordings, thus having the greatest influence on detection probability. Vocalisations were most common in the four hours after sunset. Rainfall negatively influenced detection probability, especially during the autumn/winter sampling period. Detection of Yellow-bellied Gliders with PAM requires deploying ARUs programmed to record for four hours after sunset, for a minimum of six nights with minimal inclement weather (light or no wind or rain). The survey period should be extended to 12 nights when rain or wind are forecast. Because PAM is less labour intensive than active surveys (i.e., spotlighting and call playbacks with multiple observers and several nights’ survey per site), its use will facilitate broad-scale surveys for Yellow-bellied Gliders.

Seasonality of Aedes albopictus in North and Central Mississippi

ABSTRACT Container-breeding mosquitoes are increasingly important in public health due to recent outbreaks of Zika virus, chikungunya, and dengue. This paper documents seasonality of the most prevalent container-breeding mosquito species in Mississippi—Aedes albopictus. Ten sites in 5 counties in both northern and central Mississippi (20 sites, 10 counties total) were sampled by larval dipping and oviposition traps biweekly from September 2016 to June 2019, totaling 22 months and potentially yielding 440 egg or larval collections. However, 22 collections were missed due to inclement weather and personnel issues during the study period, so actually only 418 site visits were performed. Sites were chosen to maximize chances of finding Ae. albopictus. Of the total 1,310 mosquito larvae collected during the study period, 717 larvae and 50 positive egg papers belonged to Ae. albopictus. Aedes albopictus was found in all 10 northern and central counties. No eggs were collected at any of the sites from December through February, although larvae were occasionally collected during that time frame. This study demonstrates that Ae. albopictus is active in central and northern Mississippi beginning in March each year and continuing through November or December. There is little activity during the coldest months of the year (January and February). These data represent the first extensive analysis of Ae. albopictus seasonality in Mississippi, and as such, allow for better public health awareness of diseases transmitted by this species and design of more effective vector control programs.

Unethical evidence against cattle dignity during loading, transportation and off-loading by livestock marketers in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria

Some activities that showed unethical practices against cattle during loading, transportation and off-loading were considered in this paper. Three major cattle market centres (Akinyele, Bodija and Oranyan) in Ibadan metropolis were used. Eighty (80) structured questionnaires were randomly administered to the cattle] handlers to collect] data on systems of loading, transportation and off-loading of the animals. Visual] observations, head counting and image capturing of the animals on board were made. Cattle were transported by road (100%) using different kinds of vehicle including open] roofed trailer, truck, saloon cars and buses with different capacities. Cattle were] arranged to stand for days under sun and rain until the final destination. Over 94% of] respondents transported their animals in 1-3 days. Also, 60% parked breeds, different] sizes, horned and polled cattle together in the same truck during transportation. 3.75%,] 5%, 7.5% and 83.75% of handlers respectively transported their cattle in the morning,] afternoon evening and at any time of the day. Cattle were loaded and off-loaded by] dragging, pulling and pushing. It is concluded that there were no standard systems no transportation, loading and off-loading of cattle as animals were exposed to inclement weather and hardship.

279 Development, selection criteria, and performance of Composite IV sheep at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center

Average ewe prolificacy is low across the U.S., while fixed and variable costs of production can be substantial, especially in traditional shed-lambing systems. Pasture-lambing can reduce input costs but can present greater risk of inclement weather, predation, and internal parasitism. The Composite IV is a ½ Romanov, ¼ Katahdin, and ¼ White Dorper hair sheep developed at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. Objectives were to summarize Composite IV ewe and lamb performance under a pasture-lambing system with minimal disruption through weaning. Lamb survival to and body weight at weaning were greatest for singles (0.90 and 19.9 kg, respectively), intermediate for twins (0.82 and 15.9 kg), and lowest for triplets (0.65 and 14.6 kg; P < 0.01). Number of lambs born and weaned per ewe lambing were lower at 1-yr of age (1.55 and 1.24, respectively) than at 3- to 5-yr of age (2.20 to 2.23 and 1.75 to 1.82; P < 0.01). Within mature ewes (2- to 5-yr-old), twin litters were most frequent (58.7%), triplets intermediate (24.7%), and singles least (16.6%). While number of lambs weaned and total litter weaning weight were greater for triplet- than twin-bearing ewes (2.06 vs 1.70 and 28.9 vs 26.0 kg, respectively; P < 0.01), triplet-bearing ewes lost 1.78 lambs per additional lamb weaned. Results suggest productivity in pasture-lambing systems can be enhanced by identifying complementary breed combinations, maintaining heterosis, and selecting for characteristics associated with reduced labor and enhanced well-being.