Digital Commons Network^™

Structural Racism And Odds For Infant Mortality Among Infants Born In The United States 2010, Roman Pabayo, Amy Ehntholt, Kara L. Davis, Sze Yan Liu, Peter Muening, Daniel Cook

Sze Yan Liu

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

While ecological studies indicate that high levels of structural racism within US states are associated with elevated infant mortality rates, studies using individual-level data are needed. To determine whether indicators of structural racism are associated with the individual odds for infant mortality among white and black infants in the US.

METHODS:

We used data on 2,163,096 white and 590,081 black infants from the 2010 US Cohort Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Files. Structural racism indicators were ratios of relative proportions of blacks to whites for these domains: electoral (registered to vote and voted; state legislature representation), employment (civilian labor …

United States Midwest Soil And Weather Conditions Influence Anaerobic Potentially Mineralizable Nitrogen, Jason D. Clark, Kristen S. Veum, Fabian G. Fernandez, James J. Camberato, Paul R. Carter, Richard B. Ferguson, David W. Franzen, Daniel E. Kaiser, Newell R. Kitchen, Carrie A.M. Laboski, Emerson D. Nafziger, John E. Sawyer, John F. Shanahan

Jason Clark

Nitrogen provided to crops through mineralization is an important factor in N management guidelines. Understanding of the interactive effects of soil and weather conditions on N mineralization needs to be improved. Relationships between anaerobic potentially mineralizable N (PMN_an) and soil and weather conditions were evaluated under the contrasting climates of eight US Midwestern states. Soil was sampled (0–30 cm) for PMN_an analysis before pre-plant N application (PP_0N) and at the V5 development stage from the pre-plant 0 (V5_0N) and 180 kg N ha⁻¹ (V5_180N) rates and incubated for 7, 14, …

United States Midwest Soil And Weather Conditions Influence Anaerobic Potentially Mineralizable Nitrogen, Jason D. Clark, Kristen S. Veum, Fabián G. Fernández, James J. Camberato, Paul R. Carter, Richard B. Ferguson, David W. Franzen, Daniel E. Kaiser, Newell R. Kitchen, Carrie A. M. Laboski, Emerson D. Nafziger, Carl J. Rosen, John E. Sawyer, John F. Shanahan

John E. Sawyer

Nitrogen provided to crops through mineralization is an important factor in N management guidelines. Understanding of the interactive effects of soil and weather conditions on N mineralization needs to be improved. Relationships between anaerobic potentially mineralizable N (PMN_an) and soil and weather conditions were evaluated under the contrasting climates of eight US Midwestern states. Soil was sampled (0–30 cm) for PMN_an analysis before pre-plant N application (PP_0N) and at the V5 development stage from the pre-plant 0 (V5_0N) and 180 kg N ha⁻¹ (V5_180N) rates and incubated for 7, 14, …

Intrinsic Challenges In Ancient Microbiome Reconstruction Using 16s Rrna Gene Amplification, Kirsten Ziesemer, Allison Mann, Krithivasan Sankaranarayanan, Hannes Schroeder, Andrew T. Ozga, Bernd W. Brandt, Egija Zaura, Andrea Waters-Rist, Menno Hoogland, Domingo C. Salazar-Garcia, Mark Aldenderfer, Camilla Speller, Jessica Hendy, Darlene A. Weston, Sandy J. Macdonald, Gavin H. Thomas, Matthew J. Collins, Cecil M. Lewis Jr., Corinne Hofman, Christina Warinner

Andrew Ozga

To date, characterization of ancient oral (dental calculus) and gut (coprolite) microbiota has been primarily accomplished through a metataxonomic approach involving targeted amplification of one or more variable regions in the 16S rRNA gene. Specifically, the V3 region (E. coli341–534) of this gene has been suggested as an excellent candidate for ancient DNA amplification and microbial community reconstruction. However, in practice this metataxonomic approach often produces highly skewed taxonomic frequency data. In this study, we use non-targeted (shotgun metagenomics) sequencing methods to better understand skewed microbial profiles observed in four ancient dental calculus specimens previously analyzed by amplicon …

Does Detection Range Matter For Inferring Social Networks In A Benthic Shark Using Acoustic Telemetry?, Johann Mourier, Nathan Charles Bass, Tristan L. Guttridge, Joanna Day, Culum Brown

Culum Brown, PhD

Accurately estimating contacts between animals can be critical in ecological studies such as examining social structure, predator–prey interactions or transmission of information and disease. While biotelemetry has been used successfully for such studies in terrestrial systems, it is still under development in the aquatic environment. Acoustic telemetry represents an attractive tool to investigate spatio-temporal behaviour of marine fish and has recently been suggested for monitoring underwater animal interactions. To evaluate the effectiveness of acoustic telemetry in recording interindividual contacts, we compared co-occurrence matrices deduced from three types of acoustic receivers varying in detection range in a benthic shark species. Our …

Decadal Effects Of Thinning On Understory Light Environments And Plant Community Structure In A Subtropical Forest, Ho-Chen Tsai, Jyh-Min Chiang, Ryan Mcewan, Teng-Chiu Lin

Ryan McEwan

Canopy-opening disturbance such as thinning has immediate and substantive effects on understory microclimate and therefore the establishment and growth of understory plants. A large number of studies have reported the effects of thinning on tree growth, but few studies have examined long-term effects of thinning on understory light environments and species and functional diversity of understory plants. Even less is known whether the change in understory plant community structure observed following canopy disturbance is short-lived and would diminish as the canopy closes or a long lasting due to legacy effects. We examined the effects of an experimental removal of 25% …

Structural Response Of Caribbean Dry Forests To Hurricane Winds: A Case Study From Guanica Forest, Puerto Rico, Skip Van Bloem, Ariel E. Lugo, Peter G. Murphy

Skip Van Bloem

Tropical dry forests in the Caribbean have an uniquely short, shrubby structure with a high proportion of multiple-stemmed trees compared to dry forests elsewhere in the Neotropics. Previous studies have shown that this structure can arise without the loss of main stems from cutting, grazing, or other human intervention. The Caribbean has a high frequency of hurricanes, so wind may also influence forest stature. Furthermore, these forests also tend to grow on soils with low amounts of available phosphorus, which may also influence structure. The objective of this study was to assess the role of high winds in structuring dry …

Encoding Of Emotional Valence In Wild Boar (Sus Scrofa) Calls, Anne-Laure Maigrot, Edna Hillmann, Elodie Briefer

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Measuring emotions in nonhuman mammals is challenging. As animals are not able to verbally report how they feel, we need to find reliable indicators to assess their emotional state. Emotions can be described using two key dimensions: valence (negative or positive) and arousal (bodily activation or excitation). In this study, we investigated vocal expression of emotional valence in wild boars (Sus scrofa). The animals were observed in three naturally occurring situations: anticipation of a food reward (positive), affiliative interactions (positive), and agonistic interactions (negative). Body movement was used as an indicator of emotional arousal to control for the effect of …

Five-Year Response Of Spontaneous Vegetation To Removal Of Invasive Amur Bush Honeysuckle Along An Urban Creek, Rebecca W. Dolan, Kelly H. Brown

Rebecca W. Dolan

Non-native invasive species have major impacts on landscapes worldwide, but their effects in urban areas are not well documented. We quantified the response of naturally regenerating vegetation along an urban creek to removal of the invasive shrub Lonicera maackii (Amur Bush Honeysuckle). Over the 5-year study, species richness more than doubled. Most new plants were native, disturbance-adapted, early successional species. Trend analysis of function traits revealed annuals that rely on seed dispersal by wind or externally on animals were significantly overrepresented among new plants in comparison to their proportion in the countywide species pool. Increased species richness did not result …

What Controls Tropical Reef Fish Populations: Recruitment Or Benthic Mortality? An Example In The Caribbean Reef Fish Haemulon Flavolineatum, M. J. Shulman, John C. Ogden

John Ogden

Recruitment from a planktonic larval stage has been proposed to be an important factor in limiting populations of marine organisms, particularly tropical reef fishes. We monitored recruitment and population densities of juvenile size classes In French grunt Haemulon flavolineatum (Haemulidae) from October 1978 through December 1980 In a portion of Tague Bay, St. Croix, U. S. Virgin Islands. Within our study area, 95 % of new recruits settled onto the sand and seagrass lagoon floor and within a few weeks migrated to nearby reefs; the remaining 5'10 settled directly onto reef structures. Mean annual recruitment rate was 1.8 recruits per …

Exploring Places Of Street Drug Dealing In A Downtown Area In Brazil: An Analysis Of The Reliability Of Google Street View In International Criminological Research, Elenice De Souza Oliveira, Ko-Hsin Hsu

Elenice De Souza Oliveira

This study assesses the reliability of Google Street View (GSV) in auditing environmental features that help create hotbeds of drug dealing in Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil’s largest cities. Based on concepts of “crime generators” and “crime enablers,” a set of 40 items were selected using arrest data related to drug activities for the period between 2007 and 2011. These items served to develop a GSV data collection instrument used to observe features of 135 street segments that were identified as drug dealing hot spots in downtown Belo Horizonte. The study employs an intra-class correlation (ICC) statistics as a measure …

The Most Important Current Research Questions In Urban Ecosystem Services, James Salzman, Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold, Robert Garcia, Keith Hirokawa, Kay Jowers, Jeffrey Lejava, Margaret Peloso, Lydia Olander

Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Genetics And Crime, In Context, Owen D. Jones

Owen Jones

This Article provides an introduction to some of the key issues at the intersection of behavioral genetics and crime.

It provides, among other things, an overview of the emerging points of consensus, scientifically, on what behavioral genetics can and cannot tell us about criminal behavior. It also discusses a variety of important implications (as well as complexities) of attempting to use insights of behavioral genetics in legal contexts.

Cross-Modal Recognition Of Familiar Conspecifics In Goats, Benjamin J. Pitcher, Elodie F. Briefer, Luigi Baciadonna, Alan G. Mcelligott

Elodie Briefer, PhD

When identifying other individuals, animals may match current cues with stored information about that individual from the same sensory modality. Animals may also be able to combine current information with previously acquired information from other sensory modalities, indicating that they possess complex cognitive templates of individuals that are independent of modality. We investigated whether goats (Capra hircus) possess cross-modal representations (auditory–visual) of conspecifics. We presented subjects with recorded conspecific calls broadcast equidistant between two individuals, one of which was the caller. We found that, when presented with a stablemate and another herd member, goats looked towards the caller sooner and …

The Dry Season Shuffle: Gorges Provide Refugia For Animal Communities In Tropical Savannah Ecosystems, J. Sean Doody, Simon Clulow, Geoff Kay, Domenic D'Amore, David Rhind, Steve Wilson, Ryan Ellis, Christina Castellano, Colin Mchenry, Michelle Quayle, Kim Hands, Graeme Sawyer, Michael Bass

J. Sean Doody

In the wet-dry tropics, animal species face the major challenges of acquiring food, water or shelter during an extended dry season. Although large and conspicuous animals such as ungulates and waterfowl migrate to wetter areas during this time, little is known of how smaller and more cryptic animal species with less mobility meet these challenges. We fenced off the entire entrance of a gorge in the Australian tropical savanna, offering the unique opportunity to determine the composition and seasonal movement patterns of the small vertebrate community. The 1.7 km-long fence was converted to a trapline that was deployed for 18-21 …

The Dry Season Shuffle: Gorges Provide Refugia For Animal Communities In Tropical Savannah Ecosystems, J. Sean Doody, Simon Clulow, Geoff Kay, Domenic D'Amore, David Rhind

J. Sean Doody

In the wet-dry tropics, animal species face the major challenges of acquiring food, water or shelter during an extended dry season. Although large and conspicuous animals such as ungulates and waterfowl migrate to wetter areas during this time, little is known of how smaller and more cryptic animal species with less mobility meet these challenges. We fenced off the entire entrance of a gorge in the Australian tropical savanna, offering the unique opportunity to determine the composition and seasonal movement patterns of the small vertebrate community. The 1.7 km-long fence was converted to a trapline that was deployed for 18-21 …

Stable Isotopic Niche Predicts Fitness Of Prey In A Wolf–Deer System, C. T. Darimont, P. C. Paquet, T. E. Reimchen

Chris Darimont, Ph.D.

Interindividual variation in niche presents a potentially central object on which natural selection can act. This may have important evolutionary implications because habitat use governs a suite of selective forces encountered by foragers. In a free‐living native black‐tailed deer, Odocoileus hemionus, population from coastal British Columbia, we used stable isotope analysis to identify individual variation in foraging niche and investigated its relationship to fitness. Using an intragenerational comparison of surviving and nonsurviving O. hemionus over 2 years of predation by wolves, Canis lupus, we detected resource‐specific fitness. Individuals with isotopic signatures that suggested they foraged primarily in cedar ( …

Interprofessional Research, Training And Outreach: The Etsu Prescription Drug Abuse/Misuse Working Group, Robert P. Pack, Angela Hagaman, Sara Warfield, Jeffry A. Gray, Fred Tudiver, Arsham Alamian, Nicholas E. Hagemeier

Angela M. Hagaman

No abstract provided.

Combining Lifestyle Medicine And Positive Psychology To Improve Mental Health And Emotional Well-Being, Darren Morton

Darren Morton

This article presents the evidence for a variety of lifestyle-based and non-pharmacological approaches for improving mental health and emotional well-being. The strategies presented arise from the lifestyle medicine literature as well as the complementary discipline of positive psychology, which is a branch of psychology that adopts a strengths-based approach to helping individuals to flourish.

Wellbeing Education For Educators, Jason Hinze, Darren Morton

Darren Morton

This study examined the impact of a 10-week multimodal wellbeing intervention (The Lift Project) on pre-service teachers’ personal wellbeing and their perceptions of the value of the intervention when embedded into their course of study. Ninety-two percent of the 103 students (20.1±3.0 yrs, 29 males/74 females) indicated that the intervention positively influenced their wellbeing. Significant improvements were observed in all domains of wellbeing measured, including: perceived physical health (5.1%, p<0.001), physical health behaviours (7.4%, p<0.001), mental health (16.3%, p<0.001), vitality (18.9%, p<0.001), spirituality (4.4%, p<0.01), and life satisfaction (7.1%, p<0.001). Further, significant reductions were recorded in symptoms of depression (-30.6%, p<0.001), anxiety (-34.9%, p<0.001) and stress (-23.3%, p<0.001). The pre-service teachers indicated that the intervention would equip them to support the wellbeing of their future students. The findings of the study suggest that meaningful improvements can be achieved in the wellbeing of pre-service teachers by embedding experiential studies of wellbeing into pre-service teacher education.

Interprofessional Research, Training And Outreach: The Etsu Prescription Drug Abuse/Misuse Working Group, Robert P. Pack, Angela Hagaman, Sara Warfield, Jeffry A. Gray, Fred Tudiver, Arsham Alamian, Nicholas E. Hagemeier

Nicholas E. Hagemeier

No abstract provided.

Interprofessional Research, Training And Outreach: The Etsu Prescription Drug Abuse/Misuse Working Group, Robert P. Pack, Angela Hagaman, Sara Warfield, Jeffry A. Gray, Fred Tudiver, Arsham Alamian, Nicholas E. Hagemeier

Arsham Alamian

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Subtropical Community Resistance And Resilience To Extreme Cold Spells, Ross E. Boucek, Evelyn E. Gaiser, H. Liu, Jennifer S. Rehage

Evelyn E. Gaiser

Forecasted changes in global climate predict not only shifts in average conditions but also changes in the frequency and intensity of climate extremes. In the subtropics, the passage of extreme cold spells functions as a major structuring force for ecological communities, and can incur substantial losses to biodiversity, agriculture, and infrastructure. If these events persist in the future, it is likely that their effects on subtropical communities and ecosystems will become more pronounced, as tropical species migrate poleward. Recent extreme cold spells in subtropical China (2008) and United States (2010) occurred in ecosystems that are the subject of long-term ecological …

Mode And Rate Of Evolution Of Haemosporidian Mitochondrial Genomes: Timing The Radiation Of Avian Parasites, Patricia Parker, M Andreína Pacheco, Nubia E. Matta, Gediminas Valkiūnas, Beatriz Mello, Craig E. Stanley Jr, Miguel Lentino, Maria Alexandra Garcia-Amado, Michael Cranfield, Sergei L Kosakovsky Pond, Ananias A. Escalante

Patricia Parker

Distributed Graduate Seminars: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Studying Land Conservation, Jessica Owley, Adena R. Rissman

Jessica Owley

No abstract provided.

Aggregate-Level Lead Exposure, Gun Violence, Homicide, And Rape, Brian B. Boutwell, Erik J. Nelson, Zhengmin Qian, Michael G. Vaughn, John P. Wright, John P. Wright, Kevin M. Beaver, Kevin M. Beaver, J. C. Barnes, Melissa Petkovsek, Roger Lewis, Mario Schootman, Richard Rosenfeld

Richard Rosenfeld

Cross-Modal Recognition Of Familiar Conspecifics In Goats, Benjamin J. Pitcher, Elodie F. Briefer, Luigi Baciadonna, Alan G. Mcelligott

Alan G. McElligott, PhD

When identifying other individuals, animals may match current cues with stored information about that individual from the same sensory modality. Animals may also be able to combine current information with previously acquired information from other sensory modalities, indicating that they possess complex cognitive templates of individuals that are independent of modality. We investigated whether goats (Capra hircus) possess cross-modal representations (auditory–visual) of conspecifics. We presented subjects with recorded conspecific calls broadcast equidistant between two individuals, one of which was the caller. We found that, when presented with a stablemate and another herd member, goats looked towards the caller sooner and …

Prevention Of Illness, Paul Bernstein

Paul Bernstein, MD, JD, FACC

No abstract provided.

Preferences For Medical Marijuana Over Prescription Medications Among Persons Living With Chronic Conditions: Alternative, Complementary, And Tapering Uses, Douglas Bruce, John P. Brady, Elissa Foster, Mona Shattell Phd, Rn, Faan

Douglas Bruce

No abstract provided.

Surface-Soil Properties Of Alder Balds With Respect To Grassy And Rhododendron Balds On Roan Mountain, North Carolina—Tennessee, James T. Donaldson, Zachary C. Dinkins, Foster Levy, Arpita Nandi

Foster Levy

We analyzed soils in Alder Bald, Grassy Bald, and Rhododendron Bald communities on Roan Mountain to infer the influence of vegetation on soil and to help guide management strategies. In all vegetation types, soils were acid (pH = 4–5) sandy loams. We found vegetation-associated differences for organic content, cation exchange capacity, acidity, two plant macronutrients (K, Mg), and three cations (Fe, Na, Zn). We predicted that nitrogen compounds would be highest in the Alder Bald because Alnus viridis ssp. crispa (Green Alder) can harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Organic content was highest at the alder-bald sites, ammonium was similar among vegetation types, …