Digital Commons Network^™

Biogeography Of A Plant Invasion: Drivers Of Latitudinal Variation In Enemy Release, Warwick J. Allen, Laura A. Meyerson, David Cummings, John Anderson, Ganesh P. Bhattarai, James T. Cronin

Faculty Publications

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aim: The relationship between herbivory and latitude may differ between native and invasive plant taxa, which can generate biogeographical heterogeneity in the strength of enemy release. Our aim was to compare latitudinal gradients in herbivory between native and invasive plants and investigate whether gradients are driven by local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity. Location: North America. Methods: Using sympatric native and invasive lineages of the wetland grass Phragmites australis and the specialist gall-fly Lipara rufitarsis, we conducted a field survey to examine whether the relationship between herbivory (the proportion of stems galled) and latitude …

Population Pressure And Global Markets Drive A Decade Of Forest Cover Change In Africa's Albertine Rift, Sadie J. Ryan, Michael W. Palace, Joel N. Hartter, Jeremy E. Diem, Colin A. Chapman, J. Southworth

Faculty Publications

Africa's Albertine Rift region faces a juxtaposition of rapid human population growth and protected areas, making it one of the world's most vulnerable biodiversity hotspots. Using satellite-derived estimates of forest cover change, we examined national socioeconomic, demographic, agricultural production, and local demographic and geographic variables, to assess multilevel forces driving local forest cover loss and gain outside protected areas during the first decade of this century. Because the processes that drive forest cover loss and gain are expected to be different, and both are of interest, we constructed models of significant change in each direction. Although rates of forest cover …

Siefar Société Internationale Pour L’Etude Des Femmes De L’Ancien Régime [International Society For The Study Of Women Of The Ancien Régime] Http://Siefar.Org/En/, Anne R. Larsen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Effects On Nursing Alumni: Assessing A Course In Public And Global Health, Sheri P. Palmer, Karen Lundberg, Karen De La Cruz, Cheryl A. Corbett, Sondra Heatson, Shelly Reed, Mary Williams

Faculty Publications

The impact of a cultural awareness course among nursing students may affect the particular person for years to come. Cultural awareness can be taught via many methods, often requiring study abroad and/or extreme investment of time, money and effort. There is little research on sustained effects on nursing alumni from such a course. The purpose of this descriptive survey study was to determine the long term outcomes of a cultural awareness course and 2) compare the long term effects between alumni who went abroad and those who chose to complete the course locally. One hundred and twenty-one nursing alumni completed …

Are Our Policy Makers On Board? What Policy Makers Think Of The Social Determinants, Health Disparities, And Health In All Policies, M. Lelinneth B. Novilla, Michael C. Goates, Spencer Calder, Tabetha Ellis, Kraymer Eppich, Laura A. Galvao, Noyra Melissa Quintana, David Mateos

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: We impact our health by “how we manage our affairs in society.”¹ The unequal distribution of power, money, and resources creates a collective social milieu with disparities in health between and within countries. Tackling health inequities require addressing the health implications of the “toxic combination of poor social policies and bad politics.”¹ But how do U.S. policy makers view the social determinants of health?

OBJECTIVE: Determine U.S. policy makers’ awareness for the social determinants of health, health inequities, and health in all policies; identify the social determinants of health perceived as legislative priorities; list factors identified/perceived …

Mapping Urban Bare Land Automatically From Landsat Imagery With A Simple Index, Hui Li, Cuizhen Wang, Cheng Zhong, Aijun Su, Chengren Xiong, Jinge Wang, Junqi Liu

Faculty Publications

In recent years, hundreds of Earth observation satellites have been launched to collect massive amounts of remote sensing images. However, the considerable cost and time to process the significant amount of data have become the greatest obstacle between data and knowledge. In order to accelerate the transformation from remote sensing images to urban thematic maps, a strategy to map the bare land automatically from Landsat imagery was developed and assessed in this study. First, a normalized difference bare land index (NBLI) was presented to maximally differentiate bare land from other land types in Wuhan City, China. Then, an unsupervised classifier …

Mapping Urban Bare Land Automatically From Landsat Imagery With A Simple Index, Hui Li, Cuizhen Wang, Cheng Zhong, Aijun Su, Chengren Xiong, Jinge Wang, Junqi Liu

Faculty Publications

In recent years, hundreds of Earth observation satellites have been launched to collect massive amounts of remote sensing images. However, the considerable cost and time to process the significant amount of data have become the greatest obstacle between data and knowledge. In order to accelerate the transformation from remote sensing images to urban thematic maps, a strategy to map the bare land automatically from Landsat imagery was developed and assessed in this study. First, a normalized difference bare land index (NBLI) was presented to maximally differentiate bare land from other land types in Wuhan City, China. Then, an unsupervised classifier …

Editorial, Jamal Jokar Arsanjani, Michael Leitner, Alexander Zipf

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Groundcover Community Assembly In High-Diversity Pine Savannas: Seed Arrival And Fire-Generated Environmental Filtering, Kyle E. Harms, Paul R. Gagnon, Heather A. Passmore, Jonathan A. Myers, William J. Platt

Faculty Publications

© 2017 Harms et al. Environmental filtering-abiotic and biotic constraints on the demographic performance of individual organisms-is a widespread mechanism of selection in communities. A given individual is "filtered out" (i.e., selectively removed) when environmental conditions or disturbances like fires preclude its survival and reproduction. Although interactions between these filters and dispersal from the regional species pool are thought to determine much about species composition locally, there have been relatively few studies of dispersal × filtering interactions in species-rich communities and fewer still where fire is also a primary selective agent. We experimentally manipulated dispersal and filtering by fire (pre-fire …

"We Need Help In The Delta": Barriers To Health Promotion Among Older African-American Men In The Mississippi Delta, Sherry C. Wang, Lashaundrea Crook, Carol Connell, Kathleen Yadrick

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to better understand the barriers to health promotion among African American older men living in the rural Mississippi Delta. A qualitative, intrinsic case study approach was used to explore the phenomenon of health and the barriers to promoting men’s health within the unique context of the Delta. Data included one key informant interview and two focus group interviews with 14 men, with the majority between the ages of 41 and 55 years. Focus group participants were lay community members as well as members of a volunteer community health advisors men’s group. Findings underscore the …

Coordinated Dispersal And Pre-Isthmian Assembly Of The Central American Ichthyofauna, Victor A. Tagliacollo, Scott M. Duke-Sylvester, Wilfredo A. Matamoros, Prosanta Chakrabarty, James S. Albert

Faculty Publications

© The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists. We document patterns of coordinated dispersal over evolutionary time frames in heroine cichlids and poeciliine live-bearers, the two most species-rich clades of freshwater fishes in the Caribbean basin. Observed dispersal rate (DO) values were estimated from time-calibrated molecular phylogenies in LAGRANGE+, a modified version of the ML-based parametric biogeographic program LAGRANGE. DO is measured in units of "wallaces" (wa) as the number of biogeographic range-expansion events per million years. DO estimates were generated on a dynamic paleogeographic landscape of five areas over three …

Hemolysis As A Rapid Screening Technique For Assessing The Toxicity Of Native Surfactin And A Genetically Engineered Derivative, William J. Colonna, Mustafa E. Martı, John A. Nyman, Chris Green, Charles E. Glatz

Faculty Publications

If biosurfactants are to achieve their promise in environmental oil-spill remediation, their toxicity to marine life must be assessed. A killifish larvae assay is commonly used as a measure of toxicity but is difficult and nonlinear in response. Red blood cell (RBC) hemolysis has also been the basis for assays of some surfactant levels. Here we present a modified sheep RBC suspension assay and compare its response to that of the fish assay for surfactin and its genetically modified variant fatty-acyl-glutamate (FA-Glu). This is the first report of hemolytic activity as a property of FA-Glu. The method's potential for screening …

The Ecological Adaptability Of Phragmites Australis To Interactive Effects Of Water Level And Salt Stress In The Yellow River Delta, Bo Guan, Junbao Yu, Aixin Hou, Guangxuan Han, Guangmei Wang, Fanzhu Qu, Jiangbao Xia, Xuehong Wang

Faculty Publications

Soil salinity and waterlogging are two major environmental problems in estuarine wetlands. To prevent the typical wetland plants from degradation by soil salinization and salt waterlogging and more effectively use the plants to provide wetland ecosystem services, we examined the ecological adaptability of Phragmites australis, a characteristic plant species in the Yellow River Delta, to the interactive effects of water level and salt stress. The results showed that P. australis adapts to salt and water table stressed environments through slowing down the growth rate, maintaining the tiller number, and adjusting the biomass allocation of different organs. The highest plant height …

Frontiers In Spatial And Spatiotemporal Crime Analytics - An Editorial, Marco Helbich, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Land Use Influencing The Spatial Distribution Of Urban Crime: A Case Study Of Szczecin, Poland, Natalia Sypion-Dutkowska, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

This paper falls into a common field of scientific research and its practical applications at the interface of urban geography, environmental criminology, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The purpose of this study is to identify types of different land use which influence the spatial distribution of a set of crime types at the intra-urban scale. The originality of the adopted approach lies in its consideration of a large number of different land use types considered as hypothetically influencing the spatial distribution of nine types of common crimes, geocoded at the address-level: car crimes, theft of property-other, residential crimes, property damage, …

Tv White Spaces In Public Libraries: A Primer, Kristen Rebmann, Emmanuel Te, Donald Means

Faculty Publications

TV White Space (TVWS) represents one new wireless communication technology that has the potential to improve internet access and inclusion. This primer describes TVWS technology as a viable, long-term access solution for the benefit of public libraries and their communities, especially for underserved populations. Discussion focuses first on providing a brief overview of the digital divide and the emerging role of public libraries as internet access providers. Next, a basic description of TVWS and its features is provided, focusing on key aspects of the technology relevant to libraries as community anchor institutions. Several TVWS implementations are described with discussion of …

Submarine Deposits From Pumiceous Pyroclastic Density Currents Traveling Over Water: An Outstanding Example From Offshore Montserrat (Iodp 340), M. Jutzeler, M. Manga, J. D. L. White, P. J. Talling, Alexander A. Prusevich, S. F. L. Watt, M. Cassidy, R. N. Taylor, A. Le Friant, O. Ishizuka

Faculty Publications

Pyroclastic density currents have been observed to both enter the sea, and to travel over water for tens of kilometers. Here, we identified a 1.2-m-thick, stratified pumice lapilli-ash cored at Site U1396 offshore Montserrat (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program [IODP] Expedition 340) as being the first deposit to provide evidence that it was formed by submarine deposition from pumice-rich pyroclastic density currents that traveled above the water surface. The age of the submarine deposit is ca. 4 Ma, and its magma source is similar to those for much younger Soufrière Hills deposits, indicating that the island experienced large-magnitude, subaerial caldera-forming explosive …

First Evidence Of Denitrification Vis-À-Vis Monsoon In The Arabian Sea Since Late Miocene, Shubham Tripathi, Manish Tiwari, Jongmin Lee, Boo Keun Khim

Faculty Publications

© The Author(s) 2017. In the Arabian Sea, South Asian monsoon (SAM)-induced high surface water productivity coupled with poor ventilation of intermediate water results in strong denitrification within the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). Despite the significance of denitrification in the Arabian Sea, we have no long-term record of its evolution spanning the past several million years. Here, we present the first record of denitrification evolution since Late Miocene (∼10.2 Ma) in the Eastern Arabian Sea, where the SAM generates moderate surface water productivity, based on the samples retrieved during the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 355. We find that …

Synthetic Aperture Radar (Sar)-Based Paddy Rice Monitoring System: Development And Application In Key Rice Producing Areas In Tropical Asia, T. D. Setiyono, F. Holecz, N. I. Khan, M. Barbieri, E. Quicho, F. Collivignarelli, A. Maunahan, L. Gatti, G. C. Romuga

Faculty Publications

Reliable and regular rice information is essential part of many countries' national accounting process but the existing system may not be sufficient to meet the information demand in the context of food security and policy. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery is highly suitable for detecting lowland paddy rice, especially in tropical region where pervasive cloud cover in the rainy seasons limits the use of optical imagery. This study uses multi-temporal X-band and C-band SAR imagery, automated image processing, rule-based classification and field observations to classify rice in multiple locations across Tropical Asia and assimilate the information into ORYZA Crop Growth …

Estimation Of Turbulence From Time-Lapse Imagery, Jack E. Mccrae, Santasri Bose-Pillai, Steven T. Fiorino

Faculty Publications

Atmospheric turbulence parameters are estimated for an imaging path based on time-lapse imaging results. Atmospheric turbulence causes frame-to-frame shifts of the entire image as well as parts of the image. The statistics of these shifts encode information about the turbulence strength (as characterized by Cn2, the refractive index structure function constant) along the optical path. The shift variance observed is simply proportional to the variance of the tilt of the optical field averaged over the area being tracked and averaged over the camera aperture. By presuming this turbulence follows the Kolmogorov spectrum, weighting functions, which relate the turbulence strength along …

Predictability Of Helminth Parasite Host Range Using Information On Geography, Host Traits And Parasite Community Structure, Tad Dallas, Andrew W. Park, John M. Drake

Faculty Publications

© Cambridge University Press 2016. Host-parasite associations are complex interactions dependent on aspects of hosts (e.g. traits, phylogeny or coevolutionary history), parasites (e.g. traits and parasite interactions) and geography (e.g. latitude). Predicting the permissive host set or the subset of the host community that a parasite can infect is a central goal of parasite ecology. Here we develop models that accurately predict the permissive host set of 562 helminth parasites in five different parasite taxonomic groups. We developed predictive models using host traits, host taxonomy, geographic covariates, and parasite community composition, finding that models trained on parasite community variables were …

Diabetes Prevalence Is Associated With Different Community Factors In The Diabetes Belt Versus The Rest Of The United States, Candice A. Myers, Tim Slack, Stephanie T. Broyles, Steven B. Heymsfield, Timothy S. Church, Corby K. Martin

Faculty Publications

Objective: To investigate differences in community characteristics associated with diabetes prevalence between the Diabetes Belt and the rest of the contiguous United States (U.S.). Methods: County-level adult diabetes prevalence estimates (i.e., percent of people [≥20 years] with diagnosed diabetes 2009) were used from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in addition to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to carry out a spatial regime analysis to identify county-level factors correlated with diabetes prevalence in the Diabetes Belt versus the remainder of the U.S. Results: Counties outside of …

Immigrant Education And Race: Alternative Approaches To “Americanization” In Los Angeles, 1910-1940, Zevi Gutfreund

Faculty Publications

This article explores citizenship’s multiple meanings in Los Angeles by describing five different types of Americanization, or immigrant education, in the city of angels from 1910 to 1940. The federal racialization of access to citizenship influenced these alternative approaches to Americanization at a local level. In the context of Supreme Court rulings and federal laws that made it difficult for immigrants of color to naturalize in the United States during the Progressive Era, Anglo officials in the school district and settlement houses developed an English-only curriculum that benefited only European immigrants. In response to such restrictions,Mexican and Japanese educators in …

Failure Matters: Reassembling Eco-Urbanism In A Globalizing China, I-Chun Catherine Chang

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Spring Temperature Variability Over Turkey Since 1800 Ce Reconstructed From A Broad Network Of Tree-Ring Data, Nesibe Köse, H. Tuncay Güner, Grant L. Harley, Joel Guiot

Faculty Publications

The meteorological observational period in Turkey, which starts ca. 1930 CE, is too short for understanding long-term climatic variability. Tree rings have been used intensively as proxy records to understand summer precipitation history of the region, primarily because they have a dominant precipitation signal. Yet, the historical context of temperature variability is unclear. Here, we used higher-order principle components of a network of 23 tree-ring chronologies to provide a high-resolution spring (March–April) temperature reconstruction over Turkey during the period 1800– 2002. The reconstruction model accounted for 67 % (Adj. R 2 = 0.64, p < 0.0001) of the instrumental temperature variance over the full calibration period (1930–2002). The reconstruction is punctuated by a temperature increase during the 20th century; yet extreme cold and warm events during the 19th century seem to eclipse conditions during the 20th century. We found significant correlations between our March–April spring temperature reconstruction and existing gridded spring temperature reconstructions for Europe over Turkey and southeastern Europe. Moreover, the precipitation signal obtained from the tree-ring network (first principle component) showed highly significant correlations with gridded summer drought index reconstruction over Turkey and Mediterranean countries. Our results showed that, beside the dominant precipitation signal, a temperature signal can be extracted from tree-ring series and they can be useful proxies in reconstructing past temperature variability.

Seasonal Survival Of Adult Female Mottled Ducks, Jena A. Moon, David A. Haukos, Warren C. Conway

Faculty Publications

The mottled duck (Anas fulgivula) is a non‐migratory duck dependent on coastal habitats to meet all of its life cycle requirements in the Western Gulf Coast (WGC) of Texas and Louisiana, USA. This population of mottled ducks has experienced a moderate decline during the past 2 decades. Adult survival has been identified as an important factor influencing population demography. Previous work based on band‐recovery data has provided only annual estimates of survival. We assessed seasonal patterns of female mottled duck survival from 2009 to 2012 using individuals marked with satellite platform transmitter terminals (PTTs). We used temperature and …

Academic Accounting Salaries In The Southwest: A Revisitation And Exploration, Kelly Noe, Mary Fischer, Treba Marsh, Dana A. Forgione

Faculty Publications

This study examines the faculty located in the Southwest Region of the American Accounting Association to ascertain salary determinants as well explore salary compression and inversion. This study finds there are differences among faculty salaries based on longevity, institutional type and size. Typically larger, public institutions pay higher salaries. Further this study finds that salary, perceived salary compared to others, institutional longevity, marital status, institutional type and size are significantly associated with faculty’s gender.

Partnering With Educational Leaders To Advance Social Work Education In Vietnam, Laurie Drabble, Edward Cohen, Hoa Nguyen, Alice Hines, Debbie Faires, Tuan Tran, Patrick Thanh Ngo

Faculty Publications

This case study describes the leadership component of the Social Work Education Enhancement Project (SWEEP), an international collaboration designed to strengthen the capacity of Vietnam’s undergraduate social work programmes to deliver quality education. SWEEP strategies for building capacity in leadership and administration include the following: 1) leadership development, 2) development of university-specific and collective strategic plans, and 3) improving collaboration among leaders. Thematic analysis of qualitative evaluation data identified eight effective elements of the leadership programme. Findings underscore the importance of partnership and flexibility in planning, as well as the value of supporting a leadership consortium to guide ongoing national …

The Intersections Of Africana Studies And Curriculum Theory: An Exploration, Theodorea Regina Berry

Faculty Publications

There has been much critique of globalization now circulating in curriculum studies both nationally, in the United States, and internationally, helps us understand some of the lethal effects of globalization. Nevertheless, little of such critique is grounded in a strong commitment to work beyond the Western epistemological perimeter. While we, as reconceptualists in curriculum studies, acknowledge the necessity to honor the multiple sources and perspectives of knowledge, we continue to operate in spaces and with intentions embedded in globalized, traditional notions of curriculum. This problem is especially heightened for socially marginalized learners, particularly Black/African American learners.

In this article, I …

Selling Stock And Selling Legal Claims: Alienability As A Constraint On Managerial Opportunism, Charles R. Korsmo

Faculty Publications

Scholars have long recognized the importance of market forces as a tool for disciplining the management of public corporations and reducing agency costs. If managers loot or otherwise mismanage the firm, the firm’s stock price will suffer, raising its cost of capital and leaving managers exposed to the threat of a hostile takeover. In recent decades, changing patterns of stock ownership have threatened the viability of this market check on mismanagement. Institutional investors, and particularly index funds, own an increasing portion of publicly traded firms, and face substantial liquidity and other barriers to simply selling their positions. To the extent …