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Cover, Editorial Staff, Journal Information

Human–Wildlife Interactions

This includes the cover, editorial staff, and journal information.

Quantifying Wildlife Use Of Escape Ramps Along A Fenced Highway, Alex J. Jensen, John D. Perrine, Andrew A. Schaffner, Robert A. Brewster, Anthony J. Giordano, Morgan Robertson, Nancy R. Siepel

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Wildlife exclusion fencing can significantly reduce wildlife–vehicle collisions. However, some animals breach the fence and become trapped in the highway corridor, thereby increasing risk of a wildlife–vehicle collision. An emerging solution to this problem is the installation of earthen escape ramps (i.e., jumpouts), which allow trapped animals to escape the highway corridor. Few studies have quantified wildlife use of jumpouts, and none have investigated intraspecific differences in use. We used camera traps to document wildlife use of 4 2m-high jumpouts associated with wildlife exclusion fencing along Highway 101 near San Luis Obispo, California, USA, from 2012 to 2017. We surveyed …

Cover, Editorial Staff, Journal Information

Human–Wildlife Interactions

This includes the cover, editorial staff, and journal information.

Cafos And Surface Water Quality: Evidence From Wisconsin, Zach Raff, Andrew G. Meyer

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) – animal feeding operations with over 1,000 animal units in confined spaces – have proliferated over the past 30 years in the United States. CAFOs provide operational cost savings, but higher animal concentrations in confined spaces can generate external costs, e.g., non-point source water pollution. In this study, we improve on previous research designs to estimate the relationship between the growth in CAFOs and surface water quality using longitudinal data on a large spatial scale. We use a panel dataset from 1995-2017 that links CAFO intensity with nearby surface water quality readings in Wisconsin to …

Child Schooling And Other Factors Associated With Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Adults That Had Not Been Vaccinated In The Fall Of 2021, Ryan M. Fischer

All ETDs from UAB

Although COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy decreased noticeably over time during the first months of 2021, there was still a high degree of vaccine hesitancy in the United States at the time that the vaccine first became available to adolescents. Data from Phase 3.2 of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (July 21 – October 11th, 2021) was used to conduct an ecological study on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy that investigated associations between vaccine hesitancy and socio-demographic characteristics as well as child school type (public school, private school, homeschool). Subjects that had not received a vaccine at the time of survey data …

The Effect Of Federally Qualified Health Centers (Fqhcs) Prevalence On Uncompensated Care In Us Hospitals, Kena R. Norris

All ETDs from UAB

Over the past two decades, uncompensated care in U.S. hospitals has grown at a staggering rate and reached $46.4 billion in 2013. It began to decline in 2014, due to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), but is now on the rise again. Uncompensated care is typically affected by policy and market factors such as legislative changes and an increase in the number of uninsured. While hospitals continue to serve as critical safety net providers, they are often not the only or most appropriate facility to serve the indigent in U.S. communities. Instead, federally qualified …

Relationship Between Income, Maternal And Infant Factors, And Infant Mortality Rates In African American Communities, Kristen Newman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Infant mortality is a significant public health issue that provides insight into the health of a community. The purpose of this study was to examine whether a relationship existed between infant mortality and median income by zip code, maternal factors, and/or infant factors in the affluent, African American community of Prince George’s County, Maryland. The research theory chosen for this study was the conceptual framework for action on the social determinants of health based upon its action-oriented focus. The secondary data used for this study was linked birth and infant death data for 2010 to 2016 collected by the Department …

Seeding Resilience: An Examination Of The Impacts Of A Seed Saving Network In Western Montana, Christina Leas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Seed saving, a worldwide practice as old as agriculture, continues even in the context of an increasingly industrialized and globalized agricultural system. While some scholarship has focused on informal seed saving practices that continue to thrive in the global South, few studies have examined the dynamics of these practices in the global North, particularly in the American West. Informal seed saving systems have implications for the resilience of agroecosystems. The concept of resilience has become an important framework for conceptualizing agroecosystems as social-ecological systems, both in scholarship and in policy. However, operationalizing the concept of resilience, particularly in agroecology research, …

Impact Of Poverty On Antibiotic Prescribing Rates In The United States Through Mediation Effects Of Underlying Health Conditions, Nato Tarkhashvili

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Resistance to antibiotics among bacteria develops largely due to frequent use of antibiotics in human and animal medicine. Little is known about how patients’ socioeconomic factors, in conjunction with chronic health conditions, impact antibiotic prescribing rates in the United States. The research questions aimed to explore the relationship between poverty and antibiotic prescribing rates while also adjusting for confounders such as population aged ≥ 65, physician density, prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The relationships were evaluated using a quantitative, ecological study design using the ecosocial theory and mediation analysis of 2020 survey results provided by …

The Association Between Paraquat Exposure And Parkinson's Disease Mortality: A County-Level Ecological Study In The United States, Alexander Kozuch

All ETDs from UAB

Objectives: The current study reports the results of an ecological study regarding the association between PQ exposure and Parkinson’s disease mortality in the United States. Methods: The outcome of interest for this study was mortality due to Parkinson’s disease, obtained from CDC Wonder. The exposure of interest was PQ exposure at the county level which was obtained from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Statistical analysis was done using the mortality data, grouped into ten-year age groups, and focused on data from 2015-2019 to account for the lag time between initial Paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s Disease mortality. A Negative Binomial …

Analysis Of Excess Mortality At The County Level In Alabama By Socioeconomic Factors, Abigail Jo Tucker

All ETDs from UAB

Objective: Analyze county level socioeconomic factors and their association with Covid-19 excess mortality in Alabama.Methods: Linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between potential risk factors assessed using the American Community survey (n = 40 counties and county clusters) and excess mortality in 2020 per 100,000 population. Excess mortality came from a previously published paper by Ackley et al. Results: Median household income (per 1,000 dollars); an average county median household income that 1,000 dollars higher was associated with 6 per 100,000 lower excess mortality (β= -5.953 p-value

Editorial: Advances In 3d Habitat Mapping Of Marine Ecosystem Ecology And Conservation, Renata Ferrari, Javier X. Leon, Andrew J. Davies, John H.R. Burns, Stuart A. Sandin, Will F. Figueira, Manuel Gonzalez-Rivero

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of The Impacts Of A Dairy Industry Waste On River Water Quality And The Appropriateness Of Current Monitoring Approaches And Regulation, Rupert Goddard

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Theses

Rupert Goddard AN INVESTIGATION OF THE IMPACTS OF A DAIRY INDUSTRY WASTE ON RIVER WATER QUALITY AND THE APPROPRIATENESS OF CURRENT MONITORING APPROACHES AND REGULATION. The modern dairy industry is a key contributor to global food security, with diverse production practices reflecting different geographic, economic and cultural contexts. Across the globe, the dairy industry has a significant contribution to global employment and wealth, health and land use. However, untreated or partially treated dairy waste entering a river system can be detrimental, increasing eutrophication, changing community structure or in the worst case scenario, causing death to organisms. Dairies are located near …

เทคนิคการเพิ่มความแม่นยำสำหรับการจำแนกสายพันธุ์ของยุงด้วยวิธีการเรียนรู้แบบถ่ายโอน การเพิ่มปริมาณข้อมูลภาพ และสัญญาณตกหายเชิงพื้นที่, กตัญญู ธาราวัชรศาสตร์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อปรับปรุงประสิทธิภาพของโครงข่ายประสาทเทียมสำหรับการจำแนกยุงโดยใช้การเรียนรู้แบบถ่ายโอน การเพิ่มข้อมูล และเทคนิคสัญญาณตกหายเชิงพื้นที่ ยุง 7 ชนิดรวบรวมจากหลายจังหวัดของประเทศไทย ได้แก่ Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Aedes vexans, Anopheles tessellatus, Culex quinquefasciatus, Culex vishnui และยุงชนิดอื่นๆ รวมถึง Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus และ Culex quinquefasciatus ที่เลี้ยงในภาควิชาปรสิตวิทยา คณะแพทยศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย ได้นำมาใช้ในการศึกษาครั้งนี้ ภาพยุงถูกถ่าย 3 ถึง 5 ครั้งต่อตัวอย่าง และครอบตัดรอบๆ ยุง จากนั้นปรับขนาดเป็น 512 x 512 พิกเซล หลังจากนั้นจึงนำภาพไปใช้โดยใช้เทคนิคการเพิ่มข้อมูล ได้แก่ การซูม การหมุน การครอบตัดแบบสุ่ม ความสว่างแบบสุ่ม สีสุ่ม และการฉีดสัญญาณรบกวนแบบเกาส์เซียน แบบจำลอง VGG-16 ประยุกต์เทคนิคการเรียนรู้การถ่ายโอนโดยใช้น้ำหนัก ImageNet เป็นน้ำหนักเริ่มต้น และดัดแปลงเป็นแบบจำลอง VGG-16 แบบสองอินพุต นอกจากนี้ แบบจำลองยังใช้เลเยอร์ดรอปเอาต์เชิงพื้นที่หลังจากบล็อกคอนโวลูชั่น โมเดล VGG-16 สองอินพุตสามแบบได้รับการพัฒนา ได้แก่ VGG-16 แบบรวมในช่วงต้น, VGG-16 แบบรวมตรงกลาง และ VGG-16 แบบรวมในภายหลัง และแบบจำลองทั้งชุดได้รับการพัฒนาโดยใช้ผลลัพธ์ของแบบจำลอง 3 แบบเป็นอินพุตสำหรับการจำแนกยุง โมเดลเหล่านี้มีความแม่นยำในการจำแนกโดยเฉลี่ยที่ 95.76%, 97.08%, 96.76% และ 99.44% จากการฝึกและทดสอบ 10 ครั้ง ตามลำดับ นอกจากนี้ ยังนำแบบจำลองเหล่านี้ ไปใช้ในการบริการจำแนกยุงผ่านแอปพลิเคชัน LINE และอนุญาตให้ผู้เชี่ยวชาญขอภาพยุงและส่งข้อมูลผลการจำแนกยุงไปยังระบบผ่านแอปพลิเคชัน LINE ไปยังฐานข้อมูลได้

Biotic Characteristics Of Managed And Unmanaged Coastal Dunes In The Outer Banks, North Carolina, Andrew E. White

Theses and Dissertations

Under future climate change and sea level rise scenarios, Natural and Nature-Based Features (e.g., dunes) that protect coastal habitat and infrastructure will be exposed to increased wave energy and storm surge. Understanding how these forces will impact coastal dunes is necessary for their continued use as protective features. Coastal dunes develop through feedback between vegetation and sediment deposition, a process complicated by species-specific growth rates and responses to burial. Wave flume studies have tested the effects of dune vegetation on erosion and found multiple plant organs across several functional types to be important for resisting erosion. Although dune building and …

Applying Conservation Genomic Techniques To Guide Management Of The Reticulated Flatwoods Salamander (Ambystoma Bishopi), Miranda Gaupp

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Reticulated flatwoods salamander (Ambystoma bishopi) is a federally endangered amphibian endemic to the longleaf-pine ecosystem of the southeastern U.S. This study used analyses of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, collected from 2,255 unique individuals across 5 breeding seasons, spread across the known extant range of A. bishopi, to characterize the genetic diversity and demographics of populations, genetic relationships among populations, and patterns and spatial extents of gene flow, and to evaluate potential effects of management on A. bishopi’s resiliency. Population structure was strongly hierarchical, with individual breeding ponds (n = 38) acting as semi-connected subpopulations …

Lake Huron Shoreline Analysis, Shubham Satish Nandanwar

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Lake Huron is a popular tourist destination and is home to several businesses and residents. Since the shoreline is dynamic and is subject to change over the years due to several factors such as a change in water level, soil type, human encroachment, etc., these locations tend to encounter floods due to increased water levels and wind speed. This causes erosion and loss to the properties along the shoreline.

This study is based on two areas of interest named Pinery Provincial Park and Sauble Beach which are located on the shoreline of Lake Huron where Pinery Provincial Park is a …

Patterns Of Natural Variation In Drought Escape And Drought Avoidance In The Common Monkeyflower, Joshua Fitzpatrick

Honors Baccalaureate Theses

Climate change has caused increasing temperatures and drier climates over the past decade. This has especially affected the western coast of North America, bringing even drier and hotter climates. This makes it difficult for plant life to prosper in these areas. One way that plants fight these drought conditions is through drought resistance traits. These drought resistance traits include flowering early and reproducing early before drought conditions onset or increasing the efficiency of water use by tissues and the stomata of the plant. While these traits are both beneficial in fighting drought conditions, they often negatively impact each other. This …

Congenital Anomaly Epidemiological Correlates Of Δ8thc Across Usa 2003–16: Panel Regression And Causal Inferential Study, Albert Stuart Reece, Gary Kenneth Hulse

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Δ8-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ8THC) is marketed in many US states as ‘legal weed’. Concerns exist relating to class-wide genotoxic cannabinoid effects. We conducted an epidemiological investigation of Δ8THC-related genotoxicity expressed as 57 congenital anomaly (CA) rates (CARs) in the USA. CARs were taken from the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia. Drug exposure data were taken from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, with a response rate of 74.1%. Ethnicity and income data were taken from the US Census Bureau. National cannabinoid exposure was taken from Drug Enforcement Agency publications and multiplied by state cannabis use data to derive state-based …

Role Of Community-Level Health Behaviors And Social Determinants Of Health In Preventable Hospitalizations, Elizabeth Ayangunna, Kingsley A. Kalu, Gulzar H. Shah

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background

Hospitalizations contribute significantly to the country’s health expenditures. There are factors in addition to clinical care that determines whether a community can prevent hospitalizations from certain medical conditions.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain the role of community-level health behaviors and social determinants of health (SDoH) in preventable hospitalizations.

Methods

This study used secondary data from the 2021 County Health Rankings for 8 states in HHS Region 4--Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Tennessee. Descriptive analyses and multivariate linear regression were computed to examine the association between the dependent variable- preventable hospitalizations …

Analyzing Land Cover And Land Use Changes Detection In The Brahmaputra River Basin, Darya Shahidi Masouleh

Open Access Master's Theses

The Brahmaputra River basin (BRB) is one of the largest in Asia, spread over the countries of China, Bhutan, India, and Bangladesh, having a total area of 5,73,000 Sq.km. It is one of the last major free-flowing rivers in the world, and the river and its tributaries provide important social, environmental, cultural, and economic services to more than 60 million people for their livelihood in Bangladesh, northeastern India, Bhutan, and China. The BRB is undergoing rapid environmental changes in recent decades. One of the most important drivers of this change is Land Use, and Land Cover (LULC) changes in this …

Predicting Tree Species Richness In The Continental United States: Highlights From Machine Learning And Open Data, Lian Brugere

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Biodiversity is in decline and predicting species diversity is critically important if current trends are to be reversed. Tree species richness (TSR), the number of distinct tree species in an ecological community, has long been a key measure of biodiversity, however, accurately modeling TSR is critical to better predicting its spatially heterogeneous responses to the changing environment and to forecasting TSR under future climate scenarios. This dissertation takes a holistic approach to improve TSR modeling with 1) advanced and more interpretable machine learning techniques, 2) to extend predictors to anthropogenic factors, and 3) to leverage open-source online tree occurrences for …

Exploring Scientists’ Perceptions Of Citizen Science For Public Engagement With Science, Stephanie A. Collins, Miriam Sullivan, Heather J. Bray

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

It is often assumed that citizen science is inherently participatory in nature. However, citizen science projects exist along a continuum from data contribution to full co-creation. We invited 19 biologists to explore their conceptions of citizen science. Almost all participants defined citizen science as involving non-scientists in data collection. This definition acted as a barrier for scientists who did not see how citizen science could suit their research objectives. While interviewees perceived many societal and experiential benefits of contributory citizen science, deliberate design is needed to realise the full potential of citizen science for public engagement

Research Handling Effects On Stress Hormones, Blood Parameters, And Heart Rate In Juvenile Northern Elephant Seals (Mirounga Angustirostris), Lauren A. Cooley

Master's Theses

Wildlife researchers must balance the need to safely capture and handle their study animals to sample tissues, collect morphological measurements, and attach dataloggers while simultaneously ensuring their results are not confounded by stress artifacts caused by handling. To determine the physiological effects of research activities including chemical immobilization, transport, instrumentation with biologgers, and overnight holding on a model marine mammal species, I collected hormone, blood chemistry, hematology, and heart rate data from 19 juvenile northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) throughout a translocation experiment. Across my six sampling timepoints, cortisol and aldosterone data revealed a moderate hormonal stress response to handling …

Earthworm Community Structure Along Altitudinal Gradients On The Western Slopes Ofkopaonik Mountain In Serbia, Filip Popovic, Mirjana Stojanovic, Slobodanka Radosavljevic, Tanja Trakic, Jovana Sekulic

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The aim of this study is to examine the altitudinal patterns of earthworm community structure at different habitat types on the western slopes of Kopaonik Mountain. In total, 30 plots between 420 and 1950 m a.s.l. were sampled within two years' fieldwork. Overall, 27 earthworm taxa belonging to 11 genera were found at the study sites. A combination of Pearson's correlation, polynomial regression, and cluster analysis (UPGMA) was used for determining the effects of altitude on the earthworm community structure. The earthworm abundance and species richness monotonically decreased with the increase in altitude, showing a significant negative correlation. Cluster analysis …

Management Influences On Plant Community Composition In The Prairie Pothole Region, Carlee Coleman

Natural Resources Management

Remnant prairies in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) should serve as repositories of native plant species, yet disrupted ecological process, invasive species, potential nitrogen deposition, climate change, and numerous other factors threaten native species diversity in remnant prairies. This study sought to assess how historical and adaptive management practices influence plant community composition in remnant prairies. We grouped sites based on recent or long-term management histories, and explored differences in floristic diversity, quality, and the abundance of individual species and groups of species between site groupings. Our assessments determined that long-term management history determines present day species composition, and that …

Understanding Water Quality, Vegetation Establishment, And Stakeholder Success For The Fargo Project: A Multi-Stakeholder Led Community-Based Green Infrastructure Project., Jesse Riley

Natural Resources Management

The Fargo Project is a dry detention basin that holds stormwater drained from urbanized and impervious areas that serves as a component of a greater stormwater infrastructure network. The project goals were to design a multi-use green infrastructure area that would invite neighboring residents into the basin. From its conception, the project has relied on partnerships between stakeholders. A survey was developed and deployed to all stakeholder groups that participated in the community-based project to access stakeholder success. The Fargo Project was viewed as a success by most stakeholders. Project partners felt that the basin’s main goal was to serve …

Inequalities In Prevalence Of Birth By Caesarean Section In Ghana From 1998-2014, Joshua Okyere, Henry Ofori Duah, Abdul-Aziz Seidu, Bright Opoku Ahinkorah, Eugene Budu

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Caesarean section (CS) is an intervention to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality, for complicated pregnancy and labour. We analysed trends in the prevalence of birth by CS in Ghana from 1998 to 2014.

Methods

Using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT) software, data from the 1998-2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys (GDHS) were analysed with respect of inequality in birth by CS. First, we disaggregated birth by CS by four equity stratifiers: wealth index, education, residence, and region. Second, we measured inequality through simple unweighted measures (Difference (D) and Ratio (R)) and complex weighted measures …

Quantifying Genomic Diversity And Growth In Iowa Bluegill, Jeremy Raymond Abels

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) is one of the most fished species in Iowa. However, after an initial stocking event, lakes rarely receive additional stockings owing to a high rate of natural reproduction. For this reason, the genetic diversity of Bluegill populations remains understudied in the context of fisheries and natural resource management. Additionally, the extent to which genetics influences the growth rate of Bluegill on a population level has not yet been extensively examined. The goal of this study was to understand the diversity of Iowa’s Bluegill population and to determine if there is a genetic association with growth …

Driving Performance In Older Adults: Current Measures, Findings, And Implications For Roadway Safety, Robert Toups, Theresa J Chirles, Johnathon P Ehsani, Jeffrey P Michael, John P K Bernstein, Matthew Calamia, Thomas D Parsons, David B Carr, Jeffrey N Keller

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Over 10,000 people a day turn 65 in the United States. For many older adults, driving represents an essential component of independence and is one of the most important factors in overall mobility. Recent survey studies in older adults suggest that up to 60% of older adult drivers with mild cognitive impairment, and up to 30% with dementia, continue to drive. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive and detailed resource on the topics of cognition and driving for clinicians, researchers, and policymakers working on efforts related to older adult drivers.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND …