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Sample records for features influencing community

  1. The influence of boundary features on grassland-edge communities of Alta Murgia

    OpenAIRE

    Cassano, Stefania; Alignier, Audrey; Forte, Luigi; Labadessa, Rocco; Mairota, Paola

    2016-01-01

    Many studies suggest the importance of boundary features on plant community dynamics. Our aim was to investigate the influence of boundary features on edge plant assemblages in semi-natural dry grasslands. For this purpose we selected 16 grassland edges in the central portion of the Natura 2000 site Murgia Alta, in southeastern Italy. These sites were selected according to a combination of boundary features, i.e. the adjoining land use type (road or cereal crop), slope (grassland tilted towar...

  2. Estimating and mapping ecological processes influencing microbial community assembly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stegen, James C; Lin, Xueju; Fredrickson, Jim K; Konopka, Allan E

    2015-01-01

    Ecological community assembly is governed by a combination of (i) selection resulting from among-taxa differences in performance; (ii) dispersal resulting from organismal movement; and (iii) ecological drift resulting from stochastic changes in population sizes. The relative importance and nature of these processes can vary across environments. Selection can be homogeneous or variable, and while dispersal is a rate, we conceptualize extreme dispersal rates as two categories; dispersal limitation results from limited exchange of organisms among communities, and homogenizing dispersal results from high levels of organism exchange. To estimate the influence and spatial variation of each process we extend a recently developed statistical framework, use a simulation model to evaluate the accuracy of the extended framework, and use the framework to examine subsurface microbial communities over two geologic formations. For each subsurface community we estimate the degree to which it is influenced by homogeneous selection, variable selection, dispersal limitation, and homogenizing dispersal. Our analyses revealed that the relative influences of these ecological processes vary substantially across communities even within a geologic formation. We further identify environmental and spatial features associated with each ecological process, which allowed mapping of spatial variation in ecological-process-influences. The resulting maps provide a new lens through which ecological systems can be understood; in the subsurface system investigated here they revealed that the influence of variable selection was associated with the rate at which redox conditions change with subsurface depth.

  3. Estimating and Mapping Ecological Processes Influencing Microbial Community Assembly

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James C Stegen

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Ecological community assembly is governed by a combination of (i selection resulting from among-taxa differences in performance; (ii dispersal resulting from organismal movement; and (iii ecological drift resulting from stochastic changes in population sizes. The relative importance and nature of these processes can vary across environments. Selection can be homogeneous or variable, and while dispersal is a rate, we conceptualize extreme dispersal rates as two categories; dispersal limitation results from limited exchange of organisms among communities, and homogenizing dispersal results from high levels of organism exchange. To estimate the influence and spatial variation of each process we extend a recently developed statistical framework, use a simulation model to evaluate the accuracy of the extended framework, and use the framework to examine subsurface microbial communities over two geologic formations. For each subsurface community we estimate the degree to which it is influenced by homogeneous selection, variable selection, dispersal limitation, and homogenizing dispersal. Our analyses revealed that the relative influences of these ecological processes vary substantially across communities even within a geologic formation. We further identify environmental and spatial features associated with each ecological process, which allowed mapping of spatial variation in ecological-process-influences. The resulting maps provide a new lens through which ecological systems can be understood; in the subsurface system investigated here they revealed that the influence of variable selection was associated with the rate at which redox conditions change with subsurface depth.

  4. Acoustic Features Influence Musical Choices Across Multiple Genres.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barone, Michael D; Bansal, Jotthi; Woolhouse, Matthew H

    2017-01-01

    Based on a large behavioral dataset of music downloads, two analyses investigate whether the acoustic features of listeners' preferred musical genres influence their choice of tracks within non-preferred, secondary musical styles. Analysis 1 identifies feature distributions for pairs of genre-defined subgroups that are distinct. Using correlation analysis, these distributions are used to test the degree of similarity between subgroups' main genres and the other music within their download collections. Analysis 2 explores the issue of main-to-secondary genre influence through the production of 10 feature-influence matrices, one per acoustic feature, in which cell values indicate the percentage change in features for genres and subgroups compared to overall population averages. In total, 10 acoustic features and 10 genre-defined subgroups are explored within the two analyses. Results strongly indicate that the acoustic features of people's main genres influence the tracks they download within non-preferred, secondary musical styles. The nature of this influence and its possible actuating mechanisms are discussed with respect to research on musical preference, personality, and statistical learning.

  5. Introduction to the Special Feature on rebuilding fisheries and threatened communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosemary E. Ommer

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available In this introductory essay to the Special Feature on rebuilding fisheries and threatened communities, we review the contributions of the researchers whose work is contained in this Special Feature. The essays are reviewed using the lens of the three questions that were posed by the Special Feature editors: Why is rebuilding so challenging? What is the relationship between fishery collapse/degradation and short- and long-term issues for food security, livelihoods, employment, and industrial and community resilience? How can we avoid situations in which the communities and people who may have contributed least to collapses/degradation end up paying the most for rebuilding and, indeed, may no longer be in a position where they can benefit from the results of their necessary sacrifices?

  6. Тhe features of severe community acquired pneumonia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Avramenko I.V.

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Based on data from a prospective analysis for the year of observation, the article presents information about the features of severe community acquired pneumonia in patients who were hospitalized at the department of pulmonology (or therapy, as well as department of the intensive care from three teaching hospitals in Dnepropetrovsk, namely "Dnipropetrovsk City Hospital №6», "Dnipropetrovsk City Hospital №2», "Dnipropetrovsk City Hospital №16», which are the clinical ones of "Dnepropetrovsk Medical Academy of the Ministry of Health Ukraine". Dependence of the severity of the condition shown on duration of illness before admission, features of season character of disease. The effect of breathing exercises on the course of the disease. The results can be the basis for a more personal approach to the development of diagnostic and therapeutic programs for patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia.

  7. Design features of offshore oil production platforms influence their susceptibility to biocorrosion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, Kathleen E; Davidova, Irene A; Nunn, Heather S; Stamps, Blake W; Stevenson, Bradley S; Souquet, Pierre J; Suflita, Joseph M

    2017-08-01

    Offshore oil-producing platforms are designed for efficient and cost-effective separation of oil from water. However, design features and operating practices may create conditions that promote the proliferation and spread of biocorrosive microorganisms. The microbial communities and their potential for metal corrosion were characterized for three oil production platforms that varied in their oil-water separation processes, fluid recycling practices, and history of microbially influenced corrosion (MIC). Microbial diversity was evaluated by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and numbers of total bacteria, archaea, and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) were estimated by qPCR. The rates of 35 S sulfate reduction assay (SRA) were measured as a proxy for metal biocorrosion potential. A variety of microorganisms common to oil production facilities were found, but distinct communities were associated with the design of the platform and varied with different locations in the processing stream. Stagnant, lower temperature (production platforms can be used to identify operational practices that inadvertently promote the proliferation, distribution, and activity of biocorrosive microorganisms.

  8. Social Graph Community Differentiated by Node Features with Partly Missing Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. O. Chesnokov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a new algorithm for community differentiation in social graphs, which uses information both on the graph structure and on the vertices. We consider user's ego-network i.e. his friends, with no himself, where each vertex has a set of features such as details on a workplace, institution, etc. The task is to determine missing or unspecified features of the vertices, based on their neighbors' features, and use these features to differentiate the communities in the social graph. Two vertices are believed to belong to the same community if they have a common feature. A hypothesis has been put forward that if most neighbors of a vertex have a common feature, there is a good probability that the vertex has this feature as well. The proposed algorithm is iterative and updates features of vertices, based on its neighbors, according to the hypothesis. Share of neighbors that form a majority is specified by the algorithm parameter. Complexity of single iteration depends linearly on the number of edges in the graph.To assess the quality of clustering three normalized metrics were used, namely: expected density, silhouette index, and Hubert's Gamma Statistic. The paper describes a method for test sampling of 2.000 graphs of the user's social network \\VKontakte". The API requests addressed \\VKontakte" and parsing HTML-pages of user's profiles and search results provided crawling. Information on user's group membership, secondary and higher education, and workplace was used as features. To store data the PostgreSQL DBMS was used, and the gexf format was used for data processing. For the test sample, metrics for several values of algorithm parameter were estimated: the value of index silhouettes was low (0.14-0.20, but within the normal range; the value of expected density was high, i.e. 1.17-1.52; the value of Hubert's gamma statistic was 0.94-0.95 that is close to the maximum. The number of vertices with no features was calculated before

  9. Influence of Leadership Styles on Community Development ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Toshiba

    Influence of Leadership Styles on Community. Development Programmes' Implementation in. Rural Communities of Akwa Ibom State Nigeria. Okoji, Olufemi Onweazu - Department of Educational Management,. Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria. E-mail: femiokoji2008@yahoomail.com. Abstract. Community development ...

  10. The long arm of community: the influence of childhood community contexts across the early life course.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wickrama, K A S; Noh, Samuel

    2010-08-01

    This study examines the longitudinal effects of childhood community contexts on young adult outcomes. The study uses a sample of 14,000 adolescents (52% female) derived from the 1990 US Census and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Addhealth). The study examines whether community and family environments exert separate and/or joint long-term influences on young adult achievement and depression. We found both direct and indirect long-term influences of childhood community adversity on young adult educational attainment. The indirect influences of childhood community adversity operated through family and individual-level factors. The long-term influence of childhood community adversity on young adult depression was only indirect. Overall, community influences on young adult achievement outcomes were mediated by family context and by the adolescents' adjustments and transitions, including adolescent depression, school adjustment, and disruptive transitional events. The moderating effect of childhood community adversity suggests that the protective effects of family resources on young adult outcomes dissipate significantly in extremely adverse neighborhoods. The findings demonstrate the importance of integrating multiple theoretical perspectives for longitudinal research to capture pathways of community influence on adolescent developmental and young adulthood outcomes.

  11. Discovering determinants influencing faith community nursing practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ziebarth, Deborah Jean

    2014-01-01

    Faith community nursing (FCN) is an important healthcare delivery system for individuals, families, and communities. Determinants are factors that might influence FCN care. A literature review isolated eight determinants that influence practice; however, there are no clear causal relationships linking specific determinants to specific practice changes. Research is needed to assess how determinants influence practice and outcomes, and provide evidence-based solutions to isolate and manage determinants. A Conceptual Model of FCN, Theoretical Definitions and a Diagram of Determinants of FCN Practice are provided.

  12. Eutrophication influence on phytoplankton community composition in three bays on the eastern Adriatic coast

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mia Bužančić

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available This study shows the influence of eutrophication pressure on the phytoplankton community structure, abundance and biodiversity in the investigated bays with different hydromorphological features. Šibenik Bay is a highly stratified estuary of the karstic river Krka; Kaštela Bay is a semi-enclosed coastal bay, which is influenced by the relatively small river Jadro; and Mali Ston Bay is located at the Neretva River estuary, the largest river on the eastern part of the Adriatic Sea. All of the areas are affected by urban pressure, which is reflected in the trophic status of the waters. The greatest anthropogenic influence was found in Kaštela Bay while the lowest influence was found in Mali Ston Bay. In this study, the highest biomass concentration and maximum abundance of phytoplankton were recorded at the stations under the strongest anthropogenic influence. Those stations show a dominance of abundance compared to the biomass and a dominance of opportunistic species, which is reflected in the lower biodiversity of phytoplankton community. Diatoms were the most represented group of the phytoplankton community in all three bays, followed by the dinoflagellates. Diatoms that were highlighted as significant for the difference between the bays were Skeletonema marinoi in Šibenik Bay, Leptocylindrus minimus in Kaštela Bay and the genus Chaetoceros spp. in Mali Ston Bay. Dinoflagellates were more abundant at the stations under the strongest anthropogenic influence, and most significant were Prorocentrum triestinum in Kaštela Bay and Gymnodinium spp. in Šibenik Bay and Mali Ston Bay.

  13. Features influencing Islamic websites use: A Muslim user perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mansur Aliyu

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Muslim scholars and organisations use the Internet through various websites to spread Islam globally. The presence of many websites providing Islamic contents online makes it necessary to examine their Islamic features and the factors that influence Muslims to use Islamic websites. This paper empirically investigates the Islamic features that influence the use of Islamic websites by Muslim users. The identified Islamic factors were grouped under five factors: beliefs, ethics, services, symbols, and values. A survey of 246 Muslim Islamic website users was conducted between November and December  2012 at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM. The study develops and tests a path measurement model to confirm the psychometric properties of the five identified factors. The study found that Islamic features significantly influence Muslims to use Islamic websites. The measurement model and empirical results provide valuable indicators for the direction of future research and also suggest guidelines for developing Islamic websites that will easily influence many Internet users to visit them in order to learn about Islamic teachings and practices. The findings are also of considerable importance as they contribute to the present body of knowledge on Islamic websites’ evaluation and for practice in designing and developing quality Islamic websites.

  14. [Attributes and features of a community health model from the perspective of practitioners].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dois, Angelina; Bravo, Paulina; Soto, Gabriela

    2017-07-01

    The Family and Community Health Model is based on three essential principles: user-centered care, comprehensive care and continuity of care. To describe the attributes and characteristics of the guiding principles of the Family and Community Health Model (FHM) from the perspective of primary care experts. This was a qualitative study. An electronic Delphi was conducted with 29 national experts on primary care. The experts agree that user centered care must be based on a psycho-social model integrating the multiple factors that influence health problems. It also must integrate patients' individual features, family and environmental issues. The proposed actions promote shared decision making. To promote integral care, anticipatory guidelines should be expanded and health care of patients with chronic conditions should be improved. Continuity of care should be promoted increasing working hours of medical centers and easing access to integrated electronic medical records, thereby generating efficient links between the different care levels. The results of the study can guide the clinical and administrative management of health teams, allowing the strengthening of primary health care according to the local realities.

  15. Mining Community-Level Influence in Microblogging Network: A Case Study on Sina Weibo

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yufei Liu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Social influence analysis is important for many social network applications, including recommendation and cybersecurity analysis. We observe that the influence of community including multiple users outweighs the individual influence. Existing models focus on the individual influence analysis, but few studies estimate the community influence that is ubiquitous in online social network. A major challenge lies in that researchers need to take into account many factors, such as user influence, social trust, and user relationship, to model community-level influence. In this paper, aiming to assess the community-level influence effectively and accurately, we formulate the problem of modeling community influence and construct a community-level influence analysis model. It first eliminates the zombie fans and then calculates the user influence. Next, it calculates the user final influence by combining the user influence and the willingness of diffusing theme information. Finally, it evaluates the community influence by comprehensively studying the user final influence, social trust, and relationship tightness between intrausers of communities. To handle real-world applications, we propose a community-level influence analysis algorithm called CIAA. Empirical studies on a real-world dataset from Sina Weibo demonstrate the superiority of the proposed model.

  16. Influence of mesoscale features on micronekton and large pelagic fish communities in the Mozambique Channel

    Science.gov (United States)

    Potier, Michel; Bach, Pascal; Ménard, Frédéric; Marsac, Francis

    2014-02-01

    We investigated the diversity and distribution of two communities, micronekton organisms and large predatory fishes, sampled in mesoscale features of the Mozambique Channel from 2003 to 2009, by combining mid-water trawls, stomach contents of fish predators and instrumented longline fishing surveys. The highest species richness for assemblages was found in divergences and fronts rather than in the core of eddies. Despite an unbalanced scheme, diversity indices did not differ significantly between cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, divergences and fronts. We found that eddies and associated physical cues did not substantially affect the distribution of micronektonic species which are mainly driven by the diel vertical migration pattern. Top predators exhibited a more complex response. Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) associated better with mesoscale features than tunas, with a clear preference for divergences which is consistent with the diel vertical migrations and occurrence of its main prey, the flying squids Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis (Ommastrephidae). On the other hand, the probability of presence of yellowfin tuna was not tied to any specific eddy structure. However, the highest values of positive yellowfin CPUEs were associated with low horizontal gradients of sea-level anomalies. We also showed a non-linear response of positive yellowfin CPUEs with respect to the depth of the minimal oxygen content. The larger the distance between the hooks and the minimal oxygen layer, towards the surface or at greater depths, the higher the CPUE, highlighting that yellowfin congregated in well-oxygenated waters. Micronekton sampled by mid-water trawls and stomach contents exhibited different species composition. The highly mobile organisms were not caught by trawling whereas they remain accessible to predators. The combination of stomach contents and mid-water trawls undoubtedly improved our understanding of the micronekton assemblage distribution. Our results provide some

  17. Community Factors Influencing Birth Spacing among Married ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The significance of community-level demographic and fertility norms, gender norms, economic prosperity, and family planning behaviors demonstrate the broad influence of community variables on birth spacing outcomes. This analysis highlights the importance of moving beyond individual and household-level ...

  18. Community ambulation: influences on therapists and clients reasoning and decision making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corrigan, Rosemary; McBurney, Helen

    2008-01-01

    Community ambulation is an important element of a rehabilitation training programme and its achievement is a goal shared by rehabilitation professionals and clients. The factors that influence a physiotherapist's or health professionals decision making around the preparation of a client for community ambulation and the factors that influence a client's decision to return to walking in their community are unclear. To review the available literature about the factors that have influenced the reasoning and decision making of rehabilitation therapists and clients around the topic of ambulation in the community. Three separate searches of the available literature were undertaken using Ovid, Cinahl, ProQuest, Medline and Ebscohost databases. Databases were searched from 1966 to October 2006.The first search explored the literature for factors that influence the clinical reasoning of rehabilitation therapists. The second search explored the literature for factors that influence client's decision to ambulate in the community. A third search was undertaken to explore the literature for the demands of community ambulation in rural communities. Very few studies were found that explored community ambulation in the context of clinical reasoning and decision making, the facilitators and barriers to a clients return to ambulation in their community or the demands of ambulation in a rural community. Consideration of the environment is key to the successful return to walking in the community of clients with mobility problems yet little literature has been found to guide physiotherapist's decision making about preparing a clients to return to walking in the community. An individual's participation in their society is also a result of the interaction between their personal characteristics and his or her environment. The influence of these characteristics may vary from one individual to another yet the factors that influence a person's decision to return to walking in their community

  19. Habitat loss and gain: Influence on habitat attractiveness for estuarine fish communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amorim, Eva; Ramos, Sandra; Elliott, Michael; Franco, Anita; Bordalo, Adriano A.

    2017-10-01

    Habitat structure and complexity influence the structuring and functioning of fish communities. Habitat changes are one of the main pressures affecting estuarine systems worldwide, yet the degree and rate of change and its impact on fish communities is still poorly understood. In order to quantify historical modifications in habitat structure, an ecohydrological classification system using physiotopes, i.e. units with homogenous abiotic characteristics, was developed for the lower Lima estuary (NW Portugal). Field data, aerial imagery, historical maps and interpolation methods were used to map input variables, including bathymetry, substratum (hard/soft), sediment composition, hydrodynamics (current velocity) and vegetation coverage. Physiotopes were then mapped for the years of 1933 and 2013 and the areas lost and gained over the 80 years were quantified. The implications of changes for the benthic and demersal fish communities using the lower estuary were estimated using the attractiveness to those communities of each physiotope, while considering the main estuarine habitat functions for fish, namely spawning, nursery, feeding and refuge areas and migratory routes. The lower estuary was highly affected due to urbanisation and development and, following a port/harbour expansion, its boundary moved seaward causing an increase in total area. Modifications led to the loss of most of its sandy and saltmarsh intertidal physiotopes, which were replaced by deeper subtidal physiotopes. The most attractive physiotopes for fish (defined as the way in which they supported the fish ecological features) decreased in area while less attractive ones increased, producing an overall lower attractiveness of the studied area in 2013 compared to 1933. The implications of habitat alterations for the fish using the estuary include potential changes in the nursery carrying capacity and the functioning of the fish community. The study also highlighted the poor knowledge of the impacts of

  20. Heineken in the House: Improving Online Media Reputation through Featuring a Sponsored Brand Community

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vermeer, S.; Remmelswaal, P.; Jacobs, S.

    2017-01-01

    Nowadays, more and more organizations use social media to promote their sponsorships of big events. Heineken has created a major brand community by facilitating the Holland Heineken House during the Olympic Games. This study investigates to what extent featuring a sponsored brand community on social

  1. Sediment Microbial Communities Influenced by Cool Hydrothermal Fluid Migration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura A. Zinke

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Cool hydrothermal systems (CHSs are prevalent across the seafloor and discharge fluid volumes that rival oceanic input from rivers, yet the microbial ecology of these systems are poorly constrained. The Dorado Outcrop on the ridge flank of the Cocos Plate in the northeastern tropical Pacific Ocean is the first confirmed CHS, discharging minimally altered <15°C fluid from the shallow lithosphere through diffuse venting and seepage. In this paper, we characterize the resident sediment microbial communities influenced by cool hydrothermal advection, which is evident from nitrate and oxygen concentrations. 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that Thaumarchaea, Proteobacteria, and Planctomycetes were the most abundant phyla in all sediments across the system regardless of influence from seepage. Members of the Thaumarchaeota (Marine Group I, Alphaproteobacteria (Rhodospirillales, Nitrospirae, Nitrospina, Acidobacteria, and Gemmatimonadetes were enriched in the sediments influenced by CHS advection. Of the various geochemical parameters investigated, nitrate concentrations correlated best with microbial community structure, indicating structuring based on seepage of nitrate-rich fluids. A comparison of microbial communities from hydrothermal sediments, seafloor basalts, and local seawater at Dorado Outcrop showed differences that highlight the distinct niche space in CHS. Sediment microbial communities from Dorado Outcrop differ from those at previously characterized, warmer CHS sediment, but are similar to deep-sea sediment habitats with surficial ferromanganese nodules, such as the Clarion Clipperton Zone. We conclude that cool hydrothermal venting at seafloor outcrops can alter the local sedimentary oxidation–reduction pathways, which in turn influences the microbial communities within the fluid discharge affected sediment.

  2. Strong influence of regional species pools on continent-wide structuring of local communities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lessard, Jean-Philippe; Borregaard, Michael Krabbe; Fordyce, James A.

    2012-01-01

    pool, to examine the interplay between broad-scale evolutionary and fine-scale ecological processes. Finally, a renewed interest in the influence of species source pools on communities has shown that the definition of the source pool influences interpretations of patterns of community structure. We use...... of communities along climatic gradients. We find that the average phylogenetic relatedness of species in ant communities decreases from tropical to temperate regions, but the strength of this relationship depends on the level of ecological realism in the definition of source pools. We conclude that the evolution...... of climatic niches influences the phylogenetic structure of regional source pools and that the influence of regional source pools on local community structure is strong....

  3. How Consumers Persuade Each Other: Rhetorical Strategies of Interpersonal Influence in Online Communities

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    Daiane Scaraboto

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Persuasive messages are central to interpersonal influence in online communities, where consumers interact mainly through text. We employed a combination of netnography and computer-mediated discourse analysis to investigate how consumers exchange information related to products and brands in an online community. We identified a set of rhetorical strategies used by community members, including setting expectations, claiming expertise, prescribing, and celebrating acquiescence. Consumers employ these rhetorical strategies to influence each other's consumption decisions, report consumption decisions back to the community, and to gauge their influence on each other's choices. We compare this process to traditional types of interpersonal influence and discuss how our findings contribute to advancing the burgeoning literature on interpersonal influence in online contexts.

  4. Factors influencing perceived sustainability of Dutch community health programs

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vermeer, A. J. M.; van Assema, P.; Hesdahl, B.; Harting, J.; de Vries, N. K.

    2015-01-01

    We assessed the perceived sustainability of community health programs organized by local intersectoral coalitions, as well as the factors that collaborating partners think might influence sustainability. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 31 collaborating partners of 5 community health

  5. CLASSIFICATION OF BENTHIC BIOCENOSES OF THE LOWLAND RIVER TUDOVKA (TVER REGION, RUSSIA USING COMMUNITY FEATURES

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    M. Schletterer

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Within the joint Russian-Austrian monitoring programme “REFCOND_VOLGA (2006 – 20XX”, monitoring sites were established in the headwaters of the Volga (Tver Region. River Tudovka, a right tributary to the Volga River, was included within this monitoring programme as its catchment is partly protected and has only few anthropogenic activities. The monitoring activities include physico-chemical and hydraulic parameters as well as biota with a focus is on benthic organisms (diatoms and macrozoobenthos. In this work, the longitudinal patterns in community structure are classified in the lowland river Tudovka using a novel feature-based approach taken from signal processing theory. The method first clusters field sampling data into longitudinal classes (upper, middle, lower course. Community features based on the relative frequency of individual species occurring per class are then generated. We apply both generative and discriminative classification methods. The application of generative methods provides data models which predict the probability of a new sample to belong to an existing class. In contrast, discriminative approaches search for differences between classes and allocate new data accordingly. Leveraging both methods allows for the creation of stable classifications. On this basis we show how the community features can be used to predict the longitudinal class. The community features approach also allows for a robust cross-comparison of investigation reaches over time. In cases where suitable long-term data set are available, predictive models using this approach can also be developed.

  6. Landscape features influence postrelease predation on endangered black-footed ferrets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poessel, S.A.; Breck, S.W.; Biggins, D.E.; Livieri, T.M.; Crooks, K.R.; Angeloni, L.

    2011-01-01

    Predation can be a critical factor influencing recovery of endangered species. In most recovery efforts lethal and nonlethal influences of predators are not sufficiently understood to allow prediction of predation risk, despite its importance. We investigated whether landscape features could be used to model predation risk from coyotes (Canis latrans) and great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) on the endangered black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes). We used location data of reintroduced ferrets from 3 sites in South Dakota to determine whether exposure to landscape features typically associated with predators affected survival of ferrets, and whether ferrets considered predation risk when choosing habitat near perches potentially used by owls or near linear features predicted to be used by coyotes. Exposure to areas near likely owl perches reduced ferret survival, but landscape features potentially associated with coyote movements had no appreciable effect on survival. Ferrets were located within 90 m of perches more than expected in 2 study sites that also had higher ferret mortality due to owl predation. Densities of potential coyote travel routes near ferret locations were no different than expected in all 3 sites. Repatriated ferrets might have selected resources based on factors other than predator avoidance. Considering an easily quantified landscape feature (i.e., owl perches) can enhance success of reintroduction efforts for ferrets. Nonetheless, development of predictive models of predation risk and management strategies to mitigate that risk is not necessarily straightforward for more generalist predators such as coyotes. ?? 2011 American Society of Mammalogists.

  7. Demersal fish assemblages on seamounts and other rugged features in the northeastern Caribbean

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quattrini, Andrea M.; Demopoulos, Amanda W. J.; Singer, Randal; Roa-Varon, Adela; Chaytor, Jason D.

    2017-05-01

    Recent investigations of demersal fish communities in deepwater (>50 m) habitats have considerably increased our knowledge of the factors that influence the assemblage structure of fishes across mesophotic to deep-sea depths. While different habitat types influence deepwater fish distribution, whether different types of rugged seafloor features provide functionally equivalent habitat for fishes is poorly understood. In the northeastern Caribbean, different types of rugged features (e.g., seamounts, banks, canyons) punctuate insular margins, and thus create a remarkable setting in which to compare demersal fish communities across various features. Concurrently, several water masses are vertically layered in the water column, creating strong stratification layers corresponding to specific abiotic conditions. In this study, we examined differences among fish assemblages across different features (e.g., seamount, canyon, bank/ridge) and water masses at depths ranging from 98 to 4060 m in the northeastern Caribbean. We conducted 26 remotely operated vehicle dives across 18 sites, identifying 156 species of which 42% of had not been previously recorded from particular depths or localities in the region. While rarefaction curves indicated fewer species at seamounts than at other features in the NE Caribbean, assemblage structure was similar among the different types of features. Thus, similar to seamount studies in other regions, seamounts in the Anegada Passage do not harbor distinct communities from other types of rugged features. Species assemblages, however, differed among depths, with zonation generally corresponding to water mass boundaries in the region. High species turnover occurred at depths <1200 m, and may be driven by changes in water mass characteristics including temperature (4.8-24.4 °C) and dissolved oxygen (2.2-9.5 mg per l). Our study suggests the importance of water masses in influencing community structure of benthic fauna, while considerably adding

  8. Vertebrate herbivores influence soil nematodes by modifying plant communities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Veen, G. F. (Ciska); Olff, Han; Duyts, Henk; van der Putten, Wim H.

    Abiotic soil properties, plant community composition, and herbivory all have been reported as important factors influencing the composition of soil communities. However, most studies thus far have considered these factors in isolation, whereas they strongly interact in the field. Here, we study how

  9. Factors that influence Asian communities' access to mental health care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wynaden, Dianne; Chapman, Rose; Orb, Angelica; McGowan, Sunita; Zeeman, Zenith; Yeak, SiewHo

    2005-06-01

    This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study to identify factors that influence Asian communities' access to mental health care and how mental health care is delivered to them. Semistructured interviews were completed with Asian community members/leaders and health-care professionals. Content analysis identified major themes. Participants also completed a demographic data sheet. The research aimed to provide health professionals with an increased understanding of the values and beliefs held by people from Asian communities regarding the cause and treatment of mental illness. Data analysis identified six main themes that influenced Asian communities' access to mental health care and how mental health care is delivered to them. They were: shame and stigma; causes of mental illness; family reputation; hiding up; seeking help; and lack of collaboration. The findings highlighted that people from Asian communities are unwilling to access help from mainstream services because of their beliefs, and that stigma and shame are key factors that influence this reluctance. The findings also highlight that the mental health needs of refugee women are significant, and that they comprise a vulnerable group within Australian society.

  10. A Political Analysis of Community Influence over School Closure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finnigan, Kara S.; Lavner, Mark

    2012-01-01

    This study seeks to understand community member participation in and influence over an urban school district's school closure process. Data from interviews with School Board members, district administrators, and community members, as well as district documents and newspaper articles suggest that district administrators limited participation…

  11. Understanding contextual influences of community reintegration among injured servicemembers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkins, Brent L; McGuire, Francis A; Linder, Sandra M; Britt, Thomas W

    2015-01-01

    As part of a larger mixed-methods research project investigating the influence of contextual factors on community reintegration (CR), this qualitative study sought to understand the subjective experiences of injured servicemembers and their perception of how contextual factors influenced their CR. More specifically, this article addresses how the influences of contextual factors differ between injured servicemembers with different levels of CR. Using a phenomenological framework, semistructured interviews were conducted with nine injured, community-dwelling servicemembers with low, moderate, and high levels of CR (three per category). Participants provided in-depth descriptions of the contextual barriers and facilitators of CR. Thematic analysis indicated the importance of social support and personal factors (e.g., self-efficacy, personal motivation) as the primary means for being reintegrated into their homes and communities. Other themes indicated factors that had an indirect but important influence on CR, including adapted sports, recreation, and other social programs; rehabilitation programs and therapists; school, work, and volunteering; and organizations and policies in developing social supports and personal factors. Comparisons between servicemembers indicated participants with low CR described many more contextual barriers and far fewer contextual facilitators to reintegration than those with high CR. Those with moderate CR were unique in that they described many facilitators and barriers to reintegration.

  12. Instrument Identification in Polyphonic Music: Feature Weighting to Minimize Influence of Sound Overlaps

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Goto Masataka

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available We provide a new solution to the problem of feature variations caused by the overlapping of sounds in instrument identification in polyphonic music. When multiple instruments simultaneously play, partials (harmonic components of their sounds overlap and interfere, which makes the acoustic features different from those of monophonic sounds. To cope with this, we weight features based on how much they are affected by overlapping. First, we quantitatively evaluate the influence of overlapping on each feature as the ratio of the within-class variance to the between-class variance in the distribution of training data obtained from polyphonic sounds. Then, we generate feature axes using a weighted mixture that minimizes the influence via linear discriminant analysis. In addition, we improve instrument identification using musical context. Experimental results showed that the recognition rates using both feature weighting and musical context were 84.1 for duo, 77.6 for trio, and 72.3 for quartet; those without using either were 53.4, 49.6, and 46.5 , respectively.

  13. Strong influence of regional species pools on continent-wide structuring of local communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lessard, Jean-Philippe; Borregaard, Michael K; Fordyce, James A; Rahbek, Carsten; Weiser, Michael D; Dunn, Robert R; Sanders, Nathan J

    2012-01-22

    There is a long tradition in ecology of evaluating the relative contribution of the regional species pool and local interactions on the structure of local communities. Similarly, a growing number of studies assess the phylogenetic structure of communities, relative to that in the regional species pool, to examine the interplay between broad-scale evolutionary and fine-scale ecological processes. Finally, a renewed interest in the influence of species source pools on communities has shown that the definition of the source pool influences interpretations of patterns of community structure. We use a continent-wide dataset of local ant communities and implement ecologically explicit source pool definitions to examine the relative importance of regional species pools and local interactions for shaping community structure. Then we assess which factors underlie systematic variation in the structure of communities along climatic gradients. We find that the average phylogenetic relatedness of species in ant communities decreases from tropical to temperate regions, but the strength of this relationship depends on the level of ecological realism in the definition of source pools. We conclude that the evolution of climatic niches influences the phylogenetic structure of regional source pools and that the influence of regional source pools on local community structure is strong.

  14. Influence of technological treatments on bacterial communities in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Influence of technological treatments on bacterial communities in tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) as determined by 16S rDNA fingerprinting using polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE)

  15. Hard substrate in the deep ocean: How sediment features influence epibenthic megafauna on the eastern Canadian margin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lacharité, Myriam; Metaxas, Anna

    2017-08-01

    Benthic habitats on deep continental margins (> 1000 m) are now considered heterogeneous - in particular because of the occasional presence of hard substrate in a matrix of sand and mud - influencing the distribution of megafauna which can thrive on both sedimented and rocky substrates. At these depths, optical imagery captured with high-definition cameras to describe megafauna can also describe effectively the fine-scale sediment properties in the immediate vicinity of the fauna. In this study, we determined the relationship between local heterogeneity (10-100 sm) in fine-scale sediment properties and the abundance, composition, and diversity of megafauna along a large depth gradient (1000-3000 m) in a previously-unexplored habitat: the Northeast Fan, which lies downslope of submarine canyons off the Gulf of Maine (northwest Atlantic). Substrate heterogeneity was quantified using a novel approach based on principles of computer vision. This approach proved powerful in detecting gradients in sediment, and sporadic complex features (i.e. large boulders) in an otherwise homogeneous environment because it characterizes sediment properties on a continuous scale. Sediment heterogeneity influenced megafaunal diversity (morphospecies richness and Shannon-Wiener Index) and community composition, with areas of higher substrate complexity generally supported higher diversity. However, patterns in abundance were not influenced by sediment properties, and may be best explained by gradients in food supply. Our study provides a new approach to quantify fine-scale sediment properties and assess their role in shaping megafaunal communities in the deep sea, which should be included into habitat studies given their potential ecological importance.

  16. Diatom community dynamics in a tropical, monsoon-influenced environment: West coast of India

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    DeCosta, P.M.; Anil, A.C.

    Diatom communities are influenced by environmental perturbations, such as the monsoon system that impact the niche opportunities of species. To discern the influence of the monsoon system on diatom community structure, we sampled during two...

  17. Layout Determining Features, their Influence Zones and Respect Distances at the Olkiluoto Site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pere, T.; Ahokas, H.; Vaittinen, T.; Wikstroem, L.

    2012-12-01

    Fault zones located at the site of an underground nuclear waste repository may pose a risk to the repository by acting as potential hosts for earthquakes during the present day or future stress fields and having the possibility to induce secondary displacements on nearby large fractures, which may damage the nuclear waste canisters, if being intersected by such fractures. The fault zones may additionally provide possible flow routes, important for the transport of radionuclides and the chemical stability of the repository. It is therefore important to identify such structures, defined as layout determining features (LDF), and to assess their influence on the surrounding host rock and to determine respect volumes to the structures, which are avoided in the layout planning in order to mitigate the possible harmful effects to the repository. Fault zones with a trace length of 3 km or more are considered as layout determining features as these can potentially host an earthquake of a magnitude of 5.5 or more and may thus induce secondary displacements larger than 5 cm on nearby fractures, which is held as the current canister damage threshold premise. Fault zones with a size less than 3 km are considered unlikely candidates to induce secondary displacements of 5 cm or larger. In addition to the earthquake potential, hydrogeological zones with high T -value (geometrical mean T ≤ 10 -6 m 2 /s) and large dimensions (at least several hundred metres) are also defined as layout determining features. For each layout determining feature an influence zone is defined, depicting a volume around a fault zone or a hydrogeological zone with increased fracture density and permeability, often also called as damage zones in the scientific literature. Influence zones are therefore considered as mechanically weak and/or transmissive parts of the host rock, which may cause harmful effects to the performance of the repository if intersecting deposition tunnels or deposition holes. In

  18. Factors influencing motivation and job satisfaction among supervisors of community health workers in marginalized communities in South Africa

    OpenAIRE

    Akintola, Olagoke; Chikoko, Gamuchirai

    2016-01-01

    Background Management and supervision of community health workers are factors that are?critical to the success of community health worker programmes. Yet few studies have explored the perspectives of supervisors in these programmes. This study explored factors influencing motivations of supervisors in community health worker programmes. Methods We conducted qualitative interviews with 26 programme staff providing supervision to community health workers in eight community-based organizations i...

  19. Ordination of self-organizing feature map neural networks and its application to the study of plant communities

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Jintun ZHANG; Dongping MENG; Yuexiang XI

    2009-01-01

    A self-organizing feature map (SOFM) neural network is a powerful tool in analyzing and solving complex, non-linear problems. According to its features, a SOFM is entirely compatible with ordination studies of plant communities. In our present work, mathematical principles, and ordination techniques and procedures are introduced. A SOFM ordination was applied to the study of plant communities in the middle of the Taihang mountains. The ordination was carried out by using the NNTool box in MATLAB. The results of 68 quadrats of plant communities were distributed in SOFM space. The ordination axes showed the ecological gradients clearly and provided the relationships between communities with ecological meaning. The results are consistent with the reality of vegetation in the study area. This suggests that SOFM ordination is an effective technique in plant ecology. During ordination procedures, it is easy to carry out clustering of communities and so it is beneficial for combining classification and ordination in vegetation studies.

  20. Influence of Software on the Features of Laser-printed Characters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuanli Han

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Verifying the authenticity or otherwise of printed documents is one of the most important aspects of questioned document examination and plays a vital role in the field of forensic science. In recent years, continued developments in the quality of impression combined with ever-cheaper toner printers have allowed this technology to spread. It is now used in an increasing number of homes for all types of documents, including for criminal aims. Here, the factors that influence the printed features in text files are studied in relation to the operating system and the word processing software. The Net Application report in October 2014 showed that the market shares of Windows 7 and Windows XP were 53.05% and 17.18%, respectively. The Forrester report in October 2013 showed that the market share of Microsoft Office was more than 85%, the top three word processors being Microsoft Word 2003, 2007, and 2010. In this study, Windows XP (shortened to XP, Windows 7 (shortened to Win7, Microsoft Word 2003/2007/2010, WPS Office 2013, and the PDF format are chosen as the most common operating systems and word processing software. WPS Office was developed by the Chinese company Kingsoft Co., Ltd. and is widely used in China. A particular text file was designed and edited and was printed on a laser printer. The features of the printed characters were captured using an Anyty 3R digital microscope, Printer Expert, and X-printer devices. Coincidence comparison and outline feature extraction were used to evaluate the differences. It is shown that XP and Win7 have no effect on the printed features of text files. However, the printed features do depend to a certain extent on the word-processing software, with the PDF format having the greatest influence.

  1. Communities matter: Institutional preconditions for community renewable energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wirth, Steffen

    2014-01-01

    Energy transitions are high on political agendas. From a practical viewpoint, community approaches are deemed essential in order to transition from a predominantly centralized energy supply to a decentralized one, and to exploit the potential of renewable energies. In this paper, I discuss how the emergence of community-based energy projects can be analyzed from an institutional perspective. In this context, a ‘community’ is treated as an individual institutional order that shapes decisions. I examine how community structures the implementation of biogas cooperatives in the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol in Northern Italy. My findings suggest that ‘community spirit’, a cooperative tradition, and the norms of locality and responsibility are central drivers behind the emergence and constitution of biogas cooperatives. Not only do these institutional features of community influence the decision concerning which farmers are in or out but also plant location and scale. I argue that ‘community’ is a necessary analytical category for understanding community energy. - Highlights: • I analyze the emergence and constitution of biogas cooperatives in South Tyrol. • Emerging processes and the principal constitutions are similar. • Institutional forces influenced the biogas cooperatives' emergence and constitution. • Biogas cooperatives are decisively shaped by community spirit and local tradition. • The concept of community is used as an explanatory category for community energy

  2. Capturing community context of human response to forest disturbance by insects: a multi-method assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hua Qin; Courtney G. Flint

    2010-01-01

    The socioeconomic and environmental features of local places (community context) influence the relationship between humans and their physical environment. In times of environmental disturbance, this community context is expected to influence human perceptual and behavioral responses. Residents from nine Colorado communities experiencing a large outbreak of mountain...

  3. Social Media and eBusiness: Cultural Impacts on the Influence Process in Consumer Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yong; Chen, Hong; Xu, Li

    2016-08-01

    Social media has been used as an important tool by firms to influence consumers’ attitude and behavior. Influence occurs in consumer communities in social media because community members have the control of discovering, producing, sharing, and distributing information and because the spread out of their experiences and opinions in the format of electronic word-of-mouth forms emerging conformance. Prior research has explored how the influence occurring in online social media communities impacts consumers’ attitude and behavior (e.g., product attitude and purchase decision, effectual thinking and behavior, brand trust and brand loyalty). But because social media has the ability of global reach, cross-border factors should not be neglected in studying the influence process. As such, this paper adopts national cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede (1984), individualism/collectivism and power distance particularly, the index of cultural distance, and the social influence theory to explore how culture impacts the influence occurring in consumer communities in social media.

  4. Analysis of metagenomic data reveals common features of halophilic viral communities across continents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roux, Simon; Enault, Francois; Ravet, Viviane; Colombet, Jonathan; Bettarel, Yvan; Auguet, Jean-Christophe; Bouvier, Thierry; Lucas-Staat, Soizick; Vellet, Agnès; Prangishvili, David; Forterre, Patrick; Debroas, Didier; Sime-Ngando, Telesphore

    2016-03-01

    Microbial communities from hypersaline ponds, dominated by halophilic archaea, are considered specific of such extreme conditions. The associated viral communities have accordingly been shown to display specific features, such as similar morphologies among different sites. However, little is known about the genetic diversity of these halophilic viral communities across the Earth. Here, we studied viral communities in hypersaline ponds sampled on the coast of Senegal (8-36% of salinity) using metagenomics approach, and compared them with hypersaline viromes from Australia and Spain. The specificity of hyperhalophilic viruses could first be demonstrated at a community scale, salinity being a strong discriminating factor between communities. For the major viral group detected in all samples (Caudovirales), only a limited number of halophilic Caudovirales clades were highlighted. These clades gather viruses from different continents and display consistent genetic composition, indicating that they represent related lineages with a worldwide distribution. Non-tailed hyperhalophilic viruses display a greater rate of gene transfer and recombination, with uncharacterized genes conserved across different kind of viruses and plasmids. Thus, hypersaline viral communities around the world appear to form a genetically consistent community that are likely to harbour new genes coding for enzymes specifically adapted to these environments. © 2015 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  5. A Data-driven Study of Influences in Twitter Communities

    OpenAIRE

    Nguyen, Huy; Zheng, Rong

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents a quantitative study of Twitter, one of the most popular micro-blogging services, from the perspective of user influence. We crawl several datasets from the most active communities on Twitter and obtain 20.5 million user profiles, along with 420.2 million directed relations and 105 million tweets among the users. User influence scores are obtained from influence measurement services, Klout and PeerIndex. Our analysis reveals interesting findings, including non-power-law in...

  6. Collective Emotions Online and Their Influence on Community Life

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chmiel, Anna; Sienkiewicz, Julian; Thelwall, Mike; Paltoglou, Georgios; Buckley, Kevan; Kappas, Arvid; Hołyst, Janusz A.

    2011-01-01

    Background E-communities, social groups interacting online, have recently become an object of interdisciplinary research. As with face-to-face meetings, Internet exchanges may not only include factual information but also emotional information – how participants feel about the subject discussed or other group members. Emotions in turn are known to be important in affecting interaction partners in offline communication in many ways. Could emotions in Internet exchanges affect others and systematically influence quantitative and qualitative aspects of the trajectory of e-communities? The development of automatic sentiment analysis has made large scale emotion detection and analysis possible using text messages collected from the web. However, it is not clear if emotions in e-communities primarily derive from individual group members' personalities or if they result from intra-group interactions, and whether they influence group activities. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, for the first time, we show the collective character of affective phenomena on a large scale as observed in four million posts downloaded from Blogs, Digg and BBC forums. To test whether the emotions of a community member may influence the emotions of others, posts were grouped into clusters of messages with similar emotional valences. The frequency of long clusters was much higher than it would be if emotions occurred at random. Distributions for cluster lengths can be explained by preferential processes because conditional probabilities for consecutive messages grow as a power law with cluster length. For BBC forum threads, average discussion lengths were higher for larger values of absolute average emotional valence in the first ten comments and the average amount of emotion in messages fell during discussions. Conclusions/Significance Overall, our results prove that collective emotional states can be created and modulated via Internet communication and that emotional expressiveness is the

  7. Organizational contextual features that influence the implementation of evidence-based practices across healthcare settings: a systematic integrative review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shelly-Anne; Jeffs, Lianne; Barwick, Melanie; Stevens, Bonnie

    2018-05-05

    Organizational contextual features have been recognized as important determinants for implementing evidence-based practices across healthcare settings for over a decade. However, implementation scientists have not reached consensus on which features are most important for implementing evidence-based practices. The aims of this review were to identify the most commonly reported organizational contextual features that influence the implementation of evidence-based practices across healthcare settings, and to describe how these features affect implementation. An integrative review was undertaken following literature searches in CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases from January 2005 to June 2017. English language, peer-reviewed empirical studies exploring organizational context in at least one implementation initiative within a healthcare setting were included. Quality appraisal of the included studies was performed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Inductive content analysis informed data extraction and reduction. The search generated 5152 citations. After removing duplicates and applying eligibility criteria, 36 journal articles were included. The majority (n = 20) of the study designs were qualitative, 11 were quantitative, and 5 used a mixed methods approach. Six main organizational contextual features (organizational culture; leadership; networks and communication; resources; evaluation, monitoring and feedback; and champions) were most commonly reported to influence implementation outcomes in the selected studies across a wide range of healthcare settings. We identified six organizational contextual features that appear to be interrelated and work synergistically to influence the implementation of evidence-based practices within an organization. Organizational contextual features did not influence implementation efforts independently from other features. Rather, features were interrelated and often influenced each

  8. Prevalence and correlates of binge eating disorder related features in the community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mustelin, Linda; Bulik, Cynthia M; Kaprio, Jaakko; Keski-Rahkonen, Anna

    2017-02-01

    Binge eating disorder (BED) is associated with high levels of obesity and psychological suffering, but little is known about 1) the distribution of features of BED in the general population and 2) their consequences for weight development and psychological distress in young adulthood. We investigated the prevalence of features of BED and their association with body mass index (BMI) and psychological distress among men (n = 2423) and women (n = 2825) from the longitudinal community-based FinnTwin16 cohort (born 1975-1979). Seven eating-related cognitions and behaviors similar to the defining features of BED were extracted from the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 and were assessed at a mean age of 24. BMI and psychological distress, measured with the General Health Questionnaire, were assessed at ages 24 and 34. We assessed prevalence of the features and their association with BMI and psychological distress cross-sectionally and prospectively. More than half of our participants reported at least one feature of BED; clustering of several features in one individual was less common, particularly among men. The most frequently reported feature was 'stuffing oneself with food', whereas the least common was 'eating or drinking in secrecy'. All individual features of BED and their clustering particularly were associated with higher BMI and more psychological distress cross-sectionally. Prospectively, the clustering of features of BED predicted increase in psychological distress but not additional weight gain when baseline BMI was accounted for. In summary, although some features of BED were common, the clustering of several features in one individual was not. The features were cumulatively associated with BMI and psychological distress and predicted further increase in psychological distress over ten years of follow-up. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  9. Contrasted structuring effects of mesoscale features on the seabird community in the Mozambique Channel

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaquemet, S.; Ternon, J. F.; Kaehler, S.; Thiebot, J. B.; Dyer, B.; Bemanaja, E.; Marteau, C.; Le Corre, M.

    2014-02-01

    The Mozambique Channel (western Indian Ocean) is a dynamic environment characterised by strong mesoscale features, which influence all biological components of the pelagic ecosystem. We investigated the distribution, abundance and feeding behaviour of seabirds in the Mozambique Channel in relation to physical and biological environmental variables, with a specific interest in mesoscale features. Seabird censuses were conducted in summer and winter during 7 cruises in the southern and northern Mozambique Channel. Tropical species accounted for 49% of the 37 species identified and 97% of the individuals, and species from the sub-Antarctic region constituted 30% of the identifications. The typically tropical sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscata) was the dominant species during all cruises, and overall accounted for 74% of the species observations and 85% of counted birds. Outputs of Generalised Linear Models at the scale of the Mozambique Channel suggested that higher densities of flying and feeding birds occurred in areas with lower sea surface temperatures and lower surface chlorophyll a concentrations. Most of the flocks of feeding birds did not associate with surface schools of fish or marine mammals, but when they did, these flocks were larger, especially when associated with tuna. While tropical species seemed to favour cyclonic eddies, frontal and divergence zones, non-tropical species were more frequently recorded over shelf waters. Sooty terns foraged preferentially in cyclonic eddies where zooplankton, micronekton and tuna schools were abundant. Among other major tropical species, frigatebirds (Fregata spp.) predominated in frontal zones between eddies, where tuna schools also frequently occurred and where geostrophic currents were the strongest. Red-footed boobies (Sula sula) concentrated in divergence zones characterised by low sea level anomalies, low geostrophic currents, and high zooplankton biomass close to the surface. Our results highlight the importance

  10. The Influence of Universities' Organizational Features on Professorial Intellectual Leadership

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uslu, Baris; Welch, Anthony

    2018-01-01

    This research examines the intellectual leadership behaviours of senior academics at professoriate level, and the influences of institutional support practices, climate and communication in universities as main organizational features on these behaviours. To explore relations among research variables, qualitative data were collected by interviews…

  11. 80 From Traditional Institutions to Community Based Influencers ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Influencers: The Dynamics of Communicating Development in. Rural Communities ... EJOTMAS: EKPOMA JOURNAL OF THEATRE AND MEDIA ARTS. 81 intervention lie in the ... The emphasis implicitly is on the inclusion of citizens in the process of deciding and turning around the social and material conditions that inhibit ...

  12. Factors that contribute to social media influence within an Internal Medicine Twitter learning community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Desai, Tejas; Patwardhan, Manish; Coore, Hunter

    2014-01-01

    Medical societies, faculty, and trainees use Twitter to learn from and educate other social media users. These social media communities bring together individuals with various levels of experience. It is not known if experienced individuals are also the most influential members. We hypothesize that participants with the greatest experience would be the most influential members of a Twitter community. We analyzed the 2013 Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine Twitter community. We measured the number of tweets authored by each participant and the number of amplified tweets (re-tweets). We developed a multivariate linear regression model to identify any relationship to social media influence, measured by the PageRank. Faculty (from academic institutions) comprised 19% of the 132 participants in the learning community (p influence amongst all participants (mean 1.99, p influence (β = 0.068, p = 0.6). The only factors that predicted influence (higher PageRank) were the number of tweets authored (p influence. Any participant who was able to author the greatest number of tweets or have more of his/her tweets amplified could wield a greater influence on the participants, regardless of his/her authority.

  13. Aboveground and belowground arthropods experience different relative influences of stochastic versus deterministic community assembly processes following disturbance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Scott Ferrenberg

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Background Understanding patterns of biodiversity is a longstanding challenge in ecology. Similar to other biotic groups, arthropod community structure can be shaped by deterministic and stochastic processes, with limited understanding of what moderates the relative influence of these processes. Disturbances have been noted to alter the relative influence of deterministic and stochastic processes on community assembly in various study systems, implicating ecological disturbances as a potential moderator of these forces. Methods Using a disturbance gradient along a 5-year chronosequence of insect-induced tree mortality in a subalpine forest of the southern Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA, we examined changes in community structure and relative influences of deterministic and stochastic processes in the assembly of aboveground (surface and litter-active species and belowground (species active in organic and mineral soil layers arthropod communities. Arthropods were sampled for all years of the chronosequence via pitfall traps (aboveground community and modified Winkler funnels (belowground community and sorted to morphospecies. Community structure of both communities were assessed via comparisons of morphospecies abundance, diversity, and composition. Assembly processes were inferred from a mixture of linear models and matrix correlations testing for community associations with environmental properties, and from null-deviation models comparing observed vs. expected levels of species turnover (Beta diversity among samples. Results Tree mortality altered community structure in both aboveground and belowground arthropod communities, but null models suggested that aboveground communities experienced greater relative influences of deterministic processes, while the relative influence of stochastic processes increased for belowground communities. Additionally, Mantel tests and linear regression models revealed significant associations between the

  14. Aboveground and belowground arthropods experience different relative influences of stochastic versus deterministic community assembly processes following disturbance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez, Alexander S.; Faist, Akasha M.

    2016-01-01

    Background Understanding patterns of biodiversity is a longstanding challenge in ecology. Similar to other biotic groups, arthropod community structure can be shaped by deterministic and stochastic processes, with limited understanding of what moderates the relative influence of these processes. Disturbances have been noted to alter the relative influence of deterministic and stochastic processes on community assembly in various study systems, implicating ecological disturbances as a potential moderator of these forces. Methods Using a disturbance gradient along a 5-year chronosequence of insect-induced tree mortality in a subalpine forest of the southern Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA, we examined changes in community structure and relative influences of deterministic and stochastic processes in the assembly of aboveground (surface and litter-active species) and belowground (species active in organic and mineral soil layers) arthropod communities. Arthropods were sampled for all years of the chronosequence via pitfall traps (aboveground community) and modified Winkler funnels (belowground community) and sorted to morphospecies. Community structure of both communities were assessed via comparisons of morphospecies abundance, diversity, and composition. Assembly processes were inferred from a mixture of linear models and matrix correlations testing for community associations with environmental properties, and from null-deviation models comparing observed vs. expected levels of species turnover (Beta diversity) among samples. Results Tree mortality altered community structure in both aboveground and belowground arthropod communities, but null models suggested that aboveground communities experienced greater relative influences of deterministic processes, while the relative influence of stochastic processes increased for belowground communities. Additionally, Mantel tests and linear regression models revealed significant associations between the aboveground arthropod

  15. Democracy, Community, Responsibility, and Influence in Teacher Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chamberlin, C.; Sawada, Daiyo

    1987-01-01

    This paper examines a large undergraduate teacher education program which had as a major goal allaying students' feelings of depersonalization and alienation. Specifically looked at are: (1) processes leading to a sense of community, responsibility, and influence among students and staff and (2) processes countering such development. (Author/MT)

  16. Computational Identification of Genomic Features That Influence 3D Chromatin Domain Formation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mourad, Raphaël; Cuvier, Olivier

    2016-05-01

    Recent advances in long-range Hi-C contact mapping have revealed the importance of the 3D structure of chromosomes in gene expression. A current challenge is to identify the key molecular drivers of this 3D structure. Several genomic features, such as architectural proteins and functional elements, were shown to be enriched at topological domain borders using classical enrichment tests. Here we propose multiple logistic regression to identify those genomic features that positively or negatively influence domain border establishment or maintenance. The model is flexible, and can account for statistical interactions among multiple genomic features. Using both simulated and real data, we show that our model outperforms enrichment test and non-parametric models, such as random forests, for the identification of genomic features that influence domain borders. Using Drosophila Hi-C data at a very high resolution of 1 kb, our model suggests that, among architectural proteins, BEAF-32 and CP190 are the main positive drivers of 3D domain borders. In humans, our model identifies well-known architectural proteins CTCF and cohesin, as well as ZNF143 and Polycomb group proteins as positive drivers of domain borders. The model also reveals the existence of several negative drivers that counteract the presence of domain borders including P300, RXRA, BCL11A and ELK1.

  17. Minearl associated microbial communities from The Cedars, associate with specific geological features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rowe, A. R.; Wanger, G. P.; Bhartia, R.

    2017-12-01

    The Cedars, an area of active serpentinization located in the Russian River area of Northern California, represents one of the few terrestrial areas on Earth undergoing active serpentinization. One of the products of the serpentinization reaction is the formation of hydroxyl radicals making the springs of the Cedars some of the most alkaline natural waters on Earth. These waters, with very high pH (pH>11), low EH and, low concentrations of electron acceptors are extremely inhospitible; however microbial life has found a way to thrive and a distinct microbial community is observed in the spring waters. Previous work with environmental samples and pure culture isolates [3] derived from The Cedars has suggested the importance of minearal association to these characteristic microbes. Here we show the results combined spectroscopic and molecular studies on aseries of mineral colonization experiemnts performed with a pure culture Cedar's isolate (Serpentenamonas str. A1) and in situ at CS spring. Centimeter scale, polished coupons of a variety of mminerals were prepared in the lab, spectroscopically characterized (Green Raman, DUV Raman, and DUV Fluorescence maps) and deployed into the springs for three months. The coupons were recovered and the distribution of the microbes on the minerals was mapped using a deep-UV native fluorescent mapping sustem that allows for non-destructive mapping of organics and microbes on surfaces. Subsequently the DNA from the minerals was extracted for community structure analysis. The MOSAIC (i.e. deep UV Fluorescence) showed extensicve colonization of the minerals and in some cases we were able to correlate microbial assemblages with specific geological features. In one example, organisms tended to associate strongly with carbonate features on Chromite mineral surfaces (Figure 1). The 16s rDNA revealed the microbial assemblages from each slide was dominated by active Cedars community memebers (i.e., Serpentinamonas and Silanimonas species

  18. Community Attitudes towards Culture-Influenced Mental Illness: Scrupulosity vs. Nonreligious OCD among Orthodox Jews

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pirutinsky, Steven; Rosmarin, David H.; Pargament, Kenneth I.

    2009-01-01

    Culture may particularly influence community attitudes towards mental illness, when the illness itself is shaped by a cultural context. To explore the influence of culture-specific, religious symptoms on Orthodox Jewish community attitudes, the authors compared the attitudes of 169 Orthodox Jews, who randomly viewed one of two vignettes describing…

  19. Species composition of forested natural communities near freshwater hydrological features in an urbanizing watershed of west-central Florida

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melissa H Friedman; Michael G.  Andreu; Wayne Zipperer; Rob J.  Northrop; Amr  Abd-Elrahman

    2015-01-01

    Natural communities near freshwater hydrological features provide important ecosystem functions and services. As human populations increase, forested landscapes become increasingly fragmented and deforested, which may result in a loss of the functions and services they provide. To investigate the current state of forested natural communities in the rapidly urbanizing...

  20. Influence of salinity on fungal communities in a submerged fixed bed bioreactor for wastewater treatment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cortés-Lorenzo, C.; González-Martínez, A.; Smidt, H.; González-López, J.; Rodelas, B.

    2016-01-01

    Salinity is known to influence the performance of biological wastewater treatment plants. While its impact on bacterial communities has been thoroughly studied, its influence on fungal communities has been largely overlooked. To address this knowledge gap, we assessed the effect of saline

  1. Community influences on intimate partner violence in India: Women's education, attitudes towards mistreatment and standards of living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyle, Michael H; Georgiades, Katholiki; Cullen, John; Racine, Yvonne

    2009-09-01

    Intimate partner violence (IPV) directed towards women is a serious public health problem. Women's education may offer protection against IPV, but uncertainty exists over how it might reduce risk for IPV at the community and individual levels. The objectives of this study are to: (1) disentangle community from individual-level influences of women's education on risk for IPV; (2) quantify the moderating influence of communities on individual-level associations between women's education and IPV; (3) determine if women's attitudes towards mistreatment and living standards at the community and individual levels account for the protective influence of women's education; and (4) determine if the protective influence of education against IPV is muted among women living in communities exhibiting attitudes more accepting of mistreatment. Study information came from 68,466 married female participants in the National Family Health Survey conducted throughout India in 1998-1999. Multilevel logistic regression was used to address the study objectives. IPV showed substantial clustering at both the state (10.2%) and community levels (11.5%). At the individual level, there was a strong non-linear association between women's education and IPV, partially accounted for by household living standards. The strength of association between women's education and IPV varied from one community to the next with evidence that the acceptance of mistreatment at the community level mutes the protective influence of higher education. Furthermore, women's attitudes towards mistreatment and their standards of living accounted for community-level associations between women's education and IPV. Place of residence accounted for substantial variation in risk of IPV and also modified individual-level associations between IPV and women's education. At the community level, women's education appeared to exert much of its protective influence by altering population attitudes towards the acceptability of

  2. Factors influencing perceived sustainability of Dutch community health programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vermeer, A J M; Van Assema, P; Hesdahl, B; Harting, J; De Vries, N K

    2015-09-01

    We assessed the perceived sustainability of community health programs organized by local intersectoral coalitions, as well as the factors that collaborating partners think might influence sustainability. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 31 collaborating partners of 5 community health programs in deprived neighborhoods in the southern part of the Netherlands. The interview guide was based on a conceptual framework that includes factors related to the context, the leading organization, leadership, the coalition, collaborating partners, interventions and outcomes. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and content analyzed using NVivo 8.0. Participants in each of the programs varied in their perceptions of the sustainability of the program, but those people collaborating in pre-existing neighborhood structures expressed relatively high faith in their continuation. The participating citizens in particular believed that these structures would continue to address the health of the community in the future. We found factors from all categories of the conceptual framework that were perceived to influence sustainability. The program leaders appeared to be crucial to the programs, as they were frequently mentioned in close interaction with other factors. Program leaders should use a motivating and supportive leadership style and should act as 'program champions'. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  3. Does social climate influence positive eWOM? A study of heavy-users of online communities.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carla Ruiz-Mafe

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides a deeper understanding of the role of social influences on positive eWOM behaviour (PeWOM of heavy-users of online communities. Drawing on Social Interaction Utility Framework, Group Marketing and Social Learning Theories, we develop and test a research model integrating the interactions between the social climate of a website and Interpersonal Influences in PeWOM. 262 Spanish heavy-users of online communities were selected and the data analysed using partial least squares equation modelling. Overall, the model explains 59% of the variance of PeWOM on online communities. Findings reveal that interaction with other members of the online community (Social Presence is the main predictor of PeWOM. Social Identity is a mediator between Social Presence and PeWOM. Interpersonal Influence has an important role as a moderator variable; the greater the impact of Interpersonal Influence, the stronger the relationship between Social Presence and PeWOM.

  4. Influence of age on community health worker's knowledge and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Influence of age on community health worker's knowledge and service provision for maternal, newborn, and child health in Morogoro region, Tanzania. ... However there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) in marital status, education levels, use of English language, number of dependants, and income from ...

  5. Localised hydrodynamics influence vulnerability of coral communities to environmental disturbances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shedrawi, George; Falter, James L.; Friedman, Kim J.; Lowe, Ryan J.; Pratchett, Morgan S.; Simpson, Christopher J.; Speed, Conrad W.; Wilson, Shaun K.; Zhang, Zhenlin

    2017-09-01

    The movement of water can have a significant influence on the vulnerability of hermatypic corals to environmental disturbances such as cyclone damage, heat stress and anoxia. Here, we explore the relationship between small reef-scale water circulation patterns and measured differences in the abundance, composition and vulnerability of coral assemblages over decades. Changes in coral cover and community structure within Bill's Bay (Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia) over a 22-yr period, during which multiple disturbance events (including mass bleaching, anoxia, and tropical cyclones) have impacted the area, were compared with spatial variation in water residence times (WRT). We found that reef sites associated with longer water residence times (WRT >15 h) experienced higher rates of coral mortality during acute environmental disturbances compared to reef sites with shorter WRT. Shifts in coral community composition from acroporid to faviid-dominated assemblages were also more prominent at sites with long WRT compared to reef sites with shorter WRT, although shifts in community composition were also observed at sites close to shore. Interestingly, these same long-WRT sites also tended to have the fastest recovery rates so that coral cover was returned to original levels of approximately 20% over two decades. This study provides empirical evidence that spatial patterns in water circulation and flushing can influence the resilience of coral communities, thus identifying areas sensitive to emerging threats associated with global climate change.

  6. An evaluation of the influence of environment and biogeography on community structure: the case of Holarctic mammals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rodríguez, J.; Hortal, Joaquín; Nieto, M.

    2006-01-01

    Aim To evaluate the influence of environment and biogeographical region, as a proxy for historical influence, on the ecological structure of Holarctic communities from similar environments. It is assumed that similarities among communities from similar environments in different realms...... to Bailey's ecoregions (used as a surrogate of regional climate), and the positions of the communities in the dimensions of the CA are compared in relation to ecoregion and realm. Partial regression was used to test for the relative influence of ecoregion and realm over each dimension and to evaluate...... the effect of biogeographical realm on the variation in the factor scores of the communities of the same ecoregion. Results In some cases, mammalian communities from areas with similar regional climates exhibit convergence in community structure, irrespective of the biogeographical realm where...

  7. Perceived community environmental influences on eating behaviors: A Photovoice analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belon, Ana Paula; Nieuwendyk, Laura M; Vallianatos, Helen; Nykiforuk, Candace I J

    2016-12-01

    People's perceptions of local food environments influence their abilities to eat healthily. PhotoVoice participants from four communities in Alberta, Canada took pictures of barriers and opportunities for healthy eating and shared their stories in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Using a socioecological framework, emergent themes were organized by type and size of environment. Findings show that, while availability and access to food outlets influence healthy eating practices, these factors may be eclipsed by other non-physical environmental considerations, such as food regulations and socio-cultural preferences. This study identifies a set of meta-themes that summarize and illustrate the interrelationships between environmental attributes, people's perceptions, and eating behaviors: a) availability and accessibility are interrelated and only part of the healthy eating equation; b) local food is synonymous with healthy eating; c) local food places for healthy eating help define community identity; d) communal dining (commensality) does not necessarily mean healthy eating; e) rewarding an achievement or celebrating special occasions with highly processed foods is socially accepted; f) food costs seemed to be driving forces in food decisions; g) macro-environmental influences are latent in food decisions. Recognizing the interrelationship among multiple environmental factors may help efforts to design effective community-based interventions and address knowledge gaps on how sociocultural, economic, and political environments intersect with physical worlds. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  8. Features of influence of sports activities on the identity of students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sutula Vasilij

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: the definition of features of influence of sports activities on the identity of sportsmen. Material & Methods: the special surveys of students and teachers of KhSAPC, and also students, who train in sports club "Politekhnik", and the students who are engaged in sports sections NLA were conducted for the solution of purposes. Results: the most important qualities of the personality which sports activities influence are: formation of "confidence", "emotional stability", and "orientation to achievement" at sportsmen. According to most of the interviewed sportsmen and experts, the authority of the coach is not significant factor which influences the identity of sportsmen. Conclusions: it is established as a result of the conducted researches that sports activities most of all influence the formation of confidence, emotional stability and orientation to achievement at sportsmen. Results of the research demonstrate also that the identity of the sportsman is most influenced by the competitive relationship which develops in the course of competitive activity. Results of the research also indicate disturbing tendency which is shown that most of sportsmen connect the end of their sports career with injuries.

  9. Plant diversity and plant identity influence Fusarium communities in soil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    LeBlanc, Nicholas; Kinkel, Linda; Kistler, H Corby

    2017-01-01

    Fusarium communities play important functional roles in soil and in plants as pathogens, endophytes, and saprotrophs. This study tests how rhizosphere Fusarium communities may vary with plant species, changes in the diversity of the surrounding plant community, and soil physiochemical characteristics. Fusarium communities in soil associated with the roots of two perennial prairie plant species maintained as monocultures or growing within polyculture plant communities were characterized using targeted metagenomics. Amplicon libraries targeting the RPB2 locus were generated from rhizosphere soil DNAs and sequenced using pyrosequencing. Sequences were clustered into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and assigned a taxonomy using the Evolutionary Placement Algorithm. Fusarium community composition was differentiated between monoculture and polyculture plant communities, and by plant species in monoculture, but not in polyculture. Taxonomic classification of the Fusarium OTUs showed a predominance of F. tricinctum and F. oxysporum as well of the presence of a clade previously only found in the Southern Hemisphere. Total Fusarium richness was not affected by changes in plant community richness or correlated with soil physiochemical characteristics. However, OTU richness within two predominant phylogenetic lineages within the genus was positively or negatively correlated with soil physiochemical characteristics among samples within each lineage. This work shows that plant species, plant community richness, and soil physiochemical characteristics may all influence the composition and richness of Fusarium communities in soil.

  10. Building a sense of virtual community: the role of the features of social networking sites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Chi-Wen; Lin, Chiun-Sin

    2014-07-01

    In recent years, social networking sites have received increased attention because of the potential of this medium to transform business by building virtual communities. However, theoretical and empirical studies investigating how specific features of social networking sites contribute to building a sense of virtual community (SOVC)-an important dimension of a successful virtual community-are rare. Furthermore, SOVC scales have been developed, and research on this issue has been called for, but few studies have heeded this call. On the basis of prior literature, this study proposes that perceptions of the three most salient features of social networking sites-system quality (SQ), information quality (IQ), and social information exchange (SIE)-play a key role in fostering SOVC. In particular, SQ is proposed to increase IQ and SIE, and SIE is proposed to enhance IQ, both of which thereafter build SOVC. The research model was examined in the context of Facebook, one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. We adopted Blanchard's scales to measure SOVC. Data gathered using a Web-based questionnaire, and analyzed with partial least squares, were utilized to test the model. The results demonstrate that SIE, SQ, and IQ are the factors that form SOVC. The findings also suggest that SQ plays a fundamental role in supporting SIE and IQ in social networking sites. Implications for theory, practice, and future research directions are discussed.

  11. Influence of long-term repeated prescribed burning on mycelial communities of ectomycorrhizal fungi.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bastias, Brigitte A; Xu, Zhihong; Cairney, John W G

    2006-01-01

    To demonstrate the efficacy of direct DNA extraction from hyphal ingrowth bags for community profiling of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) mycelia in soil, we applied the method to investigate the influence of long-term repeated prescribed burning on an ECM fungal community. DNA was extracted from hyphal ingrowth bags buried in forest plots that received different prescribed burning treatments for 30 yr, and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles of partial fungal rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions were compared. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and sequence analyses were also used to compare clone assemblages between the treatments. The majority of sequences derived from the ingrowth bags were apparently those of ECM fungi. DGGE profiles for biennially burned plots were significantly different from those of quadrennially burned and unburned control plots. Analysis of clone assemblages indicated that this reflected altered ECM fungal community composition. The results indicate that hyphal ingrowth bags represent a useful method for investigation of ECM mycelial communities, and that frequent long-term prescribed burning can influence below-ground ECM fungal communities.

  12. Seasonal variations in the fouling diatom community structure from a monsoon influenced tropical estuary

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Mitbavkar, S.; Anil, A.C.

    Seasonal variations in the fouling diatom community from a monsoon influenced tropical estuary were investigated. The community composition did not differ significantly between stainless steel and polystyrene substrata due to dominance by Navicula...

  13. Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra M. Rodriguez-Artigas

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Beta-diversity, defined as spatial replacement in species composition, is crucial to the understanding of how local communities assemble. These changes can be driven by environmental or geographic factors (such as geographic distance, or a combination of the two. Spiders have been shown to be good indicators of environmental quality. Accordingly, spiders are used in this work as model taxa to establish whether there is a decrease in community similarity that corresponds to geographic distance in the grasslands of the Campos & Malezales ecoregion (Corrientes. Furthermore, the influence of climactic factors and local vegetation heterogeneity (environmental factors on assemblage composition was evaluated. Finally, this study evaluated whether the differential dispersal capacity of spider families is a factor that influences their community structure at a regional scale. Spiders were collected with a G-Vac from vegetation in six grassland sites in the Campos & Malezales ecoregion that were separated by a minimum of 13 km. With this data, the impact of alpha-diversity and different environmental variables on the beta-diversity of spider communities was analysed. Likewise, the importance of species replacement and nesting on beta-diversity and their contribution to the regional diversity of spider families with different dispersion capacities was evaluated. The regional and site-specific inventories obtained were complete. The similarity between spider communities declined as the geographic distance between sites increased. Environmental variables also influenced community composition; stochastic events and abiotic forces were the principal intervening factors in assembly structure. The differential dispersal capacity of spider groups also influenced community structure at a regional scale. The regional beta-diversity, as well as species replacement, was greater in high and intermediate vagility spiders; while nesting was greater in spiders with low

  14. A model of how features of construction projects influence accident occurrence

    OpenAIRE

    Manu, P.

    2017-01-01

    This book chapter in "Valuing People in Construction" (edited by Emuze, F. and Smallwood, J.) presents a study which sought empirical verification of a model of how construction project features (CPFs) influence accident occurrence. A qualitative strategy, in particular phenomenology, involving a range of in-depth interviews with practitioners was used and the findings were subsequently validated using a credibility check involving a survey. Altogether, the findings of the interviews and cred...

  15. The influences of psychological sense of brand community on mobile game loyalty: a case study research

    OpenAIRE

    Duong, Kim

    2017-01-01

    This thesis contributes to Carlson et al.’s (2008) findings on a brand-based community and its psychological aspects. The research aimed to investigate the influences of psychological sense of brand community (PSBC) on mobile game loyalty. Particularly, it attempted to, first, look at sense of brand community from the social identity viewpoint, and second, explore the influence of PSBC on game loyalty as well as the role PSBC plays in the satisfaction–loyalty relationship. The relevant studie...

  16. Evaluation of physical structural features on influencing enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency of micronized wood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jinxue Jiang; Jinwu Wang; Xiao Zhang; Michael Wolcott

    2016-01-01

    Enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass is highly dependent on the changes in structural features after pretreatment. Mechanical milling pretreatment is an effective approach to alter the physical structure of biomass and thus improve enzymatic hydrolysis. This study examined the influence of structural characteristics on the enzymatic hydrolysis of micronized...

  17. Community Influences on Married Women's Safer Sex Negotiation Attitudes in Bangladesh: A Multilevel Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jesmin, Syeda S; Cready, Cynthia M

    2016-02-01

    The influence of disadvantaged or deprived community on individuals' health risk-behaviors is increasingly being documented in a growing body of literature. However, little is known about the effects of community characteristics on women's sexual attitudes and behaviors. To examine community effects on married women's safer sex negotiation attitudes, we analyzed cross-sectional data from the 2011 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys on a sample of 15,134 married women in 600 communities. We estimated two multilevel logistic regression models. Model 1, which included only individual-level variables, showed that women's autonomy/empowerment, age, and HIV knowledge had significant associations with their safer sex negotiation attitudes. We did not find any socioeconomic status gradient in safer sex negotiation attitudes at the individual level. Adding community-level variables in Model 2 significantly improved the fit of the model. Strikingly, we found that higher community-level poverty was associated with greater positive safer sex negotiation attitudes. Prevailing gender norms and overall women's empowerment in the community also had significant effects. While research on community influences calls for focusing on disadvantaged communities, our research highlights the importance of not underestimating the challenges that married women in economically privileged communities may face in negotiating safer sex. To have sufficient and equitable impact on married women's sexual and reproductive health, sexual and reproductive health promotion policies and programs need to be directed to women in wealthier communities as well.

  18. Classification Influence of Features on Given Emotions and Its Application in Feature Selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xing, Yin; Chen, Chuang; Liu, Li-Long

    2018-04-01

    In order to solve the problem that there is a large amount of redundant data in high-dimensional speech emotion features, we analyze deeply the extracted speech emotion features and select better features. Firstly, a given emotion is classified by each feature. Secondly, the recognition rate is ranked in descending order. Then, the optimal threshold of features is determined by rate criterion. Finally, the better features are obtained. When applied in Berlin and Chinese emotional data set, the experimental results show that the feature selection method outperforms the other traditional methods.

  19. What influences community positions towards nearby mining projects : eight cases from Brazil and Chile

    OpenAIRE

    Maher, Rajiv

    2014-01-01

    This thesis looks at the influences and dynamics of community positions towards nearby mining projects in Brazil and Chile from an affected communities perspective. This subject is important because even after many initiatives and guidance aimed at helping companies to obtain good community relations, also known as a social license to operate (SLO), conflict in many mining community contexts is still prevalent today. In considering this, the thesis draws from Stakeholder, Resou...

  20. Strong influence of regional species pools on continent-wide structuring of local communities

    OpenAIRE

    Lessard, Jean-Philippe; Borregaard, Michael K.; Fordyce, James A.; Rahbek, Carsten; Weiser, Michael D.; Dunn, Robert R.; Sanders, Nathan J.

    2011-01-01

    There is a long tradition in ecology of evaluating the relative contribution of the regional species pool and local interactions on the structure of local communities. Similarly, a growing number of studies assess the phylogenetic structure of communities, relative to that in the regional species pool, to examine the interplay between broad-scale evolutionary and fine-scale ecological processes. Finally, a renewed interest in the influence of species source pools on communities has shown that...

  1. Compressive behavior of pervious concretes and a quantification of the influence of random pore structure features

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deo, Omkar; Neithalath, Narayanan

    2010-01-01

    Research highlights: → Identified the relevant pore structure features of pervious concretes, provided methodologies to extract those, and quantified the influence of these features on compressive response. → A model for stress-strain relationship of pervious concretes, and relationship between model parameters and parameters of the stress-strain relationship developed. → Statistical model for compressive strength as a function of pore structure features; and a stochastic model for the sensitivity of pore structure features in strength prediction. - Abstract: Properties of a random porous material such as pervious concrete are strongly dependent on its pore structure features, porosity being an important one among them. This study deals with developing an understanding of the material structure-compressive response relationships in pervious concretes. Several pervious concrete mixtures with different pore structure features are proportioned and subjected to static compression tests. The pore structure features such as pore area fractions, pore sizes, mean free spacing of the pores, specific surface area, and the three-dimensional pore distribution density are extracted using image analysis methods. The compressive stress-strain response of pervious concretes, a model to predict the stress-strain response, and its relationship to several of the pore structure features are outlined. Larger aggregate sizes and increase in paste volume fractions are observed to result in increased compressive strengths. The compressive response is found to be influenced by the pore sizes, their distributions and spacing. A statistical model is used to relate the compressive strength to the relevant pore structure features, which is then used as a base model in a Monte-Carlo simulation to evaluate the sensitivity of the predicted compressive strength to the model terms.

  2. Factors influencing resident's decision to reside in gated and guarded community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shamsudin, Zarina; Shamsudin, Shafiza; Zainal, Rozlin

    2017-10-01

    Gated communities are residential areas developed with restricted access with strictly controlled entrances and surrounded by a close perimeter of wall or fences. Developers, conscious of the need to fulfill the requirement of living in modern and sophisticated lifestyle and gated properties become the trend and mushroomed over the past decade. Nowadays, it is obvious that gated and guarded communities become almost a dominant feature of Malaysia housing development projects. The focus of this paper is to identify the factors contribute resident's decision to reside in gated and guarded community and to study social interaction among gated communities' residents. 150 questionnaires were distributed to the residents of selected gated and guarded community area in order to achieve the objectives and analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and descriptive analysis. The result was tabulated and presented in charts and graphs for a clear and better understanding. The five main factors contribute to resident decision to reside in gated communities were identified and ranked; there are privacy, security, location, lifestyle and prestige. Besides, the residents are feeling neutral towards the facilities and services provided in their gated and guarded residential area. A comprehensive improvement towards the facilities and services is needed to reach higher satisfaction from the residents.

  3. Influence of High Level Features of HVS on Performance of FSIM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Dostal

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper the influence of information about high level features of Human Visual System (HVS on objective quality assessment is studied. This was done by extending the existing full-reference objective image quality metric – FSIM – where the different importance of certain areas of image is considered using Phase Congruency (PC algorithm. Here, the estimation of Region of Interest (ROI based on this algorithm is complemented by Fixation Density Maps (FDM containing the information about high level features of HVS. Use of another low level features based algorithm (Phase Spectrum of Fourier Transform was also considered and compared to the PC algorithm. The performance was evaluated qualitatively on images reconstructed according to ROI and quantitatively on images from LIVE database. The correlation between subjective and objective tests was calculated using Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient and Spearman’s Rank Order Coefficient. The statistical significance of the difference between correlation coefficients was assessed by Fisher r-to-z transformation. The performance of the metric was also compared to other state-of-the-art image quality metrics (SSIM, MS-SSIM, and FSIM.

  4. HIV prevention interventions to reduce sexual risk for African Americans: the influence of community-level stigma and psychological processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reid, Allecia E; Dovidio, John F; Ballester, Estrellita; Johnson, Blair T

    2014-02-01

    Interventions to improve public health may benefit from consideration of how environmental contexts can facilitate or hinder their success. We examined the extent to which efficacy of interventions to improve African Americans' condom use practices was moderated by two indicators of structural stigma-Whites' attitudes toward African Americans and residential segregation in the communities where interventions occurred. A previously published meta-analytic database was re-analyzed to examine the interplay of community-level stigma with the psychological processes implied by intervention content in influencing intervention efficacy. All studies were conducted in the United States and included samples that were at least 50% African American. Whites' attitudes were drawn from the American National Election Studies, which collects data from nationally representative samples. Residential segregation was drawn from published reports. Results showed independent effects of Whites' attitudes and residential segregation on condom use effect sizes. Interventions were most successful when Whites' attitudes were more positive or when residential segregation was low. These two structural factors interacted: Interventions improved condom use only when communities had both relatively positive attitudes toward African Americans and lower levels of segregation. The effect of Whites' attitudes was more pronounced at longer follow-up intervals and for younger samples and those samples with more African Americans. Tailoring content to participants' values and needs, which may reduce African Americans' mistrust of intervention providers, buffered against the negative influence of Whites' attitudes on condom use. The structural factors uniquely accounted for variance in condom use effect sizes over and above intervention-level features and community-level education and poverty. Results highlight the interplay of social identity and environment in perpetuating intergroup disparities

  5. Temporal and spatial influences incur reconfiguration of Arctic heathland soil bacterial community structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill, Richard; Saetnan, Eli R; Scullion, John; Gwynn-Jones, Dylan; Ostle, Nick; Edwards, Arwyn

    2016-06-01

    Microbial responses to Arctic climate change could radically alter the stability of major stores of soil carbon. However, the sensitivity of plot-scale experiments simulating climate change effects on Arctic heathland soils to potential confounding effects of spatial and temporal changes in soil microbial communities is unknown. Here, the variation in heathland soil bacterial communities at two survey sites in Sweden between spring and summer 2013 and at scales between 0-1 m and, 1-100 m and between sites (> 100 m) were investigated in parallel using 16S rRNA gene T-RFLP and amplicon sequencing. T-RFLP did not reveal spatial structuring of communities at scales structuring effects may not confound comparison between plot-scale treatments, temporal change is a significant influence. Moreover, the prominence of two temporally exclusive keystone taxa suggests that the stability of Arctic heathland soil bacterial communities could be disproportionally influenced by seasonal perturbations affecting individual taxa. © 2015 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Investigating influences on current community pharmacy practice at micro, meso, and macro levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hermansyah, Andi; Sainsbury, Erica; Krass, Ines

    The nature of Australian community pharmacy is continually evolving, raising the need to explore the current situation in order to understand the potential impact of any changes. Although community pharmacy has the potential to play a greater role in health care, it is currently not meeting this potential. To investigate the nature of the contemporary practice of community pharmacy in Australia and examine the potential missed opportunities for role expansion in health care. In-depth semi-structured interviews with a wide-range of key stakeholders within and beyond community pharmacy circles were conducted. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed for emerging themes. Twenty-seven key informants across Eastern half of Australia were interviewed between December 2014 and August 2015. Several key elements of the current situation representing the social, economic and policy context of community pharmacy have been identified. These elements operate interdependently, influence micro, meso and macro levels of community pharmacy operation and are changing in the current climate. Community pharmacy has untapped potential in primary health care, but it has been slow to change to meet opportunities available in the current situation. As the current situation is complex, interrelated and dynamic with often unintended and unpredictable consequences, this paper suggests that policy makers to consider the micro, meso and macro levels of community pharmacy operation when making significant policy changes. The framework proposed in this study can be a helpful tool to analyze the processes operating at these three levels and their influences on practice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. The Influence of Selected Personality and Workplace Features on Burnout among Nurse Academics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kizilci, Sevgi; Erdogan, Vesile; Sozen, Emine

    2012-01-01

    This study aimed to determine the influence of selected individual and situational features on burnout among nurse academics. The Maslach Burnout Inventory was used to assess the burnout levels of academics. The sample population comprised 94 female participant. The emotion exhaustion (EE) score of the nurse academics was 16.43[plus or minus]5.97,…

  8. FISCAL FEATURES SPECIFIC TO INTRA-COMMUNITY TRANSACTIONS OF NEW MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION AND EXCISABLE PRODUCTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    PALIU - POPA LUCIA

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available With a view to our country's accession to the Community space, the Romanian legislation has undergone many changes, and we should point out among others those in the tax system, that primarily aims to ensure the functioning of the national economy in the globalization of the economic and social activities worldwide. Although at first sight the new procedures have a positive impact on the development of intra-Community commercial businesses, due to the elimination of customs formalities and hence of the fees paid to customs officials, however there are costs generated by the application of EU law, which should not be neglected. Considering the many situations that arise in carrying out intra-Community commercial transactions, that are aimed at the differentiated tax procedures from the value added tax perspective, we considered appropriate, to address below the tax features related to intra-Community acquisitions and supplies of new means of transport and excisable products, because these are two important categories of goods that generate differential tax treatments, so that after the tax analysis we should be able to draw some relevant conclusions.

  9. Environmental and Spatial Influences on Biogeography and Community Structure of Benthic Diatoms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plante, C.; Hill-Spanik, K.; Lowry, J.

    2016-02-01

    Several theoretical and practical reasons suggest that benthic microalgae could be useful bioindicators. For instance, an ideal indicator species or community would be associated with a given habitat due to local physical conditions or biotic interactions (i.e., `environmental filtering'), not due to dispersal limitation. Due to their small size, immense abundances, and reliance on passive dispersal, the popular notion about micro-organisms is that `Everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects' (Baas-Becking 1934). Although much recent research concerning planktonic bacteria and dispersal limitation has been conducted, very little in this regard is known about microeukaryotes, especially benthic microbes. The purpose of our study was to identify and compare spatial and environmental influences on benthic diatom community structure and biogeography. In summer 2015, sediment was sampled at various spatial scales from four barrier island beaches in South Carolina, USA, and high-throughput (Ion Torrent) DNA sequencing was used to characterize diatom assemblages. ANOSIM and principal coordinates analysis revealed that communities were statistically distinct on the four islands. Community dissimilarity was compared to both spatial distance and environmental differences to determine potential influences of these variables on community structure. We found that geographic distance had the strongest correlation with community similarity, with and without one anomalous location, while differences in temperature (air, water, and sediment), nutrients, organic matter, and turbidity also had significant but weaker relationships with community structure. Surprisingly, air temperature, which changes on very short time scales, appeared to be the environmental factor most strongly related to diatom species composition, potentially implicating some unmeasured variable (e.g., cloud cover). However, we also found that temperature and geographic distance were strongly

  10. LP-LPA: A link influence-based label propagation algorithm for discovering community structures in networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berahmand, Kamal; Bouyer, Asgarali

    2018-03-01

    Community detection is an essential approach for analyzing the structural and functional properties of complex networks. Although many community detection algorithms have been recently presented, most of them are weak and limited in different ways. Label Propagation Algorithm (LPA) is a well-known and efficient community detection technique which is characterized by the merits of nearly-linear running time and easy implementation. However, LPA has some significant problems such as instability, randomness, and monster community detection. In this paper, an algorithm, namely node’s label influence policy for label propagation algorithm (LP-LPA) was proposed for detecting efficient community structures. LP-LPA measures link strength value for edges and nodes’ label influence value for nodes in a new label propagation strategy with preference on link strength and for initial nodes selection, avoid of random behavior in tiebreak states, and efficient updating order and rule update. These procedures can sort out the randomness issue in an original LPA and stabilize the discovered communities in all runs of the same network. Experiments on synthetic networks and a wide range of real-world social networks indicated that the proposed method achieves significant accuracy and high stability. Indeed, it can obviously solve monster community problem with regard to detecting communities in networks.

  11. Influence of distribution characteristics and associated seabed features on exploitation of cobalt-rich manganese deposits

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Yamazaki, T.; Sharma, R.; Tsurusaki, K.

    Method of exploitation, selection of mine site and desing of mining system of cobalt-rich manganese deposits on seamounts would be greatly influenced by the distribution characteristics as well as the associated seabed features, wuch as the seabed...

  12. Vertical visual features have a strong influence on cuttlefish camouflage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ulmer, K M; Buresch, K C; Kossodo, M M; Mäthger, L M; Siemann, L A; Hanlon, R T

    2013-04-01

    Cuttlefish and other cephalopods use visual cues from their surroundings to adaptively change their body pattern for camouflage. Numerous previous experiments have demonstrated the influence of two-dimensional (2D) substrates (e.g., sand and gravel habitats) on camouflage, yet many marine habitats have varied three-dimensional (3D) structures among which cuttlefish camouflage from predators, including benthic predators that view cuttlefish horizontally against such 3D backgrounds. We conducted laboratory experiments, using Sepia officinalis, to test the relative influence of horizontal versus vertical visual cues on cuttlefish camouflage: 2D patterns on benthic substrates were tested versus 2D wall patterns and 3D objects with patterns. Specifically, we investigated the influence of (i) quantity and (ii) placement of high-contrast elements on a 3D object or a 2D wall, as well as (iii) the diameter and (iv) number of 3D objects with high-contrast elements on cuttlefish body pattern expression. Additionally, we tested the influence of high-contrast visual stimuli covering the entire 2D benthic substrate versus the entire 2D wall. In all experiments, visual cues presented in the vertical plane evoked the strongest body pattern response in cuttlefish. These experiments support field observations that, in some marine habitats, cuttlefish will respond to vertically oriented background features even when the preponderance of visual information in their field of view seems to be from the 2D surrounding substrate. Such choices highlight the selective decision-making that occurs in cephalopods with their adaptive camouflage capability.

  13. DIGITAL MARKETING INFLUENCE ON THE FORMATION OF BRAND COMMUNITIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristian, Morozan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The digital environment in which the interests of communicating and promoting brands is manifested, in a growing extent, exerts its influence on dynamic economic sectors, changing consumer habits but mainly affects how content is consumed in brand communities. This environment is still not a channel or ad format yet, forming a parallel reality, a complex system which is constantly changing. To enter and to remain here, brand owner organizations must approach communication, both in entertainment as well as in production and sales in a most pleasant and useful way for members of the communities they support. In this context, this paper consists in a qualitative research method; various sources of secondary information such as summaries of some events, analysis, case studies, etc. have been consulted accordingly.

  14. Users’ attention behaviors and features in internet forum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yong-Zhong Sha

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Attention resource is scarce. Organizing community activities in online forums faces the challenge of attracting users’ limited attention. Understanding how users of online forums allocate, maintain, and change their attentional focus and what features of online forms influence their attention behaviors is critical for effective information design. This paper seeks understanding of users’ attention behaviors and features when they participate in discussions in online forums. Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual model was established to explore the indicator system of attention’s measurement. The related attention data were collected from Alexa Access Statistics Tool and Katie community. Then this paper computed the correlation coefficient and regression relationship between the indicators of visual attention and cognitive attention. Thereafter this paper analyzed and discussed users’ attention behaviors and features in Internet forum. Findings: Relevant bivariate correlation analysis and regression analysis discovers that Internet forum's attention is mainly as visual attention in users’ early involvement. Attention resources can be transformed. In a deep participation, users’ cognitive attention is more significant. Meanwhile cognitive attention behaviors’ further development will lead to the phenomenon that cognitive attention input is prone to increase faster in the early duration. That means in-depth discussion and interaction are more likely to appear in the early stages of participation. Research limitations/implications: There are some limitations about this study. The indicators are not comprehensive enough because factors affecting the distribution of attention resources in Internet forums are complex. We didn’t distinguish different types of Internet forums when we collected the relevant data. Future research will focus more on how to obtain comprehensive attention data. Originality/value: T his paper

  15. Microhabitat features influencing habitat use by Florida black bears

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dana L. Karelus

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Understanding fine-scale habitat needs of species and the factors influencing heterogeneous use of habitat within home range would help identify limiting resources and inform habitat management practices. This information is especially important for large mammals living in fragmented habitats where resources may be scarcer and more patchily distributed than in contiguous habitats. Using bihourly Global Position System (GPS location data collected from 10 individuals during 2011–2014, we investigated microhabitat features of areas within home ranges that received high vs. low intensity of use by Florida black bears (Ursus americanus floridanus in north-central, Florida. We identified areas receiving high and low levels of use by bears based on their utilization distributions estimated with the dynamic Brownian bridge movement model, and performed vegetation sampling at bear locations within high- and low-use areas. Using univariate analyses and generalized linear mixed models, we found that (1 canopy cover, visual obstruction, and hardwood density were important in defining high-use sites; (2 the probability of high use was positively associated with principal components that represented habitat closer to creeks and with high canopy and shrub cover and higher hardwood densities, likely characteristic of forested wetlands; and (3 the probability of high use was, to a lesser extent, associated with principal components that represented habitat with high canopy cover, high pine density, and low visual obstruction and hardwood density; likely representing sand pine and pine plantations. Our results indicate that the high bear-use sites were in forested wetlands, where cover and food resources for bears are likely to occur in higher abundance. Habitat management plans whereby bears are a focal species should aim to increase the availability and quality of forested wetlands. Keywords: Habitat selection, Heterogeneous habitat use, Forest management

  16. Influence of the relative rotational speed on component features in micro rotary swaging

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ishkina Svetlana

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Micro rotary swaging is a cold forming process for production of micro components with determined geometry and surface. It is also possible to change the microstructure of wires and hence the material properties. Swaging dies revolve around the work piece with an overlaid radial oscillation. Newly developed tools (Flat Surface Dies, FSD feature plain surfaces and do not represent the geometry of the formed part as in conventional swaging. Using these tools allows for producing wires with triangle geometry (cross section as well as a circular shape. To test the influence of FSD on material properties by micro swaging a new method is investigated: the variation of the relative speed between the specimen and dies in infeed rotary swaging. During this specific process copper (C11000 and steel (304 Alloy wires with diameter d0 = 1 mm are formed. It is noticed that the mechanical characteristics such as ductility and strength differ from the characteristics after conventional swaging. Moreover this approach enables new possibilities to influence the geometry and the surface quality of wires. The impact of the relative speed on the processed wire features is described in this paper.

  17. The influence of home and community attachment on firewise behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerard T. Kyle; Gene L. Theodori; James D. Absher; Jinhee. Jun

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this investigation was to examine the influence of residents’ attachment to their homes and community on their willingness to adopt Firewise recommendations. Our sample was drawn from a population residing in the wildland–urban interface where the threat of wildfire is acute. The Firewise recommendations concerned 13 activities affecting home design,...

  18. Migration Decision-Making among Mexican Youth: Individual, Family, and Community Influences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tucker, Christine M; Torres-Pereda, Pilar; Minnis, Alexandra M; Bautista-Arredondo, Sergio A

    2013-05-07

    We explored migration decisions using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with male and female youth ages 14 to 24 (n=47) from two Mexican communities, one with high and one with low U.S. migration density. Half were return migrants and half were non-migrants with relatives in the U.S. Migrant and non-migrant youth expressed different preferences, especially in terms of education and their ability to wait for financial gain. Reasons for migration were mostly similar across the two communities; however, the perceived risk of the migration journey was higher in the low density migration community while perceived opportunities in Mexico were higher in the high density migration community. Reasons for return were related to youths' initial social and economic motivations for migration. A greater understanding of factors influencing migration decisions may provide insight into the vulnerability of immigrant youth along the journey, their adaptation process in the U.S., and their reintegration in Mexico.

  19. Endophytic bacterial community of grapevine leaves influenced by sampling date and phytoplasma infection process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bulgari, Daniela; Casati, Paola; Quaglino, Fabio; Bianco, Piero A

    2014-07-21

    Endophytic bacteria benefit host plant directly or indirectly, e.g. by biocontrol of the pathogens. Up to now, their interactions with the host and with other microorganisms are poorly understood. Consequently, a crucial step for improving the knowledge of those relationships is to determine if pathogens or plant growing season influence endophytic bacterial diversity and dynamic. Four healthy, four phytoplasma diseased and four recovered (symptomatic plants that spontaneously regain a healthy condition) grapevine plants were sampled monthly from June to October 2010 in a vineyard in north-western Italy. Metagenomic DNA was extracted from sterilized leaves and the endophytic bacterial community dynamic and diversity were analyzed by taxon specific real-time PCR, Length-Heterogeneity PCR and genus-specific PCR. These analyses revealed that both sampling date and phytoplasma infection influenced the endophytic bacterial composition. Interestingly, in June, when the plants are symptomless and the pathogen is undetectable (i) the endophytic bacterial community associated with diseased grapevines was different from those in the other sampling dates, when the phytoplasmas are detectable inside samples; (ii) the microbial community associated with recovered plants differs from that living inside healthy and diseased plants. Interestingly, LH-PCR database identified bacteria previously reported as biocontrol agents in the examined grapevines. Of these, Burkholderia, Methylobacterium and Pantoea dynamic was influenced by the phytoplasma infection process and seasonality. Results indicated that endophytic bacterial community composition in grapevine is correlated to both phytoplasma infection and sampling date. For the first time, data underlined that, in diseased plants, the pathogen infection process can decrease the impact of seasonality on community dynamic. Moreover, based on experimental evidences, it was reasonable to hypothesize that after recovery the restructured

  20. Influence of biochar on heavy metals and microbial community during composting of river sediment with agricultural wastes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yaoning; Liu, Yao; Li, Yuanping; Wu, Yanxin; Chen, Yanrong; Zeng, Guangming; Zhang, Jiachao; Li, Hui

    2017-11-01

    Studies were performed to evaluate influence of biochar addition on physico-chemical process, heavy metals transformation and bacterial community diversity during composting of sediment with agricultural wastes. Simultaneously, the relationships between those parameters including heavy metals and bacterial community compositions were evaluated by redundancy analysis (RDA). The results show that the extraction efficiency of DTPA extractable heavy metals decreased in both piles, and reduced more in pile with biochar addition about 0.1-2.96%. Biochar addition dramatically influenced the bacterial community structure during the composting process. Moreover, the bacterial community composition was significantly correlated with C/N ratio, water soluble carbon (WSC), and organic matter (OM) (Pheavy metals contamination. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Evaluation of predictive factors influencing community reintegration in adult patients with stroke

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olajide Ayinla Olawale

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Patients with stroke are faced with gait, balance, and fall difficulties which could impact on their community reintegration. In Nigeria, community reintegration after stroke has been understudied. The objective of this study was to evaluate the predictors of community reintegration in adult patients with stroke. Materials and Methods: Participants were 91 adult patients with stroke. Gait variables, balance self-efficacy, community balance/mobility, and fall self-efficacy were assessed using Rivermead Mobility Index, Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale, Community Balance and Mobility Scale, and Falls Efficacy Scale-International respectively. Reintegration to Normal Living Index was used to assess satisfaction with community reintegration. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to determine the relationship between community reintegration and gait spatiotemporal variables, balance performance, and risk of fall. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine predictors of community reintegration (P ≤ 0.05. Results: There was significant positive relationship between community reintegration and cadence (r = 0.250, P = 0.017, functional mobility (r = 0.503, P = 0.001, balance self-efficacy (r = 0.608, P = 0.001, community balance/mobility (r = 0.586, P = 0.001, and duration of stroke (r = 0.220, P = 0.036. Stride time (r = −0.282, P = 0.073 and fall self-efficacy (r = 0.566, P = 0.001 were negatively correlated with community reintegration. Duration of stroke, balance self-efficacy, community balance/mobility, and fall self-efficacy (52.7% of the variance were the significant predictors of community reintegration. Conclusion: Community reintegration is influenced by cadence, functional mobility, balance self-efficacy, community balance/mobility, and duration of stroke. Hence, improving balance and mobility during rehabilitation is important in enhancing community reintegration in patients with stroke.

  2. Influences of Social and Style Variables on Adult Usage of African American English Features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craig, Holly K.; Grogger, Jeffrey T.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose In this study, the authors examined the influences of selected social (gender, employment status, educational achievement level) and style variables (race of examiner, interview topic) on the production of African American English (AAE) by adults. Method Participants were 50 African American men and women, ages 20–30 years. The authors used Rapid and Anonymous Survey (RAS) methods to collect responses to questions on informal situational and formal message-oriented topics in a short interview with an unacquainted interlocutor. Results Results revealed strong systematic effects for academic achievement, but not gender or employment status. Most features were used less frequently by participants with higher educational levels, but sharp declines in the usage of 5 specific features distinguished the participants differing in educational achievement. Strong systematic style effects were found for the 2 types of questions, but not race of addressee. The features that were most commonly used across participants—copula absence, variable subject–verb agreement, and appositive pronouns—were also the features that showed the greatest style shifting. Conclusions The findings lay a foundation with mature speakers for rate-based and feature inventory methods recently shown to be informative for the study of child AAE and demonstrate the benefits of the RAS. PMID:22361105

  3. Influence of coral cover and structural complexity on the accuracy of visual surveys of coral-reef fish communities

    KAUST Repository

    Coker, Darren James

    2017-04-20

    Using manipulated patch reefs with combinations of varying live-coral cover (low, medium and high) and structural complexity (low and high), common community metrics (abundance, diversity, richness and community composition) collected through standard underwater visual census techniques were compared with exhaustive collections using a fish anaesthetic (clove oil). This study showed that reef condition did not influence underwater visual census estimates at a community level, but reef condition can influence the detectability of some small and cryptic species and this may be exacerbated if surveys are conducted on a larger scale.

  4. Influence of coral cover and structural complexity on the accuracy of visual surveys of coral-reef fish communities

    KAUST Repository

    Coker, Darren James; Nowicki, J. P.; Graham, N. A. J.

    2017-01-01

    Using manipulated patch reefs with combinations of varying live-coral cover (low, medium and high) and structural complexity (low and high), common community metrics (abundance, diversity, richness and community composition) collected through standard underwater visual census techniques were compared with exhaustive collections using a fish anaesthetic (clove oil). This study showed that reef condition did not influence underwater visual census estimates at a community level, but reef condition can influence the detectability of some small and cryptic species and this may be exacerbated if surveys are conducted on a larger scale.

  5. Human impacts affect tree community features of 20 forest fragments of a vanishing neotropical hotspot.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pereira, José Aldo Alves; de Oliveira-Filho, Ary Teixeira; Eisenlohr, Pedro V; Miranda, Pedro L S; de Lemos Filho, José Pires

    2015-02-01

    The loss in forest area due to human occupancy is not the only threat to the remaining biodiversity: forest fragments are susceptible to additional human impact. Our aim was to investigate the effect of human impact on tree community features (species composition and abundance, and structural descriptors) and check if there was a decrease in the number of slender trees, an increase in the amount of large trees, and also a reduction in the number of tree species that occur in 20 fragments of Atlantic montane semideciduous forest in southeastern Brazil. We produced digital maps of each forest fragment using Landsat 7 satellite images and processed the maps to obtain morphometric variables. We used investigative questionnaires and field observations to survey the history of human impact. We then converted the information into scores given to the extent, severity, and duration of each impact, including proportional border area, fire, trails, coppicing, logging, and cattle, and converted these scores into categorical levels. We used linear models to assess the effect of impacts on tree species abundance distribution and stand structural descriptors. Part of the variation in floristic patterns was significantly correlated to the impacts of fire, logging, and proportional border area. Structural descriptors were influenced by cattle and outer roads. Our results provided, for the first time, strong evidence that tree species occurrence and abundance, and forest structure of Atlantic seasonal forest fragments respond differently to various modes of disturbance by humans.

  6. Nutrition warnings as front-of-pack labels: influence of design features on healthfulness perception and attentional capture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cabrera, Manuel; Machín, Leandro; Arrúa, Alejandra; Antúnez, Lucía; Curutchet, María Rosa; Giménez, Ana; Ares, Gastón

    2017-12-01

    Warnings are a new directive front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling scheme that highlights products with high content of key nutrients. The design of warnings influences their ability to catch consumers' attention and to clearly communicate their intended meaning, which are key determinants of their effectiveness. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the influence of design features of warnings as a FOP nutrition labelling scheme on perceived healthfulness and attentional capture. Five studies with a total of 496 people were carried out. In the first study, the association of colour and perceived healthfulness was evaluated in an online survey in which participants had to rate their perceived healthfulness of eight colours. In the second study, the influence of colour, shape and textual information on perceived healthfulness was evaluated using choice-conjoint analysis. The third study focused on implicit associations between two design features (shape and colour) on perceived healthfulness. The fourth and fifth studies used visual search to evaluate the influence of colour, size and position of the warnings on attentional capture. Perceived healthfulness was significantly influenced by shape, colour and textual information. Colour was the variable with the largest contribution to perceived healthfulness. Colour, size and position of the warnings on the labels affected attentional capture. Results from the experiments provide recommendations for the design of warnings to identify products with unfavourable nutrient profile.

  7. Investigation of features in radon soil dynamics and search for influencing factors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yakovlev, Grigorii; Cherepnev, Maxim; Nagorskiy, Petr; Yakovleva, Valentina

    2018-03-01

    The features in radon soil dynamics at two depths were investigated and the main influencing factors were revealed. The monitoring of radon volumetric activity in soil air was performed at experimental site of Tomsk Observatory of Radioactivity and Ionizing Radiation with using radon radiometers and scintillation detectors of alpha-radiation with 10 min sampling frequency. The detectors were installed into boreholes of 0.5 and 1 m depths. The analysis of the soil radon monitoring data has allowed revealing some dependencies at daily and annual scales and main influencing factors. In periods with clearly defined daily radon variations in the soil were revealed the next: 1) amplitude of the daily variations of the soil radon volumetric activity damps with the depth, that is related with the influence of convective fluxes in the soil; 2) temporal shift between times of occurrence of radon volumetric activity maximum (or minimum) values at 0.5 m and 1 m depths can reach 3 hours. In seasonal dynamics of the soil radon the following dependences were found: 1) maximal values are observed in winter, but minimal - in summer; 2) spring periods of snow melting are accompanied by anomaly increasing of radon volumetric activity in the soil up to about 3 times. The main influencing factors are atmospheric precipitations, temperature gradient in the soil and the state of upper soil layer.

  8. A survey of Chinese interpreting studies: who influences who …and why?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ziyun Xu

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes how scholars in Chinese Interpreting Studies (CIS interact with each other and form discrete circles of influence. It also discusses what it means to be an influential scholar in the community, and the relationship between an author’s choice of research topic and his academic influence. The study examines an all-but-exhaustive collection of 59,303 citations from 1,289 MA theses, 32 doctoral dissertations and 2,909 research papers, combining traditional citation analysis with the newer Social Network Analysis to paint a panorama of CIS. It concludes that the community cannot be broadly divided into Liberal Arts and Empirical Science camps; rather, it comprises several distinct communities with various defining features. The analysis also reveals that the top Western influencers have an array of academic backgrounds and research interests across many different disciplines, whereas their Chinese counterparts are predominantly focused on Interpreting Studies. Last but not least, there is found to be a positive correlation between choosing non-mainstream research topics and having a high level of academic influence in the community.

  9. Influence of semantic consistency and perceptual features on visual attention during scene viewing in toddlers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helo, Andrea; van Ommen, Sandrien; Pannasch, Sebastian; Danteny-Dordoigne, Lucile; Rämä, Pia

    2017-11-01

    Conceptual representations of everyday scenes are built in interaction with visual environment and these representations guide our visual attention. Perceptual features and object-scene semantic consistency have been found to attract our attention during scene exploration. The present study examined how visual attention in 24-month-old toddlers is attracted by semantic violations and how perceptual features (i. e. saliency, centre distance, clutter and object size) and linguistic properties (i. e. object label frequency and label length) affect gaze distribution. We compared eye movements of 24-month-old toddlers and adults while exploring everyday scenes which either contained an inconsistent (e.g., soap on a breakfast table) or consistent (e.g., soap in a bathroom) object. Perceptual features such as saliency, centre distance and clutter of the scene affected looking times in the toddler group during the whole viewing time whereas looking times in adults were affected only by centre distance during the early viewing time. Adults looked longer to inconsistent than consistent objects either if the objects had a high or a low saliency. In contrast, toddlers presented semantic consistency effect only when objects were highly salient. Additionally, toddlers with lower vocabulary skills looked longer to inconsistent objects while toddlers with higher vocabulary skills look equally long to both consistent and inconsistent objects. Our results indicate that 24-month-old children use scene context to guide visual attention when exploring the visual environment. However, perceptual features have a stronger influence in eye movement guidance in toddlers than in adults. Our results also indicate that language skills influence cognitive but not perceptual guidance of eye movements during scene perception in toddlers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. The influence of uncertain map features on risk beliefs and perceived ambiguity for maps of modeled cancer risk from air pollution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myers, Jeffrey D.

    2012-01-01

    Maps are often used to convey information generated by models, for example, modeled cancer risk from air pollution. The concrete nature of images, such as maps, may convey more certainty than warranted for modeled information. Three map features were selected to communicate the uncertainty of modeled cancer risk: (a) map contours appeared in or out of focus, (b) one or three colors were used, and (c) a verbal-relative or numeric risk expression was used in the legend. Study aims were to assess how these features influenced risk beliefs and the ambiguity of risk beliefs at four assigned map locations that varied by risk level. We applied an integrated conceptual framework to conduct this full factorial experiment with 32 maps that varied by the three dichotomous features and four risk levels; 826 university students participated. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Unfocused contours and the verbal-relative risk expression generated more ambiguity than their counterparts. Focused contours generated stronger risk beliefs for higher risk levels and weaker beliefs for lower risk levels. Number of colors had minimal influence. The magnitude of risk level, conveyed using incrementally darker shading, had a substantial dose-response influence on the strength of risk beliefs. Personal characteristics of prior beliefs and numeracy also had substantial influences. Bottom-up and top-down information processing suggest why iconic visual features of incremental shading and contour focus had the strongest visual influences on risk beliefs and ambiguity. Variations in contour focus and risk expression show promise for fostering appropriate levels of ambiguity. PMID:22985196

  11. Social integration of Latin-American immigrants in Spain: the influence of the community context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuente, Asur; Herrero, Juan

    2012-11-01

    The main goal of this study is to analyze the degree to which several community elements such as insecurity, discrimination and informal community support might have an influence on the social integration of Latin-American immigrants, a group at risk of social exclusion in Spain. Multivariate linear regression analyses results showed that informal community support is positively related to social integration whereas insecurity is negatively related. The statistical relationship between discrimination and social integration disappears once levels of informal community support are taken into account. A better understanding of the factors that either promote or inhibit the social integration progress of immigrant population is important to orientate public policies and intervention programs that contribute to the adaptation of this population to the host society.

  12. Geochemical Influence on Microbial Communities at CO2-Leakage Analog Sites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ham, Baknoon; Choi, Byoung-Young; Chae, Gi-Tak; Kirk, Matthew F; Kwon, Man Jae

    2017-01-01

    Microorganisms influence the chemical and physical properties of subsurface environments and thus represent an important control on the fate and environmental impact of CO 2 that leaks into aquifers from deep storage reservoirs. How leakage will influence microbial populations over long time scales is largely unknown. This study uses natural analog sites to investigate the long-term impact of CO 2 leakage from underground storage sites on subsurface biogeochemistry. We considered two sites with elevated CO 2 levels (sample groups I and II) and one control site with low CO 2 content (group III). Samples from sites with elevated CO 2 had pH ranging from 6.2 to 4.5 and samples from the low-CO 2 control group had pH ranging from 7.3 to 6.2. Solute concentrations were relatively low for samples from the control group and group I but high for samples from group II, reflecting varying degrees of water-rock interaction. Microbial communities were analyzed through clone library and MiSeq sequencing. Each 16S rRNA analysis identified various bacteria, methane-producing archaea, and ammonia-oxidizing archaea. Both bacterial and archaeal diversities were low in groundwater with high CO 2 content and community compositions between the groups were also clearly different. In group II samples, sequences classified in groups capable of methanogenesis, metal reduction, and nitrate reduction had higher relative abundance in samples with relative high methane, iron, and manganese concentrations and low nitrate levels. Sequences close to Comamonadaceae were abundant in group I, while the taxa related to methanogens, Nitrospirae , and Anaerolineaceae were predominant in group II. Our findings provide insight into subsurface biogeochemical reactions that influence the carbon budget of the system including carbon fixation, carbon trapping, and CO 2 conversion to methane. The results also suggest that monitoring groundwater microbial community can be a potential tool for tracking CO 2

  13. Geochemical Influence on Microbial Communities at CO2-Leakage Analog Sites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baknoon Ham

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Microorganisms influence the chemical and physical properties of subsurface environments and thus represent an important control on the fate and environmental impact of CO2 that leaks into aquifers from deep storage reservoirs. How leakage will influence microbial populations over long time scales is largely unknown. This study uses natural analog sites to investigate the long-term impact of CO2 leakage from underground storage sites on subsurface biogeochemistry. We considered two sites with elevated CO2 levels (sample groups I and II and one control site with low CO2 content (group III. Samples from sites with elevated CO2 had pH ranging from 6.2 to 4.5 and samples from the low-CO2 control group had pH ranging from 7.3 to 6.2. Solute concentrations were relatively low for samples from the control group and group I but high for samples from group II, reflecting varying degrees of water-rock interaction. Microbial communities were analyzed through clone library and MiSeq sequencing. Each 16S rRNA analysis identified various bacteria, methane-producing archaea, and ammonia-oxidizing archaea. Both bacterial and archaeal diversities were low in groundwater with high CO2 content and community compositions between the groups were also clearly different. In group II samples, sequences classified in groups capable of methanogenesis, metal reduction, and nitrate reduction had higher relative abundance in samples with relative high methane, iron, and manganese concentrations and low nitrate levels. Sequences close to Comamonadaceae were abundant in group I, while the taxa related to methanogens, Nitrospirae, and Anaerolineaceae were predominant in group II. Our findings provide insight into subsurface biogeochemical reactions that influence the carbon budget of the system including carbon fixation, carbon trapping, and CO2 conversion to methane. The results also suggest that monitoring groundwater microbial community can be a potential tool for tracking

  14. Streptomyces communities in soils polluted with heavy metals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grishko, V. N.; Syshchikova, O. V.

    2009-02-01

    The contents of differently mobile heavy metal compounds and their influence on the formation of microbial cenoses (particularly, streptomyces communities) in technogenically disturbed soils are considered. Elevated concentrations of mobile Cu, Zn, Ni, Cd, and Fe compounds are shown to determine structural-functional changes in microbial cenoses that are displayed in a decreasing number of microorganisms and a narrower spectrum of the streptomyces species. Some specific features of the formation of streptomyces communities in technogenic soils were revealed on the basis of the analysis of their species structure with the use of the Margalef, Berger-Parker, and Sorensen indices of biodiversity.

  15. Factors influencing motivation and job satisfaction among supervisors of community health workers in marginalized communities in South Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akintola, Olagoke; Chikoko, Gamuchirai

    2016-09-06

    Management and supervision of community health workers are factors that are critical to the success of community health worker programmes. Yet few studies have explored the perspectives of supervisors in these programmes. This study explored factors influencing motivations of supervisors in community health worker programmes. We conducted qualitative interviews with 26 programme staff providing supervision to community health workers in eight community-based organizations in marginalized communities in the greater Durban area of South Africa from July 2010 to September 2011. Findings show that all the supervisors had previous experience working in the health or social services sectors and most started out as unpaid community health workers. Most of the participants were poor women from marginalized communities. Supervisors' activities include the management and supply of material resources, mentoring and training of community health workers, record keeping and report writing. Supervisors were motivated by intrinsic factors like making a difference and community appreciation and non-monetary incentives such as promotion to supervisory positions; acquisition of management skills; participation in capacity building and the development of programmes; and support for educational advancement like salary, bonuses and medical benefits. Hygiene factors that serve to prevent dissatisfaction are salaries and financial, medical and educational benefits attached to the supervisory position. Demotivating factors identified are patients' non-adherence to health advice and alienation from decision-making. Dissatisfiers include working in crime-prevalent communities, remuneration for community health workers (CHWs), problems with material and logistical resources, job insecurity, work-related stressors and navigating the interface between CHWs and management. While participants were dissatisfied with their low remuneration, they were not demotivated but continued to be motivated

  16. A preliminary evaluation of the validity of binge-eating disorder defining features in a community-based sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Kelly M; Forney, K Jean; Keel, Pamela K

    2016-05-01

    Little empirical attention has been paid to the DSM-5 definition of binge-eating disorder (BED), particularly to the associated features of binge episodes. The present study sought to determine how the associated features and undue influence of weight/shape on self-evaluation contribute to evidence of a clinically significant eating disorder. Secondary analyses were conducted on data (N = 80; 76.3% women, 76.3% Caucasian, ages 18-43) collected through an epidemiological study of eating patterns. Descriptive statistics were used to report the sample prevalence of the features, independently and in combination. Correlations and alpha reliability were employed to examine relationships among associated features, distress regarding bingeing, and clinical diagnosis. Regression models and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the utility of the features for explaining variance in distress. Internal consistency reliability for indicators was low, and several features demonstrated low or nonsignificant associations with distress and diagnosis. Feeling disgusted/depressed/guilty was the only unique predictor of distress (p = 0.001). For the ROC curves, three features was the best threshold for predicting distress. Results support the need to refine the features to ensure better detection of clinically significant eating pathology for research inclusion and treatment of the illness. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2016; 49:524-528). © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  17. Clay minerals and metal oxides strongly influence the structure of alkane-degrading microbial communities during soil maturation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinbach, Annelie; Schulz, Stefanie; Giebler, Julia; Schulz, Stephan; Pronk, Geertje J; Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid; Harms, Hauke; Wick, Lukas Y; Schloter, Michael

    2015-07-01

    Clay minerals, charcoal and metal oxides are essential parts of the soil matrix and strongly influence the formation of biogeochemical interfaces in soil. We investigated the role of these parental materials for the development of functional microbial guilds using the example of alkane-degrading bacteria harbouring the alkane monooxygenase gene (alkB) in artificial mixtures composed of different minerals and charcoal, sterile manure and a microbial inoculum extracted from an agricultural soil. We followed changes in abundance and community structure of alkane-degrading microbial communities after 3 and 12 months of soil maturation and in response to a subsequent 2-week plant litter addition. During maturation we observed an overall increasing divergence in community composition. The impact of metal oxides on alkane-degrading community structure increased during soil maturation, whereas the charcoal impact decreased from 3 to 12 months. Among the clay minerals illite influenced the community structure of alkB-harbouring bacteria significantly, but not montmorillonite. The litter application induced strong community shifts in soils, maturated for 12 months, towards functional guilds typical for younger maturation stages pointing to a resilience of the alkane-degradation function potentially fostered by an extant 'seed bank'.

  18. Designing healthy communities: creating evidence on metrics for built environment features associated with walkable neighbourhood activity centres.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gunn, Lucy Dubrelle; Mavoa, Suzanne; Boulangé, Claire; Hooper, Paula; Kavanagh, Anne; Giles-Corti, Billie

    2017-12-04

    Evidence-based metrics are needed to inform urban policy to create healthy walkable communities. Most active living research has developed metrics of the environment around residential addresses, ignoring other important walking locations. Therefore, this study examined: metrics for built environment features surrounding local shopping centres, (known in Melbourne, Australia as neighbourhood activity centres (NACs) which are typically anchored by a supermarket); the association between NACs and transport walking; and, policy compliance for supermarket provision. In this observational study, cluster analysis was used to categorize 534 NACs in Melbourne, Australia by their built environment features. The NACS were linked to eligible Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel Activity 2009-2010 (VISTA) survey participants (n=19,984). Adjusted multilevel logistic regressions estimated associations between each cluster typology and two outcomes of daily walking: any transport walking; and, any 'neighbourhood' transport walking. Distance between residential dwellings and closest NAC was assessed to evaluate compliance with local planning policy on supermarket locations. Metrics for 19 built environment features were estimated and three NAC clusters associated with walkability were identified. NACs with significantly higher street connectivity (mean:161, SD:20), destination diversity (mean:16, SD:0.4); and net residential density (mean:77, SD:65) were interpreted as being 'highly walkable' when compared with 'low walkable' NACs, which had lower street connectivity (mean:57, SD:15); destination diversity (mean:11, SD:3); and net residential density (mean:10, SD:3). The odds of any daily transport walking was 5.85 times higher (95% CI: 4.22, 8.11), and for any 'neighborhood' transport walking 8.66 (95% CI: 5.89, 12.72) times higher, for residents whose closest NAC was highly walkable compared with those living near low walkable NACs. Only highly walkable NACs met the policy

  19. When do plant radiations influence community assembly? The importance of historical contingency in the race for niche space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanentzap, Andrew J; Brandt, Angela J; Smissen, Rob D; Heenan, Peter B; Fukami, Tadashi; Lee, William G

    2015-07-01

    Plant radiations are widespread but their influence on community assembly has rarely been investigated. Theory and some evidence suggest that radiations can allow lineages to monopolize niche space when founding species arrive early into new bioclimatic regions and exploit ecological opportunities. These early radiations may subsequently reduce niche availability and dampen diversification of later arrivals. We tested this hypothesis of time-dependent lineage diversification and community dominance using the alpine flora of New Zealand. We estimated ages of 16 genera from published phylogenies and determined their relative occurrence across climatic and physical gradients in the alpine zone. We used these data to reconstruct occupancy of environmental space through time, integrating palaeoclimatic and palaeogeological changes. Our analysis suggested that earlier-colonizing lineages encountered a greater availability of environmental space, which promoted greater species diversity and occupancy of niche space. Genera that occupied broader niches were subsequently more dominant in local communities. An earlier time of arrival also contributed to greater diversity independently of its influence in accessing niche space. We suggest that plant radiations influence community assembly when they arise early in the occupancy of environmental space, allowing them to exclude later-arriving colonists from ecological communities by niche preemption. © 2015 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2015 New Phytologist Trust.

  20. Influence of tritium aging on kinetics feature of LaNi4.9Al0.1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xiong Yifu; Luo Deli; Li Rong

    2001-01-01

    Kinetics parameters were measured at different aging time on LaNi 4.9 Al 0.1 alloy. The influence of tritium aging on kinetics feature of LaNi 4.9 Al 0.1 alloy was assessed. The results show that tritium aging does not change deuterating-dedeuterating reaction order. Reaction rate decrease with aging time. Activation energy (E) increases with aging time

  1. Influence of soil zinc concentrations on zinc sensitivity and functional diversity of microbial communities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lock, K.; Janssen, C.R.

    2005-01-01

    Pollution induced community tolerance (PICT) is based on the phenomenon that toxic effects reduce survival of the most sensitive organisms, thus increasing community tolerance. Community tolerance for a contaminant is thus a strong indicator for the presence of that contaminant at the level of adverse concentrations. Here we assessed PICT in 11 soils contaminated with zinc runoff from galvanised electricity pylons and 11 reference soils sampled at 10 m distance from these pylons. Using PICT, the influence of background concentration and bioavailability of zinc on zinc sensitivity and functional diversity of microbial communities was assessed. Zinc sensitivity of microbial communities decreased significantly with increasing zinc concentrations in pore water and calcium chloride extracted fraction while no significant relationship was found with total zinc concentration in the soil. It was also found that functional diversity of microbial communities decreased with increasing zinc concentrations, indicating that increased tolerance is indeed an undesirable phenomenon when environmental quality is considered. The hypothesis that zinc sensitivity of microbial communities is related to background zinc concentration in pore water could not be confirmed. - Zinc sensitivity of microbial communities and functional diversity decrease with increasing zinc concentration in the pore water

  2. The influence of social capital towards the quality of community tourism services in Lake Toba Parapat North Sumatera

    Science.gov (United States)

    Revida, Erika; Yanti Siahaan, Asima; Purba, Sukarman

    2018-03-01

    The objective of the research was to analyze the influence of social capital towards the quality of community tourism service In Lake Toba Parapat North Sumatera. The method used the combination between quantitative and qualitative research. Sample was taken from the Community in the area around Lake Toba Parapat North Sumatera with sample of 150 head of the family. The sampling technique was Simple Random Sampling. Data collection techniques used documentary studies, questionnaires, interview and observations, while the data analysis used were Product Moment and Simple Linear Regression analysis. The results of the research showed that there were positive and significant influence between Social Capital and the Quality of Community Tourism Services in Lake Toba Parapat North Sumatera. This research recommend the need to enhance Social Capital such as trust, norms and network and the quality of community tourism services such as Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy by giving communications, information and education continuously from the families, institutions formal and informal, community leaders, religious figures and all communities in Lake Toba Parapat North Sumatera.

  3. Perceptions That Influence the Maintenance of Scientific Integrity in Community-Based Participatory Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kraemer Diaz, Anne E.; Spears Johnson, Chaya R.; Arcury, Thomas A.

    2015-01-01

    Scientific integrity is necessary for strong science; yet many variables can influence scientific integrity. In traditional research, some common threats are the pressure to publish, competition for funds, and career advancement. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) provides a different context for scientific integrity with additional and…

  4. Salt Marsh development studies at Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts: Influence of geomorphology on long-term plant community structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orson, Richard A.; Howes, Brian L.

    1992-11-01

    Stochastic events relating to beach formation and inlet dynamics have been the major factors influencing the development of the Waquoit Bay tidal marshes. This results from the physical structure of the Waquoit Bay system where tidal exchange is limited to one or two small inlets and is in contrast to marsh development in nearby Barnstable Marsh where direct unrestricted exchange with Cape Cod Bay has smoothed the effects of stochastic events on vegetation development. We contend that vegetation development in salt marshes where connections to adjacent waters are restricted will be dominated by abiotic factors (e.g. storms, sedimentation rates, etc.) while those marshes directly linked to open bodies of water and where alterations to hydrodynamic factors are gradual, autecological processes (e.g. interspecific competition) will dominate long-term plant community development. The results from the five marsh systems within the Waquoit Bay complex suggest that once a vegetation change occurs the new community tended to persist for long periods of time (100's-1000's years). Stability of the 'new' community appeared to depend upon the stability of the physical structure of the system and/or time between perturbations necessary to allow the slower autecological processes to have a discernable effect. In order for the plant community to persist as long as observed, the vegetation must also be exerting an influence on the processes of development. Increased production of roots and rhizomes and growth characteristics (density of culms) are some of the factors which help to maintain long-term species dominance. It is clear from this investigation that the structure of the plant community at any one point in time is dependent upon numerous factors including historical developmental influences. To properly assess changes to the present plant community or determine recent rates of accretion, historic developmental trends must be considered. The factors that have influenced the

  5. Plant and Bird Presence Strongly Influences the Microbial Communities in Soils of Admiralty Bay, Maritime Antarctica

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teixeira, Lia C. R. S.; Yeargeau, Etienne; Balieiro, Fabiano C.; Piccolo, Marisa C.; Peixoto, Raquel S.; Greer, Charles W.; Rosado, Alexandre S.

    2013-01-01

    Understanding the environmental factors that shape microbial communities is crucial, especially in extreme environments, like Antarctica. Two main forces were reported to influence Antarctic soil microbes: birds and plants. Both birds and plants are currently undergoing relatively large changes in their distribution and abundance due to global warming. However, we need to clearly understand the relationship between plants, birds and soil microorganisms. We therefore collected rhizosphere and bulk soils from six different sampling sites subjected to different levels of bird influence and colonized by Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Maritime Antarctic. Microarray and qPCR assays targeting 16S rRNA genes of specific taxa were used to assess microbial community structure, composition and abundance and analyzed with a range of soil physico-chemical parameters. The results indicated significant rhizosphere effects in four out of the six sites, including areas with different levels of bird influence. Acidobacteria were significantly more abundant in soils with little bird influence (low nitrogen) and in bulk soil. In contrast, Actinobacteria were significantly more abundant in the rhizosphere of both plant species. At two of the sampling sites under strong bird influence (penguin colonies), Firmicutes were significantly more abundant in D. antarctica rhizosphere but not in C. quitensis rhizosphere. The Firmicutes were also positively and significantly correlated to the nitrogen concentrations in the soil. We conclude that the microbial communities in Antarctic soils are driven both by bird and plants, and that the effect is taxa-specific. PMID:23840411

  6. Plant and bird presence strongly influences the microbial communities in soils of Admiralty Bay, Maritime Antarctica.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teixeira, Lia C R S; Yeargeau, Etienne; Balieiro, Fabiano C; Piccolo, Marisa C; Peixoto, Raquel S; Greer, Charles W; Rosado, Alexandre S

    2013-01-01

    Understanding the environmental factors that shape microbial communities is crucial, especially in extreme environments, like Antarctica. Two main forces were reported to influence Antarctic soil microbes: birds and plants. Both birds and plants are currently undergoing relatively large changes in their distribution and abundance due to global warming. However, we need to clearly understand the relationship between plants, birds and soil microorganisms. We therefore collected rhizosphere and bulk soils from six different sampling sites subjected to different levels of bird influence and colonized by Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Maritime Antarctic. Microarray and qPCR assays targeting 16S rRNA genes of specific taxa were used to assess microbial community structure, composition and abundance and analyzed with a range of soil physico-chemical parameters. The results indicated significant rhizosphere effects in four out of the six sites, including areas with different levels of bird influence. Acidobacteria were significantly more abundant in soils with little bird influence (low nitrogen) and in bulk soil. In contrast, Actinobacteria were significantly more abundant in the rhizosphere of both plant species. At two of the sampling sites under strong bird influence (penguin colonies), Firmicutes were significantly more abundant in D. antarctica rhizosphere but not in C. quitensis rhizosphere. The Firmicutes were also positively and significantly correlated to the nitrogen concentrations in the soil. We conclude that the microbial communities in Antarctic soils are driven both by bird and plants, and that the effect is taxa-specific.

  7. Plant and bird presence strongly influences the microbial communities in soils of Admiralty Bay, Maritime Antarctica.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lia C R S Teixeira

    Full Text Available Understanding the environmental factors that shape microbial communities is crucial, especially in extreme environments, like Antarctica. Two main forces were reported to influence Antarctic soil microbes: birds and plants. Both birds and plants are currently undergoing relatively large changes in their distribution and abundance due to global warming. However, we need to clearly understand the relationship between plants, birds and soil microorganisms. We therefore collected rhizosphere and bulk soils from six different sampling sites subjected to different levels of bird influence and colonized by Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Maritime Antarctic. Microarray and qPCR assays targeting 16S rRNA genes of specific taxa were used to assess microbial community structure, composition and abundance and analyzed with a range of soil physico-chemical parameters. The results indicated significant rhizosphere effects in four out of the six sites, including areas with different levels of bird influence. Acidobacteria were significantly more abundant in soils with little bird influence (low nitrogen and in bulk soil. In contrast, Actinobacteria were significantly more abundant in the rhizosphere of both plant species. At two of the sampling sites under strong bird influence (penguin colonies, Firmicutes were significantly more abundant in D. antarctica rhizosphere but not in C. quitensis rhizosphere. The Firmicutes were also positively and significantly correlated to the nitrogen concentrations in the soil. We conclude that the microbial communities in Antarctic soils are driven both by bird and plants, and that the effect is taxa-specific.

  8. Do Online Voting Patterns Reflect Evolved Features of Human Cognition? An Exploratory Empirical Investigation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Priestley

    Full Text Available Online votes or ratings can assist internet users in evaluating the credibility and appeal of the information which they encounter. For example, aggregator websites such as Reddit allow users to up-vote submitted content to make it more prominent, and down-vote content to make it less prominent. Here we argue that decisions over what to up- or down-vote may be guided by evolved features of human cognition. We predict that internet users should be more likely to up-vote content that others have also up-voted (social influence, content that has been submitted by particularly liked or respected users (model-based bias, content that constitutes evolutionarily salient or relevant information (content bias, and content that follows group norms and, in particular, prosocial norms. 489 respondents from the online social voting community Reddit rated the extent to which they felt different traits influenced their voting. Statistical analyses confirmed that norm-following and prosociality, as well as various content biases such as emotional content and originality, were rated as important motivators of voting. Social influence had a smaller effect than expected, while attitudes towards the submitter had little effect. This exploratory empirical investigation suggests that online voting communities can provide an important test-bed for evolutionary theories of human social information use, and that evolved features of human cognition may guide online behaviour just as it guides behaviour in the offline world.

  9. Do Online Voting Patterns Reflect Evolved Features of Human Cognition? An Exploratory Empirical Investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Priestley, Maria; Mesoudi, Alex

    2015-01-01

    Online votes or ratings can assist internet users in evaluating the credibility and appeal of the information which they encounter. For example, aggregator websites such as Reddit allow users to up-vote submitted content to make it more prominent, and down-vote content to make it less prominent. Here we argue that decisions over what to up- or down-vote may be guided by evolved features of human cognition. We predict that internet users should be more likely to up-vote content that others have also up-voted (social influence), content that has been submitted by particularly liked or respected users (model-based bias), content that constitutes evolutionarily salient or relevant information (content bias), and content that follows group norms and, in particular, prosocial norms. 489 respondents from the online social voting community Reddit rated the extent to which they felt different traits influenced their voting. Statistical analyses confirmed that norm-following and prosociality, as well as various content biases such as emotional content and originality, were rated as important motivators of voting. Social influence had a smaller effect than expected, while attitudes towards the submitter had little effect. This exploratory empirical investigation suggests that online voting communities can provide an important test-bed for evolutionary theories of human social information use, and that evolved features of human cognition may guide online behaviour just as it guides behaviour in the offline world.

  10. Is one enough? The case for non-additive influences of visual features on crossmodal Stroop interference

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lawrence Gregory Appelbaum

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available When different perceptual signals arising from the same physical entity are integrated, they form a more reliable sensory estimate. When such repetitive sensory signals are pitted against other competing stimuli, such as in a Stroop Task, this redundancy may lead to stronger processing that biases behavior towards reporting the redundant stimuli. This bias would therefore be expected to evoke greater incongruency effects than if these stimuli did not contain redundant sensory features. In the present paper we report that this is not the case for a set of three crossmodal, auditory-visual Stroop tasks. In these tasks participants attended to, and reported, either the visual or the auditory stimulus (in separate blocks while ignoring the other, unattended modality. The visual component of these stimuli could be purely semantic (words, purely perceptual (colors, or the combination of both. Based on previous work showing enhanced crossmodal integration and visual search gains for redundantly coded stimuli, we had expected that relative to the single features, redundant visual features would have induced both greater visual distracter incongruency effects for attended auditory targets, and been less influenced by auditory distracters for attended visual targets. Overall, reaction time were faster for visual targets and were dominated by behavioral facilitation for the cross-modal interactions (relative to interference, but showed surprisingly little influence of visual feature redundancy. Post hoc analyses revealed modest and trending evidence for possible increases in behavioral interference for redundant visual distracters on auditory targets, however, these effects were substantially smaller than anticipated and were not accompanied by redundancy effect for behavioral facilitation or for attended visual targets.

  11. Community influences on modern contraceptive use among young women in low and middle-income countries: a cross-sectional multi-country analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mutumba, Massy; Wekesa, Eliud; Stephenson, Rob

    2018-04-02

    Despite investment in family planning programs and education, unmet need for family planning remains high among young women (aged 15-24) in low and middle-income countries, increasing the risk for unwanted pregnancies and adverse social and reproductive health outcomes. There is a dearth of cross-national research that identifies the differential impact of community level factors among youth in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), which is imperative for the design of structural level interventions aimed at increasing family planning use. Grounded in the socio-ecological framework, this paper utilizes Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) from 52 LMICs to examine the influence of community level reproductive, gender, fertility, literacy and economic indicators on modern contraceptive use among female youth. Analyses are conducted using multi-level logistic regressions with random community-level effects. Our findings highlight the positive influence of community level education attainment and negative influence of gender and fertility related norms on young women's contraceptive use. Additionally, increased exposure to mass media did not positively influence young women's uptake of modern contraceptive methods. Taken together, findings indicate that young women's contraceptive decision-making is greatly shaped by their social contexts. The commonalities and regional variations in community level influences provide support for both structural level interventions and tailored regional approaches to family planning interventions.

  12. The Community's research and development programme on decommissioning of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1982-01-01

    The programme, adopted by the Council of the European Communities, seeks to promote a number of research and development projects as well as the identification of guiding principles. The projects concern the following subjects: long-term integrity of buildings and systems; decontaminations for decommissioning purposes; dismantling techniques; treatment of specific waste materials (steel, concrete and graphite); large transport containers for radioactive waste arising from decommissioning of nuclear power plants in the Community; and influence of nuclear power plant design features on decommissioning

  13. Exploring the Relation between Prenatal and Neonatal Complications and Later Autistic-Like Features in a Representative Community Sample of Twins

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ronald, Angelica; Happe, Francesca; Dworzynski, Katharina; Bolton, Patrick; Plomin, Robert

    2010-01-01

    Prenatal and neonatal events were reported by parents of 13,690 eighteen-month-old twins enrolled in the Twins Early Development Study, a representative community sample born in England and Wales. At ages 7-8, parents and teachers completed questionnaires on social and nonsocial autistic-like features and parents completed the Childhood Asperger…

  14. The Influence of Age and Gender on Skin-Associated Microbial Communities in Urban and Rural Human Populations

    OpenAIRE

    Ying, Shi; Zeng, Dan-Ning; Chi, Liang; Tan, Yuan; Galzote, Carlos; Cardona, Cesar; Lax, Simon; Gilbert, Jack; Quan, Zhe-Xue

    2015-01-01

    Differences in the bacterial community structure associated with 7 skin sites in 71 healthy people over five days showed significant correlations with age, gender, physical skin parameters, and whether participants lived in urban or rural locations in the same city. While body site explained the majority of the variance in bacterial community structure, the composition of the skin-associated bacterial communities were predominantly influenced by whether the participants were living in an urba...

  15. The Social Acceptance of Community Solar: A Portland Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weaver, Anne

    exhibited interest in community solar enrollment. The logistic regression model revealed the percent change in utility bill (essentially the rate of return on the community solar investment) as a dramatically influential variable predicting willingness to participate. Community solar project scenarios also had a strong influence on willingness to participate: larger, cheaper, and distant projects were preferred over small and expensive local projects. Results indicate that community solar project features that accentuate affordability are most important to energy consumers. Additionally, demographic characteristics that were strongly correlated with willingness to enroll were politically liberal ideologies, higher incomes, current enrollment in green utility programs, and membership in an environmental organization. Thus, the market acceptance of community solar in Portland will potentially be broadened by emphasizing affordability over other features, such as community and locality. Additionally, I explored attitudinal influences on interest in community solar by conducting exploratory factor analysis on attitudes towards energy, climate change, and solar barriers and subsequently conducting binomial logistic regression models. Results found that perceiving renewable energy as environmentally beneficial was positively correlated with intent to enroll in community solar, which supported the notion that environmental attitudes will lead to environmental behaviors. The logistic regression model also revealed a negative correlation between community solar interest and negative attitudes towards renewable energy. Perceptions of solar barriers were mild, indicating that lack of an enabling mechanism may be the reason solar continues to be underutilized in this region.

  16. Processes influencing rainfall features in the Amazonian region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerken, T.; Chamecki, M.; Fuentes, J. D.; Katul, G. G.; Fitzjarrald, D. R.; Manzi, A. O.; Nascimento dos Santos, R. M.; von Randow, C.; Stoy, P. C.; Tota, J.; Trowbridge, A.; Schumacher, C.; Machado, L.

    2014-12-01

    The Amazon is globally unique as it experiences the deepest atmospheric convection with important teleconnections to other parts of the Earth's climate system. In the Amazon Basin a large fraction of the local evapotranspiration is recycled through the formation of deep convective precipitating storms. Deep convection occurs due to moist thermodynamic conditions associated with elevated amounts of convective available potential energy. Aerosols invigorate the formation of convective storms in the Amazon via their unique concentrations, physical size, and chemical composition to activate into cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), but important aspects of aerosol/precipitation feedbacks remain unresolved. During the wet season, low atmospheric aerosol concentrations prevail in the pristine tropical air masses. These conditions have led to the Green Ocean hypothesis, which compares the clean tropical air to maritime air-masses and emphasizes biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks, to explain the features of the convective-type rainfall events in the Amazon. Field studies have been designed to investigate these relationships and the development of mesoscale convective systems through the Green Ocean Amazon project and the GOAmazon Boundary Layer Experiment. From March to October 2014 a field experiment was conducted at the Cuieiras Biological Reserve (2°51' S, 54°58' W), 80 km north of the city of Manaus, Brazil. This investigation spans the biological, chemical, and physical conditions influencing emissions and reactions of precursors (biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compounds, VOCs), formation of aerosols and CCNs and transport out of the ABL, and their role in cloud formation and precipitation triggers. In this presentation we will show results on the magnitude turbulent fluxes of latent and sensible heat, CCN concentrations, and rain droplet size distribution for both the wet and dry season. Such influencing factors on precipitation, will be contrasted with the

  17. Saraniyadhamma Community knowledge Incubator area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siripong Arundechachai

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The purposes of this research were to 1 study the situation of the community knowledge incubator area at the past to the present time in Banhad,Tambon banhad, Amphoe banhad Changwat KhonKaen, 2 study guidelines Buddhadhamma “Saraniyadhamma” revised by Community knowledge application Banhad, Tambon banhad, Amphoe banhad Changwat KhonKaen, 3 study workflow of Saraniyadhamma that led to the creation of the network community knowledge incubator area together with another community. The target groups used in this research of the purposive sampling family farmers of 10, in Tambon banhad,Amphoe banhad Changwat KhonKaen. the Qualitative research.was used in this Study The results showed that 1 diversing issues in the Community live action of the relationships or occupations experience can be passed down, as well as the risk of loss the relationships between the people and people, people and supernatural. After people and nature lost in the community, but thay Continue to Perform, because community has strengths given the importance of all, to themselves, to others, generous, generosity, mounting traditions, Led to the creation Community Knowledge Incubator 2 adopting Buddhism’s “Saraniyadhamma 6” that applied to community Knowledge Incubator by giving to make immunity community. Strong The six fetures, were Principle 1: Metta-kayakamma, feature on sacrifiction, unity and synergy. Principle 2: Metta-manokamma, feature on mercifulness, collective sacrification. Principle 3: Metta-kayakamma, feature on good things, speak well, good action. Principle 4: Sadharana-bhogi, feature on humane society, mutual respect. Principle 5 Sila-samannata, feature on, follow the rules of society. Principle 5 Metta-manokamma feature on rationality, listening to the opinion of others. It found that there were process-driven learning and following six rules of saraniyadhamma, and immunity system, risk Decoupled. 3 Networks Saraniyadhamma learnt together with other

  18. Beliefs influencing community pharmacists' interventions with chronic kidney disease patients: A theory-based qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quintana-Bárcena, Patricia; Lalonde, Lyne; Lauzier, Sophie

    2018-04-06

    Drug-related problems (DRPs) are highly prevalent in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Community pharmacists are ideally positioned to manage these DRPs. However, little is known about the factors influencing their interventions with CKD patients. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this qualitative study sought to: (1) explore the behavioral beliefs (perceived advantages and disadvantages), normative beliefs (perceived expectations of significant others) and control beliefs (perceived barriers and facilitators) influencing community pharmacists' interventions related to identifying and managing DRPs in CKD; and (2) compare these beliefs among three DRPs prevalent in CKD patients. Community pharmacists in Quebec, Canada participated in face-to-face individual semi-structured interviews. The topic guide was based on the TPB. Three vignettes were presented to stimulate community pharmacists' thoughts about their interventions regarding: (1) the use of an inappropriate over-the-counter laxative; (2) prescriptions of anti-inflammatory medications; and (3) non-adherence to antihypertensive medication. Integral transcripts of audio recordings were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings on each of the three DRPs were systematically compared. Fifteen community pharmacists participated in the study. All expressed a positive attitude toward DRP management, mentioning advantages such as gaining the patient's loyalty as a client and avoiding CKD complications. Participants mentioned that patients and physicians generally approve their interventions, but the dynamics of these relationships may vary depending on the DRP. Common barriers in the management of the three DRPs were the pharmacists' limited time and heavy workloads. The pharmacists felt that the main disadvantage is that these interventions interrupt the workflow in the pharmacy. Community pharmacists hold positive views of their interventions in CKD. However, enhancing community pharmacists

  19. How perceptions of community environment influence health behaviours: using the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity Framework as a mechanism for exploration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nieuwendyk, L M; Belon, A P; Vallianatos, H; Raine, K D; Schopflocher, D; Spence, J C; Plotnikoff, R C; Nykiforuk, C I

    2016-09-01

    Overweight and obesity are influenced by a complex interplay of individual and environmental factors that affect physical activity and healthy eating. Nevertheless, little has been reported on people's perceptions of those factors. Addressing this critical gap and community partner needs, this study explored how people perceived the influence of micro- and macroenvironmental factors on physical activity and healthy eating. Community partners wanted the study results in a format that would be readily and easily used by local decision makers. We used photovoice to engage 35 community members across four municipalities in Alberta, Canada, and to share their narratives about their physical activity and healthy eating. A combination of inductive and deductive analysis categorized data by environmental level (micro vs. macro) and type (physical, political, economic, and sociocultural), guided by the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity Framework. Participants conceptualized health-influencing factors more broadly than physical activity and healthy eating to include "community social health." Participants spoke most often about the influence of the microenvironment (n = 792 ANGELO Framework coding tallies) on their physical activity, healthy eating and community social health in comparison to the macroenvironment (n = 93). Photovoice results provided a visual narrative to community partners and decision makers about how people's ability to make healthy choices can be limited by macroenvironmental forces beyond their control. Focussing future research on macro- and microenvironmental influences and localized community social health can inform practice by providing strategies on how to implement healthy changes within communities, while ensuring that research and interventions echo diverse people's perceptions.

  20. How perceptions of community environment influence health behaviours: using the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity Framework as a mechanism for exploration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. M. Nieuwendyk

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Overweight and obesity are influenced by a complex interplay of individual and environmental factors that affect physical activity and healthy eating. Nevertheless, little has been reported on people's perceptions of those factors. Addressing this critical gap and community partner needs, this study explored how people perceived the influence of micro- and macroenvironmental factors on physical activity and healthy eating. Methods: Community partners wanted the study results in a format that would be readily and easily used by local decision makers. We used photovoice to engage 35 community members across four municipalities in Alberta, Canada, and to share their narratives about their physical activity and healthy eating. A combination of inductive and deductive analysis categorized data by environmental level (micro vs. macro and type (physical, political, economic, and sociocultural, guided by the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity Framework. Results: Participants conceptualized health-influencing factors more broadly than physical activity and healthy eating to include "community social health." Participants spoke most often about the influence of the microenvironment (n = 792 ANGELO Framework coding tallies on their physical activity, healthy eating and community social health in comparison to the macroenvironment (n = 93. Photovoice results provided a visual narrative to community partners and decision makers about how people's ability to make healthy choices can be limited by macroenvironmental forces beyond their control. Conclusion: Focussing future research on macro- and microenvironmental influences and localized community social health can inform practice by providing strategies on how to implement healthy changes within communities, while ensuring that research and interventions echo diverse people's perceptions.

  1. Influence of flooding and landform properties on riparian plant communities in an old-growth northern hardwood watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    P. Charles Goebel; Kurt S. Pregitzer; Brian J. Palik

    2012-01-01

    In most forested landscapes, the organization of plant communities across stream valleys is thought to be regulated by a complex set of interactions including flooding, landform properties, and vegetation. However, few studies have directly examined the relative influence of frequent and infrequent flooding, as well as landform properties, on riparian plant community...

  2. Perceptions that influence the maintenance of scientific integrity in community-based participatory research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kraemer Diaz, Anne E; Spears Johnson, Chaya R; Arcury, Thomas A

    2015-06-01

    Scientific integrity is necessary for strong science; yet many variables can influence scientific integrity. In traditional research, some common threats are the pressure to publish, competition for funds, and career advancement. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) provides a different context for scientific integrity with additional and unique concerns. Understanding the perceptions that promote or discourage scientific integrity in CBPR as identified by professional and community investigators is essential to promoting the value of CBPR. This analysis explores the perceptions that facilitate scientific integrity in CBPR as well as the barriers among a sample of 74 professional and community CBPR investigators from 25 CBPR projects in nine states in the southeastern United States in 2012. There were variations in perceptions associated with team member identity as professional or community investigators. Perceptions identified to promote and discourage scientific integrity in CBPR by professional and community investigators were external pressures, community participation, funding, quality control and supervision, communication, training, and character and trust. Some perceptions such as communication and training promoted scientific integrity whereas other perceptions, such as a lack of funds and lack of trust could discourage scientific integrity. These results demonstrate that one of the most important perceptions in maintaining scientific integrity in CBPR is active community participation, which enables a co-responsibility by scientists and community members to provide oversight for scientific integrity. Credible CBPR science is crucial to empower the vulnerable communities to be heard by those in positions of power and policy making. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

  3. Influence of tropical leaf litter on nitrogen mineralization and community structure of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diallo, MD.

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Description of the subject. The present study concerns the relationships among leaf litter decomposition, substrate quality, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB community composition and nitrogen (N availability. Decomposition of organic matter affects the biogeochemical cycling of carbon (C and N. Since the composition of the soil microbial community can alter the physiological capacity of the community, it is timely to study the litter quality effect on N dynamic in ecosystems. Objectives. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of leaf litter decomposition on N mineralization. The specific objectives of this study were to evaluate the influence of the litter biochemistry of five plants species (Faidherbia albida A.Chev., Azadirachta indica A.Juss., Casuarina equisetifolia L., Andropogon gayanus Kunth and Eragrostis tremula Hochst. ex Steud. on N mineralization in a tropical ferrous soil (Lixisol, nitrification, and genetic diversity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE of amplified fragments of genes coding for 16S rRNA was used to study the development of bacterial communities during decomposition of leaf litter in soils. Method. Community structure of AOB was determined at two time periods: day 0 and day 140. Ten strains were tested and each of these strains produced a single band. Thus, DGGE DNA band patterns were used to estimate bacterial diversity. Plant secondary compounds such as polyphenols are purported to influence nutrient cycling by affecting organic matter degradation, mineralization rates, N availability and humus formation. In a laboratory study, we investigated the influence of six phenolic acids (ferulic, gallic, vanillic, syringic, p-coumaric and p-HBA acids commonly found in the plant residues on N mineralization and NH4+ and NO3- production in soils. Results. The results showed that litter type did affect soil nitrification. Faidherbia albida litter was associated with

  4. The association between peer, parental influence and tobacco product features and earlier age of onset of regular smoking among adults in 27 European countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filippidis, Filippos T; Agaku, Israel T; Vardavas, Constantine I

    2015-10-01

    Factors that influence smoking initiation and age of smoking onset are important considerations in tobacco control. We evaluated European Union (EU)-wide differences in the age of onset of regular smoking, and the potential role of peer, parental and tobacco product design features on the earlier onset of regular smoking among adults influenced their decision to start smoking, including peer influence, parental influence and features of tobacco products. Multi-variable logistic regression, adjusted for age; geographic region; education; difficulty to pay bills; and gender, was used to assess the role of the various pro-tobacco influences on early onset of regular smoking (i.e. influenced by peers (OR = 1.70; 95%CI 1.30-2.20) or parents (OR = 1.60; 95%CI 1.21-2.12) were more likely to have started smoking regularly <18 years old. No significant association between design and marketing features of tobacco products and an early initiation of regular smoking was observed (OR = 1.04; 95%CI 0.83-1.31). We identified major differences in smoking initiation patterns among EU countries, which may warrant different approaches in the prevention of tobacco use. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

  5. Microbes on a Bottle: Substrate, Season and Geography Influence Community Composition of Microbes Colonizing Marine Plastic Debris.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oberbeckmann, Sonja; Osborn, A Mark; Duhaime, Melissa B

    2016-01-01

    Plastic debris pervades in our oceans and freshwater systems and the potential ecosystem-level impacts of this anthropogenic litter require urgent evaluation. Microbes readily colonize aquatic plastic debris and members of these biofilm communities are speculated to include pathogenic, toxic, invasive or plastic degrading-species. The influence of plastic-colonizing microorganisms on the fate of plastic debris is largely unknown, as is the role of plastic in selecting for unique microbial communities. This work aimed to characterize microbial biofilm communities colonizing single-use poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) drinking bottles, determine their plastic-specificity in contrast with seawater and glass-colonizing communities, and identify seasonal and geographical influences on the communities. A substrate recruitment experiment was established in which PET bottles were deployed for 5-6 weeks at three stations in the North Sea in three different seasons. The structure and composition of the PET-colonizing bacterial/archaeal and eukaryotic communities varied with season and station. Abundant PET-colonizing taxa belonged to the phylum Bacteroidetes (e.g. Flavobacteriaceae, Cryomorphaceae, Saprospiraceae-all known to degrade complex carbon substrates) and diatoms (e.g. Coscinodiscophytina, Bacillariophytina). The PET-colonizing microbial communities differed significantly from free-living communities, but from particle-associated (>3 μm) communities or those inhabiting glass substrates. These data suggest that microbial community assembly on plastics is driven by conventional marine biofilm processes, with the plastic surface serving as raft for attachment, rather than selecting for recruitment of plastic-specific microbial colonizers. A small proportion of taxa, notably, members of the Cryomorphaceae and Alcanivoraceae, were significantly discriminant of PET but not glass surfaces, conjuring the possibility that these groups may directly interact with the PET

  6. Microbes on a Bottle: Substrate, Season and Geography Influence Community Composition of Microbes Colonizing Marine Plastic Debris

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osborn, A. Mark

    2016-01-01

    Plastic debris pervades in our oceans and freshwater systems and the potential ecosystem-level impacts of this anthropogenic litter require urgent evaluation. Microbes readily colonize aquatic plastic debris and members of these biofilm communities are speculated to include pathogenic, toxic, invasive or plastic degrading-species. The influence of plastic-colonizing microorganisms on the fate of plastic debris is largely unknown, as is the role of plastic in selecting for unique microbial communities. This work aimed to characterize microbial biofilm communities colonizing single-use poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) drinking bottles, determine their plastic-specificity in contrast with seawater and glass-colonizing communities, and identify seasonal and geographical influences on the communities. A substrate recruitment experiment was established in which PET bottles were deployed for 5–6 weeks at three stations in the North Sea in three different seasons. The structure and composition of the PET-colonizing bacterial/archaeal and eukaryotic communities varied with season and station. Abundant PET-colonizing taxa belonged to the phylum Bacteroidetes (e.g. Flavobacteriaceae, Cryomorphaceae, Saprospiraceae—all known to degrade complex carbon substrates) and diatoms (e.g. Coscinodiscophytina, Bacillariophytina). The PET-colonizing microbial communities differed significantly from free-living communities, but from particle-associated (>3 μm) communities or those inhabiting glass substrates. These data suggest that microbial community assembly on plastics is driven by conventional marine biofilm processes, with the plastic surface serving as raft for attachment, rather than selecting for recruitment of plastic-specific microbial colonizers. A small proportion of taxa, notably, members of the Cryomorphaceae and Alcanivoraceae, were significantly discriminant of PET but not glass surfaces, conjuring the possibility that these groups may directly interact with the

  7. Microbes on a Bottle: Substrate, Season and Geography Influence Community Composition of Microbes Colonizing Marine Plastic Debris.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonja Oberbeckmann

    Full Text Available Plastic debris pervades in our oceans and freshwater systems and the potential ecosystem-level impacts of this anthropogenic litter require urgent evaluation. Microbes readily colonize aquatic plastic debris and members of these biofilm communities are speculated to include pathogenic, toxic, invasive or plastic degrading-species. The influence of plastic-colonizing microorganisms on the fate of plastic debris is largely unknown, as is the role of plastic in selecting for unique microbial communities. This work aimed to characterize microbial biofilm communities colonizing single-use poly(ethylene terephthalate (PET drinking bottles, determine their plastic-specificity in contrast with seawater and glass-colonizing communities, and identify seasonal and geographical influences on the communities. A substrate recruitment experiment was established in which PET bottles were deployed for 5-6 weeks at three stations in the North Sea in three different seasons. The structure and composition of the PET-colonizing bacterial/archaeal and eukaryotic communities varied with season and station. Abundant PET-colonizing taxa belonged to the phylum Bacteroidetes (e.g. Flavobacteriaceae, Cryomorphaceae, Saprospiraceae-all known to degrade complex carbon substrates and diatoms (e.g. Coscinodiscophytina, Bacillariophytina. The PET-colonizing microbial communities differed significantly from free-living communities, but from particle-associated (>3 μm communities or those inhabiting glass substrates. These data suggest that microbial community assembly on plastics is driven by conventional marine biofilm processes, with the plastic surface serving as raft for attachment, rather than selecting for recruitment of plastic-specific microbial colonizers. A small proportion of taxa, notably, members of the Cryomorphaceae and Alcanivoraceae, were significantly discriminant of PET but not glass surfaces, conjuring the possibility that these groups may directly interact

  8. Psychosocial influences on safety climate: evidence from community pharmacies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phipps, Denham L; Ashcroft, Darren M

    2011-12-01

    To examine the relationship between psychosocial job characteristics and safety climate. Cross-sectional survey. Community pharmacies in Great Britain. Participants A random sample of community pharmacists registered in Great Britain (n = 860). Survey instruments Effort-reward imbalance (ERI) indicator and Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ). Main outcome measures Pharmacy Safety Climate Questionnaire (PSCQ). The profile of scores from the ERI indicated a relatively high risk of adverse psychological effects. The profile of scores from the JCQ indicated both high demand on pharmacists and a high level of psychological and social resources to meet these demands. Path analysis confirmed a model in which the ERI and JCQ measures, as well as the type of pharmacy and pharmacist role, predicted responses to the PSCQ (χ(2)(36) = 111.38, p demand) accounted for the effect of job characteristics on safety climate ratings; each had differential effects on the PSCQ scales. The safety climate in community pharmacies is influenced by perceptions of job characteristics, such as the level of job demands and the resources available to meet these demands. Hence, any efforts to improve safety should take into consideration the effect of the psychosocial work environment on safety climate. In addition, there is a need to address the presence of work-related stressors, which have the potential to cause direct or indirect harm to staff and service users. The findings of the current study provide a basis for future research to improve the safety climate and well-being, both in the pharmacy profession and in other healthcare settings.

  9. GBA Variants Influence Motor and Non-Motor Features of Parkinson's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jesús, Silvia; Huertas, Ismael; Bernal-Bernal, Inmaculada; Bonilla-Toribio, Marta; Cáceres-Redondo, María Teresa; Vargas-González, Laura; Gómez-Llamas, Myriam; Carrillo, Fátima; Calderón, Enrique; Carballo, Manuel; Gómez-Garre, Pilar; Mir, Pablo

    2016-01-01

    The presence of mutations in glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene is a known factor increasing the risk of developing Parkinson's disease (PD). Mutations carriers have earlier disease onset and are more likely to develop neuropsychiatric symptoms than other sporadic PD cases. These symptoms have primarily been observed in Parkinson's patients carrying the most common pathogenic mutations L444P and N370S. However, recent findings suggest that other variants across the gene may have a different impact on the phenotype as well as on the disease progression. We aimed to explore the influence of variants across GBA gene on the clinical features and treatment related complications in PD. In this study, we screened the GBA gene in a cohort of 532 well-characterised PD patients and 542 controls from southern Spain. The potential pathogeniticy of the identified variants was assessed using in-silico analysis and subsequently classified as benign or deleterious. As a result, we observed a higher frequency of GBA variants in PD patients (12.2% vs. 7.9% in controls, p = 0.021), earlier mean age at disease onset in GBA variant carriers (50.6 vs. 56.6 years; p = 0.013), as well as more prevalent motor and non-motor symptoms in patients carrying deleterious variants. In addition, we found that dopaminergic motor complications are influenced by both benign and deleterious variants. Our results highlight the fact that the impact on the phenotype highly depends on the potential pathogenicity of the carried variants. Therefore, the course of motor and non-motor symptoms as well as treatment-related motor complications could be influenced by GBA variants.

  10. GBA Variants Influence Motor and Non-Motor Features of Parkinson's Disease.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silvia Jesús

    Full Text Available The presence of mutations in glucocerebrosidase (GBA gene is a known factor increasing the risk of developing Parkinson's disease (PD. Mutations carriers have earlier disease onset and are more likely to develop neuropsychiatric symptoms than other sporadic PD cases. These symptoms have primarily been observed in Parkinson's patients carrying the most common pathogenic mutations L444P and N370S. However, recent findings suggest that other variants across the gene may have a different impact on the phenotype as well as on the disease progression. We aimed to explore the influence of variants across GBA gene on the clinical features and treatment related complications in PD. In this study, we screened the GBA gene in a cohort of 532 well-characterised PD patients and 542 controls from southern Spain. The potential pathogeniticy of the identified variants was assessed using in-silico analysis and subsequently classified as benign or deleterious. As a result, we observed a higher frequency of GBA variants in PD patients (12.2% vs. 7.9% in controls, p = 0.021, earlier mean age at disease onset in GBA variant carriers (50.6 vs. 56.6 years; p = 0.013, as well as more prevalent motor and non-motor symptoms in patients carrying deleterious variants. In addition, we found that dopaminergic motor complications are influenced by both benign and deleterious variants. Our results highlight the fact that the impact on the phenotype highly depends on the potential pathogenicity of the carried variants. Therefore, the course of motor and non-motor symptoms as well as treatment-related motor complications could be influenced by GBA variants.

  11. The Conversion of Social Capital into Community Development: an intervention in Australia's outback.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Onyx, Jenny; Leonard, Rosemary

    2010-01-01

    The research presented in this article employed a deliberate intervention to mobilize social capital and then studied the dynamics of the way in which it influenced community development. Whether or not social capital is able to facilitate development depends on the specific context in which it occurs. Although the general context of this study was that of small rural towns in Australia's outback that are experiencing decline, each of the four towns studied had unique features which could influence the mobilization of social capital. Rural communities have the willingness and capacity to mobilize but whether this capacity is actualized may well depend on the presence of other mobilizing factors. Specifically the intervention study found that a structure needs to be in place which can take the initiative and work across the community - engaging a range of organizations. Second, the structure needs to be supported, but not controlled, by local government. Third, it needs the kind of social entrepreneurship that can sustain a community-wide vision and bring together the diverse groups within the community.

  12. Descriptive features and causal attributions of headache in an Australian community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez, E; Sheffield, J

    1996-04-01

    The reported characteristics and causes of headache differ across individuals and between groups. Such differences are of interest from an epidemiological point of view. This study set out to identify the main descriptive features and causal attributions of headache within an Australian urban community. A sample of 261 subjects reporting headache volunteered to participate in the survey. Subjects completed a self-report questionnaire for assessing demographic variables, headache parameters (intensity, duration, etc), headache medication habits, and perceived causes of one's headache (as in the UK headache survey by Blau, 1990). Results revealed that the typical headache sufferer was a middle-aged employed individual. Migraine versus tension headache were equivalent in number, and on the average, subjects experienced moderate intensity, day-long headaches that recurred about nine times per month. With regard to causal attributions, the prevalence of headaches due to mental stress was higher than that due to any other single stimulus (eg, noise, exercise), and alcohol was the most frequent dietary cause of headache. These findings are generally consistent with those from previous surveys, although some interesting departures emerge which may be accounted for by demographic differences in the populations studied.

  13. Enabling and sustaining the activities of lay health influencers: lessons from a community-based tobacco cessation intervention study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castañeda, Heide; Nichter, Mark; Nichter, Mimi; Muramoto, Myra

    2010-07-01

    The authors present findings from a community-based tobacco cessation project that trained lay health influencers to conduct brief interventions. They outline four major lessons regarding sustainability. First, participants were concerned about the impact that promoting cessation might have on social relationships. "Social risk" must be addressed during training to ensure long-term sustainability. Second, formal training provided participants with an increased sense of self-efficacy, allowed them to embrace a health influencer identity, and aided in further reducing social risk. Third, material resources functioned to mediate social tensions during health intervention conversations. A variety of resources should be made available to health influencers to accommodate type of relationship, timing, and location of the interaction. Finally, project design must be attentive to the creation of a "community of practice" among health influencers as an integral part of project sustainability. These lessons have broad implications for successful health promotion beyond tobacco cessation.

  14. The influence of ecology on chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) cultural behavior: a case study of five Ugandan chimpanzee communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gruber, Thibaud; Potts, Kevin B; Krupenye, Christopher; Byrne, Maisie-Rose; Mackworth-Young, Constance; McGrew, William C; Reynolds, Vernon; Zuberbühler, Klaus

    2012-11-01

    The influence of ecology on the development of behavioral traditions in animals is controversial, particularly for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), for which it is difficult to rule out environmental influences as a cause of widely observed community-specific behavioral differences. Here, we investigated 3 potential scenarios that could explain the natural variation in a key extractive tool behavior, "fluid-dip," among several communities of chimpanzees of the Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii subspecies in Uganda. We compared data from previous behavioral ecological studies, field experiments, and long-term records of chimpanzee tool-using behavior. We focused on the quality of the available food, dietary preferences, and tool sets of 5 different communities, and carried out a standardized field experiment to test systematically for the presence of fluid-dip in 4 of these communities. Our results revealed major differences in habitat, available diet, and tool use behavior between geographically close communities. However, these differences in ecology and feeding behavior failed to explain the differences in tool use across communities. We conclude that ecological variables may lead both to innovation and loss of behavioral traditions, while contributing little to their transmission within the community. Instead, as soon as a behavioral tradition is established, sociocognitive factors likely play a key maintenance role as long as the ecological conditions do not change sufficiently for the tradition to be abandoned.

  15. Influence of matrix type on tree community assemblages along tropical dry forest edges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benítez-Malvido, Julieta; Gallardo-Vásquez, Julio César; Alvarez-Añorve, Mariana Y; Avila-Cabadilla, Luis Daniel

    2014-05-01

    • Anthropogenic habitat edges have strong negative consequences for the functioning of tropical ecosystems. However, edge effects on tropical dry forest tree communities have been barely documented.• In Chamela, Mexico, we investigated the phylogenetic composition and structure of tree assemblages (≥5 cm dbh) along edges abutting different matrices: (1) disturbed vegetation with cattle, (2) pastures with cattle and, (3) pastures without cattle. Additionally, we sampled preserved forest interiors.• All edge types exhibited similar tree density, basal area and diversity to interior forests, but differed in species composition. A nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination showed that the presence of cattle influenced species composition more strongly than the vegetation structure of the matrix; tree assemblages abutting matrices with cattle had lower scores in the ordination. The phylogenetic composition of tree assemblages followed the same pattern. The principal plant families and genera were associated according to disturbance regimes as follows: pastures and disturbed vegetation (1) with cattle and (2) without cattle, and (3) pastures without cattle and interior forests. All habitats showed random phylogenetic structures, suggesting that tree communities are assembled mainly by stochastic processes. Long-lived species persisting after edge creation could have important implications in the phylogenetic structure of tree assemblages.• Edge creation exerts a stronger influence on TDF vegetation pathways than previously documented, leading to new ecological communities. Phylogenetic analysis may, however, be needed to detect such changes. © 2014 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

  16. Influence of hexavalent chromium on lactate-enriched Hanford groundwater microbial communities.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Somenahally, Anil C [ORNL; Mosher, Jennifer J [ORNL; Yuan, Tong [University of Oklahoma; Podar, Mircea [ORNL; Phelps, Tommy Joe [ORNL; Brown, Steven D [ORNL; Yang, Zamin Koo [ORNL; Hazen, Terry C [ORNL; Arkin, Adam [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); Palumbo, Anthony Vito [ORNL; Zhou, Jizhong [University of Oklahoma; Elias, Dwayne A [ORNL

    2013-01-01

    Microbial reduction and immobilization of chromate (Cr(VI)) is a plausible bioremediation strategy. However, higher Cr(VI) concentrations may impose stress on native Cr-reducing communities. We sought to determine if Cr(VI) would influence the lactate enriched native microbial community structure and function in groundwater from the Cr contaminated site at Hanford, WA. Steady state continuous flow bioreactors were amended with lactate and Cr(VI) (0.0, 0.1 and 3.0 mg/L). Microbial growth, metabolites, Cr(VI) concentrations, 16S rRNA gene sequences and GeoChip based functional gene composition in bioreactors were monitored for 15 weeks. Temporal trends and some differences in growth, metabolite profiles, and community composition were observed, largely between Low-Cr and High-Cr bioreactors. In both High-Cr and Low-Cr bioreactors, Cr(VI) was reduced in the bioreactors. With lactate enrichment, the native communities did not significantly differ between Cr concentrations. Native bacterial communities were diverse, whereas after lactate enrichment, Pelosinus spp., and Sporotalea spp., were the most predominant groups in all bioreactors. Similarly, the Archaea diversity significantly decreased from Methanosaeta (35%), Methanosarcina (17%), Halobacteriales (12%), Methanoregula (8%) and others, to mostly Methanosarcina spp. (95%) after lactate enrichment. Composition of several key functional genes was distinct in Low-Cr bioreactors compared to High-Cr. Among the Cr resistant probes (chrA), Burkholderia vietnamiensis, Comamonas testosterone and Ralstonia pickettii proliferated in Cr amended bioreactors. In-situ fermentative conditions facilitated Cr(VI) reduction, and as a result the 3.0 mg/L Cr(VI) did not appear to give chromate reducing strains a competitive advantage for proliferation or for increasing Cr-reduction.

  17. Community Crowd-Funded Solar Finance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jagerson, Gordon " Ty" [Village Power Finance, Palo Alto, CA (United States)

    2016-07-08

    The award supported the demonstration and development of the Village Power Platform, which enables community organizations to more readily develop, finance and operate solar installations on local community organizations. The platform enables partial or complete local ownership of the solar installation. The award specifically supported key features including financial modeling tools, community communications tools, crowdfunding mechanisms, a mobile app, and other critical features.

  18. Factors influencing the current practice of self-medication consultations in Eastern Indonesian community pharmacies: a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brata, Cecilia; Fisher, Colleen; Marjadi, Brahmaputra; Schneider, Carl R; Clifford, Rhonda M

    2016-05-13

    Research has shown that the current practice of pharmacy staff when providing self-medication consultations in Indonesia is suboptimal. To improve the performance of pharmacy staff when providing self-medication consultations in community pharmacies, the factors that influence current practice need to be understood. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that influence current practice of pharmacy staff when handling self-medication consultations in Eastern Indonesian community pharmacies. Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted with pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, pharmacy owners, and counter attendants. Thematic analysis was used to generate findings. The current practice of pharmacy staff when handling self-medication consultations is directly influenced by the professionalism of pharmacy staff and patient responses to the consultations. These factors are in turn affected by the organisational context of the pharmacy and the external pharmacy environment. The organisational context of the pharmacy includes staffing, staff affordability, and the availability of time and facilities in which to provide consultations. The external pharmacy environment includes the number of trained pharmacy staff in the research setting, the relevance of pharmacy education to the needs of pharmacy practice, the support offered by the Indonesian Pharmacists Association, a competitive business environment, and the policy environment. Complex and inter-related factors influence the current practice of pharmacy staff when providing self-medication consultations in community pharmacies in this research setting. Multiple strategies will be required to improve consultation practices.

  19. Supporting the material control and accountancy system with physical protection system features

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyoshi, D.S.; Olson, C.E.; Caskey, D.L.

    1984-01-01

    Most physical security functions can be accomplished by a range of alternative features. Careful design can provide comparable levels of security regardless of which option is chosen, albeit with possible differences in cost and efficiency. However, the effectiveness and especially the cost and efficiency of the material control and accounting system may be strongly influenced by the selection of a particular design approach to physical security. In this paper, a series of examples are cited to illustrate the effects that particular physical protection design choices may have. The examples have been chosen from several systems engineering projects at facilities within the DOE nuclear community. These examples are generalized, and a series of design principles are proposed for integrating physical security with material control and accounting by appropriate selection of alternative features. 2 references, 6 figures

  20. Supporting the material control and accountancy system with physical protection system features

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyoshi, D.S.; Caskey, D.L.; Olson, C.E.

    1984-01-01

    Most physical security functions can be accomplished by a range of alternative features. Careful design can provide comparable levels of security regardless of which option is chosen, albeit with possible differences in cost and efficiency. However, the effectiveness and especially the cost and efficiency of the material control and accounting system may be strongly influenced by the selection of a particular design approach to physical security. In this paper, a series of examples are cited to illustrate the effects that particular physical protection design choices may have. The examples have been chosen from several systems engineering projects at facilities within the DOE nuclear community. These examples are generalized, and a series of design principles are proposed for integrating physical security with MC and A by appropriate selection of alternative features

  1. Influence of hydraulic regimes on bacterial community structure and composition in an experimental drinking water distribution system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Douterelo, I; Sharpe, R L; Boxall, J B

    2013-02-01

    Microbial biofilms formed on the inner-pipe surfaces of drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) can alter drinking water quality, particularly if they are mechanically detached from the pipe wall to the bulk water, such as due to changes in hydraulic conditions. Results are presented here from applying 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene to investigate the influence of different hydrological regimes on bacterial community structure and to study the potential mobilisation of material from the pipe walls to the network using a full scale, temperature-controlled experimental pipeline facility accurately representative of live DWDS. Analysis of pyrosequencing and water physico-chemical data showed that habitat type (water vs. biofilm) and hydraulic conditions influenced bacterial community structure and composition in our experimental DWDS. Bacterial community composition clearly differed between biofilms and bulk water samples. Gammaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria were the most abundant phyla in biofilms while Alphaproteobacteria was predominant in bulk water samples. This suggests that bacteria inhabiting biofilms, predominantly species belonging to genera Pseudomonas, Zooglea and Janthinobacterium, have an enhanced ability to express extracellular polymeric substances to adhere to surfaces and to favour co-aggregation between cells than those found in the bulk water. Highest species richness and diversity were detected in 28 days old biofilms with this being accentuated at highly varied flow conditions. Flushing altered the pipe-wall bacterial community structure but did not completely remove bacteria from the pipe walls, particularly under highly varied flow conditions, suggesting that under these conditions more compact biofilms were generated. This research brings new knowledge regarding the influence of different hydraulic regimes on the composition and structure of bacterial communities within DWDS and the implication that this

  2. Does the edge effect influence plant community structure in a tropical dry forest?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diogo Gallo Oliveira

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Edge effects are considered a key factor in regulating the structure of plant communities in different ecosystems. However, regardless to few studies, edge influence does not seem to be decisive in semiarid regions such as the Brazilian tropical dry forest known as Caatinga but this issue remains inconclusive. The present study tests the null hypothesis that the plant community of shrubs and trees does not change in its structure due to edge effects. Twenty-four plots (20 x 20 m were set up in a fragment of Caatinga, in which 12 plots were in the forest edges and 12 plots were inside the fragment. Tree richness, abundance and species composition did not differ between edge and interior plots. The results of this study are in agreement with the pattern previously found for semiarid environments and contrasts with previous results obtained in different environments such as Rainforests, Savanna and Forest of Araucaria, which indicate abrupt differences between the border and interior of the plant communities in these ecosystems, and suggest that the community of woody plants of the Caatinga is not ecologically affected by the presence of edges.

  3. Linking geology and microbiology: inactive pockmarks affect sediment microbial community structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haverkamp, Thomas H A; Hammer, Øyvind; Jakobsen, Kjetill S

    2014-01-01

    Pockmarks are geological features that are found on the bottom of lakes and oceans all over the globe. Some are active, seeping oil or methane, while others are inactive. Active pockmarks are well studied since they harbor specialized microbial communities that proliferate on the seeping compounds. Such communities are not found in inactive pockmarks. Interestingly, inactive pockmarks are known to have different macrofaunal communities compared to the surrounding sediments. It is undetermined what the microbial composition of inactive pockmarks is and if it shows a similar pattern as the macrofauna. The Norwegian Oslofjord contains many inactive pockmarks and they are well suited to study the influence of these geological features on the microbial community in the sediment. Here we present a detailed analysis of the microbial communities found in three inactive pockmarks and two control samples at two core depth intervals. The communities were analyzed using high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA V3 region. Microbial communities of surface pockmark sediments were indistinguishable from communities found in the surrounding seabed. In contrast, pockmark communities at 40 cm sediment depth had a significantly different community structure from normal sediments at the same depth. Statistical analysis of chemical variables indicated significant differences in the concentrations of total carbon and non-particulate organic carbon between 40 cm pockmarks and reference sample sediments. We discuss these results in comparison with the taxonomic classification of the OTUs identified in our samples. Our results indicate that microbial communities at the sediment surface are affected by the water column, while the deeper (40 cm) sediment communities are affected by local conditions within the sediment.

  4. Linking geology and microbiology: inactive pockmarks affect sediment microbial community structure.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas H A Haverkamp

    Full Text Available Pockmarks are geological features that are found on the bottom of lakes and oceans all over the globe. Some are active, seeping oil or methane, while others are inactive. Active pockmarks are well studied since they harbor specialized microbial communities that proliferate on the seeping compounds. Such communities are not found in inactive pockmarks. Interestingly, inactive pockmarks are known to have different macrofaunal communities compared to the surrounding sediments. It is undetermined what the microbial composition of inactive pockmarks is and if it shows a similar pattern as the macrofauna. The Norwegian Oslofjord contains many inactive pockmarks and they are well suited to study the influence of these geological features on the microbial community in the sediment. Here we present a detailed analysis of the microbial communities found in three inactive pockmarks and two control samples at two core depth intervals. The communities were analyzed using high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA V3 region. Microbial communities of surface pockmark sediments were indistinguishable from communities found in the surrounding seabed. In contrast, pockmark communities at 40 cm sediment depth had a significantly different community structure from normal sediments at the same depth. Statistical analysis of chemical variables indicated significant differences in the concentrations of total carbon and non-particulate organic carbon between 40 cm pockmarks and reference sample sediments. We discuss these results in comparison with the taxonomic classification of the OTUs identified in our samples. Our results indicate that microbial communities at the sediment surface are affected by the water column, while the deeper (40 cm sediment communities are affected by local conditions within the sediment.

  5. Consumer trait variation influences tritrophic interactions in salt marsh communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hughes, Anne Randall; Hanley, Torrance C; Orozco, Nohelia P; Zerebecki, Robyn A

    2015-07-01

    The importance of intraspecific variation has emerged as a key question in community ecology, helping to bridge the gap between ecology and evolution. Although much of this work has focused on plant species, recent syntheses have highlighted the prevalence and potential importance of morphological, behavioral, and life history variation within animals for ecological and evolutionary processes. Many small-bodied consumers live on the plant that they consume, often resulting in host plant-associated trait variation within and across consumer species. Given the central position of consumer species within tritrophic food webs, such consumer trait variation may play a particularly important role in mediating trophic dynamics, including trophic cascades. In this study, we used a series of field surveys and laboratory experiments to document intraspecific trait variation in a key consumer species, the marsh periwinkle Littoraria irrorata, based on its host plant species (Spartina alterniflora or Juncus roemerianus) in a mixed species assemblage. We then conducted a 12-week mesocosm experiment to examine the effects of Littoraria trait variation on plant community structure and dynamics in a tritrophic salt marsh food web. Littoraria from different host plant species varied across a suite of morphological and behavioral traits. These consumer trait differences interacted with plant community composition and predator presence to affect overall plant stem height, as well as differentially alter the density and biomass of the two key plant species in this system. Whether due to genetic differences or phenotypic plasticity, trait differences between consumer types had significant ecological consequences for the tritrophic marsh food web over seasonal time scales. By altering the cascading effects of the top predator on plant community structure and dynamics, consumer differences may generate a feedback over longer time scales, which in turn influences the degree of trait

  6. Influence of salinity stress on the height and productivity features of durum wheat samples in different phases of vegetation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Z. Sikhmuradov

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Influence of salinity stress on the morphological features of durum wheat in different phases of vegetation is studied in the work. It is revealed that in earlier phases the samples have weak stability, but further salt-stability increases.

  7. Influence of PAHs among other coastal environmental variables on total and PAH-degrading bacterial communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sauret, Caroline; Tedetti, Marc; Guigue, Catherine; Dumas, Chloé; Lami, Raphaël; Pujo-Pay, Mireille; Conan, Pascal; Goutx, Madeleine; Ghiglione, Jean-François

    2016-03-01

    We evaluated the relative impact of anthropogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) among biogeochemical variables on total, metabolically active, and PAH bacterial communities in summer and winter in surface microlayer (SML) and subsurface seawaters (SSW) across short transects along the NW Mediterranean coast from three harbors, one wastewater effluent, and one nearshore observatory reference site. At both seasons, significant correlations were found between dissolved total PAH concentrations and PAH-degrading bacteria that formed a gradient from the shore to nearshore waters. Accumulation of PAH degraders was particularly high in the SML, where PAHs accumulated. Harbors and wastewater outfalls influenced drastically and in a different way the total and active bacterial community structure, but they only impacted the communities from the nearshore zone (PAH concentrations on the spatial and temporal dynamic of total and active communities in this area, but this effect was putted in perspective by the importance of other biogeochemical variables.

  8. Dissolved Organic Carbon Influences Microbial Community Composition and Diversity in Managed Aquifer Recharge Systems

    KAUST Repository

    Li, D.; Sharp, J. O.; Saikaly, Pascal; Ali, Shahjahan; Alidina, M.; Alarawi, M. S.; Keller, S.; Hoppe-Jones, C.; Drewes, J. E.

    2012-01-01

    This study explores microbial community structure in managed aquifer recharge (MAR) systems across both laboratory and field scales. Two field sites, the Taif River (Taif, Saudi Arabia) and South Platte River (Colorado), were selected as geographically distinct MAR systems. Samples derived from unsaturated riverbed, saturated-shallow-infiltration (depth, 1 to 2 cm), and intermediate-infiltration (depth, 10 to 50 cm) zones were collected. Complementary laboratory-scale sediment columns representing low (0.6 mg/liter) and moderate (5 mg/liter) dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were used to further query the influence of DOC and depth on microbial assemblages. Microbial density was positively correlated with the DOC concentration, while diversity was negatively correlated at both the laboratory and field scales. Microbial communities derived from analogous sampling zones in each river were not phylogenetically significantly different on phylum, class, genus, and species levels, as determined by 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing, suggesting that geography and season exerted less sway than aqueous geochemical properties. When field-scale communities derived from the Taif and South Platte River sediments were grouped together, principal coordinate analysis revealed distinct clusters with regard to the three sample zones (unsaturated, shallow, and intermediate saturated) and, further, with respect to DOC concentration. An analogous trend as a function of depth and corresponding DOC loss was observed in column studies. Canonical correspondence analysis suggests that microbial classes Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria are positively correlated with DOC concentration. Our combined analyses at both the laboratory and field scales suggest that DOC may exert a strong influence on microbial community composition and diversity in MAR saturated zones.

  9. Dissolved Organic Carbon Influences Microbial Community Composition and Diversity in Managed Aquifer Recharge Systems

    KAUST Repository

    Li, D.

    2012-07-13

    This study explores microbial community structure in managed aquifer recharge (MAR) systems across both laboratory and field scales. Two field sites, the Taif River (Taif, Saudi Arabia) and South Platte River (Colorado), were selected as geographically distinct MAR systems. Samples derived from unsaturated riverbed, saturated-shallow-infiltration (depth, 1 to 2 cm), and intermediate-infiltration (depth, 10 to 50 cm) zones were collected. Complementary laboratory-scale sediment columns representing low (0.6 mg/liter) and moderate (5 mg/liter) dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were used to further query the influence of DOC and depth on microbial assemblages. Microbial density was positively correlated with the DOC concentration, while diversity was negatively correlated at both the laboratory and field scales. Microbial communities derived from analogous sampling zones in each river were not phylogenetically significantly different on phylum, class, genus, and species levels, as determined by 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing, suggesting that geography and season exerted less sway than aqueous geochemical properties. When field-scale communities derived from the Taif and South Platte River sediments were grouped together, principal coordinate analysis revealed distinct clusters with regard to the three sample zones (unsaturated, shallow, and intermediate saturated) and, further, with respect to DOC concentration. An analogous trend as a function of depth and corresponding DOC loss was observed in column studies. Canonical correspondence analysis suggests that microbial classes Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria are positively correlated with DOC concentration. Our combined analyses at both the laboratory and field scales suggest that DOC may exert a strong influence on microbial community composition and diversity in MAR saturated zones.

  10. Dissolved organic carbon influences microbial community composition and diversity in managed aquifer recharge systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Dong; Sharp, Jonathan O; Saikaly, Pascal E; Ali, Shahjahan; Alidina, Mazahirali; Alarawi, Mohammed S; Keller, Stephanie; Hoppe-Jones, Christiane; Drewes, Jörg E

    2012-10-01

    This study explores microbial community structure in managed aquifer recharge (MAR) systems across both laboratory and field scales. Two field sites, the Taif River (Taif, Saudi Arabia) and South Platte River (Colorado), were selected as geographically distinct MAR systems. Samples derived from unsaturated riverbed, saturated-shallow-infiltration (depth, 1 to 2 cm), and intermediate-infiltration (depth, 10 to 50 cm) zones were collected. Complementary laboratory-scale sediment columns representing low (0.6 mg/liter) and moderate (5 mg/liter) dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were used to further query the influence of DOC and depth on microbial assemblages. Microbial density was positively correlated with the DOC concentration, while diversity was negatively correlated at both the laboratory and field scales. Microbial communities derived from analogous sampling zones in each river were not phylogenetically significantly different on phylum, class, genus, and species levels, as determined by 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing, suggesting that geography and season exerted less sway than aqueous geochemical properties. When field-scale communities derived from the Taif and South Platte River sediments were grouped together, principal coordinate analysis revealed distinct clusters with regard to the three sample zones (unsaturated, shallow, and intermediate saturated) and, further, with respect to DOC concentration. An analogous trend as a function of depth and corresponding DOC loss was observed in column studies. Canonical correspondence analysis suggests that microbial classes Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria are positively correlated with DOC concentration. Our combined analyses at both the laboratory and field scales suggest that DOC may exert a strong influence on microbial community composition and diversity in MAR saturated zones.

  11. 581 influence of community development programmes

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Osondu

    The study examined the socio-economic empowerment of rural women as a correlate of community development ... corporations did not follow the principle of community development in the intervention programmes because ..... In the third stage, quota sampling technique was .... Research Papers, Issue 07/07, European.

  12. Influence of a trout farm on macrozoobenthos communities of the Trešnjica river, Serbia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Živić Ivana

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Trout farming poses an increasing threat to quality of the water of clean highland streams. Research of this problem has focused primarily on changes in physico-chemical composition of the water and structure of the river bottom, and less on the effects on living organisms. In the present work, we investigated influence of the farm with the highest trout production in Serbia, the 'Riboteks' Trout Farm on the Trešnjica River, on its macrozoobenthos communities. Our investigations showed that the 'Riboteks' Trout Farm wastewaters caused a clear and statistically significant change of moderate intensity in all measured parameters describing the composition and structure of macrozoobenthos communities. These changes were most pronounced in the part of the watercourse closest to the influx of waste water (locality III but remained statistically significant even 500 m downstream (locality IV and were lost only about 3.5 km away from the influx of the farm's wastewater (locality V. The most pronounced were changes in the participation in total abundance of the Baetidae, Chironomidae, and Plecoptera. Additionally, results of the present work confirmed that the mass of fish on the trout farm is a parameter that adequately defines the strength of its action, above all the intensity of its influence on structure of the macrozoobenthos community.

  13. Influence of plankton community structure on the sinking velocity of marine aggregates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bach, L. T.; Boxhammer, T.; Larsen, A.; Hildebrandt, N.; Schulz, K. G.; Riebesell, U.

    2016-08-01

    About 50 Gt of carbon is fixed photosynthetically by surface ocean phytoplankton communities every year. Part of this organic matter is reprocessed within the plankton community to form aggregates which eventually sink and export carbon into the deep ocean. The fraction of organic matter leaving the surface ocean is partly dependent on aggregate sinking velocity which accelerates with increasing aggregate size and density, where the latter is controlled by ballast load and aggregate porosity. In May 2011, we moored nine 25 m deep mesocosms in a Norwegian fjord to assess on a daily basis how plankton community structure affects material properties and sinking velocities of aggregates (Ø 80-400 µm) collected in the mesocosms' sediment traps. We noted that sinking velocity was not necessarily accelerated by opal ballast during diatom blooms, which could be due to relatively high porosity of these rather fresh aggregates. Furthermore, estimated aggregate porosity (Pestimated) decreased as the picoautotroph (0.2-2 µm) fraction of the phytoplankton biomass increased. Thus, picoautotroph-dominated communities may be indicative for food webs promoting a high degree of aggregate repackaging with potential for accelerated sinking. Blooms of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi revealed that cell concentrations of 1500 cells/mL accelerate sinking by about 35-40%, which we estimate (by one-dimensional modeling) to elevate organic matter transfer efficiency through the mesopelagic from 14 to 24%. Our results indicate that sinking velocities are influenced by the complex interplay between the availability of ballast minerals and aggregate packaging; both of which are controlled by plankton community structure.

  14. Some aspects of influence of radioactive poluution on vegetative communities of Apsheron

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aliyev, L.A.; Samedov, A.N.; Kurbanov, G.B.; Mirzoev, S.A.; Novruzova, N.

    2006-01-01

    Full text: Absheron represents unique natural ecological reserve where there is a wide spectrum of various kinds of plants. A variety of vegetative kinds is determined first of all by ecological conditions in which grow, conditions in which evolution proceeds and disappear separate kinds of plants. Influence of natural, and stressful factors, such as the strong drought, soil salinity, big solar radiation and gale-force winds, for many centuries have generated on Apsheron vegetative communities, with high stability against various stresses. And uniqueness of flora Apsheron consists in the big biovariety of flora and occurrence of vegetative communities such as xerophits, mezophits, gigrophits and giarophits. They meet both in desert, and in mountain heights and in a coastal zone of Caspian sea of Apsheron. On a specific variety makes about 22 percent from the common number kinds of plants growing in Azerbaijan. Among them there are rare, disappearing, relic kinds and endemics. However progressing deterioration of ecological situation as over all Azerbaijan, and in particular on Apsheron, caused by climatic cataclysms, anthropogenous factors, accumulation of radionuclids, heavy metals, erosion, salinity etc. Occurrence polluted with radionuclids zones on Apsheron, basically are connected to development of hydrocarbonic stocks (petroleum and gas) and, as consequence, an output on a surface radioactive isotopes, chisel waters from oil wells, a lining of gas-oil pipelines. As have shown our researches, on Apsheron peninsula the most polluted territories which radioactive background reaches from 6-400 μR/h are revealed. It is most radioactive the polluted sites were found out in territories with a rich network of the oil-extracting and oil refining enterprises and in territory of petrochemical factories. In vegetative and soil samples activity of such natural radionuclids as E 40, An 228, Pb 214, Tl 208 were 38,3 - 2089; 17,16 - 756,9; 8,7 - 4793; 3,19 - 263 Bq

  15. Structural analysis of factors that influence professional learning communities in Korean elementary schools

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kyoung-Oh Song

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Professional Learning Communities(PLCs arean important strategy for innovation in schools, and they arereceiving considerable attention from scholars and educators alike. The present study aimed to examine the effect of PLCson schools’ effectiveness and to investigate the social, organizational, and structural factors that can promote these learning communities. The survey for this study was completed by 375 teachers from 40 elementary schools in the Seoul Metropolitan Area of South Korea, and their responses were analyzed to test the hypothesized model. The results of the structural equationmodeling indicated that PLCswere strongly and directly related to elementary schools’ effectivenessand that principals’ leadership and supportive relationshipsamong teachers were the important factors that influenced PLCs. Based on the results of this study, several implications are discussed.

  16. Home Features and Assistive Technology for the Home-Bound Elderly in a Thai Suburban Community by Applying the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Supawadee Putthinoi

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The ageing population is having an impact worldwide and has created a serious challenge in Thailand’s healthcare systems, whereby healthcare practitioners play a major role in promoting independent interaction of their client’s abilities, as well as environmental factors. The purpose of this study was to survey features of the home and assistive technology (AT for the home-bound elderly in the community of Chiang Mai, Thailand. Home evaluation included features inside and outside the home, and AT was based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF concept. Methods included observation and an interview that were used by the researcher for evaluation. The study found that every home had at least one hazardous home feature such as inappropriate width of the door, high door threshold, tall stair steps, no bedside rail, and inappropriate height of the toilet pan. AT was found in houses as general products and technology for personal use in daily living and for personal indoor and outdoor mobility as well as transportation. Therefore, home features and AT can afford the home-bound elderly independent living within the community. Perspective AT according to the ICF concept could provide a common language for ageing in place benefits.

  17. Community- and family-level factors influence care-giver choice to screen blood lead levels of children in a mining community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moodie, S M; Tsui, E K; Silbergeld, E K

    2010-07-01

    Bunker Hill, in Kellogg, Idaho, formerly a lead mine (1884-1981) and smelter (1917-1981), is now a Superfund site listed on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Priorities List. Lead contamination from the site is widespread due to past smelter discharges to land, water, and air, placing children at risk for both exposure to lead and resultant health effects of lead. Since 1983, the EPA has used child blood lead levels to inform the clean-up standards for the Bunker Hill Superfund site. This study was undertaken to examine factors that have contributed to the significant fall-off in the rates and numbers of children being screened for blood lead in Kellogg (number screened decreased from 195 to 8 from 2002 to 2007). The goal of this research project was to define community- and family-level factors which influence care-giver choice to screen blood lead levels of their children in this environment. This formative research study used mixed methods and was comprised of three research components: (1) preliminary interviews using community-based participatory research methods to define key research questions of relevance to community members, government and NGOs working in relation to the Bunker Hill clean-up; (2) a quantitative analysis of a cross-sectional household survey conducted with adult care-givers about child blood lead screening in Kellogg; and (3) ethnographic community rapid assessment methods formed the in-depth interview process and qualitative analysis. The survey showed the likelihood of blood lead screening that for children under the age of 18 years increases 34% with each one-year increase in current age of the child (95% CI, 1.08-1.67, p-value=0.009), and decreases 45% with annual household income greater than $10,000 (95% CI, 0.35-0.88, p-value=0.013). Sibling birth order increased the likelihood of blood lead screening by 61% (95% CI, 1.04-2.48, p-value=0.032) for each successive child. Female children were rated by their care

  18. Influence of Familiar Features on Diagnosis: Instantiated Features in an Applied Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dore, Kelly L.; Brooks, Lee R.; Weaver, Bruce; Norman, Geoffrey R.

    2012-01-01

    Medical diagnosis can be viewed as a categorization task. There are two mechanisms whereby humans make categorical judgments: "analytical reasoning," based on explicit consideration of features and "nonanalytical reasoning," an unconscious holistic process of matching against prior exemplars. However, there is evidence that prior experience can…

  19. Influence of environmental variation on the bacterioplankton community and its loss to viral lysis in the Curonian Lagoon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Šulčius, Sigitas; Reunamo, Anna; Paškauskas, Ričardas; Leskinen, Piia

    2018-05-01

    Coastal lagoons are continuously exposed to strong environmental gradients that determine the distribution and trophic interactions of microbial communities. Therefore, in this study we assessed whether and how environmental changes influence the bacterial community and its vulnerability to viral infection and lysis along the major environmental gradient in the Curonian Lagoon. We found significant differences in bacterial community profiles, their richness and evenness between the riverine, freshwater southern part and the Baltic Sea water intrusion-influenced northern part of the lagoon, suggesting strong environmental control of the structure of bacterial communities. Viruses were found to be play an important role in bacterial mortality in the Curonian Lagoon, being responsible for the removal of 20-50% of the bacterial standing stock. We observed differences in virioplankton decay rates and virus burst sizes between the northern and southern parts of the lagoon. However, no relationships were found between viral activity and bacterial communities within the lagoon ecosystem. The frequency of infected cells and virus-mediated bacterial mortality (VMBM) remained constant among the sampling sites irrespective of differences in bacteria community assemblages and environmental conditions. The results indicate that factors determining changes in bacterial diversity are different from the factors limiting their vulnerability to viral infection and lysis. This study also suggests that under changing environmental conditions, virus-bacteria interactions are more stable than the interacting viral and bacterial communities themselves. These findings are important for understanding the functioning of the coastal ecosystems under the rapidly changing local (spatial and temporal) and global (e.g. eutrophication, climate change) conditions.

  20. The value of trophic interactions for ecosystem function: dung beetle communities influence seed burial and seedling recruitment in tropical forests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffiths, Hannah M; Bardgett, Richard D; Louzada, Julio; Barlow, Jos

    2016-12-14

    Anthropogenic activities are causing species extinctions, raising concerns about the consequences of changing biological communities for ecosystem functioning. To address this, we investigated how dung beetle communities influence seed burial and seedling recruitment in the Brazilian Amazon. First, we conducted a burial and retrieval experiment using seed mimics. We found that dung beetle biomass had a stronger positive effect on the burial of large than small beads, suggesting that anthropogenic reductions in large-bodied beetles will have the greatest effect on the secondary dispersal of large-seeded plant species. Second, we established mesocosm experiments in which dung beetle communities buried Myrciaria dubia seeds to examine plant emergence and survival. Contrary to expectations, we found that beetle diversity and biomass negatively influenced seedling emergence, but positively affected the survival of seedlings that emerged. Finally, we conducted germination trials to establish the optimum burial depth of experimental seeds, revealing a negative relationship between burial depth and seedling emergence success. Our results provide novel evidence that seed burial by dung beetles may be detrimental for the emergence of some seed species. However, we also detected positive impacts of beetle activity on seedling recruitment, which are probably because of their influence on soil properties. Overall, this study provides new evidence that anthropogenic impacts on dung beetle communities could influence the structure of tropical forests; in particular, their capacity to regenerate and continue to provide valuable functions and services. © 2016 The Author(s).

  1. Building communities through performance: emerging approaches to interculturality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parent, Roger

    2009-08-01

    Changing definitions of culture are modifying approaches to intercultural education and training. This paper outlines the principal features of these emerging models for innovation and capacity building in communities. Semiotics provides a theoretical frame for the interdisciplinary analysis of research on cultural competency, especially regarding recent studies on "cultural intelligence", performance and creativity. Interdisciplinary research on cultural literacy is shifting from cultural knowledge to intercultural know-how. This know-how translates into the individual's capacity to innovate and illustrates the influence of culture on individual and group performance. Research on cultural intelligence, performance and creativity provides promising new models for capacity building in communities. These approaches constitute a synthesis of previous research on cultural competency and provide new avenues for innovative social action through intercultural exchange.

  2. 促動改變的扳手:學習共同體影響學校變革之分析 Leverage for Change: An Analysis of the Influence of the Learning Community on Changes in School

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    潘慧玲 Hui-Ling Wendy Pan

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available 學習共同體作為改變教育現場的一項取徑,在臺灣已實施數年。本研究以自願參與教育部「學習領導下的學習共同體」計畫之試辦學校為對象,探討學校發展為學習共同體的程度,以及學習共同體促動學校產生變革的情形。針對 32 所中小學,採問卷調查法進行研究。結果顯示,試辦學校經過 1 年的試作後,教師對自己學校具有學習共同體特徵,展現正向知覺。在四項落實學習共同體特徵(構面)的得分上,以「願景與認同」最高;其次為「變革的學習」、「支持性與分散性領導」與「分享的個人實務」。而教師參與學習共同體的研討與實作經驗愈多,學校愈能彰顯學習共同體的特徵。另對於學校變革的影響,學習共同體特徵之一的「願景與認同」未具顯著解釋力;「分享的個人實務」對於三項學校變革(教師的課堂教學、教師的專業學習及學校發展力)保持一貫的影響力;「支持性與分散性領導」與「變革的學習」則各對教師的專業學習、學校發展力發揮促進作用。此研究結果除呈現學校在學習共同體各 構面的落實情形,也揭示了學校要能產生變革,需要掌握的學習共同體之關鍵要素。 The learning community, as an approach to influencing changes in schools, has been implemented for several years in Taiwan. To explore how a school develops itself as a learning community and how the learning community triggers changes in the school, the study recruited schools voluntarily attending the MOE-funded project titled “Learning Community under Leadership for Learning” as subjects. A survey was conducted in the 32 participatory schools. The study results indicated that teachers had positive perceptions regarding their schools with features of the learning community. Among the four features (dimensions of the learning community,

  3. THE INFLUENCE OF PARTICIPATIVE LEADERSHIP STYLE OF COMMUNITY RELATIONS OFFICER PT. HOLCIM INDONESIA TBK. CILACAP-PLANT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF POSDAYA COMMUNITIES IN SUB-DISTRIC OF NORTH CILACAP

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Riyas Anggun Putri Cahyani

    2016-09-01

    form empowerment of local communities, that is Posdaya (Family Empowerment Program. This study aims to examine and analyze the influence of participative leadership style of the Community Relations Officer (CRO PT. Holcim Indonesia Tbk Cilacap - Plant toward Posdaya (Family Empowerment Centre in North Cilacap. This study uses quantitative methods and the data collected by the distribution of questionnaires which consist as 96 samples. It was measured by using slovin formulate with a degree of error is 5 % for 126 communities. The research was used proportional sampling as a sampling technique and analyzed by SPSS for windows 16.00, include validity and reliability tests to examine the questionnaires. t-test, F-test and coefficient of determination (R2 were the part of a simple regression analysis to prove the hypothesis of the research. Based on the data analysis, the simple linear regression equation is Y = 11.370 + 0,423X, its means that there was a linearly and positively influence of participative leadership style on the performance of Posdaya communities. The conclusion is if participative leadership style of the CRO is increased, the performance of Posdaya will also increase.

  4. Characteristics of microbial community involved in early biofilms formation under the influence of wastewater treatment plant effluent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Yuke; Li, Jie; Lu, Junling; Xiao, Lin; Yang, Liuyan

    2018-04-01

    Effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) containing microorganisms and residual nutrients can influence the biofilm formation. Although the process and mechanism of bacterial biofilm formation have been well characterized, little is known about the characteristics and interaction of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes in the early colonization, especially under the influence of WWTP effluent. The aim of this study was to characterize the important bacterial, archaeal and eukaryotic species in the early stage of biofilm formation downstream of the WWTP outlet. Water and biofilm samples were collected 24 and 48hr after the deposition of bio-cords in the stream. Illumina Miseq sequencing of the 16S and 18S rDNA showed that, among the three domains, the bacterial biofilm community had the largest alpha and beta diversity. The early bacterial colonizers appeared to be "biofilm-specific", with only a few dominant operational taxonomic units (OTUs) shared between the biofilm and the ambient water environment. Alpha-proteobacteria and Ciliophora tended to dominate the bacterial and eukaryotic communities, respectively, of the early biofilm already at 24hr, whereas archaea played only a minor role during the early stage of colonization. The network analysis showed that the three domains of microbial community connected highly during the early colonization and it might be a characteristic of the microbial communities in the biofilm formation process where co-occurrence relationships could drive coexistence and diversity maintenance within the microbial communities. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  5. Soil mineral assemblage influences on microbial communities and carbon cycling under fresh organic matter input

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finley, B. K.; Schwartz, E.; Koch, B.; Dijkstra, P.; Hungate, B. A.

    2017-12-01

    The interactions between soil mineral assemblages and microbial communities are important drivers of soil organic carbon (SOC) cycling and storage, although the mechanisms driving these interactions remain unclear. There is increasing evidence supporting the importance of associations with poorly crystalline, short-range order (SRO) minerals in protection of SOC from microbial utilization. However, how the microbial processing of SRO-associated SOC may be influenced by fresh organic matter inputs (priming) remains poorly understood. The influence on SRO minerals on soil microbial community dynamics is uncertain as well. Therefore, we conducted a priming incubation by adding either a simulated root exudate mixture or conifer needle litter to three soils from a mixed-conifer ecosystem. The parent material of the soils were andesite, basalt, and granite and decreased in SRO mineral content, respectively. We also conducted a parallel quantitative stable isotope probing incubation by adding 18O-labelled water to the soils to isotopically label microbial DNA in situ. This allowed us to characterize and identify the active bacterial and archaeal community and taxon-specific growth under fresh organic matter input. While the granite soil (lowest SRO content), had the largest total mineralization, the least priming occurred. The andesite and basalt soils (greater SRO content) had lower total respiration, but greater priming. Across all treatments, the granite soil, while having the lowest species richness of the entire community (249 taxa, both active and inactive), had a larger active community (90%) in response to new SOC input. The andesite and basalt soils, while having greater total species richness of the entire community at 333 and 325 taxa, respectively, had fewer active taxa in response to new C compared to the granite soil (30% and 49% taxa, respectively). These findings suggest that the soil mineral assemblage is an important driver on SOC cycling under fresh

  6. GBA Variants Influence Motor and Non-Motor Features of Parkinson’s Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jesús, Silvia; Huertas, Ismael; Cáceres-Redondo, María Teresa; Vargas-González, Laura; Gómez-Llamas, Myriam; Carrillo, Fátima; Calderón, Enrique; Carballo, Manuel; Gómez-Garre, Pilar; Mir, Pablo

    2016-01-01

    The presence of mutations in glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene is a known factor increasing the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD). Mutations carriers have earlier disease onset and are more likely to develop neuropsychiatric symptoms than other sporadic PD cases. These symptoms have primarily been observed in Parkinson’s patients carrying the most common pathogenic mutations L444P and N370S. However, recent findings suggest that other variants across the gene may have a different impact on the phenotype as well as on the disease progression. We aimed to explore the influence of variants across GBA gene on the clinical features and treatment related complications in PD. In this study, we screened the GBA gene in a cohort of 532 well-characterised PD patients and 542 controls from southern Spain. The potential pathogeniticy of the identified variants was assessed using in-silico analysis and subsequently classified as benign or deleterious. As a result, we observed a higher frequency of GBA variants in PD patients (12.2% vs. 7.9% in controls, p = 0.021), earlier mean age at disease onset in GBA variant carriers (50.6 vs. 56.6 years; p = 0.013), as well as more prevalent motor and non-motor symptoms in patients carrying deleterious variants. In addition, we found that dopaminergic motor complications are influenced by both benign and deleterious variants. Our results highlight the fact that the impact on the phenotype highly depends on the potential pathogenicity of the carried variants. Therefore, the course of motor and non-motor symptoms as well as treatment-related motor complications could be influenced by GBA variants. PMID:28030538

  7. Mass media influence spreading in social networks with community structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Candia, Julián; Mazzitello, Karina I.

    2008-07-01

    We study an extension of Axelrod's model for social influence, in which cultural drift is represented as random perturbations, while mass media are introduced by means of an external field. In this scenario, we investigate how the modular structure of social networks affects the propagation of mass media messages across a society. The community structure of social networks is represented by coupled random networks, in which two random graphs are connected by intercommunity links. Considering inhomogeneous mass media fields, we study the conditions for successful message spreading and find a novel phase diagram in the multidimensional parameter space. These findings show that social modularity effects are of paramount importance for designing successful, cost-effective advertising campaigns.

  8. How does context influence performance of community health workers in low- and middle-income countries? Evidence from the literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kok, Maryse C; Kane, Sumit S; Tulloch, Olivia; Ormel, Hermen; Theobald, Sally; Dieleman, Marjolein; Taegtmeyer, Miriam; Broerse, Jacqueline E W; de Koning, Korrie A M

    2015-03-07

    Community health workers (CHWs) are increasingly recognized as an integral component of the health workforce needed to achieve public health goals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Many factors intersect to influence CHW performance. A systematic review with a narrative analysis was conducted to identify contextual factors influencing performance of CHWs. We searched six databases for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies that included CHWs working in promotional, preventive or curative primary health care services in LMICs. We differentiated CHW performance outcome measures at two levels: CHW level and end-user level. Ninety-four studies met the inclusion criteria and were double read to extract data relevant to the context of CHW programmes. Thematic coding was conducted and evidence on five main categories of contextual factors influencing CHW performance was synthesized. Few studies had the influence of contextual factors on CHW performance as their primary research focus. Contextual factors related to community (most prominently), economy, environment, and health system policy and practice were found to influence CHW performance. Socio-cultural factors (including gender norms and values and disease related stigma), safety and security and education and knowledge level of the target group were community factors that influenced CHW performance. Existence of a CHW policy, human resource policy legislation related to CHWs and political commitment were found to be influencing factors within the health system policy context. Health system practice factors included health service functionality, human resources provisions, level of decision-making, costs of health services, and the governance and coordination structure. All contextual factors can interact to shape CHW performance and affect the performance of CHW interventions or programmes. Research on CHW programmes often does not capture or explicitly discuss the context in which CHW

  9. Experience Learning and Community Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nena Mijoč

    1996-12-01

    Full Text Available Research in the field of education, carried out in living and working environment, which has undergone so profound changes recently, is of extreme importance. In schools, courses and seminars, one cannot prepare him/herself for the changes as these are often so rapid that it is impossible to foresee them. Therefore, one can only learn by experience. In defining the term 'experience learning', the teoreticians vary greatly. In this paper, experience learning is understood as a process of learning taking part mainly outside the planned educational process and including an active and participative attitude towards environment and people. Original and direct experience can thus serve as a basis for gaining new comprehensions, for planning future activities as well as for a reinterpretation of the past experiences. Let us first mention the basic factors of successful experience learning, such as an individual's character features, possibilities for learning, learning atmosphere and positive stimulations. It has been estimated that local community can increase or decrease the possibilities for experience learning. However, the relation is active in other direction too: the more experience learning bas been asserted in a community, the greater its influence on social and cultural development of the community. On has to bear in mind that well-planned education for local community and stimulating sociocultural animation can facilitate the development of local community.

  10. An Exploration of the Examination Script Features that Most Influence Expert Judgements in Three Methods of Evaluating Script Quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suto, Irenka; Novakovic, Nadezda

    2012-01-01

    Some methods of determining grade boundaries within examinations, such as awarding, paired comparisons, and rank ordering, entail expert judgements of script quality. We aimed to identify the features of examinees' scripts that most influence judgements in the three methods. For contrasting examinations in biology and English, a Latin square…

  11. Influence of Feature Selection Methods on Classification Sensitivity Based on the Example of A Study of Polish Voivodship Tourist Attractiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bąk Iwona

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to determine the influence of various methods of selection of diagnostic features on the sensitivity of classification. Three options of feature selection are presented: a parametric feature selection method with a sum (option I, a median of the correlation coefficients matrix column elements (option II and the method of a reversed matrix (option III. Efficiency of the groupings was verified by the indicators of homogeneity, heterogeneity and the correctness of grouping. In the assessment of group efficiency the approach with the Weber median was used. The undertaken problem was illustrated with a research into the tourist attractiveness of voivodships in Poland in 2011.

  12. Community-Level Exposure to the Rural Mining Industry: The Potential Influence on Early Adolescent Alcohol and Tobacco Use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gay, Christopher; Clements-Nolle, Kristen; Packham, John; Ackerman, Gerald; Lensch, Taylor; Yang, Wei

    2018-01-31

    Rural youth have higher rates of alcohol and tobacco use compared to their urban counterparts. However, the economic dependence of rural communities may differentially influence risk behaviors. While research has shown that adults working in mining have elevated rates of alcohol and tobacco use, the influence of living in a mining community on early adolescent substance use is unknown. Using data from a representative sample of 4,535 middle school students in a state with heavy reliance on mining, we conducted weighted logistic regression to investigate whether community-level mining economic dependence influences rural-urban differences in adolescent alcohol and tobacco use. All models adjusted for sociodemographics, military family involvement, parental monitoring, and length of residence. Over one quarter of the sampled students lived in rural counties and approximately half of these counties met the USDA mining economic typology. After stratifying rural counties by mining and nonmining economic dependence, students in rural mining counties had significantly higher odds of all measures of alcohol use (AORs ranged from 1.83 to 3.99) and tobacco use (AORs ranged from 1.61 to 5.05) compared to students in urban counties. Only use of smokeless tobacco was higher among students in rural nonmining counties. Our findings demonstrate rural-urban disparities in adolescent substance use that are particularly pronounced among youth living in counties with economic dependence on mining. Future research on this subject should include a wider range of community-level factors that may have specific relevance in rural settings to inform the development of population-level interventions. © 2018 National Rural Health Association.

  13. Relation between childhood maltreatment and severe intrafamilial male-perpetrated physical violence in Chinese community: the mediating role of borderline and antisocial personality disorder features.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Na; Zhang, Yalin; Brady, Heward John; Cao, Yuping; He, Ying; Zhang, Yingli

    2012-01-01

    This study investigates the role of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) features as mediators of the effects of childhood maltreatment on severe intrafamilial physical violence amongst Chinese male perpetrators. A cross-sectional survey and face-to-face interview were conducted to examine childhood maltreatment, personality disorder features, impulsivity, aggression, and severe intrafamilial physical violence in a community sample of 206 abusive men in China. The results suggest that ASPD or BPD features mediate between childhood maltreatment and intimate partner violence perpetration in Chinese abusive men. These findings may yield clinical and forensic implications for assessing the psychopathology of abusive men, and may steer the intervention of intimate partner violence. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Microbially influenced corrosion communities associated with fuel-grade ethanol environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williamson, Charles H D; Jain, Luke A; Mishra, Brajendra; Olson, David L; Spear, John R

    2015-08-01

    Microbially influenced corrosion (MIC) is a costly problem that impacts hydrocarbon production and processing equipment, water distribution systems, ships, railcars, and other types of metallic infrastructure. In particular, MIC is known to cause considerable damage to hydrocarbon fuel infrastructure including production, transportation, and storage systems, often times with catastrophic environmental contamination results. As the production and use of alternative fuels such as fuel-grade ethanol (FGE) increase, it is important to consider MIC of engineered materials exposed to these "newer fuels" as they enter existing infrastructure. Reports of suspected MIC in systems handling FGE and water prompted an investigation of the microbial diversity associated with these environments. Small subunit ribosomal RNA gene pyrosequencing surveys indicate that acetic-acid-producing bacteria (Acetobacter spp. and Gluconacetobacter spp.) are prevalent in environments exposed to FGE and water. Other microbes previously implicated in corrosion, such as sulfate-reducing bacteria and methanogens, were also identified. In addition, acetic-acid-producing microbes and sulfate-reducing microbes were cultivated from sampled environments containing FGE and water. Results indicate that complex microbial communities form in these FGE environments and could cause significant MIC-related damage that may be difficult to control. How to better manage these microbial communities will be a defining aspect of improving mitigation of global infrastructure corrosion.

  15. The influence of fine-scale habitat features on regional variation in population performance of alpine White-tailed Ptarmigan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fedy, B.; Martin, K.

    2011-01-01

    It is often assumed (explicitly or implicitly) that animals select habitat features to maximize fitness. However, there is often a mismatch between preferred habitats and indices of individual and population measures of performance. We examined the influence of fine-scale habitat selection on the overall population performance of the White-tailed Ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura), an alpine specialist, in two subdivided populations whose habitat patches are configured differently. The central region of Vancouver Island, Canada, has more continuous and larger habitat patches than the southern region. In 2003 and 2004, using paired logistic regression between used (n = 176) and available (n = 324) sites, we identified food availability, distance to standing water, and predator cover as preferred habitat components . We then quantified variation in population performance in the two regions in terms of sex ratio, age structure (n = 182 adults and yearlings), and reproductive success (n = 98 females) on the basis of 8 years of data (1995-1999, 2002-2004). Region strongly influenced females' breeding success, which, unsuccessful hens included, was consistently higher in the central region (n = 77 females) of the island than in the south (n = 21 females, P = 0.01). The central region also had a much higher proportion of successful hens (87%) than did the south (55%, P < 0.001). In light of our findings, we suggest that population performance is influenced by a combination of fine-scale habitat features and coarse-scale habitat configuration. ?? The Cooper Ornithological Society 2011.

  16. Part-time work and adolescent heavy episodic drinking: the influence of family and community context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breslin, F Curtis; Adlaf, Edward M

    2005-11-01

    Previous studies on part-time work and alcohol use suggest that teenagers who work longer hours drink more heavily. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether family- and community-level factors moderate the relationship between part-time work hours and heavy episodic drinking. Data were drawn from the Canadian Community Health Survey, a cross-sectional study of a nationally representative sample of Canadians. The survey included 8,080 respondents 15-19 years of age who reported work hours and frequency of heavy episodic drinking over the past 12 months. These respondents were located in 136 counties or municipalities across Canada. On average, work hours were positively associated with the frequency of heavy drinking by teenagers in the past 12 months. At the community level, the proportion of teenagers in each community drinking any alcohol was independently and positively associated with respondents' frequency of heavy drinking. In terms of moderating effects, we found that the work hours-drinking association was weaker among youth from low socioeconomic status families. Examination of community-level factors indicated that longer work hours were more strongly associated with heavy episodic drinking in communities with high rates of teen alcohol abstinence. Although the cross-sectional data prohibit any firm conclusions on how family and community factors influence the work-alcohol use relationship, these data suggest that interventions to reduce heavy episodic drinking among teens should address the broader environmental as well as the individual determinants.

  17. Investigating the influence of product perception and geometric features

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Perez Mata, Marta; Ahmed-Kristensen, Saeema; Brockhoff, Per B.

    2017-01-01

    . Surveys were conducted with 71 participants to gather their perceptions of 11 vase concepts. Advanced statistical analyses, including mixed models, were applied to allow generalisation of the results beyond the data sample. Significant relations between the desire to own a product and how the product......Research in emotional design and Kansei Engineering has shown that aesthetics play a significant role in the appeal of a product. This paper contributes to establishing a methodology to identify the relationships between perceptions, aesthetic features, desire to own and background of consumers...... and was simple and tall). An automated mixed model analysis was conducted and revealed that general rules can be found between aesthetic features, perceptions and ownership, which can apply across gender and culture. The findings include design rules that link aesthetic features with perceptions...

  18. The potential influence of short-term environmental variability on the composition of testate amoeba communities in Sphagnum peatlands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, Maura E; Booth, Robert K

    2011-07-01

    Testate amoebae are a group of moisture-sensitive, shell-producing protozoa that have been widely used as indicators of changes in mean water-table depth within oligotrophic peatlands. However, short-term environmental variability (i.e., sub-annual) also probably influences community composition. The objective of this study was to assess the potential influence of short-term environmental variability on the composition of testate amoeba communities in Sphagnum-dominated peatlands. Testate amoebae and environmental conditions, including hourly measurements of relative humidity within the upper centimeter of the peatland surface, were examined throughout the 2008 growing season at 72 microsites within 11 peatlands of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, USA. Relationships among testate amoeba communities, vegetation, depth to water table, pH, and an index of short-term environmental variability (EVI), were examined using nonmetric multidimensional scaling and correlation analysis. Results suggest that EVI influences testate amoeba communities, with some taxa more abundant under highly variable conditions (e.g., Arcella discoides, Difflugia pulex, and Hyalosphenia subflava) and others more abundant when environmental conditions at the peatland surface were relatively stable (e.g., Archerella flavum and Bullinularia indica). The magnitude of environmental variability experienced at the peatland surface appears to be primarily controlled by vegetation composition and density. In particular, sites with dense Sphagnum cover had lower EVI values than sites with loose-growing Sphagnum or vegetation dominated by vascular plants and/or non-Sphagnum bryophytes. Our results suggest that more environmental information may be inferred from testate amoebae than previously recognized. Knowledge of relationships between testate amoebae and short-term environmental variability should lead to more detailed and refined environmental inferences.

  19. The Influence of Age and Gender on Skin-Associated Microbial Communities in Urban and Rural Human Populations.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shi Ying

    Full Text Available Differences in the bacterial community structure associated with 7 skin sites in 71 healthy people over five days showed significant correlations with age, gender, physical skin parameters, and whether participants lived in urban or rural locations in the same city. While body site explained the majority of the variance in bacterial community structure, the composition of the skin-associated bacterial communities were predominantly influenced by whether the participants were living in an urban or rural environment, with a significantly greater relative abundance of Trabulsiella in urban populations. Adults maintained greater overall microbial diversity than adolescents or the elderly, while the intragroup variation among the elderly and rural populations was significantly greater. Skin-associated bacterial community structure and composition could predict whether a sample came from an urban or a rural resident ~5x greater than random.

  20. Influence of Precollege Experience on Self-Concept among Community College Students in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Starobin, Soko S.; Laanan, Frankie Santos

    Female and minority students have historically been underrepresented in the field of science, mathematics, and engineering at colleges and universities. Although a plethora of research has focused on students enrolled in 4-year colleges or universities, limited research addresses the factors that influence gender differences in community college students in science, mathematics, and engineering. Using a target population of 1,599 aspirants in science, mathematics, and engineering majors in public community colleges, this study investigates the determinants of self-concept by examining a hypothetical structural model. The findings suggest that background characteristics, high school academic performance, and attitude toward science have unique contributions to the development of self-concept among female community college students. The results add to the literature by providing new theoretical constructs and the variables that predict students' self-concept.

  1. Finding the top influential bloggers based on productivity and popularity features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Hikmat Ullah; Daud, Ali

    2017-07-01

    A blog acts as a platform of virtual communication to share comments or views about products, events and social issues. Like other social web activities, blogging actions spread to a large number of people. Users influence others in many ways, such as buying a product, having a particular political or social opinion or initiating new activity. Finding the top influential bloggers is an active research domain as it helps us in various fields, such as online marketing, e-commerce, product search and e-advertisements. There exist various models to find the influential bloggers, but they consider limited features using non-modular approach. This paper proposes a new model, Popularity and Productivity Model (PPM), based on a modular approach to find the top influential bloggers. It consists of popularity and productivity modules which exploit various features. We discuss the role of each proposed and existing features and evaluate the proposed model against the standard baseline models using datasets from the real-world blogs. The analysis using standard performance evaluation measures verifies that both productivity and popularity modules play a vital role to find influential bloggers in blogging community in an effective manner.

  2. The theory-based influence of map features on risk beliefs: self-reports of what is seen and understood for maps depicting an environmental health hazard.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Severtson, Dolores J; Vatovec, Christine

    2012-08-01

    Theory-based research is needed to understand how maps of environmental health risk information influence risk beliefs and protective behavior. Using theoretical concepts from multiple fields of study including visual cognition, semiotics, health behavior, and learning and memory supports a comprehensive assessment of this influence. The authors report results from 13 cognitive interviews that provide theory-based insights into how visual features influenced what participants saw and the meaning of what they saw as they viewed 3 formats of water test results for private wells (choropleth map, dot map, and a table). The unit of perception, color, proximity to hazards, geographic distribution, and visual salience had substantial influences on what participants saw and their resulting risk beliefs. These influences are explained by theoretical factors that shape what is seen, properties of features that shape cognition (preattentive, symbolic, visual salience), information processing (top-down and bottom-up), and the strength of concrete compared with abstract information. Personal relevance guided top-down attention to proximal and larger hazards that shaped stronger risk beliefs. Meaning was more local for small perceptual units and global for large units. Three aspects of color were important: preattentive "incremental risk" meaning of sequential shading, symbolic safety meaning of stoplight colors, and visual salience that drew attention. The lack of imagery, geographic information, and color diminished interest in table information. Numeracy and prior beliefs influenced comprehension for some participants. Results guided the creation of an integrated conceptual framework for application to future studies. Ethics should guide the selection of map features that support appropriate communication goals.

  3. Examining Key Stakeholder and Community Residents' Understanding of Environmental Influences to Inform Place-Based Interventions to Reduce Obesity in Rural Communities, Kentucky 2015.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gustafson, Alison; McGladrey, Margaret; Liu, Emily; Peritore, Nicole; Webber, Kelly; Butterworth, Brooke; Vail, Ann

    2017-07-07

    Rural residents report high rates of obesity, physical inactivity, and poor eating habits. The objectives of this study were to (1) use the collective impact model to guide efforts to elicit community members' perceptions of county-specific factors influencing high obesity rates; (2) determine the association between utilization of food retail venues and concern about obesity and healthy eating; and (3) determine community members' utilization of physical activity infrastructure and concern about physical inactivity. The study was conducted in 6 rural counties in Kentucky with adult obesity prevalence rates >40%. Community stakeholders met to assess counties' needs and assets in implementing interventions to reduce obesity in their communities. A random-digit dial survey (n = 756) also was conducted to examine awareness and availability of community resources for healthy eating and physical activity. Stakeholders identified lack of access to fruits and vegetables and poor physical activity infrastructure as contributors to obesity. Reporting moderate and serious concern about obesity and healthy eating was associated with higher odds of shopping at a supercenter compared with those expressing little concern. Reported access to information about physical activity opportunities was associated with higher odds of reporting the availability of safe places for physical activity, sidewalks, and trails compared with those who reported that information was difficult to obtain. This study elicits community-identified barriers to healthy behaviors and provides foundational data to inform future place-based obesity reduction interventions. © 2017 National Rural Health Association.

  4. Cyanobacteria dominance influences resource use efficiency and community turnover in phytoplankton and zooplankton communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filstrup, Christopher T; Hillebrand, Helmut; Heathcote, Adam J; Harpole, W Stanley; Downing, John A

    2014-04-01

    Freshwater biodiversity loss potentially disrupts ecosystem services related to water quality and may negatively impact ecosystem functioning and temporal community turnover. We analysed a data set containing phytoplankton and zooplankton community data from 131 lakes through 9 years in an agricultural region to test predictions that plankton communities with low biodiversity are less efficient in their use of limiting resources and display greater community turnover (measured as community dissimilarity). Phytoplankton resource use efficiency (RUE = biomass per unit resource) was negatively related to phytoplankton evenness (measured as Pielou's evenness), whereas zooplankton RUE was positively related to phytoplankton evenness. Phytoplankton and zooplankton RUE were high and low, respectively, when Cyanobacteria, especially Microcystis sp., dominated. Phytoplankton communities displayed slower community turnover rates when dominated by few genera. Our findings, which counter findings of many terrestrial studies, suggest that Cyanobacteria dominance may play important roles in ecosystem functioning and community turnover in nutrient-enriched lakes. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

  5. Does the Subject Content of the Pharmacy Degree Course Influence the Community Pharmacist's Views on Competencies for Practice?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkinson, Jeffrey; De Paepe, Kristien; Pozo, Antonio Sánchez; Rekkas, Dimitrios; Volmer, Daisy; Hirvonen, Jouni; Bozic, Borut; Skowron, Agnieska; Mircioiu, Constantin; Marcincal, Annie; Koster, Andries; Wilson, Keith; van Schravendijk, Chris; Wilkinson, Jamie

    2015-09-01

    Do community pharmacists coming from different educational backgrounds rank the importance of competences for practice differently-or is the way in which they see their profession more influenced by practice than university education? A survey was carried out on 68 competences for pharmacy practice in seven countries with different pharmacy education systems in terms of the relative importance of the subject areas chemical and medicinal sciences. Community pharmacists were asked to rank the competences in terms of relative importance for practice; competences were divided into personal and patient-care competences. The ranking was very similar in the seven countries suggesting that evaluation of competences for practice is based more on professional experience than on prior university education. There were some differences for instance in research-related competences and these may be influenced, by education.

  6. Mediterranean coastal dune systems: Which abiotic factors have the most influence on plant communities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruocco, Matteo; Bertoni, Duccio; Sarti, Giovanni; Ciccarelli, Daniela

    2014-08-01

    Mediterranean coastal dunes are dynamic and heterogeneous ecosystems characterised by a strong interaction between abiotic and biotic factors. The present study aimed to adopt a multidisciplinary approach - integrating data on dune morphology, sediment texture and soil parameters as well as shoreline trend - in order to define which are the abiotic factors that most affect the distribution and composition of Mediterranean plant dune communities. The study was carried out in two protected areas, located in central Italy, subjected to different shoreline trends in recent years. 75 plots were identified along eleven randomly positioned cross-shore transects, starting from the beach continuing up to the plant communities of the backdunes. In each plot floristic and environmental data - such as distance to the coastline, plot altitude, inclination, shoreline trend, mean grain-size, sorting, pH, conductivity and organic matter concentration - were collected. The analyses revealed significant changes of vegetational cover, dune morphology and geopedological features along the coast-to-inland gradient. Relationships between vegetation composition and environmental factors were investigated through Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA). Four factors - distance to the coastline, mean grain-size, shoreline trend and organic matter - were found to be closely correlated with the floristic composition of plant communities. Finally, soil properties were highlighted as the most determinant factors of community zonation in these Mediterranean coastal dune ecosystems. These results could be taken into account by local managers in conservation actions such as protecting the eroding foredunes as well as in artificial dune reconstructions.

  7. Influence of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Features on Surgical Decision-Making in Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Results from a Global Survey of AOSpine International Members.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nouri, Aria; Martin, Allan R; Nater, Anick; Witiw, Christopher D; Kato, So; Tetreault, Lindsay; Reihani-Kermani, Hamed; Santaguida, Carlo; Fehlings, Michael G

    2017-09-01

    We conducted a survey to understand how specific pathologic features on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) influence surgeons toward an anterior or posterior surgical approach in degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM). A questionnaire was sent out to 6179 AOSpine International members via e-mail. This included 18 questions on a 7-point Likert scale regarding how MRI features influence the respondent's decision to perform an anterior or posterior surgical approach. Influence was classified based on the mean and mode. Variations in responses were assessed by region and training. Of 513 respondents, 51.7% were orthopedic surgeons, 36.8% were neurosurgeons, and the remainder were fellows, residents, or other. In ascending order, multilevel bulging disks, cervical kyphosis, and a high degree of anterior cord compression had a moderate to strong influence toward an anterior approach. A high degree of posterior cord compression had a moderate to strong influence, whereas multilevel compression, ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament, ligamentum flavum enlargement, and congenital stenosis had a moderate influence toward a posterior approach. Neurosurgeons chose anterior approaches more and posterior approaches less in comparison with orthopedic surgeons (P influences the choice for anterior or posterior surgical approach. These data highlight factors based on surgeon experience, training, and region of practice. They will be helpful in defining future areas of investigation in an effort to provide individualized surgical strategies and optimize patient outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. The Influence of Heating Mains on Yeast Communities in Urban Soils

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tepeeva, A. N.; Glushakova, A. M.; Kachalkin, A. V.

    2018-04-01

    The number and species diversity of yeasts in urban soils (urbanozems) affected by heating mains and in epiphytic yeast complexes of grasses growing above them were studied. The number of yeasts in the soil reached 103-104 CFU/g; on the plants, 107 CFU/g. Significant (by an order of magnitude) increase in the total number of soil yeasts in the zone of heating mains in comparison with the surrounding soil was found in winter period. Overall, 25 species of yeasts were isolated in our study. Yeast community of studied urbanozems was dominated by the Candida sake, an eurybiont of the temperate zone and other natural ecotopes with relatively low temperatures, but its share was minimal in the zone of heating mains. In general, the structure of soil and epiphytic yeast complexes in the zones of heating mains differed from that in the surrounding area by higher species diversity and a lower share of pigmented species among the epiphytic yeasts. The study demonstrated that the number and species structure of soil yeast communities in urban soils change significantly under the influence of the temperature factor and acquire a mosaic distribution pattern.

  9. Social and cultural features of cholera and shigellosis in peri-urban and rural communities of Zanzibar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hutubessy Raymond

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Responding to the high burden of cholera in developing countries, the WHO now considers vaccination as a supplement to the provision of safe drinking water and improved sanitation in the strategy for cholera control in endemic settings. Cultural concepts of illness affect many aspects of public health. In the first step of a two-step strategy to examine determinants of cholera vaccine acceptance, this study identified social and cultural features of diarrhoeal illness for cholera control in endemic communities. Methods A cultural epidemiological study with locally adapted vignette-based interviews was conducted in two cholera-endemic communities of Zanzibar. A random sample of unaffected peri-urban (n = 179 and rural (n = 177 adults was interviewed to study community ideas of cholera and shigellosis, considering categories of distress, perceived causes, and help-seeking behaviour. Results Cholera was recognised by 88%. Symptoms of dehydration were most prominent in reports at the peri-urban site. Interference with work leading to strain on household finances was frequently emphasised. Dirty environment was the most prominent perceived cause, followed by unsafe drinking water and germ-carrying flies. Causes unrelated to the biomedical basis of cholera were reported more often by rural respondents. Rural women had more difficulty (20% to identify a cause than men (7.1%, p = 0.016. Peri-urban self treatment emphasised rehydration; the rural community preferred herbal treatment and antibiotics. Shigellosis was recognised by 70%. Fewer regarded it as very serious compared with cholera (76% vs. 97%, p Conclusions This study clarified local views of cholera and shigellosis relevant for diarrhoeal disease control in Zanzibar. The finding that rural women were less likely than men to specify causes of cholera suggests more attention to them is required. Better health education is needed for cholera in rural areas and for shigellosis

  10. Genetic Variation in Functional Traits Influences Arthropod Community Composition in Aspen (Populus tremula L.)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robinson, Kathryn M.; Ingvarsson, Pär K.; Jansson, Stefan; Albrectsen, Benedicte R.

    2012-01-01

    We conducted a study of natural variation in functional leaf traits and herbivory in 116 clones of European aspen, Populus tremula L., the Swedish Aspen (SwAsp) collection, originating from ten degrees of latitude across Sweden and grown in a common garden. In surveys of phytophagous arthropods over two years, we found the aspen canopy supports nearly 100 morphospecies. We identified significant broad-sense heritability of plant functional traits, basic plant defence chemistry, and arthropod community traits. The majority of arthropods were specialists, those coevolved with P. tremula to tolerate and even utilize leaf defence compounds. Arthropod abundance and richness were more closely related to plant growth rates than general chemical defences and relationships were identified between the arthropod community and stem growth, leaf and petiole morphology, anthocyanins, and condensed tannins. Heritable genetic variation in plant traits in young aspen was found to structure arthropod community; however no single trait drives the preferences of arthropod folivores among young aspen genotypes. The influence of natural variation in plant traits on the arthropod community indicates the importance of maintaining genetic variation in wild trees as keystone species for biodiversity. It further suggests that aspen can be a resource for the study of mechanisms of natural resistance to herbivores. PMID:22662190

  11. Genetic variation in functional traits influences arthropod community composition in aspen (Populus tremula L..

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathryn M Robinson

    Full Text Available We conducted a study of natural variation in functional leaf traits and herbivory in 116 clones of European aspen, Populus tremula L., the Swedish Aspen (SwAsp collection, originating from ten degrees of latitude across Sweden and grown in a common garden. In surveys of phytophagous arthropods over two years, we found the aspen canopy supports nearly 100 morphospecies. We identified significant broad-sense heritability of plant functional traits, basic plant defence chemistry, and arthropod community traits. The majority of arthropods were specialists, those coevolved with P. tremula to tolerate and even utilize leaf defence compounds. Arthropod abundance and richness were more closely related to plant growth rates than general chemical defences and relationships were identified between the arthropod community and stem growth, leaf and petiole morphology, anthocyanins, and condensed tannins. Heritable genetic variation in plant traits in young aspen was found to structure arthropod community; however no single trait drives the preferences of arthropod folivores among young aspen genotypes. The influence of natural variation in plant traits on the arthropod community indicates the importance of maintaining genetic variation in wild trees as keystone species for biodiversity. It further suggests that aspen can be a resource for the study of mechanisms of natural resistance to herbivores.

  12. Kids in Communities Study (KiCS) study protocol: a cross-sectional mixed-methods approach to measuring community-level factors influencing early child development in Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldfeld, Sharon; Villanueva, Karen; Tanton, Robert; Katz, Ilan; Brinkman, Sally; Woolcock, Geoffrey; Giles-Corti, Billie

    2017-03-13

    Healthy childhood development in the early years is critical for later adult health and well-being. Early childhood development (ECD) research has focused primarily on individual, family and school factors, but largely ignored community factors. The Kids in Communities Study (KiCS) will test and investigate community-level influences on child development across Australia. Cross-sectional mixed-methods study exploring community-level effects in 25 Australian local communities; selection based on community socioeconomic status (SES) and ECD using the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), a population measure of child development, to create a local community 'diagonality type', that is, those performing better or worse (off-diagonal), or as expected (on-diagonal) on the AEDC relative to their SES. Data collection includes stakeholder interviews, parent and service provider focus groups, and surveys with general community residents and service providers, mapping of neighbourhood design and local amenities and services, analysis of policy documents, and the use of existing sociodemographic and early childhood education and care data. Quantitative data will be used to test associations between local community diagonality type, and ECD based on AEDC scores. Qualitative data will provide complementary and deeper exploration of these same associations. The Royal Children's Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee approved the study protocol (#30016). Further ethics approvals were obtained from State Education and Health departments and Catholic archdioceses where required. ECD community-level indicators will eventually be derived and made publically available. Findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals, community reports, websites and policy briefs to disseminate results to researchers, and key stakeholders including policymakers, practitioners and (most importantly) the communities involved. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to

  13. Clinicopathological features of pancreatic mucinous cystic neoplasm and influencing factors for its malignancy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    HOU Liyan

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo investigate the clinicopathological features of pancreatic mucinous cystic neoplasm (MCN and influencing factors for benign and malignant MCN. MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 43 patients with pathologically confirmed pancreatic MCN who were treated from January 2013 to December 2015, and according to the results of pathological diagnosis, the patients were divided into benign group (mucinous cystadenoma and pancreatic MCN with low/middle-grade dysplasia and malignant group (MCN with high-grade dysplasia and MCN with invasive carcinoma. The clinicopathological features and radiological features were summarized, and the risk factors for malignant transformation of pancreatic MCN were analyzed. The independent samples t-test was used for comparison of continuous data between groups, the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups, and a multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors. ResultsThere were 14 male and 29 female patients aged 22-81 years (median 58.53 years. Of all patients, 30 (69.8% had clinical symptoms. The maximum tumor diameter was 4.8 cm (range 1.2-16 cm. Of all patients, 18 (41.9% had MCN in the head of the pancreas, 3 (7.0% had MCN in the neck of the pancreas, 20 (46.5% had MCN in the body and tail of the pancreas, and 2 (4.6% had multiple MCNs. There were significant differences between the two groups in age, tumor nature, tumor location, texture, tumor markers, heterogeneous enhancement of the cyst wall, heterogeneous enhancement of solid components, and cyst wall thickness >0.2 cm. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age and increased tumor markers were independent predictive factors for malignant pancreatic MCN (P <0.05. ConclusionAge, tumor nature, tumor location, texture, increased tumor markers, heterogeneous enhancement of the cyst wall, heterogeneous enhancement

  14. Acttention – Influencing Communities of Practice with Persuasive Learning Designs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Sandra Burri Gram; Ryberg, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    design within this more established field of research and development. Rather than focus on improving learning technologies or motivating the interest in a subject, persuasive designs may be more efficient when used to influence the communities of practice in educational institutions.......Based on the preliminary results of implementing and testing a persuasive learning initiative in the Danish Military, this paper discusses and develops the notion of persuasive learning designs. It is suggested that the acquirement of new knowledge is fundamental to persuasion, and that persuasive...... learning designs distinguish themselves by leading to sustainable change to the learner’s attitude and/or behaviour. A practical example of persuasive learning designs is provided in terms of the interactive location-based learning game Acttention, which has been developed and tested on behalf...

  15. Effectiveness of training on infant feeding practices among community influencers in a rural area of west Bengal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haldar, A; Ray, S; Biswas, R; Biswas, B; Mukherjee, D

    2001-01-01

    Total 34 Influencers were trained in a subcentre area of South 24-parganas district of West Bengal. Knowledge was imparted to community influencers on infant feeding practices through lecture, group discussion, question-answer session and hand-on-training by trained health workers. Pre-assessment was done before initiation of training. Repeat training was conducted at frequent intervals within a period of 3 months. Mean score of knowledge of influencers during pre-training assessment was 13.3 and improved thereafter-following training to 20.8 (1st assessment), 20.6 (2nd assessment), 23.7 (3rd assessment) and 25.2 (final-assessment). Repeat training had also desired impact.

  16. Hong Kong English: phonological features

    OpenAIRE

    Irina-Ana Drobot

    2008-01-01

    The aim of the paper is to present phonological features of Hong Kong English, which is a variety of New English. I examine features of the sound system (vowel and consonantal systems), characteristics of stress, rhythm, intonation, and phonological processes of the English spoken by Hongkongers. The way in which the accent and characteristics of the Hong Kong variety of English differs from standard, RP English is pointed out. Influences of Chinese and Cantonese on the phonological features ...

  17. The Theory-based Influence of Map Features on Risk Beliefs: Self-reports of What is Seen and Understood for Maps Depicting an Environmental Health Hazard

    OpenAIRE

    Severtson, Dolores J.; Vatovec, Christine

    2012-01-01

    Theory-based research is needed to understand how maps of environmental health risk information influence risk beliefs and protective behavior. Using theoretical concepts from multiple fields of study including visual cognition, semiotics, health behavior, and learning and memory supports a comprehensive assessment of this influence. We report results from thirteen cognitive interviews that provide theory-based insights into how visual features influenced what participants saw ...

  18. Feature Evaluation for Building Facade Images - AN Empirical Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, M. Y.; Förstner, W.; Chai, D.

    2012-08-01

    The classification of building facade images is a challenging problem that receives a great deal of attention in the photogrammetry community. Image classification is critically dependent on the features. In this paper, we perform an empirical feature evaluation task for building facade images. Feature sets we choose are basic features, color features, histogram features, Peucker features, texture features, and SIFT features. We present an approach for region-wise labeling using an efficient randomized decision forest classifier and local features. We conduct our experiments with building facade image classification on the eTRIMS dataset, where our focus is the object classes building, car, door, pavement, road, sky, vegetation, and window.

  19. Dependency Parsing with Transformed Feature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fuxiang Wu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Dependency parsing is an important subtask of natural language processing. In this paper, we propose an embedding feature transforming method for graph-based parsing, transform-based parsing, which directly utilizes the inner similarity of the features to extract information from all feature strings including the un-indexed strings and alleviate the feature sparse problem. The model transforms the extracted features to transformed features via applying a feature weight matrix, which consists of similarities between the feature strings. Since the matrix is usually rank-deficient because of similar feature strings, it would influence the strength of constraints. However, it is proven that the duplicate transformed features do not degrade the optimization algorithm: the margin infused relaxed algorithm. Moreover, this problem can be alleviated by reducing the number of the nearest transformed features of a feature. In addition, to further improve the parsing accuracy, a fusion parser is introduced to integrate transformed and original features. Our experiments verify that both transform-based and fusion parser improve the parsing accuracy compared to the corresponding feature-based parser.

  20. Influence of seawater intrusion on microbial communities in groundwater.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unno, Tatsuya; Kim, Jungman; Kim, Yumi; Nguyen, Son G; Guevarra, Robin B; Kim, Gee Pyo; Lee, Ji-Hoon; Sadowsky, Michael J

    2015-11-01

    Groundwater is the sole source of potable water on Jeju Island in the Republic of (South) Korea. Groundwater is also used for irrigation and industrial purposes, and it is severely impacted by seawater intrusion in coastal areas. Consequently, monitoring the intrusion of seawater into groundwater on Jeju is very important for health and environmental reasons. A number of studies have used hydrological models to predict the deterioration of groundwater quality caused by seawater intrusion. However, there is conflicting evidence of intrusion due to complicated environmental influences on groundwater quality. Here we investigated the use of next generation sequencing (NGS)-based microbial community analysis as a way to monitor groundwater quality and detect seawater intrusion. Pristine groundwater, groundwater from three coastal areas, and seawater were compared. Analysis of the distribution of bacterial species clearly indicated that the high and low salinity groundwater differed significantly with respect to microbial composition. While members of the family Parvularculaceae were only identified in high salinity water samples, a greater percentage of the phylum Actinobacteria was predominantly observed in pristine groundwater. In addition, we identified 48 shared operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with seawater, among which the high salinity groundwater sample shared a greater number of bacterial species with seawater (6.7%). In contrast, other groundwater samples shared less than 0.5%. Our results suggest that NGS-based microbial community analysis of groundwater may be a useful tool for monitoring groundwater quality and detect seawater intrusion. This technology may also provide additional insights in understanding hydrological dynamics. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Changes in assembly processes in soil bacterial communities following a wildfire disturbance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferrenberg, Scott; O'Neill, Sean P; Knelman, Joseph E; Todd, Bryan; Duggan, Sam; Bradley, Daniel; Robinson, Taylor; Schmidt, Steven K; Townsend, Alan R; Williams, Mark W; Cleveland, Cory C; Melbourne, Brett A; Jiang, Lin; Nemergut, Diana R

    2013-06-01

    Although recent work has shown that both deterministic and stochastic processes are important in structuring microbial communities, the factors that affect the relative contributions of niche and neutral processes are poorly understood. The macrobiological literature indicates that ecological disturbances can influence assembly processes. Thus, we sampled bacterial communities at 4 and 16 weeks following a wildfire and used null deviation analysis to examine the role that time since disturbance has in community assembly. Fire dramatically altered bacterial community structure and diversity as well as soil chemistry for both time-points. Community structure shifted between 4 and 16 weeks for both burned and unburned communities. Community assembly in burned sites 4 weeks after fire was significantly more stochastic than in unburned sites. After 16 weeks, however, burned communities were significantly less stochastic than unburned communities. Thus, we propose a three-phase model featuring shifts in the relative importance of niche and neutral processes as a function of time since disturbance. Because neutral processes are characterized by a decoupling between environmental parameters and community structure, we hypothesize that a better understanding of community assembly may be important in determining where and when detailed studies of community composition are valuable for predicting ecosystem function.

  2. Quantitative assessment of the influence of anatomic noise on the detection of subtle lung nodule in digital chest radiography using fractal-feature distance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Imai, Kuniharu; Ikeda, Mitsuru; Enchi, Yukihiro; Niimi, Takanaga

    2008-01-01

    Purpose: To confirm whether or not the influence of anatomic noise on the detection of nodules in digital chest radiography can be evaluated by the fractal-feature distance. Materials and methods: We used the square images with and without a simulated nodule which were generated in our previous observer performance study; the simulated nodule was located on the upper margin of a rib, the inside of a rib, the lower margin of a rib, or the central region between two adjoining ribs. For the square chest images, fractal analysis was conducted using the virtual volume method. The fractal-feature distances between the considered and the reference images were calculated using the pseudo-fractal dimension and complexity, and the square images without the simulated nodule were employed as the reference images. We compared the fractal-feature distances with the observer's confidence level regarding the presence of a nodule in plain chest radiograph. Results: For all square chest images, the relationships between the length of the square boxes and the mean of the virtual volumes were linear on a log-log scale. For all types of the simulated nodules, the fractal-feature distance was the highest for the simulated nodules located on the central region between two adjoining ribs and was the lowest for those located in the inside of a rib. The fractal-feature distance showed a linear relation to an observer's confidence level. Conclusion: The fractal-feature distance would be useful for evaluating the influence of anatomic noise on the detection of nodules in digital chest radiography

  3. Toward a Model of Social Influence that Explains Minority Student Integration into the Scientific Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Estrada, Mica; Woodcock, Anna; Hernandez, Paul R.; Schultz, P. Wesley

    2010-01-01

    Students from several ethnic minority groups are underrepresented in the sciences, such that minority students more frequently drop out of the scientific career path than non-minority students. Viewed from a perspective of social influence, this pattern suggests that minority students do not integrate into the scientific community at the same rate as non-minority students. Kelman (1958, 2006) describes a tripartite integration model of social influence (TIMSI) by which a person orients to a social system. To test if this model predicts integration into the scientific community, we conducted analyses of data from a national panel of minority science students. A structural equation model framework showed that self-efficacy (operationalized consistent with Kelman’s ‘rule-orientation’) predicted student intentions to pursue a scientific career. However, when identification as a scientist and internalization of values are added to the model, self-efficacy becomes a poorer predictor of intention. Additional mediation analyses support the conclusion that while having scientific self-efficacy is important, identifying with and endorsing the values of the social system reflect a deeper integration and more durable motivation to persist as a scientist. PMID:21552374

  4. Influence of Uranium on Bacterial Communities: A Comparison of Natural Uranium-Rich Soils with Controls

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mondani, Laure; Benzerara, Karim; Carrière, Marie; Christen, Richard; Mamindy-Pajany, Yannick; Février, Laureline; Marmier, Nicolas; Achouak, Wafa; Nardoux, Pascal; Berthomieu, Catherine; Chapon, Virginie

    2011-01-01

    This study investigated the influence of uranium on the indigenous bacterial community structure in natural soils with high uranium content. Radioactive soil samples exhibiting 0.26% - 25.5% U in mass were analyzed and compared with nearby control soils containing trace uranium. EXAFS and XRD analyses of soils revealed the presence of U(VI) and uranium-phosphate mineral phases, identified as sabugalite and meta-autunite. A comparative analysis of bacterial community fingerprints using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) revealed the presence of a complex population in both control and uranium-rich samples. However, bacterial communities inhabiting uraniferous soils exhibited specific fingerprints that were remarkably stable over time, in contrast to populations from nearby control samples. Representatives of Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, and seven others phyla were detected in DGGE bands specific to uraniferous samples. In particular, sequences related to iron-reducing bacteria such as Geobacter and Geothrix were identified concomitantly with iron-oxidizing species such as Gallionella and Sideroxydans. All together, our results demonstrate that uranium exerts a permanent high pressure on soil bacterial communities and suggest the existence of a uranium redox cycle mediated by bacteria in the soil. PMID:21998695

  5. A quantitative study on factors influencing enrolment of dairy farmers in a community health insurance scheme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greef, Tineke de Groot-de; Monareng, Lydia V; Roos, Janetta H

    2016-12-09

    Access to affordable and effective health care is a challenge in low- and middle- income countries. Out-of-pocket expenditure for health care is a major cause of impoverishment. One way to facilitate access and overcome catastrophic expenditure is through a health insurance mechanism, whereby risks are shared and financial inputs pooled by way of contributions. This study examined factors that influenced the enrolment status of dairy farmers in Western Kenya to a community health insurance (CHI) scheme. Quantitative, cross-sectional research was used to describe factors influencing the enrolment in the CHI scheme. Quota and convenience sampling was used, recruiting a sample of 135 farmers who supply milk to a dairy cooperation. Data were collected using a structured interview schedule and analysed using Stata SE, Data Analysis and Statistical Software, Version 12. Factors influencing non-enrolment were identified as affordability (40%; n = 47), unfamiliarity with the management of the scheme (37%; n = 44) and a lack of understanding about the scheme (41%; n = 48). An exploratory factor analysis was used to reduce the variables to two factors: information provision and understanding community health insurance (CHI). Logistic regression identified factors associated with enrolment in the Tanykina Community Healthcare Plan (TCHP). Supplies of less than six litres of milk per day (OR: 0.22; 95% CI: 0.06-0.84) and information provision (OR: 8.77; 95% CI: 2.25-34.16) were significantly associated with enrolment in the TCHP. Nearly 30% (29.6%; n = 40) of the respondents remarked that TCHP is expensive and 17% (n = 23) asked for more education on CHI and TCHP in an open-ended question. Recommendations related to marketing strategies, financial approach, information provision and further research were outlined to be made to the management of the TCHP as well as to those involved in public health.

  6. Networked Community Change: Understanding Community Systems Change through the Lens of Social Network Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawlor, Jennifer A; Neal, Zachary P

    2016-06-01

    Addressing complex problems in communities has become a key area of focus in recent years (Kania & Kramer, 2013, Stanford Social Innovation Review). Building on existing approaches to understanding and addressing problems, such as action research, several new approaches have emerged that shift the way communities solve problems (e.g., Burns, 2007, Systemic Action Research; Foth, 2006, Action Research, 4, 205; Kania & Kramer, 2011, Stanford Social Innovation Review, 1, 36). Seeking to bring clarity to the emerging literature on community change strategies, this article identifies the common features of the most widespread community change strategies and explores the conditions under which such strategies have the potential to be effective. We identify and describe five common features among the approaches to change. Then, using an agent-based model, we simulate network-building behavior among stakeholders participating in community change efforts using these approaches. We find that the emergent stakeholder networks are efficient when the processes are implemented under ideal conditions. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

  7. Disentangling the influences of habitat structure and limnological predictors on stream fish communities of a coastal basin, southeastern Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fabio Cop Ferreira

    Full Text Available In stream environments habitat structure and limnological factors interact regulating patterns of energy and material transfer and affecting fish communities. In the coastal basins of Southeastern Brazil, limnological and structural characteristics differ between clear and blackwaters streams. The former have a diversity of substrate types, higher water velocities, and lower water conductivity, while the latter have sandy substrate, tea-colored and acidic waters, and low water velocities. In this study, we verified the relative importance of habitat structure and limnological variables in predicting patterns of variation in stream fish communities. Eight first to third order streams were sampled in the coastal plain of Itanhaém River basin. We captured 34 fish species and verified that community structure was influenced by physical habitat and limnology, being the former more important. A fraction of the variation could not be totally decomposed, and it was assigned to the joint influence of limnology and habitat structure. Some species that were restricted to blackwater streams, may have physiological and behavioral adaptations to deal with the lower pH levels. When we examined only the clearwater streams, all the explained variation in fish community composition was assigned to structural factors, which express specific preferences for different types of habitats.

  8. Influence of nitrogen fertilization on diazotrophic communities in the rhizosphere of the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meng, Xianfa; Wang, Lin; Long, Xiaohua; Liu, Zhaopu; Zhang, Zhenhua; Zed, Rengel

    2012-06-01

    Diazotrophs in the soil may be influenced by plant factors as well as nitrogen (N) fertilization. In this study, we investigated potential diazotrophic communities in the rhizosphere of the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) supplied with differing amounts of N. The community structure of N(2)-fixing bacteria was profiled using the length heterogeneity polymerase chain reaction (LH-PCR) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) based on a variation in the nifH gene. Higher numbers of diazotrophs were detected by T-RFLP compared to LH-PCR. The lowest number of N(2)-fixing bacteria was observed in the rhizosphere soil with high N fertilization. T-RFLP was a better method than LH-PCR for profiling microbial diversity of diazotrophs using multidimensional scaling (MDS) and analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) of fingerprints as well as diversity measures. The supply of N fertilizer appeared to negatively influence the abundance of diazotrophs in the rhizophere of the Jerusalem artichoke. Copyright © 2012 Institut Pasteur. All rights reserved.

  9. Classifying spatially heterogeneous wetland communities using machine learning algorithms and spectral and textural features.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szantoi, Zoltan; Escobedo, Francisco J; Abd-Elrahman, Amr; Pearlstine, Leonard; Dewitt, Bon; Smith, Scot

    2015-05-01

    Mapping of wetlands (marsh vs. swamp vs. upland) is a common remote sensing application.Yet, discriminating between similar freshwater communities such as graminoid/sedge fromremotely sensed imagery is more difficult. Most of this activity has been performed using medium to low resolution imagery. There are only a few studies using highspatial resolutionimagery and machine learning image classification algorithms for mapping heterogeneouswetland plantcommunities. This study addresses this void by analyzing whether machine learning classifierssuch as decisiontrees (DT) and artificial neural networks (ANN) can accurately classify graminoid/sedgecommunities usinghigh resolution aerial imagery and image texture data in the Everglades National Park, Florida.In addition tospectral bands, the normalized difference vegetation index, and first- and second-order texturefeatures derivedfrom the near-infrared band were analyzed. Classifier accuracies were assessed using confusiontablesand the calculated kappa coefficients of the resulting maps. The results indicated that an ANN(multilayerperceptron based on backpropagation) algorithm produced a statistically significantly higheraccuracy(82.04%) than the DT (QUEST) algorithm (80.48%) or the maximum likelihood (80.56%)classifier (αtexture features.

  10. Contextualizing acculturation: gender, family, and community reception influences on Asian immigrant mental health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leu, Janxin; Walton, Emily; Takeuchi, David

    2011-12-01

    This article investigates differences in the mental health among male and female immigrants from an ecological perspective, testing the influences of both individual acculturation domains and social contexts. Data from the first nationally representative psychiatric survey of immigrant Asians in the US is used (N = 1,583). These data demonstrate the importance of understanding acculturation domains (e.g., individual differences in English proficiency, ethnic identity, and time in the US), within the social contexts of family, community, and neighborhood. Results demonstrate that among immigrant Asian women, the association between family conflict and mental health problems is stronger for those with higher ethnic identity; among immigrant Asian men, community reception (e.g., everyday discrimination) was more highly associated with increases in mental health symptoms among those with poor English fluency. Findings suggest that both individual domains of acculturation and social context measures contribute to immigrant mental health, and that it is important to consider these relationships within the context of gender.

  11. Linking environmental forcing and trophic supply to benthic communities in the Vercelli Seamount area (Tyrrhenian Sea.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anabella Covazzi Harriague

    Full Text Available Seamounts and their influence on the surrounding environment are currently being extensively debated but, surprisingly, scant information is available for the Mediterranean area. Furthermore, although the deep Tyrrhenian Sea is characterised by a complex bottom morphology and peculiar hydrodynamic features, which would suggest a variable influence on the benthic domain, few studies have been carried out there, especially for soft-bottom macrofaunal assemblages. In order to fill this gap, the structure of the meio-and macrofaunal assemblages of the Vercelli Seamount and the surrounding deep area (northern Tyrrhenian Sea - western Mediterranean were studied in relation to environmental features. Sediment was collected with a box-corer from the seamount summit and flanks and at two far-field sites in spring 2009, in order to analyse the metazoan communities, the sediment texture and the sedimentary organic matter. At the summit station, the heterogeneity of the habitat, the shallowness of the site and the higher trophic supply (water column phytopigments and macroalgal detritus, for instance supported a very rich macrofaunal community, with high abundance, biomass and diversity. In fact, its trophic features resembled those observed in coastal environments next to seagrass meadows. At the flank and far-field stations, sediment heterogeneity and depth especially influenced the meiofaunal distribution. From a trophic point of view, the low content of the valuable sedimentary proteins that was found confirmed the general oligotrophy of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and exerted a limiting influence on the abundance and biomass of the assemblages. In this scenario, the rather refractory sedimentary carbohydrates became a food source for metazoans, which increased their abundance and biomass at the stations where the hydrolytic-enzyme-mediated turnover of carbohydrates was faster, highlighting high lability.

  12. Factors Influencing the Initiation of Smokeless Tobacco Consumption Among Low Socioeconomic Community in Bangladesh: A Qualitative Investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shahjahan, Md; Harun, Md Golam Dostogir; Chowdhury, A B M Alauddin; Ahmed, Kapil; Khan, Hafiz T A

    2017-07-01

    This study explored factors influencing the initiation of smokeless tobacco (SLT) consumption in a low socioeconomic urban community in Bangladesh. The study conducted four focus group discussions among 33 informants involves school teachers, community leaders, women, and betel-nut shops owners. The results were prepared by thematic analysis of the transcripts where informants mean age was 30 ( SD ± 6.8) years with varying level of education. Tradition of hospitality, curiosity, offer from an elderly person, and avoiding nausea during pregnancy and at time of quitting smoking were key factors for the initiation of SLT consumption. The results also revealed most people were aware about the danger of SLT consumption but, in practice, consumed frequently. The research suggested that doctors might advise people not to use any form of SLT while they seeking health services. Furthermore, community-based awareness program could minimize the wider use of SLT among low-income community in Bangladesh.

  13. Influence of environmental variables on the structure and composition of soil bacterial communities in natural and constructed wetlands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arroyo, Paula; Sáenz de Miera, Luis E; Ansola, Gemma

    2015-02-15

    Bacteria are key players in wetland ecosystems, however many essential aspects regarding the ecology of wetland bacterial communities remain unknown. The present study characterizes soil bacterial communities from natural and constructed wetlands through the pyrosequencing of 16S rDNA genes in order to evaluate the influence of wetland variables on bacterial community composition and structure. The results show that the composition of soil bacterial communities was significantly associated with the wetland type (natural or constructed wetland), the type of environment (lagoon, Typha or Salix) and three continuous parameters (SOM, COD and TKN). However, no clear associations were observed with soil pH. Bacterial diversity values were significantly lower in the constructed wetland with the highest inlet nutrient concentrations. The abundances of particular metabolic groups were also related to wetland characteristics. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Variation partitioning of diatom species data matrices: Understanding the influence of multiple factors on benthic diatom communities in tropical streams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bere, Taurai, E-mail: tbere2015@gmail.com; Mangadze, Tinotenda; Mwedzi, Tongai

    2016-10-01

    Elucidating the confounding influence of multiple environmental factors on benthic diatom communities is important in developing water quality predictive models for better guidance of stream management efforts. The objective of this study was to explore the relative impact of metal pollution and hydromorphological alterations in, addition to nutrient enrichment and organic pollution, on diatom taxonomic composition with the view to improve stream diatom-based water quality inference models. Samples were collected twice at 20 sampling stations in the tropical Manyame Catchment, Zimbabwe. Diatom, macroinvertebrate communities and environmental factors were sampled and analysed. The variations in diatom community composition explained by different categories of environmental factors were analysed using canonical correspondence analysis using variance partitioning (partial CCA). The following variations were explained by the different predictor matrices: nutrient levels and organic pollution - 10.4%, metal pollution - 8.3% and hydromorphological factors - 7.9%. Thus, factors other than nutrient levels and organic pollution explain additional significant variation in these diatom communities. Development of diatom-based stream water quality inference models that incorporate metal pollution and hydromorphological alterations, where these are key issues, is thus deemed necessary. - Highlights: • Confounding influences of multiple environmental factors on diatom communities are elucidated. • Variation explained: nutrients + organic pollution - 10.4%, metals - 8.3% and hydromorphological factors - 7.9%. • Calibration of existing or development of new indices may be necessary.

  15. Variation partitioning of diatom species data matrices: Understanding the influence of multiple factors on benthic diatom communities in tropical streams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bere, Taurai; Mangadze, Tinotenda; Mwedzi, Tongai

    2016-01-01

    Elucidating the confounding influence of multiple environmental factors on benthic diatom communities is important in developing water quality predictive models for better guidance of stream management efforts. The objective of this study was to explore the relative impact of metal pollution and hydromorphological alterations in, addition to nutrient enrichment and organic pollution, on diatom taxonomic composition with the view to improve stream diatom-based water quality inference models. Samples were collected twice at 20 sampling stations in the tropical Manyame Catchment, Zimbabwe. Diatom, macroinvertebrate communities and environmental factors were sampled and analysed. The variations in diatom community composition explained by different categories of environmental factors were analysed using canonical correspondence analysis using variance partitioning (partial CCA). The following variations were explained by the different predictor matrices: nutrient levels and organic pollution - 10.4%, metal pollution - 8.3% and hydromorphological factors - 7.9%. Thus, factors other than nutrient levels and organic pollution explain additional significant variation in these diatom communities. Development of diatom-based stream water quality inference models that incorporate metal pollution and hydromorphological alterations, where these are key issues, is thus deemed necessary. - Highlights: • Confounding influences of multiple environmental factors on diatom communities are elucidated. • Variation explained: nutrients + organic pollution - 10.4%, metals - 8.3% and hydromorphological factors - 7.9%. • Calibration of existing or development of new indices may be necessary.

  16. Influences of Different Halophyte Vegetation on Soil Microbial Community at Temperate Salt Marsh.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaudhary, Doongar R; Kim, Jinhyun; Kang, Hojeong

    2018-04-01

    Salt marshes are transitional zone between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, occupied mainly by halophytic vegetation which provides numerous ecological services to coastal ecosystem. Halophyte-associated microbial community plays an important role in the adaptation of plants to adverse condition and also affected habitat characteristics. To explore the relationship between halophytes and soil microbial community, we studied the soil enzyme activities, soil microbial community structure, and functional gene abundance in halophytes- (Carex scabrifolia, Phragmites australis, and Suaeda japonica) covered and un-vegetated (mud flat) soils at Suncheon Bay, South Korea. Higher concentrations of total, Gram-positive, Gram-negative, total bacterial, and actinomycetes PLFAs (phospholipid fatty acids) were observed in the soil underneath the halophytes compared with mud flat soil and were highest in Carex soil. Halophyte-covered soils had different microbial community composition due to higher abundance of Gram-negative bacteria than mud flat soil. Similar to PLFA concentrations, the increased activities of β-glucosidase, cellulase, phosphatase, and sulfatase enzymes were observed under halophyte soil compared to mud flat soil and Carex exhibited highest activities. The abundance of archaeal 16S rRNA, fungal ITS, and denitrifying genes (nirK, nirS, and nosZ) were not influenced by the halophytes. Abundance bacterial 16S rRNA and dissimilatory (bi)sulfite (dsrA) genes were highest in Carex-covered soil. The abundance of functional genes involved in methane cycle (mcrA and pmoA) was not affected by the halophytes. However, the ratios of mcrA/pmoA and mcrA/dsrA increased in halophyte-covered soils which indicate higher methanogenesis activities. The finding of the study also suggests that halophytes had increased the microbial and enzyme activities, and played a pivotal role in shaping microbial community structure.

  17. Hong Kong English: phonological features

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina-Ana Drobot

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to present phonological features of Hong Kong English, which is a variety of New English. I examine features of the sound system (vowel and consonantal systems, characteristics of stress, rhythm, intonation, and phonological processes of the English spoken by Hongkongers. The way in which the accent and characteristics of the Hong Kong variety of English differs from standard, RP English is pointed out. Influences of Chinese and Cantonese on the phonological features of Hong Kong English are noticeable

  18. The influence of life history milestones and association networks on crop-raiding behavior in male African elephants.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick I Chiyo

    Full Text Available Factors that influence learning and the spread of behavior in wild animal populations are important for understanding species responses to changing environments and for species conservation. In populations of wildlife species that come into conflict with humans by raiding cultivated crops, simple models of exposure of individual animals to crops do not entirely explain the prevalence of crop raiding behavior. We investigated the influence of life history milestones using age and association patterns on the probability of being a crop raider among wild free ranging male African elephants; we focused on males because female elephants are not known to raid crops in our study population. We examined several features of an elephant association network; network density, community structure and association based on age similarity since they are known to influence the spread of behaviors in a population. We found that older males were more likely to be raiders than younger males, that males were more likely to be raiders when their closest associates were also raiders, and that males were more likely to be raiders when their second closest associates were raiders older than them. The male association network had sparse associations, a tendency for individuals similar in age and raiding status to associate, and a strong community structure. However, raiders were randomly distributed between communities. These features of the elephant association network may limit the spread of raiding behavior and likely determine the prevalence of raiding behavior in elephant populations. Our results suggest that social learning has a major influence on the acquisition of raiding behavior in younger males whereas life history factors are important drivers of raiding behavior in older males. Further, both life-history and network patterns may influence the acquisition and spread of complex behaviors in animal populations and provide insight on managing human

  19. Multi-scale factors influencing the characteristics of avian communities in urban parks across Beijing during the breeding season

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Shilin; Lu, Fei; Cao, Lei; Zhou, Weiqi; Ouyang, Zhiyun

    2016-07-01

    Understanding the factors that influence the characteristics of avian communities using urban parks at both the patch and landscape level is important to focus management effort towards enhancing bird diversity. Here, we investigated this issue during the breeding season across urban parks in Beijing, China, using high-resolution satellite imagery. Fifty-two bird species were recorded across 29 parks. Analysis of residence type of birds showed that passengers were the most prevalent (37%), indicating that Beijing is a major node in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Park size was crucial for total species abundance, but foliage height diversity was the most important factor influencing avian species diversity. Thus, optimizing the configuration of vertical vegetation structure in certain park areas is critical for supporting avian communities in urban parks. Human visitation also showed negative impact on species diversity. At the landscape level, the percentage of artificial surface and largest patch index of woodland in the buffer region significantly affected total species richness, with insectivores and granivores being more sensitive to the landscape pattern of the buffer region. In conclusion, urban birds in Beijing are influenced by various multi-scale factors; however, these effects vary with different feeding types.

  20. Plant community resistance to invasion by Bromus species – the roles of community attributes, Bromus Interactions with plant communities, and Bromus traits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chambers, Jeanne; Germino, Matthew; Belnap, Jayne; Brown, Cynthia; Schupp, Eugene W.; St. Clair, Samuel B

    2016-01-01

    The factors that determine plant community resistance to exotic annual Bromus species (Bromushereafter) are diverse and context specific. They are influenced by the environmental characteristics and attributes of the community, the traits of Bromus species, and the direct and indirect interactions of Bromus with the plant community. Environmental factors, in particular ambient and soil temperatures, have significant effects on the ability of Bromus to establish and spread. Seasonality of precipitation relative to temperature influences plant community resistance toBromus through effects on soil water storage, timing of water and nutrient availability, and dominant plant life forms. Differences among plant communities in how well soil resource use by the plant community matches resource supply rates can influence the magnitude of resource fluctuations due to either climate or disturbance and thus the opportunities for invasion. The spatial and temporal patterns of resource availability and acquisition of growth resources by Bromus versus native species strongly influence resistance to invasion. Traits of Bromus that confer a “priority advantage” for resource use in many communities include early-season germination and high growth and reproductive rates. Resistance to Bromus can be overwhelmed by high propagule supply, low innate seed dormancy, and large, if short-lived, seed banks. Biological crusts can inhibit germination and establishment of invasive annual plants, including several annual Bromus species, but are effective only in the absence of disturbance. Herbivores can have negative direct effects on Bromus, but positive indirect effects through decreases in competitors. Management strategies can be improved through increased understanding of community resistance to exotic annual Bromus species.

  1. Influence of Remedial Education Policies: Experiences of Low-Income Native American Women at a Midwestern Community College

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson-Armour, Carole Cristine

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine how policies regarding remedial education can influence the experiences of students who identify as low socioeconomic (SES) Native American women at a Midwestern community college. This study proposed to use interpretive policy analysis and phenomenological qualitative research to learn more about how low…

  2. Influence of heavy metals and PCBs pollution on the enzyme activity and microbial community of paddy soils around an e-waste recycling workshop.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Xianjin; Hashmi, Muhammad Z; Long, Dongyan; Chen, Litao; Khan, Muhammad I; Shen, Chaofeng

    2014-03-14

    Due to the emerging environmental issues related to e-waste there is concern about the quality of paddy soils near e-waste workshops. The levels of heavy metals and PCBs and their influence on the enzyme activity and microbial community of paddy soils obtained from the immediate vicinity of an e-waste workshop were investigated in the present study. The results indicated that the heavy metal and PCB pollution did not differ significantly with an increase of the sampling point distances (5 to 30 m). The concentration of Cd (2.16 mg·kg-1) and Cu (69.2 mg·kg-1) were higher, and the PCB pollution was also serious, ranging from 4.9 to 21.6 μg·kg-1. The highest enzyme activity was found for urease compared to phosphatase and catalase, and a fluctuating trend in soil enzyme activity was observed in soils from different sampling sites. The microbial analysis revealed that there was no apparent correlation between the microbial community and the pollutants. However, a slight influence for soil microbial communities could be found based on DGGE, the Shannon index and PCA analysis. The present study suggests that the contamination stress of heavy metals and PCBs might have a slight influence on microbial activity in paddy soils. This study provides the baseline data for enzyme activities and microbial communities in paddy soil under the influence of mixed contamination.

  3. Influence of Heavy Metals and PCBs Pollution on the Enzyme Activity and Microbial Community of Paddy Soils around an E-Waste Recycling Workshop

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xianjin Tang

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Due to the emerging environmental issues related to e-waste there is concern about the quality of paddy soils near e-waste workshops. The levels of heavy metals and PCBs and their influence on the enzyme activity and microbial community of paddy soils obtained from the immediate vicinity of an e-waste workshop were investigated in the present study. The results indicated that the heavy metal and PCB pollution did not differ significantly with an increase of the sampling point distances (5 to 30 m. The concentration of Cd (2.16 mg·kg−1 and Cu (69.2 mg·kg−1 were higher, and the PCB pollution was also serious, ranging from 4.9 to 21.6 μg·kg−1. The highest enzyme activity was found for urease compared to phosphatase and catalase, and a fluctuating trend in soil enzyme activity was observed in soils from different sampling sites. The microbial analysis revealed that there was no apparent correlation between the microbial community and the pollutants. However, a slight influence for soil microbial communities could be found based on DGGE, the Shannon index and PCA analysis. The present study suggests that the contamination stress of heavy metals and PCBs might have a slight influence on microbial activity in paddy soils. This study provides the baseline data for enzyme activities and microbial communities in paddy soil under the influence of mixed contamination.

  4. Influence of Heavy Metals and PCBs Pollution on the Enzyme Activity and Microbial Community of Paddy Soils around an E-Waste Recycling Workshop

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Xianjin; Hashmi, Muhammad Z.; Long, Dongyan; Chen, Litao; Khan, Muhammad I.; Shen, Chaofeng

    2014-01-01

    Due to the emerging environmental issues related to e-waste there is concern about the quality of paddy soils near e-waste workshops. The levels of heavy metals and PCBs and their influence on the enzyme activity and microbial community of paddy soils obtained from the immediate vicinity of an e-waste workshop were investigated in the present study. The results indicated that the heavy metal and PCB pollution did not differ significantly with an increase of the sampling point distances (5 to 30 m). The concentration of Cd (2.16 mg·kg−1) and Cu (69.2 mg·kg−1) were higher, and the PCB pollution was also serious, ranging from 4.9 to 21.6 μg·kg−1. The highest enzyme activity was found for urease compared to phosphatase and catalase, and a fluctuating trend in soil enzyme activity was observed in soils from different sampling sites. The microbial analysis revealed that there was no apparent correlation between the microbial community and the pollutants. However, a slight influence for soil microbial communities could be found based on DGGE, the Shannon index and PCA analysis. The present study suggests that the contamination stress of heavy metals and PCBs might have a slight influence on microbial activity in paddy soils. This study provides the baseline data for enzyme activities and microbial communities in paddy soil under the influence of mixed contamination. PMID:24637907

  5. Follower-Centric Influences on Sexual Decision Making in a Pentecostal Church Faith Community

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elias Mpofu

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This study utilized participatory action research approaches to construct a follower-centric framework for measuring influences on sexual decision making by youth members of a church organization. Participants were Batswana Pentecostal church members self-reporting on their engagement in pre-marital sex (n = 68, females = 62%; age range 15–23 years; median age = 20.3 years from eight of 26 randomly selected congregations. They completed a multi-stage concept mapping process that included free listing of statements of potential influences on their sexual decisions. They then sorted the statements into groupings similar in meaning to them, and rated the same statements for relative importance to their sexual decisions. Multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis of the data yielded a five cluster solution in which church teachings emerged as most salient to the teenagers’ sexual decision making followed by future orientation, community norms, knowledge about HIV/AIDS and prevention education. While the youth believed to be influenced by religion teachings on primary sexual abstinence, they self-reported with pre-marital sex. This suggests a need for secondary abstinence education with them to reduce their risk for STIs/HIV and unwanted pregnancies. Concept mapping is serviceable to construct frameworks and to identify content of follower-centric influences on sexual decision making by church youth members.

  6. Forest management type influences diversity and community composition of soil fungi across temperate forest ecosystems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kezia eGoldmann

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Fungal communities have been shown to be highly sensitive towards shifts in plant diversity and species composition in forest ecosystems. However, little is known about the impact of forest management on fungal diversity and community composition of geographically separated sites. This study examined the effects of four different forest management types on soil fungal communities. These forest management types include age class forests of young managed beech (Fagus sylvatica L., with beech stands age of approximately 30 years, age class beech stands with an age of approximately 70 years, unmanaged beech stands, and coniferous stands dominated by either pine (Pinus sylvestris L. or spruce (Picea abies Karst. which are located in three study sites across Germany. Soil were sampled from 48 study plots and we employed fungal ITS rDNA pyrotag sequencing to assess the soil fungal diversity and community structure.We found that forest management type significantly affects the Shannon diversity of soil fungi and a significant interaction effect of study site and forest management on the fungal OTU richness. Consequently distinct fungal communities were detected in the three study sites and within the four forest management types, which were mainly related to the main tree species. Further analysis of the contribution of soil properties revealed that C/N ratio being the most important factor in all the three study sites whereas soil pH was significantly related to the fungal community in two study sites. Functional assignment of the fungal communities indicated that 38% of the observed communities were Ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECM and their distribution is significantly influenced by the forest management. Soil pH and C/N ratio were found to be the main drivers of the ECM fungal community composition. Additional fungal community similarity analysis revealed the presence of study site and management type specific ECM genera.This study extends our knowledge

  7. Forest Management Type Influences Diversity and Community Composition of Soil Fungi across Temperate Forest Ecosystems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldmann, Kezia; Schöning, Ingo; Buscot, François; Wubet, Tesfaye

    2015-01-01

    Fungal communities have been shown to be highly sensitive toward shifts in plant diversity and species composition in forest ecosystems. However, little is known about the impact of forest management on fungal diversity and community composition of geographically separated sites. This study examined the effects of four different forest management types on soil fungal communities. These forest management types include age class forests of young managed beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), with beech stands age of approximately 30 years, age class beech stands with an age of approximately 70 years, unmanaged beech stands, and coniferous stands dominated by either pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) or spruce (Picea abies Karst.) which are located in three study sites across Germany. Soil were sampled from 48 study plots and we employed fungal ITS rDNA pyrotag sequencing to assess the soil fungal diversity and community structure. We found that forest management type significantly affects the Shannon diversity of soil fungi and a significant interaction effect of study site and forest management on the fungal operational taxonomic units richness. Consequently distinct fungal communities were detected in the three study sites and within the four forest management types, which were mainly related to the main tree species. Further analysis of the contribution of soil properties revealed that C/N ratio being the most important factor in all the three study sites whereas soil pH was significantly related to the fungal community in two study sites. Functional assignment of the fungal communities indicated that 38% of the observed communities were Ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECM) and their distribution is significantly influenced by the forest management. Soil pH and C/N ratio were found to be the main drivers of the ECM fungal community composition. Additional fungal community similarity analysis revealed the presence of study site and management type specific ECM genera. This study extends our

  8. Macro- and meiofaunal community features in the critical environmental system of a tourist harbour (Rapallo, Ligurian Sea, NW Mediterranean).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harriague, Anabella Covazzi; Albertelli, Giancarlo; Misic, Cristina

    2012-03-01

    Two samplings were carried out in a tourist harbour, during low and high touristic activity periods, to study the macro- and meiofaunal communities in relation to the environmental features. A multivariate analysis showed close relationships: the maritime traffic disturbance and the food quality and availability drive the spatial differences of the assemblages, dividing the area into three sub-areas: the area near the Boate torrent that empties into the harbour, the harbour proper, and the external area (just outside the harbour). Macro- and meiofauna showed notably different temporal trends, indicating competition for the resources and the higher sensitivity of the macrofauna to environmental pressures. The macrofauna strongly decreased as a response to heavier harbour activities, with increasing turbidity also affecting the external station outside the harbour. Finally, comparing the macrofaunal communities to those sampled in the same area 10 years before, we found that their abundance, richness and biomass had notably decreased, highlighting the worsening of the harbour environment due to the increased organic load and turbidity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Influences underlying family food choices in mothers from an economically disadvantaged community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hardcastle, Sarah J; Blake, Nicola

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions and attitudes that underlie food choices, and, the impact of a school-based healthy eating intervention in mothers from an economically-disadvantaged community. The aim of the intervention was to educate children to act as 'health messengers' to their families. Sixteen semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with mothers with four receiving a second interview. Interviews were conducted following their child's participation in a six-week after school healthy cooking intervention. Thematic content analysis revealed four main themes: Cost and budget influence on food choices, diversity in household rules controlling food, role of socialisation on diet, and improved cooking skills and confidence to make homemade meals. The interview findings demonstrated the positive influence of the after-school cooking intervention on children and their families in cooking skills, promoting healthier cooking methods and increasing confidence to prepare homemade meals. The findings demonstrated the wider economic and social influences on food choices and eating practices. Socialisation into, and strong cultural norms around, eating habits were significant influences on family diet and on parental decisions underpinning food choices and attitudes towards the control of food within the family. The intervention was perceived to be successful in terms of improving nutritional knowledge, cooking skills and increasing confidence to make healthy and tasty homemade meals. The study demonstrates the importance of parental involvement in school-based interventions if improvements in healthy eating are to be evidenced at the family level and maintained. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Influence of Fishmeal-Free Diets on Microbial Communities in Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) Recirculation Aquaculture Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Victor; Amaral-Zettler, Linda; Davidson, John; Summerfelt, Steven; Good, Christopher

    2016-08-01

    Reliance on fishmeal as a primary protein source is among the chief economic and environmental concerns in aquaculture today. Fishmeal-based feeds often require harvest from wild fish stocks, placing pressure on natural ecosystems and causing price instability. Alternative diet formulations without the use of fishmeal provide a potential solution to this challenge. Although the impact of alternative diets on fish performance, intestinal inflammation, palatability, and gut microbiota has been a topic of recent interest, less is known about how alternative feeds impact the aquaculture environment as a whole. The recent focus on recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and the closed-containment approach to raising food fish highlights the need to maintain stable environmental and microbiological conditions within a farm environment. Microbial stability in RAS biofilters is particularly important, given its role in nutrient processing and water quality in these closed systems. If and how the impacts of alternative feeds on microbial communities in fish translate into changes to the biofilters are not known. We tested the influence of a fishmeal-free diet on the microbial communities in RAS water, biofilters, and salmon microbiomes using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene V6 hypervariable region amplicon sequencing. We grew Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) to market size in six replicate RAS tanks, three with traditional fishmeal diets and three with alternative-protein, fishmeal-free diets. We sampled intestines and gills from market-ready adult fish, water, and biofilter medium in each corresponding RAS unit. Our results provide data on how fish diet influences the RAS environment and corroborate previous findings that diet has a clear influence on the microbiome structure of the salmon intestine, particularly within the order Lactobacillales (lactic acid bacteria). We conclude that the strong stability of taxa likely involved in water quality processing regardless of diet (e

  11. Marketing of the online communities

    OpenAIRE

    Pražan, Jan

    2010-01-01

    The Bachelor Thesis "Marketing of the online communities" is devoted to online virtual communities, one of the phenomena of the current Internet. Goal of this thesis is to determine the factors that predispose the successful operation of online communities. The thesis defines the essentials features of social media, characterized by online communities and their role in marketing. It deals with strategic and tactical aspects of building and maintaining successful online communities. Based on t...

  12. Does the Subject Content of the Pharmacy Degree Course Influence the Community Pharmacist’s Views on Competencies for Practice?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeffrey Atkinson

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Do community pharmacists coming from different educational backgrounds rank the importance of competences for practice differently—or is the way in which they see their profession more influenced by practice than university education? A survey was carried out on 68 competences for pharmacy practice in seven countries with different pharmacy education systems in terms of the relative importance of the subject areas chemical and medicinal sciences. Community pharmacists were asked to rank the competences in terms of relative importance for practice; competences were divided into personal and patient-care competences. The ranking was very similar in the seven countries suggesting that evaluation of competences for practice is based more on professional experience than on prior university education. There were some differences for instance in research-related competences and these may be influenced, by education.

  13. Does the Subject Content of the Pharmacy Degree Course Influence the Community Pharmacist’s Views on Competencies for Practice?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkinson, Jeffrey; De Paepe, Kristien; Sánchez Pozo, Antonio; Rekkas, Dimitrios; Volmer, Daisy; Hirvonen, Jouni; Bozic, Borut; Skowron, Agnieska; Mircioiu, Constantin; Marcincal, Annie; Koster, Andries; Wilson, Keith; van Schravendijk, Chris; Wilkinson, Jamie

    2015-01-01

    Do community pharmacists coming from different educational backgrounds rank the importance of competences for practice differently—or is the way in which they see their profession more influenced by practice than university education? A survey was carried out on 68 competences for pharmacy practice in seven countries with different pharmacy education systems in terms of the relative importance of the subject areas chemical and medicinal sciences. Community pharmacists were asked to rank the competences in terms of relative importance for practice; competences were divided into personal and patient-care competences. The ranking was very similar in the seven countries suggesting that evaluation of competences for practice is based more on professional experience than on prior university education. There were some differences for instance in research-related competences and these may be influenced, by education. PMID:28975909

  14. Comparing Effects of Lake- and Watershed-Scale Influences on Communities of Aquatic Invertebrates in Shallow Lakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanson, Mark A.; Herwig, Brian R.; Zimmer, Kyle D.; Fieberg, John; Vaughn, Sean R.; Wright, Robert G.; Younk, Jerry A.

    2012-01-01

    Constraints on lake communities are complex and are usually studied by using limited combinations of variables derived from measurements within or adjacent to study waters. While informative, results often provide limited insight about magnitude of simultaneous influences operating at multiple scales, such as lake- vs. watershed-scale. To formulate comparisons of such contrasting influences, we explored factors controlling the abundance of predominant aquatic invertebrates in 75 shallow lakes in western Minnesota, USA. Using robust regression techniques, we modeled relative abundance of Amphipoda, small and large cladocera, Corixidae, aquatic Diptera, and an aggregate taxon that combined Ephemeroptera-Trichoptera-Odonata (ETO) in response to lake- and watershed-scale characteristics. Predictor variables included fish and submerged plant abundance, linear distance to the nearest wetland or lake, watershed size, and proportion of the watershed in agricultural production. Among-lake variability in invertebrate abundance was more often explained by lake-scale predictors than by variables based on watershed characteristics. For example, we identified significant associations between fish presence and community type and abundance of small and large cladocera, Amphipoda, Diptera, and ETO. Abundance of Amphipoda, Diptera, and Corixidae were also positively correlated with submerged plant abundance. We observed no associations between lake-watershed variables and abundance of our invertebrate taxa. Broadly, our results seem to indicate preeminence of lake-level influences on aquatic invertebrates in shallow lakes, but historical land-use legacies may mask important relationships. PMID:22970275

  15. The Mediating Influence of Organizational Characteristics in the Relationship between Organizational Type and Relational Power: An Extension of Psychological Empowerment Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilke, Lindsay A.; Speer, Paul W.

    2011-01-01

    Processes of psychological empowerment for members of community-based organizations may be strongly influenced by organizational factors. Using survey data from a random sample of urban residents (n = 974), the present study examines how individual perceptions of empowering features of organizations (group-based belief system, role opportunity,…

  16. Factors that Influence Community College Students' Interest in Science Coursework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sasway, Hope

    There is a need for science education research that explores community college student, instructor, and course characteristics that influence student interest and motivation to study science. Increasing student enrollment and persistence in STEM is a national concern. Nearly half of all college graduates have passed through a community college at some point in their higher education. This study at a large, ethnically diverse, suburban community college showed that student interest tends to change over the course of a semester, and these changes are related to student, instructor, and course variables. The theoretical framework for this study was based upon Adult Learning Theory and research in motivation to learn science. Adult Learning Theory relies heavily on self-directed learning and concepts of andragogy, or the art and science of teaching adults. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods case study of student course interest utilized quantitative data from 639 pre-and post-surveys and a background and personal experience questionnaire. The four factors of the survey instrument (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) were related to motivation and interest by interviewing 12 students selected through maximum variation sampling in order to reach saturation. Qualitative data were collected and categorized by these factors with extrinsic and intrinsic themes emerging from personal and educational experiences. Analysis of covariance showed student characteristics that were significant included age and whether the student already held a post-secondary degree. Significant instructor characteristics included whether the instructor taught full- or part-time, taught high school, held a doctoral degree, and had pedagogical training. Significant course characteristics included whether the biology course was a major, elective, or service course; whether the course had a library assignment; and high attrition rate. The binary logistic regression model showed

  17. Influence of phosphorus availability on the community structure and physiology of cultured biofilms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shuangshuang; Wang, Chun; Qin, Hongjie; Li, Yinxia; Zheng, Jiaoli; Peng, Chengrong; Li, Dunhai

    2016-04-01

    Biofilms have important effects on nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems. However, publications about the community structure and functions under laboratory conditions are rare. This study focused on the developmental and physiological properties of cultured biofilms under various phosphorus concentrations performed in a closely controlled continuous flow incubator. The results showed that the biomass (Chl a) and photosynthesis of algae were inhibited under P-limitation conditions, while the phosphatase activity and P assimilation rate were promoted. The algal community structure of biofilms was more likely related to the colonization stage than with the phosphorus availability. Cyanobacteria were more competitive than other algae in biofilms, particularly when cultured under low P levels. A dominance shift occurred from non-filamentous algae in the early stage to filamentous algae in the mid and late stages under P concentrations of 0.01, 0.1 and 0.6 mg/L. However, the total N content, dry weight biomass and bacterial community structure of biofilms were unaffected by phosphorus availability. This may be attributed to the low respiration rate, high accumulation of extracellular polymeric substances and high alkaline phosphatase activity in biofilms when phosphorus availability was low. The bacterial community structure differed over time, while there was little difference between the four treatments, which indicated that it was mainly affected by the colonization stage of the biofilms rather than the phosphorus availability. Altogether, these results suggested that the development of biofilms was influenced by the phosphorus availability and/or the colonization stage and hence determined the role that biofilms play in the overlying water. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  18. The influence of perceptions of community norms on current contraceptive use among men and women in Ethiopia and Kenya.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dynes, Michelle; Stephenson, Rob; Rubardt, Marcie; Bartel, Doris

    2012-07-01

    The paper uses data from Ethiopia and Kenya to examine how perceptions of community norms differentially shape contraceptive use among men and women. Women whose current number of sons is lower than their perception of the community ideal had lower odds of reporting contraceptive use, while women whose own personal ideal number of sons is lower than the community ideal had greater odds of reporting contraceptive use. Men and women in Kenya were influenced more by their perception of their social network's approval of family planning than by their own approval of family planning. Results highlight the importance of place, conceptualized as the place-specific perceptions of fertility ideals, when conducting reproductive health research. Identification of people who use contraception in the face of pervasive pronatalist community norms presents a point for future intervention. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Factors that contribute to social media influence within an Internal Medicine Twitter learning community [v1; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/3jd

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tejas Desai

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Medical societies, faculty, and trainees use Twitter to learn from and educate other social media users. These social media communities bring together individuals with various levels of experience. It is not known if experienced individuals are also the most influential members. We hypothesize that participants with the greatest experience would be the most influential members of a Twitter community. We analyzed the 2013 Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine Twitter community. We measured the number of tweets authored by each participant and the number of amplified tweets (re-tweets. We developed a multivariate linear regression model to identify any relationship to social media influence, measured by the PageRank. Faculty (from academic institutions comprised 19% of the 132 participants in the learning community (p < 0.0001. Faculty authored 49% of all 867 tweets (p < 0.0001. Their tweets were the most likely to be amplified (52%, p < 0.01. Faculty had the greatest influence amongst all participants (mean 1.99, p < 0.0001. Being a faculty member had no predictive effect on influence (β = 0.068, p = 0.6. The only factors that predicted influence (higher PageRank were the number of tweets authored (p < 0.0001 and number of tweets amplified (p < 0.0001 The status of “faculty member” did not confer a greater influence. Any participant who was able to author the greatest number of tweets or have more of his/her tweets amplified could wield a greater influence on the participants, regardless of his/her authority.

  20. The changes of macroscopic features and microscopic structures of water under influence of magnetic field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pang Xiaofeng; Deng Bo

    2008-01-01

    Influences of magnetic field on microscopic structures and macroscopic properties of water are studied by the spectrum techniques of infrared, Raman, visible, ultraviolet lights and X-ray. From these investigations, we know that the magnetic fields change the distribution of molecules and electrons, cause displacements and polarization of molecules and atoms, result in changes of dipole-moment transition and vibrational states of molecules and variation of transition probability of electrons, but does not alter the constitution of molecules and atoms. These are helpful in seeking the mechanism of magnetization of water. Meanwhile, we also measure the changed rules of the surface tension force, soaking effect or angle of contact, viscosity, rheology features, refraction index, dielectric constant and electric conductivity of magnetized water relative to that of pure water. The results show that the magnetic fields increase the soaking degree and hydrophobicity of water to materials, depress its surface-tension force, diminish the viscosity of war, enhance the feature of plastic flowing of water, and increase the refraction index, dielectric constant and electric conductivity of water after magnetization. These changes are caused by the above changes of microscopic structures under the action of magnetic field. Therefore, our studies are significant in science and has practical value of applications

  1. FEATURE EVALUATION FOR BUILDING FACADE IMAGES – AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Y. Yang

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available The classification of building facade images is a challenging problem that receives a great deal of attention in the photogrammetry community. Image classification is critically dependent on the features. In this paper, we perform an empirical feature evaluation task for building facade images. Feature sets we choose are basic features, color features, histogram features, Peucker features, texture features, and SIFT features. We present an approach for region-wise labeling using an efficient randomized decision forest classifier and local features. We conduct our experiments with building facade image classification on the eTRIMS dataset, where our focus is the object classes building, car, door, pavement, road, sky, vegetation, and window.

  2. The Communities' research and development programme on decommissioning of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1981-01-01

    This is the first progress report of the European Community's programme (1979-1983) of research on the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. It shows the status of the programme on 31 December 1980. The programme seeks to promote a number of research and development projects as well as the identification of guiding principles. The projects concern the following subjects: long-term integrity of buildings and systems; decontamination for decommissioning purposes; dismantling techniques; treatment of specific waste materials: steel, concrete and graphite; large transport containers for radioactive was produced in the dismantling of nuclear power plants; estimation of the quantities of radioactive wastes arising from decommissioning of nuclear power plants in the Community; influence of nuclear power plant design features on decommissioning

  3. Community-based knowledge translation: unexplored opportunities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Armstrong Rebecca

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Knowledge translation is an interactive process of knowledge exchange between health researchers and knowledge users. Given that the health system is broad in scope, it is important to reflect on how definitions and applications of knowledge translation might differ by setting and focus. Community-based organizations and their practitioners share common characteristics related to their setting, the evidence used in this setting, and anticipated outcomes that are not, in our experience, satisfactorily reflected in current knowledge translation approaches, frameworks, or tools. Discussion Community-based organizations face a distinctive set of challenges and concerns related to engaging in the knowledge translation process, suggesting a unique perspective on knowledge translation in these settings. Specifically, community-based organizations tend to value the process of working in collaboration with multi-sector stakeholders in order to achieve an outcome. A feature of such community-based collaborations is the way in which 'evidence' is conceptualized or defined by these partners, which may in turn influence the degree to which generalizable research evidence in particular is relevant and useful when balanced against more contextually-informed knowledge, such as tacit knowledge. Related to the issues of evidence and context is the desire for local information. For knowledge translation researchers, developing processes to assist community-based organizations to adapt research findings to local circumstances may be the most helpful way to advance decision making in this area. A final characteristic shared by community-based organizations is involvement in advocacy activities, a function that has been virtually ignored in traditional knowledge translation approaches. Summary This commentary is intended to stimulate further discussion in the area of community-based knowledge translation. Knowledge translation, and exchange

  4. Influence of major structural features of tocopherols and tocotrienols on their omega-oxidation by tocopherol-omega-hydroxylase.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sontag, Timothy J; Parker, Robert S

    2007-05-01

    Human cytochrome P450 4F2 (CYP4F2) catalyzes the initial omega-hydroxylation reaction in the metabolism of tocopherols and tocotrienols to carboxychromanols and is, to date, the only enzyme shown to metabolize vitamin E. The objective of this study was to characterize this activity, particularly the influence of key features of tocochromanol substrate structure. The influence of the number and positions of methyl groups on the chromanol ring, and of stereochemistry and saturation of the side chain, were explored using HepG2 cultures and microsomal reaction systems. Human liver microsomes and microsomes selectively expressing recombinant human CYP4F2 exhibited substrate activity patterns similar to those of HepG2 cells. Although activity was strongly associated with substrate accumulation by cells or microsomes, substantial differences in specific activities between substrates remained under conditions of similar microsomal membrane substrate concentration. Methylation at C5 of the chromanol ring was associated with markedly low activity. Tocotrienols exhibited much higher Vmax values than their tocopherol counterparts. Side chain stereochemistry had no effect on omega-hydroxylation of alpha-tocopherol (alpha-TOH) by any system. Kinetic analysis of microsomal CYP4F2 activity revealed Michaelis-Menten kinetics for alpha-TOH but allosteric cooperativity for other vitamers, especially tocotrienols. Additionally, alpha-TOH was a positive effector of omega-hydroxylation of other vitamers. These results indicate that CYP4F2-mediated tocopherol-omega-hydroxylation is a central feature underlying the different biological half-lives, and therefore biopotencies, of the tocopherols and tocotrienols.

  5. Influence of culture and community perceptions on birth and perinatal care of immigrant women: doulas' perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Hye-Kyung

    2014-01-01

    A qualitative study examined the perceptions of doulas practicing in Washington State regarding the influence of cultural and community beliefs on immigrant women's birth and perinatal care, as well as their own cultural beliefs and values that may affect their ability to work interculturally. The findings suggest that doulas can greatly aid immigrant mothers in gaining access to effective care by acting as advocates, cultural brokers, and emotional and social support. Also, doulas share a consistent set of professional values, including empowerment, informed choice, cultural relativism, and scientific/evidence-based practice, but do not always recognize these values as culturally based. More emphasis on cultural self-awareness in doula training, expanding community doula programs, and more integration of doula services in health-care settings are recommended.

  6. Effective Feature Preprocessing for Time Series Forecasting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhao, Junhua; Dong, Zhaoyang; Xu, Zhao

    2006-01-01

    Time series forecasting is an important area in data mining research. Feature preprocessing techniques have significant influence on forecasting accuracy, therefore are essential in a forecasting model. Although several feature preprocessing techniques have been applied in time series forecasting...... performance in time series forecasting. It is demonstrated in our experiment that, effective feature preprocessing can significantly enhance forecasting accuracy. This research can be a useful guidance for researchers on effectively selecting feature preprocessing techniques and integrating them with time...... series forecasting models....

  7. Petroleum-influenced beach sediments of the campeche bank, Mexico: Diversity and bacterial community structure assessment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rosano-Hernandez, M. C.; Ramirez-Saad, H.; Fernandez-Linares, L.; Xoconostle, B.

    2009-07-01

    In Mexican, either spilled or seeped out petroleum impacts nearly 300 km of the beach between Dos Bocas (Tabasco State) to Champoton town (Campeche State), where between 9 to exceptionally 9 to exceptionally 300 tonnes of oil as tar balls have been measured. This study was focused to explore, for the first time, the bacterial diversity and community structure ({alpha}-diversity)- in a kilometric scale on petroleum influenced sediments of 100 km of sandy beach. (Author)

  8. Petroleum-influenced beach sediments of the campeche bank, Mexico: Diversity and bacterial community structure assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosano-Hernandez, M. C.; Ramirez-Saad, H.; Fernandez-Linares, L.; Xoconostle, B.

    2009-01-01

    In Mexican, either spilled or seeped out petroleum impacts nearly 300 km of the beach between Dos Bocas (Tabasco State) to Champoton town (Campeche State), where between 9 to exceptionally 9 to exceptionally 300 tonnes of oil as tar balls have been measured. This study was focused to explore, for the first time, the bacterial diversity and community structure (α-diversity)- in a kilometric scale on petroleum influenced sediments of 100 km of sandy beach. (Author)

  9. How does context influence performance of community health workers in low- and middle-income countries? : Evidence from the literature

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kok, Maryse C; Kane, Sumit; Tulloch, Olivia; Ormel, Hermen; Theobald, Sally; Dieleman, Marjolein; Taegtmeyer, Miriam; Broerse, Jacqueline E W; de Koning, Korrie A M

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Community health workers (CHWs) are increasingly recognized as an integral component of the health workforce needed to achieve public health goals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Many factors intersect to influence CHW performance. A systematic review with a narrative

  10. Which intervention design factors influence performance of community health workers in low- and middle-income countries? : A systematic review

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kok, Maryse C; Dieleman, Marjolein; Taegtmeyer, Miriam; Broerse, Jacqueline E W; Kane, Sumit; Ormel, Hermen; Tijm, Mandy M; de Koning, Korrie A M

    2015-01-01

    Community health workers (CHWs) are increasingly recognized as an integral component of the health workforce needed to achieve public health goals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Many factors influence CHW performance. A systematic review was conducted to identify intervention design

  11. Trust of community health workers influences the acceptance of community-based maternal and child health services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Merridy Grant

    2017-05-01

    Conclusion: Understanding the complex contextual challenges faced by CHWs and community members can strengthen community-based interventions. CHWs require training, support and supervision to develop competencies navigating complex relationships within the community and the health system to provide effective care in communities.

  12. Factors Influencing Administration of Hepatitis B Vaccine to Community-Dwelling Teenagers Aged 12-18 with an Intellectual Disability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yen, Chia-Feng; Lin, Jin-Ding

    2011-01-01

    The study aims to determine hepatitis B vaccination coverage rates among community-dwelling teenagers with an intellectual disability in Taiwan and to identify the possible influencing factors of their vaccination. The present paper was part of the results of the "2007 National Survey on Healthy Behaviors and Preventive Health Utilizations of…

  13. Science Identity's Influence on Community College Students' Engagement, Persistence, and Performance in Biology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riccitelli, Melinda

    In the United States (U.S.), student engagement, persistence, and academic performance levels in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs have been unsatisfactory over the last decade. Low student engagement, persistence, and academic performance in STEM disciplines have been identified as major obstacles to U.S. economic goals and U.S. science education objectives. The central and salient science identity a college student claims can influence his engagement, persistence, and academic achievement in college science. While science identity studies have been conducted on four-year college populations there is a gap in the literature concerning community college students' science identity and science performance. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between community college students claimed science identities and engagement, persistence, and academic performance. A census sample of 264 community college students enrolled in biology during the summer of 2015 was used to study this relationship. Science identity and engagement levels were calculated using the Science Identity Centrality Scale and the Biology Motivation Questionnaire II, respectively. Persistence and final grade data were collected from institutional and instructor records. Engagement significantly correlated to, r =.534, p = .01, and varied by science identity, p < .001. Percent final grade also varied by science identity (p < .005), but this relationship was weaker (r = .208, p = .01). Results for science identity and engagement and final grade were consistent with the identity literature. Persistence did not vary by science identity in this student sample (chi2 =2.815, p = .421). This result was inconsistent with the literature on science identity and persistence. Quantitative results from this study present a mixed picture of science identity status at the community college level. It is suggested, based on the findings

  14. Influence of weather variables and plant communities on grasshopper density in the Southern Pampas, Argentina.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Wysiecki, María Laura; Arturi, Marcelo; Torrusio, Sandra; Cigliano, María Marta

    2011-01-01

    A study was conducted to evaluate the influence of weather (precipitation and temperature) and plant communities on grasshopper density over a 14-year period (1996-2009) in Benito Juárez County, Southern Pampas, Argentina. Total density strongly varied among plant communities. Highest values were registered in 2001 and 2003 in highly disturbed pastures and in 2002 and 2009 in halophilous grasslands. Native grasslands had the lowest density values. Seasonal precipitation and temperature had no significant effect on total grasshopper density. Dichroplus elongatus (Giglio-Tos) (Orthoptera: Acridoidea), Covasacris pallidinota (Bruner), Dichroplus pratensis Bruner, Scotussa lemniscata Stål, Borellia bruneri (Rehn) and Dichroplus maculipennis (Blanchard) comprised, on average, 64% of the grasshopper assemblages during low density years and 79% during high density years. Dichroplus elongatus, S. lemniscata and C. pallidinota were the most abundant species in 2001, 2002 and 2003, while D. elongatus, B. brunneri and C. pallidinota in 2009. Dichroplus elongatus and D. pratensis, mixed feeders species, were positively affected by summer rainfall. This suggests that the increase in summer precipitation had a positive effect on the quantity and quality forage production, affecting these grasshopper populations. Scotussa lemniscata and C. pallidinota were negatively affected by winter and fall temperature, possibly affecting the embryonic development before diapause and hatching. Dichroplus elongatus and D. pratensis were associated with highly disturbed pastures, S. lemniscata with pastures and B. bruneri and D. maculipennis with halophilous grasslands. Covasacris pallidinota was closely associated with halophilous grasslands and moderately disturbed pastures. Weather conditions changed over the years, with 2001, 2002 and 2003 having excessive rainfall while 2008 and 2009 were the driest years since the study started. We suggest that although seasonal precipitation and

  15. Habitat features influencing jaguar Panthera onca (Carnivora: Felidae occupancy in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephanny Arroyo-Arce

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Habitat characteristics and human activities are known to play a major role in the occupancy of jaguars Panthera onca across their range, however the key variables influencing jaguar distribution in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica, have yet to be identified. This study evaluated jaguar occupancy in Tortuguero National Park and the surrounding area. Jaguar detection/non-detection data was collected using digital camera traps distributed within the boundaries of the protected area. Local community members were also interviewed to determine jaguar occurrence in the Park’s buffer zone. Occupancy models were then applied to identify the habitat characteristics that may better explain jaguar distribution across the study area. From June 2012 to June 2013, a total of 4 339 camera trap days were used to identify 18 individual jaguars inside the protected area; 17 of these jaguars were exclusively detected within the coastal habitat, whilst the remaining individual was detected solely within the interior of the Park. Interviewees reported 61 occasions of jaguar presence inside the buffer zone, between 1995 and 2013, with 80% of these described by the communities of Lomas de Sierpe, Barra de Parismina and La Aurora. These communities also reported the highest levels of livestock predation by jaguars (85% of attacks. In the study area, jaguar occurrence was positively correlated with the seasonal presence of nesting green turtles Chelonia mydas, and negatively correlated with distance to the Park boundary. Our findings suggested that the current occupancy of the jaguar in the study area may be a response to: 1 the vast availability of prey (marine turtles on Tortuguero beach, 2 the decline of its primary prey species as a result of illegal hunting inside the Park, and 3 the increase in anthropogenic pressures in the Park boundaries. Rev. Biol. Trop. 62 (4: 1449-1458. Epub 2014 December 01.

  16. Influences of Plant Species, Season and Location on Leaf Endophytic Bacterial Communities of Non-Cultivated Plants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Tao; Melcher, Ulrich

    2016-01-01

    Bacteria are known to be associated endophytically with plants. Research on endophytic bacteria has identified their importance in food safety, agricultural production and phytoremediation. However, the diversity of endophytic bacterial communities and the forces that shape their compositions in non-cultivated plants are largely uncharacterized. In this study, we explored the diversity, community structure, and dynamics of endophytic bacteria in different plant species in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve of northern Oklahoma, USA. High throughput sequencing of amplified segments of bacterial rDNA from 81 samples collected at four sampling times from five plant species at four locations identified 335 distinct OTUs at 97% sequence similarity, representing 16 phyla. Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum in the communities, followed by the phyla Bacteriodetes and Actinobacteria. Bacteria from four classes of Proteobacteria were detected with Alphaproteobacteria as the dominant class. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that host plant species and collecting date had significant influences on the compositions of the leaf endophytic bacterial communities. The proportion of Alphaproteobacteria was much higher in the communities from Asclepias viridis than from other plant species and differed from month to month. The most dominant bacterial groups identified in LDA Effect Size analysis showed host-specific patterns, indicating mutual selection between host plants and endophytic bacteria and that leaf endophytic bacterial compositions were dynamic, varying with the host plant's growing season in three distinct patterns. In summary, next generation sequencing has revealed variations in the taxonomic compositions of leaf endophytic bacterial communities dependent primarily on the nature of the plant host species.

  17. Influences of Plant Species, Season and Location on Leaf Endophytic Bacterial Communities of Non-Cultivated Plants.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao Ding

    Full Text Available Bacteria are known to be associated endophytically with plants. Research on endophytic bacteria has identified their importance in food safety, agricultural production and phytoremediation. However, the diversity of endophytic bacterial communities and the forces that shape their compositions in non-cultivated plants are largely uncharacterized. In this study, we explored the diversity, community structure, and dynamics of endophytic bacteria in different plant species in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve of northern Oklahoma, USA. High throughput sequencing of amplified segments of bacterial rDNA from 81 samples collected at four sampling times from five plant species at four locations identified 335 distinct OTUs at 97% sequence similarity, representing 16 phyla. Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum in the communities, followed by the phyla Bacteriodetes and Actinobacteria. Bacteria from four classes of Proteobacteria were detected with Alphaproteobacteria as the dominant class. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that host plant species and collecting date had significant influences on the compositions of the leaf endophytic bacterial communities. The proportion of Alphaproteobacteria was much higher in the communities from Asclepias viridis than from other plant species and differed from month to month. The most dominant bacterial groups identified in LDA Effect Size analysis showed host-specific patterns, indicating mutual selection between host plants and endophytic bacteria and that leaf endophytic bacterial compositions were dynamic, varying with the host plant's growing season in three distinct patterns. In summary, next generation sequencing has revealed variations in the taxonomic compositions of leaf endophytic bacterial communities dependent primarily on the nature of the plant host species.

  18. PROBLEMATIC FEATURES OF THE POLITICAL DECISION MAKERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksey Sergeevih Voynov

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: identify the most important features in the process of making political decisions that affect the effectiveness of problem-solving situationsScientific novelty: as a result of the analysis identified the problematic features of major importance for the efficiency of the development and adoption of the most rational solution to a problem situation.Results: the analysis of the most significant features affecting the quality of decisions among them the interest of the person making decisions in the search for causes of the problem situation; decisions from the influence of the immediate environment; populism in decision making, creating a visibility problem-solving; decision making based on personal emotional factor face decision-makers; the perception of the population face decision-makers in relation to the current problem situation and possible ways of its resolution.Defined facts influencing the process of political decision-making such as: corruption, the struggle for influence on the process of political decision-making, lack of qualified specialists, staff shortage, including arose as the result of substitution of notions of "succession" to "nepotism".

  19. Oral microbial community assembly under the influence of periodontitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Hongju; Peng, Shuting; Dai, Lin; Zou, Quan; Yi, Bin; Yang, Xianghong; Ma, Zhanshan Sam

    2017-01-01

    Several ecological hypotheses (e.g., specific plaque, non-specific plaque and keystone pathogen) regarding the etiology of periodontitis have been proposed since the 1990s, most of which have been centered on the concept of dysbiosis associated with periodontitis. Nevertheless, none of the existing hypotheses have presented mechanistic interpretations on how and why dysbiosis actually occurs. Hubbell's neutral theory of biodiversity offers a powerful null model to test hypothesis regarding the mechanism of community assembly and diversity maintenance from the metagenomic sequencing data, which can help to understand the forces that shape the community dynamics such as dysbiosis. Here we reanalyze the dataset from Abusleme et al.'s comparative study of the oral microbial communities from periodontitis patients and healthy individuals. Our study demonstrates that 14 out of 61 communities (23%) passed the neutrality test, a percentage significantly higher than the previous reported neutrality rate of 1% in human microbiome (Li & Ma 2016, Scientific Reports). This suggests that, while the niche selection may play a predominant role in the assembly and diversity maintenance in oral microbiome, the effect of neutral dynamics may not be ignored. However, no statistically significant differences in the neutrality passing rates were detected between the periodontitis and healthy treatments with Fisher's exact probability test and multiple testing corrections, suggesting that the mechanism of community assembly is robust against disturbances such as periodontitis. In addition, our study confirmed previous finding that periodontitis patients exhibited higher biodiversity. These findings suggest that while periodontitis may significantly change the community composition measured by diversity (i.e., the exhibition or 'phenotype' of community assembly), it does not seem to cause the 'mutation' of the 'genotype" (mechanism) of community assembly. We argue that the 'phenotypic

  20. Oral microbial community assembly under the influence of periodontitis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hongju Chen

    Full Text Available Several ecological hypotheses (e.g., specific plaque, non-specific plaque and keystone pathogen regarding the etiology of periodontitis have been proposed since the 1990s, most of which have been centered on the concept of dysbiosis associated with periodontitis. Nevertheless, none of the existing hypotheses have presented mechanistic interpretations on how and why dysbiosis actually occurs. Hubbell's neutral theory of biodiversity offers a powerful null model to test hypothesis regarding the mechanism of community assembly and diversity maintenance from the metagenomic sequencing data, which can help to understand the forces that shape the community dynamics such as dysbiosis. Here we reanalyze the dataset from Abusleme et al.'s comparative study of the oral microbial communities from periodontitis patients and healthy individuals. Our study demonstrates that 14 out of 61 communities (23% passed the neutrality test, a percentage significantly higher than the previous reported neutrality rate of 1% in human microbiome (Li & Ma 2016, Scientific Reports. This suggests that, while the niche selection may play a predominant role in the assembly and diversity maintenance in oral microbiome, the effect of neutral dynamics may not be ignored. However, no statistically significant differences in the neutrality passing rates were detected between the periodontitis and healthy treatments with Fisher's exact probability test and multiple testing corrections, suggesting that the mechanism of community assembly is robust against disturbances such as periodontitis. In addition, our study confirmed previous finding that periodontitis patients exhibited higher biodiversity. These findings suggest that while periodontitis may significantly change the community composition measured by diversity (i.e., the exhibition or 'phenotype' of community assembly, it does not seem to cause the 'mutation' of the 'genotype" (mechanism of community assembly. We argue that the

  1. Iris recognition based on key image feature extraction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, X; Tian, Q; Zhang, J; Wu, S; Zeng, Y

    2008-01-01

    In iris recognition, feature extraction can be influenced by factors such as illumination and contrast, and thus the features extracted may be unreliable, which can cause a high rate of false results in iris pattern recognition. In order to obtain stable features, an algorithm was proposed in this paper to extract key features of a pattern from multiple images. The proposed algorithm built an iris feature template by extracting key features and performed iris identity enrolment. Simulation results showed that the selected key features have high recognition accuracy on the CASIA Iris Set, where both contrast and illumination variance exist.

  2. A critical appraisal of assimilationist and radical ideologies underlying same-sex marriage in LGBT communities in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yep, Gust A; Lovaas, Karen E; Elia, John P

    2003-01-01

    Debates over same-sex marriage have reached the main stage of contemporary U.S. politics. The purpose of this essay is to identify and examine how sexual ideologies in U.S. LGBT communities inform and influence relationship construction in general and same-sex marriage in particular. To accomplish this, we first discuss the nature of sexual ideologies. Next, we identify current sexual ideologies in LGBT communities and examine some of their fundamental features and their implications for relationship construction with a focus on same-sex marriage. We conclude with a discussion of what is potentially gained and lost by same-sex matrimonial bonds and explore some of the prospects of relationship construction within LGBT communities in the future.

  3. Influence of environmental factors on the benthic invertebrates community distribution in channels of a neotropical floodplain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danielle Katharine Petsch

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available One of the central themes in ecology is the relative importance of local and regional processes for determining the communities’ structure, since both processes may behave as filters in the composition of local communities. Thus, this study analyzed the influence of environmental factors on the benthic invertebrate community distribution in different channels of the Upper Paraná River floodplain, through quarterly samplings conducted from March to December 2010. Through the biotic and abiotic data, we performed a Canonical Correspondence Analysis, where it was possible to visualize the centers of Ivinhema and Paraná rivers and Ipoitã channel separate from other points by high values of depth and velocity and taxa typical of lotic environments, such as Harpacticoida, Haplotaxidae, and Narapidae, and the center of the Curutuba channel, with L. fortunei. One may conclude that flow velocity, granulometric texture, and sediment organic matter were structuring factors of the benthic community, determining the distribution of invertebrates both among the various channels and between the marginal and central regions in these environments, providing greater or lesser availability of resources and environmental heterogeneity.

  4. Community-Acquired Pneumonia: a Comparison between elderly and nonelderly patients

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    S. Jafari

    2006-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: Community-acquired pneumonia could be a life-threatening condition especially in elderly patients. The factors influencing the outcome in elderly patients are thought to be different from those in young adults. We compared the clinical and paraclinical profiles in elderly and nonelderly patients with community-acquired pneumonias. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, seventy nine patients who were hospitalized with community acquired pneumonia over a period of one year were included. Patients' medical records were reviewed; and data related to comorbid conditions, signs and symptoms, laboratory and radiographic findings were gathered using a checklist. Results: The clinical features, laboratory parameters and complications from pneumonia were almost similar in 41 elderly (group I, age ≥65years and 38 young (group II, age<65years subjects. Delirium was seen more in elderly group (p=0.05. The average body temperature and pulse rate were significantly higher in nonelderly group. Sixty one percent of elderly patients and 21% of young patients have Po2 less than 60 (p=0.02. Smoking (29.1%, neurological disturbances (19%, congestive heart failure (15.2%, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes mellitus (13.9% were associated comorbidities in both groups. In non elderly group, immune compromise and IV drug use were more common as underlying comorbid conditions. Two of three mortalities were due to elder patients. Conclusion: Community acquired pneumonia could have more serious clinical and abnormal laboratory features in the elderly than younger patients. Mortality rate may be higher in older patients. Comorbid conditions are frequently seen in both elderly and nonelderly patients with community acquired pneumonia, but IV drug use and immune compromise are more frequent in nonelderly patients.

  5. The Influence of Garden Size and Floral Cover on Pollen Deposition in Urban Community Gardens

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kevin C. Matteson

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Many cucurbits, such as cucumbers, squashes and pumpkins, depend on pollinating bees in order to set fruit. However, fruit yield and progeny vigor in these plants generally decreases as heterospecific pollen deposition increases. We studied how the spatial area dedicated to cucumbers (Cucumis sativis, versus other flowering plants, influenced the deposition of conspecific and heterospecific pollen on cucumber plants in New York City community gardens. We also examined the effect of garden size on conspecific and heterospecific pollen deposition on cucumber plants. Female flowers were collected from potted cucumber plants that had been experimentally placed into the gardens, specifically for this study, or that were established in raised beds by members of the community garden. In the laboratory, pollen grains were isolated from the flower by acetolysis, and the number of heterospecific and conspecific cucumber pollen grains were quantified. Conspecific pollen deposition was positively and significantly associated with the size of a community garden, as well as with the area of each garden dedicated to non-cucumber, flowering plants (i.e. floral cover and the area of each garden dedicated to cucumber plants (i.e. cucumber cover. Although floral cover explained a greater proportion of the variance, cucumber cover had the strongest effect on conspecific pollen deposition. Heterospecific pollen deposition was positively and significantly related to garden area. However, no significant relationship was found between heterospecific pollen deposition and floral cover, or cucumber cover. Based upon these results, we hypothesize that floral cover positively impacts conspecific pollen deposition by attracting a greater number of pollinators into an urban garden, and that total cucumber area positively impacts conspecific pollen deposition when pollinators are locally foraging within a garden. We suggest that the arrangement of plants within a garden can

  6. Influence of oxygen partial pressure and salinity on the community composition of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in the Schelde estuary

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bollmann, A.; Laanbroek, H.J.

    2002-01-01

    The influence of environmental factors on the community structure of ammoniaoxidizing bacteria (AOB) was investigated in the Schelde estuary. Simultaneously with the increase of oxygen and salinity, a shift of the dominant AOB was observed. Molecular analysis based on 16S rRNA genes showed that

  7. Age, sex, and climate factors show different effects on survival of three different bat species in a woodland bat community

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antica Culina

    2017-10-01

    5. Our study provides, for the first time, a robust estimate of annual survival in bats. We advocate careful attention to possible sources of biases when studying survival rates in the wild, considering species-specific life-history and population-specific features. Considering these factors that influence wider community responses to environmental conditions is important for the effective conservation management of an area.

  8. Influence of Culture and Community Perceptions on Birth and Perinatal Care of Immigrant Women: Doulas’ Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Hye-Kyung

    2014-01-01

    A qualitative study examined the perceptions of doulas practicing in Washington State regarding the influence of cultural and community beliefs on immigrant women’s birth and perinatal care, as well as their own cultural beliefs and values that may affect their ability to work interculturally. The findings suggest that doulas can greatly aid immigrant mothers in gaining access to effective care by acting as advocates, cultural brokers, and emotional and social support. Also, doulas share a consistent set of professional values, including empowerment, informed choice, cultural relativism, and scientific/evidence-based practice, but do not always recognize these values as culturally based. More emphasis on cultural self-awareness in doula training, expanding community doula programs, and more integration of doula services in health-care settings are recommended. PMID:24453465

  9. Community-level influences on women's experience of intimate partner violence and terminated pregnancy in Nigeria: a multilevel analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antai Diddy

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Intimate partner violence (IPV is a major public health problem with serious consequences for women’s physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health. Reproductive health outcomes such as unwanted and terminated pregnancies, fetal loss or child loss during infancy, non-use of family planning methods, and high fertility are increasingly recognized. However, little is known about the role of community influences on women's experience of IPV and its effect on terminated pregnancy, given the increased awareness of IPV being a product of social context. This study sought to examine the role of community-level norms and characteristics in the association between IPV and terminated pregnancy in Nigeria. Methods Multilevel logistic regression analyses were performed on nationally-representative cross-sectional data including 19,226 women aged 15–49 years in Nigeria. Data were collected by a stratified two-stage sampling technique, with 888 primary sampling units (PSUs selected in the first sampling stage, and 7,864 households selected through probability sampling in the second sampling stage. Results Women who had experienced physical IPV, sexual IPV, and any IPV were more likely to have terminated a pregnancy compared to women who had not experienced these IPV types. IPV types were significantly associated with factors reflecting relationship control, relationship inequalities, and socio-demographic characteristics. Characteristics of the women aggregated at the community level (mean education, justifying wife beating, mean age at first marriage, and contraceptive use were significantly associated with IPV types and terminated pregnancy. Conclusion Findings indicate the role of community influence in the association between IPV-exposure and terminated pregnancy, and stress the need for screening women seeking abortions for a history of abuse.

  10. Community Road Safety Initiatives for the Minerals Industry

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    Tim Horberry

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Major companies in the minerals industry are increasingly recognizing that their operations have an impact in the wider community. Regarding transportation issues, this impact extends beyond purely the safety of company vehicle fleets to consideration of Community Road Safety (CRS concerns, which address the driving, walking, and riding practices of community members in a locale with increased heavy vehicle traffic. Our assessment here of national and international trends in approaches to road safety awareness and associated road safety strategies is meant to inform companies in the minerals industry of developments that can influence the design of their road safety initiatives. The review begins by considering the overall road safety context and the dominant “safe systems” framework employed internationally. Thereafter, it considers what is typically included in CRS initiatives for the minerals industry. Three case studies are then presented to highlight approaches that feature exemplary collaboration, design, implementation, or impact. Thereafter, we analyze lessons learnt by key researchers and practitioners in the CRS field. Finally, we conclude that best CRS practices for the minerals industry rely on eleven factors, including for example collaboration with local entities and stepwise implementation.

  11. Recent Development of the Two-Stroke Engine. II - Design Features. 2; Design Features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeman, J.

    1945-01-01

    Completing the first paper dealing with charging methods and arrangements, the present paper discusses the design forms of two-stroke engines. Features which largely influence piston running are: (a) The shape and surface condition of the sliding parts. (b) The cylinder and piston materials. (c) Heat conditions in the piston, and lubrication. There is little essential difference between four-stroke and two-stroke engines with ordinary pistons. In large engines, for example, are always found separately cast or welded frames in which the stresses are taken up by tie rods. Twin piston and timing piston engines often differ from this design. Examples can be found in many engines of German or foreign make. Their methods of operation will be dealt with in the third part of the present paper, which also includes the bibliography. The development of two-stroke engine design is, of course, mainly concerned with such features as are inherently difficult to master; that is, the piston barrel and the design of the gudgeon pin bearing. Designers of four-stroke engines now-a-days experience approximately the same difficulties, since heat stresses have increased to the point of influencing conditions in the piston barrel. Features which notably affect this are: (a) The material. (b) Prevailing heat conditions.

  12. Glazed ceramic roof tiles: influence of surface features in the solar reflectance index

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bortoli, Leitcia Silva de; Stapait, Camila Cristina; Marinoski, Deivis Luis; Fredel, Marcio Celso; Schabbach, Luciana M.

    2016-01-01

    In this study the influence of surface features of ceramic roof tiles in the solar reflectance index were evaluated. Two glazed ceramic roof tiles (type stoneware) with the same color (ivory) but with different appearance (matte and brilliant) were the focus of the analysis. The Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) of the roofs tiles were determined by the solar reflectance values (UV-VIS-NIR) and emittance, measured in laboratory. The samples showed SRI> 39 in accordance with LEED certification criteria (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), contributing to minimizing the Heat Island Effects. Although the matte roof tile shows a slightly higher SRI value (82) than the brilliant one (78), the results for the variables that composes the SRI value (reflectance and emittance) were very similar. Analysis of XRD, SEM and EDS performed on the surfaces of the two roofs indicated for the matte glaze the presence of microcrystals (with barium and zinc) that can contribute to the slightly highest value of SRI. The roughness (optical interferometer white light) and the brightness (brightness meter) of the samples were also measured. (author)

  13. 'Setting the guinea pigs free': towards a new model of community-led social marketing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, A J; Henry, L

    2009-09-01

    To offer the opportunity to discuss the positive contribution of co-production approaches in the field of social marketing. Recognizing the ever-evolving theoretical base for social marketing, this article offers a brief commentary on the positive contribution of co-production approaches in this field. The authors outline their own move towards conceptualizing a community-led social marketing approach and describe some key features. This developing framework has been influenced by, and tested through, the Early Presentation of Cancer Symptoms Programme, a community-led social marketing approach to tackle health inequalities across priority neighbourhoods in North East Lincolnshire, UK. A blend of social marketing, community involvement and rapid improvement science methodologies are drawn upon. The approach involves not just a strong focus on involving communities in insight and consultation, but also adopts methods where they are in charge of the process of generating solutions. A series of monthly and pre/post measures have demonstrated improvements in awareness of symptoms, reported willingness to act and increases in presentation measured through service referrals. Key features of the approach involve shared ownership and a shift away from service-instigated change by enabling communities 'to do' through developing skills and confidence and the conditions to 'try out'. The approach highlights the contribution that co-production approaches have to offer social marketing activity. In order to maximize potential, it is important to consider ways of engaging communities effectively. Successful approaches include translating social marketing methodology into easy-to-use frameworks, involving communities in gathering and interpreting local data, and supporting communities to act as change agents by planning and carrying out activity. The range of impacts across organisational, health and social capital measures demonstrates that multiple and longer

  14. Influence of manure age and sunlight on the community structure of cattle fecal bacteria as revealed by Illumina sequencing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, K.; Shaw, T. I.; Oladeinde, A.; Molina, M.

    2013-12-01

    Fecal pollution of environmental waters is a major concern for the general public because exposure to fecal-associated pathogens can have severe impacts on human health. Stream and river impairment due to fecal pollution is largely the result of agricultural activities in the United States. In the last few years, numerous metagenomic studies utilized next generation sequencing to develop microbial community profiles by massively sequencing the 16sRNA hypervariable region. This technology supports the application of water quality assessment such as pathogen detection and fecal source tracking. The bacteria communities of samples in these studies were determined when they were freshly collected; therefore, little is known about how feces age or how environmental stress influences the microbial ecology of fecal materials. In this study we monitored bacteria community changes in cattle feces for 57 days after excretion (day 0, 2, 4 8, 15, 22, 29, 43, 57) by sequencing the 16s variable region 4, using Illumnia MiSeq. Twelve cattle feces were studied; half of the samples were directly exposed to sunlight (unshaded) and half were shaded. Results indicate that the relative abundance (RA) profile in both shaded and unshaded samples rapidly changed from day 0 to 15, but stabilized from day 22 to 57. Firmcutes were the most abundant phylum (~40%) at day 0, but were reduced to rarefaction curve analysis, richness of bacteria diversity in feces decreased as time progressed. Some pathogens such as Campylobacter were detected only at the beginning, meaning they substantially decayed during the course of our study. Overall, this study indicated: (1) sunlight can influence the community structure and (2) after excretion the fecal bacteria diversity can be significantly changed over time. Future studies should therefore use not only the microbial signature of fresh but also moderately aged fecal samples to develop more accurate community profiles for fecal source tracking.

  15. Influence of oxygen partial pressure and salinity on the community composition of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in the Schelde estuary

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bollmann, A.; Laanbroek, H.J.

    2002-01-01

    The influence of environmental factors on the community structure of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) was investigated in the Schelde estuary. Simultaneously with the increase of oxygen and salinity, a shift of the dominant AOB was observed. Molecular analysis based on 16S rRNA genes showed that the

  16. A pivotal role for ocean eddies in the distribution of microbial communities across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siddarthan Venkatachalam

    Full Text Available Mesoscale variability and associated eddy fluxes play crucial roles in ocean circulation dynamics and the ecology of the upper ocean. In doing so, these features are biologically important, providing a mechanism for the mixing and exchange of nutrients and biota within the ocean. Transient mesoscale eddies in the Southern Ocean are known to relocate zooplankton communities across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC and are important foraging grounds for marine top predators. In this study we investigated the role of cyclonic and anti-cyclonic eddies formed at the South-West Indian Ridge on the spatial variability and diversity of microbial communities. We focused on two contrasting adjacent eddies within the Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone to determine how these features may influence the microbial communities within this region. The water masses and microbiota of the two eddies, representative of a cyclonic cold core from the Antarctic zone and an anti-cyclonic warm-core from the Subantarctic zone, were compared. The data reveal that the two eddies entrain distinct microbial communities from their points of origin that are maintained for up to ten months. Our findings highlight the ecological impact that changes, brought by the translocation of eddies across the ACC, have on microbial diversity.

  17. Detection of communities with Naming Game-based methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ribeiro, Carlos Henrique Costa

    2017-01-01

    Complex networks are often organized in groups or communities of agents that share the same features and/or functions, and this structural organization is built naturally with the formation of the system. In social networks, we argue that the dynamic of linguistic interactions of agreement among people can be a crucial factor in generating this community structure, given that sharing opinions with another person bounds them together, and disagreeing constantly would probably weaken the relationship. We present here a computational model of opinion exchange that uncovers the community structure of a network. Our aim is not to present a new community detection method proper, but to show how a model of social communication dynamics can reveal the (simple and overlapping) community structure in an emergent way. Our model is based on a standard Naming Game, but takes into consideration three social features: trust, uncertainty and opinion preference, that are built over time as agents communicate among themselves. We show that the separate addition of each social feature in the Naming Game results in gradual improvements with respect to community detection. In addition, the resulting uncertainty and trust values classify nodes and edges according to role and position in the network. Also, our model has shown a degree of accuracy both for non-overlapping and overlapping communities that are comparable with most algorithms specifically designed for topological community detection. PMID:28797097

  18. The influence of substrate material on ascidian larval settlement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chase, Anna L; Dijkstra, Jennifer A; Harris, Larry G

    2016-05-15

    Submerged man-made structures present novel habitat for marine organisms and often host communities that differ from those on natural substrates. Although many factors are known to contribute to these differences, few studies have directly examined the influence of substrate material on organism settlement. We quantified larval substrate preferences of two species of ascidians, Ciona intestinalis (cryptogenic, formerly C. intestinalis type B) and Botrylloides violaceus (non-native), on commonly occurring natural (granite) and man-made (concrete, high-density polyethylene, PVC) marine materials in laboratory trials. Larvae exhibited species-specific settlement preferences, but generally settled more often than expected by chance on concrete and HDPE. Variation in settlement between materials may reflect preferences for rougher substrates, or may result from the influence of leached chemicals on ascidian settlement. These findings indicate that an experimental plate material can influence larval behavior and may help us understand how substrate features may contribute to differences in settlement in the field. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Patient Continued Use of Online Health Care Communities: Web Mining of Patient-Doctor Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Bing

    2018-04-16

    In practice, online health communities have passed the adoption stage and reached the diffusion phase of development. In this phase, patients equipped with knowledge regarding the issues involved in health care are capable of switching between different communities to maximize their online health community activities. Online health communities employ doctors to answer patient questions, and high quality online health communities are more likely to be acknowledged by patients. Therefore, the factors that motivate patients to maintain ongoing relationships with online health communities must be addressed. However, this has received limited scholarly attention. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that drive patients to continue their use of online health communities where doctor-patient communication occurs. This was achieved by integrating the information system success model with online health community features. A Web spider was used to download and extract data from one of the most authoritative Chinese online health communities in which communication occurs between doctors and patients. The time span analyzed in this study was from January 2017 to March 2017. A sample of 469 valid anonymous patients with 9667 posts was obtained (the equivalent of 469 respondents in survey research). A combination of Web mining and structural equation modeling was then conducted to test the research hypotheses. The results show that the research framework for integrating the information system success model and online health community features contributes to our understanding of the factors that drive patients' relationships with online health communities. The primary findings are as follows: (1) perceived usefulness is found to be significantly determined by three exogenous variables (ie, social support, information quality, and service quality; R 2 =0.88). These variables explain 87.6% of the variance in perceived usefulness of online health communities; (2

  20. What factors influence community-dwelling older people’s intent to undertake multifactorial fall prevention programs?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hill KD

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Keith D Hill,1,2 Lesley Day,3 Terry P Haines4,5 1School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia; 2National Ageing Research Institute, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia; 3Falls Prevention Research Unit, Monash Injury Research Institute, Monash University, VIC, Australia; 4Allied Health Research Unit, Southern Health, Cheltenham, VIC, Australia; 5Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, Monash University, VIC, Australia Purpose: To investigate previous, current, or planned participation in, and perceptions toward, multifactorial fall prevention programs such as those delivered through a falls clinic in the community setting, and to identify factors influencing older people’s intent to undertake these interventions.Design and methods: Community-dwelling people aged >70 years completed a telephone survey. Participants were randomly selected from an electronic residential telephone listing, but purposeful sampling was used to include equal numbers with and without common chronic health conditions associated with fall-related hospitalization. The survey included scenarios for fall prevention interventions, including assessment/multifactorial interventions, such as those delivered through a falls clinic. Participants were asked about previous exposure to, or intent to participate in, the interventions. A path model analysis was used to identify factors associated with intent to participate in assessment/multifactorial interventions.Results: Thirty of 376 participants (8.0% reported exposure to a multifactorial falls clinic-type intervention in the past 5 years, and 16.0% expressed intention to undertake this intervention. Of the 132 participants who reported one or more falls in the past 12 months, over one-third were undecided or disagreed that a falls clinic type of intervention would be of benefit to them. Four elements

  1. A FRAMEWORK FOR ATTRIBUTE-BASED COMMUNITY DETECTION WITH APPLICATIONS TO INTEGRATED FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Han; Hageman Blair, Rachael

    2016-01-01

    Understanding community structure in networks has received considerable attention in recent years. Detecting and leveraging community structure holds promise for understanding and potentially intervening with the spread of influence. Network features of this type have important implications in a number of research areas, including, marketing, social networks, and biology. However, an overwhelming majority of traditional approaches to community detection cannot readily incorporate information of node attributes. Integrating structural and attribute information is a major challenge. We propose a exible iterative method; inverse regularized Markov Clustering (irMCL), to network clustering via the manipulation of the transition probability matrix (aka stochastic flow) corresponding to a graph. Similar to traditional Markov Clustering, irMCL iterates between "expand" and "inflate" operations, which aim to strengthen the intra-cluster flow, while weakening the inter-cluster flow. Attribute information is directly incorporated into the iterative method through a sigmoid (logistic function) that naturally dampens attribute influence that is contradictory to the stochastic flow through the network. We demonstrate advantages and the exibility of our approach using simulations and real data. We highlight an application that integrates breast cancer gene expression data set and a functional network defined via KEGG pathways reveal significant modules for survival.

  2. Fishermen Follow Fine-Scale Physical Ocean Features for Finance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James R. Watson

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The seascapes on which many millions of people make their living and secure food have complex and dynamic spatial features—the figurative hills and valleys—that influence where and how people work at sea. Here, we quantify the physical mosaic of the surface ocean by identifying Lagrangian Coherent Structures for a whole seascape—the U.S. California Current Large Marine Ecosystem—and assess their impact on the spatial distribution of fishing. We observe that there is a mixed response: some fisheries track these physical features, and others avoid them. These spatial behaviors map to economic impacts, in particular we find that tuna fishermen can expect to make three times more revenue per trip if fishing occurs on strong Lagrangian Coherent Structures. However, we find no relationship for salmon and pink shrimp fishing trips. These results highlight a connection between the biophysical state of the oceans, the spatial patterns of human activity, and ultimately the economic welfare of coastal communities.

  3. Soil communities promote temporal stability and species asynchrony in experimental grassland communities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pellkofer, Sarah; Van Der Heijden, Marcel G A; Schmid, Bernhard; Wagg, Cameron

    2016-01-01

    Background Over the past two decades many studies have demonstrated that plant species diversity promotes primary productivity and stability in grassland ecosystems. Additionally, soil community characteristics have also been shown to influence the productivity and composition of plant communities,

  4. Perceptions of individual and community environmental influences on fruit and vegetable intake, North Carolina, 2004.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyington, Josephine E A; Schoster, Britta; Remmes Martin, Kathryn; Shreffler, Jack; Callahan, Leigh F

    2009-01-01

    Increases in obesity and other chronic conditions continue to fuel efforts for lifestyle behavior changes. However, many strategies do not address the impact of environment on lifestyle behaviors, particularly healthy dietary intake. This study explored the perceptions of environment on intake of fruits and vegetables in a cohort of 2,479 people recruited from 22 family practices in North Carolina. Participants were administered a health and social demographic survey. Formative assessment was conducted on a subsample of 32 people by using focus groups, semistructured individual interviews, community mapping, and photographs. Interviews and discussions were transcribed and content was analyzed using ATLAS.ti version 5. Survey data were evaluated for means, frequencies, and group differences. The 2,479 participants had a mean age of 52.8 years, mean body mass index (BMI) of 29.4, and were predominantly female, white, married, and high school graduates. The 32 subsample participants were older, heavier, and less educated. Some prevalent perceptions about contextual factors related to dietary intake included taste-bud fatigue (boredom with commonly eaten foods), life stresses, lack of forethought in meal planning, current health status, economic status, the ability to garden, lifetime dietary exposure, concerns about food safety, contradictory nutrition messages from the media, and variable work schedules. Perceptions about intake of fruits and vegetables intake are influenced by individual (intrinsic) and community (extrinsic) environmental factors. We suggest approaches for influencing behavior and changing perceptions using available resources.

  5. Changes in Microbial Plankton Assemblages Induced by Mesoscale Oceanographic Features in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alicia K Williams

    Full Text Available Mesoscale circulation generated by the Loop Current in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM delivers growth-limiting nutrients to the microbial plankton of the euphotic zone. Consequences of physicochemically driven community shifts on higher order consumers and subsequent impacts on the biological carbon pump remain poorly understood. This study evaluates microbial plankton <10 μm abundance and community structure across both cyclonic and anti-cyclonic circulation features in the NGOM using flow cytometry (SYBR Green I and autofluorescence parameters. Non-parametric multivariate hierarchical cluster analyses indicated that significant spatial variability in community structure exists such that stations that clustered together were defined as having a specific 'microbial signature' (i.e. statistically homogeneous community structure profiles based on relative abundance of microbial groups. Salinity and a combination of sea surface height anomaly and sea surface temperature were determined by distance based linear modeling to be abiotic predictor variables significantly correlated to changes in microbial signatures. Correlations between increased microbial abundance and availability of nitrogen suggest nitrogen-limitation of microbial plankton in this open ocean area. Regions of combined coastal water entrainment and mesoscale convergence corresponded to increased heterotrophic prokaryote abundance relative to autotrophic plankton. The results provide an initial assessment of how mesoscale circulation potentially influences microbial plankton abundance and community structure in the NGOM.

  6. Error and attack tolerance of synchronization in Hindmarsh–Rose neural networks with community structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Chun-Hsien; Yang, Suh-Yuh

    2014-01-01

    Synchronization is one of the most important features observed in large-scale complex networks of interacting dynamical systems. As is well known, there is a close relation between the network topology and the network synchronizability. Using the coupled Hindmarsh–Rose neurons with community structure as a model network, in this paper we explore how failures of the nodes due to random errors or intentional attacks affect the synchronizability of community networks. The intentional attacks are realized by removing a fraction of the nodes with high values in some centrality measure such as the centralities of degree, eigenvector, betweenness and closeness. According to the master stability function method, we employ the algebraic connectivity of the considered community network as an indicator to examine the network synchronizability. Numerical evidences show that the node failure strategy based on the betweenness centrality has the most influence on the synchronizability of community networks. With this node failure strategy for a given network with a fixed number of communities, we find that the larger the degree of communities, the worse the network synchronizability; however, for a given network with a fixed degree of communities, we observe that the more the number of communities, the better the network synchronizability.

  7. The influence of flood pulse on fish communities of floodplain canals in the Middle Solimões River, Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raniere G. C. Sousa

    Full Text Available The functioning of large river systems with adjacent floodplains is strongly influenced by the flood pulse. This phenomenon is the main structuring force for the biota, including fish communities that use floodplain environments for spawning, feeding, nursery and refuge. In floodplains and in the entire basin, the volume of water controls internal flows. During rising water, the high discharge of the river acts as a natural barrier to the canals that connect floodplain lakes and the Solimões River, because the water flows from river to lake. During the dry period, there is a reduction of discharge and the water flow is reversed or stationary. These canals are environments with distinct ecological characteristics such as differentiated limnology and water level variation intensely affected by the hydrological cycle. Therefore, we surveyed the influence of the flood pulse on fish communities that inhabit two canals that connect floodplain lakes to the Middle Solimões River. Particularly, we evaluated the hypothesis that the Solimões River flow direction is not perfectly parallel to its banks, which creates peripheral flows that direct water from the rivers to the floodplain lake canals. Our analysis indicated that the seasonal pattern is stronger than the spatial. Beside this, we observed that the positions of the canals in relation to the main river flow somehow affect the fish assemblages. Finally, we conclude that the flood pulse is the main structuring force acting on these fish communities.

  8. The Influence of Community Disadvantage and Masculinity Ideology on Number of Sexual Partners: A Prospective Analysis of Young Adult, Rural Black Men.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kogan, Steven M; Cho, Junhan; Barton, Allen W; Duprey, Erinn B; Hicks, Megan R; Brown, Geoffrey L

    2017-01-01

    Young, rural Black men are disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted infections (STIs), a consequence, in part, of multiple sexual partnerships. We conducted a prospective study that examined the influence of masculinity ideology on changes in numbers of sexual partners in this population. We focused on a set of high-risk attitudes termed reputational masculinity. Community disadvantage during young adulthood was examined as a risk factor for reputational masculinity ideology, and vocational commitment was examined as a potential protective factor. The sample included 505 African American men ages 19 to 22 from high-poverty rural communities. Men reported their numbers of sexual partners during the past three months, masculinity ideology, community disadvantage, and vocational commitment. Follow-up data were collected 18 months after baseline assessment. Negative binomial modeling was used to test study hypotheses. Results indicated that community disadvantage was associated with increases in reputational masculinity during early adulthood, which in turn were linked to increases in numbers of sexual partners. Vocational commitment interacted with reputational masculinity to forecast numbers of sexual partners, attenuating the influence of reputational masculinity. Reputational masculinity and promotion of engagement with the workplace may be important targets for interventions designed to reduce sexual risk behavior.

  9. Factors influencing the work passion of Chinese community health service workers: an investigation in five provinces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Zhenni; Bai, Xue; Min, Rui; Tang, Changmin; Fang, Pengqian

    2014-05-01

    After the implementation of new healthcare reform, Chinese government paid increasing attention to developing community health service (CHS). The current focus is mainly on cultivating community general practitioners but paying less attention to the working status and occupational demands of in-service CHS workers. Work passion is playing an important role for medical workers. With work passion, CHS workers' team will become more stable and more effective, ensuring the sustainable development of CHS system. At present, the work passion of CHS workers is relatively low. Studying on influencing factors of work passion of CHS workers, promoting their work passion, and making them keep enthusiasm for work are significant. A total of 100 CHS organizations were sampled randomly in 10 cities from 5 Chinese provinces for this study. A total of 3450 CHS workers from these CHS institutions took part in the surveys. Questionnaires were used to collect data, including socio-demographic information, work passion and opinion on influencing causes, and work-related satisfaction. Pearson chi-square statistical method was used to identify the factors related to CHS workers' work passion. Binary logistic regression was performed to determine the significant factors that influence CHS workers' work passion. A total of 38.77% of those who accomplished the questionnaire expressed that they didn't have passion for current work. The related factors that influence CHS workers' work passion are (1) socio-demographic factors such as age, and years of employment, and (2) other work-related factors such as learning and training opportunities, compensation packages, work stress, and personal development opportunities. CHS workers were most dissatisfied with the balance between remuneration and workload, job promotion opportunities. Based on the results, the government should concern for CHS workers' working status and work-related demands, pay more attention and meet their demands for

  10. Formative research to develop a community-based intervention for chronic disease prevention in Guatemalan school-age children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Letona, Paola; Ramirez-Zea, Manuel; Caballero, Benjamin; Gittelsohn, Joel

    2014-01-31

    Noncommunicable diseases (NCD) are the most common causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, even in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Recent trends in health promotion emphasize community-based interventions as an important strategy for improving health outcomes. The aim of this study was to conduct formative research regarding the perceptions of NCD risk factors, their influencing factors, and community resources available to aid the development and implementation of a community-based intervention with school-age children. Focus group discussions (n = 18), home visits (n = 30), and individual semi-structured interviews (n = 26) were conducted in three urban communities in Guatemala with school-age children (10-12 years of age), teachers, parents, and local community members (i.e., school principals, school food kiosk vendors, religious leaders, authority representatives). All focus groups and interviews were transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis. Children, parents, and teachers have general knowledge about modifiable risk factors. Adults worried more about tobacco use, as compared to unhealthy diet and physical inactivity in children. Participants identified features at the intrapersonal (e.g., negative emotional state), interpersonal (e.g., peers as role models), and organizational and community levels (e.g., high levels of crime) that influence these risk factors in children. School committees, religious leaders, and government programs and activities were among the positive community resources identified. These findings should help researchers in Guatemala and similar LMIC to develop community-based interventions for NCD prevention in school-age children that are effective, feasible, and culturally acceptable.

  11. Bottom trawling and oxygen minimum zone influences on continental slope benthic community structure off Vancouver Island (NE Pacific)

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Leo, Fabio C.; Gauthier, Maéva; Nephin, Jessica; Mihály, Steven; Juniper, S. Kim

    2017-03-01

    Understanding responses of benthic ecosystems to cumulative impacts of natural stressors, long-term ocean change and increasing resource exploitation is an emerging area of interest for marine ecologists and environmental managers. Few, if any, studies have quantitatively addressed cumulative effects in the deep sea. We report here on a study from the continental slope off Vancouver Island (Canada) in the northeast Pacific Ocean, where the Oxygen Minimum Zone impinges on seabed habitats that are subjected to widespread bottom trawling, primarily by the fishery for thornyhead (Sebastolobus ssp.). We examined how the benthic megafauna in this area was influenced by varying levels of dissolved oxygen and trawling activity, along a depth gradient that was also likely to shape community composition. Continuous video and sonar records from two ROV surveys (50 linear km total; depth range 300-1400 m) respectively provided data on faunal attributes (composition, abundance and diversity) and the frequency of trawl door marks on the seabed. Faunal and trawl data were compiled in a geo-referenced database along with corresponding dissolved oxygen data, and pooled into 500 m segments for statistical analysis. Trawl mark occurrence peaked between 500 and 1100 m, corresponding to areas of slope subjected to hypoxia (PERMANOVA analyses, with characterizing taxa identified for all three factors. Depth, dissolved oxygen and trawl mark density accounted for 21% to 52% of the variability in benthic community structure according to multiple regression (DISTLM) models. Species richness was highest at intermediate depths and in areas subject to intermediate levels of trawling, and higher under hypoxia than under severe hypoxia. These statistically significant trends demonstrate that the structuring influences of bottom trawling on deep-sea benthic communities can be observed even where communities are being shaped by strong environmental gradients.

  12. Realistic Free-Spins Features Increase Preference for Slot Machines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Lorance F; Macaskill, Anne C; Hunt, Maree J

    2017-06-01

    Despite increasing research into how the structural characteristics of slot machines influence gambling behaviour there have been no experimental investigations into the effect of free-spins bonus features-a structural characteristic that is commonly central to the design of slot machines. This series of three experiments investigated the free-spins feature using slot machine simulations to determine whether participants allocate more wagers to a machine with free spins, and, which components of free-spins features drive this preference. In each experiment, participants were exposed to two computer-simulated slot machines-one with a free-spins feature or similar bonus feature and one without. Participants then completed a testing phase where they could freely switch between the two machines. In Experiment 1, participants did not prefer the machine with a simple free-spins feature. In Experiment 2 the free-spins feature incorporated additional elements such as sounds, animations, and an increased win frequency; participants preferred to gamble on this machine. The Experiment 3 "bonus feature" machine resembled the free spins machine in Experiment 2 except spins were not free; participants showed a clear preference for this machine also. These findings indicate that (1) free-spins features have a major influence over machine choice and (2) the "freeness" of the free-spins bonus features is not an important driver of preference, contrary to self-report and interview research with gamblers.

  13. Leadership style in the deaf community: an exploratory case study of a university president.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamm-Larew, Deborah; Stanford, Jevetta; Greene, Robert; Heacox, Christopher; Hodge, Warren

    2008-01-01

    A qualitative mini-case study of I. King Jordan and his leadership style explores the influence of a transformational leader on Gallaudet University and the Deaf community. The study features a template-style semistructured interview with Jordan regarding his perceptions of leadership and his personal insights. The study highlights the attributes of transformational leadership and encourages further research into leadership as a tool for change in the Deaf community and the disability rights movement. This exploration of the leadership style of Gallaudet's first Deaf president is especially timely; the study was conducted between Jordan's retirement announcement and the Gallaudet Board of Trustees' decision to rescind an offer to his announced successor to become the university's next president. That tumultuous transition accentuated the disconnect between Jordan's transformational, charismatic leadership style, which affected generations of the Deaf community, and his followers' dissatisfaction with his management and successor planning.

  14. Enabling FAIR and Open Data - The Importance of Communities on Influencing Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stall, S.; Lehnert, K.; Robinson, E.; Parsons, M. A.; Hanson, B.; Cutcher-Gershenfeld, J.; Nosek, B.

    2017-12-01

    Our research ecosystem is diverse and dependent on many interacting stakeholders that influence and support the process of science. These include funders, institutions, libraries, publishers, researchers, data managers, repositories, archives and communities. Process improvement in this ecosystem thus usually needs support by more than one of these many stakeholders. For example, mandates for open data extend across this ecosystem. Solutions require these stakeholders to come together and agree upon improvements. Recently, the value of FAIR and Open Data has encouraged funders to sponsor discussions with tangible agreements that include the steps needed to move the ecosystem towards results. Work by many of these stakeholders over the past years have developed pilot efforts that are ready to be scaled with broader engagement. A partnership of the AGU, Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), Research Data Alliance (RDA), Center for Open Science, and key publishers including Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) have agreed to work together to develop integrated processes, leveraging these pilots, to make FAIR and open data the default for Earth and space science publications. This effort will build on the work of COPDESS.org, ESIP, RDA, the scientific journals, and domain repositories to ensure that well documented data, preserved in a repository with community agreed-upon metadata, and supporting persistent identifiers becomes part of the expected research products submitted in support of each publication.

  15. Plant community resistance to invasion by Bromus species: The roles of community attributes, Bromus interactions with plant communities, and Bromus traits [Chapter 10

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeanne C. Chambers; Matthew J. Germino; Jayne Belnap; Cynthia S. Brown; Eugene W. Schupp; Samuel B. St. Clair

    2016-01-01

    The factors that determine plant community resistance to exotic annual Bromus species (Bromus hereafter) are diverse and context specific. They are influenced by the environmental characteristics and attributes of the community, the traits of Bromus species, and the direct and indirect interactions of Bromus with the plant community. Environmental factors, in...

  16. Ex situ diet influences the bacterial community associated with the skin of red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rachael E Antwis

    Full Text Available Amphibians support symbiotic bacterial communities on their skin that protect against a range of infectious pathogens, including the amphibian chytrid fungus. The conditions under which amphibians are maintained in captivity (e.g. diet, substrate, enrichment in ex situ conservation programmes may affect the composition of the bacterial community. In addition, ex situ amphibian populations may support different bacterial communities in comparison to in situ populations of the same species. This could have implications for the suitability of populations intended for reintroduction, as well as the success of probiotic bacterial inoculations intended to provide amphibians with a bacterial community that resists invasion by the chytrid fungus. We aimed to investigate the effect of a carotenoid-enriched diet on the culturable bacterial community associated with captive red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas and make comparisons to bacteria isolated from a wild population from the Chiquibul Rainforest in Belize. We successfully showed carotenoid availability influences the overall community composition, species richness and abundance of the bacterial community associated with the skin of captive frogs, with A. callidryas fed a carotenoid-enriched diet supporting a greater species richness and abundance of bacteria than those fed a carotenoid-free diet. Our results suggest that availability of carotenoids in the diet of captive frogs is likely to be beneficial for the bacterial community associated with the skin. We also found wild A. callidryas hosted more than double the number of different bacterial species than captive frogs with very little commonality between species. This suggests frogs in captivity may support a reduced and diverged bacterial community in comparison to wild populations of the same species, which could have particular relevance for ex situ conservation projects.

  17. Speeded induction under uncertainty: the influence of multiple categories and feature conjunctions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newell, Ben R; Paton, Helen; Hayes, Brett K; Griffiths, Oren

    2010-12-01

    When people are uncertain about the category membership of an item (e.g., Is it a dog or a dingo?), research shows that they tend to rely only on the dominant or most likely category when making inductions (e.g., How likely is it to befriend me?). An exception has been reported using speeded induction judgments where participants appeared to use information from multiple categories to make inductions (Verde, Murphy, & Ross, 2005). In two speeded induction studies, we found that participants tended to rely on the frequency with which features co-occurred when making feature predictions, independently of category membership. This pattern held whether categories were considered implicitly (Experiment 1) or explicitly (Experiment 2) prior to feature induction. The results converge with other recent work suggesting that people often rely on feature conjunction information, rather than category boundaries, when making inductions under uncertainty.

  18. Climate responsive and safe earthquake construction: a community building a school

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hari Darshan

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available This article outlines environment friendly features, climate responsive features and construction features of a prototype school building constructed using green building technology. The school building has other additional features such as earthquake resistant construction, use of local materials and local technology. The construction process not only establishes community ownership, but also facilitates dissemination of the technology to the communities. Schools are effective media for raising awareness, disseminating technology and up-scaling the innovative approach. The approach is cost effective and sustainable for long-term application of green building technology. Furthermore, this paper emphasizes that such construction technology will be instrumental to build culture of safety in communities and reduce disaster risk.

  19. Permafrost soil characteristics and microbial community structure across a boreal forest watershed vary over short spatial scales and dictate community responses to thaw.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stegen, J.; Bottos, E. M.; Kennedy, D.; Romero, E. B.; Fansler, S.; Chu, R. K.; Tfaily, M.; Jansson, J.; Bernstein, H. C.; Brown, J. M.; Markillie, L. M.

    2017-12-01

    Understanding drivers of permafrost microbial community structure and function is critical for understanding permafrost microbiology and predicting ecosystem responses to thaw; however, studies describing ecological controls on these communities are lacking. We hypothesize that permafrost communities are uniquely shaped by constraints imposed by prolonged freezing, and decoupled from the selective factors that influence non-permafrost soil communities, but that pre-thaw environmental and community characteristics will be strong determinants of community structure and function post-thaw. We characterized patterns of environmental variation and microbial community composition in sixty permafrost samples spanning landscape gradients in a boreal forest watershed, and monitored community responses to thaw. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that, proportionally, the strongest process influencing permafrost community composition was dispersal limitation (0.36), exceeding the influence of homogenous selection (0.21) and variable selection (0.16), and that deterministic selection arose primarily from energetic constraints of the permafrost environment. Our data supported a structural equation model in which organic carbon thermodynamics and organic acid content, influenced redox conditions and total selection. Post-thaw community composition was found to be driven primarily by pre-thaw community composition, indicating a strong influence of historical conditions. Together, these results suggest that community responses to thaw may be highly varied over short distances and that changes in community structure and function are likely to be drastic, as changes to system hydrology mobilize organisms and nutrients, thereby relieving the primary constraints on the system. These findings are being integrated with metabolomic and metatranscriptomic analyses to improve understanding of how pre-thaw conditions can be used to predict microbial activity post-thaw.

  20. Endophytic fungal communities of Polygonum acuminatum and Aeschynomene fluminensis are influenced by soil mercury contamination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pietro-Souza, William; Mello, Ivani Souza; Vendruscullo, Suzana Junges; Silva, Gilvan Ferreira da; Cunha, Cátia Nunes da; White, James Francis; Soares, Marcos Antônio

    2017-01-01

    The endophytic fungal communities of Polygonum acuminatum and Aeschynomene fluminensis were examined with respect to soil mercury (Hg) contamination. Plants were collected in places with and without Hg+2 for isolation and identification of their endophytic root fungi. We evaluated frequency of colonization, number of isolates and richness, indices of diversity and similarity, functional traits (hydrolytic enzymes, siderophores, indoleacetic acid, antibiosis and metal tolerance) and growth promotion of Aeschynomene fluminensis inoculated with endophytic fungi on soil with mercury. The frequency of colonization, structure and community function, as well as the abundant distribution of taxa of endophytic fungi were influenced by mercury contamination, with higher endophytic fungi in hosts in soil with mercury. The presence or absence of mercury in the soil changes the profile of the functional characteristics of the endophytic fungal community. On the other hand, tolerance of lineages to multiple metals is not associated with contamination. A. fluminensis depends on its endophytic fungi, since plants free of endophytic fungi grew less than expected due to mercury toxicity. In contrast plants containing certain endophytic fungi showed good growth in soil containing mercury, even exceeding growth of plants cultivated in soil without mercury. The data obtained confirm the hypothesis that soil contamination by mercury alters community structure of root endophytic fungi in terms of composition, abundance and species richness. The inoculation of A. fluminensis with certain strains of stress tolerant endophytic fungi contribute to colonization and establishment of the host and may be used in processes that aim to improve phytoremediation of soils with toxic concentrations of mercury.

  1. Factors influencing the turnover intention of Chinese community health service workers based on the investigation results of five provinces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Yu; Luo, Zhenni; Fang, Pengqian

    2013-12-01

    After the implementation of the new health reform, the Chinese government paid increasing attention to developing its community health service (CHS). The focus is mainly on cultivating community general medical practitioners but paying less attention to the working status and occupational demands of in-service CHS workers. CHS requires a stable team that can provide good service to community residents. At present, the demission rate of CHS workers is high. Studying how to increase the stability of CHS workers is noteworthy. The goal of this study is to ascertain the key factors that influence the CHS worker turnover intention to increase their work satisfaction and stability. A total of 100 CHS organizations were sampled randomly in 10 cities from 5 Chinese provinces for this study. All CHS workers from these organizations took a questionnaire survey. In total, 3,212 valid answer sheets were collected. Pearson Chi square test and Binary logistic regression were used to analyze the related influencing factors that result in CHS worker turnover intention. A total of 38.7% of those who accomplished the questionnaire intended to quit. The influencing factors that result in CHS worker turnover intention are (1) socio-demographic factors such as age, post of duty, professional title, and working seniority, and (2) other work-related factors such as pay packets, learning and training opportunities, promotion and personal development space, and working stress. CHS workers were less satisfied with the balance between payment and work quantity, promotion opportunity, and working conditions. Based on the results, the government should pay more attention to the various demands of CHS workers in service, especially by increasing their income, providing more learning and training opportunities, and increasing the degree of their work satisfaction to avoid turnover intention and ensure the stability of the CHS workforce.

  2. [Degree of dry mouth and factors influencing oral health-related quality of life for community-dwelling elders].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Myung Sook; Ryu, Se Ang

    2010-10-01

    This study was conducted to investigate the degree of dry mouth and oral health-related quality of life and to identify factors contributing to oral health-related quality of life for community-dwelling elders. A descriptive correlational study design was used. Participants were 156 older adults from two senior welfare centers. Data were collected on February 21, 22 and 29, 30, 2009 using structured questionnaires. Enter type multiple regression analysis was used to identify factors influencing oral health-related quality of life according to general and oral health characteristics. There were significant differences in oral health-related quality of life according to living arrangement, insurance, smoking, number of natural teeth, and denture type. The oral health-related quality of life had significant correlations with the number of chronic disease, number of medications, and dry mouth. Factors influencing oral health-related quality of life for community-dwelling older adults were dry mouth, number of chronic disease, and medical aid, which explained about 47.9% of total variance. These results indicate that in order to promote oral health-related quality of life for older adults, prevention or management of chronic diseases as well as oral health and dry mouth are needed for this population, and especially economically poor elders.

  3. Role of community acceptance in sustainable bioenergy projects in India

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eswarlal, Vimal Kumar; Vasudevan, Geoffrey; Dey, Prasanta Kumar; Vasudevan, Padma

    2014-01-01

    Community acceptance has been identified as one of the key requirements for a sustainable bioenergy project. However less attention has been paid to this aspect from developing nations and small projects perspective. Therefore this research examines the role of community acceptance for sustainable small scale bioenergy projects in India. While addressing the aim, this work identifies influence of community over bioenergy projects, major concerns of communities regarding bioenergy projects and factors influencing perceptions of communities about bioenergy projects. The empirical research was carried out on four bioenergy companies in India as case studies. It has been identified that communities have significant influence over bioenergy projects in India. Local air pollution, inappropriate storage of by-products and credibility of developer are identified as some of the important concerns. Local energy needs, benefits to community from bioenergy companies, level of trust on company and relationship between company and the community are some of the prime factors which influence community's perception on bioenergy projects. This research sheds light on important aspects related to community acceptance of bioenergy projects, and this information would help practitioners in understanding the community perceptions and take appropriate actions to satisfy them

  4. Color vision: introduction by the feature editors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buck, Steven L; Baraas, Rigmor; Lee, Barry B; Lindsey, Delwin T; Uchikawa, Keiji; Webster, Michael A; Werner, John S

    2016-03-01

    This feature issue of the Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A) reflects the basic and applied research interests of members of the color vision community. Most of the articles stem from presentations at the 23rd Biennial Symposium of the International Colour Vision Society (ICVS).

  5. Automatically measuring the effect of strategy drawing features on pupils' handwriting and gender

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tabatabaey-Mashadi, Narges; Sudirman, Rubita; Guest, Richard M.; Khalid, Puspa Inayat

    2013-12-01

    Children's dynamic drawing strategies have been recently recognized as indicators of handwriting ability. However the influence of each feature in predicting handwriting is unknown due to lack of a measuring system. An automated measuring algorithm suitable for psychological assessment and non-subjective scoring is presented here. Using the weight vector and classification rate of a machine learning algorithm, an overall feature's effect is calculated which is comparable in different groupings. In this study thirteen previously detected drawing strategy features are measured for their influence on handwriting and gender. Features are extracted from drawing a triangle, Beery VMI and Bender Gestalt tangent patterns. Samples are related to 203 pupils (77 below average writers, and 101 female). The results show that the number of strokes in drawing the triangle pattern plays a major role in both groupings; however Left Tendency flag feature is affected by children's handwriting about 2.5 times greater than their gender. Experiments indicate that different forms of a feature sometimes show different influences.

  6. Microbes on a bottle: substrate, season and geography influence community composition of microbes colonizing marine plastic debris

    OpenAIRE

    Carter, Dee A.; Oberbeckmann, Sonja; Osborn, A. Mark; Duhaime, Melissa B.

    2016-01-01

    Plastic debris pervades in our oceans and freshwater systems and the potential ecosystem-level impacts of this anthropogenic litter require urgent evaluation. Microbes readily colonize aquatic plastic debris and members of these biofilm communities are speculated to include pathogenic, toxic, invasive or plastic degrading-species. The influence of plastic-colonizing microorganisms on the fate of plastic debris is largely unknown, as is the role of plastic in selecting for unique microbial com...

  7. The influence of Glyceria maxima and nitrate input on the composition and nitrate metabolism of the dissimilatory nitrate-reducing bacterial community

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijburg, J.W.; Laanbroek, H.J.

    1997-01-01

    The influence of nitrate addition and the presence of Glyceria maxima (reed sweetgrass) on the composition and nitrate metabolism of the dissimilatory nitrate-reducing bacterial community was investigated. Anoxic freshwater sediment was incubated in pots with or without G. maxima and with or

  8. Forests and Forest Cover - MDC_NaturalForestCommunity

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — A point feature class of NFCs - Natural Forest Communities. Natural Forest Community shall mean all stands of trees (including their associated understory) which...

  9. Physical activity levels of community-dwelling older adults are influenced by winter weather variables.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, G R; Brandon, C; Gill, D P

    2017-07-01

    Winter weather conditions may negatively influence participation of older adults in daily physical activity (PA). Assess the influence of winter meteorological variables, day-time peak ambient temperature, windchill, humidity, and snow accumulation on the ground to accelerometer measured PA values in older adults. 50 community-dwelling older adults (77.4±4.7yrs; range 71-89; 12 females) living in Southwestern Ontario (Latitude 42.9°N Longitude 81.2° W) Canada, wore a waist-borne accelerometer during active waking hours (12h) for 7 consecutive days between February and April 2007. Hourly temperature, windchill, humidity, and snowfall accumulation were obtained from meteorological records and time locked to hourly accelerometer PA values. Regression analysis revealed significant relationships between time of day, ambient daytime high temperature and a humidity for participation in PA. Windchill temperature added no additional influence over PA acclamation already influenced by ambient day-time temperature and the observed variability in PA patterns relative to snow accumulation over the study period was too great to warrant its inclusion in the model. Most PA was completed in the morning hours and increased as the winter month's transitioned to spring (February through April). An equation was developed to adjust for winter weather conditions using temperature, humidity and time of day. Accurate PA assessment during the winter months must account for the ambient daytime high temperatures, humidity, and time of day. These older adults were more physically active during the morning hours and became more active as the winter season transitioned to spring. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Interpretation of appearance: the effect of facial features on first impressions and personality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wolffhechel, Karin Marie Brandt; Fagertun, Jens; Jacobsen, Ulrik Plesner

    2014-01-01

    Appearance is known to influence social interactions, which in turn could potentially influence personality development. In this study we focus on discovering the relationship between self-reported personality traits, first impressions and facial characteristics. The results reveal that several...... personality traits can be read above chance from a face, and that facial features influence first impressions. Despite the former, our prediction model fails to reliably infer personality traits from either facial features or first impressions. First impressions, however, could be inferred more reliably from...... facial features. We have generated artificial, extreme faces visualising the characteristics having an effect on first impressions for several traits. Conclusively, we find a relationship between first impressions, some personality traits and facial features and consolidate that people on average assess...

  11. Integrated reporting and board features

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rares HURGHIS

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available In the last two decades the concept of sustainability reporting gained more importance in the companies’ annual reports, a trend which is embedded also in integrated reporting. Issuing an integrated report became a necessity, because the report explains to the investors how the organization creates value over time. The governance structure, more exactly the board of directors, decides whether or not the company will issue an integrated report. Thus, are there certain features of the board that might influence the issue of an integrated report? Do the companies which issue an integrated report have certain features of the governance structure? Looking for an answer to these questions, we seek for any possible correlations between a disclosure index and the corporate governance structure characteristics, on a sample from the companies participating at the International Integrated Reporting Council Examples Database. The results highlight that only the size of the board influences the extent to which the issued integrated report is in accordance with the International Framework.

  12. The human microbiota: the role of microbial communities in health and disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luz Elena Botero Palacio

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available During the last decade, there has been increasing awareness of the massive number of microorganisms, collectively known as the human microbiota, that are associated with humans. This microbiota outnumbers the host cells by approximately a factor of ten and contains a large repertoire of microbial genome-encoded metabolic processes. The diverse human microbiota and its associated metabolic potential can provide the host with novel functions that can influence host health and disease status in ways that still need to be analyzed. The microbiota varies with age, with features that depend on the body site, host lifestyle and health status. The challenge is therefore to identify and characterize these microbial communities and use this information to learn how they function and how they can influence the host in terms of health and well-being. Here we provide an overview of some of the recent studies involving the human microbiota and about how these communities might affect host health and disease. A special emphasis is given to studies related to tuberculosis, a disease that claims over one million lives each year worldwide and still represents a challenge for control in many countries, including Colombia.

  13. Abiotic drivers of Chihuahuan Desert plant communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laura Marie Ladwig

    2014-01-01

    Within grasslands, precipitation, fire, nitrogen (N) addition, and extreme temperatures influence community composition and ecosystem function. The differential influences of these abiotic factors on Chihuahuan Desert grassland communities was examined within the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, located in central New Mexico, U.S.A. Although fire is a natural...

  14. Temporal Dynamics of Soil Microbial Communities below the Seedbed under Two Contrasting Tillage Regimes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florine Degrune

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural productivity relies on a wide range of ecosystem services provided by the soil biota. Plowing is a fundamental component of conventional farming, but long-term detrimental effects such as soil erosion and loss of soil organic matter have been recognized. Moving towards more sustainable management practices such as reduced tillage or crop residue retention can reduce these detrimental effects, but will also influence structure and function of the soil microbiota with direct consequences for the associated ecosystem services. Although there is increasing evidence that different tillage regimes alter the soil microbiome, we have a limited understanding of the temporal dynamics of these effects. Here, we used high-throughput sequencing of bacterial and fungal ribosomal markers to explore changes in soil microbial community structure under two contrasting tillage regimes (conventional and reduced tillage either with or without crop residue retention. Soil samples were collected over the growing season of two crops (Vicia faba and Triticum aestivum below the seedbed (15–20 cm. Tillage, crop and growing stage were significant determinants of microbial community structure, but the impact of tillage showed only moderate temporal dependency. Whereas the tillage effect on soil bacteria showed some temporal dependency and became less strong at later growing stages, the tillage effect on soil fungi was more consistent over time. Crop residue retention had only a minor influence on the community. Six years after the conversion from conventional to reduced tillage, soil moisture contents and nutrient levels were significantly lower under reduced than under conventional tillage. These changes in edaphic properties were related to specific shifts in microbial community structure. Notably, bacterial groups featuring copiotrophic lifestyles or potentially carrying the ability to degrade more recalcitrant compounds were favored under conventional

  15. Temporal Dynamics of Soil Microbial Communities below the Seedbed under Two Contrasting Tillage Regimes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Degrune, Florine; Theodorakopoulos, Nicolas; Colinet, Gilles; Hiel, Marie-Pierre; Bodson, Bernard; Taminiau, Bernard; Daube, Georges; Vandenbol, Micheline; Hartmann, Martin

    2017-01-01

    Agricultural productivity relies on a wide range of ecosystem services provided by the soil biota. Plowing is a fundamental component of conventional farming, but long-term detrimental effects such as soil erosion and loss of soil organic matter have been recognized. Moving towards more sustainable management practices such as reduced tillage or crop residue retention can reduce these detrimental effects, but will also influence structure and function of the soil microbiota with direct consequences for the associated ecosystem services. Although there is increasing evidence that different tillage regimes alter the soil microbiome, we have a limited understanding of the temporal dynamics of these effects. Here, we used high-throughput sequencing of bacterial and fungal ribosomal markers to explore changes in soil microbial community structure under two contrasting tillage regimes (conventional and reduced tillage) either with or without crop residue retention. Soil samples were collected over the growing season of two crops ( Vicia faba and Triticum aestivum ) below the seedbed (15-20 cm). Tillage, crop and growing stage were significant determinants of microbial community structure, but the impact of tillage showed only moderate temporal dependency. Whereas the tillage effect on soil bacteria showed some temporal dependency and became less strong at later growing stages, the tillage effect on soil fungi was more consistent over time. Crop residue retention had only a minor influence on the community. Six years after the conversion from conventional to reduced tillage, soil moisture contents and nutrient levels were significantly lower under reduced than under conventional tillage. These changes in edaphic properties were related to specific shifts in microbial community structure. Notably, bacterial groups featuring copiotrophic lifestyles or potentially carrying the ability to degrade more recalcitrant compounds were favored under conventional tillage, whereas

  16. Ammonia oxidizing bacteria community dynamics in a pilot-scale wastewater treatment plant.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaohui Wang

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Chemoautotrophic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB have the metabolic ability to oxidize ammonia to nitrite aerobically. This metabolic feature has been widely used, in combination with denitrification, to remove nitrogen from wastewater in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs. However, the relative influence of specific deterministic environmental factors to AOB community dynamics in WWTP is uncertain. The ecological principles underlying AOB community dynamics and nitrification stability and how they are related are also poorly understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The community dynamics of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB in a pilot-scale WWTP were monitored over a one-year period by Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP. During the study period, the effluent ammonia concentrations were almost below 2 mg/L, except for the first 60 days, indicting stable nitrification. T-RFLP results showed that, during the test period with stable nitrification, the AOB community structures were not stable, and the average change rate (every 15 days of AOB community structures was 10% ± 8%. The correlations between T-RFLP profiles and 10 operational and environmental parameters were tested by Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA and Mantel test. The results indicated that the dynamics of AOB community correlated most strongly with Dissolved Oxygen (DO, effluent ammonia, effluent Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD and temperature. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study suggests that nitrification stability is not necessarily accompanied by a stable AOB community, and provides insight into parameters controlling the AOB community dynamics within bioreactors with stable nitrification.

  17. Accessibility patterns and community integration among previously homeless adults: a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Dara V; Gopal, Sucharita; Helfrich, Christine A

    2014-11-01

    Although a desired rehabilitation goal, research continues to document that community integration significantly lags behind housing stability success rates for people of a variety of ages who used to be homeless. While accessibility to resources is an environmental factor that may promote or impede integration activity, there has been little empirical investigation into the impact of proximity of community features on resource use and integration. Using a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach, the current study examines how accessibility or proximity to community features in Boston, United States related to the types of locations used and the size of an individual's "activity space," or spatial presence in the community. Significant findings include an inverse relationship between activity space size and proximity to the number and type of community features in one's immediate area. Specifically, larger activity spaces were associated with neighborhoods with less community features, and smaller activity spaces corresponded with greater availability of resources within one's immediate area. Activity space size also varied, however, based on proximity to different types of resources, namely transportation and health care. Greater community function, or the ability to navigate and use community resources, was associated with better accessibility and feeling part of the community. Finally, proximity to a greater number of individual identified preferred community features was associated with better social integration. The current study suggests the ongoing challenges of successful integration may vary not just based on accessibility to, but relative importance of, specific community features and affinity with one's surroundings. Community integration researchers and housing providers may need to attend to the meaning attached to resources, not just presence or use in the community. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Physical activity and not sedentary time per se influences on clustered metabolic risk in elderly community-dwelling women.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreas Nilsson

    Full Text Available Whether amount of time spent in sedentary activities influences on clustered metabolic risk in elderly, and to what extent such an influence is independent of physical activity behavior, remain unclear. Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine cross-sectional associations of objectively assessed physical activity and sedentary behavior on metabolic risk outcomes in a sample of elderly community-dwelling women.Metabolic risk outcomes including waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, fasting levels of plasma glucose, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides were assessed in 120 community-dwelling older women (65-70 yrs. Accelerometers were used to retrieve daily sedentary time, breaks in sedentary time, daily time in light (LPA and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA, and total amount of accelerometer counts. Multivariate regression models were used to examine influence of physical activity and sedentary behavior on metabolic risk outcomes including a clustered metabolic risk score.When based on isotemporal substitution modeling, replacement of a 10-min time block of MVPA with a corresponding time block of either LPA or sedentary activities was associated with an increase in clustered metabolic risk score (β = 0.06 to 0.08, p < 0.05, and an increase in waist circumference (β = 1.78 to 2.19 p < 0.01. All associations indicated between sedentary time and metabolic risk outcomes were lost once variation in total accelerometer counts was adjusted for.Detrimental influence of a sedentary lifestyle on metabolic health is likely explained by variations in amounts of physical activity rather than amount of sedentary time per se. Given our findings, increased amounts of physical activity with an emphasis on increased time in MVPA should be recommended in order to promote a favorable metabolic health profile in older women.

  19. The influence of Glyceria maxima and nitrate input on the composition and nitrate metabolism of the dissimilatory nitrate-reducing bacterial community

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijburg, J.W.; Laanbroek, H.J.

    1997-01-01

    The influence of nitrate addition and the presence of Glyceria maxima (reed sweetgrass) on the composition and nitrate metabolism of the dissimilatory nitrate-reducing bacterial community was investigated. Anoxic freshwater sediment was incubated in pots with or without G. maxima and with or without

  20. Detection of Seed Methods for Quantification of Feature Confinement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olszak, Andrzej; Bouwers, Eric; Jørgensen, Bo Nørregaard

    2012-01-01

    The way features are implemented in source code has a significant influence on multiple quality aspects of a software system. Hence, it is important to regularly evaluate the quality of feature confinement. Unfortunately, existing approaches to such measurement rely on expert judgement for tracin...

  1. SEWAGE DECOMPOSITION IN AMBIENT WATER: INFLUENCE OF SOLARRADIATION AND BIOTIC INTERACTIONS ON MICROORGANISM COMMUNITIES AND BACTEROIDALES REAL-TIME QUANTITATIVE PCR MEASUREMENTS - poster

    Science.gov (United States)

    AIMS: Sewage and ambient water both consist of a highly complex array of bacteria and eukaryotic microbes. When these communities are mixed, solar radiation and biotic interactions (predation and competition) can influence pathogen decay based on experiments targeting indicator ...

  2. River Discharge and Local Scale Habitat Influence LIFE Score Macroinvertebrate LIFE Scores

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dunbar, Michael J.; Pedersen, Morten Lauge; Cadman, Dan

    2010-01-01

    Midlands of the U.K., we describe how local-scale habitat features (indexed through River Habitat Survey or Danish Habitat Quality Survey) and changing river flow (discharge) influence the response of a macroinvertebrate community index. The approach has broad applicability in developing regional flow...... Invertebrate index for Flow Evaluation (LIFE), an average of abundance-weighted flow groups which indicate the microhabitat preferences of each taxon for higher velocities and clean gravel/cobble substrata or slow/still velocities and finer substrata. 3. For the Danish fauna, the LIFE score responded to three...... of the channel (negative). In both cases, LIFE responded negatively to features associated with historical channel modification. We suggest that there are several mechanisms for these relationships, including the narrower tolerances of taxa preferring high velocity habitat; these taxa are also continually...

  3. JCE Feature Columns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holmes, Jon L.

    1999-05-01

    in the Chemistry Curriculum, and WWW Site Review. These columns differ from the print feature columns in that they use the Internet as the publication medium. Doing so allows these features to include continually updated information, digital components, and links to other online resources. The Conceptual Questions and Challenge Problems feature of JCE Internet serves as a good example for the kinds of resources that you can expect to find in an online feature column. Like other columns it contains a mission statement that defines the role of the column. It includes a digital library of continually updated examples of conceptual questions and challenge problems. (As I write this we have just added several new questions to the library.) It also includes a list of links to related online resources, information for authors about how to write questions and problems, and information for teachers about how to use conceptual questions and challenge problems. Teaching with Technology home page at JCE Online. One-Stop Feature Shop The updated Feature area of JCE Online offers information about all JCE feature columns in one place. It gives you a quick and convenient way to access a group of articles in a particular subject area. It provides authors and readers with a good definition of the column and its mission. It complements the print feature columns with online resources. It provides up-to-date bibliographies for selected areas of interest. And last, but not least, it provides that email address you can use to send that message of appreciation to the feature editor for his or her contribution to JCE and the chemical education community.

  4. Invasion in microbial communities: Role of community composition and assembly processes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kinnunen, Marta

    of microbial community assembly. Biotic factors include interactions between different microbial groups as well as the community response to alien species – invaders. Microbial invasions can have significant effects on the composition and functioning of resident communities. There is, however, lack......Microbes contribute to all biogeochemical cycles on earth and are responsible for key biological processes that support the survival of plants and animals. There is increased interest in controlling and managing microbial communities in different ecosystems in order to make targeted microbiological...... processes more effective. In order to manage microbial communities, it is essential to understand the factors that shape and influence microbial community composition. In addition to abiotic factors, such as environmental conditions and resource availability, biotic factors also shape the dynamics...

  5. Influence of secondary water supply systems on microbial community structure and opportunistic pathogen gene markers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Huan; Li, Shang; Tang, Wei; Yang, Yang; Zhao, Jianfu; Xia, Siqing; Zhang, Weixian; Wang, Hong

    2018-06-01

    Secondary water supply systems (SWSSs) refer to the in-building infrastructures (e.g., water storage tanks) used to supply water pressure beyond the main distribution systems. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of SWSSs on microbial community structure and the occurrence of opportunistic pathogens, the latter of which are an emerging public health concern. Higher numbers of bacterial 16S rRNA genes, Legionella and mycobacterial gene markers were found in public building taps served by SWSSs relative to the mains, regardless of the flushing practice (P water retention time, warm temperature and loss of disinfectant residuals promoted microbial growth and colonization of potential pathogens in SWSSs. Varied levels of microbial community shifts were found in different types of SWSSs during water transportation from the distribution main to taps, highlighting the critical role of SWSSs in shaping the drinking water microbiota. Overall, the results provided insight to factors that might aid in controlling pathogen proliferation in real-world water systems using SWSSs. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Influence of attapulgite addition on the biological performance and microbial communities of submerged dynamic membrane bioreactor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wensong Duan

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available A submerged dynamic membrane bioreactor (sDMBR was developed to test the influence of attapulgite (AT addition on the treatment performances and the microbial community structure and function. The batch experimental results displayed the highest UV254 and dissolved organic carbon (DOC removal efficiencies with 5% AT/mixed liquid suspended solids addition dosage. The continuous sDMBR results showed that the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand, NH4+-N, total nitrogen and total phosphorus significantly increased in the AT added sDMBR. Excitation emission matrix analysis demonstrated that the protein-like peaks and fulvic acid-like peaks were significantly decreased in both in the mixed liquid and the effluent of the AT added reactor. The obligate anaerobes were observed in the sDMBR with AT addition, such as Bacteroidetes and Gamma proteobacterium in the dynamic membrane, which played an important role in the process of sludge granulation. Bacterial community richness significantly increased after AT addition with predominated phyla of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Similarly, species abundance significantly increased in the AT added sDMBR. Further investigations with cluster proved that AT was a favorite biological carrier for the microbial ecology, which enriched microbial abundance and community diversity of the sDMBR.

  7. Rumen microbial communities influence metabolic phenotypes in lambs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diego P. Morgavi

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The rumen microbiota is an essential part of ruminants forging their nutrition and health. Despite its importance, it is not fully understood how various groups of rumen microbes affect host-microbe relationships and functions. The aim of the study was to simultaneously explore the rumen microbiota and the metabolic phenotype of lambs for identifying host-microbe associations and potential biomarkers of digestive functions. Twin lambs, separated in two groups after birth were exposed to practices (isolation and gavage with rumen fluid with protozoa or protozoa-depleted that differentially restricted the acquisition of microbes. Rumen microbiota, fermentation parameters, digestibility and growth were monitored for up to 31 weeks of age. Microbiota assembled in isolation from other ruminants lacked protozoa and had low bacterial and archaeal diversity whereas digestibility was not affected. Exposure to adult sheep microbiota increased bacterial and archaeal diversity independently of protozoa presence. For archaea, Methanomassiliicoccales displaced Methanosphaera. Notwithstanding, protozoa induced differences in functional traits such as digestibility and significantly shaped bacterial community structure, notably Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae lower up to 6 folds, Prevotellaceae lower by ~40%, and Clostridiaceae and Veillonellaceae higher up to 10 folds compared to microbiota without protozoa. An orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis of urinary metabolome matched differences in microbiota structure. Discriminant metabolites were mainly involved in amino acids and protein metabolic pathways while a negative interaction was observed between methylotrophic methanogens Methanomassiliicoccales and trimethylamine N-oxide. These results stress the influence of gut microbes on animal phenotype and show the potential of metabolomics for monitoring rumen microbial functions.

  8. Do attitudes of families concerned influence features of children who claim to remember previous lives?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasricha, Satwant K

    2011-01-01

    Reported cases of nearly 2600 children (subjects) who claim to remember previous lives have been investigated in cultures with and without belief in reincarnation. The authenticity in most cases has been established. To study the influence of attitudes of parents of the subjects, families of the deceased person with whom they are identified and attention paid by others on the features of the cases. The study is based on field investigations. Data is derived from analysis of a larger series of an ongoing project. Information on initial and subsequent attitudes of subjects' mothers was available for 292 and 136 cases, respectively; attitudes of 227 families of deceased person (previous personality) with whom he is identified, and the extent of attention received from outsiders for 252 cases. Observations and interviews with multiple firsthand informants on both sides of the case as well as some neutral informants supplemented by examination of objective data were the chief methods of investigation. The initial attitude of mothers varied from encouragement (21%) to neutral or tolerance (51%) to discouragement (28%). However, it changed significantly from neutrality to taking measures to induce amnesia in their children for previous life memories due to various psychosocial pressures and prevalent beliefs. Families of the previous personalities, once convinced, showed complete acceptance in a majority of cases. Outside attention was received in 58% cases. The positive attitude of parents might facilitate expression of memories but subsequently attitudes of persons concerned do not seem to alter features of the cases.

  9. MIIB: A Metric to Identify Top Influential Bloggers in a Community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Hikmat Ullah; Daud, Ali; Malik, Tahir Afzal

    2015-01-01

    Social networking has revolutionized the use of conventional web and has converted World Wide Web into the social web as users can generate their own content. This change has been possible due to social web platforms like forums, wikis, and blogs. Blogs are more commonly being used as a form of virtual communication to express an opinion about an event, product or experience and can reach a large audience. Users can influence others to buy a product, have certain political or social views, etc. Therefore, identifying the most influential bloggers has become very significant as this can help us in the fields of commerce, advertisement and product knowledge searching. Existing approaches consider some basic features, but lack to consider some other features like the importance of the blog on which the post has been created. This paper presents a new metric, MIIB (Metric for Identification of Influential Bloggers), based on various features of bloggers' productivity and popularity. Productivity refers to bloggers' blogging activity and popularity measures bloggers' influence in the blogging community. The novel module of BlogRank depicts the importance of blog sites where bloggers create their posts. The MIIB has been evaluated against the standard model and existing metrics for finding the influential bloggers using dataset from the real-world blogosphere. The obtained results confirm that the MIIB is able to find the most influential bloggers in a more effective manner.

  10. MIIB: A Metric to Identify Top Influential Bloggers in a Community.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hikmat Ullah Khan

    Full Text Available Social networking has revolutionized the use of conventional web and has converted World Wide Web into the social web as users can generate their own content. This change has been possible due to social web platforms like forums, wikis, and blogs. Blogs are more commonly being used as a form of virtual communication to express an opinion about an event, product or experience and can reach a large audience. Users can influence others to buy a product, have certain political or social views, etc. Therefore, identifying the most influential bloggers has become very significant as this can help us in the fields of commerce, advertisement and product knowledge searching. Existing approaches consider some basic features, but lack to consider some other features like the importance of the blog on which the post has been created. This paper presents a new metric, MIIB (Metric for Identification of Influential Bloggers, based on various features of bloggers' productivity and popularity. Productivity refers to bloggers' blogging activity and popularity measures bloggers' influence in the blogging community. The novel module of BlogRank depicts the importance of blog sites where bloggers create their posts. The MIIB has been evaluated against the standard model and existing metrics for finding the influential bloggers using dataset from the real-world blogosphere. The obtained results confirm that the MIIB is able to find the most influential bloggers in a more effective manner.

  11. Serpentinization-Influenced Groundwater Harbors Extremely Low Diversity Microbial Communities Adapted to High pH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Twing, Katrina I; Brazelton, William J; Kubo, Michael D Y; Hyer, Alex J; Cardace, Dawn; Hoehler, Tori M; McCollom, Tom M; Schrenk, Matthew O

    2017-01-01

    Serpentinization is a widespread geochemical process associated with aqueous alteration of ultramafic rocks that produces abundant reductants (H 2 and CH 4 ) for life to exploit, but also potentially challenging conditions, including high pH, limited availability of terminal electron acceptors, and low concentrations of inorganic carbon. As a consequence, past studies of serpentinites have reported low cellular abundances and limited microbial diversity. Establishment of the Coast Range Ophiolite Microbial Observatory (California, U.S.A.) allowed a comparison of microbial communities and physicochemical parameters directly within serpentinization-influenced subsurface aquifers. Samples collected from seven wells were subjected to a range of analyses, including solute and gas chemistry, microbial diversity by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and metabolic potential by shotgun metagenomics, in an attempt to elucidate what factors drive microbial activities in serpentinite habitats. This study describes the first comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of microbial communities in hyperalkaline groundwater directly accessed by boreholes into serpentinite rocks. Several environmental factors, including pH, methane, and carbon monoxide, were strongly associated with the predominant subsurface microbial communities. A single operational taxonomic unit (OTU) of Betaproteobacteria and a few OTUs of Clostridia were the almost exclusive inhabitants of fluids exhibiting the most serpentinized character. Metagenomes from these extreme samples contained abundant sequences encoding proteins associated with hydrogen metabolism, carbon monoxide oxidation, carbon fixation, and acetogenesis. Metabolic pathways encoded by Clostridia and Betaproteobacteria, in particular, are likely to play important roles in the ecosystems of serpentinizing groundwater. These data provide a basis for further biogeochemical studies of key processes in serpentinite subsurface environments.

  12. Patterns and processes influencing helminth parasites of Arctic coastal communities during climate change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galaktionov, K V

    2017-07-01

    This review analyses the scarce available data on biodiversity and transmission of helminths in Arctic coastal ecosystems and the potential impact of climate changes on them. The focus is on the helminths of seabirds, dominant parasites in coastal ecosystems. Their fauna in the Arctic is depauperate because of the lack of suitable intermediate hosts and unfavourable conditions for species with free-living larvae. An increasing proportion of crustaceans in the diet of Arctic seabirds would result in a higher infection intensity of cestodes and acanthocephalans, and may also promote the infection of seabirds with non-specific helminths. In this way, the latter may find favourable conditions for colonization of new hosts. Climate changes may alter the composition of the helminth fauna, their infection levels in hosts and ways of transmission in coastal communities. Immigration of boreal invertebrates and fish into Arctic seas may allow the circulation of helminths using them as intermediate hosts. Changing migratory routes of animals would alter the distribution of their parasites, facilitating, in particular, their trans-Arctic transfer. Prolongation of the seasonal 'transmission window' may increase the parasitic load on host populations. Changes in Arctic marine food webs would have an overriding influence on the helminths' circulation. This process may be influenced by the predicted decreased of salinity in Arctic seas, increased storm activity, coastal erosion, ocean acidification, decline of Arctic ice, etc. Greater parasitological research efforts are needed to assess the influence of factors related to Arctic climate change on the transmission of helminths.

  13. Metacommunity theory as a multispecies, multiscale framework for studying the influence of river network structure on riverine communities and ecosystems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, B.L.; Swan, C.M.; Auerbach, D.A.; Campbell, Grant E.H.; Hitt, N.P.; Maloney, K.O.; Patrick, C.

    2011-01-01

    Explaining the mechanisms underlying patterns of species diversity and composition in riverine networks is challenging. Historically, community ecologists have conceived of communities as largely isolated entities and have focused on local environmental factors and interspecific interactions as the major forces determining species composition. However, stream ecologists have long embraced a multiscale approach to studying riverine ecosystems and have studied both local factors and larger-scale regional factors, such as dispersal and disturbance. River networks exhibit a dendritic spatial structure that can constrain aquatic organisms when their dispersal is influenced by or confined to the river network. We contend that the principles of metacommunity theory would help stream ecologists to understand how the complex spatial structure of river networks mediates the relative influences of local and regional control on species composition. From a basic ecological perspective, the concept is attractive because new evidence suggests that the importance of regional processes (dispersal) depends on spatial structure of habitat and on connection to the regional species pool. The role of local factors relative to regional factors will vary with spatial position in a river network. From an applied perspective, the long-standing view in ecology that local community composition is an indicator of habitat quality may not be uniformly applicable across a river network, but the strength of such bioassessment approaches probably will depend on spatial position in the network. The principles of metacommunity theory are broadly applicable across taxa and systems but seem of particular consequence to stream ecology given the unique spatial structure of riverine systems. By explicitly embracing processes at multiple spatial scales, metacommunity theory provides a foundation on which to build a richer understanding of stream communities.

  14. Bacterial Active Community Cycling in Response to Solar Radiation and Their Influence on Nutrient Changes in a High-Altitude Wetland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molina, Verónica; Hernández, Klaudia; Dorador, Cristina; Eissler, Yoanna; Hengst, Martha; Pérez, Vilma; Harrod, Chris

    2016-01-01

    Microbial communities inhabiting high-altitude spring ecosystems are subjected to extreme changes in solar irradiance and temperature throughout the diel cycle. Here, using 16S rRNA gene tag pyrosequencing (cDNA) we determined the composition of actively transcribing bacteria from spring waters experimentally exposed through the day (morning, noon, and afternoon) to variable levels of solar radiation and light quality, and evaluated their influence on nutrient recycling. Solar irradiance, temperature, and changes in nutrient dynamics were associated with changes in the active bacterial community structure, predominantly by Cyanobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Proteobacteria, and 35 other Phyla, including the recently described Candidate Phyla Radiation (e.g., Parcubacteria, Gracilibacteria, OP3, TM6, SR1). Diversity increased at noon, when the highest irradiances were measured (3.3-3.9 H', 1125 W m -2 ) compared to morning and afternoon (0.6-2.8 H'). This shift was associated with a decrease in the contribution to pyrolibraries by Cyanobacteria and an increase of Proteobacteria and other initially low frequently and rare bacteria phyla (solar radiation. In addition, the percentage contribution of cyanobacterial sequences in the afternoon was similar to those recorded in the morning. The shifts in the contribution by Cyanobacteria also influenced the rate of change in nitrate, nitrite, and phosphate, highlighted by a high level of nitrate accumulation during hours of high radiation and temperature associated with nitrifying bacteria activity. We did not detect ammonia or nitrite oxidizing bacteria in situ , but both functional groups ( Nitrosomona and Nitrospira ) appeared mainly in pyrolibraries generated from dark incubations. In total, our results reveal that both the structure and the diversity of the active bacteria community was extremely dynamic through the day, and showed marked shifts in composition that influenced nutrient recycling, highlighting how abiotic

  15. Influence of biocrusts coverage on microbial communities from underlying arid lands soils

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anguita-Maeso, Manuel; Miralles*, Isabel; van Wesemael, Bas; Lázaro, Roberto; Ortega, Raúl; García-Salcedo, José Antonio; Soriano**, Miguel

    2017-04-01

    In regions where the water availability limits the plant cover, biological soil crusts are especially essential in the development of an almost continuous living skin mediating the inputs and outputs across the soil surface boundary. However, the entire area is not covered equally and microbial communities from underlying soils might be influenced by biocrust type and the percentage of biocrust coverage. To clarify this question, we have collected underlying soils from biocrusts samples dominated by i) incipient colonization by cyanobacteria, ii) cyanobacteria, biocrusts formed by the lichens: iii) Diploschistes diacapsis and Squamarina lentigera and iv) Lepraria issidiata from Tabernas desert (southeast of Spain) so as to determine the differences in the microbial communities from these underlying soils at two extremes of its spatial distribution range: one with a high percentage of biocrust coverage and fewer degradation and other with a huge degradation and less percentage of biocrust coverage. DNA from these samples was isolated by using a commercial kit and it was taken as template for metagenomic analysis. We conducted a sequencing of the amplicons V4-V5 of the 16S rRNA gene with Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Illumina MiSeq platform and a relative quantity of bacteria and fungi were accomplished by quantitative qPCR of rRNA 16S and ITS1-5.8S, respectively. The high biocrust coverage position revealed the highest number of bacteria per gram of soil (1.64E+09 in L. issidiata, in 1.89E+09 D. diacapsis and S. lentigera, 1.63E+09 in cyanobacteria and 2.08E+09 in incipient colonization by cyanobacteria) whereas the less favourable position according to the percentage of biocrust coverage showed fewer amount (1.16E+09 in L. issidiata, 6.98E+08 in D. diacapsis and S. lentigera, 1.46E+09 in cyanobacteria and 7.92E+08 in incipient cyanobacteria biocrust). Similarly, the amount of fungi per gram of soil presented identical correlation ranging from the favourable

  16. The influence of target structure on topographical features produced by ion beam sputtering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Whitton, J.L.; Grant, W.A.

    1981-01-01

    Ion beam erosion of solid surfaces often results in the development of distinctive topographical features. The relationship between the type of features formed by ion erosion and target structure has been investigated. Single crystals of copper and nickel and the amorphous alloy Metglas have been bombarded to high doses (approx. >=10 19 ions cm -2 ) with 40 keV Ar + and P + . Topography changes were monitored using SEM and structural changes by TEM. Targets that retain their long range crystallinity show sharply defined, regular features that are related to the target structure. Targets that are highly disordered, either intrinsically or as a result of the ion bombardment, produce diffuse, smaller features. Those differences are observed at all stages in topographical evolution. (orig.)

  17. On the Use of Memory Models in Audio Features

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Karl Kristoffer

    2011-01-01

    Audio feature estimation is potentially improved by including higher- level models. One such model is the Short Term Memory (STM) model. A new paradigm of audio feature estimation is obtained by adding the influence of notes in the STM. These notes are identified when the perceptual spectral flux...

  18. FEATURE EXTRACTION FOR EMG BASED PROSTHESES CONTROL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Aishwarya

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The control of prosthetic limb would be more effective if it is based on Surface Electromyogram (SEMG signals from remnant muscles. The analysis of SEMG signals depend on a number of factors, such as amplitude as well as time- and frequency-domain properties. Time series analysis using Auto Regressive (AR model and Mean frequency which is tolerant to white Gaussian noise are used as feature extraction techniques. EMG Histogram is used as another feature vector that was seen to give more distinct classification. The work was done with SEMG dataset obtained from the NINAPRO DATABASE, a resource for bio robotics community. Eight classes of hand movements hand open, hand close, Wrist extension, Wrist flexion, Pointing index, Ulnar deviation, Thumbs up, Thumb opposite to little finger are taken into consideration and feature vectors are extracted. The feature vectors can be given to an artificial neural network for further classification in controlling the prosthetic arm which is not dealt in this paper.

  19. Environment and Spatial Influences on Aquatic Insect Communities in Cerrado Streams: the Relative Importance of Conductivity, Altitude, and Conservation Areas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Godoy, B S; Queiroz, L L; Lodi, S; Oliveira, L G

    2017-04-01

    The aquatic insect community is an important element for stream functionality and diversity, but the effects of altitude and conservation areas on the aquatic insect community have been poorly explored in neotropical ecozone. The lack of studies about the relative importance of space and environment on community structure is another obstacle within aquatic insect ecology, which precludes the inclusion of these studies in more current frameworks, like the metacommunity dynamics. We evaluated the relationship between the aquatic insect community structure at 19 streams in the Brazilian Cerrado and spatial and environmental variables, namely geographical distance among sites, stream altitude, chemical variables, and environmental protection areas. We partitioned the variance explained by spatial and environmental components using a partial redundancy analysis. The environment exhibited a strong spatial structure for abundance and number of genera, increasing these community parameters with elevated water conductivity. Only community composition had a large unexplained portion of variance, with a small portion constrained by environmental (altitude and conductivity) and spatial factors. A relevant point in the result was the streams with high conductivity were located outside of the conservation areas. These results suggest that the relationship between number of genera and abundance with environmental conditions is always associated with spatial configuration of streams. Our study shows that altitude is an important determinant of community structure, as it exerts indirect influences, and electrical conductivity directly determines community composition, and that some national parks may be inefficient in maintaining the diversity of aquatic insects in the Cerrado region.

  20. Non-clinical influences on clinical decision-making: a major challenge to evidence-based practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hajjaj, F M; Salek, M S; Basra, M K A; Finlay, A Y

    2010-05-01

    This article reviews an aspect of daily clinical practice which is of critical importance in virtually every clinical consultation, but which is seldom formally considered. Non-clinical influences on clinical decision-making profoundly affect medical decisions. These influences include patient-related factors such as socioeconomic status, quality of life and patient's expectations and wishes, physician-related factors such as personal characteristics and interaction with their professional community, and features of clinical practice such as private versus public practice as well as local management policies. This review brings together the different strands of knowledge concerning non-clinical influences on clinical decision-making. This aspect of decision-making may be the biggest obstacle to the reality of practising evidence-based medicine. It needs to be understood in order to develop clinical strategies that will facilitate the practice of evidence-based medicine.

  1. Factors influencing the demand of the service of community based animal health care in Zimbabwe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mutambara, J; Dube, I; Matangi, E; Majeke, F

    2013-11-01

    This study was done to find out about animal health service providers and factors that determined demand for community based veterinary service delivery in smallholder sector of Zimbabwe. Focus group discussions and a questionnaire was used to collect data on veterinary services providers and socio-economic factors related to animal health from a sample (N=333) smallholder livestock farmers from Gutu district of Masvingo province in Zimbabwe. Analytical techniques used were descriptive statistics, K-mean cluster analysis and Tobit regression model. Results showed that the majority of farmers (45%) obtained services from both Community Based Animal Health Workers (CBAHWs) and Department of Veterinary Service (DVS), 25% DVS only, 20% used CBAHWs while 10% did not seek any services. Further analysis showed that distance to CBAHW, distance to AHMC and employment status were significantly related to demand for CBAHWs with coefficients of -1.5, 0.7 and -10.3, respectively. The study thus concluded that CBAHW is an alternative animal health service delivery approach already practiced in smallholder farming sectors of Zimbabwe. Socio-economic factors significantly influenced the demand for CBAHW services. Given limited resources by state sponsored veterinary services, it is recommended that the CBAHWs approach should be encouraged as supplementary service provider especially in areas further DVS. These community organizations can be empowered by the state to deliver more improved services based on hygiene and modern science at a relatively low cost to farmers. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Community pharmacy customer segmentation based on factors influencing their selection of pharmacy and over-the-counter medicines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kevrekidis, Dimitrios Phaedon; Minarikova, Daniela; Markos, Angelos; Malovecka, Ivona; Minarik, Peter

    2018-01-01

    Within the competitive pharmacy market environment, community pharmacies are required to develop efficient marketing strategies based on contemporary information about consumer behavior in order to attract clients and develop customer loyalty. This study aimed to investigate the consumers' preferences concerning the selection of pharmacy and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, and to identify customer segments in relation to these preferences. A cross-sectional study was conducted between February and March 2016 on a convenient quota sample of 300 participants recruited in the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki, Greece. The main instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire with close-ended, multiple choice questions. To identify customer segments, Two-Step cluster analysis was conducted. Three distinct pharmacy customer clusters emerged. Customers of the largest cluster (49%; 'convenience customers') were mostly younger consumers. They gave moderate to positive ratings to factors affecting the selection of pharmacy and OTCs; convenience, and previous experience and the pharmacist's opinion, received the highest ratings. Customers of the second cluster (35%; 'loyal customers') were mainly retired; most of them reported visiting a single pharmacy. They gave high ratings to all factors that influence pharmacy selection, especially the pharmacy's staff, and factors influencing the purchase of OTCs, particularly previous experience and the pharmacist's opinion. Customers of the smallest cluster (16%; 'convenience and price-sensitive customers') were mainly retired or unemployed with low to moderate education, and low personal income. They gave the lowest ratings to most of the examined factors; convenience among factors influencing pharmacy selection, whereas previous experience, the pharmacist's opinion and product price among those affecting the purchase of OTCs, received the highest ratings. The community pharmacy market comprised of distinct

  3. Color Vision 2018: Introduction by the feature editors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buck, Steven L; Baraas, Rigmor; Kremers, Jan; Lindsey, Delwin T; Nascimento, Sérgio M C; Webster, Michael A; Werner, John S

    2018-04-01

    This feature issue of the Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A) reflects the basic and applied research interests of members of the color vision community. Most of the articles stem from presentations at the 24th Biennial Symposium of the International Colour Vision Society (ICVS).

  4. Exploration of the Canyon-Incised Continental Margin of the Northeastern United States Reveals Dynamic Habitats and Diverse Communities.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea M Quattrini

    Full Text Available The continental margin off the northeastern United States (NEUS contains numerous, topographically complex features that increase habitat heterogeneity across the region. However, the majority of these rugged features have never been surveyed, particularly using direct observations. During summer 2013, 31 Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV dives were conducted from 494 to 3271 m depth across a variety of seafloor features to document communities and to infer geological processes that produced such features. The ROV surveyed six broad-scale habitat features, consisting of shelf-breaching canyons, slope-sourced canyons, inter-canyon areas, open-slope/landslide-scar areas, hydrocarbon seeps, and Mytilus Seamount. Four previously unknown chemosynthetic communities dominated by Bathymodiolus mussels were documented. Seafloor methane hydrate was observed at two seep sites. Multivariate analyses indicated that depth and broad-scale habitat significantly influenced megafaunal coral (58 taxa, demersal fish (69 taxa, and decapod crustacean (34 taxa assemblages. Species richness of fishes and crustaceans significantly declined with depth, while there was no relationship between coral richness and depth. Turnover in assemblage structure occurred on the middle to lower slope at the approximate boundaries of water masses found previously in the region. Coral species richness was also an important variable explaining variation in fish and crustacean assemblages. Coral diversity may serve as an indicator of habitat suitability and variation in available niche diversity for these taxonomic groups. Our surveys added 24 putative coral species and three fishes to the known regional fauna, including the black coral Telopathes magna, the octocoral Metallogorgia melanotrichos and the fishes Gaidropsarus argentatus, Guttigadus latifrons, and Lepidion guentheri. Marine litter was observed on 81% of the dives, with at least 12 coral colonies entangled in debris. While

  5. Leadership in community partnerships: South African study and experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Ansari, Walid

    2012-09-01

    This study examined the influence of leadership in multi-stakeholder partnerships. Four W. K. Kellogg-funded community partnerships in South Africa were evaluated. Participants included community, academic and health service partners. The partnerships aimed to achieve interprofessional community-sensitive health professions education. We undertook: (1) quantitative assessment (survey, N=529) of whether leadership skills were systematically associated with three partnership factors (satisfaction, sense of ownership and commitment); and the individual contributions of these factors to the partnerships' outcomes; and (2) qualitative assessment (semi structured interviews, N=46) of the extent of coalition members' ratings of their leadership, the likelihood of concerns about their leaders; and the nature of these concerns. Quantitatively, partner's positive ratings of their leadership were consistently and significantly attended by better sense of ownership, commitment to and satisfaction with the partnerships. Variance in partnership outcomes was accounted for by leadership skills (26%), ownership (21%), commitment (20%) and satisfaction (11%). Partnership members who rated their leadership highly expressed fewer concerns (qualitatively) about their leaders. These concerns were: leadership visibility, openness and legitimacy; leadership features, styles and characteristics; the consequences of lack of appropriate leadership; and management procedures that were lacking. Coalition efforts would benefit from focusing on factors that are conducive to effective leadership.

  6. Glacial meltwater influences on plankton community structure and the importance of top-down control (of primary production) in a NE Greenland fjord

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arendt, Kristine Engel; Agersted, Mette Dalgaard; Sejr, Mikael Kristian

    2016-01-01

    Freshwater runoff from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) can be an important driver influencing plankton community structure in Greenland fjords. In the present study, we describe physical, taxonomic and functional differences in the plankton community in Young Sound, a NE Greenland fjord, from......, and their grazing impact was the highest among the copepod groups. Copepod grazing impact on the phytoplankton standing stock, however, was exceeded by microzooplankton grazing, investigated by dilution experiments, with the highest grazing impact on the phytoplankton standing stock of 63% d−1 in the inner part...

  7. The influence of e-waste recycling on the molecular ecological network of soil microbial communities in Pakistan and China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Longfei; Cheng, Zhineng; Zhang, Dayi; Song, Mengke; Wang, Yujie; Luo, Chunling; Yin, Hua; Li, Jun; Zhang, Gan

    2017-12-01

    Primitive electronic waste (e-waste) recycling releases large amounts of organic pollutants and heavy metals into the environment. As crucial moderators of geochemical cycling processes and pollutant remediation, soil microbes may be affected by these contaminants. We collected soil samples heavily contaminated by e-waste recycling in China and Pakistan, and analyzed the indigenous microbial communities. The results of this work revealed that the microbial community composition and diversity, at both whole and core community levels, were affected significantly by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and heavy metals (e.g., Cu, Zn, and Pb). The geographical distance showed limited impacts on microbial communities compared with geochemical factors. The constructed ecological network of soil microbial communities illustrated microbial co-occurrence, competition and antagonism across soils, revealing the response of microbes to soil properties and pollutants. Two of the three main modules constructed with core operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were sensitive to nutrition (total organic carbon and total nitrogen) and pollutants. Five key OTUs assigned to Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Nitrospirae in ecological network were identified. This is the first study to report the effects of e-waste pollutants on soil microbial network, providing a deeper understanding of the ecological influence of crude e-waste recycling activities on soil ecological functions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Influence of contrast morphogenetic features of urban constructed soils on the functioning of Moscow green lawn urban ecosystems: analysis based on the field model experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Epikhina, Anna; Vizirskaya, Mariya; Mazirov, Ilya; Vasenev, Vyacheslav; Vasenev, Ivan; Valentini, Riccardo

    2014-05-01

    Green lawns are the key element of the urban environment. They occupy a considerable part of the city area and locate in different urban functional zones. Urban constructed soils under green lawns have a unique spatial variability in chemical and morphogenetic features. So far, there is lack of information on the influence of morphogenetic features of urban soils on the functioning of the green lawn ecosystems especially in Moscow - the biggest megalopolis in Europe. Urban lawns perform a number of principal functions including both aesthetic and environmental. The role of the green lawn ecosystems in global carbon cycle is one of their main environmental functions. It is traditionally assessed through carbon stocks and fluxes in the basic ecosystem components. So far, such a data for the urban lawn ecosystems of the Moscow megapolis is lacking. In addition to environmental functions, green lawns perform an important ornamental role, which is also a critical criterion of their optimal functioning. Considering the variability of driving factors, influencing green lawns in urban environment, we carry out the model experiment in order to analyze "pure" effect of soil morphogenetic features. The current study aimed to analyze the influence of contrast morphogenetic features of urban constructed soils on the environmental and aesthetic functions of lawn ecosystems in Moscow megapolis basing in the model experiment. We carry out the model experiment located at the experimental field of the Russian State Agrarian University. Special transparent containers developed for the experiment, provided an option to observe soil morphogenetic features dynamics, including the depth and material of the organic transformation. At the same soil body inside the containers was united with the outside environment through the system of holes in the bottom and walls. The set of urban constructed soils includ four contrast types of the top soil (turf (T), turf-sand (TSa), turf-soil (TSo) and

  9. Using community archetypes to better understand differential community adaptation to wildfire risk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Matthew; Paveglio, Travis

    2016-06-05

    One of the immediate challenges of wildfire management concerns threats to human safety and property in residential areas adjacent to non-cultivated vegetation. One approach for relieving this problem is to increase human community 'adaptiveness' to deal with the risk and reality of fire in a variety of landscapes. The challenge in creating 'fire-adapted communities' (FACs) is the great diversity in character and make-up of populations at risk from wildfire. This paper outlines a recently developed categorization scheme for Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) communities based on a larger conceptual approach for understanding how social diversity is likely to influence the creation of FACs. The WUI categorization scheme situates four community archetypes on a continuum that recognizes dynamic change in human community functioning. We use results from the WUI classification scheme to outline key characteristics associated with each archetype and results from recent case studies to demonstrate the diversity across WUI communities. Differences among key characteristics of local social context will likely result in the need for different adaptation strategies to wildfire. While the WUI archetypes described here may not be broadly applicable to other parts of the world, we argue that the conceptual approach and strategies for systematically documenting local influences on wildfire adaptation have potential for broad application.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'. © 2016 The Author(s).

  10. Influence of Temperature on Intra- and Interspecific Resource Utilization within a Community of Lepidopteran Maize Stemborers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ntiri, Eric Siaw; Calatayud, Paul-Andre; Van Den Berg, Johnnie; Schulthess, Fritz; Le Ru, Bruno Pierre

    2016-01-01

    Competition or facilitation characterises intra- and interspecific interactions within communities of species that utilize the same resources. Temperature is an important factor influencing those interactions and eventual outcomes. The noctuid stemborers, Busseola fusca and Sesamia calamistis and the crambid Chilo partellus attack maize in sub-Saharan Africa. They often occur as a community of interacting species in the same field and plant at all elevations. The influence of temperature on the intra- and interspecific interactions among larvae of these species, was studied using potted maize plants exposed to varying temperatures in a greenhouse and artificial stems kept at different constant temperatures (15°C, 20°C, 25°C and 30°C) in an incubator. The experiments involved single- and multi-species infestation treatments. Survival and relative growth rates of each species were assessed. Both intra- and interspecific competitions were observed among all three species. Interspecific competition was stronger between the noctuids and the crambid than between the two noctuids. Temperature affected both survival and relative growth rates of the three species. Particularly at high temperatures, C. partellus was superior in interspecific interactions shown by higher larval survival and relative growth rates. In contrast, low temperatures favoured survival of B. fusca and S. calamistis but affected the relative growth rates of all three species. Survival and relative growth rates of B. fusca and S. calamistis in interspecific interactions did not differ significantly across temperatures. Temperature increase caused by future climate change is likely to confer an advantage on C. partellus over the noctuids in the utilization of resources (crops).

  11. Online Communities: The Case of Immigrants in Greece

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panaretou, Ioannis; Karousos, Nikos; Kostopoulos, Ioannis; Foteinou, Georgia-Barbara; Pavlidis, Giorgos

    Immigrants in Greece are an increasing population, very often threatened by poverty and social exclusion. At the same time Greek government has no formal policy concerning their assimilation in Greek society and this situation generates multiple problems in both immigrants and native population. In this work we suggest that new technology can alleviate these effects and we present specific tools and methodologies adopted by ANCE, in order to support online communities and specifically immigrant communities in Greece. This approach has the potential to support immigrant communities' in terms of the organization of personal data, communication, and provision of a working space for dedicated use. The Information System's operational features are also presented, along with other characteristics and state-of-the-art features in order to propose a general direction to the design of online communities' mechanisms.

  12. The influence of visual and phonological features on the hemispheric processing of hierarchical Navon letters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aiello, Marilena; Merola, Sheila; Lasaponara, Stefano; Pinto, Mario; Tomaiuolo, Francesco; Doricchi, Fabrizio

    2018-01-31

    The possibility of allocating attentional resources to the "global" shape or to the "local" details of pictorial stimuli helps visual processing. Investigations with hierarchical Navon letters, that are large "global" letters made up of small "local" ones, consistently demonstrate a right hemisphere advantage for global processing and a left hemisphere advantage for local processing. Here we investigated how the visual and phonological features of the global and local components of Navon letters influence these hemispheric advantages. In a first study in healthy participants, we contrasted the hemispheric processing of hierarchical letters with global and local items competing for response selection, to the processing of hierarchical letters in which a letter, a false-letter conveying no phonological information or a geometrical shape presented at the unattended level did not compete for response selection. In a second study, we investigated the hemispheric processing of hierarchical stimuli in which global and local letters were both visually and phonologically congruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of smaller uppercase G), visually incongruent and phonologically congruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of small lowercase g) or visually incongruent and phonologically incongruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of small lowercase or uppercase M). In a third study, we administered the same tasks to a right brain damaged patient with a lesion involving pre-striate areas engaged by global processing. The results of the first two experiments showed that the global abilities of the left hemisphere are limited because of its strong susceptibility to interference from local letters even when these are irrelevant to the task. Phonological features played a crucial role in this interference because the interference was entirely maintained also when letters at the global and local level were presented in different uppercase vs. lowercase formats. In contrast, when local features

  13. The Influence of Neighborhood Aesthetics, Safety, and Social Cohesion on Perceived Stress in Disadvantaged Communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henderson, Heather; Child, Stephanie; Moore, Spencer; Moore, Justin B; Kaczynski, Andrew T

    2016-09-01

    Limited research has explored how specific elements of physical and social environments influence mental health indicators such as perceived stress, or whether such associations are moderated by gender. This study examined the relationship between selected neighborhood characteristics and perceived stress levels within a primarily low-income, older, African-American population in a mid-sized city in the Southeastern U.S. Residents (n = 394; mean age=55.3 years, 70.9% female, 89.3% African American) from eight historically disadvantaged neighborhoods completed surveys measuring perceptions of neighborhood safety, social cohesion, aesthetics, and stress. Multivariate linear regression models examined the association between each of the three neighborhood characteristics and perceived stress. Greater perceived safety, improved neighborhood aesthetics, and social cohesion were significantly associated with lower perceived stress. These associations were not moderated by gender. These findings suggest that improving social attributes of neighborhoods may have positive impacts on stress and related benefits for population health. Future research should examine how neighborhood characteristics influence stress over time. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

  14. Discriminative semi-supervised feature selection via manifold regularization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Zenglin; King, Irwin; Lyu, Michael Rung-Tsong; Jin, Rong

    2010-07-01

    Feature selection has attracted a huge amount of interest in both research and application communities of data mining. We consider the problem of semi-supervised feature selection, where we are given a small amount of labeled examples and a large amount of unlabeled examples. Since a small number of labeled samples are usually insufficient for identifying the relevant features, the critical problem arising from semi-supervised feature selection is how to take advantage of the information underneath the unlabeled data. To address this problem, we propose a novel discriminative semi-supervised feature selection method based on the idea of manifold regularization. The proposed approach selects features through maximizing the classification margin between different classes and simultaneously exploiting the geometry of the probability distribution that generates both labeled and unlabeled data. In comparison with previous semi-supervised feature selection algorithms, our proposed semi-supervised feature selection method is an embedded feature selection method and is able to find more discriminative features. We formulate the proposed feature selection method into a convex-concave optimization problem, where the saddle point corresponds to the optimal solution. To find the optimal solution, the level method, a fairly recent optimization method, is employed. We also present a theoretic proof of the convergence rate for the application of the level method to our problem. Empirical evaluation on several benchmark data sets demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed semi-supervised feature selection method.

  15. Designing attractive gamification features for collaborative storytelling websites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, Shang Hwa; Chang, Jen-Wei; Lee, Chun-Chia

    2013-06-01

    Gamification design is considered as the predictor of collaborative storytelling websites' success. Although aforementioned studies have mentioned a broad range of factors that may influence gamification, they neither depicted the actual design features nor relative attractiveness among them. This study aims to identify attractive gamification features for collaborative storytelling websites. We first constructed a hierarchical system structure of gamification design of collaborative storytelling websites and conducted a focus group interview with eighteen frequent users to identify 35gamification features. After that, this study determined the relative attractiveness of these gamification features by administrating an online survey to 6333 collaborative storytelling websites users. The results indicated that the top 10 most attractive gamification features could account for more than 50% of attractiveness among these 35 gamification features. The feature of unpredictable time pressure is important to website users, yet not revealed in previous relevant studies. Implications of the findings were discussed.

  16. Soil microbial communities: Influence of geographic location and hydrocarbon pollutants

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Maila, MP

    2006-02-01

    Full Text Available The importance and relevance of the geographical origin of the soil sample and the hydrocarbons in determining the functional or species diversity within different bacterial communities was evaluated using the community level physiological profiles...

  17. Mapping Point-of-Purchase Influencers of Food Choice in Australian Remote Indigenous Communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanna Henryks

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Closing the health gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians relies, in part, on addressing the poor levels of nutrition in remote Indigenous communities (RIC. This article identifies and maps key influencers of food choice at the point-of-purchase (POP in Australian RIC and identifies gaps in our knowledge. It is based on a narrative review of the literature pertaining to food in RIC from a range of disciplinary perspectives including nutrition, ethnography, public health, anthropology, and remote health to map POP drivers of food choice. In particular, the role of habit is identified as a key factor that has previously not been discussed in the literature. The conceptual framework can be used as a basis for future POP research in RIC and provides guidance for social marketers, public health, nutrition, and policy workers operating in this field.

  18. Methane- and Hydrogen-Influenced Microbial Communities in Hydrothermal Plumes above the Atlantis Massif, Mid Atlantic Ridge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, C. L.; Schrenk, M.

    2017-12-01

    Ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal systems associated with slow-spreading mid ocean ridges emit copious amounts of hydrogen and methane into the deep-sea, generated through a process known as serpentinization. Hydrothermal plumes carrying the reduced products of water-rock interaction dissipate and mix with deep seawater, and potentially harbor microbial communities adapted to these conditions. Methane and hydrogen enriched hydrothermal plumes were sampled from 3 sites near the Atlantis Massif (30°N, Mid Atlantic Ridge) during IODP Expedition 357 and used to initiate cultivation experiments targeting methanotrophic and hydrogenotrophic microorganisms. One set of experiments incubated the cultures at in situ hydrostatic pressures and gas concentrations resulting in the enrichment of gammaproteobacterial assemblages, including Marinobacter spp. That may be involved in hydrocarbon degradation. A second set of experiments pursued the anaerobic enrichment of microbial communities on solid media, resulting in the enrichment of alphaproteobacteria related to Ruegeria. The most prodigious growth in both case occurred in methane-enriched media, which may play a role as both an energy and carbon source. Ongoing work is evaluating the physiological characteristics of these isolates, including their metabolic outputs under different physical-chemical conditions. In addition to providing novel isolates from hydrothermal habitats near the Lost City Hydrothermal Field, these experiments will provide insight into the ecology of microbial communities from serpentinization influenced hydrothermal systems that may aid in future exploration of these sites.

  19. Community occupational therapists' clinical reasoning: identifying tacit knowledge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carrier, Annie; Levasseur, Mélanie; Bédard, Denis; Desrosiers, Johanne

    2010-12-01

      Occupational therapy interventions in the community, a fast expanding practice setting, are central to an important social priority, the ability to live at home. These interventions generally involve only a small number of home visits, which aim at maximising the safety and autonomy of community-dwelling clients. Knowing how community occupational therapists determine their interventions, i.e. their clinical reasoning, can improve intervention efficacy. However, occupational therapists are often uninformed about and neglect the importance of clinical reasoning, which could underoptimise their interventions.   To synthesise current knowledge about community occupational therapists' clinical reasoning.   A scoping study of the literature on community occupational therapists' clinical reasoning was undertaken.   Fifteen textbooks and 25 articles, including six focussing on community occupational therapists' clinical reasoning, were reviewed. Community occupational therapists' clinical reasoning is influenced by internal and external factors. Internal factors include past experiences, expertise and perceived complexity of a problem. One of the external factors, practice context (e.g. organisational or cultural imperatives, physical location of intervention), particularly shapes community occupational therapists' clinical reasoning, which is interactive, complex and multidimensional. However, the exact influence of many factors (personal context, organisational and legal aspects of health care, lack of resources and increased number of referrals) remains unclear.   Further studies are needed to understand better the influence of internal and external factors. The extent to which these factors mould the way community occupational therapists think and act could have a direct influence on the services they provide to their clients. © 2010 The Authors. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2010 Australian Association of Occupational Therapists.

  20. Experimental soil warming shifts the fungal community composition at the alpine treeline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solly, Emily F; Lindahl, Björn D; Dawes, Melissa A; Peter, Martina; Souza, Rômulo C; Rixen, Christian; Hagedorn, Frank

    2017-07-01

    Increased CO 2 emissions and global warming may alter the composition of fungal communities through the removal of temperature limitation in the plant-soil system, faster nitrogen (N) cycling and changes in the carbon (C) allocation of host plants to the rhizosphere. At a Swiss treeline featuring Larix decidua and Pinus uncinata, the effects of multiple years of CO 2 enrichment and experimental soil warming on the fungal community composition in the organic horizons were analysed using 454-pyrosequencing of ITS2 amplicons. Sporocarp production and colonization of ectomycorrhizal root tips were investigated in parallel. Fungal community composition was significantly altered by soil warming, whereas CO 2 enrichment had little effect. Tree species influenced fungal community composition and the magnitude of the warming responses. The abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungal taxa was positively correlated with N availability, and ectomycorrhizal taxa specialized for conditions of high N availability proliferated with warming, corresponding to considerable increases in inorganic N in warmed soils. Traits related to N utilization are important in determining the responses of ectomycorrhizal fungi to warming in N-poor cold ecosystems. Shifts in the overall fungal community composition in response to higher temperatures may alter fungal-driven processes with potential feedbacks on ecosystem N cycling and C storage at the alpine treeline. © 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.

  1. Teacher community in elementary charter schools.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marisa Cannata

    2007-05-01

    Full Text Available The organizational context of charter schools may facilitate the formation of a strong teacher community. In particular, a focused school mission and increased control over teacher hiring may lead to stronger teacher professional communities. This paper uses the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey to compare the level of teacher community in charter public and traditional public schools. It also estimates the effect of various charter policy variables and domains of school autonomy on teacher community. Charter school teachers report higher levels of teacher community than traditional public school teachers do, although this effect is less than one-tenth of a standard deviation and is dwarfed by the effect of a supportive principal, teacher decision-making influence, and school size. Charter public schools authorized by universities showed lower levels of teacher community than those authorized by local school districts. Teachers in charter schools that have flexibility over tenure requirements and the school budget report higher levels of teacher community. This study reveals that charter schools do facilitate the formation of strong teacher communities, although the effect is small. The analysis also suggests that the institutional origin of the charter school and specific areas of policy flexibility may influence teacher community.

  2. Community-based management of environmental challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria del Mar Delgado-Serrano

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This Special Feature gathers the results of five research projects funded by the 7th Research Framework Program of the European Union and aims to identify successful cases of community-based management of environmental challenges in Latin America. The funding scheme, Research for the benefit of Civil Society Organizations, fostered innovative research approaches between civil society and research organizations. More than 20 field sites have been explored, and issues such as trade-offs between conservation and development, scientific versus local knowledge, social learning, ecosystem services, community owned solutions, scaling-up and scaling-out strategies, the influence of context and actors in effective environmental management and governance, and the conflicts of interests around natural resources have been addressed. Based on our experiences as project coordinators, in this editorial we reflect on some of the important lessons gained for research praxis and impact, focusing on knowledge of governance models and their scaling-out and scaling-up, and on methods and tools to enable action research at the science-civil society interface. The results highlight the richness of community-based management experiences that exist in Latin America and the diversity of approaches to encourage the sustainable community-based management of environmental challenges.

  3. Online Community Interaction - Revolution or Revulsion?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Justin Thorne

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available Marketing writers' assertion that online communities are the future for organisations may be misguided, although peer-to-peer networks are certainly the future for consumers. Brands have experienced 'consumer revulsion' at their poorly-planned attempts to enter online communities to interact with customers. The Internet has facilitated a revolution amongst consumers, providing a medium for online communities to thrive. Source credibility is paramount and Internet users are being selective with exactly whose message they are willing to accept, absorb and ultimately, allow to influence their buying decisions. The primary objective of this research is to undertake an exploratory investigation into the dynamics of online communities and how membership influences the buying decision for consumers of genre novels. Through the process of online focus groups and the completion of online questionnaires, data on the dynamics of online relationships between consumers and authors, the buying habits of consumers and the acceptance of online word-of-mouth (WOM were extracted and analysed. This research demonstrates that the dynamics of online communities are highly complex and in no way inferior or less fulfilling than real-life relationships and that the influence of online relationships on our buying decisions have no less impact than real-life encounters.

  4. Factors influencing long-term and seasonal waterbird abundance ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... influence waterbird communities include rainfall quantity and distribution, waterbird movement, breeding and moulting; anthropogenic drivers include activities such as fishing and agriculture. Results suggest that seasonal variations in resource availability influenced the waterbird community composition and abundance, ...

  5. Structural and Community Change Outcomes of the Connect-to-Protect Coalitions: Trials and Triumphs Securing Adolescent Access to HIV Prevention, Testing, and Medical Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Robin Lin; Reed, Sarah J; Chiaramonte, Danielle; Strzyzykowski, Trevor; Spring, Hannah; Acevedo-Polakovich, Ignacio D; Chutuape, Kate; Cooper-Walker, Bendu; Boyer, Cherrie B; Ellen, Jonathan M

    2017-09-01

    Connect to Protect (C2P), a 10-year community mobilization effort, pursued the dual aims of creating communities competent to address youth's HIV-related risks and removing structural barriers to youth health. We used Community Coalition Action Theory (CCAT) to examine the perceived contributions and accomplishments of 14 C2P coalitions. We interviewed 318 key informants, including youth and community leaders, to identify the features of coalitions' context and operation that facilitated and undermined their ability to achieve structural change and build communities' capability to manage their local adolescent HIV epidemic effectively. We coded the interviews using an a priori coding scheme informed by CCAT and scholarship on AIDS-competent communities. We found community mobilization efforts like C2P can contribute to addressing the structural factors that promote HIV-risk among youth and to community development. We describe how coalition leadership, collaborative synergy, capacity building, and local community context influence coalitions' ability to successfully implement HIV-related structural change, demonstrating empirical support for many of CCAT's propositions. We discuss implications for how community mobilization efforts might succeed in laying the foundation for an AIDS-competent community. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

  6. Empowering community settings: agents of individual development, community betterment, and positive social change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maton, Kenneth I

    2008-03-01

    The pathways and processes through which empowering community settings influence their members, the surrounding community and the larger society are examined. To generate the proposed pathways and processes, a broad range of studies of community settings were reviewed, in the domains of adult well-being, positive youth development, locality development, and social change. A set of organizational characteristics and associated processes leading to member empowerment across domains were identified, as well as three pathways through which empowering settings in each domain contribute to community betterment and positive social change. The paper concludes with an examination of the ways that community psychology and allied disciplines can help increase the number and range of empowering settings, and enhance the community and societal impact of existing ones.

  7. Does iron inhibit cryptoendolithic microbial communities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnston, C. G.; Vestal, J. R.; Friedmann, E. I. (Principal Investigator)

    1988-01-01

    Photosynthetic activity of three cryptoendolithic microbial communities was studied under controlled conditions in the laboratory. In two of these communities, the dominant organisms were lichens, collected from Linnaeus Terrace and from Battleship Promontory. The third community, dominated by cyanobacteria, was collected from Battleship Promontory. Both sites are in the ice-free valleys of southern Victoria Land. Previous efforts have shown how physical conditions can influence metabolic activity in endolithic communities (Kappen and Friedmann 1983; Kappen, Friedmann, and Garty 1981; Vestal, Federle, and Friedmann 1984). Biological activity can also be strongly influenced by the chemical environment. Inorganic nutrients such as nitrate, ammonia, and phosphate are often limiting factors, so their effects on photosynthetic carbon-14 bicarbonate incorporation were investigated. Iron and manganese are two metals present in Linnaeus Terrace and Battleship Promontory sandstones, and their effects on photosynthesis were also studied. The results may add to our understanding of biogeochemical interactions within this unique microbial community.

  8. Investigating the multi-causal and complex nature of the accident causal influence of construction project features.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manu, Patrick A; Ankrah, Nii A; Proverbs, David G; Suresh, Subashini

    2012-09-01

    Construction project features (CPFs) are organisational, physical and operational attributes that characterise construction projects. Although previous studies have examined the accident causal influence of CPFs, the multi-causal attribute of this causal phenomenon still remain elusive and thus requires further investigation. Aiming to shed light on this facet of the accident causal phenomenon of CPFs, this study examines relevant literature and crystallises the attained insight of the multi-causal attribute by a graphical model which is subsequently operationalised by a derived mathematical risk expression that offers a systematic approach for evaluating the potential of CPFs to cause harm and consequently their health and safety (H&S) risk implications. The graphical model and the risk expression put forth by the study thus advance current understanding of the accident causal phenomenon of CPFs and they present an opportunity for project participants to manage the H&S risk associated with CPFs from the early stages of project procurement. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. The influence of the community of water macrophytes on regulation ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Natural waterplant communities may help prevent the introduction of pollutants. We explore the role of macrophytes in ameliorating the waters of the Kuibyshev reservoir littoral zones through investigating plant and zooplankton communities. We suggest that water vegetation can play a sanative role to improve water quality ...

  10. Sexual Orientation and Borderline Personality Disorder Features in a Community Sample of Adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reuter, Tyson R; Sharp, Carla; Kalpakci, Allison H; Choi, Hye J; Temple, Jeff R

    2016-10-01

    Empirical literature demonstrates that sexual minorities are at an increased risk of developing psychopathology, including borderline personality disorder (BPD). The specific link between sexual orientation and BPD has received significantly less attention in youth, and it remains unclear what drives this relation. Given that there are higher rates of psychopathology in both sexual minorities and individuals with BPD, the present study aimed to determine if sexual orientation uniquely contributes to borderline personality pathology, controlling for other psychopathology. An ethnically diverse sample of 835 adolescents completed self-report measures of borderline features, depression, anxiety, and sexual orientation. Sexual minorities scored higher on borderline features compared to heterosexual adolescents. When controlling for depression and anxiety, sexual orientation remained significantly associated with borderline features. The relation between sexual orientation and BPD cannot fully be explained by other psychopathology. Future research is necessary to understand potential mechanisms underlying this relation.

  11. The Long Arm of Community: The Influence of Childhood Community Contexts across the Early Life Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wickrama, K. A. S.; Noh, Samuel

    2010-01-01

    This study examines the longitudinal effects of childhood community contexts on young adult outcomes. The study uses a sample of 14,000 adolescents (52% female) derived from the 1990 US Census and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Addhealth). The study examines whether community and family environments exert separate and/or…

  12. Understanding the Influence Career Paths Have on Community and Technical College Chief Business Officers' Satisfaction with Their Position: A Mixed Method Investigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    File, Carter L.

    2013-01-01

    This study was undertaken to understand whether a community or technical college chief business officer's career line influenced the lived experience of job satisfaction. This mixed method study was conducted in a two-phase approach using the Explanatory Design: Participant Selection Model variant. An initial quantitative survey was conducted from…

  13. Mollusk communities of the central Congo River shaped by combined effects of barriers, environmental gradients, and species dispersal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oscar Wembo Ndeo

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Rapids, falls, and cascades might act as barriers for freshwater species, determining the species community up- and downstream of barriers. However, they affect community composition not only by acting as barriers but also by their influence on environmental gradients. Moreover, the directional dispersal of species along the watercourse might determine community composition. A suitable system to study these differential effects is the Congo River, the world’s second largest river by discharge. The small ‘Upper Congo Rapids’ ecoregion features several rapids known as barrier for fishes. The Wagenia Cataracts at the town of Kisangani constitute the strongest drop of the Congo River and several studies have emphasized its role as barrier for fish distribution. Alternative explanations for this pattern, however, are rarely evaluated. Though mollusks represent a vital component of the macrozoobenthos, with distribution patterns and underlying drivers often distinct from that of fishes, virtually no field surveys of the Congo River have been reported for decades. We collected and determined mollusks of 51 stations, recorded environmental conditions, and generated proxies for directional species dispersal and an indirect barrier effect. Those variables were subjected to distance-based redundancy analyses and variation partitioning in order to test whether the mollusk community compositions are better explained by an individual or combined influence of the direct and indirect effect of the cataract barrier, environmental conditions, and downstream-directed dispersal. Our survey showed an exclusive upstream/downstream distribution for just four out of the 19 species, suggesting a limited barrier effect. We revealed no direct influence of the barrier itself on community composition but of substrate type. However, we found an indirect effect of the barrier through replacing spatially structured communities upstream of the cataract with more uniform

  14. Community Schools as an Effective Strategy for Reform. Research Brief

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniel, Julia; Snyder, Jon David

    2016-01-01

    Research literature finds that community school models offering various agreed-upon features provide an excellent social return on investment and significant promise for providing opportunities for learning and promoting well-being in students and communities. Community schools show significant promise for addressing barriers to learning and…

  15. Examining the influence of the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) program on alcohol-related outcomes in five communities surrounding Air Force bases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spera, Christopher; Barlas, Frances; Szoc, Ronald Z; Prabhakaran, Jyothsna; Cambridge, Milton H

    2012-04-01

    In 2006, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded discretionary grants to five communities as part of the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) initiative to implement an environmental strategy approach to reduce drinking and associated misconducts among Air Force members. The evaluation design was a within-site, pre-test/post-test intervention comparison of baseline data to out-year data. Four of the five communities had significant decreases in one or more of the outcomes of interest from pre-test to post-test. Two communities (Great Falls, MT and Tucson, AZ) had a significant decline in the compliance check failure rate of local establishments that sell alcohol. One community (Great Falls, MT) had a significant decline in arrests for possession of alcohol by a minor. Four communities (Great Falls, MT; Tucson, AZ; Phoenix, AZ; Honolulu, HI) had a significant decline in DUI/DWI arrests. These findings build on results reported in an earlier article which provided evidence to suggest that the EUDL program had an influence on self-reported drinking behaviors in three of the five communities. These two articles, in combination, provide evidence to suggest for the first time that community-level programs using an environmental strategy approach can be successful in targeting military members. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Floral colour versus phylogeny in structuring subalpine flowering communities

    OpenAIRE

    McEwen, Jamie R.; Vamosi, Jana C.

    2010-01-01

    The relative number of seeds produced by competing species can influence the community structure; yet, traits that influence seed production, such as pollinator attraction and floral colour, have received little attention in community ecology. Here, we analyse floral colour using reflectance spectra that include near-UV and examined the phylogenetic signal of floral colour. We found that coflowering species within communities tended to be more divergent in floral colour than expected by chanc...

  17. Influence of Temperature on Intra- and Interspecific Resource Utilization within a Community of Lepidopteran Maize Stemborers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eric Siaw Ntiri

    Full Text Available Competition or facilitation characterises intra- and interspecific interactions within communities of species that utilize the same resources. Temperature is an important factor influencing those interactions and eventual outcomes. The noctuid stemborers, Busseola fusca and Sesamia calamistis and the crambid Chilo partellus attack maize in sub-Saharan Africa. They often occur as a community of interacting species in the same field and plant at all elevations. The influence of temperature on the intra- and interspecific interactions among larvae of these species, was studied using potted maize plants exposed to varying temperatures in a greenhouse and artificial stems kept at different constant temperatures (15°C, 20°C, 25°C and 30°C in an incubator. The experiments involved single- and multi-species infestation treatments. Survival and relative growth rates of each species were assessed. Both intra- and interspecific competitions were observed among all three species. Interspecific competition was stronger between the noctuids and the crambid than between the two noctuids. Temperature affected both survival and relative growth rates of the three species. Particularly at high temperatures, C. partellus was superior in interspecific interactions shown by higher larval survival and relative growth rates. In contrast, low temperatures favoured survival of B. fusca and S. calamistis but affected the relative growth rates of all three species. Survival and relative growth rates of B. fusca and S. calamistis in interspecific interactions did not differ significantly across temperatures. Temperature increase caused by future climate change is likely to confer an advantage on C. partellus over the noctuids in the utilization of resources (crops.

  18. Psychological resilience after Hurricane Sandy: the influence of individual- and community-level factors on mental health after a large-scale natural disaster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowe, Sarah R; Sampson, Laura; Gruebner, Oliver; Galea, Sandro

    2015-01-01

    Several individual-level factors are known to promote psychological resilience in the aftermath of disasters. Far less is known about the role of community-level factors in shaping postdisaster mental health. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of both individual- and community-level factors on resilience after Hurricane Sandy. A representative sample of household residents (N = 418) from 293 New York City census tracts that were most heavily affected by the storm completed telephone interviews approximately 13-16 months postdisaster. Multilevel multivariable models explored the independent and interactive contributions of individual- and community-level factors to posttraumatic stress and depression symptoms. At the individual-level, having experienced or witnessed any lifetime traumatic event was significantly associated with higher depression and posttraumatic stress, whereas demographic characteristics (e.g., older age, non-Hispanic Black race) and more disaster-related stressors were significantly associated with higher posttraumatic stress only. At the community-level, living in an area with higher social capital was significantly associated with higher posttraumatic stress. Additionally, higher community economic development was associated with lower risk of depression only among participants who did not experience any disaster-related stressors. These results provide evidence that individual- and community-level resources and exposure operate in tandem to shape postdisaster resilience.

  19. Ptaquiloside in Pteridium aquilinum subsp. aquilinum and corresponding soils from the South of Italy: influence of physical and chemical features of soils on its occurrence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaccone, Claudio; Cavoski, Ivana; Costi, Roberta; Sarais, Giorgia; Caboni, Pierluigi; Traversa, Andreina; Miano, Teodoro M

    2014-10-15

    The bracken fern Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn, one of the most common plant species on Earth, produces a wide range of secondary metabolites including the norsesquiterpene glucoside ptaquiloside (PTA). Several studies are present in literature about eco-toxicological aspects related to PTA, whereas results about the effect of growth conditions and soil properties on the production and mobility of PTA are sometimes conflicting and further investigations are needed. The aim of the present work is to investigate the occurrence and possible fate of PTA in soils showing different physical and chemical features, and collected in several areas of the South of Italy. The PTA content was determined in both soil and fern samples by GC-MS; both the extraction protocol and recovery were previously tested through incubation studies. Soils samples were also characterized from the physical and chemical points of view in order to correlate the possible influence of soil parameters on PTA production and occurrence. PTA concentration in P. aquilinum fern seemed to be significantly affected by the availability of nutrients (mainly P) and soil pH. At the same time, PTA concentration in soil samples was always undetectable, independent of the PTA concentration in the corresponding Pteridium samples and pedo-climatic conditions. This seems to suggest the degradation of the PTA by indigenous soil microbial community, whereas incubation studies underlined a certain affinity of PTA for both organic colloids and clay/silt particles. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Independent and combined influence of homeownership, occupation, education, income, and community poverty on physical health in persons with arthritis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Callahan, Leigh F; Martin, Kathryn Remmes; Shreffler, Jack; Kumar, Deepak; Schoster, Britta; Kaufman, Jay S; Schwartz, Todd A

    2011-05-01

    To examine the independent and combined influence of individual- and community-level socioeconomic status (SES) measures on physical health status outcomes in people with self-reported arthritis. From 2004-2005, 968 participants completed a telephone survey assessing health status, chronic conditions, community characteristics, and sociodemographic variables. Individual-level SES measures used included homeownership, occupation (professional or not), educational attainment (less than high school, high school degree, and more than high school), and income ($45,000). Community poverty (2000 US Census block group percentage of individuals living below the poverty line [low, medium, and high]) was used as a community-level SES measure. Outcomes were physical functioning (Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 12 version 2 physical component summary [PCS]), functional disability (Health Assessment Questionnaire [HAQ]), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) Healthy Days physical and limited activity days, and were analyzed via multivariable regressions. When entered separately, all individual-level SES variables were significantly (P income, specifically poverty. The magnitude of effect for education is reduced and marginally significant for the PCS and number of physically unhealthy days. No effects were seen for occupation, homeownership, and community poverty. Findings confirm that after adjusting for important covariates, lower individual- and community-level SES measures are associated with poorer physical health outcomes, while household income is the strongest predictor (as measured by both significance and effect) of poorer health status in final models. Studies not having participant-reported income available should make use of other SES measures, as they do independently predict physical health. Copyright © 2011 by the American College of Rheumatology.

  1. Does community capacity influence self-rated health? Multilevel contextual effects in Seoul, Korea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jung, Minsoo; Viswanath, K

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the relationship between community-level contextual effects and self-rated health (SRH) based on the perspective of community capacity rather than social capital. Community capacity for mobilization is broad cooperation for networking among indigenous social agents and grassroots organizations that may serve as potential resources. The idea of community capacity is rooted in the philosophy that a community not only faces problems but also possesses the necessary resources to solve its problems. We used nationally representative data from South Korea, 2010, drawing on 14,228 residents in 404 communities. Community capacity was measured at two levels: an individual-level indicator of community satisfaction, and community-level indicators of participation rate in community organizations, number of community-based organizations (CBOs), and number of volunteer work camps (VWCs). The outcome variable was SRH, which was categorized into two groups: the low-SRH and high-SRH groups. Confounders included gender, age, and income at the individual level, and aggregate length of residency, financial independence ratio, and aggregate income at the community level. We estimated the effects of community capacity on SRH using hierarchical generalized linear models. The likelihood of belonging to the group having low-SRH is significantly high among those respondents living in places with lower community capacity at the community level, that report lower community satisfaction, and that have lower income at the individual level. After controlling for socio-economic confounders, the odds ratios were attenuated but remained significant in the final model, which included the gender-specific model. This study revealed that SRH is related to the level of community capacity for mobilization. It is probably because CBOs and VWCs not only provide necessary information and complementary services but also play an active role in identifying and resolving health problems

  2. EFFECT OF GROUPING ON CLASSROOM COMMUNITIES

    OpenAIRE

    Toriumi, Fujio; Ishii, Kenichiro

    2006-01-01

    In the education field, the management of student relation-ships is one of the most important duties of teachers. Such management usually reflects the teacher's abilities and experiences. The purpose of this study is to clarify management methods to realize appropriate classroom community structures. In this study, we simulated a community-forming mechanism to clarify the influence of grouping on classroom community formation. We presented a community through a communication network using Hei...

  3. Contextual Influences: Building Brand Community in Large and Small Colleges

    Science.gov (United States)

    McAlexander, J. Harry; Koenig, Harold F.

    2010-01-01

    This research extends recent efforts that have introduced and empirically tested a conceptual model of brand community in the context of higher education. This emerging literature has indicated that brand community provides a framework that can inform and guide marketing investments in ways that lead to affinity and stronger loyalty to the brand…

  4. The Affinity between Qualitative Methods and Community Psychology

    OpenAIRE

    Jarg Bergold

    2000-01-01

    Basically community psychology is not associated with a certain methodology but there are good reasons why qualitative methods are chosen in many investigations in community psychology. Characteristic features of the community psychology approach are nearness to everyday life, multiperspectivity, partiality, and process orientation. These characteristics become relevant if complex psycho-social processes like empowerment, social networks etc. are investigated. In this contribution I will disc...

  5. Soil features in rookeries of Antarctic penguins reveal sea to land biotransport of chemical pollutants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santamans, Anna C.; Boluda, Rafael; Picazo, Antonio; Gil, Carlos; Ramos-Miras, Joaquín; Tejedo, Pablo; Pertierra, Luis R.; Benayas, Javier

    2017-01-01

    The main soil physical-chemical features, the concentrations of a set of pollutants, and the soil microbiota linked to penguin rookeries have been studied in 10 selected sites located at the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula (Maritime Antarctica). This study aims to test the hypothesis that biotransport by penguins increases the concentration of pollutants, especially heavy metals, in Antarctic soils, and alters its microbiota. Our results show that penguins do transport certain chemical elements and thus cause accumulation in land areas through their excreta. Overall, a higher penguin activity is associated with higher organic carbon content and with higher concentrations of certain pollutants in soils, especially cadmium, cooper and arsenic, as well as zinc and selenium. In contrast, in soils that are less affected by penguins’ faecal depositions, the concentrations of elements of geochemical origin, such as iron and cobalt, increase their relative weighted contribution, whereas the above-mentioned pollutants maintain very low levels. The concentrations of pollutants are far higher in those penguin rookeries that are more exposed to ship traffic. In addition, the soil microbiota of penguin-influenced soils was studied by molecular methods. Heavily penguin-affected soils have a massive presence of enteric bacteria, whose relative dominance can be taken as an indicator of penguin influence. Faecal bacteria are present in addition to typical soil taxa, the former becoming dominant in the microbiota of penguin-affected soils, whereas typical soil bacteria, such as Actinomycetales, co-dominate the microbiota of less affected soils. Results indicate that the continuous supply by penguin faeces, and not the selectivity by increased pollutant concentrations is the main factor shaping the soil bacterial community. Overall, massive penguin influence results in increased concentrations of certain pollutants and in a strong change in taxa dominance in the

  6. Soil features in rookeries of Antarctic penguins reveal sea to land biotransport of chemical pollutants.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna C Santamans

    Full Text Available The main soil physical-chemical features, the concentrations of a set of pollutants, and the soil microbiota linked to penguin rookeries have been studied in 10 selected sites located at the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula (Maritime Antarctica. This study aims to test the hypothesis that biotransport by penguins increases the concentration of pollutants, especially heavy metals, in Antarctic soils, and alters its microbiota. Our results show that penguins do transport certain chemical elements and thus cause accumulation in land areas through their excreta. Overall, a higher penguin activity is associated with higher organic carbon content and with higher concentrations of certain pollutants in soils, especially cadmium, cooper and arsenic, as well as zinc and selenium. In contrast, in soils that are less affected by penguins' faecal depositions, the concentrations of elements of geochemical origin, such as iron and cobalt, increase their relative weighted contribution, whereas the above-mentioned pollutants maintain very low levels. The concentrations of pollutants are far higher in those penguin rookeries that are more exposed to ship traffic. In addition, the soil microbiota of penguin-influenced soils was studied by molecular methods. Heavily penguin-affected soils have a massive presence of enteric bacteria, whose relative dominance can be taken as an indicator of penguin influence. Faecal bacteria are present in addition to typical soil taxa, the former becoming dominant in the microbiota of penguin-affected soils, whereas typical soil bacteria, such as Actinomycetales, co-dominate the microbiota of less affected soils. Results indicate that the continuous supply by penguin faeces, and not the selectivity by increased pollutant concentrations is the main factor shaping the soil bacterial community. Overall, massive penguin influence results in increased concentrations of certain pollutants and in a strong change in taxa

  7. Community Participation in Health Systems Research: A Systematic Review Assessing the State of Research, the Nature of Interventions Involved and the Features of Engagement with Communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    George, Asha S; Mehra, Vrinda; Scott, Kerry; Sriram, Veena

    2015-01-01

    Community participation is a major principle of people centered health systems, with considerable research highlighting its intrinsic value and strategic importance. Existing reviews largely focus on the effectiveness of community participation with less attention to how community participation is supported in health systems intervention research. To explore the extent, nature and quality of community participation in health systems intervention research in low- and middle-income countries. We searched for peer-reviewed, English language literature published between January 2000 and May 2012 through four electronic databases. Search terms combined the concepts of community, capability/participation, health systems research and low- and middle-income countries. The initial search yielded 3,092 articles, of which 260 articles with more than nominal community participation were identified and included. We further excluded 104 articles due to lower levels of community participation across the research cycle and poor description of the process of community participation. Out of the remaining 160 articles with rich community participation, we further examined 64 articles focused on service delivery and governance within health systems research. Most articles were led by authors in high income countries and many did not consistently list critical aspects of study quality. Articles were most likely to describe community participation in health promotion interventions (78%, 202/260), even though they were less participatory than other health systems areas. Community involvement in governance and supply chain management was less common (12%, 30/260 and 9%, 24/260 respectively), but more participatory. Articles cut across all health conditions and varied by scale and duration, with those that were implemented at national scale or over more than five years being mainstreamed by government. Most articles detailed improvements in service availability, accessibility and

  8. Global seafloor geomorphic features map: applications for ocean conservation and management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, P. T.; Macmillan-Lawler, M.; Rupp, J.; Baker, E.

    2013-12-01

    Seafloor geomorphology, mapped and measured by marine scientists, has proven to be a very useful physical attribute for ocean management because different geomorphic features (eg. submarine canyons, seamounts, spreading ridges, escarpments, plateaus, trenches etc.) are commonly associated with particular suites of habitats and biological communities. Although we now have better bathymetric datasets than ever before, there has been little effort to integrate these data to create an updated map of seabed geomorphic features or habitats. Currently the best available global seafloor geomorphic features map is over 30 years old. A new global seafloor geomorphic features map (GSGM) has been created based on the analysis and interpretation of the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) 30 arc-second (~1 km) global bathymetry grid. The new map includes global spatial data layers for 29 categories of geomorphic features, defined by the International Hydrographic Organisation. The new geomorphic features map will allow: 1) Characterization of bioregions in terms of their geomorphic content (eg. GOODS bioregions, Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs), ecologically or biologically significant areas (EBSA)); 2) Prediction of the potential spatial distribution of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME) and marine genetic resources (MGR; eg. associated with hydrothermal vent communities, shelf-incising submarine canyons and seamounts rising to a specified depth); and 3) Characterization of national marine jurisdictions in terms of their inventory of geomorphic features and their global representativeness of features. To demonstrate the utility of the GSGM, we have conducted an analysis of the geomorphic feature content of the current global inventory of marine protected areas (MPAs) to assess the extent to which features are currently represented. The analysis shows that many features have very low representation, for example fans and rises have less than 1 per cent of their total area

  9. Interspecific competition influences the organization of a diverse sessile insect community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cornelissen, Tatiana; de Carvalho Guimarães, Carla Daniele; Rodrigues Viana, João Paulo; Silva, Bárbara

    2013-10-01

    Interspecific competition has played a major role in determining the effects of species interactions in terrestrial communities and the perception of its role on shaping population dynamics and community structure has changed throughout the years. In this study, we evaluated the existence of interspecific competition in the herbivore community of the dioecious plant Baccharis pseudomyriocephala (Asteraceae), which holds a diverse community of gall-forming insects. Sixty plants were studied and gall richness and abundance among plants were evaluated. To address whether a plant already occupied by a gall species is preferred or avoided by another gall species, null models were used for all 60 plants combined and for male and female plants separately. Our results have shown that the 11 species of gall-formers found on B. pseudomyriocephala co-occur less than expected by chance alone, indicating that interspecific competition might be an important force structuring the insect community in this tropical host plant, regardless of plant gender.

  10. Inferring local ecological processes amid species pool influences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lessard, Jean-Philippe; Belmaker, Jonathan; Myers, Jonathan A.

    2012-01-01

    studies, null models of community structure, and ecologically explicit definitions of the species pool as a means to compare predominant ecological processes among regions. By uniting concepts and tools from community ecology and macroecology, this approach might facilitate synthesis and resolve many......Resolving contingencies in community ecology requires comparative studies of local communities along broad-scale environmental gradients and in different biogeographic regions. However, comparisons of local ecological processes among regions require a synthetic understanding of how the species pool...... of potential community members influences the structure of ecological communities. Here, we outline an integrative approach for quantifying local ecological processes while explicitly accounting for species pool influences. Specifically, we highlight the utility of combining geographically replicated local...

  11. Floral colour versus phylogeny in structuring subalpine flowering communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McEwen, Jamie R; Vamosi, Jana C

    2010-10-07

    The relative number of seeds produced by competing species can influence the community structure; yet, traits that influence seed production, such as pollinator attraction and floral colour, have received little attention in community ecology. Here, we analyse floral colour using reflectance spectra that include near-UV and examined the phylogenetic signal of floral colour. We found that coflowering species within communities tended to be more divergent in floral colour than expected by chance. However, coflowering species were not phylogenetically dispersed, in part due to our finding that floral colour is a labile trait with a weak phylogenetic signal. Furthermore, while we found that locally rare and common species exhibited equivalent floral colour distances from their coflowering neighbours, frequent species (those found in more communities) exhibited higher colour distances from their coflowering neighbours. Our findings support recent studies, which have found that (i) plant lineages exhibit frequent floral colour transitions; and (ii) traits that influence local population dynamics contribute to community structure.

  12. Distance Learning for Community Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Anthony A.

    2010-01-01

    This article takes a look at the influence of technology on curriculum and teaching. It specifically examines the new wave of available technology and the opportunity for schools to make inroads into community outreach by engaging new, technological learning methods. The relationship among community education, public school relations, and distance…

  13. Antecedents of citizenship behaviour in online customer communities: An empirical investigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mercy Mpinganjira

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: Use of online communities for knowledge generation has become a common phenomenon. In order for online communities to serve as affective spaces for knowledge generation and exchange, members need to behave in ways that are in line with good citizenship. However, because of the limited research, not much is known about citizenship behaviour in such communities and the factors that foster such conduct. Objectives: This article aims to examine the performance of citizenship behaviours by members of online customer communities, and the factors that influence this. Methodology: Data were collected from 303 contributing members of online customer communities using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data collected. Results: The findings show moderate levels of engagement in citizenship behaviours among the respondents. Engagement in citizenship behaviours was in general found to be influenced more by the level of affective commitment towards the community than by the perceived levels of social support. Both affective commitment and perceived social support were found to have less influence on compliant citizenship behaviour when compared with altruism and personal initiative. Affective commitment was found to influence personal initiative most strongly, while social support had its strongest influence on altruism. Conclusion: The results provide insights for managers of online customer communities into factors to which they should give attention in order to enhance the performance of citizenship behaviours.

  14. Creating New Features – Case: ARMA3 SQF Syntax Scripting

    OpenAIRE

    Alamäki, Arto

    2015-01-01

    Currently, the game ARMA 3 is lacking in features in some areas and to battle this, community members have created scripts to solve these problems. One of these problems is the lack of Active Protection System on tanks, which can be found in their real life counterparts. The script which tried to improve this situation, was the Bakerman Armour Improvement System. However, even this script is lacking in some basic features. This thesis seeks to extend the Bakerman Armour Improvement System scr...

  15. Conditions for building a community of practice in an advanced physics laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irving, Paul W.; Sayre, Eleanor C.

    2014-06-01

    We use the theory of communities of practice and the concept of accountable disciplinary knowledge to describe how a learning community develops in the context of an upper-division physics laboratory course. The change in accountable disciplinary knowledge motivates students' enculturation into a community of practice. The enculturation process is facilitated by four specific structural features of the course and supported by a primary instructional choice. The four structural features are "paucity of instructor time," "all in a room together," "long and difficult experiments," and "same experiments at different times." The instructional choice is the encouragement of the sharing and development of knowledge and understanding by the instructor. The combination of the instructional choice and structural features promotes the development of the learning community in which students engage in authentic practices of a physicist. This results in a classroom community that can provide students with the opportunity to have an accelerated trajectory towards being a more central participant of the community of a practice of physicists. We support our claims with video-based observations of laboratory classroom interactions and individual, semistructured interviews with students about their laboratory experiences and physics identity.

  16. Local and regional factors influencing zooplankton communities in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    2010-02-19

    Feb 19, 2010 ... important grazer of algae during periods of high zooplank- ton abundance. This is .... arctic tundra pond microcrustacean communities. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. ... Guides to the Identification of the Micro- invertebrates of the ...

  17. Genome-wide association study of Arabidopsis thaliana leaf microbial community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horton, Matthew W; Bodenhausen, Natacha; Beilsmith, Kathleen; Meng, Dazhe; Muegge, Brian D; Subramanian, Sathish; Vetter, M Madlen; Vilhjálmsson, Bjarni J; Nordborg, Magnus; Gordon, Jeffrey I; Bergelson, Joy

    2014-11-10

    Identifying the factors that influence the outcome of host-microbial interactions is critical to protecting biodiversity, minimizing agricultural losses and improving human health. A few genes that determine symbiosis or resistance to infectious disease have been identified in model species, but a comprehensive examination of how a host genotype influences the structure of its microbial community is lacking. Here we report the results of a field experiment with the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to identify the fungi and bacteria that colonize its leaves and the host loci that influence the microbe numbers. The composition of this community differs among accessions of A. thaliana. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) suggest that plant loci responsible for defense and cell wall integrity affect variation in this community. Furthermore, species richness in the bacterial community is shaped by host genetic variation, notably at loci that also influence the reproduction of viruses, trichome branching and morphogenesis.

  18. Bound feature combinations in visual short-term memory are fragile but influence long-term learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Logie, R.H.; Brockmole, J.R.; Vandenbroucke, A.R.E.

    2009-01-01

    We explored whether individual features and bindings between those features in VSTM tasks are completely lost from trial to trial or whether residual memory traces for these features and bindings are retained in long-term memory. Memory for arrays of coloured shapes was assessed using change

  19. Influence of minor geometric features on Stirling pulse tube cryocooler performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, T.; Spoor, P. S.; Ghiaasiaan, S. M.; Perrella, M.

    2017-12-01

    Minor geometric features and imperfections are commonly introduced into the basic design of multi-component systems to simplify or reduce the manufacturing expense. In this work, the cooling performance of a Stirling type cryocooler was tested in different driving powers, cold-end temperatures and inclination angles. A series of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations based on a prototypical cold tip was carried out. Detailed CFD model predictions were compared with the experiment and were used to investigate the impact of such apparently minor geometric imperfections on the performance of Stirling type pulse tube cryocoolers. Predictions of cooling performance and gravity orientation sensitivity were compared with experimental results obtained with the cryocooler prototypes. The results indicate that minor geometry features in the cold tip assembly can have considerable negative effects on the gravity orientation sensitivity of a pulse tube cryocooler.

  20. Community pharmacy customer segmentation based on factors influencing their selection of pharmacy and over-the-counter medicines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dimitrios Phaedon Kevrekidis

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Within the competitive pharmacy market environment, community pharmacies are required to develop efficient marketing strategies based on contemporary information about consumer behavior in order to attract clients and develop customer loyalty. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the consumers’ preferences concerning the selection of pharmacy and over-the-counter (OTC medicines, and to identify customer segments in relation to these preferences. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between February and March 2016 on a convenient quota sample of 300 participants recruited in the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki, Greece. The main instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire with close-ended, multiple choice questions. To identify customer segments, Two-Step cluster analysis was conducted. Results: Three distinct pharmacy customer clusters emerged. Customers of the largest cluster (49%; ‘convenience customers’ were mostly younger consumers. They gave moderate to positive ratings to factors affecting the selection of pharmacy and OTCs; convenience, and previous experience and the pharmacist’s opinion, received the highest ratings. Customers of the second cluster (35%; ‘loyal customers’ were mainly retired; most of them reported visiting a single pharmacy. They gave high ratings to all factors that influence pharmacy selection, especially the pharmacy’s staff, and factors influencing the purchase of OTCs, particularly previous experience and the pharmacist’s opinion. Customers of the smallest cluster (16%; ‘convenience and price-sensitive customers’ were mainly retired or unemployed with low to moderate education, and low personal income. They gave the lowest ratings to most of the examined factors; convenience among factors influencing pharmacy selection, whereas previous experience, the pharmacist’s opinion and product price among those affecting the purchase of OTCs

  1. Influence of whole-wheat consumption on fecal microbial community structure of obese diabetic mice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jose F. Garcia-Mazcorro

    2016-02-01

    Frac distances revealed a distinctive clustering of lean microbial communities separately from both obese and WW-supplemented mice (p = 0.001, ANOSIM test. Predictive metagenome analysis revealed significant differences in several metabolic features of the microbiota among the treatment groups, including carbohydrate, amino acids and vitamin metabolism (p < 0.01, Kruskal-Wallis test. However, obese and WW groups tended to share more similar abundances of gene families compared to lean mice. Using an in vivo model of obesity and diabetes, this study suggests that daily WW supplementation for eight weeks may not be enough to influence body weight or to output a lean-like microbiome, both taxonomically and metabolically. However, WW-supplementation was associated with several statistically significant differences in the gut microbiome compared to obese controls that deserve further investigation.

  2. Efficient Multi-Label Feature Selection Using Entropy-Based Label Selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaesung Lee

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Multi-label feature selection is designed to select a subset of features according to their importance to multiple labels. This task can be achieved by ranking the dependencies of features and selecting the features with the highest rankings. In a multi-label feature selection problem, the algorithm may be faced with a dataset containing a large number of labels. Because the computational cost of multi-label feature selection increases according to the number of labels, the algorithm may suffer from a degradation in performance when processing very large datasets. In this study, we propose an efficient multi-label feature selection method based on an information-theoretic label selection strategy. By identifying a subset of labels that significantly influence the importance of features, the proposed method efficiently outputs a feature subset. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can identify a feature subset much faster than conventional multi-label feature selection methods for large multi-label datasets.

  3. School and community relations in North America: Creative tensions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loughran, E.; Reed, H. B.

    1980-09-01

    School and community relations in North America reflect creative tensions between the conserving forces of schooling and the changing forces of community. During crisis periods community development needs may modify the school's focus on individual learner growth, but generally schools use the community to extend and enrich the traditional modes. School and community interactions are chiefly characterized by such settings as community schools, community education, adult education, home and school (PTA) associations, work-study programs, curriculum-community resource programs. Recent social forces are creating heightened tensions: cultural pluralism, reduced resources, Third World influences, international conflicts, personal alienation, population concerns, energy problems, community power issues. These forces are gradually shifting school and community concepts towards ones of education and community. Education goes well beyond schooling, including all agencies having an organized influence on community development: libraries, voluntary groups, unions, business, human service agencies, government units, as well as schools. This shift requires research to develop nonformal concepts and practices, along with formal pedagogy, to increase the positive impacts of educational networks on community, as well as individual, development. These new directions have not yet significantly modified the traditional meaning of school and community relations.

  4. Influence of water mixing and food web status on the response of planktonic communities to enhanced ultraviolet-B radiation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mostajir, B.; Uvbr Team

    2003-04-01

    Two series of mesocosm experiments were carried out in 1996 and 1997 using the natural planktonic assemblage, ultraviolet-B radiation (UVBR: 280-320 nm) at the community level. The water used in the first experiment was rich in nitrate (ca. 8-10 μM) and phytoplankton biomass (5 μg Chlorophyll a L-1: Chl a), conditions typical of an eutrophic coastal zone with herbivorous food web characteristics. In contrast, the water used in the second experiment was poor in nitrate (food web. Furthermore, to understand the influence of vertical mixing on the effects of UVBR on the planktonic community, two mixing regimes (fast and slow) were tested during the mesocosm experiments of 1997. The results showed that the mixing regime can moderate the effects of UVBR on the planktonic community and can also modify completely the species composition in the mesocosms much more than the UVBR. Comparison between the impact of UVBR on the planktonic community presented in these two experiments suggested that regenerated production-based systems (e.g. microbial food webs) tolerate the effects of UVBR more efficiently than do new production-based systems (herbivorous food webs). Results regarding the potential effects of UVBR in different marine systems, coastal versus oceanic, where different physical systems dominate, fast versus slow mixing, and consequently the development of different food webs are favored, herbivorous versus microbial, will be discussed.

  5. Household and community socioeconomic influences on early childhood malnutrition in Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fotso, Jean-Christophe; Kuate-Defo, Barthelemy

    2006-05-01

    This paper uses multilevel modelling and Demographic and Health Survey data from five African countries to investigate the relative contributions of compositional and contextual effects of socioeconomic status and place of residence in perpetuating differences in the prevalence of malnutrition among children in Africa. It finds that community clustering of childhood malnutrition is accounted for by contextual effects over and above likely compositional effects, that urban-rural differentials are mainly explained by the socioeconomic status of communities and households, that childhood malnutrition occurs more frequently among children from poorer households and/or poorer communities and that living in deprived communities has an independent effect in some instances. This study also reveals that socioeconomic inequalities in childhood malnutrition are more pronounced in urban centres than in rural areas.

  6. The Influence of Non-Epistemic Features of Settings on Epistemic Cognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kawasaki, Jarod N.; DeLiema, David J.; Sandoval, William A.

    2014-01-01

    Situated theories of learning recognize the rules, tools, goals, and communities within which activities develop. Similarly, situated theories of epistemic cognition recognize that individuals' ideas about knowledge are tentative and dependent on particular contexts. In this study, we bring these frameworks together and qualitatively examine how…

  7. Online feature selection with streaming features.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Xindong; Yu, Kui; Ding, Wei; Wang, Hao; Zhu, Xingquan

    2013-05-01

    We propose a new online feature selection framework for applications with streaming features where the knowledge of the full feature space is unknown in advance. We define streaming features as features that flow in one by one over time whereas the number of training examples remains fixed. This is in contrast with traditional online learning methods that only deal with sequentially added observations, with little attention being paid to streaming features. The critical challenges for Online Streaming Feature Selection (OSFS) include 1) the continuous growth of feature volumes over time, 2) a large feature space, possibly of unknown or infinite size, and 3) the unavailability of the entire feature set before learning starts. In the paper, we present a novel Online Streaming Feature Selection method to select strongly relevant and nonredundant features on the fly. An efficient Fast-OSFS algorithm is proposed to improve feature selection performance. The proposed algorithms are evaluated extensively on high-dimensional datasets and also with a real-world case study on impact crater detection. Experimental results demonstrate that the algorithms achieve better compactness and higher prediction accuracy than existing streaming feature selection algorithms.

  8. Feature Optimization for Long-Range Visual Homing in Changing Environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qidan Zhu

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces a feature optimization method for robot long-range feature-based visual homing in changing environments. To cope with the changing environmental appearance, the optimization procedure is introduced to distinguish the most relevant features for feature-based visual homing, including the spatial distribution, selection and updating. In the previous research on feature-based visual homing, less effort has been spent on the way to improve the feature distribution to get uniformly distributed features, which are closely related to homing performance. This paper presents a modified feature extraction algorithm to decrease the influence of anisotropic feature distribution. In addition, the feature selection and updating mechanisms, which have hardly drawn any attention in the domain of feature-based visual homing, are crucial in improving homing accuracy and in maintaining the representation of changing environments. To verify the feasibility of the proposal, several comprehensive evaluations are conducted. The results indicate that the feature optimization method can find optimal feature sets for feature-based visual homing, and adapt the appearance representation to the changing environments as well.

  9. The Community's research and development programme on decommissioning of nuclear power plants. Fourth annual progress report (year 1983)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1985-01-01

    This is the fourth progress report of the European Community's program. (1979-83) of research on decommissioning of nuclear power plants. It covers the year 1983 and follows the 1980, 1981 and 1982 reports (EUR 7440, EUR 8343, EUR 8962). The present report describes the further progress of research and contains a large amount of results. For a majority of the 51 research contracts composing the 1979-83 programme, work was completed by the end of 1983; the conclusions drawn from this work are in this report. The European Community's program deals with the following fields: long-term integrity of buildings and systems; decontamination for decommissioning purposes; dismantling techniques; treatment of specific wastes materials (steel, concrete and graphite); large transport containers for radioactive waste produced in the dismantling of nuclear power plants; estimation of the quantities of radioactive waste arising from the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in the Community; influence of nuclear power plant design features on decommissioning

  10. Psychological Features of Foreign Language Acquisition in Different Age Groups

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N V Kudinova

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available The influence of age factor on the foreign language learning is examined in the article from the practical point of view. The specific age features and their influence on the foreign language acquisition at different stages of age are highlighted and analyzed on the basis of psychological research.

  11. ANATOMIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL FEATURES OF DISTAL LOWER LEG AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE PROCESS OF OSTEOGENESIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Desimir Mladenović

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Osteogenesis is the process of bone tissue forming, i.e. bone or callus regeneration. This process is influenced by many factors, and the degree of bone fragments’ stability and vascularization in the fracture area are the basic local factors which determine the nature of reparative process. Regenerative process of all bone structures increases with increasing of blood supply.The distal lower leg has its specific biomechanical features, and plays an important role in the transfer of body weight to foot. The distal part of tibia has a small diameter, which as a consequence has reduced diameter in medullar cave. Through this anatomic feature, the medullar network in the lower tibia part is also reduced.As for anatomic aspect, vascularization in the lower end of tibia is poor. It primarily depends on periosteal vascularization, because medullar vascularization is reduced. Fasciae, tendons and skin cover the lower part of the leg, and there is no muscle mass. These tissues have poor vascular network and that is why the extraosseous blood circulation in tibia is poor, and does not participate in the osteogenesis process. For these reasons, distal lower leg represents a predelection site for delayed osteogenesis and pseudoarthrosys development.Osteosynthesis causes secondary damage to bone and soft tissue circulation. The screw plate damages the periosteal circulation – in the lower part of tibia it is the main source of vascularization, and for this reason, this method of osteosynthesis should not be applied. The external fixator has a sparing role regarding vascularization, and that is the reason why this method is recommended for fracture stabilization at the level of distal lower leg.

  12. Understanding Legacy Features with Featureous

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olszak, Andrzej; Jørgensen, Bo Nørregaard

    2011-01-01

    Java programs called Featureous that addresses this issue. Featureous allows a programmer to easily establish feature-code traceability links and to analyze their characteristics using a number of visualizations. Featureous is an extension to the NetBeans IDE, and can itself be extended by third...

  13. A Study of Factors Influencing the Virtual Brand Communities Participation in Malaysia

    OpenAIRE

    Chia, Chin Hwa

    2015-01-01

    The form of Virtual Community in the space of internet has resulted in a new dimension of communication among people. Virtual communities can be utilized by businesses as a medium to help them in their growth and increase performance levels. Virtual communities have evolved into virtual brand communities where members share the same interest and objective, provide guidance, feedback and comments to the other members. This has become an opportunity for the marketers to build a closer and stabl...

  14. High-Precision, Continuous GPS Data Reveals Seasonal Groundwater Influence on the Deformation of the Salmon Falls Landslide, a Slow-Moving, Rotational Feature in Central Idaho

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lauer, I. H.; Crosby, B. T.

    2017-12-01

    The development of predictive tools for landslide initiation and deformation serve both the natural hazard and geomorphic communities. Founded on both field observations and physical laws, these tools require a mechanistic understanding of the connection between forcing and response. Water has a well-documented influence on slope stability, impacting both soil plasticity and pore water pressure. High precision, high frequency GPS measurements of deformation paired with similar frequency water table measurements enable new insight into the lag and sensitivity present in the coupled hillslope-groundwater system, especially in the rotational domain, which is underrepresented in current literature. Our study explores the influence of groundwater on a slow-moving, deep-seated, rotational slide in southern Idaho using daily, mm precision GPS positions and contemporaneous groundwater levels measurements in adjacent wells, lakes, and streams. Seven semi-permanent GPS stations are spatially distributed across the slide and record three-dimensional velocities up to 11 cm/yr, which compare well with historical measurements from the early 2000's. Water level loggers are located in a rough cross-section through the study area and documents rises in water level during spring 2017 and a subsequent 1.5m drop in the following summer. We hypothesize a correlation of groundwater levels and landslide velocity, which varies seasonally and spatially across the body of the slide. We will present whether deformation is spatially contemporaneous or initiate in one region and propagates down-feature. We will also discuss whether temporal lag exists between water level change and deformation and if hysteresis complicates correlation between forcing and response. Results will bolster the breadth of case-studies available for this landslide morphology and provide regional land managers with predictors for increased landslide activity and associated hazards, such as rockfall or landslide dam

  15. Plant community responses to simultaneous changes in temperature, nitrogen availability, and invasion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elise S Gornish

    Full Text Available Increasing rates of change in climate have been observed across the planet and have contributed to the ongoing range shifts observed for many species. Although ecologists are now using a variety of approaches to study how much and through what mechanisms increasing temperature and nutrient pollution may influence the invasions inherent in range shifts, accurate predictions are still lacking.In this study, we conducted a factorial experiment, simultaneously manipulating warming, nitrogen addition and introduction of Pityopsis aspera, to determine how range-shifting species affect a plant community. We quantified the resident community using ordination scores, then used structural equation modeling to examine hypotheses related to how plants respond to a network of experimental treatments and environmental variables. Variation in soil pH explained plant community response to nitrogen addition in the absence of invasion. However, in the presence of invasion, the direct effect of nitrogen on the community was negligible and soil moisture was important for explaining nitrogen effects. We did not find effects of warming on the native plant community in the absence of invasion. In the presence of invasion, however, warming had negative effects on functional richness directly and invasion and herbivory explained the overall positive effect of warming on the plant community.This work highlights the variation in the biotic and abiotic factors responsible for explaining independent and collective climate change effects over a short time scale. Future work should consider the complex and non-additive relationships among factors of climate change and invasion in order to capture more ecologically relevant features of our changing environment.

  16. Macroinvertebrate communities associated with littoral zone habitats and the influence of environmental factors in Malilangwe Reservoir, Zimbabwe

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dalu T.

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available The aim of our study was to investigate macroinvertebrate communities so as to understand factors and processes structuring macroinvertebrate communities in a small reservoir, Malilangwe reservoir over seven months (April to October. Sampling was performed by active sweep netting and searching soil sediments. Water temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, ammonia, nitrogen, phosphorus, chemical oxygen demand and macrophyte cover were determined. In total, forty-two macroinvertebrate families belonging to 10 orders were identified amongst 13 macrophyte species and sediments. Thiaridae and Physidae (Mollusca were the dominant and most abundant taxa (57.71% and there were followed by the Hemiptera (27.31%. High indices for sites 1 to 3 for the Simpsons index, the Shannon-Weaver index and evenness were recorded, while low indices were observed for sites 4 to 5, with significant differences being observed among the study site using the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test (p < 0.05. Redundancy Analysis revealed that among environmental factors, hydrologically linked parameters such as conductivity, water level and macrophyte cover had the strongest influence on macroinvertebrate distribution.

  17. Changes in marine fish community under influence of Leningrad nuclear power plant and another human activities in the watershed of Koporskaya Bay (Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zimin, V.L.

    1999-01-01

    The long-time observations (1978-1997) in the Leningrad nuclear power plant cooling water-body (Koporskaya Bay) in the frame of the Regional Ecological Monitoring Program provided reliable data on the local fish community state. Regular observations allow us to trace structural changes in fish community, because they follow changes on physiological and population levels in this community. 45 species of fishes and lamprey were recorded during all investigation period. However, the species diversity is very poor. Wittaker dominance-diversity curves reflect degradation in the coastal fish community being under influence of the complex industrial and agricultural factors. The fish community is now dominated by only 2-3 species, especially threespined stickleback and ninespined stickleback; while the first species more abundant then the second one as far as ∼10 times

  18. Automatic topic identification of health-related messages in online health community using text classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Yingjie

    2013-01-01

    To facilitate patient involvement in online health community and obtain informative support and emotional support they need, a topic identification approach was proposed in this paper for identifying automatically topics of the health-related messages in online health community, thus assisting patients in reaching the most relevant messages for their queries efficiently. Feature-based classification framework was presented for automatic topic identification in our study. We first collected the messages related to some predefined topics in a online health community. Then we combined three different types of features, n-gram-based features, domain-specific features and sentiment features to build four feature sets for health-related text representation. Finally, three different text classification techniques, C4.5, Naïve Bayes and SVM were adopted to evaluate our topic classification model. By comparing different feature sets and different classification techniques, we found that n-gram-based features, domain-specific features and sentiment features were all considered to be effective in distinguishing different types of health-related topics. In addition, feature reduction technique based on information gain was also effective to improve the topic classification performance. In terms of classification techniques, SVM outperformed C4.5 and Naïve Bayes significantly. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach could identify the topics of online health-related messages efficiently.

  19. How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Fue; Tao, Ran; Yang, Yanwu; Xie, Tingting

    2017-01-01

    This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users' perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users' behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users' group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it's an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users' group intentions to increase users' advertising acceptance and response.

  20. How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fue Zeng

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users’ perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users’ behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users’ group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it’s an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users’ group intentions to increase users’ advertising acceptance and response.

  1. How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Fue; Tao, Ran; Yang, Yanwu; Xie, Tingting

    2017-01-01

    This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users’ perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users’ behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users’ group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it’s an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users’ group intentions to increase users’ advertising acceptance and response. PMID:28855879

  2. Biodiversity and spatial patterns of benthic habitat and associated demersal fish communities at two tropical submerged reef ecosystems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdul Wahab, Muhammad Azmi; Radford, Ben; Cappo, Mike; Colquhoun, Jamie; Stowar, Marcus; Depczynski, Martial; Miller, Karen; Heyward, Andrew

    2018-06-01

    Submerged reef ecosystems can be very diverse and may serve as important refugia for shallow-water conspecifics. This study quantified the benthic and fish communities of two proximate, predominantly mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs), Glomar Shoal and Rankin Bank, which are geographically isolated from other similar features in the region. Glomar Shoal is identified as a key ecological feature (KEF) in the North West Marine Region of Australia. Multibeam surveys were performed to characterise the seafloor and to derive secondary environmental variables, used to explain patterns in benthic and fish communities. Towed video surveys quantified benthic cover, and stereo baited remote underwater stations were used to survey fish abundance and diversity. Surveys were completed in depths of 20-115 m. The two MCEs exhibited distinct communities; Rankin Bank consistently had higher cover (up to 30×) of benthic taxa across depths, and fish communities that were twice as abundant and 1.5× more diverse than Glomar Shoal. The location of the MCEs, depth and rugosity were most influential in structuring benthic communities. Phototrophic taxa, specifically macroalgae and hard corals, had up to 22 × higher cover at Rankin Bank than at Glomar Shoal and were dominant to 80 m (compared to 60 m at Glomar Shoal), presumably due to greater light penetration (lower turbidity) and lower sand cover at greater depths. The 20% coral cover at Rankin Bank was comparable to that reported for shallow reefs. The cover of sand, hard corals and sponges influenced fish communities, with higher abundance and diversity of fish associated with shallow hard coral habitats. This study demonstrated that the two MCEs were unique within the local context, and when coupled with their geographical isolation and biodiversity, presents compelling support for the additional recognition of Rankin Bank as a KEF.

  3. Barrett's esophagus: clinical features, obesity, and imaging.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Quigley, Eamonn M M

    2011-09-01

    The following includes commentaries on clinical features and imaging of Barrett\\'s esophagus (BE); the clinical factors that influence the development of BE; the influence of body fat distribution and central obesity; the role of adipocytokines and proinflammatory markers in carcinogenesis; the role of body mass index (BMI) in healing of Barrett\\'s epithelium; the role of surgery in prevention of carcinogenesis in BE; the importance of double-contrast esophagography and cross-sectional images of the esophagus; and the value of positron emission tomography\\/computed tomography.

  4. Best practice principles for community-based obesity prevention: development, content and application.

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, L; Gill, T; Allender, S; Swinburn, B

    2011-05-01

    Best practice in obesity prevention has generally been defined in terms of 'what' needs to be done while neglecting 'how'. A multifaceted definition of best practice, which combines available evidence on what actions to take, with an established process for interpreting this information in a specific community context, provides a more appropriate basis for defining the principles of best practice in community-based obesity prevention. Based on analysis of a range of literature, a preliminary set of principles was drafted and progressively revised through further analyses of published literature and a series of consultations. The framework for best practice principles comprises: community engagement, programme design and planning, evaluation, implementation and sustainability, and governance. Specific principles were formulated within this framework. While many principles were generic, distinctive features of obesity prevention were also covered. The engagement of end-users influenced the design of the formatting of the outputs, which represent three levels of knowledge transfer: detailed evidence summaries, guiding questions for programme planners and a briefer set of questions for simpler communication purposes. The best practice principles provide a valuable mechanism for the translation of existing evidence and experience into the decision-making processes for planning, implementing and evaluating the complex community-based interventions needed for successful obesity prevention. © 2010 The Authors. obesity reviews © 2010 International Association for the Study of Obesity.

  5. How do Policy and Institutional Settings Shape Opportunities for Community-Based Primary Health Care? A Comparison of Ontario, Québec and New Zealand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tim Tenbensel

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Community-based primary health care describes a model of service provision that is oriented to the population health needs and wants of service users and communities, and has particular relevance to supporting the growing proportion of the population with multiple chronic conditions. Internationally, aspirations for community-based primary health care have stimulated local initiatives and influenced the design of policy solutions. However, the ways in which these ideas and influences find their way into policy and practice is strongly mediated by policy settings and institutional legacies of particular jurisdictions. This paper seeks to compare the key institutional and policy features of Ontario, Québec and New Zealand that shape the ‘space available’ for models of community-based primary health care to take root and develop. Our analysis suggests that two key conditions are the integration of relevant health and social sector organisations, and the range of policy levers that are available and used by governments. New Zealand has the most favourable conditions, and Ontario the least favourable. All jurisdictions, however, share a crucial barrier, namely the ‘barbed-wire fence’ that separates funding of medical and ‘non-medical’ primary care services, and the clear interests primary care doctors have in maintaining this fence. Moves in the direction of system-wide community-based primary health care require a gradual dismantling of this fence.

  6. A Community-Based Study of Enduring Eating Features in Young Women

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bryan Rodgers

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available We conducted a prospective exploration of the temporal course of eating disorder (ED symptoms in two cohorts of community women. One hundred and twenty-two young women (Cohort 1 identified in a general population based survey with ED symptoms of clinical severity agreed to participate in a 5-year follow-up study. A comparative sample (Cohort 2 of 706 similar aged self-selected college women (221 with disordered eating was recruited one year later. Both ED groups were given a health literacy package in the first year. ED symptoms, health related quality of life, and psychological distress were assessed annually with the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, the Short Form—12 Health Survey and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, respectively. Forty percent (Cohort 1 and 30.3% (Cohort 2 completed questionnaires at each year of follow-up. In both groups, there was early improvement in ED symptoms which plateaued after the first year, and participants retained high EDE-Q scores at 5 years. BMI increased as expected. Mental health related quality of life scores did not change but there were small improvements in psychological distress scores. The findings suggest little likelihood of spontaneous remission of ED problems in community women.

  7. Bayesian latent feature modeling for modeling bipartite networks with overlapping groups

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Philip H.; Mørup, Morten; Schmidt, Mikkel Nørgaard

    2016-01-01

    Bi-partite networks are commonly modelled using latent class or latent feature models. Whereas the existing latent class models admit marginalization of parameters specifying the strength of interaction between groups, existing latent feature models do not admit analytical marginalization...... by the notion of community structure such that the edge density within groups is higher than between groups. Our model further assumes that entities can have different propensities of generating links in one of the modes. The proposed framework is contrasted on both synthetic and real bi-partite networks...... feature representations in bipartite networks provides a new framework for accounting for structure in bi-partite networks using binary latent feature representations providing interpretable representations that well characterize structure as quantified by link prediction....

  8. Promoting Community Health and Eliminating Health Disparities Through Community-Based Participatory Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Ruiping; Stone, John R; Hoffman, Julie E; Klappa, Susan G

    2016-03-01

    In physical therapy, there is increasing focus on the need at the community level to promote health, eliminate disparities in health status, and ameliorate risk factors among underserved minorities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is the most promising paradigm for pursuing these goals. Community-based participatory research stresses equitable partnering of the community and investigators in light of local social, structural, and cultural elements. Throughout the research process, the CBPR model emphasizes coalition and team building that joins partners with diverse skills/expertise, knowledge, and sensitivities. This article presents core concepts and principles of CBPR and the rationale for its application in the management of health issues at the community level. Community-based participatory research is now commonly used to address public health issues. A literature review identified limited reports of its use in physical therapy research and services. A published study is used to illustrate features of CBPR for physical therapy. The purpose of this article is to promote an understanding of how physical therapists could use CBPR as a promising way to advance the profession's goals of community health and elimination of health care disparities, and social responsibility. Funding opportunities for the support of CBPR are noted. © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association.

  9. Space for innovation for sustainable community-based biofuel production and use: Lessons learned for policy from Nhambita community, Mozambique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schut, Marc; Paassen, Annemarie van; Leeuwis, Cees; Bos, Sandra; Leonardo, Wilson; Lerner, Anna

    2011-01-01

    This paper provides insights and recommendations for policy on the opportunities and constrains that influence the space for innovation for sustainable community-based biofuel production and use. Promoted by the Mozambican government, Nhambita community established jatropha trials in 2005. Initial results were promising, but crop failure and the absence of organized markets led to scepticism amongst farmers. We start from the idea that the promotion of community-based biofuel production and use requires taking interactions between social-cultural, biophysical, economic, political and legal subsystems across different scales and levels of analysis through time into account. Our analysis demonstrates that heterogeneous farming strategies and their synergies at community level should be carefully assessed. Furthermore, national and international political and legal developments, such as the development of biofuel sustainability criteria, influence the local space in which community-based biofuel developments take place. We conclude that ex-ante integrated assessment and creating an enabling environment can enhance space for sustainable community-based biofuel production and use. It may provide insights into the opportunities and constraints for different types of smallholders, and promote the development of adequate policy mechanisms to prevent biofuels from becoming a threat rather than an opportunity for smallholders. - Highlights: → This paper explores space for innovation for community-based biofuel production and use. → Heterogeneous farming strategies and their synergies at community level are key. → Farmers have little trust in jatropha due to crop failure and absence of markets. → (Inter)national biofuel policies influence space for local biofuel production and use. → Policies should focus on ex-ante integrated assessment and creating an enabling environment.

  10. Towards the maturity model for feature oriented domain analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Javed

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Assessing the quality of a model has always been a challenge for researchers in academia and industry. The quality of a feature model is a prime factor because it is used in the development of products. A degraded feature model leads the development of low quality products. Few efforts have been made on improving the quality of feature models. This paper is an effort to present our ongoing work i.e. development of FODA (Feature Oriented Domain Analysis maturity model which will help to evaluate the quality of a given feature model. In this paper, we provide the quality levels along with their descriptions. The proposed model consists of four levels starting from level 0 to level 3. Design of each level is based on the severity of errors, whereas severity of errors decreases from level 0 to level 3. We elaborate each level with the help of examples. We borrowed all examples from the material published by the research community of Software Product Lines (SPL for the application of our framework.

  11. Technical Evaluation Report 27: Educational Wikis: Features and selection criteria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jim Rudolph

    2004-04-01

    Full Text Available This report discusses the educational uses of the ‘wiki,’ an increasingly popular approach to online community development. Wikis are defined and compared with ‘blogging’ methods; characteristics of major wiki engines are described; and wiki features and selection criteria are examined.

  12. Community perspectives of wind energy in Australia: The application of a justice and community fairness framework to increase social acceptance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gross, Catherine

    2007-01-01

    Decisions concerning the siting of infrastructure developments or the use of natural resources have the potential to damage a community's social well-being if the outcomes are perceived to be unfair. Justice is accepted as central to the well functioning of society with fairness being an expectation in day-to-day interactions. Outcomes that are perceived to be unfair can result in protests, damaged relationships and divided communities particularly when decisions are made which benefit some sections of the community at the perceived expense of others. Through empirical research using a wind farm pilot study, community perceptions of a community consultation process are explored using procedural justice principles to evaluate fairness. Findings from the pilot study indicate that perceptions of fairness do influence how people perceive the legitimacy of the outcome, and that a fairer process will increase acceptance of the outcome. A key research finding was that different sections of a community are likely to be influenced by different aspects of justice, namely by outcome fairness, outcome favourability and process fairness. Based on this finding, a community fairness framework was developed which has potential application in community consultation to increase social acceptance of the outcome

  13. A phylogenetic community approach for studying termite communities in a West African savannah.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hausberger, Barbara; Korb, Judith

    2015-10-01

    Termites play fundamental roles in tropical ecosystems, and mound-building species in particular are crucial in enhancing species diversity, from plants to mammals. However, it is still unclear which factors govern the occurrence and assembly of termite communities. A phylogenetic community approach and null models of species assembly were used to examine structuring processes associated with termite community assembly in a pristine savannah. Overall, we did not find evidence for a strong influence of interspecific competition or environmental filtering in structuring these communities. However, the presence of a single species, the mound-building termite Macrotermes bellicosus, left a strong signal on structuring and led to clustered communities of more closely related species. Hence, this species changes the assembly rules for a whole community. Our results show the fundamental importance of a single insect species for community processes, suggesting that more attention to insect species is warranted when developing conservation strategies. © 2015 The Author(s).

  14. [Influence of Different Straws Returning with Landfill on Soil Microbial Community Structure Under Dry and Water Farming].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lan, Mu-ling; Gao, Ming

    2015-11-01

    Based on rice, wheat, corn straw and rape, broad bean green stalk as the research object, using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) method, combining principal component analysis method to study the soil microbial quantity, distribution of flora, community structure characteristics under dry and water farming as two different cultivated land use types. The PLFA analysis results showed that: under dry farming, total PLFA quantity ranged 8.35-25.15 nmol x g(-1), showed rape > broad bean > corn > rice > wheat, rape and broad bean significantly increased total PLFA quantity by 1.18 and 1.08 times compared to the treatment without straw; PLFA quantity of bacterial flora in treatments with straws was higher than that without straw, and fungal biomass was significantly increased, so was the species richness of microbial community. Under water faming, the treatments of different straws returning with landfill have improved the PLFA quantity of total soil microbial and flora comparing with the treatment without straw, fungi significantly increased, and species richness of microbial communities value also increased significantly. Total PLFA quantity ranged 4.04-22.19 nmol x g(-1), showed rice > corn > wheat > broad bean > rape, which in rape and broad bean treatments were lower than the treatment without straw; fungal PLFA amount in 5 kinds of straw except broad bean treatment was significantly higher than that of the treatment without straw, bacteria and total PLFA quantity in broad bean processing were significantly lower than those of other treatments, actinomycetes, G+, G- had no significant difference between all treatments; rice, wheat, corn, rape could significantly increase the soil microbial species richness index and dominance index under water faming. The results of principal component analysis showed that broad bean green stalk had the greatest impact on the microbial community structure in the dry soil, rape green stalk and wheat straw had the biggest influence on

  15. Pesticide dissipation and microbial community changes in a biopurification system: influence of the rhizosphere.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diez, M C; Elgueta, S; Rubilar, O; Tortella, G R; Schalchli, H; Bornhardt, C; Gallardo, F

    2017-12-01

    The dissipation of atrazine, chlorpyrifos and iprodione in a biopurification system and changes in the microbial and some biological parameters influenced by the rhizosphere of Lolium perenne were studied in a column system packed with an organic biomixture. Three column depths were analyzed for residual pesticides, peroxidase, fluorescein diacetate activity and microbial communities. Fungal colonization was analyzed by confocal laser scanning microscopy to assess the extent of its proliferation in wheat straw. The L. perenne rhizosphere enhanced pesticide dissipation and negligible pesticide residues were detected at 20-30 cm column depth. Atrazine, chlorpyrifos and iprodione removal was 82, 89 and 74% respectively in the first 10 cm depth for columns with vegetal cover. The presence of L. perenne in contaminated columns stimulated peroxidase activity in all three column depth sections. Fluorescein diacetate activity decreased over time in all column sections with the highest values in biomixtures with vegetal cover. Microbial communities, analyzed by PCR-DGGE, were not affected by the pesticide mixture application, presenting high values of similarity (>65%) with and without vegetal cover. Microbial abundance of Actinobacteria varied according to treatment and no clear link was observed. However, bacterial abundance increased over time and was similar with and without vegetal cover. On the other hand, fungal abundance decreased in all sections of columns after 40 days, but an increase was observed in response to pesticide application. Fungal colonization and straw degradation during pesticide dissipation were verified by monitoring the lignin autofluorescence loss.

  16. Affect influences feature binding in memory: Trading between richness and strength of memory representations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spachtholz, Philipp; Kuhbandner, Christof; Pekrun, Reinhard

    2016-10-01

    Research has shown that long-term memory representations of objects are formed as a natural product of perception even without any intentional memorization. It is not known, however, how rich these representations are in terms of the number of bound object features. In particular, because feature binding rests on resource-limited processes, there may be a context-dependent trade-off between the quantity of stored features and their memory strength. The authors examined whether affective state may bring about such a trade-off. Participants incidentally encoded pictures of real-world objects while experiencing positive or negative affect, and the authors later measured memory for 2 features. Results showed that participants traded between richness and strength of memory representations as a function of affect, with positive affect tuning memory formation toward richness and negative affect tuning memory formation toward strength. These findings demonstrate that memory binding is a flexible process that is modulated by affective state. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  17. "Who can you tell?" Features of Arab culture that influence conceptualization and treatment of childhood sexual abuse.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haboush, Karen L; Alyan, Hala

    2013-01-01

    The literature on child sexual abuse reflects growing recognition of the manner in which culture impacts the conceptualization, experience, and treatment of such cases. Despite heightened visibility of Arab Americans within the United States, population due to recent media attention, little empirical research exists on the occurrence of child sexual abuse within this population. Arab culture is often characterized by an emphasis on collectivism and familial obligations, and such features may prove to either facilitate or impede assessment and treatment of child sexual abuse, depending on how they are manifested. In terms of reporting child sexual abuse, cultural values pertaining to shame and honor as well as the stigma attached to mental health problems may influence the response to abuse. As such, enhancing the cultural competence of the therapist is key to facilitating effective cultural practice. Empirical research is required to investigate and substantiate these concepts as they relate to child sexual abuse in Arab-American populations.

  18. HYGROTOPE AND TROPHOTOPE OF THE STEPPE PRIDNIPROVIE BIOGEOCEONOSIS AS DETERMINANTS OF THE EARTHWORMS (LUMBRICIDAE COMMUNITIES β-DIVERSITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. V. Zhukov

    2016-08-01

    diversity of earthworm communities will be higher than in other biogeocoenosis types. The MDM-analysis (Multinomial Diversity Model reveals that habitats coenotic features define 12.61 % of all entropy of earthworm communities, hygrotopes – 24.12 %, trophotopes – 12.3 %. The square-law hygrotope member defines 10.93 %, and trophotope – 2.05 %. Hygrotope and trophotope interaction defines 1.53 % of entropy of earthworm communities. Sites (α -diversity define 36.45 % of entropy. There are other factors which influence a diversity of earthworm communities besides a humidity, trophicity and habitat coenotic features. Steppe Pridniprovie earthworm complexes have been divided into ecological groups on the basis of relation to humidity (hygromorphes and to edaphotope trophicity (trophocenomorphes. Earthworms hygromorphes are presented by xerophylous (2 species, mesophylous (9 species, hygrophylous (4 species, ultrahygrophylous (1 species. Trophocoenomorphes are presented by oligotrophocoenomorphes (1 species, oligomesotrophocoenomorphes (4 species, mesotrophocoenomorphes (9 species, megatrophocoenomorphes (2 species.

  19. Recovering Faces from Memory: The Distracting Influence of External Facial Features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frowd, Charlie D.; Skelton, Faye; Atherton, Chris; Pitchford, Melanie; Hepton, Gemma; Holden, Laura; McIntyre, Alex H.; Hancock, Peter J. B.

    2012-01-01

    Recognition memory for unfamiliar faces is facilitated when contextual cues (e.g., head pose, background environment, hair and clothing) are consistent between study and test. By contrast, inconsistencies in external features, especially hair, promote errors in unfamiliar face-matching tasks. For the construction of facial composites, as carried…

  20. Barriers and facilitators to implementation, uptake and sustainability of community-based health insurance schemes in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fadlallah, Racha; El-Jardali, Fadi; Hemadi, Nour; Morsi, Rami Z; Abou Samra, Clara Abou; Ahmad, Ali; Arif, Khurram; Hishi, Lama; Honein-AbouHaidar, Gladys; Akl, Elie A

    2018-01-29

    Community-based health insurance (CBHI) has evolved as an alternative health financing mechanism to out of pocket payments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in areas where government or employer-based health insurance is minimal. This systematic review aimed to assess the barriers and facilitators to implementation, uptake and sustainability of CHBI schemes in LMICs. We searched six electronic databases and grey literature. We included both quantitative and qualitative studies written in English language and published after year 1992. Two reviewers worked in duplicate and independently to complete study selection, data abstraction, and assessment of methodological features. We synthesized the findings based on thematic analysis and categorized according to the ecological model into individual, interpersonal, community and systems levels. Of 15,510 citations, 51 met the eligibility criteria. Individual factors included awareness and understanding of the concept of CBHI, trust in scheme and scheme managers, perceived service quality, and demographic characteristics, which influenced enrollment and sustainability. Interpersonal factors such as household dynamics, other family members enrolled in the scheme, and social solidarity influenced enrollment and renewal of membership. Community-level factors such as culture and community involvement in scheme development influenced enrollment and sustainability of scheme. Systems-level factors encompassed governance, financial and delivery arrangement. Government involvement, accountability of scheme management, and strong policymaker-implementer relation facilitated implementation and sustainability of scheme. Packages that covered outpatient and inpatient care and those tailored to community needs contributed to increased enrollment. Amount and timing of premium collection was reported to negatively influence enrollment while factors reported as threats to sustainability included facility

  1. The influence of community well-being on mortality among Registered First Nations people.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliver, Lisa N; Penney, Chris; Peters, Paul A

    2016-07-20

    Living in a community with lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher mortality. However, few studies have examined associations between community socioeconomic characteristics and mortality among the First Nations population. The 1991-to-2006 Census Mortality and Cancer Cohort follow-up, which tracked a 15% sample of Canadians aged 25 or older, included 57,300 respondents who self-identified as Registered First Nations people or Indian band members. The Community Well-Being Index (CWB), a measure of the social and economic well-being of communities, consists of income, education, labour force participation, and housing components. A dichotomous variable was used to indicate residence in a community with a CWB score above or below the average for First Nations communities. Age-standardized mortality rates (ASMRs) were calculated for First Nations cohort members in communities with CWB scores above and below the First Nations average. Cox proportional hazards models examined the impact of CWB when controlling for individual characteristics. The ASMR for First Nations cohort members in communities with a below-average CWB was 1,057 per 100,000 person-years at risk, compared with 912 for those in communities with an above-average CWB score. For men, living in a community with below-average income and labour force participation CWB scores was associated with an increased hazard of death, even when individual socioeconomic characteristics were taken into account. Women in communities with below-average income scores had an increased hazard of death. First Nations people in communities with below-average CWB scores tended to have higher mortality rates. For some components of the CWB, effects remained even when individual socioeconomic characteristics were taken into account.

  2. A scoping review protocol on social participation of indigenous elders, intergenerational solidarity and their influence on individual and community wellness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viscogliosi, Chantal; Asselin, Hugo; Basile, Suzy; Couturier, Yves; Drolet, Marie-Josée; Gagnon, Dominique; Torrie, Jill; Levasseur, Mélanie

    2017-05-12

    Indigenous elders have traditionally played an important role in maintaining social cohesion within their communities. Today, part of this role has been taken over by government social and healthcare services, but they are having limited success in addressing social challenges. Increasing elders' social participation and intergenerational solidarity might foster community development and benefit young people, families, communities and the elders themselves. However, knowledge of the contribution of elders' social participation and intergenerational solidarity to wellness is scattered and needs to be synthesised. This protocol presents a scoping review on the social participation of indigenous elders, intergenerational solidarity and their influence on individual and community wellness. This scoping review protocol is based on an innovative methodological framework designed to gather information from the scientific and grey literature and from indigenous sources. It was developed by an interdisciplinary team including indigenous scholars/researchers, knowledge users and key informants. In addition to searching information databases in fields such as public health and indigenous studies, an advisory committee will ensure that information is gathered from grey literature and indigenous sources. The protocol was approved by the Ethics Review Board of the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission. The comprehensive synthesis of the scientific and grey literature and indigenous sources proposed in this protocol will not only raise awareness within indigenous communities and among healthcare professionals and community organisations, but will also enable decision-makers to better meet the needs of indigenous people. The innovative methodological framework proposed in this scoping review protocol will yield richer information on the contribution of elders to community wellness. This

  3. Influence of Biopreparations on the Bacterial Community of Oily Waste

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biktasheva, L. R.; Galitskaya, P. Yu; Selivanovskaya, S. Yu

    2018-01-01

    Oil pollution is reported to be one the most serious environmental problems nowadays. Therefore, methods of remediation of oily polluted soils and oily wastes are of great importance. Bioremediation being a perspective method of sanitation of oil pollutions, includes biostimulation of the polluted sites’ indigenous microflora, and in some cases additional introduction of active strains able to decompose hydrocarbon. The efficacy of introducing such biopreparations depends on the interactions between the introduced microbes and the indigenous ones. In this study, the influence of bacterial consortium (Rhodococcus jialingiae, Stenotrophomonas rhizophila and Pseudomonas gessardii) introduction on the bioremediation of an oily waste sampled from a refinery situated in the Mari El region (Russia) was estimated. Single and multiple inoculations of the consortium in addition to moistening and aeration were compared with a control sample, which included only aeration and moistening of the waste. It was shown, that two of the three introduced strains (Rh. jialingiae and Ps.gessardii) gene copy numbers were higher in the inoculated variants than in the control sample and with their initial counts, which meant that these strains survived and included into the bacterial community of the wastes. At the same time, bacterial counts were significantly lower, and the physiological profile of waste microflora slightly altered in the inoculated remediation variants as compared with the control sample. Interestingly, no difference in the degradation rates of hydrocarbons was revealed in the inoculated remediation variants and the control sample.

  4. Discovery of a chemosynthesis-based community in the western South Atlantic Ocean

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giongo, Adriana; Haag, Taiana; Simão, Taiz L. Lopes; Medina-Silva, Renata; Utz, Laura R. P.; Bogo, Maurício R.; Bonatto, Sandro L.; Zamberlan, Priscilla M.; Augustin, Adolpho H.; Lourega, Rogério V.; Rodrigues, Luiz F.; Sbrissa, Gesiane F.; Kowsmann, Renato O.; Freire, Antonio F. M.; Miller, Dennis J.; Viana, Adriano R.; Ketzer, João M. M.; Eizirik, Eduardo

    2016-06-01

    influenced by local ecological features that select a stereotyped suite of specifically adapted organisms.

  5. What Shapes the Phylogenetic Structure of Anuran Communities in a Seasonal Environment? The Influence of Determinism at Regional Scale to Stochasticity or Antagonistic Forces at Local Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martins, Clarissa de Araújo; Roque, Fabio de Oliveira; Santos, Bráulio A; Ferreira, Vanda Lúcia; Strüssmann, Christine; Tomas, Walfrido Moraes

    2015-01-01

    Ecological communities are structured by both deterministic and stochastic processes. We investigated phylogenetic patterns at regional and local scales to understand the influences of seasonal processes in shaping the structure of anuran communities in the southern Pantanal wetland, Brazil. We assessed the phylogenetic structure at different scales, using the Net Relatedness Index (NRI), the Nearest Taxon Index (NTI), and phylobetadiversity indexes, as well as a permutation test, to evaluate the effect of seasonality. The anuran community was represented by a non-random set of species with a high degree of phylogenetic relatedness at the regional scale. However, at the local scale the phylogenetic structure of the community was weakly related with the seasonality of the system, indicating that oriented stochastic processes (e.g. colonization, extinction and ecological drift) and/or antagonist forces drive the structure of such communities in the southern Pantanal.

  6. Culture in Asian American community psychology: beyond the East-West binary.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okazaki, Sumie; Saw, Anne

    2011-03-01

    In response to a call to better integrate culture in community psychology (O'Donnell in American Journal of Community Psychology 37:1-7 2006), we offer a cultural-community framework to facilitate a collaborative engagement between community psychologists and ethnic minority communities, focusing on Asian American communities as illustrations. Extending Hays' (Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and therapy, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, 2008) ADDRESSING framework for considering cultural influences on a counseling relationship, the proposed framework provides a broad but systematic guidepost for considering three major cultural-ecological influences on Asian American communities: Race and Ethnicity (R), Culture (C), and Immigration and Transnational Ties (I). We provide a sequence of steps that incorporate the ADDRESSING and the RCI frameworks to facilitate the collaborative community-based research or social action.

  7. Expectations and outcome: The role of Proposer features in the Ultimatum Game

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Marchetti, A.; Castelli, I.; Harlé, K.M.; Sanfey, A.G.

    2011-01-01

    In social decision-making individuals make choices in an interactive context and their decisions may therefore be influenced by information they receive about features of the other player. These features may 'frame' the other player in particular ways and generate expectations about the outcome.

  8. Contextualizing School Psychology Practice: Introducing Featured Research Commentaries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burns, Matthew K.

    2013-01-01

    Bronfenbrenner (1977) defined ecological-systems theory (EST) as the study of the multiple interconnected environmental systems that influence individual development. To understand the child, psychologists must fully examine the environment in which the child lives including the home, school, community, and culture (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). There…

  9. Influences of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features on characteristics of music-induced movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burger, Birgitta; Thompson, Marc R; Luck, Geoff; Saarikallio, Suvi; Toiviainen, Petri

    2013-01-01

    Music makes us move. Several factors can affect the characteristics of such movements, including individual factors or musical features. For this study, we investigated the effect of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features as well as tempo on movement characteristics. Sixty participants were presented with 30 musical stimuli representing different styles of popular music, and instructed to move along with the music. Optical motion capture was used to record participants' movements. Subsequently, eight movement features and four rhythm- and timbre-related musical features were computationally extracted from the data, while the tempo was assessed in a perceptual experiment. A subsequent correlational analysis revealed that, for instance, clear pulses seemed to be embodied with the whole body, i.e., by using various movement types of different body parts, whereas spectral flux and percussiveness were found to be more distinctly related to certain body parts, such as head and hand movement. A series of ANOVAs with the stimuli being divided into three groups of five stimuli each based on the tempo revealed no significant differences between the groups, suggesting that the tempo of our stimuli set failed to have an effect on the movement features. In general, the results can be linked to the framework of embodied music cognition, as they show that body movements are used to reflect, imitate, and predict musical characteristics.

  10. Influences of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features on characteristics of music-induced movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Birgitta eBurger

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Music makes us move. Several factors can affect the characteristics of such movements, including individual factors or musical features. For this study, we investigated the effect of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features as well as tempo on movement characteristics. Sixty participants were presented with 30 musical stimuli representing different styles of popular music, and instructed to move along with the music. Optical motion capture was used to record participants’ movements. Subsequently, eight movement features and four rhythm- and timbre-related musical features were computationally extracted from the data, while the tempo was assessed in a perceptual experiment. A subsequent correlational analysis revealed that, for instance, clear pulses seemed to be embodied with the whole body, i.e., by using various movement types of different body parts, whereas spectral flux and percussiveness were found to be more distinctly related to certain body parts, such as head and hand movement. A series of ANOVAs with the stimuli being divided into three groups of five stimuli each based on the tempo revealed no significant differences between the groups, suggesting that the tempo of our stimuli set failed to have an effect on the movement features. In general, the results can be linked to the framework of embodied music cognition, as they show that body movements are used to reflect, imitate, and predict musical characteristics.

  11. Embracing community ecology in plant microbiome research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dini-Andreote, F.; Raaijmakers, J.M.

    2018-01-01

    Community assembly is mediated by selection, dispersal, drift, and speciation. Environmental selection is mostly used to date to explain patterns in plant microbiome assembly, whereas the influence of the other processes remains largely elusive. Recent studies highlight that adopting community

  12. The world's richest tadpole communities show functional redundancy and low functional diversity: ecological data on Madagascar's stream-dwelling amphibian larvae

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Randrianiaina Roger-Daniel

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Functional diversity illustrates the range of ecological functions in a community. It allows revealing the appearance of functional redundancy in communities and processes of community assembly. Functional redundancy illustrates the overlap in ecological functions of community members which may be an indicator of community resilience. We evaluated patterns of species richness, functional diversity and functional redundancy on tadpole communities in rainforest streams in Madagascar. This habitat harbours the world's most species-rich stream tadpole communities which are due to their occurrence in primary habitat of particular interest for functional diversity studies. Results Species richness of tadpole communities is largely determined by characteristics of the larval habitat (stream structure, not by adult habitat (forest structure. Species richness is positively correlated with a size-velocity gradient of the streams, i.e. communities follow a classical species-area relationship. While widely observed for other taxa, this is an unusual pattern for anuran larvae which usually is expected to be hump-shaped. Along the species richness gradient, we quantified functional diversity of all communities considering the similarity and dissimilarity of species in 18 traits related to habitat use and foraging. Especially species-rich communities were characterised by an overlap of species function, i.e. by functional redundancy. By comparing the functional diversity of the observed communities with functional diversity of random assemblages, we found no differences at low species richness level, whereas observed species-rich communities have lower functional diversity than respective random assemblages. Conclusions We found functional redundancy being a feature of communities also in primary habitat, what has not been shown before using such a continuous measure. The observed species richness dependent pattern of low functional

  13. Spectral Polarimetric Features Analysis of Wind Turbine Clutter in Weather Radar

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yin, J.; Krasnov, O.A.; Unal, C.M.H.; Medagli, S.; Russchenberg, H.W.J.

    2017-01-01

    Wind turbine clutter has gradually become a concern for the radar community for its increasing size and quantity worldwide. Based on the S-band polarimetric Doppler PARSAX radar measurements, this paper demonstrates the micro-Doppler features and spectral-polarimetric characteristic of wind turbine

  14. Biometric Features in Person Recognition Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edgaras Ivanovas

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Lately a lot of research effort is devoted for recognition of a human being using his biometric characteristics. Biometric recognition systems are used in various applications, e. g., identification for state border crossing or firearm, which allows only enrolled persons to use it. In this paper biometric characteristics and their properties are reviewed. Development of high accuracy system requires distinctive and permanent characteristics, whereas development of user friendly system requires collectable and acceptable characteristics. It is showed that properties of biometric characteristics do not influence research effort significantly. Properties of biometric characteristic features and their influence are discussed.Article in Lithuanian

  15. Community Factors Influencing Birth Spacing among Married ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    AJRH Managing Editor

    level factors on birth spacing behaviour in Uganda and Zimbabwe, to ... environments as potential influences on birth spacing ..... health: multivariable cross-country analysis, MACRO ... Equity monitoring for social marketing: Use of wealth.

  16. Interrelation of the concepts «legal influence» and «administrative-legal influence»

    OpenAIRE

    Голуб, Віктор Олександрович

    2014-01-01

    The author analyzes the concept of «legal influence» and «administrative-legal influence» and examines their interrelation. Also the scientific positions related to understanding the essence of these concepts are analyzed. The author gives characteristic of the features, structural elements and forms of the administrative-legal influence. English abstract V. Golub Interrelation of the concepts «legal influence» and «administrative-legal influence» The author analyzes the concept of «legal inf...

  17. Microbial community dynamics in the rhizosphere of a cadmium hyper-accumulator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, J. L.; Zhang, C.; Mathews, E. R.; Tang, C.; Franks, A. E.

    2016-11-01

    Phytoextraction is influenced by the indigenous soil microbial communities during the remediation of heavy metal contaminated soils. Soil microbial communities can affect plant growth, metal availability and the performance of phytoextraction-assisting inocula. Understanding the basic ecology of indigenous soil communities associated with the phytoextraction process, including the interplay between selective pressures upon the communities, is an important step towards phytoextraction optimization. This study investigated the impact of cadmium (Cd), and the presence of a Cd-accumulating plant, Carpobrotus rossii (Haw.) Schwantes, on the structure of soil-bacterial and fungal communities using automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) and quantitative PCR (qPCR). Whilst Cd had no detectable influence upon fungal communities, bacterial communities underwent significant structural changes with no reduction in 16S rRNA copy number. The presence of C. rossii influenced the structure of all communities and increased ITS copy number. Suites of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) changed in abundance in response to either Cd or C. rossii, however we found little evidence to suggest that the two selective pressures were acting synergistically. The Cd-induced turnover in bacterial OTUs suggests that Cd alters competition dynamics within the community. Further work to understand how competition is altered could provide a deeper understanding of the microbiome-plant-environment and aid phytoextraction optimization.

  18. Context-Aware Community Construction in Proximity-Based Mobile Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Na Yu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Sensor-equipped mobile devices have allowed users to participate in various social networking services. We focus on proximity-based mobile social networking environments where users can share information obtained from different places via their mobile devices when they are in proximity. Since people are more likely to share information if they can benefit from the sharing or if they think the information is of interest to others, there might exist community structures where users who share information more often are grouped together. Communities in proximity-based mobile networks represent social groups where connections are built when people are in proximity. We consider information influence (i.e., specify who shares information with whom as the connection and the space and time related to the shared information as the contexts. To model the potential information influences, we construct an influence graph by integrating the space and time contexts into the proximity-based contacts of mobile users. Further, we propose a two-phase strategy to detect and track context-aware communities based on the influence graph and show how the context-aware community structure improves the performance of two types of mobile social applications.

  19. The influence of an online virtual situated environment on a Chinese learning community

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kuo-En Chang

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available This study used an online virtual environment to create and develop a Chinese learning community. The purposes of research were (1 to enhance the Chinese learners’ oral Chinese communication skills and (2 to change the community members’ Chinese speaking and teaching behavior. This is an action research. The research tried to create a community in a virtual environment. The research results showed that (1 a virtual community can enhance learner’s Chinese competence, and (2 future Chinese teachers’ instructional and leading skills can be developed in a virtual community situation.

  20. [Community Nutrition].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aranceta, Javier

    2004-06-01

    In the last 20 years, Public Health Nutrition focused mainly on the qualitative aspects which may influence the onset of chronic diseases, quality of life, physical and mental performance and life expectancy. This applied knowledge organised as part of preventive and health promotion programs led to the development of Community Nutrition. The aim of Community Nutrition actions is to adequate lifestyles related to food consumption patterns in order to improve the quality of life and contribute to health promotion of the population in the community where programs and services are delivered. Key functions to develop in a Community Nutrition Unit consist in the identification and assessment of nutrition problems in the community as well as the design, implementation and evaluation of intervention programs by means of appropriate strategies. These should aim at different populations groups and settings, such as work places, schools, high risk groups or the general public. Nowadays, Community Nutrition work efforts should focus on three main aspects: nutrition education in schools and in the community; food safety and food security and the development and reinforcement of food preparation skills across all age groups. Social catering services, either in schools, the work place or at the community level, need to ensure adequate nutritional supply, provide foods contributing to healthy eating practices as well as to enhance culinary traditions and social learning. Food safety and food security have become a top priority in Public Health. The concepts referes to the availability of food safe and adequate as well as in sufficient amount in order to satisfy nutrition requirements of all individuals in the community. Social changes along new scientific developments will introduce new demands in Community Nutrition work and individual dietary counselling will become a key strategy. In order to face new challenges, community nutrition pactitioners require a high quality

  1. Defining sustainable practice in community-based health promotion: a Delphi study of practitioner perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Neil; Sandor, Maria

    2013-04-01

    Sustainability of practice must be a central imperative in the practice of community-based health promotion to achieve population health and attract a greater share of public health spending. Although there has been some consideration of sustainability at the project or program levels, often understood as intervention longevity, very limited attention has been given to understanding sustainable practice. The present study develops a definition and features of sustainable practice in community-based health promotion through a Delphi method with health promotion practitioners in Queensland, Australia. The study presents a consensus definition and features of sustainable practice. The definition highlights the importance of collaboration, health determinants and aspirations, processes and outcomes. The four features of sustainable practice identified in the study are: (1) effective relationships and partnerships; (2) evidence-based decision making and practice; (3) emphasis on building community capacity; and (4) supportive context for practice. The definition and features are, to a large extent, consistent with the limited literature around sustainability at the project and program levels of health promotion. Together, they provide insight into a form of community-based health promotion that will be both viable and productive. So what? This consensus understanding of sustainable practice articulates the foundations of working effectively with local communities in achieving improved population health within global limits.

  2. Factors in social interaction in cohousing communities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bouma, Jantine; Voorbij, Liek

    2008-01-01

    Cohousing communities can be considered alternatives for living independently in old age. However, currently the factors that influence the success of these communities are unclear. Based on literature and case studies gathered by students a new interactionmodel was created that shows the relevant

  3. A Mosaic of Geothermal and Marine Features Shapes Microbial Community Structure on Deception Island Volcano, Antarctica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amanda G. Bendia

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Active volcanoes in Antarctica contrast with their predominantly cold surroundings, resulting in environmental conditions capable of selecting for versatile and extremely diverse microbial communities. This is especially true on Deception Island, where geothermal, marine, and polar environments combine to create an extraordinary range of environmental conditions. Our main goal in this study was to understand how microbial community structure is shaped by gradients of temperature, salinity, and geochemistry in polar marine volcanoes. Thereby, we collected surface sediment samples associated with fumaroles and glaciers at two sites on Deception, with temperatures ranging from 0 to 98°C. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was performed to assess the composition and diversity of Bacteria and Archaea. Our results revealed that Deception harbors a combination of taxonomic groups commonly found both in cold and geothermal environments of continental Antarctica, and also groups normally identified at deep and shallow-sea hydrothermal vents, such as hyperthermophilic archaea. We observed a clear separation in microbial community structure across environmental gradients, suggesting that microbial community structure is strongly niche driven on Deception. Bacterial community structure was significantly associated with temperature, pH, salinity, and chemical composition; in contrast, archaeal community structure was strongly associated only with temperature. Our work suggests that Deception represents a peculiar “open-air” laboratory to elucidate central questions regarding molecular adaptability, microbial evolution, and biogeography of extremophiles in polar regions.

  4. Features of MCNP6

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goorley, T.; James, M.; Booth, T.; Brown, F.; Bull, J.; Cox, L.J.; Durkee, J.; Elson, J.; Fensin, M.; Forster, R.A.; Hendricks, J.; Hughes, H.G.; Johns, R.; Kiedrowski, B.; Martz, R.; Mashnik, S.; McKinney, G.; Pelowitz, D.; Prael, R.; Sweezy, J.

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • MCNP6 is simply and accurately described as the merger of MCNP5 and MCNPX capabilities, but it is much more than the sum of these two computer codes. • MCNP6 is the result of six years of effort by the MCNP5 and MCNPX code development teams. • These groups of people, residing in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s X Computational Physics Division, Monte Carlo Codes Group (XCP-3) and Nuclear Engineering and Nonproliferation Division, Radiation Transport Modeling Team (NEN-5) respectively, have combined their code development efforts to produce the next evolution of MCNP. • While maintenance and major bug fixes will continue for MCNP5 1.60 and MCNPX 2.7.0 for upcoming years, new code development capabilities only will be developed and released in MCNP6. • In fact, the initial release of MCNP6 contains numerous new features not previously found in either code. • These new features are summarized in this document. • Packaged with MCNP6 is also the new production release of the ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data files usable by MCNP. • The high quality of the overall merged code, usefulness of these new features, along with the desire in the user community to start using the merged code, have led us to make the first MCNP6 production release: MCNP6 version 1. • High confidence in the MCNP6 code is based on its performance with the verification and validation test suites, comparisons to its predecessor codes, our automated nightly software debugger tests, the underlying high quality nuclear and atomic databases, and significant testing by many beta testers. - Abstract: MCNP6 can be described as the merger of MCNP5 and MCNPX capabilities, but it is much more than the sum of these two computer codes. MCNP6 is the result of six years of effort by the MCNP5 and MCNPX code development teams. These groups of people, residing in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s X Computational Physics Division, Monte Carlo Codes Group (XCP-3) and Nuclear Engineering and

  5. Feature hashing for fast image retrieval

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Lingyu; Fu, Jiarun; Zhang, Hongxin; Yuan, Lu; Xu, Hui

    2018-03-01

    Currently, researches on content based image retrieval mainly focus on robust feature extraction. However, due to the exponential growth of online images, it is necessary to consider searching among large scale images, which is very timeconsuming and unscalable. Hence, we need to pay much attention to the efficiency of image retrieval. In this paper, we propose a feature hashing method for image retrieval which not only generates compact fingerprint for image representation, but also prevents huge semantic loss during the process of hashing. To generate the fingerprint, an objective function of semantic loss is constructed and minimized, which combine the influence of both the neighborhood structure of feature data and mapping error. Since the machine learning based hashing effectively preserves neighborhood structure of data, it yields visual words with strong discriminability. Furthermore, the generated binary codes leads image representation building to be of low-complexity, making it efficient and scalable to large scale databases. Experimental results show good performance of our approach.

  6. A Walk in the Park: The Influence of Urban Parks and Community Violence on Physical Activity in Chelsea, MA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Judy Y. Ou

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Proximity to a park does not necessarily imply access or use, and the social environment may positively or negatively influence the positive intentions of the built environment. To investigate parks, park use and physical activity, and their associations with exposure to community violence, we interviewed residents (n = 354 of a densely populated urban community. Our findings indicate that proximity to any park is not associated with physical activity. However, proximity to the preferred park reported by residents to be conducive for physical activity (with walking paths, large fields, playgrounds for children and tennis courts was associated with physical activity. Conversely, knowledge of sexual assault or rape in the neighborhood is inversely associated with every type of physical activity (park-based, outdoor, and indoor. Our findings suggest that improvements to the built environment (parks, green spaces may be hindered by adverse social environments and both are necessary for consideration in the design of public health interventions.

  7. The Community Mental Health Center as a Matrix Organization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Stephen L.

    1978-01-01

    This article briefly reviews the literature on matrix organizational designs and discusses the ways in which the matrix design might be applied to the special features of a community mental health center. The phases of one community mental health center's experience in adopting a matrix organizational structure are described. (Author)

  8. Environmental factors influencing the structural dynamics of soil microbial communities during assisted phytostabilization of acid-generating mine tailings: a mesocosm experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valentín-Vargas, Alexis; Root, Robert A; Neilson, Julia W; Chorover, Jon; Maier, Raina M

    2014-12-01

    Compost-assisted phytostabilization has recently emerged as a robust alternative for reclamation of metalliferous mine tailings. Previous studies suggest that root-associated microbes may be important for facilitating plant establishment on the tailings, yet little is known about the long-term dynamics of microbial communities during reclamation. A mechanistic understanding of microbial community dynamics in tailings ecosystems undergoing remediation is critical because these dynamics profoundly influence both the biogeochemical weathering of tailings and the sustainability of a plant cover. Here we monitor the dynamics of soil microbial communities (i.e. bacteria, fungi, archaea) during a 12-month mesocosm study that included 4 treatments: 2 unplanted controls (unamended and compost-amended tailings) and 2 compost-amended seeded tailings treatments. Bacterial, fungal and archaeal communities responded distinctively to the revegetation process and concurrent changes in environmental conditions and pore water chemistry. Compost addition significantly increased microbial diversity and had an immediate and relatively long-lasting buffering-effect on pH, allowing plants to germinate and thrive during the early stages of the experiment. However, the compost buffering capacity diminished after six months and acidification took over as the major factor affecting plant survival and microbial community structure. Immediate changes in bacterial communities were observed following plant establishment, whereas fungal communities showed a delayed response that apparently correlated with the pH decline. Fluctuations in cobalt pore water concentrations, in particular, had a significant effect on the structure of all three microbial groups, which may be linked to the role of cobalt in metal detoxification pathways. The present study represents, to our knowledge, the first documentation of the dynamics of the three major microbial groups during revegetation of compost

  9. Effect of feature-selective attention on neuronal responses in macaque area MT

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, X.; Hoffmann, K.-P.; Albright, T. D.

    2012-01-01

    Attention influences visual processing in striate and extrastriate cortex, which has been extensively studied for spatial-, object-, and feature-based attention. Most studies exploring neural signatures of feature-based attention have trained animals to attend to an object identified by a certain feature and ignore objects/displays identified by a different feature. Little is known about the effects of feature-selective attention, where subjects attend to one stimulus feature domain (e.g., color) of an object while features from different domains (e.g., direction of motion) of the same object are ignored. To study this type of feature-selective attention in area MT in the middle temporal sulcus, we trained macaque monkeys to either attend to and report the direction of motion of a moving sine wave grating (a feature for which MT neurons display strong selectivity) or attend to and report its color (a feature for which MT neurons have very limited selectivity). We hypothesized that neurons would upregulate their firing rate during attend-direction conditions compared with attend-color conditions. We found that feature-selective attention significantly affected 22% of MT neurons. Contrary to our hypothesis, these neurons did not necessarily increase firing rate when animals attended to direction of motion but fell into one of two classes. In one class, attention to color increased the gain of stimulus-induced responses compared with attend-direction conditions. The other class displayed the opposite effects. Feature-selective activity modulations occurred earlier in neurons modulated by attention to color compared with neurons modulated by attention to motion direction. Thus feature-selective attention influences neuronal processing in macaque area MT but often exhibited a mismatch between the preferred stimulus dimension (direction of motion) and the preferred attention dimension (attention to color). PMID:22170961

  10. Automatic feature-based grouping during multiple object tracking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erlikhman, Gennady; Keane, Brian P; Mettler, Everett; Horowitz, Todd S; Kellman, Philip J

    2013-12-01

    Contour interpolation automatically binds targets with distractors to impair multiple object tracking (Keane, Mettler, Tsoi, & Kellman, 2011). Is interpolation special in this regard or can other features produce the same effect? To address this question, we examined the influence of eight features on tracking: color, contrast polarity, orientation, size, shape, depth, interpolation, and a combination (shape, color, size). In each case, subjects tracked 4 of 8 objects that began as undifferentiated shapes, changed features as motion began (to enable grouping), and returned to their undifferentiated states before halting. We found that intertarget grouping improved performance for all feature types except orientation and interpolation (Experiment 1 and Experiment 2). Most importantly, target-distractor grouping impaired performance for color, size, shape, combination, and interpolation. The impairments were, at times, large (>15% decrement in accuracy) and occurred relative to a homogeneous condition in which all objects had the same features at each moment of a trial (Experiment 2), and relative to a "diversity" condition in which targets and distractors had different features at each moment (Experiment 3). We conclude that feature-based grouping occurs for a variety of features besides interpolation, even when irrelevant to task instructions and contrary to the task demands, suggesting that interpolation is not unique in promoting automatic grouping in tracking tasks. Our results also imply that various kinds of features are encoded automatically and in parallel during tracking.

  11. Parasite communities: patterns and processes

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Esch, Gerald W; Bush, Albert O; Aho, John M

    1990-01-01

    .... Taking examples from many hosts including molluscs, marine and freshwater fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, this book shows how parasitic communities are influenced by a multitude...

  12. Adirondack lakes survey: An interpretive analysis of fish communities and water chemistry, 1984--1987

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baker, J.P. (Baker (Joan P.), Raleigh, NC (USA)); Gherini, S.A.; Munson, R.K. (Tetra Tech, Inc., Pasadena, CA (USA)); Christensen, S.W. (Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)); Driscoll, C.T. (Syracuse Univ., NY (USA)); Gallagher, J. (Adirondack Lakes Survey Corp., Ray Brook, NY (USA)); Newton, R.M. (Smith Coll., Northampton, MA (USA)); Reckhow, K.H. (Duke Univ., Durham, NC (USA)); Schofield, C.L. (Co

    1990-01-01

    The Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation (ALSC) was formed as a cooperative effort of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Empire State Electric Energy Research Corporation to better characterize the chemical and biological status of Adirondack lakes. Between 1984 and 1987, the ALSC surveyed 1469 lakes within the Adirondack ecological zone. As a follow-up to the survey, the ALSC sponsored a series of interpretive analyses of the ALSC data base. The primary objectives of these analyses were as follows: Evaluate the influence of mineral acids (from acidic deposition) and nonmineral acids (natural organic acids) on lake pH levels; classify Adirondack lakes according to lake and watershed features expected to influence their responsiveness to changes in acidic deposition; evaluate the sensitivity of Adirondack lakes to changes in environmental conditions, such as changes in mineral acids or dissolved organic carbon concentrations; identify lake characteristics important in explaining the observed present-day status of fish communities in Adirondack lakes, in particular the relative importance of lake acidity; evaluate changes that have occurred over time in Adirondack fish communities and probable causes for these trends by using the available historical data on fish communities in the Adirondacks and the ALSC data base; and determine the degree to which the existing fish resource might be at risk from continued acidic deposition, or might recover if acidity levels were reduced. The basic approach examined relationships observed in the ALSC data base among watershed characteristics, lake chemistry, and fish status. Individual reports are processed separately for the data bases.

  13. Factors that influence the acceptance of integrated community energy systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kennedy, A. S.; Tschanz, J. F.; Mosena, D.; Erley, D.; Gil, E.; Slovak, P.; Lenth, C. S.

    1977-01-01

    This report is part of a series of studies designed to analyze the commercialization potential of various concepts of community-scale energy systems that have been termed Integrated Community Energy Systems (ICES). The study reported here concerns ways that affected individuals and organizations will respond to proposed ICES development projects. The intent is an initial examination of several institutional sectors that will: (1) anticipate responses that could impede ICES proposals and (2) provide an information base from which strategies to address adverse responses can be formulated.

  14. Utilization of Community Institutional and Organizational Resources ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study investigated the influence of the utilization of community institutional and community organizational resources on the implementation of adult basic literacy and functional literacy programmes in Cross River State. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested. The survey research design was adopted for the study.

  15. The impact of online brand community type on consumer's community engagement behaviors: consumer-created vs. marketer-created online brand community in online social-networking web sites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Doohwang; Kim, Hyuk Soo; Kim, Jung Kyu

    2011-01-01

    The current study proposed and tested a theoretical model of consumers' online brand community engagement behaviors, with particular attention given to online brand community type (consumer vs. marketer-created). By integrating attribution and social identity theories, this study investigated the causal linkages between intrinsic motives of altruism, social identification motivations, and online brand community engagement behaviors. The results showed that consumers' online brand community engagement intentions were indirectly influenced by the different types of communities through different levels of consumers' attributions to intrinsic motives of altruism. This study also found that, in the attribution processes, consumers' intrinsic motives of altruism motivated them to identify themselves socially with the online communities they join. Finally, this study demonstrated that the intrinsic motives of altruism and social identification motivations provided strong social incentives to motivate consumers to engage in subsequent online brand community behaviors.

  16. Bacterial Communities: Interactions to Scale

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reed M. Stubbendieck

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available In the environment, bacteria live in complex multispecies communities. These communities span in scale from small, multicellular aggregates to billions or trillions of cells within the gastrointestinal tract of animals. The dynamics of bacterial communities are determined by pairwise interactions that occur between different species in the community. Though interactions occur between a few cells at a time, the outcomes of these interchanges have ramifications that ripple through many orders of magnitude, and ultimately affect the macroscopic world including the health of host organisms. In this review we cover how bacterial competition influences the structures of bacterial communities. We also emphasize methods and insights garnered from culture-dependent pairwise interaction studies, metagenomic analyses, and modeling experiments. Finally, we argue that the integration of multiple approaches will be instrumental to future understanding of the underlying dynamics of bacterial communities.

  17. Features of the Manufacturing Vision Development Process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dukovska-Popovska, Iskra; Riis, Jens Ove; Boer, Harry

    2005-01-01

    of action research. The methodology recommends wide participation of people from different hierarchical and functional positions, who engage in a relatively short, playful and creative process and come up with a vision (concept) for the future manufacturing system in the company. Based on three case studies......This paper discusses the key features of the process of Manufacturing Vision Development, a process that enables companies to develop their future manufacturing concept. The basis for the process is a generic five-phase methodology (Riis and Johansen, 2003) developed as a result of ten years...... of companies going through the initial phases of the methodology, this research identified the key features of the Manufacturing Vision Development process. The paper elaborates the key features by defining them, discussing how and when they can appear, and how they influence the process....

  18. A highly specific phage defense system is a conserved feature of the Vibrio cholerae mobilome.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brendan J O'Hara

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Vibrio cholerae-specific bacteriophages are common features of the microbial community during cholera infection in humans. Phages impose strong selective pressure that favors the expansion of phage-resistant strains over their vulnerable counterparts. The mechanisms allowing virulent V. cholerae strains to defend against the ubiquitous threat of predatory phages have not been established. Here, we show that V. cholerae PLEs (phage-inducible chromosomal island-like elements are widespread genomic islands dedicated to phage defense. Analysis of V. cholerae isolates spanning a 60-year collection period identified five unique PLEs. Remarkably, we found that all PLEs (regardless of geographic or temporal origin respond to infection by a myovirus called ICP1, the most prominent V. cholerae phage found in cholera patient stool samples from Bangladesh. We found that PLE activity reduces phage genome replication and accelerates cell lysis following ICP1 infection, killing infected host cells and preventing the production of progeny phage. PLEs are mobilized by ICP1 infection and can spread to neighboring cells such that protection from phage predation can be horizontally acquired. Our results reveal that PLEs are a persistent feature of the V. cholerae mobilome that are adapted to providing protection from a single predatory phage and advance our understanding of how phages influence pathogen evolution.

  19. A highly specific phage defense system is a conserved feature of the Vibrio cholerae mobilome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Hara, Brendan J; Barth, Zachary K; McKitterick, Amelia C; Seed, Kimberley D

    2017-06-01

    Vibrio cholerae-specific bacteriophages are common features of the microbial community during cholera infection in humans. Phages impose strong selective pressure that favors the expansion of phage-resistant strains over their vulnerable counterparts. The mechanisms allowing virulent V. cholerae strains to defend against the ubiquitous threat of predatory phages have not been established. Here, we show that V. cholerae PLEs (phage-inducible chromosomal island-like elements) are widespread genomic islands dedicated to phage defense. Analysis of V. cholerae isolates spanning a 60-year collection period identified five unique PLEs. Remarkably, we found that all PLEs (regardless of geographic or temporal origin) respond to infection by a myovirus called ICP1, the most prominent V. cholerae phage found in cholera patient stool samples from Bangladesh. We found that PLE activity reduces phage genome replication and accelerates cell lysis following ICP1 infection, killing infected host cells and preventing the production of progeny phage. PLEs are mobilized by ICP1 infection and can spread to neighboring cells such that protection from phage predation can be horizontally acquired. Our results reveal that PLEs are a persistent feature of the V. cholerae mobilome that are adapted to providing protection from a single predatory phage and advance our understanding of how phages influence pathogen evolution.

  20. Community perceptions and factors influencing utilization of health services in Uganda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Galea Sandro

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Healthcare utilization has particular relevance as a public health and development issue. Unlike material and human capital, there is little empirical evidence on the utility of social resources in overcoming barriers to healthcare utilization in a developing country context. We sought to assess the relevance of social resources in overcoming barriers to healthcare utilization. Study Objective To explore community perceptions among three different wealth categories on factors influencing healthcare utilization in Eastern Uganda. Methods We used a qualitative study design using Focus Group Discussions (FGD to conduct the study. Community meetings were initially held to identify FGD participants in the different wealth categories, ('least poor', 'medium' and 'poorest' using poverty ranking based on ownership of assets and income sources. Nine FGDs from three homogenous wealth categories were conducted. Data from the FGDs was analyzed using content analysis revealing common barriers as well as facilitating factors for healthcare service utilization by wealth categories. The Health Access Livelihood Framework was used to examine and interpret the findings. Results Barriers to healthcare utilization exist for all the wealth categories along three different axes including: the health seeking process; health services delivery; and the ownership of livelihood assets. Income source, transport ownership, and health literacy were reported as centrally useful in overcoming some barriers to healthcare utilization for the 'least poor' and 'poor' wealth categories. The 'poorest' wealth category was keen to utilize free public health services. Conversely, there are perceptions that public health facilities were perceived to offer low quality care with chronic gaps such as shortages of essential supplies. In addition to individual material resources and the availability of free public healthcare services, social resources are perceived as