A County-Based Northern Bobwhite Habitat Prioritization Model for Kentucky

Planning the management of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) habitat at a statewide-scale is daunting. Native grassland restoration is difficult to manage in Kentucky because . 99% of the Commonwealth’s original grassland area has been lost to agriculture, succession, and development. We created a county prioritization model designed to target areas of grasslands and landowners likely to participate in conservation programs. Our goal was to identify 10% of the state as high priority for bobwhite habitat restoration. We created an east and west model divided by the Appalachian Mountains. The west model was designed to target production-oriented operators farming marginal lands, whereas the east model targeted reclaimed minelands. We used agricultural, landcover, and staff data to build county prioritization models in 2006 and 2011. The models targeted 16.6% and 17.6% of the state in 2006 and 2011, respectively. However, if areas of large, contiguous blocks of forests were excluded, the area total was much closer to 10%. Fifty percent of the high priority counties changed in the west model, and 33% of the counties in the east model changed over 5 years. Implementing a county prioritization model in conjunction with a finer-scale, biological targeted approach could focus conservation efforts with greater potential for success, but the models should be reconstructed at 5- to 10-year intervals to account for changes in conservation delivery potential. A modification of our technique may serve to validate or as an alternative to improve National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative 2.0

'They're battle scars, I wear them well': A phenomenological exploration of young women's experiences of building resilience following adversity in adolescence

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Journal of Youth Studies, 13(3), 273 - 290, 2010 [copyright Taylor & Francis], available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13676260903520886.This phenomenological study explored young women's accounts of building resilience following chains of adverse life experiences in adolescence. Six participants were interviewed, aged 20–25 years. Most had, or were receiving, a university education. They described their recovery from adversity as starting with certain pivotal moments, followed by both short-term and longer-term strategies. Short-term strategies tended to offer respite from distress and emotional comfort, increased clarity about their experiences and social affirmation. Recovery involved gaining new perspectives on their adverse situation and recovering a positive self-image through three longer-term strategies. These involved making visible progress in their education, rebuilding relationships with family and friends, and participating in the ‘normalizing’ activities and developmental projects of adolescence. Participants believed that they were stronger and more compassionate although positive achievements co-existed with some regrets. Most perceived the adversity as catalyzing personal growth. These accounts of resilience revealed the complex psychosocial processes and resources available to some adolescents

Employed parents\u27 satisfaction with food choice coping strategies: Influence of gender and structure

This study aimed to understand parents\u27 evaluations of the way they integrated work-family demands to manage food and eating. Employed, low/moderate-income, urban, U.S., Black, White, and Latino mothers (35) and fathers (34) participated in qualitative interviews exploring work and family conditions and spillover, food roles, and food-choice coping and family-adaptive strategies. Parents expressed a range of evaluations from overall satisfaction to overall dissatisfaction as well as dissatisfaction limited to work, family life, or daily schedule. Evaluation criteria differed by gender. Mothers evaluated satisfaction on their ability to balance work and family demands through flexible home and work conditions, while striving to provide healthy meals for their families. Fathers evaluated satisfaction on their ability to achieve schedule stability and participate in family meals, while meeting expectations to contribute to food preparation. Household, and especially work structural conditions, often served as sizeable barriers to parents fulfilling valued family food roles. These relationships highlight the critical need to consider the intersecting influences of gender and social structure as influences on adults\u27 food choices and dietary intake and to address the challenges of work and family integration among low income employed parents as a way to promote family nutrition in a vulnerable population

The evolution of reproductive isolation in a simultaneous hermaphrodite, the freshwater snail Physa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The cosmopolitan freshwater snail <it>Physa acuta </it>has recently found widespread use as a model organism for the study of mating systems and reproductive allocation. Mitochondrial DNA phylogenies suggest that <it>Physa carolinae</it>, recently described from the American southeast, is a sister species of <it>P. acuta</it>. The divergence of the <it>acuta/carolinae </it>ancestor from the more widespread <it>P. pomilia </it>appears to be somewhat older, and the split between a hypothetical <it>acuta/carolinae/pomilia </it>ancestor and <it>P. gyrina </it>appears older still.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we report the results of no-choice mating experiments yielding no evidence of hybridization between <it>gyrina </it>and any of four other populations (<it>pomilia, carolinae</it>, Philadelphia <it>acuta</it>, or Charleston <it>acuta</it>), nor between <it>pomilia </it>and <it>carolinae</it>. Crosses between <it>pomilia </it>and both <it>acuta </it>populations yielded sterile F1 progeny with reduced viability, while crosses between <it>carolinae </it>and both <it>acuta </it>populations yielded sterile F1 hybrids of normal viability. A set of mate-choice tests also revealed significant sexual isolation between <it>gyrina </it>and all four of our other <it>Physa </it>populations, between <it>pomilia </it>and <it>carolinae</it>, and between <it>pomilia </it>and Charleston <it>acuta</it>, but not between <it>pomilia </it>and the <it>acuta </it>population from Philadelphia, nor between <it>carolinae </it>and either <it>acuta </it>population. These observations are consistent with the origin of hybrid sterility prior to hybrid inviability, and a hypothesis that speciation between <it>pomilia </it>and <it>acuta </it>may have been reinforced by selection for prezygotic reproductive isolation in sympatry.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We propose a two-factor model for the evolution of postzygotic reproductive incompatibility in this set of five <it>Physa </it>populations consistent with the Dobzhansky-Muller model of speciation, and a second two-factor model for the evolution of sexual incompatibility. Under these models, species trees may be said to correspond with gene trees in American populations of the freshwater snail, <it>Physa</it>.</p

Citizen-science data provides new insight into annual and seasonal variation in migration patterns

Current rates of global environmental and climate change pose potential challenges for migratory species that must cope with or adapt to new conditions and different rates of change across broad spatial scales throughout their annual life cycle. North American migratory hummingbirds may be especially sensitive to changes in environment and climate due to their extremely small body size, high metabolic rates, and dependence on nectar as a main resource. We used occurrence information from the eBird citizen-science database to track migratory movements of five North American hummingbird species (Archilochus alexandri, A. colubris, Selasphorus calliope, S. platycercus, and S. rufus) across 6 years (2008–2013) at a daily temporal resolution to describe annual and seasonal variation in migration patterns. Our findings suggest that the timing of the onset of spring migration generally varies less than the arrival on the wintering grounds. Species follow similar routes across years, but exhibit more variation in daily longitude than latitude. Long distance migrants generally had less annual variation in geographic location and timing than shorter distance migrants. Our study is among the first to examine variation in migration routes and timing for hummingbirds, but more work is needed to understand the capacity of these species to respond to different rates of environmental change along their migratory routes

Behavioral Contexts, Food-Choice Coping Strategies, and Dietary Quality of a Multiethnic Sample of Employed Parents

Employed parents\u27 work and family conditions provide behavioral contexts for their food choices. Relationships between employed parents\u27 food-choice coping strategies, behavioral contexts, and dietary quality were evaluated. Data on work and family conditions, sociodemographic characteristics, eating behavior, and dietary intake from two 24-hour dietary recalls were collected in a random sample cross-sectional pilot telephone survey in the fall of 2006. Black, white, and Latino employed mothers (n=25) and fathers (n=25) were recruited from a low/moderate income urban area in upstate New York. Hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward\u27s method) identified three clusters of parents differing in use of food-choice coping strategies (ie, Individualized Eating, Missing Meals, and Home Cooking). Cluster sociodemographic, work, and family characteristics were compared using χ2 and Fisher\u27s exact tests. Cluster differences in dietary quality (Healthy Eating Index 2005) were analyzed using analysis of variance. Clusters differed significantly (P≤0.05) on food-choice coping strategies, dietary quality, and behavioral contexts (ie, work schedule, marital status, partner\u27s employment, and number of children). Individualized Eating and Missing Meals clusters were characterized by nonstandard work hours, grabbing quick food instead of a meal, using convenience entrées at home, and missing meals or individualized eating. The Home Cooking cluster included considerably more married fathers with nonemployed spouses and more home-cooked family meals. Food-choice coping strategies affecting dietary quality reflect parents\u27 work and family conditions. Nutritional guidance and family policy needs to consider these important behavioral contexts for family nutrition health

Cumulative Load of Depressive Symptoms Is Associated With Cortisol Awakening Response in Very Old Age.

This study examined links of cumulative and present depressive symptoms with present cortisol diurnal profiles in oldest-old adults. Five waves of data from 50 older adults (M age = 89.05 years; 64% women) who participated in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing were used to combine 15 years of longitudinal data with seven cortisol samples per day over a one-week period. Findings revealed that individuals with more past depressive symptoms showed a lower cortisol awakening response (CAR). Interestingly, present depressive symptoms were not associated with the CAR. These findings inform our understanding of distal health factors in very old age

Personality trait development in midlife: exploring the impact of psychological turning points

This study examined long-term personality trait development in midlife and explored the impact of psychological turning points on personality change. Selfdefined psychological turning points reflect major changes in the ways people think or feel about an important part of their life, such as work, family, and beliefs about themselves and about the world. This study used longitudinal data from the Midlife in the US survey to examine personality trait development in adults aged 40–60 years. The Big Five traits were assessed in 1995 and 2005 by means of self-descriptive adjectives. Seven types of self-identified psychological turning points were obtained in 1995. Results indicated relatively high stability with respect to rankorders and mean-levels of personality traits, and at the same time reliable individual differences in change. This implies that despite the relative stability of personality traits in the overall sample, some individuals show systematic deviations from the sample mean-levels. Psychological turning points in general showed very little influence on personality trait change, although some effects were found for specific types of turning points that warrant further research, such as discovering that a close friend or relative was a much better person than one thought they were

The holistic phase model of early adult crisis

The objective of the current study was to explore the structural, temporal and experiential manifestations of crisis episodes in early adulthood, using a holistic-systemic theoretical framework. Based on an analysis of 50 interviews with individuals about a crisis episode between the ages of 25 and 35, a holistic model was developed. The model comprises four phases: (1) Locked-in, (2) Separation/Time-out, (3) Exploration and (4) Rebuilding, which in turn have characteristic features at four levels—person-in-environment, identity, motivation and affect-cognition. A crisis starts out with a commitment at work or home that has been made but is no longer desired, and this is followed by an emotionally volatile period of change as that commitment is terminated. The positive trajectory of crisis involves movement through an exploratory period towards active rebuilding of a new commitment, but ‘fast-forward’ and ‘relapse’ loops can interrupt Phases 3 and 4 and make a positive resolution of the episode less likely. The model shows conceptual links with life stage theories of emerging adulthood and early adulthood, and it extends current understandings of the transitional developmental challenges that young adults encounter