After the floods: Urban displacement, lessons from Solomon Islands

This In Brief documents the challenges government authorities — the Honiara City Council (HCC) and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Survey (MLHS) — faced when they created a new subdivision for the displaced, April Ridge, and considers the lessons for more responsive planning.AusAI

Poor readers' use of orthographic information in reading, memory and phonological tasks

This thesis examined the abilities of 10-12 year old poor readers and reading age controls in phonological processing, printed word learning, reading and memory based tasks. It was found that the poor readers showed little impairment in carrying out phonological segmentation of spoken words, though there was more marked impairment with nonwords. Nonword reading was found to be slower than that of controls and poor readers also demonstrated a tendency to provide letter names rather than sounds in a phoneme identification task. In a study of learning new print vocabulary it was found that the poor readers were slower than controls to learn to read the set of nonwords accurately, and had poorer auditory memory for the items. However, they were much better at identifying these items in a visual recognition task. They also showed a less marked regularity effect and were more influenced by the visual appearance of words in an auditory rhyme judgement task. In a study of their working memories, the poor readers showed a visual bias in their memory codes for serial recall of pictorial stimuli, i.e. they showed no word length effect, a phonemic similarity effect of reduced magnitude, and a visual similarity effect. This indicated the use of a visual strategy to remember pictures, rather than the verbal coding preferred by the controls. When words were presented auditorily or in print form, however, the poor readers showed normal phonemic similarity and word length effects. It was concluded that poor readers rely on visual information where the presented images are highly codable, and verbal recoding is not obligatory, but that they will make use of phonological coding when the stimuli are not easily codable visually in memory. The results of these investigations suggest that these poor readers' visual and verbal coding systems might be poorly linked. Thus, when learning to read new words poor readers might prefer to use visual coding. Accordingly, poor readers may rely on intact visual processes because they need to compensate for inefficient or poorly connected visual and verbal systems, rather than because they have inefficient phonological processing skills as such

Associations between physical activity parenting practices and adolescent girls’ self-9 perceptions and physical activity intentions

Background: The present study investigated cross-sectional associations between maternal and paternal logistic and modelling physical activity support and the self-efficacy, self-esteem and physical activity intentions of 11-12 year old girls. Method: 210 girls reported perceptions of maternal and paternal logistic and modelling support and their self-efficacy, self-esteem and intention to be physically active. Data were analysed using multivariable regression models. Results: Maternal logistic support was positively associated with participants’ self-esteem, physical activity self-efficacy and intention to be active. Maternal modelling was positively associated with self-efficacy. Paternal modelling was positively associated with self-esteem and self-efficacy but there was no evidence that paternal logistic support was associated with the psychosocial variables. Conclusions: Activity-related parenting practices were associated with psychosocial correlates of physical activity among adolescent girls. Logistic support from mothers, rather than modelling support or paternal support may be a particularly important target when designing interventions aimed at preventing the age-related decline in physical activity among girls

Associations between sex, systemic iron and inflammatory status and subcortical brain iron

Acknowledgments We are grateful to the participants of the STRADL study which was supported and funded by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award ‘Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally’ (STRADL) [104036/Z/14/Z]. This study was carried out as a part of Generation Scotland which received core support from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates [CZD/16/6] and the Scottish Funding Council [HR03006] and is currently supported by the Wellcome Trust [216767/Z/19/Z]. HS is supported by the Roland Sutton Academic Trust [0076/R/19]. We would also like to thank the STRADL project team.Peer reviewe

Tetraamine Me6TREN induced monomerization of alkali metal borohydrides and aluminohydrides

Monomeric 1:1 complexes of MEH4 (M, E = Li, B, 1; Na, B, 2; Li, Al, 3; Na, Al, 4) and the tripodal tetradentate ligand (Me2NCH2CH2)3N (Me6TREN) have been prepared in good yields by refluxing in THF and allowing the solutions to cool slowly. X-ray diffraction studies show that the BH4 group binds to either Li or Na via three hydride bridges while the AlH4 group connects to Li via a single hydride bridge. Surprisingly, Me6TREN·LiAlH4 represents the first monomeric contacted ion pair LiAlH4 derivative to be structurally characterized. In every case the tetraamine coordinates via all four of its Lewis basic nitrogen atoms. A similar protocol using the alkyl-rich borohydride MBEt3H also gives monomeric species (M = Li, 5; Na, 6). All complexes have been characterized in solution by multinuclear (1H, 7Li, 11B, 13C and 27Al, where appropriate) NMR spectroscopy which reveals excellent textbook examples of 1J coupling between B/Al and H in the cases of complexes 1-4 and between B and C in the cases of complexes 5 and 6

ADAM: Analysis of Discrete Models of Biological Systems Using Computer Algebra

Abstract Background Many biological systems are modeled qualitatively with discrete models, such as probabilistic Boolean networks, logical models, Petri nets, and agent-based models, to gain a better understanding of them. The computational complexity to analyze the complete dynamics of these models grows exponentially in the number of variables, which impedes working with complex models. There exist software tools to analyze discrete models, but they either lack the algorithmic functionality to analyze complex models deterministically or they are inaccessible to many users as they require understanding the underlying algorithm and implementation, do not have a graphical user interface, or are hard to install. Efficient analysis methods that are accessible to modelers and easy to use are needed. Results We propose a method for efficiently identifying attractors and introduce the web-based tool Analysis of Dynamic Algebraic Models (ADAM), which provides this and other analysis methods for discrete models. ADAM converts several discrete model types automatically into polynomial dynamical systems and analyzes their dynamics using tools from computer algebra. Specifically, we propose a method to identify attractors of a discrete model that is equivalent to solving a system of polynomial equations, a long-studied problem in computer algebra. Based on extensive experimentation with both discrete models arising in systems biology and randomly generated networks, we found that the algebraic algorithms presented in this manuscript are fast for systems with the structure maintained by most biological systems, namely sparseness and robustness. For a large set of published complex discrete models, ADAM identified the attractors in less than one second. Conclusions Discrete modeling techniques are a useful tool for analyzing complex biological systems and there is a need in the biological community for accessible efficient analysis tools. ADAM provides analysis methods based on mathematical algorithms as a web-based tool for several different input formats, and it makes analysis of complex models accessible to a larger community, as it is platform independent as a web-service and does not require understanding of the underlying mathematics

Predictors for presence and abundance of small mammals in households of villages endemic for commensal rodent plague in Yunnan Province, China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ninety-one rodent plague epidemics have occurred in Lianghe county, Yunnan Province, China, between 1990 and 2006. This study aimed to identify predictors for the presence and abundance of small mammals in households of villages endemic for rodent plague in Lianghe county.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Rattus flavipectus </it>and <it>Suncus murinus </it>were the two species captured in 110 households. Keeping cats decreased the number of captures of <it>R. flavipectus </it>by one to two thirds and the chance of reported small mammal sightings in houses by 60 to 80%. Food availability was associated with fewer captures. Keeping food in sacks decreased the small mammal captures, especially of <it>S. murinus </it>4- to 8-fold. Vegetables grown around house and maize grown in the village reduced the captures of <it>S. murinus </it>and <it>R. flavipectus </it>by 73 and 45%, respectively. An outside toilet and garbage piles near the house each reduced <it>R. flavipectus </it>captures by 39 and 37%, respectively, while raising dogs and the presence of communal latrines in the village increased <it>R. flavipectus </it>captures by 76 and 110% but were without detectable effect on small mammal sightings. Location adjacent to other houses increased captures 2-fold but reduced the chance of sightings to about half. In addition, raising ducks increased the chance of sighting small mammals 2.7-fold. Even after adjusting for these variables, households of the Dai had higher captures than those of the Han and other ethnic groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Both species captures were reduced by availability of species-specific foods in the environment, whereas other predictors for capture of the two species differed. Other than the beneficial effect of cats, there were also discrepancies between the effects on small mammal captures and those on sightings. These differences should be considered during the implementation and interpretation of small mammal surveys.</p

Bostonia

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

Human-Leopard Conflict and Coexistence in Northern Kenya

African Leopards are a vulnerable species under threat from habitat disturbance, declining prey abundance, and of greatest concern for our project, retaliatory killings as a result of livestock depredation (Jacobson et al., 2016; Kissui, 2008). Protecting leopard populations in Laikipia County, Kenya from these human conflicts has become an imperative conservation goal as leopards provide both ecosystem benefits (Braczkowski et al., 2018; O’Bryan et al., 2018; SANBI, 2020) and likely add value to the growing community-based tourism economy. World-wide, the conservation paradigm is increasingly centered around the concerns of local communities where the effects of conservation projects are most acutely felt (Adams & Hulme, 2001; Campbell & Vainio-Mattila, 2003; Sunderland et al., 2008). This is certainly true in Laikipia County, where private and community conservancies are being used as strategies for integrating the livelihood needs of pastoralists with leopard conservation goals. To maximize the efficacy of these community centered approaches to leopard conservation, SDZWA and Loisaba Conservancy are studying social and ecological dimensions of human-leopard conflict data and mitigation strategies. We assist with this mission by analyzing ecological and sociological data related to human-leopard conflict collected by SDZWA. We also conduct an extensive literature review to contextualize regional human-leopard conflict within the political and ecological landscape and identify important considerations for the design and implementation of human-leopard conflict mitigation strategies. These efforts culminate in our production of a set of recommendations for how SDZWA and their partners at Loisaba Conservancy can improve human-leopard interactions in a viable, just, and effective manner.Master of ScienceSchool for Environment and SustainabilityUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167302/1/Human-Leopard Coexistence_P21.pd