Use of Craigslist.org to Hook Up: Age Differences in Sex Requests, HIV Disclosure and Negotiated Safety among Men-Seeking-Men

Data from 984 “men-seeking-men” Craigslist.org postings in five cities were analyzed to assess differences in sexual requests, HIV status disclosure, and negotiated safety between young (18-24 years) and older (25 years and older) men who have sex with men (MSM). Young MSM were less likely than older MSM to post their HIV status or the preferred status of a partner (p=0.04), disclose and/or request a partner who was disease and drug free (p=.01), and request use of a condom in their posting (p=0.01). Interventions aimed at changing the culture and content of postings on Craigslist.org by encouraging HIV status disclosure and condom use preference are warranted, particularly for young MSM

Local Alcohol Policies in New Zealand: An overview of their implementation and effects on crime

We document the implementation of local alcohol policies in New Zealand and then study their impacts on crime. A key contribution of our study is that we construct a detailed data set on local alcohol policies applicable across territorial authorities between July 2014 and January 2019. To our knowledge, we are the first ones to provide such a comprehensive overview. In a subsequent analysis, we find that local alcohol policies as recently implemented in New Zealand do not appear to have reduced crime. This result holds for specific policy dimensions and their stringency (e.g., closing times and geographic restrictions on issuing new licences), and is reasonably robust across crime types, days/times of occurrence, and socioeconomic subgroups. Our failure to identify significant reductions in crime following the imposition of local alcohol policies may partly reflect the policies being non-binding in some cases: for example, licensed premises had sometimes already operated within the restricted trading hours specified by a local alcohol policy

Evaluation of the Water Footprint of Beef Cattle Production in Nebraska

Data were compiled on feed usage to model the amount of water needed to produce beef in typical Nebraska production systems. Production systems where cows were wintered on corn residue utilized 18% less water than systems utilizing native range as a wintering source, because of water allocations. Therefore, the water footprint (gallons of water required to produce one pound of boneless meat) was decreased by 18%. In addition, increasing the dietary inclusion of distillers grains from 0% to 40% decreased the water footprint in the finishing phase by 29%, again based on water allocation. Utilizing corn residue and distillers grains in Nebraska beef cattle systems decreases the overall water footprint of production. Additionally, the water footprint of the systems analyzed was 80% green water as rain, minimizing the environmental impact of beef production on freshwater use and ecological water balance

Comparative Study of Terrestrial Arthropod Diversity in Primary and Re-planted Pine Forest in a Community Forest at Andasibe, Madagascar

This study is a comparison of tree and terrestrial arthropod diversity along native andre-planted pine transects.Transects were laid in a primary and re-planted pine forest in Andasibe Community Forest Park. Data was collected over six days, taking measurements of trees, inspecting and collecting specimens from pitfall traps once a day. Terrestrial arthropods were identified to morphospecies and measures of diversity were calculated. To understand the health of the trees, information was collected that included trees diameter at breast height, canopy cover and soil cover. Terrestrial arthropod communities and diversity were found to be significantly different in the native and replanted pine transects, likely due to the difference in non-native trees

Reexamining Por and Para in the Spanish Foreign Language Intermediate Classroom: A Usage-Based, Cognitive Linguistic Approach

The present chapter represents the first stage in the larger investigation; it examines two aspects of applying a usage-based, CL approach to teaching por and para. First, we presented the multiple meanings of the two forms gradually, building learners’ knowledge in a series of scaffolded treatments, throughout the course of an entire semester rather than presenting them all in one concentrated lesson. Second, we presented the multiple meanings of por and para and structured their order of presentation according to a Cognitive Linguistic-inspired analysis, which emphasizes the systematic relationships among the multiple meanings. Such a systematic analysis is consistent with studies in cognitive psychology which have shown that it is easier to retrieve complexes of information if there is a systematic, organizing structure that specifies the relationship among the items, since this structure offers additional routes for accessing information (e.g. Bousfield 1953; Bower et al. 1969; Deese 1959; Lam 2009; Mandler 1967; Tulving 1962). A third area of interest was in examining the efficacy of providing explicit CL explanations of por and para, including discussion of CL concepts, such as the many meanings being represented by a systematically connected polysemy network whose central sense is a spatial relationship between a focus element and a background element, versus an approach which did not explicitly articulate CL concepts and did not explicitly present the multiple meanings as comprising a polysemy network

A survey of current reproducibility practices in linguistics publications

Poster: In order to move forward toward reproducible research in linguistics, we first need to know where we are now with regard to our practices for methodological clarity and data citation in publications. In this poster we share the results of a study of over 370 journal articles, dissertations, and grammars, which is taken as a sample of current practices in the field. The publications all come from a ten-year span. The journals were selected for broad coverage. Grammars included published grammars and dissertations written as grammars, with broad geographic coverage, both in terms of subject language and publisher or university.These publications are critiqued on the basis of transparency of data source, data collection methods, analysis, and storage. While we find examples of transparent reporting, most of the surveyed research does not include key metadata, methodological information, or citations that are resolvable to the data on which the analyses are based.In order to move forward toward reproducible research in linguistics, we first need to know where we are now with regard to our practices for methodological clarity and data citation in publications. In this poster we share the results of a study of over 370 journal articles, dissertations, and grammars, which is taken as a sample of current practices in the field. The publications all come from a ten-year span. The journals were selected for broad coverage. Grammars included published grammars and dissertations written as grammars, with broad geographic coverage, both in terms of subject language and publisher or university.These publications are critiqued on the basis of transparency of data source, data collection methods, analysis, and storage. While we find examples of transparent reporting, most of the surveyed research does not include key metadata, methodological information, or citations that are resolvable to the data on which the analyses are based.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant SMA-1447886

Three Approaches to Documenting Database Migrations

Database migration is a crucial aspect of digital collections management, yet there are few best practices to guide practitioners in this work. There is also limited research on the patterns of use and processes motivating database migrations. In the “Migrating Research Data Collections” project, we are developing these best practices through a multi-case study of database and digital collections migration. We find that a first and fundamental problem faced by collection staff is a sheer lack of documentation about past database migrations. We contribute a discussion of ways information professionals can reconstruct missing documentation, and some three approaches that others might take for documenting migrations going forward. [This paper is a conference pre-print presented at IDCC 2020 after lightweight peer review.

Responses of two Sericoda Kirby, 1837 (Coleoptera: Carabidae) species to forest harvesting, wildfire, and burn severity

Forest fires are among the most important natural disturbances in the boreal region, but fire-initiated succession is increasingly often interrupted by salvage logging, i.e., post-fire removal of burned trees. Unfortunately, very little is known about the ecological effects of this practice. To address this knowledge gap and to examine other factors affecting the abundance of two fire-associated carabid species (Sericoda quadripuntata and S. bembidioides) we conducted three field studies based on pitfall trapping in recent burns in Alberta, Canada. The results suggest that the abundance of both species drastically decreased from the first to the third post-fire year and that fire severity was positively associated with abundance of both species. The combined effects of wildfire and forest harvesting were associated with higher catches of S. quadripunctata, but lower catches of S. bembidioides. We discuss these findings in the contexts of salvage logging and species ecology