Avian responses to fire frequency in the Oklahoma Cross Timbers

Disturbance in the form of fire is an important ecological process. The presence or long term absence of fire is an important determinant of forest vegetative cover by mediating regeneration, tree establishment, and canopy cover. In temperate forests of North America, a long history of human ignitions produced a fire tolerant landscape that required continued, typically low intensity, disturbance to persist. Since European settlement, concerted fire suppression has been the norm. Low-intensity, dormant-season fires in the Cross Timbers have been found to have a modest influence on canopy cover, but an outsized impact on understory structure and composition. We examined breeding songbird communities in oak-hickory forest in response to a gradient of prescribed fire treatments under 68-100% canopy closure. Point counts for breeding birds, flying insect sampling, and vegetation sampling were conducted at 158 plots in 2015 and 2016 in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma. We used multivariate techniques to elucidate the effects of fire frequency on community composition and used AIC to determine if those variables were important to explaining the densities of 10 avian species. Fire treatments had the expected effect on understory vegetation, but no discernible effect on abundance and biomass of flying insect orders, and a comparatively small effect on breeding bird community composition. Increased fire frequency resulted in increased densities of Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens), Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra), and Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea), and reductions in the breeding density of Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia). Of the 10 species tested, three responded positively and one negatively to increases in fire frequency. This suggests that most species do not experience negative population effects of low intensity fire frequency. Assuming a lack of ecological traps, our results suggest that managers in the Central Hardwoods and Cross Timbers can apply biennial fire low-intensity burns that will help them achieve their objectives for restoration without widespread negative population effects to small breeding landbirds

Opinions about Anti-Tobacco Marketing Strategies from the Undergraduate Student Perspective

The purpose of this project was to assess undergraduate college students’ opinions of anti-tobacco marketing strategies. The college environment offers an excellent setting for implementation of smoking abstinence interventions for young adults. Freshmen students at Valparaiso University were invited to join group sessions in the residence halls to evaluate anti-tobacco YouTube videos, print materials, and Quit Kit materials. Undergraduate nursing students functioned as group session facilitators. Participants (N = 39) included: 59% males, 87% non-smokers, and 92% who chose to attend for CORE credit. YouTube videos were found to be effective if a dramatic, age appropriate, simple message was connected to tobacco use. Print materials were effective if they included bright colors, brief statistics, few words, humor, and were immediately relevant. Quit Kit materials were selected if they included humor, pictures, had few words, and were useful. Quit Kits items included cozies, chip clips, stress relievers, and cinnamon flavored gum. Ninety-two percent indicated that their opinions about smoking, second-hand smoke exposure, and decisions whether to smoke were affected by these sessions. Data from this study will add to the growing body of evidence about college students’ opinions concerning marketing strategies and form a foundation for a longitudinal study of students’ changing opinions toward smoking

Supporting Solidarity: Appraising and Collecting Online Content Surrounding the Women's Marches in Maryland

Report and presentation from the MARAC conference in Buffalo, NY on October 28, 2017. S23, "Documenting Social Protest: Lessons Learned from the Women's March." This project took place in the context of an entire course on archival appraisal at the University of Maryland and had powerful implications for archival outreach as activism as well as the tools needed to carry out collection development for born-digital materials. We used Archive-It to crawl social media pages and decided to focus on local solidarity marches in Maryland as the national Women's March was already well-documented. As students, we learned that activism and outreach are integral to the archival profession; we have to be able to explain why we as archivists want to document social protest

Geo-information tools for stakeholder engagement in environmental decision-making: “best practice” recommendations from a UK case study

This paper provides knowledge and recommendations for the “best practice” use of information, communication, and collaboration technologies for stakeholder engagement in UK-based planning and environmental decision-making. Tackling complex environmental issues requires inclusive and participatory decision-making processes, however current frameworks overlook the impact of technology on achieving positive outcomes. We conduct a two-stage study (including a survey, N = 58; and semi-structured interviews, N = 38) to capture experts’ experiences of engagement during the Covid-19 pandemic. Results offer a snapshot into the use of participatory geo-information tools – highlighting key challenges and considerations for policymakers and practitioners

Geo-information tools for stakeholder engagement in environmental decision-making: “best practice” recommendations from a UK case study

This paper provides knowledge and recommendations for the “best practice” use of information, communication, and collaboration technologies for stakeholder engagement in UK-based planning and environmental decision-making. Tackling complex environmental issues requires inclusive and participatory decision-making processes, however current frameworks overlook the impact of technology on achieving positive outcomes. We conduct a two-stage study (including a survey, N = 58; and semi-structured interviews, N = 38) to capture experts’ experiences of engagement during the Covid-19 pandemic. Results offer a snapshot into the use of participatory geo-information tools – highlighting key challenges and considerations for policymakers and practitioners

Engagement in the digital age:Understanding “what works” for participatory technologies in environmental decision-making

Effective engagement is crucial for enhancing environmental decision-making processes, fostering more sustainable and equitable outcomes. However, the success of engagement is highly variable and context-dependent. While theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain outcome variance in engagement in environmental decision-making, they have not yet been tested in digital contexts, leaving their applicability to digital engagement processes unclear. More broadly, there are unanswered questions about the effectiveness of digital tools in achieving the goals of engagement, which have become increasingly pertinent amidst growing concerns about the potential of digital technologies for exacerbating exclusions, ethical issues, and systematically undermining democratic progress. This paper addresses this evidence gap by presenting findings from interviews with practitioners in UK public, private, and third sector organisations. Our results provide empirical insights into the technical, ethical, and inclusivity debates surrounding digital tools and their effectiveness in promoting accessible engagement, high-quality social interaction, place-based decision-making, and more trustworthy and credible outcomes. Our findings indicate that while current engagement theories are applicable to digital environments, the key explanatory factors acquire new dimensions in digital compared to in-person contexts. Drawing on the findings, this study contributes novel insights to expand current theory for explaining “what works” in engagement in environmental decisions, enhancing its relevance and applicability in the digital age. The paper concludes with evidence-led recommendations for environmental practitioners to improve engagement processes in digital and remote settings.</p

Engagement in the digital age:Understanding “what works” for participatory technologies in environmental decision-making

Effective engagement is crucial for enhancing environmental decision-making processes, fostering more sustainable and equitable outcomes. However, the success of engagement is highly variable and context-dependent. While theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain outcome variance in engagement in environmental decision-making, they have not yet been tested in digital contexts, leaving their applicability to digital engagement processes unclear. More broadly, there are unanswered questions about the effectiveness of digital tools in achieving the goals of engagement, which have become increasingly pertinent amidst growing concerns about the potential of digital technologies for exacerbating exclusions, ethical issues, and systematically undermining democratic progress. This paper addresses this evidence gap by presenting findings from interviews with practitioners in UK public, private, and third sector organisations. Our results provide empirical insights into the technical, ethical, and inclusivity debates surrounding digital tools and their effectiveness in promoting accessible engagement, high-quality social interaction, place-based decision-making, and more trustworthy and credible outcomes. Our findings indicate that while current engagement theories are applicable to digital environments, the key explanatory factors acquire new dimensions in digital compared to in-person contexts. Drawing on the findings, this study contributes novel insights to expand current theory for explaining “what works” in engagement in environmental decisions, enhancing its relevance and applicability in the digital age. The paper concludes with evidence-led recommendations for environmental practitioners to improve engagement processes in digital and remote settings.</p

Exploring the evolution of GIS research using bibliographic data

This paper provides new insight into the evolution of geographical information science and systems (GIS) research via a computational analysis (in R) of 120,000 bibliographic records (from 1970 to 2022) downloaded from Scopus. We conduct an exploratory analysis of the data, then attempt to discover the thematic/topical structure of the GIS literature using the Structural Topic Model (STM) framework. We show how topics in GIS have evolved and discuss how our findings contribute to the understanding of the evolution and trajectory of GIS research. We conclude by highlighting the limitations of the approach and explaining our future research plans

Striatal dopamine synthesis and cognitive flexibility differ between hormonal contraceptive users and nonusers

In rodents and nonhuman primates, sex hormones are powerful modulators of dopamine (DA) neurotransmission. Yet less is known about hormonal regulation of the DA system in the human brain. Using positron emission tomography (PET), we address this gap by comparing hormonal contraceptive users and nonusers across multiple aspects of DA function: DA synthesis capacity via the PET radioligand 6-[18F]fluoro-m-tyrosine ([18F]FMT), baseline D2/3 receptor binding potential using [11C]raclopride, and DA release using methylphenidate-paired [11C]raclopride. Participants consisted of 36 healthy women (n = 15 hormonal contraceptive users; n = 21 naturally cycling/non users of hormonal contraception), and men (n = 20) as a comparison group. A behavioral index of cognitive flexibility was assessed prior to PET imaging. Hormonal contraceptive users exhibited greater DA synthesis capacity than NC participants, particularly in dorsal caudate, and greater cognitive flexibility. Furthermore, across individuals, the magnitude of striatal DA synthesis capacity was associated with cognitive flexibility. No group differences were observed in D2/3 receptor binding or DA release. Analyses by sex alone may obscure underlying differences in DA synthesis tied to women\u27s hormone status. Hormonal contraception (in the form of pill, shot, implant, ring, or intrauterine device) is used by ~400 million women worldwide, yet few studies have examined whether chronic hormonal manipulations impact basic properties of the DA system. Findings from this study begin to address this critical gap in women\u27s health

Forgotten Hispano-American Literature: Representation of Hispano-American Presses in Academic Libraries

As inclusion becomes a growing standard for universities in the United States, data extracted from OCLC suggest that university libraries in the United States build their Spanish-language collections with books purchased primarily in Spain and Mexico. This overlooks presses from 19 other Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas. This research is concerned with the representation of books published in these Hispano-American countries, and examines the holdings of 88 university libraries. The article discusses the drawbacks in neglecting purchase of literature published in Hispano-American countries, and the benefits of changing collection practices into a more inclusive design, including recommendations for best practices.</p