Empowering Rural People: Strategic Planning and Training for Community Survival

Community Quest is a problem-solving model for rural communities which connects leadership development with local issues. Leadership is a lifelong pursuit, developed' through practical experiences in our own communities. By building on community strengths, a region can clarify its collective mission to direct power and resources toward a shared vision. The goal is to link communities in a shared agenda for the region. Innovative techniques are used to involve more people in the community's decision-making process. A three-stage process which combines research and problem-solving methods brings decision makers and stakeholders together for strategic planning

Seasonal ice mass-balance buoys: adapting tools to the changing Arctic

Monitoring the local mass balance of Arctic sea ice provides opportunities to attribute the observed changes in a particular floe’s mass balance to specific forcing phenomena. A shift from multi- year to seasonal ice in large portions of the Arctic presents a challenge for the existing Lagrangian array of autonomous ice mass-balance buoys, which were designed with a perennial ice cover in mind. This work identifies the anticipated challenges of operation in seasonal ice and presents a new autonomous buoy designed to monitor ice mass balance in the seasonal ice zone. The new design presented incorporates features which allow the buoy to operate in thin ice and open water, and reduce its vulnerability to ice dynamics and wildlife damage, while enhancing ease of deployment. A test deployment undertaken from April to June 2009 is discussed and results are presented with analysis to illustrate both the features and limitations of the buoy’s abilities

Histologic Correlation With Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Benign and Malignant Lipomatous Masses

Purpose/results. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for 46 consecutive patients with lipomatous soft tissue tumors prior to biopsy and resection. Twenty-eight patients had benign lipomas and 18 had liposarcomas. Clinical differences between thdse patients with benign disease and those with malignant lesions were average age at the time of presentation (49 years for benign vs 62 years for malignant, p < 0.001) and average length of symptoms prior to resection (64 months for benign versus 38 months for malignant, p = 0.01). MRI characteristics associated with benign disease included: smaller tumor size (9.4 cm average greatest dimension for benign lesions vs 13.4 cm for malignant masses, p = 0.022); a mass with a uniformly homogeneous signal (p = 0.0003); a mass with homogeneous high T1 and T2 signals and a low short-time-inversion-recovery (STIR) signal comparable to normal fat (p < 0.0001). This last signal pattern was not seen in malignant lesions (0/18) and was present in almost all benign lipomas (25/28). The usual MRI descriptions of soft tissue masses such as infiltrating vs encapsulating, deep vs subcutaneous and septated vs non-septated were not helpful predictors of malignancy in this series. Needle biopsies of lipomatous masses with heterogeneous signals on MRI resulted in inaccurate diagnoses due to sampling error in 5/9 patients

A Framework for the Evaluation of Large-Scale Regional Conservation and Management Strategies

The success of complex, regional strategies depends on the ability to evaluate the process of implementation as well as progress toward achieving intended outcomes. The Southeast Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy and the Comprehensive Strategy for Prescribed Fire to Restore Longleaf Pine in the Southeast United States are examples of regional strategies that require extensive efforts across a large landscape. This article presents a framework developed by North Carolina State University Extension Forestry for evaluating these types of regional strategies so that informed recommendations for resource allocation, new program development, and strategic collaboration can be made

North Carolina Chefs Who Cultivate Restaurant Gardens: A Population with a Hunger for Extension Information

As part of a larger study designed to explore the gardening practices and educational needs of North Carolina chefs who cultivate restaurant gardens, the chefs\u27 desired areas of knowledge and preferences for delivery of educational material were identified. As a result, a plan for North Carolina Cooperative Extension to use in developing educational programs for this population was completed. This article provides information on this emerging population and focuses on specific techniques Extension might use in developing educational programs that engage this audience

Discriminative Insulin Antagonism of Stimulatory Effects of Various cAMP Analogs on Adipocyte Lipolysis and Hepatocyte Glycogenolysis

Although insulin effectively blocked hormone-stimulated glycerol output in adipocytes or phosphorylase activation in hepatocytes, the inhibitory effect of insulin on cAMP analog-stimulated cells depended on the cAMP analog used. Of the 20 analogs tested in adipocytes and 13 tested in hepatocytes, the effects of about half of them were effectively blocked by insulin, whereas the effects of many of them were not inhibited at all. In order to approach the explanation for this discriminative insulin action, the inhibitory effects of insulin on the responses to the analogs in the intact cells were correlated with the in vitro cAMP analog specificity for the hepatocyte cAMP-dependent protein kinase isozymes and the low K(m), hormone-sensitive phosphodiesterases from both cell types. No correlation was found between insulin resistance of analog-stimulated hepatocyte phosphorylase and the concentration of analog required in vitro for half-maximal activation of either type I or type II cAMP-dependent protein kinase from hepatocytes. However, a good correlation was found between insulin resistance of cAMP analog-stimulated responses and the analog I50 values for the phosphodiesterase from both cell types. Using a new method capable of measuring hydrolysis at low analog concentrations, several of those analogs which had relatively low, but not high, phosphodiesterase I50 values were shown to be directly hydrolyzed by the low K(m) adipocyte phosphodiesterase. The insulin inhibition of cell responses when stimulated by hydrolyzable analogs, but not by poorly hydrolyzable analogs, is best explained by insulin stimulation of the low K(m) phosphodiesterases from both cell types

Lessons Learned for Military-Based Partnerships for Landscape-Scale Conservation: A Case Study of the North Carolina Sentinel Landscapes Partnership

Landscape-scale conservation has become a popular approach for addressing complex land and water issues. Achieving this level of conservation requires regional collaboration that evokes a variety of approaches tailored to fit the scope and nature of the particular issues. In many states, military training grounds are a part of the rural landscape, resulting in significant interest from the military services in the maintenance and enhancement of land uses that are compatible with their operations. Many programs and initiatives are managing this issue utilizing a landscape-scale approach based on a recognition of the interconnectedness of interests. To date, there has been limited research on military partnerships related to land conservation. In order to better understand how engaging stakeholders from various sectors impacts the initial stages of military-based partnerships for landscape-scale conservation, this study explores climate, processes, people, policies, and resources—five variables that shape cross-sector partnerships, an important theoretical framework for evaluating such collaborative partnerships

County Commissioner Perceptions of Cooperative Extension: Implications for Strengthening the Partnership with County Government

We undertook a study to determine county commissioner perceptions of Cooperative Extension. The majority of county commissioners had had prior involvement with Extension. Nearly 59% represented rural counties, and 94% indicated that agriculture is important to their county economies. Overall, the commissioners had a positive perception of Cooperative Extension, and their overall perception positively correlated with the significance of agriculture to the local economy. Our findings have implications for county-based Cooperative Extension professionals seeking to build all-important strong partnerships with county commissioners