Biodemography: Research prospects and directions

The purpose of this opinion report is to outline what I consider to be the most promising areas for future biodemographic research and to suggest ways in which the field can be moved forward. I discuss five major themes: i) biodemography of disability; ii) ecological, developmental, behavioral and evolutionary biodemography; iii) biodemography of sociality; iv) genomic and genetic biodemography; and v) biodemographic modeling and analysis. I consider the last two areas (genomics/genetics; modeling/analysis) as both stand-alone topics and cross-cutting concepts. At the end of the paper I present ideas for charting the future course including strengthening and expanding infrastructure, database and website development, organizing conferences, submitting new training grants, and integrating biodemography into teaching programs.biodemography, frailty, life span, longevity

Gross Anatomy for Physical Therapy course

The study of anatomy supported with human dissection is foundational to training of health science professionals. For a student, cadaver dissection offers an active learning experience. For the training of physical therapists, we created a manual that efficiently instructs the dissection of the whole body over the course of 30 laboratory periods. In the spirit of academic collegiality, this letter provides health science educators a direct download link (https://hdl.handle.net/11299/218174) to the dissection manual hosted by the University of Minnesota (USA) Digital Conservancy. No registration is required, the download is free, and the PDF file of the dissection manual can be reproduced or adapted for any educational use. &nbsp

Defining and Characterizing Differences in College Alcohol Intervention Efficacy: A Growth Mixture Modeling Application

Objective: While college alcohol misuse remains a pervasive issue, individual-level interventions are among the most efficacious methodologies to reduce alcohol-related harms. Growth mixture modeling (GMM) was used as an exploratory moderation analysis to determine how many types of college drinkers exist with regard to intervention efficacy over a 12-month period. Method: Data from 3 randomized controlled trials were combined to yield a sample of 1,040 volunteer and mandated college students who were given 1 of 3 interventions: a brief motivational intervention, Alcohol Edu for Sanctions, or Alcohol 101 Plus. Participants were assessed at baseline, and 1, 6, and 12 months post intervention. Results: Through the examination of heavy drinking behaviors, piecewise GMM identified 6 subpopulations of drinkers. Most of the sample (76%) was lighter drinkers who demonstrated a strong intervention response, but returned to baseline behaviors over the subsequent 12 months. In contrast, 11% of the sample reported no significant change over the 12-month period. Four minority subpopulations were also identified. In sum, 82% of the sample responded to intervention, but 84% of the sample reported intervention decay over the subsequent 12 months. Female gender, being an, upperclassmen, beginning drinking later in life, not engaging in drinking games, and lower norms predicted a greater likelihood of responding to intervention. Conclusion: Individual-level interventions are successful at effecting change in most college students, but these effects tend to decay to baseline behaviors by 12 months. These results suggest intervention efforts need to find ways to engage freshmen men and those who play drinking games. Public Health Significance: This study suggests that there are distinct subgroups of college students defined by how they respond to alcohol intervention, and that interventions need to target freshmen men and those who play drinking games. Although most students initially response to intervention effects, most also show intervention decay over the next 12 months, which suggests that we need to determine ways of improving the long-term effects of alcohol interventions

Age, sex, adult and larval diet shape starvation resistance in the Mediterranean fruit fly: an ecological and gerontological perspective.

The ability of an animal to withstand periods of food deprivation is a key driver of invasion success (biodiversity), adaptation to new conditions, and a crucial determinant of senescence in populations. Starvation resistance (SR) is a highly plastic trait and varies in relation to environmental and genetic variables. However, beyond Drosophila, SR has been studied poorly. Exploiting an interesting model species in invasion and ageing studies-the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata)- we investigated how age, food and gender, shape SR in this species. We measured SR in adults feeding in rich and poor dietary conditions, which had been reared either on natural hosts or artificial larval diet, for every single day across their lifespan. We defined which factor is the most significant determinant of SR and we explored potential links between SR and ageing. We found that SR declines with age, and that age-specific patterns are shaped in relation to adult and larval diet. Females exhibited higher SR than males. Age and adult diet were the most significant determinants of SR, followed by gender and the larval diet. Starvation resistance proved to be a weak predictor of functional ageing. Possible underlying mechanisms, ecological and gerontological significance and potential applied benefits are discussed

Ground Water in the Kentucky River Basin

Most private wells in the Kentucky River Basin are in unconfined or semi-confined bedrock aquifers. Within these aquifers, high-yield zones are irregularly distributed. The most productive wells are drilled into fractured bedrock and alluvium along the Kentucky River floodplain. The data indicate that ground water acts as a buffer to peak and low flows in Kentucky River Basin streams. At current withdrawal rates, ground-water usage does not seem to have an adverse impact on the Kentucky River. Privately owned ground-water sources supply approximately 135,000 people living in the basin-approximately 19 percent of the total population and 36 percent of the rural population. More than 50 percent of residential water supplies in eastern Kentucky rely on ground water. If aquifers are protected from pollution by wellhead protection programs and old wells are retrofitted to prevent direct contamination, then ground water will continue to provide a reliable water supply in many rural areas of the basin. However, for most of the basin, few wells will have yields adequate to supply a large demand. Ground water from present wells will not provide an adequate supply for communities with a population of over a few thousand. Limited discharge data available for springs and large wells in the basin strongly suggest that the potential for ground water to supplement current supplies should not be ignored. Discharge from well fields and springs could be used to augment surface supplies during drought. A better understanding of the distribution and quality of ground-water resources is crucial for the citizens of the basin to fully benefit from ground water

Improving our understanding of the Spitzer Space Telescope's pointing drifts

Spitzer observations of exoplanets routinely yield photometric accuracies of better than one part in 10,000. However, the attainable precision is limited in part by pointing drifts, which have the effect of moving the target to less stable or less-well characterized regions of Spitzer’s IRAC detector arrays. Here we examine a large sample of observing sequences in an effort to identify the causes of these pointing drifts. We find that short term and higher order drifts are correlated on various time scales to the temperatures of components in and around the spacecraft bus, and are most likely due to very slight angular displacements of the star trackers. Despite the constraints imposed by a limited pool of targets, such pointing drifts are best mitigated by optimal scheduling, minimizing large and/or lengthy excursions in telescope pitch angle within 24 hours of a high-precision photometry sequence. Such an effort is currently being initiated by the Spitzer Science Center