A comparison of fish communities between a developed and an undeveloped lake in northern Michigan

Rivers, Lakes, & WetlandsLakes tend to attract human development, but the effects of human development on lakes and their fish communities have not been well documented. We compared fish communities in two lakes in Northern Michigan under different levels of human lakeshore development: Burt Lake, which has high levels of human development, and Douglas Lake, which is mostly undeveloped. Over the course of two weeks, we sampled fishes at two similar sites in each lake using minnow traps and seines. The sites were chosen to be similar in habitat complexity, vegetation, and substrate. We compared species richness, diversity (using the Shannon diversity index), abundance in terms of catch per unit effort (CPUE), and standard length distribution of yellow perch between paired sites and between the lakes as a whole. Besides differences in human shoreline development, we looked at differences in nutrients and habitat complexity between sites, to see if these affected fish community as well. We hypothesized that fish community would differ between the lakes. We found that diversity was significantly higher in Burt Lake compared to Douglas, although there was no difference between lakes in terms of richness and abundance. There were other differences in terms of water chemistry, length of game species yellow perch (longer in Douglas Lake) and in terms of which species were found in which sites. We concluded that while human development might indirectly affect fish communities through changing nutrient levels and habitats, fish communities are perhaps more directly affected by factors such as habitat complexity.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61506/1/Dengate_Elizabeth_2008_RLW.pd

The effect of plant nitrogen levels on insect herbivory in northern Michigan sand dunes

General EcologyNitrogen is a limiting factor for plant and animal growth. Some herbivores have illustrated dietary preferences in regard to nitrogen, choosing some foodstuffs over others in order to get the highest possible levels of nitrogen in their diet. Nitrogen is especially low in particular environments, including the sand dunes at Sturgeon Bay of Lake Michigan, which may make selective feeding of herbivores there more common. Nitrogen levels in plants on dunes have been shown to increase with distance from shore, as moisture and amount of vegetation increase. At Sturgeon Bay, we tested the ideas both of increasing nitrogen with increasing distance from shore and the idea that herbivory increases at higher nitrogen levels, with insects showing a preference for the more nutritious plants. We looked at the dune grass Ammophila, analyzing percent nitrogen and amount of herbivory at 6 distances from shore, ranging from 0 to 125 m. We found that nitrogen levels did increase at increasing distances from shore, but there was no significant relationship between herbivory and nitrogen levels. There was a slight trend which appeared in graphs of increasing herbivory on the dune grass at increasing distance from shore. Further research is suggested on this relationship.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61514/1/Dengate_Clune_Foster_Kiel_2008_GE.pd

Defining failed induction of labor

BACKGROUND: While there are well-accepted standards for the diagnosis of arrested active-phase labor, the definition of a "failed" induction of labor remains less certain. One approach to diagnosing a failed induction is based on the duration of the latent phase. However, a standard for the minimum duration that the latent phase of a labor induction should continue, absent acute maternal or fetal indications for cesarean delivery, remains lacking. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes as a function of the duration of the latent phase among nulliparous women undergoing labor induction. METHODS: This study is based on data from an obstetric cohort of women delivering at 25 U.S. hospitals from 2008-2011. Nulliparous women who had a term singleton gestation in the cephalic presentation were eligible for this analysis if they underwent a labor induction. Consistent with prior studies, the latent phase was determined to begin once cervical ripening had ended, oxytocin was initiated and rupture of membranes (ROM) had occurred, and was determined to end once 5 cm dilation was achieved. The frequencies of cesarean delivery, as well as of adverse maternal (e.g., cesarean delivery, postpartum hemorrhage, chorioamnionitis) and perinatal outcomes (e.g., a composite frequency of either seizures, sepsis, bone or nerve injury, encephalopathy, or death), were compared as a function of the duration of the latent phase (analyzed with time both as a continuous measure and categorized in 3-hour increments). RESULTS: A total of 10,677 women were available for analysis. In the vast majority (96.4%) of women, the active phase had been reached by 15 hours. The longer the duration of a woman's latent phase, the greater her chance of ultimately undergoing a cesarean delivery (P<0.001, for time both as a continuous and categorical independent variable), although more than forty percent of women whose latent phase lasted for 18 or more hours still had a vaginal delivery. Several maternal morbidities, such as postpartum hemorrhage (P < 0.001) and chorioamnionitis (P < 0.001), increased in frequency as the length of latent phase increased. Conversely, the frequencies of most adverse perinatal outcomes were statistically stable over time. CONCLUSION: The large majority of women undergoing labor induction will have entered the active phase by 15 hours after oxytocin has started and rupture of membranes has occurred. Maternal adverse outcomes become statistically more frequent with greater time in the latent phase, although the absolute increase in frequency is relatively small. These data suggest that cesarean delivery should not be undertaken during the latent phase prior to at least 15 hours after oxytocin and rupture of membranes have occurred. The decision to continue labor beyond this point should be individualized, and may take into account factors such as other evidence of labor progress

Preterm neonatal morbidity and mortality by gestational age: a contemporary cohort

Although preterm birth less than 37 weeks gestation is the leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality in the United States, the majority of data regarding preterm neonatal outcomes come from older studies, and many reports have been limited to only very preterm neonates. Delineation of neonatal outcomes by delivery gestational age is needed to further clarify the continuum of mortality and morbidity frequencies among preterm neonates

Press: Measurement of the climate for creativity in is organizations

The Work Environment Inventory (WEI) instrument was used to measure the climate for creativity for a representative set of IS organizations. The results were compared to those for non-IS organizations, revealing significant differences. Specific areas of deficiency were identified. IS management can concentrate on those factors to leverage budget and effort to enhance the climate for creativity