Rural environmental concern: Effects of position, partisanship and place

The social bases of environmental concern in rural America resemble those for the nation as a whole, but also reflect the influence of place. Some general place characteristics, such as rates of population growth or resource-industry employment, predict responses across a number of environmental issues. Other unique or distinctive aspects of local society and environment matter as well. We extend earlier work on both kinds of place effects, first by analyzing survey data from northeast Oregon. Results emphasize that “environmental concern” has several dimensions. Second, we contextualize the Oregon results using surveys from other regions. Analysis of an integrated dataset (up to 12,000 interviews in 38 U.S. counties) shows effects from respondent characteristics and political views, and from county rates of population growth and resource-based employment. There also are significant place-to-place variations that are not explained by variables in the models. To understand some of these we return to the local scale. In northeast Oregon, residents describe how perceptions of fire danger from unmanaged forest lands shape their response to the word conservation. Their local interpretation contrasts with more general and urban connotations of this term, underlining the importance of place for understanding rural environmental concern

Modeling associations between public understanding, engagement and forest conditions in theInland Northwest, USA

Opinions about public lands and the actions of private non-industrial forest owners in the western United States play important roles in forested landscape management as both public and private forests face increasing risks from large wildfires, pests and disease. This work presents the responses from two surveys, a random-sample telephone survey of more than 1500 residents and a mail survey targeting owners of parcels with 10 or more acres of forest. These surveys were conducted in three counties (Wallowa, Union, and Baker) in northeast Oregon, USA. We analyze these survey data using structural equation models in order to assess how individual characteristics and understanding of forest management issues affect perceptions about forest conditions and risks associated with declining forest health on public lands. We test whether forest understanding is informed by background, beliefs, and experiences, and whether as an intervening variable it is associated with views about forest conditions on publicly managed forests. Individual background characteristics such as age, gender and county of residence have significant direct or indirect effects on our measurement of understanding. Controlling for background factors, we found that forest owners with higher self-assessed understanding, and more education about forest management, tend to hold more pessimistic views about forest conditions. Based on our results we argue that self-assessed understanding, interest in learning, and willingness to engage in extension activities together have leverage to affect perceptions about the risks posed by declining forest conditions on public lands, influence land owner actions, and affect support for public policies. These results also have broader implications for management of forested landscapes on public and private lands amidst changing demographics in rural communities across the Inland Northwest where migration may significantly alter the composition of forest owner goals, understanding, and support for various management actions

Modelling Associations between Public Understanding, Engagement and Forest Conditions in the Inland Northwest, USA.

Abstract Opinions about public lands and the actions of private non-industrial forest owners in the western United States play important roles in forested landscape management as both public and private forests face increasing risks from large wildfires, pests and disease. This work presents the responses from two surveys, a random-sample telephone survey of more than 1500 residents and a mail survey targeting owners of parcels with 10 or more acres of forest. These surveys were conducted in three counties (Wallowa, Union, and Baker) in northeast Oregon, USA. We analyze these survey data using structural equation models in order to assess how individual characteristics and understanding of forest management issues affect perceptions about forest conditions and risks associated with declining forest health on public lands. We test whether forest understanding is informed by background, beliefs, and experiences, and whether as an intervening variable it is associated with views about forest conditions on publicly managed forests. Individual background characteristics such as age, gender and county of residence have significant direct or indirect effects on our measurement of understanding. Controlling for background factors, we found that forest owners with higher self-assessed understanding, and more education about forest management, tend to hold more pessimistic views about forest conditions. Based on our results we argue that self-assessed understanding, interest in learning, and willingness to engage in extension activities together have leverage to affect perceptions about the risks posed by declining forest conditions on public lands, influence land owner actions, and affect support for public policies. These results also have broader implications for management of forested landscapes on public and private lands amidst changing demographics in rural communities across the Inland Northwest where migration may significantly alter the composition of forest owner goals, understanding, and support for various management actions

Forest views: Northeast Oregon survey looks at community and environment

This brief reports on a survey conducted in fall 2011 as one component of the ongoing Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) project. The CAFOR project focuses on the people and landscapes of three counties in northeast Oregon (Baker, Union, and Wallowa), where landscapes and communities are changing in interconnected ways

Forest management and wildfire risk in inland northwest

This brief reports the results of a mail survey of forest landowners in northeastern Oregon conducted in the fall of 2012 by the Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) Project at the University of Colorado and the University of New Hampshire in cooperation with Oregon State University College of Forestry Extension. The mail survey--a follow-up to a telephone survey conducted for the counties of Baker, Union, and Wallowa in the fall of 2011 -was administered to understand who constituted forest landowners in these three coun¬ties and their perceptions about forest management on both public and private land, as well as risks to forests in the area and the actions they have taken to reduce those risks. The respondents indicated that they perceive wildfire as the greatest threat to their lands, and they consider cooperation with neighbors as very or extremely important for land management. Forest landowners believe public lands are managed poorly and see a greater risk of wildfire occurring on neighboring public land than on their own land. Their opinions on land management are not strongly related to background factors or ideology (for example, gender, age, political party, wealth) but may be heavily influenced by personal experience with wildfire

Heat capacity study of BaFe2_{2}As2_{2}: effects of annealing

Heat-capacity, X-ray diffraction, and resistivity measurements on a high-quality BaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ sample show an evolution of the magneto-structural transition with successive annealing periods. After a 30-day anneal the resistivity in the (ab) plane decreases by more than an order of magnitude, to 12 $\mu\Omega$cm, with a residual resistance ratio $\sim$36; the heat-capacity anomaly at the transition sharpens, to an overall width of less than K, and shifts from 135.4 to 140.2 K. The heat-capacity anomaly in both the as-grown sample and after the 30-day anneal shows a hysteresis of $\sim$0.15 K, and is unchanged in a magnetic field $\mu_{0}$H = 14 T. The X-ray and heat-capacity data combined suggest that there is a first order jump in the structural order parameter. The entropy of the transition is reported

GGD 37: An Extreme Protostellar Outflow

We present the first Spitzer-IRS spectral maps of the Herbig-Haro flow GGD 37 detected in lines of [Ne III], [O IV], [Ar III], and [Ne v]. The detection of extended [O IV] (55 eV) and some extended emission in [Ne v] (97 eV) indicates a shock temperature in excess of 100,000 K, in agreement with X-ray observations, and a shock speed in excess of 200 km s(-1). The presence of an extended photoionization or collisional ionization region indicates that GGD 37 is a highly unusual protostellar outflow.Jet Propulsion Laboratory, under NASA 1407NASA 1257184Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 960803University of Rochester 31419-5714Astronom

Targeted Albumin Therapy Does Not Improve Short-Term Outcome in Hyponatremic Patients Hospitalized With Complications of Cirrhosis: Data From the ATTIRE Trial

INTRODUCTION: Patients with decompensated cirrhosis and hyponatremia have a poor prognosis. We investigated Albumin to Prevent Infection in Chronic Liver Failure trial data to determine whether targeted albumin infusions improved outcome in patients with hyponatremia at baseline. METHODS: We examined the interaction between targeted albumin and standard care for the composite primary end point, stratifying by baseline sodium ≥ and <130 mmol/L. RESULTS: Randomization to albumin was associated with a significant increase in sodium; however, there was no interaction between sodium category and treatment for the trial primary end point. DISCUSSION: Targeted intravenous albumin infusions increased serum sodium level in hospitalized hyponatremic patients with cirrhosis, but this did not improve outcome

Use of non-selective B-blockers is safe in hospitalised decompensated cirrhosis patients and exerts a potential anti-inflammatory effect: Data from the ATTIRE trial

Background: Nonselective B-blockers (NSBBs) are believed to have pleiotropic effects beyond reducing portal pressure. However, studies also report potential harm in patients hospitalized with cirrhosis and ascites. We therefore investigated whether NSBB use at ATTIRE trial entry (Albumin to prevent infection in chronic liver failure, 2016-19) was associated with increased renal or cardiovascular dysfunction, compared the incidence of infection and plasma markers of systemic inflammation, and examined mortality at 28-days, 3 and 6-months. Methods: In ATTIRE patients grouped by NSBB use at trial entry, we studied infection at baseline, hospital acquired infection and organ dysfunction during trial treatment period and mortality, with propensity score matching to account for differences in disease severity. Findings: There were no differences in renal or cardiovascular dysfunction between patients treated with NSBBs or not, during days 3–15 of hospitalization, despite elevated serum creatinine in NSBB patients at hospitalisation. Use of NSBBs was associated with a significant reduction in infection at hospitalization (p = 0.006), lower white cell counts throughout hospital stay (p < 0.001) and reduced plasma procalcitonin (p = 0.009) and interlukin-8 levels (p = 0.04) at baseline, but markers of bacterial translocation and systemic inflammation were the same in treatment groups. There was no reduction in hospital acquired infections in patients taking NSBBs and no beneficial impact on mortality at 28-days, 3 and 6-months. Interpretations: Our real-world data from a completed randomised trial show that use of NSBBs in decompensated cirrhosis patients is safe during hospitalisation. We also show a potential anti-inflammatory role for NSBBs which may be mediated by a downregulation of IL-8 induced leucocytosis, that was associated with reduced infection at baseline but not a survival benefit. Funding: Wellcome Trust and Department of Health and Social Care