Spatiotemporal analysis of nitrogen cycling in a mixed coniferous forest of the northern United States

Citation: Howard, I., & McLauchlan, K. K. (2015). Spatiotemporal analysis of nitrogen cycling in a mixed coniferous forest of the northern United States. Biogeosciences, 12(13), 3941-3952. doi:10.5194/bg-12-3941-2015Nitrogen (N) is the limiting nutrient to primary productivity in a variety of temperate forests, and N cycling is undergoing a variety of anthropogenic changes, notably a doubling of reactive N (Nr) on a global scale. Yet, the magnitude of these changes to N cycling has been difficult to document in terrestrial ecosystems, especially in old-growth forests. To determine the trajectory of N cycling and the potential impacts of anthropogenic influences at local scales, we measured the composition of stable nitrogen isotopes (delta N-15) in wood from living red pine trees (Pinus resinosa) at a single site in northern Minnesota, USA. A synchronous decline in wood delta N-15 values began approximately in the 1920s in 17 individual trees at different topographic positions, indicating a common driver. The decline in wood delta N-15 values corresponded with declines in sedimentary delta N-15 recorded in lacustrine sediments of the same catchment. Disturbance regime and species composition began to change at the turn of the 20th century with park establishment, providing a likely mechanism of decline in delta N-15 values toward present. While other mechanisms of this change are possible, we conclude that while there may be consequences of increased influxes of various forms of anthropogenic Nr into terrestrial ecosystems at the global level, these changes are not being expressed at a local level in this temperate forest ecosystem

A Study of Restaurateurs\u27 Attitudes and Practices in Relation to Obesity

The dramatic increase in the rate of obesity in the United States is raising new public health concerns. Each year, obesity-related problems cause at least 300,000 deaths and cost around 100 billion dollars. Take a walk down the street, go to a shopping center or sport event, or pick up a newspaper or magazine and the severity of the obesity problem in the United States is becoming a critical problem to solve. About 65% of the U.S. adult population is overweight (35%) or obese (30%), which has doubled in only two decades. Obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke, arthritis, respiratory problems, cancer, and sleep apnea have become a major concern in our health care crisis. Poor diet and physical inactivity leading to excess body weight was identified as the second leading cause of death in the United States. While Americans are consuming more food outside the home, it may seem easy to assume a relationship between the increases in the success of the restaurant industry and national obesity rates. The growth in food away from home has created concern about its possible effect on dietary quality. Because so much food is eaten outside the home, restaurants do have a significant impact on the food consumption of the United States and play a considerable role in the shaping of American diets

Lineage specific recombination rates and microevolution in Listeria monocytogenes

Background: The bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is a saprotroph as well as an opportunistic human foodborne pathogen, which has previously been shown to consist of at least two widespread lineages (termed lineages I and II) and an uncommon lineage (lineage III). While some L. monocytogenes strains show evidence for considerable diversification by homologous recombination, our understanding of the contribution of recombination to L. monocytogenes evolution is still limited. We therefore used STRUCTURE and ClonalFrame, two programs that model the effect of recombination, to make inferences about the population structure and different aspects of the recombination process in L. monocytogenes. Analyses were performed using sequences for seven loci (including the house-keeping genes gap, prs, purM and ribC, the stress response gene sigB, and the virulence genes actA and inlA) for 195 L. monocytogenes isolates. Results: Sequence analyses with ClonalFrame and the Sawyer's test showed that recombination is more prevalent in lineage II than lineage I and is most frequent in two house-keeping genes (ribC and purM) and the two virulence genes (actA and inlA). The relative occurrence of recombination versus point mutation is about six times higher in lineage II than in lineage I, which causes a higher genetic variability in lineage II. Unlike lineage I, lineage II represents a genetically heterogeneous population with a relatively high proportion (30% average) of genetic material imported from external sources. Phylograms, constructed with correcting for recombination, as well as Tajima's D data suggest that both lineages I and II have suffered a population bottleneck. Conclusion: Our study shows that evolutionary lineages within a single bacterial species can differ considerably in the relative contributions of recombination to genetic diversification. Accounting for recombination in phylogenetic studies is critical, and new evolutionary models that account for the possibility of changes in the rate of recombination would be required. While previous studies suggested that only L. monocytogenes lineage I has experienced a recent bottleneck, our analyses clearly show that lineage II experienced a bottleneck at about the same time, which was subsequently obscured by abundant homologous recombination after the lineage II bottleneck. While lineage I and lineage II should be considered separate species from an evolutionary viewpoint, maintaining single species name may be warranted since both lineages cause the same type of human disease

Cultivating Multicultural Competency in Supervision Using an Identity Style Framework

Multicultural competency is a necessary component of counselor supervision. However, when ingrained and unquestioned biases tied to personal identity arise, it may feel impossible to have important conversations in a professional and safe way. The authors propose a conceptual framework that provides a navigational toolkit for these difficult conversations. A brief case example highlights a possible scenario and path to resolution

The Medicine Wheel Nutrition Intervention: a Diabetes Education Study with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe

OBJECTIVE: The Northern Plains Indians of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe have experienced significant lifestyle and dietary changes over the past seven generations that have resulted in increased rates of diabetes and obesity. The objective of this study was to determine if Northern Plains Indians with type 2 diabetes mellitus who are randomized to receive culturally adapted educational lessons based on the Medicine Wheel Model for Nutrition in addition to their usual dietary education will have better control of their type 2 diabetes than a nonintervention, usual care group who received only the usual dietary education from their personal providers.DESIGN: A 6-month, randomized, controlled trial was conducted January 2005 through December 2005, with participants randomized to the education intervention or usual care control group. The education group received six nutrition lessons based on the Medicine Wheel Model for Nutrition. The usual care group received the usual dietary education from their personal providers.PARTICIPANTS: One hundred fourteen Northern Plains Indians from Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe aged 18 to 65 years, with type 2 diabetes.METHODS: Weight, body mass index (BMI), hemoglobin A1c, fasting serum glucose and lipid parameters, circulating insulin, and blood pressure were measured at the beginning and completion. Diet histories, physical activity, and dietary satiety surveys were measured at baseline and monthly through completion. Differences were determined using Student t tests, chi(2) tests, and analysis of variance.RESULTS: The ED group had a significant weight loss ( 1.4 ± 0.4 kg, mean ± standard error {SE}, P ≤ .05) and decrease in BMI (1.0 ± 0.1 means ± SE, P ≤ .05) from baseline to completion. The UC group had no change in weight (0.5 ± 0.5 kg, mean ± SE) or BMI (0.5 ± 0.2, mean ± SE). There were no between group differences due to intervention in calorie, carbohydrate, protein, and fat intake and physical activity.CONCLUSIONS: The culturally based nutrition intervention promoted small but positive changes in weight. Greater frequency and longer duration of educational support may be needed to influence blood glucose and lipid parameters

Tridimensional Regression for Comparing and Mapping 3D Anatomical Structures

Shape analysis is useful for a wide variety of disciplines and has many applications. There are many approaches to shape analysis, one of which focuses on the analysis of shapes that are represented by the coordinates of predefined landmarks on the object. This paper discusses Tridimensional Regression, a technique that can be used for mapping images and shapes that are represented by sets of three-dimensional landmark coordinates, for comparing and mapping 3D anatomical structures. The degree of similarity between shapes can be quantified using the tridimensional coefficient of determination (R2). An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this technique to correctly match the image of a face with another image of the same face. These results were compared to the R2 values obtained when only two dimensions are used and show that using three dimensions increases the ability to correctly match and discriminate between faces

Comparison of cortisol samples in the first two weeks of life in preterm infants

Background: Growing literature on negative childhood stress emphasizes the need to understand cortisol values from varying biomarker samples. Objective: This work aimed to examine cortisol samples for usability, associations, and individual stability in neonates. Subjects: The sample consisted of preterm infants (n=31). Materials and methods: Analyses on cortisol collected from cord blood and from saliva and urine samples on days 1, 7, and 14 included Spearman correlations and paired t-tests. Results: Usability rates were 80.6% (cord blood), 85.9% (saliva), and 93.5% (urine). Salivary and urinary cortisol levels had significant correlation on day 1 only (p=0.004). Significant differences in individual stability of cortisol concentrations existed except in urine on days 1 and 7 and in saliva on days 7 and 14. Conclusions: Usability was highest for urine samples. We found little correlation between cortisol sample levels at each time; individual stability of cortisol concentrations was minimal. Interpretation of cortisol findings in all studies should be performed cautiously

Improved Caching Strategies for Publish/Subscribe Internet Networking

MEng thesisThe systemic structure of TCP/IP is outdated; a new scheme for data transportation is needed in order to make the internet more adaptive to modern demands of mobility, information-driven demand, ever-increasing quantity of users and data, and performance requirements. While an information centric networking system addresses these issues, one required component for publish subscribe or content-addressed internet networking systems to work properly is an improved caching system. This allows the publish subscribe internet networking to dynamically route packets to mobile users, as an improvement over pure hierarchical or pure distributed caching systems. To this end, I proposed, implemented, and analyzed the workings of a superdomain caching system. The superdomain caching system is a hybrid of hierarchical and dynamic caching systems designed to continue reaping the benefits of the caching system for mobile users (who may move between neighboring domains in the midst of a network transaction) while minimizing the latency inherent in any distributed caching system to improve upon the content-addressed system

Examining the Effectiveness of Marketing Practices of a Nonprofit Institution of Higher Education: Internal Service Provider

Abstract - Quality education is the sum of Institutions of Higher Education’s (IHE) parts, including classroom instruction and internal services, that are key to a student’s success during and after college. The purpose of this study is to address an understudied sector in the nonprofit marketing literature (i.e., Institutions of Higher Education internal service providers). The current study extends Dakouan et al. (2019) work by examining the marketing efforts of an IHE’s career services center’s effectiveness in creating awareness and increasing attendance at career events. The study focuses on outbound marketing strategies addressing the research question “to what extent are outbound marketing strategies successful in creating awareness and increasing attendance at IHE’s career fairs?” Data were collected over three academic years through an intercept survey provided at career fairs and through a database of social media and digital marketing analytics at a medium-sized university located in the Southeastern United States. Frequency analyses were used to determine the effectiveness of marketing strategies in bringing awareness and increasing attendance to IHE career fairs. Further, attendance data were compared between results of frequency analyses of outbound marketing strategies. The findings revealed that only two effective forms of outbound communications used by the subject IHE’s career center were personal selling by faculty and email blast. Findings also revealed that social and internet marketing strategies used by the subject IHE career center were not effective. The results have implications as to a need for continual marketing research of trends in marketing best practices. The findings demonstrated the need for adding inbound marketing strategies(Dakouan et al., 2019) and hiring and/or training staff in marketing research, social media, and internet marketing skills. From the study’s findings, it was concluded that Filip’s(2012) study was supported. Thus, to create awareness and increase attendance at events provided by an IHE’s internal services providers, strategically applied marketing best practices are necessary