An Example of an Outreach Program for Horse Pasture Management and Education

Kentucky boasts over 30,000 horse farms that house over 200,000 horses. The University of Kentucky Horse Pasture Evaluation Program began in 2005 to assist horse owners and managers in improving pasture quality and quantity. This program collects detailed botanical composition and tall fescue analysis to provide horse owners and managers with a comprehensive picture of pasture composition and field by field recommendations on management practices that will improve each pasture. Samples of tall fescue are also collected and analysed for endophyte presence and ergovaline concentration to evaluate tall fescue toxicity risk. Management recommendations include tall fescue mitigation or elimination strategies. All of this data as well as recommendations, maps, and publications are presented in a detailed report and discussed with the farm. The program has exceeded expectations, and to date, has conducted over 300 evaluations on 175 farms across 26 Kentucky counties. Because of the connections made by this program to the horse community, the University of Kentucky Forage Extension Program has expanded its work in the equine industry to regularly host field days, workshops, and grant funded initiatives

Effectively Reaching the Equine Community in Kentucky

Since 2009, Extension Specialists and County Extension Agents from the University of Kentucky in the Southeast United States have conducted an annual educational event; the Kentucky Equine Farm and Facilities Expo field-day. These annual field-days have provided practical, hands-on demonstrations and seminars for 135-250 members of the equine community per event. Participants have been a mix of horse owners in relation to farm size, number of horses and business vs. recreation. Many participants have not been previous consumers of Extension educational programming. One of the major draws of the Farm and Facility Expo field days has been the host sites, which have included various well-known Thoroughbred, Sport-Horse and Quarter Horse farms, with an increased number of participants observed when the event was held at well-known farms. Partnerships have been established with many equine related businesses, with over 30 companies displaying their products and services at the event. The educational programs at these events have been conducted by Extension Specialists, industry experts and Extension Agents and have included timely topics such as weed identification and control, vaccination protocols, farm safety, pasture management and renovation, rotational grazing, feeding and nutrition, fencing options, barn design, on-farm solar energy and many others. Post-event evaluations have been conducted and, of the more than 2,400 persons who attended these events, 84.25% of the respondents have found the information presented useful in the management of their horse operation, 78.5% planned to make at least one change in their horse operation and 90% were very satisfied with the event

Early Childhood Workforce Index

The existing early care and education (ECE) system does a disservice to the educators — largely women and often women of color — who nurture and facilitate learning for millions of the nation's youngest children every day. Despite their important, complex labor, early educators' working conditions undermine their wellbeing and create devastating financial insecurity well into retirement age. These conditions also jeopardize their ability to work effectively with children. As we find ourselves in the middle of a global pandemic, child care has been hailed as essential, yet policy responses to COVID-19 have mostly ignored educators themselves, leaving most to choose between their livelihood and their health. Unlike public schools, when child care programs close, there's no guarantee that early educators will continue to be paid. Even as many providers try to keep their doors open to ensure their financial security, the combination of higher costs to meet safety protocols and lower revenue from fewer children enrolled is leading to job losses and program closures. Many of these closures and lost jobs are expected to become permanent. Over the course of the first eight months of the pandemic, 166,000 jobs in the child care industry were lost. As of October 2020, the industry was only 83 percent as large as it was in February, before the pandemic began.

H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza clade 2.3.4.4b in wild and domestic birds: Introductions into the United States and reassortments, December 2021–April 2022

Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) of the A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 lineage H5 clade 2.3.4.4b continue to have a devastating effect on domestic and wild birds. Full genome sequence analyses using 1369 H5N1 HPAIVs detected in the United States (U.S.) in wild birds, commercial poultry, and backyard flocks from December 2021 to April 2022, showed three phylogenetically distinct H5N1 virus introductions in the U.S. by wild birds. Unreassorted Eurasian genotypes A1 and A2 entered the Northeast Atlantic states, whereas a genetically distinct A3 genotype was detected in Alaska. The A1 genotype spread westward via wild bird migration and reassorted with North American wild bird avian influenza viruses. Reassortments of up to five internal genes generated a total of 21 distinct clusters; of these, six genotypes represented 92% of the HPAIVs examined. By phylodynamic analyses, most detections in domestic birds were shown to be point-source transmissions from wild birds, with limited farm-to-farm spread

Verbal Learning and Memory Deficits across Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Insights from an ENIGMA Mega Analysis.

Deficits in memory performance have been linked to a wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. While many studies have assessed the memory impacts of individual conditions, this study considers a broader perspective by evaluating how memory recall is differentially associated with nine common neuropsychiatric conditions using data drawn from 55 international studies, aggregating 15,883 unique participants aged 15-90. The effects of dementia, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder on immediate, short-, and long-delay verbal learning and memory (VLM) scores were estimated relative to matched healthy individuals. Random forest models identified age, years of education, and site as important VLM covariates. A Bayesian harmonization approach was used to isolate and remove site effects. Regression estimated the adjusted association of each clinical group with VLM scores. Memory deficits were strongly associated with dementia and schizophrenia (p 0.05). Differences associated with clinical conditions were larger for longer delayed recall duration items. By comparing VLM across clinical conditions, this study provides a foundation for enhanced diagnostic precision and offers new insights into disease management of comorbid disorders

Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors

Background Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, and nonfatal suicide attempts, which occur far more frequently, are a major source of disability and social and economic burden. Both have substantial genetic etiology, which is partially shared and partially distinct from that of related psychiatric disorders. Methods We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 29,782 suicide attempt (SA) cases and 519,961 controls in the International Suicide Genetics Consortium (ISGC). The GWAS of SA was conditioned on psychiatric disorders using GWAS summary statistics via multitrait-based conditional and joint analysis, to remove genetic effects on SA mediated by psychiatric disorders. We investigated the shared and divergent genetic architectures of SA, psychiatric disorders, and other known risk factors. Results Two loci reached genome-wide significance for SA: the major histocompatibility complex and an intergenic locus on chromosome 7, the latter of which remained associated with SA after conditioning on psychiatric disorders and replicated in an independent cohort from the Million Veteran Program. This locus has been implicated in risk-taking behavior, smoking, and insomnia. SA showed strong genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, and also with smoking, pain, risk-taking behavior, sleep disturbances, lower educational attainment, reproductive traits, lower socioeconomic status, and poorer general health. After conditioning on psychiatric disorders, the genetic correlations between SA and psychiatric disorders decreased, whereas those with nonpsychiatric traits remained largely unchanged. Conclusions Our results identify a risk locus that contributes more strongly to SA than other phenotypes and suggest a shared underlying biology between SA and known risk factors that is not mediated by psychiatric disorders.Peer reviewe

Early Childhood Workforce Index 2020

The Early Childhood Workforce Index provides a state-by-state look at policies and conditions affecting the early care and education workforce. This biennial report has tracked state progress since 2016.This third, 2020 edition of the Index continues to track state policies in essential areas like workforce qualifications, work environments, and compensation. The report provides updated policy recommendations and spotlights state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Early Childhood Workforce Index 2020

The Early Childhood Workforce Index provides a state-by-state look at policies and conditions affecting the early care and education workforce. This biennial report has tracked state progress since 2016.This third, 2020 edition of the Index continues to track state policies in essential areas like workforce qualifications, work environments, and compensation. The report provides updated policy recommendations and spotlights state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Correction: Challenges of implementing Mark-recapture studies on poorly marked gregarious delphinids.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198167.]