Usage Patterns and Perceptions of the Achievement, Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS)

This report offers the first systematic examination of actual usage of New York City's Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS). ARIS is a comprehensive data system designed to put student information within easy reach of school administrators and teachers. The findings suggest that ARIS has been used successfully as a school-wide planning tool, but was less valuable as a direct aid to classroom instruction. The Research Alliance will continue its study of ARIS through 2013, including an examination of some of the new components and features that have been developed recently by the Department of Education

Dry season foraging preferences of cattle and sheep in a communal area of South Africa.

We examined landscape and habitat (vegetation) scale foraging of cattle and sheep at two communal villages in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, to determine the key resources utilised during the dry season. At the landscape scale, cattle at both sites displayed overall preference for the arable lands at this time, although this diminished steadily as the dry season progressed. In contrast, sheep made considerably less use of these areas, showing only sporadic preference. At the vegetation scale, cattle demonstrated greatest preference for crop residues and uncultivated ‘commonage' areas, although foraging in grassland increased considerably in the latter stages of the dry season. Sheep utilised a much smaller range of vegetation types, preferring crop residues and fields that had been recently fallow and avoiding all other vegetation categories. We suggest that given the spatial limitations in planned, communal villages, the arable lands function as key resource areas for livestock during the dry season. It is recommended that management of these areas emphasise greater integration of sheep and cattle grazing and focus on maintaining vegetation heterogeneity in order to facilitate opportunistic ‘switching' in foraging patterns at different stages of the dry season.African Journal of Range & Forage Science 2007, 24(3): 109–12

Autochthonous Transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi, Louisiana

Autochthonous transmission of the Chagas disease parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, was detected in a patient in rural New Orleans, Louisiana. The patient had positive test results from 2 serologic tests and hemoculture. Fifty-six percent of 18 Triatoma sanguisuga collected from the house of the patient were positive for T. cruzi by PCR

Tiered Approach to Resilience Assessment

Regulatory agencies have long adopted a three-tier framework for risk assessment. We build on this structure to propose a tiered approach for resilience assessment that can be integrated into the existing regulatory processes. Comprehensive approaches to assessing resilience at appropriate and operational scales, reconciling analytical complexity as needed with stakeholder needs and resources available, and ultimately creating actionable recommendations to enhance resilience are still lacking. Our proposed framework consists of tiers by which analysts can select resilience assessment and decision support tools to inform associated management actions relative to the scope and urgency of the risk and the capacity of resource managers to improve system resilience. The resilience management framework proposed is not intended to supplant either risk management or the many existing efforts of resilience quantification method development, but instead provide a guide to selecting tools that are appropriate for the given analytic need. The goal of this tiered approach is to intentionally parallel the tiered approach used in regulatory contexts so that resilience assessment might be more easily and quickly integrated into existing structures and with existing policies

Addressing marine and coastal governance conflicts at the interface of multiple sectors and jurisdictions

Marine and coastal activities are closely interrelated, and conflicts among different sectors can undermine management and conservation objectives. Governance systems for fisheries, power generation, irrigation, aquaculture, marine biodiversity conservation, and other coastal and maritime activities are typically organized to manage conflicts within sectors, rather than across them. Based on the discussions around eight case studies presented at a workshop held in Brest in June 2019, this paper explores institutional approaches to move beyond managing conflicts within a sector. We primarily focus on cases where the groups and sectors involved are heterogeneous in terms of: the jurisdiction they fall under; their objectives; and the way they value ecosystem services. The paper first presents a synthesis of frameworks for understanding and managing cross-sectoral governance conflicts, drawing from social and natural sciences. We highlight commonalities but also conceptual differences across disciplines to address these issues. We then propose a novel analytical framework which we used to evaluate the eight case studies. Based on the main lessons learned from case studies, we then discuss the feasibility and key determinants of stakeholder collaboration as well as compensation and incentive schemes. The discussion concludes with future research needs to support policy development and inform integrated institutional regimes that consider the diversity of stakeholder interests and the potential benefits of cross-sectoral coordination

Food addiction and preoperative weight loss achievement in patients seeking bariatric surgery

IntroductionEvidence suggests that food addiction (FA) is prevalent among individuals with obesity seeking bariatric surgery (BS), but there is no evidence about whether FA is a predictor of weight loss (WL). We aimed to analyse the prevalence of FA in patients with obesity seeking BS and to examine whether FA could predict WL following dietary intervention before surgery.MethodThe study included 110 patients with obesity who underwent a dietetic intervention. Assessment included endocrinological variables, a semistructured interview to rule out mental disorders, and Yale Food Addiction Scale version 2.0 (YFAS 2.0).ResultsIn our sample, the prevalence of FA was 26.4%. Those who met YFAS 2.0 criteria showed less WL after dietetic intervention and regain weight during dietary intervention.ConclusionsFA appears to be prevalent in obesity. Our findings confirmed a lower WL throughout dietary intervention before surgery in patients who fulfilled baseline criteria for FA. Future interventions should include multidisciplinary intervention to maximize WL before and after BS.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146573/1/erv2649.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146573/2/erv2649_am.pd

Perspectives on ethnic and racial disparities in Alzheimer\u27s disease and related dementias: Update and areas of immediate need

Alzheimer\u27s disease and related dementias (ADRDs) are a global crisis facing the aging population and society as a whole. With the numbers of people with ADRDs predicted to rise dramatically across the world, the scientific community can no longer neglect the need for research focusing on ADRDs among underrepresented ethnoracial diverse groups. The Alzheimer\u27s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer\u27s Research and Treatment (ISTAART; alz.org/ISTAART) comprises a number of professional interest areas (PIAs), each focusing on a major scientific area associated with ADRDs. We leverage the expertise of the existing international cadre of ISTAART scientists and experts to synthesize a cross-PIA white paper that provides both a concise “state-of-the-science” report of ethnoracial factors across PIA foci and updated recommendations to address immediate needs to advance ADRD science across ethnoracial populations. © 2018 The Author