Color aerial photography as a guide to foliar nutrient levels and site index in loblolly pine plantations

Color aerial photographs were obtained during the winter of 1979-80 of extensive areas of loblolly pine plantations in Franklin County, Alabama, and Wayne County, Tennessee. Three separate inter-preters using acetate overlays drew boundaries between color classes that could be detected within and among these plantations as seen on the aerial photographs. Interpreters identified three Munsell color classes (2.5 G 3/4, 2.5 6Y 5/4, and 2.5 GY 6/6) into which the range of loblolly pine crown colors detected on photographs were coded. Foliar nitrogen, site index, and basal area were positively correlated with increasing greenness in these Munsell color classes. This technique permitted evaluation of productivity (site index) and foliar nutrient status from color aerial photographs, enabling more efficient land classification and possibly more efficient use of fertilizers for increasing productivity

A note on καὶ ἀφανίσθητε (LXX Hab 1:5)

The Greek translation of Hab 1:5 contains an element that is absent in other textual witnesses: καὶ ἀφανίσθητε »and be annihilated.« In this essay I will consider three possible explanations for the presence of this plus, and I will suggest two potential sources for its origin: LXX Hos 14:1, and the Hebrew text of Psalm 94.Peer reviewe

General strain theory and social support: a study of African Americans

Agnew’s (1992) general strain theory (GST) has gained increasing attention and empirical support for the effects of strain on negative emotions and deviant coping. However, previous research provides inconsistent results about (1) the effects of negative emotions on deviant coping, (2) the significance of social support in GST, and (3) gender differences and GST. This paper addresses these issues by testing hypotheses generated from GST and analyzing data collected from a nationally representative sample of African American adults. Results from ordinary least squares regression analyses generally support the hypotheses. First, the effects of strain on deviant coping are fully mediated by negative emotions. In addition, the same-directed effects of negative emotions on deviance (outer-directed negative emotions on outer-directed deviance) are larger than opposite-directed effects (inner-directed negative emotions on outer-directed deviance) as hypothesized. Second, social support was found to have significant direct effects on both negative emotions and deviant coping, while buffering effects of social support on strain and negative emotions as well as negative emotions and deviance were not observed. Finally, this study found no gender differences in emotional reactions to strain and the buffering effects of social support. Implications of these findings are discussed as well as the future development of GST

The one and the many, the past and the future, and the dynamics of prospective analogy : the Servant(s) as the vindication of Moses and the Prophets

Postprin

A scoping review finds a growing trend in studies validating multimorbidity patterns and identifies five broad types of validation methods

Objectives: Multimorbidity, the presence of two or more long-term conditions, is a growing public health concern. Many studies use analytical methods to discover multimorbidity patterns from data. We aimed to review approaches used in published literature to validate these patterns.Study design and setting: We systematically searched PubMed and Web of Science for studies published between July 2017 and July 2023 that used analytical methods to discover multimorbidity patterns.Results: Out of 31,617 studies returned by the searches, 172 were included. Of these, 111 studies (64%) conducted validation, the number of studies with validation increased from 53.13% (17 out of 32 studies) to 71.25% (57 out of 80 studies) in 2017-2019 to 2022-2023, respectively. Five types of validation were identified: assessing the association of multimorbidity patterns with clinical outcomes (n = 79), stability across subsamples (n = 26), clinical plausibility (n = 22), stability across methods (n = 7) and exploring common determinants (n = 2). Some studies used multiple types of validation.Conclusion: The number of studies conducting a validation of multimorbidity patterns is clearly increasing. The most popular validation approach is assessing the association of multimorbidity patterns with clinical outcomes. Methodological guidance on the validation of multimorbidity patterns is needed

10-year multimorbidity patterns among people with and without rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases: an observational cohort study using linked electronic health records from Wales, UK

Objectives To compare the patterns of multimorbidity between people with and without rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) and to describe how these patterns change by age and sex over time, between 2010 and 2019.Participants 103 426 people with RMDs and 2.9 million comparators registered in 395 Wales general practices (GPs). Each patient with an RMD aged 0–100 years between January 2010 and December 2019 registered in Clinical Practice Research Welsh practices was matched with up to five comparators without an RMD, based on age, gender and GP code.Primary outcome measures The prevalence of 29 Elixhauser-defined comorbidities in people with RMDs and comparators categorised by age, gender and GP practices. Conditional logistic regression models were fitted to calculate differences (OR, 95% CI) in associations with comorbidities between cohorts.Results The most prevalent comorbidities were cardiovascular risk factors, hypertension and diabetes. Having an RMD diagnosis was associated with a significantly higher odds for many conditions including deficiency anaemia (OR 1.39, 95% CI (1.32 to 1.46)), hypothyroidism (OR 1.34, 95% CI (1.19 to 1.50)), pulmonary circulation disorders (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.73) diabetes (OR 1.17, 95% CI (1.11 to 1.23)) and fluid and electrolyte disorders (OR 1.27, 95% CI (1.17 to 1.38)). RMDs have a higher proportion of multimorbidity (two or more conditions in addition to the RMD) compared with non-RMD group (81% and 73%, respectively in 2019) and the mean number of comorbidities was higher in women from the age of 25 and 50 in men than in non-RMDs group.Conclusion People with RMDs are approximately 1.5 times as likely to have multimorbidity as the general population and provide a high-risk group for targeted intervention studies. The individuals with RMDs experience a greater load of coexisting health conditions, which tend to manifest at earlier ages. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced among women. Additionally, there is an under-reporting of comorbidities in individuals with RMDs

Ranking sets of morbidities using hypergraph centrality

Multi-morbidity, the health state of having two or more concurrent chronic conditions, is becoming more common as populations age, but is poorly understood. Identifying and understanding commonly occurring sets of diseases is important to inform clinical decisions to improve patient services and outcomes. Network analysis has been previously used to investigate multi-morbidity, but a classic application only allows for information on binary sets of diseases to contribute to the graph. We propose the use of hypergraphs, which allows for the incorporation of data on people with any number of conditions, and also allows us to obtain a quantitative understanding of the centrality, a measure of how well connected items in the network are to each other, of both single diseases and sets of conditions. Using this framework we illustrate its application with the set of conditions described in the Charlson morbidity index using data extracted from routinely collected population-scale, patient level electronic health records (EHR) for a cohort of adults in Wales, UK. Stroke and diabetes were found to be the most central single conditions. Sets of diseases featuring diabetes; diabetes with Chronic Pulmonary Disease, Renal Disease, Congestive Heart Failure and Cancer were the most central pairs of diseases. We investigated the differences between results obtained from the hypergraph and a classic binary graph and found that the cen-trality of diseases such as paraplegia, which are connected strongly to a single other disease is exaggerated in binary graphs compared to hypergraphs. The measure of centrality is derived from the weighting metrics calculated for disease sets and further investigation is needed to better understand the effect of the metric used in identifying the clinical significance and ranked centrality of grouped diseases. These initial results indicate that hypergraphs can be used as a valuable tool for analysing previously poorly understood relationships and in-formation available in EHR data

Perceptions of university among Irish children and adolescents

This study uses both qualitative and quantitative data to inquire into the perceptions that young children and adolescents have about university. The study seeks to understand what influences have affected the construction of these perceptions. The study population are pupils from primary and post-primary schools in the greater Dublin area which span the social and economic divide from middle to working class. The pupils are both males and females who are attending single-sex and co-educational schools. I began my study with a literature review examining the work of historians and scholars who have sought to identify the idea of a university. I compared this with the continually evolving roles of modern universities. This provides a definition against which the perceptions of the pupils can be compared. The review then examines current research on the retention rates for first year university students and the causes which have been identified as influencing students’ decision not to continue with their studies. I use this data to understand the complex relationships between these causes and the impact individual perceptions have on a pupil’s decision to attend and remain at university. The review also looks at the role social background and cultural capital play in the formation of young children’s and adolescents’ perceptions about university. It outlines how cultural capital is gained and exchanged and looks at the imbalance of social classes in the student cohort of universities. The findings of this research have implications for further research into how school and university bodies can prepare pupils for university. They imply that there is an aspiration to attend university amongst young children and adolescents across the social divide. But those pupils do not have a clear understanding of the consequences of their decision to attend or of what is expected from them as students at university