Back to the Future Part 2: Surveying Geospatial Technology Needs of Georgia Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Professionals

Land conversion and habitat fragmentation are affecting natural resources. Land use/land cover change models can play an important role in understanding these impacts and illustrating the land conversion process to the public. A two-phase needs assessment was conducted to understand the perspectives, attitudes, and needs of planning and education officials. The second phase targeted Extension professionals in Georgia. The majority of Extension professionals surveyed felt that land use/land cover change projections would be valuable in their extension efforts. They felt that projections would be best distributed via Web-based access to maps and through research centers or workshops

Antidepressants and Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk: A Review of the Literature and Researchers' Financial Associations with Industry

BACKGROUND: Antidepressant (AD) use has been purported to increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, although both epidemiological and pre-clinical studies have reported mixed results. Previous studies in a variety of biomedical fields have found that financial ties to drug companies are associated with favorable study conclusions. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We searched English-language articles in MEDLINE, PsychINFO, the Science Citations Index and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Clinical Trials (through November 2010). A total of 61 articles that assessed the relationship between breast and ovarian cancer and AD use and articles that examined the effect of ADs on cell growth were included. Multi-modal screening techniques were used to investigate researchers' financial ties with industry. A random effects meta-analysis was used to pool the findings from the epidemiological literature. Thirty-three percent (20/61) of the studies reported a positive association between ADs and cancer. Sixty-seven percent (41/61) of the studies reported no association or antiproliferative effect. The pooled odds ratio for the association between AD use and breast/ovarian cancer in the epidemiologic studies was 1.11 (95% CI, 1.03-1.20). Researchers with industry affiliations were significantly less likely than researchers without those ties to conclude that ADs increase the risk of breast or ovarian cancer. (0/15 [0%] vs 20/46 [43.5%] (Fisher's Exact test P = 0.0012). CONCLUSIONS: Both the pre-clinical and clinical data are mixed in terms of showing an association between AD use and breast and ovarian cancer. The possibility that ADs may exhibit a bi-phasic effect, whereby short-term use and/or low dose antidepressants may increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, warrants further investigation. Industry affiliations were significantly associated with negative conclusions regarding cancer risk. The findings have implications in light of the 2009 USPSTF guidelines for breast cancer screening and for the informed consent process

Assessment of Geographic Information System (GIS) Skills Employed by Graduates from Three Forestry Programs in the United States

This research evaluates the current use of geographic information systems (GIS) by forestry program graduates employed in the United States who graduated from university in the past five years. The purpose was to understand what geospatial processes and databases are typically used by field foresters. A survey was designed and sent to recent forestry graduates from Mississippi State University, Oregon State University, and the University of Georgia, with 30% of those surveyed choosing to participate. The majority of forestry graduates surveyed use GIS at least once a week, and the most frequently employed tasks included editing tabular data, adjusting polygon boundaries, buffering and splitting polygons, and querying for spatial and tabular information. Very few overlay or advance spatial analysis tools were noted as used in regular work efforts. Most respondents use digital aerial photographs as reference, along with satellite images. LiDAR is increasingly being used by these foresters, but to a lesser extent. ArcMap and Google Earth were noted as the most commonly used software packages. Most foresters rely on an organization’s technical support staff for assistance. The study results can be used as a guide for academic programs in their efforts to provide timely and effective knowledge on geospatial topics to forestry undergraduate students

Forest management issues of the southern United States and comparisons with Turkey

Bettinger, Pete/0000-0002-5454-3970; Cieszewski, Chris J./0000-0003-2842-4406WOS: 000321226600010Most of the forest area in the southern United States has been cleared, regrown, purchased, and sold several times over the last 200 years, and forest management practices generally focus on wood production. Agricultural expansion, use, and the abandonment of land have been the major forces behind land use change, and now human population expansion is a major issue. The land tenure system of the United States has allowed individuals and companies to acquire, use, and sell land since the time of European colonization; thus, private ownership of land dominates the southern region. However, new private, corporate, nonindustrial entities have arisen in the last 20 years, mainly as a result of tax policies and changes in industrial business organizations. While in Turkey planning systems are centralized, these systems vary by landowner group in the southern United States. They range from those that are relatively absent (nonindustrial private landowners) to those that are very formal (national forests). The management of forests in the southern United States is also guided by a number of federal, state, and local policies rather than a single enterprise plan, and these policies affect the direction of both public and private forest management. Specifically with regard to public land, the mission and objectives of forestry are similar to those in Turkey, except when considering the needs of local citizens, which has been given greater emphasis in Turkish forest management and planning