Watershed Outreach Professionals' Behavior Change Practices, Challenges, and Needs: Insights and Recommendations for the Chesapeake Bay Trust

This project was conducted in collaboration with a Maryland non-profit grant-making organization, the Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT). The goal of the project was to determine how to assist local organizations in implementing environmental outreach programs (EOPs) that foster environmentally responsible behaviors (ERB) within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Based on findings from a review of conservation psychology literature, interviews with outreach program leaders, and observations of EOPs, the team designed and administered a survey to the CBT grant applicants (n=108, r=55%). The survey determined the EOP practices, challenges, and needs of these organizations. Survey results demonstrated that the majority of respondents’ organizations seek to motivate individuals to protect the Bay (97%) and that their EOPs have behavioral objectives (62%). Respondents reported that they motivate people in variety of ways, such as raising awareness (91 %). Their EOPs, however, also demonstrated misperceptions about how to achieve behavior change, for example suggesting that raising awareness will lead to ERB. Responses further revealed that many organizations are incorporating behavior change strategies and outreach best practices, such as targeting audiences (76%) and conducting internal evaluations (78%). Respondents, however, face challenges in implementing EOPs including: recruiting audiences not already environmentally motivated (53%); intentionally using behavior change strategies (52%); and developing EOPs with limited resources (48%). Finally, respondents felt their EOPs would most benefit from increased collaboration with other organizations (73%), opportunities to learn more about evaluation (63%), and training in how to incorporate academic research on ERB (53%). These survey results, as well as interview, observation, grant review, and presentation findings, led to the development of recommendations for the CBT and other funders interested in supporting EOPs to motivate ERB. Recommendations focused on facilitating effective program design include, addressing behavior change misconceptions, offering opportunities to learn more about behavior change, and developing outreach best practices skills, such as audience targeting and assessment. The recommendations also focus on ways to ensure that the needs of under-resourced grantees are met by encouraging collaboration and providing user-friendly, Bay-specific resources, such as the Rapid Assessment tool and guide to Strategies for Motivating Watershed Behavior created by the team.Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90869/1/Watershed Outreach Professionals' Behavior Change Practices, Challenges, and Needs[1].pd

Evidence of axon connectivity across a spinal cord transection in rats treated with epidural stimulation and motor training combined with olfactory ensheathing cell transplantation

Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are unique glia that support axon outgrowth in the olfactory system, and when used as cellular therapy after spinal cord injury, improve recovery and axon regeneration. Here we assessed the effects of combining OEC transplantation with another promising therapy, epidural electrical stimulation during a rehabilitative motor task. Sprague-Dawley rats received a mid-thoracic transection and transplantation of OECs or fibroblasts (FBs) followed by lumbar stimulation while climbing an inclined grid. We injected pseudorabies virus (PRV) into hindlimb muscles 7 months post-injury to assess connectivity across the transection. Analyses showed that the number of serotonergic (5-HT) axons that crossed the rostral scar border and the area of neurofilament-positive axons in the injury site were both greater in OEC- than FB-treated rats. We detected PRV-labeled cells rostral to the transection and remarkable evidence of 5-HT and PRV axons crossing the injury site in 1 OEC- and 1 FB-treated rat. The axons that crossed suggested either axon regeneration (OEC) or small areas of probable tissue sparing (FB). Most PRV-labeled thoracic neurons were detected in laminae VII or X, and ~25% expressed Chx10, a marker for V2a interneurons. These findings suggest potential regeneration or sparing of circuits that connect thoracic interneurons to lumbar somatic motor neurons. Despite evidence of axonal connectivity, no behavioral changes were detected in this small-scale study. Together these data suggest that when supplemented with epidural stimulation and climbing, OEC transplantation can increase axonal growth across the injury site and may promote recovery of propriospinal circuitry

Identification and mitigation of narrow spectral artifacts that degrade searches for persistent gravitational waves in the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO

International audienceSearches are under way in Advanced LIGO and Virgo data for persistent gravitational waves from continuous sources, e.g. rapidly rotating galactic neutron stars, and stochastic sources, e.g. relic gravitational waves from the Big Bang or superposition of distant astrophysical events such as mergers of black holes or neutron stars. These searches can be degraded by the presence of narrow spectral artifacts (lines) due to instrumental or environmental disturbances. We describe a variety of methods used for finding, identifying and mitigating these artifacts, illustrated with particular examples. Results are provided in the form of lists of line artifacts that can safely be treated as non-astrophysical. Such lists are used to improve the efficiencies and sensitivities of continuous and stochastic gravitational wave searches by allowing vetoes of false outliers and permitting data cleaning

Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first observing run of Advanced LIGO

International audienceDuring their first observational run, the two Advanced LIGO detectors attained an unprecedented sensitivity, resulting in the first direct detections of gravitational-wave signals produced by stellar-mass binary black hole systems. This paper reports on an all-sky search for gravitational waves (GWs) from merging intermediate mass black hole binaries (IMBHBs). The combined results from two independent search techniques were used in this study: the first employs a matched-filter algorithm that uses a bank of filters covering the GW signal parameter space, while the second is a generic search for GW transients (bursts). No GWs from IMBHBs were detected; therefore, we constrain the rate of several classes of IMBHB mergers. The most stringent limit is obtained for black holes of individual mass 100  M⊙, with spins aligned with the binary orbital angular momentum. For such systems, the merger rate is constrained to be less than 0.93  Gpc−3 yr−1 in comoving units at the 90% confidence level, an improvement of nearly 2 orders of magnitude over previous upper limits

First low-frequency Einstein@Home all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in Advanced LIGO data

International audienceWe report results of a deep all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars in data from the first Advanced LIGO observing run. This search investigates the low frequency range of Advanced LIGO data, between 20 and 100 Hz, much of which was not explored in initial LIGO. The search was made possible by the computing power provided by the volunteers of the Einstein@Home project. We find no significant signal candidate and set the most stringent upper limits to date on the amplitude of gravitational wave signals from the target population, corresponding to a sensitivity depth of 48.7  [1/Hz]. At the frequency of best strain sensitivity, near 100 Hz, we set 90% confidence upper limits of 1.8×10-25. At the low end of our frequency range, 20 Hz, we achieve upper limits of 3.9×10-24. At 55 Hz we can exclude sources with ellipticities greater than 10-5 within 100 pc of Earth with fiducial value of the principal moment of inertia of 1038  kg m2

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

International audienceSpinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far