Interpreting forest and grassland biome productivity utilizing nested scales of image resolution and biogeographical analysis

Several hardware, software, and data collection problems encountered were conquered. The Geographic Information System (GIS) data from other systems were converted to ERDAS format for incorporation with the image data. Statistical analysis of the relationship between spectral values and productivity is being pursued. Several project sites, including Jackson, Pope, Boulder, Smokies, and Huntington Forest are evolving as the most intensively studied areas, primarily due to availability of data and time. Progress with data acquisition and quality checking, more details on experimental sites, and brief summarizations of research results and future plans are discussed. Material on personnel, collaborators, facilities, site background, and meetings and publications of the investigators are included

Household food insecurity positively associated with increased hospital charges for infants

Objective: To test whether household food insecurity (HFI) was associated with total annual hospitalization charges, annual days hospitalized, and charges per day, among low-income infants (months) with any non-neonatal hospital stays. Methods: Administrative inpatient hospital charge data were matched to survey data from infants\u27 caregivers interviewed 1998-2005 in emergency departments in Boston and Little Rock. All study infants had been hospitalized at least once since birth; infants whose diagnoses were not plausibly related to nutrition were excluded from both groups. Log-transformed hospitalization charges were analyzed, controlling for site fixed effects. Results: 24% of infants from food-insecure households and 16% from food-secure households were hospitalized \u3e2 times (P=0.02). Mean annual inpatient hospital charges ($6,707 vs$5,735; P Conclusion: HFI was positively associated with annual inpatient charges among hospitalized low income infants. Average annual inpatient charges were almost $2,000 higher (inflation adjusted) for infants living in food-insecure households. Reducing or eliminating food insecurity could reduce health services utilization and expenditures for infants in low-income families, most of whom are covered by public health insurance

Enhancers and silencers: an integrated and simple model for their function

Regulatory DNA elements such as enhancers, silencers and insulators are embedded in metazoan genomes, and they control gene expression during development. Although they fulfil different roles, they share specific properties. Herein we discuss some examples and a parsimonious model for their function is proposed. All are transcription units that tether their target promoters close to, or distant from, transcriptional hot spots (or 'factories')

Verbal Communication Skills Requirements for Information Systems Professionals

The role of information systems (IS) professionals in organizations has changed through the years, from one who works mostly with technically oriented peers, to one who spends a significant amount of time interacting with people who are involved in the functional areas of the organization. In many organizations, IS professionals are assigned permanently to the user area and they are expected to not only be technically competent, but also be competent in the user\u27s area. This move of IS professionals to the functional areas necessitates that they communicate more with the functional users whose IS needs they are fulfilling. The users, on the other hand, are also required to interact and communicate more with the IS people. With the move toward distributed IS, users are becoming more involved in the specification, design and sometimes even construction of their own systems. It is therefore imperative that analysts and users be able to communicate with each other unequivocally, so that the systems are specified and developed properly. This research investigated the verbal communication skills requirements for IS practicing professionals and new university graduates. A survey was used for data collection. It was sent to IS professionals in several large organizations, that represented the industry in general. A nearly perfect response rate was achieved. The findings are useful for both IS professionals and university programs. Organizations can use the findings to identify areas of weaknesses in the skills of their IS personnel and eliminate them with continuing education. Universities can use the findings to identify skills that they may not be currently emphasizing in their curricula and make necessary adjustments

The Sustainability of New Programs and Innovations: A Review of the Empirical Literature and Recommendations for Future Research

Background: The introduction of evidence-based programs and practices into healthcare settings has been the subject of an increasing amount of research in recent years. While a number of studies have examined initial implementation efforts, less research has been conducted to determine what happens beyond that point. There is increasing recognition that the extent to which new programs are sustained is influenced by many different factors and that more needs to be known about just what these factors are and how they interact. To understand the current state of the research literature on sustainability, our team took stock of what is currently known in this area and identified areas in which further research would be particularly helpful. This paper reviews the methods that have been used, the types of outcomes that have been measured and reported, findings from studies that reported long-term implementation outcomes, and factors that have been identified as potential influences on the sustained use of new practices, programs, or interventions. We conclude with recommendations and considerations for future research. Methods: Two coders identified 125 studies on sustainability that met eligibility criteria. An initial coding scheme was developed based on constructs identified in previous literature on implementation. Additional codes were generated deductively. Related constructs among factors were identified by consensus and collapsed under the general categories. Studies that described the extent to which programs or innovations were sustained were also categorized and summarized. Results: Although “sustainability” was the term most commonly used in the literature to refer to what happened after initial implementation, not all the studies that were reviewed actually presented working definitions of the term. Most study designs were retrospective and naturalistic. Approximately half of the studies relied on self-reports to assess sustainability or elements that influence sustainability. Approximately half employed quantitative methodologies, and the remainder employed qualitative or mixed methodologies. Few studies that investigated sustainability outcomes employed rigorous methods of evaluation (e.g., objective evaluation, judgement of implementation quality or fidelity). Among those that did, a small number reported full sustainment or high fidelity. Very little research has examined the extent, nature, or impact of adaptations to the interventions or programs once implemented. Influences on sustainability included organizational context, capacity, processes, and factors related to the new program or practice themselves. Conclusions: Clearer definitions and research that is guided by the conceptual literature on sustainability are critical to the development of the research in the area. Further efforts to characterize the phenomenon and the factors that influence it will enhance the quality of future research. Careful consideration must also be given to interactions among influences at multiple levels, as well as issues such as fidelity, modification, and changes in implementation over time. While prospective and experimental designs are needed, there is also an important role for qualitative research in efforts to understand the phenomenon, refine hypotheses, and develop strategies to promote sustainment

A multispecies tree ring reconstruction of Potomac River streamflow (950-2001)

Millennial length reconstruction of Potomac River StreamflowInstrumental record does represent the past milleniumImprovement upon the previous reconstructio

Census of the Local Universe (CLU) Narrow-Band Survey I: Galaxy Catalogs from Preliminary Fields

We present the Census of the Local Universe (CLU) narrow-band survey to search for emission-line (\ha) galaxies. CLU-\ha~has imaged $\approx$3$\pi$ of the sky (26,470~deg$^2$) with 4 narrow-band filters that probe a distance out to 200~Mpc. We have obtained spectroscopic follow-up for galaxy candidates in 14 preliminary fields (101.6~deg$^2$) to characterize the limits and completeness of the survey. In these preliminary fields, CLU can identify emission lines down to an \ha~flux limit of $10^{-14}$~$\rm{erg~s^{-1}~cm^{-2}}$ at 90\% completeness, and recovers 83\% (67\%) of the \ha~flux from catalogued galaxies in our search volume at the $\Sigma$=2.5 ($\Sigma$=5) color excess levels. The contamination from galaxies with no emission lines is 61\% (12\%) for $\Sigma$=2.5 ($\Sigma$=5). Also, in the regions of overlap between our preliminary fields and previous emission-line surveys, we recover the majority of the galaxies found in previous surveys and identify an additional $\approx$300 galaxies. In total, we find 90 galaxies with no previous distance information, several of which are interesting objects: 7 blue compact dwarfs, 1 green pea, and a Seyfert galaxy; we also identified a known planetary nebula. These objects show that the CLU-\ha~survey can be a discovery machine for objects in our own Galaxy and extreme galaxies out to intermediate redshifts. However, the majority of the CLU-\ha~galaxies identified in this work show properties consistent with normal star-forming galaxies. CLU-\ha~galaxies with new redshifts will be added to existing galaxy catalogs to focus the search for the electromagnetic counterpart to gravitational wave events.Comment: 28 pages, 22 figures, 4 tables (Accepted to ApJ

Last millennium northern hemisphere summer temperatures from tree rings: Part I: The long term context

Large-scale millennial length Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperature reconstructions have been progressively improved over the last 20 years as new datasets have been developed. This paper, and its companion (Part II, Anchukaitis et al. in prep), details the latest tree-ring (TR) based NH land air temperature reconstruction from a temporal and spatial perspective. This work is the first product of a consortium called N-TREND (Northern Hemisphere Tree-Ring Network Development) which brings together dendroclimatologists to identify a collective strategy for improving large-scale summer temperature reconstructions. The new reconstruction, N-TREND2015, utilises 54 records, a significant expansion compared with previous TR studies, and yields an improved reconstruction with stronger statistical calibration metrics. N-TREND2015 is relatively insensitive to the compositing method and spatial weighting used and validation metrics indicate that the new record portrays reasonable coherence with large scale summer temperatures and is robust at all time-scales from 918 to 2004 where at least 3 TR records exist from each major continental mass. N-TREND2015 indicates a longer and warmer medieval period (∼900–1170) than portrayed by previous TR NH reconstructions and by the CMIP5 model ensemble, but with better overall agreement between records for the last 600 years. Future dendroclimatic projects should focus on developing new long records from data-sparse regions such as North America and eastern Eurasia as well as ensuring the measurement of parameters related to latewood density to complement ring-width records which can improve local based calibration substantially

Interpreting forest and grassland biome productivity utilizing nested scales of image resolution and biogeographical analysis

Data acquisition, initial site characterization, image and geographic information methods available, and brief evaluations of first-year for NASA's Thematic Mapper (TM) working group are presented. The TM and other spectral data are examined in order to relate local, intensive ecosystem research findings to estimates of carbon cycling rates over wide geographic regions. The effort is to span environments ranging from dry to moist climates and from good to poor site quality using the TM capability, with and without the inclusion of geographic information system (GIS) data, and thus to interpret the local spatial pattern of factors conditioning biomass or productivity. Twenty-eight TM data sets were acquired, archived, and evaluated. The ERDAS image processing and GIS system were installed on the microcomputer (PC-AT) and its capabilities are being investigated. The TM coverage of seven study areas were exported via ELAS software on the Prime to the ERDAS system. Statistical analysis procedures to be used on the spectral data are being identified

Interpreting forest biome productivity and cover utilizing nested scales of image resolution and biogeographical analysis

The objective was to relate spectral imagery of varying resolution with ground-based data on forest productivity and cover, and to create models to predict regional estimates of forest productivity and cover with a quantifiable degree of accuracy. A three stage approach was outlined. In the first stage, a model was developed relating forest cover or productivity to TM surface reflectance values (TM/FOREST models). The TM/FOREST models were more accurate when biogeographic information regarding the landscape was either used to stratigy the landscape into more homogeneous units or incorporated directly into the TM/FOREST model. In the second stage, AVHRR/FOREST models that predicted forest cover and productivity on the basis of AVHRR band values were developed. The AVHRR/FOREST models had statistical properties similar to or better than those of the TM/FOREST models. In the third stage, the regional predictions were compared with the independent U.S. Forest Service (USFS) data. To do this regional forest cover and forest productivity maps were created using AVHRR scenes and the AVHRR/FOREST models. From the maps the county values of forest productivity and cover were calculated. It is apparent that the landscape has a strong influence on the success of the approach. An approach of using nested scales of imagery in conjunction with ground-based data can be successful in generating regional estimates of variables that are functionally related to some variable a sensor can detect