Working Together: Rural Nebraskans’ Views of Regional Collaboration

Some people support regional collaboration because they believe it better enables communities to increase the region’s economic vitality and quality of life. However, others worry that such collaboration threatens individual communities’ identities and limits citizens’ access to services. How do rural Nebraskans view regional collaboration? Do they support combining certain services with neighboring communities or counties more than others? Are they already purchasing their goods and services outside their local community? This report details 3,087 responses to the 2003 Nebraska Rural Poll, the eighth annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions about regional collaboration. Comparisons were made among different respondent subgroups, i.e., comparisons by age, occupation, region, etc. Based on these analyses, some key findings emerged: • Most rural Nebraskans have a positive view of regional collaboration. At least three-quarters either strongly agreed or agreed that “communities in a region working together to generate new businesses are better able to create quality jobs for their residents” (82%) and “retail businesses in a region can provide a better variety of goods and services by working together collaboratively” (75%). Sixty percent agreed that combining community or county services will improve access to services. Fifty-nine percent disagreed that combining services would lead to lower quality services and 47 percent disagreed that combining services would lead to increased prices for the consumer. • Persons with higher education levels, younger respondents, persons with higher incomes and females are the groups most likely to have a positive view of regional collaboration. • At least one-half of rural Nebraskans are willing to raise revenue to keep fire protection and emergency medical services at their current level. When asked how they would cover the costs of various services if faced with a shortage of money, 53 percent were willing to raise revenue to support fire protection services and 50 percent would raise revenue to maintain emergency medical services. Forty-eight percent were willing to raise revenue for their schools (K - 12). • Over one-half of rural Nebraskans would combine or share the following services with other nearby communities or counties if faced with a shortage of money: county road maintenance, veterans services, health clinic, telecommunications services, economic development activities, licenses and permits, street maintenance, property assessment and county weed control. • Younger persons are more likely than older persons to support raising revenue to keep their school services at their current level. Seventy-six percent of the persons age 19 to 29 supported raising revenue to keep their school services at their current level. Only 35 percent of the persons age 65 and older supported raising revenue. The older respondents were more likely than the younger respondents to support combining the school with other nearby communities or reducing its level of service. Forty-five percent of the persons age 65 and older supported combining their school with others and 14 percent said they would reduce its level of service. In comparison, only 21 percent of the persons age 19 to 29 supported combining their school with other communities and only two percent supported reducing its level of service. • Persons living in or near the largest communities are more likely than the persons living in or near the smallest communities to support raising revenue to keep their school services the same. Fifty-two percent of the persons living in or near the communities with populations of 10,000 or more supported raising revenue to keep their school’s services at their current level. Only 39 percent of the persons living in or near communities with less than 500 people supported this option. The persons living in or near the smallest communities were slightly more likely to support combining their school with other communities and were also more likely to not currently have a school in their community. • Differences in the level of support for various alternatives to cover the costs of law enforcement are detected by community size. Persons living in or near the smallest communities were more likely than the persons living in or near the larger communities to say they don’t have law enforcement. Persons living in or near communities with populations ranging from 500 to 999 were the group most likely to support combining law enforcement services with another community or county. Persons living in or near the largest communities were more likely than the persons living in or near the smaller communities to advocate raising revenue to keep their law enforcement services at their current level. • Farmers and ranchers are more likely than persons with different occupations to say they would raise revenue to maintain their county roads. Thirty-two percent of the farmers and ranchers would raise revenue to keep their county road maintenance services at their current level. Only 15 percent of the persons with sales and administrative support occupations agreed. • On average, at least one-half of the following items are purchased by rural Nebraskans in their local community: banking/financial services (75.7%), groceries (73%), automobile/machinery repairs (72%), insurance (67%), farm and ranch inputs (66.9%), doctor/clinic services (63.6%) and hospital services (57.3%). • For each item, rural Nebraskans living in or near the larger communities purchased more locally than did those living in or near the smaller communities. As an example, persons living in or near the communities with populations of 10,000 or more purchased an average of 96.1% of their groceries in their local community. Persons living in or near communities with less than 500 people purchased an average of 38.2% of their groceries in their local community. For most items, respondents living in the smallest communities purchased at least one-half in another community within 50 miles. • For most items, Panhandle residents purchased more in their local community than did residents living in other parts of the state. As an example, Panhandle residents purchased an average of 53.5% of their recreation/entertainment in their local community, compared to an average of 38.7% for Southeast residents. But, South Central residents were more likely than other regional groups to have purchased hospital services, banking/financial services and insurance locally

Rickettsiae in Gulf Coast Ticks, Arkansas, USA

To determine the cause of spotted fever cases in the southern United States, we screened Gulf Coast ticks (Amblyomma maculatum) collected in Arkansas for rickettsiae. Of the screened ticks, 30% had PCR amplicons consistent with Rickettsia parkeri or Candidatus Rickettsia amblyommii

Teacher Responses to Anxiety in Children Questionnaire (TRAC): psychometric properties and relationship with teaching staff characteristics

This study describes the development and evaluation of a new measure, the Teacher Responses to Anxiety in Children (TRAC) questionnaire in 74 primary school teachers. TRAC presents 9 hypothetical scenarios in which a child displays generalized anxiety/worry, social anxiety or separation anxiety symptoms. Teachers rate each scenario on six subscales that reflect different ways of responding to child anxiety. Overall, TRAC showed good internal reliability, with factor analytic results suggesting that it assesses three factors: Autonomy-Promoting, Anxiety-Promoting and Reward responses. Male teachers were significantly more likely than female teachers to use Anxiety-Promoting responses. More experienced teachers reported significantly more reinforcement of anxious avoidance than less experienced teachers, and teaching assistants reported significantly fewer overprotective responses. Teaching staff reported significantly more Autonomy-Promoting responses in social anxiety or generalised anxiety/worry scenarios compared to separation anxiety scenarios. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for teacher training in the management of child anxiety

The ral exchange factor rgl2 promotes cardiomyocyte survival and inhibits cardiac fibrosis

Cardiomyocytes compensate to acute cardiac stress by increasing in size and contractile function. However, prolonged stress leads to a decompensated response characterized by cardiomyocyte death, tissue fibrosis and loss of cardiac function. Identifying approaches to inhibit this transition to a decompensated response may reveal important targets for treating heart failure. The Ral guanine nucleotide disassociation (RalGDS) proteins are Ras-interacting proteins that are upregulated by hypertrophic stimuli. The Ral guanine nucleotide dissociation stimulator-like 2 (Rgl2) is a member of the RalGDS family that modulates expression of hypertrophic genes in cardiomyocytes. However, the pathophysiologic consequence of increased Rgl2 expression in cardiomyoctyes remains unclear. To evaluate the effect of increasing Rgl2 activity in the heart, transgenic mice with cardiac-targeted over-expression of Rgl2 were generated. Although Ral activation was increased, there were no apparent morphologic or histological differences between the hearts of Rgl2 transgenic and nontransgenic mice indicating that increased Rgl2 expression had no effect on basal cardiac phenotype. To determine if Rgl2 modulates the cardiac response to stress, mice were infused with the ß-adrenergic receptor agonist, isoproterenol. Isoproterenol infusion increased heart mass in both Rgl2 transgenic and nontransgenic mice. However, unlike nontransgenic mice, Rgl2 transgenic mice showed no morphologic evidence of cardiomyocyte damage or increased cardiac fibrosis following isoproterenol infusion. Increased Rgl2 expression in cultured cardiomyocytes stimulated Ral activation and inhibited staurosporine-induced apoptosis via increased activation of PI3-kinase. Activation of the PI3-kinase signaling pathway was confirmed in hearts isolated from Rgl2 transgenic mice. Increased expression and function of Rgl2 in cardiomyocytes promotes activation of the PI3-kinase signaling cascade and protects from carciomyocyte death and pathologic cardiac fibrosis. Taken further, these results suggest that Rgl2 upregulation in hypertrophic hearts may be a protetive mechanism, and that Rgl2 may be a novel therapeutic target in treating heart disease

Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium Bridging of AOT to Mica at Constant Ionic Strength.

The bridging effect of a series of common cations between the anionic mica surface and the AOT anion has been studied in a condition of constant ionic strength and surfactant concentration. It was found that sodium ions did not show any bridging effect in this system; however, calcium, magnesium, and potassium all caused adsorption of the organic to the mica surface. The concentrations at which bridging occurred was probed, revealing that only a very low bridging cation concentration was required for binding. The bridged layer stability was also investigated, and the interaction was shown to be a weak one, with the bound layer in equilibrium with the species in the bulk and easily removed. Even maintaining ionic strength and bridging ion concentration was not sufficient to retain the layer when the free organic in solution was removed.We thank EPSRC and BP plc for the funding (RG8620) that made this work possible

Use of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in a Rural Outreach Program for Military Veterans

The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a free, easily accessible screener ideal for rural areas where resources are limited. We examined administration and scoring by Veteran Community Outreach Health Workers (VCOHWs); compared positive screening rates using two cutoff scores; and examined predictors of education-adjusted scores in N = 168 rural military Veterans from the Alabama Veteran Rural Health Initiative. Accuracy of administration (95 percent) and scoring (68 percent) was calculated and recommendations are offered. Higher than expected rates of positive screens were observed (40 percent using 24/30 cutoff) in this relatively young (M = 55 years) community-dwelling sample. Age, education, and race but not subjective health predicted differences in domain and total education-adjusted scores on multivariate and univariate tests. This study advances social science research in rural communities by being the first to: (1) examine MoCA scores in a rural, Deep South U.S. sample; and (2) report fidelity administration data for VCOHWs

Developing Future Biologists: Developmental Biology for Undergraduates from Underserved Communities

Developing Future Biologists (DFB) is an inclusive, trainee-run organization that strives to excite and engage the next generation of biologists, regardless of race, gender or socioeconomic status, in the field of developmental biology. DFB offers a week-long course consisting of active lectures, hands-on laboratory sessions, and professional development opportunities through interactions with scientists from a variety of backgrounds and careers. A major goal of DFB is to propel undergraduate students from underserved communities to pursue biomedical research opportunities and advanced degrees in science. To achieve this goal, we provide DFB participants with continuing access to a diverse network of scientists that students can utilize to secure opportunities and foster success throughout multiple stages of their research careers. Here, we describe the flourishing DFB program at the University of Michigan to encourage other institutions to create their own DFB programs

A newcomer socialization perspective on the proliferation of unethical conduct in organizations : the influences of peer coaching practices and newcomers’ goal orientations

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we contribute to the behavioral ethics literature by examining how and why organizational socialization processes can affect newcomers’ adoption of unethical behaviors. Specifically, we contend that quality peer coaching (i.e., providing newcomers with job-related guidance and social support) provides newcomers with enhanced self-resources that diminishes emotional exhaustion and thus indirectly reduces newcomer unethical conduct. Conversely, peer coach unethical conduct (i.e., violating ethical norms) increases newcomers’ emotional exhaustion, and thus indirectly increases newcomers’ own unethical acts. Our research also identifies newcomers’ goal orientations as important individual differences that moderate the proposed mediation effects. Newcomers with high mastery orientations respond to high emotional exhaustion by harnessing more resources and identifying new work strategies, thereby engaging in less unethical conduct. Conversely, newcomers with high performance orientations give into emotional exhaustion and engage in unethical conduct as a way of outperforming others while conserving resources. We tested our theoretical model using a sample of peer coaches and newcomers from the Real Estate industry, using objective reporting of peer coaches’ and newcomers’ unethical conduct over a nine-month period

Pregnancy in teenagers diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus in childhood: a national population-based e-cohort study

The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics and outcomes of pregnancies in a national cohort of teenage (<20 years) and young adult women (≥20 years) with and without childhood-onset (<15 years) type 1 diabetes. We hypothesised that, owing to poor glycaemic control during the teenage years, pregnancy outcomes would be poorer in teenage mothers with type 1 diabetes than young adult mothers with type 1 diabetes and mothers without diabetes

Rates of niche and phenotype evolution lag behind diversification in a temperate radiation

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Environmental change can create opportunities for increased rates of lineage diversification, but continued species accumulation has been hypothesized to lead to slowdowns via competitive exclusion and niche partitioning. Such density-dependent models imply tight linkages between diversification and trait evolution, but there are plausible alternative models. Little is known about the association between diversification and key ecological and phenotypic traits at broad phylogenetic and spatial scales. Do trait evolutionary rates coincide with rates of diversification, are there lags among these rates, or is diversification niche-neutral? To address these questions, we combine a deeply sampled phylogeny for a major flowering plant clade—Saxifragales—with phenotype and niche data to examine temporal patterns of evolutionary rates. The considerable phenotypic and habitat diversity of Saxifragales is greatest in temperate biomes. Global expansion of these habitats since the mid-Miocene provided ecological opportunities that, with density-dependent adaptive radiation, should result in simultaneous rate increases for diversification, niche, and phenotype, followed by decreases with habitat saturation. Instead, we find that these rates have significantly different timings, with increases in diversification occurring at the mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (∼15 Mya), followed by increases in niche and phenotypic evolutionary rates by ∼5 Mya; all rates increase exponentially to the present. We attribute this surprising lack of temporal coincidence to initial niche-neutral diversification followed by ecological and phenotypic divergence coincident with more extreme cold and dry habitats that proliferated into the Pleistocene. A lack of density-dependence contrasts with investigations of other cosmopolitan lineages, suggesting alternative patterns may be common in the diversification of temperate lineages