Sea turtle nesting in the Ten Thousand Islands of Florida

Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) nest in numerous substrate and beach types within the Ten Thousand Islands (TTl) of southwest Florida. Nesting beach selection was analyzed on 12 islands within this archipelago. Numerous physical characteristics were recorded to identify the relatedness of these variables and determine their importance for nesting beach selection in C. caretta. These variables were chosen after evaluating the islands, conducting literature searches and soliciting personal communications. Along transects, data were collected, on the following: height of canopy, beach width, overall slope (beach slope and slope of offshore approach) and sand samples analyzed for pH, percentage of water, percentage of organic content, percentage of carbonate and particle size (8 size classes). Data on ordinal aspect of beaches and beach length were also recorded and included in the analysis. All of the variables were analyzed by tree regression, incorporating the nesting data into the analysis. In the TTl, loggerheads appear to prefer wider beaches (p< 0.001; R2 = 0.56) that inherently have less slope, and secondarily, wider beaches that have low amounts of carbonate (p< O.00 1). In addition, C. caretta favors nest sites within or in close proximity to the supra-littoral vegetation zone of beaches in the TTl (p< 0.001). (86 page document

Estimating Sighting Proportions of American Alligator Nests during Helicopter Survey

Proportions of American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) nests sighted during aerial survey in Florida were estimated based upon multiple surveys by different observers. We compared sighting proportions across habitats, nesting seasons, and observer experience levels. The mean sighting proportion across all habitats and years was 0.736 (SE=0.024). Survey counts corrected by the mean sighting proportion reliably predicted total nest counts (R2=0.933). Sighting proportions did not differ by habitat type (P=0.668) or year P=0.328). Experienced observers detected a greater proportion of nests (P<O.OOOl) than did either less experienced or inexperienced observers. Reliable estimates of nest abundance can be derived from aerial counts of alligator nests when corrected by the appropriate sighting proportion

Herpetofaunal Inventories of the National Parks of South Florida and the Caribbean: Volume III. Big Cypress National Preserve

Amphibian declines and extinctions have been documented around the world, often in protected natural areas. Concern for this trend has prompted the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service to document all species of amphibians that occur within U.S. National Parks and to search for any signs that amphibians may be declining. This study, an inventory of amphibian species in Big Cypress National Preserve, was conducted from 2002 to 2003. The goals of the project were to create a georeferenced inventory of amphibian species, use new analytical techniques to estimate proportion of sites occupied by each species, look for any signs of amphibian decline (missing species, disease, die-offs, and so forth.), and to establish a protocol that could be used for future monitoring efforts. Several sampling methods were used to accomplish these goals. Visual encounter surveys and anuran vocalization surveys were conducted in all habitats throughout the park to estimate the proportion of sites or proportion of area occupied (PAO) by each amphibian species in each habitat. Opportunistic collections, as well as limited drift fence data, were used to augment the visual encounter methods for highly aquatic or cryptic species. A total of 545 visits to 104 sites were conducted for standard sampling alone, and 2,358 individual amphibians and 374 reptiles were encountered. Data analysis was conducted in program PRESENCE to provide PAO estimates for each of the anuran species. All of the amphibian species historically found in Big Cypress National Preserve were detected during this project. At least one individual of each of the four salamander species was captured during sampling. Each of the anuran species in the preserve was adequately sampled using standard herpetological sampling methods, and PAO estimates were produced for each species of anuran by habitat. This information serves as an indicator of habitat associations of the species and relative abundance of sites occupied, but it will also be useful as a comparative baseline for future monitoring efforts. In addition to sampling for amphibians, all encounters with reptiles were documented. The sampling methods used for detecting amphibians are also appropriate for many reptile species. These reptile locations are included in this report, but the number of reptile observations was not sufficient to estimate PAO for reptile species. We encountered 35 of the 46 species of reptiles believed to be present in Big Cypress National Preserve during this study, and evidence exists of the presence of four other reptile species in the Preserve. This study found no evidence of amphibian decline in Big Cypress National Preserve. Although no evidence of decline was observed, several threats to amphibians were identified. Introduced species, especially the Cuban treefrog (Osteopilus septentrionalis), are predators and competitors with several native frog species. The recreational use of off-road vehicles has the potential to affect some amphibian populations, and a study on those potential impacts is currently underway. Also, interference by humans with the natural hydrologic cycle of south Florida has the potential to alter the amphibian community. Continued monitoring of the amphibian species in Big Cypress National Preserve is recommended. The methods used in this study were adequate to produce reliable estimates of the proportion of sites occupied by most anuran species, and are a cost-effective means of determining the status of their populations

Perfectionism, Depression, Anxiety, and Academic Performance in Premedical Students

This study examined differences in perfectionism, depression, anxiety, and academic performance between premedical (N = 104) and non-premedical (N = 76) undergraduate students. Results indicated that premedical students did not differ significantly from non-premedical students in perfectionistic self-criticism, personal standards perfectionism, depression, or anxiety. Perfectionistic high standards were not correlated with depression or anxiety for either group. Self-critical perfectionism was positively correlated with depression and anxiety, with comparable effect sizes, for both groups of students. Premedical students and non-premedical students drastically differed in their reported academic performance (GPA). For premedical students, PS perfectionism was related to higher GPA, however PS perfectionism in non-premedical students had a negligible effect in increasing GPA. The implications of these results for interventions and future research are discussed

A Person-Centered Approach to Adolescent Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Predictors and Correlates in a Community Sample

Growing incidence of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and a lack of intensive examination of NSSI variability among adolescents justify identification of latent classes based on the endorsement of different NSSI behaviors. Latent class analysis was used to detect the heterogeneity of past month NSSI among 322 high school students (73.2% female). Two interpretable latent classes emerged. The Severe/Multimethod NSSI class (39%) engaged in almost all forms of NSSI with high intensity and motivated mainly for intrapersonal reasons. The results imply that compared to Mild/Moderate NSSI group (61%), the Severe class is at greater risk for poor mental health, which can exacerbate further NSSI acts. In school settings, identifying adolescents who are vulnerable for more severe NSSI can help to interrupt NSSI trajectories to emerging adulthood

Perfekcionista csoportok pozitív mentális egészsége – a perfekcionizmus, az érzelemszabályozás és a szubjektív jóllét mintázódása fiatal élsportolók körében

Háttér és célkitűzések: A perfekcionizmus adaptív és maladaptív formái eltérő módon kapcsolódnak számos, az élsport terén alapvető tényezőhöz (pl. teljesítmény, célorientáció). Vizsgálatunkban ezért a perfekcionista jellemzőkön és az érzelemreguláció minőségén alapuló látens klaszterek azonosítását tűztük ki célul serdülőkorú élsportoló- és kontrollmintában. Feltártuk továbbá az egyes csoportok szubjektívjóllét-mutatóit is. Módszer: 744 versenyszerűen sportoló középiskolást (60,2% fiú, átlagéletkor = 16,83 év, szórás = 1,39) és 591 nem élsportoló osztálytársukat (50,8% fiú, átlagéletkor = 16,91 év, szórás = 1,65) vontuk be a felmérésbe. A kamaszok a következő három skála rövid változatát töltötték ki: Majdnem tökéletes skála (Rice és mtsai, 2014), Kognitív Érzelem-reguláció Kérdőív (Garnefski és Kraaij, 2006) és Serdülő mentális egészség kontinuum skála (Keyes, 2006). Eredmények: Látensprofil-elemzés segítségével mind az élsportoló-, mind a kontrollmintában egy jól interpretálható 3 osztályos megoldás körvonalazódott megfelelő illeszkedési mutatókkal. A kontrollcsoportban adaptív, maladaptív és nem perfekcionista profilok bontakoztak ki, ami számos korábbi teoretikus és empirikus eredménnyel egybecseng. Az élsportoló kamaszok körében nem perfekcionista csoportot nem tudunk azonosítani. A maladaptív perfekcionisták maladaptív érzelemszabályozással csoport mellett a versenyszerűen sportolók körében az adaptív perfekcionisták két további osztályt építettek fel: míg az egyik adaptív érzelemszabályozó stratégiákat képes mozgósítani, addig a másik adaptív perfekcionista csoport minimális mértékben alkalmaz kognitív érzelemregulációs folyamatokat. A hat látens osztály közül az adaptív perfekcionista élsportolók adaptív érzelemregulációval jellemezhetők a legkiemelkedőbb szubjektívjóllét-szinttel mind a globális, mind az érzelmi, a pszichológiai és a társas well-beinget tekintve. Következtetések: Rámutattunk arra, hogy az azonosított látens perfekcionizmus csoportok az érzelemszabályozás és a pozitív mentális egészség különböző szintjeivel és mintázatával jellemezhetők. Background and Objectives: Adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism are in different connections with several characteristics which are important in sport performance, therefore the main aim of our study was to identify and characterize latent classes of perfectionism and emotion regulation strategies in connection with positive mental health in a large young elite athlete sample and controls. Methods: 744 young elite athletes (60.2% boy, mean age=16.83, SD=1.39) and 591 controls (50.8% boy, mean age=16.91, SD=1.65) took part in the research. The questionnaire booklet included the Short Form of the Revised Almost Perfect Scale (Rice et al, 2014), the short version of the Cognitive Emotion Re-gulation Questionnaire (Garnefski & Kraaij, 2006), and the Adolescent Mental Health Continuum–Short Form (Keyes, 2006). Results: Using Latent Profile Analysis we could reveal a well-interpreted 3-class solution in both samples with good fi t indices. Among non-athletes the outlined 3 classes are parallel with several former theoretical and empirical results: adaptive, maladaptive, and non-perfectionists emerged. In the elite athlete sample two adaptive groups and a maladaptive were delineated. One of the adaptive perfectionist athlete group can be featured by adaptive emotion regulation, while the other can be described with low use of emotion regulation strategies. Of the six latent classes the elite athlete group with adaptive perfectionism and adaptive emotion regulation has the highest level of global, emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Conclusions: Detected latent classes highlight that mechanisms of perfectionism accompany with diffe-rent styles of emotion regulation and these patterns are in close relationship with subjective well-being

Responding to Campus Shootings: Two Studies Exploring the Effects of Sex and Placement Strategy on Knowledge Acquisition and Organizational Reputation

Two separate studies used quasi-experimental procedures to examine how college students learn about campus shootings from press releases, television news, or exposure to both. The first study found that women tend to report higher levels of learning than men and that participants generally learn the most when exposed to messages delivered through multiple media. The second study extended the findings to include consideration of the impact of learning on organizational reputation. Taken together, the results of both studies offer further evidence that knowledge acquisition can help mitigate against the formation of negative impressions of an organization in crisis. They also offer that the relationship between learning and attitude formation may be mediated by sex. The results are discussed in terms of message placement strategy and sex differences in mediated learning processes. Implications for the relationship between these learning processes and organizational reputation are addressed

The Role of Environmental Heterogeneity in Meta‐Analysis of Gene–Environment Interactions With Quantitative Traits

With challenges in data harmonization and environmental heterogeneity across various data sources, meta‐analysis of gene–environment interaction studies can often involve subtle statistical issues. In this paper, we study the effect of environmental covariate heterogeneity (within and between cohorts) on two approaches for fixed‐effect meta‐analysis: the standard inverse‐variance weighted meta‐analysis and a meta‐regression approach. Akin to the results in Simmonds and Higgins ( ), we obtain analytic efficiency results for both methods under certain assumptions. The relative efficiency of the two methods depends on the ratio of within versus between cohort variability of the environmental covariate. We propose to use an adaptively weighted estimator (AWE), between meta‐analysis and meta‐regression, for the interaction parameter. The AWE retains full efficiency of the joint analysis using individual level data under certain natural assumptions. Lin and Zeng (2010a, b) showed that a multivariate inverse‐variance weighted estimator retains full efficiency as joint analysis using individual level data, if the estimates with full covariance matrices for all the common parameters are pooled across all studies. We show consistency of our work with Lin and Zeng (2010a, b). Without sacrificing much efficiency, the AWE uses only univariate summary statistics from each study, and bypasses issues with sharing individual level data or full covariance matrices across studies. We compare the performance of the methods both analytically and numerically. The methods are illustrated through meta‐analysis of interaction between Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in FTO gene and body mass index on high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol data from a set of eight studies of type 2 diabetes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107543/1/gepi21810.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107543/2/gepi21810-sup-0001-appendix.pd

Improving Communication of Uncertainty and Risk of High-Impact Weather through Innovative Forecaster Workshops

It is challenging to communicate uncertainty for high-impact weather events to the public and decision-makers. As a result, there is an increased emphasis and training within the National Weather Service (NWS) for “impact-based decision support.” A Collaborative Science, Technology, And Research (CSTAR) project led by Stony Brook University (SBU) in collaboration with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, several NWS forecast offices, and NWS operational centers held two workshops at SBU on effective forecast communication of probabilistic information for high-impact weather. Trainers in two 1.5-day workshops helped 15–20 forecasters learn to distill their messages, engage audiences, and more effectively communicate risk and uncertainty to decision-makers, media, and the general public. The novel aspect of the first workshop focused on using improvisational techniques to connect with audiences along with exercises to improve communication skills using short, clear, conversational statements. The same forecasters participated in the second workshop, which focused on matching messages to intended audiences and stakeholder interaction. Using a recent high-impact weather event, representatives in emergency management, TV media, departments of transportation, and emergency services provided feedback on the forecaster oral presentations (2–3 min) and a visual slide. This article describes our innovative workshop approach, illustrates some of the techniques used, and highlights participant feedback

Dust filtration at gap edges: Implications for the spectral energy distributions of discs with embedded planets

The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of some T Tauri stars display a deficit of near-IR flux that could be a consequence of an embedded Jupiter-mass planet partially clearing an inner hole in the circumstellar disc. Here, we use two-dimensional numerical simulations of the planet-disc interaction, in concert with simple models for the dust dynamics, to quantify how a planet influences the dust at different radii within the disc. We show that pressure gradients at the outer edge of the gap cleared by the planet act as a filter - letting particles smaller than a critical size through to the inner disc while holding back larger particles in the outer disc. The critical particle size depends upon the disc properties, but is typically of the order of 10 microns. This filtration process will lead to discontinuous grain populations across the planet's orbital radius, with small grains in the inner disc and an outer population of larger grains. We show that this type of dust population is qualitatively consistent with SED modelling of systems that have optically thin inner holes in their circumstellar discs. This process can also produce a very large gas-to-dust ratio in the inner disc, potentially explaining those systems with optically thin inner cavities that still have relatively high accretion rates.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Accepted fir publication in MNRA