Early and Current Educational Information is Key in Preventing Smoking in Massachusetts Youth

Among adult smokers, 88% started smoking before the age of 18. This challenge is complicated by the effective advertising efforts of the tobacco industry, which have been shown to cause the onset of smoking in adolescents. Franklin County, MA has not been immune to this problem, as 42% of 12th graders reported trying a cigarette and 51% of 12th graders reported trying electronic vapor products. This project focused on the need for early and current tobacco prevention information to keep up with the promotional campaigns of the tobacco industry. Reaching youth with fresh information before their first puff is vital to smoking prevention.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1425/thumbnail.jp

Crucial moments in the chair experience: A case study approach

Department chairs are often called upon to make tough decisions (e.g., personnel, scheduling, strategic planning, curriculum, resources). Presenters of this interactive workshop will share case studies written by higher education administrators from across the nation, offer persepctives, and open it up for interaction, brainstorming and discussion for addressing difficult situations

Radon, From the Ground into Our Schools: Parent/Guardian Awareness of Radon Levels in Vermont Schools

Introduction. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Ex- posure to radon in schools may be harmful to schoolchildren, faculty, and staff, but there is currently no legislation mandating testing or mitigation of radon levels in Vermont schools. Objectives. The goal of our study was to assess Vermont parents’ awareness of radon’s harmful effects, as well as awareness of and support for testing and mitigation of radon levels in their children’s schools. Methods. We distributed paper and online surveys to Vermont parents of children grades K-12. 126 surveys were received and quantitatively analyzed. We held a focus group of two Vermont parents to gather qualitative data. Results. Most surveyed parents demonstrated general knowledge of radon, but only 51% believed that radon affects the lungs. 8% were confident that their children’s schools had informed them about radon levels. 91.2% believe their children’s schools should take action to address elevated radon levels and 87% would support mandated mitigation. There is some concern and lack of knowledge about the financial implications of radon mitigation. Conclusions. Most Vermont parents of children grades K-12 are unaware that radon is a lung carcinogen and do not know their children’s school’s radon levels or mitigation status. However, most are in favor of legislation that would require testing and dis- closure of schools’ high radon levels. Educating parents about school radon levels and their association with lung cancer could be a foundation for community support of legislation that mandates testing and mitigation of radon in Vermont schools.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1252/thumbnail.jp

A SHAPE-CONTEXT MODEL FOR MATCHING PLACENTAL CHORIONIC SURFACE VASCULAR NETWORKS

Placental chorionic surface vascular networks (PCSVNs) are essential high-capacitance, low-resistance distribution and drainage networks, and are hence important to placental function and to fetal and newborn health. It was hypothesized that variations in the PCSVN structure may reflect both the overall effects of genetic and environmentally regulated variations in branching morphogenesis within the conceptus and the fetus’s vital organs. A critical step in PCSVN analysis is the extraction of blood vessel structure, which has only been done manually through a laborious process, making studies in large cohorts and applications in clinical settings nearly impossible. The large variation in the shape, color, and texture of the placenta presents significant challenges to both machine and human to accurately extract PCSVNs. To increase the visibility of the vessels, colored paint can be injected into the vascular networks of placentas, allowing PCSVNs to be manually traced with a high level of accuracy. This paper provides a proof-of-concept study to explain the geometric differences between manual tracings of paint-injected and un-manipulated PCSVNs under the framework of a shape-context model. Under this framework, paint-injected and un-manipulated tracings of PCSVNs can be matched with nearly 100% accuracy. The implication of our results is that the manual tracing protocol yields faithful PCSVN representations modulo a set of affine transformations, making manual tracing a reliable method for studying PCSVNs. Our work provides assurance to a new pre-processing approach for studying vascular networks by ways of dye-injection in medical imaging problems

Mass balance of nitrogen and phosphorus in an agricultural watershed : the shallow groundwater component

Partially funded by the Water Quality Strategic Research Initiative, Council on Food and Agricultural ResearchOpe

Defining Ecological Drought for the Twenty-First Century

THE RISING RISK OF DROUGHT. Droughts of the twenty-first century are characterized by hotter temperatures, longer duration, and greater spatial extent, and are increasingly exacerbated by human demands for water. This situation increases the vulnerability of ecosystems to drought, including a rise in drought-driven tree mortality globally (Allen et al. 2015) and anticipated ecosystem transformations from one state to another—for example, forest to a shrubland (Jiang et al. 2013). When a drought drives changes within ecosystems, there can be a ripple effect through human communities that depend on those ecosystems for critical goods and services (Millar and Stephenson 2015). For example, the “Millennium Drought” (2002–10) in Australia caused unanticipated losses to key services provided by hydrological ecosystems in the Murray–Darling basin—including air quality regulation, waste treatment, erosion prevention, and recreation. The costs of these losses exceeded AUD $800 million, as resources were spent to replace these services and adapt to new drought-impacted ecosystems (Banerjee et al. 2013). Despite the high costs to both nature and people, current drought research, management, and policy perspectives often fail to evaluate how drought affects ecosystems and the “natural capital” they provide to human communities. Integrating these human and natural dimensions of drought is an essential step toward addressing the rising risk of drought in the twenty-first century

Non-Standard Errors

In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: Non-standard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for better reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants

Legislative Review and the Voice of Refugees

This statement represents the collective voices of refugee claimants and landed refugees at Romero House, Toronto. It expresses concern over provisions in "Not Just Numbers" relating to the proposed replacement of the quasi-judicial Immigration and Refugee Board with an administrative unit of the Department of Immigration. Independence of the decision- making process would thus possibly be compromised by the interests of governmental bureaucracy.Le présent texte représente la voix collective de demandeurs du statut de réfugie et de réfugiés installés de la maison Ramero de Toronto. Il exprime une inquiétude face à certaines des clauses du rapport Au-delà des chiffres portants sur le remplacement proposé de la Commission sur l'Immigration et les Réfugiés, aux fonctions quasi-judiciaires, par une unité administrative du Département de l'Immigration. L'indépendance du processus décisionnel serait dès lors nettement compromis par les intérêts de la bureaucratie gouvernementale

Making the Move: Tips for Externally Hired Department Chairs

Many of today’s department chairs are hired as a result of external searches. This roundtable, facilitated by two externally hired chairs, will focus on advantages, challenges, and tips for chairs moving to a new university