Distribution and abundance of anurans in southeast Missouri

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (January 10, 2007)Includes bibliographical references.Vita.Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2005.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Fisheries and wildlife.Studies were conducted on 15 1034 ha landscape blocks to investigate the effects of forest fragmentation and habitat availability on anuran populations. Detections of anurans did not indicate a correlation between the percent of forest on a landscape or habitat types within a landscape and the species richness of the anuran community. Three anuran species (Blanchard's cricket frog, Fowler's toad, and southern leopard frog) were selected to investigate the effects of forest fragmentation and habitat availability on abundance. Detections of Blanchard's cricket frog and southern leopard frog did not indicate a correlation between species abundance and the percent of forest on a landscape or specific habitat types within a landscape block. Detections of Fowler's toad did not indicate a correlation between abundance and the percent of forest on a landscape, but did indicate that there is a correlation between habitats in a landscape and the abundance of Fowler's toads

Self-Represented Litigants and Civil Case Dispositions in Missouri: An Impact Analysis

Access to justice is an important issue for the Missouri judiciary as it is for many other states. The issue fostered several recent national initiatives,1 including a 2010 Department of Justice Access to Justice Initiative.2 Part of the agenda for that initiative involves identifying ways to ensure fair and just outcomes for all parties to a case. Some observers of the judicial system have expressed concern that self-represented litigants may not experience fair and just outcomes. As part of Missouri’s own access-to-justice initiatives, this study was undertaken to understand how self-representation impacts outcomes in civil cases. About half the cases filed in any given year in circuit (general jurisdiction) courts involve civil matters. To access the courts for resolution of problems with a legal nature, citizens generally need adequate financial resources to pay for legal representation and court costs. The financial crisis of 2007 to 2008 and the ensuing economic downturn created new groups of individuals facing difficult circumstances and reinforced the vulnerabilities of some groups who historically lived in impoverished conditions.3 The challenge for the courts in these times has been to provide access to justice when citizens have inadequate financial resources or, for other reasons, a lack of the legal resources needed to resolve their problems in court

Influence of Environmental Stress and Anthropogenic Disturbance on the Energy Expenditure of Wintering Northern Pintails (Anas acuta)

Winter conditions impose hardships on waterfowl, impacting how they apportion energy and time. Human disturbances may affect this energetic balance, influence lipid reserves, and potentially survival. Objectives of this study were to determine effects of environmental and anthropogenic factors on energetic expenditure (kcal/day) of Northern Pintails (Anas acuta) in behaviors commonly associated with a disturbance response (alert, locomotion, and flight) during winter 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. The refuge is a frequently visited ecotourism destination with over 170,000 visitors each winter. Thermoregulatory cost, time-of-winter, amount of natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and forage availability were examined to determine their influence on pintail energetic response (e.g., flight, locomotion, alert behavior). Average number of pintails ranged from 7,524-15,769. Using Akaike Information Criteria, the top-ranked model indicated that increased thermoregulatory cost, and by association decreased temperature, may cause a decline in energetic response of pintails to disturbances. Modeled values for energetic response had a mean (± SE) of 175 ± 11.5 kcal/day in year 1, and 111.7 ± 7.22 kcal/day in year 2. Neither the amount of disturbance nor forage availability strongly influenced energetic response. Results of this study raise questions about the efficacy of using behavior or energy expenditure data, alone, to assess anthropogenic disturbance effects on waterfowl

Minocycline at 2 different dosages vs placebo for patients with mild alzheimer disease

Importance - There are no disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia. Minocycline is anti-inflammatory, protects against the toxic effects of β-amyloid in vitro and in animal models of AD, and is a credible repurposed treatment candidate. Objective - To determine whether 24 months of minocycline treatment can modify cognitive and functional decline in patients with mild AD. Design, Setting, and Participants Participants were recruited into a double-blind randomized clinical trial from May 23, 2014, to April 14, 2016, with 24 months of treatment and follow-up. This multicenter study in England and Scotland involved 32 National Health Service memory clinics within secondary specialist services for people with dementia. From 886 screened patients, 554 patients with a diagnosis of mild AD (Standardised Mini-Mental State Examination [sMMSE] score ≥24) were randomized. Interventions - Participants were randomly allocated 1:1:1 in a semifactorial design to receive minocycline (400 mg/d or 200 mg/d) or placebo for 24 months. Main Outcomes and Measures - Primary outcome measures were decrease in sMMSE score and Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale (BADLS), analyzed by intention-to-treat repeated-measures regression. Results - Of 544 eligible participants (241 women and 303 men), the mean (SD) age was 74.3 (8.2) years, and the mean (SD) sMMSE score was 26.4 (1.9). Fewer participants completed 400-mg minocycline hydrochloride treatment (28.8% [53 of 184]) than 200-mg minocycline treatment (61.9% [112 of 181]) or placebo (63.7% [114 of 179]; P < .001), mainly because of gastrointestinal symptoms (42 in the 400-mg group, 15 in the 200-mg group, and 10 in the placebo group; P < .001), dermatologic adverse effects (10 in the 400-mg group, 5 in the 200-mg group, and 1 in the placebo group; P = .02), and dizziness (14 in the 400-mg group, 3 in the 200-mg group, and 1 in the placebo group; P = .01). Assessment rates were lower in the 400-mg group: 68.4% (119 of 174 expected) for sMMSE at 24 months compared with 81.8% (144 of 176) for the 200-mg group and 83.8% (140 of 167) for the placebo group. Decrease in sMMSE scores over 24 months in the combined minocycline group was similar to that in the placebo group (4.1 vs 4.3 points). The combined minocycline group had mean sMMSE scores 0.1 points higher than the placebo group (95% CI, −1.1 to 1.2; P = .90). The decrease in mean sMMSE scores was less in the 400-mg group than in the 200-mg group (3.3 vs 4.7 points; treatment effect = 1.2; 95% CI, −0.1 to 2.5; P = .08). Worsening of BADLS scores over 24 months was similar in all groups: 5.7 in the 400-mg group, 6.6 in the 200-mg group, and 6.2 in the placebo groups (treatment effect for minocycline vs placebo = –0.53; 95% CI, −2.4 to 1.3; P = .57; treatment effect for 400 mg vs 200 mg of minocycline = –0.31; 95% CI, −0.2 to 1.8; P = .77). Results were similar in different patient subgroups and in sensitivity analyses adjusting for missing data. Conclusions and Relevance - Minocycline did not delay the progress of cognitive or functional impairment in people with mild AD during a 2-year period. This study also found that 400 mg of minocycline is poorly tolerated in this population

Crowdsourced estimation of cognitive decline and resilience in Alzheimer's disease

Identifying accurate biomarkers of cognitive decline is essential for advancing early diagnosis and prevention therapies in Alzheimer's disease. The Alzheimer's disease DREAM Challenge was designed as a computational crowdsourced project to benchmark the current state-of-the-art in predicting cognitive outcomes in Alzheimer's disease based on high dimensional, publicly available genetic and structural imaging data. This meta-analysis failed to identify a meaningful predictor developed from either data modality, suggesting that alternate approaches should be considered for prediction of cognitive performance

Self-Represented Litigants and Civil Case Dispositions in Missouri: An Impact Analysis

Access to justice is an important issue for the Missouri judiciary as it is for many other states. The issue fostered several recent national initiatives,1 including a 2010 Department of Justice Access to Justice Initiative.2 Part of the agenda for that initiative involves identifying ways to ensure fair and just outcomes for all parties to a case. Some observers of the judicial system have expressed concern that self-represented litigants may not experience fair and just outcomes. As part of Missouri’s own access-to-justice initiatives, this study was undertaken to understand how self-representation impacts outcomes in civil cases. About half the cases filed in any given year in circuit (general jurisdiction) courts involve civil matters. To access the courts for resolution of problems with a legal nature, citizens generally need adequate financial resources to pay for legal representation and court costs. The financial crisis of 2007 to 2008 and the ensuing economic downturn created new groups of individuals facing difficult circumstances and reinforced the vulnerabilities of some groups who historically lived in impoverished conditions.3 The challenge for the courts in these times has been to provide access to justice when citizens have inadequate financial resources or, for other reasons, a lack of the legal resources needed to resolve their problems in court

On GDM&apos;s: Geometrically Deformed Models for the Extraction of Closed Shapes from Volume Data

The advent of nondestructive sensing equipment (CT, MRI) created an entirely new field of research for image engineers. The equipment generates a point sampling of a true three-dimensional object. Typically, this point sampling is presented as a series of slices through the 3D object. It has become apparent, however, that displaying individual slices does not lend itself to conveying the true three-dimensional structure of the scanned object. Research, therefore, has focused on alternative methods of presenting volume data. This thesis proposes an approach that will generate a topologically closed simple geometric model of an object within a scalar field. A Geometrically Deformed Model, GDM, is created by placing an initial simple model in the data set which is then deformed by minimizing a set of constraints. The constraint functions evaluated at each vertex in the model control the local deformation, the interaction between the model and the data set, and maintain the shape and topol..

Steps in Time: Ninety Years of Metro Parks, Serving Summit County

What started in 1921 in an effort to encourage forestry, conserve natural resources and protect the comfort and welfare of the citizens of Summit County has, in ninety years, grown into one of the largest and most popular metropolitan park districts in Ohio. Today, Metro Parks, Serving Summit County manages 10,000 acres, including 13 developed parks, six conservation areas, and more than 120 miles of trails, including 21.5 miles of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail. Annual attendance averages 4.5 million visitors. Since 2007, author Sarah Vradenburg, a former editorial writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, has studied archives, interviewed park visitors, and hiked with current and former staff to help shape a people-oriented history of the park district. The book contains historic and current photos, including a signature photograph of each park at the time of publication. A review of the park district’s directors and commissioners, from 1921 to the present, is also be included.https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/uapress_publications/1158/thumbnail.jp