State-level factors in Metropolitan Climate Activism

As nation states equivocate over meaningful climate change agreements, hundreds of cities worldwide and in the US have joined to promote climate change policies and actions. Many US cities have taken a leadership role in promoting ameliorative public policy and best practices, overcoming significant disincentives for doing so, particularly low levels of public salience and unreliable federal support and resources. Several of these evolving networks are now in existence, including the United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. The US Conference of Mayors plays a significant role in facilitating best practices as well as recognizing cities on the vanguard of climate leadership. Research to date has examined the factors explaining metropolitan climate activism, including potential climate risk, the influence of carbon intensive industries at the local level, and the role of community environmental capital. Less understood is the role that state-level energy policy and socio-political factors play influencing metropolitan climate activism. This research underscores the significance of political partisanship, both in terms of state environmental politics and statewide Democratic voting record, for understanding metropolitan climate activism

Faccionalização Radical dos Panteras Negras e o Desenvolvimento do Anarquismo Negro

Os movimentos sociais de justiça racial geralmente se fragmentam quando seus objetivos não parecem completamente alcançáveis. Ex-participantes das lutas radicais pela libertação negra (Black freedom) das décadas de 1960 e 1970, em sua maioria membros do Partido dos Panteras Negras (BPP) (também participantes do Black Liberation Army [Exército Negro de Libertação]) e associados com o Marxismo-Leninismo, ficaram descontentes com o caráter hierárquico dos Panteras Negras e passaram a se identificar com o anarquismo. Através das lentes de teorias de faccionalização radical, o Anarquismo Negro é visto como uma consequência radical da luta pela liberdade negra. Os anarquistas negros foram os primeiros a notavelmente priorizar uma análise racial no anarquismo estadunidense. Essa tendência apresenta várias manifestações contemporâneas do anarquismo, incluindo os grupos Pessoas de cor anarquistas (Anarchist People of Color)dentro do movimento e, mais indiretamente, as muitas estratégias e organizações anarquistas que compartilham semelhanças com o BPP, antes de sua centralização.

Uniqueness Theorems For Topological Higher-rank Graph C*-algebras

We consider the boundary-path groupoids of topological higher-rank graphs. We show that all such groupoids are topologically amenable. We deduce that the $C^*$-algebras of topological higher-rank graphs are nuclear and prove versions of the gauge-invariant uniqueness theorem and the Cuntz-Krieger uniqueness theorem. We then provide a necessary and sufficient condition for simplicity of a topological higher-rank graph $C^*$-algebra, and a condition under which it is also purely infinite

Why Do They Do It? A Case Study of Factors Influencing Part-Time Faculty to Seek Employment at a Community College

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the motivational factors influencing part-time faculty employment within the community college from the perspective of the part-time faculty. The study examined these reported motivational factors for differences influenced by age, gender, and employment status. A survey was distributed to a random sample of part-time faculty members at a large metropolitan community college in the Southeastern United States. Participants were asked to respond to categorical demographic questions and survey questions to determine workplace satisfaction. Three open-ended questions were presented to obtain in-depth information about the motivational factors leading adjunct faculty to seek employment at the community college. Findings reveal that motivation is a result of interest in working within a discipline, working with students, and achieving personal satisfaction

Evaluation of Scents Attractants for Baiting Wild Pigs

Lethal removal by trapping is one of the most cost- and time-effective means for managing wild pigs (Sus scrofa). Scent attractants are frequently used to lure wild pigs to camera stations for scouting or monitoring wild pig populations or at trap sites to reduce the amount of time for pigs to locate the trap. However, the effectiveness of scents to attract and increase wild pig visitation to camera stations or traps is debatable. Therefore, our objective was to determine if wild pigs visited camera stations sooner and more frequently when scents were used in addition to whole kernel corn. We conducted our study on portions of the state-owned Lowndes County Wildlife Management Area (5,650 ha) and on privately owned property (1,820 ha) in Lowndes and Macon counties, AL, respectively, during 2014-2016. We selected portions within these study areas where active, premeditated wild pig removal (trapping, shooting) had not occurred for at least 1 year in order to minimize biases associated with trap shy pig behavior. We sectioned each study area into 1km2 grids and assigned a camera station to each grid cell overlapping the study area. Within each grid cell, the camera station was subjectively placed in forest cover near water. We then assigned randomly treatments of corn (11.3 kg), corn and a molasses-based attractant (0.23 L), or corn and a pig urine attractant (15 ml) to each of 66 camera stations. Corn and attractants were replenished after 7 days. We then used motion-sensitive game cameras to record the time (in min) from the initial placement of bait and scent at each station until the first wild pig was captured on camera images. Cameras remained active on each station for 14 days and were set to capture 3-picture bursts with a 10-second delay among pictures and 1-minute delay between bursts. Camera stations were distributed within each study area at a density of approximately one station per 100-250 ha. We recorded the time of first detection, frequency of visits, and identifying characteristics of pigs and sounders. We used a Χ2 test to determine if frequency of visits differed among treatments and an ANOVA to determine differences in time until first visit differed among treatments. Wild pigs visited 23 of 66 (35%) bait stations which did not differ among treatment sites (P=0.231). Of these 23 active camera stations, time until first visit did not differ among treatments (P=0.599). Mean time until first visit to a station was approximately 62.0 hours (about 2.6 days). Scent attractants did not have a noticeable effect on increasing wild pig visitation to baited camera stations suggesting managers 28 should focus on proper placement of bait stations or traps in areas frequented by wild pigs rather than relying on scents to lure pigs to desired locations

Ichthyosis in Sjögren–Larsson syndrome reflects defective barrier function due to abnormal lamellar body structure and secretion

Sjögren–Larsson syndrome is a genetic disease characterized by ichthyosis, mental retardation, spasticity and mutations in the ALDH3A2 gene coding for fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase, an enzyme necessary for oxidation of fatty aldehydes and fatty alcohols. We investigated the cutaneous abnormalities in 9 patients with Sjögren–Larsson syndrome to better understand how the enzymatic deficiency results in epidermal dysfunction. Histochemical staining for aldehyde oxidizing activity was profoundly reduced in the epidermis. Colloidal lanthanum perfusion studies showed abnormal movement of tracer into the extracellular spaces of the stratum corneum consistent with a leaky water barrier. The barrier defect could be attributed to the presence of abnormal lamellar bodies, many with disrupted limiting membranes or lacking lamellar contents. Entombed lamellar bodies were present in the cytoplasm of corneocytes suggesting blockade of lamellar body secretion. At the stratum granulosum–stratum corneum interface, non-lamellar material displaced or replaced secreted lamellar membranes, and in the stratum corneum, the number of lamellar bilayers declined and lamellar membrane organization was disrupted by foci of lamellar/non-lamellar phase separation. These studies demonstrate the presence of a permeability barrier abnormality in Sjögren–Larsson syndrome, which localizes to the stratum corneum interstices and can be attributed to abnormalities in lamellar body formation and secretion

Assassins and apples: the environmental constraints of two snails that threaten Australian aquatic systems

Context: Alien freshwater snails pose a substantial risk to Australian native aquatic biota.Aims: This study aims to determine the thermal and salinity ranges of two introduced species within Australia, Pomacea sp. and Anentome sp., to facilitate predictions of their potential geographic range should they become widely established.Methods: Laboratory tests were conducted to assess behavioural responses of snails to altered temperature or salinity after different acclimation regimes.Key results: After acclimation at 25°C, Pomacea sp. had a median activity range of 13.5–38°C and Anentome sp. of 12–38.5°C. Higher acclimation temperatures produced observable effects, whereas lower acclimation temperatures did not. Salinity tolerances differed, with Pomacea sp. remaining active at up to 8 parts per thousand (ppt) (after acclimation at 25°C), with acclimation at 20°C resulting in a lower salinity tolerance. By contrast, Anentome sp. snails were active at up to 5 ppt after low salinity acclimation, demonstrating enhanced salinity tolerance compared with non-salinity acclimations.Conclusions: These results showed that both snails are capable of surviving temperatures and salinities that would allow invasion into subtropical and warm-temperate Australian aquatic systems.Implications: Free from the constraints of natural predators, competitors, and parasites, these snails should be of great concern to biosecurity agencies in Australia

Synchronous spawning of nursery-raised elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) outplanted to reefs in the Florida Keys (United States)

Here, we provide the first reports of spawning activity by Acropora palmata colonies outplanted to reefs in Florida, USA. In 2020, we observed light spawning from A. palmata colonies five years after they had been outplanted on two Florida reefs. In 2021 and 2022, we observed outplanted A. palmata colonies spawning synchronously with other nearby (<3 m) outplants and wild colonies more than 100 m away. During the 2022 spawning event, some colonies spawned in as few as four years after they had been outplanted. Among all spawning seasons, gametes collected from the outplanted colonies yielded high fertilization rates and viable larvae. These observations are promising for A. palmata restoration as they indicate fragments of A. palmata can spawn four years after outplanting and that efforts to restore A. palmata may be close to achieving the first step towards self-sustaining populations that can produce viable larvae, resulting in an increase in the population’s genotypic diversity upon successful recruitment to the reef

Long-term exposure to elevated CO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e enhances plant community stability by suppressing dominant plant species in a mixed-grass prairie

Climate controls vegetation distribution across the globe, and some vegetation types are more vulnerable to climate change, whereas others are more resistant. Because resistance and resilience can influence ecosystem stability and determine how communities and ecosystems respond to climate change, we need to evaluate the potential for resistance as we predict future ecosystem function. In a mixed-grass prairie in the northern Great Plains, we used a large field experiment to test the effects of elevated CO2, warming, and summer irrigation on plant community structure and productivity, linking changes in both to stability in plant community composition and biomass production. We show that the independent effects of CO2 and warming on community composition and productivity depend on interannual variation in precipitation and that the effects of elevated CO2 are not limited to water saving because they differ from those of irrigation. We also show that production in this mixed-grass prairie ecosystem is not only relatively resistant to interannual variation in precipitation, but also rendered more stable under elevated CO2 conditions. This increase in production stability is the result of altered community dominance patterns: Community evenness increases as dominant species decrease in biomass under elevated CO2. In many grasslands that serve as rangelands, the economic value of the ecosystem is largely dependent on plant community composition and the relative abundance of key forage species. Thus, our results have implications for how we manage native grasslands in the face of changing climate