Distribution and Ecologic Aspects of Central Pacific Salpidae (Tunicata)

Volume: 12Start Page: 111End Page: 13

Productivity of Florida Springs: final report to Biology Branch, Office of Naval Research progress from December 31, 1955 to May 31, 1956

CONTENTS: Factors that control species numbers in Silver Springs, by James L. Yount. Study of the biomass of parasites in the stumpknockers, by Wanda Hunter. Macrophytic communities in Florida inland waters, by Delle N. Swindale. Comment in retrospect, by Howard T. Odum. (15pp.

Productivity of Florida Springs: Second annual report to Biology Branch, Office of Naval Research progress from January 1 to December 31, 1954

Production measurements at different times of the year indicate a linear relationship of light intensity and overall production at about 8% of the visible light energy reaching plant level. Measurements of a coral reef at Eniwetok indicate 6%. Further evidence of breeding at all seasons but with a quantitative pulse in the seasons of maximum light indicates that the seasonal fluctuation in primary production is routed through reproduction rather than through major changes in populations. The succession of plants and anmals of the aufwuchs has been shown with glass slides and counts from Sagittaria blades. Losss of oxygen bubbles during the day and emergence of aquatic insects at night have been measured with funnels. Bell jar measurements are reported for bacterial metabolism on mud surfaces. pH determined CO2 uptake agrees with titration determinations. A few rough estimates of herbivore production have been made from caged snails, aufwuchs succession, and fish tagging. Nitrate uptake a night by aufwuchs communities has been confirmed in a circulating microcosm experiment as well as in bell jars in the springs. Distributions of oxygen and organisms have been used to criticize the saprobe stream classification system. Theoretical consideration of maximum photosynthetic rates in teh literature data indicates logarithmic rate variation inversely with organismal size just as for respiratory metabolism. Extreme pyramid shapes are thus shown for communities in which organismal size decreases up the food chain and for other communities with the same energy influx but with organismal size increasing up the food chain. Literature data is used to further demonstrate the validity of the optimum efficiency-maximum power principle for photosynthesis. Work on plants by Dr. Delle Natelson indicates essential stability of aquatic plant communities after 3 years and about 10-20% reproducibility in previous biomass estimates by Davis. Work on an animal picture of the fishery characteristics by Caldwell, Barry, and Odum is half completed. The study of aquatic insects in relationship to spring gradients by W.C. Sloan has been completed an an M.S. thesis. J. Yount has begun a study of affect of total productivity on community composition using aufwuchs organisms on glass slides placed in different current and light conditions in Silver Springs. (49pp.

The Reproductive Agency Scale (RAS-17): development and validation in a cross-sectional study of pregnant Qatari and non-Qatari Arab Women.

BACKGROUND: Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 prioritizes women's empowerment and gender equality, alone and as drivers of other SDGs. Efforts to validate universal measures of women's empowerment have eclipsed efforts to develop refined measures in local contexts and lifecycle stages. Measures of women's empowerment across the reproductive lifecycle remain limited, including in the Arab Middle East. METHODS: In this sequential, mixed-methods study, we developed and validated the Reproductive Agency Scale 17 (RAS-17) in 684 women having a normal pregnancy and receiving prenatal care at Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar. Participants varied in age (19-46 years), trimester, gravidity (M3.3[SD2.1], range 1-14), and parity (M2.1[SD1.5], range 0-7). Using qualitative research and questionnaire reviews, we developed 44 pregnancy-specific and non-pregnancy-specific agency items. We performed exploratory then confirmatory factor analyses (EFA/CFA) in random split-half samples and multiple-group CFA to assess measurement invariance of the scale across Qatari (n = 260) and non-Qatari Arab (n = 342) women. RESULTS: Non-Qatari women agreed more strongly than Qatari women that every woman should have university education, and working outside home benefitted women. Qatari women agreed more strongly than non-Qatari women that a woman should be free to sell her property. Qatari women reported more influence than non-Qatari women in decisions about spending their money (M4.6 versus M4.4), food they can eat (M4.4 versus M4.2), and rest during pregnancy (M4.5 versus M4.2). Qatari and non-Qatari women typically reported going most places with permission if accompanied. A 17-item, three-factor model measuring women's intrinsic agency or awareness of economic rights (5 items) and instrumental agency in decision-making (5 items) and freedom of movement (7 items) had good fit and was partially invariant across groups. CONCLUSIONS: The RAS-17 is a contextual, multidimensional measure of women's reproductive agency validated in pregnant Qatari and non-Qatari Arab women. This scale integrates pregnancy-specific and non-pregnancy-specific items in dimensions of intrinsic agency and instrumental agency relevant to Arab women of reproductive age. The RAS-17 may be useful to screen for low reproductive agency as a predictor of maternal and perinatal outcomes. The RAS-17 should be validated in other samples to assess its full applicability across the reproductive life cycle

Dust emission at Franklin Lake Playa, Mojave Desert (USA): Response to meteorological and hydrologic changes 2005-2008

Playa type, size, and setting; playa hydrology; and surface-sediment characteristics are important controls on the type and amount of atmospheric dust emitted from playas. Soft, evaporite-rich sediment develops on the surfaces of some Mojave Desert (USA) playas (wet playas), where the water table is shallow (\u3c 4 m). These areas are sources of atmospheric dust because of continuous or episodic replenishment of wind-erodible salts and disruption of the ground surface during salt formation by evaporation of ground water. Dust emission at Franklin Lake playa was monitored between March 2005 and April 2008. The dust record, based on day-time remote digital camera images captured during high wind, and compared with a nearby precipitation record, shows that aridity suppresses dust emission. High frequency of dust generation appears to be associated with relatively wet periods, identified as either heavy precipitation events or sustained regional precipitation over a few months. Several factors may act separately or in combination to account for this relation. Dust emission may respond rapidly to heavy precipitation when the dissolution of hard, wind-resistant evaporite mineral crusts is followed by the development of soft surfaces with thin, newly formed crusts that are vulnerable to wind erosion and (or) the production of loose aggregates of evaporite minerals that are quickly removed by even moderate winds. Dust loading may also increase when relatively high regional precipitation leads to decreasing depth to the water table, thereby increasing rates of vapor discharge, development of evaporite minerals, and temporary softening of playa surfaces. The seasonality of wind strength was not a major factor in dust-storm frequency at the playa. The lack of major dust emissions related to flood-derived sediment at Franklin Lake playa contrasts with some dry-lake systems elsewhere that may produce large amounts of dust from flood sediments. Flood sediments do not commonly accumulate on the surface of Franklin Lake playa because through-going drainage prevents frequent inundation and deposition of widespread flood sediment

Validation of Three Mental Health Scales among Pregnant Women in Qatar

Objectives. The objective of this study is to validate three mental health scales in a targeted sample of pregnant Arab women living in Qatar: the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Methods. Random split-half exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analyses (n =336; n =331), conducted separately, were used to evaluate scale dimensionality, factor loadings, and factor structure of the KUAS, the PSS, and the EPDS. Results. Fit statistics for the three scales suggested adequate fit to the data and estimated factor loadings were positive, similar in magnitude, and were significant. The final CFA model for the KUAS supported a 19-item, two factor structure. CFA models also confirmed 8- and 10-item, single-factor structures for the PSS and EPDS, respectively. Conclusions. The validation of scales for these aspects of mental health in Arab pregnant women is critical to ensure appropriate screening, identification, and treatment to reduce the risk of sequelae in women and their children. Findings offer a useful comparison to mental-health scale validations in other Arab contexts

Gender Norms, Violence in Childhood, and Men’s Coercive Control in Marriage: A Multilevel Analysis of Young Men in Bangladesh

Objective: Coercive control in marriage is common in patriarchal settings, but multilevel determinants are understudied. Method: Using a probability sample of 570 junior men (married, 18–34 years) from the Bangladesh survey of the 2011 UN Multi-Country Study of Men and Violence, we examined how exposure to violence in childhood and community-level gender norms were related to men’s attitudes about gender equity and use of controlling behavior. We tested whether community-level gender norms moderated the relationship between men’s exposure to violence in childhood and our outcomes. Results: According to results from multilevel Poisson regression models, as community gender norms become more equitable by 1 standard deviation, a junior married man’s expected rate of controlling behavior is lower by 0.11, and his rate of agreement with gender equitable attitudes is higher by 0.27. More gender-equitable community norms were negatively related to a junior married man’s use of controlling behavior. Childhood exposure to violence was not associated with use of controlling behavior. There was a significant cross-level interaction such that exposure to violence had a stronger negative impact on men’s gender equitable attitudes in communities with lower overall gender equity than those with higher overall gender equity. The corresponding cross-level interaction effect was not significant for the controlling behavior outcome. Conclusions: More equitable community gender norms may encourage more gender-equitable attitudes and discourage use of controlling behavior among junior men, suggesting that interventions to change community gender norms may reduce coercive control of women in marriage

Responsiveness of PROMIS® to change in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BackgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive chronic disease characterized by airflow obstruction that leads to shortness of breath and substantial negative impacts on health-related quality of life (HRQL). The course of COPD includes periodic acute exacerbations that require changes in treatment and/or hospitalizations. This study was designed to examine the responsiveness of Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System® (PROMIS®) measures to changes associated with COPD exacerbation recovery.MethodsA longitudinal analysis using mixed-effects models was conducted of people who were enrolled while stable (n = 100) and those who experienced an acute exacerbation (n = 85). PROMIS (physical function, pain interference, pain behavior, fatigue, anxiety, depression, anger, social roles, discretionary social activities, Global Health, dyspnea severity and dyspnea functional limitations) and COPD-targeted HRQL measures were completed at baseline and at 12 weeks.ResultsWe administered PROMIS measures using computer adaptive testing (CAT), followed by administration of any remaining short form (SF) items that had not yet been administered by CAT. Examination of the difference between group differences from baseline to 12 weeks in the stable and exacerbation groups revealed that the exacerbation group changed (improved) significantly more than the stable group in anxiety (p < .001 to p < .01; f2 effect size [ES] = 0.023/0.021), fatigue (p < .0001; ES = 0.036/0.047) and social roles (p < .001 to p < .05; ES = 0.035/0.024). All effect sizes were small in magnitude and smaller than hypothesized. Depression was also statistically significant (p < .05, SF only) but the ES was trivial. For all other PROMIS domains, the differences were not significant and ES were trivial.ConclusionsThis longitudinal study provides some support for the validity of the PROMIS fatigue, anxiety, and social roles domains in COPD, but further evaluation of responsiveness is warranted

Men’s Perpetration of Partner Violence in Bangladesh: Community Gender Norms and Violence in Childhood.

Men’s perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) is common, but its multilevel determinants are understudied. We leveraged novel data from a probability sample of married junior men (N = 570; age 18 to 34 years) from 50 urban and 62 rural communities who took part in the Bangladesh survey of the 2011 UN Multi-Country Study of Men and Violence. We tested whether lifetime count (or scope) of physical IPV acts perpetrated was negatively associated with more equitable community gender norms among married senior men (N = 938; age 35 to 49 years) and positively associated with greater exposure to childhood violence among junior men. We also tested whether more equitable community gender norms mitigated the association of more violence in childhood with the lifetime scope of physical IPV acts perpetrated. Among younger married men, 50% reportedly ever perpetrated physical IPV, the mean lifetime scope of physical IPV types perpetrated was 1.1 (SD 1.3) out of 5 listed. A majority (64%) reported childhood exposure to violence. In multilevel Poisson models, a man with more childhood exposure to violence had a higher log scope (estimate: 0.31, SE 0.04, p < .001), and a man living amid the most equitable gender norms had a lower log scope (estimate: −0.61, SE 0.17, p < .01) of physical IPV acts perpetrated; however, no significant cross-level interaction was observed. Interventions that address the trauma of childhood violence and that promote more equitable community gender norms may be needed to mitigate IPV perpetration by younger men

Multilevel Influences on Depressive Symptoms among Men in Bangladesh

Depression is a worldwide problem, and is especially prevalent in lower-income countries with insufficient resources and widespread poverty, such as Bangladesh. Yet multilevel determinants of depressive symptoms in men have not been studied in this context. We leverage a novel dataset from men in Bangladesh to determine the community- and individual-level influences of masculine dominance strain and financial strain on the frequency of married men’s depressive symptoms in Bangladesh. Data were collected between January and June, 2011, as part of the UN Multi-Country Study of Men and Violence, conducted by The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). Masculine dominance strain at both levels was related to the frequency of depressive symptoms. Financial strain only at the individual level was related to the frequency of depressive symptoms. We conclude that community-level economic interventions may not directly influence individual-level depression; however, addressing customary conceptions of masculinity at the community and individual level and addressing individual-level financial strain are promising joint strategies to improve married men’s mental health in Bangladesh and similar settings