Predicting the potential distribution of Amblyomma americanum (Acari: Ixodidae) infestation in New Zealand, using maximum entropy-based ecological niche modelling

Publishe

Ecological Niche and Geographic Distribution of Human Monkeypox in Africa

Monkeypox virus, a zoonotic member of the genus Orthopoxviridae, can cause a severe, smallpox-like illness in humans. Monkeypox virus is thought to be endemic to forested areas of western and Central Africa. Considerably more is known about human monkeypox disease occurrence than about natural sylvatic cycles of this virus in non-human animal hosts. We use human monkeypox case data from Africa for 1970–2003 in an ecological niche modeling framework to construct predictive models of the ecological requirements and geographic distribution of monkeypox virus across West and Central Africa. Tests of internal predictive ability using different subsets of input data show the model to be highly robust and suggest that the distinct phylogenetic lineages of monkeypox in West Africa and Central Africa occupy similar ecological niches. High mean annual precipitation and low elevations were shown to be highly correlated with human monkeypox disease occurrence. The synthetic picture of the potential geographic distribution of human monkeypox in Africa resulting from this study should support ongoing epidemiologic and ecological studies, as well as help to guide public health intervention strategies to areas at highest risk for human monkeypox

Strange Municipal

These poems often aim toward resonance rather than reference - issuing not necessarily from the representation of any event, but the event that an (often) rhetorical voice must create for itself in order for the poem to "happen," and which must somehow become anthemic to a number of selves. The voices of these poems confront the possibility of meaninglessness, and do so in various stages of commitment, embodiment, and potency - measured, too, by laws, geographical boundaries, and other demarcations external to them

Possibilities and paradoxes of religious schools : case study of Seventh-Day Adventist schools

This dissertation deals with the gap between education of practice and vision in Seventh-day Adventist education. It describes and analyzes the conflicts between its religious vision and particular cultural and social demands placed upon its education program. The first chapter provides the historical setting for the Seventh-day Adventist church and a look at the elements which gave birth and legitimacy to Adventist education. In particular, the chapter focuses on the necessity for Adventist educators to respond to the existing social cultural context

Weight stereotyping in young children: an early personality reasoning perspective in 3- to 6-year-olds

Weight stereotyping is the relative devaluation of an overweight body size (Sigelman, Miller, & Whitworth, 1986), which has been detected as early as 3 years of age (Cramer & Steinwert, 1998). Previous studies of weight stereotypes have not been informed by what we know about children‘s social reasoning processes (i.e., positivity and negativity biases), essentialist beliefs about weight (i.e., contagiousness, biological origins, stability, and changeability) or concurrently developing cognitive and social abilities (i.e., cognitive flexibility, theory of mind, and working memory). The current study examined weight stereotypes in 80 3- to 6- year-old children using a story-distracter-recall paradigm. Results indicate that with age, children are more accurate in labeling positive traits. Essentialist weight reasoning was not consistent across domains, but generally increased with age (from 6.15 to 8.7 on a 14–point scale). Cognitive abilities were related to weight essentialism; notably, increases in cognitive flexibility and working memory were associated with decreases in weight stability beliefs for older children. Implications for the role of weight stereotypes in behaviors (i.e., discrimination) and the formation of stereotype interventions are discussed

Fla^nerie in Zola's Paris

"This thesis is a study of the practice of fla^nerie ("strolling") in three novels by the nineteenth-century French author and purveyor of Naturalism, E´mile Zola: The´re`se Raquin, La Cure´e, and Au Bonheur des dames. Fla^nerie, the dual activity of walking and observing, constitutes a spatial and visual negotiation of the urban landscape. As defined by Charles Baudelaire and redefined by the twentieth-century German Marxist critic, Walter Benjamin, the fla^neur is a leisurely male stroller with an ambiguous role in the changing metropolis. The possibility of a female fla^neuse raises fundamental questions about the role of women in urban public life. In the course of this thesis, I expose the presence and nature of a Zolian fla^neuse by examining the cases of his female characters in the three novels and their relation to existing social limitations and new possibilities for emancipation in late nineteenth-century Paris. In the end, I propose that the successful and failed fla^nerie of these characters highlights the paradoxes of women in the new spaces of modernity, areas devoted to leisure, consumerism, and spectatorship."--Abstract from author supplied metadata

Tracking a Medically Important Spider: Climate Change, Ecological Niche Modeling, and the Brown Recluse (Loxosceles reclusa)

Most spiders use venom to paralyze their prey and are commonly feared for their potential to cause injury to humans. In North America, one species in particular, Loxosceles reclusa (brown recluse spider, Sicariidae), causes the majority of necrotic wounds induced by the Araneae. However, its distributional limitations are poorly understood and, as a result, medical professionals routinely misdiagnose brown recluse bites outside endemic areas, confusing putative spider bites for other serious conditions. To address the issue of brown recluse distribution, we employ ecological niche modeling to investigate the present and future distributional potential of this species. We delineate range boundaries and demonstrate that under future climate change scenarios, the spider's distribution may expand northward, invading previously unaffected regions of the USA. At present, the spider's range is centered in the USA, from Kansas east to Kentucky and from southern Iowa south to Louisiana. Newly influenced areas may include parts of Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. These results illustrate a potential negative consequence of climate change on humans and will aid medical professionals in proper bite identification/treatment, potentially reducing bite misdiagnoses

Dorothy Heathcote as philosopher, educator and dramatist

This dissertation represents an interpretive inquiry of Dorothy Heathcote as philosopher, educator, and dramatist upon the occasion of her retirement from teaching. Background information for this dissertation was acquired by the author over a seventeen year period of using Heathcote's educational principles while teaching basic curriculum to public school students in grades Kindergarten through eight. Information on Heathcote's teaching model was obtained from videos and published accounts of her work, and from attendance at several workshops led by Heathcote. An in-depth study was conducted while a participant in the final graduate course taught by Heathcote in 1986 at the University of Newcastle-upon- Tyne, England and by extensive personal discussions with her while living as a guest in her home. These observations are given perspective by interviews conducted with seven American educators who represent a variety of backgrounds and who all have had experience using Heathcote's approach to teaching in a variety of educational settings

Ecology and Geography of Plague Transmission Areas in Northeastern Brazil

Plague in Brazil is poorly known and now rarely seen, so studies of its ecology are difficult. We used ecological niche models of historical (1966-present) records of human plague cases across northeastern Brazil to assess hypotheses regarding environmental correlates of plague occurrences across the region. Results indicate that the apparently focal distribution of plague in northeastern Brazil is indeed discontinuous, and that the causes of the discontinuity are not necessarily only related to elevation—rather, a diversity of environmental dimensions correlate to presence of plague foci in the region. Perhaps most interesting is that suitable areas for plague show marked seasonal variation in photosynthetic mass, with peaks in April and May, suggesting links to particular land cover types. Next steps in this line of research will require more detailed and specific examination of reservoir ecology and natural history