Spawning cycles and habitats for ballyhoo (Hemiramphus brasiliensis) and balao (H. balao) in south Florida

Two halfbeak species, ballyhoo (Hemiramphus brasiliensis) and balao (H. balao), are harvested as bait in south Florida waters, and recent changes in fishing effort and regulations prompted this investigation of the overlap of halfbeak fishing grounds and spawning grounds. Halfbeaks were sampled aboard commercial fishing vessels, and during fishery-independent trips, to determine spatial and temporal spawning patterns of both species. Cyclic patterns of gonadosomatic indices (GSIs) indicated that both species spawned during spring and summer months. Histological analysis demonstrated that specific stages of oocyte development can be predicted from GSI values; for example, female ballyhoo with GSIs >6.0 had hydrated oocytes that were 2.0−3.5 mm diameter. Diel changes in oocyte diameters and histological criteria demonstrated that final oocyte maturation occurred over a 30- to 36-hour period and that ballyhoo spawned at dusk. Hydration of oocytes began in the morning, and ovulation occurred at sunset of that same day; therefore females with hydrated oocytes were ready to spawn within hours. We compared maps of all locations where fish were collected to maps of locations where spawning females (i.e. females with GSIs >6.0) were collected to determine the degree of overlap of halfbeak fishing and spawning grounds. We also used geographic information system (GIS) data to describe the depth and bottom type of halfbeak spawning grounds. Ballyhoo spawned all along the coral reef tract of the Atlantic Ocean, inshore of the reef tract, and in association with bank habitats within Florida Bay. In the Atlantic Ocean, balao spawned along the reef tract and in deeper, more offshore waters than did ballyhoo; balao were not found inshore of the coral reef tract or in Florida Bay. Both halfbeak species, considered together, spawned throughout the fishing grounds of south Florida

Native American English in Oklahoma: Attitudes and Vitality

This study offers an assessment of the subjective ethnolinguistic vitality (SEV) of Native American-accented English varieties--or just Native American English (NAE)--among tribal people in Oklahoma through an investigation of the linguistic attitudes of several individual members of the NAE speech community. The mixed-methods assessment involves (a) the thematic analysis of ethnographic interviews about language variety use, (b) the aggregation of responses to a perceptual dialectological mapping task, and (c) the statistical analysis of responses to a computer-mediated SEV survey. Vitality is measured in terms of Native Americans' perceptions about several speech and ethnic community pairings. These pairings include tribal heritage languages among tribal groups, NAE among the supratribal Native American community within the state, and mainstream U.S. English (MUSE) in the broader Oklahoma mainstream. Twenty-seven mixed-blood Native Americans from across the state ranging from eighteen to seventy-six years of age and claiming various tribal backgrounds participated in this study. Through comparative analysis of collective and individual results from the methodologies employed, NAE is shown to be a vital but domain-specific, geographically-clustered, and highly informal variety of English within its Oklahoma speech community. While comparatively less vital than MUSE, NAE is perceived by study participants as more vital than tribal heritage languages. As such, it indexes and helps to establish a common Native American ethnicity in the state. However, attitudes toward NAE entail numerous conflicts in Oklahoma's Native American community, including perceptions of it having both positive and negative aspects, as well as both authentic and inauthentic status, and of it indexing both Native American and mainstream social expectations about its users.Englis

Inglés del sur "real" casero: comparando los dialectos reales e imitados de un nativo de Oklahoma

The Research on the Dialects of English in Oklahoma (RODEO) project offers a view of local perceptions of dialects in Oklahoma, USA. “Beth” (Female, 46, Watts, Oklahoma) spontaneously read the same passage in both her local, Southern - influenced English variety and a pretend, “real down - home Southern” variety. Spectra from both performances were analyzed to determine pitch, intensity, and formant values of stressed vowels and the length of words containing them. Beth ’s local and exaggerated Southern performances were compared using paired t - tests. While many differences were insignificant, Beth’s imitated variety was characterized by FACE vowel onset centralization, THOUGHT vowel raising, and increases in time and int ensity. Sociolinguistic interview data was also analyzed to reveal attitudinal evidence for the contrast. Beth appears to reveal weak perceptual associations with stereotypic Southern English phonological features but exhibits a complicated attitudinal rel ationship to the local speech community and an awareness of registers within the local repertoire .El proyecto de investigación sobre los dialectos del inglés en Oklahoma (RODEO) ofrece una visión de las percepciones locales de los dialectos en Oklahoma, EE.UU. “Beth” ( mujer , 46 años, Watts, O klahoma) leyó espontáneamente el mismo pasaje tanto en su variedad local inglesa influenciada por el sur como en una pretendida variedad “real casera del sur”. Se analizaron los espectros de ambas interpretaciones para determinar los valores de tono, intensidad y formante de las vocales acentuadas y la longitud de las palabras que las contenían. Los resultados locales y exagerados sureños de Beth se compararon mediante t - tests emparejadas . Mientras que muchas diferencias fueron insignificantes, la variedad imitada de Beth se caracterizó por la centralización de la iniciación de la vocal , elevación de la vocalidad y incremento en tiempo e intensidad. Los datos so ciolingüísticos de las entrevistas también fueron a nalizados para revelar evidencias actitudinal es en el contraste. Beth parece revelar asociaciones perceptivas débiles con rasgos fonológicos estereotípicos del inglés del sur, pero muestra una complicada r elación actitud inal con la comunidad del habla local y una conciencia de los registros dentro del repertorio local

Black, Brown, and Powerful: Freedom Dreams in Unequal Cities

In April 2018, the Institute on Inequality and Democracy convened scholars, activists, policy advocates, community residents, and nonprofit workers to share and discuss research and action pertaining to processes of inequality in Los Angeles. We sought to shed light on the entangled structures of oppression, including urban displacement, housing precarity, racialized policing, criminal justice debt, forced labor, and the mass supervision and control of youth. Through keynote talks, group dialogue, and workshops, we analyzed how in Los Angeles, and elsewhere, black and brown communities face multiple forms of banishment and exploitation ranging from the criminalization of poverty to institutionalized theft.The question of racial banishment has been an important one for the Institute since its inauguration two years ago. This year though, amidst the troubled times of Trumpism, we wanted to shift our focus from banishment to freedom. In the reports that follow, you will find many examples of what Robin D.G. Kelley, a key presence at the Institute, has famously called “freedom dreams.” Located in, and thinking from South Central Los Angeles, the event’s participants provide insight into organizing frameworks and resistance strategies that challenge exclusion and refuse subordination. From tenant organizing to debtors’ unions, from underground scholars to educational reparations, visions of freedom abound. The Institute on Inequality and Democracy is convinced that university-based research can, and must, support such freedom dreams. Such partnership – between the public university and social justice movements – requires careful attention to the difficult task of decolonizing the university. This mandate is evident throughout this collection of reports. There is no easy alliance between academic power and banished communities; there is no obvious solidarity between urban plans and freedom dreams. This event was intended to be a step towards building such alliances, especially by reconstructing the curriculum and canon of knowledge

International Service in the Context of Globalization: Research Conference Summary Report

International Service in the Context of Globalization: Research Conference Summary Repor

The differential impact of early father and mother involvement on later student achievement.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the direct and indirect effects of early parenting on later parental school involvement and student achievement. The sample, pulled from the first and second waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics – Child Development Supplement data set, consisted of 390 children ages 2–5 at time 1 and their families. Fathers’ and mothers’ participation in five dimensions of early parenting behaviors were assessed at time 1, while later parental school involvement and student achievement were assessed at time 2. Although early paternal and maternal parenting behaviors were not directly related to later student achievement, differences were revealed in the pattern of relationships between early parenting and later parental school involvement for fathers and mothers. In addition, fathers’ later school involvement was found to be negatively related to student achievement while maternal school involvement was found to be positively related to student achievement. These findings provide partial support for the hypothesized differential relationship between fathers’ and mothers’ early parenting and later student achievement

A Global lake ecological observatory network (GLEON) for synthesising high-frequency sensor data for validation of deterministic ecological models

A Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON; www.gleon.org) has formed to provide a coordinated response to the need for scientific understanding of lake processes, utilising technological advances available from autonomous sensors. The organisation embraces a grassroots approach to engage researchers from varying disciplines, sites spanning geographic and ecological gradients, and novel sensor and cyberinfrastructure to synthesise high-frequency lake data at scales ranging from local to global. The high-frequency data provide a platform to rigorously validate processbased ecological models because model simulation time steps are better aligned with sensor measurements than with lower-frequency, manual samples. Two case studies from Trout Bog, Wisconsin, USA, and Lake Rotoehu, North Island, New Zealand, are presented to demonstrate that in the past, ecological model outputs (e.g., temperature, chlorophyll) have been relatively poorly validated based on a limited number of directly comparable measurements, both in time and space. The case studies demonstrate some of the difficulties of mapping sensor measurements directly to model state variable outputs as well as the opportunities to use deviations between sensor measurements and model simulations to better inform process understanding. Well-validated ecological models provide a mechanism to extrapolate high-frequency sensor data in space and time, thereby potentially creating a fully 3-dimensional simulation of key variables of interest

Epidural Hematoma Following Cervical Spine Surgery.

STUDY DESIGN: A multicentered retrospective case series. OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence and circumstances surrounding the development of a symptomatic postoperative epidural hematoma in the cervical spine. METHODS: Patients who underwent cervical spine surgery between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2011, at 23 institutions were reviewed, and all patients who developed an epidural hematoma were identified. RESULTS: A total of 16 582 cervical spine surgeries were identified, and 15 patients developed a postoperative epidural hematoma, for a total incidence of 0.090%. Substantial variation between institutions was noted, with 11 sites reporting no epidural hematomas, and 1 site reporting an incidence of 0.76%. All patients initially presented with a neurologic deficit. Nine patients had complete resolution of the neurologic deficit after hematoma evacuation; however 2 of the 3 patients (66%) who had a delay in the diagnosis of the epidural hematoma had residual neurologic deficits compared to only 4 of the 12 patients (33%) who had no delay in the diagnosis or treatment (P = .53). Additionally, the patients who experienced a postoperative epidural hematoma did not experience any significant improvement in health-related quality-of-life metrics as a result of the index procedure at final follow-up evaluation. CONCLUSION: This is the largest series to date to analyze the incidence of an epidural hematoma following cervical spine surgery, and this study suggest that an epidural hematoma occurs in approximately 1 out of 1000 cervical spine surgeries. Prompt diagnosis and treatment may improve the chance of making a complete neurologic recovery, but patients who develop this complication do not show improvements in the health-related quality-of-life measurements