931 research outputs found
Strategies to Strengthen Youth Leadership and Youth Participation Opportunities in Central Appalachia
The purpose of this study was to assess opportunities for strengthening youth leadership and participation in the Central Appalachian region. In particular, authors Rebecca O’Doherty, Ada Smith, Ben Spangler, Elandria Williams, and Katie Richards-Schuster sought to understand and document the range of activities and strategies in the region as well as understand the nuances involved in promoting and sustaining youth leadership opportunities. Through interviews with key leaders in the region, they explored critical themes for strengthening youth leadership. To highlight the potential and opportunities for future development, they share a case study of an innovative approach to nurturing and sustaining youth leadership. They conclude with a set of recommendations for consideration by policy makers and stakeholders interested in developing sustainable youth leadership practices in Central Appalachia
Let Them Tweet Cake: Estimating Public Dissent Using Twitter
This paper establishes a new method of estimating public dissent that is both cost-effective and adaptable. Twitter allows users to post short messages that can be viewed and shared by other users, creating a network of freely and easily observable information. Drawing data directly from Twitter, we collect tweets containing specified words and phrases from citizens voicing dissatisfaction with their government. The collected tweets are processed using a regular expression based algorithm to estimate individual dissent; which is aggregated to an overall measure of public dissent. A comparative case study of Canada and Kenya during the summer of 2016 provides proof of concept. Controlling for user base differences, we find there is more public dissent in Kenya than Canada. This obvious, but necessary, result suggests that our measure of public dissent is a better representation of each country’s internal dynamics than other more sporadic measures. As a robustness check, we test our estimates against real-world civil unrest events. Results show our estimates of public dissent are significantly predictive of civil unrest events days before they occur in both countries
Climate Change-Driven Cumulative Mountain Pine Beetle-Caused Whitebark Pine Mortality in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
An aerial survey method called the Landscape Assessment System (LAS) was used to assess mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae)-caused mortality of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (59,000 km2; GYE). This consisted of 11,942 km of flightlines, along which 4434 geo-tagged, oblique aerial photos were captured and processed. A mortality rating of none to severe (0–4.0 recent attack or 5.0–5.4 old attack) was assigned to each photo based on the amount of red (recent attack) and gray (old attack) trees visible. The method produced a photo inventory of 74 percent of the GYE whitebark pine distribution. For the remaining 26 percent of the distribution, mortality levels were estimated based on an interpolated mortality surface. Catchment-level results combining the photo-inventoried and interpolated mortality indicated that 44 percent of the GYE whitebark pine distribution showed severe old attack mortality (5.3–5.4 rating), 37 percent showed moderate old attack mortality (5.2–5.29 rating), 19 percent showed low old attack mortality (5.1–5.19 rating) and less than 1 percent showed trace levels of old attack mortality (5.0–5.09). No catchments were classified as recent attacks indicating that the outbreak of the early 2000’s has ended. However, mortality continues to occur as chronic sub-outbreak-level mortality. Ground verification using field plots indicates that higher LAS mortality values are moderately correlated with a higher percentage of mortality on the ground
The Galactic Distribution of Large HI Shells
We report the discovery of nineteen new HI shells in the Southern Galactic
Plane Survey (SGPS). These shells, which range in radius from 40 pc to 1 kpc,
were found in the low resolution Parkes portion of the SGPS dataset, covering
Galactic longitudes l=253 deg to l=358 deg. Here we give the properties of
individual shells, including positions, physical dimensions, energetics,
masses, and possible associations. We also examine the distribution of these
shells in the Milky Way and find that several of the shells are located between
the spiral arms of the Galaxy. We offer possible explanations for this effect,
in particular that the density gradient away from spiral arms, combined with
the many generations of sequential star formation required to create large
shells, could lead to a preferential placement of shells on the trailing edges
of spiral arms. Spiral density wave theory is used in order to derive the
magnitude of the density gradient behind spiral arms. We find that the density
gradient away from spiral arms is comparable to that out of the Galactic plane
and therefore suggest that this may lead to exaggerated shell expansion away
from spiral arms and into interarm regions.Comment: 25 pages, 20 embedded EPS figures, uses emulateapj.sty, to appear in
the Astrophysical Journa
The relationship between facility delivery and infant immunization in Ethiopia
ObjectiveTo determine whether facility delivery is related to compliance with recommended infant immunizations, particularly those that occur weeks or months after delivery.MethodsIn a retrospective analysis, multivariate logistic regression was used to assess data from the 2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) to determine the strongest correlates of facility delivery. These correlates were then used, along with facility delivery itself, to determine the relationship between facility delivery and infant immunization.ResultsIn total, 3334 women delivered a newborn 12–24 months before the 2011 EDHS: 90.2% (3007) delivered at home, and 9.8% (327) delivered in a facility. Education, wealth status, urban residence, and number of children under 5 years living in the household were the factors most strongly associated with facility delivery. When facility delivery and its strongest correlates were entered into multivariate logistic regression models with infant immunizations as the outcome, facility delivery was significantly associated with increased likelihood of DPT‐HepB‐Hib, polio, and measles vaccination, and increased likelihood of being fully immunized (all P < 0.01). Facility delivery was the strongest single factor associated with infants being immunized, doubling the odds of full immunization.ConclusionThe impact of facility delivery on health outcomes transcends the immediate delivery and postpartum period.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135167/1/ijgo217.pd
Recommended from our members
Insecure attachment during infancy predicts greater amygdala volumes in early adulthood
Background
The quality of the early environment is hypothesized to be an influence on morphological development in key neural areas related to affective responding, but direct evidence to support this possibility is limited. In a 22-year longitudinal study, we examined hippocampal and amygdala volumes in adulthood in relation to early infant attachment status, an important indicator of the quality of the early caregiving environment.
Methods
Participants (N = 59) were derived from a prospective longitudinal study of the impact of maternal postnatal depression on child development. Infant attachment status (24 Secure; 35 Insecure) was observed at 18 months of age, and MRI assessments were completed at 22 years.
Results
In line with hypotheses, insecure versus secure infant attachment status was associated with larger amygdala volumes in young adults, an effect that was not accounted for by maternal depression history. We did not find early infant attachment status to predict hippocampal volumes.
Conclusions
Common variations in the quality of early environment are associated with gross alterations in amygdala morphology in the adult brain. Further research is required to establish the neural changes that underpin the volumetric differences reported here, and any functional implications
Simulating Heliospheric and Solar Particle Diffusion using the Parker Spiral Geometry
Cosmic Ray transport in curved background magnetic fields is investigated
using numerical Monte-Carlo simulation techniques. Special emphasis is laid on
the Solar system, where the curvature of the magnetic field can be described in
terms of the Parker spiral. Using such geometries, parallel and perpendicular
diffusion coefficients have to be re-defined using the arc length of the field
lines as the parallel displacement and the distance between field lines as the
perpendicular displacement. Furthermore, the turbulent magnetic field is
incorporated using a WKB approach for the field strength. Using a test-particle
simulation, the diffusion coefficients are then calculated by averaging over a
large number of particles starting at the same radial distance from the Sun and
over a large number of turbulence realizations, thus enabling one to infer the
effects due to the curvature of the magnetic fields and associated drift
motions.Comment: accepted for publication at Journal of Geophysical Research - Space
Physic
Optical Nuclei of Radio-loud AGN and the Fanaroff-Riley Divide
We investigate the nature of the point-like optical ``cores'' that have been
found in the centres of the host galaxies of a majority of radio galaxies by
the Hubble Space Telescope. We examine the evidence that these optical cores
are relativistically beamed, and look for differences in the behaviour of the
cores found in radio galaxies of the two Fanaroff-Riley types. We also attempt
to relate this behaviour to the properties of the optical nuclei in their
highly beamed counterparts (the BL Lac objects and radio-loud quasars) as
hypothesized by the simple Unified Scheme. Simple model-fitting of the data
suggests that the emission may be coming from a non-thermal relativistic jet.
It is also suggestive that the contribution from an accretion disk is not
significant for the FRI objects and for the narrow-line radio galaxies of FRII
type, while it may be significant for the Broad-line objects, and consistent
with the idea that the FRII optical cores seem to suffer from extinction due to
an obscuring torus while the FRI optical cores do not. These results are in
agreement with the Unified Scheme for radio-loud AGNs.Comment: 16 pages including 7 figures and 6 tables, v3: Accepted for
publication in A&
- …