A Systematic Review of Wild Burro Grazing Effects on Mojave Desert Vegetation, USA

While it is often the assumption in environmental modeling that finer-resolution modeling is preferred, especially if computation times are not prohibitive, few studies have assessed how climate grid resolution influences the Maxent-predicted habitat of desert vegetation species. Further, drought events can occur over longer or shorter terms with drought length potentially influencing species' habitat distributions. This study uses four higher-elevation Mojave Desert plant species experiencing known habitat contractions corresponding with climatic changes to assess how sensitive Maxent species distribution models are to using 5- and 10-year averaged climate data, as well as 800-m and 4-km resampled gridded climate data. Results show there are spatial differences in models despite relatively consistent clustering of three of the species' recorded field locations, whereas predicting habitat for the more broadly ranging species results in less certainty across all models. Overall, models were more sensitive to the spatial resolution of the climate data than to the climate time step used. When considering geographic areas with high relief, such as the Newberry Mountains in southern Nevada constituting the study area, the spatial resolution of climate data has a major influence on modeled habitat. As more fine-resolution climate data become available, researchers may need to establish more plots for field collection to assess specific microclimatic effects on vegetation.

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Late Wisconsin Macrofossil Records of Desert Vegetation in the American Southwest

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/0033-5894(83)90009-1 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 256-264 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

W. Geoffrey Spaulding

Keyword(s):

Sonoran Desert ◽

Mojave Desert ◽

American Southwest ◽

Early Holocene ◽

Desert Vegetation ◽

Middle Holocene ◽

Vegetation Mosaic ◽

Desert Scrub

AbstractUntil recently, the oldest-known packrat (Neotoma spp.) midden records of desert scrub vegetation were less than 10,500 yr old and were restricted to altitudes below 300 m in the northern Sonoran Desert. Recent discovery of macrofossil assemblages in the Mojave Desert extends the record of desert vegetation back to 14,800 yr ago and to altitudes as high as 910 m. Although xerophytic conifer woodland was widespread in current desert habitats during the Late Wisconsin and early Holocene, the development of extensive desert vegetation was not delayed until the beginning of the middle Holocene. A regional vegetation mosaic of desert scrub and woodland existed at altitudes below 1000 m in the Mojave Desert during the last part of the Late Wisconsin.

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The effects of low-ratio n-6/n-3 PUFA on biomarkers of inflammation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Food & Function ◽

10.1039/d0fo01976c ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yali Wei ◽

Yan Meng ◽

Na Li ◽

Qian Wang ◽

Liyong Chen

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Fatty Acid ◽

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid ◽

Inflammation Markers ◽

Pufa Supplementation ◽

Long Chain

The purpose of the systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine if low-ratio n-6/n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation affects serum inflammation markers based on current studies.

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Parent Education in Studies With Nonverbal and Minimally Verbal Participants With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/2019_ajslp-19-00007 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 890-902

Author(s):

Lynn Kern Koegel ◽

Katherine M. Bryan ◽

Pumpki Lei Su ◽

Mohini Vaidya ◽

Stephen Camarata

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Parent Education ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Verbal Communication ◽

Fidelity Of Implementation ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Education Programs ◽

Minimally Verbal ◽

Parent Education Programs

Purpose The purpose of this systematic review was to identify parent education procedures implemented in intervention studies focused on expressive verbal communication for nonverbal (NV) or minimally verbal (MV) children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parent education has been shown to be an essential component in the habilitation of individuals with ASD. Parents of individuals with ASD who are NV or MV may particularly benefit from parent education in order to provide opportunities for communication and to support their children across the life span. Method ProQuest databases were searched between the years of 1960 and 2018 to identify articles that targeted verbal communication in MV and NV individuals with ASD. A total of 1,231 were evaluated to assess whether parent education was implemented. We found 36 studies that included a parent education component. These were reviewed with regard to (a) the number of participants and participants' ages, (b) the parent education program provided, (c) the format of the parent education, (d) the duration of the parent education, (e) the measurement of parent education, and (f) the parent fidelity of implementation scores. Results The results of this analysis showed that very few studies have included a parent education component, descriptions of the parent education programs are unclear in most studies, and few studies have scored the parents' implementation of the intervention. Conclusions Currently, there is great variability in parent education programs in regard to participant age, hours provided, fidelity of implementation, format of parent education, and type of treatment used. Suggestions are made to provide both a more comprehensive description and consistent measurement of parent education programs.

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Characteristics of the Frequency-Following Response to Speech in Neonates and Potential Applicability in Clinical Practice: A Systematic Review

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00322 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (5) ◽

pp. 1618-1635

Author(s):

Céline Richard ◽

Mary Lauren Neel ◽

Arnaud Jeanvoine ◽

Sharon Mc Connell ◽

Alison Gehred ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Cochrane Library ◽

Neurodevelopmental Outcomes ◽

Frequency Following Response ◽

Ovid Medline ◽

Published Evidence ◽

Mesh Terms ◽

Potential Applicability ◽

Clinical Potential

Purpose We sought to critically analyze and evaluate published evidence regarding feasibility and clinical potential for predicting neurodevelopmental outcomes of the frequency-following responses (FFRs) to speech recordings in neonates (birth to 28 days). Method A systematic search of MeSH terms in the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied HealthLiterature, Embase, Google Scholar, Ovid Medline (R) and E-Pub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations and Daily, Web of Science, SCOPUS, COCHRANE Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov was performed. Manual review of all items identified in the search was performed by two independent reviewers. Articles were evaluated based on the level of methodological quality and evidence according to the RTI item bank. Results Seven articles met inclusion criteria. None of the included studies reported neurodevelopmental outcomes past 3 months of age. Quality of the evidence ranged from moderate to high. Protocol variations were frequent. Conclusions Based on this systematic review, the FFR to speech can capture both temporal and spectral acoustic features in neonates. It can accurately be recorded in a fast and easy manner at the infant's bedside. However, at this time, further studies are needed to identify and validate which FFR features could be incorporated as an addition to standard evaluation of infant sound processing evaluation in subcortico-cortical networks. This review identifies the need for further research focused on identifying specific features of the neonatal FFRs, those with predictive value for early childhood outcomes to help guide targeted early speech and hearing interventions.

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