Structural and environmental predictors of presence and abundance of tri-colored bats in Texas culverts

2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 1274-1281
Author(s):  
Melissa B Meierhofer ◽  
Samantha J Leivers ◽  
Rachel R Fern ◽  
Lilianna K Wolf ◽  
John H Young ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Regional Planning ◽  
Poisson Regression ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
External Temperature ◽  
White Nose Syndrome

Abstract The tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) is being reviewed for listing under the Endangered Species Act by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It is also listed as a species of greatest conservation need by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department due to its susceptibility to white-nose syndrome (WNS) in other states. Several colonies of hibernating tri-colored bats have been documented roosting in culverts. Culverts are widespread in Texas as part of roadway infrastructure; thus, our objective was to understand and quantify which structural and environmental factors best explain culvert use and abundance of hibernating tri-colored bats in Texas. We selected and surveyed 207 culverts for presence of tri-colored bats using the Generalized Random Tessellation Stratified (GRTS) design and opportunistic sampling across 10 of 12 Texas level III ecoregions during the winters of 2016–2017 and 2017–2018. We recorded environmental and structural features of culverts at each site. We used a zero-inflated Poisson regression to identify which culvert features best explained presence and abundance of hibernating tri-colored bats. We found that number of culvert sections predicted presence of tri-colored bats. We also found that abundance of tri-colored bats was influenced by length of culvert, elevation, number of sections, portal height, portal obstruction, aspect, external VPD, external temperature, and NDVI. With the current threats to tri-colored bat populations, there is a need to consider management of culvert roosts. In addition, it is imperative to further investigate the potential susceptibility to WNS of culvert-roosting bats at more southern latitudes for local and regional planning efforts.

Mass School Shootings in the United States: A Novel Root Cause Analysis Using Lay Press Reports

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (13) ◽  
pp. 1423-1428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris A. Rees ◽  
Lois K. Lee ◽  
Eric W. Fleegler ◽  
Rebekah Mannix
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Root Cause Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Shootings ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Cause Analysis ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Root Cause

School shootings comprise a small proportion of childhood deaths from firearms; however, these shootings receive a disproportionately large share of media attention. We conducted a root cause analysis of 2 recent school shootings in the United States using lay press reports. We reviewed 1760 and analyzed 282 articles from the 10 most trusted news sources. We identified 356 factors associated with the school shootings. Policy-level factors, including a paucity of adequate legislation controlling firearm purchase and ownership, were the most common contributing factors to school shootings. Mental illness was a commonly cited person-level factor, and access to firearms in the home and availability of large-capacity firearms were commonly cited environmental factors. Novel approaches, including root cause analyses using lay media, can identify factors contributing to mass shootings. The policy, person, and environmental factors associated with these school shootings should be addressed as part of a multipronged effort to prevent future mass shootings.

scholarly journals Descriptors of Cytochrome Inhibitors and Useful Machine Learning Based Methods for the Design of Safer Drugs

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 472
Author(s):  
Tyler C. Beck ◽  
Kyle R. Beck ◽  
Jordan Morningstar ◽  
Menny M. Benjamin ◽  
Russell A. Norris
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Drug Interactions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Physiochemical Properties ◽  
Drug Dosing ◽  
Therapeutic Outcomes ◽  
Cyp Inhibition ◽  
Cyp Inhibitors

Roughly 2.8% of annual hospitalizations are a result of adverse drug interactions in the United States, representing more than 245,000 hospitalizations. Drug–drug interactions commonly arise from major cytochrome P450 (CYP) inhibition. Various approaches are routinely employed in order to reduce the incidence of adverse interactions, such as altering drug dosing schemes and/or minimizing the number of drugs prescribed; however, often, a reduction in the number of medications cannot be achieved without impacting therapeutic outcomes. Nearly 80% of drugs fail in development due to pharmacokinetic issues, outlining the importance of examining cytochrome interactions during preclinical drug design. In this review, we examined the physiochemical and structural properties of small molecule inhibitors of CYPs 3A4, 2D6, 2C19, 2C9, and 1A2. Although CYP inhibitors tend to have distinct physiochemical properties and structural features, these descriptors alone are insufficient to predict major cytochrome inhibition probability and affinity. Machine learning based in silico approaches may be employed as a more robust and accurate way of predicting CYP inhibition. These various approaches are highlighted in the review.

The Physiology of Body Weight Regulation: Relevance to the Etiology of Obesity in Children

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 101 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 525-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Rosenbaum ◽  
Rudolph L. Leibel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Body Weight ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Regulatory System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Adult Body ◽  
Genes Encoding ◽  
Prevalence Of Obesity ◽  
Obesity In Children

The prevalence of obesity in children and adults in the United States has increased by more than 30% over the past decade. Recent studies of the physiology and molecular genetics of obesity in humans have provided evidence that body weight (fat) is regulated. Some of the genes encoding the molecular components of this regulatory system have been isolated from rodents. The increasing prevalence of obesity in the United States apparently represents the interaction of these genes with an environment that encourages a sedentary lifestyle and consumption of calories. The rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity emphasizes the role of environmental factors, because genetic changes could not occur at this rate. Thus, understanding of the relevant genes and how their effects are mediated by environment and development should lead to more effective prophylaxis and therapy of obesity. Although no clear environmental factors have been identified as causative of obesity, the rapid increases in the prevalence of obesity and the seeming voluntary immutability of adult body fatness can be taken as tacit evidence that the pediatric environment can be altered in a way that affects adult body weight.

scholarly journals Century-Long Dynamics of the Land Use Structure in the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 220-231
Author(s):  
Valerij Minat
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Summary Table ◽  
Land Use Structure ◽  
Periodic Dynamics ◽  
Space Dynamics ◽  
American Society

The paper studies the experience of American land use in the twentieth century on the territory of 48 contiguous continental states. Changes in time and space (dynamics) of the main indicators of distribution and use of land resources that form the structural appearance of the U.S. land fund are shown. Based on the analysis of the countrys land use structure, the resulting part of which is a summary table, the periodic dynamics of the land use structure (in twenty-year time intervals) is considered, and the dependence of structural changes in land use on the level and nature of the socio-economic development of American society is shown. The study of the age-old dynamics of structural features of American land use conducted on the basis of scientific materials of American scientists and data from official American statistics makes it possible to draw generalizing conclusions about the nature of land use in the United States, both in the whole country and in the regional aspect. As a result, the author has obtained a generalized scientific picture of how the structure of land use in the continental part of the country (without Alaska) has changed over the course of a century in the direction from maximum to optimal use of natural resources.

scholarly journals Extinction and the U.S. Endangered Species Act

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Greenwald ◽  
Kieran F Suckling ◽  
Brett Hartl ◽  
Loyal Mehrhoff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Species Extinction ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Species Extinctions

The United States Endangered Species Act is one of the strongest laws of any nation for preventing species extinction, but quantifying the Act’s effectiveness has proven difficult. To provide one measure of effectiveness, we identified listed species that have gone extinct and used previously developed methods to update an estimate of the number of species extinctions prevented by the Act. To date, only four species have been confirmed extinct with another 22 possibly extinct following protection. Another 71 listed species are extinct or possibly extinct, but were last seen before protections were enacted, meaning the Act’s protections never had the opportunity to save these species. In contrast, a total of 39 species have been fully recovered, including 23 in the last 10 years. We estimate the Endangered Species Act has prevented the extinction of roughly 291 species since passage in 1973, and has to date saved more than 99 percent of species under its protection.

Approaches for Addressing Student Barriers to Collaborative Learning Success

2018 ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
Robert F. Houghton ◽  
Kevin R. Parker ◽  
Bill Davey ◽  
Karoly Bozan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
The United States ◽  
Collaborative Group ◽  
Collaborative Tools ◽  
Learning Success ◽  
Student Profiles

Collaborative work can provide a valuable learning experience, especially for those preparing to enter the information systems workforce. There have been numerous papers that discuss various effective means of realizing the benefits of collaborative group learning, but the approach still experiences issues stemming from pragmatic environmental factors such as the non-traditional nature of many students. This chapter has identified a range of problems and reports on a longitudinal Action Research study in two universities in Australia and the United States. Over three semesters problems were identified and methods tested using various approaches. Several promising remedies to the identified problems are suggested, including the use of student profiles, ePortfolios, project milestones, and freely available online collaborative tools.

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