scholarly journals Large-scale fire risk planning for initial attack and fuels: the U.S. state of Idaho

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Rideout ◽  
Nicole Kernohan ◽  
Joe-Riley Epps
Author(s):  
Kahler W. Stone ◽  
Kristina W. Kintziger ◽  
Meredith A. Jagger ◽  
Jennifer A. Horney

While the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline health care workers have been well described, the effects of the COVID-19 response on the U.S. public health workforce, which has been impacted by the prolonged public health response to the pandemic, has not been adequately characterized. A cross-sectional survey of public health professionals was conducted to assess mental and physical health, risk and protective factors for burnout, and short- and long-term career decisions during the pandemic response. The survey was completed online using the Qualtrics survey platform. Descriptive statistics and prevalence ratios (95% confidence intervals) were calculated. Among responses received from 23 August and 11 September 2020, 66.2% of public health workers reported burnout. Those with more work experience (1–4 vs. <1 years: prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.08−3.36; 5–9 vs. <1 years: PR = 1.89, CI = 1.07−3.34) or working in academic settings (vs. practice: PR = 1.31, CI = 1.08–1.58) were most likely to report burnout. As of September 2020, 23.6% fewer respondents planned to remain in the U.S. public health workforce for three or more years compared to their retrospectively reported January 2020 plans. A large-scale public health emergency response places unsustainable burdens on an already underfunded and understaffed public health workforce. Pandemic-related burnout threatens the U.S. public health workforce’s future when many challenges related to the ongoing COVID-19 response remain unaddressed.


Author(s):  
Christoph Schwörer ◽  
Erika Gobet ◽  
Jacqueline F. N. van Leeuwen ◽  
Sarah Bögli ◽  
Rachel Imboden ◽  
...  

AbstractObserving natural vegetation dynamics over the entire Holocene is difficult in Central Europe, due to pervasive and increasing human disturbance since the Neolithic. One strategy to minimize this limitation is to select a study site in an area that is marginal for agricultural activity. Here, we present a new sediment record from Lake Svityaz in northwestern Ukraine. We have reconstructed regional and local vegetation and fire dynamics since the Late Glacial using pollen, spores, macrofossils and charcoal. Boreal forest composed of Pinus sylvestris and Betula with continental Larix decidua and Pinus cembra established in the region around 13,450 cal bp, replacing an open, steppic landscape. The first temperate tree to expand was Ulmus at 11,800 cal bp, followed by Quercus, Fraxinus excelsior, Tilia and Corylus ca. 1,000 years later. Fire activity was highest during the Early Holocene, when summer solar insolation reached its maximum. Carpinus betulus and Fagus sylvatica established at ca. 6,000 cal bp, coinciding with the first indicators of agricultural activity in the region and a transient climatic shift to cooler and moister conditions. Human impact on the vegetation remained initially very low, only increasing during the Bronze Age, at ca. 3,400 cal bp. Large-scale forest openings and the establishment of the present-day cultural landscape occurred only during the past 500 years. The persistence of highly diverse mixed forest under absent or low anthropogenic disturbance until the Early Middle Ages corroborates the role of human impact in the impoverishment of temperate forests elsewhere in Central Europe. The preservation or reestablishment of such diverse forests may mitigate future climate change impacts, specifically by lowering fire risk under warmer and drier conditions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnar Ellingsen ◽  
Bente Christensen ◽  
Morten Hertzum

Large-scale electronic health record (EHR) suites have the potential to cover a broad range of use needs across various healthcare domains. However, a challenge that must be solved is the distributed governance structure of public healthcare: Regional health authorities regulate hospitals, municipalities are responsible for first-line healthcare services, and general practitioners (GPs) have an independent entrepreneurial role. In such settings, EHR program owners cannot enforce municipalities and GPs to come on board. Thus, we examine what tactics owners of large-scale EHR suite programs apply to persuade municipalities to participate, how strongly these tactics are enforced, and the consequences. Empirically, we focus on the Health Platform program in Central Norway where the goal is to implement the U.S. Epic EHR suite in 2022. Theoretically, the paper is positioned in the socio-technical literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 368
Author(s):  
Shaoan Zhang ◽  
Andromeda Hightower ◽  
Qingmin Shi

Using the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, this study examines U.S. and Japanese new teachers’ initial teacher preparation (ITP), feelings of preparedness, motivations, and self-efficacy. The analysis of 355 U.S. and 433 Japanese new secondary teachers provided several findings. First, ITP in the U.S. more often included teaching in mixed-ability and multicultural settings, cross-curricular skills, and technology than Japan, and U.S. teachers felt more prepared than Japanese teachers in every category of preparation. Second, Japanese teachers were more likely to declare teaching as their first career choice and reportedly scored significantly higher on motivations to become a teacher of personal utility value, while U.S. new teachers scored higher on social utility value. Third, there were no significant differences in self-efficacy between U.S. and Japanese new teachers. This study contributes to the gap of large-scale, comparative literature between the U.S. and Japanese initial teacher preparation. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.


<em>Abstract.</em>—Large-scale commercial fisheries for Atlantic sturgeon <em>Acipenser oxyrinchus</em> in the late 1880s eventually led to substantial reductions in the population size. The coastwide Atlantic sturgeon population of the United States has not recovered to the levels seen prior to the 1900s. A number of factors have contributed to the slow recovery or continued decline of Atlantic sturgeon populations, including continued commercial fishing and the targeting of females for caviar, bycatch in other fisheries, and changes in habitat due to dam construction and water quality degradation. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) developed the first coastwide management plan for Atlantic sturgeon in 1990. In response to the shortcomings of that plan, the ASMFC applied new standards and the authority granted to it by the U.S. Congress to adopt a coastwide moratorium on all harvesting in 1998. A federal status review conducted in 1998 concluded that the continued existence of Atlantic sturgeon was not threatened given the situation at the time. Since then, monitoring programs have indicated varying levels of relative abundance in several water bodies along the Atlantic coast. The U.S. government is responsible for undertaking a status review to document any changes since the last review and determining whether those findings warrant a threatened or endangered listing for the species. The government’s findings may have far-reaching effects on many other Atlantic coastal fisheries.


Author(s):  
Ping Lan ◽  
David C. Yen

There have been a very limited number of systematic studies of how a region is turning digital opportunities into a development force. In theory, major advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have successfully transformed traditional businesses and markets, revolutionized learning and knowledge-sharing, generated global information flows, and empowered citizens and communities in new ways to redefine governance (Afuah, 2003; Mullaney et al., 2003). At a regional level, this “digital revolution” could offer enormous opportunities to support sustainable local prosperity, and thus help to achieve the broader development goals (DOT Force, 2001). Alaska is one state that can be positioned to take advantage of Internet and e-commerce technologies. Isolated from the U.S. main economic centers and heavily reliant on the export of commodities in its economy, e-commerce or business via the Internet is an ideal choice for Alaska. However, the available statistics do not support this claim. Most economic indicators show a downward trend in Alaska since 1995, in spite of the fact that the federal government expenditure has been increasing (ASTF, 2002). This chapter is dedicated to measuring the usage of the Internet in Alaska. It hypothesizes that geographical limitations help a region like Alaska embrace ICT and its applications without much hesitation, but also hinders the region to fully exploit the potential of ICT due to the limitations of resources. A large-scale survey was conducted to reveal the characteristics of Internet usage among individuals, government agencies, local communities, and private firms in Alaska. This research is of interest in two aspects: It could offer help for policymakers and enterprises within Alaska to realize the potential development brought about by the current digital revolution, and it could help enterprises outside Alaska to target this market more effectively. Theoretically, it could shed light on issues related to technology adoption and local innovation. Besides that, the platform-dependent approach used in this research can be applied in a broader context.


2020 ◽  
pp. 109-146
Author(s):  
Pierre-Hugues Verdier

This chapter examines the rise of financial sanctions as a tool of U.S. foreign policy and the role of U.S. prosecutors in enforcing sanctions against global banks. It describes how the United States developed its financial sanctions capabilities against terrorist groups, then turned them against state actors such as North Korea, culminating with elaborate sanctions programs against Iran and Russia. It shows how U.S. federal and state prosecutors uncovered large-scale sanctions evasion efforts at numerous global banks that processed U.S. dollar payments. This enforcement campaign led to some of the largest criminal fines ever levied, and global banks such as HSBC and BNP Paribas agreed to implement U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering controls in their worldwide operations, thus broadening the reach of U.S. policy. Although U.S. enforcement actions faced strong criticism by U.S. allies, banks facing large fines, negative publicity, and potential loss of access to essential U.S. dollar payment infrastructure complied with U.S. demands. Unlike other cases, U.S. sanctions did not lead to multilateral reforms, instead triggering efforts by sanctioned states and bystanders to reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar and U.S. payment systems.


Author(s):  
Howard G. Wilshire ◽  
Richard W. Hazlett ◽  
Jane E. Nielson

Since 1900, United States troops have fought in more foreign conflicts than any other nation on Earth. Most Americans supported those actions, believing that they would keep the scourge of war far from our homes. But the strategy seems to have failed—it certainly did not prevent terror attacks against the U.S. mainland. The savage Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the 11 September 2001 (9/11) attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. were not the first to inflict war damage in America’s 48 contiguous states, however—nor were they the first warlike actions to harm innocent citizens since the Civil War. Paradoxically, making war abroad has always required practicing warfare in our own back yards. Today’s large, mechanized military training exercises have degraded U.S. soils, water supplies, and wildlife habitats in the same ways that the real wars affected war-torn lands far away. The saddest fact of all is that the deadly components of some weapons in the U.S. arsenal never found use in foreign wars but have attacked U.S. citizens in their own homes and communities. The relatively egalitarian universal service of World War II left a whole generation of Americans with nostalgia and reverence for military service. Many of us, perhaps the majority, might argue that human and environmental sacrifices are the price we must be willing to pay to protect our interests and future security. A current political philosophy proposes that the United States must even start foreign wars to protect Americans and their homes. But Americans are not fully aware of all the past sacrifices—and what we don’t know can hurt us. Even decades-old impacts from military training still degrade land and contaminate air and water, particularly in the arid western states, and will continue to do so far into the future. Exploded and unexploded bombs, mines, and shells (“ordnance,” in military terms) and haphazard disposal sites still litter former training lands in western states. And large portions of the western United States remain playgrounds for war games, subject to large-scale, highly mechanized military operations for maintaining combat readiness and projecting American power abroad.


Author(s):  
Eliot Rich ◽  
Mark R. Nelson

Large-scale information technology (IT) projects experience higher failure or abandonment rates than smaller IT projects and represent significant costs to both organizations and society. This paper describes the context of a three-decade long attempt to modernize a critical IT application in the U.S. government. The project has been revamped, stopped and restarted several times, and as of the writing of this paper has not been completed. Archival analysis of this implementation history reveals a set of emerging project characteristics and how these contributed to a pair of capability gaps which, in turn, influenced modernization efforts both pre- and post-abandonment. From a systems perspective, the problem appears to be related to dynamic and repeating management failures with an embedded project management model. The authors illustrate their hypothesis with a simulation model of project managements and show that even a relatively small but persistent introduction of new requirements has a dramatic effect on project overruns, setting the stage for abandonment and restart.


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