scholarly journals Monitoring Crop Status in the Continental United States Using the SMAP Level-4 Carbon Product

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick M. Wurster ◽  
Marco Maneta ◽  
John S. Kimball ◽  
K. Arthur Endsley ◽  
Santiago Beguería
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Gross Primary Production ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
State Level ◽  
Condition Index ◽  
County Level ◽  
Yield Data ◽  
Crop Condition ◽  
State Scale

Accurate monitoring of crop condition is critical to detect anomalies that may threaten the economic viability of agriculture and to understand how crops respond to climatic variability. Retrievals of soil moisture and vegetation information from satellite-based remote-sensing products offer an opportunity for continuous and affordable crop condition monitoring. This study compared weekly anomalies in accumulated gross primary production (GPP) from the SMAP Level-4 Carbon (L4C) product to anomalies calculated from a state-scale weekly crop condition index (CCI) and also to crop yield anomalies calculated from county-level yield data reported at the end of the season. We focused on barley, spring wheat, corn, and soybeans cultivated in the continental United States from 2000 to 2018. We found that consistencies between SMAP L4C GPP anomalies and both crop condition and yield anomalies increased as crops developed from the emergence stage (r: 0.4–0.7) and matured (r: 0.6–0.9) and that the agreement was better in drier regions (r: 0.4–0.9) than in wetter regions (r: −0.8–0.4). The L4C provides weekly GPP estimates at a 1-km scale, permitting the evaluation and tracking of anomalies in crop status at higher spatial detail than metrics based on the state-level CCI or county-level crop yields. We demonstrate that the L4C GPP product can be used operationally to monitor crop condition with the potential to become an important tool to inform decision-making and research.

State- and County-Level Social Capital as Predictors of County-Level Suicide Rates in the United States: A Lagged Multilevel Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 003335492097655
Author(s):  
Saloni Dev ◽  
Daniel Kim
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Black People ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Suicide Mortality ◽  
County Level ◽  
Standard Deviation Increase ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
Prevalence Of Depression

From 1999 through 2017, age-adjusted suicide rates in the United States rose by 33% (from 10.5 to 14.0 per 100 000 population). Social capital, a key social determinant of health, could protect against suicide, but empirical evidence on this association is limited. Using multilevel data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we explored state- and county-level social capital as predictors of age-adjusted suicide rates pooled from 2010 through 2017 across 2112 US counties. In addition, we tested for causal mediation of these associations by state-level prevalence of depression. A 1-standard deviation increase in state-level social capital predicted lower county-level suicide mortality rates almost 2 decades later (0.87 fewer suicides per 100 000 population; P = .04). This association was present among non-Hispanic Black people and among men but not among non-Hispanic White people and women. We also found evidence of partial mediation by prevalence of depression. Our findings suggest that elevating state- and county-level social capital, such as through policy and local initiatives, may help to reverse the trend of rising suicide rates in the United States.

scholarly journals Assessing Agricultural Vulnerability to Drought in a Heterogeneous Environment: A Remote Sensing-Based Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 3363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mst Ilme Faridatul ◽  
Bayes Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Hazard Index ◽  
Condition Index ◽  
Agricultural Drought ◽  
Heterogeneous Environment ◽  
Yield Data ◽  
Vegetation Condition ◽  
Vegetation Condition Index

Agriculture is one of the fundamental economic activities in most countries; however, this sector suffers from various natural hazards including flood and drought. The determination of drought-prone areas is essential to select drought-tolerant crops in climate sensitive vulnerable areas. This study aims to enhance the detection of agricultural areas with vulnerability to drought conditions in a heterogeneous environment, taking Bangladesh as a case study. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land cover products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite images have been incorporated to compute the vegetation index. In this study, a modified vegetation condition index (mVCI) is proposed to enhance the estimation of agricultural drought. The NDVI values ranging between 0.44 to 0.66 for croplands are utilized for the mVCI. The outcomes of the mVCI are compared with the traditional vegetation condition index (VCI). Precipitation and crop yield data are used for the evaluation. The mVCI maps from multiple years (2006–2018) have been produced to compute the drought hazard index (DHI) using a weighted sum overlay method. The results show that the proposed mVCI enhances the detection of agricultural drought compared to the traditional VCI in a heterogeneous environment. The “Aus” rice-growing season (sown in mid-March to mid-April and harvested in mid-July to early August) receives the highest average precipitation (>400 mm), and thereby this season is less vulnerable to drought. A comparison of crop yields reveals the lowest productivity in the drought year (2006) compared to the non-drought year (2018), and the DHI map presents that the north-west region of Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to agricultural drought. This study has undertaken a large-scale analysis that is important to prioritize agricultural zones and initiate development projects based on the associated level of vulnerability.

Can increases in Twitter posts predict increases in cumulative incidence of COVID-19 in the United States? Evidence that social media can inform epidemic surveillance. (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoyan Sun ◽  
Henna Budhwani
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Cumulative Incidence ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education Attainment ◽  
Public Health Systems ◽  
Per Capita

BACKGROUND Though public health systems are responding rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic, outcomes from publicly available, crowd-sourced big data may assist in helping to identify hot spots, prioritize equipment allocation and staffing, while also informing health policy related to “shelter in place” and social distancing recommendations. OBJECTIVE To assess if the rising state-level prevalence of COVID-19 related posts on Twitter (tweets) is predictive of state-level cumulative COVID-19 incidence after controlling for socio-economic characteristics. METHODS We identified extracted COVID-19 related tweets from January 21st to March 7th (2020) across all 50 states (N = 7,427,057). Tweets were combined with state-level characteristics and confirmed COVID-19 cases to determine the association between public commentary and cumulative incidence. RESULTS The cumulative incidence of COVID-19 cases varied significantly across states. Ratio of tweet increase (p=0.03), number of physicians per 1,000 population (p=0.01), education attainment (p=0.006), income per capita (p = 0.002), and percentage of adult population (p=0.003) were positively associated with cumulative incidence. Ratio of tweet increase was significantly associated with the logarithmic of cumulative incidence (p=0.06) with a coefficient of 0.26. CONCLUSIONS An increase in the prevalence of state-level tweets was predictive of an increase in COVID-19 diagnoses, providing evidence that Twitter can be a valuable surveillance tool for public health.

Dissent in the Atlantic World, 1787–1830

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Carté Engel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Church And State ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Population ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
General Role

The very term ‘Dissenter’ became problematic in the United States, following the passing of the First Amendment. The formal separation of Church and state embodied in the First Amendment was followed by the ending of state-level tax support for churches. None of the states established after 1792 had formal religious establishments. Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists accounted for the majority of the American population both at the beginning and end of this period, but this simple fact masks an important compositional shift. While the denominations of Old Dissent declined relatively, Methodism grew quickly, representing a third of the population by 1850. Dissenters thus faced several different challenges. Primary among these were how to understand the idea of ‘denomination’ and also the more general role of institutional religion in a post-establishment society. Concerns about missions, and the positions of women and African Americans are best understood within this context.

The Oxford Handbook of Preservice Music Teacher Education in the United States

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Music Education ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Education Faculty ◽  
Song Writing ◽  
Faculty And Administrators

The Oxford Handbook of Preservice Music Teacher Education in the United States aims to work from within the profession of music teacher education to push the boundaries of P-12 music education. In this book, we will provide all of those working in music teacher education—music education faculty and administrators, music researchers, graduate students, department of education faculty and administrators, and state-level certification agencies—with research and promising practices for all areas of traditional preservice music teacher preparation. We define the areas of music teacher education as encompassing the more traditional structures, such as band, jazz band, marching band, orchestra, choir, musical theater, and elementary and secondary general music, as well as less common or newer areas: alternative string ensembles, guitar and song-writing, vernacular and popular music, early childhood music, and adult learners

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