Differential Tolerance to Calonectria pseudonaviculata of English Boxwood Plants Associated with the Complexity of Culturable Fungal and Bacterial Endophyte Communities

Isolated boxwood endophytes have been demonstrated to effectively protect boxwood plants from infection by Calonectria pseudonaviculata (Cps). However, the roles of endophytes as communities in plant defense are not clear. Here, we demonstrated differential tolerance to Cps of English boxwood (Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’), an iconic landscape plant and generally regarded as highly susceptible, and its link to endophyte complexity. Fifteen boxwood twig samples were collected in triplicates from three historic gardens—Colonial Williamsburg, George Washington’s Mount Vernon and River Farm, and Virginia Tech’s research farm in Virginia Beach in the summer and fall of 2019. A portion of individual samples was inoculated with Cps under controlled conditions. Significant differences in disease severity were observed among samples but not between the two seasons. Examining the endophyte cultures of the summer samples revealed that bacterial and fungal abundance was negatively and positively correlated with the disease severity. Nanopore metagenomics analysis on genomic DNA of the tolerant and susceptible group representatives confirmed the associations. Specifically, tolerant English boxwood plants had an endophyte community dominated by Bacilli and Betaproteobacteria, while susceptible ones had a distinct endophyte community dominated by Gammaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and diverse fungi. These findings may lead to boxwood health management innovations—devising and utilizing cultural practices to manipulate and increase the abundance and performance of beneficial endophytes for enhanced boxwood resistance to Cps.

Youth ice hockey COVID-19 protocols and prevention of sport-related transmission

ObjectivesThis observational study evaluated the impact of return-to-play protocols to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a youth ice hockey programme in Virginia Beach, Virginia.MethodsFollowing an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in November 2020, a COVID-19 Response Team evaluated the epidemiological data to identify transmission dynamics and develop enhanced protocols to prevent transmission. During the subsequent 18-week study period, incident cases were investigated to identify the likely transmission source; testing, quarantine and isolation recommendations were provided to families in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.ResultsSimple but stringent protocols were implemented among 148 youth ice hockey players ages 6–18. Players were required to arrive at the rink in full gear; locker rooms were closed, building entry was limited to one parent per player, and masks were required at all times except for players on the ice. Following implementation of the enhanced protocols, more than 500 practices and games were completed with at least 15 858 athlete-hours of exposure and no within-programme COVID-19 transmission was detected despite high community incidence and sporadic household exposures.ConclusionThis study suggests indoor youth sports can operate safely with appropriate protocols in place, even within communities of high COVID-19 transmission, even when athletes are not yet vaccinated or wearing masks during play. Transmission appears to be more likely in congested indoor areas involving adults than on the ice during play. Protocols should be developed in collaboration with programme participants. Strong collaboration in the interest of youth sports can motivate adoption of protocols which prevent within-team transmission.

Simultaneous mapping of coastal topography and bathymetry from a lightweight multicamera UAS

A low-cost multicamera Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is used to simultaneously estimate open-coast topography and bathymetry from a single longitudinal coastal flight. The UAS combines nadir and oblique imagery to create a wide field of view (FOV), which enables collection of mobile, long dwell timeseries of the littoral zone suitable for structure-from motion (SfM), and wave speed inversion algorithms. Resultant digital surface models (DSMs) compare well with terrestrial topographic lidar and bathymetric survey data at Duck, NC, USA, with root-mean-square error (RMSE)/bias of 0.26/–0.05 and 0.34/–0.05 m, respectively. Bathymetric data from another flight at Virginia Beach, VA, USA, demonstrates successful comparison (RMSE/bias of 0.17/0.06 m) in a secondary environment. UAS-derived engineering data products, total volume profiles and shoreline position, were congruent with those calculated from traditional topo-bathymetric surveys at Duck. Capturing both topography and bathymetry within a single flight, the presented multicamera system is more efficient than data acquisition with a single camera UAS; this advantage grows for longer stretches of coastline (10 km). Efficiency increases further with an on-board Global Navigation Satellite System–Inertial Navigation System (GNSS-INS) to eliminate ground control point (GCP) placement. The Appendix reprocesses the Virginia Beach flight with the GNSS–INS input and no GCPs.

Spatiotemporal Data Set for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests

We present a spatiotemporal data set of all out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests (OHCA) dispatches for the City of Virginia Beach. We also develop a modular toolkit that can be used to process the data and generate problem instances based on user-defined input. The data were collected from multiple sources, and our analysis process was validated by Virginia Beach officials. The data set consists of detailed information about each dispatch made in response to an OHCA; it includes the time the call for service arrived, the response time of the first unit on scene, the address, and the coordinates of each OHCA incident. It also contains detailed spatial information for all existing first-responder stations and both the great-circle and the road distances between all first-responder stations and OHCA incidents. The raw data files were very large in size and were processed using SAS®, MATLAB, and QGIS. In conjunction with the database, we provide a MATLAB code that allows generating multiple random test instances based on user-defined input. The library of problems can be used in healthcare emergency problems and also for facility location models, bilocation problems, and drone studies. The data set was organized such that it can be readily used by researchers in the field of healthcare operations research and those studying the spatiotemporal distribution of OHCAs. Given the difficulty to access OHCA data at the level of detail we provide, the data set will facilitate the implementation of data-driven models to design emergency medical response networks and to study the distribution of OHCAs. Additionally, the provision of data and the toolkit will be very useful in benchmarking algorithms and solvers, which is valuable to the data-driven optimization community in general. Summary of Contribution: The paper provides a data set of spatiotemporal information out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) for the City of Virginia Beach. The complete data set also includes spatial information about all fire, emergency medical services, and police stations in the city and both the road and haversine distances between each pair of stations and OHCA incident. Additionally, we provide a toolkit to generate random instances based on user input. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that an OHCA database is made publicly available in such level of detail, and there is no precedent of such in IJOC. OHCAs are a leading cause of death worldwide, and emergency medical services still encounter difficulties in providing care in a timely manner. Given the criticality of OHCAs, we believe that making this data set publicly available can help the implementation of data-driven models by researchers in the field of operations research.

Draft Genome Sequence of Psychrotolerant Shewanella sp. Strain VB17, Isolated from Marine Intertidal Sediment near Virginia Beach, Virginia

ABSTRACT We present the draft genome sequence of Shewanella sp. strain VB17, which was isolated from Virginia Beach, Virginia, intertidal sediment. The 5.2-Mb genome sequence of VB17 will be useful for studying the basis for seasonal low-temperature growth and eventual taxonomic classification of the species.

A Call from the Task Force

This chapter introduces the task force created by Governor Terry McAuliffe in Richmond, Virginia that are tasked to study the racial violence in the city of Charlottesville during the summer of 2017. It mentions the violence in Richmond that claimed the life of Heather Heyer when a white supremacist, James Alex Fields Jr., slammed his speeding car into a crowd of counter-protesters confronting a “Unite the Right” rally. This chapter explains the work of the task force, which requires them to deeply investigate the constitutional protections of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and the rules of engagement governing what society could or could not do when confronted with racial supremacist groups rallying in a city. It also describes the famous free speech case called Virginia vs. Black involving vicious racist hate speech. The case involved a cross-burning rally of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in rural western Virginia in 1998 and a second cross-burning incident in Virginia Beach in the yard of an African American, James Jubilee.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SHIPPING CONTAINER POTENTIALS FOR NET-ZERO RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

ABSTRACT Recycled shipping containers have the potential to be successfully used as a net-zero ready home. This study aims to evaluate the outcomes of a high-performance shipping container single-family housing project located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The project was awarded the Best Undergraduate Project in the Single-family division at the 2019 U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon Design Challenge. The Hampton University Millennial Village Design Team designed a marketable net-zero ready container home for the ViBe Creative District in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Container Homes are not suitable for every homeowner, but they have a particular appeal to a generation of young and creative people across the country. For many municipalities in Virginia, where container housing is not readily accepted, the ViBe creative district has been having discussions with City code officials and local architects about the benefits. The Hampton University Millennial Village Design Team aimed to take advantage of the competition as an opportunity to explore a building construction method that is not widely seen in this part of the country. Testing design for net-zero readiness is a comprehensive way to understand how this type of construction performs from a building science standpoint. Collaboration with professional industry advisors helped the team to use research-based design methods to work on a unique project that the team believes will become a reality in the future. For the performance assessment of a net-zero container house, several simulation tools were used to investigate the environmental impacts, daylight performance, envelope performance, Energy Use Intensity (EUI), Home Energy Rating System (HERS), and solar energy generation. As for energy standards and codes, the Virginia residential code (VRC) 2015, International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) 2015 and The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 90.1-2013 for residential buildings were consulted to set each variable for the net-zero container house project. The Rem/Rate energy simulation software achieved the HERS index of 51 and 0 without and with the applications of roof photovoltaics, respectively.

Assessing tourism business resilience in Virginia Beach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the resilience of tourism businesses in a coastal city in the USA to coastal hazards and severe weather events. The researchers developed a framework for assessing the resilience of coastal tourism businesses and demonstrated the applicability of the framework using the case study of Virginia Beach. Design/methodology/approach Researchers conducted structured, face-to-face interviews with tourism business owners and managers, using an instrument based on an assessment framework with five components: vulnerability, business planning and operations, preparation and recovery planning, communications and workforce. In total, 32 participants representing 42 businesses in the accommodations, restaurants, retail and activities sectors at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront were interviewed. Findings Many participants did not feel highly vulnerable due to structural mitigation efforts taken by the city. Larger businesses undertook more strategic planning, preparedness and recovery planning. All businesses had effective ways of communicating with staff and customers, and through membership in local organizations, had access to resources. While not all businesses prioritized training for employees, they recognized the importance of providing support for staff during severe weather events. Originality/value As one of the few studies on tourism resilience in the USA, this study highlights the variability of resilience among tourism businesses within a destination.

Grassroots Group Commended for Work on Flooding by Virginia House

Stop the Flooding NOW was founded by Virginia Beach residents who wanted to take action to address the chronic flooding in their community.

Enhancing Building Performance and Environmental Learning

School buildings directly affect their natural and socio-cultural environments. They do this through their construction, maintenance, operation, and demolition. Most of the school buildings we have in stock today drain natural resources and inadvertently perpetuate a culture of environmental, social, and long-term economic ignorance and misuse. When approached thoughtfully, however, the design of school buildings can help inform and enrich society. Well-designed buildings can impart environmental knowledge and values. They can foster more effective behaviors among the people who learn in and from them. Effectively designed buildings can also conserve natural resources and—at their best—even help replenish the natural environment. For many school leaders today, participation in green certification programs represents one important step toward improved building and learning performance. This chapter provides a case study of successful learning approaches developed by Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS).