Abundance of a recently discovered Alaskan rhodolith bed in a shallow, seagrass-dominated lagoon

Rhodoliths are important foundation species of the benthic photic zone but are poorly known and rarely studied in Alaska. A bed of Lithothamnion soriferum rhodoliths was discovered in 2008 in Kinzarof Lagoon, Alaska, a shallow-water embayment dominated by eelgrass (Zostera marina). Rhodolith spatial extent and biomass were estimated to assess trends and environmental factors that may influence rhodolith distribution and abundance during four years spread over a 12-year period (2008–2010, and 2019). Presence and biomass of rhodoliths were negatively associated with percent eelgrass cover. Biomass of rhodoliths also decreased with increased water temperature. Rhodoliths occurred in two primary areas of the lagoon, a 182 ha core area in a shallow water (mean tide depth of −0.03 m MLLW) tidal channel with low eelgrass density, and a 22 ha outlying area at shallower water depths (>0.2 m MLLW) with moderate to high eelgrass cover. There was no apparent trend in rhodolith biomass over the study period despite wide variation in mean annual estimates. This study establishes a baseline for continued investigations and monitoring of this important benthic resource in Alaska.

Variation in the effectiveness of insecticide treated nets against malaria and outdoor biting by vectors in Kilifi, Kenya

Background: Insecticide treated nets (ITNs) protect humans against bites from the Anopheles mosquito vectors that transmit malaria, thereby reducing malaria morbidity and mortality. It has been noted that ITN use leads to a switch from indoor to outdoor feeding among these vectors. It might be expected that outdoor feeding would undermine the effectiveness of ITNs that target indoors vectors, but data are limited. Methods: We linked homestead level geospatial data to clinical surveillance data at a primary healthcare facility in Kilifi County in order to map geographical heterogeneity in ITN effectiveness and observed vector feeding behaviour using landing catches and CDC light traps in seven selected areas of high and low ITN effectiveness. Results: We observed 33% and 39% visits associated with positive malaria slides among ITN users and non-ITN-users, respectively; ITN use was associated with 22% protection from malaria (crude OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.72, 0.84). We obtained significant modification of ITN effectiveness by geographical area (p=0.022), and identified significant hotspots using the spatial scan statistic. Most biting occurred outdoors (62%) and was by An. funestus (76%), and appeared to be more frequent in low ITN effectiveness areas compared with high ITN effectiveness areas (69% vs. 26%, p<0.001), but this was due to a single outlying area. After excluding this outlying area, outdoor biting was similar in low vs. high ITN effectiveness area (69% vs. 75%, p=0.76). Conclusion: Our data therefore do not support the hypothesis that outdoor biting undermines the effectiveness of ITNs in our study area.

GOVERNING SMALLER COMMUNITIES IN AZTEC MEXICO

The Nahua-speaking area of Postclassic central Mexico was composed of many city-states, which consisted of a nucleated and urbanized central area where the major political and economic centers were located, and a predominantly rural area where most of the people lived. This outlying area and its small communities had to be governed, and this paper identifies, from ethnohistorical sources, the most likely tasks of local government and the local officials responsible for carrying them out. Special attention is given to the role of the local nobility, where present, and of their equivalent, when not; to overseers of labor, and to leaders of the all-important labor squads which built and maintained the urban centers. The custodians of wealth and those most likely to have been military or ritual leaders are identified.

The Acoustics of Muslim Striving: Loudspeaker Use in Ritual Practice in Pakistan

The protagonist of Intizar Hussain's novelTazkira(1987) is a haplessmuhajir, or refugee, in Lahore, Pakistan in the period shortly after the 1947 Partition of India, which witnessed the pell-mell transfer of Hindus and Sikhs to India and Muslims to Pakistan. He writes that while others were busy seizing abandoned sites in which to live, he was unable to feel at home anywhere. To compound his sense of dislocation,bu amma, his elderly companion, complains bitterly that she misses the sound of theazan, the call to prayer, in the first house they rent in an outlying area of Lahore, as yet forested and relatively un-peopled.Bu ammarecollects how the call used to punctuate her days in herhaveli, or mansion, in a busy neighborhood back in India. Without it, her days stretch out ahead of her, running uneventfully one into the other. How is it possible, she wonders, that one could be in this place created for Muslims and not hear theazan? In their next house,bu ammaquickly realizes what it means to live in the shadow of a mosque. It was once abarkat(blessing), she grumbles, that has been turned into a curse by that satanic instrument (shaitani ala), the loudspeaker. The protagonist describesbu amma's efforts to shut out the sounds from the mosque that now invade her thoughts, shred her concentration, and make her efforts to say her prayers a daily battle. They eventually have to leave this house as well.

Assessment of functional capacity in elderly residents of an outlying area in the hinterland of Bahia/Northeast Brazil

OBJECTIVE: To assess the functional capacity and to determine the difference between the means of functional capacity (basic and instrumental activities of daily living) and the age groups of elderly residents in an outlying area in the hinterland of Bahia/Northeast of Brazil. METHOD: Analytical study with cross-sectional design and a sample of 150 elderly individuals enrolled in four Health Units in the municipality of Jequié, Bahia, Brazil. The instrument consisted of sociodemographic and health data, the Barthel Index and the Lawton scale. RESULTS: In all, 78.00% of the elderly were classified as dependent in the basic activities and 65.33% in the instrumental activities of daily living. Using the Kruskal-Wallis test, we found a statistically significant difference between the means of instrumental activities and the age groups (p=0.011). CONCLUSION: An elevated number of elderly were classified as dependent in terms of functional capacity and increased age is related to greater impairment in the execution of instrumental activities of daily living.

A Profile of Patients Seen by Fly-in Clinical Psychologists at a Non-Urban Facility and Implications for Training and Future Services

With the serious mental health services deficits in non-urban communities, there is a need to evolve alternative approaches to facilitate access to care. Considering clinical psychology services are largely concentrated in the metropolitan areas, we describe a relatively unusual approach to providing services in an outlying area. The majority of patients attended to in this service are children and adolescents, and most patients have less than secondary-school education. The commonest diagnoses are mental retardation, mood and anxiety disorders, with the last two conditions mainly found in scholars and the unemployed. Fractured families are almost the norm, with four out of five children living with only one or no parents. Over half the patients are from families receiving a state grant. The majority of patients travel great distances to get to the clinical psychologists. The findings point to the need for clinical psychologists to seriously consider developing newer models for providing care, and the need for working outside of traditional approaches.

The potential implications of person-to-person transmission of viral infection for US EPA's Groundwater Rule

The risk characterization method employed by US EPA to quantitatively characterize the benefits of the Groundwater Rule (GWR) for drinking water computes person-to-person transmission intensity as the product of the number of primary illnesses and a static secondary morbidity factor. A population level infectious disease health effects model is used here to evaluate the implications of secondary transmission on exposures to viruses that are relevant to the GWR. These implications are evaluated via a hypothetical case study in which it is assumed that a tour group from a large population centre visits an outlying area that is served by a non-community water system with untreated or inadequately treated groundwater that is contaminated with a highly infectious virus. It is assumed that some of the exposed individuals become infected and then return home. Numerical simulations are used to estimate the subsequent number of additional infections and illnesses due to secondary transmission within the large community. The results indicate that secondary transmission could substantially impact the predicted benefits of the GWR depending on the suite of population dynamic elements and assumptions employed.