State University System of Florida

Abstract This review examines several aspects of the climate of eastern Africa. The climatic commonality throughout the region is the frequent occurrence of drought severe enough to incapacitate the population. Because of recent droughts and evidence of disastrous, long‐term climatic change, the region has become a major focus of meteorological research. This review covers six relevant topics: climatic regionalization, seasonal cycle, intraseasonal variability, interannual variability, recent trends, and seasonal forecasting. What emerges is a markedly different view of the factors modulating rainfall, the dynamics associated with the seasons, and the character of teleconnections within the region and the interrelationships between the various rainy seasons. Some of the most important points are the following. (1) The paradigm of two rainy seasons resulting from the biannual equatorial passage of the Intertropical Convergence Zone is inadequate. (2) The “long rains” should not be treated as a single season, as character, causal factors, and teleconnections are markedly different in each month. (3) The long rains have been declining continuously in recent decades. (4) The Madden‐Julian Oscillation has emerged as a factor in interannual and intraseasonal variability, but the relative strength of Pacific and Indian Ocean anomalies plays a major role in the downward trend. (5) Factors governing the short rains are nonstationary. (6) Droughts have become longer and more intense and tend to continue across rainy seasons, and their causes are not adequately understood. (7) Atmospheric variables provide more reliable seasonal forecasts than the factors traditionally considered in forecast models, such as sea surface temperatures and El Niño–Southern Oscillation.

MOTIVATION: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene. MAIN TYPES OF VARIABLES INCLUDED: The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record. SPATIAL LOCATION AND GRAIN: ). TIME PERIOD AND GRAIN: BioTIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year. MAJOR TAXA AND LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT: BioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates. SOFTWARE FORMAT: .csv and .SQL.

Experts acquire domain‐specific skills as a result of the activities in which they participate throughout their development. We examine the domain‐specific activities in which two groups of elite youth soccer players participated between six and 12 years of age. Our goal was to examine early participation differences between those who progressed to professional status at 16 years of age and those who did not. Data were contrasted to a control group of recreational‐level players and examined in the context of the Developmental Model of Sport Participation, which supports the importance of late specialization and early diversity between six and 12 years of age. The elite players who went on to attain professional status accumulated more hours per year in soccer play activities, but not in soccer practice, competition or other sports, between six and 12 years of age, compared with those who did not progress. The two elite groups averaged more hours per year in soccer practice compared with recreational‐level players, but not soccer play, competition or other sports. We propose the “early engagement hypothesis” to explain our results. Accordingly, practice and play in the primary sport between six and 12 years of age contributes to the development of expert performance in English soccer.

The War on Drugs popularized a set of policies and practices that dramatically increased the number of drug arrests, particularly for low-level drug offenses. The War’s tactics have affected Americans of every race; however, minorities have been most dramatically affected. There are several explanations for the observed racial disparity in drug arrests, but relatively little research directly tests these explanations. In this study, we test three common explanations of racial disparities in drug arrest rates. We find that racial disparities in drug arrests cannot be explained by differences in drug offending, nondrug offending, or residing in the kinds of neighborhoods likely to have heavy police emphasis on drug offending. Our findings are most consistent with explanations focusing on racial bias in drug sanctions.

Abstract Macroalgae drive the largest CO 2 flux fixed globally by marine macrophytes. Most of the resulting biomass is exported through the coastal ocean as detritus and yet almost no field measurements have verified its potential net sequestration in marine sediments. This gap limits the scope for the inclusion of macroalgae within blue carbon schemes that support ocean carbon sequestration globally, and the understanding of the role their carbon plays within distal food webs. Here, we pursued three lines of evidence (eDNA sequencing, Bayesian Stable Isotope Mixing Modeling, and benthic‐pelagic process measurements) to generate needed, novel data addressing this gap. To this end, a 13‐month study was undertaken at a deep coastal sedimentary site in the English Channel, and the surrounding shoreline of Plymouth, UK. The eDNA sequencing indicated that detritus from most macroalgae in surrounding shores occurs within deep, coastal sediments, with detritus supply reflecting the seasonal ecology of individual species. Bayesian stable isotope mixing modeling [C and N] highlighted its vital role in supporting the deep coastal benthic food web (22–36% of diets), especially when other resources are seasonally low. The magnitude of detritus uptake within the food web and sediments varies seasonally, with an average net sedimentary organic macroalgal carbon sequestration of 8.75 g C·m −2 ·yr −1 . The average net sequestration of particulate organic carbon in sediments is 58.74 g C·m −2 ·yr −1 , the two rates corresponding to 4–5% and 26–37% of those associated with mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass beds, systems more readily identified as blue carbon habitats. These novel data provide important first estimates that help to contextualize the importance of macroalgal‐sedimentary connectivity for deep coastal food webs, and measured fluxes help constrain its role within global blue carbon that can support policy development. At a time when climate change mitigation is at the foreground of environmental policy development, embracing the full potential of the ocean in supporting climate regulation via CO 2 sequestration is a necessity.

Abstract Aggressive children are known to have friends. However, less is known about the impact of aggression on friendship development and how this can differ for overt and relational (i.e., the forms) and instrumental and reactive (i.e., the functions) aggression. This longitudinal study utilized the forms and functions perspective on aggression to assess social selection and influence in adolescents' (N = 337, 12–14 years) friendship networks. Instrumentally and relationally aggressive peers became mutual friends with similar peers. Influence effects were observed in all types of aggression except overt aggression, suggesting that instrumental, reactive, and relational aggression may be the most susceptible to social influence. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and methodological implications for the study of aggression and adolescent friendships.

Two studies investigated the domain of attitudes about condom use as an acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)-relevant behavior and their relation to self-reported condom use, past and intended. In so doing, the Condom Attitude Scale (CAS) was developed. Subjects for both studies (n = 248, n = 528) were undergraduates, primarily heterosexual. Factor analysis of the initial item pool indicated 8 attitude factors (subscales). The total CAS, its subscales, and measures of condom use had high internal consistency. The total CAS and the majority of subscales explained a substantial amount of variance in condom use and in carrying and keeping condoms at home. Gender was unrelated to past and intended condom use. However, despite having generally more positive attitudes about condoms, women were more inhibited about buying and keeping condoms and were less likely to do so. Test–retest and cross-validation analyses revealed, for the most part, consistent findings.

Cultural values emphasizing female loyalty, sacrifice, and male honor may indirectly sanction relationship violence and reward women who remain in abusive relationships. Two studies compare participants from subcultures emphasizing honor (Latinos and southern Anglos in Study 1, Chileans in Study 2) and subcultures without strong honor traditions (northern U.S. Anglos in Study 1, Anglo-Canadians in Study 2). In Study 1, participants watch a videotape of a woman describing an abusive relationship. Participants from honor cultures are relatively more favorable to the woman if she stays in the relationship, compared to northerners. In Study 2, Chilean and Canadian students listen to audiotapes of a husband describing a violent conflict with his wife. Chileans rate the husband and his actions more positively than Canadians do when the conflict is jealousy related (perceived flirting), but no cultural differences are found when the conflict is unrelated to jealousy (spending too much money).

Rain within the footprint of the SeaWinds scatterometer on the QuikSCAT satellite causes more significant errors than existed with its predecessor, the NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) on Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-I (ADEOS-I). Empirical relations are developed that show how the rain-induced errors in the scatterometer wind magnitude depend on both the rain rate and on the wind magnitude. These relations are developed with collocated National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy measurements (to provide accurate sea surface winds) and simultaneous Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) observations of rain reflectivity. An analysis, based on electromagnetic scattering theory, interprets the dependence of the scatterometer wind errors on volumetric rain rate over a range of wind and rain conditions. These results demonstrate that the satellite scatterometer responds to rain in a manner similar to that of meteorological radars, with a Z–R relationship. These observations and results indicate that the combined (wind and rain) normalized radar cross section will lead to erroneously large wind estimates when the rain-related radar cross section exceeds a particular level that depends on the rain rate and surface wind speed.

Defines and discusses the level of quick response implementation by fashion retailers, their understanding of quality response (QR) is explored and the processes for replenishments examined. This exploratory study, based on a survey of fashion retailers trading in the UK, revealed that information technology is particularly important to the large, multiple “own brand” fashion retailers as it enables the various parties in the supply chain to communicate and to respond to demand. Results indicate that retailers have not fully understood the benefits of implementing a QR strategy and perceive it more often as a strategy for internal supply chain management rather than an external supply chain strategy.

Due to the effect of academic performance on employment opportunities and admission to graduate schools, researchers have long recognized the need for identifying factors that are linked to the academic performance of undergraduate marketing students. This research proposes a model that investigates the relationships among motivation, effort, personality, stress, and academic performance. Action-state orientation (AO-SO) is an important factor in students’ emotional exhaustion and effort. AO-SO relates to individual differences in the capacity to regulate emotions, cognitions, and behaviors to accomplish intentional actions. AO-SO consists of three dimensions: disengagement (versus preoccupation), volatility (versus persistency), and hesitation (versus initiative). Results indicate that persistency and initiative are positively related to effort, which is an important antecedent of academic performance. Also, disengagement is negatively related to emotional exhaustion.

BACKGROUND: Type I glycogen storage disease (GSD) is caused by a deficiency of glucose-6-phosphatase resulting in severe fasting hypoglycemia. OBJECTIVE: We compared the efficacy of a new modified starch with the currently used cornstarch therapy in patients with type Ia and Ib GSD. DESIGN: This was a randomized, 2-d, double-blinded, crossover pilot study comparing the commonly used uncooked cornstarch with the experimental starch in 12 subjects (6 GSDIa, 6 GSDIb) aged >or=13 y. At 2200, the subjects were given 100 g of digestible starch, and glucose and lactate were measured hourly until the subject's plasma glucose concentration reached 60 mg/dL or until the subject had fasted for 10 h. The order in which the products were tested was randomized in a blinded fashion. RESULTS: The matched-pair Gehan rank test for censored survival was used to compare the therapies. The experimental starch maintained blood glucose concentrations significantly longer than did the traditional therapy (P = 0.013) in the 2-sided analysis. Most of the benefit was found to be after glucose concentrations fell below 70 mg/dL. The currently used cornstarch resulted in higher peak glucose concentrations and a more rapid rate of fall than did the new starch. CONCLUSIONS: The experimental starch was superior to standard therapy in preventing hypoglycemia (

This review discusses the historical aspects, current state of the art, and potential future advances in the areas of nomenclature and databases for the analysis of outcomes of treatments for patients with congenitally malformed hearts. We will consider the current state of analysis of outcomes, lay out some principles which might make it possible to achieve life-long monitoring and follow-up using our databases, and describe the next steps those involved in the care of these patients need to take in order to achieve these objectives. In order to perform meaningful multi-institutional analyses, we suggest that any database must incorporate the following six essential elements: use of a common language and nomenclature, use of an established uniform core dataset for collection of information, incorporation of a mechanism of evaluating case complexity, availability of a mechanism to assure and verify the completeness and accuracy of the data collected, collaboration between medical and surgical subspecialties, and standardised protocols for life-long follow-up. During the 1990s, both The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons created databases to assess the outcomes of congenital cardiac surgery. Beginning in 1998, these two organizations collaborated to create the International Congenital Heart Surgery Nomenclature and Database Project. By 2000, a common nomenclature, along with a common core minimal dataset, were adopted by The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. In 2000, The International Nomenclature Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease was established. This committee eventually evolved into the International Society for Nomenclature of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease. The working component of this international nomenclature society has been The International Working Group for Mapping and Coding of Nomenclatures for Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, also known as the Nomenclature Working Group. By 2005, the Nomenclature Working Group crossmapped the nomenclature of the International Congenital Heart Surgery Nomenclature and Database Project of The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons with the European Paediatric Cardiac Code of the Association for European Paediatric Cardiology, and therefore created the International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code, which is available for free download from the internet at [http://www.IPCCC.NET]. This common nomenclature, the International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code, and the common minimum database data set created by the International Congenital Heart Surgery Nomenclature and Database Project, are now utilized by both The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Between 1998 and 2007 inclusive, this nomenclature and database was used by both of these two organizations to analyze outcomes of over 150,000 operations involving patients undergoing surgical treatment for congenital cardiac disease. Two major multi-institutional efforts that have attempted to measure the complexity of congenital heart surgery are the Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery-1 system, and the Aristotle Complexity Score. Current efforts to unify the Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery-1 system and the Aristotle Complexity Score are in their early stages, but encouraging. Collaborative efforts involving The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons are under way to develop mechanisms to verify the completeness and accuracy of the data in the databases. Under the leadership of The MultiSocietal Database Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, further collaborative efforts are ongoing between congenital and paediatric cardiac surgeons and other subspecialties, including paediatric cardiac anaesthesiologists, via The Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society, paediatric cardiac intensivists, via The Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society, and paediatric cardiologists, via the Joint Council on Congenital Heart Disease and The Association for European Paediatric Cardiology. In finalizing our review, we emphasise that analysis of outcomes must move beyond mortality, and encompass longer term follow-up, including cardiac and non cardiac morbidities, and importantly, those morbidities impacting health related quality of life. Methodologies must be implemented in these databases to allow uniform, protocol driven, and meaningful, long term follow-up.

PURPOSE: We designed this study to examine the end-of-life (EOL) experience in long-term care (LTC) based on input from key stakeholders. DESIGN AND METHODS: The study consisted of 10 homogeneous focus groups drawn from a purposive sample of LTC residents (2 groups; total n = 11), family caregivers (2 groups; total n = 19), paraprofessional staff (3 groups; total n = 20), and licensed/registered staff (3 groups; total n = 15) from five nursing homes and eight residential care/assisted living communities in North Carolina. We analyzed data by using grounded theory techniques to elicit manifest and latent themes. RESULTS: Five overarching themes emerged: (a) components of a good death in LTC, (b) normalcy of dying in LTC, (c) the role of relationships in the provision and receipt of care, (d) hospice contributions to care at the EOL in LTC, and (e) stakeholder recommendations for enhancing EOL care in these settings. Underlying these themes was one central category, closeness, based on physical proximity and frequency of contact. IMPLICATIONS: Findings suggest that promoting collaborative relationships among the four stakeholder groups, increasing social worker involvement, and removing barriers to hospice may enhance the EOL experience in LTC.

Exact analytical solutions are found to describe ƒ plane time‐dependent, elliptical warm‐core rings where the interface intersects the surface along the periphery. The space variables can be eliminated to reduce the problem to a system of differential equations in time. The motion of the center of mass is resolved and subtracted. Small departures from circular shape have three intrinsic frequencies: two are inertial and superinertial, while the third is a low‐frequency mode that corresponds to a slow rotation of the elliptical eddy without change in shape. An exact solution for steadily rotating elliptical eddies of finite eccentricity (named Rodons) is also found and discussed. Comparison with elliptical warm‐core Gulf Stream rings shows that this low‐frequency mode may explain their clockwise rotation. The solution also shows the existence of a periodically reversing deformation field that, combined with a reasonable amount of mixing, would result in an efficient homogenization of the water contained in the ring. An exact solution that corresponds to the pulsation of a circular eddy has also been found.

; %body fat: 28.7 ± 1.4%), resistance-trained women. Microdialysis was used to measure SCAAT lipolysis at baseline, mid-RE, post-RE, and 30 min post-RE, and indirect calorimetry was used to measure whole body substrate oxidation at baseline and immediately post-RE in 13 women. Plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA), glycerol, growth hormone (GH), epinephrine (Epi), and norepinephrine (NE) were measured at baseline, mid-RE, and post-RE. Lipolysis (dialysate glycerol concentration) was elevated post-RE (baseline: 596.7 ± 82.8, post-RE: 961.4 ± 116.3 µM, P = 0.01). Energy expenditure (baseline: 1,560 ± 49; post-RE: 1,756 ± 68 kcal/day; P = 0.02) and fat oxidation (baseline: 5.64 ± 0.24; post-RE: 7.57 ± 0.41 g/h; P = 0.0003) were elevated post-RE. GH (baseline: 513.1 ± 147.4; mid-RE: 1,288.3 ± 83.9; post-RE: 1,522.8 ± 51.1 pg/ml, P = 0.000), Epi (baseline: 23.2 ± 2.7; mid-RE: 92.5 ± 16.6; post-RE: 84.5 ± 21.4 pg/ml, P = 0.000), and NE (baseline: 139.2 ± 13.6; mid-RE: 850.9 ± 155.3; post-RE: 695.3 ± 93.5 pg/ml, P = 0.000) were higher at mid-RE and post-RE. Therefore, one of the potential mechanisms behind RE-induced fat mass changes in resistance-trained women may be in part due to the accumulated effect of transient increases in SCAAT lipolysis, fat oxidation, and energy expenditure, mediated by GH, Epi, and NE release.

BACKGROUND: Next-generation sequencing is providing researchers with a relatively fast and affordable option for developing genomic resources for organisms that are not among the traditional genetic models. Here we present a de novo assembly of the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) transcriptome using 454 sequence reads, and we evaluate potential uses of this transcriptome, including detection of sex-specific transcripts and deployment as a reference for gene expression analysis in guppies and a related species. Guppies have been model organisms in ecology, evolutionary biology, and animal behaviour for over 100 years. An annotated transcriptome and other genomic tools will facilitate understanding the genetic and molecular bases of adaptation and variation in a vertebrate species with a uniquely well known natural history. RESULTS: We generated approximately 336 Mbp of mRNA sequence data from male brain, male body, female brain, and female body. The resulting 1,162,670 reads assembled into 54,921 contigs, creating a reference transcriptome for the guppy with an average read depth of 28×. We annotated nearly 40% of this reference transcriptome by searching protein and gene ontology databases. Using this annotated transcriptome database, we identified candidate genes of interest to the guppy research community, putative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and male-specific expressed genes. We also showed that our reference transcriptome can be used for RNA-sequencing-based analysis of differential gene expression. We identified transcripts that, in juveniles, are regulated differently in the presence and absence of an important predator, Rivulus hartii, including two genes implicated in stress response. For each sample in the RNA-seq study, >50% of high-quality reads mapped to unique sequences in the reference database with high confidence. In addition, we evaluated the use of the guppy reference transcriptome for gene expression analyses in a congeneric species, the sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna). Over 40% of reads from the sailfin molly sample aligned to the guppy transcriptome. CONCLUSIONS: We show that next-generation sequencing provided a reliable and broad reference transcriptome. This resource allowed us to identify candidate gene variants, SNPs in coding regions, and sex-specific gene expression, and permitted quantitative analysis of differential gene expression.

Children have largely been overlooked as research participants in anthropological work. The anthropology of childhood has played an instrumental role in bringing attention to this fact, and it has highlighted important contributions children's viewpoints can make to our discipline. In this article, we present three case studies that involved children as active participants through the use of visual methodology: Vindrola‐Padros's research in Argentina used drawing techniques to document children's experiences of oncology treatment; Johnson's work in Kenya used photovoice with children living in orphanages to understand their coping strategies; and Pfister's study in Mexico City looked at how combining dance and drama encouraged participation among deaf and hearing children.

The geometries and topologies of leaves, flowers, roots, shoots, and their arrangements have fascinated plant biologists and mathematicians alike. As such, plant morphology is inherently mathematical in that it describes plant form and architecture with geometrical and topological techniques. Gaining an understanding of how to modify plant morphology, through molecular biology and breeding, aided by a mathematical perspective, is critical to improving agriculture, and the monitoring of ecosystems is vital to modeling a future with fewer natural resources. In this white paper, we begin with an overview in quantifying the form of plants and mathematical models of patterning in plants. We then explore the fundamental challenges that remain unanswered concerning plant morphology, from the barriers preventing the prediction of phenotype from genotype to modeling the movement of leaves in air streams. We end with a discussion concerning the education of plant morphology synthesizing biological and mathematical approaches and ways to facilitate research advances through outreach, cross-disciplinary training, and open science. Unleashing the potential of geometric and topological approaches in the plant sciences promises to transform our understanding of both plants and mathematics.

This study explored how differences in orienteering experience are related to differences in how visual attention is allocated to the map, the environment and to travel. Twenty more experienced and 20 less experienced individuals orienteered while wearing a head-mounted video camera with microphone. The participants verbalized what they were attending to (map, environment or travel) at any given time. Each recorded film was coded at each point in time in terms of what the participant was attending to and whether the participant was moving or stationary. More experienced orienteers attended to the map markedly more while moving and spent less time stationary than less experienced orienteers. The participants' performance was significantly related to the ability to attend to the map while moving. The strategic control of attention is proposed to explain this ability. It is proposed that attentional training might enhance performance in sports characterized by multiple and dynamically varying elements.