Maintaining standing stones benefits biodiversity in lowland heathland

The exploitation of natural resources by people generally has detrimental effects on nature but in some cases anthropogenic activities can result in changes to the natural environment that produce new habitats and increase biodiversity. Understanding and supporting such cultural aspects of land use is an important part of effective conservation strategies. The UK has a range of cultural landscapes that contribute to the landscape matrix and are often important for biodiversity. However, little research has been conducted on the relationship between various types of cultural landscapes or their effects on biodiversity. We examined the interaction between semi-natural sacred sites and lowland heathland in Cornwall, and the contribution these sites make to the overall biodiversity within the habitat. We found that semi-natural sacred sites had significantly higher levels of biodiversity compared to surrounding heathland; the existence and use of the sites created new and important habitats for rare and threatened heathland species; and the spiritual and cultural use of the sites aids the management of heathland. Promoting the use of semi-natural sacred sites could therefore contribute to biodiversity conservation. Furthermore, the cultural and spiritual importance of such sites potentially increases the availability of volunteer resources for their management. We highlight the importance of an integrated management approach for achieving effective biodiversity conservation in areas containing multiple types of cultural landscapes

Strengthening Community Involvement in Grant Review: Insights from the Community–University Research Partnership (CURES) Pilot Review Process

In 2007, the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) at the University of Michigan received a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). Within MICHR, the Community Engagement (CE) program supports partnership efforts between researchers, practitioners, and community‐based organizations in specific focal communities throughout Michigan. A key component of the CE program is the Community Engagement Coordinating Council, a group that provides input and guidance on program priorities, strategic planning, and reviews pilot funding proposals for community–academic partnerships. This paper will describe a unique MICHR pilot funding mechanism for Community–University Research Partnerships (CURES) with an emphasis on the ways that community partners are involved in the review process, as well as the benefits, challenges, and insights gained over 5 years of pilot review. There is a growing need for community involvement and expertise in review of funding proposals for community‐engaged research at both institutional and federal levels. The CURES pilot review process is one example of an institutional effort to engage community partners in university funding decisions and has demonstrated clear benefit toward accomplishing the aims of the CTSA.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106809/1/cts12141.pd

Addressing the Under-Representation of African American Public Health Researchers: The Flint Youth Public Health Academy

In order to meet the health needs of a culturally diverse population, the United States public health workforce must become ethnically diversified to provide culturally competent care. The underrepresentation of minority, specifically African American public health professionals may be a contributing factor to the high rates of preventable health disparities in the African American community. Studies have shown that racial/ethnic communities bear the highest disparities across multiple health outcomes. African Americans, when compared with European Americans, suffer the greatest rates of health disparities, thus providing the justification to increase minority public health professionals. In addition, studies suggest that minorities are more likely to seek medical and health services from individuals of the same ethnicity. This will assist in decreasing language and comprehension barriers and increase the cultural competence of the health providers who serve populations from their ethnic/cultural origin. This chapter will highlight a 2014 study designed to explore and identify motivators for African Americans to choose public health as a career. African American public health professionals and graduate students were engaged to discuss their career and educational trajectories and motivators for career choice. Using qualitative research methods, this study was guided by the following research question: what are the motivating factors to engage African Americans into careers in public health? The study was approved by the Walden University Institutional Review Board and was conducted in 2014. The results of this study have served as the blueprint for the creation of the Flint Public Health Youth Academy (FPHYA). Coincidently the 2014 study was wrapping up at the genesis of the Flint Water Crisis (FWC). The FWC impacted residents of all ages in Flint. Specifically, the youth of Flint were exposed to lead (a neuro-toxin) and other contaminants through the water system which impacted them physically and cognitively. National media outlets disseminated headlines across the world that Flint youth would have behavioral (aggression) issues and struggle academically as a result of their exposure to lead. The FPHYA was designed to provide positive messages to and about Flint youth. It is an introduction to careers in public health, medicine, and research for Flint Youth. It creates a space for Flint youth to work through their lived experience of the FWC while learning the important role public health and research plays in recovering from an environmental public health crisis. More importantly, it is a pathway to public health careers providing didactic sessions, local mentors and internships

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far

Toxic trauma: Household water quality experiences predict posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms during the Flint, Michigan, water crisis

We examined the relationship between perceptions of household tap water quality and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms during the Flint, Michigan, water crisis in 2015–2016. The Speak to Your Health Community Survey is a community‐based participatory component of the health surveillance system in Genesee County, Michigan. Perceptions of household tap water quality was added to the 2015–2016 survey wave after inadequate official response to concerns over water quality after a change in Flint’s municipal water supply. Respondents (N = 786) also completed a brief PTSD screening tool. We examined the relationships of perceived household tap water quality to PTSD symptomatology and positive screening criteria for PTSD, controlling for sociodemographics. Perceived tap water quality predicted PTSD symptomatology and positive screening criteria for PTSD, independent of sociodemographics. The adverse mental health impact of municipal toxic contamination may generalize to other similar environmental contamination incidents.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138395/1/jcop21898_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138395/2/jcop21898.pd

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2

We describe the observation of GW170104, a gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of a pair of stellar-mass black holes. The signal was measured on January 4, 2017 at 10: 11: 58.6 UTC by the twin advanced detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory during their second observing run, with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13 and a false alarm rate less than 1 in 70 000 years. The inferred component black hole masses are 31.2(-6.0)(+8.4)M-circle dot and 19.4(-5.9)(+5.3)M(circle dot) (at the 90% credible level). The black hole spins are best constrained through measurement of the effective inspiral spin parameter, a mass-weighted combination of the spin components perpendicular to the orbital plane, chi(eff) = -0.12(-0.30)(+0.21) . This result implies that spin configurations with both component spins positively aligned with the orbital angular momentum are disfavored. The source luminosity distance is 880(-390)(+450) Mpc corresponding to a redshift of z = 0.18(-0.07)(+0.08) . We constrain the magnitude of modifications to the gravitational-wave dispersion relation and perform null tests of general relativity. Assuming that gravitons are dispersed in vacuum like massive particles, we bound the graviton mass to m(g) <= 7.7 x 10(-23) eV/c(2). In all cases, we find that GW170104 is consistent with general relativity

Localization and Broadband Follow-Up of the Gravitational-Wave Transient GW150914

A gravitational-wave (GW) transient was identified in data recorded by the Advanced Laser InterferometerGravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors on 2015 September 14. The event, initially designated G184098and later given the name GW150914, is described in detail elsewhere. By prior arrangement, preliminary estimatesof the time, significance, and sky location of the event were shared with 63 teams of observers covering radio,optical, near-infrared, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths with ground- and space-based facilities. In this Letter wedescribe the low-latency analysis of the GW data and present the sky localization of the first observed compactbinary merger. We summarize the follow-up observations reported by 25 teams via private Gamma-rayCoordinates Network circulars, giving an overview of the participating facilities, the GW sky localizationcoverage, the timeline, and depth of the observations. As this event turned out to be a binary black hole merger,there is little expectation of a detectable electromagnetic (EM) signature. Nevertheless, this first broadbandcampaign to search for a counterpart of an Advanced LIGO source represents a milestone and highlights the broadcapabilities of the transient astronomy community and the observing strategies that have been developed to pursueneutron star binary merger events. Detailed investigations of the EM data and results of the EM follow-upcampaign are being disseminated in papers by the individual teams

Participation in environmental enhancement and conservation activities for health and well-being in adults: a review of quantitative and qualitative evidence

PUBHLT

The Midwest Quarterly; Vol 5. No. 1

in this issue. . . BEGINNING our fifth year of publication with this issue, we continue our policy of variety in the subject matter of the articles here presented, from musicology to historiography, from Formosa to the United Kingdom, from Jacob Burckhardt to Robert Frost. We count ourselves fortunate in having discovered discussions suitable for inclusion in a journal of contemporary thought and in receiving unsolicited contributions which quickly won editorial acceptance. As in our first four years, we start this new volume confident in the role and objectives of our journal and reassured by continued growth in the number of subscribers, contributors, and exchanges. Music, like the other fine arts, is supposed to be above ideology and nationality, but from time to time efforts are made to use music and musicians as instruments of propaganda. In our first article, DONALD R. KEY, associate professor of music at Kansas State College, discusses some of the problems encountered by composers in Soviet Russia who are on the one hand blessed by state support and on the other inhibited by ideological control. Professor Key became interested in the subject last winter when the Komitas String Quartet, a state musical organization from Moscow, played a concert on this campus. During a reception for the members of the quartet, he fell into conversation with these Russian musicians, all of whom expressed unwavering devotion to the official communist line with regard to artistic aesthetics. After wide reading on the subject, Professor Key presented a paper on the problem of controlled musical composition before last June\u27s meeting of the Faculty Seminar in Liberal Arts directed by our editorial colleague Theodore M. Sperry. The essay here published is an outgrowth of that seminar paper. Professor Key received the bachelor of arts from Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi; the master of music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and his doctor of philosophy degree from Boston University. He joined the faculty here in the fall of 1960; prior to that he had taught at Hinds Junior College in Raymond, Mississippi; at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and at Western Maryland College, Westminster. ALTHOUGH his home field is American history, MARK A. PLUMMER, assistant professor at Illinois State University, Normal, became more than casually interested in Far Eastern affairs while a graduate student at the University of Kansas where he studied under Professor George Beckmann. During the summer of 1962, Professor Plummer was one of a clutch of American educators who enjoyed a six weeks sojourn on Formosa under the auspices of the Fulbright program. One major result of that experience is a delightful and illuminating contribution to this issue, The Even-Numbered Days. A native of Missouri, Professor Plummer earned his bachelor and master\u27s degrees in history at Kansas State College, writing his master\u27s thesis on the American institutional economist, Thorstein Veblen. After several years of European duty with the United States Army and high school teaching in Kansas City, Plummer proceeded to the University of Kansas to earn his doctor of philosophy degree. For the past two years he has taught American history courses at Illinois State. He has previously published in The Kansas Historical Quarterly. CONVINCED that the European and British experience with agricultural problems parallels our own in many respects, MERLIN D. GUSTAFSON of Kansas State University, Manhattan, prepared a paper on British agriculture to read at the annual. meeting of the Kansas Association of Teachers of History and Social Science held at Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, last April. Fortunately, your peripatetic editor heard the paper, liked it, and secured it, then & there for this journal. Professor Gustafson earned his bachelor\u27s and master\u27s at Kansas State University and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Nebraska. He has also studied at the University of Chicago and at Notre Dame and has taught political science for a number of years in and around the Chicago area, at North Park College and at Northern Illinois University. In 1960 he returned to his alma mater and to his present teaching position. He has traveled and lived in Britain during World War II and as a private citizen several years ago. IT IS NOT unusual for news stories on both Britain and American farm questions to appear in adjoining columns in our newspapers (see for example The Kansas City Times for September 12, 1963), and it struck us as highly appropriate to run a discussion of American farm surpluses as they relate to the Common Market in the same issue with Professor Gustafson\u27s article. Accordingly last June we dispatched KENT I. TOOL to England to make an on-the-spot study and report back. Mr. Tool, instructor in economics here is a 1960 graduate of Grinnell College with a year\u27s advanced study of economics at Manchester University in England and a master of business administration degree from Indiana University in 1962. His article on the farm export problem grows out of his strong interest in international trade and finance and is strengthened by his extensive travel and study in Western Europe. This past summer, our man in Surrey actually concentrated more on British cathedrals, particularly those most recently erected, than he did on economic problems. EVER SINCE his death last winter, the American poet Robert Frost has been the subject of an increasing number of manuscripts submitted to this Journal. BARRY D. BORT, assistant professor of English at Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, has analyzed Frosts attitudes toward nature and twentieth-century man\u27s relation to it. Professor Bort did his undergraduate work at Depauw University and received his master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees from Brown University. His fields of interest include Romantic, Victorian, and contemporary literature, and he is at work on a scholarly study tracing the changing concept of the hero in Charles Dicken\u27s novels. JACOB BURCKHARDT in his humanistic versatility has always been one of the great models for FELIX M. WASSERMANN of the Division of Humanities at Kansas Wesleyan University, Salina. On his frequent trips to Europe, Professor Wassermann always visits Burckhardt\u27 s home university-town of Basel as well as his own university, Freiburg, sister institution to Basel. Two years ago (summer, 1961) Professor Wasserman contributed an essay, Thucydides: Our Contemporary, to our journal. At Kansas Wesleyan, he teaches advanced German, Spanish, ancient and renaissance history, classics, humanities, the Bible as literature, and political geography. In his spare time he writes articles, reviews, and papers on such varied subjects as Roman portraiture, ancient historiography: the voice of Sparta in Thucydides, and the later novels of the nineteenth century German, Raabe. His articles and reviews have been widely published in European as well as American Journals. ONE DOZEN poems grace this issue, and it is our hope that subsequent numbers of THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY will maintain the high standard set by the ten poets here represented. Only two are new to our pages: LEONARD GILLEY of Denver, Colorado, and FRED MOECKEL of Naugatuck, Connecticut. The other eight have appeared at least once prior to this issue and some have become regular contributors. Mr. Gilley, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bowdoin College who afterward took his master of arts with distinction in the Writing Seminars of the Johns Hopkins University, is currently Creative Writing and University Fellow at the University of Denver and is working toward his doctor of philosophy degree under Dr. John Williams. His poetry has appeared in The New York Times, The Denver Post, and Verb. Next year Prairie Schooner will publish a Shakespeare poem of his as part of the 400th anniversary celebration. He has completed a book of 218 poems (2,708 lines) entitled Our Town Is A Thirsty Town, and at the moment is searching for a publisher for this solid work. In progress he has many poems and a novel. . . . Fred Moeckel earned the bachelor of fine arts from Hartford Art School in 1959 and the master of education from the University of Hartford the following year. He is employed by the state of Connecticut as counselor for its program for education of the blind. His poems and stories have been published or accepted by American Weave, The Husk, The Minnesota Review, New Frontiers, The New Yorker, Quicksilver, and Targets, in addition to The New York Herald Tribune, The Denver Post, and The Saturday Evening Post. Our double quartet of other versifiers hale all the way from the next room to Japan: WENDELL B. ANDERSON of Taos, New Mexico, first appeared in our last (summer) issue. . . . JAMES BINNEY of West Chester, Pennsylvania, has contributed to our summer issues for the past two years. . . . A. D. FREEMAN of Wellesley, Massachusetts, was included in our January and July numbers this year. . . . EMILIE GLEN of New York City is a frequent contributor to THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY, for which we are grateful; her poems were included in our last two issues. . . . MYRON LEVOY of Rockaway, New Jersey, had two poems in our last (July) issue. . . . HOWARD SMITH, JR., of Brooklyn Heights contributed Winter Woman to last January\u27s number. . . . TRACY THOMPSON, America\u27s most prolific poet, is currently teaching English at the University of Kyoto, Japan, and a Japanese culture course at Yobiko\u27s intermediate college; weather permitting, he will continue there for three years before returning to his home base of San Francisco. We published four of his poems in our January and April issues this year. . . . DONALD ATWELL ZOLL, our house poet and colleague in political theory, appeared in our issues of January and July this year