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Thinkterior : amazing bespoke kids interiors
\"This book showcases indoor and outdoor spaces created by Thinkterior, a design firm devoted to designing, fabricating and installing environments for children.\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Robust network stability of mosquitoes and human pathogens of medical importance
Background
The exact number of mosquito species relevant to human health is unknown, posing challenges in understanding the scope and breadth of vector–pathogen relationships, and how resilient mosquito vector–pathogen networks are to targeted eradication of vectors.
Methods
We performed an extensive literature survey to determine the associations between mosquito species and their associated pathogens of human medical importance. For each vector–pathogen association, we then determined the strength of the associations (i.e., natural infection, lab infection, lab dissemination, lab transmission, known vector). A network analysis was used to identify relationships among all pathogens and vectors. Finally, we examined how elimination of either random or targeted species affected the extinction of pathogens.
Results
We found that 88 of 3578 mosquito species (2.5%) are known vectors for 78 human disease-causing pathogens; however, an additional 243 species (6.8%) were identified as potential or likely vectors, bringing the total of all mosquitos implicated in human disease to 331 (9.3%). Network analysis revealed that known vectors and pathogens were compartmentalized, with the removal of six vectors being enough to break the network (i.e., cause a pathogen to have no vector). However, the presence of potential or likely vectors greatly increased redundancies in the network, requiring more than 41 vectors to be eliminated before breaking the network.
Conclusion
Although < 10% of mosquitoes are involved in transmitting pathogens that cause human disease, our findings point to inherent robustness in global mosquito vector–pathogen networks.
Graphical Abstract
Journal Article
Assessing the Mental Health, Physical Activity Levels, and Resilience of Today’s Junior College Students in Self-Financing Institutions
In recent decades, the number of adolescents and young adults with poor mental health has been increasing, particularly among students in tertiary institutions. This study investigates the physical activities, resilience, and mental health status of junior college students in Hong Kong. The questionnaire consisted of demographic characteristics, the Positive Mental Health Scale, the Brief Resilience Scale, and the Godin-Shephard Leisure-Time Physical Activity Questionnaire. Four hundred and sixteen students participated in the study. The results showed a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.485) between resilience and mental health, and a low positive correlation (r = 0.258) between resilience and physical activity. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a post hoc test showed that arts students engaged in more physical activity than students from other disciplines. A multiple regression analysis was used to examine the predictors of a positive mental health status. The significant predictors are: resilience (β = 0.704; 95% CI = 0.575–0.833; P < 0.001), physical activity score (β = 0.032; 95% CI = 0.016–0.048; P < 0.001), the male gender (β = 1.035, 95% CI = 0.171–1.900; P < 0.05), and students’ enrollment in a health science discipline (β = 1.052, 95% CI = 0.175–1.930; P < 0.05). Preventive measures, such as strengthening resilience, a broad curriculum and taking note of the demographic and cognitive characteristics of students are essential for improving the mental health of freshmen in colleges.
Journal Article
Contributions of Ecosystem Services to Human Well-Being in Puerto Rico
Ecosystem services, including availability of greenspace, clean air, and clean water, can have benefits to human well-being, but their relative importance compared to economic or social services is often overlooked. In Puerto Rico, for example, improving community well-being, including economic and cultural opportunities, human health, and safety, are often overarching goals of environmental management decisions, but the degree to which improvements in ecological condition and provision of ecosystem services could impact local communities is complicated by wide variation in social and economic conditions. This study quantifies and maps neighborhood-scale indicators of human well-being and ecosystem services for Puerto Rico to better understand the degree to which ecosystem services provisioning, alongside co-occurring social and economic services, explains variability in a number of indicators of human well-being. In Puerto Rico, variability in indicators of human well-being were predominately explained by economic services related to accumulating income and personal savings, and social services, including availability of family services, healthcare services, and access to communication technology. Despite the large explanatory power of economic and social services, however, the analysis detected that substantial portions of well-being, in particular education and human health, could be explained by variability in ecosystem services over space and time, especially availability of greenspace. Linking ecosystem services to multivariate elements of human well-being can serve to complement more traditional community planning or environmental management efforts by helping identify potential unintended consequences or overlooked benefits of decisions.
Journal Article
combined effects of pathogens and predators on insect outbreaks
The economic damage caused by episodic outbreaks of forest-defoliating insects has spurred much research, yet why such outbreaks occur remains unclear. Theoretical biologists argue that outbreaks are driven by specialist pathogens or parasitoids, because host¡pathogen and host-parasitoid models show large-amplitude, long-period cycles resembling time series of outbreaks. Field biologists counter that outbreaks occur when generalist predators fail, because predation in low-density defoliator populations is usually high enough to prevent outbreaks. Neither explanation is sufficient, however, because the time between outbreaks in the data is far more variable than in host-pathogen and host-parasitoid models, and far shorter than in generalist-predator models. Here we show that insect outbreaks can be explained by a model that includes both a generalist predator and a specialist pathogen. In this host-pathogen-predator model, stochasticity causes defoliator densities to fluctuate erratically between an equilibrium maintained by the predator, and cycles driven by the pathogen. Outbreaks in this model occur at long but irregular intervals, matching the data. Our results suggest that explanations of insect outbreaks must go beyond classical models to consider interactions among multiple species.
Journal Article
What is it about coral reefs? Translation of ecosystem goods and services relevant to people and their well‐being
There is an astonishing diversity of ways in which people benefit from coral reefs. They provide recreation, resource extraction, inspirational, and educational opportunities, among many others as well as being valued just for their existence. As the condition of coral reef ecosystems decline, so do their ability to provide these benefits. Prudent management of coral reefs and the benefits they provide are important as some predict most coral reefs globally will be lost by the mid‐21st century. Meanwhile, coral reef managers have limited tools and relevant data to design and implement effective environmental management practices that will enable coral reefs to provide benefits demanded by society. We demonstrate an approach to identify and measure environmental components of coral reefs that directly benefit human well‐being. The approach views ecosystems through the lens of a specific set of beneficiaries and the biophysical features directly relevant to each. We call these biophysical features Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS). In our demonstration, we (1) identify a range of beneficiaries of coral reefs; (2) identify metrics of FEGS for those beneficiaries; and (3) describe how data quantifying those biophysical metrics might be used to facilitate greater economic and social understanding.
Journal Article
Linking Wetland Ecosystem Services to Vector-borne Disease: Dengue Fever in the San Juan Bay Estuary, Puerto Rico
Mosquito-borne diseases are an increasingly important health concern, which pose great challenges for safe and sustainable control and eradication. This reality calls for management approaches that consider multiple aspects of the transmission cycle from a landscape and vector ecology perspective, to socio-economic elements that may increase exposure. This study seeks to better understand these pathways using dengue fever in the San Juan Bay Estuary (SJBE), Puerto Rico. Dengue is transmitted by
Aedes aegypti
, a species that thrives in cities. Here we ask which elements within the urban landscape could be managed to help prevent dengue outbreaks. We studied the potential of coastal wetlands in the SJBE to buffer vector proliferation, hypothesizing that wetland ecosystem services lead to lower dengue occurrence. We test this hypothesis using census-block level dengue data from 2010-13, including the largest epidemic in Puerto Rican history. Our analytical model includes socio-economic factors and environmental controls that may also affect dengue dynamics. Results from beta-binomial regressions and model averaging indicated that dengue occurrence was lower in neighborhoods with higher wetland cover even after controlling for population density and other socio-economic aspects. Our models suggest that heat hazard mitigation is partly responsible for the association between wetlands and dengue.
Journal Article
Nudging New York: adaptive models and the limits of behavioral interventions to reduce no-shows and health inequalities
Background
Missed healthcare appointments (no-shows) are costly and operationally inefficient for health systems. No-show rates are particularly high for vulnerable populations, even though these populations often require additional care. Few studies on no-show behavior or potential interventions exist specifically for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which care for over 24 million disadvantaged individuals in the United States. The purpose of this study is to identify predictors of no-show behavior and to analyze the effects of a reminder intervention in urban FQHCs in order to design effective policy solutions to a protracted issue in healthcare.
Methods
This is a retrospective observational study using electronic medical record data from 11 facilities belonging to a New York City-based FQHC network between June 2017 to April 2018. This data includes 53,149 visits for 41,495 unique patients. Seven hierarchical generalized linear models and generalized additive models were used to predict no-shows, and multiple regression models evaluated the effectiveness of a reminder. All analyses were conducted in R.
Results
The strongest predictor of no-show rates in FQHCs is whether or not patients are assigned to empaneled providers (z = − 91.45,
p
< 10
− 10
), followed by lead time for appointments (z = 23.87, p < 10
− 10
). These effects were fairly stable across facilities. The reminder had minimal effects on no-show rates overall (No show rate before: 41.6%, after: 42.1%). For individuals with appointments before and after the reminder, there was a small decrease in no-shows of 2%.
Conclusions
The limited effects of the reminder intervention suggest the need for more personalized behavioral interventions to reduce no-shows. We recommend that these begin with increasing the use of empaneled providers for preventive care appointments and reducing the lag time between setting the appointment and the actual date of the appointment, at least for individuals with a high rate of no-show. By complementing these with low-intensity, low-cost behavioral interventions, we would expect greater impacts for improved access to care, contributing to the well-being of vulnerable populations.
Journal Article
Linking Terrigenous Sediment Delivery to Declines in Coral Reef Ecosystem Services
Worldwide coral reef conditions continue to decline despite the valuable socioeconomic benefits of these ecosystems. There is growing recognition that quantifying reefs in terms reflecting what stakeholders value is vital for comparing inherent tradeoffs among coastal management decisions. Terrestrial sediment runoff ranks high as a stressor to coral reefs and is a key concern in Puerto Rico where reefs are among the most threatened in the Caribbean. This research aimed to identify the degree to which sediment runoff impacts production of coral reef ecosystem services and the potential for watershed management actions to improve these services. Ecosystem service production functions were applied to map and translate metrics of ecological reef condition into ecosystem service production under a gradient of increasing sediment delivery. We found that higher sediment delivery decreased provisioning of most ecosystem services, including ecosystem integrity, bioprospecting discovery, and reefbased recreational opportunities and fisheries production. However, shoreline protection and services with a strong contribution from non-reef habitats (e.g., mangroves, seagrasses) were higher in locations with high sediment delivery, although there was a strong inshore effect suggesting the influence of distance to shore, depth, and inshore habitats. Differences among services may indicate potential tradeoffs and the need to consider habitat connectivity, nursery habitat, accessibility, and sediment buffering. The relationships we have identified can be used to link stakeholder values to decision alternatives to ensure continued provisioning of these services and the well-being of communities.
Journal Article
A linked land-sea modeling framework to inform ridge-to-reef management in high oceanic islands
Declining natural resources have led to a cultural renaissance across the Pacific that seeks to revive customary ridge-to-reef management approaches to protect freshwater and restore abundant coral reef fisheries. Effective ridge-to-reef management requires improved understanding of land-sea linkages and decision-support tools to simultaneously evaluate the effects of terrestrial and marine drivers on coral reefs, mediated by anthropogenic activities. Although a few applications have linked the effects of land cover to coral reefs, these are too coarse in resolution to inform watershed-scale management for Pacific Islands. To address this gap, we developed a novel linked land-sea modeling framework based on local data, which coupled groundwater and coral reef models at fine spatial resolution, to determine the effects of terrestrial drivers (groundwater and nutrients), mediated by human activities (land cover/use), and marine drivers (waves, geography, and habitat) on coral reefs. We applied this framework in two 'ridge-to-reef' systems (Hā'ena and Ka'ūpūlehu) subject to different natural disturbance regimes, located in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Our results indicated that coral reefs in Ka'ūpūlehu are coral-dominated with many grazers and scrapers due to low rainfall and wave power. While coral reefs in Hā'ena are dominated by crustose coralline algae with many grazers and less scrapers due to high rainfall and wave power. In general, Ka'ūpūlehu is more vulnerable to land-based nutrients and coral bleaching than Hā'ena due to high coral cover and limited dilution and mixing from low rainfall and wave power. However, the shallow and wave sheltered back-reef areas of Hā'ena, which support high coral cover and act as nursery habitat for fishes, are also vulnerable to land-based nutrients and coral bleaching. Anthropogenic sources of nutrients located upstream from these vulnerable areas are relevant locations for nutrient mitigation, such as cesspool upgrades. In this study, we located coral reefs vulnerable to land-based nutrients and linked them to priority areas to manage sources of human-derived nutrients, thereby demonstrating how this framework can inform place-based ridge-to-reef management.
Journal Article