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Until 2022, Vermont was one of the few US states that did not have an Environmental Justice (EJ) policy. In 2016, the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) initiated a process to create an EJ policy based on an agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A coalition of academics, non-profit organization leaders, legal experts, and community-based partners formed in response to the DEC’s initial approach because it lacked a robust process to center the voices of the most vulnerable Vermonters. The coalition developed a mixed-method, community-based approach to ask, “What does EJ look like in Vermont?” This article reports the door-to-door survey portion of that broader research effort. The survey of 569 Vermont residents purposively sampled sites of likely environmental harm and health concerns and sites with existing relationships with activists and community organizations engaged in ongoing EJ struggles. The survey results use logistic regression to show that non-white respondents in the sites sampled were significantly more likely to be renters, to report exposures to mold, to have trouble paying for food and electricity, to lack access to public transportation, were less likely to own a vehicle, to have a primary care doctor, and reported higher rates of Lyme disease than white respondents. Our findings contribute to EJ theory regarding the co-productive relationship between environmental privilege and environmental harms within the context of persistent characterizations of Vermont as an environmental leader with abundant environmental benefits.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) prevents HIV contraction in HIV-negative individuals. Despite higher risks, uptake is low among young men who have sex with men (YMSM). This study investigates barriers to PrEP uptake in U.K. YMSM, where treatment has recently been approved within services. Semi-structured interviews with 10 YMSM living in the United Kingdom were analyzed using data-driven reflexive thematic analysis. Analysis highlighted three principal barriers to PrEP uptake: lack of perceived necessity, lack of knowledge, and perceived acquisition discomfort. YMSM experience unique barriers to PrEP uptake. Recommendations for tackling barriers included implementation of an online application, alongside educational measures.

This mixed method study explores importance of and influences on men’s grooming behaviors and appearance concerns. Survey data from 83 men based in the United Kingdom showed high social media users engaged in significantly more grooming behaviors than low users. Gay men viewed grooming as significantly more important and implemented more grooming habits than straight men. Qualitative responses yielded themes relating to standards set by traditional media and the blurring of boundaries between traditional and new forms of (social) media. Themes reflected the freedom and constraints of sexuality in relation to grooming as well as the management of attraction and status. More research is needed to consider the impact grooming pressures and influences might have on men in the future.

The Department of Community Development and Applied Economics at the University of Vermont embraces a transdisciplinary approach to community development education that provides students with real world experiences through community-engaged learning opportunities. The department was originally formed by an administrative decision that merged three departments in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences intending to save financial resources. Over 25 years, we have developed a transdisciplinary approach that fills gaps that exist between disciplines that have yet to be closed while engaging with a variety of community partners to co-produce solutions to promote positive change. This article describes the evolution of our transdisciplinary curriculum that integrates a three-phased approach to service-learning. This framework enables faculty to offer appropriate service-learning experiences that provide meaningful interactions between students and community partners. CDAE has both honed and expanded curricular offerings to meet student interest and to better address community-based issues at the local, national, and global level.

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Movement of sediment, and associated phosphorus, from stream banks to freshwater lakes is predicted to increase with greater frequency of extreme precipitation events. This higher phosphorus load may accelerate harmful algal blooms in affected water bodies, such as Lake Champlain in Vermont, New York, and Québec. In the Mad River, a subwatershed in central Vermont's Lake Champlain Basin, extreme flooding from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 caused extensive erosion. We measured stream channel change along the main stem between 2008 and 2011 by digitizing available prestorm and poststorm aerial imagery. Soils were sampled post Irene at six active stream erosion sites, using an experimental design to measure differences in soil texture and phosphorus both with depth (90 cm) and distance from the stream. In addition to total phosphorus (TP), we determined bioavailable (soil test) phosphorus (STP) and the degree of phosphorus saturation (DPS). The six sites represented a 0.87‐km length of stream bank that contributed an estimated 17.6 × 103Mg of sediment and 15.8 Mg of TP, roughly the same as average annual watershed export estimates. At four sites, the STP and DPS were low and suggested little potential for short‐term phosphorus release. At two agricultural sites where the lateral extent of erosion was high, imagery showed a clear loss of well‐established riparian buffer. Present‐day near‐stream soils were elevated in STP and DPS. An increase in these extreme events will clearly increase sediment loads. There will also be increasing concentration of sediment phosphorus if stream banks continue to erode into actively managed agricultural fields. Extreme precipitation events can cause streams to swell above their banks and erode near‐stream soil. Because stream bank soils contain phosphorus, increased erosion can increase the transport of phosphorus into lakes, leading to harmful algal blooms. Our study occurred in central Vermont along the Mad River, which flows into Lake Champlain. Tropical Storm Irene delivered a record amount of rainfall to much of Vermont. Soils were already wet and streams quickly flooded, causing drastic stream channel changes. We used aerial photography to measure the change in stream channel and calculated the amount of soil lost. We also sampled soil at six erosion sites, measuring various forms of phosphorus. These measurements suggest that one extreme event delivered as much sediment and phosphorus into the stream as is normally exported over an entire year. Bioavailable phosphorus was low in most soil samples. However, high erosion along two agricultural fields removed large trees that formed a buffer with the stream and pushed present‐day stream banks well back into the farmland. These soils had elevated amounts of bioavailable phosphorus and would likely contribute more toward downstream eutrophication if erosion continues. The effect of this one extreme event will continue to be felt for years to come. Extreme event‐induced stream bank movement along six eroding sites generated sediment loads equivalent to average annual watershed exportsPhosphorus loads were also high, but short‐term phosphorus release may be limited because of low bioavailability in the eroded sedimentStripping of riparian buffers and lateral bank retreat into actively managed agricultural fields may enhance future phosphorus losses

Studying the hysteretic relationships embedded in high‐frequency suspended‐sediment concentration and river discharge data over 600+storm events provides insight into the drivers and sources of riverine sediment during storm events. However, the literature to date remains limited to a simple visual classification system (linear, clockwise, counter‐clockwise, and figure‐eight patterns) or the collapse of hysteresis patterns to an index. This study leverages 3 years of suspended‐sediment and discharge data to show proof‐of‐concept for automating the classification and assessment of event sediment dynamics using machine learning. Across all catchment sites, 600+storm events were captured and classified into 14 hysteresis patterns. Event classification was automated using a restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM), a type of artificial neural network, trained on 2‐D images of the suspended‐sediment discharge (hysteresis) plots. Expansion of the hysteresis patterns to 14 classes allowed for new insight into drivers of the sediment‐discharge event dynamics including spatial scale, antecedent conditions, hydrology, and rainfall. The probabilistic RBM correctly classified hysteresis patterns (to the exact class or next most similar class) 70% of the time. With increased availability of high‐frequency sensor data, this approach can be used to inform watershed management efforts to identify sediment sources and reduce fine sediment export. In this study, the river stage (water level) and amount of suspended sediment (soil particles) within a river and five of its tributaries were monitored for 3 years; more than 600 storm events were captured across all six sites. For each storm event, traces of the sediment concentration and river stage were plotted against each other; and the emerging patterns such as clockwise, counter‐clockwise, and figure‐eight (hysteresis) loops were grouped into 14 reoccurring patterns. We also developed a machine‐learning (artificial intelligence) tool to recognize the 14 patterns using only the visual sediment‐stage image, in the same way that handwritten characters are recognized by computers. This allowed classification of the individual storm events to be automated. To better understand what these patterns tell us about the physics associated with the storm events and where on the landscape sediments may originate, we analyzed the 14 storm categories using measured rainfall, soil moisture, sediment, and river level data. The machine‐learning tool helped capture the linkages between the visual images and the types and origin of erosion using only data monitored at the river outlet during storm events. Storm‐event classification is automated using hysteresis images from high‐resolution turbidity sensors and a restricted Boltzmann machineNew hysteresis patterns in suspended‐sediment discharge relationships are identifiedDistributions of hysteresis types show linkages in space and season, and provide insight into stream sediment source connectivity

THE publication of a short but comprehensive A text-book of palæobotany in English is a noteworthy event, for great progress has been made during the last forty years in our knowledge of fossil plants, and the discoveries of the latter half of this period must eventually revolutionize many widely accepted views on evolutionary morphology. The author, who is a member of the staff of Harvard, has all the enthusiasm of youth, and has produced a book which covers a very wide field of study. The subject is treated mainly from a phylogenetic point of view, the historical evidence relating to each of the main groups of plants being considered. A few chapters are devoted to a review of the floras of the great geological epochs and to more general topics. Each chapter is accompanied by a bibliography of the more important papers, mainly from recent publications. There is a large number of illustrations which add to the interest and value of the book. Many of them are reproductions of photographs of actual specimens, though these vary in quality.

DURING the last twenty years great progress has been made in the study of coal. Instead of treating it only as a material which on combustion gave certain products, investigators have been studying the material itself, its constituents, their mode of occurrence and association, and their probable method of origin. Coal is a rock rather than a mineral, and much of the progress that has been made has come from its examination by petro-logical methods. These methods have been developed independently in England, America, and Germany, and their results have been described in many widely scattered publications, consequently a brief summary of the work with a full list of references is very valuable.

THE possibility that changes have occurred during the past in the position of the earth's axis of rotation, relative to present surface features, is of great interest to all students of fossil plants. It has long been clear that the geological evidence of former vegetation shows that the lands around the Arctic Sea bore an ample covering of plants during a long period, probably from Devonian to Tertiary times. This vegetation included many large trees and was very different from the scanty flora of those regions living to-day. From other areas, such as South Africa, India and Australia, there is evidence of glacial conditions associated With relatively small flora.