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Debris flows pose a serious threat to communities in mountainous areas, particularly in the years following wildfire. These events have been widely studied in regions where post-wildfire debris flows have been historically frequent, such as southern California. However, the threat of post-wildfire debris flows is increasing in many regions where detailed data on debris-flow physical properties, volume, and runout potential are sparse, such as the Southwest United States (Arizona and New Mexico). As the Southwest becomes more vulnerable to these hazards, there is an increasing need to better characterize the properties of post-wildfire debris flows in this region and to identify similarities and differences with nearby areas, particularly southern California, where there is a greater abundance of data. In this paper, we study the characteristics and downstream impacts of two post-wildfire debris flows that initiated following the 2021 Flag Fire in northern Arizona, United States. We gathered data regarding soil hydraulic properties, rainfall characteristics, watershed response, and debris-flow initiation, runout, volume, grain size, and downstream impacts during the first two monsoon seasons following the containment of the Flag Fire. We also applied established debris-flow runout and volume models that were developed in southern California to our study watershed and compared the output with observations. In the first monsoon season following the fire, there were two post-wildfire debris flows, one of which resulted in damage to downstream infrastructure, and one major flood event. We found that, while more intense rainfall is required to generate debris flows at our study site compared to southern California, burned watersheds in northern Arizona are still susceptible to debris flows during storms with low recurrence intervals in the first year following fire. During the second monsoon season, there were no major runoff events, despite more intense storms. This indicates that the temporal window for heightened debris-flow susceptibility at our study area was less than one year, due to the recovery of soil hydraulic properties and vegetation regrowth. We also found that the debris-flow properties at our study site, such as volume, mobility, and grain size distribution, may differ from those in other regions in the western United States, including southern California, potentially due to regional differences in rainfall characteristics and sediment supply. Differences in rainfall characteristics and sediment supply may have also influenced the performance of the debris-flow runout and volume models, which overpredicted the observed runout distance by 400 m and predicted a volume more than 17 times greater than what was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed research work presents a comprehensive approach to assessing the seismic vulnerability of archaeological sites. This approach aims to be a quick and easy-to-use investigation procedure that enables accurate and large-scale evaluations. While the methods employed are well-established in the literature and have been widely applied to buildings, this study contributes by proposing a structured framework that integrates different assessment procedures at different levels of analysis, specifically tailored to archaeological sites. The analysis is divided into three stages within the conceptual framework: (i) the application of the Masonry Quality Index; (ii) seismic vulnerability assessment and prediction of expected damage; and (iii) analysis of individual walls' structural response through strength domain, capacity and fragility curves. Specifically, the study explores and adapts four Vulnerability Index methods, i.e. GNDT, Formisano, Vicente and Ferreira methods, to suit the specific characteristics of archaeological sites. To this end, a simplified procedure is proposed to estimate the conventional strength in the methods' forms. The comparison of the index-based methods is then crucial for critically evaluating the reliability of vulnerability estimations. The paper illustrates the application of this framework through a detailed case study, i.e. the archaeological site of Wupatki Pueblo in Arizona (US), demonstrating its effectiveness in evaluating the seismic risk and defining the vulnerability distribution of the site. Consequently, this approach facilitates the identification of the most sensitive areas, which necessitate further investigation, providing useful outcomes for the decision-making process concerning the conservation and protection of archaeological sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Recent increases in ecological disturbances driven by climate change and our expanding human footprint make it challenging for natural resource managers to keep apprised of current conditions and adjust management plans accordingly. To effectively conserve species in highly dynamic landscapes requires more timely habitat monitoring and a more responsive adaptive management cycle. Objectives: We introduce a framework to automatically monitor and assess species habitats over a range of spatial and temporal scales. We then apply this framework by developing an automated habitat monitoring system for the Mexican spotted owl (MSO) in Arizona and New Mexico, USA, that will be linked to federal agency adaptive management plans. Methods: We automated the process of monitoring and assessing trends in MSO habitat on an annual schedule using the Google Earth Engine cloud-based spatial analysis platform and dynamic data repository. We ran this system retrospectively on historical data to monitor MSO habitat from 1986 to 2020. Results: The automated habitat monitoring system provided a 35-year MSO habitat time series with high accuracy. Widespread habitat gains and losses occurred every year, underscoring the need for continuous monitoring and the benefits of an automated workflow. Conclusions: Automated habitat monitoring linked to adaptive management holds great promise in helping managers track the impacts of recent disturbances and adjust plans to meet goals even in increasingly dynamic landscapes. In a companion paper, Jones et al. (2023) demonstrate the utility of this approach by analyzing our MSO habitat time series to assess trends, drivers of change, and management implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexican folklórico dance (also known as Mexican folkloric ballet) is a dance form and tradition that is rooted in the cultural diversity of Mexico and has a prominent presence in the USA. The dances, music, and costumes are all embedded with the historical and socio-cultural traditions of the communities from where they originate and are therefore crucial aspects of Mexican folklórico that should be included in the archives. Current holdings in Arizona include records on Mexican folklórico dance, but these are limited to audio recordings, visual materials, and written materials, nothing on costumes. As such, this paper argues for their inclusion in the archives by applying a participatory approach and a post-custodial strategy, which will accomplish the following: (1) By involving the community in the archiving process, more accurate records of the costumes can be created; and (2) By utilizing a post-custodial strategy, the archives collaborates with the records creators/owners (e.g., costume designers, dancers, or directors) so that the records are still able to be processed, with the original record returning to the creator/owner, while a copy remains in the archives so that others can access it. This process will ensure that the costumes are not de-contextualized by being completely removed from their communities and that they remain with those individuals who have years of experience taking care of them and know how to keep them in presentable conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the use of Hot-Spot analysis, typically reserved for local analysis of crime and law enforcement, I document the dispersal and clustering of migrant mortalities on a temporal scale in the Ajo valley of Southern Arizona in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. The study maps the influence of border enforcement by time and documents the forming of a state of exception, by finding whether and where migrants had taken other more-remote routes in relation to the constructing of and policing by a Border Patrol checkpoint, The spatiotemporal nature of 'Hot' and 'Cold-Spots' plus an analysis of migrant mortality locations before and after the establishment of a checkpoint serves as a novel approach to spatial analysis in border studies. It creates a type of remote forensics for verifying the 'funnel effect' and the condition of Bare Life it produces where law has taken migrant's political power and left them with their biological existence (Agamben in Homo sacer: sovereign power and bare life. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1998). I show a widening of the state and a receding of the migrant into a rugged and remote isolation. Until now, the defining of the borderlands as a State of Exception (Doty in Int Political Sociol 1(2):113–137, 2007) has been theoretical and qualitative. This paper doesn't retract from that but rather adds quantitative data and interpretation to theory, making it a needed clarification of biopolitics in a time of growing use of militarization at the U.S.–Mexico border and worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We measure the value placed by the American public on ensuring the continued existence of the traditional Hopi culture and way of life at the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. The Hopi are the oldest living culture in the United States. The continued existence of the Reservation is threatened by depletion of the groundwater resource underlying the reservation. In the future, without a new source of water, the Hopi will run out of water to support the villages and continue their traditional Hopi agricultural practices. Many Hopi will have to move off the Reservation and give up their traditional culture and way of life. The Reservation will no longer serve as a permanent home for the Hopi Tribe. An expensive pipeline would be required to convey a new source of water to the Reservation, for which the Federal government might pay. The question is: would the expenditure by the federal government to convey water that would ensure the continued existence of the traditional Hopi culture at the Hopi Reservation be justified by the existence value of that culture to the American people? This paper describes the results of a study undertaken to measure that existence value. We show that a simple stated preference design, using only a single monetary amount, is sufficient to provide a bound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of a statewide merit-based scholarship program on educational outcomes in Arizona. It tests whether Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) scholarship has an effect on a comprehensive set of educational outcomes such as the number of applicants, student admissions, first-year first-time enrollment, ACT scores of entering freshman, retention rates, as well as on the level of tuition and fees at the three schools targeted by the program; Arizona State University, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University. Both difference-in-differences estimation as well as synthetic control methods shows that AIMS has an economically and statistically significant effect enrollment. Enrollment effects are greatest among African American and Hispanic students and are significant for both men and women. While point estimates suggest that AIMS also lead to increases in tuition and fees, these results are not robust to placebo tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hydrogeology Journal is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

River flow data are usually subject to several sources of discontinuity and inhomogeneity. An example is seasonality, because climatic oscillations occurring on inter-annual timescale have an obvious impact on the river flow. Further sources of alteration can be caused by changes in reservoir management, instrumentation or even unexpected shifts in climatic conditions. When such changes are ignored the results of a statistical analysis can be strongly misleading, so flexible procedures are needed for building the appropriate models, which may be very complex. This paper develops an automatic procedure to estimate the number and locations of changepoints in Periodic AutoRegressive (PAR) models, which have been extensively used to account for seasonality in hydrology. We aim at filling the literature gap on multiple changepoint detection by allowing several time segments to be detected, inside of which a different PAR structure is specified, with the resulting model being employed to successfully capture the discontinuities of river flow data. The model estimation is performed by optimization of an objective function based on an information criterion using genetic algorithms. The proposed methodology is evaluated by means of simulation studies and it is then employed in the analysis of two river flows: the South Saskatchewan, measured at Saskatoon, Canada, and the Colorado, measured at Lees Ferry, Arizona. For these river flows we build changepoint models, discussing the possible events that caused discontinuity, and evaluate their forecasting accuracy. Comparisons with the literature on river flow analysis and on existing methods for changepoint detection confirm the efficiency of our proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In direct contrast to Arizona's criminalization of Ethnic Studies in Arizona, the San Francisco Unified School District's Board of Education unanimously adopted a resolution to support Ethnic Studies in their schools. As schools across the country begin to place Ethnic Studies courses on their master schedules, the lack of preparation and education to support effective Ethnic Studies teaching has emerged as a problem. Therefore, the central questions addressed in this paper are: What is Ethnic Studies pedagogy? and What are its implications for hiring and preparing K- 12 teachers? This is a conceptual article that builds upon existing research studies to investigate the pedagogy of effective K-12 teachers of Ethnic Studies. From this literature, we identify several patterns in their pedagogy: culturally responsive pedagogy, community responsive pedagogy and teacher racial identity development. We then tease out these components, briefly reviewing the literature for each, leading to a synthesized definition of Ethnic Studies pedagogy. We conclude the paper by providing recommendations for practice and research in the interest of preparing and supporting effective Ethnic Studies teaching in K-12 classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most restrictive language policy context in the United States, Arizona's monolingual and prescriptive approach to teaching English learners continues to capture national and international attention. Five school years removed from the initial implementation, this study aimed to understand the complexities of Arizona language policy in classrooms and communities across the state, using the perspectives and experiences of 26 individuals engaged in the policy work across local and state levels. This paper hones in on the pertinent issue of teacher attrition, which was recognized as the central challenge at the local level, but ignored at state education and government levels. Findings indicated that various sub-policies of the broader language policy intersected to result in teacher attrition, including teacher certification, teacher induction, teacher preparation, and teacher evaluation. Implications target Arizona stakeholders as they consider directions to improve education for English learners, particularly focused on how to raise qualifications and define teacher expertise to yield the placement and retention of quality teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the entrepreneurial leadership strategies and routine work of actors located across a diverse array of organizational settings (i.e., farmers' markets, community farms, community-supported agriculture programs, food and seed banks, local food print media) that combine to shape and sustain the Southern Arizona (AZ) local food system (LFS). We use the theoretical principles of institutional entrepreneurship and logic multiplicity to show how the strategies and routine work of local food actors at the organizational level combine to negotiate system-level meaning and structure within and across the Southern AZ LFS, which is an otherwise seemingly fragmented and contentious social space. We illustrate how the entrepreneurial work performed within multiple organizations and organizational types converge to form a hybrid (or blended) local food logic. Implications are discussed and recommendations for practice are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the country, government agencies increasingly collaborate with non-governmental actors on environmental dilemmas to gain access to resources, expertise, and local knowledge; to mitigate conflict; and to share risks in a changing environmental context. Collectively, these often overlapping collaborations form a complex and dynamic governance network (GNet). This paper examines the establishment and growth of an environmental GNet over a period of 15 years in conflict-ridden southeastern Arizona, USA. Using social network analysis, we detect the emergence of several influential organizations acting as political entrepreneurs and observe an overall change in network composition. We describe three phases: (1) a newly emerged network, (2) a network dominated by national non-governmental organizations, and finally (3) a shift toward local non-governmental organization involvement. Using institutional analysis, we explore how conflict over natural resource use, decreasing public and private monies for management, and increasing tensions over border security, leads to the establishment of new collaborations and new network participants. While this research focuses on environmental governance in southeastern Arizona, this methodological approach-and insights into the key role of organizations acting as political entrepreneurs-provides a useful starting place for analyzing networks of collaborative governance in other geographic and political contexts. Organizations' perceptions of risk and trust are keys to understanding the dynamics of collaboration within a GNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to construct climate quality long-term dust storm dataset, merged dust storm climatology in Phoenix is developed based on three data sources: regular meteorological records, in situ air quality measurements, and satellite remote sensing observations. The result presented in this paper takes into account the advantages of each dataset and integrates individual analyses demonstrated and presented in previous studies that laid foundation to reconstruct a consistent and continuous time series of dust frequency. A key for the merging procedure is to determine analysis criteria suitable for each individual data source. A practical application to historic records of dust storm activities over the Phoenix area is presented to illustrate detailed steps, advantages, and limitations of the newly developed process. Three datasets are meteorological records from the Sky Harbor station, satellite observed aerosol optical depth data from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Air Quality System particulate matter data of eight sites surrounding Phoenix. Our purpose is to construct dust climatology over the Phoenix region for the period 1948-2012. Data qualities of the reconstructed dust climatology are assessed based on the availability and quality of the input data. The period during 2000-2012 has the best quality since all datasets are well archived. The reconstructed climatology shows that dust storm activities over the Phoenix region have large interannual variability. However, seasonal variations show a skewed distribution with higher frequency of dust storm activities in July and August and relatively quiet during the rest of months. Combining advantages of all the available datasets, this study presents a merged product that provides a consistent and continuous time series of dust storm activities suitable for climate studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to describe the Longevity Study: Learning From Our Elders, a research program on healthy aging that began in 2007 at the Center for Healthy Aging at Banner Sun Health Research Institute. As of June 2015, 1139 participants (age range of 50-110 years) completed baseline assessments with the majority living in the Sun Cities retirement communities northwest of Phoenix, Arizona but expanding throughout the state. The registry includes over 830 currently active participants with 450 aged 80 years and older, 188 aged 90 and older, and 27 centenarians. Data from in-person interviews at the Center for Healthy Aging in Sun City or in the participants' residences which includes sociodemographic, medical, cognitive, physical and psychosocial variables have been collected since the study's inception. This paper outlines some of the key demographic and clinical characteristics of the Longevity Study, its progress, and future directions. It also reflects on how exceptional aging individuals function psychosocially, cognitively and physically, particularly among individuals aged 85 and older. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parenting in 2 Worlds (P2W) is a culturally grounded parenting intervention that addresses the distinctive social and cultural worlds of urban American Indian (AI) families. P2W was culturally adapted through community-based participatory research in three urban AI communities with diverse tribal backgrounds. This paper reports the immediate outcomes of P2W in a randomized controlled trial, utilizing data from 575 parents of AI children (ages 10-17). Parents were assigned to P2W or to the comparison group, an informational family health curriculum, Healthy Families in 2 Worlds (HF2W). Both the P2W and HF2W curricula consisted of 10 workshops delivered weekly by AI community facilitators. Pretests were administered at the first workshop and a post-test at the last workshop. Tests of the efficacy of P2W versus HF2W on parenting skills and family functioning were analyzed with pairwise t tests, within intervention type, and by baseline adjusted path models using FIML estimation in Mplus. Intervention effect sizes were estimated with Cohen's d. Participants in P2W reported significant improvements in parental agency, parenting practices, supervision and family cohesion, and decreases in discipline problems and parent-child conflict. Compared to HF2W, P2W participants reported significantly larger increases in parental self-agency and positive parenting practices, and fewer child discipline problems. Most of these desired program effects for P2W approached medium size. Culturally adapted parenting interventions like P2W can effectively strengthen parenting practices and family functioning among urban AI families and help address their widespread need for targeted, culturally grounded programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Police violence is increasingly recognized as an urgent public health problem. Basic questions about police violence, however, remain unanswered, including which types of law enforcement agency are responsible for fatal police violence deaths. Methods: We estimated the proportion of police violence deaths in the U.S. (2013–2022) that were attributable to local, county, state, federal, or tribal police agencies, using mapping police violence data. We examined proportions overall, by decedent race/ethnicity, and by state. Results: Nationally, 60% of decedents were killed by municipal, 29% by county, 8% by state, and 3% by federal, police, with < 1% killed by tribal or other officers. These proportions varied by race/ethnicity, with 56% of Native American decedents killed by municipal police compared to 70–75% among other racially minoritized people. While municipal police were responsible for most deaths in most states, in the Southeast, county police predominated. In some Northeastern states (and Alaska), state police were responsible for > 40% of deaths. Conclusions: We identify wide geographic & racial/ethnic variation in the agencies responsible for fatal police violence. Findings suggest that the budgetary and infrastructural shifts required to prevent fatal police violence need to occur at multiple levels of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The existence of seasonal changes in energy metabolism is uncertain. We investigated the relationship between the seasons and spontaneous physical activity (SPA), energy expenditure (EE), and other components measured in a respiratory chamber. Methods: Between 1985–2005, 671 healthy adults (aged 28.8 ± 7.1 years; 403 men) in Phoenix, Arizona had a 24-hour stay in the respiratory chamber equipped with radar sensors; SPA (expressed as a percentage over the time interval), the energy cost of SPA, EE, and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) were measured. Results: In models adjusted for known covariates, SPA (%) was lower during summer (7.2 ± 2.9, p = 0.0002), spring (7.5 ± 2.9, p = 0.025), and fall (7.6 ± 3, p = 0.038) compared to winter (8.3 ± 3.5, reference). Conversely, energy cost of SPA (kcal/h/%) was higher during summer (2.18 ± 0.83, p = 0.0008), spring (2.186 ± 0.83, p = 0.017), and fall (2.146 ± 0.75, p = 0.038) compared to winter (2.006 ± 0.76). Protein (292 ± 117 kcal/day, β = −21.2, p = 0.08) oxidation rates was lower in the summer compared to winter. Carbohydrate and lipid oxidation rates (kcal/day) did not differ across seasons. RER and 24-h EE did not differ by season. Conclusion: SPA, representing fidgeting-like behavior in the chamber, demonstrated a winter peak and summer nadir in humans living in a desert climate. These findings indicate that the physiological propensity for movement may be affected by seasonal factors. Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifiers: NCT00340132, NCT00342732 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although only 5% of housing in Maricopa County, Arizona are mobile or manufactured homes, residents make up between 30 to 40% of indoor heat associated deaths each year. While our prior qualitative and quantitative research has been able to reveal multi-scale factors underlying these disparities, we find it challenging to move towards co-production of solutions with stakeholders. We recognize part of this problem is due to an unique analytical challenge emerging from the incongruence across spatial units and scales of the phenomena, relative to the scales of action of stakeholders, relative to the jurisdictions at which decisions to act upon this knowledge may be put into place. This article situates our ongoing research experiences through a multi-stakeholder effort to improve heat resilience among mobile home residents in Arizona. We compare jurisdictions, impacts, and accountability to identify and assess potential design solutions to the disproportionate heat risk. We introduce a set of piloted tools and a decision matrix that serves to frame solutions sets according to multiple scales of measured benefits, costs, needs and resources. This is then applied in depth to one of three stakeholder-identified categories in terms of natural and built environment solutions. We discuss and consider policy and regulatory solution sets. This article aims to articulate our experience with this distinct problem of mobilizing solutions, to offer a not only specific ideas for heat resilience, but also to propose an innovative methodological approach for developing possible collective action. In doing so, we further evolve the conceptual framework of how to understand the more general analytical challenge of addressing spatial incongruences. We urge scholars to consider innovating approaches that further our understanding of how to motivate use of co-produced knowledge for accountable decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how exclusionary immigration laws affect ethnic identity and self-esteem among Latinx middle school students. Arizona's SB 1070, which required local officers to verify the legal status of detained individuals, garnered national attention for its impact on immigrant and Latinx communities. This study tested a longitudinal parallel multiple mediation model where perceptions of the effects of an exclusionary immigration law (Arizona's SB 1070) on self-esteem were mediated by dimensions of ethnic identity (ethnic centrality, ethnic private regard, ethnic public regard). Data were collected from a two-wave survey of 891 early adolescents ranging in age from 10 to 14 years (M = 12.09 years; SD = 0.99), a majority (71%) of whom were of Mexican descent. Analyses revealed an indirect effect of T1 perceptions of this law on T2 self-esteem (7 months later), holding T1 measures constant, with T2 ethnic centrality, private regard, and public regard acting as mediators. Perceived effects of this exclusionary law led to increased self-esteem through increased dimensions of ethnic identity. Results reveal how ethnic identity functions as a multidimensional construct in the process through which exclusionary immigration policy may impact the self-esteem of Latinx early adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and mental health has largely failed to address the role of disparate experiences of the circumcision event, ongoing health impacts, and unique contexts of western resettlement. This study's objective was to examine how FGM/C and associated stressors related to mental health outcomes among Somali women living in the US state of Arizona. The Refugee Health Screener (RHS-13) was used to assess clinically significant distress in a survey of Somali women (N = 879). Analysis included bivariate logistic regressions and final adjusted multivariate logistic modeling exploring associations between distress and FGM/C-related variables. Over 81% reported FGM/C (n = 687), most commonly the most severe Type III (n = 243). Approximately 16% met the RHS-13 cut-off criteria for clinically significant distress (n = 118). Women with FGM/C reporting adverse experiences related to the FGM/C circumcision event were more likely to meet cut-off criteria for clinically significant distress (OR = 4.29;95%CI 1.68–10.97). Other potentially traumatic experiences (OR = 8.94;95%CI 3.81–20.98) and perceived discrimination against FGM/C by medical providers (OR = 2.90;95%CI 1.20–7.02) were also associated with distress. Among all women, both with FGM/C and not, having undergone FGM/C was found to be negatively associated with current distress (OR = 0.45;95%CI 0.21–0.98). Treatment of FGM/C not as a singular experience, but as a set of experiences related to an individual woman's memory of the event, current sociocultural context, availability of psychosocial support, and sense of belonging are potentially vital in the provision of appropriate FGM/C-related care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turquoise is a well-known gemstone that has been used in artefacts across many cultures throughout history. However, due to its porosity it is often treated to enhance its color and beauty. One appreciated treatment is the patented Zachery process, although its details remain publicly undisclosed. Previous studies indicated that only a high K content distinguishes Zachery-treated from natural turquoises. In this study, natural and Zachery-treated turquoise samples from the famous Kingman mine, Arizona, USA, were analysed by means a multi-methodological approach, including standard gemological testing, electron microprobe (EMPA), scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM–EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-Transform InfraRed (FTIR), non-destructive External Reflection-Fourier-Transform InfraRed (ER-FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray computed microtomography (μCT). The results revealed new chemical–mineralogical and microstructural features that distinguish the Zackery-treated from the natural turquoise: higher specific gravity and lower porosity, associated with high and uneven concentrations of Cu, K and Na, the occurrence of tenorite (CuO), the presence and extension of reaction edges in the entire volume are distinctive of treated samples. Moreover, Cu-rich seeds and feldspar crystals may be interpreted as additional components used during the treatment. The hypothesis is that the Zachery treatment induces the re-crystallization of a new turquoise-like phase, which differs from the natural one from a chemical and microstructural point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reservoirs often bury phosphorus (P), leading to seasonal or persistent reductions in P supply to downstream rivers. Here we ask if observed variation in the chemistry of dam release waters stimulates downstream sediment P release and biological activity in an arid, oligotrophic system, the Colorado River below Lake Powell, Arizona, USA. We use bottle incubations to simulate a range of observed pH (6–8.8) and oxygen (0–9.4 mg L−1) levels, with the hypothesis that either oxygen concentrations or pH regulates P release from sediments to the water column. We found support for pH-mediated P release from calcite across the three sites we sampled. The magnitude of this effect was lower in bottles filled with tailwater sediment, but at downriver sites low pH resulted in declining water column dissolved inorganic nitrogen:soluble reactive P (DIN:SRP) ratios, which dropped below the Redfield ratio of 16:1, increasing water column total protein production, and down-regulating alkaline phosphatase production. Additional 7-day incubations showed that tributary storm inputs can temporarily elevate riverine P availability from < 1.5 µg L−1 total dissolved P (TDP) pre-storm to 6.7 µg L−1 TDP post storm. Taken together, our lab incubation and long-term observational results highlight the importance of pH, and ultimately reservoir management and storm dynamics, in regulating P availability and biological processes both now and into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lossless compression is still a challenging task in the case of microarray images. This research proposes two algorithms that aim to improve the lossless compression efficiency for high spatial resolution microarray images using general entropy codecs, namely Huffman and arithmetic coders and the image compression standard JPEG 2000. Using the standards ensures that decoders are available to reassess the images for future applications. Typically, microarray images have a bit-depth of 16. In proposed algorithm 1, every image's per bit-plane entropy profile is calculated to automatically determine a better threshold T to split the bit-planes into the foreground and background sub-images. T is initially set to 8. However, in algorithm 1, T is updated, balancing the average value of per bit-plane entropies of the segmented sub-images of an image for improved lossless compression results. Codecs are applied individually to the produced sub-images. Proposed algorithm 2 is designed to increase the lossless compression efficiency of any unmodified JPEG 2000-compliant encoder while reducing side information overhead. In this, pixel intensity reindexing and, thereby, changing the histograms of the same segmented sub-images obtained from algorithm 1 are implemented and confirmed to get better JPEG 2000 results in lossless mode than applying it to the original image. The lossless JPEG 2000 compression performance on microarray images is also compared to JPEG-LS in particular. The experiments are carried out to validate the methods on seven benchmark datasets, namely ApoA1, ISREC, Stanford, MicroZip, GEO, Arizona, and IBB. The average first-order entropy of the datasets above is calculated and compared for codecs and better than competitive efforts in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: We aim to survey patients' opinions on perceived differences in patient care delivered by male and female physicians. Methods: Patients of primary care practices at Mayo Clinic, Arizona completed a survey sent through the electronic health record. The survey evaluated opinion regarding their primary care physician (PCP)'s overall healthcare provision capabilities and any perceived differences based on gender. Results: 4983 patients' responses were included in final analysis. Compared to male patients, most female patients preferred to have a female PCP (78.1% vs. 32.7%, p < 0.01). Having a preference for female physicians was correlated with higher overall opinion of female physicians. The majority of male patients did not hold a difference in opinion regarding male versus female physicians (p < 0.01). Male patients were half as likely to have a better opinion and nearly 2.5 times more likely to have a worse opinion of female physicians (p < 0.01) compared to female patients. Patients preferring female physicians were nearly 3 times more likely to have a better opinion of female physicians compared to patients with no preference (p < 0.01). Conclusion: In a primary care setting, majority of female patients compared to male patients preferred female physicians as their PCP and had higher opinion of the care delivery of female physicians. These findings may influence how practices should assign primary care physicians to new patients and add underlying context to patient satisfaction ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate-induced drought jeopardizes future access to sufficient energy sources for many people reliant on firewood, especially those underrepresented in forest management decision-making. To identify where interventions might be most effective in facilitating self-determination and sustained firewood harvest, we investigate the case of Diné firewood harvesters. Using data from surveys, interviews and participant observations, we articulate who uses firewood and why, what the costs of firewood are, and who imposes those costs. Reducing both the cost and need for firewood for the Diné and others would support energy sovereignty by facilitating sustained access to firewood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Booked arrests carry greater harms than non-booked arrests. When booked following an arrest, individuals are confined without guilt and an official criminal record forms that carries several negative consequences. Even with these greater harms, police decision to book arrests is understudied with little research on what factors influence this decision. This study utilizes official booking data to determine if suspect extralegal and community factors affect officers' decisions to book arrests across minor offenses. The study uses data from the Chandler Police Department in Arizona and the American Community Survey from 2013 to 2019. These data include suspect legal/extralegal, officer, time, and block-group level factors. Using a cross-classified modeling approach, we examine factors associated with booking arrests across five offenses (cannabis possession, drug paraphernalia, shoplifting, criminal damage, and non-DUI-traffic). Results suggest that legal factors, particularly felony charges, are associated with higher odds of booking after arrest. However, we also demonstrate how extralegal factors significantly impact police decision to book arrests. Native Americans, Blacks, older individuals, and those with prior records had higher odds of booked arrests. While the odds of booked arrest varied across officers and communities, few officer or community factors were related to the decision to book arrests. Results suggest extralegal factors remain significant across minor offenses. These findings highlight the need to examine disparities on police post-arrest outcomes, expand racial categories studied, and incorporate less utilized variables like prior record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Fire Ecology is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urban overheating is an increasing threat to people, infrastructure, and the environment. Common heat mitigation strategies, such as green infrastructure, confront space limitations in current car-centric cities. In 2020, the City of Phoenix, Arizona, piloted a "cool pavement" program using a solar reflective pavement seal on 58 km of residential streets. Comprehensive micrometeorological observations are used to evaluate the cooling potential of the reflective pavement based on three heat exposure metrics—surface, air, and mean radiant temperatures—across three residential reflective pavement-treated and untreated neighborhoods. In addition, the solar reflectivity of reflective pavement is observed over 7 months across eight residential neighborhoods. Results are synthesized with the literature to provide context-based reflective pavement implementation guidelines to mitigate urban overheating where common strategies cannot be applied. The three most important contextual factors to consider for effective implementation include urban location, background climate type, and heat exposure metric of interest. While reflective pavement has been proposed and applied in pilot projects, its actual cooling performance remains unclear. Here, authors assessed the cooling potential of reflective pavement in Phoenix, AZ, using multiple heat metrics, reflectivity measures, and literature to provide a set of implementation guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: US primary care practices are actively identifying strategies to improve outcomes and reduce costs among high-need high-cost (HNHC) patients. HNHC patients are adults with high health care utilization who suffer from multiple chronic medical and behavioral health conditions such as depression or substance abuse. HNHC patients with behavioral health conditions face heightened challenges accessing timely primary care and managing their conditions, which is reflected by their high rates of emergency department (ED) utilization and preventable spending. Structural capabilities (i.e., care coordination, chronic disease registries, shared communication systems, and after-hours care) are key attributes of primary care practices which can enhance access and quality of chronic care delivery. Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between structural capabilities and ED utilization among HNHC patients with behavioral health conditions. Design and Measures: We merged cross-sectional survey data on structural capabilities from 240 primary care practices in Arizona and Washington linked with Medicare claims data on 70,182 HNHC patients from 2019. Key Results: Using multivariable Poisson models, we found shared communication systems were associated with lower rates of all-cause and preventable ED utilization among HNHC patients with alcohol use (all-cause: aRR 0.72, 95% CI: 0.62, 0.84; preventable: aRR 0.5, 95% CI: 0.40, 0.64) and HNHC patients with substance use disorders (all-cause: aRR 0.76, 95% CI: 0.68, 0.85; preventable: aRR 0.61, 95% CI: 0.52, 0.71). Care coordination was also associated with decreased rates of ED utilization among the overall HNHC population and those with alcohol use, but not among HNHC patients with depression or substance use disorders. Conclusion: Shared communication systems and care coordination have the potential to increase the effectiveness of primary care delivery for specific HNHC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits the framework which Buentello et al. (Prison J 71(2): 3–14, 1991) created to describe the development of inmate solidarity groups into prison gangs in the Texas Department of Corrections. Interviews with current and former prison gang members in Texas, Arizona, and Illinois augment the current published literature on prison gangs in California. This article argues that the responses which prison administrations make to prisoners' social orders are not static and have, in some cases, caused vertically configured groups to evolve into horizontally configured groups. These structural changes in prison gangs affect the gangs' ability to affect control in the criminal underworld outside prison. Accordingly, although the challenges which prison administrations present to vertically developed social orders within prison may improve the administrations' control within the prison walls, they may effectively decrease criminal-led social control on the street, leading to an increase in street-level violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Social and structural barriers drive disparities in prenatal care utilization among minoritized women in the United States. This study examined the impact of Arizona's Health Start Program, a community health worker (CHW) home visiting intervention, on prenatal care utilization among an ethno-racially and geographically diverse cohort of women. Methods: We used Health Start administrative and state birth certificate data to identify women enrolled in the program during 2006–2016 (n = 7,117). Propensity score matching was used to generate a statistically-similar comparison group (n = 53,213) of women who did not participate in the program. Odds ratios were used to compare rates of prenatal care utilization. The process was repeated for select subgroups, with post-match regression adjustments applied where necessary. Results: Health Start participants were more likely to report any (OR 1.24, 95%CI 1.02–1.50) and adequate (OR 1.08, 95%CI 1.01–1.16) prenatal care, compared to controls. Additional specific subgroups were significantly more likely to receive any prenatal care: American Indian women (OR 2.22, 95%CI 1.07–4.60), primipara women (OR 1.64, 95%CI 1.13–2.38), teens (OR 1.58, 95%CI 1.02–2.45), women in rural border counties (OR 1.45, 95%CI 1.05–1.98); and adequate prenatal care: teens (OR 1.31, 95%CI 1.11–1.55), women in rural border counties (OR 1.18, 95%CI 1.05–1.33), primipara women (OR 1.18, 95%CI 1.05–1.32), women with less than high school education (OR 1.13, 95%CI 1.00-1.27). Conclusions for Practice: A CHW-led perinatal home visiting intervention operated through a state health department can improve prenatal care utilization among demographically and socioeconomically disadvantaged women and reduce maternal and child health inequity. Significance: What is already known on this subject? Prenatal care is associated with improved maternal and child health outcomes, but significant social and structural determinants affect utilization of services among minority women in the US. Home visiting programs have contributed to early initiation of and recommended frequency of prenatal care among health disparate populations. What does this study add? Most empirical studies of prenatal home visitation programs include teams with licensed health professionals. Arizona's Health Start Program is one of few home visiting interventions associated with increased prenatal care utilization in which CHWs are the primary interventionists. Impact of a community health worker (CHW) home visiting intervention on any and adequate prenatal care among ethno-racially diverse pregnant women of the US Southwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2010, Arizona's immigration law (SB 1070) has produced unintended racial profiling consequences for Hispanics. Earlier empirical evidence establishes its adverse mental health effects on young Hispanics. This study expands the analysis by introducing obesogenic repercussions. Using Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System data from 2001 to 2017, Synthetic Control Method techniques are employed to isolate the law's health consequences. Results indicate significant post-2010 deviations from indistinguishable pre-2010 trends in health indicators for Arizona and its synthetic states. After 2010, Arizona's Hispanic youths registered relatively significantly higher incidences of mutually reinforcing mental and physical (obesogenic) indicators, even after accounting for nutritional improvements. Our findings do not discredit weight reduction benefits of favorable diet choices, but rather emphasize the stronger offsetting influence of SB 1070-induced obesogenic health behaviors. Thus, there is a need for policy re-evaluation to curb the law's unintended ramifications and launch more targeted youth-oriented health support programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the risk and protective factors of youth prescription drug misuse across racial/ethnic groups is still an important area of inquiry, as most studies have only been conducted with White, African American, and Latinx adolescents. General strain theory, social control theory, and social learning theory guided the selection of the risk and protective factors examined in this study. The purpose of this study was to identify the risk and protective factors associated with general strain theory, social control theory, and social learning theory that are predictive of White, African American, Latinx, Native American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, and multiracial adolescents' past 30-day and lifetime prescription drug misuse. Using data from the Arizona Youth Survey (N = 34,899; aged 12–19 years), a series of multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the risk and protective factors predictive of 30-day and lifetime prescription drug misuse for the whole sample and the six racial/ethnic groups. The results indicated that the risk and protective factors varied across racial/ethnic groups, with White and Latinx adolescents having the most risk factors associated with general strain theory for both 30-day and lifetime prescription drug misuse. Social control theory and social learning theory were helpful in identifying protective factors across the racial/ethnic groups. Implications of these theories for prevention efforts are discussed. Future research should examine how all the components of social control theory and nonsocial reinforcement, a component of social learning theory, are related to prescription drug misuse across all racial/ethnic groups included in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Income-based energy poverty metrics ignore people's behavior patterns, particularly reducing energy consumption to limit financial stress. We investigate energy-limiting behavior in low-income households using a residential electricity consumption dataset. We first determine the outdoor temperature at which households start using cooling systems, the inflection temperature. Our relative energy poverty metric, the energy equity gap, is defined as the difference in the inflection temperatures between low and high-income groups. In our study region, we estimate the energy equity gap to be between 4.7–7.5 °F (2.6–4.2 °C). Within a sample of 4577 households, we found 86 energy-poor and 214 energy-insecure households. In contrast, the income-based energy poverty metric, energy burden (10% threshold), identified 141 households as energy-insecure. Only three households overlap between our energy equity gap and the income-based measure. Thus, the energy equity gap reveals a hidden but complementary aspect of energy poverty and insecurity. In the summer, low-income households in the Arizona, US wait 4 - 7 °F (2.6–4.2 °C) longer than high-income households to turn on their AC units to save money on energy bills. This energy limiting behavior indicates a hidden form of energy poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnosis codes are used to study SARS-CoV2 infections and COVID-19 hospitalizations in administrative and electronic health record (EHR) data. Using EHR data (April 2020–March 2021) at the Yale-New Haven Health System and the three hospital systems of the Mayo Clinic, computable phenotype definitions based on ICD-10 diagnosis of COVID-19 (U07.1) were evaluated against positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR or antigen tests. We included 69,423 patients at Yale and 75,748 at Mayo Clinic with either a diagnosis code or a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. The precision and recall of a COVID-19 diagnosis for a positive test were 68.8% and 83.3%, respectively, at Yale, with higher precision (95%) and lower recall (63.5%) at Mayo Clinic, varying between 59.2% in Rochester to 97.3% in Arizona. For hospitalizations with a principal COVID-19 diagnosis, 94.8% at Yale and 80.5% at Mayo Clinic had an associated positive laboratory test, with secondary diagnosis of COVID-19 identifying additional patients. These patients had a twofold higher inhospital mortality than based on principal diagnosis. Standardization of coding practices is needed before the use of diagnosis codes in clinical research and epidemiological surveillance of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change, population growth, and declining federal budgets are threatening the health of ecosystems, and the services they provide. Under these changing conditions, managing landscapes and resources assumes new and unprecedented challenges. Adaptive management has been identified as a natural resource management approach that allows practitioners to incorporate change and uncertainty into decision-making through an iterative process that involves long-term monitoring and continued review and adjustment of management actions. However, the success of these efforts in watershed health relies on the collective and sustained monitoring of indicators, which is seldom studied. The purpose of this analysis is to examine (1) the practical challenge of choosing a list of indicators for long-term monitoring, (2) the negotiation process among stakeholders around the selection and interpretation of indicators, and (3) the communication tools that can be used to convey the assessment's results and findings. To do this, we analyze our ongoing work in the Cienega Watershed in southern Arizona. Our analysis shows that the selective use of indicators, regular assessment and review, and establishment of partnerships among stakeholders are all important elements in establishing effective adaptive management efforts. The selection of indicators and data sources is a moving target that requires regular consensus and review among stakeholders. The assessment itself is also a powerful engagement tool with the public at large, providing legitimacy and support to land management decision-making. Here, we outline some lessons learned that can be transferred to other cases and identify potential barriers for engagement, decision-making, and project success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to be a public health concern, and Arizona has once again been a COVID-19 hotspot, peaking at 118.3 cases per 100,000. Understanding the trends in COVID-19 positivity rates over time is crucial in planning and mitigation of the virus. This current study analyzes the trends in COVID-19 testing, and COVID-19 antigen and antibody positivity rates over a 3-month time-span from October to December 2020. A retrospective study was conducted collecting data from a mobile testing program during October to December 2020 in the Phoenix metropolitan area. COVID-19 antigen and antibody positivity rates were analyzed. A total of 6710 patients were included in the study. As the months progressed, more patients were tested (October: 1635; November: 2037; December: 3038). The COVID-19 antigen positivity rate was significantly higher in December, compared to October and November (13.43% vs. 11.43 and 10.86%, p = 0.021). COVID-19 IgG rates were also significantly higher in November and December, compared to October (16.65 and 16.50% vs. 8.74%, p < 0.001). There was a progressive increase in COVID-19 positivity cases towards the end of 2020, likely attributed to factors including social gatherings during the holidays and the relaxing of the closure restrictions. Continued public health measures is crucial in preventing the spread of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to be a global concern, with over 150 million cases worldwide. Arizona, which was recently a hotspot for COVID-19, has over 860 thousand cases. Reviewing the COVID-19 trends over time is crucial in understanding the pandemic and evaluating the impact of mitigation techniques. This current study analyzes the trends in COVID-19 testing and positivity rates from a mobile testing program in the Phoenix metropolitan area between December 2020 and April 2021. Of the 32,234 tests performed there was a total of 3654 COVID positive cases, yielding an overall positivity rate of 11.3%. COVID-19 positivity rates were significantly higher in December (12.9%) and January (12.7%), compared to February (7.5%), March (4.9%), and April (6.7%), p < 0.05. The peak of COVID-19 cases is likely attributable to the holiday season and family gatherings, followed by a steady decline, likely due to fewer gatherings and an increase in individuals receiving the COVID-19 vaccines. Continued public health measures, including vaccinations, are critical in reducing COVID-19 transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Spatial patterns of high-severity wildfire in forests affect vegetation recovery pathways, watershed dynamics, and wildlife habitat across landscapes. Yet, less is known about contemporary trends in landscape patterns of high-severity burn patches or how differing federal fire management strategies have influenced such patterns. Objectives: We assessed fires managed for ecological/resource benefit and fires that are fully suppressed and investigated: (1) whether spatial patterns of high-severity patches differed by management strategy, (2) whether spatial patterns were related to fire size and percent high-severity fire, and (3) temporal trends in spatial patterns. Methods: We examined high-severity spatial patterns within large fires using satellite-derived burn severity data from 735 fires that burned from 1984 to 2017 in Arizona and New Mexico, USA. We calculated a suite of spatial pattern metrics for each individual fire and developed a method to identify those which best explained variation among fires. Results: Compared to managed fires, spatial pattern metrics in suppression fires showed greater patch homogeneity. All spatial pattern metrics showed significant relationships with fire size and percent high-severity fire for both management strategies. Mean annual spatiotemporal trends in suppression fires have moved toward smaller, more complex, fragmented patches since the early 2000s. Conclusions: Increases in fire size and proportion high-severity fire are driving more homogenous patches regardless of management type, with percent high-severity more strongly driving average temporal trends. Anticipated shifts in fire size and severity will likely result in larger, more contiguous, and simple-shaped patches of high-severity fire within southwestern conifer forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green infrastructure is an increasingly popular strategy to simultaneously address challenges associated with urbanization and global environmental change, including increased flooding and rising temperatures. While many cities aim to expand green infrastructure to deliver ecosystem services, their impacts will be limited without significant uptake on private property. Most studies and programs to date focus on public land, so little is known about what would motivate private residents to implement green infrastructure. This study addresses this gap, combining household survey and spatial data from the Phoenix metropolitan region in Arizona by examining what factors predict green infrastructure implementation, with a particular focus on flooding and heat risks. The results suggest that residents are generally aware of their relative exposure to these hazards, but their risk perceptions do not translate into increased implementation of green infrastructure. Prior experience of flood damage is a predictor of stormwater infrastructure implementation, but experience with heat did not impact planting vegetation to mitigate the effects of extreme temperatures. Instead, the decision to implement green infrastructure is likely constrained by limited capacity based on income and homeownership, which can impede people's ability to make management decisions on private residential property. More research is needed to unpack the seemingly complex factors that shape residents' decisions to implement green infrastructure on their property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yuma County, Arizona, is a large agricultural hub of the USA located in the southwestern corner of Arizona on the USA-Mexico border. Year-round use of agrichemicals at a massive scale along with the influx of aquatic contaminants in the Colorado River led to significant levels of environmental pollution and hence exposure risks for people and wildlife. Although hair is a recognized biomarker for metal exposure, there is no universal hair preparation protocol. This study evaluated two digestion methods for metal quantitation using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and three methods for mercury quantitation using cold vapor-atomic absorption spectroscopy (CV-AAS), both employing certified reference materials. The "overnight" and "heating" digestion methods were suitable for ICP-MS, while only the heating method was suitable for CV-AAS. These validated methods will be useful for a variety of human and wildlife assessments of toxic metal(loid) exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utahite was first described in 1997 based mainly on powder X-ray diffraction data and electron microprobe data. No crystal structure was reported. The re-examination of utahite using single-crystal X-ray diffraction and electron microprobe analysis has shown that utahite contains essential Mg, along with Cu, Zn, Te, O and H. The missing MgO was originally attributed to additional H2O. The redefinition of utahite to MgCu2+4Zn2Te6+3O14(OH)4·6H2O from Cu2+5Zn3(Te6+O4)4(OH)8·7H2O has been accepted by the IMA–CNMNC, Proposal 20-C. Utahite is triclinic, crystallising in P 1 ¯ with the unit-cell parameters a = 5.6831(4) Å, b = 8.7793(6) Å, c = 9.9818(9) Å, α = 95.415(7)°, β = 104.129(7)°, γ = 90.098(6)° and V = 480.65(7) Å3, in good agreement with the original study. Utahite features a new framework arrangement of Cuφ6 octahedra, Znφ4 tetrahedra and Teφ6 octahedra (where φ = O or OH), with Mg(H2O)6 octahedra occupying the channel space. Two-thirds of the Te sites form Te6 +2O10 dimers and one third form [Te6+O4(OH)2]4− octahedra, spatially separated from other Te6+ sites. Although unique, the structural framework of utahite is similar to that of leisingite, with both minerals having layers composed of Cuφ6 and Teφ6 octahedra with Mg(H2O)6 octahedra in the interlayer space; however leisingite does not contain Zn. New Raman spectroscopic data is also reported for utahite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of intimate partner violence (IPV) and homicide research to women's health and safety, much remains unknown about risk factors for intimate partner homicide (IPH). This article presents the Arizona Intimate Partner Homicide Study, pilot research that is being conducted in one U.S. state to update and expand on risk factors for IPH. In the context of presenting this study, we summarize the literature on data collection techniques, various marginalized and under researched populations, and the importance of gathering data about the victim-offender relationship and situational IPH risk factors. Additional research is needed to update risk factors for IPH to account for changes in technology and to examine differential risk across diverse populations. Local, community based data collection strategies are likely to provide more comprehensive and nuanced insight into IPH; though, to understand risk factors among marginalized populations, it may be necessary to increase sample size through a national strategy. Although not a panacea, we present this ongoing research as a model for other states to emulate and improve upon, in the hopes of developing more comprehensive data examining risk for IPH among victims of IPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jill Williams and Sara Tolbert (2021) suggest that neoliberal reforms in Arizona have 'ironically positioned science classrooms and science teachers as high potential sites of/for resistance' to these reforms (p. 72). This forum response explores a number of ethical questions for American science teachers that arise from the political influence of anti-science constituencies, with particular reference to Christian right positions on evolution and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay responds to Jill Williams and Sara Tolbert (2021) and discusses the similarities and differences in curriculum, classroom, teaching and standards between Arizona, USA, and Victoria, Australia. Williams and Tolbert relate a good news story in a state of neoliberal educational despair. This essay argues that, from a relatively well supported Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education perspective in Victoria, the marginalised story they tell is to be envied. This argument draws attention to curriculum deficiencies, teacher qualifications and testing regimes as sources for concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research-based, Thailand-based learning progression for haze pollution developed by Ladachart, Poothawee and Ladachart opens a new front in the long-running debate over the compatibility of place-based education (PBE) with educational standards. This debate encompasses disagreement over whether PBE and standards are philosophically compatible and substantive cases have been made for both sides. However, with their place-based learning progression, Ladachart, Poothawee and Ladachart have demonstrated that research-based learning progressions, which by design (but as of yet incompletely) underpin widely used standards such as the Next Generation Science Standards, can be formulated in the context of place-based learning and applied to the development of place-based curriculum, instruction and assessment; and can be used to inform future supplements and revisions of standards now in effect. In the meantime, the method of "bundling" offers a way to synergize standards-based and place-based education for current instructional practice, as illustrated by examples of "bundling standards in place" for Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, and the northern karst belt of Puerto Rico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand risk management and mutual aid among American ranchers, we interviewed and mailed a survey to ranchers in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, and Cochise County, Arizona, focusing on two questions: (1) When do ranchers expect repayment for the help they provide others? (2) What determines ranchers' degrees of involvement in networks of mutual aid, which they refer to as "neighboring"? When needs arise due to unpredictable events, such as injuries, most ranchers reported not expecting to be paid back for the help they provide. When help is provided for something that follows a known schedule or that can be scheduled, such as branding, most ranchers did expect something in return for the help they provide. This pattern makes sense in light of computational modeling that shows that transfers to those in need without expectations of repayment pool risk more effectively than transfers that create debt. Ranchers reported helping other ranchers more often when they belonged to more religious and civic organizations, when they owned larger ranches, when they relied less on ranch vs. other income, and when they had more relatives in the area. Operators of midsize ranches reported helping other ranchers more frequently than did those on smaller and larger ranches. None of our independent variables predicted how many times ranchers reported receiving help from other ranchers. Although ranch culture in the American West is often characterized by an ethic of individualism and independence, our study suggests that this ethic stands alongside an ethic of mutual aid during times of need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Fire Ecology is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)