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From recent surveys of Piedmont rocky river habitats, 22 noteworthy species of lichens and two lichenicolous fungi are presented, including 18 species new to North Carolina, three new to eastern North America, three new to North America and three potentially new to science. Most taxa here reported include amphibious lichens and lichens that otherwise are found in exposed, arid environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many unmet needs among parents of children with autism for parent respite and social time for their children. The use of undergraduate student volunteers is a potential strategy for meeting some of these needs. Separate focus groups for parents and for undergraduates were convened to assess feasibility, comfort, reservations, and mutual interest in this approach. Both parents and students identified common ground over undergraduate volunteer services, and described the boundaries of participation within which they felt comfortable. Findings suggest that student-provided respite care is a feasible support for parents raising children with autism and for students seeking volunteer and career-orientation experiences.

One hundred five species of lichenized and allied fungi are reported from recent and historical collections made in the Mitchell Mill State Natural Area in northeastern Wake County, North Carolina, USA. Mitchell Mill is unique among granitic flatrock communities in the southeastern United States by having riparian elements from the Little River, which flows directly over the flatrock, supporting semi-aquatic lichen communities along creek edges represented by species in Dermatocarpon, Verrucaria, and Lichinales. Recently described or renamed species Cladonia ignatii, Lecanora provertula and Phyllopsora isidiosa were found in recent collections. Compared to historical records, 38 taxa including five of six species of large cyanolichen were not found in recent visits, indicating a loss of diversity over the past 100 years, likely due to human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes positive response to a parent support and assistance program in a private pediatric office. Discusses other positive offshoots of the program, including identification of underlying marital and/or family problems of parents seeking advice about their children's behaviors. (Author)

We studied lichen communities on bole and base tree trunk segments along forest edge-to-interior gradients on opposite sides of a major highway and a control site in central North Carolina, U.S.A., to investigate if these two communities differ and if so, do they differ in response to highway pollution. At each site we measured various environmental parameters including ambient air NO2 concentrations, and sampled lichens on 5-7 trees along each of five parallel transects established at the forest edge and at 25, 60, 100 and 150 m into the forest. We compared lichen communities between the two trunk segments via species richness and composition by habit, photobiont type, and reproductive strategy. We then ran dual (bole and base) NMS ordinations with subsequent correlation/regression analyses to explore/test relationships of lichen parameters with environmental variables among the 15 sample transects combined. Species richness was similar between trunk segments at transect and site levels as well as overall. Bole and base communities were more compositionally similar to each other at the highway sites than they were at the control site, based on Bray-Curtis similarity indices ( BC). Tree base communities differed in terms of functional groupings, with greater proportions of squamulose, cyanolichen and sterile species than found in tree bole communities, but varyingly so among sites. Patterns of bole-base BC values with distance from the forest edge were not apparent in any of the sites. Ordination analyses resulted in Axis 1 representing most of the variation for each trunk segment. Along this axis, correlations were similar between boles and bases, with the strongest ones involving lichen species richness (negative) and NO2 concentrations (positive); notably weak correlations involved tree species number, canopy cover and DBH. Similar patterns were found when lichen species number was correlated with environmental parameters directly, with NO2 concentration correlating strongest at each trunk segment. Among functional groups, % crustose and % fertile species on bases correlated significantly with NO2. Lichen species-NO2 relationships on boles and bases were both found to be highly significant quadratic relationships with base lichen richness being stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of parking lot trees in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina to determine how species composition and urban forest structure vary with respect to parking lot size, shape and design. The authors saw no apparent relationship between the side and shape of parking lots to the composition of trees within them. The authors suggest that decisions made during the design of planting spaces have a lasting effect on its benefits.

After more than 60 years of evolution, Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) provide mental health and other services to thousands of workers each year. However, only one state, California, has chosen to specifically regulate these programs as programs, and only two (North Carolina and Tennessee) have legislation regulating the professionals who provide EAP services. This article explores the regulation of mental health and other professionals working in the EAP framework and raises questions about the adequacy of self-regulation for programs and providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on surveys of the literature and herbaria, including internet-available herbarium databases ("virtual herbaria"), plus recent collections, the lichen flora of the Piedmont of North Carolina, USA, consists of 338 taxa representing 110 genera in 41 families including three taxa of uncertain position. Broken down by habit, the flora is 32% crustose, 47% foliose, and 21% fruticose. This report presents the first lichen checklist for the North Carolina Piedmont. Twenty-two taxa are reported as new for the state, including the genera Gyalecta, Lichinia and Sarcogyne. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the Research Triangle Region in North Carolina to illustrate the development pressures that threaten open spaces. Isolation of the property as private landowners subdivide or sell to developers; Public benefits of conserving the open spaces.

Examines the use of positive behavioral support for students with developmental disabilities in North Carolina. Adoption of predictor strategies to prevent the occurrence of problem behavior; Recommendations for the use of personalized schedules; Modification of immediate antecedents for problem behavior.

Now that its legislative mandate has been expanded to include services to autistic adolescents and adults, North Carolina's statewide program (TEACCH) has been developing the materials and programs necessary to serve these older clients in community-based settings The development of diagnostic, assessment, and curriculum materials along with a full range of day and residential programs is described along with efforts at intensive intervention and sex education Although TEACCH's adolescent program is only in a preliminary stage, its efforts may be of use to others pursuing similar goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Evidence-based practice' as initially defined in medicine and adult psychotherapy had limited applicability to autism interventions, but recent elaborations of the concept by the American Psychological Association (Am Psychol 61: 271-285, 2006) and Kazdin (Am Psychol 63(1):146-159, 2008) have increased its relevance to our field. This article discusses the TEACCH program (of which the first author is director) as an example of an evidence-based practice in light of recent formulations of that concept.

The Southeastern United States is a global center of freshwater biotic diversity, but much of the region's aquatic biodiversity is at risk from stream degradation. Nonpoint pollution sources are responsible for 70% of that degradation, and controlling nonpoint pollution from agriculture, urbanization, and silviculture is considered critical to maintaining water quality and aquatic biodiversity in the Southeast. We used an ecological risk assessment framework to develop vulnerability models that can help policymakers and natural resource managers understand the impact of land cover changes on water quality in North Carolina. Additionally, we determined which landscape characteristics are most closely associated with macroinvertebrate community tolerance of stream degradation, and therefore with lower-quality water. The results will allow managers and policymakers to weigh the risks of management and policy decisions to a given watershed or set of watersheds, including whether streamside buffer protection zones are ecologically effective in achieving water quality standards. Regression analyses revealed that landscape variables explained up to 56.3% of the variability in benthic macroinvertebrate index scores. The resulting vulnerability models indicate that North Carolina watersheds with less forest cover are at most risk for degraded water quality and steam habitat conditions. The importance of forest cover, at both the watershed and riparian zone scale, in predicting macrobenthic invertebrate community assemblage varies by geographic region of the state.