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Background: State Health Departments are at the helm of addressing the myriad needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, including those of vulnerable populations who do not have a place to self-isolate or quarantine to prevent the spread. An estimated 5,000 Arkansas residents face homelessness and are at increased risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19. Additionally, those living in multigenerational families face similar challenges.Objective: We share our experiences and lessons learned in planning, executing, and maintaining a quarantine and isolation facility for vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic.Setting and patients: A 29-bed quarantine and isolation facility was instituted and maintained by the Arkansas Department of Health to meet the quarantine and isolation needs of vulnerable populations. Outcomes and conclusions: As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, need for a facility to meet quarantine and isolation requirements of vulnerable population is not just a critical mitigation strategy but is an ethical imperative.

The authors provide an overview of the main accomplishments of private equity since the emergence of leveraged buyouts in the 1980s, and of the challenges now facing the industry?challenges that have been encountered before during three major growth waves and two full boom-and-bust cycles In so doing, the authors review a large and growing body of academic studies responding to questions like these: (1) How have PE buyout companies performed relative to their public counterparts? And to the extent there have been improvements in operating performance and productivity gains, how have such gains been achieved? What role have PE firms played in this process? (2) Especially in light of the large fees and profit shares paid to the PE firms, or GPs, and the significant ?control? premiums over market paid to the selling companies, how have the returns to the LPs that provide the bulk of the funding for PE funds compared to the returns earned by the shareholders of comparable public companies? (3) Apart from the high fees earned by its GPs, why is PE so controversial? Beyond their effects on productivity and benefits for investors, what are the employment and other social effects of buyouts and PE? (4) What are the prospects for future PE returns to their LPs, especially in light of the volume of capital commitments and high purchase multiples that were being paid, at least until the onset of the COVID pandemic? And what role, if any, should PE activity be expected to play in the recovery from the pandemic?

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Comprehensive or general plans are long-range documents intended to guide future urban or regional land use, growth, and development. Structured and periodic monitoring and evaluation of plan implementation is important to identifying when plans should be revised or updated based on changed planning assumptions or conditions, but such monitoring is uncommon. In this study we present and illustrate a research-based method to evaluate general plan implementation for a case-study community located in central California. A community survey was combined with participatory mapping to assess continued public approval of key elements of the general plan: 1) residential growth, 2) community development needs, 3) preferred locations for development (spatial), 4) consistency of resident land use preferences with general plan categories (spatial), and 5) areas with the greatest potential for land use conflict (spatial). Over the five-year period following plan adoption, there was relatively little change in general resident preferences for residential growth or the perceived need for new types of urban development, with the exception of affordable housing; however, city approval of three large, mixed-use development projects, while nominally conforming to the plan, generated community conflict based on development scale and location. As a novel plan monitoring and evaluation method, a community survey combined with participatory mapping provides a means to assess consistency with plan assumptions, desired conditions, and goals and can proactively identify the potential for place-based conflicts among various interests to identify optimized community land use outcomes.

Public participation in the form of public meetings and written submissions has been criticised as a democratic ritual that fails to give citizens a real voice in government decisions. Participator...

Analysis of the genes retained in the minimized Mycoplasma JCVI-Syn3A genome established that systems that repair or preempt metabolite damage are essential to life. Several genes with known metabolite damage repair or preemption functions were identified and experimentally validated, including 5-formyltetrahydrofolate cyclo-ligase, CoA disulfide reductase, and certain hydrolases. Furthermore, we discovered that an enigmatic YqeK hydrolase domain fused to NadD has a novel proofreading function in NAD synthesis and could double as a MutT-like sanitizing enzyme for the nucleotide pool. Finally, we combined metabolomics and cheminformatics approaches to extend the core metabolic map of JCVI-Syn3A to include promiscuous enzymatic reactions and spontaneous side reactions. This extension revealed that several key metabolite damage-control systems remain to be identified in JCVI-Syn3A, such as that for methylglyoxal.

Land-use conflicts can be costly and time-consuming and cause social burden to all parties. In this study, we developed an approach for mapping synergy and conflict potential between land uses and tested it on nature protection, nature-based tourism, forestry and mining. First, we calculated the ecological and socio-cultural values for the study area, and further the economic values related to forestry and mining. Second, we conducted an integrated spatial assessment of these values and used it jointly with a variant of a value compatibility analysis to locate areas with possible synergistic and conflicting land uses. This study was carried out in Finnish Lapland where land use conflicts have occurred due to the need to develop forestry and mining in areas that are also important for nature-based tourism. The method operated well as it identified sites with ongoing land-use disputes. Synergy potential between biodiversity and socio-cultural values was identified in protected areas and other sites of natural beauty, and conflict potential concerning forestry near tourist resorts and concerning mining at proposed mining project sites. The developed framework can assist in locating sites that may need proactive measurements to avoid conflicts, and sites that would benefit from multi-purpose management thereby supporting sustainable and adaptive land-use planning.

Effective wildlife conservation requires consideration of ecological and social factors, including social acceptability of conservation actions. Using the threatened koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) as a case study, we demonstrate a novel, socio-ecological approach for identifying conservation opportunity that spatially connects landscapes with community preferences to prioritize koala recovery strategies at a regional scale. We conceptualize conservation opportunity as the spatial integration of three sustainability criteria—ecological potential, social acceptability, and economic feasibility. The social acceptability criterion was assessed using a crowdsourced spatial survey that identified spatial preferences for koalas and land uses that impact koala conservation. As a novel approach, we addressed important research questions regarding the design, collection, and analysis of crowdsourced mapping data for identifying socially acceptable conservation opportunities. Public preferences for koalas were mapped closer to home, in higher suitable koala habitats than expected, were more pronounced in conservation and natural areas on public lands, and were mapped less frequently in modified agricultural landscapes. When the multiple criteria (ecological, social, and economic) were included in the conservation assessment, we found the social acceptability criterion exerted the greatest influence on spatial conservation priorities. The systematic assessment of social criteria for conservation using spatial surveys provides information that can be integrated with ecological information to prioritize conservation opportunities. Potential enhancements include expanding survey recruitment efforts and using alternative social data collection methods to achieve greater geographic and socio-demographic representation, and augmenting the economic feasibility assessment with private property values and transaction data from voluntary conservation agreements with private landowners.

Poster presented at the International Leucaena Conference, 1‒3 November 2018, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Fifty years ago this summer, three men aboard Apollo 11 traveled from our planet to the Moon. On July 20, 1969, at 10:56:15 p.m. EDT, 38-year-old commander Neil Armstrong moved his left foot from the landing pad of the lunar module (LM) Eagle onto the gray, powdery surface of the Sea of Tranquility and became the first person to step onto the lunar soil. Armstrong declared: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Nineteen minutes later, 39-year-old LM pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin followed Armstrong onto the surface. Fifteen hours later, after spending two and a half hours outside of Eagle, the two men lifted off and returned to their command module (CM) Columbia, manned patiently by the third member of their crew, 38-year-old CM pilot Michael Collins. Four days later, the three men were back home. Although five additional lunar landings would occur, each more challenging and scientifically ambitious than its predecessor, Apollo 11 stands alone as the greatest technological accomplishment of the 20th century. The mission also signaled the beginning of the end of the “Golden Age” of America’s space program.

We conducted a statewide survey of forestry employers and forestry students in three California universities to assess whether forestry degree programs are providing students with the knowledge and skills needed for contemporary forestry careers. The survey contained a comprehensive list of general skills and technical competencies identified from previous research. We clustered skills and knowledge items into five groups: professional skills, biophysical sciences, land management, human dimensions, and current issues. Results indicate that whereas forestry programs at California universities serve different student populations, student perceptions on the importance and preparation in their forestry education were similar. Both employers and students identified professional skills as most important, especially behaving professionally, ethically, and communicating effectively. However, using an importance-performance analysis, we found that land-management skills should be the focus of curriculum improvement.

usc Research into machine learning (ML) for clinical vascular analysis, such as those useful for stroke and coronary artery disease, varies greatly between imaging modalities and vascular regions. Limited accessibility to large diverse patient imaging datasets, as well as a lack of transparency in specific methods, are obstacles to further development. This paper reviews the current status of quantitative vascular ML, identifying advantages and disadvantages common to all imaging modalities. Literature from the past 8 years was systematically collected from MEDLINE® and Scopus database searches in January 2021. Papers satisfying all search criteria, including a minimum of 50 patients, were further analysed and extracted of relevant data, for a total of 47 publications. Current ML image segmentation, disease risk prediction, and pathology quantitation methods have shown sensitivities and specificities over 70%, compared to expert manual analysis or invasive quantitation. Despite this, inconsistencies in methodology and the reporting of results have prevented inter-model comparison, impeding the identification of approaches with the greatest potential. The clinical potential of this technology has been well demonstrated in Computed Tomography of coronary artery disease, but remains practically limited in other modalities and body regions, particularly due to a lack of routine invasive reference measurements and patient datasets. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This study examined whether the neighborhood built environment moderated gestational weight gain (GWG) in LIFE-Moms clinical trials. Participants were 790 pregnant women (13.9 weeks' gestation) with overweight or obesity randomized within four clinical centers to standard care or lifestyle intervention to reduce GWG. Geographic information system (GIS) was used to map the neighborhood built environment. The intervention relative to standard care significantly reduced GWG (coefficient = 0.05; p = 0.005) and this effect remained significant (p < 0.03) after adjusting for built environment variables. An interaction was observed for presence of fast food restaurants (coefficient = -0.007; p = 0.003). Post hoc tests based on a median split showed that the intervention relative to standard care reduced GWG in participants living in neighborhoods with lower fast food density 0.08 [95% CI, 0.03,0.12] kg/week (p = 0.001) but not in those living in areas with higher fast food density (0.02 [-0.04, 0.08] kg/week; p = 0.55). Interaction effects suggested less intervention efficacy among women living in neighborhoods with more grocery/convenience stores (coefficient = -0.005; p = 0.0001), more walkability (coefficient -0.012; p = 0.007) and less crime (coefficient = 0.001; p = 0.007), but post-hoc tests were not significant. No intervention x environment interaction effects were observed for total number of eating establishments or tree canopy. Lifestyle interventions during pregnancy were effective across diverse physical environments. Living in environments with easy access to fast food restaurants may limit efficacy of prenatal lifestyle interventions, but future research is needed to replicate these findings.

Background: States without a recognized directive for stroke care and transport risk the ability to monitor, assess and review stroke patient movement from first medical contact (FMC) to delivery/and/or transfer to hospitals. We are seeking to determine a new tracking program’s efficacy from emergency medical systems (EMS) to telestroke sites and other receiving hospitals utilizing Get-With-The-Guidelines (GWTG) in data reporting. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that all three entities (EMS, telestroke sites and other hospitals) would record suspected and positive strokes into their electronic databases and integrate the process into their standard of practice, protocols and guidelines. Methods: Statewide EMS agencies, receiving hospitals in the Arkansas Stroke Registry and telestroke sites received educational training about placing blue wristbands on all suspected strokes. Stroke bands were to be placed on all patients arriving via EMS or privately owned vehicle. The bands contained a unique number sequence for recording in both EMS and hospital GWTG electronic databases. We retrospectively reviewed all prospectively collected data from January 1, 2019 to May 31, 2019 for wristband placement by the EMS systems and determined the percentage match to hospital emergency department (ED) discharge data using the GWTG data and telestroke data. Results: From the five months of retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data for 5 months showed, 4,668 strokes were seen in hospitals complying with GWTG. Forty-two% of the positive strokes in hospital (EDs) had stroke bands placed. Of these 8.4% had matching stroke wristband numbers to the EMS database. The telestroke system reported 636 consultations with 95% band placement, 39% placed by EMS. Matching telestroke band ID’s to EMS records was 37%. Wristbands placed by EMS were associated with positive screen tests, pre-notification and shortened Door to CT time (p < 0.0021). Conclusions: Wrist-bands were associated with improved EMS response and provided informed response to hospital care teams. For consistent tracking of positive stroke patient data from FMC to discharge both prehospital and hospital, systems must undergo additional training followed by surveys to determine informed training.

The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is the successor to the 2016 Hitomi mission that ended prematurely. Like Hitomi, the primary science goals are to examine astrophysical problems with precise highresolution X-ray spectroscopy. XRISM promises to discover new horizons in X-ray astronomy. XRISM carries a 6 x 6 pixelized X-ray micro-calorimeter on the focal plane of an X-ray mirror assembly and a co-aligned X-ray CCD camera that covers the same energy band over a large field of view. XRISM utilizes Hitomi heritage, but all designs were reviewed. The attitude and orbit control system were improved in hardware and software. The number of star sensors were increased from two to three to improve coverage and robustness in onboard attitude determination and to obtain a wider field of view sun sensor. The fault detection, isolation, and reconfiguration (FDIR) system was carefully examined and reconfigured. Together with a planned increase of ground support stations, the survivability of the spacecraft is significantly improved.

Public participatory mapping is a method of crowdsourcing where the lay public can contribute spatial information for a range of applications including conservation planning. When used to collect wildlife observation data, participatory mapping becomes a type of “geographic citizen science” that involves collaboration with members of the public. While the potential of crowdsourcing to assist in wildlife conservation appears to be large, the quality and validity of the observational data collected remain a key concern. In this study, we examined the quality and validity of spatial data collected in a public participatory mapping project implemented in northern New South Wales (Australia) in 2018 where the public was asked to identify and map the location and frequency of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) sightings using an internet mapping application. The iconic koala is a nationally-listed threatened species and has wide public recognition, making it an ideal test of our approach to examining the value of citizen science for wildlife. We assessed the validity of koala observation data from two perspectives of validity-as-accuracy (positional accuracy and data completeness) and validity-as-credibility (characteristics of spatial data contributors). To assess validity-as-accuracy, we analysed the distribution of citizen observations of koala sightings compared to an expert-derived probability distribution of koalas (likelihood model). To assess validity-as-credibility, we analysed the survey data to determine which participant characteristics increased the credibility of observational data. We found significant spatial association between crowdsourced koala observations and the likelihood model to validate koala locations, but there was under-reporting in more rural, remote areas. Significant variables contributing to accuracy in koala observations included participant knowledge of koalas, age, length of residence, and formal education. We also compared the crowdsourced results to a field-based citizen science koala observation project implemented in the same region and found crowdsourced participatory mapping provided comparable, if not superior results. Crowdsourced koala observations can augment field-based koala research by covering large geographic areas while engaging a broader public in conservation efforts. However, effective geographic citizen science projects require a significant commitment of resources, including the creation of community partnerships, to obtain high quality spatial data.

The integration of spatial concepts with social science data in natural resource management has progressed rapidly over the past 15 years. There is now a foundational understanding, and supporting ...

Polyphosphate (polyP) kinases are widely conserved enzymes with importance in basic bacterial metabolism and virulence in many pathogens. However, the molecular mechanisms of their substrate specificity and catalysis remain unknown. Here, we present the results of comprehensive biochemical and structural studies of three polyP kinases from different bacteria, which belong to different clusters of the PPK2 class III family. Purified PPK2 proteins catalyzed polyP-dependent phosphorylation of AMP, ADP, GMP, and GDP to corresponding nucleoside diphosphates and triphosphates. Crystal structures of these proteins in complex with substrates, products, Mg2+, and inhibitors revealed the binding sites for the nucleotide and polyP substrates overlapping at the Walker A and B loops. The Walker A loop is involved in the binding of polyP and the Mg2+ ion, whereas the Walker B loop coordinates the nucleotide phosphate groups. Structure-based site-directed mutagenesis of CHU0107 from Cytophaga hutchinsonii demonstrated t...

The terms NIMBY (Not-In-My-Back-Yard) and YIMBY (Yes-In-My-Back-Yard) describe negative and positive attitudes toward proposed development projects respectively. These attitudes are posited to be influenced by geographic (spatial) discounting wherein the distance from domicile may contribute to local opposition or support. In contrast to specific development projects, the potential influence of NIMBY/YIMBY in a general land use planning process has not been systematically evaluated. In this study, we analyzed empirical data from a public participation GIS (PPGIS) process implemented for a general plan revision to examine the evidence for geographic discounting for a range of land uses using mapped preferences by community residents. Using distance analysis, we found significant evidence for geographic discounting by land use type with variable discount rates influenced by location of residence and the spatial configuration of land use in the planning area represented by zoning. The findings were consistent with NIMBY/YIMBY expectations with the exception of residential development where the results were more ambiguous. Residents want future land uses with amenities (open space, recreation, and trails) closer to domicile and more intensive, developed land uses (commercial, tourism, events, parking) further away. The findings have potentially broad implications because general/comprehensive planning—a requirement of most local governments in the U.S.—is operationalized through land use zones that appear subject to spatial discounting and the manifestation of potential NIMBY/YIMBY effects in the planning process. Future research should examine other planning contexts such as large urban areas with a greater diversity of land uses.

Traditional urban park research has used self-reported surveys and activity logs to examine relationships between health benefits, park use, and park features. An alternative approach uses participating mapping methods. This study sought to validate and expand on previous participatory mapping research methods and findings and address spatial scaling by applying these methods to a large urban park system. Key challenges for spatial scaling included ambiguity in park classification and achieving representative sampling for larger and spatially-disbursed urban residents. We designed an internet-based public participation GIS (PPGIS) survey and used household and volunteer sampling to identify the type and locations of urban park benefits. Study participants (n = 816) identified locations of physical activities and other urban park benefits (psychological, social, and environmental) which were analyzed by park type. Consistent with previous suburb-scale research, we found significant associations between urban park type and different urban park benefits. Linear parks were significantly associated with higher intensity physical activities; natural parks were associated with environmental benefits; and community parks were associated with benefits from social interaction. Neighborhood parks emerged as significantly associated with psychological benefits. The diversity of park activities and benefits were positively correlated with park size. Distance analysis confirmed that physical benefits of parks were closest to participant domicile, while social and environmental benefits were more distant. These results validate previous suburb-scale findings despite greater variability in park types and sample populations. Future urban park research using participatory mapping would benefit from greater effort to obtain participation from under-represented populations that can induce nonresponse bias, and analyses to determine whether system-wide results can be disaggregated by suburb or neighborhood to address social inequities in urban park benefits Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Zoning is a ubiquitous land use planning and regulatory mechanism whose purpose is to provide for orderly community growth and development by segregating land uses that are deemed incompatible. The delineation of zones and related land use ordinances are traditional components of an expert-driven, local government process that produces a general or comprehensive land use plan as required by law. Public participation in the development of general land use plans has rarely used participatory mapping methods that engage the general public to explicitly inform zoning decisions. In this study, we demonstrate how participatory mapping methods can assess the consistency, compatibility, and potential conflict of zoning with public values and preferences in a general plan revision process using a coastal community in California as a case study. We describe the participatory mapping design, data collection, and data analyses in a workflow to illustrate the methods, and present the strengths and limitations of the approach for use in a general land use planning process. Future research should expand these methods to assess the potential effects of resident domicile and “NIMBYism” on the results, and importantly, assess the impact of public participatory mapping in land use decisions if actually implemented by local government authorities.

Cultural ecosystem services have received increasing attention in land/marine use planning but remain poorly known, expressed, and utilised in planning processes. Progress in marine spatial planning requires better information regarding the full range of values and benefits received from ecosystem services, including cultural ecosystem values. This paper reports on an online Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) study that collected spatially explicit information on cultural ecosystem values in the remote Kimberley coastal region in northwestern Australia. The coastal zone – 20 km landwards and seawards – was found to be highly valued with values disproportionally located 0–2 km onshore. The number of value markers placed was related to tenure, access (i.e., density of tracks), population density, and geomorphology. Methodologically, Public Participation GIS describes the location and extent of values providing for the exploration of relationships between values and other planning features such as tenure and coastal access. Inclusion of such information in marine spatial planning and policy formulation can contribute to more thoughtful and inclusive decisions regarding the future of coastal zones. The use of internet-based Public Participation GIS is particularly useful for long, remote coastlines with widely dispersed stakeholder interests where other methods such as interviews and workshops are not feasible.

The theory and practice of participatory mapping (PM) has expanded significantly over the last two decades with proliferation of a wide range of methods and applications. The potential for synthesis and integration across four broad domains of PM (indigenous/rural/community, urban/regional, environmental/natural resource, and mapping technology) was examined at the Participatory Mapping/GIS 2017 conference held at California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo, USA) Jul 31-Aug 3, 2017. At the conference, PM leaders in each of the four domains participated in working groups to: (1) identify the key issues, including “barriers” and “knowledge gaps” that limit effective PM outcomes, and (2) identify the most important research priorities. This paper summarizes the findings of the working groups for the purpose of identifying common and unique challenges across the four PM domains and to discuss the desirability of stronger integration of PM knowledge and practice. In the indigenous/rural/community domain, achieving clarity in PM purpose and building trust in the process were identified as the most critical issues; in the environmental/natural resources domain, wider use and adoption of PM to inform policy and management decisions through stakeholder engagement was considered most important; and in the urban/regional domain, developing urban indicators and adapting PM to complex and heterogeneous urban environments were identified as important needs. The key issue in the domain of PM technology was understanding how technology influences PM usability and user behavior for the development and implementation of appropriate PM technology. The most significant cross-cutting theme to emerge across all PM domains was the need to evaluate PM outcomes to provide evidence of success.

Accepted manuscript. Published version at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2017.12.002. Licensed CC BY NC ND Protected area management can be highly contentious. Information about the acceptability of conservation actions can help environmental authorities design policies that are accepted locally, and identify potential areas of conflict between land users and conservation objectives. In this study, we implemented a spatially-explicit method for eliciting public preferences for land use and conservation policy (web-based public participation GIS; PPGIS). We invited randomly selected local residents in two mountainous regions in Norway to map their preferences for consumptive resource use, motorized use, land development and predator-control. We assessed whether local communities favored or opposed these human activities in nearby protected areas using mixed-effects logistic regression and controlling for landscape characteristics, accessibility and demographics. Local residents strongly favored consumptive resource use and predator control regardless of protected area status, and were more likely to oppose than favor land development inside protected areas. These preferences are largely consistent with the present protected area policy in Norway and Europe that promotes traditional consumptive use and the maintenance of cultural landscapes, but restricts land development. Our results suggest that use-based framing of conservation is more likely to resonate with these communities than narratives tied to the preservation of pristine nature and emerging conservation ideas of the rewilding of nature. Mapped community preferences can be a valuable tool for policy makers and stakeholders representing community interests in participatory processes, and for assessing the local acceptance of alternative management actions within protected areas.

Poster presented at the International Leucaena Conference, 1‒3 November 2018, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

The cariogenic pathogen Streptococcus mutans contains two CRISPR systems (type I-C and type II-A) with the Cas5c protein (SmuCas5c) involved in processing of long CRISPR RNA transcripts (pre-crRNA) containing repeats and spacers to mature crRNA guides. In this study, we determined the crystal structure of SmuCas5c at a resolution of 1.72 Å, which revealed the presence of an N-terminal modified RNA recognition motif and a C-terminal twisted β-sheet domain with four bound sulphate molecules. Analysis of surface charge and residue conservation of the SmuCas5c structure suggested the location of an RNA-binding site in a shallow groove formed by the RNA recognition motif domain with several conserved positively charged residues (Arg39, Lys52, Arg109, Arg127, and Arg134). Purified SmuCas5c exhibited metal-independent ribonuclease activity against single-stranded pre-CRISPR RNAs containing a stem–loop structure with a seven-nucleotide stem and a pentaloop. We found SmuCas5c cleaves substrate RNA within the repeat sequence at a single cleavage site located at the 3′-base of the stem but shows significant tolerance to substrate sequence variations downstream of the cleavage site. Structure-based mutational analysis revealed that the conserved residues Tyr50, Lys120, and His121 comprise the SmuCas5c catalytic residues. In addition, site-directed mutagenesis of positively charged residues Lys52, Arg109, and Arg134 located near the catalytic triad had strong negative effects on the RNase activity of this protein, suggesting that these residues are involved in RNA binding. Taken together, our results reveal functional diversity of Cas5c ribonucleases and provide further insight into the molecular mechanisms of substrate selectivity and activity of these enzymes.