Arizona Group Research Articles

Cross-sectional study of the association of social relationship resources with Staphylococcus aureus colonization in naturally occurring social groups along the US/Mexico border.

Asymptomatic carriage of Staphylococcus aureus is a major risk factor for subsequent clinical infection. Diminishing returns from mitigation efforts emphasize the need to better understand colonization, spread, and transmission of this opportunistic pathogen. While contact with other people presents opportunities for pathogen exposure and transmission, diversity of social connections may be protective against pathogens such as the common cold. This study examined whether social relationship resources, including the amount and diversity of social contacts, are associated with S. aureus colonization. Participants were community members (N = 443; 68% Hispanic) in naturally occurring social groups in southwestern Arizona. Four types of social relationships and loneliness were assessed, and samples from the skin, nose and throat were obtained to ascertain S. aureus colonization. Overall S. aureus prevalence was 64.8%. Neither the amount nor the diversity of social contacts were associated with S. aureus colonization. The concurrent validity of the social relationship assessments was supported by their moderate intercorrelations and by their positive association with self-rated health. The results suggest that the association of social network diversity and susceptibility to the common cold does not extend to S. aureus colonization. Conversely, colonization prevalence was not higher among those with more social contacts. The latter pattern suggests that social transmission may be relatively infrequent or that more intimate forms of social interaction may drive transmission and colonization resulting in high community prevalence of S. aureus colonization. These data inform communicable disease control efforts.

“In Honorable Remembrance to All Generations”: Commemoration and the Making of Mormon Battalion Memory, 1921–2021

“In Honorable Remembrance to All Generations”: Commemoration and the Making of Mormon Battalion Memory, 1921–2021

Rovibrational Quantum Chemical Treatment of Inorganic and Organometallic Astrochemicals.

ConspectusOur two groups have both independently and collaboratively been pushing quantum-chemical techniques to produce highly accurate predictions of anharmonic vibrational frequencies and spectroscopic constants for molecules containing atoms outside of the typical upper p block. Methodologies employ composite approaches, relying on various levels of coupled cluster theory-most often at the singles, doubles, and perturbative triples level-and quartic force field constructions of the potential portion of the intramolecular Watson Hamiltonian. Such methods are known to perform well for organic species, and we have extended this to molecules containing atoms outside of this realm.One notable atom that has received much attention in this application is magnesium. Mg is the second-most-abundant element in the Earth's mantle, and while molecules containing this element are among the confirmed astrochemicals, its further atomic abundance in the galaxy implies that many more molecules (both purely inorganic and organometallic) containing element 12 exist in astrophysical regions in chemical sizes between those of atoms and dust-sized nanocrystals. Our approach discussed herein is producing quality benchmarks and predicting novel data for magnesium-bearing molecules.The story is similar for Al and Si, which are also notably abundant in both rocky bodies and the universe at large. While Na, Sc, and Cu may not be as abundant as Mg, Al, and Si, molecules containing Na and transition metals have also previously been reported to be detected beyond the Earth. Consequently, the need to produce spectral reference data for molecules containing such atoms is growing. While several experimental groups (including, notably, the groups in Arizona, Boston, and France/Spain) have clearly led the way in detection of inorganic/organometallic molecules in space, computational support and even rational design can provide novel avenues for the detection of molecules containing atoms not typically studied in most laboratories. The application of quantum chemistry to other elements beyond carbon and its cronies at the top right of the periodic table promises a better understanding of the observable universe. It will also provide novel and fundamental chemical insights pushing the "central science" into new molecular territory.

Prehistoric Adaptation, Identity, and Interaction Along the Northern Gulf of California

ABSTRACT Archaeological investigations have been conducted along the northern coast of Sonora, Mexico where over 60 prehistoric middens have been identified around Bahía Adair and the town of Puerto Peñasco. The middens include low densities of pottery, chipped and ground stone tools, and some shell tools and ornaments, as well as molluscs, fish bones, crab claws, sea turtle bones, terrestrial animal bones, and charred plant remains. Radiocarbon dates indicate nearly continuous use of the coast from as early as 4,000 BC through late historic times. Pottery types found are associated with the Patayan, Hohokam, Trincheras, and the Ancestral Comcaac cultures. These middens were created by peoples occupying the western Papaguería who interacted extensively with neighboring groups in California, Arizona, and Sonora, Mexico. The Areneños (Sand Papago or Hia ced O’odham) occupied the area in historical times and their subsistence, settlement, and interaction patterns can be used as a model for prehistoric groups.

An analysis of the impact of federally‐funded investments in science, research and technology across regions and education groups in Arizona

AbstractThis paper uses the $526.9 million in Research and Development (R&D) support allocated by the federal government to the state of Arizona in 2010 to demonstrate how multi‐regional input‐output (MRIO) analysis can highlight the spatial and social heterogeneity of its economic returns. While the statewide output multiplier of this event is 2.18, the multiplier effects are between 0.23 and 0.88 point greater in Phoenix than in Tucson, the two largest metro areas in Arizona. The ‘rest of Arizona’ reports an even greater gap w.r.t. Phoenix because of a lack of skilled workers and infrastructure. When it comes to the heterogeneous effect across groups of inhabitants, we find that the main beneficiaries are the workers with the highest levels of education. However, more than 2,000 jobs have also been created for the labour force with a high school degree or less thus indicating the presence of social returns of investments in R&D.

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Rates of Traumatic Injury in Arizona, 2011-2012.

The purpose of this study was to compare the rates of traumatic injury among five racial/ethnic groups in Arizona and to identify which mechanisms and intents of traumatic injury were predominant in each group. We obtained 2011 and 2012 data on traumatic injury from Arizona's trauma registry and data on mortality from Arizona's death registry. We calculated location- and age-adjusted rates (aRs) of traumatic injury and rates of mortality per 100,000 Arizona residents and rate ratios (RRs) for each racial/ethnic group. We also calculated race/ethnicity specific aRs and RRs by mechanism of injury, intent of injury, and alcohol use. We analyzed data on 58,034 cases of traumatic injury. After adjusting for age and location, American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) had the highest overall rate of traumatic injury (n = 6,287; aR = 729) and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders had the lowest overall rate of traumatic injury (n = 553; aR = 141). By intent, AI/ANs had the highest rate of homicide/assault-related traumatic injury (n = 2,170; aR = 221) and by mechanism, non-Hispanic black/African American people had the highest rate of firearm-related traumatic injury (n = 265; aR = 40). In 2011-2012, 8,868 deaths in Arizona were related to traumatic injury. AI/ANs had the highest adjusted mortality rate (n = 716; aR = 95). Racial/ethnic disparities in traumatic injuries persisted after adjusting for age and injury location. Understanding how these disparities differ by mechanism, intent, and alcohol use may lead to the development of more effective initiatives to prevent traumatic injury.

Space and time dynamics of urban water demand in Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona

Critical to effective urban climate adaptation is a clearer understanding of the sensitivities of resource demand to changing climatic conditions and land cover situations. We used Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) stochastic procedures to estimate temperature and precipitation at the very small scale of urban Census Block Groups (CBGs) in Phoenix, Arizona and Portland, Oregon, and then compared average household water use patterns by climate conditions and land cover characteristics between and within the two cities. Summer household water use was positively related to maximum temperatures and dense vegetation cover in terms of grass cover and trees and shrubs; it was negatively related to precipitation amounts in both cities. Water use was more sensitive to maximum temperature, precipitation levels, and vegetation cover in Phoenix than in Portland. There was substantial intra-city variation with greater sensitivity in urban water use associated with higher densities of trees and shrubs in both cities, but in Phoenix, the highest sensitivities to maximum temperatures occurred in CBGs with the most grass cover while in Portland, high sensitivity was associated with CBGs with the least grass cover. Many of the latter are in highly built-up downtown areas of Portland where artificial irrigation is required to maintain landscapes during the hot summer season. Take-home messages are: (1) BME space/time statistics provide efficient estimates of missing precipitation and temperature data to create continuous high resolution meteorological data that improve water demand analysis and (2) use of landscaping for urban climate adaptation will have differing impacts on water use, depending on local climate conditions, urban layout, and the type of vegetation cover.

Popular sovereignty on the border: Nativist activism among two border watch groups in southern Arizona

By drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with two grassroots groups that operate near the Arizona-Mexico border, this article illuminates how nativism is translated into day-to-day activism, often in ways that, while openly critical of the state, actually serve to strengthen the state. In contrast to conventional accounts that characterize nativist groups on the border as ‘vigilante’, I argue that the two groups which are the focus of this study, the Soldiers and the Engineers, seek to collaborate with state actors in an effort to restore the state’s exercise of what these groups consider to be legitimate violence in the borderlands. That is, the two groups enact nativism through popular sovereignty. Believing that the state’s ‘absence’ on the border is the result of an understaffed Border Patrol, the Soldiers fashion themselves into a civilian extension of the agency, taking pride in collaborating with locally stationed agents. Meanwhile, the Engineers find their entry point to the state through the ‘border security industrial complex’, hoping to work as private contractors for the Department of Homeland Security to restructure border surveillance. I conclude that we might expect popular sovereignty in other contexts where the state is perceived to be weak.

2011 APA Gold Award: A Telepsychiatry Solution for Rural Eastern Texas

Four outstanding programs are winners of APA�s 2011 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Achievement Awards. Stories about how these programs have overcome challenges in order to bring high-quality services to diverse groups in Texas, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Arizona begin on page 1384.

2011 APA Gold Award: A Telepsychiatry Solution for Rural Eastern Texas

Four outstanding programs are winners of APA�s 2011 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Achievement Awards. Stories about how these programs have overcome challenges in order to bring high-quality services to diverse groups in Texas, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Arizona begin on page 1384.

Genetic isolation among sympatric vegetative compatibility groups of the aflatoxin-producing fungus Aspergillus flavus

Aspergillus flavus, a fungal pathogen of animals and both wild and economically important plants, is most recognized for producing aflatoxin, a cancer-causing secondary metabolite that contaminates food and animal feed globally. Aspergillus flavus has two self/nonself recognition systems, a sexual compatibility system and a vegetative incompatibility system, and both play a role in directing gene flow in populations. Aspergillus flavus reproduces clonally in wild and agricultural settings, but whether a cryptic sexual stage exists in nature is currently unknown. We investigated the distribution of genetic variation in 243 samples collected over 4 years from three common vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) in Arizona and Texas from cotton using 24 microsatellite loci and the mating type locus (MAT) to assess population structure and potential gene flow among A. flavus VCGs in sympatric populations. All isolates within a VCG had the same mating type with OD02 having MAT1-2 and both CG136 and MR17 having MAT1-1. Our results support the hypothesis that these three A. flavus VCGs are genetically isolated. We found high levels of genetic differentiation and no evidence of gene flow between VCGs, including VCGs of opposite mating-type. Our results suggest that these VCGs diverged before domestication of agricultural hosts (>10,000 yr bp).

Rapid identification of Salmonella enterica subsp. arizonae and S. enterica subsp. diarizonae by real-time polymerase chain reaction

Reptiles are popular as pets, leading to an increased risk of human infections due to uncommon Salmonella strains including the Arizona group (subspecies arizonae and diarizonae). We present a real-time Arizona-specific polymerase chain reaction demonstrating 100% specificity and 99.6% sensitivity, offering savings in time and labor over traditional identification methods.

THE CANUTILLO COMPLEX

Early Spanish documentary sources refer to a number of mobile groups in southern Arizona and southern New Mexico, including but not limited to the Jano, Jocome, Manso, and Suma. These groups have remained unidentified archaeologically, and their history is often conflated with that of ancestral Apachean groups. Investigations aimed at identifying and distinguishing the suite of mobile and semisedentary groups who occupied the southern Southwest have resulted in the identification of an archaeologically definable complex that likely belongs to one or more of these historically referenced groups. Brief presentation of this suite of traits is designed to elevate the evidence of these mobile groups from obscurity and to encourage further investigations into the distribution and nature of this complex. Absolute dates, artifacts, and features on open sites and in rock shelters provide the basis for definition of this complex that has remained invisible because of its general similarity to and mixing with Archaic assemblages. This article focuses specifically on the expression of this complex in the southern Southwest.

Linkage analysis of glomerular filtration rate in American Indians

American Indians have a disproportionately high rate of kidney disease likely due to a combination of environmental and genetic factors. We performed a genome wide scan of estimated glomerular filtration rate in 3665 participants of the Strong Heart Family Study to localize genes influencing kidney disease risk factors. The participants were men and women from 13 American Indian tribes recruited from 3 centers located in Arizona, the Dakotas and Oklahoma. Multipoint variance component linkage analysis was performed for each center and on the entire cohort after controlling for center effects. Modeling strategies that incorporated age, gender and interaction terms (model 1) and another that also controlled for diabetes mellitus, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, low density and high density lipoproteins, triglycerides and smoking status (model 2) were used. Significant evidence for linkage in the Arizona group was found on chromosome 12p12.2 at 39cM (nearest marker D12S310) using model 1. Additional loci with very suggestive evidence for linkage were detected at 1p36.31 for all groups using both models and at 2q33.3 and 9q34.2 for the Dakotas group each using model 1. No significant evidence for additive interaction with diabetes, hypertension or obesity was noted. This evidence for linkage of a quantitative trait locus influencing estimated glomerular filtration rate to a region of chromosome 12p in a large cohort of American Indians will be worth studying in more detail in the future.

Chaplains and Quality Improvement: Can We Make Our Case by Improving Our Care?

To date, the field of health care chaplaincy has little information about what constitutes “quality spiritual care.” A qualitative study of four focus groups in New York, Illinois, Arizona, and California was conducted to gather preliminary information about how health care chaplains' experience and understand “quality” and “quality improvement” in spiritual care. The study revealed that many chaplains feel a tension inherent in the task of measuring spiritual care services; how does one evaluate interactions that may seem ineffable? The study also enumerated chaplains' creative efforts, often shaped by institutional contexts and cultures, to address these difficulties in measuring spiritual services. To encourage local efforts to improve the quality of spiritual care and increase chaplains' contributions to improving health care quality, this article focuses on these context-specific projects and ideas. It also makes general recommendations aimed at promoting the development of promising practices for the field.

The Impact of a Professional Development Model on ABE Teachers' Instructional Practice: Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy

Twenty-two adult education teachers in Ohio silently arrange and rearrange themselves in a line until they are able to identify the teacher who stands at the median of their collective heights. Four Kansas adult educators save the cucumber slices from their lunches to create a demonstration of fractional division for their colleagues. In Rhode Island, twenty-four teachers look at their own or each others' clothing labels, write the countries of origin on sticky notes, and arrange the notes in bar graphs on the board. All these teachers and similar groups in Arizona, Louisiana, and Massachusetts were engaged in mathematical activity as part of TIAN professional development institutes. Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy (TIAN) is a collaborative project of the Center for Literacy Studies at the University of Tennessee and the Technical Education Research Centers, Inc. (TERC) in Cambridge, MA. Funded primarily by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the project has developed and tested a model for in-service professional learning that engages adult education teachers in considering how to implement purposeful and effective mathematics instructional approaches. In this article we explain the project's perspective on sound mathematics learning and teaching, describe the professional development model created to support teachers' growth in that arena, and finally present some data about teacher-participants indicating positive shifts in instructional practice. TIAN's vision for effective mathematics or numeracy instruction in adult education (ABE, pre-GED, and GED) classrooms is based on an understanding of mathematics proficiency that assumes adults will use math in their lives (home, work, civic spheres) as well as to prepare for needed tests and courses for college and careers. Mathematical proficiency includes, but is more than, fluency with procedures; effective math learning and teaching must also attend to conceptual understanding, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and a productive disposition (National Research Council, 2001). The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has defined Process Standards of Reasoning, Communication, Problem-solving, Connections, and Representation along with their Content Standards for the teaching of number and operations, statistics and probability, geometry, measurement, and algebra at all grades along the K-12 curriculum (NCTM, 2000). TIAN believes these standards are relevant to the instruction of adult learners. We agree with the Adult Numeracy Network's addition of relevance as an additional standard and that, A high quality mathematics curriculum for adult learners should include the concepts of number, data, geometry, and algebra at all levels of learning so that students can develop and connect mathematical ideas (Adult Numeracy Network, 2005, para. 1). TIAN has developed a professional development model that prepares teachers to provide the kind of instruction that supports adults as they learn mathematics for both immediate academic needs, for example, passing the GED test and for the mathematics they encounter in their lives as citizens, workers, and family members. Our goals have been (a) to increase and deepen teachers' mathematical content knowledge; (b) to increase the number and range of teachers' instructional approaches; (c) to increase teachers' knowledge and use of state mathematics content standards; and (d) to increase states' capacity to provide quality mathematics instruction. In this article, we focus on teachers' instructional approaches and the ways TIAN worked with teachers to help them to better meet students' needs and goals. Our goal is for teachers who participate in TIAN to implement instruction that: (a) focuses on conceptual understanding and problem solving; (b) involves students using communication to organize and consolidate mathematical thinking; and (c) provides opportunities for students to connect mathematics to their lives, goals, and experiences. …

Excitation ofg‐Modes in a Proto–Neutron Star by the Standing Accretion Shock Instability

The acoustic-revival mechanism in core-collapse supernovae, proposed recently by the Arizona group led by A. Burrows, is an interesting new scenario. With an aim to understanding the elementary processes involved in this mechanism, we have calculated the eigenfrequencies and eigenfunctions for the g-mode oscillations of a nonrotating proto-neutron star. The possible excitation of these modes by the standing accretion shock instability, or SASI, is discussed. We have formulated the forced oscillations of g-modes due to external pressure perturbations exerted on the proto-neutron star's surface. The driving pressure fluctuations have been adopted from our previous computations of axisymmetric SASI in the nonlinear regime. We pay particular attention to low-l modes, since these are the modes that are dominant in SASI and what Burrows et al. claim to have played an important role in their acoustic-revival scenario. Here l is the index of the spherical harmonic functions, Y. Although the frequency spectrum of nonlinear SASI is broadened substantially by nonlinear couplings, the typical frequency is still much smaller than those of the g-modes, leading to a severe impedance mismatch. As a result, the excitations of various g-modes are rather inefficient, and the energy of the saturated g-modes is ~1050 ergs or less, with the g2 mode being the largest in our model. Here the g2 mode has two radial nodes and is confined to the interior of the convective region. The energy transfer rate from the g-modes to outgoing sound waves is estimated from the growth of the g-modes to be ~1051 ergs s-1 in the models studied in this paper.

Early Puberty and Adolescent Pregnancy: The Influence of Alcohol Use

Early pubertal timing predicts deleterious outcomes for young girls, including substance use, risky sexual behavior, and pregnancy. In turn, adolescent pregnancy predicts long-term negative consequences such as reduced educational attainment and income-earning potential. Despite evidence of the direct links between early puberty and negative outcomes, this study is the first to examine the role that alcohol plays in the timing of sexual intercourse and pregnancy among early-maturing females. Participants were 666 females, aged 18 to 22 years, from 4 major ethnic groups in Arizona (non-Hispanic white, black, Latino, and Native American). All women included in the sample had experienced a pregnancy in their teens or early 20s. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire that inquired about their timing of menarche, sexual initiation, first alcohol use, and age at first pregnancy. A mediating model predicting age at pregnancy was tested by using path modeling. Early puberty was found to be associated with earlier age of alcohol use and sexual initiation, which in turn predicted early pregnancy. Age at first sexual intercourse and age at first substance use significantly mediated the relation between age at menarche and age at first pregnancy. The results did not vary by ethnic group. Girls who mature early are more likely to engage in early substance use and sexual intercourse, which in turn puts them at greater risk for adolescent pregnancy. It is important that health care providers are sensitive to the risks associated with early maturation among young girls and provide preventive screening, education, and counseling related to alcohol use and sexual initiation for this group.

Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ absolute radiometric calibration using the reflectance-based method

The reflectance-based method of vicarious calibration has been used for the absolute radiometric calibration of the Landsat series of sensors since the launch of Landsat-4. The reflectance-based method relies on ground-based measurements of the surface reflectance and atmospheric conditions at a selected test site nearly coincident with the imaging of that site by the sensor of interest. The results of this approach are presented here for Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). The data have been collected by two groups, one from the University of Arizona and the other from South Dakota State University. The test sites used by the University of Arizona group for this work are the Railroad Valley Playa, Lunar Lake Playa, and Roach Lake Playa all of which are in Nevada, Ivanpah Playa in California, and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The test site for the South Dakota State group is a grass site in Brookings, SD. The gains derived from dates using these sites spanning the period from 1984 to 2003 are presented for TM and for the period of 1999 to 2003 for ETM+. Differences between the two groups are less than the combined uncertainties of the methods, and the data are thus treated as a single dataset. The results of these vicarious data indicate that there has been no degradation apparent in TM since 1995 and in ETM+ since launch. Agreement between the reflectance-based results and the preflight calibration of ETM+ is better than 4% in all bands, and the standard deviation of the average difference indicates a precision of the reflectance-based method on the order of 3%.

Motor vehicle crash fatalities by race/ethnicity in Arizona, 1990–96

Objective: To compare rates of motor vehicle crash (MVC) fatalities among different race/ethnic groups in urban and rural Arizona. Method: Using the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the National Center...