Central Mississippi Research Articles

Seasonality of Aedes albopictus in North and Central Mississippi.

Container-breeding mosquitoes are increasingly important in public health due to recent outbreaks of Zika virus, chikungunya, and dengue. This paper documents seasonality of the most prevalent container-breeding mosquito species in Mississippi-Aedes albopictus. Ten sites in 5 counties in both northern and central Mississippi (20 sites, 10 counties total) were sampled by larval dipping and oviposition traps biweekly from September 2016 to June 2019, totaling 22 months and potentially yielding 440 egg or larval collections. However, 22 collections were missed due to inclement weather and personnel issues during the study period, so actually only 418 site visits were performed. Sites were chosen to maximize chances of finding Ae. albopictus. Of the total 1,310 mosquito larvae collected during the study period, 717 larvae and 50 positive egg papers belonged to Ae. albopictus. Aedes albopictus was found in all 10 northern and central counties. No eggs were collected at any of the sites from December through February, although larvae were occasionally collected during that time frame. This study demonstrates that Ae. albopictus is active in central and northern Mississippi beginning in March each year and continuing through November or December. There is little activity during the coldest months of the year (January and February). These data represent the first extensive analysis of Ae. albopictus seasonality in Mississippi, and as such, allow for better public health awareness of diseases transmitted by this species and design of more effective vector control programs.

Evaluating narratives of ecocide with the stratigraphic record at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Illinois, USA

AbstractNarratives of ecocide, when a society fails due to self‐inflicted ecologic disaster, have been broadly applied to many major archaeological sites based on the expected environmental consequences of known land‐use practices of people in the past. Ecocide narratives often become accepted in a discourse, despite a lack of direct evidence that the hypothesized environmental consequences of land‐use practices occurred. Cahokia Mounds, located in a floodplain of the central Mississippi River Valley, is one such major archaeological site where untested narratives of ecocide have persisted. The wood‐overuse hypothesis suggests that tree clearance in the uplands surrounding Cahokia led to erosion, causing increasingly frequent and unpredictable floods of the local creek drainages in the floodplain where Cahokia Mounds was constructed. Recent archaeological excavations conducted around a Mississippian Period (AD 1050–1400) of earthen mound in the Cahokia Creek floodplain shows that the Ab horizon on which the mound was constructed remained stable until industrial development. The presence of a stable ground surface (Ab horizon) from Mississippian occupation to the mid‐1800s does not support the expectations of the wood‐overuse hypothesis. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that pre‐Colombian ecological change does not inherently cause geomorphic change, and narratives of ecocide related to geomorphic change need to be validated with the stratigraphic record.

Meet Me Where I Am: An Evaluation of an HIV Patient Navigation Intervention to Increase Uptake of PrEP Among Black Men Who Have Sex with Men in the Deep South.

The southern region of the USA is the epicenter of the HIV epidemic. HIV disproportionately affects African Americans, particularly Black men who have sex with men (BlackMSM). Given the alarming rates of new infections among Black MSM, there is an urgent need for culturally competent healthcare professionals who are trained to address the unique needs and barriers to uptake and adherence to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services. Utilizing amixed method researchapproach, we conducted a process evaluation of Meet Me Where I Am, a 6-month, 6-session HIV/AIDS patient navigation training program for healthcare professionals and patient navigators working in organizations that provide HIV services to residents of central Mississippi, an area with high incidence and prevalence rates of HIV. A self-administered questionnaire after each session was given to participants to assess the acceptability, quality, and translational aspects of the training program. The overall positive feedback on the MMWIA training reflects the program's acceptability and feasibility. Participants found that the training was effective in providing the necessary knowledge and skills to deliver patient-centered HIV prevention-related navigation services. A majority (67%) of participants indicated that they felt they could apply the lessons learned within their healthcare settings to improve access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services. If we are to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in HIV/AIDS, there is a critical need for culturally appropriate training programs designed to improve the ability of healthcare professionals and health systems to deliver culturally competent HIV prevention, care, and treatment services.

The effects of nitrogen and accumulation interval on stockpiled cool‐season forage in the Coastal Plain

AbstractPerennial cool‐season forage grasses comprise a majority of pastures and hayfields for livestock production east of the Mississippi River. In areas outside of the traditional tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) zone of adaptation, there exists an opportunity to evaluate other sources of germplasm that can help extend the grazing season. The objective of this research was to quantify the response of tall fescue (‘Kentucky‐31’ [KY31] and ‘Texoma MaxQ II’ [MAXQ]) and southeastern wildrye (SEWR) [Elymus glabriflorus (Vasey ex L.H. Dewey) Scribn. & C.R. Ball] to synthetic N application and stockpiling accumulation intervals during 2017–2018 (Year 1) and 2018–2019 (Year 2) growing seasons in eastern–central Mississippi. Year was significant for all main effects. Forage mass (FM) analysis displayed a species × interval interaction in which both tall fescue cultivars had greater mean FM than SEWR across all N rates and accumulation intervals. Leaf area index (LAI) was also greater for fescue cultivars than SEWR. Normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI) was affected by species and accumulation interval, with all cultivars and species experiencing decline as the season progressed. Nutritive value analysis observed differences between accumulation interval and species. Southeastern wildrye had greater crude protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) and lower fiber fractions in Year 1 than tall fescue cultivars. Nutritive analysis suggests SEWR has potential as a perennial, cool‐season forage crop outside the tall fescue zone of adaptation.

New 26Al/10Be and (U-Th)/He constraints on the age of the Upland Complex, central Mississippi River Valley

The Upland Complex is a widespread terrace of the ancestral Mississippi River. It has played a central role in studies of the Pliocene Mississippi River drainage, as well as uplift and seismicity in the central Mississippi River Valley. Previous efforts to date the Upland Complex have yielded a range of age estimates spanning the Miocene through Pleistocene. We dated gravels and Fe-oxide cements from quarries of the Upland Complex in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee using 26Al/10Be burial dating and (U-Th)/He geochronology. Our 26Al/10Be burial dates revealed possible Pliocene-to-Pleistocene depositional ages, while (U-Th)/He dating showed that the onset of weathering dates to at least the Pliocene. Taken together, the 26Al/10Be and (U-Th)/He age constraints demonstrate that the Upland Complex is at least Pliocene in age, and likely formed during a prolonged period of base level stability that preceded Pleistocene glaciations.

Community and Naming: Lived Narratives of Early African American Women’s Spirituality

Through the story of Francis Sistrunk, nineteenth century enslaved and later freedwoman in east central Mississippi, this essay illustrates that, despite few surviving written narratives of early black women’s spirituality, their experiences can emerge from the silences. Much like paleontologists who recreate narratives of the past through fossils, in the present world of literary studies, we have the advantage of an expanse of resources that, when pieced together, can convey voices from the past to the present. This includes resources such as extant oral and written communal and family narratives, generational ideals and practices, digitized records from official and personal documents, and the recent emergence of DNA technology that provides its own narratives. From the earliest arrivals to the Americas, African diasporic populations maintained an understanding of community and spirit as an integrated oneness empowered through the word, particularly in the word-act of naming. Francis’ story reveals that this spiritual ethos was a generative source, not only for survival, but for some black women it was a mechanism for inscribing their presence, their narratives, and their legacies for future generations. Francis Sistrunk’s story re-emerges through the mining of sources such as these, and reveals that enslaved black women reached for and seized power where they found it to preserve the record of their existence and humanity and to record the story of their enslavers’ injustices.

Isotopic Confirmation of the Timing and Intensity of Maize Consumption in Greater Cahokia

The history of maize (Zea mays L.) in the eastern Woodlands remains an important study topic. As currently understood, these histories appear to vary regionally and include scenarios positing an early introduction and an increase in use over hundreds of, if not a thousand, years. In this article, we address the history of maize in the American Bottom region of Illinois and its importance in the development of regional Mississippian societies, specifically in the Cahokian polity located in the central Mississippi River valley. We present new lines of evidence that confirm subsistence-level maize use at Cahokia was introduced rather abruptly at about AD 900 and increased rapidly over the following centuries. Directly dated archaeobotanical maize remains, human and dog skeletal carbon isotope values, and a revised interpretation of the archaeological record support this interpretation. Our results suggest that population increases and the nucleation associated with Cahokia were facilitated by the newly introduced practices of maize cultivation and consumption. Maize should be recognized as having had a key role in providing subsistence security that—combined with social, political, and religious changes—fueled the emergence of Cahokia in AD 1050.

Factors influencing Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination series completion in Mississippi Medicaid

PurposeTo identify factors associated with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine series completion among vaccine initiators in Mississippi Medicaid. Methods2013–2018 Mississippi Medicaid administrative claims data were analyzed. Female and male beneficiaries aged 9 to 26 years who initiated HPV vaccination in the identification period were assessed for completion of age-appropriate number of recommended doses within a period of 12 months. Sex-stratified multivariable logistic regression was used to examine factors associated with HPV vaccine series completion in the study sample. ResultsA total of 18,110 female and 18,186 male beneficiaries initiated HPV vaccine between January 1, 2014 and June 30, 2017. Most of the initiators belonged to ages 11 to 12 years, African American race, managed care plans and Central Mississippi public health region. The vaccine series completion rate was 34% for females and 30% for males. Younger age at initiation was a significant predictor of vaccine series completion in both sexes. Specifically, initiators in age groups 9 to 10 and 11 to 12 years, respectively, had greater odds of completion, while initiators aged 15 to 26 years had lower odds of completion compared to initiators aged 13 to 14 years. Female and male beneficiaries in managed care plans (vs. fee-for-service) and of African American race (vs. Caucasians) had lower odds of completing the vaccine series. Female and male beneficiaries who initiated HPV vaccine series with a pediatrician had the highest completion rates. ConclusionHPV vaccination series completion rate in Mississippi Medicaid was suboptimal despite the high HPV-related cancer incidence in the state. HPV vaccine series completion is influenced by various sociodemographic factors. There is a need for robust education and public health programs to encourage completion of recommended doses.

Organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy of the upper Eocene to lower Oligocene Yazoo Formation, US Gulf Coast

Abstract. New data from a continuously cored succession, the Mossy Grove core, near Jackson, central Mississippi, recovered ∼137 m of marine clays (Yazoo Formation), spanning ∼5 Ma and including the critical Eocene–Oligocene transition (EOT) event. These clay-rich sediments yield well-preserved calcareous microfossil and palynomorph assemblages. Here, we present a new organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) biostratigraphic framework, including the recognition of 23 dinocyst bioevents. These are integrated with new age constraints based on calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy and a reassessment of the existing radiometric dates and planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy, permitting the establishment of a robust and significantly refined age model for the core. According to this new age model, a major increase in sedimentation rate – from ∼2.1 to ∼4.7 cm kyr−1 – is observed at a core depth of ∼89.1 m (∼34.4 Ma). In the new age model the section is significantly older than previously thought, by up to 1 Ma, with the Eocene-Oligocene boundary (∼33.89 Ma) placed ∼34 m below the level previously identified. With these more accurate age estimates, future isotopic and palaeoecological work on this core can be more precisely integrated with other, globally distributed records of the EOT.

Effects of combined conservation practices on soil and water quality in the Central Mississippi River Basin

Conventional cultivation of claypan soils leads to soil and water quality degradation because of high runoff and associated soil erosion. The Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed, which is part of the USDA Agricultural Research Service Benchmark Conservation Effects Assessment Project, Watershed Assessment Studies, was established to address these issues. Plot studies have highlighted trade-offs between erosion control and herbicide or nutrient runoff. There is a need for long-term field-scale evaluation of combined practices that reduce sediment, nutrient, and herbicide losses by runoff. A 36 ha field located in Missouri was under a conventional corn (<i>Zea mays</i> L.)–soybean (<i>Glycine max</i> L.) system from 1993 to 2003 with fertilizer application and tillage prior to planting in the spring. A precision agriculture system defined by two main management zones was implemented from 2004 to 2014: wheat (<i>Triticum aestivum</i> L.) and soybean in 60% of the field, and corn and soybean in the remaining 40%. The system included no-till, cover crops, atrazine split-applications based on weed pressure, variable rates of nitrogen (N), and variable rates of fall-applied phosphorus (P). The objective of this study was to compare runoff water quality from the two management systems, based on flow and load duration curves, cumulative distribution functions, and conclusions from replicated plot studies. The precision agriculture system did not affect annual runoff, but it did increase the frequency of low flows. Sediment losses were reduced by 87% as a result of no-till and cover crops. Atrazine and P losses were lower than expected, despite the lack of incorporation into the soil. Atrazine losses were possibly lower because of the wheat area acting as a buffer, greater atrazine adsorption and retention in the field, and faster decay. Dissolved P losses as a fraction of applied remained the same, likely because of greater adsorption and lower runoff risk when applying P. Finally, nitrate-N (NO₃-N) losses decreased and resulted in an overall decrease of N losses despite a slight increase of ammonium-N (NH₄-N) losses. Explanations included a greater soil water content, a different timing of N applications, and N uptake by cover crops. Building on these successes, an aspirational management system is proposed to further improve on the performance and practicality of the precision agriculture system.

Cropping system and landscape characteristics influence long‐term grain crop profitability

AbstractConverting from standard tillage or no‐tillage cropping systems to more conservation‐based cropping systems that include no‐tillage, cover crops, and reduced agrichemical inputs must be profitable for large‐scale adoption. Therefore, research was conducted at the central Mississippi River Basin site of the USDA Long‐Term Agroecosystem Research Network from 1996 to 2009 to determine how cropping systems, landscape position, and depth to claypan affected net economic return. Treatments consisted of three cropping systems {mulch‐till corn (Zea mays L.)–soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], MTCS; no‐till corn–soybean, NTCS; no‐till corn–soybean–wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (NTCSW)–cover crop} and three landscape positions (summit, backslope, and footslope). Within each cropping system, landscape position influenced the depth to claypan and net returns, which were greatest in the summit and footslope positions. Across landscape positions, net return for NTCS was US$252 and $119 ha−1 yr−1 greater than MTCS and NTCSW, respectively. Net return of corn in MTCS and NTCSW was negative, whereas corn in NTCS averaged $97 ha−1 yr−1. Only NTCS corn exhibited a positive linear response in net return to depth to claypan. Soybean was much more profitable than corn, and both NTCS and NTCSW soybean were less influenced by landscape position and had at least $252 ha−1 yr−1 greater return than did MTCS soybean across landscape position. Results suggest that converting from MTCS to NTCS would have large positive impacts on reducing within‐field variability and increasing profitability in the region, and modifications to the NTCSW system are needed to improve profitability.

Precarious Memory: Eudora Welty and the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum

Precarious Memory:Eudora Welty and the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum Keri Watson In 1940 Eudora Welty took a carefully composed photograph of the Mississippi State Insane Hospital in Jackson (see fig. 1). Peeking through a small opening in the verdant landscape of Central Mississippi and dwarfed by oaks and long leaf pines, the building seems out of place, a relic of another time, but in the years after its opening in 1855, the facility housed over 35,000 people. Welty's photograph, titled Abandoned "Lunatic Asylum," was taken just five years after the hospital closed in 1935 but was not published until 1980 as part of a limited edition portfolio. What prompted Welty to take the photograph in 1940 and publish it forty years later? What stories does the abandoned asylum conceal, and what messages does Welty's photograph offer viewers today? Following Judith Butler's assertion that photographs are powerful conveyers of the precariousness of life and Pierre Nora's conception of les lieux de mémoire, or the notion that "the past is bound up with the sense that memory has been torn—but torn in such a way as to pose the problem of the embodiment of memory in certain sites," this article considers the trauma embedded in Welty's Abandoned "Lunatic Asylum" and explores the tenuous relationship between embodiment and representation (Butler, Precarious 110; Nora 7). Photography, far from a conveyer of transparent truths, is a sophisticated mode of representation that relies on a variety of rhetorical strategies to construct meaning. Not only do photographers manipulate the formal elements of line, shape, space, value, and texture within the frame to create harmony, contrast, balance, and rhythm, but perspective, subject matter, and audience also all contribute to a photograph's denotative and connotative messages. Photography is ubiquitous in the creation of cultural memory, but its formal, compositional, and technical elements comingle in sometimes surprising ways that create tension and invite multivalent readings. This is the case with Abandoned "Lunatic Asylum," which, through its subject matter and formal and compositional elements, initiates a complex dialogue on mental illness and institutionalization. As psychiatric medicine was professionalized in the mid-nineteenth century, states began building hospitals for the long-term custodial care [End Page 69] of those deemed unfit for normal roles in society. Those with perceived mental illnesses and cognitive impairments are underrepresented in visual culture, and within the field of disability studies receive less theoretical, social, and cultural attention than do those with physical disabilities (Fraser 29). When those with cognitive disabilities become the subject of photography, their representation typically follows the medical model of disability, which exploits its subjects as scientific and dehumanized specimens of the pathologizing gaze—as patients to be cured rather than as human beings with their own values and identities. Moreover, as noted by Christopher M. Bell, disability studies often focuses on whiteness to the neglect of investigations of Blackness, a situation exacerbated when African-American Studies "posits the African American body politic in ableist (read non-disabled) Click for larger view View full resolution Fig 1. Eudora Welty, Abandoned "Lunatic Asylum," Jackson, 1940. © Eudora Welty, LLC. [End Page 70] fashion" (3). These circumstances have combined to create a scenario in which the Mississippi State Insane Hospital and Welty's representation of it in Abandoned "Lunatic Asylum" have not received the attention they deserve. As I will show, Abandoned "Lunatic Asylum" confronts the exploitative implications of both photography and asylums and offers viewers a multivalent look at the intersection of disability and race in the American South. According to the Mississippi Department of Archives of History's inventory, Welty took five photographs of the Mississippi State Insane Hospital, which are listed as "Untitled: State Insane Hospital" in the Eudora Welty Collection. The photograph pictured here was given its contemporary title when Welty selected it for inclusion in a signed and numbered limited edition portfolio of twenty eleven-by-fourteen-inch gelatin silver prints issued by Palaemon Press Limited in 1980. The portfolio includes some of Welty's most well-known photographs such as A Woman of the Thirties (1935), Ruins of Windsor (1942), and Home by Dark (1936), but Abandoned "Lunatic Asylum" (1940...

Analysis of Piebald Madtom (Noturus gladiator) diet

The Piebald Madtom, Noturus gladiator, is found in tributaries of the Mississippi River from the Obion River in northern Tennessee to the Big Black River in central Mississippi. The species is currently petitioned for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973, and is of conservation concern in both Mississippi and Tennessee. Yet little is known about the feeding ecology of the species. To this end, diets were extracted from stomachs and intestinal tracts from available formalin-preserved museum specimens (n = 57). These specimens came from the Hatchie River, Wolf River, Yazoo River, and Big Black River of Mississippi or Tennessee. All diet items were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level, and contribution characterized as percent composition by number, total number of prey items, proportion of diets containing a prey item, frequency of occurrence, and prey-specific abundance. Twenty-one different diet items included larval trichopterans with sand cases, teleost scales, ostracods, and larval odonates (primarily Macromiidae). The relationship between prey-specific abundance and frequency of occurrence was described using an Amundsen plot, and revealed that trichopteran larvae and larval odonates are of high importance, and suggesting the species may forages on both sandy substrates and leaf packs.

First Documented Report for Lythrum salicaria (Lythraceae) in Louisiana

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is documented for the first time for Louisiana in Plaquemines Parish, extending its range southward about 310 km. Three species of Lythrum are now known for Louisiana, and four species have been recorded for the central Gulf and lower Mississippi valley regions. A key to species and regional distributional data are provided for L. salicaria.

Multiproxy evidence for rapid and enduring anthropogenic vegetation change during the Late Holocene from an abandoned channel of the Mississippi River, Wapanocca Bayou, Arkansas, USA

AbstractGeoarchaeological cores from an infilling channel within the meander belt of the Central Mississippi Valley recovered multiproxy evidence of vegetation changes during the Late Holocene. The sampling site, Wapanocca Bayou (Crittenden County, Arkansas), is flanked by levees that supported settlements of prehistoric Late Woodland and Mississippian farm sites, villages, and towns (AD 300–1650). These settlements include the Bradley site (3CT7), which was potentially the capital of a powerful Native American chiefdom visited by Hernando De Soto's North American expedition in 1541. Age‐depth modeling of radiocarbon dates from a 10+ meter core indicates continuous infilling of the channel since at least 2,450 cal BP. Palynological records preserve diachronic and patterned shifts in vegetation reflecting significant disturbances in these dynamic meander‐belt settings. Coeval trends in soil phosphorus, organic matter, charcoal concentrations, and magnetic susceptibility combined with archaeological evidence for increasingly intense landuse practices support our argument that vegetation changes along Wapanocca Bayou were caused by prehistoric anthropogenic disturbances, rather than natural processes associated with oxbow infilling and terrestrialization. With time the role of the natural vegetation succession receded in relative importance as local ecosystems were progressively modified by prehistoric Native Americans. This change was then sustained by intensified historical agricultural practices.

A Climatology of Quasi-Linear Convective Systems and Their Hazards in the United States

Abstract This research uses image classification and machine learning methods on radar reflectivity mosaics to segment, classify, and track quasi-linear convective systems (QLCSs) in the United States for a 22-yr period. An algorithm is trained and validated using radar-derived spatial and intensity information from thousands of manually labeled QLCS and non-QLCS event slices. The algorithm is then used to automate the identification and tracking of over 3000 QLCSs with high accuracy, affording the first, systematic, long-term climatology of QLCSs. Convective regions determined by the procedure to be QLCSs are used as foci for spatiotemporal filtering of observed severe thunderstorm reports; this permits an estimation of the number of severe storm hazards due to this morphology. Results reveal that nearly 32% of MCSs are classified as QLCSs. On average, 139 QLCSs occur annually, with most of these events clustered from April through August in the eastern Great Plains and central/lower Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys. QLCSs are responsible for a spatiotemporally variable proportion of severe hazard reports, with a maximum in QLCS-report attribution (30%–42%) in the western Ohio and central Mississippi River Valleys. Over 21% of tornadoes, 28% of severe winds, and 10% of severe hail reports are due to QLCSs across the central and eastern United States. The proportion of QLCS-affiliated tornado and severe wind reports maximize during the overnight and cool season, with more than 50% of tornadoes and wind reports in some locations due to QLCSs. This research illustrates the utility of automated storm-mode classification systems in generating extensive, systematic climatologies of phenomena, reducing the need for time-consuming and spatiotemporal-limiting methods where investigators manually assign morphological classifications.

Coupled Effect of Wet-Dry Cycles and Rainfall on Highway Slope Made of Yazoo Clay

Expansive Yazoo clay soil is susceptible to volumetric deformation and is dominant in central Mississippi and other neighboring southern states of the United States. Recurring shrink-swell behavior causes a significant problem to infrastructures in the area. Although Yazoo clay causes a significant problem in the deep southern states, limited study has been conducted on the behavior of Yazoo clay, especially in the presence of rainfall. The objective of this current study is to investigate the coupled effect of changes in void ratio due to wet-dry cycles and rainfall on the stability of highway slopes made of Yazoo clay. The finite element method in Plaxis 2D by Bentley System (https://www.plaxis.com/) has been utilized to investigate the coupled effect of changes in mechanical properties and rainfall using flow-deformation and stability analysis. Reconstituted expansive clay soil samples were used for the laboratory experiment. The reconstituted Yazoo clay samples were subjected to 3, 5, and 7 wetting and drying cycles in an enclosed chamber for a 24-h period. The axial deformation of the samples and the change in void ratios at each number of the cycle was closely monitored. The strength change at each wet and dry cycle was also investigated and used for slope stability analysis in the presence of rainfall. The test results indicate that the void ratio increases with the increasing number of wet-dry cycles. A continuous increment in void ratios from 0.99 in an undisturbed state with no wet-dry cycle to 1.49 at the 7th wet-dry cycle, indicating a 48.9% increase, as the wetting and drying cycle increases was recorded; in turn, decreasing the cohesion of the soil by 77%. The factor of safety considering the effect of two total rainfall periods of Rv = 126.2 mm (2 h) and Rv = 271.7 mm (3 days) reduced from 1.7 to 1.2 and 1.68 to 1.02, considering the effect of the 7th wet-dry cycle at the topsoil. The changes in the void ratio due to the wetting and drying cycle of Yazoo clay soil reduces the shear strength to a fully softened condition, increasing the possibility of slope failure. This condition further worsens in the presence of a perched water condition due to the infiltration of rain water.

Impact of Rainfall Variation on Slope Made of Expansive Yazoo Clay Soil in Mississippi

Yazoo clay soil is highly expansive in nature and extends over central Mississippi, Alabama, and Southern Louisiana. Shallow slope failure is frequent in embankments constructed using Yazoo clay due to rainfall volume and climatic variation. This study investigates the effect of different intensities and volumes of rainfall on slopes constructed of Yazoo clay soil in Mississippi. The coupled flow-deformation analysis was conducted using the finite element method (FEM) in PLAXIS to investigate the unsaturated hydromechanical behavior of the slopes. Weathered Yazoo clay soil samples were collected and tested in laboratory conditions to investigate the soil index properties, soil strength parameters, and soil water characteristics curve. The historical rainfall pattern of Mississippi from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is evaluated at different intensities (2 to 50 mm/h) and duration of rainfall (30 min to 7 days) based on return periods of 50, 100, and 500 years. Three fill slopes constructed using Yazoo clay soil, with slope ratios of 2H:1V, 3H:1V, and 4H:1V, are investigated. The rainfall pattern is applied to the top boundary of the slope in PLAXIS. The investigation results indicated that rainfall water infiltrated the top part of the slope, near the crest, resulting in the reduction of both the matric suction and the factor of safety of the slope.

Mind the gap: The Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) breeds in central Alabama and eastern Mississippi

Ornithologists have long been fascinated by an apparent disjunction in the breeding distribution of the Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), with previous studies reporting a 550 km gap between a coastal population along the south Atlantic and an interior population in the southcentral United States. However, these studies have overlooked breeders in the Black Belt Ecoregion of central Alabama and eastern Mississippi. Using data from our own fieldwork, the North American Breeding Bird Survey, eBird, and breeding bird atlas projects, we document that the Painted Bunting occurs within the gap described in previous publications. The presence of these birds raises further questions regarding the status of the Painted Bunting in the Southeast and may be relevant to future research and conservation efforts targeting this species.

Taphonomic, environmental, and cultural influences on Archaic Faunal assemblages at Modoc Rock Shelter, Illinois, USA

We incorporated faunal datasets from 1950s to 1980s excavations at Modoc Rock Shelter (11R5), a deeply stratified archaeological site in the central Mississippi River valley of southwestern Illinois, into the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) as part of a National Science Foundation-funded research project in which nine collaborators in the Eastern Archaic Faunal Working Group (EAFWG) ingested and analyzed faunal datasets from 23 archaeological sites to test hypotheses about changing use of aquatic resources during the Archaic Period (10,000─3000 RCYBP) in the interior Eastern United States. The use of tDAR resulted in the online digital preservation of Modoc Rock Shelter data accumulated by different researchers over five decades from multiple areas of excavation and also provided tools to integrate and synthesize the data. To ensure comparability of Modoc Rock Shelter datasets made by researchers using different coding schemes, we mapped variable attributes to existing and newly created tDAR ontologies. Following the EAFWG taphonomic protocol, we examined evidence for differential bone preservation and destruction caused by weathering, gnawing and chewing, butchering, fragmentation, burning, and bone density-mediated attrition for cultural components of the West Shelter and Main Shelter at Modoc. We also examined potential taphonomic biases caused by differences in recovery techniques, contexts excavated, and settlement function. With due consideration of taphonomic biases, we analyzed variability related to cultural factors and/or environmental change. Using the tDAR integration tool, we compared resource use for the cultural components in the two shelters. Our studies bear out earlier findings that Early Archaic hunter-gatherers at Modoc Rock shelter collected numerous small mammals, especially tree squirrels. Deer hunting and aquatic resource use generally increased during the Middle Archaic; and use of fauna was more specialized in the Late Archaic field camps. We relate these shifts in exploitation to landscape evolution, including stabilization of river systems, development of floodplain lakes, and the opening of the forest in the middle Holocene, as well as to changes in demography and settlement strategies.