Kern County Research Articles

CVB Financial Corp.

AbstractCommercial Banking (MIC: 8.1 SIC: 6022 NAIC: 522110)CVB Financial is a bank holding company, with assets of $6.09 billion and deposits of $3.41 billion as of Dec 31 2006. Co.'s Citizens Business Bank (the Bank), operates 39 business financial centers located in the Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Madera County, Fresno County, Tulare County, and Kern County areas of California. Co. provides traditional banking activities such as the acceptance of deposits and the lending and investing of money through the operations of the Bank. The Bank also provides trust services to its customers. Through its Golden West Financial Division, the Bank provides automobile and equipment leasing, and brokers mortgage loans.

Psychiatric Inpatient Care at a County Hospital Before and After the Inception of a University-Affiliated Psychiatry Residency Program

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), along with Kern Medical Center (KMC) and Kern County Mental Health (KCMH), established a new psychiatry residency program in 2004. In this study, we compared psychiatric care at a county psychiatric facility serving a population of 760,000 inhabitants before and after the initiation of this psychiatry residency program. Medical charts for all patients admitted to the psychiatric inpatient service during the year before the inception of the psychiatry residency program (2003-2004) and during the first year in which there was full implementation of residents after inception of the psychiatry residency program (2005-2006) were reviewed. Baseline characteristics, demographics, and various outcomes of the two groups were compared. After the residency program was established, the mean length of stay increased from 8.8 to 9.8 days (p < 0.05), the 30-day readmission rate increased from 3.5% (32/915) to 5.6% (48/853) (p < 0.05), more intramuscular emergency medications were given (p < 0.01), and more radiological assessments were obtained (p < 0.01). However, there was less delay in discharge (p < 0.01) and fewer days without medical necessity (p < 0.01). The patient satisfaction rate dropped from 77% (547/711) to 70% (476/680) (p < 0.01) after initiation of the residency program. The results of this study suggest a statistically significant difference in multiple characteristics of treatment after initiation of a psychiatry residency program in the psychiatric inpatient setting. More research is needed to identify strategies, such as guidelines to eliminate over-utilization of resources and methods to improve residents' competency, that may successfully enhance the quality of care provided by residents to psychiatric inpatients.

Westamerica Bancorporation

AbstractCommercial Banking (MIC: 8.1 SIC: 6021 NAIC:522110)Westamerica Bancorporation is a bank holding company. Co. provides a range of banking services to individual and corporate customers in Northern and Central California through its subsidiary bank, Westamerica Bank. The principal communities served are located in Northern and Central California, from Mendocino, Lake and Nevada Counties in the North to Kern County in the South. In addition, Co. owned 100.0% of the capital stock of Community Banker Services Corporation at Dec 31 2006, a company engaged in providing Co. and its subsidiaries data processing services and other support functions. As of Dec 31 2006, Co. had total assets of $4.77 billion and total deposits of $3.52 billion.

Reconstructing past population processes with general equilibrium models: House mice in Kern County, California, 1926–1927

Reconstructing past ecosystem conditions is helpful in addressing a range of basic and applied questions, but difficult because of a lack of inferential or modeling approaches. Here, we demonstrate the use of a general equilibrium ecosystem model (GEEM) to investigate ecological conditions surrounding a population eruption of the house mouse ( Mus musculus) in Kern County, California in the 1920s, arguably the most dramatic mammalian population eruption reported for North America. Our application of GEEM to this ecosystem allowed us to evaluate the plausibility of reported population densities of house mice that were extreme, even in comparison with values for the same species introduced in Australia, and to examine alternative hypothetical community interactions and their effects on populations. The modeled ecosystem included vegetation, native small rodents and introduced house mice as herbivores, and mammalian predators. Individual plants and animals behaved as net energy optimizers, with net energy directed to reproduction. Optimizing predators determined the biomass taken from prey, and prey, through feeding choices, determined their vulnerability to predators. Model inputs incorporated the competitive superiority of house mice to native small rodents, the time of arrival of house mice in the area, and the timing and intensity of predator removal. Without an invasion of house mice, human removal of predators was predicted to minimally affect native small rodents. Without human removal of predators, invading house mouse populations were predicted to attain high, oscillating densities by the 1920s that stabilized at lower densities by the 1930s, with native small rodents persisting in the area. With near-complete human removal of predators and with house mice present, native small rodents were predicted to go nearly extinct, and house mice to attain densities similar to those reported. The predicted lag between the introduction and eruption of house mice approximated reported values. Predation on native and introduced rodents was predicted to allow both rodent groups to coexist, whereas near-complete removal of predators caused native small rodents to approach extinction during the house mouse eruption, consistent with empirical studies. GEEM appears to be a useful tool for reconstructing past ecosystem conditions and trophic interactions.

UCCE helps community coalitions reduce childhood overweight

In 2001, UC Cooperative Extension nutrition specialists with the Center for Weight and Health introduced the Children and Weight: What Communities Can Do About It project, with the goal of reducing the prevalence of pediatric overweight. This project was designed to facilitate the formation of community coalitions, and to educate and empower them to improve or create environments that foster healthy lifestyles in children and their families at the local level. The project has been implemented in 13 California counties and by groups across the country. The “Spectrum of Prevention” is featured as a way to address the problem of pediatric overweight from multiple levels, ranging from educating individuals and providers to advocating for systemic and environmental change. Shasta CAN in Shasta County, the Solano County Children and Weight Coalition and the Kern County Childhood Overweight Coalition are presented as models of how coalitions can creatively plan and implement activities across the spectrum.

A comparative analysis of using trip-based versus link-based traffic data for regional mobile source emissions estimation

The current method used for calculating vehicle emissions integrates travel data and associated vehicle emission factors. Travel data from traditional travel demand models are normally link-based (e.g., volumes on roadway segments), while California emission factors are trip-based (i.e., average emission factors over an entire trip), creating a mismatch in the modeling interface. Using dynamic simulation for trip assignment, we present a new modeling framework that consistently provides both trip-based and link-based VMT-speed distributions. Using the Sacramento Metropolitan Area and Kern County in California, we demonstrate the feasibility of this new method and quantify the effects of using trip-based versus link-based travel data on regional peak period emission inventories. The comparison results indicate that for the base scenario in both studied regions, the link-based method generally results in higher emissions than the trip-based method. The sensitivities of the link and trip-based methods to road network variations also appear dissimilar. The link-based emissions are more sensitive to facility-related changes, while the trip-based emissions are more sensitive to demand-related changes. This suggests that greater care may need to be taken to specify the effects of this modeling interface issue within the transportation conformity process and subsequent mobile emissions analysis.

Westamerica Bancorporation

AbstractCommercial Banking (MIC: 8.1 SIC: 6021 NAIC:522110)Westamerica Bancorporation is a bank holding company. Co. provides a range of banking services to individual and corporate customers in Northern and Central California through its subsidiary bank, Westamerica Bank. The principal communities served are located in Northern and Central California, from Mendocino, Lake and Nevada Counties in the North to Kern County in the South. In addition, Co. owned 100.0% of the capital stock of Community Banker Services Corporation at Dec 31 2006, a company engaged in providing Co. and its subsidiaries data processing services and other support functions. As of Dec 31 2006, Co. had total assets of $4.77 billion and total deposits of $3.52 billion.

CVB Financial Corp.

AbstractCommercial Banking (MIC: 8.1 SIC: 6021 NAIC: 522110)CVB Financial is a bank holding company, with assets of S6.09 billion and deposits of S3.41 billion as of Dec 31 2006. Co.'s Citizens Business Bank (the Bank), operates 39 business financial centers located in the Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Madera County, Fresno County, Tulare County, and Kern County areas of California. Co. provides traditional banking activities such as the acceptance of deposits and the lending and investing of money through the operations of the Bank. The Bank also provides trust services to its customers. Through its Golden West Financial Division, the Bank provides automobile and equipment leasing, and brokers mortgage loans.

First Fossil Record of Totoaba Villamar 1980 (Teleostei: Sciaenidae) Based upon Early Miocene Otoliths from California with Comments on the Ontogeny of the Saccular Otolith

A new species of the genus Totoaba (family Sciaenidae) based upon otoliths from the late early Miocene marine upper Olcese Sand, Kern County, southern San Joaquin Valley, California is described. This is the first fossil occurrence for the genus, and it is hypothesized that Totoaba evolved entirely in the eastern Pacific realm. Within the upper Olcese Sand, this species represents but one component of a complex sciaenid fauna, which could provide insight into the evolution and distribution of the family Sciaenidae. An ontogenetic series of this species is defined, and ontogenetic changes in its otoliths are discussed.

Mechanical and stratigraphic constraints on the evolution of faulting at Elk Hills, California

To unravel the four-dimensional evolution of the Elk Hills oil field, Kern County, California, we integrated seismically interpreted fault surfaces, stratigraphic units, and stratigraphic features with mechanical models. Correspondence of synthetic stratigraphic surfaces, deformed by modeled vertical-displacement fields, to seismically interpreted stratigraphic surfaces represented on structure contour maps suggests that the tectonic history described here is structurally, stratigraphically, and mechanically consistent, placing constraints on the regional deformation mechanism and local structure. During the period investigated, middle Miocene to present, the eastern and the western parts of the Elk Hills anticline developed in response to a regional horizontal shortening oriented at about 35. The apparent bend in the trend of the anticline, from northwest-southeast in the western part of the field to east-west in the eastern part of the field, is generated by the intersection of two distinct fault systems. In both fault systems, north-dipping fault surfaces are backthrusts of older south-dipping faults. These results have direct implications for the migration and emplacement of hydrocarbons at Elk Hills, suggesting that the upper Miocene Stevens turbidite oil pools were derived from sources to the south. Additionally, this study indicates that the method by which stratigraphic and structural interpretations are incorporated into a sequence of forward mechanical models represents an effective means of constraining the structural evolution of a fault network that developed within a syndepositional tectonic setting.

FatalStreptococcus canisInfections in Intensively Housed Shelter Cats

Three independent, fatal outbreaks of Streptococcus canis infection occurred in a 2-year period in shelter cats. The outbreaks occurred in Northern California (Yolo County), Southern California (Kern County), and North Carolina (Guilford County). An estimation of the affected population is >150 cats among 3 affected shelters, with a mortality rate of up to 30%. Among 20 cats submitted for necropsy there were 2 distinct pathologic presentations. The first (shelters 1 and 2) was skin ulceration and chronic respiratory infection that progressed, in some cats, to necrotizing sinusitis and meningitis. The second (shelter 3) was rapid progression from necrotizing fasciitis with skin ulceration to toxic shock-like syndrome, sepsis, and death. S canis was the sole pathogen identified in most cases. Whether hypervirulent S canis strains exist is unknown; there is little understanding of how these bacteria cause invasive disease in cats.

Westamerica Bancorporation

AbstractCommercial Banking (MIC: 8.1 SIC: 6021 NAIC:522110)Westamerica Bancorporation is a bank holding company. Co. provides a full range of banking services to individual and corporate customers in Northern and Central California through its subsidiary bank, Westamerica Bank. The principal communities served are located in Northern and Central California, from Mendocino, Lake and Nevada Counties in the North to Kern County in the South. In addition, Co. also owns 100.0% of the capital stock of Community Banker Services Corporation, a company engaged in providing Co. and its subsidiaries data processing services and other support functions. As of Dec 31 2006, Co. had total assets of $4.76 billion and total deposits of $3.51 billion.

CVB Financial Corp.

AbstractCommercial Banking (MIC: 8.1 SIC: 6022 NAIC: 522110)CVB Financial is a bank holding company, with assets of $6.09 billion and deposits of $3.44 billion as of Dec 31 2006. Co.'s Citizens Business Bank, operates 39 business financial centers serving customers in the Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley, Orange County, Madera County, Fresno County, Tulare County, and Kern County areas of California. Co. provides traditional banking activities, including the acceptance of deposits and the lending and investing of money through the operations of the Bank. The Bank also provides trust services to its customers. Through its Golden West Financial Division, the Bank provides automobile and equipment leasing, and brokers mortgage loans.

Isolation and Evaluation of Beauveria bassiana (Deuteromycotina: Hyphomycetes) for the Suppression of the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter, Homalodisca coagulata (Homoptera: Cicadellidae)

The glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca coagulata (Say) (Homoptera: Cicadellidae), is a significant threat to California agriculture as a vector of the bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa Wells, causative agent of Pierce's disease. Control strategies target vector populations to prevent the spread of the bacterium. One of the potential means of controlling H. coagulata is the use of entomopathogenic fungi. To discover naturally-occurring fungal pathogens that are adapted to H. coagulata and its habitats, soil samples from organic citrus and conventional pomegranate orchards in Tulare and Riverside counties in southern California were screened for the presence of pathogens. Using a modified Galleria bait method that required small quantities of soil, 124 isolates of Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin and four isolates of Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin (Deuteromycotina: Hyphomycetes) were recovered. Additionally, 22 isolates of B. bassiana were recovered by plating soil suspensions on selective growth media. Natural fungal infections were not detected in H. coagulata populations from periodic sampling in Kern, Riverside and Ventura counties in southern California. Some of the B. bassiana isolates recovered from soil and other insect hosts in southern California were evaluated against H. coagulata along with those isolated from H. coagulata in Texas and Mississippi. Growth of the selected isolates also was evaluated at 15, 23, 28 and 32°C. The Texas isolate and two California isolates of B. bassiana were virulent against H. coagulata and warrant further study.

CVB Financial Corp.

AbstractCommercial Banking (MIC: 8.1 SIC: 6022 NAIC: 522110)CVB Financial is a bank holding company, with assets of S5.42 billion and deposits of S3.42 billion as of Dec 31 2005. Co.'s Citizens Business Bank, operates 40 business financial centers serving customers in the Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley, Orange County, Madera County, Fresno County, Tulare County, and Kern County areas of California. Co. provides traditional banking activities, including the acceptance of deposits and the lending and investing of money through the operations of the Bank. The Bank also provides trust services to its customers. The bank's subsidiary, Golden West Enterprises, Inc., provides automobile and equipment leasing, and brokers mortgage loans.

Westamerica Bancorporation

AbstractCommercial Banking (MIC: 8.1 SIC: 6021 NAIC:522110)Westamerica Bancorporation is a bank holding company. Co. provides a full range of banking services to individual and corporate customers in Northern and Central California through its subsidiary bank, Westamerica Bank. The principal communities served are located in Northern and Central California, from Mendocino, Lake and Nevada Counties in the North to Kern County in the South. In addition, Co. also owns 100.0% of the capital stock of Community Banker Services Corporation, a company engaged in providing Co. and its subsidiaries data processing services and other support functions. As of Dec 31 2005, Co. had total assets of $5.15 billion.

Impact of California’s Proposition 36 on the Drug Treatment System: Treatment Capacity and Displacement

California's Proposition 36 offers nonviolent drug offenders community-based treatment as an alternative to incarceration or probation without treatment. We examined how treatment capacity changed to accommodate Proposition 36 clients and whether displacement of other clients was an unintended consequence. Treatment admissions were compared for the year before and 2 years after the law was enacted. Surveys of county administrators and treatment providers were conducted in Kern, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco counties. The number of Proposition 36 offenders admitted to treatment continued to increase in the state (approximately 32000 in Year 1 and 48000 in Year 2) and in the 5 counties; total treatment admissions stabilized in Year 2 after increasing in Year 1. Voluntary clients decreased by 8000 each year statewide, but the change varied across counties. One third of treatment providers reported decreased treatment availability for non-Proposition 36 clients in Year 2. Despite expanded treatment capacity (mostly in outpatient treatment), indirect evidence suggests that displacement of voluntary clients may have occurred in part because of the demand for treatment by Proposition 36 clients.

Statistical modeling of valley fever data in Kern County, California

Coccidioidomycosis (valley fever) is a fungal infection found in the southwestern US, northern Mexico, and some places in Central and South America. The fungus that causes it (Coccidioides immitis) is normally soil-dwelling but, if disturbed, becomes air-borne and infects the host when its spores are inhaled. It is thus natural to surmise that weather conditions that foster the growth and dispersal of the fungus must have an effect on the number of cases in the endemic areas. We present here an attempt at the modeling of valley fever incidence in Kern County, California, by the implementation of a generalized auto regressive moving average (GARMA) model. We show that the number of valley fever cases can be predicted mainly by considering only the previous history of incidence rates in the county. The inclusion of weather-related time sequences improves the model only to a relatively minor extent. This suggests that fluctuations of incidence rates (about a seasonally varying background value) are related to biological and/or anthropogenic reasons, and not so much to weather anomalies.

California Sub stance Abuse Research Consortium, September 2005: Update on Recent Methamphetamine Trends in Four California Regions

California Substance Abuse Research Consortium (SARC) meetings have become a mainstay in supporting the exchange of new alcohol and other drug information on research to policy and other initiatives throughout the state. A cornerstone of SARC is a discussion of regional substance abuse patterns and trends. This article provides readers with a brief overview of recently released methamphetamine statistics, as well as a more detailed review of the methamphetamine information presented during the substance abuse epidemiology portion of the September 2005 meeting, as presented for Kern County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the state of California.

Evaluation of thermophilic anaerobic digestion processes for full‐scale Class A biosolids disinfection at hyperion treatment plant

This paper describes 5 phases of full-scale testing at the City of Los Angeles Hyperion Treatment Plant (HTP) for producing Class A biosolids (U.S. EPA Part 503 Biosolids Rule) by thermophilic anaerobic digestion. Phases I and II were tests with a two-stage continuous-batch process in a thermophilic battery of six digesters and a designated post-digestion train that was isolated from mesophilic operations. These tests demonstrated that digester outflow biosolids met the Class A limits for fecal coliforms and Salmonella sp. However, fecal coliform densities sharply increased during post-digestion. The recurrence was possibly related to a combination of a large drop of the biosolids temperature after the dewatering centrifuges and contamination of thermophilically digested biosolids from mesophilic operations. Phase III was conducted after insulation and electrical heat-tracing of the post-digestion train to maintain a biosolids temperature throughout post-digestion at about the same level as in the digester outflow. Biosolids monitoring at the last points of plant control (silos at Truck Loading Facility and farm for land application) indicated that fecal coliform recurrence was prevented. After completing the conversion of HTP to thermophilic operation, certification tests of Phases IV and V demonstrated Class A compliance of a two-stage continuous-batch process under Alternatives 1 and 3 of the Part 503 Biosolids Rule, respectively. HTP received the permit for Class A (indeed exceptional quality) biosolids land application in Kern County, California, in December 2002 under Alternative 3. Since 2003, HTP has consistently complied with the federal and local standards for Class A biosolids, indicating that Class A limits can be met under conditions less stringent than defined by the Alternative 1 time-temperature requirement for batch treatment.