North American Case Research Articles

Geographic, ecological, and temporal patterns of seabird mortality during the 2022 HPAI H5N1 outbreak on the island of Newfoundland

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 caused mass mortality of wildlife across the North Atlantic in 2022. Following European outbreaks, the first North American case was detected on the island of Newfoundland, Canada in November 2021, before spreading throughout North America. During the following summer, Newfoundland and surrounding islands (NFLD) experienced one of the most significant mortalities in Canadian provinces, with seabirds being the most affected taxa. From surveys and citizen reports, we estimate that 13517 mortalities that can be attributed to HPAI occurred in NFLD from April to September 2022. Most estimated mortalities were among Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus, Linnaeus, 1758) (6596), Common Murres (Uria aalge, Pontoppidan, 1763) (5992), Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica, Linnaeus, 1758) (282), and Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla, Linnaeus, 1758) (217). Mortality reports moved from west to east along the southern then eastern NFLD coast and peaked in July and August. We formulated exploratory hypotheses regarding traits that could contribute to infection and mortality. Species differences in mortality most strongly associated with inter-nest distance, breeding phenology, and at-sea overlap with allospecifics from other colonies. Unprecedented seabird mortality and ongoing transmission within the circulating avian influenza viruses highlight the need for continued monitoring and development of conservation strategies.

Trojan Horses Facing the Mirror

We examine the appropriations of stewardship ethics by religious anti-environmental movement organizations (RAEMOs). Based on a qualitative analysis of promotional materials, we highlight similar framing alignment processes carried out by two RAEMOs in different contexts: the US Cornwall Alliance and the Brazilian Institute Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (IPCO). We found that, despite their different theological inspirations and target audiences, the RAEMOs use the same general master counter-framing to stimulate a sense of battle in which ‘genuine stewards’ must resist anti-Christian ideologies camouflaged as environmentalism, restricting themselves to a pasteurized care for creation, symbolized by the concept of gardening. As for the framing variations, we suggest that they are driven not so much by distinct religious beliefs as by political and economic coalitions, mainly linked to the fossil fuels sector in the North American case, and agribusiness, in the Brazilian case.

Improving land-use-based urbanism through award-winning planning practice and scholarship: a North American case study

Metropolises in the Sunbelt region of the USA are in need of sensitive land-use-based urbanism comprised of more compact development, sustainable transportation, efficient infrastructure, low-carbon energy, and greenway and environmental planning. Sustainable urbanity can be partially accomplished via co-creative planning pedagogies, which in turn can lead to place-and evidence-based planning practice and scholarship. However, student work is often underappreciated because academia does not create the visibility that it requires. Planning studios and other applied disciplines are invaluable opportunities to conduct in loco research and to produce professional or near-professional documents. Town-gown collaborative projects offer many rewards. This article showcases how various undergraduate and graduate disciplines offered at Arizona State University resulted in state-level professional planning awards. It is stated that students ought to go beyond the delivery of planning documents to their instructors and clients to also seek recognition from their professional associations. More encompassing recognition of award-winning work is sure to receive further visibility not only from professionals but also from the community at large. The methodology comprised mostly qualitative policy evaluation of plan making processes. A set of lessons learned and implications is offered for those who wish to venture out in this type of academic collaborations, namely instructors, students, stakeholders, university administrators, elected officials, and professional planners. The key finding is that the land-use-based urbanism strategies discussed in the paper can encourage land preservation in arid cities and above all increase the quality of urban life in desert environments.

The Limitations of Hashtag Feminist Activism on South African Twitter: A Case Study of #MenAreTrash and #WomenAreTrash

Social media has become a central arena for debates around feminism and gender in South Africa. One recent example can be found in the hashtag #MenAreTrash, which has been a trending topic multiple times on South African Twitter. However, despite the prevalence of gender-based violence in the country, these conversations have also come under strong criticism, especially from men. Existing literature on social media expressions of misogyny and anti-feminism has primarily focused on North American and European case studies. This article expands existing literature by analyzing men’s reactions to the #MenAreTrash hashtag and highlighting the role and backlash against feminism in South Africa. Based on a thematic analysis of 600 tweets, this article explores the discursive strategies employed by South African cisgender men on Twitter in response to the #MenAreTrash hashtag. Beyond some marginal yet relevant examples of reflexibility and allyship, the overwhelmingly negative response from men online, as found by the study, reflected a lack of self-reflection about their masculinity. The article provides additional insights into the role of digital feminist activism in shaping networked masculinities in the South African context.

Budget-Constrained Rail Electrification Modeling Using Symmetric Traffic Assignment: A North American Case Study

We consider a budget constrained rail network electrification problem with associated changes in costs of energy usage (via path gradient and curvature), operations, and long-term maintenance. In particular, we consider that freight flows on such a network form a user equilibrium. Interactions between electric and diesel trains on the same corridor are represented with nonseparable link performance functions, which nevertheless have a symmetric Jacobian. This bi-level formulation is solved for the North American railroad network using a genetic algorithm (GA), incorporating domain-specific insights to reduce the number of solutions which must be considered. We analyze solution characteristics and decision-making implications. Results show that broad connectivity would be beneficial for most impact. Increasing demand shifts electrified corridors towards the more populous east and gulf coasts, while increased operational costs results in electrification of routes through mountainous terrains.

Estimating wildfire suppression costs: a systematic review

The cost of suppressing fires is known to be highly significant and increasing over time as a result of the indirect effects of climate change and rising human impacts. Their quantification is an essential component of an environmental accounting system, capable of providing updated information for policy design and implementation. The goal of this study was to provide an overview of the state-of-art of international literature on wildfire suppression costs. To this aim, a systematic literature review was carried out revealing that the largest amount of empirical data on suppression costs and related measures derived from North American case studies. Conversely, information on direct wildfire suppression cost categories is usually incomplete or missing throughout Europe, especially in fire-prone Mediterranean countries, even though these areas have been, and continue to be, severely impacted by wildfires, underlining the need to update research in this field, thereby supporting cost-effective fire management plans.

Little Miss Sunshine de Jonathan Dayton y Valerie Farris. ¿Y el premio?, una corona de mentiras

Making a preamble to Pop music, the film Little Miss Sunshine is analyzed, which addresses the problem of dysfunctional families, a typical North American case, within the Road Movie genre. The characters are described who revolve around the story of a seven-year-old girl who wants to achieve her dream. It shows how, through a comic story, a critique is made of a society in crisis but, at the same time, unconditional love is revealed as the strength to face adversity.

Japanese elementary teachers’ professional development experiences in physical education lesson studies

ABSTRACTBackground: Formal and informal professional development has played a central role in teachers’ growth in Japan for many decades [Collinson, V., and Y. Ono. 2001. “The Professional Development of Teachers in the United States and Japan.” European Journal of Teacher Education 24 (2): 223–248]. This is especially true for elementary school teachers, who are not licensed in a specific subject area. In Japan, teachers are trained for each school level separately, including kindergarten, elementary, secondary schools, and special needs education [Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science, and Technology [MEXT]. 2018. “Principles Guide Japan’s Educational System.” Accessed August 6, 2018. http://www.mext.go.jp/en/policy/education/overview/index.htm.]. The lack of in-depth subject-specific training is a challenge for elementary school teachers, who are responsible for teaching all subject areas. For many decades, school districts have used a lesson study approach. In Japan, lesson study (emerged in the 1920s as professional development opportunities for in-service teachers) helps various types of knowledge become more visible for teachers, which might include colleagues’ and mentors’ feedback and suggestions about pedagogy and students’ reflective and critical thinking. This also allows teachers to encounter new or different ideas and to refine their knowledge [Lewis, C. C., R. R. Perry, and J. Hurd. 2009. “Improving Mathematics Instruction Through Lesson Study: A Theoretical Model and North American Case.” Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education 12: 285–304]. The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese elementary teachers’ professional development (lesson study) experiences using the conceptions of andragogy in physical education (PE) in a metropolitan school district.Participants and setting: Six participants were selected from one elementary school located in a metropolitan city in Japan. There were (a) 2 lesson study presenters, (b) 1 mentor, (c) 1 professional development coordinator, (d) 1 school principal, and (e) 1 school district PE coordinator. Approximately 600 children were enrolled in the school, and there was a total of 33,506 elementary children in the school district.Research design: The research method was descriptive-qualitative, using an in-depth, semi-structured interviewing approach [Seidman, I. 1998. Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. 2nd ed. New York: Teacher College Press]. Data analysis: A thematic analysis method [Fereday, J., and E. Muir-Cochrane. 2006. “Demonstrating Rigor Using Thematic Analysis: A Hybrid Approach of Inductive and Deductive Coding and Theme Development.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 5 (1): 80–92] was used to explore, describe, and interpret the data. This allowed the researchers to uncover emergent themes in the data. In the conceptions of andragogy, through thematic analysis, the researchers searched for key or meaningful phrases or words that expose the characteristics of in-service teachers.Findings: Explainable by the conceptions of andragogy, three major interrelated and complex themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) challenges, (b) vitalness of a mentor’s role, and (c) self-directed learner. The lesson study approach is an effective way for teachers to reflect on their instruction and promote instructional change. To continue to support teachers to improve their quality of instruction, there is an ongoing need to heighten awareness among teachers, administrators, and researchers to ensure that attention is directed to the learning outcomes of children.

Clinical spectrum and therapeutics in Canadian patients with anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5)-positive dermatomyositis: a case-based review.

The objective of the study was to determine the clinical features and treatment course in Canadian patients with dermatomyositis (DM) associated with the anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 antibody (MDA5). A retrospective chart review of consecutive patients with anti-MDA5 antibody DM from two Canadian tertiary care centre between 2014 and 2018 was done. Twenty-one consecutive cases of anti-MDA5-positive DM were identified. Median age at diagnosis was 52years, 71% Asians, predominantly Chinese, and 29% Caucasians. In this case series, all patients had either typical DM rash, or vasculopathy and ulceration unique to anti-MDA5-positive DM. 38% of the patients had rapid progressive (RP)-interstitial lung disease (RP-ILD), 33% had chronic ILD and 29% had asymptomatic ILD. Anti-Ro52 positivity was more prevalent in RP-ILD. Mortality was high in the RP-ILD group, with five deaths in eight patients. Lung transplant was life-saving intervention for three of the RP-ILD patients who survived. A review of the literature in treating RP-ILD associated with anti-MDA5 is presented. Although evidence is limited to small case series, cyclophosphamide (CYC) for refractory skin lesions, and CYC or mycophenolate mofetil plus a calcineurin inhibitor or rituximab (RTX) for RP-ILD appear efficacious. This is the largest North American case series of anti-MDA5-positive DM patients to date. There is a wide spectrum of clinical presentation of this entity. Survival is poor in those with RP-ILD; early aggressive immunosuppression and timely lung transplant were life-saving in our patients with RP-ILD.

Los modelos de educación multicultural e intercultural. Una revisión necesaria desde una sociedad diversa

El presente artículo hace una revisión a la producción teórica que se ha generado en torno a la educación multicultural e intercultural en las últimas décadas. Para ello nos basamos especialmente en la producción que sobre el particular se ha dado en España, país que ante lo llegada de inmigrantes se ha visto en la necesidad formular políticas que buscan hacerle frente a este fenómeno social desde la perspectiva educativa. Situación que para especialistas como Antonio Muñoz Sedano, Teresa Aguado, Marta Soriano se ha convertido en un importante objeto de investigación, al igual que ha ocurrido para el caso norteamericano con estudiosos como James Banks, quien considera que el modelo multicultural y el modelo holístico han sido claves a la hora de generar acciones de intervención en los espacios escolares caracterizados por la diversidad cultural.

A numerical process study on the rapid transport of stratospheric air down to the surface over western North America and the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract. Upper-level fronts are often associated with the rapid transport of stratospheric air along tilted isentropes to the middle or lower troposphere, where this air leads to significantly enhanced ozone concentrations. These plumes of originally stratospheric air can only occasionally be observed at the surface because (i) stable boundary layers prevent an efficient vertical transport down to the surface, and (ii) even if boundary layer turbulence were strong enough to enable this transport, the originally stratospheric air mass can be diluted by mixing, such that only a weak stratospheric signal can be recorded at the surface. Most documented examples of stratospheric air reaching the surface occurred in mountainous regions. This study investigates two such events, using a passive stratospheric air mass tracer in a mesoscale model to explore the processes that enable the transport down to the surface. The events occurred in early May 2006 in the Rocky Mountains and in mid-June 2006 on the Tibetan Plateau. In both cases, a tropopause fold associated with an upper-level front enabled stratospheric air to enter the troposphere. In our model simulation of the North American case, the strong frontal zone reaches down to 700 hPa and leads to a fairly direct vertical transport of the stratospheric tracer along the tilted isentropes to the surface. In the Tibetan Plateau case, however, no near-surface front exists and a reservoir of high stratospheric tracer concentrations initially forms at 300–400 hPa, without further isentropic descent. However, entrainment at the top of the very deep boundary layer (reaching to 300 hPa over the Tibetan Plateau) and turbulence within the boundary layer allows for downward transport of stratospheric air to the surface. Despite the strongly differing dynamical processes, stratospheric tracer concentrations at the surface reach peak values of 10 %–20 % of the imposed stratospheric value in both cases, corroborating the potential of deep stratosphere-to-troposphere transport events to significantly influence surface ozone concentrations in these regions.

Transactions in science in comparative perspective

The article develops a transactional approach to studying science. Two concepts play a particularly important role: the institutional environment of science and scientific transaction. As an example, the North-American and Russian institutional environments of science are compared. It is shown that structures of scientific transactions (between peers, between the scholar and the academic administrator, between the professor and the student), transaction costs and the scope of academic freedom differ in these two cases. Transaction costs are non-zero in both cases, however. At the same time, it is hypothesized that a greater scope of academic freedom in the North American case may be a factor contributing to a higher scientific productivity.

Mapping Cellulose Content and Degradability in Water Resource Recovery Facilities: European and North-American Case Studies

Mapping Cellulose Content and Degradability in Water Resource Recovery Facilities: European and North-American Case Studies

Social boundaries, resource depression, and conflict: A bioeconomic model of the intertribal buffer zone

Human territoriality and the evolution of social boundaries are important and long-standing issues of concern to anthropologists and social scientists. One notable phenomenon is the intertribal buffer zone, an area that is generally devoid of occupation where certain resources can flourish without being overhunted. We examine the relative importance of resource depression and conflict on the formation of the buffer zone. We first develop a dynamic spatial model of a human group harvesting a large game resource at varying distances from a residential base locale. We then introduce a second human group and evaluate the model under two assumptions regarding the interaction between groups: 1) the groups maintain an amicable relationship and both harvest the game, and 2) the groups are hostile and engage in conflict as each hunt for game. We show how the potential for conflict reduces the incentive to harvest high-ranking resources, and prevents the overexploitation of resources in the buffer zone. We use the model expectations to evaluate two well-known North American case studies.

Ecosystem Services from Transborder Migratory Species: Implications for Conservation Governance

This article discusses the conservation challenges of volant migratory transborder species and conservation governance primarily in North America. Many migratory species provide ecosystem service benefits to society. For example, insectivorous bats prey on crop pests and reduce the need for pesticides; birds and insects pollinate food plants; and birds afford recreational opportunities to hunters and birdwatchers. Migration is driven by the seasonal availability of resources; as resources in one area become seasonally scarce, individuals move to locations where resources have become seasonally abundant. The separation of the annual lifecycle means that species management and governance is often fractured across international borders. Because migratory species depend on habitat in different locations, their ability to provide ecosystem services in one area depends on the spatial subsidies, or support, provided by habitat and ecological processes in other areas. This creates telecouplings, or interconnections across geographic space, of areas such that impacts to the habitat of a migratory species in one location will affect the benefits enjoyed by people in other locations. Information about telecoupling and spatial subsidies can be used to craft new governance arrangements such as Payment for Ecosystem Services programs that target specific stakeholder groups and locations. We illustrate these challenges and opportunities with three North American case studies: the Duck Stamp Program, Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana), and monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus).

Aplastic Anemia in Pregnancy - a Single Centre, North American Case Series

IntroductionLittle data exist on the clinical presentation, management and treatment of aplastic anemia (AA) in pregnancy.The aim of this study is to describe the clinical presentation, management and outcomes of patients with AA in pregnancy based on a single centre, North American experience.MethodsPatients with AA during pregnancy managed at Mount Sinai Hospital, a tertiary care centre in Toronto, Canada, were retrospectively identified through the Special Pregnancy Program database from 1990 to 2014, inclusive. Charts and electronic medical records were reviewed to extract demographics, clinical features, bone marrow biopsy results, paroxysmal nocturnalhemoglobinuria(PNH) status, comorbidities, treatment and transfusion requirements, as well as obstetrical and post-partum outcomes.The Research Ethics Board at Mount Sinai Hospital approved the study.ResultsBetween 1990 and 2014, 24 pregnancies were identified in 12 women with AA. Among these, 3 women (5 pregnancies) were excluded from subsequent analysis due to incomplete records. Among the 19 pregnancies in 9 women with AA, 6 women had at least one subsequent pregnancy during the study period.The initial diagnosis of AA occurred during pregnancy in 5 of the 19 pregnancies in 9 women (Table 1). Four of the 5 women were diagnosed with AA in the first trimester. The presenting signs and symptoms included fatigue (1), chest pain due to severeanemia(1),petechiae(1), hematemesis (1) and in 1 patient the diagnosis was made following a CBC performed for routine prenatal care. Among the 14 pregnancies with a prior diagnosis of AA, 4 were in complete remission (CR) and 6 were in partial remission (PR). In addition, there were 5 pregnancies in 3 women following allogeneic bone marrow transplant (alloBMT). Of these, 3 pregnancies occurred post-alloBMTin CR, 1 in PR and 1 was not in remission. PNH clones were present in 4 of the pregnancies (3 women).Among the 5 pregnancies with newly diagnosed AA, 3 were treated with cyclosporine during pregnancy and 1 was treated with prednisone alone, all without a response. Transfusion support was required in 10 of the 19 pregnancies, including all 5 pregnancies with newly diagnosed AA (Table 2). In the 5 pregnancies with newly diagnosed AA, the median haemoglobin was 67g/L, median WBC was 3.6/microLand median platelet count was 26x109/L at the time of diagnosis. In the 14 pregnancies with a prior diagnosis of AA, the median haemoglobin, WBC and platelet counts in the first trimester were higher (Table 2).Although there were no maternal deaths, significant complications occurred in 15 of the 19 (79%) pregnancies (Table 3). Four pregnancies (in two women) were not associated with significant complications and these patients were in PR or CR at the onset of pregnancy. Common complications during pregnancy and post-partum included transfusion-related event (13), drug adverse effect (8), bleeding (6), preterm birth (5), thrombosis (3) and infection (3) (Table 3). Most of the pregnancies experienced declining hematologic parameters over the course of pregnancy. However, relapses were not observed among the 10 pregnancies in CR or PR at onset of pregnancy.There were no spontaneous remissions of AA in the postpartum period. Among the 5 women with newly diagnosed AA in pregnancy, 3 underwentalloBMTand 2 had excellent outcomes with resolution ofcytopeniasand no complications. The third woman who underwentalloBMTsuffered significant complications following transplantation including disseminatedNocardia(brain and lung), renal dysfunction secondary to cyclosporine, acute GVHD of the gastrointestinal tract and liver, pericarditis, iron overload and transfusion dependency.ConclusionsAA in pregnancy is rare, with 24 pregnancies in 12 women over 24 years in a single, tertiary hospital. AA in pregnancy was not associated with mortality but significant morbidity was seen. In our cohort, no spontaneous remissions of AA were observed post-partum. Further studies with larger sample sizes are required to clarify the natural history of AA in pregnancy and best approach to management to avoid complications during pregnancy and post-partum. [Display omitted] [Display omitted] [Display omitted] DisclosuresSchuh:Amgen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

LEARNING FROM COMMERCIAL VERNACULAR BUILDING TYPES: A NORTH AMERICAN CASE STUDY

A substantial literature exists on commercial vernacular architecture in North America. This literature has examined everyday places and iconic building types including suburbia, roadside motels, vintage diners, fast food franchises, residential trailer parks, signage, unique commercial establishments, and shopping malls. These places and buildings are generally classified as expressions of folk vernacular culture. In response, Attention Restoration Theory, an environmental cognition perspective based in human information processing research, provided the foundation for an investigation of the food truck/ trailer and its immediate installation context within a North American case study context. Visual documentation, interviews, and archival fieldwork provided the basis for the articulation of a typology. These structures were found to express automaticity, as satisfying the timeless human preference for association with nature, a sense of psychological respite, and as a physical setting visually distinct from its larger urban environment context. Directions for future research on this topic are outlined together with insights for application by architects and urban planners.

Racialization and its paradigms: From Ireland to North America

This article offers a template for understanding and analyzing racialization as a paradigm. Further, this template is applied to the North American case – an important one because it has endured and spread across the globe despite the enormous weight of scientific evidence against it. The fallacy of race (and in particular the North American Anglo-origin variant) endures for two reasons. First, social agents seeking to gain or maintain power and control over paradigm-relevant resources benefit from reinvesting in pseudoscientific racial paradigms. Second, new science proving the fallacy of race is ignored because ignoring new paradigmatic science is in fact the way normal science operates. Thus, a paradigmatic analysis of race may help to explain why current social science approaches to the demise of racial thought may be ineffective.

Using Population Genetics to Interrogate the Monogenic Nephrotic Syndrome Diagnosis in a Case Cohort.

To maximize clinical benefits of genetic screening of patients with nephrotic syndrome (NS) to diagnose monogenic causes, reliably distinguishing NS-causing variants from the background of rare, noncausal variants prevalent in all genomes is vital. To determine the prevalence of monogenic NS in a North American case cohort while accounting for background prevalence of genetic variation, we sequenced 21 implicated monogenic NS genes in 312 participants from the Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network and 61 putative controls from the 1000 Genomes Project (1000G). These analyses were extended to available sequence data from approximately 2500 subjects from the 1000G. A typical pathogenicity filter identified causal variants for NS in 4.2% of patients and 5.8% of subjects from the 1000G. We devised a more stringent pathogenicity filtering strategy, reducing background prevalence of causal variants to 1.5%. When applying this stringent filter to patients, prevalence of monogenic NS was 2.9%; of these patients, 67% were pediatric, and 44% had FSGS on biopsy. The rate of complete remission did not associate with monogenic classification. Thus, we identified factors contributing to inaccurate monogenic classification of NS and developed a more accurate variant filtering strategy. The prevalence and clinical correlates of monogenic NS in this sporadically affected cohort differ substantially from those reported for patients referred for genetic analysis. Particularly in unselected, population-based cases, considering putative causal variants in known NS genes from a probabilistic rather than a deterministic perspective may be more precise. We also introduce GeneVetter, a web tool for monogenic assessment of rare disease.

On the robustness of estimates of mechanical anisotropy in the continental lithosphere: A North American case study and global reanalysis

Lithospheric strength variations both influence and are influenced by many tectonic processes, including orogenesis and rifting cycles. The long, complex, and highly anisotropic histories of the continental lithosphere might lead to a natural expectation of widespread mechanical anisotropy. Anisotropy in the coherence between topography and gravity anomalies is indeed often observed, but whether it corresponds to an elastic thickness that is anisotropic remains in question. If coherence is used to estimate flexural strength of the lithosphere, the null-hypothesis of elastic isotropy can only be rejected when there is significant anisotropy in both the coherence and the elastic strengths derived from it, and if interference from anisotropy in the data themselves can be plausibly excluded. We consider coherence estimates made using multitaper and wavelet methods, from which estimates of effective elastic thickness are derived. We develop a series of statistical and geophysical tests for anisotropy, and specifically evaluate the potential for spurious results with synthetically generated data. Our primary case study, the North American continent, does not exhibit meaningful anisotropy in its mechanical strength. Similarly, a global reanalysis of continental gravity and topography using multitaper methods produces only scant evidence for lithospheric flexural anisotropy.