North-central Alabama Research Articles

Surface Mine Land Reforestation: Using Poultry Litter

Poultry and coal production are two major industries concentrated in north-central Alabama. Standard surface coal mine reclamation procedures were compared to procedures utilizing poultry litter in an 3.24-ha mine site. Three 0.4-ha plots amended with litter at rates of 25, 50, and 100 mt/ha, were compared to a plot with mineral fertilizer (13N–13–P13K) at standard reclamation rates of 672 kg/ha, and a plot receiving no fertilizer or litter. All plots were amended with ground limestone and disced in 31 cm. A mix of fescue, lespedeza, rye, and clover was broadcast over all plots uniformly. Eight tree species; northern red oak, nuttall oak, willow oak, red maple, yellow poplar, royal paulownia, loblolly pine, and eastern red cedar were planted in all plots at 1482 trees/ha. Forage yields (1995–96) in litter-amended plots were two to three times higher than statewide hay production averages. High litter rates have had no negative effects on ground cover, tree survival, or ground water nitrates (NO3). This project demonstrates broiler litter use as an organic-matter amendment in a self-sustaining reclamation success.

Explaining quality of life for persons with traumatic brain injuries 2 years after injury

Objective: To model the complex effects of demographic, psychosocial, physical, and rehabilitation variables on quality of life 2 years after hospital discharge. Design: Medical record and longitudinal survey data on traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors who did or did not receive formal rehabilitation services after being injured were analyzed. Setting: The study sample was selected from a representative sample of hospitals in north-central Alabama. Participants: Criteria for inclusion were: (1) 18 years and older with TBI; (2) discharged after hospital stay of 3 or more days; and (3) resided and injured in Alabama. There were 293 persons eligible for the 24-month follow-up survey, 186 (63%) of whom participated; the focus was on the 116 persons (of 186) who responded to the surveys themselves. Main Outcome Measure: A causal model of hypothesized direct and indirect effects of several variables on quality of life outcomes. Results: Employment was the strongest contributor of improved quality of life. Persons unable to pay for health care showed less improvement in functional independence 12 to 24 months postinjury and reported a poorer quality of life. The psychosocial variables of self-blame and family support improved quality of life by reducing impairments and increasing the likelihood of employment. Family support also improved quality of life by increasing functional independence. Fewer physical impairments and gains in functional independence directly improved quality of life. Conclusion: The interrelationships between psychosocial and physical variables are important when examining quality of life. Interventions are recommended targeting psychosocial variables and functional independence in efforts to improve quality of life.

Social and physical factors in the referral of people with traumatic brain injuries to rehabilitation

Using standardized data abstracted from a representative sample of hospitals in north-central Alabama, we analyze significant social and physical factors in acute care discharge referral patterns for 756 people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). When a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist is involved in the referral, patients receive more formal rehabilitation care following discharge, even after controlling for the relevant social and physical characteristics of the patient. Other significant variables predicting the level of rehabilitation care include presence of injury-related complications, abnormal computed tomography scan, longer length of acute care stay, being unmarried, older, and having an unintentional injury. Patients not seen by rehabilitation medicine specialists and/or those whose injuries provide less clinical evidence (implying greater uncertainty of diagnosis) are less likely to be referred to more formal rehabilitation. Thus, social and demographic factors may be significant in referral patterns when diagnostic uncertainty is present. Results suggest the importance of increasing availability of rehabilitation medicine consultation for TBI patients, while informing acute care providers about formal rehabilitation as a management option.

Aspects of Tornado Climatology in Alabama and Florida's Panhandle, 1962-1986

This study examines spatial and seasonal aspects of the tornado climatology of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. An emphasis is placed on latitudinal patterns of tornado frequency, intensity, and tornado-related casualties. Variables examined include geographic coordinates, Fujita intensity ratings, tornado path length and width, and tornado-related casualties for 866 tornadoes. Mapped patterns show that the area of highest tornado frequency is associated with low mean Fujita values and low frequencies of tornado-caused deaths and injuries. This area is centered on Pensacola Bay along the Gulf coast where air-mass thunderstorm-spawned tornadoes are common. A second node of maximum tornado frequency is located in north-central Alabama and has significantly larger mean Fujita values and higher casualty frequencies. Tornadoes in this area are more concentrated during spring when frontal activity is maximized.

Past Meets The Present

When asked to participate in a panel discussion about teaching women's history back in June 1988, I responded enthusiastically. I knew the occasion would provide an opportunity for me to speak about the students I had taught at the University of Alabama at Birmingham over the preceding five years. "UAB," as the university is called, is an urban campus that sprawls over 60 square blocks of the city, about one and one-half miles from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and two miles from Birmingham's infamous City Hall. The undergraduate college at UAB was 20 years old in 1989; organized after the Birmingham civil rights movement, the college is a vibrant symbol of the "New Birmingham." Today, the University is the city's largest employer, with a student body of 15,000 that is twenty percent black. Students come from an area once known as "The Birmingham District," the mountains and valleys of north central Alabama, rich in the coal and iron-ore that formed the bedrock of Birmingham's economy.

Mississippian (Chesterian) Sequence Stratigraphy in the Black Warrior Basin: Pride Mountain Formation (Lowstand Wedge) and Hartselle Sandstone (Transgressive Systems Tract)

ABSTRACT The Pride Mountain Formation (Gasperian Stage) is primarily a shelfal shale containing two deltaic sandstone members, the Lewis and the overlying Evans. Punctuating this siliciclastic section are thin limestones that mark interruptions in siliciclastic supply. Sand-rich deltaic facies occur to the north and east whereas distal, shale-dominated facies occur to the south and west. Isolith and isopach maps describe A) dip elongate, river-dominated lobes in the Lewis; and B) cuspate, wave-dominated lobes with SW/NE trending shorelines in the Evans. Both sets of lobes thin downdip to the south and west. Petrographic analysis of these quartz arenites indicates a cratonic rather than orogenic source. Southward flowing rivers, draining the craton, supplied sediment to the prograding Pride Mountain deltas. The overlying Hartselle Sandstone (Hombergian Stage) consists of relatively thin, less that 10 m thick, wave-dominated deltas with E/W to NW/SE trending shorelines; progradation was to the south and southwest. In northwest Alabama these deltas are arranged in an aggradational pattern; beginning in northeast Alabama they are in a backstepping or transgressive pattern that produces a nearly continuous sheet sandstone that extends across Tennessee to south-central Kentucky. Beginning in north-central Alabama the Hartselle disconformably overlies subaerially weathered Monteagle Limestone. Paleosol remnants have been identified in the uppermost Monteagle from Huntsville, Alabama, north to Cookeville, Tennessee. The subaerial weathering of the shallow-water, ramp carbonates of the Monteagle Limestone indicates a pronounced fall in relative sea level. This drop exposed the carbonate ramp as far south as northern Mississippi and Alabama. The Pride Mountain Formation and the Hartselle Sandstone of northwest Alabama represents a lowstand wedge deposited after sea level stabilized. One incised-valley fill associated with the Lewis Sandstone Member has been identified in the north Alabama subsurface; the Bethel channel-fill of north Kentucky is equivalent in age and may be related to this hypothesized Alabama, lower Chesterian valley-fill complex. The Hartselle Sandstone of northeast Alabama and central Tennessee is a transgressive systems tract that was deposited during the subsequent relative sea-level rise as the siliciclastic shoreline moved back to the north.

Hydrocarbon Assessment of the Chattanooga (Devonian) Shale in North Alabama, Northwest Georgia, and South Tennessee: ABSTRACT

Devonian oil-bearing shale (Chattanooga Shale) occurs over a wide area of north-central Alabama and south-central Tennessee. Four counties, Limestone and Madison Counties, Alabama, and Giles and Lincoln Counties, Tennessee, appear to have the best potential for future development in the region. In this area, the shale ranges from 0 to 15 ft (4.5 m) thick and has less than 100 ft (30 m) of overburden. The shale is typically dark gray to black with pyrite laminae and nodules. Very small lenses and interbeds of sandstone and siltstone, calcite streaks, phosphate nodules, and cherty layers occur locally. The unit is correlative with the Gassaway Member of the Chattanooga Shale as recognized in Tennessee. Shale samples of high oil content are typically very dark gray to black, slightly pyritic, and some have a petroliferous odor. Sandy and silty shale samples show a sharp decrease in oil yield values. In this region, the shale appears to have accumulated in a shallow (less than 100 ft, 30 m) marine reducing environment with a highly irregular shoreline and some scattered islands. If this depositional hypothesis is correct, it may account for the sporadic occurrence, variable thicknesses of the formation, and vertical variations of chemical data for the shale unit. Reconnaissance sampling throughout the four-county area, augmented by widely spaced core holes in Alabama, indicate that the shale has an average oil yield potential of 13 gal/ton by modified Fischer Assay. Maximum oil yield obtained was 23 gal/ton from a sample in Lincoln County, Tennessee. For samples having more than 7 gal/ton oil, whole rock and trace metals (Co, Cr, Mo, Ni, V, Ti, Zn, and U) analyses were made. Uranium values range from 0.0 to 70 parts per million (ppm) (av. 20 ppm). Values for other trace metals are as follows: Co 4 to 300 ppm (av. 91 ppm); Cr 5 to 200 ppm (av. 81 ppm); Mo 0 to 845 ppm (av. 230 ppm); Ni 10 to 600 ppm (av. 234 ppm); V 12 to 540 ppm (av. 257 ppm); Ti 3,000 to 11,500 ppm (av. 7,439 ppm); Zn 30 to 910 ppm (av. 228 ppm). Fixed carbon ranges from 0.60 to 12.97%, with an average of 9.58%. Total organic carbon averages 16.93 wt. % with a hydrocarbon index of 305 mg/g. The predominant clay mineral is illite, but mixed layered clays are common. The kerogen and organic content appears to coat and be interstitial to the quartz grains and clay particles. Coaly fragments were noted in some samples, but amorphous material suggestive of algal origin was noted in many samples. The components of the kerogen fraction are 29% aromatics, 65% resin and asphaltenes, and 6% saturates. Analyses of the extracted oil indicate 11% paraffins-naphthenes, 45.7% aromatics, 4.2% sulfur, 25.9% eluted NSOs, 1.5% non-eluted NSOs, and 11.7% precipated asphaltine. Solidstate 13C NMR spectra suggest a poor conversion of organic carbon to oil. End_of_Article - Last_Page 539------------

THE EVOLUTION OF AUTOGAMY IN SPECIES OF THE MUSTARD GENUS LEAVENWORTHIA.

In about 80% of all species of hermaphroditic flowering plants the pollen is incapable of germinating on the styles of the flowers that produce it, a condition known as selfincompatibility (Fryxell, 1960). The genetic control is usually simple, one-locus, and multiallelic (Lewis, 1954) although more complex two-locus systems are known (Lundquist, 1975). In a number of species the incompatibility mechanism has been shut off by a dominant mutation. These species are capable of self-fertilization. However, self-compatibility does not lead inevitably to self-pollination, and various degrees of selfing and outcrossing can take place (Stebbins, 1957). The general consensus (Lewis, 1954; Fryxell, 1960; Stebbins, 1957) is that self-incompatibility is the primitive condition in Angiosperms and that self-compatibility is secondary and derived. Since autogamy has evolved repeatedly, the evolutionary and genetic consequences of autogamy are of general interest. Autogamy tends to increase inbreeding, and in most normally cross-fertilized plants, inbreeding is known to decrease vigor and seed production (Darwin, 1877; Stebbins, 1957). Consequently it is valid to ask why some plants do become autogamous in spite of the apparently deleterious effects resulting from inbreeding. It is suspected that the losses due to inbreeding must be compensated for in some other way. To test the existence of such tradeoffs, a group of closely related taxa, growing in similar environments is required. One such group is the small genus Leavenworthia (Rollins, 1963). A single species is polyploid; the remaining six diploid species in the genus can be divided into two groups on the basis of chromosome number. One group with 11 pairs of chromosomes is formed by L. alabamica and L. crassa, which have both self-incompatible and selfcompatible populations (Rollins, 1963; Lloyd, 1965) and a derived self-compatible, largely selfed species, L. exigua. The other group of species with 15 pairs of chromosomes is composed of one self-incompatible species, L. stylosa, and two derived selfcompatible species, L. torulosa and L. uniflora. The seventh species in the genus is the polyploid L. aurea (n = 24), restricted in its distribution to local populations in eastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma (Fig. 1). All species grow on calcareous outcrops, known locally as cedar glades. Leavenworthia alabamica and L. crassa are restricted to glades in northern Alabama; L. stylosa and L. torulosa are found largely in Central Tennessee, while the two selfcompatible and highly autogamous species have a wider distribution. Leavenworthia exigua is found in north central Alabama, northwestern Georgia, central Tennessee, and northern Kentucky; L. uniflora grows from northern Alabama to southern Ohio and Indiana, and in Missouri and Arkansas. Species of Leavenworthia are found on limestone outcrops and occasionally in adjacent agricultural fields. The kinds of tradeoffs that are expected to occur as a result of changes in the breeding system involve the genetic structure of the population, the pollination mechanism, seed set efficiency, growth pattern, and size and distribution of populations. Consequently, the present study focused on all of these biological aspects of the species, and for each aspect we contrasted the behavior of outcrossing and selfing populations. Since such an in-depth study is very

An Occurrence of Avian Influenza Virus Infection in Laying Chickens

The isolation of avian influenza virus from chickens is reported for the first time in the United States since the fowl plague outbreak of 1929. The type-A virus was isolated from commercial Leghorn laying hens between 54 and 55 weeks old and involved three different farms in north-central Alabama. These flocks experienced up to 69% mortality and a severe decrease in egg production within a 14-day period.

A Preliminary Check List of Parasites of Some Domestic Fowls of Alabama

EARLY surveys in 1947 by the writer revealed several species of parasites commonly present in Alabama chickens; therefore, a general survey of parasites infesting poultry, particularly chickens, was thought to be worthwhile.A review of the literature revealed that very few poultry parasites had been reported for this state. In 1939–44, in annual reports to the Agricultural Experiment Station Director, Christenson listed the parasites he identified from 709 chickens that he had autopsied in connection with some Ascaridia studies. His birds came from the Station’s poultry farm and from other farms, particularly farms from one north-central Alabama county and from farms in the vicinity of Auburn. The six species of parasites he reported in chickens are starred in Table 1. During the same period, Earl and Christenson (1940) stated that Ascaridia lineata, Heterakis gallinae, Capillaria columbae, and Cheilospirura hamulosa are of considerable importance to the poultry raiser in Alabama, …