Northern Mississippi Research Articles

Association of Pathologic Nodal Staging Quality With Survival Among Patients With Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer After Resection With Curative Intent

Pathologic nodal stage is the most significant prognostic factor in resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer NSCLC staging project revealed intercontinental differences in N category-stratified survival. These differences may indicate differences not only in cancer biology but also in the thoroughness of the nodal examination. To determine whether survival was affected by sequentially more stringent definitions of pN staging quality in a cohort of patients with NSCLC after resection with curative intent. This observational study used the Mid-South Quality of Surgical Resection cohort, a population-based database of lung cancer resections with curative intent. A total of 2047 consecutive patients who underwent surgical resection at 11 hospitals with at least 5 annual lung cancer resections in 4 contiguous US Dartmouth hospital referral regions in northern Mississippi, eastern Arkansas, and western Tennessee (>90% of the eligible population) were included. Resections were performed from January 1, 2009, through January 25, 2016. Survival was evaluated with the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models. Eight sequentially more stringent pN staging quality strata included the following: all patients (group 1); those with complete resections only (group 2); those with examination of at least 1 mediastinal lymph node (group 3); those with examination of at least 10 lymph nodes (group 4); those with examination of at least 3 hilar or intrapulmonary and at least 3 mediastinal lymph nodes (group 5); those with examination of at least 10 lymph nodes, including at least 1 mediastinal lymph node (group 6); those with examination of at least 1 hilar or intrapulmonary and at least 3 mediastinal nodal stations (group 7); and those with examination of at least 1 hilar or intrapulmonary lymph node, at least 10 total lymph nodes, and at least 3 mediastinal nodal stations (group 8). N category-stratified overall survival. Of the total 2047 patients (1046 men [51.1%] and 1001 women [48.9%]; mean [SD] age, 67.0 [9.6] years) included in the analysis, the eligible analysis population ranged from 541 to 2047, depending on stringency. Sequential improvement in the N category-stratified 5-year survival of pN0 and pN1 tumors was found from the least stringent group (0.63 [95% CI, 0.59-0.66] for pN0 vs 0.46 [95% CI, 0.38-0.54] for pN1) to the most stringent group (0.71 [95% CI, 0.60-0.79] for pN0 vs 0.60 [95% CI, 0.43-0.73] for pN1). The pN1 cohorts with 3 or more mediastinal nodal stations examined had the most striking survival improvements. More stringently defined mediastinal nodal examination was associated with better separation in survival curves between patients with pN1 and pN2 tumors. The prognostic value of pN stratification depends on the thoroughness of examination. Differences in thoroughness of nodal staging may explain a large proportion of intercontinental survival differences. More thorough nodal examination practice must be disseminated to improve the prognostic value of the TNM staging system. Future updates of the TNM staging system should incorporate more quality restraints.

The Impact of Captain Jonathan Carver’s Maps and Journal on the 1782–1783 British-American Peace Agreement

ABSTRACTThe Preliminary Articles of Peace signed in Paris on 30 November 1782 brought the American Revolutionary War to a close and defined the external limits of the United States of America. During negotiations, manuscript red boundary lines were added to the northwestern parts of at least two editions of John Mitchell’s 1755 map of North America. These red lines illuminate how Captain Jonathan Carver’s cartography and journal influenced the peace proceedings. Knowledge of Carver’s achievements in the northern Mississippi valley and western Great Lakes region gave the American commissioners a negotiating advantage and a more complete understanding of their ‘water line’ boundary and vast hinterland extending northwest of Lake Superior.

Velocity Structure of the Northern Mississippi Embayment Sediments, Part II: Inversion of TeleseismicP‐Wave Transfer Functions

Abstract Detailed shear and compressional gradient velocity structure for the unconsolidated sediments of the Mississippi Embayment (ME) have been obtained through simultaneous inversion of radial and vertical teleseismic transfer functions for 60 broadband stations inside the ME. Transfer functions were calculated by deconvolving a vertical array beam from the radial and vertical displacement at each station inside the embayment. The vertical array beam was constructed by stacking all the vertical components of motions for stations on the bedrock and outside the embayment to reduce the effect of incoherent scattering, improving estimates of the source time function and stabilizing the deconvolution. A bounded variable least‐squares inversion technique was applied to invert for velocity nodes on the top and bottom of the sediment layer. P ‐wave velocity changes from 1.0 km/s near the surface and increases with depth from 3.5 to 4 km/s in deeper parts. S ‐wave velocity varies from 0.3 km/s and increases to 1.6 km/s in deeper sections to the south. Electronic Supplement: Gradient velocity structure of the northern Mississippi Embayment sediments for 60 broadband stations.

Northern Mississippi

Northern Mississippi

Exploring Southeastern Archaeology ed. by Patricia Galloway and Evan Peacock

Reviewed by: Exploring Southeastern Archaeology ed. by Patricia Galloway and Evan Peacock Ashley A. Dumas Exploring Southeastern Archaeology. Edited by Patricia Galloway and Evan Peacock. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2015. Pp. xiv, 397. $70.00, ISBN 978-1-62846-240-1.) Exploring Southeastern Archaeology was assembled to honor the long career of Samuel O. Brookes, an archaeologist for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service in Mississippi from 1987 until his retirement in 2011. Brookes was responsible for protecting and investigating archaeological sites located on federally owned forest lands in the state. Potential readers may expect the book to provide broad coverage of the archaeology of the Southeast. In fact, fourteen of the sixteen chapters center on archaeology in Mississippi. The title also evokes the generality of a textbook, suggesting that the content is written for a wide audience, but most of the chapters require knowledge of archaeological terminology and a familiarity with the profession. Part 1 describes public archaeology programs in Mississippi’s national forests and their positive results. Editors Patricia Galloway and Evan Peacock introduce the volume by explaining the practice of cultural resource management, public archaeology, and Brookes’s successes therein. Peacock expands on these topics in chapter 2 by summarizing the contributions of Brookes-era forest archaeology, especially the dozens of publications based on data collected from Mississippi’s national forests by Brookes, his colleagues, and his protégés, and how their findings are shared with the general public. In chapter 3 Cliff Jenkins discusses the development of the Lower Delta Mound Trail, a self-guided driving tour of the extensive prehistoric Indian mounds in the lower Mississippi Delta. Creation of the trail involved summarizing the characteristics of the known mounds and an evaluation of their current conditions and major threats to their preservation. The next twelve chapters are grouped chronologically by cultural period. Part 2 discusses topics relating to the Archaic period. In chapter 4 Brookes and Melissa H. Twaroski explain the impact of the Hypsithermal, a warming phenomenon that occurred roughly between 8,500 and 5,000 years ago. They review multiple sources of geological and archaeological data to posit that environmental changes during the Hypsithermal served simultaneously to disrupt and to catalyze, leading to significant migrations of people and innovations in material culture. Chapter 5, by Jessica Crawford, presents a much-needed summary of the stone effigy beads unique to the Middle Archaic period in the mid-South. Crawford evaluates the hypothesis that these beads may have been totemic symbols used to facilitate long-distance exchange networks. The authors of chapter 6, Alison M. Hadley and Philip J. Carr, investigate whether the beads were made by craft specialists. The results could have implications for understanding the level of cultural complexity among Middle Archaic peoples, but Hadley and Carr admit that their organization of technology model does not work well to evaluate symbolic artifacts like chert effigy beads. The most famous Archaic-period site is Poverty Point in northeast Louisiana. A marker of Poverty Point’s influential culture is the widespread distribution of small, baked clay objects, known as Poverty Point Objects (PPOs), believed [End Page 141] to have been used as a type of cooking stone. In chapter 7 Christopher T. Hays, James B. Stoltman, and Richard A. Weinstein analyze the composition and form of PPOs from four states to determine if some types were unique to the regions in which they are found or if they were imports. This chapter’s excellent summary of PPO types and data is part of a larger, as yet unpublished, study whose initial results are already improving our understanding of the Poverty Point exchange network. Part 3 includes five chapters focusing on sites dating to the Woodland and Mississippian periods. In chapter 8 Peacock examines sites associated with the poorly understood Early Woodland Tchula culture. His data from surveys and excavations in the Holly Springs National Forest in the northern Mississippi uplands helps refine the differences among sedentary and seasonal occupations and special-purpose sites. Given the lack of information on Tchula period culture, especially in the upland forests, the data on ceramics and stone artifacts deserves publication. In chapter 9 Keith...

Influences of host plant identity and disturbance on spatial structure and community composition of ectomycorrhizal fungi in a northern Mississippi uplands ecosystem

Abstract We sought to characterize how abiotic and biotic factors, including identities of tree hosts, influence ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal composition on tree roots in mixed upland forests of northern Mississippi, where sites have been subject to restoration treatments through burning, manual and natural (tornado) thinning. We identified both plant and fungal components of root tips and collected data on abiotic factors that potentially drive variation in ECM fungal community composition. We found that plant host identity and measured abiotic factors explained less than 8% of variation in ECM fungal community composition. ECM fungal community composition did not differ significantly between control and burned/thinned plots; however, it did differ substantially at the tornado-damaged plot, which also exhibited significant spatial structure. These results suggest that much variation in ECM communities is unexplained by commonly measured biotic and abiotic variables and natural disturbance may play a role in both community and spatial structure of ECM fungi.

Formation of the Marianna Gap, A Transverse Stream Valley, through Crowley’s Ridge, Northern Mississippi Alluvial Valley, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT Based on geomorphology, ages, and stratigraphy, the Marianna gap through Crowley’s ridge, a 13 km breach through a large‐scale unconsolidated horst in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, as well as the transverse drainage that flows through the gap, began forming about 17 ka and were completely formed by 7–10 ka. Formation was driven by tectonic subsidence along part of the eastern margin of the Reelfoot rift, an aulacogen that has impacted development of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley region since the Precambrian. The breach occurred gradually, by subsidence‐driven fluvial erosion, and/or suddenly, by faulting. Our findings build on previous studies that suggest the eastern Reelfoot rift margin, as well as other nearby faults, have been recently active, evidenced by large‐scale sand blows emplaced in the Marianna gap area in the past 5–12 ky. We propose a mode of transverse drainage development that differs from previous modes in that it is driven by subsidence within a sedimentary basin, rather than uplift in an orogenic mountain belt. Our findings have implications for understanding both transverse drainage development in a sedimentary basin, and seismic potential of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and other aulacogens worldwide.

Unusual aetiology of a hilar mass in a man with history of thyroid cancer

A 39-year-old male non-smoking lumberyard worker from northern Mississippi was referred for evaluation of a left lower lobe mass. He had been treated 4 years earlier for papillary thyroid cancer...

Petrology of Pliocene Mississippi River Alluvium: Provenance Implications

Pliocene Mississippi River terrace gravels, the Upland Complex, crop out east and west of the present Mississippi River in the northern Mississippi Embayment. As the only sedimentary unit in the northern Mississippi Embayment deposited between the end of the Eocene and the onset of glaciation, its origin provides ground truth about conditions that existed in the heartland of North America within this 30-m.yr. interval. Recent studies concluded that the Pliocene Mississippi River originated in what is now southern Canada and that the Upland Complex is the remnant of a much larger deposit that once extended from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Is there some evidence in the petrology of the Upland Complex that can confirm this conclusion? To determine the provenance of the Upland Complex, we sampled 18 exposures, analyzed ∼50 thin sections, and obtained source terrane age data from its zircons. Upland Complex gravel came from proximal early Paleozoic carbonate rocks containing bedded and nodular chert north and northeast of the Mississippi Embayment with a possible distant contribution from as far away as southcentral Canada. Upland Complex sand came from multiple sources, including the Saint Francois Mountains of Missouri, the Grenville Terrane, and, possibly, southcentral Canada. We conclude that the Pliocene Mississippi River probably drained a much larger area than present Mississippi, an area that extended well north of the US-Canada border into Manitoba and Ontario.

Predictors of Bone Mineral Density among Asian Indians in Northern Mississippi: A Pilot Study.

Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mineral density (BMD) that leads to an increase in bone fragility, causing an individual to be at an increased risk for fractures. Asian-Indians are at an increased risk for developing osteoporosis. Considering the number of Asian-Indians in the US is rapidly growing, they likely could be an underappreciated population at risk for bone fractures. The aim of this study was to investigate bone health and determine the factors affecting BMD in Asian-Indians living in the US. Asian-Indians residing in Northern Mississippi (n = 87) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study from June 2013 to August 2014. Eligible participants completed a self-administered Osteoporosis Risk Factor Assessment questionnaire. BMD and body composition were measured using a dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scan (DXA). Eight-seven Asian-Indians (male: 62.1%) participated, with the average age being 28.49 yr old (SD = 6.62). Overall, 31.0% and 48.3% had low femoral neck BMD and spinal BMD, respectively. Multiple regression analysis revealed that age, percent body fat, and body mass index (BMI) significantly predicted BMD at femur neck (P<0.05). Additionally, percent body fat, BMI, childhood milk consumption, and gender were statistically significant predictors of spinal BMD (P<0.05). The findings from this study should be beneficial to healthcare providers that work with Asian-Indian population groups. Health promotion programs focusing on osteoporosis prevention are needed among Asian-Indians to prevent the risk of fractures.

A joint local and teleseismic tomography study of the Mississippi Embayment and New Madrid Seismic Zone

AbstractDetailed, upper mantle P and S wave velocity (Vp and Vs) models are developed for the northern Mississippi Embayment (ME), a major physiographic feature in the Central United States (U.S.) and the location of the active New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). This study incorporates local earthquake and teleseismic data from the New Madrid Seismic Network, the Earthscope Transportable Array, and the FlexArray Northern Embayment Lithospheric Experiment stations. The Vp and Vs solutions contain anomalies with similar magnitudes and spatial distributions. High velocities are present in the lower crust beneath the NMSZ. A pronounced low‐velocity anomaly of ~ −3%–−5% is imaged at depths of 100–250 km. High‐velocity anomalies of ~ +3%–+4% are observed at depths of 80–160 km and are located along the sides and top of the low‐velocity anomaly. The low‐velocity anomaly is attributed to the presence of hot fluids upwelling from a flat slab segment stalled in the transition zone below the Central U.S.; the thinned and weakened ME lithosphere, still at slightly higher temperatures from the passage of the Bermuda hotspot in mid‐Cretaceous, provides an optimal pathway for the ascent of the fluids. The observed high‐velocity anomalies are attributed to the presence of mafic rocks emplaced beneath the ME during initial rifting in the early Paleozoic and to remnants of the depleted, lower portion of the lithosphere.

A Substantial Disruption of Public Concern: TINKER, BELL V. ITAWAMBA, and Internet Speech for High School Students

Over fifty years ago, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District established a standard for protected on-campus speech, allowing students to protest the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands during school hours.Fast-forward to the twenty-first century, and concerns about smart phones, social media, and the Internet have resulted in application of the Tinker test to off-campus speech in most of the United States circuit courts of appeals, with some dissent in the Third Circuit. Bell v. Itawamba County School District originated in rural northern Mississippi and made its way to the Fifth Circuit, where an en banc decision upheld a school board’s punishment of a student for a YouTube video, composed off-campus, full of violent rhetoric and allegations of teacher-on-student sexual impropriety. The majority of the panel of judges found that the school district’s policy banning conduct that threatens, harasses, or intimidates was constitutional, using Tinker to analyze the conduct. Originally a three-judge panel issued an opposite ruling that the student’s speech was protected and Tinker did not extend off-campus.The intermediate courts disagree over when and where Tinker applies. The current climate in public schools, where use of technology is encouraged yet boundaries and norms are constantly evolving, beckons for a new, consistently applied standard for high school student speech that takes the existence of a new online forum into account. This conflict should be resolved by the Supreme Court. Tinker is overdue for an update.

Fruits, seeds and flowers from the Bovay and Bolden clay pits (early Eocene Tallahatta Formation, Claiborne Group), northern Mississippi, USA

Fruits, seeds and flowers from the Bovay and Bolden clay pits (early Eocene Tallahatta Formation, Claiborne Group), northern Mississippi, USA

The Central United States Seismic Observatory: Site Characterization, Instrumentation, and Recordings

ABSTRACT The Central United States Seismic Observatory is a vertical seismic array located in southwestern Kentucky within the New Madrid seismic zone. It is intended to describe the effects of local geology, including thick sediment overburden, on seismic‐wave propagation, particularly strong motion. The three‐borehole array is composed of seismic sensors placed on the surface, in the bedrock, and at various depths within the 585‐m‐thick sediment overburden. The array’s deep borehole also provided a unique opportunity in the northern Mississippi embayment for the direct geologic description and geophysical measurement of the complete Late Cretaceous–Quaternary sediment column. A seven‐layer intrasediment velocity model is interpreted from the complex, inhomogeneous stratigraphy. The S ‐ and P ‐wave sediment velocities range between 160 and 875 m/s and between 1000 and 2300 m/s, respectively, and their bedrock velocities range between 1452 and 3775 m/s, respectively. Seismometers and accelerometers operate both at the surface and 2 m into bedrock, with strong‐motion accelerometers at depths of 30, 259, and 526 m. The array operation has been frequently interrupted by the large hydrostatic pressures on the deeper instrumentation; however, the full array has recorded weak‐motion response from 95 earthquakes at local, regional, and teleseismic distances. Initial observations reveal a complex spectral mix of amplification and de‐amplification across the array, indicating the site effect in this deep‐sediment setting is not simply generated by the shallowest layers. Preliminary horizontal‐to‐vertical spectral ratio (H/V) experiments show the bedrock vertical and horizontal amplitudes are not equal, a required assumption for site characterization. Further, there are marked differences between spectral ratios from the directly measured transfer function (H/H) and H/V for particular earthquakes. On average, however, the H/H and H/V methods are coincident within a narrow band of frequencies ranging between 0.35 and 1.1 Hz.

A modified HVSR method to evaluate site effect in Northern Mississippi considering ocean wave climate

This paper presents the time history maps of horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) of 12 long-term microtremor recordings (LTRs) in Northern Mississippi and the coastal area of Gulf of Mexico. These maps show that a stable predominant frequency (f0) value can be estimated across most of Northern Mississippi where the unconsolidated sediment thickness (UST) is larger than 300m. On the other hand, estimates of amplification factor, taken as HVSR values at f0 (HVSR@f0), display a strong time-dependency, potentially caused by variations of source location and energy level of microseism, i.e. ocean wave activities in Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Validity of this observation is examined by calculating transfer functions between HVSR@f0 and ocean data (ocean wave height, ocean wind speed and atmospheric pressure above ocean). Additionally, 3D microtremor spectra of each LTR and those of all STRs within each 100m-UST group are converted into spatial spectral vectors and projected on stereographic nets. Patterns of the clusters formed by these projections show that the HVSR@f0 values are related to both UST and vibration source location and energy level. Finally, a modified HVSR method based on stereographic projection is proposed to determine the average spectral vector of each cluster, which enables a more accurate estimation of amplification factor.

Southern Borderlands: Music, Migrant Life, and Scenes of a “Mexican South”

Southern BorderlandsMusic, Migrant Life, and Scenes of a “Mexican South” Alex E. Chávez (bio) It’s a typical sweltering July evening in central Texas, close to ten o’clock. The incandescent buzz of city lights in the distance washes over the night sky, an amber glow that crowns the ballroom outside of town where an anxious gathering of Mexican migrants saunters along concrete bleachers; some lean out across the flanking metal railing and peer toward the crowd of several hundred below. The buzz of laughter and conversation nervously crescendos every now and then in anticipation of the musical performance everyone is awaiting. These soon-to-be dancers are nestled between two tablados (raised benches) positioned at opposite ends of the dance floor. A few of the musicians drove in from northern Mississippi for the night—just south of the Tennessee border. It’s hard to imagine, considering Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast a mere two weeks prior. Fallen trees and downed power lines marked the damage. Surely—they knowingly anticipate—they will be folded into the rapid response labor force required to clean up and repair the region. They already work construction, pave roads, and plant pine trees in those parts. A few years later I’d find that most would make the move up to Tennessee: “En Mississippi ya no hay gente, se han ido a Memphis . . . se puso dura la ley.” (There aren’t that many people in Mississippi, they’ve all gone to Memphis . . . the law [local authorities] got tough.) Four silhouettes appear on one tablado, moving leisurely, but with purpose, positioning themselves with their instruments—two violins, a guitarra quinta huapanguera (eight-string bass-guitar), and a vihuela (small five-stringed chordophone). They assume their positions, exchange glances, quietly confer, subtly coaxing the music soon to be produced. They gaze over at the tablado yonder, now similarly occupied by a matching ensemble, waiting patiently. The audience instinctively focuses on the shadows that have emerged above them. And as if without warning, the strumming of stringed instruments booms out through the PA, elaborate fiddle melodies erupt, followed by the soaring voice of the poet-practitioner, embracing those present, scanning the scene before him, his mind weaving through the audience, drifting, shaping, moving verses that elicit a chorus of gritos (shrill cries of emotional release). The moment grows dense, binding, stretching, reaching, as his improvised poetics skillfully layer the present-tense currency of this time and place with that of far away rural communities in central Mexico. In an era marked by intensified Mexican migration to the United States, linked to [End Page 35] increased transnational economic integration between both countries in the guise of “free trade,” the free movement of people across the U.S.–Mexico border is ever-more restricted as that geography becomes outrageously militarized; and this gathering is that which thrives, as displaced families cross the border clandestinely in efforts to improve their life chances and mitigate the “ruins of nafta”—despite the low-intensity violence mobilized against them.1 Dancers bend long and pivot rapidly, shaking and twisting. Their inertia extends out to different parts of the body only to tumble back to its core, giving off heat, exchanging energy, carefully patterning their individual movements, shadowing those of others, heads bobbing up and down or thrown back, arms swinging, hands swaying, bottoms rocking back and forth, huffing and puffing along. Steps grow louder, building a sonic wake that mirrors the vigorous bowing and strumming of the musicians. Its tones sweep across the skin and its utterances linger, caught in the air, fading, but slowly, as the poets dynamically maneuver between the warmth of the gathering and distant places, crafting poetics that are close at hand, that pull things into view, tracing the assemblages and trajectories of Mexican migrant life. A music relatively unknown outside its region of origin in the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Querétaro, and San Luis Potosí, huapango arribeño takes its name from the Nahuatl word cuauhpanco—signifying the expression “atop of the wood,” which is a reference to the tarima (wooden platform) atop which people dance zapateado (patterned footwork) to various styles of vernacular Mexican...

Double‐Frequency Microseisms in Ambient Noise Recorded in Mississippi

Abstract This research presents the power spectral density (PSD) of double‐frequency (DF) microseisms of 13 continuous single‐point long‐term ambient noise recordings (LTRs) at five inland and two coastal locations selected in Mississippi and Louisiana states and 234 single‐point short‐term ambient noise recordings (STRs) in northern Mississippi. By correlating PSD of LTRs with the simultaneous ocean data (including significant ocean wave frequency, significant ocean wave height, ocean wind speed, and above‐ocean atmosphere pressure) of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, as well as local atmosphere pressure and wind speed, DF microseisms observed in northern Mississippi were shown to be shaped by a combined impact of both wave climates of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Particle motion analysis and calculation of vibration angle defined separately for LTRs and STRs strengthen this conclusion. The DF and PSD level at DF of STR plots in the horizontal direction versus unconsolidated sediment thickness show significant differences from the plots in the vertical direction, which indicates that the shear‐wave resonance in thick sediments modifies the DF microseisms more obviously in the horizontal than in the vertical direction.

Soil pipe collapses in a loess pasture of Goodwin Creek watershed, Mississippi: role of soil properties and past land use

AbstractLittle is known about the association of soil pipe collapse features with soil properties or land use history. Three loess covered catchments in northern Mississippi, USA were characterized to investigate these relationships. Soil pipe collapses were characterized for their size, type feature and spatial location along with soil properties across the three catchments. Although mapped as the same soil, one of the catchments did not contain pipe collapse features while the other two had 29.4 and 15.4 pipe collapses per hectare. These loess soils contained fragipan layers that are suspected of perching water, thereby initiating the piping processes. Pipe collapses associated with subsurface flow paths were not always consistent with surface topography. The surface layer tended to be non‐erodible while layers below, even the upper fragipan layers, were susceptible to erosion by pipeflow. Soil properties of the lowest fragipan layer were highly variable but tended to prevent further downward erosion of soil pipes and thus formed a lower boundary for gullies. Middle to lower landscape positions in one of the piped catchments contained anthropic soils that were highly erodible. These anthropic soils were previously gullies that were filled‐in in the 1950s when forested areas, assumed to have been established when land was previously converted from crop to forest land, were converted to pasture. Three decades after this land use change from forest to pasture, pipe collapses became evident. In contrast, the adjacent catchment that does not exhibit pipe collapse features experienced severe sheet and rill erosion prior to the 1930s while in cotton production. The surface horizons above the lower fragipan layer were completely removed during this period, thus the top‐soil layer that tends to form a bridge above soil pipes in the more erodible subsoil layers was removed. This study showed that knowledge of soil characteristics or topography alone do not explain the distribution of soil pipe collapses as past land use can play a definitive role. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

"Test, Listen, Cure" (TLC) Hepatitis C Community Awareness Campaign.

BackgroundImproved drugs have been approved for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV), but many people are unaware of improved therapies that are now available to cure the illness in a high percentage of patients.ObjectiveThe objectives of the Test, Listen, Cure (TLC) Hepatitis C Community Awareness Campaign include the development and implementation of a health education and promotion campaign in Memphis, Tennessee, and surrounding areas of western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, and northern Mississippi, to increase community awareness about HCV, and to provide up-to-date provider education on HCV screening and treatment. The health education and promotion campaign, which will be conducted in collaboration with area hospitals, clinics, and nonprofit organizations, will provide information about how HCV infection is transmitted, risk factors for the disease, the importance of screening and treatment, and the availability of improved treatment for the disease. A second objective will be to provide continuing professional education on HCV screening and treatment to a minimum of 200 area health care providers, including primary care and internal medicine physicians and residents, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, providers who care for homeless persons, and dialysis unit nurses.MethodsHealth education materials will be developed for this community awareness campaign that is culturally appropriate for African Americans and suitable for people with lower health literacy and educational attainment. Information will be compiled and disseminated about area providers who provide screening services and treatment for persons with HCV in order to facilitate linkages to care. Four focus groups of 8-10, African American adults aged 40-64, will be conducted to test the health education materials. The provider education on HCV will also address patient-physician communication and cultural competency. The National Medical Association regional chapters and expert physician consultants will provide assistance with delivering the education program.ResultsResults from this one year project will be available in early 2016.ConclusionsDepending on the availability of funding and successful implementation of the project, the TLC campaign will be extended to similar cities in the United States.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Collections of&lt;em&gt; &lt;/em&gt;immature &lt;em&gt;Amblyomma maculatum &lt;/em&gt;Koch (Acari: Ixodidae) from Mississippi, U.S.A.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Immatures of Amblyomma maculatum have historically been difficult to collect when not on an animal host, thus a definite seasonality of the immatures has never been determined. In this study, we made tick collections at two sites during 2012–2014. Site A (Oktibbeha County) in northern Mississippi, and Site B (Jackson County) in southern Mississippi, were sampled from September-May and October-May, respectively. Sampling was made from vegetation with a 1 m2 weighted white corduroy drag cloth, dry ice traps, and also a novel method known as “swabbing.” A total of 157 ticks was collected, with 42% (n=65) being A. maculatum. Of these 65, only 20% (n=13) were immatures, with 18.5% (n=12) being nymphs, and a larva (1.5%) (collected by swabbing). To our knowledge, this is only the third time that a larva of this species have been collected from vegetation in the United States. The larva is the first collected from Mississippi in November, and expands the known seasonality of this stage. Of the twelve nymphs collected, one was found during May, becoming the first collected south of U.S. Route 84 in Mississippi during this month.