Landscape modifications produce a myriad of long-lasting ecological and cultural legacies. In some cases, such practices may necessitate the need for proprietorship systems and cooperation among actors and institutions, particularly if these modifications lead to more favorable habitats. In Tampa Bay, Indigenous shell-terraforming generated conditions more suitable for tidal wetland habitats that descendants would have benefited from. We suggest that the recognition of ancestrally engineered landscapes may have been a motivator for negotiating sea tenure systems during public events like mound building. To explore this, we examine variations in mollusk size, species compositions, and oyster geochemistry between domestic and public contexts from five precolonial sites in two sub-basins in the Tampa Bay Estuary to elucidate potential harvesting regulations and tenure systems used in the management of mollusks between ca. AD 200 and 1000. Many of the observed differences in species composition and shell size between public and domestic contexts were minor. Still, dissimilarities in the season and environment of oyster harvests within and between site contexts were stronger and provided insights into shellfishing, site formations, and intra-site variation in ceremonialism that may reflect sea tenure systems. We interpret these patterns as resilient and flexible management institutions that spanned almost a millennium and contributed to sustainable oyster harvests and the persistent occupation of two villages fronting ancestrally generated estuarine sub-basins.
Background: Migraine is common among university students and may impair academic participation and daily functioning. To date, no studies have examined migraine in an Irish University setting. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among students at University College Dublin (2020-2021). Associations with demographics, physical activity, and comorbidities were examined using chi-square tests, prevalence ratios (PRs), and logistic regression. Results: Of 494 respondents, 124 (25.1%) reported migraine. Prevalence was higher among students >30 years old (53.4% vs. 21.3%; PR 2.51), females (28.6% vs. 13.8%; PR 2.06), postgraduates (34.8% vs. 21.2%; PR 1.64), non-athletes (29.1% vs. 10.5%; PR 2.77), and those not meeting physical activity guidelines (31.1% vs. 22.0%; PR 1.41). Migraine was more prevalent among those reporting physical and mental health conditions. Variables that remained independently associated with migraine in adjusted cross-sectional models included older age (AOR approximate to 4), female gender (AOR approximate to 2), and physical (AOR approximate to 3) and mental health conditions (AOR approximate to 1.7). Conclusions: These findings highlight the relevance of migraine within the student population and may inform future research and service planning.
Aim Restoration benchmarks often assume an undisturbed historic range of variability, if they include historic information at all. However, recent research highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of shifting baselines and how to best incorporate past variabilities in modern management. We investigate trends in oyster size through time (ca. 250-2024 ce) and space (ca. 1000 km2) in the Tampa Bay Estuary to understand when and where ecologically significant changes to oyster populations occurred. By implementing a multiscalar approach, this study contributes historical ecological data relevant to contemporary restoration and management efforts and provides insights into understanding long-term socioecological dynamics in Florida's largest open-water estuary.Location Tampa Bay Estuary, Florida, USA.Time Period ca. 250-2024 ce.Taxon Mollusca; Crassostrea virginica.Methods We measured sizes of over 15,000 oyster shells from archaeological sites and contemporary reefs across four estuarine sub-basins over approximately 2000 years to assess how mean and maximum shell sizes responded to shifts in climate and human harvesting and settlement patterns.Results We demonstrate a non-linear decline in oyster sizes through time, including a steep decline in oyster size prior to European colonization and commercial harvest. Changes in oyster size varied across sub-regions, and there was no consistent response to climatic variability. A moderate rebound in oyster size during the 19th century is evident and coincides with several social factors that alleviated harvest pressures for a relatively short period. However, most of the largest contemporary oysters remain significantly smaller than those in the deeper past.Main Conclusions Archaeological datasets provide relevant historical ecological information for understanding modern era declines in molluscs. Our data reveal that no single baseline exists for oyster size in Tampa Bay. Instead, oyster populations responded in complex ways to climatic variability, ecological stressors and human interactions. Oyster size is a valuable functional trait linked to reproduction and reef resilience, and management targets that reference past demographic states should be framed as dynamic ranges and evaluated at sub-regional scales.
Utah has a unique religious subculture that emerges from the historical and demographic prominence of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS, or Mormon church). Scholars argue that in recent decades this subculture is eroding as disaffiliation from Mormonism rises. This paper examines the demography, social attitudes and religiosity of current and former Mormons to understand the dynamics of Utah's shifting religious landscape. We find that current Mormons are better educated and more affluent than former Mormons. They are also more religious and politically conservative. By contrast, disaffiliating from Mormonism is concentrated among young people, and associated with progressive politics, especially on matters of sex and gender. Unlike studies conducted in previous decades, we find that women now leave the LDS Church at least as frequently as men. Mormons who exit are more likely to abandon religion altogether than switch to another faith. We discuss the implication of these findings for the sociology of religion.
To test the capability of a novel spatial analysis to track macro and micro level changes in where crime occurs after policy change. We implement a pre-processing method for spatial data called “Distance of Distances”, to detect geospatial clusters of crime within a radius around a central point. Using COVID-19 “shelter in place” restrictions in New York City, we examine before-and after changes in the spatial distribution and clustering of MVT on both a macro (citywide) level and a micro-level surrounding acute care hospitals. MVT gradually clustered more densely around the city center, and in outer regions, while cluster density declined at intermediate distances between the city center and the outer regions. Comparatively, MVT clusters quickly increased in distance from acute care hospitals, demonstrating that changes in MVT were neither temporally nor spatially uniform. The analytical procedure of combining micro and macro effects yielded broader insights than may be found at only one level. This approach was useful for measuring spatial changes in offending across time, broadening the discussion on displacement and diffusion. The results offer a useful validation method for place-based analyses without the need to operationalize buffer regions.
