Eating competence (EC) includes diet quality, eating attitudes, food acceptance, internal regulation, and skills such as meal planning and preparation. The purpose of this research was to determine which factors were more predictive of EC in college students: their body mass index (BMI) or attitude about their weight. A convenience sample of 1,720 students from a large state university completed an Internet survey that included the validated Eating Competence Satter Inventory (ecSI). A multiple regression showed that weight satisfaction and desire to lose weight were better predictors of EC than BMI. These results suggest that interventions to increase EC and overall health and well‐being among college students should aim to improve body image and size acceptance.

Silvicultural cutting treatments may be needed to restore whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) forests, but little is known of the response of this species to removal of competition through prescribed burning or silvicultural cuttings. We analyzed stem cross-sections from 48 whitebark pine trees in Montana around which most of the competing vegetation was removed by timber harvest treatments. We compared tree ring growth rates before and after the harvest treatment using intervention analysis to determine 1) the potential of release for this littlestudied tree species and 2) whether the release is related to tree and stand characteristics. We defined release as a statistically significant increase in radial growth after competing trees were removed. All but one of our 48 sampled trees increased in diameter growth after competition was removed, while 40 trees showed a statistically significant (p<0.05) increase in growth. Diameter release was greatest in stands that were dense prior to tree cutting and greatest in old trees with large diameters. Recommendations for appropriate silvicultural cutting are included to aid managers in designing effective restoration treatments.

The men's NCAA basketball tournament is a popular sporting event often referred to as "March Madness." Each year the NCAA committee not only selects but also seeds the tournament teams. Invariably there is much discussion about which teams were included and excluded as well as discussion about the seeding of the teams. In this paper, we propose an innovative heuristic measure of team success, and we investigate how well the NCAA committee seeding compares to the computer-based placements by Sagarin and the rating percentage index (RPI). For the 2011 tournament, the NCAA committee selection process performed better than those based solely on the computer methods in determining tournament success.