This article sketches the multidimensional nature of juvenile detention in the United States—its problems and solutions. Data presented include detention one-day population and admission rates, juvenile arrests, court referrals, and lengths of stay. These data show that overcrowding in juvenile detention is at crisis levels and can have dangerous effects on incarcerated youth. Several strategies are suggested for reducing the inappropriate detention of youth, strategies that are complex and sometimes produce unintended consequences.
Similar patterns of parasite prevalence in animal communities may be driven by a range of different mechanisms. The influences of host heterogeneity and host-parasite interactions in host community assemblages are poorly understood. We sampled birds at 27 wetlands in South Africa to compare four hypotheses explaining how host community heterogeneity influences host specificity in avian haemosporidia communities: the host-neutral hypothesis, the super-spreader hypothesis, the host specialist hypothesis and the heterogeneity hypothesis. A total of 289 birds (29%) were infected with Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and/or Leucocytozoon lineages. Leucocytozoon was the most diverse and generalist parasite genus, and Plasmodium the most conservative. The host-neutral and host specialist hypotheses received the most support in explaining prevalence by lineage (Leucocytozoon) and genus (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus), respectively. We observed that haemosporidian prevalence was potentially amplified or reduced with variation in host and/or parasitic taxonomic levels of analysis. Our results show that Leucocytozoon host abundance and diversity was influential to parasite prevalence at varying taxonomic levels, particularly within heterogeneous host communities. Furthermore, we note that prevalent mechanisms of infection can potentially act as distinct roots for shaping communities of avian haemosporidia.
Informed management of livestock on rangelands underpins both the livelihoods of communities that depend on livestock for sustenance, and the conservation of wildlife that often depend on livestock-dominated landscapes for habitat. Understanding spatial patterns of rangeland productivity is therefore crucial to designing global development strategies that balance social and environmental benefits. Here we introduce a new rangeland production model that dynamically links the Century ecosystem model with a basic ruminant diet selection and physiology model. With lightweight input data requirements that can be met with global sources, the model estimates the viability of broad livestock management decisions, and suggests possible implications of these management decisions for grazing wildlife. Using minimal field data, the new rangeland production model enables the reliable estimation of cattle stocking density; this is an important predictor of the viability of livestock production and forage available for grazing wildlife.
Anthropogenic stressors from onshore and offshore activities can act as driving factors of disease for a wide range of marine organisms. Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) are prominently afflicted with a tumour-causing disease known as fibropapillomatosis (FP) caused by the chelonid alphaherpesvirus ChHV5. Previous studies indicate that pathways of FP transmission may be genetic (vertical transmission) or linked to causal factors in a turtle’s environment (horizontal transmission). In this paper patterns of FP prevalence were examined in 10,896 records of green turtles caught or found stranded around Watamu Bay, Kenya, between 2003 – 2020. Findings were focused on locational and seasonal factors that may potentially influence infection. The findings show that FP prevalence varies significantly on an annual basis. Location significantly influenced infection prevalence, with prevalence higher in open ocean sites than sites located within the creek. Infection prevalence was highest at sites around the creek mouth and north of the creek mouth, with both regions exhibiting disparate annual patterns of infection. This paper is the first to examine long-term trends of FP prevalence in-depth in this region and has implications for the health of turtles and marine biota found along the Kenyan coast, and potentially within the wider Western Indian Ocean region. The findings emphasize the need to distinguish the infection pathways of causative agents via: i) further examination of the links between infection and environmental and/or biont community factors; and ii) the collection of data pertinent to the genetic diversity of green turtles and associated ChHV5 viral strains occurring in the Western Indian Ocean.
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