Search Results (72)

Compsemys is an enigmatic turtle first described over 160 years ago. Its taxonomic position has been uncertain, as many of the species placed in the genus have since been removed from it. For the last 30+ years, Compsemys victa has been the only recognized North American fossil species. New fossil specimens collected from the Paleocene in the United States necessitate a re-evaluation of the taxonomy of these turtles and call into question the long-held belief that only one species of Compsemys is valid in North America. Specimens from the Paleocene are far more complete than the holotype of C. victa, and all have been referred to this species based on a similar surface texture. Differences between material from the Cretaceous and Paleocene suggest multiple species of Compsemys are valid. In addition to the genotypic species Compsemys victa, C. puercensis, and C. torrejonensis are both valid species from the Paleocene. Beyond surface sculpturing and texture, features of the carapace and plastron can be used to help differentiate the three species. North American Compsemys survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction. Rather than being a monospecific genus, Compsemys diversified in the Paleocene. Not only does this suggest an increase in the diversity of North American compsemydids, but it also leads to the possibility of asymmetric or budding cladogenesis among Compsemys species during the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene, at least in the American Southwest. Full article

Conservation is consistently expressed across the American craft brewery sector, with breweries routinely promoting wildlife protection, public land stewardship, and waste reduction through marketing schemes and materials. However, little attention has been directed at the patterns and themes characterizing such pro-environment marketing. Accordingly, this qualitative multi-case study explores the designs of pro-environment labels (i.e., eco-labels) and adjacent materials (e.g., product descriptions) from six purposively selected breweries across three regions: the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Mid-Atlantic. We aim to (a) pinpoint design variations in pro-environment marketing and (b) conceptualize a pro-environment marketing device (PEMD) typology to better inform pro-social marketing campaigns. The resulting PEMD typology features two dimensions: (1) indication (hedonism–conservation–environmentalism) and (2) orientation (greenwashing–environmental voyeurism–environmental stewardship). We contextualize these dimensions along an iconological progression (pre-iconography–iconology) to reveal the complexities and risks of pro-environment branding, especially by unintentionally leveraging the environment as an inauthentic sales prop (i.e., greenwashing). This typology helps pro-social marketers design and advance genuine pro-environment messaging. Additionally, it offers sustainability researchers a novel lens to interrogate how marketing design choices affect perceived brand authenticity and subsequent consumer behaviors regarding conservation and environmentalism. Full article

Foster parents working with children who are American Indian/Alaskan Native (AIAN) face challenges to provide trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate, and culturally relevant care for the children in their care. The Tribally Adapted National Training and Development Curriculum is a state-of-the-art training program designed to prepare foster parents to effectively parent AIAN children exposed to trauma and to provide these families with ongoing skill development necessary to understand and promote healthy child development. The current study describes the results of two focus groups (N = 11) that occurred in person in the social services office of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in May of 2022. Findings describe the experiences of participants that completed the tribal NTDC training and how the training impacted their readiness and experience to foster in comparison with parents of AIAN foster children who received the training-as-usual training protocol (Foster Parent College (FPC)) provided by the State child welfare authority. Full article

Background. Understanding the perspectives of Indigenous older adults about aging and dementia in different Indigenous communities can inform the provision of culturally grounded services and advance equity. However, the experiences and perspectives of Southwestern Pueblo communities are under-researched. Methods. Approved by the Zuni Tribal Government and IRB, this community-engaged, qualitative research explored Zuni older adults’ perceptions, experiences, and support needs. Two co-authors who are community members co-led four focus groups and transcribed them. Results. Twenty participants in four focus groups shared holistic perceptions of dementia. Whereas they often described dementia as a part of aging, they also expressed a strong desire for specialized dementia care and information. They expressed a strong commitment to caregiving as a cultural value, along with challenges and the need for resources to support caregiving as part of specialized dementia healthcare. The challenges experienced by community members were exacerbated by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the loss of loved ones, long-term COVID-19, disruption of gatherings, loneliness and social isolation. Conclusions. The need for culturally grounded services is inseparable from Zuni participants’ requests for specialized dementia services (including prevention, screening, and caregiving). As the first study to report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Zuni aging, it highlights the importance of re-building social services and gatherings in planning of service provision. Full article

Background: Older adults (aged 65 and older) faced a disproportionate burden of mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet substantial geographical and sociodemographic disparities in vaccine uptake persisted within this vulnerable population. Objective: To examine the temporal dynamics of COVID-19 vaccination rates among older adults and investigate the association between vaccination uptake and neighborhood-level social determinants of health (SDOHs), including disability and poverty. Methods: COVID-19 vaccination data for older adult residents in Jefferson County, Kentucky, were obtained from the Kentucky Immunization Registry (KYIR). ZIP-code-level vaccination rates were calculated at three time points: 28 February 2021 (Q1), 31 May 2021 (Q2), and 31 May 2022 (Q6). The rates were linked to 2021 American Community Survey (ACS) ZIP code-level estimates of disability, poverty, and household composition. Two-dose COVID-19 vaccination rates stratified by race, ethnicity, and geographic region were used as outcome measures. Pearson correlation coefficients, bivariate, and multivariate linear models were used to estimate the association between COVID-19 vaccination rates and the SDOHs at the ZIP code level. Results: Among the estimated 139,222 older adults, overall two-dose vaccination rates rose from 22.4% in Q1 to 77.5% by Q6. Significant regional disparities were observed early in the campaign, with Q1 rates ranging from 12.6% in the Southwest to 35.4% in the Inner East county regions. Bivariate analyses showed ZIP-code-level disability and poverty rates were negatively associated with ZIP-code-level vaccination uptake in Q1 (disability slope: −0.38; 95% CI, −0.63 to −0.13; poverty slope: −0.36; 95% CI, −0.65 to −0.07). By Q6, the negative association between disability and vaccination had weakened significantly and was no longer statistically significant, while the negative association between poverty rate and vaccination rate remained persistent across all time points. Conclusions: The disability-associated gaps in older adults’ vaccination rates were dynamic and narrowed over time, whereas the poverty-associated gaps remained persistent and static. The low uptake observed among Black and Hispanic older adults in historically underserved areas suggests that understanding the specific factors that most negatively associate with vaccination rates in these populations, such as specific disabilities, may mitigate structural barriers. Future public health interventions should prioritize socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods and account for the evolving association of functional impairments and healthcare access. Full article

The first global goal of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda (SDG 1) calls for addressing poverty as a condition produced through social vulnerability and environmental risk. This paper examines the relationship between vulnerability and poverty during concurrent drought and pandemic hazards in 2021 in the American Southwest, a context less studied in sustainability research. Drawing on disaster scholarship, we conceptualize the risk of poverty as the interaction of hazard exposure and social vulnerability. We construct a county-level dataset integrating environmental, epidemiological, and social indicators across Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, identifying income inequality and residential segregation as key dimensions of vulnerability. Using child poverty as a measurement lens, we apply spatial mapping alongside Relative and Attributable Risk metrics to assess how drought intensity, pandemic burden, and structural vulnerability contributed to spatially uneven poverty outcomes under dual hazards. Results indicate that drought had a stronger effect than COVID-19, yet pre-existing vulnerabilities were more consequential, with income inequality outweighing segregation, suggesting that hazards are most damaging where social inequalities limit resilience. Interpreting the results through the Capability Approach, we posit that sustainable poverty reduction requires not just income support and hazard mitigation, but expansion of instrumental economic, social, and political freedoms that enhance individuals’ capabilities to navigate risk and pursue long-term well-being. Full article

Faculty with disabilities are under-represented in institutions of higher education (IHE). Barriers to full inclusion and access have been described in recent syntheses and include issues surrounding in/visibility, disclosure concerns, stigma, denial of access needs, and feelings of isolation, among other concerns. Although IHE in the United States are bound by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and related legislation, accommodations for faculty are often provided slowly, sometimes reluctantly, and through arcane structures that prove difficult to navigate and involve decision-makers with limited training in disability. Creating equitable futures for individuals with disabilities requires a systematic approach that redresses prior harms, acknowledges present challenges and successes, and works toward ameliorating social, cultural, and physical environments to maximize inclusion and access. To better understand the needs of faculty with disabilities and to inform efforts to redress associated harms, we opportunistically analyze data from a survey of faculty with disabilities conducted at a public university in the American Southwest. We provide descriptive statistics of quantitative data and thematic analysis of qualitative findings. Themes address the need to prevent discrimination and stigma experienced by faculty with disabilities, to reduce inconsistencies in the provision of accommodations, and to be proactive and inclusion-oriented (rather than compliance-oriented) when designing and implementing solutions. We conclude with general guidance for institutions seeking to create such cultures. Full article

Background: Liver transplantation (LT) is the definitive treatment for end-stage liver disease, yet racial and ethnic disparities persist across the LT continuum. This study investigated the patient-level and system-level barriers to LT and evaluated racial disparities in access and outcomes. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study (2012–2022) at Banner University Medical Center, Phoenix, analyzing adult LT-referred, evaluated, waitlisted, and transplanted patients. Primary outcomes included mortality and LT barriers, assessed using competing-risk and Cox regression analyses. Results: Among 2877 LT-referred patients, 61% were Non-Hispanic White (NHW), 26% Hispanic, 8.8% Native American/Alaska Native (NA/AN), 3% Black, and 1% Asian. Compared with NHW patients, lower rates of LT evaluation and listing were observed among NA/AN (39% and 53%) and Hispanic patients (56% and 63%) versus NHW patients (51% and 64%). Patient-level financial barriers were more common among NA/AN (15.5%) and Hispanic (19.81%) individuals. Waitlist mortality was significantly higher for NA/AN (sub-distribution hazard ratio [SHR]: 5.26; p < 0.01) and Hispanic (SHR: 2.92, p < 0.02) patients than for NHW patients, whereas graft survival did not differ significantly by race. Conclusions: Marked racial and ethnic disparities exist in LT access and waitlist mortality, particularly among NA/AN and Hispanic patients. Targeted interventions addressing financial and systemic barriers are critical to ensuring equitable LT access and improving transplant outcomes. Full article

We examine complex inequities that emerge when race, gender, and first-generation college status are treated as interdependent, rather than independent statuses, for assessing student outcomes at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). Drawing on student-level administrative data from two public HSIs in the U.S. Southwest, we analyze four-year graduation and placement in developmental English and mathematics. Using continuing-generation college white women as the reference group, we estimate marginal effects and then construct linear combinations for twenty intersectional social locations defined by race, gender, and first-generation college status. Our findings show that first-generation American Indian men, first-generation college Black men, and first-generation college Hispanic men experience some of the largest achievement gaps in both graduation and developmental placement, gaps that would remain obscured in conventional reporting by race, gender, or class alone. We argue that quantitative intersectionality, grounded in critical race and intersectionality scholarship, offers a value-added approach to state-based institutional analytics that can inform equity metrics, accountability systems, and resource allocation at HSIs and beyond. We conclude with recommendations for redesigning data infrastructures, reporting practices, and equity initiatives to better align HSI servingness with the lived realities of structurally marginalized students. Full article

The lack of research on Asian and Asian American students attending Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the Southwest U.S. leaves this population vulnerable to marginalization by educational leaders who are not adequately prepared to support their unique needs. Considered both a numerical and racialized community in HSIs in addition to their position as the model minority, this study aimed to examine how navigating a predominantly Hispanic context shaped participants’ understanding and construction of the Asian/Asian American identity. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, the study developed a model suggesting that Asian and Asian American students construct their identities through three interconnected spaces: expressions of Asian culture, relationships with other Asians, and physical features associated with Asian identities. Key findings include: participants’ navigation and negotiation of externally created narratives; personal interpretations of what it means to be Asian; the role of interactions within the HSI environment in shaping participants’ Asian identity construction; the consideration of access to identity spaces in participants’ personal interest, investment, and salience; and the contributions of cultural, relational, and racial spaces to identity construction. Full article

Real-time health assessment is crucial for diagnosing emerging threats to wildlife. Point-of-care instruments now allow detailed, affordable measurements of blood metabolites (e.g., glucose, triglycerides, ketones) in free-ranging animals. Ketones, however, remain understudied, especially in relation to environmental and life-history traits. Here, we assessed blood ketone variation in male House Finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) across two seasons (summer and winter) as a function of body condition, circulating glucose, carotenoids, lipid-soluble vitamins, and habitat urbanization (urban/suburban/rural). In both seasons, the interaction between capture site and glucose concentration predicted ketone levels: urban and suburban birds showed a negative relationship, while in summer, rural birds showed a positive one. Additionally, in winter, ketone levels were negatively associated with plasma carotenoids, indicating birds with higher carotenoid levels had lower ketone concentrations. These findings suggest that similar to patterns seen in biomedical research and our previous work on carotenoids and health, ketone status can serve as a valuable indicator of nutritional condition and fat metabolism in wild birds, particularly in the context of urbanization. Full article

In the central Mesa Verde region, rock art occurs on canyon walls and on boulders that are frequently associated with other archaeological remains. Moreover, rock art, together with architecture and pottery, is actually a primary source of archaeological information about the presence of various cultures in the area. It includes paintings and petroglyphs of Ancestral Pueblo farming communities, images and inscriptions made by post-contact Ute and possibly Diné (Navajo) people as well as historical inscriptions of the early Euro-Americans in this area. This paper presents the results of archaeological investigations at four large rock art sites from Sandstone Canyon, southwestern Colorado, within the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (CANM). Methods of rock art recording included advanced digital photography, photogrammetry, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), hand tracing, and consultations with members of indigenous societies and rock art scholars. Geophysics and sondage excavations were conducted at one site revealed important information about archaeology, environment, and geology of the area. Analysis of rock art and other material evidence aims to help reconstruct and understand the mechanisms and nature of cultural changes, migrations, and human–environmental interactions and later cross-cultural contacts between indigenous peoples and Anglo-American ranchers and settlers in southwestern Colorado and the US Southwest. Full article

Rock imagery in the Puebloan region of the American Southwest often combines elements from different animal, human, plant, and natural sources. Blended elements may depict or refer to other-wordly states of existence or to creation narratives. Beings with combined elements can shift from shapes familiar in the present world and transport the viewer’s frame of reference to the spirit world. Puebloan belief in layering worlds below and above the present world is an important underlying social construct. Other worlds, especially those below, refer to past mythical times when animals and humans existed in primordial forms or were not fully formed, or may refer to the land of the dead or the underworld. Certain animal forms may have been selected because they are spirit guides, have specific powers, or were guardian-gods of cardinal directions. Some animals, such as birds, were chosen as messengers of prayers or offerings, while others (such as bears) had healing powers. The placement of images on the landscape or in relation to natural features imparts added power to the imagery. Ambiguity and multiple meanings also enhance these powers and incorporate concepts of emergence and transformation. Some images refer to the transformation that occurs when dancers wear kachina masks and then assume the attributes of those kachinas. Examples will be presented from images dating to the pre-European contact period (1300 to 1540 AD) found at Petroglyph National Monument, in the central Rio Grande valley of New Mexico. Comparisons to painted wall murals in kivas (ceremonial rooms) made during the same time period are presented. Full article

While ethnography has held an essential place in the study of Indigenous rock imagery (i.e., petroglyphs and pictographs) in the United States for the past century and a half, rarely are Tribes and other descendant communities involved throughout the entire research program—from conception to publication. This contrasts with recent developments within more traditional “dirt” archaeology, where over the past 30 years, Tribes have assumed greater roles in decision-making, fieldwork, artifact curation, data management, interpretation of results, and repatriation of ancestral belongings. In concert with these changes, Indigenous archaeology has emerged as a domain of theory and practice wherein archaeological research and cultural heritage management center the voices and interests of Indigenous communities. Collaboration among researchers and Indigenous communities has proven to be an effective means of practicing Indigenous archaeology and advancing its goals, but research into rock imagery all too often still limits Indigenous engagement and knowledge to the interpretation of the imagery. This article highlights a case study in Tribal collaboration from the North American Southwest in the interest of advancing an Indigenous archaeology of rock imagery. Full article

Paquimé is a remarkable pre-Hispanic settlement that flourished between the 13th and 15th centuries in northwest Chihuahua, Mexico. This site is recognized for its distinctive fusion of Mesoamerican and Southwestern American cultural traits. Although much of the explanatory models about this settlement’s development and regional role have focused on trade, pottery from the Salado tradition, particularly Polychrome Gila and Polychrome Tonto, has generally been presumed to have originated in the American Southwest. To confirm the interaction between both cultures and contribute to the clarification of the absolute chronology of Paquimé, the geochemical characterization and rock-magnetic characterization of sherds of local and presumably foreign manufacture were carried out, including sherds with manufacture that seems to be the result of the abovementioned relationship. SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ contribute more than 75% to the observed variation. The Casas Grandes pottery shares the geochemical signatures of both local and foreign types. High-coercivity magnetic grains dominate in the foreign-type pottery samples. In contrast, relatively low-coercivity ferrimagnetic grains are the main features of local-type sherds. Essentially similar absolute intensity values were obtained for both potsherd wares. The most probable age intervals obtained for all ceramic samples studied range from 990 AD to 1310 AD, in agreement with previous surveys and local archaeological frameworks. Full article