To date there are no studies focusing on the relationship between subjective social status (SSS) and weight perceptions among young people. This study aims to fill this gap in current available literature by examining associations between youth’s family SSS and individual SSS with their gender, race, body mass index (BMI), and weight perceptions. Questionnaires and BMI data were collected from 1,171 youth participating in the 2008 Global Finals of Destination ImagiNation (DI) hosted by the University of Tennessee. Participants ranged in ages 11 to 18 years. Regression analyses indicated that gender, race and individual SSS were significant predictors of BMI. Gender was the only significant predictor of underweight perceptions, while gender, race, and individual SSS were predictors of overweight perceptions. Results for outcomes based on two grade levels, middle school and high school, are also discussed. Findings have implications of gender and racial differences for BMI and weight perception status. Lastly, individual SSS within the school community was a significant predictor of both BMI and overweight perception.

This study examined how parental divorce impacts emerging adults’ familial relationships, romantic relationships, and development to build a basis for understanding emerging adult experiences. The participant sample consisted of 8 females between the ages of 19 and 24 (M = 21.6). A qualitative transcendental or psychological phenomenological research method was used. 90-minute interviews were conducted focusing on romantic relationships, family relationships, reactions and thoughts of parental divorce, and self-perception. NVIVO was used to allow a “bottom-up” design, emergent design, and interpretive inquiry for data analysis. Three themes emerged from the data: impacts of family dynamics, effects of developmental stage, and self-identity and interpersonal relationships. Results are relevant for Marriage and Family Therapists working within a systems perspective, by providing information on how the experience of parental divorce influences emerging adults’ state of homeostasis, as well as beliefs and attitudes about romantic relationships.

Death is a universal event that all living things experience. Older adults, in particular, are more mindful of death than younger generations because of their proximity and increased exposure to it. In addition, thoughts of one’s own death often increase with the death of a spouse. Previous research has explored the role of social support in death acceptance and the effect of previous marital satisfaction on a widow’s well-being. However, there is a lack of research regarding the experience of a widow’s personal death acceptance relative to spousal death acceptance and marital satisfaction. This phenomenological study aims to better understand the personal death acceptance of eight older widows (age 65+) through their experiences with marital satisfaction and spousal death acceptance. Seven women and one man participated in two rounds of semi-structured telephone interviews and completed supplemental surveys regarding their marriage and death attitudes. Findings indicate that essential dimensions of recalled high marital satisfaction and spousal death acceptance relates to experiences of positive personal death acceptance.

Since 1900 the ringneck pheasant Phasianus colchicus torquatus Gmelin has assumed major importance in the United states as an upland game bird. This is particularly evident in utah where, in 1951, 76,000 hunters bagged an estimated one quarter million pheasants (8). It is axiomatic that pheasant habitat in Utah is largely confined to land under irrigation. In Utah, this comprises onlY 2.2 percent of the total land area. These areas, essentially bottomlands along stream courses, are intensively farmed and generally assessed a high valuation per acre. Associated with intensive farming are population centers and resultant concentrations of hunters. As hunter density increased in Utah, game management problems followed. Landowners were confronted by serious problems of trespass and damage to property. As in other states, landowners posted property with no Trespass signs. in doing so, they substantially reduced the pheasant habitat available to hunters.

We investigated the effects of different fire restoration treatments on five shrubsteppe bird species in the Great Basin of central Utah. Sagebrush communities and the associated avifauna are under particular threat due to changing fire regimes. Although fires are locally destructive, it is hypothesized that they improve habitat by increasing landscape-level heterogeneity. As long as fire follows a historic fire regime, the plant and animal communities can usually recover. However, fires can and often do burn outside of the normal regime. The Milford Flat Fire, which occurred in west-central Utah, was the largest wildfire recorded in the Great Basin. Considered catastrophic, concern existed that natural recovery of sagebrush and its avifauna would be unlikely. To prevent this, vegetation reseeding treatments were applied immediately post-fire. These treatments included two seed mix types, with or without a shrub component, and three mechanical applications, drill seeding, aerial seeding followed by chaining, and aerial seeding only. We surveyed the avian community in the different treatment types and in untreated areas within the fire using line transect distance sampling methods. Using a space for time substitution, we sampled nearby unburned areas as reference to represent pre-fire conditions. We hypothesized that the treatment areas would be more similar to the reference than the untreated areas, and that the treatments would all have similar effects. We found some effect on the presence and extirpation of the birds at the guild and overall bird level. We found no significant effect from the treatments on the five study species at the species level, and no effects on bird densities. The effects of the restoration treatments were overshadowed by the effect of the fire on changing the habitat, namely, the density of sagebrush. We saw a pattern of birds responding to the removal or survival of sagebrush and the treatments were insufficient in affecting a short term response.

The measurement of animal populations is a most important phase of wildlife management. The initiation of systematic management of any unit of specific game habitat usually involves the measurement of the stock on hand as a primary step. In practice game inventory performs a twofold function; namely, as a medium determining the efficacy of past managment practices as a basis for future manipulations and as an aid in the establishment of game protective or removal policies. A census, in the sense applied in this study, is best defined as the enumeration of a population on a given area at a given time. Varied methods and proceducres have been developed and applied in this and other countries as aids in the determination of actual and relative pheasant numbers. No one method yet devised may be considered of adequate flexibility to confrom to all variances in habitat inherent in the range of bionomical relationships tolerated by the ringnecked pheasant. Geographical location, meterological factors, agricultural practices, and topographical features are gross causations requiring institutive investigations of a basic character as a requisite to accurate determination of population numbers on any specific area. Investigators are cognizant of the necessity for adapting techniques to the variations in pheasant habitat appropriate for different locales: the roadside count as applied in Ohio was not considered to be the best method in Oregon and the quadrat census as applied in Oregon was not considered to be the best in Ohio. In addition to the limitations imposed by the major causation factors are other less general considerations; i.e., the specificity of data required and the economical expenditure of time and personnel. With but two exceptions-California valley quail, (Lephortyx californica), and Gambel's quail, (Lephortyx gambeli),-the ringnecked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus tercustus Onelin) is the sole upland game bird present in Utah in sufficient numbers to be legally hunted. The sporting qualities attributed to the pheasant and its adaptability to agrarian habitat have resulted in the expenditure of thousands of dollars by state authorities and private individuals to produce breeding and hunting stock. Management, however, has not kept pace with production. Laxity is notably evident in the development and application of sound inventory methods based on a program of fundamental, objective research. The determination of the effect of climatological factors on observed bird populations has too often been based upon casual and infrequent observations without support of quantitative evidence. A similar condition exists in other ecological relatinoships: i.e., interaction between agricultural practices, climatic conditions, and nesting period and the effect of minor climatic aberrations upon observed pheasant numbers tabulated during census counts. The wildlife technician recognizes the presence of such biotic influences but often because of duties of a broader nature the intesive investigation that is required in a basic research study is denied him. In order to formulate improved census techniques for the pheasants in Utah, the Utah Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit has felt the need for intesive study whereby graphical and statistical analysis of the concomitant variables inherent in present inventory techniques would provide basic information and a foundation for improvement of existing pheasant census methods.

All plants contain primary and secondary compounds. Primary compounds are needed by plants and herbivores for maintenance, growth, and reproduction, while secondary compounds play roles as diverse as protecting plants from ultraviolet radiation, defenses against herbivores, pollination attraction, and stress resistance. Secondary compounds have nutritional and medicinal benefits for herbivores as well, especially when eaten in diverse combinations that complement one another. While complementarities among secondary compounds are an important but little understood area of plant-herbivore interactions, even less is known about how the sequences of eating plants with different compounds affects foraging behavior, though they may be critical. In three trials, I determined if the sequence in which lambs ate endophyte-infected tall fescue (alkaloids), birdsfoot trefoil (tannins), and alfalfa (saponins) affected their foraging behavior. When lambs grazed on monocultures they spent similar amounts of time grazing regardless of which forage they grazed. Lambs that grazed in a sequence of different forages tended to subsequently eat less alfalfa pellets in pens than lambs that grazed a monoculture, which suggests they better met their nutritional needs on mixtures than on monocultures. Likewise, lambs that grazed a monoculture of alfalfa or fescue spent more time grazing during the first 45 min than in the subsequent 45 min, while lambs that grazed alfalfa during the first 45 min and then fescue spent more time grazing in the subsequent 45 min, suggesting lambs satiate faster when they have fewer choices. While the foraging sequences I examined generally allowed animals to consume more than they would if they grazed in monocultures, there is still a need to further explore how different plants and foraging sequences influence the level of consumption by livestock of forages on pastures that contain various secondary compounds.

Many quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) stands throughout western North America are considered mature, overmature, or decadent, and lack root suckering to replace the overstory mortality. To mimic natural disturbance and stimulate aspen suckering, prescribed burning or harvesting is needed. It is important to identify pre-disturbance indicators so that land managers will have a way to assess potential sucker production resulting from a prescribed treatment. In fall 2011, eight field sites were located in the Cedar Mountain study area in southern Utah, and two field sites were located on Deseret Land and Livestock land in northern Utah. At each site, two aspen stands were selected within 50 m of each other, one having a relatively low live aspen basal area and one stand having a relatively high live aspen basal area. Above- and belowground pre-disturbance site characteristics for each paired plot were measured and compared. In spring 2012, all trees within 12.2 m (40 ft) of plot center were felled to stimulate a suckering response from the root system. Root diameter and root surface area proved to be the best predictors of sucker regeneration density after a disturbance. Sucker densities decrease with increasing root diameters, and most suckers are produced on roots less than 2.5 cm in diameter. The highest sucker densities were recorded on plots which contained abundant roots less than 2.5 cm in diameter. A simple methodology for sampling aspen roots in the field is outlined and is based on the relationship between root diameter, root surface area and sucker production. There was no relationship between total nonstructural carbohydrate (TNC) concentration in the roots (measured as starch and water soluble carbohydrates (WSC), % dry weight) and sucker density, indicating that TNC concentration cannot be used as an indicator of sucker ability of aspen after a disturbance. This study also documents the effect of herbivory on sucker height. In areas where grazing and browsing pressures were great, sucker potential was severely decreased due to the effects of repeated hedging below the browse line or complete sucker elimination. If aspen are to persist on the landscape under these circumstances, management strategies must be implemented to enhance aspen regeneration.

Campground use in our national parks is increasing yearly, but little quantitative data are available concerning the impact this use is having on the ecology of the campground and surrounding area. This paper reports on some of the effects of campgrounds on small mammal populations in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, Utah. Data collection consisted of live-trapping from April to November, 1975 (12,337 trap-nights). The populations of Ordls kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ordii), antelope ground squirrels (Ammospermophilus leucurus), deer mice (Peromyscus spp.), woodrats (Neotoma spp.), Colorado chipmunks (Eutamias guadrivittatus), and desert cottontails (Sylvilagus audubonii) inhabiting campgrounds were compared with non-campground control areas. Squaw Flat campground in Canyonlands National Park contained significantly higher populations of woodrats and Colorado chipmunks than the control. Devills Garden campground in Arches National Park exhibited significantly higher populations of deer mice, but a lower population of woodrats than the control. No significant difference was found between campgrounds and control areas for all other species. Occurrence of species in the campground and control areas was identical.

This paper evaluates the present status of Utah shooting preserves with special reference to attitudes and characteristics of hunters using and not using the shooting preserves system. Data were gathered primarily by a mail questionnaire survey. Compared to non-users, shooting preserve users were more frequently raised in a suburban or city area, better educated, and had higher yearly incomes. Shooting preserve users were commonly employed as professionals or proprietors, while non-users were often employed as craftsmen, proprietors, or operators. Most shooting preserve hunters hunted after the state game bird season was closed, and were generally satisfied with Utah preserves. Most hunters not using shooting preserves were very critical of the system, and claimed they would never hunt on a preserve. However, most non-users knew little about shooting preserves and were interested in having information about preserves in Utah. It was concluded that Utah shooting preserves should advertise their service, supply desired facilities, avoid crowding, keep grounds neat and clean, and stock only strong, healthy pheasants.