A floristic survey was made of the vascular plants of Barren County, Kentucky. A total of 1190 specimens were collected which represent 603 species, 351 genera and 103 families. The Asteraceae had the largest number of species of any family, a total of 85. The next largest families were Poaceae and Fabaceae, with 54 and 35 species, respectively. The genus Carex was represented by 24 species, the largest number for any genus. A description and discussion of the vascular flora of specific sites as well as the county in general is given. An annotated list of species is also presented.

Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, infects a variety of wild mammals in the southern United States, but it has only recently been isolated from raccoons trapped in the state of Kentucky. The purpose of the present study was to use a molecular genotyping approach, followed by DNA sequencing to determine the genotypes (type I, or types IIa-IIe) of 15 of the Kentucky isolates. DNA samples were prepared from 15 T. cruzi- isolates using a Qiagen mini kit, and PCR amplification was performed using published primers for the 24S α rDNA sequence (D71 and D72), the non-transcribed spacer of the mini-exon genes (TC, TC1, and TC2), the 18S rDNA sequence (V1 and V2), and TCZ1 and TCZ2 primers that amplify a 188-base pair segment of the repetitive 195-bp nuclear DNA sequence of T. cruzi. DNA sequencing (ABI 3130 Genetic Analyzer) was performed on all amplification products obtained from the PCR analysis of the RW2 and RB12 isolates (randomly selected to represent both Warren and Barren counties of Kentucky; the number started with an “R” which stood for raccoon, a “W” for Warren County or a “B” for Barren County, followed by a number which represented the order in which animal was trapped). The resulting sequences were edited before analysis using the BLAST database of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Genbank. All 15 isolates were positively confirmed as T. cruzi based upon PCR amplification of a 195 bp repetitive genomic DNA sequence, and all 15 isolates showed identical PCR amplification results with all 4 sets of T. cruzi-specific primers. Two positive PCR samples were randomly selected for further DNA sequence analysis, and all samples were positively identified as the type IIa genotype of T. cruzi with max identities ranging from 94%-99%. The results of this study confirm that all hemoculture isolates obtained from raccoons trapped in Warren and Barren counties of Kentucky are T. cruzi. Furthermore, all BLAST comparisons of amplicon DNA sequences showed high sequence identity to type IIa strains of T. cruzi. The type IIa strain of T. cruzi is the most commonly reported genotype from raccoons trapped in the U.S.A.

In this study, we use a nonparametric technique, locally weighted robust least squares regression (LOESS), to forecast a 24 hour demand profile at the household level and compare it to existing aggregate demand models discussed in literature. Of these aggregate demand models, a quadratic autoregressive model was selected to be used as a basis for comparison with the LOESS forecasts. It was our goal to automate the forecasting process by using the goodness of fit metric, AICCI, for smoothing parameter selection. The statistical workflow was executed using SAS and data was provided by the Glasgow Electric Plant Board of Barren County, Kentucky. Results show that LOESS outperformed the autoregressive model in roughly 80% of all cases and than using LOESS alone or as part of an ensemble model is a feasible approach to automating future household demand profile for the purpose of generating different levels of power demand profile aggregation as needed by Glasgow Electronic Plant Board.

In July 1980, the Barren River District Health Department (BRDHD), serving eight counties (combined population approximately 204,000) in Southcentral Kentucky, was selected as a demonstration site under the auspices of the federal Health Education Risk Reduction (HERR) Program. With continued HERR funding for eight years, the BRDHD developed several successful health promotion projects. Major components of these projects include: 1) community health promotion, which serves to identify high -risk groups in the community and provide them with health education-health promotion services, 2) school health education which included the development of a preschool health education curriculum, 3) teacher education workshop, which instructs primary and secondary public school teachers in health education methods, 4) smoking cessation. and 5) a large industrial wellness program. This study reports on an eight year program evaluation of the HERR demonstration. Overall, the program evaluation suggests an increase in health knowledge and some attitude and behavior change for many of the participants ii BRDHD programs.