Human presence diminishes the importance of climate in driving fire activity across the United States.

Growing human and ecological costs due to increasing wildfire are an urgent concern in policy and management, particularly given projections of worsening fire conditions under climate change. Thus, understanding the relationship between climatic variation and fire activity is a critically important scientific question. Different factors limit fire behavior in different places and times, but most fire-climate analyses are conducted across broad spatial extents that mask geographical variation.

Fire severity and ecosytem responses following crown fires in California shrublands.

Chaparral shrublands burn in large high-intensity crown fires. Managers interested in how these wildfires affect ecosystem processes generally rely on surrogate measures of fire intensity known as fire severity metrics. In shrublands burned in the autumn of 2003, a study of 250 sites investigated factors determining fire severity and ecosystem responses.

Measuring psychosocial recovery after brain injury: change versus competency.

Objectives: To determine the psychometric properties of an alternative form of the Sydney Psychosocial Reintegration Scale (SPRS) that focuses on competency of functioning (Form B) as opposed to the original form that examines change from the premorbid level (Form A).

Design: Descriptive correlational study. Ratings were made by 2 treating clinicians on patients at discharge and 1 week later by using Forms A and B of the SPRS.