Publications by authors named "S A Altman"

Background: Shallow, tropical coral reefs face compounding threats from habitat degradation due to coastal development and pollution, impacts from storms and sea-level rise, and pulse disturbances like blast fishing, mining, dredging, and ship groundings that reduce coral reefs' height and variability. One approach toward restoring coral reef structure from these threats is deploying built structures. Built structures range from engineered modules and repurposed materials to underwater sculptures and intentionally placed natural rocks.

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Article Synopsis
  • Shallow tropical coral reefs are under threat from climate change, coastal development, pollution, and physical disturbances, prompting efforts to restore these ecosystems using built structures.
  • Restoration practitioners are increasingly employing various types of built structures, including artificial and natural interventions, but there is a lack of synthesized evidence on their effectiveness in enhancing coral growth and survival.
  • To address this knowledge gap, a systematic review was conducted to map global evidence on the performance of these built structures in shallow tropical coral ecosystems across contexts like restoration and coastal protection.
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  • Drug-resistant cases of shigellosis are rising, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM).
  • A cluster of 9 patients with a specific strain of Shigella sonnei was found in Chicago from July to October 2022, mainly affecting MSM and festival-goers.
  • It's important for sexual health services targeting MSM to include screenings and prevention strategies for shigellosis.
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Auditory streaming underlies a receiver's ability to organize complex mixtures of auditory input into distinct perceptual "streams" that represent different sound sources in the environment. During auditory streaming, sounds produced by the same source are integrated through time into a single, coherent auditory stream that is perceptually segregated from other concurrent sounds. Based on human psychoacoustic studies, one hypothesis regarding auditory streaming is that any sufficiently salient perceptual difference may lead to stream segregation.

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