What Does Difficulty Mean in the Writing Tutorial?

One year I tutored a student almost weekly. K wrote with little understanding of her topics and less of English grammar. In our first session the following year, she told me that she was enrolled in two third-year Sociology courses and was under academic warning: she needed a C+ average to remain at York. She wanted help with an essay in her course kit that she had volunteered to summarize in a seminar, but then found she did not understand. It was written in fairly demanding sociological prose, and I found a more readable essay in the kit and recommended she change to it. Then I went back to the first essay to see what in particular she didn’t understand. I asked her if she had looked up the word magnitude. “I don’t have a dictionary,” she said. “You have to buy a dictionary now, this minute,” I said. (When students bring in an essay topic they haven’t understood, because they haven’t looked up key words, I assume panic. It doesn’t occur to me they may not own a dictionary.) K did not return. During that last session what I wanted to say was “You have no chance of passing these courses;” instead I told her to get a dictionary. Did the difficulty lie in K or in me? Sometimes the student is recalcitrant, resistant, inadequate to the task. Sometimes the fault lies with us, tutors who make the process more difficult than it need be.University Writing Cente

Foreword

All of the articles in this Symposium deal with the question to what extent liberalism as a political philosophy is consistent with citizens\u27 and officials\u27 reliance on religious-based arguments in fashioning coercive public policy ( the question )

With the Intent to Inflict Such Injury : The Courts and the Legislature Create Confusion in California Penal Code Section 12022.7

This Comment discusses California Penal Code Section 12022.7, which states in relevant part, any person who, with the intent to inflict such injury, personally inflicts great bodily injury on any person… shall… be punished by an additional term of three years. The Comment addresses whether the specific or the general intent label applies to section 12022.7\u27s mental element and what the mental element of section 12022.7 actually requires. The author suggests that California\u27s doctrines of general and specific intent are complicated and difficult. Due to this difficulty, the author recommends that the legislature modify the language of section 12022.7\u27s intent requirement. He concludes that section 12022.7 should instead ask whether the defendant intended the injury that resulted or whether the defendant intended to inflict additional harm beyond that inherent in the base crime

Disturbance history and dynamics of an old-growth nothofagus forest in Southern Patagonia

The identification of disturbance events using disturbance chronologies has become a valuable tool in reconstructing disturbance history in temperate forests worldwide; yet detailed reconstructions of disturbance history and their effect on the structure and dynamics of the old-growth Nothofagus forests in the southern Patagonia are scarce. We reconstructed forest dynamics and disturbance history of an old-growth N. pumilio forest in the Toro River Valley, Santa Cruz, Argentina using dendroecological techniques. Since a variation in the disturbance regimes was expected with changing elevation, we sampled at different elevations. We found distinct differences in forest structure, dynamics, and disturbance history with changes in the elevation. The disturbance chronologies provided robust evidence that forests in the study area have been subjected to multiple disturbance events over the last 200 years. Yet, recognizing the agent of disturbance could be difficult in these montane forests and further studies are required. Moreover, disturbances might have varied from frequent, moderate-to high-severity events to less frequent and more severe events. This study represents the first of its kind for the temperate forests of Patagonia.Fil: Amoroso, Mariano Martin. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Andina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; ArgentinaFil: Blazina, Ana Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; Argentin

Estructura y dinámica de un bosque de Lenga (Nothofagus pumilio (Poepp. et Endl.) Krasser) bajo disturbios naturales en el valle del Río Toro, provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina

El empleo de técnicas dendroecológicas fue efectivo para evaluar las variaciones temporales y espaciales de disturbios naturales, como los volteos por vientos y las avalanchas de nieve de un bosque de Nothofagus pumilio en el valle del Río Toro, provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina. Se realizó un muestreo de 264 árboles en dos transectas de 1750 m de longitud con una diferencia altitudinal de 148 m, paralelas entre sí dispuestas en forma perpendicular a la pendiente. Los bosques a diferentes altitudes no presentaron diferencias significativas en las proporciones de individuos vivos y muertos, ni en el estado del fuste muerto al momento del muestreo. La distribución de las clases de edad de los árboles muertos indicó que la mortalidad es independiente a la longevidad de los árboles. El intervalo promedio entre eventos de mortalidad fue de 4,5 y 8,2 años para el bosque de mayor y menor altitud, respectivamente. Sin embargo, se encontraron diferencias significativas en la altura, el diámetro y la edad en dichos bosques. El bosque situado a menor altitud presentó árboles con mayores edades, de mayor altura y diámetros superiores. A su vez, este bosque presentó mayores tasas de crecimiento y área basimétrica por hectárea y se caracterizó por una menor densidad de árboles y de renovales. En ambos bosques, se observaron frecuencias máximas de establecimientos de individuos durante el período 1850-1860. La construcción de cronologías de disturbios determinó que la frecuencia y la magnitud de los eventos de disturbios en los bosques variaron según la altitud.Fil: Blazina, Ana Paula. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias

Fruit provision from Berberis microphylla shrubs as ecosystem service in Nothofagus forest of Tierra del Fuego

Berry production is a non-wood product worldwide recognized by its nutritional value and taste, but the most studied species are non-native commercial plants in productive areas, leaving aside native berries. We propose that native berries (Berberis microphylla G.Forst) naturally growing in degradation forests areas could diversify livestock establishment production and complement traditional uses (e.g., livestock). The aims of this work were to 1) environmentally characterize (e.g., soil nutrient content and physical conditions, air conditions and photosynthetically active radiation) in three degraded Nothofagus antarctica Oerst. forest (due to past fires and livestock use) of Tierra del Fuego; and 2) evaluate berries production of B. microphylla in terms of quality production (e.g., fruit number and weigh per shrub) and in terms of quality (individual fruit weight, fruit pulp percentage, and soluble solids content) to assess provisioning ecosystem service of this native shrub in different degraded areas. Studied sites were defined as: 1) Severe soil degradation condition (SEV) (high frequency of horses, bulls and some native guanacos year round, severe soil erosion, and shorter herbaceous layer), 2) Moderate soil degradation condition (MOD) (cattle and guanaco year round, intermediate level of soil erosion and intermediate height of herbaceous layer), and 3) Slight soil degradation condition (SLI) (livestock only during winter, but high frequency of native guanacos, lower soil erosion and taller herbaceous layer). (SEV) had the highest air and soil temperature, least soils nutrients content, highest bulk density, the least soil water content and the poorest fruit production. (MOD) had the highest soil water content and nutrient-rich soils, while (SLI) had the highest relative air humidity and PAR. B. microphylla shrubs grow with similar morphology on the different soil degraded condition. The highest fruit production were at (SLI), however the (SEV) had the highest soluble solids. We conclude that calafate shrubs in degraded Nothofagus forests offer a provisioning ecosystem service through their excellent fruits quality. Livestock farms could diversify their production through native fruits taking advantage of the altered areas occupied by B. microphylla. However, we recommend avoiding intensive livestock use in burned forests since it could lead to an irreversible soil erosion. Proper livestock management in Nothofagus burned forest could keep over the time not only the recognized ecosystem provision services (fruits, meat, wood), but also those of regulation and support that calafate shrubs offer and that make the functionality of the ecosystem.Fil: Bustamante, Gimena Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Soler Esteban, Rosina Matilde. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Blazina, Ana Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Arena, Miriam Elisabet. Universidad de Moron. Facultad de Agronomia y Ciencias Agroalimentarias. Laboratorio de Investigaciones En Fisiología Vegetal; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; Argentin