A 10-Step Process for Environmental Scanning

This article presents a step-by-step process used in North Carolina Cooperative Extension that provides a practical guide for conducting environmental scans. While easy to use, the methods are grounded in best practices from the current literature and provide a mechanism for gathering triangulated data from both primary and secondary sources that reflects a consensus, if you will, of high priority issues upon which relevant Extension programs can be built. In addition, this process also includes identifying individual and community assets that can be used collectively with Extension efforts to address the issues more comprehensively

A Tool for Focusing Integrated Team Efforts on Complex Issues

Focusing the work of interdisciplinary teams to address prioritized issues is not an easy task. This new tool is designed to aid Extension educators in working with their integrated teams to dissect a complex issue by identifying the: 1) primary and secondary target audiences, 2) causal and contributing factors (i.e., root causes), 3) opportunities and threats to addressing and/or improving the issue, 4) program components to build in, and 5) resources to implement/carry out the different program components

Transition in a numerical model of contact line dynamics and forced dewetting

We investigate the transition to a Landau-Levich-Derjaguin film in forced dewetting using a quadtree adaptive solution to the Navier-Stokes equations with surface tension. We use a discretization of the capillary forces near the receding contact line that yields an equilibrium for a specified contact angle $\theta_\Delta$ called the numerical contact angle. Despite the well-known contact line singularity, dynamic simulations can proceed without any explicit additional numerical procedure. We investigate angles from $15^\circ$ to $110^\circ$ and capillary numbers from $0.00085$ to $0.2$ where the mesh size $\Delta$ is varied in the range of $0.0035$ to $0.06$ of the capillary length $l_c$. To interpret the results, we use Cox's theory which involves a microscopic distance $r_m$ and a microscopic angle $\theta_e$. In the numerical case, the equivalent of $\theta_e$ is the angle $\theta_\Delta$ and we find that Cox's theory also applies. We introduce the scaling factor or gauge function $\phi$ so that $r_m = \Delta/\phi$ and estimate this gauge function by comparing our numerics to Cox's theory. The comparison provides a direct assessment of the agreement of the numerics with Cox's theory and reveals a critical feature of the numerical treatment of contact line dynamics: agreement is poor at small angles while it is better at large angles. This scaling factor is shown to depend only on $\theta_\Delta$ and the viscosity ratio $q$. In the case of small $\theta_e$, we use the prediction by Eggers [Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 93, pp 094502, 2004] of the critical capillary number for the Landau-Levich-Derjaguin forced dewetting transition. We generalize this prediction to large $\theta_e$ and arbitrary $q$ and express the critical capillary number as a function of $\theta_e$ and $r_m$. An analogy can be drawn between $r_m$ and the numerical slip length.Comment: This version of the paper includes the corrections indicated in Ref. [1

Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of an Elder Financial Abuse Program

Financial exploitation of elders is the fastest growing crime in America, with telemarketing schemes being the prime methods used. The authors developed the Striking Back program, which includes a Leader\u27s Guide, videotape, practice scenarios, and handouts, to make elders aware of the problem and provide strategies for dealing with solicitors. Pre/post knowledge tests were used to determine if learning occurred as a result of the educational program, and a 6-week follow-up evaluation was conducted to determine whether elders had adopted key practices that deter telemarketers. This article presents the program design and implementation strategies as well as evaluation results

Geology of Caphouse Colliery, Wakefield, Yorkshire, UK

The National Coal Mining Museum in West Yorkshire affords a rare opportunity for the public to visit a former colliery (Caphouse) and experience at first hand the geology of a mine. The geology at the museum can be seen via the public tour, limited surface outcrop and an inclined ventilation drift, which provides the best geological exposure and information. The strata encountered at the site are c. 100 m thick and are of latest Langsettian (Pennsylvanian) age. The ventilation drift intersects several coal seams (Flockton Thick, Flockton Thin, Old Hards, Green Lane and New Hards) and their associated roof rocks and seatearths. In addition to exposures of bedrock, recent mineral precipitates of calcium carbonates, manganese carbonates and oxides, and iron oxyhydroxides can be observed along the drift, and there is a surface exposure of Flockton Thick Coal and overlying roof strata. The coals and interbedded strata were deposited in the Pennine Basin in a fluvio-lacustrine setting in an embayment distant from the open ocean with limited marine influence. A lacustrine origin for mudstone roof rocks of several of the seams is supported by the incidence of non-marine bivalves and fossilized fish remains whilst the upper part of the Flockton Thick Coal consists of subaqueously deposited cannel coal. The mudstones overlying the Flockton Thick containing abundant non-marine bivalves are of great lateral extent, indicating a basin-wide rise of base level following coal deposition that may be compared with a non-marine flooding surface

Biogenic isoprene emissions, dry deposition velocity, and surface ozone concentration during summer droughts, heatwaves, and normal conditions in southwestern Europe

At high concentrations, tropospheric ozone (O3) deteriorates air quality, inducing adverse effects on human and ecosystem health. Meteorological conditions are key to understanding the variability in O3 concentration, especially during extreme weather events. In addition to modifying photochemistry and atmospheric transport, droughts and heatwaves affect the state of vegetation and thus the biosphere–troposphere interactions that control atmospheric chemistry, namely biogenic emissions of precursors and gas dry deposition. A major source of uncertainty and inaccuracy in the simulation of surface O3 during droughts and heatwaves is the poor representation of such interactions. This publication aims at quantifying the isolated and combined impacts of both extremes on biogenic isoprene (C5H8) emissions, O3 dry deposition, and surface O3 in southwestern Europe. First, the sensitivity of biogenic C5H8 emissions, O3 dry deposition, and surface O3 to two specific effects of droughts, the decrease in soil moisture and in biomass, is analysed for the extremely dry summer 2012 using the biogenic emission model MEGANv2.1 and the chemistry transport model CHIMEREv2020r1. Despite a significant decrease in biogenic C5H8 emissions and O3 dry deposition velocity, characterized by a large spatial variability, the combined effect on surface O3 concentration remains limited (between +0.5 % and +3 % over the continent). The variations in simulated biogenic C5H8 emissions, O3 dry deposition, and surface O3 during the heatwaves and agricultural droughts are then analysed for summer 2012 (warm and dry), 2013 (warm), and 2014 (relatively wet and cool). We compare the results with large observational data sets, namely O3 concentrations from Air Quality (AQ) e-Reporting (2000–2016) and total columns of formaldehyde (HCHO, which is used as a proxy for biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds) from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) of the Aura satellite (2005–2016). Based on a cluster approach using the percentile limit anomalies indicator, we find that C5H8 emissions increase by +33 % during heatwaves compared to normal conditions, do not vary significantly during all droughts (either accompanied or not by a heatwave), and decrease by −16 % during isolated droughts. OMI data confirm an average increase in HCHO during heatwaves (between +15 % and +31 % depending on the product used) and decrease in HCHO (between −2 % and −6 %) during isolated droughts over the 2005–2016 summers. Simulated O3 dry deposition velocity decreases by −25 % during heatwaves and −35 % during all droughts. Simulated O3 concentrations increase by +7 % during heatwaves and by +3 % during all droughts. Compared to observations, CHIMERE tends to underestimate the daily maximum O3. However, similar sensitivity to droughts and heatwaves are obtained. The analysis of the AQ e-Reporting data set shows an average increase of +14 % during heatwaves and +7 % during all droughts over the 2000–2016 summers (for an average daily concentration value of 69 µg m−3 under normal conditions). This suggests that identifying the presence of combined heatwaves is fundamental to the study of droughts on surface–atmosphere interactions and O3 concentration.</p

Statistical Testing of a Measure of Youth’s Perceived Improvement in Life Skills

This article presents findings from the statistical test of an instrument designed to measure youth’s perceptions of the life skills that were improved as a result of their participation in 4-H Clubs. The questionnaire was administered to 126 4-H club members in Florida. The 19-item self-rating Life Skills Improvement Scale was examined for face and content validity. The results were also submitted for exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency testing. The factor analysis yielded a four-factor solution to the 19-item scale, which accounted for 62.6% of the variance in the scale. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for the 19 items was 0.88. The article also discusses implications and future use of the instrument, as well as recommendations for further study

A Descriptive View of the 4-H Club Experience Through the Lens of 4-H Youth

4-H like other youth development programs should be generally marked by the presence of three features of optimal youth programming: 1. youth participation and leadership, 2. positive adult-youth relationships, and 3. skill building activities (Lerner, 2004). This paper reviews a study which examined the extent to which 4-H youth felt they had “opportunities” to engage in different learning experiences, and provide leadership to those experiences within their clubs. The study also examined the youth’s perceptions about whether their experience in the 4-H Club helped them spend more time with their parents, have a positive relationship with another adult and do things independently. An examination of whether there is a difference in life skill development in 4-H based on certain key demographic variables is also discussed. The results of this study are shared as well as implications for practice and recommendations for further research

Statistical Testing of a Measure of Youth’s Perceived Improvement in Life Skills

This article presents findings from the statistical test of an instrument designed to measure youth’s perceptions of the life skills that were improved as a result of their participation in 4-H Clubs. The questionnaire was administered to 126 4-H club members in Florida. The 19-item self-rating Life Skills Improvement Scale was examined for face and content validity. The results were also submitted for exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency testing. The factor analysis yielded a four-factor solution to the 19-item scale, which accounted for 62.6% of the variance in the scale. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for the 19 items was 0.88. The article also discusses implications and future use of the instrument, as well as recommendations for further study