Three Year Strategic Plan for the Urban Forestry Consultants and School of Arboriculture

This project’s goal was to develop an actionable three year strategic plan for Morris Arboretum’s Urban Forestry Consultants and the School of Arboriculture. The strategic plan explores ways to increase net revenue and raise the profile of both entities in the region as a resource for urban forestry and arboriculture and considers Morris Arboretum’s vision and mission and how the entities support it. The methodology included reviewing three years of historical time and billing data to establish a baseline from which trends could be derived. Analysis of the past three fiscal years for the Urban Forestry Consultants reveals that revenue has been supported by grant funding from the William Penn Foundation which came to an end in Fiscal Year 14, the current fiscal year. Therefore, next year there will be a gap in revenue which will need to be addressed either with new grant funding or increased billable time for contracted projects. Large-scale projects like the Princeton Borough tree inventory completed in FY13 produced the most net revenue for project hours invested. Pursuing more large-scale projects will be integral for maintaining revenue streams for the Urban Forestry Consultants as well as ensuring that hourly billing rates remain competitive. On average the School of Arboriculture has been breaking even for the last three fiscal years, unless indirect expenses are considered. When indirect expenses, salary and benefits expenses for support from the education department are factored into calculating performance, the picture begins to change; trends show that the school has been operating on a small deficit. The deficit increases when the loss of Tree Risk Assessment Certification (TRACE) training is factored in for coming years. The School of Arboriculture needs to consider the true costs of operations when planning future course offerings to ensure that expenses balance with gross revenue

Descriptive Analyses of Pollen Surface Morphologies in the Model Systems Brassica Rapa and Arabidopsis Thaliana and Three Arabidopsis Pollen Wall Mutants By Scanning Electron Microscopy

The mechanisms behind the construction of the pollen wall are equally elaborate and mysterious. Previous studies primarily used sectioned tissue to elucidate the events involved in proper pollen development. This study proposed and evaluated a protocol for exposing developing microspores to be examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Utilizing this protocol, comparative analyses of the superficial features present at the early, middle, and late tetrad as well as at released microspore stages of the model plants Brassica rapa and Arabidopsis thaliana were conducted. The utility of the technique was then evaluated through the examination of three Arabidopsis pollen wall mutants at multiple developmental stages. The defective in exine formation 1, callose synthase 5-2 and thin exine 2-2 mutant lines are known to exhibit defective exine patterning. The dex1 mutant demonstrates abnormal sporopollenin deposition where aggregates form and coalesce randomly on the microspore surface (Paxson-Sowders et al. 1997). The cals5-2 mutant exhibits aberrant callose synthesis at the microsporocyte stage leading to deposition of globular aggregates and improper exine formation (Dong et al. 2005). The tex2-2 mutant was characterized by the presence of an extremely thin mature exine that lacks patterning (Dobritsa et al. 2011). In addition, this study aimed to further elucidate the role of DEX1 in pollen wall development through indirect immunocytochemistry of developing microsporocytes and tetrad microspores as well as understand how the distribution of this protein may differ in known pollen wall mutants. The methods developed in this study proved effective and allowed for observation of the entire surface of developing microspores with high resolution and three-dimensional qualities. These protocols provided new information in the characterization of pollen wall development in both normal and mutant plants. In addition, it revealed unique features and characteristics of sporopollenin deposition and exine development not readily observed in sectioned tissue nor explicitly described in conventional literature

Purposeless Technology and Chrematistic Pursuits: The Implicit Subordination of Homo Economicus

The threat to livelihoods posed by the increased mechanization of labour has led to the question of whether new technologies will eventually render human beings obsolete. However, this immediately raises another more fundamental question: 'what is the function, or utility, of human beings in modern society?' Mainstream economics and the concept of homo economicus tells us that human beings are little more than rationally calculating, profit maximizing machines devoted to the accumulation of capital. This paper will argue that the intellectual origins of homo economicus can be traced to the mechanical philosophies of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke and Newton, and that these philosophies find their expression in the political economy of Adam Smith. It will be shown that the mechanization of labour (along with the subsequent obsolescence of human beings) is a central tenet of classic liberalism, the ends of which is the unceasing increase of capital through the division of labour. In light of this, Ancient Greek conceptions of wealth and economic activity”which prioritize human self-creation and the notion of the good life”will be considered as alternatives to the norms presented in classic liberalism. Ultimately it is argued that in order to avoid being eclipsed by new technologies we must reconsider what it means to be human and in doing so rediscover properly human ends

Is intra-abdominal hypertension a missing factor that drives multiple organ dysfunction syndrome?

In a recent issue of Critical Care, Cheng and colleagues conducted a rabbit model study that demonstrated that intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) may damage both gut anatomy and function. With only 6 hours of IAH at 25 mmHg, these authors observed an 80% reduction in mucosal blood flow, an exponential increase in mucosal permeability, and erosion and necrosis of the jejunal villi. Such dramatic findings should remind all caring for the critically ill that IAH may severely damage the normal gut barrier functions and thus may be reasonably expected to facilitate bacterial and mediator translocation. The potential contribution of IAH as a confounding factor in the efficacy of selective decontamination of the digestive tract should be considered

Intra-abdominal pressure, intra-abdominal hypertension, and pregnancy: a review

The last several decades have seen many advances in the recognition and prevention of the abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) and its precursor, intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH). There has also been a relative explosion of knowledge in the critical care, trauma, and surgical populations, and the inception of a society dedicated to its understanding, the World Society of the Abdominal Compartment Syndrome (WSACS). However, there has been almost no recognition or appreciation of the potential presence, influence, and management of intra-abdominal pressure (IAP), IAH, and ACS in pregnancy. This review highlights the importance and relevance of IAP in the critically ill parturient, the current lack of normative IAP values in pregnancy today, along with a review of the potential relationship between IAH and maternal diseases such as preeclampsia-eclampsia and its potential impact on fetal development. Finally, current IAP measurement guidelines are questioned, as they do not take into account the gravid uterus and its mechanical impact on intra-vesicular pressure

Portable bedside ultrasound: the visual stethoscope of the 21st century

Over the past decade technological advances in the realm of ultrasound have allowed what was once a cumbersome and large machine to become essentially hand-held. This coupled with a greater understanding of lung sonography has revolutionized our bedside assessment of patients. Using ultrasound not as a diagnostic test, but instead as a component of the physical exam, may allow it to become the stethoscope of the 21st century

The human health effects of Florida Red Tide (FRT) blooms : an expanded analysis

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Environment International 68 (2014): 144-153, doi:10.1016/j.envint.2014.03.016.Human respiratory and digestive illnesses can be caused by exposures to brevetoxins from blooms of the marine alga Karenia brevis, also known as Florida red tide (FRT). K. brevis requires macro-nutrients to grow; although the sources of these nutrients have not been resolved completely, they are thought to originate both naturally and anthropogenically. The latter sources comprise atmospheric depositions, industrial effluents, land runoffs, or submerged groundwater discharges. To date, there has been only limited research on the extent of human health risks and economic impacts due to FRT. We hypothesized that FRT blooms were associated with increases in the numbers of emergency room visits and hospital inpatient admissions for both respiratory and digestive illnesses. We sought to estimate these relationships and to calculate the costs of associated adverse health impacts. We developed environmental exposure-response models to test the effects of FRT blooms on human health, using data from diverse sources. We estimated the FRT bloom-associated illness costs, using extant data and parameters from the literature. When controlling for resident population, a proxy for tourism, and seasonal and annual effects, we found that increases in respiratory and digestive illnesses can be explained by FRT blooms. Specifically, FRT blooms were associated with human health and economic effects in older cohorts (≥ 55 years of age) in six southwest Florida counties. Annual costs of illness ranged from $60,000 to$700,000 annually, but these costs could exceed $1.0 million per year for severe, long-lasting FRT blooms, such as the one that occurred during 2005. Assuming that the average annual illness costs of FRT blooms persist into the future, using a discount rate of 3$2-24 million.This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation under NSF/CNH Grant No. 1009106.L.E. Fleming acknowledges support from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund Convergence Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly