Stakeholder Perceptions of Seaport Resilience Strategies: A Case Study of Gulfport (Mississippi) and Providence (Rhode Island)

Climate change is having and will continue to have a range of negative impacts on socialenvironmental systems. Many ports, with their coastal locations and essential roles in regional and national economies, face particular exposure to storm impacts that may worsen with climate change. Currently in the U.S., port resilience planning falls primarily upon port operators. Engaging a wider range of stakeholders in long-term seaport functioning may reduce risks from disruptive and potentially irreversible impacts of climate change. This study uses empirical data gathered through two case studies of highly exposed U.S. ports, Gulfport (MS) and Providence (RI), to identify strategies that port planners and external stakeholders consider feasible for enhancing their port’s resilience. This paper categorizes these resilience strategies and suggests the potential role that different stakeholders could play in facilitation and implementation

A Comparison of Vertical Ground Reaction Forces in Single-leg Jump Take-offs and Double-leg Jump Take-offs in Indoor Collegiate Volleyball Players

The purpose of this study was to determine if differences in vertical ground reaction forces (vGRFs) exist between single-leg take-off approaches (SL) and double-leg take-off approaches (DL) and if sex or positional differences existed in vGRFs in SL- or DL-style approaches. It was hypothesized that DL jumps would generate greater vGRFs, males would generate greater vGRFs in both styles, and middle blockers would have higher SL vGRFs while pin hitters would have higher DL vGRFs. Nine collegiate volleyball players (4 female; 5 male) (age: 20.44 ± 1.42 years; height: 186.02 ± 6.44 cm; body mass: 78.21 ± 10.63kg; body fat: 11.66 ±5.62%) were tested. An AMTI force plate collected vGRFs with three recorded trials per approach style per subject with randomization of jump-style order. The level of significance was set at p\u3c 0.05. No significant differences were found between vGRFs and position or SL and DL vGRFs. Males had significantly higher vGRFs overall compared to females (p=0.007). Male SL vGRFs were significantly larger than females (p=0.017). DL, relative SL, and relative DL vGRFs were not significantly different between genders. Height, mass, and body fat percentage had at least moderate correlations to combined vGRFs, and height moderately correlated to DL vGRFs. These results suggest that both takeoffs have similar enough force load to be interchangeable. Strength coaches may use both styles to train their athletes and improve neural integration. Positional jump loads during practice or games may be tracked interchangeably in style regarding the take-off phase

Aeromonas salmonicida isolated from wild and farmed fish and invertebrates in Oman

Aeromonas salmonicida was isolated from red spot emperor, king soldier bream, white-spotted rabbit fish and tilapia, and an invertebrate (abalone) in Oman during December 2011–May 2012. The cytotoxic enterotoxin ast gene was found widely distributed among the isolates; aerolysin-like protein (act) and the flagellin structural gene lafA less so; and the nuclease gene (nuc) not at all. However, there was not any evidence of pathogenicity among the isolates when tested in laboratory-based experiments using rainbow trout and Nile tilapia. Therefore, the risk of the pathogen to fish in Oman is unclear

Perceptions of European identity among EU citizens: an empirical study

EU citizens' perceptions of European identity say much about the process of European integration and the development of EU institutions. This study explores European identity as it is described by EU citizens who positively identify themselves with Europe and the EU. This objective is approached through the following research questions: in which contexts are individuals aware of feeling "European" and in which contexts are they aware of feeling their respective national identities? How does European identity relate to national identity? To what extent is European identity developed by EU policy and to what extent does it emerge through individuals themselves? What kinds of communicative actions stimulate European identity? And how does foreign language proficiency affect sense of European identity? This research is significant for the reason that understanding how individuals identify with others influences how they perceive their own interests and therefore influences how they act and organize politically

Who Cares? Student-Faculty Interaction at a Research University

High quality interaction with faculty is central to undergraduate student success (Kuh et al. 2010). A wealth of existing research uses students' ratings of quality of interaction with faculty to analyze undergraduates' engagement in educationally purposive activities. But how do students actually make meaning of the interactions that inform their ratings? What do undergraduates at a public research institution in the early 21st century United States count as high quality interaction with faculty? For Becker and colleagues (1968), a "GPA perspective" provided the lens through which all undergraduates made meaning of interaction with faculty. But do such generalizations adequately explain how students make meaning of quality of interaction with faculty now? The answer is: it's complicated. Specifically, I find that from students' perspectives, high quality interaction happens when faculty care. Caring, in the view of undergraduates participating in this study, means supporting students in embodying or coming to embody perceived institutional ideals. But students' perceptions of institutional ideals are not uniform. In an ethnographic study involving 35 voluntary undergraduate participants for three years in in-depth interviews and participant observation, as well as a content analysis of an instructor-reviewing web site, I analyze students' perceptions of institutional ideals, how they see themselves in relation to those ideals, and these understandings shape their approaches to with faculty. Specifically, I find two evaluative stories for what counts as care in interaction with faculty, with social class strongly shaping - but not determining - meanings made and interactions elicited. In the first, care entails "remaking the grading." In the second, care both produces and is produced by educationally purposive practices. I find that the institution, in spite of its stated ideals and stated commitment to student engagement, tends to reward the former understanding of care much more directly than the latter

The Rhetoric of Abolition: Continuity and Change in the Struggle Against America\u27s Death Penalty, 1900-2010

This article seeks to understand when, how, and where the framing of arguments against capital punishment has changed. While others have focused exclusively on the national level, we studied the framing of abolitionist arguments in three American states: Connecticut, Kansas, and Texas. Each is located in a different region of the country, and each has its own distinctive death penalty history. We studied the framing of arguments against the death penalty from 1900 to 2010. Our study suggests that the rhetorical reframing of the campaign against capital punishment that has occurred at the national level has had deep resonance at the state level. Over the course of the 20th century in Connecticut, Kansas, and Texas, the focus on error and arbitrariness has assumed greater prominence among abolitionists. In each state, this change began to take hold in the late 1960s and 1970s and accelerated as the 20th century drew to its close. But, in each state, older frames persisted. Older arguments continued to occur with greater frequency than the new abolitionism

Biophysical and Functional Characterization of Rhesus Macaque IgG Subclasses

Antibodies raised in Indian rhesus macaques [Macaca mulatta (MM)] in many preclinical vaccine studies are often evaluated in vitro for titer, antigen-recognition breadth, neutralization potency, and/or effector function, and in vivo for potential associations with protection. However, despite reliance on this key animal model in translation of promising candidate vaccines for evaluation in first in man studies, little is known about the properties of MM immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclasses and how they may compare to human IgG subclasses. Here, we evaluate the binding of MM IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4 to human Fc gamma receptors (FcgammaR) and their ability to elicit the effector functions of human FcgammaR-bearing cells, and unlike in humans, find a notable absence of subclasses with dramatically silent Fc regions. Biophysical, in vitro, and in vivo characterization revealed MM IgG1 exhibited the greatest effector function activity followed by IgG2 and then IgG3/4. These findings in rhesus are in contrast with the canonical understanding that IgG1 and IgG3 dominate effector function in humans, indicating that subclass-switching profiles observed in rhesus studies may not strictly recapitulate those observed in human vaccine studies

Stability and Change in Self-Reported Sexual Orientation Identity in Young People: Application of Mobility Metrics

This study investigated stability and change in self-reported sexual orientation identity over time in youth. We describe gender- and age-related changes in sexual orientation identity from early adolescence through emerging adulthood in 13,840 youth ages 12–25 employing mobility measure M, a measure we modified from its original application for econometrics. Using prospective data from a large, ongoing cohort of U.S. adolescents, we examined mobility in sexual orientation identity in youth with up to four waves of data. Ten percent of males and 20% of females at some point described themselves as a sexual minority, while 2% of both males and females reported ever being “unsure” of their orientation. Two novel findings emerged regarding gender and mobility: (1) Although mobility scores were quite low for the full cohort, females reported significantly higher mobility than did males. (2) As expected, for sexual minorities, mobility scores were appreciably higher than for the full cohort; however, the gender difference appeared to be eliminated, indicating that changing reported sexual orientation identity throughout adolescence occurred at a similar rate in female and male sexual minorities. In addition, we found that, of those who described themselves as “unsure” of their orientation identity at any point, 66% identified as completely heterosexual at other reports and never went on to describe themselves as a sexual minority. Age was positively associated with endorsing a sexual-minority orientation identity. We discuss substantive and methodological implications of our findings for understanding development of sexual orientation identity in young people