Protecting the Last Tree: Environmental Education in the United States, 1990-2012

Having already been hired as an environmental organizer, I reflect on how my childhood experiences impacted me. I embark upon this vocational journey with youthful optimism, a good dose of realism, and just a touch of cynicism. An environmental organizer is someone who works mobilizing individuals around targeted environmental issues. They create policy changes that are environmentally positive… generally for little pay. What has motivated me, and scores of others, to willingly take on this seemingly impossible task? For me: was it the summer vacations to Yellowstone and The Rocky Mountains with my brothers and parents? Maybe it was being able to explore in “The Woods” behind my elementary school as a child? These questions have been central in my life this semester, as I am involved in two environmental education programs: the K-12 education component of Energy Service Corps (ESC) and the Leadership in Environmental Education Partnership (LEEP). My work within these organizations, which I will elaborate on in greater detail, compels me to contemplate the impact these programs have on children

Reflections on the Senate Investigation of Army Surveillance

SYMPOSIUM: The Military After Vietnam: The Search for Legal Control

Activated sludge process : effects of feed concentration on effluent COD

Bibliography: p. 68-74.The concentration of substrates in the feed to an activated sludge process was found to exert a significant effect upon its effluent COD. A mathematical model was proposed to explain this effect and was successful in correlating the data of this study. The model was based on the hypothesis that COD measures both substrate and product concentrations. It was found that an optimum sludge age exists for achieving minimum effluent COD. At sludge ages longer than the optimum, effluent COD increased due to product formation; at shorter sludge ages the effluent COD increased due to an increased concentration of degradable substrate

Reflections on the Senate Investigation of Army Surveillance

SYMPOSIUM: The Military After Vietnam: The Search for Legal Control

Acoustic resonances in microfluidic chips: full-image micro-PIV experiments and numerical simulations

We show that full-image micro-PIV analysis in combination with images of transient particle motion is a powerful tool for experimental studies of acoustic radiation forces and acoustic streaming in microfluidic chambers under piezo-actuation in the MHz range. The measured steady-state motion of both large 5 um and small 1 um particles can be understood in terms of the acoustic eigenmodes or standing ultra-sound waves in the given experimental microsystems. This interpretation is supported by numerical solutions of the corresponding acoustic wave equation.Comment: RevTex, 10 pages, 9 eps figures; NOTE first authors changed his name to S. Melker Hagsater in the published versio

Cognitive impulsivity and behavioral problems in adolescents

This research originated with questions about services to juveniles who committed minor delinquent acts. Research supports the idea that different categories of juvenile offenders exist, with most adolescents only committing minor offenses and only during their adolescent years. The current study suggests that this behavior results from normative adolescent brain development and associated inadequate decision making abilities. It is hypothesized that many juveniles participate in minor offending behavior and/or externalizing behavior, such as aggression and/or substance use, in large part, because of cognitive immaturity. This project is designed to examine whether a large percentage of normal adolescents show the same decision making profile, represented as cognitive impulsivity, as adolescents who have committed minor offenses. Two hundred and one adolescents from a rural high school in Pennsylvania participated in the study. A neuropsychological measure of cognitive impulsivity, self-report behavioral impulsivity scale, family peer environment scales, and a self-report delinquency scales were used to explain and predict relationships between variables and delinquent and externalizing behaviors. Results indicated that the majority of adolescents 16 years old and younger showed significantly high levels of cognitive impulsivity as compared to adults. Additionally, unique effects of high cognitive impulsivity and negative peer relationships predicted minor delinquency whereas, the unique effects of high behavioral impulsivity, high familial conflict, and the highest levels of negative peer relationships predicted moderate/serious delinquency. Frequency and type of externalizing behaviors of aggression (physical, verbal, and passive) as well as substance use (alcohol, binge alcohol, marijuana, and other substance use) differentiated between those who do not participate in delinquent acts and those that do. These variables did not differentiate between minor and moderate/serious delinquency. The implications of the study support original concerns over methodological issues in defining delinquent groups and strengthen the argument that degrees of delinquent behavior exist and certain minor acts of delinquency or externalizing behavior may be influenced by normative aspect of adolescent development. Thus, a variety of different and appropriate services should be provided to juveniles based on cognitive capacity and type of offense