Risky facilities: analysis of crime concentration in high-rise buildings

This paper investigates the security of high rise high density accommodation at the Gold Coast – a premier Australian holiday destination. Surfers Paradise has one of the highest population densities in Australia at 3,279 persons per square kilometre and over 70 percent of the residential population live in buildings classed as high density within a mix of tourist apartments and units. The paper explores how the levels of place management and guardianship relate to the volume and mix of crimes occurring in high-rise apartment buildings. • Foreword: Current town planning and housing policies suggest that in the very near future, housing density in major Australian cities will be much higher than current levels. To date, little attention has been paid to how these policy shifts will impact levels of crime and fear of crime. The aim of this research is to contribute to the development of strategic policy for the secure management of high-density housing. By analysing actual rates and types of crime, guardianship levels, building management styles and perceptions of fear of crime, the research will reveal how planning policies and high-rise building management styles can coalesce to create safer vertical communities. The research focuses on high-rise apartments and touristic buildings on the Gold Coast (specifically Surfers Paradise) and identifies the disproportionate concentration of crimes among a handful of buildings. Results may help state and local governments in Australia to avoid repeating the housing policy mistakes experienced by other countries

Implementation of Response to Intervention Programs in Maine

As a response to the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) federal statute, Maine enacted a rule requiring all schools to provide additional support to students who are not on track for meeting state learning standards beginning in 2012. One intent of the requirement was to improve student achievement, and another was to reduce the number of children who are identified as having special educational needs and thus require an Individualized Education Plan. Recent policy discussions, including the 2018 report of the Task Force to Identify Special Education Cost Drivers and Innovative Approaches to Services, have raised the question of how well schools implementing Response to Intervention (RTI) programs. The study found that most schools (83%) are using a universal screening assessment to identify students who need academic support. Elementary and middle schools are more likely to administer universal screening (92% and 85% respectively) than high schools (59%). A number of practitioners in schools without RTI programs or universal screening processes reported that classroom teachers were uncomfortable with providing behavior supports and escalated problems to special education staff before first trying general classroom strategies. This suggests that many classroom teachers would benefit from additional training and practice with evidence-based behavior strategies, and that this may also lessen the workload for special education teachers. The authors concluded that RTI academic and behavioral support programs are well on their way to being embedded in Maine schools, and practitioners cited numerous positive initial impacts on students and teachers. However, additional support is needed for all Maine districts to improve their programs and thus be able to offer supportive opportunities to their students

Implementation of Response to Intervention Programs in Maine

This current study was commissioned to assess the extent to which schools are implementing Response to Intervention in keeping with the 2012 state requirements

Environmental controls on organic matter production and transport across surface-subsurface and geochemical boundaries in the Edwards aquifer, Texas, USA

Karst aquifer phreatic zones are energy limited habitats supported by organic matter (OM) flow across physical and geochemical boundaries. Photosynthetic OM enters the Edwards Aquifer of Central Texas via streams sinking along its northeastern border. The southeastern boundary is marked by a rapid transition between oxygenated freshwaters and anoxic saline waters where OM is likely produced by chemolithoautotrophic microbes. Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in OM composition at these boundaries was investigated using isotopic and geochemical analyses. δ13C values for stream fine particulate OM (FPOM) (−33.34‰ to −11.47‰) decreased during regional drought between fall 2010 and spring 2012 (p<0.001), and were positively related to FPOM C:N ratios (r2=0.47, p<0.001), possibly due to an increasing contribution of periphyton. Along the freshwater-saline water interface (FWSWI), δ13CFPOMvalues (−7.23‰ to −58.18‰) correlated to δ13C values for dissolved inorganic carbon (δ13CDIC) (−0.55‰ to −7.91‰) (r2=0.33, p=0.005) and were depleted relative to δ13CDIC values by 28.44‰, similar to fractionation values attributed to chemolithoautotrophic carbon fixation pathways using DIC as the substrate. δ13CFPOMvalues also became enriched through time (p<0.001), and δ13CDIC values (r2=0.43, p<0.001) and δ13CFPOM values (r2=0.35, p=0.004) at FWSWI sites increased with distance along the southwest-northeast flowpath of the aquifer. Spatial variability in FWSWI δ13CDIC values is likely due to variable sources of acidity driving carbonate dissolution, and the temporal relationship is explained by changes to recharge and aquifer level that affected transport of chemolithoautotrophic OM across the FWSWI.Keywords: Carbon stable isotopes, spatial and temporal variability, chemolithoautotrophic production, allochthonous input, karst.DOI: 10.3986/ac.v42i2-3.66

Poorly Vetted Conservation Ranks Can Be More Wrong Than Right: Lessons from Texas Land Snails

Setting priorities for scarce conservation dollars requires an accurate accounting of the most vulnerable species. For many invertebrates, lack of taxonomic expertise, low detectability, and funding limitations are impediments to this goal, with conservation ranks usually based on expert opinion, the published literature, and museum records. Because of biases and inaccuracies in these data, they may not provide an accurate basis for conservation ranks, especially when compared to de novo field surveys. We assessed this issue by comparative examination of these data sources in re-ranking the conservation status of all 254 land snail taxa reported from Texas, USA. We confirmed 198 land snail taxa, including 34 new state records. Our assessment of the entire land snail fauna of Texas resulted in (1) a near doubling of recommended Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) and (2) a 79% turnover in the makeup of SGCN taxa. Field sampling strongly outperformed museum and literature data in the encounter rate of both the entire fauna and all SGCN species, with the latter two demonstrating bias toward larger-bodied species. As a result, conservation priorities based solely on expert opinion and museum and literature records may be more wrong than right, with taxon-appropriate, targeted sampling required to generate accurate rankings

Terrestrial snail communities of the lower rio grande valley are affected by human disturbance and correlate with vegetation community composition

The lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas (LRGV) contains a unique, subtropical, semiarid floodplain with most of the few remaining Tamaulipan thorn forests in the United States. Less than 2% of Tamaulipan thorn forest remains, with urban and agricultural conversion potentially threatening diverse plant and animal communities native to the habitat. We performed vegetative community surveys and conducted a comprehensive survey of terrestrial snail communities in intact (refugia sites, minimally altered in recent times) and altered (previously cleared and regrown or restored) Tamaulipan thorn forest habitats of the LRGV. In a comparison of intact and altered sites that have comparable vegetation (paired sites), we found that intact sites had a less species-rich snail community than their altered counterparts, but this difference was not statistically significant. This counterintuitive result, in part reflects the fact that the most species-rich, intact snail communities (i.e., Sabal Palm Forest) have no altered (restored or regrown) counterparts and so were not included in the paired comparisons. A nestedness analysis supports this, finding that these unique intact sites, which have the highest species richness and no comparable restored sites, contain the largest pool of species in South Texas. Species richness of snails significantly correlated with a precipitation gradient. A general linear model incorporating mean canopy cover, mean plant height, plant abundance, and plant species richness shows a significant correlation with snail communities. This study is the only comprehensive survey of the snail communities of the lower Rio Grande Valley. - La cuenca baja del río Grande en Texas (LRGV) contiene una llanura de inundación única, subtropical y semiárida con la mayor´ıa de los remanentes de los bosques espinosos tamaulipecos en los Estados Unidos. Queda menos del 2% del bosque espinoso tamaulipeco, con la conversión a áreas urbanas y agrıcolas potencialmente amenazando las comunidades diversas de plantas y animales nativos del hábitat. Hicimos muestreos de comunidades vegetales y un muestreo comprensivo de comunidades de caracoles terrestres en hábitats de bosques espinosos tamaulipecos intactos (sitios refugio, con poca alteración en tiempos recientes) y perturbados (previamente cortados y recuperados o restaurados) en el LRGV. En una comparaci ´on de los sitios intactos con los perturbados con la vegetación comparable (sitios emparejados), sitios intactos tuvieron comunidades con menos riqueza de especies de caracoles que sus contrapartes alteradas, aunque la diferencia no fue estad´ısticamente significativa. Este resultado contra intuitivo, en parte refleja el hecho de que las comunidades intactas de caracoles mas ricas en especies (o sea, Sabal Palm Forest) no tienen contrapartes alteradas (restauradas o regeneradas) y por eso no fueron incluidas en las comparaciones emparejadas. Un análisis de anidamiento respalda esto, encontrando que estos ´unicos sitios intactos, que tienen la mayor riqueza de especies y ningun sitio comparable restaurado, contienen el grupo más grande de especies en el sur de Texas. La riqueza de especies de caracoles se correlacion significativamente con un gradiente de precipitación. Un modelo lineal general incorporando el promedio de cobertura del dosel, el promedio de altura vegetal, la abundancia de plantas, y la riqueza de especies de plantas muestra una correlación significativa con comunidades de caracoles. Este es el único muestreo comprensivo de las comunidades de caracoles de la cuenca baja del río Grande

Two new phreatic snails (Mollusca, Caenogastropoda, Cochliopidae) from the Edwards and Edwards-Trinity aquifers, Texas

The Edwards and Edwards-Trinity Aquifers of Texas have diverse stygofauna, including fifteen species of snails found in phreatic and hyporheic habitats. These species have the hallmarks of adaptation to subterranean environments including extremely small body size and the loss of pigmentation and eyes. Here we use an integrative taxonomic approach, using shell, radula, and anatomical features as well as mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data, to circumscribe a new genus and two new cavesnail species from Central Texas. Vitropyrgus lillianae gen. et sp. nov. is described from Comal Springs (Comal County) and Fessenden Springs (Kerr County) and distinguished by a glassy, highly sculptured shell and distinctively simple, unornamented penial morphology. We also describe Phreatodrobia bulla sp. nov. from Hidden Springs (Bell County), and several other springs in Bell & Williamson Counties, Texas. This species has a smooth, unsculptured teleoconch, a reflected and flared lip, and deeply concave operculum

Supply chain social sustainability for developing nations: Evidence from India

Economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability have been shown to span beyond organizational boundaries, indicating the importance of managing sustainability initiatives across the supply chain. Although scholars and practitioners focus a great deal of attention toward economic and environmental sustainability in supply chains, less attention is paid to social aspects. This is unfortunate, because social sustainability not only plays an important role in enabling other sustainability initiatives, but social injustices in one echelon of a supply chain can lead to significant losses for firms across the chain. Social issues have been especially problematic in developing nations, where abusive labor practices continue to negatively affect trading partners. This research seeks to disambiguate supply chain social sustainability in developing nations by uncovering relevant dimensions of social sustainability and resultant outcomes. Using semi-structured interview data collected from supply chain executives in Indian manufacturing companies, this research uncovers dimensions of social sustainability in terms of not only the focal firm, but also first-tier suppliers and customers. Each of these dimensions is then associated to potential performance outcomes. The findings not only provide a baseline for future research, but help practitioners understand where to focus their attention to enhance social sustainability in their supply chains

Distal pancreatectomy: what is the standard for laparoscopic surgery?

AbstractBackground/aimsDistal pancreatectomy (DP) is performed for a range of benign and malignant lesions. Accurate pre-operative diagnosis can be unreliable and morbidity remains high. This study evaluates a 12-year, single-centre experience with open DP to review indications, diagnoses and associated morbidity.MethodsRetrospective review of patients who underwent DP at a UK-based tertiary referral centre between 1994 and 2006.ResultsSixty-five patients (mean age 49.9 years) had final diagnoses of chronic pancreatitis ± pseudocyst (n= 22), benign cystadenoma (n= 15), neuroendocrine tumour (n= 8), primary pancreatic carcinoma (n= 6) and 14 other conditions. DP performed for presumed cystic neoplasm (n= 24) revealed a correct pre-operative diagnosis in 71% of patients. Histological examination confirmed that 59% of resected cystic tumours were either malignant or had malignant potential. When DP was undertaken for presumed pseudocyst (n= 12), 83% of cases were correctly diagnosed pre-operatively. Overall mortality and morbidity rates were 3% and 39%, respectively, with five patients (8%) developing a clinically significant pancreatic fistula. Ten (17%) patients developed diabetes mellitus and nine (14%) required long-term pancreatic exocrine supplementation.ConclusionsOpen DP can be performed with acceptable morbidity, low mortality and preservation of pancreatic function in the majority of cases, setting the standard for laparoscopic techniques