Sustainability Children\u27s Book

As human driven climate change continues to alter our planet, persuading the general public to adopt sustainable living practices has become increasingly important. Storytelling has long been a part of human culture, and recent studies have emphasized the power of storytelling to influence the audience as a means of changing behavior. This project attempted to teach sustainable principles to primary school children through the creation of a scientific children’s book. The book communicated the maxim of “reduce, reuse, recycle” by tracing a fictitious story of a town where children frequently buy new toys and throw the old toys away. The book explores the supply chain of toys and the market forces of supply and demand, focusing on the consumer’s responsibility to not over-consume, i.e “reduce”. It also presents the concept of “reusing” and “recycling” as alternatives to disposal of old toys. The book was evaluated for age appropriate language and concepts for K-5 students and adjusted to meet educational standards. It was then tested by reading it to a classroom of 2nd grade students. A discussion with the students following the reading showed that they understood the theme of the book and how they could apply it to their own lives. The project also included a life cycle analysis (LCA) of a stuffed animal, a representative toy from the story. The LCA showed that the largest contributors to the stuffed animal’s impacts were the production of cotton used for its outer layer and the electricity used in its assembly. It also showed the impacts most damaging to human health were chiefly a result of the fossil fuels used to provide process energy

The Effect of Social Desirability Bias on Willingness-To-Pay for Organic Beef.

Researchers regularly conduct willingness-to-pay or valuation studies for product marketing or public policy purposes. However, a large volume of research suggests valuation tools such as conjoint analysis may be subject to social desirability bias, where subjects misrepresent their true preferences to create a favorable impression. The objective of this study is to measure the effects of social desirability bias on conjoint survey responses. Consumers were asked to rank organic ground beef relative to other ground beef products at various prices. A popular scale measuring individuals’ tendency to exhibit social desirability bias was also administered. Regression analysis found no correlation between individuals’ social desirability scale scores and their preferences for organic beef. Thus, in this study, social desirability bias does not appear to be a problem for valuation researchers.Consumer/Household Economics, Livestock Production/Industries,

Recircumscription of the Nepenthes alata group (Caryophyllales: Nepenthaceae) in the Philippines : with four new species

An overview of Nepenthes in the Philippines is presented. Four new species, Nepenthes extincta sp. nov., N. kitanglad sp. nov., N. kurata sp. nov. and N. leyte sp. nov. are described and illustrated from the Philippines and placed in the Nepenthes alata group. An updated circumscription and key to the species of the group is provided. Delimitation and comparison with the Regiae group is given. All four of the newly described species are assessed as threatened using the International Union for the Conservation of Nature 2012 standard, and one, N. extincta sp. nov. is considered likely to be already extinct due to open-cast mining. Logging and conversion of forest habitat are thought to be the main threats to the other three species

Genetic composition of an exponentially growing cell population

We study a simple model of DNA evolution in a growing population of cells. Each cell contains a nucleotide sequence which randomly mutates at cell division. Cells divide according to a branching process. Following typical parameter values in bacteria and cancer cell populations, we take the mutation rate to zero and the final number of cells to infinity. We prove that almost every site (entry of the nucleotide sequence) is mutated in only a finite number of cells, and these numbers are independent across sites. However independence breaks down for the rare sites which are mutated in a positive fraction of the population. The model is free from the popular but disputed infinite sites assumption. Violations of the infinite sites assumption are widespread while their impact on mutation frequencies is negligible at the scale of population fractions. Some results are generalised to allow for cell death, selection, and site-specific mutation rates. For illustration we estimate mutation rates in a lung adenocarcinoma

The Cycle of Judicial Elections: Texas as a Case Study

This Article addresses the concerns about the implications of an elected judiciary. Advocating for overall reform, the Article presents Texas as a case study. It tracks the cycle of change in Texas, from party appointments to the bench to two-party competition and back towards one-party dominance. The Article discusses the problems these changes caused and addresses the attempted reform efforts

Analysis of photopole data reduction models

An analysis of the total impulse obtained from a buried explosive charge can be calculated from displacement versus time points taken from successive film frames of high speed motion pictures of the explosive event. The indicator of that motion is a pole and baseplate (photopole), which is placed on or within the soil overburden. Here, researchers are concerned with the precision of the impulse calculation and ways to improve that precision. Also examined here is the effect of each initial condition on the curve fitting process. It is shown that the zero initial velocity criteria should not be applied due to the linear acceleration versus time character of the cubic power series. The applicability of the new method to photopole data records whose early time motions are obscured is illustrated

The Relationship Between Gender, Academic Performance, and Confidence Within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Classes

This research investigated the relationship between student confidence, academic performance, and gender within sixth, seventh, and eighth grade STEM classes. [BAC1] After comparing student self-esteem survey scores to student math and science grades, two types of statistical tests were run (linear regression tests and a comparison of two means). The result of these tests suggests that there is not a statistical relationship between student confidence, academic performance, and gender within the sample population of 122 junior high students. It appears that the gender gap within STEM has closed, at least for this student sample population

Diagnosis--A Part of Content Area Reading

One of the major trends in education is that of relating reading instruction to the content areas. Middle and secondary school content specialists have been asked to incorporate appropriate reading or learning skills into their content teaching. Many content specialists have recognized this need and are attempting to meet the challenge. Much in-service education is being provided to assist these teachers. Additionally, many state certification standards are requiring that pre-service programs provide new content specialists with necessary instruction in teaching reading in their content areas

Diagnostic-Prescriptive Reading Instruction: What? Why? How?

Thirty eager faces - thirty individuals with unique needs, backgrounds, learning styles, interests, and experiences - thirty students who need reading instruction. Reading is an area of major instructional emphasis in elementary and middle school classrooms. However, because there is no one best method to teach reading, no best material, or no special tricks which eradicate these individual student differences, the classroom teacher must decide how to provide the best possible reading instruction to meet a multitude of needs. Some school districts have suggested that classroom teachers implement diagnostic-prescriptive reading instruction. Inservice sessions, workshops, and materials have been used to disseminate information about the idea, which is designed to assist teachers in better meeting various student needs in reading. Nevertheless, many basic questions remain, namely: What is diagnostic-prescriptive reading instruction? Why should it be implemented? How can the classroom teacher use diagnostic-prescriptive reading instruction with a class of thirty students? These questions are the focus of this article