\u27Damn it Johnny, stop!\u27: Real Life 101 Evaluating an Educational Approach to Treating Men Who Batter

A feminist Theory is an effective perspective from which to develop programs for treating men who batter. The feminist perspective takes into consideration possible societal, familial, economic, and judicial influences which perpetuate male violence in American society. The feminist analysis of domestic violence contends that violence is a learned behavior. Using a feminist orientation, the St. Cloud (MN) Intervention Project ( SCIP) conducts large group educational programs for male batterers. SCIP was interested in testing their program to determine if it significantly reduced incidents of abuse in the relationships of participants. The partners (N=21) of the participants were given a pre-test concurrent with intake, and post-test when the program was completed. Significant reductions in batterer¹s violent behavior between pre- and post-tests (

The Influence of Social Context on Communication and Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors in Autism

Two of the most salient features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are impairments in communication and engagement in restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs). The goal of this study was to identify the effects of social context on both the occurrence of RRBs and social language performance in children with ASD. In this study, we defined the social context of a situation based on the primary focus (object or conversation) and the initiator of the interaction (child or experimenter). We performed a frequency count of RRBs as well as a mean length of utterance (MLU) analysis for play tasks with variations in focus and initiator. These measurements indicated that RRBs were lower in object-focused and child-initiated tasks; however, these situations also revealed a lower MLU. MLUs were higher for child-initiated tasks than experimenter-initiated tasks and for conversation tasks than object-focused tasks. These results imply that the type of tasks that are effective in lowering RRBs may not lend themselves to the further development of interpersonal communication skills. In order to develop more effective therapy options, it is important to understand the purpose of RRBs to find effective ways to reduce them while also increasing communication skills

Intercomparison of ambient acoustic spectra in inland and coastal waters

This paper compares the observed ambient sound levels at two very different sites, relating both to independent estimates of wind speed and rain rate. The spectra for wind-only conditions at the two sites show great differences, especially at low wind speed. The spectra associated with rain were sufficiently different from the wind-only spectra (either in terms of spectral slope or the intensity at 14.5 kHz) to support the development of a generic rather than site-specific rain detection algorithm

Examination of tourists’ willingness to pay under different conservation scenarios; Evidence from reef manta ray snorkeling in Fiji

Wildlife-focused tourism is often considered as having the potential to play an integral part of threatened species conservation efforts, particularly through financial support. We focused on the direct financing of conservation by investigating tourists’ willingness to pay to snorkel with reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) at Barefoot Manta, an ecotourism resort in the Yasawa group of islands in Fiji. Our results indicate that 82.4% of people surveyed would be willing to pay a mean value of ~ USD $9.2 (SE 0.9) more than the current cost, a 28$10.2 (SE 0.9) more for a hypothetical scenario where they would snorkel with 50% fewer people, a 31% increase. We also investigated tourists’ willingness to make voluntary donations to the local community above an existing payment of ~ USD $10 that is built into the current snorkel payment of ~ USD$32.5. On average, 91.3% of the tourists interviewed were willing to donate additional funds with an average additional donation of ~ USD $8.6 (SE 0.5) to the community to pay for educational and environmental support, an 86% increase. There were few significant relationships between willingness to pay and demographic factors (including age, income, nationality, education, and others), suggesting that willingness to pay was widely held by the tourist population staying at Barefoot Manta Resort. Together, these results indicate that wildlife-based nature tourism could represent a potential, but not unlimited, income source to fund conservation in the Yasawa group, Fiji islands, and that conservation can arise from partnerships between local communities and the tourism sector

An Examination of Commercial Medicinal Plant Harvests, Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon

During the past fifteen years, non-timber or special forest products have become an important economic resource in the Pacific Northwest. These products are primarily derived from understory species and contribute approximately $200 million to the regional economy. Medicinal plants are a little researched component of the non-timber forest product industry that relies on cultivated and wildcrafted (or wild-collected) medicinal plant species. This study examines the commercial extraction of wildcrafted medicinal plants from Mount Hood National Forest. Specifically, this study documents the medicinal plant species extracted from Mount Hood National Forest, their annual yield amounts, harvesting methods, and the changes in cover of target species after harvest. This research uses survey data obtained from employees of two herbal companies and representatives of the U.S. Forest Service to describe medicinal plant extraction and administration as it pertains to the commercial extraction of plant species from Mount Hood National Forest. Field data were also used to examine changes in plant cover for four medicinal plant species (kinnikinnick, yarrow, Oregon grape and valerian) following harvest. Field results indicate that medicinal plant cover decreased significantly in all but one harvested sampling unit. Permanent unit markers were established at all the study sites to provide opportunities for long-term monitoring of target species responses to harvest. Eleven medicinal plant species are commonly collected for commercial purposes from Mount Hood National Forest. The general lack of regulation and enforcement of commercial medicinal plant extraction coupled with an increasing demand for wildcrafted medicinal plants warrant a need for increased collaboration between regulatory agencies, herbal companies, and the general public. Additional management and research recommendations regarding the ecological impacts of medicinal plant removal are also presented

Average velocities of some ocean currents as deduced from the recovery of plastic drift cards

Twenty-four drift cards, released in 1964 through 1966 in the vicinity of Cape Town and at various locations in the Atlantic Ocean, have been recovered on the coasts of: North and South America, three islands in the South Atlantic, England, France, Nigeria, and Australia. The travel times indicated by 19 of these cards have been used to estimate the mean velocities of the presumed current systems involved. The rate of card recovery and the long distances traveled by the cards have proved conclusively that the solid polythene drift card is durable

We are what claims us: short stories

We Are What Claims Us is a short story collection exploring the ways stories are sacred, how each telling and retelling is an iteration of ceremony and healing. Stories such as “Notes from Over the Rainbow” and “Swimming Studies” are insights into intergenerational trauma and how bodies relate to land and water, love and belonging. “Can You Tell Me a Joke About Your Profession?” explores obsession, creativity and music as a means to control and overcome pain and isolation. “Ancestral Arguments,” and “Only Young” navigate the complexities of identity, queerness, and Indigeneity. We Are What Claims Us translates what it means to find yourself in the thick of or on the other side of trauma - what parts we own, which parts contain us, and ultimately what we need to relinquish. These stories are decolonial attempts to name, claim and undo harm

Diffuse flow environments within basalt- and sediment-based hydrothermal vent ecosystems harbor specialized microbial communities

Hydrothermal vents differ both in surface input and subsurface geochemistry. The effects of these differences on their microbial communities are not clear. Here, we investigated both alpha and beta diversity of diffuse flow-associated microbial communities emanating from vents at a basalt-based hydrothermal system along the East Pacific Rise (EPR) and a sediment-based hydrothermal system, Guaymas Basin. Both Bacteria and Archaea were targeted using high throughput 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing analyses. A unique aspect of this study was the use of a universal set of 16S rRNA gene primers to characterize total and diffuse flow-specific microbial communities from varied deep-sea hydrothermal environments. Both surrounding seawater and diffuse flow water samples contained large numbers of Marine Group I (MGI) Thaumarchaea and Gammaproteobacteria taxa previously observed in deep-sea systems. However, these taxa were geographically distinct and segregated according to type of spreading center. Diffuse flow microbial community profiles were highly differentiated. In particular, EPR dominant diffuse flow taxa were most closely associated with chemolithoautotrophs, and off axis water was dominated by heterotrophic-related taxa, whereas the opposite was true for Guaymas Basin. The diversity and richness of diffuse flow-specific microbial communities were strongly correlated to the relative abundance of Epsilonproteobacteria, proximity to macrofauna, and hydrothermal system type. Archaeal diversity was higher than or equivalent to bacterial diversity in about one third of the samples. Most diffuse flow-specific communities were dominated by OTUs associated with Epsilonproteobacteria, but many of the Guaymas Basin diffuse flow samples were dominated by either OTUs within the Planctomycetes or hyperthermophilic Archaea. This study emphasizes the unique microbial communities associated with geochemically and geographically distinct hydrothermal diffuse flow environments