Microbial communities improve growth of slow-growing, uncommon legumes in a restored prairie

Restored prairies are attempts at restoring native prairies, most of which have been lost. However, restoration is often challenging because native prairie plants, such as native prairie legumes, often fail to establish in restored prairies. We hypothesized legume’s failure to establish in restored prairies is due to changes in the microbial communities with which legumes have multi-mutualistic relationships: rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Additionally, we hypothesized that late successional legumes rely on multi-mutualistic relationships for establishment and growth more than early successional legumes, and would respond synergistically to rhizobia and AMF treatments. To test this, we inoculated eight native perennial legumes of varying life histories with rhizobia and/or AMF and transplanted them into a restored prairie. At the end of the growing season we measured the survival, health, above ground biomass, and height of the surviving legumes. Dual inoculation increased seedling survival, health, above ground biomass, and height compared to uninoculated controls. Averaged across all species, dual inoculation increased seedling height and above ground biomass synergistically (greater than the total effect of the mutualists’ separate independent effects combined). On a species by species basis, mid and late successional species experienced synergistic effects on above ground biomass from dual inoculation while early successional species did not. However, the magnitude of the synergistic response did not increase with plant successional status. Our findings reinforce the importance of multi-mutualistic community interactions within prairie ecosystems for restoration success

Evaluation of Partial Least Squares Parameter Recovery

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of Partial Least Squares under lessthan-ideal conditions selected to imitate real-world data. A simulation study with a 3×3×2×2 design was conducted. The design and data features of interest were sample size (50, 300, 1000), number of items per latent variable (3, 5, 7), degree of model misspecification (correctly specified, misspecified), and nature of the relationships between items and latent variables in the measurement models (reflective, formative). Bias of model parameter estimates, and bias and accuracy of standard error estimates were examined to evaluate the performance of PLS for each experimental conditio

Results of feeding swine on slotted floors

Call number: LD2668 .R4 1963 C55

Developing the ERP Pre-Mortem Framework: Addressing the Debate Over Organizational Learning

Organizational learning (OL) is a major weakness for ERP project implementation. Exploratory research interviews of ERP managers/consultants support this finding. Many organizations do not implement proper procedures that effectuate valid learning experiences from failures endured. The literature suggests that effective OL involves complex ongoing processes requiring pervasive knowledge management and organizational memory systems (Jennex and Olfman, 2002). One example of an OL failure is FEMA’s experience with the pre-Katrina “Hurricane Pam” exercise. Alternatively, an example of OL success is found in the U.S. Navy’s methods and procedures. There is considerable similarity between managing ERP systems and managing high reliability system environments like those of FEMA and the US Navy. Given both the failures and successes in the area of OL, it is evident that further research is required if the phenomena is to be more fully understood

The effects of immersive simulation on targeted collaboration skills among undergraduates in special education

The use of immersive simulation as a pedagogical tool has great potential for making a significant impact on student learning in higher education. In this study, the effect of immersive simulation was evaluated for a cohort of undergraduate special education majors. The investigation aimed to determine whether facilitating an immersive co-planning simulation would have an impact on targeted collaboration skills and whether vicarious observational learning would occur for students who observed the simulation. Pre-service teachers in special education were evaluated by their peers on their ability to demonstrate knowledge of (1) co-teaching and co-planning, (2) professional communication, and (3) supports for students with disabilities. The results indicate that they did a better job of facilitating a co-planning session after having first practiced doing so via immersive simulation during a previous class session. It was also discovered that vicarious observational learning during immersive simulation positively affected performance

Level-1 Regional Calorimeter Trigger System for CMS

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) calorimeter regional trigger system is designed to detect signatures of isolated and non-isolated electrons/photons, jets, ?-leptons, and missing and total transverse energy using a deadtimeless pipelined architecture. This system contains 18 crates of custom-built electronics. The pre-production prototype backplane, boards, links and Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) have been built and their performance is characterized.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 6 pages, PDF. PSN THHT00

The Efficacy of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation on Parents and Children in the Home Setting: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

The present study is a large-scale randomized trial testing the effects of a family-school partnership model (i.e., Conjoint Behavioral Consultation, CBC) for promoting behavioral competence and decreasing problem behaviors of children identified by their teachers as disruptive. CBC is a structured approach to problem solving that involves consultants, parents, and teachers. The effects of CBC on family variables that are commonly associated with important outcomes among school-aged children (i.e., family involvement and parent competence in problem solving), as well as child outcomes at home, were evaluated. Participants were 207 children with disruptive behaviors from 91 classrooms in 21 schools in kindergarten through grade 3 and their parents and teachers. Results indicated that there were significantly different increases in home-school communication and parent competence in problem solving for participants in the CBC relative to control group. Likewise, compared to children in the control group, children in the CBC group showed significantly greater decreases in arguing, defiance, noncompliance, and tantrums. The degree of family risk moderated parents’ competence in problem solving and children’s total problem behaviors, teasing, and tantrums