The Geology and Hydrogeology of the Teays-Mahomet Aquifer System in East-Central Illinois

The Teays River was a large system flowing—in what are now the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois—from the Tertiary period until glaciation in the Pleistocene. Glaciation during the Pleistocene turned the region through which the Teays River flowed into a region of aquifers. The system of aquifers created during this glaciation in the study region is known as the Teays-Mahomet Aquifer System (TMAS). The TMAS is an extensive formation spanning across the Midwestern United States. Specifically, the study focuses on the TMAS in east-central Illinois. The Mahomet Sand Member and Glasford formation are a few of the aquifers in the TMAS that have been useful sources of water. The TMAS provides water for residential, agricultural, and industrial needs in the region. The recharge rates and groundwater flow properties of the Mahomet Sand Member allow it to be a dependable source of groundwater. The impact of high rates of withdrawal in cities—like Champaign—within the study region has had impacts on the TMAS as a whole. Various cones of depression are changing the natural groundwater flow directions within the TMAS. Usage models show that the current rates of water withdrawal will continue to be sustainable, even with increases in usage. Potential contaminations, including landfill leakage and arsenic concentration, may create causes for concern in the longevity of the aquifer.No embargoAcademic Major: Earth Science

THE UNSPOKEN PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES WITH LESSON HORSES AND HOW WE NEED TO ADDRESS THEM

Every day all over the world horses provide much needed therapy and treatment to people in need. They provide physical, emotional, and mental training and healing. Humans depend on them for so much and we have a moral and ethical obligation to be good stewards of our equine companions. This close proximity can take a toll on horses physically and psychologically even in the realm of experienced equine professionals. So many times though it is the small lesson facility that sees hundreds of people each year and makes a profound difference in people’s lives. This can be at a 4-H camp, a rodeo club, a therapeutic riding facility, or any one of a million different small facilities all over the US. These type facilities are not known for their impressive budgets but for the passion of their workers. Many times the staff at these facilities are volunteers, or young part time workers who do not have a great deal of experience and can work for a lower wage. On the flip side, the horses at these facilities are often there till they are considered too old or their habits too much of an issue for them to continue. The need to care for the wellbeing of these horses is great but the question is how we can do that with typically less experienced and younger staff that may only be at a facility for a few years. Often these horses develop behavioral issues that can be dangerous or cause them to be unusable for a program. What can we do to change that? Knowing that this needs to be an economical approach that has to be time aware any viable solution would have to be short and affordable to implement. A SDA youth camp in Tennessee was used as an example of small equine lesson facilities. An MWDS survey was used to try to understand the staff’s perception of their knowledge, abilities, and where they needed further training to make their programs run more smoothly for themselves and the horses. A small group of equine professionals was used as observers to make comments and help understand the facility’s capabilities, not only from the staff’s perspective. Some of the answers pointed to more specific training in basic horse husbandry, while others indicated things like overall situational awareness and self-confidence were needed the most. The purpose being that if we could address some of the needs and shortcomings of the staff, then they could better care for and understand the needs of the horses in their programs. This could extend the life and usefulness of these horses, as well as, enriching their quality of life on a daily basis. There were some issues in compliance and maturity but overall the observers were impressed with the ability and passion of the staff in the study. The camp director has requested a copy of the study when it is done and wants to discuss how the findings can improve their program. This sets the probability of recommendation compliance fairly high. Hopefully with this just being the beginning, future studies can expand to larger numbers of facilities and increased understanding can help with training and direct programs to be more efficient. All of this can hopefully lead to healthier and better understood horses and programs that are better equipped to teach and provide equine therapy

Intra-annual changes in population parameters as indicators of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) migratory behavior

Many techniques used to study animal migrations rely on observations of specific animals, which provide valuable information about individuals studied but do not capture population variability. By examining changes in population parameters, researchers may gain a better understanding of migratory behaviors. In this study, intra-annual changes in population parameters were used to study migratory behaviors of humpback whales off central California in 2011/2012. Data were compared with a historic dataset from 2004/2005. Parameters measured included sex ratio, pregnancy rate, mitochondrial DNA haplotype frequencies and mean δ13C and δ15N values. Weighted moving averages of the sex ratio were moderately effective at revealing deviations from expected values. Progesterone assays successfully determined pregnancy in humpbacks and revealed a previously undocumented intra-annual decrease in pregnancy rate in 2011. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA haplotype frequencies indicated greater prevalence of haplotypes associated with British Columbia and Washington late in the year; however, the origin of these animals was unclear. Stable isotope ratios proved ineffective for measuring a fasting effect in humpbacks early in the year. The effectiveness of these parameters for investigating migratory behaviors varied, but used in conjunction with traditional methods of study, they may help create a broader understanding of animal migrations

Judicial Interference With the NLRB: Yeshiva University and the Definition of Managerial

On February 20, 1980, the United States Supreme Court, in NLRB v. Yeshiva University, decided that the full-time faculty members of Yeshiva University are managerial employees excluded from the coverage of the National Labor Relations Act. The decision was an affirmation of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and a rejection of the position taken by the National Labor Relations Board. This paper reviews judicial interference with National Labor Relations Board decision-making generally, comments on the merits of the Yeshiva decision, and assesses the particular significance of the Court\u27s interference with the National Labor Relations Board definition of managerial

Support for mentors - An exploration of the issues

© 2016 MA Healthcare Ltd. Nursing and midwifery mentors are fundamental to the process of ensuring future practitioners are adequately prepared and supported during the practice element of their degrees. However, there is evidence to suggest that the infrastructure and support for the mentoring role is not always adequate. This article provides a review of some of the issues including the emotional labour associated with supporting pre-registration students, difficulties in accessing protected learning time for mentoring, and lack of supportive networks for mentors to develop within the role. The authors make recommendations on what is required to ensure that the mentor role is better acknowledged, supported and resourced

The impact of confidence-based marking on unit exam achievement in a high school physical science course

High school teachers begin each year with a plethora of content standards to teach, however, instructing students how to learn is hardly ever considered. Metacognition and learning how to learn are not present in high school science content standards. The ability to self-regulate our knowledge is essential to assumptions about learning (Cubukcu, 2009). Students are expected to use metacognitive strategies, even if they do not have them. When students work through problems, it is common to expect them to go back and recheck their work. This is a form of metacognition and self-regulation. Asking students apply metacognition can help them learn both content knowledge and gain metacognitive skills (Schwartz et al., 2009). From professional experience, students work systemically through practice problems and assessments by treating each problem the same. High achieving students are expected to show confident judgment in their knowledge, yet explicit feedback on quality of the knowledge is often not given by teachers. How to improve judgment in knowledge is taught even less often. Students are unable to express what knowledge they already possess. They also struggle to articulate to what degree they believe this knowledge to be accurate (Gahan & GardnerMedwin, 2003; Gardner-Medwin, 1995). Measuring a student’s confidence in their knowledge can be a difficult challenge for educators. Confidence-based marking (CBM) is one approach to improve formative self-assessment and to help train students to become more objective of their answers when undergoing formative and summative evaluation. CBM is a grading scheme, commonly used for multiple choice and true or false questions, which requires the students to assess the selected answer and place a descriptor on it indicating how confident they are the answer is correct. With a tool of this caliber at the aid of educators, a puzzle remains. Why is a well-researched, sensible, and practical strategy for objectively marked tests not employed by more teachers (Davies, 2002; Gardner-Medwin, 2006; Hassmén & Hunt, 1994)? The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of CBM in a high school physical science course. Research appears in medical colleges and similar post-secondary settings, primarily in preparation for the medical field, however, there is no clear published literature about implementation in the high school setting. There also exists ample research to show the effectiveness of the tool, but a lack of research to show if the age of the student influences its effectiveness. This study sought to determine if CBM can be effective at the secondary level in a science classroom

Biogeochemical tracers of change in Pacific walruses past and present

Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2019Reduced sea ice and projected food web shifts associated with warming of the Arctic have raised concerns about the future of Arctic species. Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) use sea ice as a platform for molting, giving birth, and resting between foraging bouts. Exactly how sea ice loss will affect walruses is difficult to predict, due to a lack of information about regional ecosystems and their responses to climate change. The objectives of the research in this dissertation were to 1) examine how walrus diet changed in response to shifting sea ice conditions over the last 4,000 years, with the goal of generating predictions about how current and future ice loss may affect the walrus population; 2) make it easier to directly compare the results of retrospective and contemporary stable isotope studies of walruses; and 3) generate new tools to assist wildlife managers in monitoring the walrus population in an uncertain future. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of walrus bone collagen indicated that diet was similar during previous intervals of high and low sea ice; however, diet variability among individual walruses was greater when sea ice cover was low, suggesting decreased abundance of preferred mollusk prey. Modern walrus diet was different from both previous high and low ice intervals, meaning that food webs in the Arctic are still in a state of flux, or that recent changes are novel within the last 4,000 years. Tissue-specific stable isotope discrimination factors were generated for walrus muscle, liver, skin, and bone collagen to improve comparisons between retrospective and contemporary studies of walrus diet. Additionally, lipid normalization models were parameterized for walrus skin and muscle, thereby making future walrus stable isotope research more feasible by reducing analytical costs and allowing the use of non-lethal sample collection. Finally, a novel technique for estimating the age at onset of reproductive maturity using concentrations of zinc and lead in the teeth of female walruses was established. This new approach has the potential to become a powerful tool for monitoring the walrus population and may be applicable to other species. Use of this technique on archived specimens may make it possible to examine changes in wildlife population dynamics across thousands of years.National Science Foundation Arctic SEES Program, Grant No. 1263848, Bureau of Ocean Energy Managemen

The oxygen affinity of haemoglobin St. Luke's

Podeu consultar la versió en castellà a:http://hdl.handle.net/11703/8763