“Resource Rich and Income Poor”: Payment for Access to Protected Areas in Nepal

This paper explores the economic valuation of protected areas in Nepal, specifically focusing on two recently published willingness to pay (WTP) studies conducted in the Annapurna region (Baral et al. 2008; Nepal 2007) and a contingent valuation study by the authors exploring tourists’ willingness to pay for access to Chitwan National Park (CNP) (Cook & Bardecki 2012) (Table 2). In each case the focus of the research was on foreign tourists

An App for Third Party Beneficiaries

Every year, more than 100 reported court opinions consider the question of whether an outsider can sue for damages under a contract made by others-in part because the law is so ambiguous. While contract enforcement by a third party is controlled largely by the facts of the particular case, it also materially depends upon the relevant legal standards. At present, not just the standards, but also the reasons for these standards, are unclear. Eighty years ago, Lon Fuller, a professor teaching contracts at a then-Southern law school, and William Perdue, a student at that school, significantly clarified and improved decision making on damages issues in contract law by proposing a new vocabulary and analytical model. The senior author of this Article is a professor at a Southern law school, but he does not need an academic Lloyd Bentsen to tell him that he is no Lon Fuller, and the younger co-authors hold no William Perdue illusion, given that Mr. Perdue was the father-in-law of their law school dean. Nonetheless, we believe that the new vocabulary and analytical model we are proposing would clarify and improve decision-making on third party contract rights

CydDC-mediated reductant export in Escherichia coli controls the transcriptional wiring of energy metabolism and combats nitrosative stress

The glutathione/cysteine exporter CydDC maintains redox balance in Escherichia coli. A cydD mutant strain was used to probe the influence of CydDC upon reduced thiol export, gene expression, metabolic perturbations, intracellular pH homeostasis, and tolerance to nitric oxide (NO). Loss of CydDC was found to decrease extracytoplasmic thiol levels, whereas overexpression diminished the cytoplasmic thiol content. Transcriptomic analysis revealed a dramatic up-regulation of protein chaperones, protein degradation (via phenylpropionate/phenylacetate catabolism), ?-oxidation of fatty acids, and genes involved in nitrate/nitrite reduction. 1H NMR metabolomics revealed elevated methionine and betaine and diminished acetate and NAD+ in cydD cells, which was consistent with the transcriptomics-based metabolic model. The growth rate and ?pH, however, were unaffected, although the cydD strain did exhibit sensitivity to the NO-releasing compound NOC-12. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the loss of CydDC-mediated reductant export promotes protein misfolding, adaptations to energy metabolism, and sensitivity to NO. The addition of both glutathione and cysteine to the medium was found to complement the loss of bd -type cytochrome synthesis in a cydD strain (a key component of the pleiotropic cydDC phenotype), providing the first direct evidence that CydDC substrates are able to restore the correct assembly of this respiratory oxidase. These data provide an insight into the metabolic flexibility of E. coli , highlight the importance of bacterial redox homeostasis during nitrosative stress, and report for the first time the ability of periplasmic low molecular weight thiols to restore haem incorporation into a cytochrome complex

Advance Care Planning in Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

AbstractFew data are available on the prevalence of advance care planning (ACP) in patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). We surveyed adult patients pre-HCT to ascertain completion of various elements of ACP. We also reviewed medical records for documentation of discussions regarding ACP and for the presence of written advance directives. Evaluable surveys were returned by 155 of 335 patients (46%) who underwent HCT during the study period; we obtained permission for medical record review from 137 of these 155 survey respondents (88%). We found that 69% of the respondents reported having designated a health care proxy, 44% had completed a living will, 61% had prepared an estate will, and 63% had discussed their wishes regarding life support with family and friends. In contrast, only 16% had discussed their wishes regarding life support with their clinicians. Documentation of discussions between clinicians and patients regarding most elements of ACP was rare. Written advance directives were present in the charts of 54 patients (39%). ACP was more common in older, college-educated, and allogeneic transplant patients. Even though ACP was more prevalent among this sample than in the general population, its use still could be enhanced, given the high risks of decisional incapacity and death that HCT patients face

An App for Third Party Beneficiaries

Every year, more than 100 reported court opinions consider the question of whether an outsider can sue for damages under a contract made by others—in part because the law is so ambiguous. While contract enforcement by a third party is controlled largely by the facts of the particular case, it also materially depends upon the relevant legal standards. At present, not just the standards, but also the reasons for these standards, are unclear. Eighty years ago, Lon Fuller, a professor teaching contracts at a then-Southern law school, and William Perdue, a student at that school, significantly clarified and improved decision-making on damages issues in contract law by proposing a new vocabulary and analytical model. The senior author of this Article is a professor at a Southern law school, but he does not need an academic Lloyd Bentsen to tell him that he is “no Lon Fuller,” and the younger co-authors hold no “William Perdue illusion,” given that Mr. Perdue was the father-in-law of their law school dean. Nonetheless, we believe that the new vocabulary and analytical model we are proposing would clarify and improve decision-making on third party contract rights

Pedagogical Practices and Collaborative Conversations: Teacher Candidates’ Approaches for Supporting Students’ Motivation in Writing

Writing is a multi-layered endeavor that calls on the writer to use their technical skills and rely on their emotional investment to realize a desired outcome. New practitioners need approaches for supporting students’ motivation and as well as skill development in writing. However, explicit attention to supporting students’ motivation to write has not been largely addressed in teacher preparation programs. The Motivation to Write Profile – College (MWP-C) instrument was developed to assess teacher candidates’ self-concept as a writer and value of writing. This qualitative study analyzed the open-ended responses of 96 teacher candidates to prompts related to self-concept as a writer and value in writing. The findings indicate that teacher candidates were more likely to use pedagogical practices to support students’ self-concept as a writer. Conversely, they expressed a greater reliance on collaborative conversations as a means of developing students’ value in writing. Based on the distinct approaches revealed in the findings, teacher preparation programs need to provide modeling, guidance, and encouragement in writing that will foster their teacher candidates’ understanding of motivation in writing. Furthermore, methods courses need to guide teacher candidates in their exploration of approaches for factors of motivation, value of writing and self-concept as a writer

Culturally Sustaining Math Word Problem Instruction with Hip-Hop Story Schemas

On August 11, 2023, Hip-Hop celebrated its 50th anniversary. In honor of this milestone, we share an activity that is designed to harness the power and art of Hip-Hop to support learning in mathematics for students with and without exceptionalities. Using a vignette, we examine why culturally sustaining practices are pivotal to learning and how teachers can collaborate with middle-school students to strengthen an evidence-based practice such as schema-based instruction by honoring the funds of knowledge that students possess. The activity includes (a) the creation of culturally relevant word problems in mathematics, (b) schema-based instruction for solving additive-type word problems, and (c) the development of Hip-Hop rhymes to communicate problem-solving math schemas. Schema-based instruction supports students’ mathematical reasoning and word-problem solving by teaching students to identify underlying problem structures and reasons for addition/subtraction or multiplication/division and is an evidence-based practice for supporting word problem solving skills for students with exceptionalities. Herein we provide a practitioner-ready guide for implementing these activities so that educators may replicate or adapt them to meet their students’ needs. Although we focus on schema-based instruction, the Hip-Hop pedagogical tools shared could be applied to enhance instruction in other academic areas

Written informed consent and selection bias in observational studies using medical records: systematic review

Objectives To determine whether informed consent introduces selection bias in prospective observational studies using data from medical records, and consent rates for such studies

Anticipated resource utilization for injury versus non-injury pediatric visits to emergency departments

Background Childhood injuries are increasingly treated in emergency departments (EDs) but the relationship between injury severity and ED resource utilization has not been evaluated. The objective of this study was to compare resource utilization for pediatric injury-related ED visits across injury-severity levels and with non-injury visits, using standardized, validated scales. Methods A retrospective analysis of 2004-2008 ED visits from the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network Core Data Project. Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale severity (MAIS) and Severity Classification System (SCS) scores were calculated and compared. MAIS and SCS are ordinal scales from 1 (minor injury) to 6, and 1 (low anticipated resource utilization) to 5, respectively. ED length of stay (LOS) and admission percentages were calculated as comparative proxy measures of resource utilization. Results There were 763,733 injury visits and 2,328,916 non-injury visits, most with SCS of 2 or 3. Of the injured patients, 59.2 % had an MAIS of 1. ED LOS and admission percentage increased with increasing MAIS from 1-5. LOS and admission percentage increased with increasing SCS in both samples. Median LOS was shorter for injured versus non-injured patients with SCS 3-5. Non-injured patients with SCS 2-5 were more likely admitted than injured patients. Most injured patients had an SCS 3 with an MAIS 1-2, or an SCS 2 with an MAIS 1, with no correlation between the two scales. Conclusion While admission rates and LOS increase with increasing AIS and SCS severity, these two classification schemas do not reliably correlate. Similarly, ED visit metrics differ between injured and non-injured patients in similar SCS categories. Although AIS and SCS both have value, these differences should be considered when using these schemas in research and quality improvement