Application of Cloud-Based Geospatial Technologies to Flowering Phenology and Environmental Education

Cloud-based geospatial technologies are rapidly improving the flow of information from the environment to end-users. Cloud-based photo storage websites were used to create and manage species and spatial-temporal metadata in a digital photographic inventory of plant flowering observations collected at Lake Issaqueena, SC from January, 2012 to December, 2014. Statistical analysis of species and temporal metadata revealed significant (p \u3c 0.05) inter-annual shifts in flowering time among several species during and after extreme high monthly temperature in March, 2012 and extreme high monthly total precipitation in July and August, 2013. An interactive ArcGIS Online map with sampling locations of flowering plants was developed and published. The interactive ArcGIS Online map enables web-based knowledge discovery of flowering phenology by allowing users to filter map contents, view plant pictures, navigate to additional plant information in the USDA PLANTS Database, and render spatial-temporal flowering patterns using the heat map view and time settings. The conceptual workflow for managing, integrating, and mapping plant flowering observations has numerous potential applications in species monitoring, allowing for higher volume and quality data to be collected and shared openly. A Cloud-based ESRI Story Map was developed for teaching Soil Forming Factors: Topography in undergraduate soil science education. Student evaluation of the ESRI Story Map was positive, and responses indicate students broadly preferred the ESRI Story Map as a stand-alone teaching module or as supplemental to PowerPoint slides. Teaching with ESRI Story Maps is very different than GIS education, and is well suited for fostering critical and spatial thinking because students do not need to possess prior skills in GIS software, allowing them to spend more time learning the topic at hand in interactive teaching modules. Teaching with ESRI Story Maps has enormous potential in soil science and other environmental disciplines, but more research is needed to develop specific teaching objectives and exercises using ESRI Story Maps

Social Vulnerability in the Wake of 2010 BP Oil Spill: The Case of Southeast Louisiana

The research presented in this dissertation assesses the social impacts of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon (BP-DH) oil spill in South Louisiana. The coastal region affected by this disaster is made up of rural communities whose residents rely on the Gulf of Mexico and its resources for their livelihoods. Understanding how this disaster has impacted the general quality of life in spill-affected communities, and how community characteristics have influenced vulnerability and resilience to negative outcomes, has important implications for basic and applied research and public policy. To examine these issues I use one-of-a-kind household survey data from the Community Oil Spill Survey (COSS) that includes a variety of measures indexing community sentiment, social vulnerability, physical health, mental health, disruptions to normal routines, economic impacts on households, and so forth. These data provide a novel opportunity to examine how the adaptive capacities of communities shape population wellness in a disaster context. This study is grounded in literatures that emphasizes the role of emplaced local community conditions for shaping ways in which people experience and interpret hazards, risks and disasters. Specifically, I assess the social vulnerability of residents of coastal communities in Southeast Louisiana which were directly affected by the BP-DH oil spill. The aim of the project is threefold: 1) to identify the nature and extent to which the oil spill impacted residents’ sentiment about their communities; 2) to investigate the variation in community level vulnerability and resilience in the wake of the disaster; and 3) to assess impacts to mental well-being tied to the loss of—or damage to—key resources upon which the victim is reliant

A preliminary study of the variability and magnitude of the flux of biogenic sulfur gases from a New Hampshire salt marsh

Salt marshes have highly variable spatial and temporal fluxes of hydrogen sulfide, carbonyl sulfide, methane thiol, dimethyl sulfide, and carbon disulfide (H2S, COS, MeSH, DMS, and CS2, respectively). This variability was tested at nine emission sites in a New Hampshire, USA salt marsh: three replicates in each of three vegetation zones, Spartina alterniflora, S. patens, and a transition zone. Three sites were sampled simultaneously, either within or across vegetation zones, using a dynamic flux chamber technique. Difficulties with calibration and field equipment resulted in fluxes with maximum absolute uncertainties of greater than plus or minus 200 percent. However, the relative uncertainty between subsequent samples was closer to plus or minus 20 percent. Chambers are expected to affect the natural flux of gases by altering the humidity, temperature, and composition of the gas inside the chamber. Summertime fluxes are highest for all gases except COS which demonstrated evidence of a springtime peak. A summertime background flux of 5 to 100 x 10(exp -9) g S/m(sup -2) min was observed for all gases, while S alternifora fluxes of MeSH and DMS were approximately 8 fold and approximately 100 fold higher than S. patens, respectively. DMS and MeSH fluxes were higher during the day than at night. Evidence of COS uptake by plants was observed. CS2 appeared to be the quantitatively least important sulfur gas emitted. Improved laboratory and sample collection techniques and further data collection in the field will yield information on the details of salt marsh variability, will improve estimates of the error associated with single flux measurements, and will allow a more accurate estimation of sulfur fluxes from salt marshes based on vegetation and area coverage data. Inability to control the temperature and humidity inside of the chamber remain significant problems with the chamber design

Not just another nursemaid\u27s: an enigmatic paediatric humeral fracture.

In the medical literature, the discussion of radial head subluxation (RHS) and nursemaid\u27s elbow may highlight the ability to diagnose and treat the injured patient without obtaining imaging studies. This case reiterates the importance of a thorough physical examination and the use of appropriate imaging when point tenderness is exposed in the injured limb. With point tenderness to the arm, a child with a presumed RHS, otherwise known as nursemaid\u27s elbow, should be evaluated using radiographic imaging to prevent additional potentially destructive physical manipulation of the patient\u27s upper extremity

The Multidisciplinary Nature Of Supply Chain Management: Where Does It Fit In Business Education?

Supply chain management is an area of growing interest in both industry and academics. A number of new text books are available for courses in the area, and a number of Colleges of Business are adding relevant curriculum. However, questions arise as to what Supply Chain Management comprises, as to needed courses in the area, and an appropriate delineation as to which department is best suited to offer such a program. Issues business educators will face in an effort to initiate supply chain management programs are discussed

Addressing A Compensation Anomaly In An Academic Setting

Faculty compensation is a serious matter.  Rewards for performance are an expectation.  Managers recognize that rewards often drive performance and productivity.  Faculty members who perform well expect to be rewarded well.  Faculty members expend considerable time and effort developing evaluation instruments and procedures for assessing and rewarding peer performance.  Depending on how the reward process is implemented faculty performance rewards may not result as expected.  This paper contrasts faculty compensation models including one that produces a high performance, low compensation anomaly for higher paid faculty

Post-feminism for children: feminism ‘repackaged’ in the Bratz films

After their release in 2001, Bratz dolls carved into Barbie’s previously monopolistic share of teen doll sales. Amidst their growing popularity, cultural critics expressed a host of concerns about Bratz dolls, especially over how they sexualize youth, but the line grew to include a host of products like costumes, makeup kits, games, books, clothing, and movies. It also inspired new, similar doll lines from other toy companies. In this article, we situate the Bratz’s popularity in a specific cultural moment tied to the history of modern feminism. We use a content analysis of the Bratz movie series to explore the feminist and post-feminist thematics it contains. We identify the images of girlhood that are being marketed through the films and explore how the series repackages not only girlhood but also feminism itself in a way that encourages girls to exchange political power for purchasing power

Coaching player decision making in rugby union:Exploring coaches espoused theories and theories in use as an indicator of effective coaching practice

Researchers exploring how coaches can best support the development of their players decision making within team invasion sports have often been conducted from a cognitive or ecological approach, which differ in their views regarding the presence and absence of memory representations. This difference has, in turn, resulted in practical implications that are theoretically different, but not pedagogically different. Research has categorised such approaches to coaching decision making into intentional decision making training or incidental decision making training that offer different suggestions for how coaching methods may be used within their practice. Sometimes, these categories of training have been offered as the way coaches should operate over the careful selection of coaching methods given their intentions for impact. Instead, within this study we aim to explore the pragmatic nature of coaching practice, rather than adherence only to theoretical principles or beliefs