Conflict resolution and community support for conservation in the Northern Forest: A comparative case study from Maine

Rapid land ownership changes in the Northern Forest have spurred development as well as conservation. Local people have experienced differing degrees of participation in land use decisions. I compared two conservation projects from Maine to assess the policy processes, and local attitudes about the conservation project and land use. One was a top-down approach, the second a grassroots, private effort by local citizens to conserve forest land. I gathered my data via in person interviews, mail surveys, and analysis of legislative testimony. My findings indicate that early local involvement leads to less conflict and greater acceptance of the project. Important aspects of effective public involvement include shared learning and two-way dialogue. People generally want to maintain the working forest and the tradition of open public access. However, people also value forests as an economic opportunity for ecotourism. Most study participants favor mixed or multiple use management of forest lands

Effect Of The PEP Program On Biomechanical Risk Factors In Male Collegiate Lacrosse Athletes

Research poster stemming from IPEC mini-grant funded student project Effect of The Prevent Injury Enhance Performance Program on Biomechanical Risk Factors and Performance Variables in Male Collegiate Lacrosse Athletes. Background: Landing and cutting maneuvers are common mechanisms for noncontact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Men’s lacrosse is a high risk sport for ACL injury. The Prevent Injury Enhance Performance (PEP) program has been shown to decrease injury rates in women’s soccer but has not been studied in men’s lacrosse. Purpose: Determine if collegiate men’s lacrosse athletes land and cut in ways that put them at risk of ACL tear and to determine the effect of the PEP program on these mechanics. Methods: Twenty-two male collegiate lacrosse athletes participated in this study. Kinetics and kinematics were measured during a single leg drop-landing and a cutting maneuver before and after the spring 2015 season. Half of the participants performed the the PEP program, half of the participants performed a typical lacrosse warm up. Results: No group by time difference was observed in any variable in either task. Both groups demonstrated increased knee flexion angles at initial contact while cutting with the dominant limb. Conclusion: Neither group displayed mechanics that may increase risk of ACL tear. The PEP program did not alter landing and cutting mechanics more than a typical lacrosse warm up.https://dune.une.edu/minigrant_pep/1000/thumbnail.jp

The future of education

There are two main challenges for this chapter and both relate to definitions: what is meant by the concepts of firstly ‘the future’ and secondly ‘education’. Throughout the chapter clues about the future of education have been taken from government policy and this has given rise to one particular conceptualisation of education about which, through various activities, you are invited to join the debate. The chapter will explore the future of education in the compulsory, further and higher education sectors. It is worth noting that some current policy documents have deadlines of 2020 – which may well be the year you are reading this and the future has suddenly become the present, or even the past

Finite reduction and Morse index estimates for mechanical systems

A simple version of exact finite dimensional reduction for the variational setting of mechanical systems is presented. It is worked out by means of a thorough global version of the implicit function theorem for monotone operators. Moreover, the Hessian of the reduced function preserves all the relevant information of the original one, by Schur's complement, which spontaneously appears in this context. Finally, the results are straightforwardly extended to the case of a Dirichlet problem on a bounded domain.Comment: 13 pages; v2: minor changes, to appear in Nonlinear Differential Equations and Application

Measurement of charge and light yields for Xe 127 L -shell electron captures in liquid xenon

Dark matter searches using dual-phase xenon time-projection chambers (LXe-TPCs) rely on their ability to reject background electron recoils (ERs) while searching for signal-like nuclear recoils (NRs). ER response is typically calibrated using β-decay sources, such as tritium, but these calibrations do not characterize events accompanied by an atomic vacancy, as in solar neutrino scatters off inner-shell electrons. Such events lead to emission of x rays and Auger electrons, resulting in higher electron-ion recombination and thus a more NR-like response than inferred from β-decay calibration. We present a cross-calibration of tritium β-decays and Xe127 electron-capture decays (which produce inner-shell vacancies) in a small-scale LXe-TPC and give the most precise measurements to date of light and charge yields for the Xe127 L-shell electron-capture in liquid xenon. We observe a 6.9σ (9.2σ) discrepancy in the L-shell capture response relative to tritium β decays, measured at a drift field of 363±14 V/cm (258±13 V/cm), when compared to simulations tuned to reproduce the correct β-decay response. In dark matter searches, use of a background model that neglects this effect leads to overcoverage (higher limits) for background-only multi-kiloton-year exposures, but at a level much less than the 1-σ experiment-to-experiment variation of the 90% C.L. upper limit on the interaction rate of a 50 GeV/c2 dark matter particle

Plastic with personality: Increasing student engagement with manikins

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Background: Simulation allows students to practice key psychomotor skills and gain technical proficiency, fostering the development of clinical reasoning and student confidence in a low risk environment. Manikins are a valuable learning tool; yet there is a distinct lack of empirical research investigating how to enhance engagement between nursing students and manikins. Objective: To describe student perspectives of a layered, technology enhanced approach to improve the simulation learning experience. Educational Framework: Tanner's Model of Clinical Judgment underpins the entire curriculum. This study additionally drew on the principles of narrative pedagogy. Intervention: Across ten teaching weeks, five separate case studies were introduced to students through short vignettes. Students viewed the vignettes prior to their laboratory class. In the labs, manikins were dressed in the props used in the vignettes. Setting: The innovation was trialed in a second year core subject of a Bachelor of Nursing program in a large urban university in the autumn semester of 2014. Data Collection and Analysis: Following ethics approval, students were emailed a participant information sheet. A focus group of nine students was held. The discussion was digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim prior to being subject to thematic analysis. Students' comments (143) about the vignettes in their standard subject specific student feedback surveys were also considered as data. Results: Four themes were identified: Getting past the plastic; knowing what to say; connecting and caring; and, embracing diversity. The feedback indicated that these measures increased students ability to suspend disbelief, feel connected to, and approach the manikins in a more understanding and empathetic fashion. Conclusions: In addition to achieving increased engagement with manikins, other advantages such as students reflecting on their own values and pre-conceived notions of people from diverse backgrounds were realized

Extreme alpha-clustering in the 18O nucleus

The structure of the 18O nucleus at excitation energies above the alpha decay threshold was studied using 14C+alpha resonance elastic scattering. A number of states with large alpha reduced widths have been observed, indicating that the alpha-cluster degree of freedom plays an important role in this N not equal Z nucleus. However, the alpha-cluster structure of this nucleus is very different from the relatively simple pattern of strong alpha-cluster quasi-rotational bands in the neighboring 16O and 20Ne nuclei. A 0+ state with an alpha reduced width exceeding the single particle limit was identified at an excitation energy of 9.9+/-0.3 MeV. We discuss evidence that states of this kind are common in light nuclei and give possible explanations of this feature.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Resubmission with minor changes for clarity, including removal of one figur

Population of bound excited states in intermediate-energy fragmentation reactions

Fragmentation reactions with intermediate-energy heavy-ion beams exhibit a wide range of reaction mechanisms, ranging from direct reactions to statistical processes. We examine this transition by measuring the relative population of excited states in several sd-shell nuclei produced by fragmentation with the number of removed nucleons ranging from two to sixteen. The two-nucleon removal is consistent with a non-dissipative process whereas the removal of more than five nucleons appears to be mainly statistical.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure