Faleoloa Laititi: The Role of Small Shops in a Developing Samoa

Samoa presently finds itself caught between the wave of development and an unyielding tie to its culture. Development in Samoa consists of a multitude of efforts including, but not limited to, commercial agriculture, tourism, environmental protection, and private sector business. In all of the areas, the struggle between the Western view and the Samoan internalization of the Western view proves readily apparent. More so, the way of life in Samoa somehow drips its way through the cracks of all these ideas, creating protocol for development which is uniquely Samoan. The research examines the strength and weaknesses of the small roadside shops found throughout the islands of Samoa. Case studies of shops in the rural village of Lotofaga and the sprawling urban village of Vaitele-Uta were the focus for information. Interviews with shop keepers as well as government officials sought to further validate observations and opinions. The research shed light on the small shops and their amazing role as an icon for the representation of a multitude of issues presently facing Samoa. Furthermore, the research allowed an accurate view of the shops’ actual contribution to the development of Samoan economy, or lack thereof, which served as the impetus for the study. Presently, the shops are not contributing in any significant manner to the development of the Samoan economy. Rather these shops are a staple in subsistence of a “cultural economy” stemming from ideas and practices lying at the heart of every Samoan. Ironically, the onset of Western economics has fueled a transition of protocol in cultural economics not soon to be undone

Optimal Sizing of Energy Storage with Embedded Wind Power Generation

Energy storage technologies are key to increased penetration of renewable energies on the distribution system. Not only do they increase availability of energy, but they contribute to the overall reliability of the system. However, the cost of large-scale storage systems can often be prohibitive, and storage needs to be sized appropriately, both to fill the energy gaps inevitable in renewable energies such as wind and to minimize costs. In this work, a Monte Carlo Simulation is performed to optimally size an energy storage system while minimizing overall system cost. 30 years of historical wind speed data are used to model the probabilistic behaviour of the wind and the seasonal variation of the wind is captured in the model. A generation adequacy assessment shows the system reliability increasing with energy storage. The energy storage is sized for reliable operation of the case study system with 60% wind penetration. The levelized cost of storage is calculated for the optimally sized level of storage and for the level of storage required to make wind power generation reliable

Urban Residents\u27 Adoption of Stormwater Best Management Practices: Final Report

The practices and decisions of Lewiston and Auburn residents regarding lawn care have a profound impact on stormwater runoff pollution and local water quality. In order to mitigate the substantial effects of these pollutants on waterways, it is critical for local residents to develop an understanding of best management practices (BMPs) which they feel compelled to implement in order to minimize the effects of stormwater pollution on water quality. With a five-year permit cycle for stormwater runoff put forth by the state, the Androscoggin Valley Stormwater Working Group (AVSWG) is contractually tasked with performing educational outreach in the community regarding the importance of stormwater runoff pollution, and with evaluating these educational outreach efforts to ensure that local residents are adequately understanding the BMPs they can adopt to minimize stormwater pollution. Our research on water pollutants, survey design, and behavioral change theory allowed us to produce a survey aimed at assessing residents’ lawn care decisions and at assessing stormwater pollution awareness and outreach efforts in the Lewiston and Auburn area. The survey we created will be sufficient to meet the upcoming permit requirements and to help determine behavioral trends in relation to the adoption of lawn care BMPs, the effectiveness of previous AVSWG educational outreach efforts, and the existing barriers to the adoption of BMPs. Central to our survey design process was the popular and heavily cited behavioral change theory developed by M. Fishbein and I. Ajzen (2010), the Reasoned Action Approach, which locates behavioral intention as the closest predictor of behavior implementation and identifies attitudes, norms, and behavioral control (both perceived and actual) as primary factors to examine which structure a person’s behavioral intent. To inform our survey construction, we also conducted interviews with local residents and pretested an initial version of the survey on several Bates College faculty members. After making revisions, we have produced a final version of the survey which will be distributed to residents of Lewiston and Auburn door-to-door in the coming month, as well as generated hypotheses as to the effectiveness of the AVSWG’s educational outreach efforts surrounding stormwater pollution. The initial information we have gathered via the framework of the Reasoned Action Approach on residents’ attitudes, norms, and perceived and actual control over their lawn care decisions both allow us to begin analyzing the effectiveness of the AVSWG’s educational outreach efforts, and to begin identifying leverage points which future education and outreach efforts could target. Our research has allowed us to create a set of conceptual tools which the AVSWG may continue to use in the coming years

Notes and Discussion Piece: Status of the Topeka Shiner in Iowa

The Topeka shiner Notropis topeka is native to Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota and has been federally listed as endangered since 1998. Our goals were to determine the present distribution and qualitative status of Topeka shiners throughout its current range in Iowa and characterize the extent of decline in relation to its historic distribution. We compared the current (2016–2017) distribution to distributions portrayed in three earlier time periods. In 2016–2017 Topeka shiners were found in 12 of 20 HUC10 watersheds where they occurred historically. Their status was classified as stable in 21% of the HUC10 watersheds, possibly stable in 25%, possibly recovering in 8%, at risk in 33%, and possibly extirpated in 13% of the watersheds. The increasing trend in percent decline evident in earlier time periods reversed, going from 68% in 2010–11 to 40% in the most recent surveys. Following decades of decline, the status of Topeka shiners in Iowa appears to be improving. One potential reason for the reversal in the distributional decline of Topeka shiners in Iowa is the increasing number of oxbow restorations. Until a standardized monitoring program is established for Iowa, periodic status assessments such as this will be necessary to chronicle progress toward conserving this endangered fish species

Coming in Warm: Qualitative Study and Concept Map to Cultivate Patient‐Centered Empathy in Emergency Care

Background Increased empathy may improve patient perceptions and outcomes. No training tool has been derived to teach empathy to emergency care providers. Accordingly, we engaged patients to assist in creating a concept map to teach empathy to emergency care providers. Methods We recruited patients, patient caretakers and patient advocates with emergency department experience to participate in three separate focus groups (n = 18 participants). Facilitators guided discussion about behaviors that physicians should demonstrate in order to rapidly create trust, enhance patient perception that the physician understood the patient's point of view, needs, concerns, fears, and optimize patient/caregiver understanding of their experience. Verbatim transcripts from the three focus groups were read by the authors and by consensus, 5 major themes with 10 minor themes were identified. After creating a codebook with thematic definitions, one author reviewed all transcripts to a library of verbatim excerpts coded by theme. To test for inter‐rater reliability, two other authors similarly coded a random sample of 40% of the transcripts. Authors independently chose excerpts that represented consensus and strong emotional responses from participants. Results Approximately 90% of opinions and preferences fell within 15 themes, with five central themes: Provider transparency, Acknowledgement of patient's emotions, Provider disposition, Trust in physician, and Listening. Participants also highlighted the need for authenticity, context and individuality to enhance empathic communication. For empathy map content, patients offered example behaviors that promote perceptions of physician warmth, respect, physical touch, knowledge of medical history, explanation of tests, transparency, and treating patients as partners. The resulting concept map was named the “Empathy Circle”. Conclusions Focus group participants emphasized themes and tangible behaviors to improve empathy in emergency care. These were incorporated into the “Empathy Circle”, a novel concept map that can serve as the framework to teach empathy to emergency care providers

Variations in signal-to-noise characteristics of tissue-equivalent attenuators for mammographic automatic exposure control system performance evaluation

PURPOSE: This work investigates the impact of tissue-equivalent attenuator choice on measured signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for automatic exposure control (AEC) performance evaluation in digital mammography. It also investigates how the SNR changes for each material when used to evaluate AEC performance across different mammography systems. METHODS: AEC performance was evaluated for four mammography systems using seven attenuator sets at two thicknesses (4 and 8 cm). All systems were evaluated in 2D imaging mode, and one system was evaluated in digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) mode. The methodology followed the 2018 ACR digital mammography quality control (DMQC) manual. Each system-attenuator-thickness combination was evaluated using For Processing images in ImageJ with standard ROI size and location. The closest annual physicist testing results were used to explore the impact of varying measured AEC performance on image quality. RESULTS: The measured SNR varied by 44%-54% within each system across all attenuators at 4 cm thickness in 2D mode. The variation appeared to be largely due to changes in measured noise, with variations of 46%-67% within each system across all attenuators at 4 cm thickness in 2D mode. Two systems had failing SNR levels for two of the materials using the minimum SNR criterion specified in the ACR DMQC manual. Similar trends were seen in DBT mode and at 8 cm thickness. Within each material, there was 115%-131% variation at 4 cm and 82%-114% variation at 8 cm in the measured SNR across the four imaging systems. Variation in SNR did not correlate with system operating level based on visual image quality and average glandular dose (AGD). CONCLUSION: Choice of tissue-equivalent attenuator for AEC performance evaluation affects measured SNR values. Depending on the material, the difference may be enough to result in failure following the longitudinal and absolute thresholds specified in the ACR DMQC manual