Emergency Preparedness in the Legal Librarian Community in the United States – Current Culture and the Need to Expand Collaboration

The frequency of natural disasters hitting populated areas is increasing, and due to society’s increased dependency on modern infrastructure, the impacts of disasters have also escalated. I interviewed librarians and law librarians that work or have worked in libraries that were impacted by natural disasters, as well as experts in the disaster management field. From their comments and insights, shared in this paper, it is clear that there are lessons that can be learned from the larger community in the area of disaster management in law libraries. The law librarian community needs to expand the scope of the national discussion to include disaster management. The key lessons obtained in these national forums, like those shared by the subject matter experts I interviewed, will enable law libraries to become a more resilient and an even more valuable asset to the communities we serve when a natural disaster strikes

Trends in Undergraduate General Education in the U.S., the Texas Core Curriculum, and Communication Course Requirements

In October 2011, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board revised Texas Core Curriculum (TCC) rules impacting all public higher education institutions in Texas. The new rules were implemented in the fall semester of 2014. In this study, we review the history of undergraduate general education requirements in the United States and recent changes to the TCC. Then to determine how recent changes reflect historical trends in general education and affect the course offerings of departments of English and communication, we use descriptive statistics to examine courses included under the TCC Communication Foundational Component Area of 37 state universities and 53 community colleges. Findings indicate the number of re-quired English and speech communication courses decreased both at community colleges (-11.5%) and universities (-15.9%), signaling a shift toward providing students greater choice in course selection which could impact academic programs in the years to come.Educatio

Empowered Pursuit: A Reflective Essay on Using Creative Learning in the Syracuse City School District

Within the Syracuse City School District, students have been struggling to thrive in an educational environment that focuses on standardization. In 2012, only 48% of high school seniors graduated with a high school diploma in the city of Syracuse. Numerous theories have been discussed as to why students have failed to succeed, with a large portion of these centered on the problems created by the No Child Left Behind Act. This reflective essay constructs and deconstructs the research and conceptual work produced surrounding the topic of creative learning within the Syracuse City School District. Initial research, summarized in this paper, sought to discover the ties between student motivation and a need for an outlet to deal with issues occurring outside the classroom - often in the home environment. Research was conducted from a variety of sources on the issues of family and parental participation in largely African American inner city schools, the teaching of social-emotional intelligence, and the effects of creative arts-based learning on emotional well being and academic performance. Findings reported that creative arts programs – in and out of the school environment – helped inner-city middle and high school students to perform better than their peers on standardized tests and also helped at-risk students to develop a strong sense of self-efficacy despite their unique circumstances. By exploring the problems and proposed solutions of inner-city middle and high school students throughout the country and in the city of Syracuse, curriculum and design concepts began to develop as a multi-level solution. Completed creative work includes construction documents, presentation drawings, and materials specifications

Better Together? Combining Cover Crop Mulches, Organic Herbicides, and Weed Seed Biological Control in Reduced-Tillage Crop Systems

Weed management in organic agriculture is one of the greatest challenges farmers face and many rely heavily on mechanical tactics that are labor-intensive and negatively impact the environment. Although more complex, farmers could integrate various cultural, chemical, and biological weed management tools to potentially reduce the need for tillage. A weed management system that incorporates the use of cover crop mulch could suppress weeds and promote weed seed predation services by granivorous insects. Since cover crops decompose as the season progresses, precise applications of organic herbicides could extend weed management towards the end of the season. In our studies, we compare various cover crop mulch treatments to organic herbicide treatments to examine potential synergies between tools, as well as potential non-target effects of organic herbicides on beneficial insects and weed seed biocontrol. We also evaluate the herbicide efficacy of capric and caprylic acid (CCA) compared to conventional herbicides, weeds of different height and species, and at varying pH and concentration. We found that CCA is most effective on weeds \u3c10cm and a lower water carrier pH can increase efficacy. Overall, our work has demonstrated that organic herbicides may be a viable supplemental tool with limited non-target effects, and that combined with other cultural and biological tools may enhance weed control and yield, while reducing soil-borne pathogen abundance and the need for tillage

What\u27s in a Name: Examining What Sports Team Names Communicate

For years, there have been controversy and discussion regarding high school, college, and professional sports team name changes. Professional sports teams have gained the most attention regarding team name changes or lack thereof. This study can bring an understanding of the message communicated through the chosen names and logos of sports teams as well as the effects of financial, political, and fan base changes on team name changes in the sports industry. Extensive research is provided to show the previous content on the topic as well as areas where further research would be beneficial. This includes previous and current sport name changes, name history, political, media, and financial influence, Native American involvement, relatable communication theories, and reactions. Based on the gathered research, there was still a need for specified studies regarding the overall influences of these name changes and what the names and teams communicate. This study brings clarity to this issue by evaluating the Washington Redskins (Washington Football Team), Chicago Blackhawks, Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, and Kansas City Chiefs. The structured qualitative method used was implemented to gain data from sports professionals or players, sports fans, and the impacted party (Native Americans) of these teams. This data contributes to an area of sports communication that has previously been overlooked and provides teams with an idea of how to communicate future name changes to their fans and the public

Forecasting Advective Sea Fog with the Use of Classification and Regression Tree Analyses for Kunsan Air Base

Advective sea fog frequently plagues Kunsan Air Base (AB), Republic of Korea, in the spring and summer seasons. It is responsible for a variety of impacts on military operations, the greatest being to aviation. To date, there are no suitable methods developed for forecasting advective sea fog at Kunsan, primarily due to a lack of understanding of sea fog formation under various synoptic situations over the Yellow Sea. This work explored the feasibility of predicting sea fog development with a 24-hour forecast lead time. Before exploratory data analysis was performed, a geographical introduction to the region was provided along with a discussion of basic elements of fog formation, the physical properties of fog droplets, and its dissipation. Examined in this work were data sets of Kunsan surface observations, upstream upper air data, sea surface temperatures over the Yellow Sea, and modeled analyses of gridded data over the Yellow Sea. A complete ten year period of record was examined for inclusion into data mining models to find predictive patterns. The data were first examined using logistic regression techniques, followed my classification and regression tree analysis (CART) for exploring possible concealed predictors. Regression revealed weak relationships between the target variable (sea fog) and upper air predictors, with stronger relationships between the target variable and sea surface temperatures. CART results determined the importance between the target variable and upstream upper air predictors, and established specific criteria to be used when forecasting target variable events. The results of the regression and CART data mining analyses are summarized as forecasting guidelines to air forecasters in predicting the evolution of sea fog events and advection over the area

X-Inefficiencies in the Residential Real Estate Market: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

This article examines the productive efficiency levels present in the market for residential real estate brokerage services by employing the stochastic frontier approach. The only prior study (Anderson, Zumpano, Elder and Fok, 1998) that examined productive efficiency in this sector employed data envelopment analysis. This current article addresses potential statistical limitations of Data Envelopment Analysis and uses an alternative statistical tool, the stochastic frontier approach, to estimate X-efficiencies. This technique overcomes many of the statistical limitations of DEA and provides additional productive efficiency estimates. The results suggest that residential real estate brokerage firms are relatively efficient, in contrast to the earlier study that found significant inefficiencies present in this market. Firms could only reduce their average total costs by 12% given firm outputs and input prices. Additionally, the firms were divided into three size categories to examine the impact of firm size on efficiency. The results indicate that small firms are the most efficient group. Hence, there seems to be a tradeoff between scale efficiency and productive efficiency.

Synthesis of Itaconic Acid Ester Analogues via Self-Aldol Condensation of Ethyl Pyruvate Catalyzed by Hafnium BEA Zeolites

Lewis acidic zeolites are used to synthesize unsaturated dicarboxylic acid esters via aldol condensation of keto esters. Hafnium-containing BEA (Hf-BEA) zeolites catalyze the condensation of ethyl pyruvate into diethyl 2-methyl-4-oxopent-2-enedioate and diethyl 2-methylene-4-oxopentanedioate (an itaconic acid ester analogue) with a selectivity of ca. 80% at ca. 60% conversion in a packed-bed reactor. The catalyst is stable for 132 h on stream, reaching a turnover number of 5110 mol[subscript EP] mol[subscript Hf]⁻¹. Analysis of the dynamic behavior of Hf-BEA under flow conditions and studies with Na-exchanged zeolites suggest that Hf(IV) open sites possess dual functionality for Lewis and Brønsted acid catalysis.United States. Department of Energy (DE-FG0212ER16352)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (122374