Quantifying the impacts of regulatory delay on housing affordability and quality in Austin, Texas

textRegulatory delay during site plan review of multifamily projects in Austin has three primary impacts: 1) it generates unexpected development costs which increases housing prices over-time; 2) it stifles innovation and decreases quality of development; and 3) it promotes exurban growth. These impacts reduce affordability and quality of life for all Austinites and thwart the goals of the Imagine Austin comprehensive plan. As regulatory delays have increased remarkably since 2009, strong rent growth has compensated for this growing uncertainty throughout the Austin market. If regulatory delays are eliminated and developers receive approvals for multifamily projects within the 120 day mandate instead of the 223 day average, renters could see relief of 4-5% on their rent, or an average of $60 per month or$720 annually in Central Austin. Interviews with 14 Austin-area residential developers confirm these delays, costs, and impacts on their projects. On average it takes 3.5 additional months to receive site plan approvals in Austin in addition to the code mandated four month cycle. Austin's peer cities fare differently. The average delay in Denver, Colorado is three weeks, and is just several days in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whereas land use regulations theoretically generate positive externalities, delays in administering those regulations generate no benefits to the community. During this unforeseen 3.5 months, developers accrue unexpected costs such as legal fees, and developer overhead which includes the opportunity costs of not pursuing other deals. Construction costs increase during delays, and developers must continue to pay for land options and carry costs. In the short-term, developers pay for these unexpected costs out-of-pocket, and by reducing construction costs, which can result in lower quality materials or amenities. Unexpected costs roll into the project's overall budget, resulting in more expensive development projects. More expensive projects require higher rents in order to maintain the development team's expected yield on cost. Further, interviews with urban designers and civil engineers reveal that regulatory delay stifles private sector innovation in the built environment. Developer interviews and case studies suggest that regulatory delay promotes exurban growth instead of urban infill in the Austin metropolitan area.Community and Regional Plannin

The Response of Zigadenus fremontii to Variation in Fire Regime

California\u27s chaparral shrub communities are naturally exposed to dry-season fire. It could be reasoned that prescription burns set during the wet season by land managers would have more detrimental effects on plant regeneration than dry season fires because wet season burns are more likely to kill newly emergent seedlings and damage newly emerged leaves of mature plants. Six field sites with flowering Zigadenus fremontii, an herbaceous perennial geophyte common to chapparal and part of the post-fire bloom, were established at Henry W. Coe State Park in Nothern California. Three sites were part of the September 2007 Lick Wildfire and three were part of a February 2007 prescription burn. The sites were monitored for Z. fremontii regeneration over two years. Z. fremontii exposed to the prescription burn fared better than the wildfire plants, with inflorescence height being significantly higher in prescribed burn sites. Bulbs were transplanted into soil from the prescription burn, wildfire, and unburned area to determine differences in regeneration due to soil characteristics. There were no significant differences due to soil types, but only bulbs from the prescription burn sites had the ability to produce flowers in multiple years subsequent to fire. Differences in germination rates between seeds grown in soil from the wildfire, prescription burn, and unburned soil were investigated via a controlled germination experiment. There was a trend for increased germination in burned soils compared to unburned soils. The evidence from this study suggests that geophytes can benefit from fires set outside of the natural fire season of chaparral

Uncovering the secrets they keep – the role of parasites in food web ecology

Interactions involving parasites often account for large proportions of links within aquatic food webs, yet few studies integrate parasites into their food web analyses. This analysis compares three sets of highly resolved food webs that differ in taxa composition, space, and time for a subarctic lake system. Key topological food web metrics, including connectance, linkage density, and mean generality and vulnerability, were calculated to explore the impact parasites have on food web structure and functioning. Incorporating parasites into this lacustrine food web was shown to increase connectance, linkage density, and mean vulnerability, a result of unique properties of parasites and the links they participate in. Parasites in the total food web were involved in a large proportion of concomitant predation interactions with their free-living counterparts and numerous trematodes also participated in intra-guild predation, leading to the observed changes in key metrics. Additionally, the division of the total food web into its benthic and pelagic compartments further illustrated that parasites have different impacts in these two highly contrasting habitats, as very different values were reported for most key metrics measured. However, connectance was nearly identical in the two compartments. The higher-than-expected connectance in the benthic compartment was due to the life history strategies of the benthic compartment’s parasite taxa. Finally, this analysis explored the impact of a series of fish introductions and the consequences of their ten hitchhiking parasites on the key topological metrics measured. These additional nodes increased linkage density and mean vulnerability but had very little effect on the other measured metrics. This analysis highlights the importance of incorporating parasites, especially trophically-transmitted parasites, into food webs as they significantly alter key topological metrics and are therefore essential for understanding a system’s structure and functioning

Alien Registration- Shannon, Elizabeth F. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21964/thumbnail.jp

AN EXPLORATION INTO ADDICTIONS COUNSELLOR TURNOVER IN MANITOBA: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY

Addiction is a growing concern particularly in Manitoba where the rate is higher than the national average. Individuals are accessing addictions services at steadily increasing rates therefore Counsellors will be needed to deal with this increase. International literature reports high turnover among addictions counsellors, with detrimental effects on service delivery. This thesis aims to enhance an understanding of the ways in which contextual features influence how and when counsellors leave the field of addiction. A critical narrative approach was adopted that aligned with a constructivist paradigm. Two semi structured narrative interviews were conducted with four participants. Common themes that emerged were: education playing a major role in the difficulties experienced by the participants, the impact of centralized decision-making, lack of support from management and coworkers, systemic constraints making work in addictions challenging, as well as each participant being uncertain about entering, leaving and returning to the field of addictions. Findings indicate that turnover is non-linear and contextually situated

Alien Registration- Shannon, Elizabeth F. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21964/thumbnail.jp

Academic disidentification in African American college students : an exploratory investigation of the role of teacher trust, parental racial socialization, and gender

textThe purpose of this study was to explore whether academic disidentification (i.e., the relation between ASC and GPA), differed based on students’ gender and reported level of parental racial-ethnic socialization and teacher trust. This study was exploratory in nature, as few researchers have examined the relation between parental racial-ethnic socialization and academic outcomes or the relation between teacher trust and academic outcomes. Secondary goals of this study included and examination of (1) the relation between racial socialization and academic outcomes, (2) the relation between teacher trust and academic outcomes, (3) the relation between parenting constructs (i.e., racial socialization and parental warmth) and teacher trust, and (4) the role of parental warmth as a variable that potentially buffers negative child outcomes or enhances positive child outcomes. Participants included 319 African American students (120 males, 199 females) recruited from a large, southwestern, predominantly white university. Results indicated the presence of academic disidentification as unique to upperclassmen males (i.e., the relation between ASC and GPA was significant for females and underclassmen males, but not upperclassmen males). Parental messages of promotion of mistrust were found to significantly moderate the relation between ASC and GPA. Further, in examining the influence of the combination of teacher trust x sex on the relation between ASC and GPA, a significant three-way interaction was present. Teacher trust was also found to be a significant predictor of GPA, with gender significantly moderating this relation. Gender differences were present for teacher trust, but there were not differences between underclassmen and upperclassmen. Racial socialization variables were not found to significantly predict GPA. However, two types of racial socialization (promotion of mistrust and egalitarianism) and parental warmth were found to be significant predictors of teacher trust. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.Educational Psycholog