Ant-mound Effects on Two Adjacent Prairies: Virgin and Plowed

Mound-building Formica ants may be important biotic factors within prairie restorations because mounds found in virgin prairies can exist for decades, with densities up to 1,148 mounds/ha (465 mounds/acre). Research on the effects of Formica ant mounds on a virgin and an adjacent restored prairie (treatments) was established in 2003 near Olathe, Kansas; and it was expected that percent soil moisture, soil bulk density, plant species\u27 distributions, and percent plant cover would be significantly affected. Data were collected from active mounds (28 in virgin prairie, 21 in restored prairie), and from paired off-mound sites 1 m (3 .3 ft) north of each mound. On-mound soils were significantly drier and less dense when both treatments were combined, and within each treatment (P \u3c 0.05, respectively). Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) and sleeping plant (Chamaecrista fasiculata) occurred significantly less often, and with lower cover, on mounds when both treatments were combined (P \u3c 0.01). Within the virgin prairie, goldenrod differences were significant (P \u3c 0.03), and within the restored prairie, sleeping plant differences were significant (P \u3c 0.01). The cover of big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) was significantly higher on mounds when both treatments were combined (P \u3c 0.03), and when compared within the restored prairie (P \u3c 0.02). This paper demonstrated that mound-building ants significantly affected the virgin and restored prairies\u27 soils and plants, but with variable intensities. These variable effects may have been caused by soil structure and plowing history interactions because mound surfaces were different colors between treatments. These possible interactions should be studied. Also, effects may not be the same at other locations because some prairie restorations have many mound-building ants while others have few. It may be determined, with more study, that mound-building ants should be included in restoration plans

Ant-mound Effects on Two Adjacent Prairies: Virgin and Plowed

Mound-building Formica ants may be important biotic factors within prairie restorations because mounds found in virgin prairies can exist for decades, with densities up to 1,148 mounds/ha (465 mounds/acre). Research on the effects of Formica ant mounds on a virgin and an adjacent restored prairie (treatments) was established in 2003 near Olathe, Kansas; and it was expected that percent soil moisture, soil bulk density, plant species\u27 distributions, and percent plant cover would be significantly affected. Data were collected from active mounds (28 in virgin prairie, 21 in restored prairie), and from paired off-mound sites 1 m (3 .3 ft) north of each mound. On-mound soils were significantly drier and less dense when both treatments were combined, and within each treatment (P \u3c 0.05, respectively). Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) and sleeping plant (Chamaecrista fasiculata) occurred significantly less often, and with lower cover, on mounds when both treatments were combined (P \u3c 0.01). Within the virgin prairie, goldenrod differences were significant (P \u3c 0.03), and within the restored prairie, sleeping plant differences were significant (P \u3c 0.01). The cover of big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) was significantly higher on mounds when both treatments were combined (P \u3c 0.03), and when compared within the restored prairie (P \u3c 0.02). This paper demonstrated that mound-building ants significantly affected the virgin and restored prairies\u27 soils and plants, but with variable intensities. These variable effects may have been caused by soil structure and plowing history interactions because mound surfaces were different colors between treatments. These possible interactions should be studied. Also, effects may not be the same at other locations because some prairie restorations have many mound-building ants while others have few. It may be determined, with more study, that mound-building ants should be included in restoration plans

In Keeping with Family Tradition: American Second-Wave Feminists and the Social Construction of Political Legacies

Through an interpretive lens that borrows from feminist postmodernist perspectives on identity and cognitive sociology, the manuscript utilizes in-depth interview data from 33 women active in the American second-wave feminist movement to explore how aging feminist activists construct their current political identities in relation to the meanings they give to the perceived progressive political identities and actions of their elders. In particular, this study examines the discursive strategies that respondents engage as they link their own feminist consciousness directly or indirectly to feminist, or otherwise progressive, parents and grandparents. Findings reveal three distinct political legacy narratives, namely 1) explicit transmission origin stories; 2) bridge narratives; and 3) paradox plots that add to both the social movement literature on the symbolic dimensions of recruitment, sustainability, and spillover, as well as cognitive sociological literature on the cultural transmission of political capital, in general, and to our understanding of American second-wave activists, more specifically

Education Interrupted: The Growing Use of Suspensions in New York City's Public Schools

The New York Civil Liberties Union analyzed 10 years of discipline data from New York City schools, and found that:*The total number of suspensions in New York City grew at an alarming rate over the last decade: One out of every 14 students was suspended in 2008-2009; in 1999-2000 it was one in 25. In 2008-2009, this added up to more than 73,000 suspensions.*Students with disabilities are four times more likely to be suspended than students without disabilities.*Black students, who comprise 33 percent of the student body, served 53 percent of suspensions over the past 10 years. *Black students with disabilities represent more than 50 percent of suspended students with disabilities.*Black students also served longer suspensions on average and were more likely to be suspended for subjective misconduct, like profanity and insubordination.*Suspensions are becoming longer: More than 20 percent of suspensions lasted more than one week in 2008-2009, compared to 14 percent in 1999-2000. The average length of a long-term suspension is five weeks (25 school days).*Between 2001 and 2010, the number of infractions listed in the schools' Discipline Code increased by 49 percent. During that same period, the number of zero tolerance infractions, which mandate a suspension regardless of the individual facts of the incident, increased by 200 percent.*Thirty percent of suspensions occur during March and June of each school year

Rethinking the Economics of Rural Water in Africa

Rural Africa lags behind global progress to provide safe drinking water to everyone. Decades of effort and billions of dollars of investment have yielded modest gains, with high but avoidable health and economic costs borne by over 300m people lacking basic water access. We explore why rural water is different for communities, schools, and healthcare facilities across characteristics of scale, institutions, demand, and finance. The findings conclude with policy recommendations to (i) network rural services at scale, (ii) unlock rural payments by creating value, and (iii) design and test performance-based funding models at national and regional scales, with an ambition to eliminate the need for future, sustainable development goals

Modelling Welfare Transitions to Prioritise Sustainable Development Interventions in Coastal Kenya

Welfare transitions are weakly understood in sub-Saharan Africa due to limited panel data to analyze trajectories of household escaping from, falling into, or remaining out of deprivation. We model data from 3500 households in coastal Kenya in three panels from 2014 to 2016 to evaluate determinants of welfare by multidimensional and subjective measures. Findings indicate that more than half of the households are deprived, with female-headed households being the most vulnerable and making the least progress. The subjective welfare measure identified three times more chronically poor households than the multidimensional metric (27% vs. 9%); in contrast, the multidimensional metric estimated twice as many ‘never poor’ households than the subjective measure (39% vs. 16%). The ‘churning poor’ were broadly consistent for both measures at roughly half the sample. Four welfare priorities converged from modelling welfare transitions. Broadening access to secondary education and energy services, improving the reliability and proximity of drinking water services, and ending open defecation improve welfare outcomes. While the policy implications do not align neatly with Kenya’s national and county government mandates, we argue that prioritising fewer but targeted sustainable development goals may improve accountability, feasibility, and responsibility in delivery if informed by local priorities and political salience

Groundwater and Welfare: A Conceptual Framework Applied to Coastal Kenya

The links between groundwater and welfare are highly contested, unclear and confounded by political, environmental and economic factors. The lack of understanding of these links has wider implication on policies and strategies aimed at accelerating the sustainable development goals of safely-managed drinking water services and eradicating poverty. This study provides empirical evidence of the existing links between groundwater and poverty using welfare metrics versus productive uses of water, groundwater table depth, drinking water services and groundwater dependency with data obtained from a household socio-economic survey (n = 3349), a water audit of water infrastructure (n = 570) and volumetric usage from water data transmitters (n = 300). Results show that the bottom welfare households are characterized by greater dependency on shallow groundwater, less acceptable drinking water services by taste, reliability, affordability or accessibility but not quantity. Productive use of groundwater for livestock accrues to the middle welfare quintiles with the bottom and top welfare quintiles by choice or exclusion having little engagement. Groundwater productive uses, services and characteristics explain at least 17% of the variation in a households' welfare with productive uses particularly benefiting female headed households. These findings suggest that ancillary investments to improve affordability and reliability of rural water services will be needed to enhance welfare of the poor who depend on groundwater systems. Further, such knowledge of the relationships between water and welfare can support the formulation of policies and strategies aimed at poverty reduction, inclusive growth and access to safe water for all