Dynamic lithosphere within the Great Basin

To place new constraints on the short-term, broad-scale lithospheric evolution of plate interiors, we utilize broadband seismic data from the Great Basin region of the Western United States to produce high-resolution images of the crust and upper mantle. Our results suggest that parts of the Great Basin lithosphere has been removed, likely via inflow of hot asthenosphere as subduction of the Farallon spreading center occurred and the region extended. In our proposed model, fragments of thermal lithosphere removed by this process were gravitationally unstable and subsequently sank into the underlying mantle, leaving behind less dense, stronger, chemically depleted lithosphere. This destabilization process promotes volcanism, deformation, and the reworking of continental lithosphere inboard from plate margins. Our results provide evidence for a new mechanism of lithospheric evolution that is likely common and significant in postsubduction tectonic settings

Correlates of exhibition-like experiences and the development of exhibitionism in females

The purpose of this study was to examine possible events or risk factors that occur during the critical period of learning, before age 18, that influence an individual to engage in exhibitionism or have urges to expose themselves. Anonymous data from 2,201 female participants were obtained using a computer-assisted self-administered questionnaire. Early experiences were examined to determine risk factors for ever having exposed themselves in a public place or ever having had urges to expose themselves in public places using logistic regression analysis. Many of the events that were identified as significant predictors for exhibitionism, such as seeing the mother nude before puberty, demonstrated the mother’s approval for engaging in such behaviors through her direct modeling of that behavior. Additional factors, such as looking at genitals and touching breasts, appeared to indicate that conditioning experiences increased the participants’ arousal and reinforced the behavior

Green on the Map - The Influence of Conservation Easements on the Naturalness of Landscapes In The United States

Large protected areas have long been the cornerstone of conservation biology, however, in an era branded by the human dominance of ecosystems, regional landscape structure and function are often a consequence of accumulated land-use decisions that may or may not include a nod to conservation planning. With underrepresentation of habitats in publicly protected areas, attention has focused on the function of alternative land conservation mechanisms. Private conservation easements (CEs) have proliferated in the United States, yet assessing landscape-level function is confounded by holder and donor intent, national and regional policy, regional landscape contexts, varying extents, resolution, and temporal scale. Over the last few decades, the use of conservation easements has proliferated and like other evolving concepts, it requires oversight and measurable evaluation in order to monitor and assess the usage and usefulness of the private conservation tool. To that point, this study explored the difference in composition and proximity tendencies of privately conserved lands relative to publicly conserved lands, and to random, private, non-conserved parcels using a remote measure of naturalness, first in chapter one as a pilot methodology in two Appalachian counties, and then in chapter two on a larger regional scale with more diverse geographic context. After gaining a better understanding of trends in composition and the link to the regional landscape, chapter three investigated tendencies in maintained and varying land cover composition across CE parcels and over time. Specifically, land cover composition was assessed from the time of placement using the NLCD 2019 land cover epochs, and compared to land cover in the epochs thereafter. This examination leveraged the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) providing spatial and tabular data for CEs across the U.S. and allowing for diverse geographic contexts and landscape matrices. Variation in tests for differences, land characteristics, and human modification variables confirmed the significantly lower human modification of publicly protected lands, and opened the question as to the naturalness of easements in varying contexts. CEs in chapter one appeared to be representative of the mixed-use, rural-forested landscape rather than more natural land cover. Chapter two used the same methodology but expanded the geographic and landscape coverage resulting in a broader characterization of the composition of conservation easements, indicating that they were similar in naturalness to the landscape matrix to which they were located. Our findings when taken in light of other studies, suggested that conservation easements play variable roles in the extent that they conserve natural landscape condition and connectivity from county to county. Given this variable role, and that CEs are generally a random sample of their landscapes, chapter three explored the consistency with which CEs maintained the land cover composition in which they were originally placed. Approximately 70% of the parcels showed no change in land cover value for any of the points sampled, with nearly 94% of parcels showing no major change in dominant land cover within the parcel, across land cover epochs. These results indicate CEs are maintaining the dominant land cover they were placed in at least into the established NLCD epochs post-placement. Moreover, less than 1% of CE parcels showed a dominant land cover change into a developed land cover category, indicating that when there was change in dominant land cover, it typically was not into developed land covers. Given the substantial investment in privately conserved lands, these findings contribute to a better understanding of private conservation within various landscapes, and across varying conservation goals, development regimes, and circumstances of governance. The opportunity to use science as a guide by leveraging existing studies to build on prevailing conservation tools and strategies has the opportunity to actively progress through the “Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful” initiative. The January 2021, U.S. President Biden recommended a collaborative and inclusive method to conserving America’s lands and waters for the benefit of all people. Specifically, the challenge encouraged pursuing conservation and restoration approaches that are flexible and adaptive and that support locally led and locally designed conservation efforts, honor private property rights, and support the voluntary stewardship efforts of private landowners. The initial report on the “America the Beautiful” issued in May 2021 indicated that conservation easements be an important part of its implementation, by their very definition and structure support the emphasis on locality, flexibility and adaptive approachs. Emerging research on the effectiveness of conservation easements in meeting conservation goals, including this study, provide a needed framework for implementing the “American the Beautiful” program

“A Document of Independent Force”: Towards a Robust Ohio Constitutionalism

On August 11, 1993, the Ohio Supreme Court handed down its decision in Arnold v. Cleveland. The Court held that the Ohio Constitution confers a fundamental individual right to bear arms—nearly 15 years before the United States Supreme Court enunciated a similar right guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Perhaps even more consequentially, the Arnold court declared that “[t]he Ohio Constitution is a document of independent force.” This assertion about the fundamental nature of the state constitution, and the willingness of the Court to engage with and interpret the document on its own terms, breathed new life into Ohio’s otherwise moribund state constitutional jurisprudence. While the Court’s declaration regarding the independent force of the state constitution may be a truism for students of the American political system, the implications of Arnold were—and remain—radical. Arnold has become the Court’s go-to citation for the assertion of Ohio’s constitutional independence, or the exercise of “judicial federalism.

PLANNING FOR GENTRIFICATION: A GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF GENTRIFICATION SUSCEPTIBILITY IN THE CITY OF ASHEVILLE, N.C.

The American urban backdrop has seen an ebb and flow of investment and abandonment in the central city. The movement of the population from city to suburb and vice versa is often associated with access to lower rents, but is also driven by consumer demand. As redevelopment occurs in the once declining urban areas, economic development brings in a new middle class and the private and public services necessary to accommodate them. Inevitably, as new people move in current residents may be forced out. Addressing this issue is complicated by understanding what makes a neighborhood or a particular population prone to the type of redevelopment that results in displacement, commonly known as gentrification. Much theory and multiple case studies have been written about the characteristics of both production and demand and how they relate to the displaced population, the neighborhood in question, and the new middle class. Through a case study approach of Asheville, N.C. this study explores how gentrification theory may be better understood through the application of geographical information systems (GIS). This project serves as a mechanism to attempt to identify and understand the use of indicators proposed in the literature and through case studies as a tool to detect the progression of gentrification. This study assists in understanding and use of GIS technology on gentrification, a very complicated theoretical concept. It seems the methodology is feasible given the more complex task of identifying a complete set of variables in a specific spatial and temporal context. These findings are then used to discuss the implication of gentrification and the prescribed models on Asheville specifically and on planning professionals in general

To what extent does personal relevance impact behavior after attending a laboratory safety training session?

Each year in the United States, millions of dollars are spent to educate adults. Therefore, there has been a flurry of interest in answering the question, \u27\u27How do adults learn?\u27\u27 There are different answers and therefore, different theories. The method selected for this study incorporated Andragogic learning into the laboratory safety training at Carnegie Mellon University. This design involved a number of features that recognized the essential maturity of the learner.;The training was developed to present the Laboratory Safety and Hazardous Waste Trainings at Carnegie Mellon University. The new training provided additional discussion points to allow the adults to interact more with the trainer and therefore, become more involved in their learning. The current training (\u27\u27old\u27\u27 training) did not incorporate the adult learning strategies. The new training began with providing objectives and real-life examples as well as a quiz that was graded and then the correct answers given, as opposed to allowing participants to change their responses before the grade is recorded. These educational concepts would hopefully transfer to improved safety practices in the laboratories. This was measured and recorded through staff observations during laboratory inspections. The observations recorded the number of safety violations exhibited by each participant.;The employees were divided into two groups: those that received the \u27\u27old\u27\u27 training and those that received the \u27\u27new\u27\u27 training. Staff members at Carnegie Mellon University trained to evaluate laboratory safety observed the employees. The employees were observed on three separate occasions to determine compliance to the safety behaviors described in the training.;After the observations were complete, t-tests were analyzed and a significant decrease in violations was found for participants in the \u27\u27new\u27\u27 training. The results demonstrate significant decreases only when comparing the two training groups, not when other variables were considered: employee\u27s department, male vs. female and training session attended

Mid-mantle deformation inferred from seismic anisotropy

With time, convective processes in the Earth's mantle will tend to align crystals, grains and inclusions. This mantle fabric is detectable seismologically, as it produces an anisotropy in material properties—in particular, a directional dependence in seismic-wave velocity. This alignment is enhanced at the boundaries of the mantle where there are rapid changes in the direction and magnitude of mantle flow, and therefore most observations of anisotropy are confined to the uppermost mantle or lithosphere and the lowermost-mantle analogue of the lithosphere, the D" region. Here we present evidence from shear-wave splitting measurements for mid-mantle anisotropy in the vicinity of the 660-km discontinuity, the boundary between the upper and lower mantle. Deep-focus earthquakes in the Tonga–Kermadec and New Hebrides subduction zones recorded at Australian seismograph stations record some of the largest values of shear-wave splitting hitherto reported. The results suggest that, at least locally, there may exist a mid-mantle boundary layer, which could indicate the impediment of flow between the upper and lower mantle in this region

Exploring and Operationalizing Inclusive Teaching in Engineering Education

Inclusive teaching is vital in engineering education because of its potential to enhance learning for all students. The purpose of this research is to explore faculty experiences with inclusive teaching, specifically focused on engineering settings. Our findings highlight dominant beliefs, practices, and challenges that emerged from our preliminary analysis. Future work will corroborate these findings with additional faculty as well as engineering student perspectives and beliefs