Spelling Instruction and Young Learners\u27 Literacy Development

For several decades, in schools across the United States, spelling instruction has been and continues to be a fundamental component of the English Language Arts curriculum in the primary and intermediate grades. Many administrators, teachers, and parents support spelling instruction, claiming that it improves student\u27s reading and writing performance. Other interested stakeholders (including administrators, teachers, and parents) agree that spelling instruction has become a staple of the American education system because it encourages a home-school connection. This means that teachers send home weekly spelling study guides and worksheets for parents and/or guardians to help their children with in order to perform well on Friday\u27s spelling test. At the onset of the 2008-2009 school year, Oatka Creek Elementary School took on the Rigby: Literacy by Design English Language Arts program for students in Kindergarten-Grade Five. Although this research-based program includes reading and writing instruction, I plan to concentrate on the spelling resources and instruction designed for first-grade general education students. During my substitute teaching experiences in first-grade classrooms at Oatka Creek Elementary School, I noticed a possible disconnect between the spelling words that first-grade students are taught and assessed on each week and their abilities to accurately use these words in their daily writing. Students intensely study a given list of words for a week, but when given a written assignment or working on daily writing, students experience difficulty spelling the words correctly, using the words appropriately in context, or students may exclude the words altogether. It seems that the spelling instruction practices outlined in the Literacy by Design program neglects one of the key reasons why students learn how to spell: to improve their writing. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the Literacy by Design spelling instruction and strategies are effective practices toward the improvement of first-grade students\u27 writing. The goal is to determine how these methods may be tailored to support the spelling and writing needs of all students in a first-grade classroom

Grassland futures in Great Britain – Productivity assessment and scenarios for land use change opportunities

This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).To optimise trade-offs provided by future changes in grassland use intensity, spatially and temporally explicit estimates of respective grassland productivities are required at the systems level. Here, we benchmark the potential national availability of grassland biomass, identify optimal strategies for its management, and investigate the relative importance of intensification over reversion (prioritising productivity versus environmental ecosystem services). Process-conservative meta-models for different grasslands were used to calculate the baseline dry matter yields (DMY; 1961–1990) at 1 km2 resolution for the whole UK. The effects of climate change, rising atmospheric [CO2] and technological progress on baseline DMYs were used to estimate future grassland productivities (up to 2050) for low and medium CO2 emission scenarios of UKCP09. UK benchmark productivities of 12.5, 8.7 and 2.8 t/ha on temporary, permanent and rough-grazing grassland, respectively, accounted for productivity gains by 2010. By 2050, productivities under medium emission scenario are predicted to increase to 15.5 and 9.8 t/ha on temporary and permanent grassland, respectively, but not on rough grassland. Based on surveyed grassland distributions for Great Britain in 2010 the annual availability of grassland biomass is likely to rise from 64 to 72 million tonnes by 2050. Assuming optimal N application could close existing productivity gaps of ca. 40% a range of management options could deliver additional 21 ∗ 106 tonnes of biomass available for bioenergy. Scenarios of changes in grassland use intensity demonstrated considerable scope for maintaining or further increasing grassland production and sparing some grassland for the provision of environmental ecosystem services.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Farmland Manure Nutrient Loadings: South Dakota Feedlots and Cow-Calf Operations

The estimated annual value of the manure produced by livestock and poultry in the U.S. as fertilizer for farmland is around $2.5 billion. The corresponding value for manure produced in South Dakota is$172 million, which is about 5% of total cash receipts from marketings and government payments to farmers and ranchers in the state in 1992 (Taylor, 1994, p 32). These estimated manure values represent the commercial market value of the elemental nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) contained in the manure produced by livestock, as a replacement for synthetic chemical fertilizers that otherwise would be purchased and applied to farmland. Whether these values are realized in practice depends on the quality of management practices followed in handling and disposing of manure. If such management practices are sound, the actual realized values of the manure produced in the U.S. and in South Dakota will approximate the values mentioned in the above paragraph. To the extent that such practices are unsound, however, the actual realized value of manure becomes less. In the extreme, the value could become negative. The potential for negative values is accentuated for geographically concentrated livestock. With concentrated livestock production, environmental concerns can arise in connection with (1) waste run-off from feedlots ( point source pollution ) and (2) nutrients leaching into soil and water from manure in excess of the nutrients required by crops and grasses ( non-point source pollution ). 1 Other things the same, possibilities for both types of pollution are greater if cattle are fed in large feedlots. 2 Point source pollution may increase because of the large amounts of feedlot waste available as potential run-off into ground and surface water sources in the immediate vicinity of large feedlots. Non-point source pollution may increase because the economic disincentives for transporting manure long distances from its point of origin may result in excessively heavy manure applications on farmland close to large feedlots (Freeze and Sommerfeldt, 1985). The results of a study of non-point source pollution for feedlot operations in South Dakota are reported in Taylor (1994).3 In this report, similar results are reported for cow-calf operations in the state.4 Special emphasis is given to comparing livestock manure nutrient loadings for cow-calf operations with those for feedlots. The comparison between cow-calf operations and feedlots is of particular interest because, on the one hand, cattle on feed are more geographically concentrated than cattle on pasture but, on the other hand, fed cattle account for only 8 % and grazing cattle account for as much as 55 % of the total estimated manure produced in the U.S. (OTA, 1990, p 93)

Genetic and morphological differentiation in Populus nigra L.:isolation by colonization or isolation by adaptation?

Identifying processes underlying the genetic and morphological differences among populations is a central question of evolutionary biology. Forest trees typically contain high levels of neutral genetic variation, and genetic differences are often correlated with geographic distance between populations [isolation by distance (IBD)] or are due to historic vicariance events [isolation by colonization (IBC)]. In contrast, morphological differences are largely due to local adaptation. Here, we examined genetic (microsatellite) and morphological (from a common garden experiment) variation in Populus nigra L., European black poplar, collected from 13 sites across western Europe and grown in a common garden in Belgium. Significant genetic differentiation was observed, with populations from France displaying greater admixture than the distinct Spanish and central European gene pools, consistent with previously described glacial refugia (IBC). Many quantitative traits displayed a bimodal distribution, approximately corresponding to small-leaf and large-leaf ecotypes. Examination of nine climatic variables revealed the sampling locations to have diverse climates, and although the correlation between morphological and climatic differences was significant, the pattern was not consistent with strict local adaptation. Partial Mantel tests based on multivariate summary statistics identified significant residual correlation in comparisons of small-leaf to large-leaf ecotypes, and within the small-leaf samples, but not within large-leaf ecotypes, indicating that variation within the small-leaf morphotype in particular may be adaptive. Some small-leaf populations experience climates very similar to those in large-leaf sites. We conclude that adaptive differentiation and persistent IBC acted in combination to produce the genetic and morphological patterns observed in P. nigra

Estimating the influence of different urban canopy cover types on atmospheric particulate matter (PM10) pollution abatement in London UK

In the urban environment atmospheric pollution by PM10 (particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 x 10-6 m) is a problem that can have adverse effects on human health, particularly increasing rates of respiratory disease. The main contributors to atmospheric PM10 in the urban environment are road traffic, industry and powerproduction. The urban tree canopy is a receptor for removing PM10s from the atmosphere due to the large surface areas generated by leaves and air turbulence created by the structure of the urban forest. In this context urban greening has long been known as a mechanism to contribute towards PM10 removal from the air, furthermore, tree canopy cover has a role in contributing towards a more sustainable urban environment.The work reported here has been carried out within the BRIDGE project (SustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism). The aim of this project is to assess the fluxes of energy, water, carbon dioxide and particulates within the urban environment and develope a DSS (Decision Support System) to aid urban planners in sustainable development. A combination of published urban canopy cover data from ground, airborne and satellite based surveys was used. For each of the 33 London boroughs the urban canopy was classified to three groups, urban woodland, street trees and garden trees and each group quantified in terms of ground cover. The total [PM10] for each borough was taken from the LAEI (London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory 2006) and the contribution to reducing [PM10] was assessed for each canopy type. Deposition to the urban canopy was assessed using the UFORE (Urban Forest Effects Model) approach. Deposition to the canopy, boundary layer height and percentage reduction of the [PM10] in the atmosphere was assessed using both hourly meterological data and [PM10] and seasonal data derived from annual models. Results from hourly and annual data were compared with measured values. The model was then applied to future predictions of annual [PM10] and future canopy cover scenarios for London. The contribution of each canopy type subjected to the different atmospheric [PM10] of the 33 London boroughs now and in the future will be discussed. Implementing these findings into a decision support system (DSS) for sustainable urban planning will also be discussed<br/

FTIR-ATR-based prediction and modelling of lignin and energy contents reveals independent intra-specific variation of these traits in bioenergy poplars

Background: there is an increasing demand for renewable resources to replace fossil fuels. However, different applications such as the production of secondary biofuels or combustion for energy production require different wood properties. Therefore, high-throughput methods are needed for rapid screening of wood in large scale samples, e.g., to evaluate the outcome of tree breeding or genetic engineering. In this study, we investigated the intra-specific variability of lignin and energy contents in extractive-free wood of hybrid poplar progenies (Populus trichocarpa × deltoides) and tested if the range was sufficient for the development of quantitative prediction models based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Since lignin is a major energy-bearing compound, we expected that the energy content of wood would be positively correlated with the lignin content.Results: lignin contents of extractive-free poplar wood samples determined by the acetyl bromide method ranged from 23.4% to 32.1%, and the calorific values measured with a combustion calorimeter varied from 17260 to 19767 J g-1. For the development of calibration models partial least square regression and cross validation was applied to correlate FTIR spectra determined with an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) unit to measured values of lignin or energy contents. The best models with high coefficients of determination (R2 (calibration) = 0.91 and 0.90; R2 (cross-validation) = 0.81 and 0.79) and low root mean square errors of cross validation (RMSECV = 0.77% and 62 J g-1) for lignin and energy determination, respectively, were obtained after data pre-processing and automatic wavenumber restriction. The calibration models were validated by analyses of independent sets of wood samples yielding R2 = 0.88 and 0.86 for lignin and energy contents, respectively.Conclusions: these results show that FTIR-ATR spectroscopy is suitable as a high-throughput method for lignin and energy estimations in large data sets. Our study revealed that the intra-specific variations in lignin and energy contents were unrelated to each other and that the lignin content, therefore, was no predictor of the energy content. Employing principle component analyses we showed that factor loadings for the energy content were mainly associated with carbohydrate ring vibrations, whereas those for lignin were mainly related to aromatic compounds. Therefore, our analysis suggests that it may be possible to optimize the energy content of trees without concomitant increase in ligni