Actor–Networks, Farmer Decisions, and Identity

Climate change and industrial agricultural practices pose threats to the future of Kansas agriculture. To inform the debate about sustainable agriculture that must soon occur, we seek to illuminate the factors involved in the decision making of farmers in Kansas. Drawing from Actor–Network Theory, we consider how farmers’ participation in the industrial agricultural network shapes their decisions, defines the types of knowledge and skills that are valued by farmers and others in the network, transforms what it means to be a Kansas grain farmer, and entrenches unsustainable production practices

Education Without Boundaries: Faculty Training And Support

This paper looks at two specific issues related to faculty success in the online classroom.  The first, an effective faculty training program, is crucial in building a cadre of competent online faculty to meet the growing demands for web-based classes.  However, the training programs offered vary significantly from on-the-job training to intensive immersion programs which take place before the first online teaching assignment.  The second issue is ongoing support including administrative, academic, and technical support.  While effective training is instrumental in getting the faculty member prepared for cyberspace, the support services available while teaching the online class are often responsible for how smoothly the course runs

Regulating the Ogallala: Paradox and Ambiguity in Western Kansas

Purpose: To illuminate the underlying logic of western Kansas farmers’ decisions to irrigate at unsustainable rates and the state’s regulatory policies and practices that enable depletion of the Ogallala aquifer. Methodology/approach: Ethnographic interviewing of 39 western Kansas farmers, state water management personnel, and archival research. Findings: Farmers occupy an ambiguous position as petty capitalists who focus attention on their own farms with seasonal planning horizons, and they hold a view of “good stewardship” that melds economic and noneconomic considerations, and that provides a rationale for unsustainable irrigation practices. The state resolves the contradiction between the finite groundwater resource and ideological commitments to economic growth by devolving responsibility for water management to groundwater users. Research Limitations/Implications: While the small sample size is likely to be representative of the larger pool of irrigators, further research with other farmers representative of the region will be necessary to verify findings. Social implications: Depletion of the Ogallala aquifer contributes to farm consolidation and community decline, and the ecological costs will leave future farmers and remaining communities without the benefits of groundwater. Western Kansas will likely have to revert to a system of dryland farming

Heading For Cyberspace: Planning A Strategy For Success With Online Classes

This paper focuses on the 3 P’s of a successful strategy for delivering online classes: Platform, Protocols, and Pedagogy.   First the paper examines the commonly available online platforms used by schools with web-based programs.  Next, the authors suggest a fundamental list of protocols to provide consistency and quality control across classes.  Finally, a list of pedagogical questions is presented to suggest strategies for setting up individual classes.   &nbsp

Balancing the Books on Conservation and Development: Transient Corporate Investment in Golfito, Costa Rica

This paper takes a historical, political-ecological approach to understand the present economic and environmental condition of Golfito, Costa Rica. Contemporary problems result from the convergence of local human ecological relationships, local and national economic depression, national and global environmental politics, and international political and economic inequity. Powerful transient corporate investors exploit opportunities made available by vulnerable developing nations in a pattern of ecologically destructive "development" that may meet local and national needs for revenue; geographically distanced "conservation" areas protect "green" reputations but do not necessarily result in protection. The implication of this pattern is that sustainable development is discursively finessed, rather than practically reconciled. Key words: sustainable development, conservation, Costa Rica, Golfito, multinational corporations, political-ecolog

The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths: I. First-Epoch LMC Data

We present the first mid-infrared Period-Luminosity (PL) relations for Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids. Single-epoch observations of 70 Cepheids were extracted from Spitzer IRAC observations at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns, serendipitously obtained during the SAGE (Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution) imaging survey of the LMC. All four mid-infrared PL relations have nearly identical slopes over the period range 6 - 88 days, with a small scatter of only +/-0.16 mag independent of period for all four of these wavelengths. We emphasize that differential reddening is not contributing significantly to the observed scatter, given the nearly two orders of magnitude reduced sensitivity of the mid-IR to extinction compared to the optical. Future observations, filling in the light curves for these Cepheids, should noticeably reduce the residual scatter. These attributes alone suggest that mid-infrared PL relations will provide a practical means of significantly improving the accuracy of Cepheid distances to nearby galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Preventing And Detecting Plagiarism In The Written Work Of College Students

Plagiarism abounds on American college campuses.  This paper first examines reasons that college students cheat, using both the perspective of student respondents and the observations of the faculty authors.  Next, the paper examines the two strategies which can be taken to combat student plagiarism: prevention and detection.  Specific strategies are offered for each approach.

Planting Food or Fuel: Developing an Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Role of Culture in Farmers’ Decisions to Grow Second-Generation Biofuel Feedstock Crops

Recent interest in biofuels as an alternative energy source has spurred considerable changes in agricultural practice worldwide. These changes will be more pronounced as second-generation biofuels, such as switch grass, gain prominence; this article examines the cultural factors associated with the decisions U.S. farmers face in targeting crops for fuel production instead of food. Through an interdisciplinary assessment of the dynamics of farmers' behavior, developed herein is a theoretical framework to analyze how farmers grapple with shifting expectations of their function.National Science Foundation EPS-0903806, KU-Transportation Research Institut

Exome analysis of patients with concurrent pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD) and autoimmune disease

BACKGROUND: Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (PIBD) is a chronic condition seen in genetically predisposed individuals. Genome-wide association studies have implicated >160 genomic loci in IBD with many genes coding for proteins in key immune pathways. This study looks at autoimmune disease burden in patients diagnosed with PIBD and interrogates exome data of a subset of patients. METHODS: Patients were recruited from the Southampton Genetics of PIBD cohort. Clinical diagnosis of autoimmune disease in these individuals was ascertained from medical records. For a subset of patients with PIBD and concurrent asthma, exome data was interrogated to ascertain the burden of pathogenic variants within genes implicated in asthma. Association testing was conducted between cases and population controls using the SKAT-O test. RESULTS: Forty-nine (28.3%) PIBD children (18.49% CD, 8.6% UC, and 21.15% IBDU patients) had a concurrent clinical diagnosis of at least one other autoimmune disorder; asthma was the most prevalent, affecting 16.2% of the PIBD cohort. Rare and common variant association testing revealed 6 significant genes (P < 0.05) before Bonferroni adjustment. Three of these genes were previously implicated in both asthma and IBD (ZPBP2 IL1R1, and IL18R1) and 3 in asthma only (PYHIN1, IL2RB, and GSTP1). CONCLUSIONS: One-third of our cohort had a concurrent autoimmune condition. We observed higher incidence of asthma compared with the overall pediatric prevalence. Despite a small sample size, SKAT-O evaluated a significant burden of rare and common mutations in 6 genes. Variant burden suggests that a systemic immune dysregulation rather than organ-specific could underpin immune dysfunction for a subset of patients