Overcoming constraints to animal traction through a collaborative research network

Briefly reviews the status of animal traction in sub-Saharan Africa, giving estimates of the numbers and types of draft animals in different countries. Mentions the objectives of the animal traction thrust of ILCA and discusses the benefits of developing an animal traction network

Choreography, Student Engagement, and Conclusions: Assessing If Faculty Choreographers Are as Innovative as the Students They Teach

The purpose of this study was to access the effectiveness of choreographic devices and how it impacts student engagement when learning choreography. The research aimed to evaluate if choreographic devices have an impact on student engagement by evaluating the utilization of specific choreographic devices when teaching choreography if there were significant differences between faculty and student exploration when creating work and if the differences explored enhanced or diminished student engagement levels. The forty-two participants were attending a junior college in Riverside, California and the research took place over the course of six weeks during the fall and spring semesters. During the fall semester, the researcher used participants in the faculty choreographed concert and during the spring semester, the participants were dancers in the student choreographed concert. Participant self-assessments and exit surveys were created to collect quantitative data to establish themes and recurring devices throughout the research. The results of the research indicated that participants were engaged throughout the choreography process although the choreographic devices being used by all the choreographers were not clearly determined. The results of the research indicated that clear choreographic devices do not have to be established for performers to be engaged or interested in the choreography being taught. There were no differences between student and faculty choreographers and their use of choreographic devices

The Distribution of Emergency Permit Teachers in California

There is a significant negative relationship between the percentage of teachers on emergency permits and student achievement at the school level in California schools, after controlling for other student and school characteristics. Generally, the more emergency permit teachers there are in a school, the lower the school's achievement. This phenomenon is examined in the context of other contributors to student achievement such as socio-economic status and school size. The effects of teacher distribution and school selection as contributing factors are considered. In addition, policy and legislative initiatives related to emergency permit teachers that have been recently debated in California will be discussed. Finally, a set of initiatives is proposed that attempt to decrease the need for emergency permit teachers and ensure that those that must be hired due to shortage conditions have the support they need to become credentialed teachers

Sustainability Informed Management of End-of-Life Photovoltaics: Assessing Environmental and Economic Tradeoffs of Collection and Recycling

Renewable energy technologies have emerged to address the negative environmental impacts of increasing use of fossil fuels. Solar photovoltaics (PV) are an attractive renewable energy technology because they avoid significant carbon emissions during use common to non-renewables, have a long useful lifetime estimated at 20 - 30 years, and they take advantage of a stable and plentiful energy resource - the sun. However, it has been suggested that material availability is a potential constraint for broad deployment of PV. For example, solar PV\u27s core technology depends on several primary materials i.e. indum and tellurium which were recently determined to be of high importance for the development of a clean energy economy and at near-critical supply risk. In order to evaluate the risks to supply, the environment, and the economy a broader definition of criticality that goes beyond physical scarcity to include sustainability metrics e.g. embodied energy, political instability, economic value was developed. Using this methodology several policies are suggested that depart from traditional command- and-control approaches. One criticality mitigating strategy, material recycling, is at odds with current PV research where there is a strong emphasis on efficiency gains. Recycling is a strategy with potential that has yet to be fully recognized due to the current lack of collection infrastructure and uncertain set of processing technologies. This work explores under what conditions the energy payback time (EPBT) of PV modules containing recycled materials demonstrate equivalent energy savings to improvements in efficiency. These EPBT improvements from recycling motivate further methodological work on the economically optimal PV recycling infrastructure. This methodology includes a case study that demonstrates model sensitivity in addition to revealing important tradeoffs for recycling policy and economics

Evaluation of a Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool Quality Initiative

Background: Patients unable to self-report pain are at increased risk for inadequate pain management and less than optimal outcomes. The implementation of behavioral pain scales, such as the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT), have demonstrated an improvement in pain management and patient outcomes. Local Problem: A lack of the routine use of behavioral pain scales for mechanically ventilated patients unable to self-report pain was identified as a significant barrier to optimal pain and agitation management. Methods: A retrospective pre and post design was used to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of a CPOT quality initiative on the management of pain, agitation and patient outcomes. Descriptive data for analysis were extracted from 60 electronic medical records, 30 for both the pre- and post-implementation groups. Interventions: The quality initiative included training sessions, unit champions, clinical support tools and the incorporation of the CPOT into unit pain management guidelines and several analgesic order sets. Results: CPOT pain assessments (p \u3c .001) were more frequent in the post-implementation group. There number of PRN analgesics were found to be greater in the post-implementation group, while the tendency for the total morphine equivalent dosage was lower. No differences were found between the pre- and post-implementation groups with regard to sedation and agitation management and patient outcomes. Conclusions: The quality initiative was successful in increasing the routine use of the CPOT. Pain management of mechanically ventilated patients in this critical setting improved. Multidisciplinary participation and unit champions were vital to the success of this quality initiative

The Effect of Social Class, Marital Status, and Education of Parents on the Educational Performance of Participants and Non-participants in the Home-oriented, Pre-school Educational Program

Our educational system has been a very important institution within our society during the twentieth century. This educational institution is viewed as being a primary agent of socialization during an individual’s childhood years through adolescence. Education is, for the most part, a necessity to become a successful and productive member of our American society. In the past, our educational system served as a model for other countries to copy in developing their own educational systems. However, recent trends in our educational system appear to indicate public education on the decline. In many parts of the nation there are dropping enrollments, tax revolts and deep public concern over issues of discipline schools, test scores, violence and vandalism, drug use, teacher strikes and conflict between educational interest groups. Also, appears to be a continual decline in academic standards that pervaded all levels of education

Estimating the nutritive value of cereal crop residues: Implications for developing feeding standards for draught animals

Reviews analytical methods for the determination of the nutritive value of crop residues. Gives example on the accuracy of different methods in determining digestibility and of the factors affecting it. Highlights different management practices for feeding cereal crop residues to draught animals

AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF HEALTH INSURANCE DECISIONS AMONG RURAL WESTERN MONTANA SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

For decades small business owners have been struggling to offer health insurance to their employees. Health insurance reform has been an issue of contention over the last few decades, culminating in the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23,2010. One measure policy makers took to increase access to health insurance was to provide incentives to small business owners to offer health insurance. However, prior research has indicated that economic incentives alone do not guarantee the provision of health insurance coverage by small business owners. Previous research has rarely examined the noneconomic (social/cultural) factors behind why small business owners choose to provide or not to provide health insurance coverage for their employees. Rural Montana offers a unique opportunity to study economic and social factors that influence health insurance decision as it has high rates of employment in small firms. I conducted qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews with small business owners in four rural western Montana communities to explore their reasoning for providing or not providing health insurance. Results indicate that small business owners are influenced by many interrelated practical/economic factors as well as social factors

Energy flows on smallholder farms in the Ethiopian highlands

Studies energy flows on typical smallholder farms around Debre Zeit and Debre Berhan in the Ethiopian highlands, describing the farming system resource base and intermediate roles of resources such as animal traction. Discusses energy aspects of the household system and prospects for improvement in energy use, especially with respect to animal traction, fuel consumption, wind energy, solar energy, biogas, thermal and hydroelectric power, and geothermal energy

The Spatial Shift in the Growth of Poverty Among Families Headed by Employed Females, 1979-89

The number of working poor families in the United States increased substantially during the 1979-89 period. This increase was found to disproportionately consist of families headed by employed females. The growth in poverty among families headed by employed females during this period was found to be nonstructural in nature and inequitably distributed across labor markets in the U.S. It was found that at the onset of the 1980s, high rates of poverty among families headed by employed females were predominantly concentrated in labor market areas in the South. Over the 1980s, the highest increases in poverty rates among such families were found to be concentrated in labor market areas in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions, rather than the South. Further, declines in poverty rates among families headed by employed females were found to be concentrated in labor market areas located on the east and west coasts