Adaptive Infrastructure: Landscape as an Armature for Adaptation

A conversation with Dr. Kristina Hil

Teacher Perceptions of Their Preparation to Meet the Needs of Secondary English Learners with Limited Formal Education

As more immigrants and refugees make the Upper Midwest their home, many English Learner (EL) teachers are struggling to meet the various needs of students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE), especially at the secondary level. The purpose of this study was to examine secondary teacher perceptions of their preparation to meet the unique needs of SLIFE and to examine what types of preparation would have been helpful to them. Sixteen secondary EL teachers who work with SLIFE were surveyed and four were interviewed to share their perceptions of their preparation. The overall result of the survey was that teachers generally did not feel prepared to meet the academic, literacy, emotional, physical, and cultural needs of their SLIFE students. Teachers shared many recommendations for ways that teacher education programs can integrate and address SLIFE needs, from second language acquisition, to literacy, to EL methods classes

Production of selenoprotein P (Sepp1) by hepatocytes is central to selenium homeostasis

pre-printBackground: Sepp1 transports selenium, but its complete role in selenium homeostasis is not known. Results: Deletion of Sepp1 in hepatocytes increases liver selenium at the expense of other tissues and decreases whole-bodyselenium by increasing excretion. Conclusion: Sepp1 production by hepatocytes retains selenium in the organism and distributes it from the liver to peripheral tissues. Significance: Sepp1 is central to selenium homeostasis

Adapting to Sea Level Rise: Insights from a New Evaluation Framework of Physical Design Projects

Designers and engineers are developing proposals for physical projects to adapt coastal sites to future sea level rise related threats. This puts pressure on local and regional decision makers to develop strategic frameworks for prioritizing, permitting and funding such projects. However, no systematic evaluation tools exist for the full range of these innovative designs. We build on the literature to develop an evaluation framework that synthesizes two different approaches to categorize these proposals and provide insight for coastal managers and decision makers. We apply this framework to physical projects that address sea level rise in their design around the San Francisco Bay Area, a leading region in sea level rise adaptation. We find that these projects demonstrate a shift toward more habitat-focused strategies, which likely marks the beginning of a larger transformation of the coastal zone. According to our five-part evaluation tool, we also find that the projects’ scores have improved over time, indicating that state agency work may be helping communities implement more flexible adaptation initiatives. Despite these positive signs, we also find that none of the projects achieved high marks in all five of the evaluation criteria. This finding indicates that there is a critical need for improvement in physical planning for adaptation to higher sea levels and associated impacts. Most importantly, we find that an evaluation framework such as the one used here can provide critical insights into the likely risks and benefits of proposed adaptation projects and their long-term implications for coastal zones

More haste, less speed? : an evaluation of fast track policies to tackle persistent youth offending in Scotland

In 2003 the Scottish Executive introduced a new 'Fast Track' policy on a pilot basis, which was intended to speed up the processing of persistent youth offending cases and reduce rates of persistent offending. Additional resources were provided to promote access to dedicated programmes, as well as quicker assessment, report delivery and decision making. This paper, based on a multi-stranded comparative evaluation, describes how the policy was welcomed by a wide range of practitioners, decision makers and managers involved with children's hearings who mostly thought it was a positive innovation consistent with the hearing system's commitment to a welfare-based approach. 'Fast Track' cases were handled more quickly than others. After two years, however, the policy was discontinued, largely because of negative evidence about re-offending

Climate Change: Implications for the Assumptions, Goals and Methods of Urban Environmental Planning

As a result of increasing awareness of the implications of global climate change, shifts are becoming necessary and apparent in the assumptions, concepts, goals and methods of urban environmental planning. This review will present the argument that these changes represent a genuine paradigm shift in urban environmental planning. Reflection and action to develop this paradigm shift is critical now and in the next decades, because environmental planning for cities will only become more urgent as we enter a new climate period. The concepts, methods and assumptions that urban environmental planners have relied on in previous decades to protect people, ecosystems and physical structures are inadequate if they do not explicitly account for a rapidly changing regional climate context, specifically from a hydrological and ecological perspective. The over-arching concept of spatial suitability that guided planning in most of the 20th century has already given way to concepts that address sustainability, recognizing the importance of temporality. Quite rapidly, the concept of sustainability has been replaced in many planning contexts by the priority of establishing resilience in the face of extreme disturbance events. Now even this concept of resilience is being incorporated into a novel concept of urban planning as a process of adaptation to permanent, incremental environmental changes. This adaptation concept recognizes the necessity for continued resilience to extreme events, while acknowledging that permanent changes are also occurring as a result of trends that have a clear direction over time, such as rising sea levels. Similarly, the methods of urban environmental planning have relied on statistical data about hydrological and ecological systems that will not adequately describe these systems under a new climate regime. These methods are beginning to be replaced by methods that make use of early warning systems for regime shifts, and process-based quantitative models of regional system behavior that may soon be used to determine acceptable land uses. Finally, the philosophical assumptions that underlie urban environmental planning are changing to address new epistemological, ontological and ethical assumptions that support new methods and goals. The inability to use the past as a guide to the future, new prioritizations of values for adaptation, and renewed efforts to focus on intergenerational justice are provided as examples. In order to represent a genuine paradigm shift, this review argues that changes must begin to be evident across the underlying assumptions, conceptual frameworks, and methods of urban environmental planning, and be attributable to the same root cause. The examples presented here represent the early stages of a change in the overall paradigm of the discipline

Effect of Ti Nspire on Resource Algebra Students’ Mathematics Achievement and Attitude

The use of the calculator in a mathematics class has been studied and debated since the calculator was first introduced into the classroom. As the technology of calculators have evolved into interactive learning tools, little research could be found about the effects of an interactive calculator on the mathematical achievement and attitudes of students with disabilities. To determine if the TI Nspire handheld calculator is effective in increasing mathematical achievement and attitudes of students with disabilities, a qualitative-dominant mixed method approach was used. Interviews with an Algebra I teacher of students with disabilities were held to determine the teacher’s perception of teaching with the TI Nspire. Interviews with students in Resource Algebra I classes were held to ascertain the mathematical attitudes of the students while pre- and post-test scores from students at the beginning and end of the course were analyzed quantifiably. Pre- and post-tests from the control group were administered during the second half of their Algebra I course. The intervention group were administered the pre- and post-tests during the first half of their Algebra I course with an additional pre-test given at the beginning of the second half of their Algebra I course. Analysis resulted in no statistically significant differences; however, with effect sizes of Cohen’s d between 0.121 and 0.541, a level of practical significance was found. Interviews with six students from the control group and eight students from the intervention group were held to ascertain student attitudes towards mathematics. Statements from the interviews were coded as positive, negative, and neutral. Results determined the overall statements provided by the intervention group contained 6% more positive than negative statements. Statements provided by the control group were more negative than positive by 2%. A pre-intervention and post-intervention interview was conducted with the teacher of the Algebra I classes. Statements provided by the teacher were coded as positive, negative, neutral, and example. The teacher’s attitude toward the use of the TI Nspire as a teaching tool became more positive as evidenced by the increase in positive statements from the pre-intervention to post-intervention interview

Reconstructing the Culture-History of Squires Ridge (31ED365): A Multicomponent Site within the Northern Coastal Plain of North Carolina

Until recently, the prehistoric culture-history of the Coastal Plain has remained the least understood region in North Carolina due to a lack of known sites with stratified context and dateable components. Sites, such as Barber Creek (31PT259) and Squires Ridge (31ED365) situated along the Tar River, have archaeological data that can refine the region's stratigraphic sequence (Moore and Daniel 2011; Phelps 1983). The excavations at these two sites have established the presence of archaeological sequences dating from the Early Archaic to the Early/Middle Woodland (11,500-1,000 Cal. BP.). Previous studies (Daniel et al. 2013; Barbour 2014) have analyzed part of the stratigraphic sequence at Squires Ridge. The research presented here analyses additional data from Squires Ridge. In this study, the stratigraphic sequence in the northern was explored using artifact back-plot, artifact frequency distributions, and artifact refitting analyses from material recovered during the 2011-2012 field seasons. The results of this analysis confirms the presence of Early Archaic through Early/Middle Woodland occupations elsewhere on the site. Through the continued analysis of Squires Ridge, the culture history of the site as well as the North Carolina Coastal Plain as a region can be better understood