Applying the mastery learning model in a wildlife recreation planning and management class

Wildland Recreation Planning and Management is a 400 level course taken by Wildland Recreation majors (B.S. in Forestry) in the spring semester of their Junior year prior to their summer internship. Due to the number of field trips taken during the semester, the course is limited to 12 students. Generally 7-9 students are Wildland Recreation majors with the remaining students from Wildlife and Fisheries Science, Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design, or Liberal Arts. The course meets once a week from 12:40 to 6:30 pm although the class period varies with the use and length of field trips. The Mastery Learning approach in this class evolved out of the desire to raise the competency level of students in preparation for their internship experience and their future professional careers. In particular, the need for a mastery approach was based on the demands and expectations placed on the students by their internship experience. In their internships, students address issues and concerns associated with visitor and resource management often in presentations, conversations, and meetings with people from different backgrounds and disciplines. Essentially, the students are communicating with and educating the public and other professionals about concepts related to resource protection and visitor management

Builders and wanderers: How two tomboys escape gender conformity in Katherine Paterson’s Newbery-winning novels

This paper looks at the importance of tomboy characters in children’s literature, specifically focusing on Katherine Paterson’s Newbery-winning novels, Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved. Though much of the children’s literature arena remains dominated by “boy books,” the use of tomboy characters in literature offers an opportunity for teachers and parents to push aside the gender conventions and stereotypes that are reinforced through trite and redundant curriculum. The strong tomboy transcends masculine-feminine roles and develops identity outside of their restrictions. She is an ideal for young females working toward gender equality while allowing young males to safely explore “girl books.” A close analytical reading of each text provides numerous examples of tomboys breaking gender conventions in order to establish true identity. In both novels, the tomboys (Leslie Burke in Bridge to Terabithia; Sara Louise Bradshaw in Jacob Have I Loved) struggle with the rules of gender convention in the face of adolescence, peer pressure, love, and death. Readers of Paterson’s books easily relate to the characters, sharing in their triumphs and sorrows and learning from their experiences. If true change is to take place in society regarding gender roles, then it must begin in the classroom. Katherine Paterson’s novels and tomboy characters offer students the opportunity to push beyond gender conformity, as well as encourage them on their quest of self-identity. Such literature should be incorporated into the general Reading curriculum

A hybrid-stress finite element for linear anisotropic elasticity

Standard assumed displacement finite elements with anisotropic material properties perform poorly in complex stress fields such as combined bending and shear and combined bending and torsion. A set of three dimensional hybrid-stress brick elements were developed with fully anisotropic material properties. Both eight-node and twenty-node bricks were developed based on the symmetry group theory of Punch and Atluri. An eight-node brick was also developed using complete polynomials and stress basis functions and reducing the order of the resulting stress parameter matrix by applying equilibrium constraints and stress compatibility constraints. Here the stress compatibility constraints must be formulated assuming anisotropic material properties. The performance of these elements was examined in numerical examples covering a broad range of stress distributions. The stress predictions show significant improvement over the assumed displacement elements but the calculation time is increased

DO SPORTFISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORIES AFFECT RESERVOIR ANGLERS' SITE CHOICE?

Increasing numbers of freshwater ecosystems have had sportfish consumption advisories posted in recent years. Advisories are sometimes issued in lieu of environmental remediation if they are considered more cost-effective than "cleaning up" the resource, but this approach assumes that anglers adjust behavior in response to the warning. Previous studies, however, suggest that compliance with advisories can be quite low. In contrast, this study measures a statistically significant response by reservoir anglers to consumption advisories. In particular, anglers are less likely to choose to visit a reservoir with an advisory than a similar reservoir without an advisory. Furthermore, the economic losses due to advisories are quantified for anglers in two regions of Tennessee.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Landowners\u27 perceptions of white-tailed deer damage to crops in Tennessee

We conducted a mail survey to determine Tennessee landowners\u27 perceptions of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) damage to crops, their tolerance for damage and the effectiveness of damage control methods. Fifty-five percent of landowners had wildlife damage and 47% had deer damage. The majority had light or moderate damage. The majority of participants who had taken measures to prevent damage used hunting. State-issued depredation permits were rated the most effective method of controlling damage. Although most survey participants did not have substantial deer damage, landowners with serious deer damage problems may need further assistance

Landowners\u27 Perceptions of White-Tailed Deer Damage to Crops in Tennessee

We conducted a mail survey to determine Tennessee landowners\u27 perceptions of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) damage to crops, their tolerance for damage and the effectiveness of damage control methods. Fifty-five percent of landowners had wildlife damage and 47% had deer damage. The majority had light or moderate damage. The majority of participants who had taken measures to prevent damage used hunting. State-issued depredation permits were rated the most effective method of controlling damage. Although most survey participants did not have substantial deer damage, landowners with serious deer damage problems may need further assistance

Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Nuclei from Individual Magnetized Sources

We investigate the dependence of composition, spectrum and angular distributions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays above 10^19 eV from individual sources on their magnetization. We find that, especially for sources within a few megaparsecs from the observer, observable spectra and composition are severely modified if the source is surrounded by fields of ~ 10^-7 Gauss on scales of a few megaparsecs. Low energy particles diffuse over larger distances during their energy loss time. This leads to considerable hardening of the spectrum up to the energy where the loss distance becomes comparable to the source distance. Magnetized sources thus have very important consequences for observations, even if cosmic rays arrive within a few degrees from the source direction. At the same time, details in spectra and chemical composition may be intrinsically unpredictable because they depend on the unknown magnetic field structure. If primaries are predominantly nuclei of atomic mass A accelerated up to a maximum energy E_max with spectra not much softer than E^-2, secondary protons from photo-disintegration can produce a conspicuous peak in the spectrum at energy ~ E_max/A. A related feature appears in the average mass dependence on energy.Comment: 15 pages, 16 ps figures, published version with minor changes, see http://stacks.iop.org/1475-7516/2004/i=08/a=01

Separation of Oligosaccharides from Lotus Seeds via Medium-pressure Liquid Chromatography Coupled with ELSD and DAD

peer-reviewedLotus seeds were identified by the Ministry of Public Health of China as both food and medicine. One general function of lotus seeds is to improve intestinal health. However, to date, studies evaluating the relationship between bioactive compounds in lotus seeds and the physiological activity of the intestine are limited. In the present study, by using medium pressure liquid chromatography coupled with evaporative light-scattering detector and diode-array detector, five oligosaccharides were isolated and their structures were further characterized by electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In vitro testing determined that LOS3-1 and LOS4 elicited relatively good proliferative effects on Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. These results indicated a structure-function relationship between the physiological activity of oligosaccharides in lotus seeds and the number of probiotics applied, thus providing room for improvement of this particular feature. Intestinal probiotics may potentially become a new effective drug target for the regulation of immunity

Blast Shock Wave Mitigation Using the Hydraulic Energy Redirection and Release Technology

A hydraulic energy redirection and release technology has been developed for mitigating the effects of blast shock waves on protected objects. The technology employs a liquid-filled plastic tubing as a blast overpressure transformer to transfer kinetic energy of blast shock waves into hydraulic energy in the plastic tubings. The hydraulic energy is redirected through the plastic tubings to the openings at the lower ends, and then is quickly released with the liquid flowing out through the openings. The samples of the specifically designed body armor in which the liquid-filled plastic tubings were installed vertically as the outer layer of the body armor were tested. The blast test results demonstrated that blast overpressure behind the body armor samples was remarkably reduced by 97% in 0.2 msec after the liquid flowed out of its appropriate volume through the openings. The results also suggested that a volumetric liquid surge might be created when kinetic energy of blast shock wave was transferred into hydraulic energy to cause a rapid physical movement or displacement of the liquid. The volumetric liquid surge has a strong destructive power, and can cause a noncontact, remote injury in humans (such as blast-induced traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder) if it is created in cardiovascular system. The hydraulic energy redirection and release technology can successfully mitigate blast shock waves from the outer surface of the body armor. It should be further explored as an innovative approach to effectively protect against blast threats to civilian and military personnel