77 research outputs found
Biodiversity of the Colorado State University lands
Prepared for: Colorado State University Facilities Management.June 2022.Includes bibliographical references.During the academic year of 2021-2022, the Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) was contracted by CSU Facilities Management to complete a biodiversity survey of the CSU lands. This assessment will be used by Facilities Management to self-report on the Biodiversity component of the Operations category in the STARS (Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment, & Ratings System) report. This report assesses endangered and vulnerable species (including migratory species) on CSU-owned and managed lands and areas of biodiversity importance on CSU-owned and managed lands. An additional aim of this project was to include students in the geospatial analysis, research, and field data collection efforts, thereby lowering project costs and providing mentorship and experience to the students. Biodiversity was assessed through a geospatial environmental review of the properties which includes documented and potential occurrences of regulatory species and other species of concern within the property and a 1-mile buffer, assessment of the conservation areas adjacent to the property and within a buffer, and the diversity and acreage of wetlands and other ecosystem types. The conservation value of each property, based on a Return-on-Investment report, is presented. Geospatial data area used to evaluate climate resiliency and landscape disturbance. Further research into species on the largest and most well-studied properties is presented, along with results of field work. Colorado State University holds 32 individual properties, spanning 14 counties across Colorado, covering a total of 3,943 hectares. Properties held by CSU had 303 documented occurrences of regulatory species and other species of concern within 1 mile returned in the environmental review; additionally, potential habitat was returned for another 2210 regulatory and other species of concern from a combination of range maps, general precision CNHP element occurrence records, and models. Through the many metrics of biodiversity assessed, several properties stood out; these included the Eastern Colorado Research Center, the Mountain Campus, Foothills, Horsetooth, and the Environmental Learning Center. At the Eastern Colorado Research Center, a combination of research field work recorded 187 species as visual observations and/or within a modeled area. At the Mountain Campus, student research and field work recorded a total of 1,044 species as visual observations and/or within a modeled area, with 754 Animalia species, 273 Plantae species and 17 Fungi species. Along with providing information on the biodiversity on the CSU lands, this project provided educational value to CSU students and facilitated the creation of a storymap to showcase the biodiversity of CSU lands to the public and stakeholders. The biodiversity assessment suggests several actions which could be taken to protect, enhance, or restore the biodiversity found on CSU lands and identified properties with possible conservation gains through enhancement and restoration.June 2022
Of Research reviews and practice guides: Translating rapidly growing research on adolescent literacy into updated practice recommendations.
The demand for evidence-based instructional practices has driven a large
supply of research on adolescent literacy. Documenting this supply, Baye,
Inns, Lake, and Slavin’s 2019 article in Reading Research Quarterly synthesized
far more studies, with far more rigorous methodology, than had ever
been collected before. What does this mean for practice? Inspired by this article,
I investigated how this synthesis compared with the 2008 U.S. Institute of
Education Sciences practice guide for adolescent literacy. I also include two
contemporary documents for context: Herrera, Truckenmiller, and Foorman’s
(2016) review and the U.K. Education Endowment Foundation’s 2019 practice
guide for secondary schools. I first examine how these documents define
adolescent, reading, and evidence, and propose more inclusive definitions. I
then compare their respective evidence bases, finding that the quality and
quantity of evidence have dramatically changed. Only one of the 34 studies in
the 2008 U.S. practice guide met Baye et al.’s inclusion criteria in 2019, and
the average sample size in Baye et al.’s studies was 22 times as large as those
in the 2008 U.S. practice guide. I also examine the potential implications for
a new practice guide’s instructional recommendations and comment on the
expansion of research in technology, disciplinary literacy, and writing—topics
scarcely covered in the 2008 U.S. practice guide but which have been extensively
researched since then. Finally, I call for revision of the U.S. practice
guide and the establishment of standing committees on adolescent literacy to
help educators translate the latest research findings into updated practices
Recommended from our members
Applications of electrified dust and dust devil electrodynamics to Martian atmospheric electricity
Atmospheric transport and suspension of dust frequently brings electrification, which may be substantial. Electric fields of 10 kVm-1 to 100 kVm-1 have been observed at the surface beneath suspended dust in the terrestrial atmosphere, and some electrification has been observed to persist in dust at levels to 5 km, as well as in volcanic plumes. The interaction between individual particles which causes the electrification is incompletely understood, and multiple processes are thought to be acting. A variation in particle charge with particle size, and the effect of gravitational separation explains to, some extent, the charge structures observed in terrestrial dust storms. More extensive flow-based modelling demonstrates that bulk electric fields in excess of 10 kV m-1 can be obtained rapidly (in less than 10 s) from rotating dust systems (dust devils) and that terrestrial breakdown fields can be obtained. Modelled profiles of electrical conductivity in the Martian atmosphere suggest the possibility of dust electrification, and dust devils have been suggested as a mechanism of charge separation able to maintain current flow between one region of the atmosphere and another, through a global circuit. Fundamental new understanding of Martian atmospheric electricity will result from the ExoMars mission, which carries the DREAMS (Dust characterization, Risk Assessment, and Environment Analyser on the Martian Surface)-MicroARES (Atmospheric Radiation and Electricity Sensor) instrumentation to Mars in 2016 for the first in situ measurements
Effect of compost-, sand-, or gypsum-amended waste foundry sands on turfgrass yield and nutrient content
To prevent the 7 to 11 million metric tons of waste foundry
sand (WFS) produced annually in the USA from entering
landfi lls, current research is focused on the reuse of WFSs as
soil amendments. Th e eff ects of diff erent WFS-containing
amendments on turfgrass growth and nutrient content were
tested by planting perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) and
tall fescue (Schedonorus phoenix (Scop.) Holub) in diff erent
blends containing WFS. Blends of WFS were created with
compost or acid-washed sand (AWS) at varying percent by
volume with WFS or by amendment with gypsum (9.6 g
gypsum kg–1 WFS). Measurements of soil strength, shoot and
root dry weight, plant surface coverage, and micronutrients (Al,
Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, Na) and macronutrients (N, P, K, S, Ca,
Mg) were performed for each blend and compared with pure
WFS and with a commercial potting media control. Results
showed that strength was not a factor for any of the parameters
studied, but the K/Na base saturation ratio of WFS:compost
mixes was highly correlated with total shoot dry weight for
perennial ryegrass (r = 0.995) and tall fescue (r = 0.94). Th is was
further substantiated because total shoot dry weight was also
correlated with shoot K/Na concentration of perennial ryegrass
(r = 0.99) and tall fescue (r = 0.95). A compost blend containing
40% WFS was determined to be the optimal amendment for
the reuse of WFS because it incorporated the greatest possible
amount of WFS without major reduction in turfgrass growth
Meta-analysis of type 2 Diabetes in African Americans Consortium
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more prevalent in African Americans than in Europeans. However, little is known about the genetic risk in African Americans despite the recent identification of more than 70 T2D loci primarily by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In order to investigate the genetic architecture of T2D in African Americans, the MEta-analysis of type 2 DIabetes in African Americans (MEDIA) Consortium examined 17 GWAS on T2D comprising 8,284 cases and 15,543 controls in African Americans in stage 1 analysis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) association analysis was conducted in each study under the additive model after adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components. Meta-analysis of approximately 2.6 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in all studies was conducted using an inverse variance-weighted fixed effect model. Replications were performed to follow up 21 loci in up to 6,061 cases and 5,483 controls in African Americans, and 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls of European ancestry. We identified three known loci (TCF7L2, HMGA2 and KCNQ1) and two novel loci (HLA-B and INS-IGF2) at genome-wide significance (4.15 × 10(-94)<P<5 × 10(-8), odds ratio (OR) = 1.09 to 1.36). Fine-mapping revealed that 88 of 158 previously identified T2D or glucose homeostasis loci demonstrated nominal to highly significant association (2.2 × 10(-23) < locus-wide P<0.05). These novel and previously identified loci yielded a sibling relative risk of 1.19, explaining 17.5% of the phenotypic variance of T2D on the liability scale in African Americans. Overall, this study identified two novel susceptibility loci for T2D in African Americans. A substantial number of previously reported loci are transferable to African Americans after accounting for linkage disequilibrium, enabling fine mapping of causal variants in trans-ethnic meta-analysis studies.Peer reviewe
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