Connecting Communities: Third Generation Community Network Projects

This article discuss the evolution of the community network movement and provides practical advice about how Extension educators can work with local leaders and community residents to initiate projects that increase diffusion and adoption of information technologies in their communities. Experience in Pennsylvania shows that the community development processes used to develop third generation community network projects increases the diffusion and adoption of information technologies and builds human and organizational capacity useful for addressing a wide variety of community issues. Readers are introduced to Connecting Rural Communities, a guide to enhancing adoption of technology tools and infrastructure in rural communities

Empowering Rural Sociology: Exploring and Linking Alternative Paradigms in Theory and Methodology

An article written in part by Suzanne E. Tallichet and published in the 1995 issue of Rural Sociology, pages 585-606

Higher Education Exchange: 2014

This annual publication serves as a forum for new ideas and dialogue between scholars and the larger public. Essays explore ways that students, administrators, and faculty can initiate and sustain an ongoing conversation about the public life they share.The Higher Education Exchange is founded on a thought articulated by Thomas Jefferson in 1820: "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."In the tradition of Jefferson, the Higher Education Exchange agrees that a central goal of higher education is to help make democracy possible by preparing citizens for public life. The Higher Education Exchange is part of a movement to strengthen higher education's democratic mission and foster a more democratic culture throughout American society.Working in this tradition, the Higher Education Exchange publishes interviews, case studies, analyses, news, and ideas about efforts within higher education to develop more democratic societies

Antibody levels following vaccination against SARS-CoV-2: associations with post-vaccination infection and risk factors

SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels can be used to assess humoral immune responses following SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination, and may predict risk of future infection. From cross-sectional antibody testing of 9,361 individuals from TwinsUK and ALSPAC UK population-based longitudinal studies (jointly in April-May 2021, and TwinsUK only in November 2021-January 2022), we tested associations between antibody levels following vaccination and: (1) SARS-CoV-2 infection following vaccination(s); (2) health, socio-demographic, SARS-CoV-2 infection and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination variables. Within TwinsUK, single-vaccinated individuals with the lowest 20% of anti-Spike antibody levels at initial testing had 3-fold greater odds of SARS-CoV-2 infection over the next six to nine months, compared to the top 20%. In TwinsUK and ALSPAC, individuals identified as at increased risk of COVID-19 complication through the UK "Shielded Patient List" had consistently greater odds (2 to 4-fold) of having antibody levels in the lowest 10%. Third vaccination increased absolute antibody levels for almost all individuals, and reduced relative disparities compared with earlier vaccinations. These findings quantify the association between antibody level and risk of subsequent infection, and support a policy of triple vaccination for the generation of protective antibodies

HLA-DQA1*05 carriage associated with development of anti-drug antibodies to infliximab and adalimumab in patients with Crohn's Disease

Anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapies are the most widely used biologic drugs for treating immune-mediated diseases, but repeated administration can induce the formation of anti-drug antibodies. The ability to identify patients at increased risk for development of anti-drug antibodies would facilitate selection of therapy and use of preventative strategies.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on Publisher URL to access the full-text

Evaluation of a natural resource management program: an Australian case study

Good evaluation practice generally requires that clear project and program objectives, baselines, metrics and data collection and analysis methods be in place from project commencement to ensure that data are captured reliably. Causal links between actions and outcomes, when coupled with relevant data, should be sufficiently direct to allow reliable (preferably quantifiable) deductions to be drawn about project and program effectiveness and efficiency. However there are situations where the conditions are far from this ideal but when it is nevertheless important to evaluate outcome performance objectively and to find ways to improve programs. This article outlines an approach to manage evaluations where: baseline data is deficient; cause-effect relationships are complicated; and project objectives are complex. The approach was applied to evaluate a program that provided public funding to support a diverse portfolio of community-based, on-ground invasive animal control projects. The approach used: explicit ex post theorising to distil testable hypotheses about effectiveness and project operation; mixed-methods data gathering and analysis; triangulation of different types of evidence; expert data gatherers; and careful attention to the policy objectives of the evaluation

Community engagement theory for a new natural resource management paradigm

In their now classic article, 'Dilemmas in a general theory of planning', Rittel and Webber (1973) draw an important distinction between what they call 'tame' problems and 'wicked' problems. While not necessarily simple, tame problems generally have a relatively straightforward solution that is amenable to expert, technical knowledge. For instance, landing a man on the moon was an extremely complex undertaking, but it was possible to clearly articulate the objective and achieve it through the application of extant scientific knowledge. In problems like this, there are clear cause and effect mechanisms that enhance the likelihood that they can be solved (Batie 2008). Wicked problems, by contrast, are intractable, poorly structured and have only temporary or uncertain solutions (Rittel and Webber 1973). For wicked problems, there are no unambiguous criteria by which to judge their resolution. In fact, it is often difficult to define these problems in the first place because they usually involve intertwined normative criteria and empirical conditions or situations

Mitigation of Chatter Instabilities in Milling by Active Structural Control

This report documents how active structural control was used to significantly enhance the metal removal rate of a milling machine. An active structural control system integrates actuators, sensors, a control law and a processor into a structure for the purpose of improving the dynamic characteristics of the structure. Sensors measure motion, and the control law, implemented in the processor, relates this motion to actuator forces. Closed-loop dynamics can be enhanced by proper control law design. Actuators and sensors were imbedded within a milling machine for the purpose of modifying dynamics in such a way that mechanical energy, produced during cutting, was absorbed. This limited the on-set of instabilities and allowed for greater depths of cut. Up to an order of magnitude improvement in metal removal rate was achieved using this system. Although demonstrations were very successful, the development of an industrial prototype awaits improvements in the technology. In particular, simpler system designs that assure controllability and observability and control algorithms that allow for adaptability need to be developed

General circulation model simulations of the Mars Pathfinder atmospheric structure investigation/meteorology data

The NASA Ames Mars General Circulation Model is used to interpret selected results from the Mars Pathfinder atmospheric structure instrument/meteorology (ASI/MET) experiment. The present version of the model has an improved soil thermal model, a new boundary layer scheme, and a correction for non-local thermodynamic equilibrium effects at solar wavelengths. We find good agreement with the ASI/MET entry data if the dust observed at the Pathfinder site is assumed to be distributed throughout the lowest five to six scale heights. This implies that the dust is globally distributed as well. In the lower atmosphere the inversion between 10 to 16 km in Pathfinder’s entry profile is likely due to thermal emission from a water ice cloud in that region. In the upper atmosphere (above 50 km), dynamical processes, tides in particular, appear to have a cooling effect and may play an important role in driving temperatures toward the CO2 condensation temperature near 80 km. However, modeled tidal surface pressure amplitudes are about a factor of 2 smaller than observed. This may indicate that the model is not properly simulating interference effect between eastward and westward modes