Prioritizing platonism

Discussion of atomistic and monistic theses about abstract reality

The sufficiency economy and community sustainability in rural Northeastern Thailand

Thailand is promoting a sufficiency economy (SE) emphasizing community solidarity, mixed farming and sustainable agriculture. We analyze to what extent the SE philosophy is part of the daily lives of communities in Isan, NE Thailand. We interviewed rural household representatives and community leaders on education,employment, community dynamics, aspirations, concerns and social-sufficiency. The majority observed that community values and interaction were essential and were satisfied with living standards and community. However, most want their children to proceed to university meaning many may not return to agriculture limiting the ability of SE values to be transferred to the next generation.NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia

Rebuilding our Neighborhoods: Improving New York State Housing Policy to Better Meet Upstate Needs

New York faces a wide variety of housing challenges. While in the New York City region, where the population is growing, availability and affordability are the most pressing concerns, upstate regions have a different set of problems stemming from population loss, housing vacancy, abandonment, and deterioration. To address the full range of issues, state housing policy needs a variety of tools in its tool box. This policy brief discusses four ways that state housing policy can better address the needs of upstate regions such as Buffalo: Support holistic neighborhood revitalization, using Buffalo’s award-winning Green Development Zone as a model; Restore and enhance funding streams for small projects and housing repairs; Adjust New York’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit Qualified Allocation Plan to better address upstate needs; and Revise the DHCR Design Handbook to better facilitate rehabilitation projects

The ATIS Message: A Study in One-Way Communication

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of high fidelity digital voice transmission, some aspects of information processing and the effect of short-term memory and long-term memory on one-way verbal communication. The experiment consisted of one realistic scenario with each of the twenty-four subjects involved recording on paper each of the sixteen Automatic Terminal Information Serice (ATIS) messages that they heard. Each subject heard each message one time, and the listening devices used were changed after four messages. The ATIS message consists of eleven hem groups of information. The results were viewed in group, number, and word errors. The largest error was the error of omission, and the most errors were found in message item 11 of the remarks section. The lengthy and complex remarks section overtaxed the capacity of the short term memory and resulted in large numbers of omission errors

Publisher's Comments

Welcome to the Journal of Biocommunication, the professional journal of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) and the BioCommunications Association (BCA). This JBC, issue 47-1, represents our first issue of the 2023 publishing year. We would like to thank our Management Board, our editors, our advisors, and our authors for their contributions to the success of our Journal. Our JBC Showcase features a memorial tribute to medical illustrator and educator, Steven Joseph Harrison. Steve was inducted as a Louis Schmidt Laureate in 2009 by the BCA, and he was a recipient of the AMI's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. Our JBC Gallery features the award-winning images and media from the BCA's 2022 BioImages exhibition. We appreciate the ongoing support from our JBC community around the world. In particular, we acknowledge the support of the AMI and the BCA. It's a privilege to be chosen as the professional academic journal of these two organizations

Effects of Various Soil Amendments on Subsurface Water Quality at the ISU Farm

Starting in 2003, a series of field studies were conducted in conjunction with researchers from Illinois State University (ISU) at the ISU Farm north of Lexington, IL. Three sites for monitoring subsurface water quality beneath row crops receiving various soil amendments were established at or near the ISU Farm. The first site was a series of small experimental plots located on the northern edge of farm property just west of road 2550E, which were amended with various fertilizers, including compost (at two application rates), swine manure slurry, separated swine manure effluent, and synthetic fertilizer (urea). A zero-rate control plot was also initiated. The swine that produced the manure used in these studies were dosed with chlortetracycline prior to the 2004 applications and for every year afterward. A common practice in the livestock industry is to provide sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics to prevent disease outbreaks and increase growth rates (Mason et al., 2009). Tetracyclines are one of the most commonly used families of antibiotics for these purposes. The second site covered a larger area of privately owned fields to the north of the ISU Farm, which were amended with materials from the farm. Amendments included compost, manure slurry, and separated swine manure effluent. The third site was located on the northern section of ISU Farm property to the east of road 2550E. Narrowly spaced tile drains were installed at this site for the application of separated effluent via subsurface irrigation. The goal of all studies was to determine if the various soil amendments were affecting subsurface water quality. Monitoring wells were installed in up-gradient and down-gradient locations to monitor changes in shallow groundwater quality. Lysimeters were installed at the first and third sites beneath fields where various soil amendments were applied, as well as at a control location at site one. A summary of soil amendment and monitoring activities for all three sites is shown in Table 1. In addition to the field studies, a series of flow-through soil column experiments were conducted to help understand nitrogen dynamics, especially changes in nitrate isotopes.Ope

Drought Effects on Germination Rate of Two Sagebrush Species, Artemisia cana and Artemisia arbusula, and Comparison of Seed Counts using a Photography App and Weighing

Sagebrush steppe ecosystems have been impacted by climate change, grazing, and invasive plants. While some widespread sagebrush species have been well-studied, including big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), others like silver sagebrush (Artemisia cana) and low sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula) are understudied. To learn more about how to restore these important ecosystems, we conducted a germination study of two sagebrush species. We germinated seeds from A. cana in petri plates and in soil to compare the rates of germination in both methods, while A. arbuscula seeds were germinated only in petri plates. We also tested the efficiency of weighing and a photography app to estimate the number of seeds. The germination rate for both species was low, but there was a strong correlation between the manual seed counts and the app counts as well as the seed counts and seed weights. It is possible that A. cana and A. arbuscula naturally have low germination rates or the lack of pre-trial treatment of seeds could have contributed to the low germination rates. Though our results were limited, there is a possibility that drought could have an effect on seed germination, and subsequently the success of future restoration projects, but that more research is needed

City of Morris - Chloride Discharge Assessment

This project involved assisting the Office of Sustainability and the City of Morris to understand the use of softeners and the amount of chloride put into the city’s waste water treatment plant. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency recently presented new regulations for chloride levels being discharged into rivers from municipal waste water treatment plants. The students measured current chloride levels and estimated the amount of chloride that would be discharged if the community switched to high-efficiency softeners. This information is being used to inform the community on whether the city should invest in a municipal water softening system.https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/cst/1062/thumbnail.jp