STEM Faculty Experiences with Students with Disabilities at a Land Grant Institution

Preparing faculty to meet the needs of the increasing number of students with disabilities is a critical need in higher education, particularly in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. Quality preparation is an emerging problem as the number of higher education students with disabilities is on the rise. In this study, researchers used a qualitative methodology to examine STEM faculty members’ experiences with students with disabilities at a land grant institution in the southeastern United States. The study was conducted to answer the following questions: (a) What experiences, positive and negative, have STEM faculty members had working with students with disabilities?(b) How do STEM faculty members describe students with disabilities?, and (c) What resources do faculty members need to adequately serve students with disabilities? Five researchers conducted individual interviews with STEM faculty members. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed, with the following themes emerging from the data: Challenges, Support, Knowledge, Awareness/Visibility, and Formal versus Informal Accommodations. Implications from this study relate to the improvement of services for students with disabilities at higher education institutions and to the preparation of STEM faculty to accommodate their students

Differences of Restorative Effects While Viewing Urban Landscapes and Green Landscapes

Attention Restoration Theory argues that natural objects such as trees and flowers have psychological restoration effects. However, relevant studies have been mostly based on survey methods, and few of them suggest guidelines for restoration environments. This study, therefore, aims to verify the restorative effect of natural objects using eye-tracking methods and a survey regarding visual aesthetics, complexity, and the Perceived Restorativeness Scale, as well 25 various images divided into 4 types: natural scene and close view, natural scene and distant view, built scene and close view, and built scene and distant view. The analysis showed that natural scenes had a stronger positive restorative effect compared to built scenes regardless of differences in the distance. In terms of the overall landscape composition, visual characteristics such as visual aesthetics and complexity had a statistically significant relationship with restorative effect. Additionally, an eye-tracking method was found to be a valid and useful tool for studying the restorative environments by significant differences in the scan path length depending on the four types of landscape images. This study ultimately provides an overview regarding restorative design guidelines not only by using natural elements but also by considering landscape composition in terms of complexity, openness, and so on

Structural Equation Model for Burn Severity with Topographic Variables and Susceptible Forest Cover

Due to its significant roles in post-fire responses of forest ecosystem, numerous studies have been investigating factors affecting burn severity. In the broad sense, topography, fuels, and fire weather, known as the forest fire triangle, determine the degree of burn severity. Most previous studies have adopted ordinary least squares (OLS) methods to investigate these factors, which have proven effective for capturing the direct and linear effects of those variables on burn severity. However, they oversimplify the relationships among variables and have limitations in explaining the complex effects of the variables. One way to overcome this limitation is the structural equation model (SEM) method. SEM can decompose effects of a variable into direct effects and indirect (i.e., acting through other variables) effects. The goal of this study is to capture a systematic structure, explaining how topographic characteristics including slope, elevation, topographic wetness index (TWI), solar radiation index (SRI), and susceptible forest cover type (i.e., Japanese red pine) affect burn severity. We built a hypothetical SEM and estimated the model in AMOS. The results strongly suggest that the effects of topographic characteristics are far more complex than those suggested by the OLS analyses in previous studies. Specifically, elevation and TWI had direct and indirect negative effects on burn severity, while slope and SRI had only an indirect positive effect, which was not captured in the linear regression model. Nonetheless, the percentage of red pine showed the strongest positive effect on burn severity (i.e., increasing burn severity). The results of this study and those of previous studies reinforce the importance of controlling susceptible forest cover through forest management and silviculture

Are Touristic Attractions Well-Connected in an Olympic Host City? A Network Analysis Measurement of Visitor Movement Patterns in Gangneung, South Korea

One of the most serious concerns about mega event-related changes to small cities is how to effectively utilize newly developed public attractions after the Olympic Games. Making connections with existing local amenities and forming attraction networks can be effective strategies for continuing a city’s revitalization. However, despite the expected benefits, attraction network research shows that these benefits often fail to materialize. With the case of Gangneung, a 2018 Winter Olympic hosting city, this study investigated visitation patterns to 19 selected attractions using network analysis. The results indicate that the most influential nodes are located on the northern coast, the eastern coast, and in the south downtown area, those nodes being the central locations where the strongest of connections are made. New attractions such as the Olympic Park and Walwha Linear Park were rather isolated. While seasonal and periodic variations, visitors’ residences, and destination choice attitudes had a significant effect on visitation patterns, the attraction networks, modes of transportation, proximity to region, and type similarity were not significant factors in the forming of visitation patterns. The results make a methodological contribution to tourist behavior and network research. In addition, beyond individual attraction development, the results provide practical implications in regard to networking and cooperation between multiple attractions using temporal and spatial strategies such as management/investment prioritizing, travel route development, and program scheduling

Examining Spatial Variation in the Effects of Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) on Burn Severity Using Geographically Weighted Regression

Burn severity has profound impacts on the response of post-fire forest ecosystems to fire events. Numerous previous studies have reported that burn severity is determined by variables such as meteorological conditions, pre-fire forest structure, and fuel characteristics. An underlying assumption of these studies was the constant effects of environmental variables on burn severity over space, and these analyses therefore did not consider the spatial dimension. This study examined spatial variation in the effects of Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora) on burn severity. Specifically, this study investigated the presence of spatially varying relationships between Japanese red pine and burn severity due to changes in slope and elevation. We estimated conventional ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models and compared them using three criteria; the coefficients of determination (R2), Akaike information criterion for small samples (AICc), and Moran’s I-value. The GWR model performed considerably better than the OLS model in explaining variation in burn severity. The results provided strong evidence that the effect of Japanese red pine on burn severity was not constant but varied spatially. Elevation was a significant factor in the variation in the effects of Japanese red pine on burn severity. The influence of red pine on burn severity was considerably higher in low-elevation areas but became less important than the other variables in high-elevation areas. The results of this study can be applied to location-specific strategies for forest managers and can be adopted to improve fire simulation models to more realistically mimic the nature of fire behavior