LIFE ON HOLD: The effect of recession and neoliberalism on millennials’ beliefs about education, economic participation, and adulthood

Americans born between 1982 and 1995 (the “millennial” generation) are coming of age and entering adulthood during a time of historically significant economic recession. This study uses qualitative data derived from online sources to explore the effect of this experience on the values, feelings, and beliefs of these young adults regarding economic participation, education, and adulthood. Results indicate that millennials feel isolated, ashamed, fearful, and angry about their circumstances. Some feel so hopeless that mental health problems result. The neoliberal ideology widely prevalent in American culture is identified as a strong contributing factor to this situation. Educators are encouraged to recognize this reality and address structural reasons for the situation, alleviating the self-blame and shame young people experience

Documenting Ferguson: Capturing History as It Happens

This poster chronicles a novel archive project—the Documenting Ferguson Project at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). Our poster highlighted our steps in the documentation and preservation of materials created in the course of and surrounding events in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting death of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. WUSTL created a committee, consisting of University Archives and other library staff, faculty, and additional university staff, to coordinate the efforts to capture the history as it happened. The Documenting Ferguson Project Team was called together in August 2014, soon after the death of Michael Brown and the first protests in Ferguson, Missouri. It was immediately clear that the events unfolding in the St. Louis suburb were producing important records and required a specialized response to target the wealth of born-digital materials. Our poster will address the issues that arose and how the Documenting Ferguson Project confronted them. The approach includes web archiving, crowd sourced content, documentation of the project, preservation, and working with researchers. The events in Ferguson have grown to encompass and touch on many issues facing, not only residents of that community, but people from all walks of life in St. Louis and the rest of the country. As archivists, we are tasked with documenting these events and preserving the memory surrounding them for future generations.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/lib_present/1013/thumbnail.jp

An anthropogenic habitat facilitates the establishment of non-native birds by providing underexploited resources

Anthropogenic modification of habitats may reduce the resources available for native species, leading to population declines and extinction. These same habitats often have the highest richness of non-native species. This pattern may be explained if recently human-modified habitats provide novel resources that are more accessible to non-native species than native species. Using non-native birds in the Iberian Peninsula as a case study, we conduct a large-scale study to investigate whether non-native species are positively associated with human modified habitats, and to investigate whether this positive association may be driven by the presence of resources that are not fully exploited by native species. We do this by comparing the functional diversity and resource use of native and non-native bird communities in a recently human-modified habitat (rice fields) and in more traditional habitats in the Iberian Peninsula. The functional diversity of native bird communities was lower in rice fields, but non-native birds were positively associated with rice fields and plugged this gap. Differences in resource use between native and non-native species allowed non-native species to exploit resources that were plentiful in rice fields, supporting the role of underexploited resources in driving the positive association of non-native birds with rice fields. Our results provide a potential mechanism explaining the positive association of non-native species with anthropogenic habitats, and further work is needed to test if this applies more generally

Author Correction: Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts

1 Pág. Correción errata.In the version of this Article originally published, the surname of author Tina Parkhurst was incorrectly written as Schroeder. This has now been corrected.Peer reviewe

Transferring biodiversity-ecosystem function research to the management of ‘real-world’ ecosystems

Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research grew rapidly following concerns that biodiversity loss would negatively affect ecosystem functions and the ecosystem services they underpin. However, despite evidence that biodiversity strongly affects ecosystem functioning, the influence of BEF research upon policy and the management of ‘real-world’ ecosystems, i.e., semi-natural habitats and agroecosystems, has been limited. Here, we address this issue by classifying BEF research into three clusters based on the degree of human control over species composition and the spatial scale, in terms of grain, of the study, and discussing how the research of each cluster is best suited to inform particular fields of ecosystem management. Research in the first cluster, small-grain highly controlled studies, is best able to provide general insights into mechanisms and to inform the management of species-poor and highly managed systems such as croplands, plantations, and the restoration of heavily degraded ecosystems. Research from the second cluster, small-grain observational studies, and species removal and addition studies, may allow for direct predictions of the impacts of species loss in specific semi-natural ecosystems. Research in the third cluster, large-grain uncontrolled studies, may best inform landscape-scale management and national-scale policy. We discuss barriers to transfer within each cluster and suggest how new research and knowledge exchange mechanisms may overcome these challenges. To meet the potential for BEF research to address global challenges, we recommend transdisciplinary research that goes beyond these current clusters and considers the social-ecological context of the ecosystems in which BEF knowledge is generated. This requires recognizing the social and economic value of biodiversity for ecosystem services at scales, and in units, that matter to land managers and policy makers.</p

Altlasten und Baurecht - eine Herausforderung für die Kommunen

Altlasten und Baurecht - eine Herausforderung für die Kommunen. - München : VVF, 1992. - X, 277 S. - Zugl.: Augsburg, Univ., Diss., 1991. - (Rechtswissenschaftliche Forschung und Entwicklung ; 364