Utilizing Falcon Families to Support Student Engagement and School Climate

At Alcova Elementary, we have approximately 1,400 students in grades K-5. We are one of the largest elementary schools in Gwinnett County. In an effort to bring a sense of family to our populous school and community, we introduced Falcon Families. Each student and staff member is randomly sorted into one of six Falcon Families. Our Falcon Family names are reflective of our diverse community and the character traits we want to promote at our school. Aminici (friendship), Altruismo (generosity), Isibindi (courage), Kreativan (creativity), Mutunci (integrity), and Sonador (dreamers), are the six families that students could be members of. Throughout the year, students participate in a year-long friendly competition to see which Falcon Family can earn the most points via scholarly work, exemplary behavior, perfect attendance, and family involvement. In addition, students\u27 own personal families are invited in for special Family picnics where they join up for cross-grade level fun. Furthermore, Falcon Family Fridays provide opportunities for students grade K-5 to interact with each other to promote positive interaction and relationships school-wide. Parents can use the character based Falcon Families away from school to reinforce how positive choices are expected not only at school, but at home

Life Cycle Costing and Food Systems: Concepts, Trends, and Challenges of Impact Valuation

Our global food systems create pervasive environmental, social, and health impacts. Impact valuation is an emerging concept that aims to quantify all environmental, social, and health costs of food systems in an attempt to make the true cost of food more transparent. It also is designed to facilitate the transformation of global food systems. The concept of impact valuation is emerging at the same time as, and partly as a response to, calls for the development of legal mechanisms to address environmental, social, and health concerns. Information has long been understood both as a necessary precursor for regulation and as a regulatory tool in and of itself. With global supply chains and widespread impacts, data necessary to produce robust and complete impact valuation requires participation and cooperation from a variety of food system actors. New costing methods, beyond basic accounting, are necessary to incorporate the scope of impacts and stakeholders. Furthermore, there are a range of unanswered questions surrounding realizations of impact valuation methods, e.g. data sharing, international privacy, corporate transparency, limitations on valuation itself, and data collection standardization. Because of the proliferation of calls for costing tools, this article steps back and assesses the current development of impact valuation methods. In this article, we review current methods and initiatives for the implementation of food system impact valuation. We conclude that in some instances, calls for the implementation of costing have outpaced available and reliable data collection and current costing techniques. Many existing initiatives are being developed without adequate consideration of the legal challenges that hinder implementation. Finally, we conclude with a reminder that although impact valuation tools are most often sought and implemented in service of market-based tools for reform, they can also serve as a basis for robust public policies

Gathering: Icons for a New World

This paper accompanied Gathering, an installation of sculptural assemblage and sound composition, which exhibited at Lump Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina, from March 4th to April 10th, 2022. The paper outlines the artist's formal, visual research for Gathering, including reflections on ritual, repetition, and compassion, as well as the conceptual and material explorations that led to the final work. Themes of transformation and rebirth are central to the thesis, which proposes a new, syncretic spiritual framework that draws elements from existing spiritual and religious practices.Bachelor of Fine Art

A compact coastal ocean observing system for Kernel Blitz 2001

In this report we describe a compact, easily deployed, moored system for oceanographic and meteorological observations in the coastal ocean. The system consists of a surface and subsurface mooring pair deployed adjacent to one another. Compared to a single catenary surface mooring, this arrangement allows the entire water column to be instrumented. All of the instruments in the system log high resolution time series data. Additionally, the mooring line instruments periodically report averaged data to the buoys via inductive modems. On the subsurface mooring, this averaged data is sent to the surface buoy using an acoustic modem. Inductively coupled mooring line instrumentation includes conductivity, temperature, and pressure sensors, acoustic current meters, and optical backscattering and absorption sensors. In addition to mooring line instruments, the surface buoy collects averaged data from meteorological sensors, including wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, relative humidity, air temperature, precipitation, longwave and shortwave radiation, sea surface temperature and conductivity, and wave height and period. Data from both mooring lines and from the surface meteorological sensors is telemetered to shore via line-of-sight radio and satellite. The entire system, including buoys, moorings, instruments, launch and recovery gear, telemetry receive, and data processing facilities can be packed into a single 20 foot shipping container. The system was successfully deployed to provide environmental monitoring for Kernel Blitz 2001, a US Navy fleet exercise off southern California. Results from the deployment are presented.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract Number N000149910090

How do governance visions, institutions and practices enable urban sustainability transformations? A study of Battambang and Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Whilst research has highlighted the challenges of rapid urbanization in Cambodia, few studies have focused on increased interest within Cambodia on how reforming urban governance can support urban sustainability transformations. Addressing this research gap, this study explores how urban governance might enable sustainability transformations in two second-tier cities—Battambang and Sihanoukville—in Cambodia, based on the analysis of open-ended interviews with fifty-five representatives involved in the development and implementation of urban sustainability plans and policies for these cities. The findings identify how urban governance visions, institutions and practices can be strengthened to enable sustainability transformations within these cities. The study highlights that alignment between the three tiers of governance—meta-governance (visions and worldviews), second-tier (structural and institutional) and third-tier (day-to-day interactions) is needed for urban sustainability transformations

CBLAST-Low 2001 pilot study mooring deployment cruise and data report ; FV Nobska, June 4 to August 17, 2001

During the summer of 2001, several moorings and cruises were used as part of the CBLAST-Low (Coupled Boundary Layer Air-Sea Transfer under low wind conditions) pilot experiment in the North Atlantic, south of Martha’s Vineyard Island, MA, USA. Six subsurface tide gauges were deployed around the study site for a period of approximately 3 months during the summer of 2001. Further, two surface buoys equipped with meteorological instrumentation and subsurface arrays that measured temperature, conductivity and velocity were deployed during the months of July and August 2001. For a short intensive operating period during July 2001, a newly manufactured three-dimensional mooring designed to sample three-dimensional properties of the upper ocean was deployed for a period of 6 days. During the Intensive Operating Period (IOP) along-shelf and across-shelf conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sections were completed as well as a drifting array designed to passively collect data from the upper water column released for approximately 24 hours. This report describes the instrumentation and type of moorings deployed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Upper Ocean Processes (WHOI UOP) group as well as data return and quality from the CBLAST-Low 2001 pilot study. This is summarized in graphical and tabular form in this report.Funding provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N00014-01-1-0029 and from the Secretary of the Navy / CNO Chair Grant No. N00014-99-1-0090

Ultrasound confirmation of guidewire position may eliminate accidental arterial dilatation during central venous cannulation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ultrasound guidance during central line insertion has significantly reduced complications associated with this procedure and has led to it being incorporated as standard of care in many institutions. However, inadvertent arterial penetration and dilation remains a problem despite ultrasound guidance and can result in significant morbidity and even mortality. Dynamic ultrasound confirmation of guidewire position within the vein prior to dilation may help to prevent and even eliminate this feared complication.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A prospectively collected database of central line insertions for one author utilizing this novel technique was retrospectively reviewed for all incidents of arterial dilation over a period from September 2008 to January 2010.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During the study period 53 central lines were inserted with no incidents of arterial dilation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Ultrasound confirmation of guidewire position has the potential to reduce or eliminate the morbidity and mortality of arterial dilation during central line placement.</p

Stratus Ocean Reference Station (20˚S, 85˚W), mooring recovery and deployment cruise R/V Revelle cruise dana 03, November 10 - November 26, 2003

The Ocean Reference Station at 20°S, 85°W under the stratus clouds west of northern Chile and Peru is being maintained to provide ongoing, climate-quality records of surface meteorology, of air-sea fluxes of heat, freshwater, and momentum, and of upper ocean temperature, salinity, and velocity variability. The Stratus Ocean Reference Station, hereafter ORS Stratus, is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) Climate Observation Program. It is recovered and redeployed annually, with cruises that have come in October or November. During the November 2003 cruise of Scripps Institution of Oceanography's R/V Roger Revelle to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities where the recovery of the WHOI surface mooring that had been deployed in October 2002, the deployment of a new WHOI surface mooring at that site, the in-situ calibration of the buoy meteorological sensors by comparison with instrumentation put on board by Chris Fairall of the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL), and observations of the stratus clouds and lower atmosphere by NOAA ETL and Jason Tomlinson from Texas A&M. The ORS Stratus buoys are equipped with two Improved Meteorological systems, which provide surface wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, incoming shortwave radiation, incoming longwave radiation, precipitation rate, and sea surface temperature. The IMET data are made available in near real time using satellite telemetry. The mooring line carries instruments to measure ocean salinity, temperature, and currents. On some deployments, additional instrumentation is attached to the mooring to measure rainfall and bio-optical variability. The ETL instrumentation used during the 2003 cruise included a cloud radar, radiosonde balloons, and sensors for mean and turbulent surface meteorology. In addition to this work, buoy work was done in support of the Ecuadorian Navy Institute of Oceanography (INOCAR) and of the Chilean Navy Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOA). The surface buoy, oceanographic instrumentation, and upper 500 m of an INOCAR surface mooring at 2°S, 84°W that had been vandalized were recovered and transferred to the Ecuadorian Navy vessel B. A. E. Calicuchima. A tsunami warning mooring was installed at 75°W, 20°S for SHOA. SHOA personnel onboard were trained during the cruise by staff from the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). The cruise hosted two teachers participating in NOAA's Teacher at Sea Program, Deb Brice from San Marcos, California and Viviana Zamorano from Arica, Chile.Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uncer Contract Number NA17RJ1223

Competence committees decision-making; an interplay of data, group orientation, and intangible impressions

Abstract Background The implementation of competency-based medical education and utilization of competence committees (CC) represents a paradigm shift in residency education. This qualitative study aimed to explore the methods used by two operational CC and their members to make decisions about progression and competence of their residents. Methods An instrumental case study methodology was used to study the CC of two postgraduate training programs. Transcripts from observed CC meetings, member interviews, and guiding documents were analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory approach to reveal themes explaining the decision-making process. Results Our study found that the CC followed a process that began within a social decision schema model and evolved to a discussion that invoked social influence theory, shared mental models, and social judgment scheme to clarify the points of contention. We identified that the CC decision-making was at risk of bias, primarily influenced by the group composition, the group orientation and individual members’ mindset, as well as their personal experiences with the trainees. Conclusions Increased awareness of the sources of bias in CC functioning and familiarity with the CC role in competency-based medical education would enable committees to provide valuable feedback to all trainees regardless of their trajectory

The Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey: Comparison of Ultraviolet and Far-Infrared Properties

The Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) consists of a complete sample of 202 Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) selected from the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample (RBGS). The galaxies span the full range of interaction stages, from isolated galaxies to interacting pairs to late stage mergers. We present a comparison of the UV and infrared properties of 135 galaxies in GOALS observed by GALEX and Spitzer. For interacting galaxies with separations greater than the resolution of GALEX and Spitzer (2-6"), we assess the UV and IR properties of each galaxy individually. The contribution of the FUV to the measured SFR ranges from 0.2% to 17.9%, with a median of 2.8% and a mean of 4.0 +/- 0.4%. The specific star formation rate of the GOALS sample is extremely high, with a median value (3.9*10^{-10} yr^{-1}) that is comparable to the highest specific star formation rates seen in the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey sample. We examine the position of each galaxy on the IR excess-UV slope (IRX-beta) diagram as a function of galaxy properties, including IR luminosity and interaction stage. The LIRGs on average have greater IR excesses than would be expected based on their UV colors if they obeyed the same relations as starbursts with L_IR < 10^{11}L_0 or normal late-type galaxies. The ratio of L_IR to the value one would estimate from the IRXg-beta relation published for lower luminosity starburst galaxies ranges from 0.2 to 68, with a median value of 2.7. A minimum of 19% of the total IR luminosity in the RBGS is produced in LIRGs and ULIRGs with red UV colors (beta > 0). Among resolved interacting systems, 32% contain one galaxy which dominates the IR emission while the companion dominates the UV emission. Only 21% of the resolved systems contain a single galaxy which dominates both wavelengths.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap