Vascular Flora of Hooper Branch Savanna Nature Preserve, Iroquois County, Illinois

INHS Technical Report prepared for Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Natural Heritag

Leveraging the Dissemination of Scholarly Works

The objective of this research was to analyze the marketing and economic outcomes and benefits from the dissemination of the data from the Airline Quality Rating (AQR) (http://airlinequalityrating.com) over the past 27 years, including the newer distributive avenues such as social media and open access venues online. Industry standards are set by the AQR, providing consumers and industry watchers objective performance-based data to compare performance quality among different U.S. airlines. The AQR weighted average formula highlights criteria including baggage handling, customer complaints, denied boarding and on-time arrivals. The scholarly publication of the AQR was first released in 1991; the authors were interviewed on Good Morning America, gaining national media attention for the authors as well as their university. The annual media release of this report grew in reputation over the first three years to a national media event as a valid rating/ranking of the major airlines’ quality; this was validated by an advertising value of over two million dollars. In 2016, the release of the AQR report reached over 1.2 billion people globally, with an advertising and publicity value of twelve million dollars. Today, faculty members can and should utilize the newer distributive platforms for dissemination of their research and scholarly works; some examples of these avenues include: (1) research and scholarly publications being uploaded to Google Scholar for scholarly as well as general public use, (2) taking advantage of social media’s global market, (3) utilizing media venues, including media releases, (4) using online open-access repositories for scholarship submissions. The dissemination of data from the AQR is just one example of the limitless topics that could be applied to other scholarship efforts, benefitting faculty members and their associated universities by effectively leveraging the distribution of their research and associated publications beyond only being published as an obscure journal article

Factors influencing water immersion during labour: qualitative case studies of six maternity units in the United Kingdom

Abstract: Background: Water immersion during labour can provide benefits including reduced need for regional analgesia and a shorter labour. However, in the United Kingdom a minority of women use a pool for labour or birth, with pool use particularly uncommon in obstetric-led settings. Maternity unit culture has been identified as an important influence on pool use, but this and other possible factors have not been explored in-depth. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify factors influencing pool use through qualitative case studies of three obstetric units and three midwifery units in the UK. Methods: Case study units with a range of waterbirth rates and representing geographically diverse locations were selected. Data collection methods comprised semi-structured interviews, collation of service documentation and public-facing information, and observations of the unit environment. There were 111 interview participants, purposively sampled to include midwives, postnatal women, obstetricians, neonatologists, midwifery support workers and doulas. A framework approach was used to analyse all case study data. Results: Obstetric unit culture was a key factor restricting pool use. We found substantial differences between obstetric and midwifery units in terms of equipment and resources, staff attitudes and confidence, senior staff support and women’s awareness of water immersion. Generic factors influencing use of pools across all units included limited access to waterbirth training, sociodemographic differences in desire for pool use and issues using waterproof fetal monitoring equipment. Conclusions: Case study findings provide new insights into the influence of maternity unit culture on waterbirth rates. Access to pool use could be improved through midwives based in obstetric units having more experience of waterbirth, providing obstetricians and neonatologists with information on the practicalities of pool use and improving accessibility of antenatal information. In terms of resources, recommendations include increasing pool provision, ensuring birth room allocation maximises the use of unit resources, and providing pool room environments that are acceptable to midwives

Reclaiming Global Environmental Leadership: Why the United States Should Ratify Ten Pending Environmental Treaties

For more than a century, the United States has taken the lead in organizing international responses to international environmental problems. In the last two decades, however, U.S. environmental leadership has faltered. The best-known example is the lack of an effective response to climate change, underscored by the U.S. decision not to join the Kyoto Protocol. But that is not the only shortfall. The United States has also failed to join a large and growing number of treaties directed at other environmental threats, including marine pollution, the loss of biological diversity, persistent organic pollutants, and trade in toxic substances. This white paper identifies ten of these critical, pending environmental treaties and explains their importance and the actions needed to fully join them. The failure of the United States to join these treaties undermines global environmental protection and undermines U.S. interests in protecting a wide range of natural resources. The treaties set out standards and create institutions designed to find and implement solutions to problems of critical importance. They have attracted support from other countries, including our closest allies. Indeed, several are among the most widely ratified treaties in history. In every case, the regimes these treaties have established are less successful without U.S. membership than they could be with the full engagement of the country with the largest economy and the largest environmental impact

The 1993 baseline biological studies and proposed monitoring plan for the Device Assembly Facility at the Nevada Test Site

This report contains baseline data and recommendations for future monitoring of plants and animals near the new Device Assembly Facility (DAF) on the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The facility is a large structure designed for safely assembling nuclear weapons. Baseline data was collected in 1993, prior to the scheduled beginning of DAF operations in early 1995. Studies were not performed prior to construction and part of the task of monitoring operational effects will be to distinguish those effects from the extensive disturbance effects resulting from construction. Baseline information on species abundances and distributions was collected on ephemeral and perennial plants, mammals, reptiles, and birds in the desert ecosystems within three kilometers (km) of the DAF. Particular attention was paid to effects of selected disturbances, such as the paved road, sewage pond, and the flood-control dike, associated with the facility. Radiological monitoring of areas surrounding the DAF is not included in this report

Taro leaf blight - A threat to food security

Taro leaf blight (caused by the Oomycete Phytophthora colocasiae) is a disease of major importance in many regions of the world where taro is grown. Serious outbreaks of taro leaf blight in Samoa in 1993 and in the last few years in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria continue to demonstrate the devastating impact of this disease on the livelihoods and food security of small farmers and rural communities dependent on the crop. The spread of the disease to new geographical areas also poses a major threat to neighbouring countries and taro growing regions still free from the disease. Past research, particularly in the Pacific, has demonstrated that management measures such as chemical and cultural control are largely ineffective and that breeding for disease resistance is the most sustainable approach to manage the disease. Recently, the Pacific and South-east Asian regional taro networks have made excellent progress in developing cultivars resistant to taro leaf blight through enhanced utilization of taro genetic resources and close collaboration between farmers and researchers in breeding programs. These programs have secured vital taro genetic resources for future use. This paper provides an overview of the disease, its origin, distribution, biology, epidemiology, management and global impact. The paper will largely focus on breeding strategies to address the disease including challenges, opportunities and constraints. It also discusses how these breeding experiences and outputs can be scaled up to other geographical areas where the disease has been recently introduced or under threat of introduction. (Résumé d'auteur

Story in health and social care

This paper offers a brief consideration of how narrative, in the form of people‟s own stories, potentially figures in health and social care provision as part of the impulse towards patient-centred care. The rise of the epistemological legitimacy of patients‟ stories is sketched here. The paper draws upon relevant literature and original writing to consider the ways in which stories can mislead as well as illuminate the process of making individual treatment care plans