The Forest of Claytor Nature Center as a Carbon Offset; Assessing the Sequestration Potential and Socioeconomic Implications

Cap and trade programs limit the amount of emissions an organization can produce. To neutralize unavoidable emissions, organizations can purchase carbon offsets from the carbon market. The ability to quantify greenhouse gas emissions offsets in forests increased the urgency and popularity of the carbon market because carbon dioxide (CO2) has a large role in climate change. The University of Lynchburg’s Claytor Nature Center’s 332-acre forest could be a viable revenue source because of its ability to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. In this research, the potential number of annual offsets from Claytor Forest was measured through a manual biomass survey. I assessed tree quantity, size, height, and species in 1/10-acre samples and used existing biomass equations to calculate how much profit the forest could bring to the university and which tree species are best to plant for maximum profit and emissions reductions. A cost benefit analysis of this forest offset project was conducted because the school previously purchased credits from the market to be considered “Carbon-neutral.” Instead, forest generated offsets will be purchased from the university by others seeking neutrality. This research is important because the school is experiencing a budget deficit and with the utilization of Claytor Forest the university could overcome financial struggles and be motivated to reduce our emissions directly. Campuses and communities can play a large role with the strategic environmental planning of their land. With the exponential growth of carbon’s economic value, I also assigned economic value to Claytor Forest’s community benefits and global impact since the forest provides a variety of significant services beyond GHG emissions removal. This research assigns economic worth to land that previously only had intrinsic value and allows everyone to grasp the positive impact of every single tree in the global fight against climate change. This research investigates and offers potential solutions to three key questions. Can the biomass of Claytor forest offset a considerable amount of the University’s emissions to help retain carbon neutrality? Will the revenue of the carbon offsets be able to support the school during the financial deficit? Is the carbon market an appropriate method to mitigating climate change

Our General Mother:’ Eve’s Mythic Power and the Poetry of Aemilia Lanyer, John Milton, Elizabeth Barrett, and Christina Rossetti

The purpose of this study is to analyze Ameilia Lanyer, John Milton, Elizabeth Barrett, and Christina Rossetti’s versions of Eve. In my first chapter, I pair Lanyer and Milton’s work and focus on the demands and expectations they place on the reader. Both authors desire that their readers be intellectually and spiritually astute enough to accept their arguments about Eve, but also be willing to see themselves as Eve. In my second chapter, I discuss Milton’s influence on Barrett, and center my treatment of Barrett on the way Barrett’s ambivalence toward male authority manifests itself in her depictions of Eve. In my third chapter, I link Lanyer and Rossetti’s work for the purpose of examining their emphasis on the body of Eve and Christ. This study explores the way these authors use Eve to evoke societal and theological change and appeal to the power latent within Eve herself as a figure of mythic proportions

Small advances and swift retreat: Race-conscious educational policy in the Obama and Trump administrations

The three terms comprising the Obama and Trump presidencies provide an opportunity to understand the evolution of race-conscious education policy in an increasingly multiracial, unequal, and divided society. Through document review and interviews with civil rights lawyers, government officials, congressional staffers, and intermediary organization personnel, we sought to understand how Obama officials envisioned and changed the role of the federal government in fostering K-12 race-conscious educational policies and what mechanisms they used to advance priorities. We also explored changes Trump administration officials made to federal civil rights policies and through which institutional means. Our findings reveal through-lines between past and present political agendas and the methods for enactment. Obama’s interagency efforts to reinvigorate civil rights oversight and enforcement in education harkened back to the mid-1960s era of bipartisan cooperation around school desegregation. Yet the decades-long legal and policy retrenchment against civil rights advances made in the 1960s constrained further progress. Trump’s administration advocated for the privatization of public education through increased choice and opposed race-consciousness in education law and policy. The reshaping of the federal judiciary under Trump presents challenges for race-consciousness in the law for years to come. Recognizing these consistent through-lines and constraints will be essential for advocates and policymakers going forward

Exploiting Partial Solubility in Partially Fluorinated Thermoplastic Blends to Improve Adhesion during Fused Deposition Modeling

This work studies the effect of interlayer adhesion on mechanical performance of fluorinated thermoplastics produced by fused deposition modeling (FDM). Here, we study the anisotropic mechanical response of 3D-printed binary blends of poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with the isotropic mechanical response of these blends fabricated via injection molding. Various PVDF/PMMA filament compositions were produced by twin-screw extrusion and, subsequently, injection-molded or 3D printed into dog-bone shapes. Specimen mechanical and thermal properties were evaluated by mode I tensile testing and differential scanning calorimetry, respectively. Results show that higher PMMA concentration not only improved the tensile strength and decreased ductility but reduced PVDF crystallization. As expected, injection-molded samples revealed better mechanical properties compared to 3D printed specimens. Interestingly, 3D printed blends with lower PMMA content demonstrated better diffusion (adhesion) across interfaces than those with a higher amount of PMMA. The present study provides new findings that may be used to tune mechanical response in 3D printed fluorinated thermoplastics, particularly for energy applications

Multidimensional Risk Analysis: MRISK

Multidimensional Risk (MRISK) calculates the combined multidimensional score using Mahalanobis distance. MRISK accounts for covariance between consequence dimensions, which de-conflicts the interdependencies of consequence dimensions, providing a clearer depiction of risks. Additionally, in the event the dimensions are not correlated, Mahalanobis distance reduces to Euclidean distance normalized by the variance and, therefore, represents the most flexible and optimal method to combine dimensions. MRISK is currently being used in NASA's Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) project o assess risk and prioritize scarce resources

Comparison of Endocrine Response to Stress Between Captive-Raised and Wild-Caught Bighorn Sheep

Stress hormones in Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis), produced in response to environmental changes, road development, or high population density, may impact their immune systems to a threshold level that predisposes them to periodic, large-scale mortality. We compared the stress response to a novel environmental situation and repeated handling between bighorn sheep born and raised in captivity (CR) and bighorn sheep born in the wild (WC) and brought into captivity. We measured plasma epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol, and fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM). Three weeks after each group’s arrival we used a one-time drop-net event to elicit an acute stress response, and we collected blood samples from each sheep over 35 minutes, as well as one fecal sample. We collected blood and fecal samples from both groups on 7 other occasions over the subsequent 6 months. We also collected fecal samples from the pen at approximately 24-hour intervals for 3 days following every handling event to monitor the stress response to handling. We found that CR sheep had a stronger autonomic nervous system response than WC sheep, as measured by epinephrine and norepinephrine levels, but we found a very similar hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) response, measured by cortisol levels, to the acute stress event of a drop-net restraint. We also found that once the WC sheep had acclimated, as indicated by the return to the initial baseline FGM levels within 12 weeks, the CR and WC groups’ HPA responses to sampling events were not significantly different from one another. Fecal samples can provide a noninvasive mechanism for managers to monitor baseline FGM for a given herd. Using long-term monitoring of FGM rather than values from a single point in time may allow managers to correlate these levels to outside influences on the herd and better understand the impacts of management changes, population density, or increased human developments on the health of the sheep population

Risk and accuracy of outpatient-identified hypoxaemia for death among suspected child pneumonia cases in rural Bangladesh: a multifacility prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Hypoxaemic pneumonia mortality risk in low-income and middle-income countries is high in children who have been hospitalised, but unknown among outpatient children. We sought to establish the outpatient burden, mortality risk, and prognostic accuracy of death from hypoxaemia in children with suspected pneumonia in Bangladesh. METHODS: We conducted a prospective community-based cohort study encompassing three upazila (subdistrict) health complex catchment areas in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Children aged 3-35 months participating in a community surveillance programme and presenting to one of three upazila health complex Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) outpatient clinics with an acute illness and signs of difficult breathing (defined as suspected pneumonia) were enrolled in the study; because lower respiratory tract infection mortality mainly occurs in children younger than 1 year, the primary study population comprised children aged 3-11 months. Study physicians recorded WHO IMCI pneumonia guideline clinical signs and peripheral arterial oxyhaemoglobin saturations (SpO2) in room air. They treated children with pneumonia with antibiotics (oral amoxicillin [40 mg/kg per dose twice per day for 5-7 days, as per local practice]), and recommended oxygen, parenteral antibiotics, and hospitalisation for those with an SpO2 of less than 90%, WHO IMCI danger signs, or severe malnutrition. Community health workers documented the children's vital status and the date of any vital status changes during routine household surveillance (one visit to each household every 2 months). The primary outcome was death at 2 weeks after enrolment in children aged 3-11 months (primary study population) and 12-35 months (secondary study population). Primary analyses included estimating the outpatient prevalence, mortality risk, and prognostic accuracy of hypoxaemia for death in children aged 3-11 months with suspected pneumonia. Risk ratios were produced by fitting a multivariable model that regressed predefined SpO2 ranges (<90%, 90-93%, and 94-100%) on the primary 2-week mortality outcome (binary outcome) using Poisson models with robust variance estimation. We established the prognostic accuracy of WHO IMCI guidelines for death with and without varying SpO2 thresholds. FINDINGS: Participants were recruited between Sept 1, 2015, to Aug 31, 2017. During the study period, a total of 7440 children aged 3-35 months with the first suspected pneumonia episode were enrolled, of whom 3848 (54·3%) with an attempted pulse oximeter measurement and 2-week outcome were included in our primary study population of children aged 3-11-months. Among children aged 3-11 months, an SpO2 of less than 90% occurred in 102 (2·7%) of 3848 children, an SpO2 of 90-93% occurred in 306 (8·0%) children, a failed SpO2 measurement occurred in 67 (1·7%) children, and 24 (0·6%) children with suspected pneumonia died. Compared with an SpO2 of 94-100% (3373 [87·7%] of 3848), the adjusted risk ratio for death was 10·3 (95% CI 3·2-32·3; p<0·001) for an SpO2 of less than 90%, 4·3 (1·5-11·8; p=0·005) for an SpO2 of 90-93%, and 11·4 (3·1-41·4; p<0·001) for a failed measurement. When not considering pulse oximetry, of the children who died, WHO IMCI guidelines identified only 25·0% (95% CI 9·7-46·7; six of 24 children) as eligible for referral to hospital. For identifying deaths, in children with an SpO2 of less than 90% WHO IMCI guidelines had a 41·7% sensitivity (95% CI 22·1-63·4) and 89·7% specificity (88·7-90·7); for children with an SpO2 of less than 90% or measurement failure the guidelines had a 54·2% sensitivity (32·8-74·4) and 88·3% specificity (87·2-89·3); and for children with an SpO2 of less than 94% or measurement failure the guidelines had a 62·5% sensitivity (40·6-81·2) and 81·3% specificity (80·0-82·5). INTERPRETATION: These findings support pulse oximeter use during the outpatient care of young children with suspected pneumonia in Bangladesh as well as the re-evaluation of the WHO IMCI currently recommended threshold of an SpO2 less than 90% for hospital referral. FUNDING: Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health (K01TW009988), The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1084286 and OPP1117483), and GlaxoSmithKline (90063241)

Clinical hypoxemia score for outpatient child pneumonia care lacking pulse oximetry in Africa and South Asia

BackgroundPulse oximeters are not routinely available in outpatient clinics in low- and middle-income countries. We derived clinical scores to identify hypoxemic child pneumonia.MethodsThis was a retrospective pooled analysis of two outpatient datasets of 3–35 month olds with World Health Organization (WHO)-defined pneumonia in Bangladesh and Malawi. We constructed, internally validated, and compared fit &amp; discrimination of four models predicting SpO2 &lt; 93% and &lt;90%: (1) Integrated Management of Childhood Illness guidelines, (2) WHO-composite guidelines, (3) Independent variable least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO); (4) Composite variable LASSO.Results12,712 observations were included. The independent and composite LASSO models discriminated moderately (both C-statistic 0.77) between children with a SpO2 &lt; 93% and ≥94%; model predictive capacities remained moderate after adjusting for potential overfitting (C-statistic 0.74 and 0.75). The IMCI and WHO-composite models had poorer discrimination (C-statistic 0.56 and 0.68) and identified 20.6% and 56.8% of SpO2 &lt; 93% cases. The highest score stratum of the independent and composite LASSO models identified 46.7% and 49.0% of SpO2 &lt; 93% cases. Both LASSO models had similar performance for a SpO2 &lt; 90%.ConclusionsIn the absence of pulse oximeters, both LASSO models better identified outpatient hypoxemic pneumonia cases than the WHO guidelines. Score external validation and implementation are needed