The vertical city: the price of land and the height of buildings in Chicago 1870-2010

We analyze the determinants of building heights in Chicago by combining a micro-geographic data set on tall buildings with a unique panel of land prices covering 140 years. Consistent with the predictions of classic urban economics models, we find that developers respond to increasing land prices by increasing density, i.e. building taller. In 2000, the elasticity of height with respect of land price was about 45% for tall commercial buildings and 30% for tall residential buildings. As expected given significant improvement in construction technology over time, we find that the height elasticity approximately doubled over the last 100 years. We find evidence for dissipative height competition within cities, as excessively tall buildings are significantly less likely to be constructed near to each other than other buildings. Proximity to scenic amenities creates an extra incentive to outrival competitors, particularly in the residential market

Complex Questions, Evolving Answers: Creating a Multidimensional Assessment Strategy to Build Support for the “Teaching Library”

Since 2001, librarians at Oregon State University\u27s Valley Library have been working to build a teaching library supported by a clearly articulated instruction program. From the start, we believed that we needed to assess the teaching library\u27s impact, not only to determine the success or failure of our efforts but also to demonstrate the need for intentional, proactive in formation literacy instruction on our campus. No single assessment tool or method proved adequate to effectively measure student learning happening both inside and outside the library. We describe our evolving, multi-pronged approach to measuring the impact of the library on student learning in the context of current assessment practices in academic libraries and higher education

Bibliolinking: An Adaptation of Bibliotherapy for University Students in Transition

A team composed of one student and two faculty members worked in concert to develop and evaluate a training model for personnel who work with university students in transition. This model utilizes “Bibliolinking” (a newly coined word developed during this research) which is an adaptation of bibliotherapy. The primary purpose for using Bibliolinking is to establish and nourish relationships among Resident Assistants (RAs) and student residents (SRs) via a shared experience with a text such as a novel, short story, article or self-help book. Although, RAs play an important, often counselor-like role, they receive no or little formal preparation for establishing relationships. This project involved the development of a quasi-experimental model and assessment of the Bibliolinking technique. The results indicate Bibliolinking provided increased awareness of materials relevant to the needs of young college students, especially those in transition. When applied by RAs, Bibliolinking not only appeared to meet the needs of SRs but also provided RAs with a lasting and adaptable strategy for building relationships and normalizing challenging experiences

Tackling Literacy: A collaborative approach to developing materials, for assessing science literacy skills in content classrooms through a STEM perspective.

Abstract: Secondary science teachers outline strategies for developing, presenting, and assessing literacy skills in the content based classroom. A content-area literacy assessment was administered to over 400 students from grades 8-12. Using the data, literacy materials were developed that supported a variety of content areas. This article outlines the two year progress of this collaborative teacher group which includes the integration of reading materials from a novel, Andy Weir’s The Martian, and development of assessment questions related to this text that fostered middle and high school students’ ability to process prose, quantitative and documentative text and develop literacy in the content area

Self-heated fiber Bragg grating sensors

This letter demonstrates an approach for tuning fiber Bragg grating sensors with optical energy carried in the same optical fiber. Optical energy carried in the optical fiber was used to heat in-fiber Bragg gratings in order to alter the grating's optical response to surrounding media. The functional enhancement of optically heated Bragg gratings as sensor devices is demonstrated by a dual-function Bragg grating temperature and level sensing array for liquid at room and cryogenic temperatures. © 2005 American Institute of Physics

Ultrafast laser fabrication of Bragg waveguides in chalcogenide glass

Bragg waveguides are fundamental components in photonic integrated circuits and are particularly interesting for mid-IR applications in high index, highly nonlinear materials. In this work, we present Bragg waveguides fabricated in bulk chalcogenide glass using an ultrafast laser. Waveguides with near circularly symmetric cross sections and low propagation loss are obtained through spatial and temporal beam shaping. Using a single-pass technique, the waveguide and Bragg structure are formed at the same time. First through sixth order gratings with strengths of up to 25 dB are realized, and performance is evaluated based on the modulation duty cycle of the writing beam. © 2014 Optical Society of America