Measuring Damages to Marine Natural Resources from Pollution Incidents under CERCLA: Applications of an Integrated Ocean Systems/Economic Model

Several pieces of federal environmental regulation establish strict liability for damages from spills of oil and hazardous substances. This paper discusses the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Model for Coastal and Marine Environments (NRDAMICME), which is to be used for assessing damages from spills of oil or hazardous substances in coastal and marine environments under CERCLA and the Clean Water Act, as amended. The approach employs an integrated ocean systems/economic model to simulate the physical fates and biological effects of a spill and to measure the resulting economic damages. To illustrate application of the model, selected results are presented for hypothetical spills of a number of substances in a variety of environments. The results show that the damage function depends on the physical and chemical properties of the substance spilled, the season, and the environment in which the spill occurs.Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

The importance of perceived university life balance, hours per week engaged in academic activities, and academic resourcefulness

The University Life Experience (ULE) scale was created to determine how students utilize their time between academic (class and preparatory) and non-academic (work, social, leisure, and health) activities. In addition to the ULE, 239 undergraduate students completed inventories assessing academic resourcefulness, academic self-efficacy, and university adaptation and satisfaction, along with single item questions asking about perceived academic and non-academic balance and commitment to completing one’s degree. Results indicated that total number of hours spent per week in various non-academic activities was unrelated to most of the variables including academic hours, whereas the number of hours spent per week in academic activities was positively associated with the psychosocial variables and a unique predictor of academic resourcefulness and cumulative grades. Moreover, academic resourcefulness was observed to moderate the relationship between perceived balance and academic hours, such that the average number of hours spent engaged in academic activities per week was greater for students scoring high in academic resourcefulness regardless of whether they had low or high perceptions of balance, especially compared to those students who scored low in both academic resourcefulness and perceived balance. The results suggest that teaching students requisite academic resourcefulness skills to deal with academic challenges assists them in increasing focus on their academic studies as opposed to non-academic activities

Vol. 27 No. 3 (Autumn 2016), DOI 10.18060/21388 Building an Engagement Center through Love of Place: The Story of the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center

Universities throughout the United States operate engagement centers to extend campus faculty, staff and student resources to their communities. In 2014, the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) opened the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center (Weitz CEC): a privately funded $24 million, 70,000 square foot facility located in the middle of its original Dodge Street campus. In addition to offices for its service learning and community service enterprises, the CEC houses over thirty university and community organizations and offers extensive space for meetings, dialogue and collaboration. This paper will discuss its strategic and programmatic origins, unique design, and lessons learned in developing and operating the center

Working Together: A Values Approach for Strengthening University/Community Partnerships

Conference: Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU

Effects of Culture and Education on Ethical Responses on Our Global Society

Two trends that affect communications are prevalent today: a focus on ethics in the U.S. business operations and an increasingly global society and marketplace. This research project brings together these trends to gain a more in-depth understanding of the impact of culture on ethical education. By surveying students in six countries around the globe, this study was able to get at the divergent cultural frameworks utilized in ethical decision making. The results offer a significant contribution to our understanding of the cross-cultural implications on ethical values in the business context. This understanding provides unique insights into ethics education and the need for a contextual understanding of applied ethics

Love of Place: The Metropolitan University Advantage: 2015 CUMU National Conference in Omaha

The theme for the 2015 CUMU National Conference in Omaha, NE was “Love of Place: The Metropolitan University Advantage”. The 2015 theme celebrates key elements that establish the identity of metropolitan universities and CUMU as an organization. The theme recognizes the unique opportunities and benefits provided by metropolitan universities for students and communities. Metropolitan universities provide students with enriching educational experiences while contributing to building and strengthening the community. These enriched experiences also support faculty and staff growth as members of the university and community. The theme encouraged conference participants to explore new pedagogical approaches, strategies for sustaining meaningful partnerships, and opportunities for successful engagement of the community by examining the transformative power of the relationships between metropolitan universities and their “place.” Essential to this theme is the notion of stewardship and being good stewards of the communities that we live in, that bless our lives, our families, and our universities. The special issue devoted to the theme and notion of “Love of Place” provides an overview of the stewardship witnessed at the conference and then launches into the full article contributions that illustrate the “Love of Place” exemplified by the great presenters and the many initiatives occurring across the CUMU

Evaluation of the Galalpha1-3Gal epitope as a host modification factor eliciting natural humoral immunity to enveloped viruses

Human sera contain high levels of natural antibody (Ab) to Galalpha1-3Gal, a terminal glycosidic structure expressed on the surface of cells of mammals other than Old World primates. Incorporation of this determinant onto retroviral membranes by passage of viruses in cells encoding alpha-1-3-galactosyltransferase (GT) renders retroviruses sensitive to lysis by natural Ab and complement in normal human serum (NHS). Plasma membrane-budding viruses representing four additional virus groups were examined for their sensitivities to serum inactivation after passage through human cell lines that lack a functional GT or human cells expressing recombinant porcine GT. The inactivation of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) by NHS directly correlated with host modification of the virus via expression of Galalpha1-3Gal and was blocked by incorporation of soluble Galalpha1-3Gal disaccharide into the inactivation assay. GT-deficient mice immunized to make high levels of Ab to Galalpha1-3Gal (anti-Gal Ab) were tested for resistance to LCMV passaged in GT-expressing cells. Resistance was not observed, but in vitro analyses of the mouse immune sera revealed that the antiviral activity of the sera was insufficient to eliminate LCMV infectivity on its natural targets of infection, macrophages, which express receptors for Ab and complement. Newcastle disease virus and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) were inactivated by NHS regardless of cell passage history, whereas Sindbis virus (SV) passaged in human cells resisted inactivation. Both VSV and SV passaged in Galalpha1-3Gal-expressing human cells incorporated this sugar moiety onto their major envelope glycoproteins. SV passaged in mouse cells expressing Galalpha1-3Gal was moderately sensitive to inactivation by NHS. These results indicate that enveloped viruses expressing Galalpha1-3Gal differ in their sensitivities to NHS and that a potent complement source, such as that in NHS, is required for efficient inactivation of sensitive viruses in vitro and in vivo

The Importance of Perceived University Life Balance, Hours per Week Engaged in Academic Activities, and Academic Resourcefulness

The University Life Experience (ULE) scale was created to determine how students utilize their time between academic (class and preparatory) and non-academic (work, social, leisure, and health) activities. In addition to the ULE, 239 undergraduate students completed inventories assessing academic resourcefulness, academic self-efficacy, and university adaptation and satisfaction, along with single item questions asking about perceived academic and non-academic balance and commitment to completing one’s degree. Results indicated that total number of hours spent per week in various non-academic activities was unrelated to most of the variables including academic hours, whereas the number of hours spent per week in academic activities was positively associated with the psychosocial variables and a unique predictor of academic resourcefulness and cumulative grades. Moreover, academic resourcefulness was observed to moderate the relationship between perceived balance and academic hours, such that the average number of hours spent engaged in academic activities per week was greater for students scoring high in academic resourcefulness regardless of whether they had low or high perceptions of balance, especially compared to those students who scored low in both academic resourcefulness and perceived balance. The results suggest that teaching students requisite academic resourcefulness skills to deal with academic challenges assists them in increasing focus on their academic studies as opposed to non-academic activities

Academic Priority: Graduate/Doctoral Research

Overview Doctoral Education at UNO: Past, Present, and Future