Local Action and National Impact: A Summary of Project Outcomes and Learning from Geek the Library

The Geek the Library program created and shared resources that guided nearly 1,800 U.S. public libraries through implementation of a local campaign that forged meaningful, personal connections between community members and the library, and provided a foundation for productive local conversations around public library funding and sustainability. This brief report summarizes the purpose and key activities of the Geek the library project, its reach and participation rates, and its outcomes, including analysis from the project evaluators.Geek the Library was devised and managed by OCLC from 2009-2015, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The evergreen resources created from this project are now under the stewardship of WebJunction, a program of OCLC Research dedicated to designing and delivering transformational learning opportunities to library staff at scale

Implementation Plan for Five Total Maximum Daily Loads for Bacteria in Four Austin Streams

The implementation plan provides an overview of five creeks and precisely details how the Total Maximum Daily Load Team will respond to pollutants in the water.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is required to regularly identify water bodies in Texas that do not support their designated uses. Human contact recreation impairment due to elevated levels of fecal indicator bacteria is the most common water quality impairment in Texas. The following four Austin creeks (shown in Figure 1) have been identified as having fecal bacteria levels higher than allowed under the contact recreation category of use assigned to them, in all or parts of their reaches: • Walnut Creek, • Spicewood Tributary (also known as Foster Branch) to Shoal Creek, • Waller Creek, and • Taylor Slough South. The Clean Water Act requires the TCEQ to develop a total maximum daily load (TMDL) for these streams because they do not support their designated uses. The TMDLs are the calculation of the maximum amount of fecal bacteria pollution that these water bodies can receive and still safely meet state water quality standards. The City of Austin requested the TCEQ to develop both a TMDL and to initiate an Implementation Plan (I-Plan) process for these four creeks. A Coordination Committee was formed with public input to guide development of the I-Plan simultaneously with the TCEQ’s development of the TMDL. The Coordination Committee established as its goal “to develop and implement strategies to reduce fecal contamination such that the affected watersheds fully meet the contact recreation water quality standard.” This I-Plan recommends five sets of voluntary management measures to reduce nonpoint source fecal bacterial contamination in these four water bodies, relating to: 1. Riparian zone restoration. Natural riparian buffer areas can reduce instream E. coli bacteria concentrations when stormwater runoff is diverted through them prior to discharge into the receiving water. Urbanization has caused a degradation of some of Austin’s riparian buffer zones. The restoration and enhancement of functional riparian buffers is a primary strategy in this I-Plan to reduce E. coli bacteria concentrations in these streams and citywide. ??Figure 1. Map of watersheds in Austin listed as impaired for contact recreation by the TCEQ. 2. Wastewater infrastructure, focusing on: a. failing on-site sewage facilities or systems which do not meet capacity requirements; b. inspection and repair of wastewater collection lines; c. response to sanitary sewer overflows; d. reducing contamination from failing private laterals through inspection initiated by backups, stoppage or overflows, and legal requirements on property owners to ensure repair of private laterals, including a lien program; e. providing public toilets to reduce fecal contamination from human outdoor defecation 3. Domestic pet waste. Uncollected domestic pet waste is a significant contributor to fecal contamination in streams. Public education may be an effective tool at reducing the fecal bacteria contamination from domestic pets. This I-Plan focuses on reducing contamination from dog waste in parks and public areas through education, installation of pet waste collection bag dispensers and educational kiosks, and efforts to educate commercial and nonprofit organizations to encourage distribution of educational materials to their customers. 4. Resident outreach. Positive actions by area residents are essential to improve the quality of Austin streams. The I-Plan educational efforts are designed to let Austin residents, including neighborhood groups, school children, and the homeless, know how they can make a difference. 5. Stormwater treatment. Stormwater runoff is the dominant mechanism by which nonpoint source fecal loads are transported to receiving waters. Management of stormwater to reduce bacteria can be achieved with non-structural best management practices (BMPs) like riparian zone enhancement or preservation, or with structural BMPs like sedimentation/filtration basins. The total TMDL for all watersheds combined is 2.2x1011 MPN/day. In total, the proposed management measures included in this I-Plan are estimated to result in a reduction of E. coli 3.7x1016 MPN/day. Although tracking the progress of the proposed management measures over time in coordination with monitoring the improvement in instream fecal indicator bacteria will be necessary to determine if the I-Plan achieves the stated goal, this I-Plan appears to achieve the load reduction of the TMDL. In addition to these four streams, City of Austin Watershed Protection Department monitoring has identified a wider range of watersheds in Austin that have levels of fecal indicator bacteria above State of Texas long-term standards (Figure 2), but which technically do not come within this TMDL process. The City plans to use appropriate strategies developed in this I-Plan effort for improving all streams in Austin.Waller Creek Working Grou

School Finance Reform: Do Equalized Expenditures Imply Equalized Teacher Salaries?

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from "http://www.mitpressjournals.org".Kentucky is a poor, relatively rural state that contrasts greatly with the relatively urban and wealthy states typically the subject of education studies employing large-scale administrative data. For this reason, Kentucky's experience of major school finance and curricular reform is highly salient for understanding teacher labor market dynamics. This study examines the time path of teacher salaries in Appalachian and non-Appalachian Kentucky using a novel teacher-level administrative data set. Our results suggest that the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) provided a salary boost for all Appalachian teachers, resulting in a wage premium for teachers of low and medium experience and equalizing pay across Appalachian and non-Appalachian districts for teachers of high experience. However, we find that Appalachian salaries fell back to the level of non-Appalachian teachers roughly a decade following reform, at which point the pre-KERA remuneration patterns re-emerge

Behavioural responses of Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto M and S molecular form larvae to an aquatic predator in Burkina Faso

Background: Predation of aquatic immature stages has been identified as a major evolutionary force driving habitat segregation and niche partitioning in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto in the humid savannahs of Burkina Faso, West Africa. Here, we explored behavioural responses to the presence of a predator in wild populations of the M and S molecular forms of An. gambiae that typically breed in permanent (e.g., rice field paddies) and temporary (e.g., road ruts) water collections. Methods: Larvae used in these experiments were obtained from eggs laid by wild female An. gambiae collected from two localities in south-western Burkina Faso during the 2008 rainy season. Single larvae were observed in an experimental arena, and behavioural traits were recorded and quantified a) in the absence of a predator and b) in the presence of a widespread mosquito predator, the backswimmer Anisops jaczewskii. Differences in the proportion of time allocated to each behaviour were assessed using Principal Component Analysis and Multivariate Analysis of Variance. Results: The behaviour of M and S form larvae was found to differ significantly; although both forms mainly foraged at the water surface, spending 60-90% of their time filtering water at the surface or along the wall of the container, M form larvae spent on average significantly more time browsing at the bottom of the container than S form larvae (4.5 vs. 1.3% of their overall time, respectively; P < 0.05). In the presence of a predator, larvae of both forms modified their behaviour, spending significantly more time resting along the container wall (P < 0.001). This change in behaviour was at least twice as great in the M form (from 38.6 to 66.6% of the time at the wall in the absence and presence of the predator, respectively) than in the S form (from 48.3 to 64.1%). Thrashing at the water surface exposed larvae to a significantly greater risk of predation by the notonectid (P < 0.01), whereas predation occurred significantly less often when larvae were at the container wall (P < 0.05) and might reflect predator vigilance. Conclusions: Behavioural differences between larvae of the M and S form of An. gambiae in response to an acute predation risk is likely to be a reflection of different trade-offs between foraging and predator vigilance that might be of adaptive value in contrasting aquatic ecosystems. Future studies should explore the relevance of these findings under the wide range of natural settings where both forms co-exist in Africa

Ecosystem services of temporary streams differ between wet and dry phases in regions with contrasting climates and economies

1. Temporary streams are dynamic ecosystems in which mosaics of flowing, ponded and dry habitats support high biodiversity of both aquatic and terrestrial species. Species interact within habitats to perform or facilitate processes that vary in response to changing habitat availability. A natural capital approach recognizes that, through such processes, the ‘natural assets’ of all ecosystems deliver services that benefit people. 2. The ecosystem services of temporary streams remain largely unexplored, in particular those provided during ponded and dry phases. In addition, recent characterizations have focused on dryland systems, and it remains unclear how service provision varies among different climatic regions, or between developed and developing economies. 3. We use evidence from interdisciplinary literature to examine the ecosystem services delivered by temporary streams, including the regulating, provisioning and cultural services provided across the continuum from flowing to dry conditions. We focus on service provision during dry phases and wet–dry transitions, across regions with contrasting climates and economic development. 4. Provision of individual services in temporary streams may be reduced, enhanced or changed by surface water loss. Services enhanced by dry phases include provision of higher‐quality subsurface drinking water and unique opportunities for recreation. Shifts between dry and wet phases enable groundwater recharge that mitigates water scarcity, and grant dry‐phase access to sediments deposited during flowing phases. However, the accessibility and thus perceived value of these and other services varies considerably among regions. In addition, accessing provisioning services requires careful management to promote sustainable resource use and avoid ecological degradation. 5. We highlight the need for environmental managers to recognize temporary streams as aquatic–terrestrial ecosystems, and to take actions promoting their diversity within functional socio‐ecological systems that deliver unique service bundles characterized by variability and differing availability in space and time

On the evolutionary ecology of symbioses between chemosynthetic bacteria and bivalves

Mutualistic associations between bacteria and eukaryotes occur ubiquitously in nature, forming the basis for key ecological and evolutionary innovations. Some of the most prominent examples of these symbioses are chemosynthetic bacteria and marine invertebrates living in the absence of sunlight at deep-sea hydrothermal vents and in sediments rich in reduced sulfur compounds. Here, chemosynthetic bacteria living in close association with their hosts convert CO2 or CH4 into organic compounds and provide the host with necessary nutrients. The dominant macrofauna of hydrothermal vent and cold seep ecosystems all depend on the metabolic activity of chemosynthetic bacteria, which accounts for almost all primary production in these complex ecosystems. Many of these enigmatic mutualistic associations are found within the molluscan class Bivalvia. Currently, chemosynthetic symbioses have been reported from five distinct bivalve families (Lucinidae, Mytilidae, Solemyidae, Thyasiridae, and Vesicomyidae). This brief review aims to provide an overview of the diverse physiological and genetic adaptations of symbiotic chemosynthetic bacteria and their bivalve hosts