Indirect Effects of Pesticide Regulation and the Food Quality Protection Act

A driving factor behind pesticide regulation in Canada and the United States is the desire to protect consumers from harmful residues on food. The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) was unanimously passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996 and hailed as a landmark piece of pesticide legislation. It amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), and focused on new ways to determine and mitigate the adverse health effects of pesticides. The FQPA is different from past legislation; it is based on the understanding that pesticides can have cumulative effects on people and that policy should be designed to protect the most vulnerable segments of the population. Recent research has investigated some of the impacts the FQPA’s provisions – many of which have yet to be fully implemented – may have on growers and consumers.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Efficient Empiricism: Streamlining Teaching, Research, and Learning in Empirical Courses

The increasing importance of empirical analysis in economics highlights the need for efficient ways to bring these skills to the classroom. R Markdown is a new technology that provides a solution by integrating writing, statistical work and computation into a single document. R Markdown benefits students and instructors by streamlining teaching, research, and collaboration. We report on our use of R Markdown in undergraduate teaching, including core courses, electives, and senior theses. We discuss the costs and benefits of adoption, and explain the advantages of R Markdown in teaching reproducibility of empirical work, avoiding time-consuming and error-prone ‘cut and paste,’ and facilitating a one-stop solution for importing, cleaning, manipulating, visualizing and communicating with data

Abstracts from the 3rd Conference on Aneuploidy and Cancer: Clinical and Experimental Aspects

Published versio

Tongues and trees: towards a green Pentecostal pneumatology

This thesis develops a Pentecostal ecotheology by utilizing key pneumatological themes that emerge from the Pentecostal tradition. It examines and utilizes the salient Pentecostal and Charismatic voices that have stimulated ecotheology in the Pentecostal tradition and situates them within the broader context of Christian ecumenical ecotheologies (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Ecofeminist). These Pentecostal expressions are placed in dialogue with the particular ecological pneumatologies of Denis Edwards (Roman Catholic), Mark Wallace (Protestant), and Sallie McFague (Ecofeminist). The thesis advances a novel approach to Pentecostal ecotheology through a pneumatology of the Spirit baptized creation, the charismatic creational community, the holistic ecological Spirit, and the eschatological Spirit of ecological mission. Significantly, this thesis is the first substantive contribution to a Pentecostal pneumatological theology of creation with a particular focus on the Pentecostal community and its significance for the broader ecumenical community. Furthermore, it offers a fresh theological approach to imagining and sustaining earth-friendly practice in the twenty-first century Pentecostal church

The Effect of Blended Learning at a Selective Liberal Arts College Economics Course

We increased the amount of time spent in our introductory microeconomics courses on active-learning pedagogies like group- problem solving and simulations. In order to make time for these activities, we employed a blended learning approach that shifted much of the basic content delivery of material outside of the class. In this paper we explore some of the effects of this shift, by asking whether the potential increase in higher-level learning outcomes brought about by the class activities were offset by reduced basic content knowledge without the in-class content delivery. To answer this question we employed a difference-in-differences approach comparing the pre- and posttest scores on the Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) across students in the blended and control sections. Students in the four blended sections of the course increased their TUCE scores by more than the students in the four control sections even after controlling for basic student demographic characteristics. This difference also persists after controlling for students’ self-reported measures of attitude regarding the examination process via the Student Opinion Survey

The Effect of Blended Learning at a Selective Liberal Arts College Economics Course

We increased the amount of time spent in our introductory microeconomics courses on active-learning pedagogies like group- problem solving and simulations. In order to make time for these activities, we employed a blended learning approach that shifted much of the basic content delivery of material outside of the class. In this paper we explore some of the effects of this shift, by asking whether the potential increase in higher-level learning outcomes brought about by the class activities were offset by reduced basic content knowledge without the in-class content delivery. To answer this question we employed a difference-in-differences approach comparing the pre- and posttest scores on the Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) across students in the blended and control sections. Students in the four blended sections of the course increased their TUCE scores by more than the students in the four control sections even after controlling for basic student demographic characteristics. This difference also persists after controlling for students’ self-reported measures of attitude regarding the examination process via the Student Opinion Survey

Measuring the Effect of Blended Learning: Evidence from a Selective Liberal Arts College

We compare introductory microeconomics courses that employ a blended learning approach to more traditional control courses at a selective liberal arts college. The blended learning courses required students to complete online homework and watch video lectures before problem-based class sessions, while the control courses used paper homework and primarily traditional lecturing. We use the Test of Understanding in College Economics to measure improvement and use the Student Opinion Survey to control for students' self-reported effort and amount of importance placed on the test. We find that students in the blended courses improve more than those in traditional courses. </jats:p