Watershed - A Transdisciplinary Social Design Process Applied to an Environmental Issue

Wicked problems are often vast, complex, and difficult to navigate. Often used in dealing with social design issues, the term wicked is intended to connote a problem that is difficult to define and solve rather than its moral implications.1 These problems, like watershed maintenance and pollution mitigation, involve an entwined community of diverse players, intricate systems, and ever-changing terrain. Because of their pluralistic nature, these problems can seem impossible to solve and even impossible to understand. This requires a collective approach and new ways of thinking to create better understanding and solutions. Important changes occur when citizens are knowledgeable, see their connection to the whole, and feel empowered to take action.;As the problems facing society grow more complex, designers have evolved to find applications for the design process across a variety of disciplines. A transdisciplinary approach allows for a community-based model that creates solutions to complex problems based on strategic outcomes rather than product development. This approach uses a system of solutions working together to address problems that are multi-dimensional. Historically, graphic designers are often tasked with creating a call to action. The failure in this approach is that it leaves the responsibility of that action with the audience. As designers, we should not only ask for action but facilitate action in ways that empower our audience. It is critical that we provide a context to educate our audience so they better understand the issue and develop a better attitude to take effective action.;My thesis focuses on the complex pollution issues that threaten the health of the Deckers Creek Watershed. Deckers Creek is a tributary of the Monongahela River. It flows west towards Morgantown from Arthurdale, West Virginia. Deckers Creek is a scenic waterway that has suffered a long history of abuse and environmental degradation. It presents a complex set of problems that requires the collaborative approach involving a community of diverse professional disciplines, public agencies, and concerned citizens. By drawing on multiple influences and past experiences, I created a transdisciplinary and a community-centered design approach that was relevant to the issues surrounding watershed pollution.;This project used design methods and products to ask visitors to understand how their personal attitudes and actions are connected to the health of their environment. The goal was to create an educational exhibition surrounding the challenges to improve the watershed, stimulate a call to action, and raise peoples\u27 interest in community intervention and action. The cornerstone of the project is CreekDog , an interactive responsive web site that allows citizens to report and track pollution issues throughout the watershed. CreekDog was created to educate and empower citizens to take an active role in improving their communities by protecting their environment. In addition, the exhibition also included environmental interpretive signage, a portable interactive kiosk, and educational information graphics. Designed in collaboration with local non-profit, Friends of Deckers Creek (FODC), these pieces became tools that continued to educate the public through public outreach efforts after the exhibition. 1 Understanding Wicked Problems, ac4d: Austin Center for Design, http://www.ac4d.com/home/philosophy/understanding-wicked-problems, (accessed May 13, 2004)

Mental Health And The Role Of The States

Researchers from the State Health Care Spending Project -- a collaboration between The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation -- sought to better understand the country's mental health challenges and, in particular, the states' role in addressing them. The project found that:In 2013, approximately 44 million adults -- 18.5 percent of the population 18 and older -- were classified as having a mental illness. Of these, 10 million had a serious mental illness. The rate of serious mental illness varied from state to state.In 2009, the most recent year for which national mental health data are available, $147 billion was spent on mental health treatment in the United States. A majority of the spending, 60 percent, came from public sources such as Medicaid, state and local governments, Medicare, and federal grants. Private sources, including health insurance and individual out-of-pocket spending, made up the difference.Funding from states and localities totaled$22 billion (15 percent) in 2009. This total does not include state and local Medicaid expenditures. Counting those contributions brings total state and local spending up to $35.5 billion (24 percent).This report is intended to help federal, state, and local policymakers working to address the country's mental health challenges to better understand their prevalence, treatment, and funding trends

Evidence For A Mild Steepening And Bottom-Heavy IMF In Massive Galaxies From Sodium And Titanium-Oxide Indicators

We measure equivalent widths (EW) - focussing on two unique features (NaI and TiO2) of low-mass stars (<0.3M\odot) - for luminous red galaxy spectra from the the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and X-Shooter Lens Survey (XLENS) in order to study the low-mass end of the initial mass function (IMF). We compare these EWs to those derived from simple stellar population models computed with different IMFs, ages, [{\alpha}/Fe], and elemental abundances. We find that models are able to simultaneously reproduce the observed NaD {\lambda}5895 and Na I {\lambda}8190 features for lower-mass (\sim {\sigma}\ast) early-type galaxies (ETGs) but deviate increasingly for more massive ETGs, due do strongly mismatching NaD EWs. The TiO2 {\lambda}6230 and the Na I {\lambda}8190 features together appear to be a powerful IMF diagnostic, with age and metallicity effects orthogonal to the effect of IMF. We find that both features correlate strongly with galaxy velocity dispersion. The XLENS ETG (SDSSJ0912+0029) and an SDSS ETG (SDSSJ0041-0914) appear to require both an extreme dwarf-rich IMF and a high sodium enhancement ([Na/Fe] = +0.4). In addition, lensing constraints on the total mass of the XLENS system within its Einstein radius limit a bottom-heavy IMF with a power-law slope to x \leq 3.0 at the 90% C.L. We conclude that NaI and TiO features, in comparison with state-of-the-art SSP models, suggest a mildly steepening IMF from Salpeter (dn/dm \propto m-x with x = 2.35) to x \approx 3.0 for ETGs in the range {\sigma} = 200 - 335 km s-1.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

The Stellar Initial Mass Function in Early-Type Galaxies From Absorption Line Spectroscopy. II. Results

The spectral absorption lines in early-type galaxies contain a wealth of information regarding the detailed abundance pattern, star formation history, and stellar initial mass function (IMF) of the underlying stellar population. Using our new population synthesis model that accounts for the effect of variable abundance ratios of 11 elements, we analyze very high quality absorption line spectra of 38 early-type galaxies and the nuclear bulge of M31. These data extend to 1um and they therefore include the IMF-sensitive spectral features NaI, CaII, and FeH at 0.82um, 0.86um and 0.99um, respectively. The models fit the data well, with typical rms residuals ~1%. Strong constraints on the IMF and therefore the stellar mass-to-light ratio, (M/L)_stars, are derived for individual galaxies. We find that the IMF becomes increasingly bottom-heavy with increasing velocity dispersion and [Mg/Fe]. At the lowest dispersions and [Mg/Fe] values the derived IMF is consistent with the Milky Way IMF, while at the highest dispersions and [Mg/Fe] values the derived IMF contains more low-mass stars (is more bottom-heavy) than even a Salpeter IMF. Our best-fit (M/L)_stars values do not exceed dynamically-based M/L values. We also apply our models to stacked spectra of four metal-rich globular clusters in M31 and find an (M/L)_stars that implies fewer low-mass stars than a Milky Way IMF, again agreeing with dynamical constraints. We discuss other possible explanations for the observed trends and conclude that variation in the IMF is the simplest and most plausible.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, ApJ accepte

Annular Lichen Planus with Central Clearing

Annular lichen planus is an uncommon clinical variant of lichen planus. Characteristics include an annular configuration associated with a narrow rim of erythema and inflammation and a depressed center. There is a tendency toward central clearing. We present an illustrative case of annular lichen planus in an 82-year-old woma

Statistical Modeling of Discrete Percentage Measurements With Application to Construction of Acceptance Bounds for Wood Failure in Structural Adhesive Testing

The goals of this paper are: (1) to provide a statistical analysis approach that is appropriate for data from an interlaboratory study where responses are measured in discrete percentages and are subject to multiple sources of random variability, and (2) to apply this model to data on wood-failure percentages from block-shear tests on structural wood adhesives. We treat percentage responses measured in 5-point intervals as having arisen from observing 20 independent binary responses on different parts of the observed wood blocks. The overdispersion that is likely to result from the practical inadequacy of this assumption is overcome empirically by the inclusion of a random effect for blocks. We propose an analysis based on a parametric bootstrap to provide sampling distributions for statistics that regulators might wish to use in setting standards for acceptance of wood adhesives. Similar computational methods are developed to assess the fit of the model. This model is shown to provide a reasonably good fit or actual data in many of the cases to which it was applied

Star Clusters in M31: V. Internal Dynamical Trends: Some Troublesome, Some Reassuring

We present internal velocity dispersions and precise radial velocities for 200 globular clusters (GCs) in M31 that are derived using new high-resolution spectra from MMT/Hectochelle. Of these, 163 also have King model structural parameters that allow us to estimate their mass-to-light ratios. This is, by far, the largest such dataset available for any galaxy, including the Milky Way. These data strongly confirm earlier suggestions that the optical and near-infrared mass-to-light ratios of M31 GCs decline with increasing metallicity. This behavior is the opposite of that predicted by stellar population models for a standard initial mass function. We show that this phenomenon does not appear to be caused by standard dynamical evolution. A shallower mass function for metal-rich GCs (with dN/dM ~ M^-0.8 to M^-1.3 below one solar mass) can explain the bulk of extant observations. We also observe a consistent, monotonic correlation between mass-to-light ratio and cluster mass. This correlation, in contrast to the correlation with metallicity, is well-explained by the accepted model of dynamical evolution of GCs through mass segregation and the preferential loss of low-mass stars, and these data are among the best available to constrain this process.Comment: AJ in press. 11 pages, 7 figures (not including tables) in emulate forma

Population Parameters of Intermediate-Age Star Clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud. III. Dynamical Evidence for a Range of Ages Being Responsible for Extended Main Sequence Turnoffs

We present new analysis of 11 intermediate-age (1-2 Gyr) star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud based on Hubble Space Telescope imaging data. Seven of the clusters feature main sequence turnoff (MSTO) regions that are wider than can be accounted for by a simple stellar population, whereas their red giant branches indicate a single value of [Fe/H]. The star clusters cover a range in present-day mass from about 1E4 to 2E5 solar masses. We compare radial distributions of stars in the upper and lower parts of the MSTO region, and calculate cluster masses and escape velocities from the present time back to a cluster age of 10 Myr. Our main result is that for all clusters in our sample with estimated escape velocities > 15 km/s at an age of 10 Myr, the stars in the brightest half of the MSTO region are significantly more centrally concentrated than the stars in the faintest half AND more massive red giant branch and asymptotic giant branch stars. This is not the case for clusters with escape velocities < 10 km/s at an age of 10 Myr. We argue that the wide MSTO region of such clusters is mainly caused by to a 200 - 500 Myr range in the ages of cluster stars due to extended star formation within the cluster from material shed by first-generation stars featuring slow stellar winds. Dilution of this enriched material by accretion of ambient interstellar matter is deemed plausible if the spread of [Fe/H] in this ambient gas was very small when the second-generation stars were formed in the cluster.Comment: 11 pages (in emulateapj format), 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Integrated spectral energy distributions of binary star composite stellar populations

This paper presents theoretical integrated spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of binary star composite stellar populations (bsCSPs) in early-type galaxies, and how the bsCSP model can be used for spectral studies of galaxies. All bsCSPs are built basing on three adjustable inputs (metallicity, ages of old and young components). The effects of binary interactions and stellar population mixture are taken into account. The results show some UV-upturn SEDs naturally for bsCSPs. The SEDs of bsCSPs are affected obviously by all of three stellar population parameters, and the effects of three parameters are degenerate. This suggests that the effects of metallicity, and the ages of the old (major in stellar mass) and young (minor) components of stellar populations should be taken into account in SED studies of early-type galaxies. The sensitivities of SEDs at different wavelengths to the inputs of a stellar population model are also investigated. It is shown that UV SEDs are sensitive to all of three stellar population parameters, rather than to only stellar age. Special wavelength ranges according to some SED features that are relatively sensitive to stellar metallicity, young-component age, and old-component age of bsCSPs are found by this work. For example, the shapes of SEDs with wavelength ranges of 5110-5250AA, 5250--5310AA, 5310--5350AA, 5830--5970AA, 20950--23550AA are relatively sensitive to the stellar metallicity of bsCSPs. The shapes of SEDs within 965-985AA, 1005--1055AA, 1205--1245AA are sensitive to old-component age, while SED features within the wavelength ranges of 2185--2245AA, 2455--2505AA, 2505--2555AA, 2775--2825AA, 2825--2875AA to young-component age.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, Accepted to publish in MNRA