Issues in equivalence: Information literacy and the distance student

Information Literacy is a recognised lifelong learning skill, and an expected graduate attribute. With the growth in distance provision of tertiary education it is important to acknowledge the barriers faced by distance students and the difficulties libraries face in delivering equivalent learning opportunities to students who are physically isolated from their institution. This paper outlines the importance of information literacy, the major barriers faced by distance students and makes suggestions as to how institutions and their libraries can better meet their learning needs

Unborn Child: Can You Be Protected?

Continuing medical advancement in the area of prenatal care\u27 raises the question of when, if ever, the state may intervene in the life of a pregnant woman to protect her unborn child from abuse and neglect. This issue, though troublesome, can no longer be ignored. Since the Supreme Court\u27s decision in Roe v. Wade, giving the pregnant woman the constitutional right to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy, there has been abundant controversy over the allowance of state intervention to protect the human fetus. This controversy necessarily entails a discussion as to when and in what manner the state may legally infringe upon a woman\u27s constitutional rights.\u2

Hybrid Healing: Reiki and the Integration of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Into Biomedicine

This thesis explores complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) through research on the modality of Reiki. Reiki is an energetic practice that uses the “laying on of hands” to facilitate healing. The aim is to give insight both on a specific mind-body-spiritual practice and on how Reiki and similar modalities might be accepted as treatments and integrated into biomedicine. Research was completed through standard anthropological methods: interviews, participant observation, and field notes. Twenty-seven Reiki practitioners were interviewed to learn about their perspectives on Reiki and the progression towards integration. Through analysis of the interview transcripts and participant observation, I developed a number of themes. For organizational purposes, the themes were grouped into three levels of analysis: the institutional level, the practitioner level, and the patient level, following the approach used by anthropologist Susan Sered in her 2007 article “Taxonomies of Ritual Mixing: Ritual Healing in the Contemporary United States.” At the institutional level, I suggest that integration is based on a spectrum and that CAM modalities range in their progression towards integration in aspects such as insurance coverage and requirements for becoming a practitioner. At the practitioner level, I suggest that practitioners affect integration progression by impeding cohesion of Reiki as a modality through mixing rituals, individualizing philosophies, and individualizing terminology from biomedicine. Analysis of the patient level examines the ambiguity and mixed information given to Reiki clients. I also explore some of the possible ways that Reiki can heal and the kinds of conditions Reiki is being utilized to heal

Soil carbon storage and sequestration in Vermont Agriculture

In 2021, The State of Soil Health (SOSH) project measured indicators of soil health on 221 farm fields across the state of Vermont through a collaborative effort among many organizations. Soil carbon stocks to 30 cm depth were assessed on 191 of those fields. In this brief we share a summary of this new soil carbon stock data alongside data from a national assessment of soil carbon stocks performed by the NRCS from 2010 and highlight its relevance to current policy conversations within the state of Vermont. Key Ideas The protection of existing soil carbon stocks and support for increased carbon sequestration align with both environmental and agricultural goals. A collaborative effort to collect and share soil health information in 2021 provides needed state scale data on soil health and soil carbon in Vermont’s agricultural landscapes. Northeastern soils and climate are naturally conducive to high levels of soil carbon. When compared regionally and nationally, Vermont’s agricultural soil carbon levels are high. An average of 86 MT carbon per hectare and 4.3% organic matter was observed. A wide range in soil health scores and soil carbon levels observed in soil samples showed both that some fields have high levels of carbon storage, and many fields had low carbon levels indicating there are opportunities to further sink more carbon. Long term studies in Vermont have documented agricultural soil carbon sequestration rates at between 0.39 and 6.43 MT Carbon per hectare per year. That’s equivalent to a range of 1.4 to 23.6 MT CO2 per hectare per year. Increases in soil carbon are possible on Vermont farms, and can complement other strategies to reduce concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gasses. The permanence of soil carbon in our region is linked to agricultural economics, farmer capacity and capability. Permanence can be addressed in part through support of Extension technical assistance, policy and conservation incentive program design. Policy tools can help protect the high soil carbon stocks in Vermont. Incentives to maintain high levels of soil carbon for farmers, such as cost-shares or payment- for-ecosystem services programs, should be considered by policy makers. Additional research on common and innovative soil management strategies and their influence on soil carbon sequestration in Vermont agriculture is needed. Soil carbon changes are only one part of the whole farm carbon balance, and more research is needed to assess how soil carbon changes influence climate change mitigation compared to other interventions on farms in Vermont

Hepatocyte growth factor regulates neovascularization in developing fat pads

In this study, we used lentiviral-delivered shRNA to generate a clonal line of 3T3-F442A preadipocytes with stable silencing of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) expression and examined the long-term consequence of this modification on fat pad development. HGF mRNA expression was reduced 94%, and HGF secretion 79% (P < 0.01), compared with preadipocytes treated with nontargeting shRNA. Fat pads derived from HGF knockdown preadipocytes were significantly smaller (P < 0.01) than control pads beginning at 3 days postinjection (0.022 ± 0.003 vs. 0.037 ± 0.004 g), and further decreased in size at day 7 (0.015 ± 0.004 vs. 0.037 ± 0.003 g) and day 14 (0.008 ± 0.002 vs. 0.045 ± 0.007 g). Expression of the endothelial cell genes TIE1 and PECAM1 increased over time in control fat pads (1.6 ± 0.4 vs. 11.4 ± 1.7 relative units at day 3 and 14, respectively; P < 0.05) but not in HGF knockdown fat pads (1.1 ± 0.5 vs. 5.9 ± 2.2 relative units at day 3 and 14). Contiguous vascular structures were observed in control fat pads but were much less developed in HGF knockdown fat pads. Differentiation of preadipocytes to mature adipocytes was significantly attenuated in HGF knockdown fat pads. Fat pads derived from preadipocytes with knockdown of the HGF receptor c-MET were smaller than control pads at day 3 postinjection (0.034 ± 0.002 vs. 0.049 ± 0.004 g; P < 0.05), and remained the same size through day 14. c-MET knockdown fat pads developed a robust vasculature, and preadipocytes differentiated to mature adipocytes. Overall these data suggest that preadipocyte-secreted HGF is an important regulator of neovascularization in developing fat pads

The State of Soil Health in Vermont: Summary statistics from Vermont agriculture in 2021

This report shares the summary statistics of the soil health indicators evaluated in the 2021 State of Soil Health project on farms in Vermont. The aim of this report is to share the data in a simple format that can be accessed by farmers, advisors and policy makers. The State of Soil Health in Vermont is an initiative to measure soil health and soil carbon on farms across the state of Vermont. This project is coordinated by UVM Extension and has relied on field support, in kind- donations and data sharing from partnering organizations. The project has five primary objectives: Establish a baseline of soil health indicators, carbon stocks, and associated ecosystem services in Vermont’s agricultural landscapes Create soil health soil sampling standards across management types Provide farmers with contextualized information about soil health on their participating fields Support collaboration among the many organizations that work with farmers towards shared goals around soil health Build skills and capacity for measuring soil health and soil carbon stocks Collaborators include UVM Extension, UVM Department of Plant & Soil Science, the Gund Institute for Environment, Dartmouth College, the Vermont Environmental Stewardship Program of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, the White River Conservation District, Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, Ben & Jerry’s Caring Dairy Program and The Nature Conservancy Vermont

Farmer perspectives on administrative burdens and potential compensation structures: A short summary report of farmer interviews from spring 2022. Vermont Payment for Ecosystem Services Technical Research Report # 3c

Interviews with 35 Vermont farmers explored their perspectives on compensation associated with a soil health payment for ecosystem services (PES) program in 2022. This report summarizes thematic analysis of those interviews. Farmers’ willingness to participate in a soil health PES is linked to both the burden of enrollment paperwork and the payment level, among other factors. If deciding whether to participate in a soil health PES program, nearly all farmers said they would weigh the time and energy put into the administrative workload against the perceived benefits and value of the program, i.e., the payment level or technical assistance provided. Farmers appreciate straightforward program applications and paperwork that are aligned with their interests and schedules. Understandable language and access to technical assistance is also important to farmers when applying to programs and/or handling paperwork. A PES program should be as straightforward as possible to ease administrative burdens. At a minimum, compensation should reflect the paperwork and engagement burden for farmers. 100% of the farmers we interviewed highly valued soil health on their farms. Most farmers liked the idea of a PES program which compensates them for soils with good health. They appreciated how a program could enable and/or incentive them to maintain or improve soil health on their farms. Farmers identified the importance for a soil health program to consider differences between farms and soils when setting reasonable performance expectations and payment rates. Farmers expressed a wide variety of different perspectives and preferences about what payment rates would be meaningful to them in a PES program. There did not seem to be a ‘one-size-fits- all’ level of payment, and associating payment levels with soil health metrics proved challenging for some farmers. While many farmers were able to provide estimates of the level of payment they would be willing to accept, some were either unwilling or unable to determine appropriate levels of payment based on soil health metrics. Most farmers thought about the investment of time and resources needed when thinking about payment rates. Overall, the average level of payment that would be meaningful at the whole farm level described by interviewees was $9,322.00 per farm. However, significant differences in payment levels were detected by farm acreage. Farmers with fewer acres tended to require higher per acre payment rates than farmers with more acres. Conversely, farmers with larger acreage tended to require higher total payment. Approximately 90% of farmers interviewed were supportive of per acre payments in a soil health PES program. Nearly 50% of interviewees expressed concerns about how undifferentiated per acre payment rates across different farm types would favor the participation of farms with more acres and those which were less intensively managed. The potential value of a soil health PES program was widely recognized to be more than just monetary. Farmers expressed interest in both the monetary and non-monetary benefits that a potential program might offer them. Most were interested in the program providing some combination of financial payments, access to farm-specific data, connection to a farmer network/learning community, and technical assistance

A comparison of plotless density estimators using Monte Carlo simulation on totally enumerated field data sets

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Plotless density estimators are those that are based on distance measures rather than counts per unit area (quadrats or plots) to estimate the density of some usually stationary event, e.g. burrow openings, damage to plant stems, etc. These estimators typically use distance measures between events and from random points to events to derive an estimate of density. The error and bias of these estimators for the various spatial patterns found in nature have been examined using simulated populations only. In this study we investigated eight plotless density estimators to determine which were robust across a wide range of data sets from fully mapped field sites. They covered a wide range of situations including animal damage to rice and corn, nest locations, active rodent burrows and distribution of plants. Monte Carlo simulations were applied to sample the data sets, and in all cases the error of the estimate (measured as relative root mean square error) was reduced with increasing sample size. The method of calculation and ease of use in the field were also used to judge the usefulness of the estimator. Estimators were evaluated in their original published forms, although the variable area transect (VAT) and ordered distance methods have been the subjects of optimization studies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>An estimator that was a compound of three basic distance estimators was found to be robust across all spatial patterns for sample sizes of 25 or greater. The same field methodology can be used either with the basic distance formula or the formula used with the Kendall-Moran estimator in which case a reduction in error may be gained for sample sizes less than 25, however, there is no improvement for larger sample sizes. The variable area transect (VAT) method performed moderately well, is easy to use in the field, and its calculations easy to undertake.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Plotless density estimators can provide an estimate of density in situations where it would not be practical to layout a plot or quadrat and can in many cases reduce the workload in the field.</p

Whole Farm Net Zero: approaches to quantification of climate regulation ecosystem services at the whole farm scale. Vermont Payment for Ecosystem Services Technical Report #7

In this report, approaches to the quantification of climate mitigation ecosystem services at the whole farm scale are reviewed and summarized for easy comparison. Eight quantification tools, and three case studies demonstrating possible tool applications, are summarized to fulfill the requirements of the Technical Services Contract—Task 7. Information from a combination of literature review and expert interviews served to document the inputs, outputs, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for each quantification tool. This research was conducted in service to the Vermont Soil Health and Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) Working Group (VT PES working group). It is our hope that this report provides productive information and insights for the implementation of whole farm scale payment for ecosystem services programs, Vermont’s Climate Action Plan, and similar efforts elsewhere. Emissions reductions on farms are of interest to farmers in Vermont and will be required by the implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA). Management changes that reduce emissions at the farm scale could possibly be supported and encouraged through a PES program. Given the work and goals of the PES Working Group and the requirements to implement the GWSA it is critical to understand the degree of accuracy and scope of currently available greenhouse gas assessment tools that could possibly be implemented to measure and monitor outcomes from VT agriculture. Section 2 of this report describes the methods used to collect information reviewing eight tools for quantifying agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration rates, including the CarbOn Management & Emissions Tool (COMET)-Farm, COMET-Planner, COOL-Farm, DayCent, DNDC (DeNitrification-DeComposition), Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) & APEX Agricultural Policy / Environmental eXtender (APEX), Holos, and the Integrated Farm Systems Model (IFSM). These eight tools were each reviewed using a systematic literature review, interviews with experts who are well-versed in using the specific tools, and a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis. Section 3 presents some larger-context considerations for choosing an appropriate tool. Section 4 gives a high-level overview of the SWOT analysis performed for each tool reviewed for this task. Section 5 describes three example applications of emissions modeling tools.Section 6 contains concluding remarks. The report’s Appendix section includes the SWOT analyses for each tool to allow for more in-depth review, as well as a series of tables to present a high-level comparison of the tools