August Evening

It is dusk, almost dark: the fire flies are glowing intermittently as they flit over the wheat stubble; the sun has receded over the horizon leaving only a dull glow of color in the west; in the east the harvest moon is peeping through the blasted tops of beach trees. The mists are rising down in the river bottom and ease like ghostly ships up the creek bed while over to the south choir practice begins. The sonorous bass of the bullfrogs, the vibrant tenor of cicadas; the squawk of water fowl as they rifle, single file up the creek; the bawl of cattle, bedded down on the distant hillside, their clean, white faces, crests, and flanks visible through the ascending vapors from the swale between; the distant barking of a stock dog or the baying of a hound, and the sudden, frightened squeals of pigs as they noisly masticate their corn, vague, black, hulks against the dusty, trampled earth; all blend together in perfect harmony

Measuring time preferences

We review research that measures time preferences—i.e., preferences over intertemporal tradeoffs. We distinguish between studies using financial flows, which we call “money earlier or later” (MEL) decisions and studies that use time-dated consumption/effort. Under different structural models, we show how to translate what MEL experiments directly measure (required rates of return for financial flows) into a discount function over utils. We summarize empirical regularities found in MEL studies and the predictive power of those studies. We explain why MEL choices are driven in part by some factors that are distinct from underlying time preferences.National Institutes of Health (NIA R01AG021650 and P01AG005842) and the Pershing Square Fund for Research in the Foundations of Human Behavior

Understanding how the Army\u27s Informal Leader Bonds Formal Leadership and the Complex Environment

Bullying and toxic leadership in the U. S. Army disrupt bonding processes between leaders and subordinates, which may jeopardize military operations, threaten resiliency initiatives, inhibit leader development, and stifle innovation. Little research, however, has looked at the role of informal leaders who operate outside the formal power structure in military environments. Using social exchange theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore the activities of informal leaders who mediated the normal and disrupted leadership bonding processes in an Illinois Army National Guard Infantry Brigade. The research questions explored the informal leaders\u27 influence and behaviors to gain a greater understanding of the bonding processes. A maximum variation purposeful sampling was used to select 25 informal leaders from 8 company size units in an Illinois Army National Guard Infantry Brigade. Publicly available archival data were also considered. All data were coded inductively and then subjected to Braun and Clark\u27s thematic analysis procedure, revealing the perception that informal leaders improved bonding between soldiers and leaders and reduced stress associated with military service. The implications for positive social change include recommendations to the Illinois National Guard to provide support for using informal leaders as a mechanism to promote more cohesive relationships between leaders and subordinates and to explore the use of informal leadership to reduce stress

State and Community Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations

For many years the importance of sharing information on cybersecurity risks, vulnerabilities, and incidents has been understood. Organizations working in isolation are at a disadvantage when facing the types of threats existing in today’s Internet environment. Informal information sharing has been conducted for many years. More formal information sharing organizations were created in response to the 1998 Presidential Decision Directive-63. More recently, Executive Order 13691 called for the creation of information sharing and analysis organizations beyond the critical infrastructures and led to the creation of a standards organization to create standards, guidelines, and other documents to assist in the creation of information sharing organizations. This paper will discuss the history of information sharing in the United States and will explain the potential impact for states and communities. The importance of developing state and community information sharing organizations will be discussed along with the challenges in establishing them

Teacher perceptions of their evaluations : impact of the Network for Educator Effectiveness (NEE) data tool on teacher growth, teacher effectiveness, and learning-centered culture in a Missouri rural public high school

As public schools continue to face growing pressure to increase standardized test scores and improve nationwide student achievement levels, policy makers and school officials are looking for every opportunity for improvement. Three of the major areas of focus in this national debate are teacher growth, effectiveness, and learning-centered cultures in schools that lead to teacher collective efficacy and improved student performance. This study will focus on teacher evaluations as a tool for promoting teacher growth, improving teacher effectiveness, and promoting a learning-centered culture in a rural public school. Specifically, the researcher plans to measure the impact of the Network For Educator Effectiveness (NEE) Data Tool upon teacher growth, effectiveness, and the learning-centered culture through teacher perceptions in one rural public high school (NEE Data Tool Online Manager, n.d.). ... According to Darling and Hammond et al. (2016), "The new law provides the possibility that states can create more balanced systems of support and accountability focused on educating young people so they can become productive, engaged citizens who are prepared for 21st century college and careers" (p. i). The language in ESSA appears to be more focused on a holistic approach to overall school improvement versus the specific student testing and school accountability focus of previous educational reform. The ESSA has more "reasonable goals and objectives [which] can be collaboratively established that align with the needs of studens" (American Federation of Teachers FAQ, 2018, p. 1). The political debate about state and national educational reform rages on, but for now the researchers opinion is that Missouri is in a somewhat stable and manageable place as related to teacher evaluations as a tool for promoting teacher growth and improving learning cultures in public schools.Includes bibliographical reference

Kinetics of Surfactant Adsorption at Fluid-Fluid Interfaces: Surfactant Mixtures

The adsorption at the interface between an aqueous solution of several surface-active agents and another fluid (air or oil) phase is addressed theoretically. We derive the kinetic equations from a variation of the interfacial free energy, solve them numerically and provide an analytic solution for the simple case of a linear adsorption isotherm. Calculating asymptotic solutions analytically, we find the characteristic time scales of the adsorption process and observe the behavior of the system at various temporal stages. In particular, we relate the kinetic behavior of the mixture to the properties of its individual constituents and find good agreement with experiments. In the case of kinetically limited adsorption, the mixture kinetics is found to be considerably different from that of the single-surfactant solutions because of strong coupling between the species.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Langmui

Upper Yilgarn catchment appraisal 2005

Soil degradation on farmland reduces agricultural production and will often lead to damage to natural resources such as remnant vegetation and waterways, as well as to infrastructure, including roads and townsites. This report provides current information on the land degradation status for the Upper Yilgarn Catchment area in Western Australia by outlining: condition of the soils, hydrology, natural vegetation, farming systems and agricultural production and risks to natural resources