Deeper Roots: Strengthening Community Tenure Security and Community Livelihoods

Utilizes concrete experiences from Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, South Africa, Tanzania, India, Nepal, Indonesia, and the Philippines to highlight emerging issues, and offers strategies for advancing community forest tenure security

Videogames in the museum:participation, possibility and play in curating meaningful visitor experiences

In 2014 Videogames in the Museum [1] engaged with creative practitioners, games designers, curators and museums professionals to debate and explore the challenges of collecting and exhibiting videogames and games design. Discussions around authorship in games and games development, the transformative effect of the gallery on the cultural reception and significance of videogames led to the exploration of participatory modes and playful experiences that might more effectively expose the designer’s intent and enhance the nature of our experience as visitors and players. In proposing a participatory mode for the exhibition of videogames this article suggests an approach to exhibition and event design that attempts to resolve tensions between traditions of passive consumption of curated collections and active participation in meaning making using theoretical models from games analysis and criticism and the conceit of game and museum spaces as analogous rules based environments

Designing an interactive multimedia instructional environment: the civil war interactive

This article describes the rationales behind the design decisions made in creating The Civil War Interactive, an interactive multimedia instructional product based on Ken Burns''s film series The Civil War

Self-efficacy for Symptom Management in Adult Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients

Hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is a treatment for hematologic cancers and other hematologic conditions that causes severe treatment-related symptoms. The first 30 days after HSCT, or the acute phase, is when symptoms are most intense. During this time, the ability of patients to manage their symptoms, in collaboration with their health care providers, is crucial to reduce the distress caused by the symptoms. Self-efficacy is the person’s confidence in their ability to perform a behavior, such as symptom management. This body of work describes the concept of self-efficacy for symptom management (SESM), presents an integrated literature review on self-efficacy for symptom management in cancer patients, and presents results from research on SESM during the acute phase of HSCT. The purpose of the longitudinal, descriptive study was to determine changes over time and examine the relationships between SESM, symptom distress and physical function. The meaning of SESM from the patient’s perspective pre- and post-HSCT also was explored. The study established that significant changes occur over time in these variables and that a relationship is present between SESM, symptom distress and physical functional status during the acute phase of transplant. Higher SESM was associated with less symptom distress and increased physical function. When symptom distress was highest, patients felt their worst and their self-efficacy was low, which influences how symptoms are managed, and affects outcomes such as functional status, hospital length of stay and overall quality of life. Assessment of SESM early in the treatment process, followed by patient-centered interventions to enhance SESM, will allow patients to manage their symptoms effectively and improve patient outcomes. The information presented here provides a foundation for future research and development of nursing interventions to enhance a person’s SESM during the acute phase of HSCT

Cleaning and Disinfection of Caged Layer Facilities

A rapid and effective means to clean and disinfect affected premises is needed by the poultry industry. Commercially available foaming disinfectants and cleaners applied via a compressed air foam system (CAFS) may be used to significantly reduce aerobic bacteria in a commercial caged layer complex. Using a variety of agricultural products against bacterial species may also provide information on which products are most efficacious against specific microorganisms on cage floors. In the first study, six field trials were conducted to evaluate current industry cleaning and disinfection protocols and the proposed CAFS application. A commercially available chlorinated alkaline cleaner (CHL/ALK) in trials 1 & 2 was applied by CAFS to one half of the house, and the other half of the house was not treated. The entire house was then washed with a high pressure water rinse (HPWR). A commercially available peroxyacetic acid (PAA) in trials 3 & 4 or a 14% glutaraldehyde (HI GLUT)/2.5% quaternary ammonia (QAC) blended disinfectant in trials 5 & 6 was applied by CAFS to one half of a washed house. The remainder of each house was treated with 7% (LO GLUT)/26% QAC, which was the spray application applied to cages by the integrator. Environmental swabs of drinker cups and cage floors were collected pre and post treatment to determine if aerobic bacteria levels were reduced. The HPWR and the CHL/ALK treatments did not consistently reduce aerobic bacteria on treated surfaces. Significant differences were observed with each of the CAFS applications of the PAA, HI GLUT/QAC, and LO GLUT/QAC product. The objective of the second study was to determine the efficacy of commonly used products on soiled layer cages. Trial one was conducted in a small layer barn at the Texas A&M University Poultry Science Research, Teaching, and Extension Center. Trial two was performed at a commercial pullet house. In each trial, treatments were applied by a garden sprayer and six samples per treatment were collected. All products were mixed according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Treatments consisted of a negative control, a low pressure water rinse (LPWR, garden hose), a high pressure water rinse (HPWR, pressure washer), a soap, a chlorinated alkaline cleaner, a QAC, a glutaraldehyde, a peroxyacetic acid, a phenolic, a potassium peroxymonosulfate, a hydrogen peroxide, and a QAC/glutaraldehyde blend product. Swabs of cage floors were collected post treatment to determine if bacterial loads were reduced as compared to the appropriate controls. Aerobic bacteria, coliforms, Staphylococcus spp., and Pseudomonas ssp. were enumerated to evaluate the efficacy of the treatments. Aerobic bacterial colonization was significantly reduced by the oxidizer, peroxyacetic acid, aldehyde, and QAC disinfectants in trial one and by all seven disinfectants in trial two against the HPWR control. No treatment, in the first trial, significantly decreased coliforms or Staphylococcus spp. when compared to controls of nothing and the HPWR. However, reduction (P < 0.05) of coliforms and Staphylococcus spp. were observed with all disinfectants in trial two. The aldehyde and QAT disinfectant products in trial one, and all disinfectant products except the hydrogen peroxide and QAT/glutaraldehyde compound in trial two significantly reduced the levels of Pseudomonas spp. These data suggest that characteristics of cleaning and disinfection regimens can vary significantly

Magnetoelastic coupling in a quantum spin ladder

In this thesis, I present magnetic and optical property studies of a S = 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic quantum system. The compound under investigation is a copper halide spin ladder, (2,3-dmpyH)₂CuBr₄. This material is attractive not only because of its rarity as a spin ladder with strong magnetic exchange along the rail, but because copper halides are good model materials for the copper oxide systems. Both temperature and magnetic field were used to tune the system. Magnetization was performed, allowing us to observe the experimental critical fields. These critical fields were in reasonable agreement with the theoretical models we extrapolated from strong rung spin ladder systems. Variable temperature optical experiments allowed us to assign the electronic excitations and showed that certain features (especially in the visible range) change shape or sharpen at low temperature. According to theoretical calculations, these excitations are caused by the CuBr₄²⁻ chromophore of the system. Using the magnetic field, we were able to drive the antiferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) transition and see a spectral shift, resulting in a color change. This shift is too large to be a result of either Zeeman splitting or g factor effects, and is interpreted as an effect of magnetoelastic coupling. Finally, the magneto-optical data was correlated with the magnetization data. By plotting the absorption contrast (the integral of the absolute absorption difference) with the magnetization, we saw that the optical properties track the magnetization data with a small lag. The lag that we see is attributed to a slower lattice response in the system. Although we also discuss the results in terms of Cu²⁺ moment saturation, spin canting, and fluctuation canting. The optics, thus, are sensitive to the antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic transition, and distortion of the ladder couples the intramolecular effects with the intermolecular effects

Demonstration of the Effects of an Increased Praise Ratio on Student On-Task Behavior

Many authors recommend various praise to reprimand ratios for teachers to use to manage their classrooms (e.g., Flora, 2000; Nafpaktitis, Mayer, & Butterworth, 1985; Wheldall, 2005); however, these recommendations are based on correlational data or secondary findings from studies not directly manipulating the praise to reprimand ratio. The purpose of this study was to use a simple teacher training method to improve the praise to reprimand ratio used in the classroom and measure the resulting effects on the on-task behavior of an entire class of students. All teachers improved praise to reprimand ratios above baseline levels. As teacher praise to reprimand ratios improved, student on-task levels increased for all classrooms

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Graduate Recital:Kristin Lynn White, Soprano

Kemp Recital Hall Sunday Noon April 27, 2008 12:00p.m

Senior Recital:Kristin Lynn White, Soprano

Kemp Recital Hall Friday Evening April 21, 2000 8:30 p.m