Aster's Hoity Toity Belt

This fictitious story centers on a celestial family of asteroids and their adventures in the "skyborhood." Students will learn about smaller bodies of our solar system and the Dawn mission by identifying some aspects of the story that are true, some that might be true, and some that are false. Educators can choose from three versions, including storyteller, learning notations, or illustrators. The storyteller version can be used to tell the story without comment. The learning version is annotated to provide further explanation to assist in identifying aspects of the story. The illustrator's version contains space for the children to make their own illustrations to accompany the text. Educational levels: Primary elementary, Intermediate elementary

Understanding death as the cessation of intentional action: A cross-cultural developmental study

Determining whether or not an entity is capable of acting intentionally is a fundamental cognitive skill that emerges in the first year of infancy, and the inability to act is a key aspect distinguishing dead from living things. Though young children’s understanding of death is generally thought to be poor, an understanding of death as the permanent cessation of agency might develop early in childhood. This study tested the cessation-of-agency hypothesis cross-culturally, by examining the differences between children’s judgments about sleeping and dead animals. The results showed that children understand that death entails the permanent cessation of the ability to act by age 4 in two different cultures. This is consistent with a view that those distinctions that are most crucial for adaptive decision-making are the ones that develop earliest

Stüben, P. E. 2018: The Cryptorhynchinae of the Western Palearctic / Die Cryptorhynchinae der Westpaläarktis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).

Stüben, P. E. 2018: The Cryptorhynchinae of theWestern Palearctic / Die Cryptorhynchinae der Westpaläarktis(Coleoptera: Curculionidae). – Selbstverlag,Mönchengladbach: 518 pp., 3999 photographs mountedon 871 plates, 416 maps, 30 dendrograms (English andGerman) print & order Curculio Institute, Germany:Mönchengladbach, [email protected]üben, P. E. 2018: The Cryptorhynchinae of theWestern Palearctic / Die Cryptorhynchinae der Westpaläarktis(Coleoptera: Curculionidae). – Selbstverlag,Mönchengladbach: 518 pp., 3999 photographs mountedon 871 plates, 416 maps, 30 dendrograms (English andGerman) print & order Curculio Institute, Germany:Mönchengladbach, [email protected]

Factors Contributing to the Decline of Bees

Pesticides and parasites are the main causes for the decline in honey bees. This presentation focuses on four of the main factors contributing to bee decline and the stakeholders involved as well as potential solutions

Industrial Ecology Analysis of the Potential for an Eastern Nebraska Industrial Symbiosis Network (ENISN): A Comparative Study

The area of Eastern Nebraska north of Omaha, including the municipality of Blair is host to a collection of unique companies and industries. These industries, driven by the agricultural and urban economy of the area, as well as the geographic proximity to each other, make it an advantageous area to study the potential for a network where individual entities utilize the concept of industrial symbiosis. This potential network is referred to as the Eastern Nebraska Industrial Symbiosis Network (ENISN). Industrial symbiosis, a sub-set of industrial ecology, engages separate industries in a collaborative and collective approach, concerning itself with the flow of materials and energy, water, and/or by-products between each other. The outcome of industrial symbiosis is advantageous to not only the companies, but to the environment as well. The incorporation of ecological economic principles are at the core of industrial symbiosis. A circular-economy invites a more sustainable approach where efficient allocation of resources and a philosophy of an end to growth, drive this unique economy that differs from the traditional neoclassical style. This study compares the potential of an ENISN with the existing Kalundborg Symbiosis in Kalundborg, Denmark, a long established example of industrial ecology and the use of an eco-industrial network where the by-product of one enterprise is used as a resource by another enterprise, in a closed cycle. Industrial symbiosis is a collaboration where public and private enterprises buy and sell residual products, resulting in mutual economic and environmental benefits. The results of this study indicate the ENISN study site has the potential for an industrial symbiosis site. The analysis of material flows and inductive themes derived from interviews with potential partners revealed the presence of collaboration and environmental stewardship. The results of the study suggest that the human capital exists to make an ENISN; however, the impetus to take on the challenging ontological barriers remains to be seen. Advisor: Mark E. Burbac

Examination of the Impact of Living Arrangements and Marital Status on Depression among Older Adult Male Veterans

As the older adult population grows, depression rates are also on the rise. This is especially evident among American veterans, who experience a depression incidence close to 30%, making it one of the most common diagnoses treated within the Veterans Health Administraiton (Hankin, Spiro, Miller et al, as cited in Cully, Zimmer, Khan & Petersen, 2008). The purpose of this study is to identify key demographic variables associated with depression among older male veterans. The results could help improve patterns of care, hopefully improving the management of depression. The retrospective descriptive study uses existing medical record data to identify patterns of factors commonly occurring in veterans with depression. Demographic variables, depression screening scores, and patterns of International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 9th Revision (ICD9 codes) are analyzed for patterns that can improve care. Descriptive findings and relevant correlations are reported with recommendations to improve care for older adult male veterans diagnosed with depression

Audiovisual temporal integration in reverberant environments

AbstractWith teleconferencing becoming more accessible as a communication platform, researchers are working to understand the consequences of the interaction between human perception and this unfamiliar environment. Given the enclosed space of a teleconference room, along with the physical separation between the user, microphone and speakers, the transmitted audio often becomes mixed with the reverberating auditory components from the room. As a result, the audio can be perceived as smeared in time, and this can affect the user experience and perceived quality. Moreover, other challenges remain to be solved. For instance, during encoding, compression and transmission, the audio and video streams are typically treated separately. Consequently, the signals are rarely perfectly aligned and synchronous. In effect, timing affects both reverberation and audiovisual synchrony, and the two challenges may well be inter-dependent. This study explores the temporal integration of audiovisual continuous speech and speech syllables, along with a non-speech event, across a range of asynchrony levels for different reverberation conditions. Non-reverberant stimuli are compared to stimuli with added reverberation recordings. Findings reveal that reverberation does not affect the temporal integration of continuous speech. However, reverberation influences the temporal integration of the isolated speech syllables and the action-oriented event, with perceived subjective synchrony skewed towards audio lead asynchrony and away from the more common audio lag direction. Furthermore, less time is spent on simultaneity judgements for the longer sequences when the temporal offsets get longer and when reverberation is introduced, suggesting that both asynchrony and reverberation add to the demands of the task