Middle Savannah River: An A/r/tographic Ecopedagogical Ethnography Experimenting with Rhizomatic Perspectives

This research is an experiment in perspective. Using the four commonplaces (Schwab, 1978), I practiced letting the Savannah River teach me what there is to know about the water, the land, the people, and the other entities that depend on ki through artistic, ethnographic, and ecopedagogical lenses. The ethnographic findings describe the social actors that depend on ki and give a voice to the River. The a/r/tographic findings display the River on a canvas map through two hundred years using paint, clay, photography, video, abstract acrylics, and fabric. Together, these methods contribute to a unique ecopedagogical journey. This word cloud provides a small window into the work

Gallai-Ramsey and vertex proper connection numbers

Given a complete graph G, we consider two separate scenarios. First, we consider the minimum number N such that every coloring of G using exactly k colors contains either a rainbow triangle or a monochromatic star on t vertices. This number is known for small cases and generalized for larger cases for a fixed k. Second, we introduce the vertex proper connection number of a graph and provide a relationship to the chromatic number of minimally connected subgraphs. Also a notion of total proper connection is introduced and a question is asked about a possible relationship between the total proper connection number and the vertex and edge proper connection numbers

Knowledge, Confidence, Intention, and Motivation: Hegemonic Masculinity\u27s Influence Upon Nutritional Habits of Males

With the increasing incidence of chronic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and cardiovascular disease and the growing obesity epidemic, the need to increase nutritional literacy amongst the general public is paramount. Men tend to lack a strong base of nutritional knowledge. Masculinity is one of the factors preventing many men from making good nutritional choices. The aim of this study was to investigate hegemonic masculinity in relation to current level of nutritional knowledge as well as perceptions and attitudes regarding dietary behaviors and intention to eat a healthy diet among a sample of males. A convenience sample of males 18+ (n=87) was categorized according to hegemonic masculinity level by the Masculine Role Inventory. An amended survey gathered information regarding nutritional knowledge level. An original survey gathered information on confidence in one’s nutritional knowledge, intention to eat healthier, and motivation to expand nutritional knowledge. Analyses examined the association between hegemonic masculinity and nutritional knowledge, confidence in nutritional knowledge, intention to change dietary behavior and motivation to learn new nutritional knowledge. No significant association was found between hegemonic masculinity level and nutritional knowledge, confidence, intention, or motivation. The null results can be attributed to the low hegemonic status of the majority of participants. Analyses also examined the relationship between actual nutritional knowledge and confidence in nutritional knowledge. A positive association between higher confidence level and greater nutrition knowledge was found to be significant, p \u3c 0.006. A positive association between higher confidence level and higher levels of motivation to learn new nutritional information was also found to be significant, p \u3c 0.000. The results of this study suggest that an increased level of confidence in nutritional knowledge may be necessary to encourage accumulation of new nutritional knowledge

An Overview of the RD Mentorship Program

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics highlights the need for more mentorship opportunities for Registered Dietitian (RDs) in their 2017 Strategic Plan. There are a limited number of published structured programs that facilitate relationships between practicing dietitians and dietetics students (DS). The purpose of the RD Mentorship Program is to determine the impact of a project-based mentoring experience on self-perceptions of mentoring and professional advancement. The RD Mentorship Program partners RDs with DS to work on specific nutrition-related projects. Partnerships are required to meet at least once per month to work on their project. After piloting the program for several years, the program launched state-wide in Texas and Florida for 2019-2020. Currently, there are 178 RDs and 202 DS which includes a 15% attrition rate from the start. At baseline, 23% of RDs currently had a student working with them, and 62% of RDs reported being confident in their mentoring ability. As for DS, 44% had worked with an RD before at baseline and 57% reported confidence in their mentee abilities. In the mid-program evaluation survey (n=110), a majority of participants (53%) said they found the program very useful or extremely useful, and 86% of the participants said they would be interested in participating in the program in the future. It is hoped that the RD Mentorship Program will strengthen the working knowledge of students and be an innovative approach to building the bridge between student and practitioner, fulfilling part of the Academy’s Strategic Plan

Challenges and opportunities for agroforestry practitioners to participate in state preferential property tax programs for agriculture and forestry

All 50 states offer preferential property tax programs that lower the taxes paid on enrolled agricultural and/or forest lands. While agroforestry is a land-use that combines elements of both agriculture and forestry, eligibility criteria and other rules and regulations may prevent landowners from enrolling agroforestry practices in one or more of the agricultural and forestry tax programs. This pilot-scale study developed conceptual and methodological frameworks to identify the current barriers to and opportunities in preferential tax policies applicable to agroforestry practices. We conducted an extensive review of state preferential property tax programs relevant for agroforestry practices, following focus group discussions with regional experts in five selected states across the United States: North Carolina, Nebraska, Wisconsin, New York, and Oregon. Based on a systematic review of statutes and their supporting documents, we developed a database of programs, which support or create barriers to enrollment of agroforestry practitioners into the programs. We found that agricultural tax assessments were more likely to favor multi-use agriculture and forestry systems than the preferential tax assessments of forestlands in the five states. Forest farming and silvopasture, followed by alley cropping, windbreaks, and riparian forest buffers, were found to be the most common agroforestry practices allowed under preferential tax classifications in the study states. This study provides a framework for cataloging and analyzing preferential property tax-programs to document barriers and facilitators to agroforestry practices in the United States

Reflections on the one-minute paper

This paper captures the perceptions of both a new academic and his students on the use of the one-minute paper (OMP). Much of the originality of this paper derives from the multi-layered qualitative approach which provides a deeper insight into the direct and indirect mechanism through which the OMP is perceived to work. This paper argues, more than the prevailing literature suggests, that in order to increase the benefits of using the OMP then considerable investment in time is required. The findings show that the academic’s cost in terms of time is greatest when asking ‘lecturer effectiveness’ type questions, but the benefits derived are potentially longer term than standard ‘lecture content’ based question. Students value the use of the OMP, principally because it demonstrates respect for them; this helps to create an atmosphere of trust which can encourage engagement and an active approach to student learning. The research informs a discussion on how practical implementation techniques can be used to maximise the benefits and limit the costs

Operational Research in Education

Operational Research (OR) techniques have been applied, from the early stages of the discipline, to a wide variety of issues in education. At the government level, these include questions of what resources should be allocated to education as a whole and how these should be divided amongst the individual sectors of education and the institutions within the sectors. Another pertinent issue concerns the efficient operation of institutions, how to measure it, and whether resource allocation can be used to incentivise efficiency savings. Local governments, as well as being concerned with issues of resource allocation, may also need to make decisions regarding, for example, the creation and location of new institutions or closure of existing ones, as well as the day-to-day logistics of getting pupils to schools. Issues of concern for managers within schools and colleges include allocating the budgets, scheduling lessons and the assignment of students to courses. This survey provides an overview of the diverse problems faced by government, managers and consumers of education, and the OR techniques which have typically been applied in an effort to improve operations and provide solutions

Global timber investments, 2005 to 2017

We estimated timber investment returns for 22 countries and 54 species/management regimes in 2017, for a range of global timber plantation species and countries at the stand level, using capital budgeting criteria, without land costs, at a real discount rate of 8%. Returns were estimated for the principal plantation countries in the Americas-Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Mexico, and the United States-as well as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, China, Vietnam, Laos, Spain, Finland, Poland, Scotland, and France. South American plantation growth rates and their concomitant returns were generally greater, at more than 12% Internal Rates of Return (IRRs), as were those in China, Vietnam, and Laos. These IRRs were followed by those for plantations in southern hemisphere countries of Australia and New Zealand and in Mexico, with IRRs around 8%. Temperate forest plantations in the U.S. and Europe returned less, from 4% to 8%, but those countries have less financial risk, better timber markets, and more infrastructure. Returns to most planted species in all countries except Asia have decreased from 2005 to 2017. If land costs were included in calculating the overall timberland investment returns, the IRRs would decrease from 3 percentage points less for loblolly pine in the U.S. South to 8 percentage points less for eucalypts in Brazil.Peer reviewe