WHERE’S THE P IN PRAIRIE POTHOLES? IDENTIFYING PATTERNS OF PHOSPHORUS ACCUMULATION IN CANADIAN PRAIRIE WETLANDS

Prairie wetlands are in the midst of a disappearing act. The number of Canadian Prairie wetlands has been rapidly declining since the early 1900s largely due to agricultural activities and wetland drainage. The impacts of wetland loss include declining water quality and ecosystem health, in addition to reduced water storage. These negative impacts have spurred an interest in the role that the remaining Prairie wetlands play in nutrient cycling and retention. Research to date has focused on comparing intact wetlands to drained wetlands and assessing differences in nutrient retention, specifically phosphorus (P). Phosphorus is a commonly applied agricultural fertilizer, and an excess or deficit of P can have ecosystem altering effects. Limited research has been done to identify how P concentrations vary in intact Prairie wetlands, and the probable drivers of P concentrations. This gap was addressed by collecting comprehensive data from >140 wetland ponds across the Prairie provinces. These data, along with laboratory-based methods showed that select wetland properties, specifically pondwater alkalinity, pondwater conductivity, sediment clay content (%), and surrounding land-use types (grassland/pasture vs. cropland) are the best predictors for P concentrations in Prairie Pothole Region wetlands. Pondwater alkalinity was the best physicochemical predictor of pondwater P concentrations (total P, dissolved P, and dissolved reactive P) whereas land-use type was the best physiographic predictor of pondwater P concentration, and extractable sediment, and soil P. Sites adjacent to cropland had greater concentrations of P compared to grassland/pasture sites. The differences in P concentrations between land use are likely due to greater fertilizer application in cropland compared to grassland/pasture. This work combines our understanding of P chemistry and the impact of landscape scale processes to identify the key probable drivers in the accumulation of P in Prairie wetlands. This also provides us with a more defined direction for future research, specifically more thoroughly exploring land use influences and ionic composition

Analysis on the Use of Viewing Filters to Determine Necessary Color Change in the Graphic Arts Industry

This thesis analyzes the effectiveness of the Kodak Color Print View ing Filters. The first half discusses the problems people in the graphic arts encounter when working with color reproductions and points out the in adequacies of the proofing system currently in use. The second half focuses on the application of the viewing filters and their ability to improve the proofing system. This involves an experiment where twenty print buyers and twenty printers are tested on three test images. Half of the partici pants use the viewing filters, the other half do not. The results of the experiment indicate that viewing filters benefit buyers more than printers and are most helpful on images that have important memory colors

Evaluation of an Educational Intervention to Improve Nurse Managers\u27 Understanding of and Self-Assessed Competence with Personnel Budgeting

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on the process and outcomes of a DNP practice inquiry project. Design: The design is a pretest posttest comparative evaluation. Setting: The University of Kentucky Healthcare Chandler, Samaritan, and KY Children’s hospitals. Subjects: A voluntary convenience sample of nurse managers was obtained (n=10) Intervention: The intervention was a 2 hour didactic session and an individualized one-on-one educational session focused on general healthcare finance terms and more specifically on personnel budgeting and productivity metrics Measures: The pretest and posttest consisted of 20 questions obtained from healthcare finance texts and preparatory materials for national certification exams. The pre and post self-assessment used the finance portion of the Nurse Manager Leadership Partnership’s (NMLP) Nurse Manager Skill Inventory (AONE, 2006) Results: A paired sample t test was used to determine if there was a significant difference in means pre and post education. There was a significant (p=0.001) difference in posttest scores as compared to pretest scores. Pre and post education self- assessed competence questions (11 questions) were divided between unit level financial competence (six questions) and system level financial competence (five questions). Both means showed significant differences post education. Conclusions: Because the sample size was very small and was a convenience sample, these results may be attributed to chance. The results obtained while not generalizable, do point to the potential effectiveness of a hospital based financial management course aimed at nurse managers using similar material and teaching techniques. These materials and methods should be studied using multiple institutions and regions to validate the use of the content as well as the constructivist techniques and tools

Panel 10 Strategic Directions for IT Outsourcing: Past, Present and Future

When Kodak outsourced major components of its IT function in 1989, the information systems world viewed it as a watershed event. This event subsequently resulted, however, in a robust and thriving outsourcing services industry. Today, the US market exceeds $10B annually and is growing at an annual rate of 16% per year while the smaller European outsourcing market is growing even faster at an annual rate of more than 20%. Outsourcing arrangements that were once considered large are being dwarfedbyrecentdealssuchasthosesignedbyXerox,HughesAircraftandJPMorgan. Asthemarketmatures,itisapparent that numerous companies are routinely outsourcing large components of their information systems activities. Increasingly, the conventional rationale for outsourcing — vendor economies of scale and specialization — is becoming less convincing as client companies that should be able to accrue the same benefits as a vendor given their size are also engaging in outsourcing deals. Indeed,acloserexaminationrevealsthatmanyrecentoutsourcingarrangementsarestrikinglyinnovative. Thesedealsdisplay astunningdiversityintheirobjectivesandintheirstructure,varyinginscope,size,durationandcontract. Accordingly,while there has been a spate of new deals, there is a dichotomy of deals: many continue to follow the traditional model and a few companies are blazing new trails

Л. Д. Ландау – організатор фізичної науки та освіти в Україні (до 100-річчя від дня народження)

Стаття присвячена 100-річному ювілею Льва Давидовича Ландау – фізика-теоретика колосального творчого потенціалу та надзвичайно широкого світогляду, який увійшов в історію науки як видатний вчений та талановитий вихователь кадрів теоретиків. Висвітлено науковий доробок вченого та оригінальну систему ефективної підготовки фізиків у теоретичній школі Л. Д. Ландау.Article is devoted to 100-year-old anniversary of Lev Landau – the physicist-theorist of enormous creative potential and extraordinary wide outlook who has become in the history of a science as the outstanding scientific and talented tutor of theorists. Scientific results of the scientist and original system of effective training of physicists at L. Landau's theoretical school are shown

Shelter and working class communities : community initiated housing development in the North End

Thesis. 1979. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Bibliography: leaves 117-121.by Edward McFarlan III.M.Arch