Water Retention, Bulk Density, Particle Size, and Thermal and Hydraulic Conductivity of Arable Soils in Interior Alaska

The relative proportion of liquid, gas, and solid as constituents of soil depends on factors such as climate, biological activity, and management practices. Therefore, the physical state of soil is a dynamic process, changing with time and position in the profile. Temperature, thermal and hydraulic conductivity, density, and water content are some quantitative properties characterizing the physical state of soil. These properties are important in describing soil processes such as water and heat flow, movement of chemicals, biological activity, and erosion. Water in the soil is subject to a number of forces resulting from the attraction of the soil matrix for water and presence of solutes and gravity. The energy status of water-the sum of these forces-is termed water potential. Processes such as evaporation and plant water uptake are governed by the gradient in water potential in the soil and across the root-soil interface, respectively. The term water potential is more descriptive of the soil water status than water content as movement of water is in response to differences in water potential

Nowhere Else to Turn: Key Findings from an Evaluation of the National Offenders’ Families Helpline

Children and families of offenders have been described as the ‘forgotten victims’ of the Criminal Justice System (CJS), and advocacy groups argue that criminal justice agencies pay insufficient attention to the impact of their processes on families, meaning that their best interests can be overlooked or actively damaged.1 This paper presents findings from an evaluation of the Offenders’ Families Helpline — a free and confidential service providing information, emotional support and signposting to families and friends of offenders involved in any stage of the CJS. In 2013, the Helpline received almost 10,000 telephone calls and over 145,000 unique visitors to its website. The Helpline is funded by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), and at the time of the evaluation was delivered by Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group (POPS), a voluntary sector organisation based in Manchester. The aims of the evaluation were to assess the extent to which the Helpline meets families’ support needs, and to evidence the impact and outcomes of the Helpline for family member

Peter Ramus, Walter Ong, and the Tradition of Humanistic Learning

In the 1950's Walter Ong focused his attention on the sixteenth century Parisian philosopher and educationalist Peter Ramus, and published the results of his research in two major works, Ramus, Method and the Decay of Dialogue (1958a), and a Ramus and Talon Inventory (1958b), which listed for the first time over one thousand printings of books by Ramus in the fields of grammar, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, physics, optics, ethics, and theology. Thirty years on, as we settle down firmly into the computer age in scholarship, it is possible to appreciate fully the value of these two seminal books which have stimulated and enriched all work on Ramus since their publication

Construct validity, dimensionality and factorial invariance of the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale: A bifactor modelling approach among children of prisoners

The Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1989) has traditionally been conceptualised as a unidimensional measure of self-esteem but empirical evidence is equivocal, with some studies supporting a one-factor solution and others favouring multidimensional models. The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure, factorial invariance and composite reliability of the RSES within a European sample of children affected by parental imprisonment (N = 724). The study specified and tested six alternative factor models using conventional confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) techniques and a confirmatory bifactor modelling approach. The RSES was most effectively represented by a bifactor model including a general self-esteem factor comprising of all ten scale items and separate method effects for the positively and negatively phrased items. This model was found to be factorially invariant among boys and girls. Composite reliability indicated good internal consistency for the general self-esteem dimension but slightly less so for the positive and negative methods effects. Results are discussed in terms resolving the debate surrounding the appropriate factor structure and scoring of the RSES

Exploring the emergence and disappearance of transableism on transabled.org: Digital ethnography of a transient mental illness

Transableism is an historical condition that originated in an online community named transabled.org, existing between 1996 and 2013. Transableism manifested as the desire to be disabled, arising out of a felt sense of incongruence between one’s inner sense of identity as disabled, and one’s bodily reality as abled. During its existence, transableism attracted clinical attention and was proposed for entry into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) under the descriptor Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID). However, despite its growing visibility, in 2012 BIID failed to enter the DSM and the online transabled community disappeared. The aim of this thesis is to explore transableism’s rapid emergence and subsequent failure to achieve formal medical recognition. The key questions underpinning this thesis are (1) why did transableism emerge and (2) why did it disappear? Taking a qualitative approach, this thesis uses digital ethnography to analyse all content posted to transabled.org in its active years. The originality of this thesis lies in the way it uses the theoretical lens of an ecological niche of ‘transient mental illness’ (Hacking, 1998) to examine the historical, cultural and social factors which informed transableism, opening up a new, never before explored perspective. Use of the ecological niche of transient mental illness model provides a nuanced and holistic answer to the questions which underpin this thesis. I argue that transableism emerged because it reflected and expressed broader cultural understandings and tensions surrounding authentic versus inauthentic disability. Its emergence was also facilitated by a centralised model of community leadership which, for a time, successfully fostered a coherent group identity and enlisted the interests of clinicians. On the other hand, transableism disappeared because BIID failed to conform to an accepted authenticity politics of disabled identity and was policed accordingly. In addition, although the centralised model of community leadership initially facilitated transableism, towards the later years, this model collapsed, leading to conflict, community attrition and moderator burn out. Overall, this thesis makes 6 original contributions to knowledge by advancing understandings within (1) extant transableism scholarship, (2) broader medical sociological literatures, (3) the disability studies literature, (4) scholarship that explores claims to authentic identities, and the limits of such claims, (5) the literature on leadership and moderation practices within online communities and (6) the health advocacy community literature

Buy Nathan Sharratt: A Requirement of the Masters of Fine Arts Degree of Georgia State University

Buy Nathan Sharratt: A Requirement of the Masters of Fine Arts degree of Georgia State University, is a multidiscipline and multiplatform exhibition of post-institutional critique that uses my lived experience of being an academic artist pursuing a terminal art degree at a public university as its point of departure. It evaluates how societal expectations influence the formation of individual and group identity in mediated culture. Buy Nathan Sharratt challenges the hierarchy of economic and social value systems by simulating an institutional museum retrospective of super-famous and super-commoditized artist “Nathan Sharratt.” The exhibition is divided into a gallery space, a project space, a gift shop, and a virtual space. It includes art objects and performances to pose that the art experience has been compressed into a simulation, in which art serves as the trigger for social networking and virtual experiences, rather than critical assessment

The Institutio Christiana in Calvin and his contemporaries

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Growing Season Trends in the Alaskan Climate Record

Linkages between presumed global climate change and agricultural production will enable the development of management strategies to meet the needs of a diverse and future world agricultural enterprise. This study evaluated characteristic trends in the growing season length and dates of the last spring and first fall freezes at eight climate stations in Alaska between 1924 and 1989. Two minimum temperature criteria of 0 degrees and -3 degrees were used in assessing freeze dates. Half of the stations had no change in growing season length over the last 65 years, whereas the other four stations had a lengthening of the season. Tendencies for longer seasons were in part a result of earlier spring freezes. The growing season shortened at three stations during the period 1940-70, which corresponded with declining Northern Hemisphere temperatures. The presence of changes in the growing season over the last 65 years was apparent in Alaska temperature records.Key words: frost-free season, spring freeze, fall freeze, frost, climate changeRÉSUMÉ. Les liens entre les changements climatiques auxquels on s’attend au niveau planétaire et la production agricole permettront d’élaborer des stratégies de gestion en vue de répondre aux besoins futurs d’une agriculture mondiale diversifiée. Cette étude a évalué les tendances caractéristiques de la durée de la saison de croissance ainsi que les tendances des dates des dernières gelées printanières et des premières gelées automnales à huit stations climatiques de l’Alaska, entre 1924 et 1989. Deux critères de temperatures minimales de 0º et de -3 ºC ont été utilisés pour déterminer les dates de gel. La moitié des stations n’ont pas connu de changements dans la durée de la saison de croissance au cours des 65 dernieres années, alors que les quatre autres stations ont montré une prolongation de la saison. Les tendances vers des saisons plus longues sont dues en partie au fait que les dernières geltes printanières ont eu lieu plus tôt. La saison de croissance a raccourci à trois stations durant la période allant de 1940 à 1970, ce qui correspond au déclin des températures de l’hémisphère Nord. La présence de changements dans la saison de croissance au cours des derniers 65 ans est nettement visible dans les annales de température de l’Alaska.Mots clés: saison libre de gel, gelée printanière, gelée automnale, gel, changement climatiqu