Effects of Reorganization on the Clientele of the Division of Family Services in Northern Utah

The Division of Family Services in the State of Utah has undergone an organizational change. State aid to needy families is now administered on a regional level, rather than a county level. It was hypothesized that this reorganization would have little affect on the client\u27s attitude toward state services. They would be aware of the change but would be neutral in attitude about the change. Survey research was used to obtain data for this study. A change scale was developed and a score computed. After reviewing the data the hypothesis was rejected. Clients did have a positive view about regionalization or organizational change

Adult Education Adrift in a Net: Making Waves or Clutching a Lifering?

The Internet and World Wide Web exemplify values advanced by heroic adult education theorists such as Ivan Illich. They have also triggered a deluge of hyperbole and surfeit of false dichotomies (e.g. online versus face-to-face education). But, in the chorus of critics and advocates, adult educators have been noticeably silent. This symposium is designed to rectify this situation by interrogating Internet and Web learning and education from an adult education perspective

Bayesian analysis of Jolly-Seber type models; Incorporating heterogeneity in arrival and departure

We propose the use of finite mixtures of continuous distributions in modelling the process by which new individuals, that arrive in groups, become part of a wildlife population. We demonstrate this approach using a data set of migrating semipalmated sandpipers (Calidris pussila) for which we extend existing stopover models to allow for individuals to have different behaviour in terms of their stopover duration at the site. We demonstrate the use of reversible jump MCMC methods to derive posterior distributions for the model parameters and the models, simultaneously. The algorithm moves between models with different numbers of arrival groups as well as between models with different numbers of behavioural groups. The approach is shown to provide new ecological insights about the stopover behaviour of semipalmated sandpipers but is generally applicable to any population in which animals arrive in groups and potentially exhibit heterogeneity in terms of one or more other processes

Assessing Natural Resource Use by Forest-Reliant Communities in Madagascar Using Functional Diversity and Functional Redundancy Metrics

Biodiversity plays an integral role in the livelihoods of subsistence-based forest-dwelling communities and as a consequence it is increasingly important to develop quantitative approaches that capture not only changes in taxonomic diversity, but also variation in natural resources and provisioning services. We apply a functional diversity metric originally developed for addressing questions in community ecology to assess utilitarian diversity of 56 forest plots in Madagascar. The use categories for utilitarian plants were determined using expert knowledge and household questionnaires. We used a null model approach to examine the utilitarian (functional) diversity and utilitarian redundancy present within ecological communities. Additionally, variables that might influence fluctuations in utilitarian diversity and redundancy—specifically number of felled trees, number of trails, basal area, canopy height, elevation, distance from village—were analyzed using Generalized Linear Models (GLMs). Eighteen of the 56 plots showed utilitarian diversity values significantly higher than expected. This result indicates that these habitats exhibited a low degree of utilitarian redundancy and were therefore comprised of plants with relatively distinct utilitarian properties. One implication of this finding is that minor losses in species richness may result in reductions in utilitarian diversity and redundancy, which may limit local residents' ability to switch between alternative choices. The GLM analysis showed that the most predictive model included basal area, canopy height and distance from village, which suggests that variation in utilitarian redundancy may be a result of local residents harvesting resources from the protected area. Our approach permits an assessment of the diversity of provisioning services available to local communities, offering unique insights that would not be possible using traditional taxonomic diversity measures. These analyses introduce another tool available to conservation biologists for assessing how future losses in biodiversity will lead to a reduction in natural resources and provisioning services from forests

Variance estimation for integrated population models

Abstract State-space models are widely used in ecology. However, it is well known that in practice it can be difficult to estimate both the process and observation variances that occur in such models. We consider this issue for integrated population models,which incorporate state-space models for population dynamics. To some extent, the mechanism of integrated population models protects against this problem, but it can still arise, and two illustrations are provided, in each of which the observation variance is estimated as zero. In the context of an extended case study involving data on British Grey herons, we consider alternative approaches for dealing with the problem when it occurs. In particular, we consider penalised likelihood, a method based on fitting splines and a method of pseudo-replication, which is undertaken via a simple bootstrap procedure. For the case study of the paper, it is shown that when it occurs, an estimate of zero observation variance is unimportant for inference relating to the model parameters of primary interest. This unexpected finding is supported by a simulation study

Bringing It All Together: Multi-species Integrated Population Modelling of a Breeding Community

Integrated population models (IPMs) combine data on different aspects of demography with time-series of population abundance. IPMs are becoming increasingly popular in the study of wildlife populations, but their application has largely been restricted to the analysis of single species. However, species exist within communities: sympatric species are exposed to the same abiotic environment, which may generate synchrony in the fluctuations of their demographic parameters over time. Given that in many environments conditions are changing rapidly, assessing whether species show similar demographic and population responses is fundamental to quantifying interspecific differences in environmental sensitivity and highlighting ecological interactions at risk of disruption. In this paper, we combine statistical approaches to study populations, integrating data along two different dimensions: across species (using a recently proposed framework to quantify multi-species synchrony in demography) and within each species (using IPMs with demographic and abundance data).We analyse data from three seabird species breeding at a nationally important long-term monitoring site. We combine demographic datasets with island-wide population counts to construct the first multi-species Integrated Population Model to consider synchrony. Our extension of the IPM concept allows the simultaneous estimation of demographic parameters, adult abundance and multi-species synchrony in survival and productivity, within a robust statistical framework. The approach is readily applicable to other taxa and habitats

Effects of Reorganization on the Clientele of the Division of Family Services in Northern Utah

The Division of Family Services in the State of Utah has undergone an organizational change. State aid to needy families is now administered on a regional level, rather than a county level. It was hypothesized that this reorganization would have little affect on the client\u27s attitude toward state services. They would be aware of the change but would be neutral in attitude about the change. Survey research was used to obtain data for this study. A change scale was developed and a score computed. After reviewing the data the hypothesis was rejected. Clients did have a positive view about regionalization or organizational change

Program planning as technology in three adult education units

This study examines program planning in adult education units in a school district, a community college and a university. Program planning is conceptualized as technology which is defined as activities undertaken to change program ideas into planned educational activities. This definition and a framework of three kinds of technology (long-linked, mediating, and intensive) and eight program planning activities allowed specific tasks performed by program planners to be examined for differences. The study was undertaken to determine if differences in program planning exist among units and if the concept of technology can be usefully employed in describing program planning. The case study method is employed in this investigation. Depth interviews with thirty individuals, organization reports, records, and publications contained data which were analyzed and used to describe the technology of each unit. Most interviews dealt with how programs were planned. They were tape recorded and conducted in two phases. Other interviews dealt with the relationships between the units and the organizations to which they belonged. The reports, records, and publications were used to help describe the organizational context of a unit and corroborate data from interviews. Program planning was accomplished in similar ways by individuals within a given unit. Degree of conformity varied among the units and technology was not a standard undertaking, although patterns of a technology were present in each unit. Individuals exhibited personal consistency more than they exhibited consistency in a unit. The historical or contextual setting of units influenced the pattern of technology employed. The investigator concludes that mixed technologies exist in the units and they are affected by unit purpose, leadership, and history. It was also concluded that integrating a unit with its organization was an important goal for unit and organizational heads and this goal also affected the kind of technology pattern used by unit.Education, Faculty ofEducational Studies (EDST), Department ofGraduat