A BIOGEOCHEMICAL-ECONOMIC MODEL FOR THE VALUATION OF COVER CROPS ECOSYSTEM SERVICES UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE

Cover crop (CC) adoption is a promising conservation practice that provides multiple ecosystem services, such as reduced nitrate pollution and increased soil health. These CC ecosystem services have been demonstrated in the biogeochemistry literature. However, widespread adoption of CC in the Midwestern U.S. is still low, in part because there continues to be a debate about whether adopting CC is privately optimal for farmers and how climate change might affect the private incentives to adopt. Economic analyses of CC adoption are complicated by the difficulty to account for the economic benefits of CC ecosystem services, in a changing climate. In this thesis, we developed a biogeochemical-economic model that estimates the ecosystem service benefits provided by CC under different climate scenarios on a corn-soybean farm and contrasts them with CC costs over 10 years. We used the DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) model as the ecological production function in the biogeochemical-economic model. DNDC simulated changes in three non-market ecosystem services, namely soil water storage, soil organic matter accumulation, and N retention, with and without cover crops, and linked them to changes in corn yields and nitrogen fertilizer input. The biogeochemical-economic model simulation results suggest that under most climate scenarios, and except for the case of constant extreme droughts, CC adoption does not generate a sizable difference in farm net present values (NPVs). Under historical Iowa weather (2004-2013), adopting CC reduces a farm’s NPV by 4%, relative to no CC adoption. However, if two years of drought occur in the 10 years, the difference in NPVs goes down to 0.5%. The ranking of NPVs is reversed in the most likely scenario where precipitation increases in the spring and decreases in the summer: adopting CC increases a farm’s NPV by 1.1%, relative to no CC adoption. This difference increases sizably when the farmer experiences a greater number of drought years. Under frequent extreme droughts, adopting CC increases a farm’s NPV by 15%, relative to no CC. This difference is explained by higher corn yields in the CC treatment, where corn yields were 15% higher under frequent extreme droughts. DNDC simulation results show that this yield increase is due to an increase in the following three ecosystem services in the CC system: improved soil water storage, soil organic matter accumulation, and N retention. Finally, using the certainty equivalent measure, we found that the baseline results for a risk-neutral farmer do not change in the case of a moderately risk-averse farmer

The Individual Budgets Pilot Projects: Impact and Outcomes for Carers

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Building Administrator’s Facilitation of Teacher Leadership: Moderators Associated with Teachers’ Reported Levels of Empowerment

The current, mixed-methods investigation examines the role of building administrators in the perceived level of empowerment of classroom teachers. As such, this study was designed to contribute to the paucity of current research on teacher empowerment, thus informing school leaders on the importance of practice of empowering teachers and what variables can moderate attempts to empower educators. Level of perceived empowerment was measured using the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES), which evaluates six dimensions of teacher empowerment: decision-making, professional growth, status, self-efficacy, autonomy, and impact. Variables, such as gender and tenure of the building administrators and teacher, the presence of an assistant principal, and school building level were examined as potential moderators. Open-ended questions were used to understand teachers’ beliefs and experiences with empowerment

How the inductive method application develops the speaking skills in the 8th grade students in Pedro Orozco School, Terrabona, in the afternoon shift, during the first semester, 2016

The objective of our research is to present one methodological alternative with the purpose to find out how the inductive method application can improve speaking skill in the classroom in order to get a better acquisition of the second language. This work was developed during five months with two groups of students, 8th grade A, and 8th grade B; one group is controlled (8B) and the other one is experimental (8A). They belong to Pedro Orozco School, Terrabona, Montana Grande, in the afternoon shift, during the first semester 2016. In our project, we used one general objective and five specific objectives. We agree these objectives have been met and are demonstrated in our research. In the group 8th A (experimental), the teacher does not apply the inductive method. For this reason we executed two practice classes with the topisc: describing people and national food. To have this classes we used the inductive method which permitted the students to participate actively in the class. The results were positive to us. The students were expected to improve speaking and felt encouraged to speaking because they are the main part of learning. In addition, the teachers, who are the main responsible of students´ learning, improved the quality of education. That is the way students should acquire a meaningful learning through their teachers´ knowledge. In the group B (controlled), we had the opportunity to observe the process and development of the content: parts of the body. The teacher who used the inductive method during the experiment (experimental group) had better students’ interaction that the teacher who applied the deductive method (controlled group) when he was developing the activitie

Harm reduction as a strategy for supporting people who self-harm on mental health wards : the views and experiences of practitioners

BACKGROUND: Harm reduction has had positive outcomes for people using sexual health and substance misuse services. Clinical guidance recommends these approaches may be appropriately adopted by mental health practitioners when managing some people who self-harm. There has, however, been very little research in this area. METHODS: We explored practitioners' views of harm reduction as a strategy for supporting people who self-harm. The Self Harm Antipathy Scale (SHAS) was administered to a random sample of 395 mental health practitioners working on 31 wards in England, semi-structured interviews were then conducted with 18 survey respondents. RESULTS: Practitioners who had implemented the approach reported positive outcomes including a reduction in incidence and severity of self-harm and a perceived increase in empowerment of service users. Practitioners with no experience of using harm reduction were concerned that self-harm would increase in severity, and were unsure how to assess and manage risk in people under a harm reduction care plan. Some fundamentally disagreed with the principle of harm reduction for self-harm because it challenged their core beliefs about the morality of self-harm, or the ethical and potential legal ramifications of allowing individuals to harm themselves. LIMITATIONS: This study was conducted solely with practitioners working on inpatient units. The majority of staff interviewed had no experience of harm reduction and so their concerns may not reflect challenges encountered by practitioners in clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: Harm reduction is being used to support people who self-harm within inpatient psychiatry and some practitioners report potential benefits of this approach. However, this raises particularly complex practical, ethical and legal issues and further research is needed to assess the safety, acceptability and efficacy of the approach

La neuroeducación como herramienta para mejorar la motricidad fina desde la práctica de los docentes de una institución educativa, 2022

Actualmente, la neuroeducación se considera como una herramienta de apoyo en la labor educativa, especialmente, en la práctica diaria de los docentes con el fin de conocer y comprender el desarrollo del cerebro y en base a ello aplicar estrategias de enseñanza adecuadas e interceder en la solución de problemas que aquejen al grupo infantil. Con la llegada de la pandemia hasta la actualidad, se ha observado diferentes sesgos en la educación. Los niños del nivel inicial se vieron limitados en la exploración de situaciones que estimulen sus sentidos y crecimiento; provocando un retraso en el desarrollo de la motricidad fina. Esto derivó al objetivo de analizar la importancia de la neuroeducación como herramienta para mejorar la motricidad fina desde la práctica de los docentes. La investigación fue cualitativa, básica, fenomenológica y tuvo como instrumento una entrevista semiestructurada, la cual llevó al análisis de los discursos de los docentes, llegando a la conclusión de que la neuroeducación promueve aprendizajes efectivos en los estudiantes de la institución educativa porque permite reconocer las habilidades de los niños y así saber cómo fomentar sus capacidades de manera adecuada

Latent profile analysis of accelerometer-measured sleep, physical activity, and sedentary time and differences in health characteristics in adult women.

ObjectivesIndependently, physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB), and sleep are related to the development and progression of chronic diseases. Less is known about how rest-activity behaviors cluster within individuals and how rest-activity behavior profiles relate to health. In this study we aimed to investigate if adult women cluster into profiles based on how they accumulate rest-activity behavior (including accelerometer-measured PA, SB, and sleep), and if participant characteristics and health outcomes differ by profile membership.MethodsA convenience sample of 372 women (mean age 55.38 + 10.16) were recruited from four US cities. Participants wore ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers on the hip and wrist for a week. Total daily minutes in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and percentage of wear-time spent in SB was estimated from the hip device. Total sleep time (hours/minutes) and sleep efficiency (% of in bed time asleep) were estimated from the wrist device. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was performed to identify clusters of participants based on accumulation of the four rest-activity variables. Adjusted ANOVAs were conducted to explore differences in demographic characteristics and health outcomes across profiles.ResultsRest-activity variables clustered to form five behavior profiles: Moderately Active Poor Sleepers (7%), Highly Actives (9%), Inactives (41%), Moderately Actives (28%), and Actives (15%). The Moderately Active Poor Sleepers (profile 1) had the lowest proportion of whites (35% vs 78-91%, p < .001) and college graduates (28% vs 68-90%, p = .004). Health outcomes did not vary significantly across all rest-activity profiles.ConclusionsIn this sample, women clustered within daily rest-activity behavior profiles. Identifying 24-hour behavior profiles can inform intervention population targets and innovative behavioral goals of multiple health behavior interventions