Development And Motivation In/For Critical Thinking

An explicit link between the issues of development and critical thinking is provided by Elder and Paul (1996). In their stage theory of critical thinking, Elder and Paul argued that the first stage beyond unreflective thinking is that of the challenged thinker. The challenged thinker is one who has become aware of the actual role of thinking in life and of significant problems caused by unreflective thinking. This is in accord with our experience, which we will describe and analyze in this article. History and contemporary society are saturated with and driven by thinking, much of which is developmentally immature and disastrous. Scriven and Paul (1987) made the crucial point that shoddy thinking is costly. Our approach to fostering critical thinking deals with the issue of motivation to think critically by focusing on the costs of not doing so. We agree with McPeck (1994) that some course content areas are more suitable than others for fostering critical thinking. In the courses we will describe here, we are able to challenge students to think about issues that have significant impact in the social world. Our goal is to move students to recognize that they can, and should, become critical thinkers and that recognizing meaningful challenges is the first developmental step

Selling Solar: Financing Household Solar Energy in the Developing World

Based on value chain analyses of case studies, outlines the issues and challenges for developing a solar energy industry, with a focus on the need for a financing infrastructure that serves purchasers, manufacturers, distributors, and investors

An investigation of sliced inverse regression with censored data.

The complexity of high-dimensional data creates a number of concerns when trying to analyze it. This data often consists of a response or survival time and potentially thousands of predictors. These predictors can be highly correlated, and the sample size is often very small and right censored. Sliced inverse regression (SIR) is a method of reducing the dimension of the data, while preserving all the regression information. Sliced inverse regression with regularizations was developed to work when the number of predictors exceeds the sample size, and to deal with highly correlated predictors as well. In this study we investigated the performance of Sliced inverse regression with regularizations using three different approaches for handling right censored data. The methods of reweighting, mean imputation, and multiple imputation were analyzed. Based on the simulation scenarios, the mean imputation method performs the best in regards to fitting the data as well as prediction. The method of reweighting appears inadequate when combined with SIR

Ecological differences in the associations between air pollution, greenness, and risk of stroke: The REGARDS study.

The adverse health effects of air pollution have long been recognized, with the majority of morbidity and mortality due to its effects on the cardiovascular system. Alternatively, living in areas with higher greenness has been found to be beneficial to a wide range of health outcomes. However, few studies have considered that these relationships may vary depending on the surrounding ecosystem. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the effects of long-term exposure to air pollution and greenness on incidence of stroke, and how these relationships vary with the major ecological regions of the United States. We utilized the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study (REGARDS), a prospective cohort study of 30,239 participants recruited between 2003 and 2007. One-year and 3-year exposure to PM2.5, PM10, O3, NO2, SO2, and CO were assigned to participants’ census block group. Residential greenspace was estimated by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhance Vegetation Index (EVI). The risk of incident stroke associated with baseline pollutants and greenness was assessed using adjusted Cox proportional hazards models. Models were stratified by EPA created ecoregions to determine how associations varied by geographic areas with similar environmental features. The hazard ratio (95% CI) for a 2.9 µg/m3 (interquartile range) increase in 1-year PM10 was 1.07 (1.003, 1.15) for risk of stroke in the full study population. We did not find evidence of positive associations for PM2.5, O3, NO2, SO2, and CO in the full population. In our ecoregion specific analysis, we found positive associations for PM2.5 in the Great Plains ecoregion, while associations for PM10 were strongest in the Eastern Temperate Forests region. There was suggestive evidence of a negative association between greenness and stroke incidence (hazard ratio: 0.989; 95% CI: 0.946, 1.033) for a 0.1 increase in NDVI within 250-m. In our analysis by ecoregions, we found negative associations between greenness and stroke incidence in the Eastern Temperate Forests region, but positive associations in the Great Plains and Mediterranean California regions. The associations between exposure to air pollution, greenness and stroke incidence varied by ecoregion, highlighting the importance of considering the complexities of the natural environment

The connection between neighborhood walkability and life longevity in a midsized city

Riggs and Gilderbloom discuss a study for Louisville, KY that confirms the relationship between walkability and health, offering lessons for similar urban areas. Investigating years of projected life lost as it relates to neighborhood walkability, they found that more walkable areas are predictors of longevity. The study suggests that the trend toward longer lifespan may be connected to gentrification-related displacement and racial homogenization in walkable neighborhoods. The findings can help shape urban design policies and interventions that support physical activity

COMPUTABLE GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM MODELING OF RANGELAND FIRES IN NORTHERN NEVADA

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

RANGELAND FIRES IN NORTHERN NEVADA: AN APPLICATION OF COMPUTABLE GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM MODELING

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,