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Information Literacy Through Site-Specific Installation: The Library Project
Get PDFThis article describes how a collaborative, multifaceted, site-specific installation helped to develop information literacy in studio art students. Through the process of planning, creating, and installing the project, students learned to find and evaluate many different kinds of information, from design ideas to historical precedents, site plans, and business plans. As a public installation within a library, students learned to consider the economic, social, and legal issues involved with the context of their audience and location. Finally, the conceptual framework of the installation encouraged students to think critically about the role of libraries in today’s information and technology-saturated society
Making It Real: Why a Makerspace Might Make Sense for Your Library
Get PDFMakerspaces are a growing area of service for all types of libraries. People with varying skill levels create projects in these collaborative environments with support from one another and access to equipment and materials. The resulting space and activities can greatly impact the community served by the library, but are not always seen as a clear application of the library’s mission. What motivates library staff members and librarians to create makerspaces in their libraries? What types of creative activities do libraries offer in their environments? The findings from a survey of library makerspaces will be shared, along with suggestions on makerspace creation from the library literature and extensive interviews with library makers. Come learn how a makerspace could work in your library
Modeling Impact of Hurricane Damages on Income Distribution in the Coastal U.S.
Get PDFThis article examines the impact of catastrophic
hurricane events on income distribution in hurricane
states in the United States. Media claims have been
made and the perception created that the most damaging
impact of hurricanes is on the lowest income population in
the affected states. If these claims are true, they may have
serious implications for the insurance industry and government
policy makers. We develop a panel data, fixed
effects econometric model that includes hurricane-impacted
states as cross-sections using annual data for a period of
almost 100 years. The Gini coefficient is used as a measure
of income inequality, and is a function of normalized
hurricane economic damages, gross domestic product
(GDP), a set of socioeconomic variables that serves as a
control, time trend, and cross-sectional dummy variables.
Findings indicate that for every 100 billion US dollars in
hurricane economic damages there is an increase in income
inequality by 5.4 % as measured by Gini coefficient.
Political, sociodemographic, and economic variables are
also significant. These include such variables as the political
party controlling the U.S. Senate, the proportion of
nonwhite population by state, and GDP. Time trend is a
positive and significant variable, suggesting an increase in
income inequality over time. There are significant differences
among the states included in the study. Our results
demonstrate that different segments of the population are
differently impacted by hurricanes and suggest how that
differential impact could be considered in future government
policies and business decisions, particularly those
made by the insurance industry
Four Positions of Leadership in Planning, Implementing, and Sustaining Faculty Learning Community Programs
No full textThis chapter describes four new leadership areas in the development of faculty learning community programs and provides perspectives and resources that these leaders can use to engage their work
Exploring brownfields: Revitalization with wetlands and golf courses
Get PDFThe idea of building a golf course near natural wildlife and complex ecosystems can be a controversial
topic to the general public. Many believe that the chemicals used to balance the turf grass systems on
the courses can be toxic to the natural wildlife and damaging to plant life. These same believers have
considered the possibilities of amphibian mutation between the species living in these habitats, as well
as the potential for causing droughts among these once vast and lush wetlands. But, what about areas
of land that have already been damaged? What if there was a way to bring wildlife and greenery back
to a better state than it was before it became a toxic, undeveloped area of land? What if we could
revitalize brownfields in a sustainable way through the use of wetlands, and accompany them by the
beauty of golf courses? Is it possible to merge these three factors in a natural way?
The goal of this study is to educate the public about the possibilities of greening brownfields in a
natural way by sustainably merging a natural and man-made environment that compliments its
surrounding habitats, promotes good health, and educates the public about natural ecosystems
Cold hardiness and overwintering strategies of hatchlings in an assemblage of northern turtles.
Get PDFField and laboratory studies were conducted during 1989-1994 to investigate the overwintering strategies of hatching turtles representing four families native to western Nebraska. Whereas hatchling snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) and spiny soft-shelled turtles (Apalone spinifera) overwinter in aquatic habitats, yellow mud turtles (Kinosternon flavescens) and ornate box turtles (Terrapene ornata) burrow below the natal nest and hibernate in sandy soil. Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) overwinter within their shallow natal nests, but this species, and T. ornata, tolerate extensive tissue freezing. Overwintering behaviors of these species are consistent with indices of physiological cold hardiness and patterns of geographic distribution. Frost commonly penetrated and persisted below 10 cm, the soil depth as which hatchling C. picta routinely hibernate. Field and laboratory data suggested that hatchling C. picta survive either by remaining super-cooled (unfrozen) or by tolerating tissue freezing, the strategy employed depending on prevailing physiological and microenvironmental conditions. Whereas relatively lower temperatures can be survived in the supercooled state, supercooling capacity may be limited via the inoculation of body fluids by environmental ice. Alternatively, wheras freeze tolerence fortuitously is promoted by ice inoculation, this strategy may be viable only at relatively high subzero temperatures. A cold-hardiness stragefy based on both survival mechanisms may promote winter survival in hatchling C. picta by conferring protection under dynamic physiological and microenvironmental conditions. Physiological cold hardiness and behavior are integrated determinants of the northern distributions of temperature region turtles
Cold-hardiness of a laboratory colony of lone star ticks.
Get PDFThe cold-hardiness of a lone star tick, Ambylomma americium (L.) laboratory colony was characterized. Fed and unfed larvae, fed and unfed nymphs, and unfed adults did not survive exposure to -17C for 7 d. After an 8-d exposure to -10C, adults tolerated cold better than immatures and unfed specimens fared better than fed ticks. Exposing unfed 6-wk old (post mold) adult males and females to -15C for increasing intervals up to 2 hrs suggests that males were more tolerant to cold then were females. Half of all adults were alive 3 d after the 2-h low-temperature treatment. Males may have survived because of a significantly higher hemolymph osmotic pressure, although the solute concentration increased for both sexes after a 2-h exposure to 0C. Acclimation to 5C for 7 d had no influence on supercooling points for unfed males and females, engorged nymphs and larvae, and eggs. None of the life stages survived supercooling, which strongly suggests that this species is freeze-intolerant. Intolerance of immature stages to chilling may be a limiting factor in the northern distribution of lone star ticks in North America
Cold-hardiness and evaporative water loss in hatchling turtles.
Get PDFNorth American turtles hatch in late summer and spend their first winter either on land or underwater. Adaptations for terrestrial overwintering of hatchlings in northern regions, where winter thermal and hydric regimes are harsh, have not been systematically investigated in many species. We measured intrinsic supercooling capacity, resistance to inoculative freezing, and desiccation resistance in hatchlings of terrestrial and aquatic turtles collected from northern (Terrapene ornata, Chrysemys picta bellii, Kinosternon flavescens, Chelydra serpentina) and southern (Chrysemys picta dorsalis, Trachemys scripta, Sternotherus odoratus, Sternotherus carinatus) locales. Supercooling capacity was estimated from the crystallization temperature of turtles cooled in the absence of external ice nuclei. Mean values ranged from −8.1° to −15.5°C and tended to be lower in terrestrial hibernators. Inoculation resistance was estimated from the crystallization temperature of turtles cooled in a matrix of frozen soil. These values (range of means: −0.8° to −13.6°C) also tended to be lower in the terrestrial hibernators, especially C. picta bellii. Mean rates of evaporative water loss varied markedly among the species (0.9–11.4 mg g−1 d−1) and were lowest in the terrestrial hibernators. Most species tolerated the loss of a modest amount of body water, although half of the sample of S. carinatus died from desiccation. In general, turtles did not regain lost body water from wet soil, and immersion in free water was required for rehydration. Therefore, desiccation resistance may be an important adaptation to terrestrial hibernation. Resistances to inoculative freezing and desiccation were directly correlated, perhaps because they are governed by the same morphological characteristics
Seasonality of Freeze Tolerance in a Subarctic Population of the Wood Frog, Rana sylvatica
Get PDFWe compared physiological characteristics and responses to experimental freezing and thawing in winter and spring samples of the wood frog, Rana sylvatica, indigenous to Interior Alaska, USA. Whereas winter frogs can survive freezing at temperatures at least as low as −16°C, the lower limit of tolerance for spring frogs was between −2.5°C and −5°C. Spring frogs had comparatively low levels of the urea in blood plasma, liver, heart, brain, and skeletal muscle, as well as a smaller hepatic reserve of glycogen, which is converted to glucose after freezing begins. Consequently, following freezing (−2.5°C, 48 h) tissue concentrations of these cryoprotective osmolytes were 44–88% lower than those measured in winter frogs. Spring frogs formed much more ice and incurred extensive cryohemolysis and lactate accrual, indicating that they had suffered marked cell damage and hypoxic stress during freezing. Multiple, interactive stresses, in addition to diminished cryoprotectant levels, contribute to the reduced capacity for freeze tolerance in posthibernal frogs
Opening Minds through Art For One (OMA41): Direct Care Workers and Volunteers as Creative Arts Facilitators of Older Adults
No full textThis brief describes the pilot implementation and evaluation of OMA For One (OMA41). OMA41 is an adaptation of Opening Minds through Art (OMA), a visual arts program for elders with cognitive impairments. OMA41 is conducted one on one, rather than in a group setting and uses direct care workers or volunteers as facilitators