Mountain Scholar (Digital Collections of Colorado and Wyoming)
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Grassland responses to seasonal shifts in water availability
Full text linkIncludes bibliographical references.2023 Spring.Climate change is altering seasonal dynamics across a wide range of ecosystems with consequences that include shifts in phenology, timing of nutrient availability, and changes in plant community composition. Current research has primarily focused on temperature as the key driver for these shifts because of the strong directional trend with climate warming, however, alterations in the availability of water across seasons is an unappreciated aspect of climate change that can significantly influence ecosystem functioning. While changes in the seasonal availability of water are expected to be globally pervasive, grasslands may be particularly vulnerable because these ecosystems are often water-limited and have species with distinct seasons of growth. Therefore, my dissertation examined how seasonal patterns of water availability may shift with climate change in the grasslands of the US Great Plains and the ecological consequences of these shifts. I first explored several mechanisms by which climate change is altering the seasonal water balance, using the Great Plains as a case study. Building on that, I then designed two field experiments in semi-arid grasslands that altered seasonal patterns of water availability to understand how these shifts affected ecosystem function and structure (primarily C3 vs C4 grasses). Overall, the results from both field experiments suggest that shifts in the seasonality of water availability with climate change will alter carbon cycling dynamics, shift seasonal patterns of canopy albedo, and differentially impact C3 vs. C4 species in the semi-arid grasslands of the US Great Plains. Thus, my research confirms the importance of this aspect of climate change and provides evidence that seasonal shifts in water availability can alter ecosystem processes and drive compositional changes. Since grasslands provide many economically and ecologically valuable services, understanding how climate change will impact these systems is critical for land managers and policymakers to make informed decisions
To save carbon or to save forest: comparing effectiveness of climate impact messaging on household energy behavior
Full text link2023 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Impacts from the climate change crisis are already being seen across the world. With these adverse events, awareness of, and communication about, climate change is increasing. Despite this, though, there has been an inadequate increase in climate action. Thus, it is important to determine the best ways to communicate climate impact information to consumers. The present study investigates how we can best frame climate impact messages for them to be effective in changing consumer behavior. Specifically, the effectiveness of four different carbon messages was examined in the context of household energy behavior. While meeting U.S. electricity demand with renewable energy is an attainable goal, it will require greater flexibility in the electricity grid, including flexibility in demand timing. Thus far, utility companies have used price signals as a main form of demand response. However, communicating environmental savings to consumers in addition to/instead of price savings is an emerging trend. For these reasons, the present study focused on the impact that climate impact messages may have consumers' willingness to shift their appliance use toward a time of day when renewable energy sources are more plentiful. Participants were recruited online and through local environmental groups. In an online survey, 244 participants were randomly assigned to one of four messaging conditions for three household appliances (air conditioning, dishwasher, and washing machine). The goal of the messages is to convince consumers to shift the times they use these appliances, and, as a result, shift demand on the electricity grid, to 9 a.m. (a time with higher renewable energy sources on average in the continental U.S.). Based on previous message framing research, the messages tested were framed in terms of environmental gain: specifically, the environmental savings accomplished by the behavior change. Three messages were created based on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions data, with savings calculated in terms of pounds of CO2 emissions, percent change in CO2 emissions, and the equivalent of acres of forest planted. (For example, "…would cut your yearly CO2 emissions by the equivalent of planting 475 square feet of forest…") A fourth message simply stated that the behavior is "more environmentally friendly" to test a non-numeric message. Participants were asked the likelihood of changing the time that they run each appliance, first with no message present (which acted as a baseline covariate) and then with the randomly assigned message present. Because previous research has shown that numeracy plays a role in the effectiveness of numerical messaging, I also tested a numeracy moderation effect. To compare participants' likelihood of switching across messaging conditions and to test whether numeracy played a moderating role, I ran individual analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) for each of the three appliances. This allowed me to control for participants' baseline likelihood (i.e., with no environmental message), by adding it as a covariate. Across all three appliances, neither the main effects of messaging condition and numeracy nor the interaction between the two were significant predictors of post-test likelihood. This means there was no evidence to suggest a difference in effectiveness between the messaging conditions, although there was a notable nonsignificant trend of the forest equivalency message performing better. Additionally, I ran mean differences tests comparing baseline likelihood and experimental likelihood for each of the conditions. These tests showed strong evidence that each climate impact message significantly increased participants' likelihood of switching the time they use their appliances. The finding that the messages were effective confirms the need to understand how to optimize the impact that climate impact messages can have on behavior and the mechanisms through which they are effective. Furthermore, the finding that the forest equivalency message had the strongest effect of the four messages (though not statistically significant) is worth researching further, because of the potential applications of this finding. Communicating climate impact information in terms of equivalency in square footage of forest planted easily allows for visualizations to be included, more so than other numerical messages, which may increase a message's saliency and persuasiveness. Furthermore, the findings of the present study and a pilot study that is reported suggest that future research should examine effectiveness within different segments of the population. More research, overall, is needed to further investigate the most effective ways to inform consumers about the climate impact of their behaviors
Sensemaking for writing programs and writing centers
No full textIncludes bibliographical references and index.In this collection, writing program and writing center administrators from a range of academic institutions come together to explore their work through the lens of sensemaking. Sensemaking is an organizational theory concept that enables institutions, supervisors, teachers, tutors, and others to better understand the work they do using theoretical lenses.--Provided by publisher.The medachtic tutor: Jewish discourse, metaphor, and undergraduate tutors' sensemaking of writing center work / Andrea Rosso Efthymiou -- Beyond the anecdote: TA sensemaking as writing program underlife / Courtney Adams Wooten -- Celebrating sensemaking cultures in the writing center: scaffolding transparent communication between tutors and directors / Jeanne R. Smith, Shannon McKeehen, Barbara George, and Yvonne R. Lee -- Tutor-to-tutor: attending to the operations of race and privilege among writing center staff members / Alba Newmann Holmes -- Making sense of how things feel: attending to emotional experiences in writing programs / Bronwyn T. Williams -- New writing center ecologies: challenging inherited sensemaking in the center / Genie Nicole Giaimo and Joseph Cheatle -- Stories to support and sustain a program: connections among the library, WID, and the writing center / Susanmarie Harrington and Sue Dinitz -- Cascading texts and cat's cradles: an institutional ethnographic approach to understanding the textual production of unionized labor / Melissa Nicolas -- Distributed leadership for WPAs: making sense of leadership methods / Christy I. Wenger -- Sensemaking as antiracist writing program administration: reappropriating activity and actor-network theory / Brian Hendrickson -- Afterword: a 2x2 review of sensemaking for writing programs and writing centers / Karen Keaton Jackson
Forgetting the self: nondual awareness as a key component of self-transcendent experiences
Full text linkIncludes bibliographical references.2023 Spring.Self-transcendence (ST) and self-transcendent experiences (STEs) have been described as a positive component of human experience and as predictors of wellbeing across a diverse and multidisciplinary literature. As a trait, self-transcendence (ST) has been conceptualized as a developmental process (Levenson et al., 2005; Tornstam, 1996), a coping mechanism (Reed, 2014), an aspect of personality (Cloninger, 1987), and as a value (Kasser, 2019). STEs have been described as a type of experience marked by a reduced sense of self and greater feelings of connectedness, as seen in awe, flow and mystical experiences. Recent scholarship has suggested that these diverse approaches have hampered the development of ST theory (Yaden et al., 2017), and identified a need to conceptually link these independently studied domains. There is need for a subject-agnostic measure of STE—an instrument that can measure STE irrespective of the type of experience. Nondual awareness (NDA)—a blurring of the distinction of self and other—is proposed as the construct best suited to these ends. Two studies were designed to improve our understanding of this construct and how it relates to STEs and ST. Study 1 was a correlational study to expand the nomological net of a new measure of NDA (the NADA-T) and examine connections to other ST/STE constructs and wellbeing variables. Study 2 utilized a sample of experienced meditators, with measurements before and after an intensive meditation retreat to track co-occurrence of awe and flow states, and connect them to increases in NDA. These studies found evidence of a strong connection between awe and NDA, and a weaker connection with flow. Some initial but limited support was found for the notion that NDA may lead to development of trait ST. The implication of these findings and limitation of these studies is explored, as well as suggestions for future research
Autoigntion and flame speed of premixed liquefied petroleum gas in a rapid compression machine: experimental results and reduced chemical kinetic mechanism
Full text link2023 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has many properties that make it an attractive alternative fuel such as lower cost than conventional fuels and an established distribution infrastructure. The development of high efficiency, spark ignited LPG engines is currently limited by engine knock and misfire. The knock and misfire limits are further complicated by the wide range of chemical reactivity in LPG, particularly in international markets. In this study, a rapid compression machine (RCM) was used to characterize the effects of variation in LPG fuel reactivity, equivalence ratio, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on the autoignition and flame speeds of LPG/oxidizer/inert/EGR blends. Experiments were conducted with 100% propane and blends of propane with propene, ethane, isobutane, or n-butane. EGR was simulated with mixtures of Ar, CO2, CO, and NO at substitution percentages from 0 to 30 mass percent. Equivalence ratio was varied from 0.75 to 1.5. Ignition delay period under homogeneous autoignition conditions was measured at compressed pressures and temperatures of 23 to 25 bar and 701 to 921 K, respectively. Laminar flame speeds and apparent heat release rates (AHRR) at 24 bar with mixture temperatures of 700 K or 867 K were obtained by firing a laser ignition system into the reaction chamber shortly after compression and analyzing the propagating flame with high speed schlieren imaging. Zero-dimensional simulations of published autoignition experiments were performed using Chemkin-Pro with several detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms to determine their suitability at predicting ignition delay periods. Multiple reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms were created from the NUIGMech1.1 mechanism to determine the optimal balance between accuracy and computational efficiency for future three-dimensional, time-dependent spark-ignited engine simulations. The chosen reduction, ALPINE 153, was used to model ignition delay periods and flame speeds measured in the RCM during this study
