OSU Journals (Oklahoma State University)
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Post-Burn, Post-Flood Effects In A Degraded Grassland, Lake Texoma, Bryan County, Oklahoma
Get PDFPlant communities change over time, sometimes leading to an increase or decrease in biological diversity. Often, absence of active management of a site leads to its degradation including loss of native species and invasion by non-native weeds. Lake Texoma, Texas and Oklahoma, represents an area where extensive landscape change has happened over the course of almost a century. The Denison Dam was completed in 1938, forming the lake, which over time has altered conditions in the forested and formerly-grazed locations surrounding it. The location studied in this paper is a 186-ha tract of land situated between Johnson Creek and the Roosevelt Bridge in Bryan County, Oklahoma. In summer 2000, a species list was compiled for a grassland located at the lake site as part of a larger study. This grassland comprised ~10% of the total site area. Following two major floods and an extended drought, the site was resampled in 2018. Results indicated it had suffered a serious decline in species richness and an increase in abundance of invasive or encroaching species. Species richness was reduced by approximately 50% between 2000 and 2018. Fewer transects were sampled in 2018 because of woody encroachment on the original site. In spring 2021, following an extensive prescribed burn, the site was resampled to see if burning led to any reduction in undesirable species. The most frequent species in 2000 included Panicum philadelphicum, Lespedeza virginica, Rudbeckia hirta and Ambrosia psilostachya and in 2018 they were Lespedeza cuneata, Ambrosia psilostachya, and Dichanthelium oligosanthes. It is possible that the invasive Lespedeza cuneata (sericea lespedeza) spread after a 2007 flood because of some combination of reduced competition and transport of seed in floodwater. In 2021, the most frequent species were the same as in 2018, showing little effect of the burn. However, the Shannon diversity and evenness in both early and late summer sampling periods after the burn were higher than those for the 2018 data, suggesting that the burn may have had some effect. To attempt to restore the site to more “native” conditions would probably require some combination of regular burning, flash grazing, and possibly herbicide use. Once sericea lespedeza establishes, it is very difficult to eradicate from a location
Compatible Land Use for Heliports and Vertiports: A Safety Perspective
Get PDFAirport land use planning is crucial for safety, long-term utility, and environmental congruity. While there have been a number of studies of aircraft accidents in reference to runways for the purposes of safety and land use standards, little research exists on safety and land use compatibility for heliports and no such data exists for vertiports. This study aimed to provide a better understanding of safety and land use issues near heliports through a focus on the geographic distribution of helicopter accidents in relation to the point of takeoff or landing. The findings of this study provide initial guidance for the design of land use compatibility and safety zones pertaining to heliports and how these can be adapted to vertiports. Accident data exhibited a stochastic spatial pattern of accident occurrences, with the highest concentration occurring within a proximity of 40 feet from the designated takeoff/landing location. Almost all (90%) accidents took place within 400 feet of the takeoff/landing reference point. Sizes and shapes of safety and land use zones are outlined. Recommendations for future studies are also provided
Bayesian Inference and Aviation Safety: Quantifying the Negative Effects of Organisational Decision Making on Accident Probability
No full textOrganisational failure is at the root of many aircraft accidents. Organisational decision making infects individual decision making. Based on data retrieved from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, and concentrating on a specific geographic area of general aviation operations in the far north of the State of Queensland, this paper examines how organisational failures can dramatically increase accident probability under certain conditions. Using Bayes' theorem, we seek to quantify the effects, and to consequently help to improve the safety of general aviation operations, particularly in remote areas
Primary and lower secondary school teachers’ perceptions of how they manage to support students with learning difficulties in inclusive classrooms
Get PDFMany teachers recognize that students with learning difficulties (LDs) need support in a wide range of areas. However, many teachers still do not feel adequately equipped to address students’ needs in inclusive classrooms. This study aims to investigate teachers’ perceptions of how they manage to support students with LDs in inclusive classrooms. Twenty-five Norwegian teachers currently teaching students with learning difficulties in inclusive classrooms participated in this Q methodological study. Results indicate that teachers’ perceptions of how they manage to support students in inclusive classrooms vary markedly. The first viewpoints held by some teachers reflected their contentment with the way they managed to support students during lessons. On the contrary, some teachers were primarily uncertain about how to address students’ instructional and learning needs, while others were ambivalent about whether they were adequately addressing students’ social, emotional, and guidance needs. These findings suggest that although some teachers find themselves adequately supporting students, many teachers report that they struggle to meet students’ additional support needs in inclusive classrooms. The findings underscore the need for promoting teachers’ knowledge and skills to understand and address the complex additional support needs of students with learning difficulties in inclusive classrooms
Rationality vs. Rationale Among Trump Voters in 2016: What Were They Thinking?
Get PDFRational-choice models, imported from economics, represent the most persistent theoretical influence affecting research on voting behavior in an American context. A theory posited by Anthony Downs (1957) made the claim that voters act in their own economic self-interest. Indeed, the specter of an electorate inclined to vote in a manner sabotaging its economic self-interest has recently received renewed interest as a result of Donald Trump’s unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Though Clinton compiled nearly three million more popular votes nationwide than Trump, the latter won the electoral-college vote thanks to the defection of white working-class voters, a demographic normally considered a reliable affiliate of the Democratic party, in the key states from Pennsylvania westward through Michigan and Wisconsin; in fact, estimates claim as many as eight million members of this bloc switched to Trump after having voted in 2012 for Barack Obama. In this research, we examine Trump voters themselves, drawing upon a concourse supplied principally by the voters responding to an invitation to share their reasoning with The Washington Post. An investigation of 30 Trump voters revealed four orientations underlying the Trump vote: (1) Traditional Republicans; (2) Drain the Swampers; (3) Art of the Dealers; and (4) Never-Hillary Culture Warriors/Fix the System. A concluding discussion offers an alternative to Downsian conceptions of electoral choice, featuring “deep-storied, bounded-rationality subjectivity†brought to light by UC-Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild and University of Pennsylvania political scientist Diana Mutz, among others