Objectives
: We conducted a study of the food environment and nutritional status among women and children living on a Galapagos Island. Anthropometric and body silhouette data give insight into body ...size perceptions for women and their young children. We frame our findings in the context of the nutrition transition.
Methods
: A convenience sample was recruited via word-of-mouth for in-depth interviews and assessments of household food security, dietary intake, anthropometrics, and body image. Interviews took place in 2011 on San Cristobal Island, one of four inhabited islands in the Galapagos archipelago. Twenty women with children between the ages of one and six participated, all permanent residents of San Cristobal Island.
Results
: Most women (60%) reported limited availability of fresh produce due to an unreliable food supply shipped from mainland Ecuador. Despite reported food insecurity in our sample (55%), more than half of the children (55%) experienced high dietary diversity measured by 24 h recall. Women tended to report less dietary diversity than their children, which may be linked to a stated desire to be thinner. Eighty percent of children were classified as normal weight, while 75% of women were overweight or obese.
Conclusions for Practice
: Results provide an initial survey of the food landscape on one Galapagos Island. By combining qualitative interviews with indicators of nutritional status, the narrative data allow an interpretation of issues of food security, dietary intakes, dietary diversity, and body size. This study forms the basis for a larger examination of these issues in the Galapagos islands.
School nutrition programs mitigate food insecurity and promote healthy eating by offering consistent, nutritious meals to school-aged children in communities across the United States; however, ...stringent policy guidelines and contextual challenges often limit participation. During COVID-19 school closures, most school nutrition programs remained operational, adapting quickly and innovating to maximize reach. This study describes semi-structured interviews with 23 nutrition directors in North Carolina, which aimed to identify multi-level contextual factors that influenced implementation, as well as ways in which the innovations during COVID-19 could translate to permanent policy and practice change and improve program reach. Interviews were conducted during initial school closures (May-August 2020) and were deductively analyzed using the Social Ecological Model (SEM) and Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Analysis elicited multiple relevant contextual factors: director characteristics (motivation, leadership style, experience), key implementation stakeholders (internal staff and external partners), inner setting (implementation climate, local leadership engagement, available resources, structural characteristics), and outer setting (state leadership engagement, external policies and incentives). Findings confirm the strength and resilience of program directors and staff, the importance of developing strategies to strengthen external partnerships and emergency preparedness, and strong support from directors for policies offering free meals to all children.
District heating (DH) systems can improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and be a cost‐effective residential space heating alternative over conventional decentralized ...heating. This study uses radiative forcing (RF), a time‐sensitive life cycle assessment metric, to evaluate space heating alternatives. We compare forest residue and willow biomass resources and natural gas as fuel sources against decentralized heating using heating oil. The comparison is performed for selected locations in the Northeastern United States over a 30‐year production timeline and 100 observation years. The natural gas and willow scenarios are compared with scenarios where available forest residue is unused and adds a penalty of GHG emissions due to microbial decay. When forest residues are available, their use is recommended before considering willow production. Investment in bioenergy‐based DH with carbon capture and storage and natural‐gas‐based DH with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is considered to assess their influence on RF. Its implementation further improves the net carbon mitigation potential of DH despite the carbon and energy cost of CCS infrastructure. Soil carbon sequestration from willow production reduces RF overall, specifically when grown on land converted from cropland to pasture, hay, and grassland. The study places initial GHG emissions spikes from infrastructure and land‐use change into a temporal framework and shows a payback within the first 5 years of operation for DH with forest residues and willow.
Replacing conventional heating oil‐based decentralized residential heating with natural gas, forest residue, or willow feedstocks, and centralized‐district heating (DH) infrastructure significantly improves environmental performance. The study implements a temporal analysis using radiative forcing for 30 production years and 100 observation years, identifying the inflection points of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the various residential heating feedstocks. Consideration of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and bioenergy CCS for natural gas and biomass‐based DH respectively shows significant atmospheric carbon capture. Such carbon capture technology supplements soil carbon sequestration‐based environmental GHG sequestration, for willow when grown on pasture, hay, and grasslands.
Much of California’s school funding is allocated through programs whose funding comes with requirements that districts use the money to support specific programs. In 2008–09, the strings were taken ...off 40 of these programs as part of a deal that also reduced their funding. This report presents the results of a survey of California’s district chief financial officers (CFOs), describing how they made decisions in light of this new state policy.
Teacher evaluations serve a dual purpose: 1) to hold teachers accountable for the quality of their instruction and student learning; and 2) to motivate and inform improvements in their practice. ...Given that teachers are considered to be the most important influence on student learning within the school environment, it is not surprising that policymakers look to teacher evaluations as a tool for improving student achievement. The policy landscape surrounding teacher evaluation in the U.S. is rapidly changing. Though reforms may be forwarded by state mandates, federal incentives, and funding from private foundations, implementation occurs at the district level, and in the 45 states where teachers unions are permitted, teacher evaluation procedures may be subject to collective bargaining. It follows that local stakeholders determine, to a large extent, the success of these reform efforts. If efforts to implement new teacher evaluations are to be successful – and ultimately effective – policymakers must understand when and why school district leaders, local teachers unions, and other key players collaborate, and how their interactions influence the reform process and its outcomes. This dissertation presents three case studies of school districts in California that are working to reform their teacher evaluation policies. My research aim was to identify the conditions that led to successful development and adoption of teacher evaluation policies, as well as the factors that have contributed to challenges in those districts. I created a logical framework to outline the reform process and provide a canvas for telling the story of each case study district and for comparing cases. I explored the roles various stakeholders played over the course of district reform efforts and the evolving relationships between the districts and their teachers unions. I identified several factors that influenced the relationships between teachers unions and districts during the reform process and the policy outcomes of their efforts. Identifying the conditions that enable or impede collaboration can assist policymakers in making decisions that will encourage collaboration and minimize conflict, thus increasing the likelihood that their efforts will produce the desired outcomes. Based on my analysis, I present recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, and for further research.
Arsenic concentrations were measured in annual rings, pith, bark, and leaves of five tree species (four genera) from a site highly contaminated with As in Vineland, New Jersey, and two nearby ...uncontaminated areas. The highest As concentrations were found in bark (0.68
±
0.89 mg/kg,
n
=
16) and leaves (1.9
±
1.8 mg/kg,
n
=
4) from the contaminated area. Tree-ring As levels from the contaminated area (0.28
±
0.15 mg/kg,
n
=
32) were low but still considerably higher than those from the control areas (0.06
±
0.06 mg/kg,
n
=
30). There is a generally positive relationship between soil and tree-ring As levels. The overall low uptake of As by trees contrasts with that of P, a chemical analog for As(V) in aerated soils. Much higher P concentration in sapwood than in heartwood indicates that P is exported into more recently formed wood during the conversion from sapwood to heartwood; this again is drastically different than the behavior of As which is present in sapwood and heartwood at comparable levels. Variable sapwood As concentrations observed in detailed radial profiles of tree-ring chemistry of a pine and an oak from the contaminated site suggest that As is most likely transported among multiple rings within the sapwood. Therefore, tree species for which sapwood is thin (e.g., oak as in this study) should be preferred for reconstructing the history of contamination of a site. Due to the possibility of lateral translocation between growth rings, further studies are necessary to understand within-tree As transport and storage before dendrochemistry can be confidently accepted for such applications.
The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions use of a state developed educational portal. The research evaluated the differences in the quality, usefulness, and relevance of ...learning objects found on the website based on teachers’ gender and grade level they taught. Grade level taught referred to those grades that are the focus of a participant’s position: primary (K-2), elementary (3-5), middle school (6-8) and high school (9-12). The learning objects included: frameworks, tasks, standards, and videos. The researcher also reviewed the relationship between teachers’ use of the learning objects and the teachers’ level of technology integration according to the Apple Computer of Tomorrow technology integration scale. The research also investigated the change in the teachers’ classroom pedagogy after using the website. The instrument used was a 20-question online Likert-scale survey administered to 900 teachers in Walton County Public Schools (grades K-12). The return rate on the survey was 419, or 46.5%. All survey returns were calculated for the statistical analysis. The data from the survey revealed a significant difference in the variables used in the study (quality, usefulness, relevance of frameworks, tasks, standards, and videos) based on gender and grade level taught. Other demographics were analyzed and those items (age, years taught, and academic area) did not show a significant difference. The survey questions dealing with extent of usage and teacher pedagogy assist both the researcher and Walton County. The questions followed the growth of the teachers and the expectations of the changes in use of technology following their redelivery training on using the state-developed educational portal. Finally, the website is a living document, so information gathered from this study will be used to make changes for all teachers in the state.
CHAPTER THREE: KSAOs for Diversity Leaders Lytell, Maria C; Keller, Kirsten M; Sollinger, Jerry M ...
Diversity Leadership in the U. S. Department of Defense,
2016
Book Chapter
PDF
