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Item Open Access Analysis of Global Sea Level Rise Impact Risk Assessments(2011-04-28) Ward, MollyGlobal sea levels currently are rising and will continue to rise far into the future. This rise engenders significant risks to life and the environment, as it creates negative physical, economic, and societal impacts across the globe. If the various geographic regions across the globe are to adequately prepare for the rising sea, it is necessary to conduct risk assessments to determine which specific impacts to address. This paper examines a diversity of risk assessments conducted by regions worldwide. It includes a range of studies that assess regions with differing economic capacities, types of terrain, location, and that implement a range of methodologies. It examines and compares the impacts included in the analyses, as well as the variable inputs that were implemented to conduct the assessments. Through a comparison of the components and results of a variety of risk analyses, this study provides valuable insights into the diverse impacts that may be selected for inclusion in future sea level rise studies. The goal of this study is to assist regions in tackling the problem of sea level rise by providing a foundation to streamline the process for future assessments. Based on the assessed reports, the results demonstrate that the most commonly analyzed impacts are those to a region’s economy and population. Additionally, the impacts to a region’s infrastructure, particularly transportation infrastructure, and total land surface appear to be of great importance. The variable inputs that appear to be most commonly applied to assess the impacts are storm surge and a range of sea level rise scenarios, as opposed to one specific future sea level rise quantity. Overall, there is no correlation between a study region and the quantity of impacts analyzed or depth of the impacts assessed. The majority of the studies were conducted with quantitative methods. However, it is recommended that future assessments also include a qualitative perspective. Lastly, omissions of variables from the reports are explored. Future impact studies should include location-specific trends in sea level rise, as opposed to assessing the impacts based on the global average future sea level rise prediction. It is also important to incorporate the speed of the rise in a dynamic analysis, as well as any uncertainties in a report’s input variables.Item Open Access Creating linked datasets for SME energy-assessment evidence-building: Results from the U.S. Industrial Assessment Center Program(Energy Policy, 2017-12-01) Dalzell, NM; Boyd, GA; Reiter, JP© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Lack of information is commonly cited as a market failure resulting in an energy-efficiency gap. Government information policies to fill this gap may enable improvements in energy efficiency and social welfare because of the externalities of energy use. The U.S. Department of Energy Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program is one such policy intervention, providing no-cost assessments to small and medium enterprises (SME). The IAC program has assembled a wealth of data on these assessments, but the database does not include information about participants after the assessment or on non-participants. This study addresses that lack by creating a new linked dataset using the public IAC and non-public data at the Census Bureau. The IAC database excludes detail needed for an exact match, so the study developed a linking methodology to account for uncertainty in the matching process. Based on the linking approach, a difference in difference analysis for SME that received an assessment was done; plants that received an assessment improve their performance over time, relative to industry peers that did not. This new linked dataset is likely to shed even more light on the impact of the IAC and similar programs in advancing energy efficiency.Item Open Access Improving in Action: An Iterative Approach to Developing a Successful Practicum Program(2022) Chapman, Joyce; Daly, EmilyItem Open Access North Carolina Public Kindergarten Teacher Perceptions on Readiness and the Development of a State K-3 Assessment(2013-04-22) Sharma, ChinmayiAn established pioneer in matters of early childhood education, North Carolina will be using the Race to the Top grant money they won in 2010 to create and implement a statewide K-3 assessment. The Department of Public Instruction formed a think tank to develop the vision for the tool and the final product will be administered to all public schools in 2015. This study is one facet of a multidimensional project aimed at bringing several key stakeholders to the table to discuss the development of this assessment instrument. In this project, teachers were asked to rate 22 items suggested for inclusion in the assessment on a 1-6 scale in terms of importance, 1 being the least important and 6 being the most important information for their day-to-day classroom instruction. Respondents were also asked to comment on the helpfulness and delivery of the assessment as well. Previous studies led to the hypothesis that teachers would prioritize the Social/Emotional Development domain of assessment over Cognitive Development or Literacy. The data were gathered by an online survey sent in an email to 9,493 public school kindergarten teachers and the respondents comprised a volunteer sample of 2,596 cases, a 25.62% response rate. Results showed that teachers placed greatest importance on Language and Literacy Development, followed by Cognitive Development. Parent’s Education Level was given the lowest mean rate of importance out of the 22 suggested items. There was broad support for the assessment and the use of electronic tablets in its delivery. However, teachers did not support the option of the assessment being delivered through home visits. Demographic variations by region, locale size, education level and experience of teachers existed but were not robust.Item Embargo Sanitation Justice: Community-Inspired Academic Research Conducted Under Different Theories of Change(2020) Hunter, BrandonThe United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines environmental justice (EJ) as “The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” Environmental injustices are not just a symptom of environmental conditions themselves, but are a manifestation of legal, economic, political, and social structures of oppression.
Globally, there are over 4.5 billion people who lack access to safely managed sanitation, with the largest burden of inadequate infrastructure being most greatly felt by communities which are marginalized based on income, indigeneity, and race. The work herein explores three different case studies of engagement with environmental injustices, leveraging academic environmental science and engineering, with three different theories of change: philanthropy-led research, academic-led research, and community-led research, respectively.
Case 1: The Philippines has poor access to improved sanitation, declining national food security, and water scarcity during the dry seasons. Although the country does not contribute as much to man-induced climate change, the Philippines is considered to be one of the most vulnerable countries to be disproportionately affected by climate change, further exacerbating lack of access to sanitation. Through the Gates Foundation’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge theory of change to privatize innovative technologies to develop for-profit businesses around innovative sanitation systems, a novel modular laboratory anaerobic digestate nitrification and denitrification post-treatment bioreactor system was is developed and operated for 200 days. The system achieved a combined removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and phosphorus (PO4-P) up to 84%, 69%, and 89%, respectively, and have successfully recovered vital nutrients for agricultural development by precipitating ammonium magnesium phosphate hydrate, a documented valuable slow-release solid fertilizer.
Case 2: A predominately African American community in Wake County, North Carolina which, despite being surrounded by White neighborhoods with municipal water distribution lines, relies on private wells for their water supply and relies on on-site septic tanks for sanitation needs. Residents have reason to believe that both on-site water and sanitation infrastructure are compromised, and contamination is of concern. An academic-led community assessment was conducted to determine exposure to standard pathogens and chemical contaminants using culture-based and qPCR methods. Cross contamination septic tanks and wells were evaluated by comparing antibiotic resistance gene profiles, microbial source tracking, and geostatistical models. From samples of 14 household wells, 6 tested positive for total coliforms, 4 for E.coli, 10 for sucralose, and 80% and 20% of total E.coli isolates tested positive for antibiotic resistance to amoxicillin and ceftriaxone, respectively.
Case 3: Lowndes County is a predominantly Black rural county in Alabama which has a rich history and present climate of racial discrimination, economic oppression, and social activism. Over 80 % of the county relies on on-site sanitation infrastructure and most of them are failing, exposing many to raw wastewater. Under the Center of Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice’s ownership and management, a community assessment of exposure to untreated sewage was conducted using samples from residential drinking water, surface swabs, public surface waters, and both residential and public soil samples using culture-based and qPCR methods. From samples of 43 households, 68% and 55% of houses had detectable presence of human fecal matter in their residential soils and on their doorsteps, respectively. Of the 18 publicly accessible surface waters which were sampled, 50% had detectable amounts of human fecal matter present.
To assess justice and equity components of the theories of change, each case study was contextualized within an equity framework and recommendations are presented regarding the execution of these strategies. Although different theories of change have various broader implications and limitations, the work herein supports the notion that environmental science and engineering can be utilized to address environmental injustices if inclusive and equitable frameworks are used in the research processes.
Item Open Access The Behavior and Energetics of Ritualized Weapon Use in Mantis Shrimp (Stomatopoda)(2018) Green, Patrick AndrewContests are essential parts of an animal’s life history, as they dictate access to critical resources like mates, food, or territory. Studying how animals efficiently assess competitive ability to resolve contests is a central goal of research in animal behavior. Additionally, studies of how animals use traits like signals and weapons in contests lends insight to the evolution of those traits. In this thesis, I study assessment and resolution of territorial contests – as well as the function of signals and weapons in contests – in the mantis shrimp Neogonodactylus bredini (Stomatopoda: Crustacea).
Behavioral theory predicts that animals may use visual or other displays to communicate reliable information on ability, resolving contests without the use of potentially costlier combat, such as biting, grasping, or striking with weapons. In Chapter 2, I show that N. bredini do not match these predictions – the size of structures presented during visual weapon displays did not correlate with strike performance, and almost all contests involved weapon use via high-force striking. Because most strikes were exchanged on the armored telson (tailplate), I hypothesized that the ritualized “telson sparring” behavior helps competitors avoid contest costs and functions as a signal, instead of dangerous combat.
Studies of assessment help show what information competitors use to make decisions during contests and can reveal the role specific behaviors play. In Chapter 3, I show that N. bredini use mutual assessment during both size-matched and non size-matched contests; that is, competitors gather information about both themselves and their opponent. I also show the role telson sparring and other behaviors play during this assessment.
Finally, in Chapter 4, I test how the energetic cost of delivering sparring strikes scales with body size. I find that larger competitors used proportionally more energy when striking, that this positive scaling of energy resulted in constant scaling of velocity across size, and that these results matched predictions from a mathematical model of the strike mechanism. Furthermore, I show that these scaling dynamics are different from those of strikes delivered in another behavioral context: feeding on hard-shelled prey.
Overall, this thesis shows that the use of deadly weapons in contests should not be assumed as dangerous combat; instead, I show how ritualized behaviors allow for weapon use to function in assessment. The approaches used and conclusions made from this thesis can inform work in contest behavior, functional morphology, and biomechanics.