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We initiated a collaboration between local government, academia, and citizen scientists to investigate high frequencies of elevated Escherichia coli bacteria levels in the coastal Short Beach neighborhood of Branford, Connecticut. Citizen scientist involvement enabled collection of short-duration postprecipitation outfall flow water samples (mean E. coli level = 4930 most probable number per 100 mL) and yielded insights into scientific collaboration with local residents. A records review and sanitary questionnaire identified aging properties with septic systems (3.3%) and holding tanks (0.6%) as potential sources of the E. coli contamination. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(9):1261–1264. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306943)

Recreational boating is increasing in popularity worldwide, prompting challenges concerning pollution management, aquatic ecosystem preservation, and waterway access. Electric boating technology may provide a sustainable alternative to gasoline-powered boats, helping to address these challenges. In this study, the environmental and health impacts associated with using electric service vessels in the recreational boating industry were assessed. The focus was on pump-out boats, which enable the sanitary management of human waste generated onboard recreational vessels, as a tractable model of the whole recreational boating service sector. To query stakeholder attitudes about changing to electric technology, surveys were distributed to a nationwide network of pump-out boat service providers. A wide range of attitudes exists among this group towards the adoption of electric technology, and financial concerns dominate the anticipated barriers to electric technology adoption. A life-cycle assessment of electric and gasoline-powered pump-out boats revealed that electric boats have lower lifetime greenhouse gas emissions than do gasoline-powered equivalents, especially when electric boats are charged using renewable resources. Our study demonstrates that already-existing electric technology is a sustainable alternative to gasoline combustion in the boating service sector, and identifies the key challenges remaining for the widespread adoption of electric service boats.

Abstract It is clear that there is an increasing proportion of the United Kingdom (UK) population who are suffering with food allergies and this combined with an increase in the frequency of eating away from home (where there is less control over the content of food) poses a significant risk. In December 2014, the European Union (EU) introduced legislation which aimed to ensure that customers with food allergens could make informed choices and safely consume food, without the risk of a potentially life-threatening reaction. The research used semi-structured interviews with staff from a BCB, located in the North West of the UK, as the aim of the research was to explore food handlers’ knowledge, attitudes and understanding of food allergens. The findings of the semi-structured interviews identified five themes: E-learning training programmes: the staff felt that these were ineffective and did not take into account individual learning styles. Responsibility: there is a lack of clarity as to who is responsible, with staff believing the key responsibility lies with the customer. Communication: similarly, communication, both within the kitchen and within the company was not clear and likely to give rise to confusion. Need to make a profit: the staff felt that the drive for profit meant that customer safety was being compromised, especially when staff numbers were reduced. Staff awareness: the staff felt confident in their own ability to prepare a safe meal but indicated that staff may be dismissive towards claims of allergen sufferers. In conclusion, these themes illustrate that a significant risk exists for allergen suffers, who rely upon the knowledge, attitudes and understanding of BCB staff to ensure their meals are safely prepared.

The consequences of adolescent drug and alcohol use may be serious and far-reaching, forecasting problematic use or addictive behaviors into adulthood. School counselors are particularly well suited to understand the needs of the school community and to seamlessly deliver sustainable substance use prevention. This pilot study with 46 ninth-grade students investigates the impact of the Making Choices and Reducing Risk (MCARR) program, a drug and alcohol use prevention program for the school setting. The MCARR curriculum addresses general knowledge of substances and their related risks, methods for evaluating risk, and skills for avoiding or coping with drug and alcohol use. Using a motivational interviewing framework, MCARR empowers students to choose freely how they wish to behave in relation to drugs and alcohol and to contribute to the health of others in the school community. The authors hypothesized that the implementation of the MCARR curriculum would influence student attitudes, knowledge, and use of substances. Results suggest that the MCARR had a beneficial impact on student attitudes and knowledge. Further, no appreciable increases in substance use during the program were observed. Initial results point to the promise of program feasibility and further research with larger samples including assessment of longitudinal impact.

A solar electric pump-out boat for removing human waste. The pump-out boat may include a boat hull, wherein the boat hull may include a bow, a stern, and a self-draining sole disposed therein. The pump-out boat may further include a holding tank disposed within the hull underneath the self-draining sole for collecting waste. The pump-out boat may further include a console disposed approximately center of, and on a top surface of the self-draining sole. The pump-out boat may further include a solar panel for absorbing sunlight to convert into electrical power. The pump-out boat may further include a pump disposed within the console. The pump-out boat may further include a battery connected to a motor, the pump, and the solar panel, such that the solar panel charges the battery to provide the electrical power to operate the pump and the motor.

This study extends research on adult narrative identity in two major ways. First, it focuses on Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs), which refer to individuals who spent a part of their early developmental years abroad. In spite of the fact that they are an important demographic to study in this rapidly globalizing world, they have tended to be neglected in the field of psychology. Second, this study incorporates the cutting-edge tools of automated language analysis to extract developmental themes from autobiographical narratives using a bottom-up exploratory approach, as well as to identify psychological patterns and processes associated with the themes. The participants (N = 350; 18–80 + years old) were recruited from an alumni office of an international school and asked to write a narrative about the impact their international experiences had on their development. The meaning extraction method (MEM) yielded four developmental themes, which were remarkably consistent with the recurring themes that emerge from past research on adult narrative identity as well as ATCKs: past focus, communion, agency, and global focus. These four developmental themes, in turn, showed theoretically coherent patterns of relations with the demographic variables, linguistic markers of psychological patterns and processes, as well as self-reports of dimensions of well-being.

Research demonstrates discriminatory and inequitable practices related to students identified with (disabilities). Inequitable practices and discrimination reveal the necessity of collaboration and advocacy as an integral part of the pedagogy of professional development for members of the IEP team. Providing pre-service (or preparing) teachers simulated experiences of individualized education program (IEP) meetings can support PSTs understanding of how ableism and racism can manifest in schools, develop skills in collaborating with families, and begin to develop advocacy practices that support students that are marginalized at the intersection of their race and ability status. This chapter focuses on how to develop materials that leverage critical theoretical frameworks, provide learning experiences that mirror teacher practice in schools, and provide authentic representations of families of color to develop PSTs collaborative and advocacy practices. © 2023 by IGI Global. All rights reserved.

The book is a handbook of cultural discourse analysis, a theory developed by Donal Carbaugh, and celebration of his work. The book features an explanation of the theory and sixteen chapters using ...

This book was designed with student nurses in mind. It is intended to serve as a tool to provide practice, enhance learning, and increase the propensity for retention and application of basic concepts of health and physical assessment. The book can be used by early-career nursing students who have just begun to cover its concepts as well as by pre-licensure exam students who may benefit from reiteration and reinforcement of concepts learned early on in nursing school and from practicing applying these concepts to more complex scenarios.Divided into 13 chapters, all of which are geared toward a particular subject matter. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the concept of an unfolding case study and the nursing process. Chapter 3 provides an in-depth guide to answering NCLEX-style questions. There are several NCLEX-style questions broken down and analyzed within this chapter and several practice questions for your benefit. The remainder of the chapters are subject-based and cover assessment of the major body systems in a systematic and learner-friendly way. Readers will notice that while each chapter covers different content matter, the chapters are structured in similar ways so the reader can begin to develop a feel for and familiarity with an unfolding case study analysis.Goals for the book are:*Increased comfort level and confidence in analyzing patient scenarios in regards to basic health assessment *A more in-depth knowledge of basic health assessment concepts *Ample chances to practice applying concepts learned in your health assessment course to solidify the information you have learned*Increased confidence in answering NCLEX-style questions *Increased knowledge, skill levels, and confidence in assessing and managing patients with a variety of healthcare needsThe chapters of the book do not have to be completed in any particular order, as they are each individualized to certain subject matter categories. The authors recommend you use these unfolding case studies as a means of evaluating the ability to think critically and apply the concepts learned in health assessment classes to realistic patient scenarios. The book can be used as a study tool during health assessment classes, a health assessment refresher tool during other classes, and an NCLEX study tool after finishing nursing school.

Women faculty often view academic leadership as incompatible with their work-life balance, detracting from research and teaching commitments, resulting in a loss of autonomy and an abandonment of discipline, promoting change in their relationships with colleagues, and placing an increased emphasis on budgeting, regulations and compliance (DeZure et al., 2014).  Many researchers suggest that institutional culture works against leadership development for faculty, making the transition from faculty to administrator unlikely (Barden & Curry, 2013). It is increasingly important to identify the key factors that make the difference for women faculty to assume these roles.  As such, in this study qualitative methods were employed to examine the experiences and career trajectories of 16 academic women who held tenured, fully promoted faculty positions prior to becoming administrators.  The researcher found evidence to support future recruitment and retention in higher education leadership.

Performance characteristics for interferometers that measure surface topography include the ability to resolve closely spaced surface features, referred to as topographic spatial resolution. Within well-defined limits, scalar diffraction theory and classical Fourier optics provide a software model for prediction of the resolution and spatial frequency response for interference phase-based measurements of surface topography. Analytical solutions and adaptive sampling allow for rapid simulation of both the nominal linear transfer function and an estimate of intrinsic residual nonlinearities.

The Crow Search Algorithm (CSA) is a swarm-based metaheuristic algorithm that simulates the intelligent foraging behaviors of crows. While CSA effectively handles global optimization problems, it suffers from certain limitations, such as low search accuracy and a tendency to converge to local optima. To address these shortcomings, researchers have proposed modifications and enhancements to CSA’s search mechanism. One widely explored approach is the structured population mechanism, which maintains diversity during the search process to mitigate premature convergence. The island model, a common structured population method, divides the population into smaller independent sub-populations called islands, each running in parallel. Migration, the primary technique for promoting population diversity, facilitates the exchange of relevant and useful information between islands during iterations. This paper introduces an enhanced variant of CSA, called Enhanced CSA (ECSA), which incorporates the cooperative island model (iECSA) to improve its search capabilities and avoid premature convergence. The proposed iECSA incorporates two enhancements to CSA. Firstly, an adaptive tournament-based selection mechanism is employed to choose the guided solution. Secondly, the basic random movement in CSA is replaced with a modified operator to enhance exploration. The performance of iECSA is evaluated on 53 real-valued mathematical problems, including 23 classical benchmark functions and 30 IEEE-CEC2014 benchmark functions. A sensitivity analysis of key iECSA parameters is conducted to understand their impact on convergence and diversity. The efficacy of iECSA is validated by conducting an extensive evaluation against a comprehensive set of well-established and recently introduced meta-heuristic algorithms, encompassing a total of seventeen different algorithms. Significant differences among these comparative algorithms are established utilizing statistical tests like Wilcoxon’s rank-sum and Friedman’s tests. Experimental results demonstrate that iECSA outperforms the fundamental ECSA algorithm on 82.6% of standard test functions, providing more accurate and reliable outcomes compared to other CSA variants. Furthermore, Extensive experimentation consistently showcases that the iECSA outperforms its comparable algorithms across a diverse set of benchmark functions.

This comprehensive second edition inspires therapists to utilize clinical work to pragmatically address intersectional oppressions, lessen the burden of minority stress, and implement effective LGBTQ affirmative therapy. A unique and important contribution to LGBTQ literature, this handbook includes both new and updated chapters reflecting cutting-edge intersectional themes like race, ethnicity, polyamory, and monosexual normativity. A host of expert contributors outline the best practices in affirmative therapy, inspiring therapists to guide LGBTQ clients into deconstructing the heteronormative power imbalances that undermine LGBTQ relationships and families. There is also an increased focus on clinical application, with fresh vignettes included throughout to highlight effective treatment strategies. Couple and family therapists and clinicians working with LGBTQ clients, and those interested in implementing affirmative therapy in their practice, will find this updated handbook essential.

The Umayyad World encompasses the archaeology, history, art, and architecture of the Umayyad era (644–750 CE). This era was formative both for world history and for the history of Islam. Subjects covered in detail in this collection include regions conquered in Umayyad times, ethnic and religious identity among the conquerors, political thought and culture, administration and the law, art and architecture, the history of religion, pilgrimage and the Qur’an, and violence and rebellion. Close attention is paid to new methods of analysis and interpretation, including source critical studies of the historiography and inter-disciplinary approaches combining literary sources and material evidence. Scholars of Islamic history, archaeologists, and researchers interested in the Umayyad Caliphate, its context, and infl uence on the wider world, will find much to enjoy in this volume.

As the impacts of climate change intensify, potential relocation is becoming more of a reality for coastal communities throughout the world. This is furthering the demand for the implementation of governance relocation frameworks. In order to stay true to the principles of environmental justice while at the same time ensuring an effective policy that meets the needs and wants of affected communities, an adaptive relocation framework requires collaboration between state and non-state actors. It is thus important to pay attention to how non-state actors are incorporated into public participatory climate change adaptation efforts. In order to affectively address previous limitations of public participation, stakeholders must pay attention to already existing power systems. Through a case study approach of a village relocation project in Fiji, I examine the role of power in a climate change adaptation plan that involved the community of Vunidogoloa, local government, and national government stakeholders. I employ Steven Lukes’s three-dimensional framework of power to the case of Vunidogoloa, a Fijian village that relocated inland due to coastal erosion and shoreline flooding, to illustrate how the political arrangement of participation reinforced existing hierarchies between the village and the government.

How can religion help to understand and contend with the challenges of climate change?Understanding Climate Change through Religious Lifeworld,edited by David Haberman, presents a unique collection of essays that detail how the effects of human-related climate change are actively reshaping religious ideas and practices, even as religious groups and communities endeavor to bring their traditions to bear on mounting climate challenges.People of faith from the low-lying islands of the South Pacific to the glacial regions of the Himalayas are influencing how their communities understand earthly problems and develop meaningful responses to them. This collection focuses on a variety of different aspects of this critical interaction, including the role of religion in ongoing debates about climate change, religious sources of environmental knowledge and how this knowledge informs community responses to climate change, and the ways that climate change is in turn driving religious change.Understanding Climate Change through Religious Lifeworlds offers a transnational view of how religion reconciles the concepts of the global and the local and influences the challenges of climate change.