Search

The article presents an interview with Walt Nord, professor at the University of South Florida and the recipient of the Academy of Management's Distinguished Educator Award. Nord was born in Mount Kisco, New York in 1939. He took up economics and political science at Williams College. His interest in trade unions and labor market economics led him to the Industrial and Labor Relations School at Cornell for his Masters degree. By chance, his graduate assistantship was with an organizational psychologist, Ned Rosen. Rosen served as an important mentor to Nord and encouraged him to pursue a doctorate in psychology. At Washington University, Nord was fortunate to receive a fellowship at the community mental health program that was led by John Glidewell. Following his student days at Washington University, he continued on there as a teacher in business school. With respect to the personal dimension, Nord's first paper, which emerged from his dissertation on conformity and exchange theory and was published in an issue of the "Psychological Bulletin," was very important to him.

The article reports that the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians has called for papers for its 2006 Annual Conference, which will be held from September 20 to 24 in Tampa, Florida. Session topics at the conference include anesthesia, aquatic species medicine, avian contraception, career management, carnivores, and diagnostics and imaging, among others.

Sex trafficking is one type of human trafficking, which involves scenarios where individuals are not paid and are forced to engage in forced sex, forced prostitution, and sexual slavery. Online advertising is increasingly used by traffickers as an anonymous and efficient method to exploit victims. Large sporting events have been linked to increases in sex trafficking, although there is limited empirical evidence to support this claim. The goal of this study is to answer the following question: What is the relationship between Super Bowls and potential online sex trafficking? Using time series Poisson analysis of secondary data on online sexual service advertisements in Florida during the 2020 and 2021 Super Bowls, which took place in Miami and Tampa, Florida, respectively, the result indicates an increase in online advertisements that exhibit indicators of sex trafficking during the two Super Bowls. The paper concludes by providing recommendations for federal, state, and local law enforcement for improving sex trafficking responses during large sporting events and outlines a future research agenda on the relationship between large sporting events and sex trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the annual meeting and awards ceremony of TAPPI in Tampa, Florida. Celebration of the 90th anniversary; Presentation of awards to individuals who have service contribution to the organization and the paper industry; Recognition of voluntary leadership and service.

This paper explores the issues of workforce skills in the U.S. as an important component of the competitiveness of the American economy. Specifically, the paper provides an overview of the perceived skills-gap in the U.S. labor-force and identifies ways that this gap can be closed, including using technology, such as on-line learning, in the case-study of the city of Tampa, Florida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Conclusions: b Psychometric evidence supports that the HD-BQ, a brief, self-administered, paper and pencil 30-item test that requires minimal training to administer, is a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of problem behaviors in HD. 37 Advancing Multidisciplinary Treatment and Care Coordination in Huntington's Disease Karen Anderson SP 1 sp , Martha Nance SP 2 sp , Vicki L. Wheelock SP 3 sp , Christine Goeschel SP 4 sp , Melissa Eckroade SP 4 sp , Lisa Hack SP 5 sp , Cristen Querey SP 5 sp , Donna Gabriel SP 5 sp I SP 1 sp Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C., USA i I SP 2 sp University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA i I SP 3 sp UC Davis Health, Sacramento, CA, USA i I SP 4 sp MedStar Health Institute for Quality and Safety, Washington, D.C., USA i I SP 5 sp Med-IQ i B Background: b MedStar Health Institute for Quality & Safety, in partnership with Med-IQ and faculty experts, developed a 12-month, multicomponent mentorship initiative in Huntington's disease (HD). The three main remits of the committee are: (i) provision of advice on protocol design and clinical development topics with access to experts from within the CHDI Clinical Department (including imaging, biomarkers, clinical outcomes, and disease modeling) and/or independent HD experts from the CTC advisory panel; (ii) review of final protocols for acceptance to allow access to the Enroll-HD platform operational support (e.g., in-silico feasibility, site identification, recruitment support (see Enroll-HD Platform Support poster for details); (iii) oversight and management of the HD Clinical Trial Site Certification Program open to Enroll-HD and non-Enroll-HD sites with capabilities and expertise to conduct HD clinical trials. [Extracted from the article]

In this short paper, we argue that the standard approach adopted by modern mixed-integer linear programming solvers of using very little cutting plane generation in the branch-and-bound tree can be too conservative and lead to the loss of significant opportunities. Our observation is motivated by some relatively simple computational investigation on a couple of instances in the MIPlib 2010 collection for which the benefit of generating globally valid cuts in the tree is significant. History: This "Challenge" paper was invited by the Editor-in-Chief and based on the topics raised by the author at his plenary address at the 2022 INFORMS Computing Society Conference in Tampa, Florida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the awarding ceremony and fellows luncheon of the TAPPI members in Tampa, Florida. Presentation of the 2004 TAPPI Engineering Division Leadership and Service Award to engineer Andrew K. Hones; Recognition of the outstanding accomplishments of Richard E. Hergert; Selection of Stephen Walter Stroud Jr. as the 2004 TAPPI Pulp Manufacture Division Charles S. Gardner Memorial Scholarship.

Interdependent critical infrastructures are governed by several sectors working together to maintain social, economic, and environmental well‐being. Although many models focus on a centralized view for networks for the restoration planning of these networks, rarely is there only one decision maker for the infrastructure networks. In the decentralized decision‐making paradigm, individual decision makers need to decide how to prioritize areas of the network and eventually improve the aggregated infrastructure systems resilience. There is a dearth of quantitative studies analyzing resource allocation decisions considering both decentralized and cooperative aspects. This paper aims to propose a coalitional game theory approach to address decentralized resource allocation for interdependent water distribution and road networks. In particular, combining coalitional game theory with weighted graphs creates an order of repair for each node in the coalitions. Subsequently, the decision makers can pass the information on to the master problem, reducing the complexity of the resource allocation problem for the interdependent networks. The proposed approach is applied to water distribution and transportation networks in the City of Tampa, Florida. We compare the decentralized solutions to centralized solutions in different scenarios to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach for the city‐scale networks. The results indicated the superiority of the proposed framework in terms of computational time and solution quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business communication teachers navigate a constantly changing pedagogical geography shaped by technology and breakthrough discoveries in linguistics, psychology, and neurobiology. My Favorite Assignment is designed to speed new teaching methods to the classroom. This article gives readers 11 teaching innovations on report writing, intercultural communication, and analysis and critical thinking debuted at the 2022 Association for Business Communication's (ABC) 87th Annual International Conference in Tampa, Florida, USA. Additional support materials—instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, grading rubrics, frequently asked questions, and sample student projects—are downloadable from the ABC and DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership websites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent infrastructure failures in the United States have brought attention to the ways and extent to which water security is unevenly distributed in urban areas. For many marginalized communities, infrastructure interdependencies (e.g., water, wastewater, stormwater, transportation) have created significant vulnerabilities in the face of aging or inadequate water treatment and delivery systems. In these communities, cascading failures precipitated by environmental hazards such as flooding often propagate across multiple infrastructure systems, sometimes resulting in poor water quality and/or lack of access to water for significant periods. However, little is known about how specific environmental and social factors combine with water infrastructure vulnerability and interdependencies to create enduring infrastructure inequalities. This paper presents a geospatial vulnerability framework for identifying water infrastructure inequalities, using the City of Tampa, Florida, to demonstrate the framework. For this framework, we integrate geographic information systems (GIS) analysis of environmental hazards, a factor analytic model of sociodemographic data, and a network topology-based performance indicator for the water distribution network. The resulting framework models the environmental and social vulnerabilities, quantifies hydraulic vulnerability and infrastructure interdependence, and maps their distributions across the urban environment. We find that the highest levels of social and environmental vulnerabilities in Tampa are present in low-income areas and communities of color that have high hydraulic vulnerability and infrastructure interdependency, which creates pockets of low resilience capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an abstract of the study `Biological evidence for selective Cuban immigration to Florida,' by Curtis W. Wienker. Demographic, anthropometric and skin color data from adult Cuban-Americans living in Tampa, Florida.

This article highlights synergies between quantum information science (QIS) and operations research for QIS-curious operations researchers (and vice versa), and the author challenges the community to discover more. History: This "Challenge" paper was invited by the Editor in Chief and based on the topics raised by the author at his plenary address at the 2022 INFORMS Computing Society Conference in Tampa, Florida. Funding: This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Accelerated Research in Quantum Computing, Fundamental Algorithmic Research for Quantum Computing. This article has been authored by an employee of National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, under Contract DE-NA0003525 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The minimum rank of a graph G is the minimum of the ranks of all symmetric adjacency matrices of G. We present a new combinatorial bound for the minimum rank of an arbitrary graph G based on enumerating certain subsets of vertices of G satisfying matroid theoretic properties. We also present some computational and theoretical challenges associated with computing the minimum rank. This includes a conjecture that this bound on the minimum rank actually holds with equality for all graphs. History: This "Challenge" paper was invited by the Editor in Chief and based on the topics raised by the author at his plenary address at the 2022 INFORMS Computing Society Conference in Tampa, Florida. Funding: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [Grant DMS-1720225]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2022.1219. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper recounts struggles over a Confederate monument in Tampa, Florida. Dedicated in 1911 to white supremacy and "undying love" of the Confederate cause, by 2017 the monument hung in the balance of contestations over landscape, power, and city form between anti-racist social justice movements, white nationalist neo-Confederates, and post-racial neoliberal boosters. Drawing on urban political economy, regional history, and discourse analysis, we read the fight over the monument as a flashpoint in ongoing struggles over the racialization of urban space and over regional political realignments. We trace differences among the monuments' opponents over whether its removal heralds a closing or opening of struggles for racial justice, and delineate tensions emerging among Southern white nationalists over a position with one foot searching for continued purchase in hegemonic cultures of American nationalism and militarism, and another newly planted among ascendant neoliberal-multicultural paradigms. Este artículo relata las luchas por un monumento confederado en Tampa, Florida. Dedicado en 1911 a la supremacía blanca y al "amor eterno" de la causa confederada, en el 2017 el monumento se coló en el balance de las disputas sobre el paisaje, el poder y la ciudad entre los movimientos de justicia social antirracistas, los nacionalistas blancos neo-confederados y los impulsores neoliberales pos-raciales. Usando la economía política urbana, la historia regional y el análisis del discurso, leemos la lucha por el monumento como un punto crítico en las luchas sobre la racialización del espacio urbano y sobre los realineamientos políticos regionales. Analizamos las raíces de los differencias entre los opositores de los monumentos que si su eliminación anuncia un cierre o apertura de las luchas por la justicia racial, y delimitamos las tensiones que surgen entre los nacionalistas blancos del sur sobre una posición con interés en busca de una compra continua en las culturas hegemónicas del nacionalismo y el militarismo estadounidense y otro recién plantado entre paradigmas neoliberales-multiculturales ascendentes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cities are compelled to compete for new sources of investment and revenue, arts‐based economic development strategies have become the norm. The purpose of this paper is to revisit and reevaluate some of the conventional claims about the arts as an important economic development strategy by exploring a case study called "The Space at 2106 Main" in a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood called West Tampa. The results of this study suggest that the arts are indeed assuming a greater role in economic policy under the auspices of West Tampa community redevelopment areas (CRA) and the direct actions of various arts related entrepreneurs. The results however, point to a mixed picture that raises difficult questions about the medium to long‐term effects of this urban redevelopment strategy, especially on the poor and mostly minority residents of West Tampa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban stormwater managers have traditionally used pipes, ditches, ponds and other gray infrastructure elements to quickly divert runoff away from its main sources—buildings and roadways. In contrast, proponents of green infrastructure attempt to manage stormwater near its origin, utilizing natural drainage pathways and best management practices (BMPs) to reduce runoff and increase infiltration. In doing so, stormwater is retained where it is needed to support urban vegetation. This vegetation, in turn, helps reduce future runoff, while producing a whole range of environmental, economic, and social/human health-related benefits. Despite the many advantages of green infrastructure, retrofitting the infrastructure of a city is a costly process that requires careful planning. The transition from gray to green infrastructure requires communication between managers from different disciplines and a willingness to stray from management strategies that have defined stormwater management for centuries. The Gray to Green (G2G) green infrastructure planning tool is designed to facilitate these conversations—showing both technical and non-technical users how green infrastructure BMPs can work within the urban forest to manage stormwater on existing or proposed development sites. This paper details the data sources and research at the core of G2G—documenting all methods, equations, and assumptions used in its creation to provide users with a fully-transparent and peer-reviewed planning tool. The paper concludes with descriptions and user insights from two case studies from Tampa, Florida (United States) and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, (United States). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity-based travel demand modeling (ABTDM) has often been viewed as an advanced approach, due to its higher fidelity and better policy sensitivity. However, a review of the literature indicates that no study has been undertaken to investigate quantitatively the differences and accuracy between an ABTDM approach and a traditional four-step travel demand model. In this paper we provide a comparative analysis against each step – trip generation, trip distribution, mode split, and network assignment – between an ABTDM developed using travel diary data from the Tampa Bay Region in Florida and the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Model (TBRPM), an existing traditional four-step model for the same area. Results show salient differences between the TBRPM and the ABTDM, in terms of modeling performance and accuracy, in each of the four steps. For example, trip production rates calculated from the travel diary data are found to be either double or a quarter less than those used in the TBRPM. On the other hand, trip attraction rates computed from activity-based travel simulations are found to be either more than double or one tenth less than those used in the TBRPM. The trip distribution curves from the two models are similar, but both average and peak trip lengths of the two are significantly different. Mode split analyses show that the TBRPM may underestimate driving trips and fail to capture any usage of alternative modes, such as taxi and nonmotorized (e.g., walking and bicycling) modes. In addition, the ABTDMs are found to be less capable of reproducing observed traffic counts when compared to the TBRPM, most likely due to not considering external and through trips. The comparative results presented can help transportation engineers and planners better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the two types of model and this should assist decision-makers in choosing a better modeling tool for their planning initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: Patients with incurable illnesses often experience existential distress, profoundly impacting their well-being. Current medical approaches have limitations in addressing these burdens. Psilocybin, a promising psychedelic compound, may offer therapeutic benefits. This pilot survey study aimed to investigate the attitudes and openness toward psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAT) among patients with incurable illnesses. The objective is to assess patients' attitudes toward PAT and identify potential barriers and concerns, including exploring the association between beliefs in psilocybin's therapeutic benefits and interest in receiving this treatment. Methods: The survey study was conducted at the Tampa General Hospital Palliative Care Outpatient office in the United States. Participants were 32 English-fluent patients, aged 18 or older, with incurable illnesses. The survey included demographic questions, a validated tool to measure existential distress, and questions about knowledge and concerns regarding psilocybin. Attitudes toward PAT and interest in its future use were assessed using Likert scale responses. Results: Among the 31 analyzed participants, 51.6% expressed interest in future psilocybin treatment, while 32.3% did not indicate interest. Belief in the psilocybin's therapeutic benefits for stress and anxiety significantly correlated with interest in use. Concerns included risk of psychosis, lack of trained providers, and potential for exploitation. No demographic factors were associated with interest or levels of distress. Conclusions: This pilot study provides insights into the attitudes and concerns toward PAT among patients with incurable illnesses. Over half of participants expressed interest. However, concerns regarding its use were identified, with patients' concern for the risk of exploitation associated with PAT as an especially novel concern documented in this patient population. This highlighted the need for further education of risks and benefits or PAT by trained clinicians and rigorous training of clinicians with the establishment of safeguards against exploitation. Further research is necessary to explore the potential benefits of PAT and related non-psilocybin psychedelic compounds in addressing existential distress among patients with incurable illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast urbanization produces a large and growing population in coastal areas. However, the increasing rise in sea levels, one of the most impacts of global warming, makes coastal communities much more vulnerable to flooding than before. While most existing work focuses on understanding the large-scale impacts of sea-level rise, this paper investigates parcel-level property impacts, using a specific coastal city, Tampa, Florida, USA, as an empirical study. This research adopts a spatial-temporal analysis method to identify locations of flooded properties and their costs over a future period. A corrected sea-level rise model based on satellite altimeter data is first used to predict future global mean sea levels. Based on high-resolution LiDAR digital elevation data and property maps, properties to be flooded are identified to evaluate property damage cost. This empirical analysis provides deep understanding of potential flooding risks for individual properties with detailed spatial information, including residential, commercial, industrial, agriculture, and governmental buildings, at a fine spatial scale under three different levels of global warming. The flooded property maps not only help residents to choose location of their properties, but also enable local governments to prevent potential sea-level rising risks for better urban planning. Both spatial and temporal analyses can be easily applied by researchers or governments to other coastal cities for sea-level rise- and climate change-related urban planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses texts from the Australian print media that invoke nationalist discourse in the so-called ‘Tampa crisis’ of 2001, which involved the boarding by Australian military troops of a civilian Norwegian shipping vessel (the Tampa) that had rescued a group of asylum seekers. In particular, we are interested in how military action was justified in public discourse against a group of civilians through the use of arguments relying in some form or another on the notion of nationhood and national identity. We employ a critical discursive methodology to investigate how some of these descriptions worked to legitimate the Australian government's role in these events and demonstrate some of the mechanisms by which discourses of nation can operate in the marginalization of asylum seekers. We conclude that presenting issues relating to asylum seekers and the Tampa at a level of national identity was critical in justifying the Australian government's stance and actions. We also raise some concerns about the consequences that may follow from the Australian government's actions and reliance on nationalist rhetoric. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on the 20th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism held in Tampa, Florida from January 8-10, 2015 is presented. Topics discussed include the establishment of the conference by dean Kaye Chon in 1996, the training session titled "Innroad Property Management System" facilitated by doctor Katerina Berezina, and the Best Paper Awards announced by doctor Wan Yang.

The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) is a US-based professional organization whose members include dietitians, nurses, pharmacists, physicians and scientists who are involved in providing clinical nutrition to patients. The ASPEN 2020 Nutrition Science & Practice Conference brings together interdisciplinary, clinical nutrition leaders from all over the world to provide healthcare professionals with the latest in clinical nutrition research, education, and products. Scientific abstracts include those eligible for the Harry M. Vars Research Award Competition, the Dudrick Research Symposium, Nutrition and Metabolism Research Paper Sessions, Rapid Fire Research Presentations, and poster presentations. [Extracted from the article]

As a business communication teacher walks into their classroom ready to introduce a wonderful new teaching object, they are riding on a wave of spiritual joy. They know that they are about to transport their students into new business communication skills. It's magical. My Favorite Assignment is Association for Business Communication's (ABC's) resource of classroom-tested pedagogical innovations. This article offers 10 teaching innovations first presented at the 2022 ABC Annual International Conference held in Tampa, Florida USA. Readers can select from assignments designed to teach email, personal and professional development, and social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied the interference caused by amplitude and phase distortions induced by rain in ultra-wideband communication systems designed for using amplitude modulation in GeoSurf future satellite constellations. The results concern radio links simulated with the synthetic storm technique at Spino d'Adda (Italy), Madrid (Spain) and Tampa (Florida), which are sites located in different climatic regions. The conclusions are (a) the three sites, although in different climatic zones, are practically indistinguishable; (b) the channel signal-to-noise ratio can be increased or decreased by interference with equal probability. Channel theoretical capacity loss, even in the worst case, is very limited and rain, therefore, does not cause significant linear distortions in ultra-wideband channels at millimeter waves; therefore, these channels could be used at millimeter waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cities increasingly look for sustainable transportation options to alleviate congestion and solve the "first mile, last mile" problem, micro-transit has emerged as a promising solution. However, to ensure the long-term success of micro-transit programs, it's essential to establish sustainable funding strategies. This research aims to investigate what factors influence people's willingness to pay for micro-transit, with a particular focus on their perceptions of climate change and their commuting experiences. Additionally, the study explores the differences in experiences between current micro-transit users and non-users. Using the Downtowner service in downtown Tampa as a case study, we conducted online surveys in July 2020, gathering responses from 706 micro-transit users and 311 non-users. We then applied statistical analysis to understand the factors affecting willingness to pay. This study sheds light on the relatively underexplored topic of willingness to pay for micro-transit and its connection to climate change perceptions, contributing to existing research. Furthermore, recognizing differences in preferences between these groups provides valuable insights for tailoring strategies to encourage willingness to pay. As policymakers and transportation agencies aim to combat climate change and promote sustainable transportation, understanding these factors becomes increasingly important for developing effective and eco-friendly mobility solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been noted that interior vapor barriers in wood frame walls in hot-humid climates can lead to interstitial condensation within walls. The bases for this recognition are predictive simulations, anecdotal observations, and a limited number of experimental studies. This paper describes an experimental study conducted in a hot-humid climate that investigated the influence of an interior vapor retarder and compares observed performance with simulation predictions. The wall performance data reviewed here was gathered as part of a larger test program evaluating the performance of a range of typical wood frame, residential wall constructions in a hot-humid climate. The approach chosen was to use real-time field exposure using a "test hut" located in Tampa, Florida. The test hut had two long sides, which provided the ability to test 16 wall specimens each. Wall specimens were instrumented with a variety of temperature, humidity, and moisture sensors. In addition to natural weather exposure, the wall specimens could be manually wetted by a water injection system to simulate rain leakage. More specifically, this paper focuses on using the data collected before and after the installation of an interior vapor barrier (vinyl wallpaper) to show the change in moisture loading and the potential condensation within the walls resulting from the installation. The field data is compared with predictions of the wall behavior using a commonly available hygrothermal model. There is increasing reliance on the use of predictive models to assess the moisture performance of building assembly designs. These predictive models need to be validated against real data to test their variance from real systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the results of a sound level study for a racetrack in Tampa, Florida to investigate potential ordinance compliance. The study consisted of three separate dates of measurements and captured significant examples of atmospheric refraction. The measurements collected during this study have shown that wind direction several hundred feet above the surface played a significant role on sound wave propagation in this area. In one instance, the race track light structures were visible from an upwind observer position but the races were inaudible whereas at an equidistant downwind position, the racetrack was loud with A-weighted sound levels 20-30 dB greater than background sound levels. This paper presents the measured sound levels and meteorological conditions at positions within a two mile radius of the track, for each of the three test dates, and provides an example of the potential variability of sound levels that can be encountered during ordinance compliance monitoring. A simple long range propagation model for this area is included along with the application of a method to account for the effect of upwind and downwind conditions on received sound levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

America's history of racial segregation has played a critical role in shaping both what is publicly acknowledged, remembered, and preserved with respect to heritage and what is forgotten, whispered about, or relegated to the status of other in many communities. In this paper, I discuss how the community of Sulphur Springs in Tampa, FL, in partnership with students and faculty from the University of South Florida, has begun to address issues of identity and representation in the marketing of heritage as a key cultural resource. Issues confronted by this community underscore the role that heritage research, preservation, and management plays in defining the present and creating the future. Lessons learned from a previously conducted study of the Kingsley Plantation community in Jacksonville, FL, inform this analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study broadens the objectives of previous work (Boyer, N., Langevin, S., Gaspar, A. (2008). Self direction and constructivism in programming education. Proceedings of the ACM Special Interest Group in IT Education Conference, 16-18 October 2008, Cincinnati, OH) in which we used a survey-based instrument, the Personal Responsibility Orientation Self-Directed Learning Scale - PRO-SDLS (Stockdale, S.L., & Brockett, R.G. (2006). The continuing development of the PRO-SDLS: An instrument to measure self-direction in learning based on the personal responsibility orientation model. Paper presented at the 20th International Self-Directed Learning Symposium, Cocoa Beach, FL), as a new perspective to measure the impact of innovative approaches in the teaching of computer programming in online courses. The data have been collected during the offering of an undergraduate online asynchronous programming course delivered in 2008 at the University of South Florida Polytechnic. Our primary pedagogical intervention has been the use of peer learning forums which attempt to (1) leverage peer learning dynamics in an online course, (2) help students better structure their work on a weekly basis, and (3) help them learn to engage actively with the material (e.g., exercises, reading assignments). This article studies the impact of peer learning forums on these students through the lens of various instruments. Some, such as the PRO-SDLS, are well established in the self-directed learning literature. Others are introduced in this article to provide a more complete picture of both the students' self-perception of their self-direction and its more observable aspects. We also identified intrinsic characteristics of our student population, which we believe to have a significant impact on these instruments' measures. Finally, we relate these data to student feedback obtained through more open question surveys. These observations, made using diversified instruments, on a small and well-characterized learner population, represent the foundation of our case study. Our findings suggest that, after using the peer learning forums for an entire semester, the self-perception of our over-committed online adult learners' ability for self-directed learning has evolved to realign itself with more observable manifestations of their self-direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the discussion on the use of software GR2Analyst for examining severe weather signatures through radar analysis during the meeting of the West Central Florida chapter of American Meteorological Society in the computer laboratory in the Geography Department at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. The difference between Level II and Level III data used in radar analysis was explained. Meteorologist Andy Johnson presented the May 3, 1999 Moore, Oklahoma tornado using GR2Analyst.

[Display omitted] • The trends of surface runoff and flood area changes were different. • Rainfall change is the dominant driver compared with land use change. • There are coupled effects from rainfall and land use changes on both surface runoff and flood area. • The easily flooded areas would experience negative coupled effects under future rainfall and land use conditions. • The areas with inadequate drainage and low elevation variation would be of high probability to suffer flooding issues. Future rainfall and land use are two important factors for flood management since they both directly and indirectly affect the functionality and performance of urban stormwater drainage infrastructures. Although some studies have already examined the coupled effects of future rainfall and land use conditions, they have not concluded how such effects on both surface runoff and flood areas would change with regional surface elevation variation and infrastructure conditions. This paper analyzed the coupled effects of future rainfall and land use on urban drainage systems in terms of surface runoff quantity and flood area changes using EPA SWMM. Future downscaled and bias-corrected precipitation projections for 2040–2060 and 2080–2099 from "Downscaled CMIP3 and CMIP5 Climate and Hydrology Projections" Archive and future land use for 2050 s and 2090 s from EPA ICLUS project were used for the City of Tampa in Florida (USA). It was shown that potential runoff volume and flood area changes ranged from −40% to 160%, and −40% to 400% due to rainfall change, while potential changes induced by land use change ranged from 0% to 3.5%, and 0% to 18% respectively. Additionally, this study examined the coupled effects of future rainfall and land use changes on flood area variations, considering the capacity of drainage infrastructure and elevation variation of study site. Results showed that flood area variations are not solely influenced by runoff quantity changes due to the two external drivers, but also by other factors. Specifically, in low-relief areas with inadequate drainage infrastructure and less elevation variation, these two drivers have no additive effects on the percentage of flood area changes. In contrast, in areas with adequate drainage infrastructure and greater surface elevation variation, there are additive effects from rainfall and land use changes on flood area expansions. These findings have important implications for stakeholders involved in city planning and flooding control, particularly for urban areas facing future precipitation and urbanization challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers readers 11 classroom teaching innovations presented at the 2022 Association for Business Communication's (ABC's) Annual International Conference. Sessions were held online and on-site in Tampa, Florida, USA. Readers will find unique developments in teaching techniques—all designed to enhance students' communication skill building. The new ideas featured here include personal and professional development, oral communication, analysis, and critical thinking. Additional assignment support materials—instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, grading rubrics, frequently asked questions, and sample student projects—are posted on the ABC and DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership websites: https://www.businesscommunication.org/page/assignments and https://salesleadershipcenter.com/research/business-professional-communication-quarterly-my-favorite-assignment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]