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Recruitment and retention are critical for geoscience and the need for innovative ways of building these bridges to the geosciences is growing. Field experiences are a common attractor for students to the field sciences such as geoscience, but many research- and field-based experiences are limited to those who are already majors. Innovative, experiential approaches to geoscience recruitment and retention could be a new way to attract more students to geoscience. International field and research experiences designed for undergraduates from any academic discipline aim to provide opportunities for students to explore their (geo)science interests and potential career paths. A single, exploratory case study approach with semi-structured interviews combined with quantitative pre- and post-survey results is used to highlight the experiences of four students and their plans for continuing in the geosciences. Students (including geoscience and non-geoscience majors) were found to have had inherent, pre-college, and college influences for participation in the field experience; all students indicated plans to continue in the geosciences. Two years after the experience, researchers followed-up with the students and found that three of the four were still involved in the geosciences. Many international geoscience field experiences are exclusively for majors, but experiential learning opportunities like these should also be considered for potential majors. These results are beneficial for departments interested in designing and adapting their recruitment and retention efforts to better train the next generation of geoscientists.

One of every two children in the world lives in poverty, with no access to safe water, health services or adequate shelter to the extent that 25,000 children die every day. Thirty-seven million Americans, thirteen million of whom are children, live below the poverty level. Of the developed world, despite our wealth and sophistication, the United States has the most children who live in poverty. Rather than race, ethnicity or gender, it is poverty, socio-economic class and deprivation that account for poor performances in school, to the extent that young people from poor families are three times more likely to drop out of school. Alone, neither schools nor communities can adapt to or realize the overlapping and contextually interacting needs presented by students and their families. Collaboratively, where schools are beginning to offer quality, equitable education at the same site in which access to requisite health, social and human services for children and families are provided, both educational and psycho-social outcomes are enhanced. Using a holistic position and an ecological model of resilience, this paper would suggest that these community schools, serving as hubs of social justice, are mitigating the academic and nonacademic needs of vulnerable children and families. (Contains 64 footnotes and 2 tables.)

Curriculum frameworks have an important role in providing guidance to early childhood practitioners on how to integrate knowledge about sustainability into their practice. This article examines how ideas about sustainability are integrated in the early childhood curricula for Australia, England, Norway, Sweden and the USA. The analyses were guided by critical inquiry and a cross-national dialogue and focused on four aspects of the curricula: sustainability presence, views of the child, human-environment relationship and philosophical/theoretical underpinnings on ideas expressed about sustainability. Ideas about sustainability were more implicitly present than explicitly stated in most curricula. It was not evident that children were viewed as world citizens with agency to help foster sustainability. With respect to human-environmental relationship, the framework from Australia expressed greater reciprocity and entanglement, while other frameworks were more anthropocentric despite the variation among curricula. All five frameworks embodied a sociocultural, human development approach with respect to the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings. There is a need to consider alternative frameworks that offer broader and more inclusive worldviews about sustainability that includes embracing human, non-human and other species within an assemblage of common worlds.

To improve the quality of the teacher workforce, some states have tightened teacher preparation and certification requirements while others have eased requirements and introduced "alternative" ways of being certified to attract more people to teaching. Donald Boyd, Daniel Goldhaber, Hamilton Lankford, and James Wyckoff evaluate these seemingly contradictory strategies by examining how preparation and certification requirements affect student achievement. If strong requirements improve student outcomes and deter relatively few potential teachers, the authors say, then they may well be good policy. But if they have little effect on student achievement, if they seriously deter potential teachers, or if schools are able to identify applicants who will produce good student outcomes, then easing requirements becomes a more attractive policy. In reviewing research on these issues, the authors find that evidence is often insufficient to draw conclusions. They do find that highly selective alternative route programs can produce effective teachers who perform about the same as teachers from traditional routes after two years on the job. And they find that teachers who score well on certification exams can improve student outcomes somewhat. Limited evidence suggests that certification requirements can diminish the pool of applicants, but there is no evidence on how they affect student outcomes. And the authors find that schools have a limited ability to identify attributes in prospective teachers that allow them to improve student achievement. The authors conclude that the research evidence is simply too thin to have serious implications for policy. Given the enormous investment in teacher preparation and certification and given the possibility that these requirements may worsen student outcomes, the lack of convincing evidence is disturbing. The authors urge researchers and policymakers to work together to move to a more informed position where good resource decisions can be made. (Contains 2 tables and 46 notes.)

Objective: Peer influences may play a maintaining or contributing role in alcohol-related sexually aggressive behavior (SAB) in undergraduates. Undergraduate men substantially overperceive their peers' SAB-related attitudes and behaviors (i.e., show substantial misperception of SAB-related social norms). Moreover, men at high risk of perpetrating SAB often show greater overestimation than lower risk peers. The current work provides a comprehensive description of SAB-related social norms within a large sample of undergraduates, examining five novel normative misperceptions associated with alcohol-related SAB, and evaluating relations between social norms and self-reported histories of both contact and noncontact SAB. Method: Undergraduate men (n = 567) endorsing attraction to women from two large state universities in different regions of the United States responded to questions about sexual attitudes, behaviors, and proclivities. They completed these measures twice: once from their own perspective and then from the perspective of the typical college male (TCM). Results: Students showed large overestimation of peers' general and alcohol-specific attitudes and behaviors. Many self and normative perceptions were also significantly related to a self-reported history of noncontact or contact SAB. Conclusions: Relative to self-ratings, TCM ratings were overestimated for all assessed constructs and thus represent targets of future prevention efforts. Men who reported an SAB history often showed more marked misperceptions, speaking to the potential utility of providing corrective normative feedback to these undergraduates in future work. Future prevention efforts may benefit from providing personalized normative feedback to undergraduates, and particularly high-risk students, about the accuracy of their peer perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Dental Hygiene is the property of Canadian Dental Hygienists Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The uptake of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines has been controversial among religious parents due to beliefs that their children are expected to practice sexual purity and so do not need protection from a sex-related infection. Also, if at all they get infected in the future, God can protect them from sickness without a vaccine. Yet, most HPV vaccination messages are secular, lacking spiritual themes. This study compared the effectiveness of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) on HPV with our intervention message- a scripture-embedded HPV vaccination message (using a randomized controlled trial design) on vaccination intention. The study was conducted online. Participants were 342 Christian parents (from any denomination) of unvaccinated adolescents aged 11-17 years. The intervention message used the Cognitive Metaphor Theory to map the constructs of the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark to HPV vaccination. We framed Noah as the parents, the flood as HPV, and the ark as the vaccination. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the changes in vaccination intention before and after the intervention. Our findings showed that parents who received the scripture-embedded message reported a higher intention to vaccinate their children than those who received the CDC VIS (β= 0.31, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = 0.11-0.52; p=0.003). Our findings support the need for equitable messaging regarding HPV vaccination. Faith-based messaging interventions that seek to increase HPV vaccination should be framed to address religious anti-vaccination beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What constitutes a successful lesson? A considerable body of literature examines instructional talk; however, little attention has been directed to situations in which teacher intentions (as captured by lesson plan) are stymied by unanticipated student response and the teacher must instantaneously reevaluate and revise an intended lesson. This article scrutinizes specific teacher discourse practices in one English language learner (ELL) classroom when students struggle with a text. Close discourse analysis reveals that this teacher's consistent guided practice of anchoring her questions in student contributions to support students' existing purposes and understandings is not compromised even when this results in extended vocabulary-centered student searches for meaning and a lesson very different from what she intended. The dialogic nature of this lesson talk challenges simplified dichotomies of closed and open questions, as well as established notions of efficient and effective instructional practice. This illustrative case of dialogic teaching explicates the role of contingency in interactive discussion.

A democratic system of government needs--and the United States relies on colleges to produce--ethical and engaged citizens. A society will be able to sustain and flourish by cultivating civic engagement while equally developing a moral compass along with the ability and will to act. Historically colleges have and can continue to maximize students' civic engagement and ethical learning when both are envisioned as integrated goals straddling students' academic and nonacademic lives and permeating institutional culture. A pervasive, intertwined, and intentional approach to encouraging civic engagement with an acknowledged moral dimension enhances the development of personal and social responsibility (PSR) in students. This article examines the mechanisms, best practices, administrative considerations, and resources available for "institutionally" promoting civic engagement activity as an educational tool designed to facilitate moral growth and a civic mind-set (for example, attitudes and values).

This article examines the extent of neoliberalism's influence within US community colleges during the last decade. It argues that such influence is changing non-profit, publicly funded community colleges into consumer colleges, serving the needs of corporations and "customers" at the expense of civic responsibility. Educating 46% of all United States undergraduate students, 2-year community colleges have historically been "the people's college" educating citizens and university transfer students while simultaneously serving a community's need for vocational training. Evidence of the spread of neoliberal ideology includes the adoption of accreditation mechanisms based on Total Quality Management and Continuous Improvement models derived from industry; the evolution of discourse in public institutions equating students as customers; and non-profit educational associations, funded by multinational technology companies that manipulate and influence educational reforms. This article is an attempt to illuminate the conscious and unconscious intertwining of public, non-profit, and for profit systems and discourses that have lead to the continued commodification of an essential public service.

Two hours of tobacco instructions were incorporated into the baccalaureate dental hygiene curricula in a university in the Northwestern United States. Prior to graduation, all senior students were invited to complete anonymously a questionnaire surveying attitudes and clinical skills in providing tobacco services to their clinic patients. Twenty students (67%) responded but no data was collected on the non-respondents. Eighteen (90%) reported practicing some of the "5 A's," and a few reported sustained adherence to all "5 A's." Moderately successful clinical outcomes parallelled students' moderate self-rating of their knowledge/skills. When asked to identify barriers to sustained and ongoing full adherence, most students cited "patient resistance/disinterest," and their own "lack of knowledge or confidence in the skills." Our preliminary findings suggest that additional content and training time may be required for dental hygiene graduates to feel highly confident and knowledgeable, and for them to sustain comprehensive tobacco services once in practice. (Contains 3 tables.)

The authors investigated the medical use, illicit use, and diversion of 4 distinct classes of abusable prescription medication (sleeping medication, sedative or anxiety medication, stimulant medication, and pain medication) in a random sample of undergraduate students. In spring 2003, 9,161 undergraduate students attending a large, public, midwestern research university in the United States self-administered a Web-based survey. The prevalence rate for illicit use within the past year was highest for pain medication, followed by stimulant medication, sedative or anxiety medication, and sleeping medication. Women generally reported higher past-year medical use rates. However, undergraduate men reported higher illicit use rates. The illicit use--medical use ratio for stimulant medication was the highest among the 4 classes of prescription drugs. Medical users of stimulants for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were the most likely to be approached to divert their medication. Multivariate results indicated that illicit users of prescription drugs were more likely to use other drugs than were students who did not use prescription drugs illicitly. The authors provide evidence that prescription drug abuse is a problem among college students. (Contains 2 tables.)

Since 1980, most English-speaking nations have experienced a sea change in how people think about educational policy and school management. This article argues for scrutinizing both paradigms or theories influencing our thinking and consequences of built-in biases. Drawing on the British and U.S. experience, the article examines dramatic educational policy and management shifts directed by economic and outcome-oriented models. (MLH)

In the United States, the common approach to detecting gestational diabetes mellitus is the 2-step protocol recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. A 50 g, 1-hour glucose challenge at 24 to 28 weeks' gestation is followed by a 100 g, 3-hour oral glucose tolerance test when a screening test threshold is exceeded. Notably, 2 or more elevated values diagnose gestational diabetes mellitus. The 2-step screening test is administered without regard to the time of the last meal, providing convenience by eliminating the requirement for fasting. However, depending upon the cutoff used and population risk factors, approximately 15% to 20% of screened women require the 100 g, 3-hour oral glucose tolerance test. The International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups recommends a protocol of no screening test but rather a diagnostic 75 g, 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test. One or more values above threshold diagnose gestational diabetes mellitus. The 1-step approach requires that women be fasting for the test but does not require a second visit and lasts 2 hours rather than 3. Primarily because of needing only a single elevated value, the 1-step approach identifies 18% to 20% of pregnant women as having gestational diabetes mellitus, 2 to 3 times the rate with the 2-step procedure, but lower than the current United States prediabetes rate of 24% in reproductive aged women. The resources needed for the increase in gestational diabetes mellitus are parallel to the resources needed for the increased prediabetes and diabetes in the nonpregnant population. A recent randomized controlled trial sought to assess the relative population benefits of the above 2 approaches to gestational diabetes mellitus screening and diagnosis. The investigators concluded that there was no significant difference between the 2-step screening protocol and 1-step diagnostic testing protocol in their impact on population adverse short-term pregnancy outcomes. An accompanying editorial concluded that perinatal benefits of the 1-step approach to diagnosing gestational diabetes mellitus "appear to be insufficient to justify the associated patient and healthcare costs of broadening the diagnosis." We raise several concerns about this conclusion. The investigators posited that a 20% improvement in adverse outcomes among the entire pregnancy cohort would be necessary to demonstrate an advantage to the 1-step approach and estimated the sample size based on that presumption, which we believe to be unlikely given the number of cases that would be identified. In addition, 27% of the women randomized to the 1-step protocol underwent 2-step testing; 6% of the study cohort had no testing at all. A subset of women assigned to 2-step testing did not meet the criteria for gestational diabetes mellitus but were treated as such because of elevated fasting plasma glucose levels, presumably contributing to the reduction in adverse outcomes but not to the number of gestational diabetes mellitus identified, increasing the apparent efficacy of the 2-step approach. No consideration was given to long-term benefits for mothers and offspring. All these factors may have contributed to obscuring the benefits of 1-step testing; most importantly, the study was not powered to identify what we understand to be the likely impact of 1-step testing on population health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose/objective: Conflict and discourtesy between college students and faculty have become increasingly common in higher education. Fallout from uncivil student encounters can have numerous effects on educators' overall health and has been shown to negatively impact learning environments. This research assessed the severity and frequency of student incivility in dental hygiene education and explored the relationship uncivil behavior has on faculty feelings of confidence, career satisfaction, and longevity.Methods: Cross-sectional survey research was conducted among dental hygiene educators (n = 601) in the United States and Canada using purposive and snowball sampling. The survey (47-item) was developed based on the literature and validated prior to administration. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between variables and mean item category scores and thematic analysis was used to identify themes for open-ended questions.Results: Survey completion rate was 78% (n = 469). Behaviors ranked mildly uncivil, such as eating/drinking in class, occurred more frequently, and incivility had less impact on faculty confidence with increased age (r = -.19; P ≤ 0.01). The level of severity of behaviors did not impact educators; however, how often certain behaviors occurred had some effect. Contemptuous behaviors, such as using a disrespectful/sarcastic tone (r = .34, .32, .31; P ≤ 0.01), had the most impact.Conclusion: This study determined student incivility exists within dental hygiene education. Day-to-day, minor uncivil behaviors seemingly take a greater emotional toll than occasional, highly uncivil encounter. Understanding how faculty perceive these behaviors may influence development of management strategies, fostering a sense of career satisfaction for educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a theoretical perspective on the impact of society on new technologies, and gives examples of the impact of cultural factors on the development of computer/video-mediated educational technology in the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Highlights include the use of television, computer languages, and videotex. (14 references) (Author/LRW)

Successful and unsuccessful features of the Australian system of public funding for private schools are examined, with reference to the United States system. A delicate balance in public policy is required to maintain parity of esteem between public and private schools, equality of opportunity, and excellence in education. (SLD)

The Dental Aptitude Test (DAT) in Canada and the Dental Admission Test (DAT) in the United States are discussed. A history of the DAT, its composition, underlying concepts, and the problems of validation and guidelines for its uses are presented. A review of the literature is provided. (Author/MLW)

To measure the frequency US pediatricians report screening and referring for social needs and identify pediatrician and practice-level predictors for screening and referral. Data were from the American Academy of Pediatrics Periodic Survey for October 2014 to March 2015 with a response rate of 46.6% (732/1570). Respondents reported on: 1) routine screening of low-income families for social needs, 2) attitudes toward screening, and 3) referral of low-income families for community resources. Results were analyzed by pediatrician and practice characteristics. Although most pediatricians (61.6%) thought that screening is important, fewer (39.9%) reported that screening is feasible or felt prepared addressing families' social needs (20.2%). The topics that pediatricians reported routinely asking low-income families about at visits (defined as ≥50% visits) were need for childcare (41.5%) and transportation barriers (28.4%). Pediatricians were less likely to report asking about housing (18.7%), food (18.6%), and utilities/heating (14.0%) insecurity. In multivariable analyses, pediatricians were more likely to report both that they screen and refer when they reported having more patients in financial hardship and having someone in the practice with the responsibility to connect low-income families to community services. Pediatricians who endorsed the importance of screening and who reported being prepared were also more likely to screen/refer. A minority of pediatricians report routinely screening for social needs. Pediatricians were more likely to report that they screen and refer if they had positive attitudes toward the importance of screening, felt prepared, and had support staff to assist families in need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we describe findings from a discourse community created for parents to discuss potentially controversial young adult literature. Focusing on participants' reactions to All American Boys, the study explores how parents responded to issues of racism in the United States and investigates how participants conceived of the text for their own children and in English classrooms. We distinguish four themes in the parents' responses: identifying with injustice, seeing Whiteness as a protection, stereotypes versus individuality, and reading as parents. Implications for preservice and inservice teachers, as well as teacher educators, involve preparation for leading difficult conversations and for working with parents toward transparency in classroom texts and topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Weed management is a significant challenge faced by pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) growers in the Southeastern United States. Field experiments were implemented to study the combined effects of soil fumigants with supplemental metam potassium or S -metalochlor on weed control and bell pepper growth and yield. Experiments were designed as a completely randomized split plot with primary soil fumigant (PF) as the main plot factors and supplemental weed management (SWM) as the subplot factors. The PF included a nontreated control, 396 kg ha−1 dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) + Chloropicrin (Pic) (79:21 w/w), and 336 kg ha−1 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) + Pic (40:60 w/w). The SWM included a nontreated control, 475 kg ha−1 metam potassium, and 1.06 kg ha−1 S -metolachlor. PF and SWM treatments independently affected weed densities with no significant interactions occurring. At 12 weeks after transplanting (WATP), DMDS + Pic significantly reduced purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.) density in areas where the plastic mulch was removed after transplant to evaluate weed control, whereas 1,3-D + Pic did not significantly reduce purple nutsedge density. Neither 1,3-D + Pic nor DMDS + Pic significantly reduced broadleaf and grassy weed densities compared to the nontreated control at the end of the growing season. Metam potassium reduced purple nutsedge density by 48% compared to the nontreated control at 2 WATP but nutsedge densities did not differ at subsequent dates. S -metolachlor reduced purple nutsedge density by 50 and 69% at 4 and 6 WATP in areas where the mulch was removed after transplant compared to nontreated control. At 12 WATP, metam potassium and S -metolachlor reduced grassy weed density by 80 and 49%, respectively, and reduced broadleaf weed density by 55 and 67% compared to the nontreated control, respectively. Overall, we conclude that DMDS + Pic was more effective at reducing purple nutsedge density as compared to 1,3-D + Pic. Supplemental applications of metam potassium or S -metolachlor following the fumigation of 1,3-D + Pic or DMDS + Pic enhanced the control of purple nutsedge, broadleaves, and grasses. The evaluated treatments did not promote or adversely affect bell pepper growth or yield. Highlights • DMDS + Pic was more effective than 1,3-D + Pic for nutsedge control. • Neither DMDS + Pic nor 1,3-D + Pic effectively controlled weeds at season end. • Applications of metam potassium or S -metolachlor improved weed control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In health care policy debates, discussion centers around the often-misperceived costs of providing medical care to immigrants. This review seeks to compare health care expenditures of U.S. immigrants to those of U.S.-born individuals and evaluate the role which immigrants play in the rising cost of health care. We systematically examined all post-2000, peer-reviewed studies in PubMed related to health care expenditures by immigrants written in English in the United States. The reviewers extracted data independently using a standardized approach. Immigrants' overall expenditures were one-half to two-thirds those of U.S.-born individuals, across all assessed age groups, regardless of immigration status. Per capita expenditures from private and public insurance sources were lower for immigrants, particularly expenditures for undocumented immigrants. Immigrant individuals made larger out-of-pocket health care payments compared to U.S.-born individuals. Overall, immigrants almost certainly paid more toward medical expenses than they withdrew, providing a low-risk pool that subsidized the [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors sought to assess the availability of outpatient mental health care through pediatrician and child psychiatrist offices in the United States and to characterize differences in appointment availability by location, provider type, and insurance across five cities. To do so, the authors posed as parents of a 12-year-old child with depression, gave a predetermined insurance type, and asked to make the first available appointment with the specified provider. They called the offices of 601 individual pediatricians and 312 child psychiatrists located in five U.S. cities and listed as in-network by Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of the largest private insurers in the United States. Appointments were obtained with 40% of the pediatricians and 17% of the child psychiatrists. The mean wait time for psychiatry appointments was 30 days longer than for pediatric appointments. Providers were less likely to have available appointments for children on Medicaid, which is public insurance for lowincome people. The most common reason for being unable to make an appointment was that the listed phone number was incorrect. Pediatricians were twice as likely to see new patients and to see them sooner than child psychiatrists. Increasing the number of both types of providers may be necessary to increase access to mental health care for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the quest to educate students on how to think critically, focus must be given to instructing educators on the intricacies of critical thinking and how to implement this practice in our courses with intentionality. This qualitative study describes the process and experiences of the first class of Critical Thinking Fellows. A cadre of faculty interested in teaching students to think critically across a range of agricultural disciplines participated in this inaugural year of instruction and implementation. A narrative analysis of faculty written perceptions of intentional teaching strategies showed that professors across the college felt better equipped and more aware of how to use critical thinking in their courses. Critical Thinking Academy participants also felt that more application and interaction with other practitioners would be helpful in their implementation and understanding of critical thinking. Critical thinking is a cornerstone in education learning outcomes, and essential to developing effective and competitive work-ready leaders and professionals. Further focus must be given to faculty development and course implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by theoretical arguments about ethnicity and economics and by historical research on urban black communities in the United States, this paper investigates the resilience of the early twentieth-century Black Metropolis. The study tests hypotheses about changes during the Great Depression (1930–1940) in the advantages of various cities as locations of black communities’ ethnic economies, analyzing Census data on blacks’ representation in occupations reflecting the Black Metropolis’s professional, entrepreneurial, and cultural media pursuits. There is mixed support for the hypothesis that the nationally dominant urban centers of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia had the most resilient Black Metropolises, a finding that casts doubt on claims that black communities in such key places enjoyed exceptionally favorable locational advantages. Yet, the results support the hypothesis that northern cities were, overall, more resilient locations than southern cities, particularly for black professionals and entrepreneurs, affirming the argument that the urban North’s Black Metropolises were vital economic opportunity centers for these black communities’ upper- and middle-classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on emblems of American patriotism. Patriotism also reasserted itself in American politics as elected officials at various levels moved to support public recitations of the "Pledge of Allegiance," the singing of patriotic songs at public venues and the display of patriotic signs in public buildings. Patriotic responses to September 11 have been merely symbolic and persistently individualistic. Patriotism must be understood as the love that binds a people together, not the misplaced love of the institutions that dominate the people. Here democracy is definitively distinguished from the institutions created to effect it. Author Wendell Berry characterizes abstract nationalist patriotism not by the particularizing passion with which settled people have always loved, not their nation, but their homes, their daily lives and daily bread, but by that abstract and abstracting political passion that loves and is loyal to the idea of the nation, potentially betraying the ideals of it. Such affection is necessarily abstract because the nation can only be known abstractly.

We performed a suite of numerical simulations based on the 1811-1812 New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) earthquakes, which demonstrate the importance of 3D geologic structure and rupture directivity on the ground-motion response throughout a broad region of the central United States (CUS) for these events. Our simulation set consists of 20 hypothetical earthquakes located along two faults associated with the current seismicity trends in the NMSZ. The hypothetical scenarios range in magnitude from M 7.0 to 7.7 and consider various epicenters, slip distributions, and rupture characterization approaches. The low-frequency component of our simulations was computed deterministically up to a frequency of 1 Hz using a regional 3D seismic velocity model and was combined with higher-frequency motions calculated for a 1D medium to generate broadband synthetics (0-40 Hz in some cases). For strike-slip earthquakes located on the southwest-northeast-striking NMSZ axial arm of seismicity, our simulations show 2-10 s period energy channeling along the trend of the Reelfoot rift and focusing strong shaking northeast toward Paducah, Kentucky, and Evansville, Indiana, and southwest toward Little Rock, Arkansas. These waveguide effects are further accentuated by rupture directivity such that an event with a western epicenter creates strong amplification toward the northeast, whereas an eastern epicenter creates strong amplification toward the southwest. These effects are not as prevalent for simulations on the reverse-mechanism Reelfoot fault, and large peak ground velocities (>40 cm/s) are typically confined to the near-source region along the up-dip projection of the fault. Nonetheless, these basin response and rupture directivity effects have a significant impact on the pattern and level of the estimated intensities, which leads to additional uncertainty not previously considered in magnitude estimates of the 1811-1812 sequence based only on historical reports. The region covered by our simulation domain encompasses a large portion of the CUS centered on the NMSZ, including several major metropolitan areas. Based on our simulations, more than eight million people living and working near the NMSZ would experience potentially damaging ground motion and modified Mercalli intensities ranging from VI to VIII if a repeat of the 1811-1812 earthquakes occurred today. Moreover, the duration of strong ground shaking in the greater Memphis metropolitan area could last from 30 to more than 60 s, depending on the magnitude and epicenter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American trial court judges’ roles and behavior vary greatly from their appellate court brethren. One such area of difference has to do with opinion writing behavior, an area where trial judges hold a great deal of discretion in determining whether to write an opinion and, if they do, how long the opinion should be. To examine what factors determine opinion writing behavior among district court judges, this study relies on analyses of an original dataset of civil cases that terminated in eighteen federal district courts from 2000 to 2006. The results indicate that legal, hierarchical, and institutional features are critical in motivating opinion writing and opinion length and that personal factors have very limited effects. The fruits of this exercise have important implications for how we view and model the behavior of trial court judges in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A response is provided to author Todd E. Pettys' article entitled "Free Expression, In-Group Bias, and the Court's Conservatives: A Critique of the Epstein-Parker-Segal Study" which appears in a previous issue of the journal and addresses the unpublished empirical legal studies (ELS)-related work "Do Justices Defend the Speech They Hate? In-Group Bias, Opportunism, and the First Amendment" by Lee Epstein, Christopher M. Parker & Jeffrey A. Segal. U.S. Supreme Court decision making is examined.

The article provides information on the National Art Education Association's (NAEA) stance on human rights issues in the United States. It discusses "Creative Activity as a Human Right," the organization's concept designed to use the arts to identify and advocate social divisions and social unrest related to the LGBTQ community and communities of color.

Ethnic entrepreneurs often benefit from reciprocal relationships, such as buyer-supplier linkages, among co-ethnic businesses. The present study extends this insight, analyzing census data on the relationship between ethnic enterprise in the retail trade and co-ethnic enterprise in the wholesale trade in urban centers of core and peripheral regions of the late-nineteenth-century United States. As expected, this relationship varied markedly by ethnicity and region. For some groups (e.g., Russians), co-ethnic retail and wholesale enterprises were positively related on the periphery but not in the core; conversely, for other groups (e.g., Irish), co-ethnic retail and wholesale enterprises were positively related in the core but not on the periphery. The results imply that reciprocal relationships among co-ethnic businesses are significantly affected by variation in the characteristics of local opportunity structures across urban-regional locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern federal district courts delegate vast decision-making powers throughout criminal and civil cases to magistrate judges--judicial actors that, unlike other federal judges, serve without an Article III political appointment. Through the lens of principal-agency theory, this study seeks to rectify the relative paucity of systematic work on these actors by using original filing and motion-level district court data to examine magistrates' decision making empirically. Our results support our expectations that magistrates are often constrained by the preferences of the district judges in and the institutional characteristics of their district while issuing reports and recommendations and serving as assigned judges by the consent of the parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A personal narrative is presented in which the author explores her experiences at Camp Halleck, or Fort Halleck, Nevada in 1868 and 1869, including her and her husband's moving from San Francisco, California to Camp Halleck, her perspective on the region's Indians and the fort's cavalry soldiers.

The article presents guidelines on legal writing for law students and practicing attorneys on the basis of real world experiences and teaches skills that are requisite for both inside and outside of the courtroom knowledge in the U.S. It focuses on principles that will enhance the persuasive value of legal arguments. It provides information regarding the impact of an ameliorative demonstration of grammar, tone, and clarity on the outcome of a court case.

We have developed a new three-dimensional seismic velocity model of the central United States (CUSVM) that includes the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) and covers parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The model represents a compilation of decades of crustal research consisting of seismic, aeromagnetic, and gravity profiles; geologic mapping; geophysical and geological borehole logs; and inversions of the regional seismic properties. The density, P- and 5-wave velocities are synthesized in a stand-alone spatial database that can be queried to generate the required input for numerical seismic-wave propagation simulations. We test and calibrate the CUSVM by simulating ground motions of the 18 April 2008 Mw 5.4 Mt. Carmel, Illinois, earthquake and comparing the results with observed records within the model area. The selected stations in the comparisons reflect different geological site conditions and cover distances ranging from 10 to 430 km from the epicenter. The results, based on a qualitative and quantitative goodness-of-fit (GOF) characterization, indicate that both within and outside the Mississippi Embayment the CUSVM reasonably reproduces: (1) the body and surface-wave arrival times and (2) the observed regional variations in ground-motion amplitude, cumulative energy, duration, and frequency content up to a frequency of 1.0 Hz. In addition, we discuss the probable structural causes for the ground-motion patterns in the central United States that we observed in the recorded motions of the 18 April Mt. Carmel earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-independent probabilistic seismic-hazard analysis treats each source as being temporally and spatially independent; hence foreshocks and aftershocks, which are both spatially and temporally dependent on the mainshock, are removed from earthquake catalogs. Yet, intuitively, these earthquakes should be considered part of the seismic hazard, capable of producing damaging ground motions. In this study, I consider the mainshock and its dependents as a time-independent cluster, each cluster being temporally and spatially independent from any other. The cluster has a recurrence time of the mainshock; and, by considering the earthquakes in the cluster as a union of events, dependent events have an opportunity to contribute to seismic ground motions and hazard. Based on the methods of the U.S. Geological Survey for a high-hazard site, the inclusion of dependent events causes ground motions that are exceeded at probability levels of engineering interest to increase by about 10% but could be as high as 20% if variations in aftershock productivity can be accounted for reliably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]