A comparative study of the water budgets of lawns under three management scenarios

The fate of irrigation in urban ecosystems is highly uncertain, due to uncertainties in urban ecohydrology. We compared irrigation rates, soil moisture, evapotranspiration (ET), stomatal conductance, and water budgets of landscape ecosystems managed with different turfgrass species and irrigation technologies. The “Typical” landscape had a cool-season fescue and was irrigated by an automatic timer. The “Alternative1” landscape had a warm-season paspalum and a “smart” soil moisture sensor-based irrigation system. The “Alternative2” landscape had a cool-season native sedge and a “smart” weather station-based drip irrigation system. ET was measured with a portable closed chamber and modeled using a Penman-Monteith approach, and the two methods agreed well. The water applied to the Alternative1 was 54 % less than the water applied to the Typical landscape, and the water applied to the Alternative2 was 24 % less. Soil moisture was similar in the Typical and Alternative2, while Alternative1 was drier in spring. The stomatal conductance of sedge was lower than the other two species, but its ET was not lower due to higher leaf area. Irrigation efficiencies (ET/applied irrigation) were 57 - 58 %, 86 – 97 %, and 78 - 80 % for the Typical, Alternative1, and Alternative2 landscapes, respectively. Runoff was less than 2 % in each landscape, and excess irrigation primarily drained below the root zone. Differences in irrigation efficiency between landscapes were due mainly to irrigation application, which varied more than species water use. Smart irrigation systems provided substantial water savings relative to a timer-based system, and prevented significant drainage losses. The utilization of smart sensors was more important than the choice of turfgrass species for irrigation efficiency.     

Influence of Perceptions of Current and Future Community on Residential Aspirations of Rural Youth

Outmigration of youth has concerned rural communities and researchers for several decades. Yet not all communities experience extensive youth outmigration and some youth want to stay in their rural communities as adults. This article examines youth satisfaction with their current community and the importance of characteristics of the community in which they would like to live as an adult for youth preferences to leave or stay in their rural community. The data are for rural ninth‐grade youth in Pennsylvania from the Rural Youth Education Project. The results suggest that perceptions of available jobs and educational opportunities in both current and future community, parental and friend influences, and the quality of the natural environment and outdoor recreation are important in determining residential aspirations. In particular, identifying a clean natural environment and outdoor recreation as important in the adult community increases the likelihood that rural youth have residential aspirations to stay in their rural community. This research adds to our knowledge about factors important in determining youth residential aspirations by identifying attributes of community beyond jobs and educational opportunities that youth find attractive as they consider places to live as adults.     

Social Worker Shame in Child and Family Social Work: Inadequacy,Failure, and the Struggle to Practise Humanely

Social workers operate within a complex environment where the failure to live up to expectations can lead to negative self-judgements or negative judgements from others, a sense of inadequacy and not feeling ‘good enough’. This paper conceptualises such issues through the lens of ‘social worker shame’ defined through a psychosociocultural understanding of the emotion. The effect of social worker shame on social workers' well-being and practise is considered and begins to conceptualise how an organisation can become shame-sensitive and practitioners shame-resilient with the aim of reducing the potential impact of social worker shame on practise.     

Tuberculosis Screening for International Students

Abstract

Nonimmigrant, international students entering colleges in the United States are not required to undergo screening for tuberculosis (TB). Thirty-nine percent of active TB cases in the United States are in foreign-born individuals. In an effort to minimize the occurrence of active TB on a community campus with an increasing international student population, the college health service implemented a TB-screening policy for all newly enrolled international students. For the 1997/98 school year, 171 international students from 70 different countries enrolled in classes. Fifty-nine students (35%) screened for TB had a positive skin test (greater than 10 mm induration). Of those, 34 initiated isoniazid therapy, and 27 successfully completed the prescribed regimen under supervision of the campus health office.     

Condom use,frequency of sex,and number of partners: Multidimensional characterization of adolescent sexual risk‐taking

Sexual health research often relies on single risk indicators. However, multi‐variable composites may better capture the underlying construct of risk‐taking. Latent Profile Analysis identified subgroups based on condom use consistency, partner numbers, and sex frequency among 605 adolescents. Three profiles were identified for each of grades 8 to 10 (Condom Users, Few Partners, and Risk‐Takers) and 4 in grades 11 and 12 (Condom Users, One Partner, Two Partners, and Risk‐Takers). Inconsistent condom use groups reported more non‐condom (and often less effective) birth control use and STD and pregnancy histories. Females had greater representation in the Few Partners, One Partners, and Two Partners groups, which also contained increasing proportions of participants in each subsequent year. Males had greater representation in the Risk‐Takers group. A profile approach to measurement has methodological advantages, can add to substantive knowledge, and can inform content, timing, and targets of sexual health interventions.     

Perspectives on Whistleblowing: Faculty Member Viewpoints and Suggestions for Organizational Change

Given the prevalence of unethical behavior in research, whistleblowing may serve an important policing function. Despite this potential value of whistleblowing to organizations, engaging in this type of activity often has negative ramifications for those who choose to blow the whistle. Organizations may fail to provide adequate support for these individuals. In order to help inform best practices for organizations in terms of whistleblowing support infrastructure, the present effort content analyzed interviews with university faculty members regarding ethical decision making in which whistleblowing was a topic. Relevant themes in these interviews are discussed.     

The importance of end-of-life care in nursing home settings is not diminished by a disaster

The emphasis in disaster situations is on preserving life, and this goal is both appropriate and laudable. There is a risk, however, that the needs of people who are dying can become lost when there is a sudden surge of people needing acute intervention. There are significant ethical considerations inherent in society's prioritization of care needs across the acute, rehabilitative, and palliative spectrum in general, let alone in a disaster situation. These ethical conundrums are not the focus of this article. Rather, we anchor our discussion on the assumption that care needs are equally valid, and our purpose is to explore the issues that impact the provision of quality end-of-life care in nursing home settings for those who require this care when a disaster occurs. Nursing home residents, in particular, are at heightened risk for experiencing negative disaster-related outcomes due to compromised physical or mental health that requires skilled nursing care. Moreover, within the already vulnerable nursing home population are many people who are receiving palliative end-of-life services when a disaster strikes. Education and training in end-of-life services for nursing home staff, disaster emergency responders, and other lay people is vital to build capacity for adapting the delivery of these services in disaster situations in the interest of equity and human rights. Given the present lack of guidance in the literature as to what end-of-life care looks like when adapted to the context of disaster response, there is also a pressing need for research to inform this discussion. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to this topic and highlight some of the critical issues, gaps, and opportunities.     

Stability and Change in Private and Public Ethnic Regard Among African American,Puerto Rican,Dominican, and Chinese American Early Adolescents

Over the past 20 years, researchers have demonstrated that ethnic identity in adolescence is multifaceted and dynamic, encompassing a number of aspects of content and self‐definition. The present study examines private regard (i.e., youths' positive evaluations of their ethnic group) as well as public regard, which refers to their perceptions of others' evaluations of the group. The primary objective of the present study was to examine stability versus change in private and public regard among an ethnically diverse sample of early adolescents as they progressed through middle school. Using data from a longitudinal investigation of 6th graders, we found that private regard was stable over time and quite positive for all groups. In addition, while Chinese American youths' public regard tended to increase over time, African American, Puerto Rican, and Dominican youths' public regard decreased across the middle school years. Implications for ethnic identity theory are discussed.     

Transforming the culture of caring

Direct care staff struggle with the decision of when to physically intervene with patients. There is a widely held belief that they are expected to place themselves in danger of harm to prevent patients from hurting themselves or others. In this acute mental health care setting, an educational program was developed, using principles of adult and transformational learning, to dispel the idea that getting hurt is part of the job. The Staying Safe program strongly discourages staff from physically intervening alone and promotes staff getting enough help and having a plan. Staff are encouraged to interact with patients in helpful ways and to respond to patient requests in ways that do not increase frustration or evoke anger. There has been a positive response to the training program, evidenced by changes in the way staff think about their jobs and a reduction in the number of assaults and injuries to staff.