scholarly journals Public entrepreneurs and the adoption of broad-based merit aid beyond the Southeastern United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
William Kyle Ingle ◽  
Ruth Ann Petroff

The concentration of broad-based merit aid adoption in the southeastern United States has been well noted in the literature. However, there are states that have adopted broad-based merit aid programs outside of the Southeast.  Guided by multiple theoretical frameworks, including innovation diffusion theory (e.g., Gray, 1973, 1994; Rogers, 2003), Roberts and King’s (1991) typology of public entrepreneurs, and Anderson’s (2003) stages of the policymaking process, this qualitative study sought to answer the following questions. First, in the absence of regional diffusion pressures, what internal determinants are reported as accounting for the diffusion of broad-based merit aid programs outside of the Southeastern US?  What types of public entrepreneurs were identified as playing key roles in establishing merit aid in states outside the southeastern US?  During which stages of the policymaking process were they active? We found that merit aid was a means of addressing an array of public problems, including low college going rates at in-state public colleges and universities, and weak K-12 accountability. Consistent factors reported as facilitating merit aid creation included a strong, vocal public advocate (governors and a university system president) and a desire to strengthen state economies and diversify workforces.  A full range of public entrepreneurs played key roles in developing merit aid in the sampled states. Political and executive entrepreneurs were in the forefront of merit aid efforts, but our data suggest that a cast of supporting public entrepreneurs were integral to the eventual adoption of broad-based merit aid in the sampled states.

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaotian Xu ◽  
Xu Feng ◽  
Haipeng Lin ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Shaojian Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract. High mercury wet deposition in southeastern United States has been noticed for many years. Previous studies came up with a theory that it was associated with high-altitude divalent mercury scavenged by convective precipitation. Given the coarse resolution of previous models (e.g. GEOS-Chem), this theory is still not fully tested. Here we employed a newly developed WRF-GEOS-Chem (WRF-GC) model implemented with mercury simulation. We conduct extensive model benchmarking by comparing WRF-GC with different resolutions (from 50 km to 25 km) to GEOS-Chem output (4° × 5°) and data from Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) in July–September 2013. The comparison of mercury wet deposition from two models both present high mercury wet deposition in southeastern United States. We divided simulation results by heights, different types of precipitation and combination of these two variations together and find most of mercury wet deposition concentrates on higher space and caused by convective precipitation. Therefore, we conclude that it is the deep convection caused enhanced mercury wet deposition in the southeastern United States.


Sharing Milk ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Shannon K. Carter ◽  
Beatriz M. Reyes-Foster

This chapter provides original sociological thinking in order to bear on contemporary gender relations, divisions, and issues of concern to feminists. It analyzes human milk-sharing communities in a large metropolitan area in southeastern United States. It also describes the practices of milk-sharing, the meanings ascribed to human milk, and the labour involved in its production. The chapter builds on existing scholarship and theoretical frameworks to develop a model for understanding contemporary forms of bodily sharing. It explains how feeding of human milk to socially and biologically unrelated infants is a normal method of infant feeding documented throughout human history and in societies around the world.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 5009-5019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Brock ◽  
Nicholas L. Wagner ◽  
Bruce E. Anderson ◽  
Andreas Beyersdorf ◽  
Pedro Campuzano-Jost ◽  
...  

Abstract. Aircraft observations of meteorological, trace gas, and aerosol properties were made between May and September 2013 in the southeastern United States (US). Regionally representative aggregate vertical profiles of median and interdecile ranges of the measured parameters were constructed from 37 individual aircraft profiles made in the afternoon when a well-mixed boundary layer with typical fair-weather cumulus was present (Wagner et al., 2015). We use these 0–4 km aggregate profiles and a simple model to calculate the sensitivity of aerosol optical depth (AOD) to changes in dry aerosol mass, relative humidity, mixed-layer height, the central diameter and width of the particle size distribution, hygroscopicity, and dry and wet refractive index, while holding the other parameters constant. The calculated sensitivity is a result of both the intrinsic sensitivity and the observed range of variation in these parameters. These observationally based sensitivity studies indicate that the relationship between AOD and dry aerosol mass in these conditions in the southeastern US can be highly variable and is especially sensitive to relative humidity (RH). For example, calculated AOD ranged from 0.137 to 0.305 as the RH was varied between the 10th and 90th percentile profiles with dry aerosol mass held constant. Calculated AOD was somewhat less sensitive to aerosol hygroscopicity, mean size, and geometric standard deviation, σg. However, some chemistry–climate models prescribe values of σg substantially larger than we or others observe, leading to potential high biases in model-calculated AOD of  ∼  25 %. Finally, AOD was least sensitive to observed variations in dry and wet aerosol refractive index and to changes in the height of the well-mixed surface layer. We expect these findings to be applicable to other moderately polluted and background continental air masses in which an accumulation mode between 0.1–0.5 µm diameter dominates aerosol extinction.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (18) ◽  
pp. 25695-25738 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. Brock ◽  
N. L. Wagner ◽  
B. E. Anderson ◽  
A. R. Attwood ◽  
A. Beyersdorf ◽  
...  

Abstract. Aircraft observations of meteorological, trace gas, and aerosol properties were made during May–September 2013 in the southeastern United States (US) under fair-weather, afternoon conditions with well-defined planetary boundary layer structure. Optical extinction at 532 nm was directly measured at three relative humidities and compared with extinction calculated from measurements of aerosol composition and size distribution using the κ-Köhler approximation for hygroscopic growth. Using this approach, the hygroscopicity parameter κ for the organic fraction of the aerosol must have been < 0.10 to be consistent with 75 % of the observations within uncertainties. This subsaturated κ value for the organic aerosol in the southeastern US is consistent with several field studies in rural environments. We present a new parameterization of the change in aerosol extinction as a function of relative humidity that better describes the observations than does the widely used power-law (gamma, γ) parameterization. This new single-parameter κext formulation is based upon κ-Köhler and Mie theories and relies upon the well-known approximately linear relationship between particle volume (or mass) and optical extinction (Charlson et al., 1967). The fitted parameter, κext, is nonlinearly related to the chemically derived κ parameter used in κ-Köhler theory. The values of κext we determined from airborne measurements are consistent with independent observations at a nearby ground site.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 4987-5007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Brock ◽  
Nicholas L. Wagner ◽  
Bruce E. Anderson ◽  
Alexis R. Attwood ◽  
Andreas Beyersdorf ◽  
...  

Abstract. Aircraft observations of meteorological, trace gas, and aerosol properties were made during May–September 2013 in the southeastern United States (US) under fair-weather, afternoon conditions with well-defined planetary boundary layer structure. Optical extinction at 532 nm was directly measured at relative humidities (RHs) of  ∼  15,  ∼  70, and  ∼  90 % and compared with extinction calculated from measurements of aerosol composition and size distribution using the κ-Köhler approximation for hygroscopic growth. The calculated enhancement in hydrated aerosol extinction with relative humidity, f(RH), calculated by this method agreed well with the observed f(RH) at  ∼  90 % RH. The dominance of organic aerosol, which comprised 65 ± 10 % of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter  <  1 µm in the planetary boundary layer, resulted in relatively low f(RH) values of 1.43 ± 0.67 at 70 % RH and 2.28 ± 1.05 at 90 % RH. The subsaturated κ-Köhler hygroscopicity parameter κ for the organic fraction of the aerosol must have been  <  0.10 to be consistent with 75 % of the observations within uncertainties, with a best estimate of κ  =  0.05. This subsaturated κ value for the organic aerosol in the southeastern US is broadly consistent with field studies in rural environments. A new, physically based, single-parameter representation was developed that better described f(RH) than did the widely used gamma power-law approximation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 6289-6305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Zhu ◽  
Ge Sun ◽  
Wenhong Li ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Guofang Miao ◽  
...  

Abstract. The southeastern United States hosts extensive forested wetlands, providing ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, water quality improvement, groundwater recharge, and wildlife habitat. However, these wetland ecosystems are dependent on local climate and hydrology, and are therefore at risk due to climate and land use change. This study develops site-specific empirical hydrologic models for five forested wetlands with different characteristics by analyzing long-term observed meteorological and hydrological data. These wetlands represent typical cypress ponds/swamps, Carolina bays, pine flatwoods, drained pocosins, and natural bottomland hardwood ecosystems. The validated empirical models are then applied at each wetland to predict future water table changes using climate projections from 20 general circulation models (GCMs) participating in Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project 5 (CMIP5) under the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios. We show that combined future changes in precipitation and potential evapotranspiration would significantly alter wetland hydrology including groundwater dynamics by the end of the 21st century. Compared to the historical period, all five wetlands are predicted to become drier over time. The mean water table depth is predicted to drop by 4 to 22 cm in response to the decrease in water availability (i.e., precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration) by the year 2100. Among the five examined wetlands, the depressional wetland in hot and humid Florida appears to be most vulnerable to future climate change. This study provides quantitative information on the potential magnitude of wetland hydrological response to future climate change in typical forested wetlands in the southeastern US.


EDIS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Mulvaney ◽  
Ramdeo (Andy) Seepaul ◽  
Ian M. Small ◽  
David L. Wright ◽  
Silvana V. Paula-Moraes ◽  
...  

Brassica carinata is an annual oilseed crop used for the commercial production of jet fuel. One of the challenges to commercialization of this crop in the southeastern United States has been frost damage. This 4-page fact sheet discusses symptomology and ways to minimize risk of frost damage to carinata. Written by Michael J. Mulvaney, Ramdeo Seepaul, Ian Small, David Wright, Silvana Paula-Moraes, Carl Crozier, Paul Cockson, Brian Whipker, and Ramon Leon, and published by the UF/IFAS Agronomy Department, May 2018. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ag420


2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Xu ◽  
Hongyu Guo ◽  
Christopher M. Boyd ◽  
Mitchel Klein ◽  
Aikaterini Bougiatioti ◽  
...  

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) constitutes a substantial fraction of fine particulate matter and has important impacts on climate and human health. The extent to which human activities alter SOA formation from biogenic emissions in the atmosphere is largely undetermined. Here, we present direct observational evidence on the magnitude of anthropogenic influence on biogenic SOA formation based on comprehensive ambient measurements in the southeastern United States (US). Multiple high-time-resolution mass spectrometry organic aerosol measurements were made during different seasons at various locations, including urban and rural sites in the greater Atlanta area and Centreville in rural Alabama. Our results provide a quantitative understanding of the roles of anthropogenic SO2 and NOx in ambient SOA formation. We show that isoprene-derived SOA is directly mediated by the abundance of sulfate, instead of the particle water content and/or particle acidity as suggested by prior laboratory studies. Anthropogenic NOx is shown to enhance nighttime SOA formation via nitrate radical oxidation of monoterpenes, resulting in the formation of condensable organic nitrates. Together, anthropogenic sulfate and NOx can mediate 43–70% of total measured organic aerosol (29–49% of submicron particulate matter, PM1) in the southeastern US during summer. These measurements imply that future reduction in SO2 and NOx emissions can considerably reduce the SOA burden in the southeastern US. Updating current modeling frameworks with these observational constraints will also lead to more accurate treatment of aerosol formation for regions with substantial anthropogenic−biogenic interactions and consequently improve air quality and climate simulations.


Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Melanie K. Vanderhoof ◽  
Todd J. Hawbaker ◽  
Casey Teske ◽  
Andrea Ku ◽  
Joe Noble ◽  
...  

Prescribed fires and wildfires are common in wetland ecosystems across the Southeastern United States. However, the wetland burned area has been chronically underestimated across the region due to (1) spectral confusion between open water and burned area, (2) rapid post-fire vegetation regrowth, and (3) high annual precipitation limiting clear-sky satellite observations. We developed a machine learning algorithm specifically for burned area in wetlands, and applied the algorithm to the Sentinel-2 archive (2016–2019) across the Southeastern US (>290,000 km2). Combining Landsat-8 imagery with Sentinel-2 increased the annual clear-sky observation count from 17 to 46 in 2016 and from 16 to 78 in 2019. When validated with WorldView imagery, the Sentinel-2 burned area had a 29% and 30% omission and commission rates of error for burned area, respectively, compared to the US Geological Survey Landsat-8 Burned Area Product (L8 BA), which had a 47% and 8% omission and commission rate of error, respectively. The Sentinel-2 algorithm and the L8 BA mapped burned area within 78% and 60% of wetland fire perimeters (n = 555) compiled from state and federal agencies, respectively. This analysis demonstrated the potential of Sentinel-2 to support efforts to track the burned area, especially across challenging ecosystem types, such as wetlands.


2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osama Anas ◽  
Una Jean Harrison ◽  
Phillip M. Brannen ◽  
Turner B. Sutton

Pierce's disease (PD) caused by Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) is a major threat to the rapidly growing Vitis vinifera/French-American hybrid winegrape industry in the southeastern United States. The bacterium, which is transmitted by xylemfeeding insects, is unable to survive low winter temperatures, and infected vines often recover the next year. Maps available from the 1970s indicate that PD is not a serious threat in the southeastern US, where the average minimum January temperature is ≤ 1.7°C. However PD symptoms developed in many vineyards planted in the late 1990s in areas identified as low risk. Surveys conducted in North Carolina and Georgia confirmed the presence of Xf in symptomatic vines using ELISA kits. Weather data for November to March from 84 weather stations from 1972-2005 for Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia were used to construct new maps using ArcGIS 9.1, and PD survey data from vineyards were superimposed on the maps. Areas for low risk for PD corresponded most closely with a minimum winter temperature of ≤ -12.2°C for 2 to 3 days or ≤ -9.4°C for 4 to 5 days. Warm winter temperatures during the last 8 years have resulted in a significant shift in the isotherms towards the north and west, increasing the risk of PD in the Piedmont region of the Southeast, and have extended the threat into Virginia and Tennessee. Accepted for publication 11 March 2008. Published 18 July 2008.


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