scholarly journals Green Construction: Contractor Motivation and Trends in Austin, Texas

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Tinker ◽  
Urs Kreuter ◽  
Richard Burt ◽  
Sherry Bame

The purpose of this paper is to describe and assess one of the first comprehensive residential green-builder programs in the U.S. It compares trends of items used in residential construction during the past five years and reports why participating builders chose to incorporate specific items and their level of commitment to the program. This description provides a baseline of strategies to investigate the effect of this program in developing sustainable communities. The builder study population was derived from a database of registered “green” residences built during 1998-2002 in greater Austin, Texas (2,335 homes and 73 listed builders). Almost half the builders constructed just one “green” home, whereas two builders built almost 75% of the green homes during the 5-year study period. Less than 1% of the homes received a perfect 5-star rating, whereas 87% were rated 1 or 2 stars. The frequency of implementing the 122 green features were compared over time and analyzed for correlation with cost and their associated star-value. Cost was the primary factor determining item use frequency. Participating builders generally concurred that the program was successful and beneficial to homeowners but that the additional work required for participation provided little financial reward for builders. While much can be done with low-cost interventions to reduce the negative environmental impacts of residential construction, builder participation may be enhanced by promotion of some of the higher cost features. In addition, public education about the long-term benefits of green homes is needed to increase homeowner participation, and encourage builders to incorporate more environmentally friendly features in the homes they construct.

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-210
Author(s):  
Steven M. Ortiz

The conclusion provides some final observations about the longitudinal research itself and its short- and long-term effects on the women involved. It briefly touches on the few areas of the sport marriage that have seen improvement in the past few decades, discusses the conscious decisions the women make to continue normalizing the career-dominated marriage, and reports on how the marriages fared over time. It also describes the women’s personal empowerment as a result of their participation in the research. Finally, it summarizes the advice and suggested keys to a successful sport marriage that the wives in both studies offered, based on their lived experience. This overview essentially describes how and why the wife of a male professional athlete must adapt to realities if she wants her marriage to survive her husband’s career and retirement.


2021 ◽  
pp. 244-248
Author(s):  
Michael J. Rosenfeld

Gay rights and marriage equality have advanced so far in the U.S. in the past decade that it would be all too easy to assume that the struggle is over. The opponents of gay rights, however, remain powerful. Readers can take inspiration from how dramatically attitudes toward gay rights have liberalized in the past two decades and how transformative the liberalization of attitudes has been. We live in a world where political lies often seem to have the upper hand. It is worth remembering that despite the many short term advantages that lies can yield in politics, the truth has some long term advantages as well. The way the marriage equality movement prevailed should be a lesson to anyone who wants to make progressive social change.


2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Kimball

This article examines the prominent narrative asserting that liberal arts colleges have continuously declined in number and status over the past 130 years. Bruce A. Kimball identifies problems in this declension narrative and proposes a revision positing that the decline of liberal arts colleges began only after 1970. Further, he maintains that the fraction of the U.S. population enrolling in collegiate liberal arts programs has remained surprisingly consistent over the past two centuries. That same fraction continues after 1970 because universities began to replicate the liberal arts college by establishing honors programs, and student enrollment after 1970 shifted from liberal arts colleges to the new subsidized honors programs in universities. Kimball concludes that this shift does not ensure that the fraction of enrollment in collegiate liberal arts will continue to remain consistent in the future. There is reason to doubt the long-term commitment of universities to supporting honors programs devoted to the traditional liberal arts college mission of fostering culture, community, and character, although this mission grows more important and complex as access to and diversity in higher education increase.


Author(s):  
Garry G. Young

As of February 2008, the NRC has approved renewal of the operating licenses for 48 nuclear units and has applications under review for 15 more units. In addition, nuclear plant owners for at least 25 more units have announced plans to submit license renewal applications over the next few years. This brings the total of renewed licenses and announced plans for license renewal to over 80% of the 104 currently operating nuclear units in the U.S. This paper presents some of the factors that have made the U.S. license renewal process so successful. These factors include (1) the successful regulatory process and on-going continuous improvement of that process, (2) long-term safe plant operation trends, (3) stable low-cost generation of electricity, (4) high levels of plant reliability, and (5) improving public opinion trends.


2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
JANE MILLAR ◽  
TESS RIDGE

AbstractOver the past two decades, the emphasis on paid work has become one of the defining features of social security policy in the UK. Lone mothers and their families have been one of the key groups affected. In this article we focus on the working and family lives of lone mothers and their children over time, drawing on material from a long-term qualitative research study, and setting this in the context of policy developments. We explore the long-term consequences of trying to sustain work, and manage low-income family life as children grow up and needs change over time. This highlights some of the tensions and limitations in family support and relationships when resources are limited. We reflect on the links between insecurity, legacies and the state.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Last

Too often, research into the health of a particular community is brief and superficial, focusing only on what is public and leaving the private health of women and children ‘foggy’. By contrast, long-term anthropology can offer access to processes taking place within a local culture of illness. Here, an account of a community’s experience of health over the past 50 years not only outlines the key changes as seen anthropologically but also shows how even close ethnography can initially miss important data. Furthermore, the impact of a researcher – both as a guest and as a source of interference – underlines how complex fieldwork can be in reality, especially if seen through the eyes of the researcher’s hosts.


2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-21
Author(s):  
Kent N Gourdin

This paper examines the ongoing evolution of the U.S. airline industry under deregulation. After losing money for most of the past 35 years, carriers have made structural changes to their business models that have proven to be, at least in the short term, very profitable. After delineating these management actions, the paper examines their impact on passengers. The author utilizes the Service Quality Model to analyze the long-term implications of this new operating paradigm for passenger satisfaction. Based on this analysis the paper goes on to suggest several actions management could take to improve satisfaction. Finally, conclusions are offered and areas for additional research suggested.


Plant Disease ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 104 (6) ◽  
pp. 1647-1653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leiming He ◽  
Kaidi Cui ◽  
Tongtong Li ◽  
Yufei Song ◽  
Ning Liu ◽  
...  

Gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea is a fungal disease that critically threatens agricultural production, and carbendazim was the first fungicide used to control B. cinerea. However, B. cinerea developed serious resistance to carbendazim, and this fungicide has thus rarely been used in the past decade in China. Due to the extended discontinuation of carbendazim use, the evolution of the resistance of B. cinerea to carbendazim in recent years is unclear, and whether carbendazim can effectively control gray mold is largely unknown. Therefore, this study determined the sensitivity of 407 B. cinerea isolates collected from 2014 to 2018 to carbendazim and the ability of carbendazim to control gray mold in the field. The results showed that the frequency of B. cinerea isolates resistant to carbendazim remained above 95%. Three different mutation types responsible for the resistance of B. cinerea to carbendazim were identified at codon 198 in the β-tubulin gene sequence: E198V (changed from GAG to GTG), E198A (changed from GAG to GCG), and E198K (changed from GAG to AAG). Over the last 5 years, E198V was the major mutation. However, an analysis of its evolution revealed that the percentage of the E198V mutation declined after 2017 to 56.5% in 2018. In addition, the proportion of isolates with the E198K mutation decreased over time, and no isolates with this mutation were found in either 2017 or 2018. The proportion of the E198A mutation increased over the 5-year test period to reach 43.5% in 2018. Furthermore, three greenhouse experiments demonstrated that carbendazim has lost its ability to control gray mold. We attribute the above findings to our results showing that the carbendazim-resistant isolates had no fitness penalties compared with the carbendazim-sensitive isolates for sporulation and mycelial growth. In particular, the E198A mutant isolates exhibited a strong ability to sporulate, suggesting that the E198A mutation might become dominant in the future. Interestingly, the results showed that carbendazim-sensitive isolates could be easily controlled by four conventional fungicides, namely boscalid, procymidone, iprodione, and pyrimethanil, with mean EC50 values of 0.71 ± 0.2 mg liter−1, 1.33 ± 0.39 mg liter−1, 0.59 ± 0.33 mg liter−1, and 6.02 ± 3.02 mg liter−1, respectively. In conclusion, carbendazim has lost its application value and is ineffective for the control of gray mold.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (33) ◽  
pp. eaaz6300
Author(s):  
A. Lupia ◽  
S. Soroka ◽  
A. Beatty

The U.S. Congress writes the legislation that funds the National Science Foundation (NSF). Researchers who seek NSF support may benefit by understanding how Congress views the agency. To this end, we use text analysis to examine every statement in the Congressional Record made by any member of Congress about the NSF over a 22-year period. While we find broad bipartisan support for the NSF, there are notable changes over time. Republicans have become more likely to express concerns about accountability in how the NSF spends its funds. Democrats are more likely to focus on how NSF-funded activities affect education, technology, and students. We use these findings to articulate how researchers and scientific organizations can more effectively conduct transformative science that corresponds to long-term and broadly held Congressional priorities.


2010 ◽  
pp. 1702-1722
Author(s):  
Leonardo Legorreta ◽  
Rajneesh Goyal

Outsourcing is one of the most talked about and widely debated topics. Over the past few years, firms have been outsourcing their IT operations at increasing rates. The fact that firms are turning to outside vendors in increasing numbers in order to meet their needs does not mean that outsourcing is without problems. Firms often enter outsourcing deals without considering risks or assuming that all risks lay with the external service provider. In this chapter, we provide an overview of IT outsourcing, its risks, and a model for managing those risks. We identify different firm-vendor configurations for sustaining long-term relationships aimed at diversifying risk over time and discuss the need for psychological contracts to manage such outsourcing relationships.


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