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We investigated the genetic makeup of Lutz spruce, a natural hybrid between white and Sitka spruce on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Microsatellites indicate 72% of individuals sampled had predominantly white spruce ancestry, whereas 14% had predominantly Sitka spruce ancestry; some individuals classified as white spruce had Sitka spruce plastid genotypes. As Picea mitochondria are maternally inherited and plastids are paternally inherited, it appears that white spruce was the ancestral seed parent of nearly all spruce on the western peninsula, whereas Sitka spruce alleles originated from pollen. Pollen records show that white spruce colonized the western peninsula ~8500 YBP from glacial refugium, whereas Sitka spruce arrived on the eastern peninsula ~4000 YBP after migrating up the Pacific coast. Our data suggest that Sitka spruce colonization west of the Kenai Mountains may have occurred not via seed dispersal but by long distance transport of wind-borne pollen and subsequent hybridization with established white spruce populations. Hybridization was an important mechanism that allowed Sitka spruce to expand the leading edge of its range in response to historical climate change. As the climate continues to warm, climate envelope modeling suggests Lutz spruce may ultimately displace white spruce on the western peninsula even as Sitka spruce is constrained to the eastern peninsula where it will continue to hybridize. Key words: Alaska, climate change, DNA analysis, hybridization, Lutz spruce, Picea x lutzii, Introduction In response to a rapidly changing climate, Aitken et al. (2008) suggested that tree populations have three fates: adaptation, migration, or extirpation. Interspecific hybridization facilitates adaptation and may indeed [...]

Introduction Building principals wear many hats, not the least of which is instructional leader. Leading curriculum, instruction, and school improvement efforts can be overwhelming to leaders who must also tend [...]

The majority of literature regarding school bullying has focused on uncovering reasons which serve as catalysts for bullying's continuation and pervasiveness. There seems to be a consensus among school teachers and preservice teachers that since physical aggression is easier to identify then school personnel are more apt to intervene; however, current research reported on hesitancy and the lack of training among school personnel to make an effective and ethical intervention. Therefore, this article serves as a potential baseline of the cognitive processes of college students who aspire to become school educators. Specifically, the majority of college students' responses to reading a case scenario of a bullying episode indicated that if they were in the school teacher, they would immediately intervene (65%), would intervene only if accompanied by another school personnel or school officer (19%), would hesitate to intervene although acknowledging intervention needed to happen (11%), and would not intervene (5%). It is hoped that this information would provide stimulation for further research regarding college students' mindset towards bullying and school violence as well as college teacher preparation courses. keywords: bullying, teacher intervention, responses to bullying, Introduction Numerous research studies have attempted to dissect, predict, and suggest interventions to prohibit and inhibit school bullying and school violence. As defined by Olweus (1993), bullying is the repeated [...]

Every child welcome: A ministry handbook for including kids with special needs. By Katie Wetherbee and Jolene Philo. Grand Rapid, MI: Kregel. 2015. 176 pp. $14.99. paper. Every Child Welcome [...]

Love works: Seven timeless principles for effective leadership. Joel Manby. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 2012. 390 pp. $19.95. Word Count: 1,739 Leadership is not easy, in fact, it is difficult [...]

Sprig Toy's mission was to deliver eco-friendly, battery-free, paint-free, kid-powered toys. The company had seen a meteoric rise since its beginning in 2007. Now, however, the founders were at a [...]

Love works: Seven timeless principles for effective leadership. By Joel Manby. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 2012. 390 pp. $19.95. Leadership is not easy; in fact, it is difficult at times. [...]

Although research has shown the ability to exit from both successful and unsuccessful ventures is important to founders, families, firms, industries, and overall economic health, exiting from a family firm [...]

Teaching the way of Jesus: Educating Christians for faithful living. By Jack L. Seymour. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 2014. 201 pp. $29.99. paper. Teaching biblical faith: Leading small group Bible [...]

Abstract: Adjuncts are a vital part of the academic institution. The institution has a responsibility to provide training, resources, and development for adjuncts. This article considers five general areas regarding [...]

We characterized coldwater stream fish community response to habitat degradation and channelization for agriculture. Coldwater streams are not common in the lower midwestern United States, and these streams differ from warmwater streams with respect to their diversity and community response to degradation. Six sites were sampled on the coldwater Mac-o-chee Creek in Ohio. Three reaches were classified as geomorphicaily constrained (by a roadway) and three as recovering (unconstrained and not channelized or cleaned for more than 100 y). Within each reach 31 mesohabitat units were sampled and were delineated as riffles, runs, or pools. Our goals were: (1) to examine how habitat and geomorphic impairment influences the abundance and community structure of coldwater fishes; and (2) to test whether the constraints on recovery from channelization were more influential in structuring communities than mesohabitat types. Our hypothesis was that we would find lower species diversity overall in the recovering sites because they would be more indicative of a coldwater fauna. In contrast, we hypothesized that the sites that are not able to recover (geomorphically constrained) would be more indicative of a warmwater fauna, and thus more diverse. We found lower species abundances, diversity, and species richness in recovering stream reaches than impaired reaches. Mesohabitat types present are influenced by channelization and recovery but are also largely a product of geomorphologic setting of the study streams. The effects of habitat degradation on the biota and the resulting trophic structure are important for designing restoration targets for coldwater systems, which may be naturally less diverse than warmwater counterparts. For example, biometric scores like Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) are often used as restoration targets, but this would be inappropriate unless a coldwater-specific IBI were used., INTRODUCTION Biota in fluvial systems are influenced by physical and chemical parameters as well as by the geographic and geological history of the systems that they inhabit (Allan, 1995; Poff, [...]

The transformation study Bible, NLT. Edited by Warren W. Wiersbe. Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook. 2009.2,318 pp. $24.99. Review by Dawn R. Morton, Ashland Theological Seminary, Ashland, OH. Transformation [...]

The interactive effects of climate change and invasive alien species (IAS) pose serious threats to biodiversity, ecosystems and human well-being worldwide. In particular, IAS are predicted to experience widespread changes in distribution in response to climate change, with many expanding their ranges into new areas. However, the two drivers of global change are seldom considered together in policy and management. We conducted a knowledge synthesis to assess the state of research on IAS range shifts under climate change in Canada. We found that the study of IAS distribution changes caused by climate change is a relatively new field of inquiry that integrates research in the areas of ecology, conservation biology, and environmental sciences. The multidisciplinary dimensions of the issue are largely overlooked in the scholarly literature, with most studies having a purely natural science perspective. Very little original research has occurred in the field to date; instead literature reviews are common. Research focuses on modeling range changes of current IAS threats, rather than predicting potential future IAS threats. The most commonly studied IAS already occur in Canada as native species that have spread beyond their range (e.g., lyme disease, mountain pine beetle, smallmouth bass) or as established invaders (e.g., gypsy moth). All of these IAS are expected to expand northward with climate change, resulting in widespread negative impacts on forest and freshwater biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and public health. Many barriers to predicting IAS range change under climate change are identified in the literature, including the complexity of the issue, lack of ecological data, and failure to integrate climate change--IAS interactions into research, policy, and management. Recommendations for increased research and monitoring, and the need for policy and management reform predominate in the literature. Key words: climate change, invasive alien species, range, distribution, knowledge synthesis, global change. Les effets interactifs du changement climatique et des especes adventices envahissantes (EAE) constituent des menaces serieuses a la biodiversite, aux ecosystemes et au bien-etre des humains. De facon plus precise, on predit que les EAE connaitront des modifications generales de leur distribution en reaction au changement climatique, plusieurs d'entre elles etendant leur aire dans de nouvelles regions. Cependant, on considere rarement simultanement ces deux responsables du changement global dans les politiques et l'amenagement. Les auteurs ont effectue une synthese des connaissances pour evaluer l'etat de la recherche sur les deplacements des aires de distribution des EAE causes par le changement climatique, au Canada. Ils ont constate que l'etude des modifications de la distribution des EAE causees par le changement climatique constitue un champ de recherche relativement nouveau, integrant les travaux dans les domaines de l'ecologie, de la biologie de conservation et des sciences de l'environnement. Dans la litterature scientifique, on sous-estime largement les dimensions multidisciplinaires, la plupart des etudes etant conduites dans une perspective purement de sciences naturelles. On observe tres peu de recherche originale dans ce domaine a ce jour, alors qu'on trouve de nombreuses revues de litterature. La recherche se concentre sur la modelisation des modifications d'aire des menaces actuelles venant des EAE, plutot que la prediction du potentiel futur des menaces venant des EAE. Les etudes les plus frequentes sur les EAE concernent des especes indigenes qui se sont repandues au-dela de leur aire (p.ex. maladie de lyme, dendroctone du pin, achigan a petite bouche) des envahisseurs etablis (p. ex. la spongieuse). On s'attend a ce que toutes ces EAE se repandent vers le Nord sous l'influence du changement climatique, entrainant d'importants effets negatifs sur la biodiversite des forets et des milieux d'eau douce, la sequestration du carbone et la sante publique. A partir de la litterature, on identifie plusieurs barrieres a la prediction des changements d'aire des EAE sous l'influence du changement climatique, incluant la complexite de la question, le manque de donnees ecologiques et l'echec de l'integration des interactions entre les EAE et le climat en recherche, politique et en amenagement. Les auteurs recommandent l'augmentation de la recherche et du suivi ainsi que le besoin qu'une reforme politique/amenagement predomine dans la litterature. Mots-cles : changement climatique, especes adventices envahissantes, aire, distribution, synthese des connaissances, changement global. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Climate change and invasive alien species (IAS) are widely recognized as pressing environmental and socio-economic issues worldwide. Despite mounting evidence that these major drivers of global change have strong [...]

Our study explored the effects of deliberate practice on the retention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) psychomotor skills among nursing students. The practice sessions were short, six minutes a session one time a month. Differences in performance between students who had deliberate practice and a control group, with no practice beyond the initial training, were compared every three months for one year The intervention group performed better than the control over the 12 months. There is a need in nursing education for deliberate practice of relevant and high-use skills for students to improve their performance and gradually develop their expertise. Key Words Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation--Deliberate Practice-Psychomotor Skills--Nursing Students--Manikins, DEVELOPING EXPERTISE IN MOTOR SKILLS REQUIRES PRACTICE. With repetitive practice and feedback on performance, students learn to perform a skill accurately and consistently, gradually refining and improving their movements. Guided [...]

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of HeartCode™ BLS, a self-directed, computer-based course for obtaining basic life support (BLS) certification. For part 2 of the [...]

This case focuses on Envirofit International, a student start-up venture that began in an undergraduate entrepreneurship course. Two engineering students and two faculty members at a land grant university in [...]

The spirochetal agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, is transmitted by bites of Ixodes ticks to mammalian reservoir hosts and humans. The mechanism(s) by which the organism is trafficked from vector to host is poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate that a B. burgdorferi mutant strain deficient in the synthesis of the bba64 gene product was incapable of infecting mice via tick bite even though the mutant was (i) infectious in mice when introduced by needle inoculation, (ii) acquired by larval ticks feeding on infected mice, and (iii) able to persist through tick molting stages. This finding of a B. burgdorferi gene required for pathogen transfer and/or survival from the tick to the susceptible host represents an important breakthrough toward understanding transmission mechanisms involved for the Lyme disease agent. doi/ 10.1073/pnas.1000268107

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2009.01613.x Byline: Nora M. Saona (1), Benedicte Riber Albrectsen (2), Lars Ericson (3), Dawn R. Bazely (1) Keywords: antagonist-mutualist continuum; endophyte; Epichloe festucae; Festuca rubra; grass; herbivory; nutrient stress; Sweden; symbiosis; water stress Abstract: Summary 1. Both evolutionary theory and empirical evidence from agricultural research support the view that asexual, vertically transmitted fungal endophytes are typically plant mutualists that develop high infection frequencies within host grass populations. In contrast, endophyte-grass interactions in natural ecosystems are more variable, spanning the range from mutualism to antagonism and comparatively little is known about their range of response to environmental stress. 2. We examined patterns in endophyte prevalence and endophyte-grass interactions across nutrient and grazing (from Greylag and Canada geese) gradients in 15 sites with different soil moisture levels in 13 island populations of the widespread grass Festuca rubra in a boreal archipelago in Sweden. 3. In the field, endophyte prevalence levels were generally low (range = 10-53%) compared with those reported from agricultural systems. Under mesic-moist conditions endophyte prevalence was constantly low (mean prevalence = 15%) and was not affected by grazing pressure or nutrient availability. In contrast, under conditions of drought, endophyte prevalence increased from 10% to 53% with increasing nutrient availability and increasing grazing pressure. 4. In the field, we measured the production of flowering culms, as a proxy for host fitness, to determine how endophyte-infected plants differed from uninfected plants. At dry sites, endophyte infection did not affect flowering culm production. In contrast, at mesic-moist sites production of flowering culms in endophyte-infected plants increased with the covarying effects of increasing nutrient availability and grazing pressure, indicating that the interaction switched from antagonistic to mutualistic. 5. A concurrent glasshouse experiment showed that in most situations, the host appears to incur some costs for harbouring endophytes. Uninfected grasses generally outperformed infected grasses (antagonistic interaction), while infected grasses outperformed uninfected grasses (mutualistic interaction) only in dry, nutrient-rich conditions. Nutrient and water addition affected tiller production, leaf number and leaf length differently, suggesting that tillers responded with different strategies. This emphasizes that several response variables are needed to evaluate the interaction. 6. Synthesis. This study found complex patterns in endophyte prevalence that were not always correlated with culm production. These contrasting patterns suggest that the direction and strength of selection on infected plants is highly variable and depends upon a suite of interacting environmental variables that may fluctuate in the intensity of their impact, during the course of the host life cycle. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Biology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto ON M3J 1P3, Canada (2)Department of Plant Physiology, Umea University, SE-901 87 Umea, Sweden (3)Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umea University, SE-901 87 Umea, Sweden Article History: Received 18 July 2009; accepted 13 November 2009 Handling Editor: Jonathan Newman Article note: (*) Correspondence author. E-mail: nsaona@yorku.ca

Soil scientists have invested in their profession through the development of performance objectives, national exams, and recognized state licensing and certification processes. These activities have defined the practice of soil science, thus providing society, other professionals, and the scientific community with a more comprehensive understanding of what types of work soil scientists perform as well as assurances of the competency of practitioners. Along with defining the practice, efforts must be strengthened to educate the next generation of soil scientists and provide them with opportunities to become vested in the profession. Higher education must also validate student learning through an assessment process to evaluate the preparation of students to perform at standards set by the profession. The mechanisms are in place to promote the soil science profession using established professional standards and ethics, education and experience criteria, examination for licensing or certification, and continuing education requirements. Soil scientists must continue to emphasize the importance of soils to society, to colleagues in other professions, and to students of all ages to further expand opportunities for investment, vestment, and validation of the soil science profession. Abbreviations: CSSE, Council of Soil Science Examiners; PO, performance objective; ARCPACS, American Registry of Certified Professionals in Agronomy, Crops, and Soils; ASBOG, National Association of State Boards of Geology; NCEES, National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. doi:10.2136/sssaj2009.0172

Forests and their soils contain the majority of the earth's terrestrial carbon stocks. Changes in patterns of tree growth can have a huge impact on atmospheric cycles, biogeochemical cycles, climate change, and biodiversity. Recent studies have shown increases in biomass across many forest types. This increase has been attributed to climate change. However, without knowing the disturbance history of a forest, growth could also be caused by normal recovery from unknown disturbances. Using a unique dataset of tree biomass collected over the past 22 years from 55 temperate forest plots with known land-use histories and stand ages ranging from 5 to 250 years, we found that recent biomass accumulation greatly exceeded the expected growth caused by natural recovery. We have also collected over 100 years of local weather measurements and 17 years of on-site atmospheric C[O.sub.2] measurements that show consistent increases in line with globally observed climate-change patterns. Combined, these observations show that changes in temperature and C[O.sub.2] that have been observed worldwide can fundamentally alter the rate of critical natural processes, which is predicted by biogeochemical models. Identifying this rate change is important to research on the current state of carbon stocks and the fluxes that influence how carbon moves between storage and the atmosphere. These results signal a pressing need to better understand the changes in growth rates in forest systems, which influence current and future states of the atmosphere and biosphere. biomass change | carbon cycle | carbon fertilization | climate change | forest stand dynamics doi/10.1073/pnas.0912376107

The missing ministry: Safety, risk management, and protecting your church. By The GuideOne Center for Risk Management. Loveland, CO: Group Publishing. 2008. 187 pp. $17.99. A missing ministry indeed! It [...]

Strategies for educating African American children. By Judith St. Clair Hull. Chicago: Urban Ministries. 2006. 137 pp. $14.95. paper. Christian education is vital to the church. Understanding the culture in [...]

Mammalian cell membranes provide an interface between the intracellular and extracellular compartments. It is currently thought that cytoplasmic signaling adapter proteins play no functional role within the extracellular tumor environment. Here, by selecting combinatorial random peptide libraries in tumor-bearing mice, we uncovered a direct, specific, and functional interaction between CRKL, an adapter protein [with Src homology 2 (SH2)- and SH3-containing domains], and the plexin-semaphorin-integrin domain of [[beta].sub.1] integrin in the extracellular milieu. Through assays in vitro, in cellulo, and in vivo, we show that this unconventional and as yet unrecognized protein--protein interaction between a regulatory integrin domain (rather than a ligand-binding one) and an intracellular adapter (acting outside of the cells) triggers an alternative integrin-mediated cascade for cell growth and survival. Based on these data, here we propose that a secreted form of the SH3/SH2 adaptor protein CRKL may act as a growth-promoting factor driving tumorigenesis and may lead to the development of cancer therapeutics targeting secreted CRKL. cancer | CrkL | integrin | phage display

Base-ten block diagrams offers potential for usage in teaching divisibility tests. The strategy will help students understand the technique of breaking down a number into the sum of two numbers and testing each for divisibility. The importance of teaching divisibility tests is explained.

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.17069.x Byline: Andrew J. Tanentzap, Dawn R. Bazely Abstract: Few field experiments have examined the effects of both resource availability and propagule pressure on plant community invasibility. Two non-native forest species, a herb and a shrub (Hesperis matronalis and Rhamnus cathartica, respectively), were sown into 60 1-m.sup.2 sub-plots distributed across three plots. These contained reconstructed native plant communities in a replaced surface soil layer in a North American forest interior. Resource availability and propagule pressure were manipulated as follows: understorey light level (shaded/unshaded), nutrient availability (control/fertilized), and seed pressures of the two non-native species (control/low/high). Hesperis and Rhamnus cover and the above-ground biomass of Hesperis were significantly higher in shaded sub-plots and at greater propagule pressures. Similarly, the above-ground biomass of Rhamnus was significantly increased with propagule pressure, although this was a function of density. In contrast, of species that seeded into plots from the surrounding forest during the growing season, the non-native species had significantly greater cover in unshaded sub-plots. Plants in these unshaded sub-plots were significantly taller than plants in shaded sub-plots, suggesting a greater fitness. Total and non-native species richness varied significantly among plots indicating the importance of fine-scale dispersal patterns. None of the experimental treatments influenced native species. Since the forest seed bank in our study was colonized primarily by non-native ruderal species that dominated understorey vegetation, the management of invasions by non-native species in forest understoreys will have to address factors that influence light levels and dispersal pathways. Article History: Manuscript Accepted 5 August 2008 Article note: A. J. Tanentzap (ajt65@cam.ac.uk) and D. R. Bazely, Dept of Biology, York Univ., 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada. Present address for AJT: Dept of Plant Sciences, Univ. of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK.

Autonomy is an important component of an entrepreneurial orientation (EO), but most studies that assess the EO construct do not include autonomy measures. This article first addresses the theoretical relevance [...]

A billion bootstraps: Microcredit, barefoot banking, and the business solution for ending poverty. Edited by Phil Smith and Eric Thurman. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. 2007. 224 pp. $24.95. Christian educators [...]

Byline: Jane Z. Sojka (1), Dawn R. Deeter-Schmelz (1) Keywords: Need for cognition; Affective orientation; Sales representatives; Sales performance Abstract: Two constructs--need for cognition (NFC) and affective orientation (AO)--might be helpful in explaining and ultimately predicting two measures of sales performance: a self-rated behavioral measure and an objective sales measure. Specifically, we hypothesize (1) a positive relationship between NFC and sales performance (2) a positive relationship between AO and sales performance and (3) a positive interaction effect between NFC and AO on sales performance. The results of this study revealed both NFC and AO correlated with self-rated behavioral performance but only NFC correlated with both performance measures suggesting that need for cognition may be the more influential of the two for sales organizations concerned with selling behaviors as well as sales outcomes. The hypothesized interaction effect was not supported. Author Affiliation: (1) College of Business, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA Article History: Registration Date: 07/01/2008 Online Date: 05/02/2008

Through a parallel examination of literatures on new product development termination and entrepreneurial cognition, this study explores a specific form of human capital development: learning from failure. Specifically we advance [...]

Opportunity identification is rapidly becoming a key focal point of research in the entrepreneurship domain. This study is the first to explore gender differences in opportunity identification. Utilizing two distinct [...]

Background: Shoe--surface interactions have been implicated in the high number of noncontact knee injuries suffered by athletes at all levels. Purpose: To examine shoe--surface interactions on newer field designs and [...]

Biological molecular assemblies are excellent models for the development of nanoengineered systems with desirable biomedical properties. Here we report an approach for fabrication of spontaneous, biologically active molecular networks consisting of bacteriophage (phage) directly assembled with gold (Au) nanoparticles (termed Au-phage). We show that when the phage are engineered so that each phage particle displays a peptide, such networks preserve the cell surface receptor binding and internalization attributes of the displayed peptide. The spontaneous organization of these targeted networks can be manipulated further by incorporation of imidazole (Au-phage-imid), which induces changes in fractal structure and near-infrared optical properties. The networks can be used as labels for enhanced fluorescence and dark-field microscopy, surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection, and near-infrared photon-to-heat conversion. Together, the physical and biological features within these targeted networks offer convenient multifunctional integration within a single entity with potential for nanotechnology-based biomedical applications. target | fractal | hydrogel | stem cell | assembly

We describe a database of static images and video clips of human faces and people that is useful for testing algorithms for face and person recognition, head/eye tracking, and computer graphics modeling of natural human motions. For each person there are nine static "facial mug shots" and a series of video streams. The videos include a "moving facial mug shot," a facial speech clip, one or more dynamic facial expression clips, two gait videos, and a conversation video taken at a moderate distance from the camera. Complete data sets are available for 284 subjects and duplicate data sets, taken subsequent to the original set, are available for 229 subjects. Index Terms--Face database, face recognition, face tracking, digital video.

Members of the family Halobacteriaceae in the domain Archaea are obligate extreme halophiles. They occupy a variety of hypersaline environments, and their cellular biochemistry functions in a nearly saturated salty milieu. Despite extensive study, a detailed analysis of their growth kinetics is missing. To remedy this, Arrhenius plots for 14 type species of the family were generated. These organisms had maximum growth temperatures ranging from 49 to 58[degrees]C. Nine of the organisms exhibited a single temperature optimum, while five grew optimally at more than one temperature. Generation times at these optimal temperatures ranged from 1.5 h (Haloterrigena turkmenica) to 3.0 h (Haloarcula vallismortis and Halorubrum saccharovorum). All shared an inflection point at 31 [+ or -] 4[degrees]C, and the temperature characteristics for 12 of the 14 type species were nearly parallel. The other two species (Natronomonaspharaonis and Natronorubrum bangense) had significantly different temperature characteristics, suggesting that the physiology of these strains is different. In addition, these data show that the type species for the family Halobacteriaceae share similar growth kinetics and are capable of much faster growth at higher temperatures than those previously reported.

This article simultaneously explores the constructs of potential financial reward and prior knowledge of customer problems to provide a deeper understanding of the identification of opportunities. Results suggest that while [...]

We compared 11 ecological variables thought to be important for assessing the habitat of the endangered Virginia northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus) at 11 occupied and 9 unoccupied sites within northern hardwood-montane conifer forests in the central Appalachians of West Virginia. Forest stands at sites occupied by G. s. fuscus had significantly higher relative importance values of montane conifers such as red spruce (Picea rubens) and little or no presence of northern red oak (Quercus rubra) than did sites that were believed unoccupied. Probabilities derived from logistic regression analyses indicated that sites were considered occupied when relative importance values of montane conifers in forest stands exceeded approximately 35%. Conversely, we detected no differences in elevation, absolute forest basal area, overstory tree species richness, total shrub density, percent coarse woody debris cover, percent herbaceous cover, percent emergent rock cover and percent soil organic matter (humus) between occupied and unoccupied sites. We observed low levels hypogeal fungi across all sites and fungi presence did not differ between occupied and unoccupied sites. Patchily distributed fungi combined with the much reduced and altered forest habitat in the region provide additional insights into the rarity of G. s. fuscus in the central Appalachians.

Jones's (1991) issue-contingent model of ethical decision making posits that six dimensions of moral intensity influence decision makers' recognition of an issue as a moral problem and subsequent behavior. He notes that 'organizational settings present special challenges to moral agents' (1991, p. 390) and that organizational factors affect 'moral decision making and behavior at two points: establishing moral intent and engaging in moral behavior' (1991, p. 391). This model, however, minimizes both the impact of organizational setting and organizational factors on these experiences of ethical issues. In this theory, context is modeled as affecting the moral intent and behavior of the actor rather than directly affecting the issue's moral intensity. Here we look specifically at the effect of context on the moral intensity of ethical issues through a phenomenological study. Our results indicate that in certain environments, context may be critical in affecting the moral intensity of ethical issues. Thus, researchers should consider it more fully when assessing these issues' moral intensity. KEY WORDS: contextual effects on ethical decision making, ethical decision making, ethical decision making in a social service context, moral intensity, revising Jones's issue-contingent model

Approximately 75% of HIV-infected people in the United States know their HIV serostatus. (1) One of the prevention priorities for the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention is […]

This study examines the influence of environmental, organizational, and managerial characteristics on discontinuous innovation across three industries (aerospace, electronic components, and telecommunications) that are highly dependent upon innovation for survival and competitive advantage. The authors randomly mailed survey questionnaires to 900 chief executive officers located across the U.S. and obtained quantitative data from 192 individuals. To validate these results, they conducted structured follow-up interviews of 25 executives. The findings suggest that discontinuous innovation increases with environmental dynamism and that structure and processes (intrafirm linkages, experimentation and transitioning, or sequencing from one product/project/program to another) contribute to discontinuous innovation. These results suggest that top managers are active, not passive, in influencing discontinuous innovation within their organizations. Index Terms--Discontinuous innovation, environmental dynamism, experimentation, intrafirm linkages, transitioning.

Lawsuits for environmental property damages often claim that the stigma of public health risks lowers property value even without physical damage. The way courts and common law consider this factor is reviewed.