SUNY Fredonia

Recent research has documented microplastic particles (< 5 mm in diameter) in ocean habitats worldwide and in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Microplastic interacts with biota, including microorganisms, in these habitats, raising concerns about its ecological effects. Rivers may transport microplastic to marine habitats and the Great Lakes, but data on microplastic in rivers is limited. In a highly urbanized river in Chicago, Illinois, USA, we measured concentrations of microplastic that met or exceeded those measured in oceans and the Great Lakes, and we demonstrated that wastewater treatment plant effluent was a point source of microplastic. Results from high-throughput sequencing showed that bacterial assemblages colonizing microplastic within the river were less diverse and were significantly different in taxonomic composition compared to those from the water column and suspended organic matter. Several taxa that include plastic decomposing organisms and pathogens were more abundant on microplastic. These results demonstrate that microplastic in rivers are a distinct microbial habitat and may be a novel vector for the downstream transport of unique bacterial assemblages. In addition, this study suggests that urban rivers are an overlooked and potentially significant component of the global microplastic life cycle.

Plastic pollution has been well documented in natural environments, including the open waters and sediments within lakes and rivers, the open ocean and even the air, but less attention has been paid to synthetic polymers in human consumables. Since multiple toxicity studies indicate risks to human health when plastic particles are ingested, more needs to be known about the presence and abundance of anthropogenic particles in human foods and beverages. This study investigates the presence of anthropogenic particles in 159 samples of globally sourced tap water, 12 brands of Laurentian Great Lakes beer, and 12 brands of commercial sea salt. Of the tap water samples analyzed, 81% were found to contain anthropogenic particles. The majority of these particles were fibers (98.3%) between 0.1-5 mm in length. The range was 0 to 61 particles/L, with an overall mean of 5.45 particles/L. Anthropogenic debris was found in each brand of beer and salt. Of the extracted particles, over 99% were fibers. After adjusting for particles found in lab blanks for both salt and beer, the average number of particles found in beer was 4.05 particles/L with a range of 0 to 14.3 particles/L and the average number of particles found in each brand of salt was 212 particles/kg with a range of 46.7 to 806 particles/kg. Based on consumer guidelines, our results indicate the average person ingests over 5,800 particles of synthetic debris from these three sources annually, with the largest contribution coming from tap water (88%).

Eleven globally sourced brands of bottled water, purchased in 19 locations in nine different countries, were tested for microplastic contamination using Nile Red tagging. Of the 259 total bottles processed, 93% showed some sign of microplastic contamination. After accounting for possible background (lab) contamination, an average of 10.4 microplastic particles >100 um in size per liter of bottled water processed were found. Fragments were the most common morphology (66%) followed by fibers. Half of these particles were confirmed to be polymeric in nature using FTIR spectroscopy with polypropylene being the most common polymer type (54%), which matches a common plastic used for the manufacture of bottle caps. A small fraction of particles (4%) showed the presence of industrial lubricants. While spectroscopic analysis of particles smaller than 100 um was not possible, the adsorption of the Nile Red dye indicates that these particles are most probably plastic. Including these smaller particles (6.5-100 um), an average of 325 microplastic particles per liter of bottled water was found. Microplastic contamination range of 0 to over 10,000 microplastic particles per liter with 95% of particles being between 6.5 and 100 um in size. Data suggests the contamination is at least partially coming from the packaging and/or the bottling process itself. Given the prevalence of the consumption of bottled water across the globe, the results of this study support the need for further studies on the impacts of micro- and nano- plastics on human health.

. Ninety-eight percent of sampled plastic particles were less than 4.75 mm in diameter and therefore considered microplastics. Fragments, films, foams, and pellets/beads were positively correlated with urban-related watershed attributes and were found at greater concentrations during runoff-event conditions. Fibers, the most frequently detected particle type, were not associated with urban-related watershed attributes, wastewater effluent contribution, or hydrologic condition. Results from this study add to the body of information currently available on microplastics in different environmental compartments, including unique contributions to quantify their occurrence and variability in rivers with a wide variety of different land-use characteristics while highlighting differences between surface samples from rivers compared with lakes.

This article presents a meta-analysis of program effectiveness research on English language learners. The study includes a corpus of 17 studies conducted since Willig's earlier meta-analysis and uses Glass, McGaw, and Smith's strategy of including as many studies as possible in the analysis rather than excluding some on the basis of a priori “study quality” criteria. It is shown that bilingual education is consistently superior to all-English approaches, and that developmental bilingual education programs are superior to transitional bilingual education programs. The meta-analysis of studies controlling for English-language-learner status indicates a positive effect for bilingual education of .23 standard deviations, with outcome measures in the native language showing a positive effect of .86 standard deviations. It is concluded that bilingual education programs are effective in promoting academic achievement, and that sound educational policy should permit and even encourage the development and implementation of bilingual education programs.

. Results demonstrated that polymer density influenced partitioning between the water surface and subsurface and the underlying surficial sediment and the common practice of sampling only the water surface can result in substantial bias, especially in estuarine, harbor, and lake locations where water surface concentrations tend to overestimate mean water column concentrations.

As a novice qualitative researcher, the author had little idea of the significant and vital role of transcription in the qualitative research process until she undertook her own transcription tasks. The questions she asked herself during that work led her to insights on transcription both as product and as methodological process. Her purpose in writing this article is to enter into the discussion of the nature and role of transcription in qualitative research by contributing an experiential context created when the transcription process is regarded as a key phase of data analysis within interpretive qualitative methodology. The structure of this article parallels the sequence of her learning experiences. The findings generate an enhanced view of transcription and transcriber as methodological components, provide a clearer vision for researcher positioning on the intersecting landscapes of transcription and qualitative methodology, and illuminate some implications for the training of qualitative researchers.

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Abstract Microplastic is a contaminant of concern worldwide. Rivers are implicated as major pathways of microplastic transport to marine and lake ecosystems, and microplastic ingestion by freshwater biota is a risk associated with microplastic contamination, but there is little research on microplastic ecology within freshwater ecosystems. Microplastic uptake by fish is likely affected by environmental microplastic abundance and aspects of fish ecology, but these relationships have rarely been addressed. We measured the abundance and composition of microplastic in fish and surface waters from 3 major tributaries of Lake Michigan, USA. Microplastic was detected in fish and surface waters from all 3 sites, but there was no correlation between microplastic concentrations in fish and surface waters. Rather, there was a significant effect of functional feeding group on microplastic concentration in fish. Neogobius melanostomus (round goby, a zoobenthivore) had the highest concentration of gut microplastic (19 particles fish −1 ) compared to 10 other fish taxa measured, and had a positive linear relationship between body size and number of microplastic particles. Surface water microplastic concentrations were lowest in the most northern, forested watershed, and highest in the most southern, agriculturally dominated watershed. Results suggest microplastic pollution is common in river food webs and is connected to species feeding characteristics. Future research should focus on understanding the movement of microplastic from point-source and diffuse sources and into aquatic ecosystems, which will support pollution management efforts on inland waters.

Journal Article We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture. By Lawrence Grossberg. (New York: Routledge, 1992. viii, 436 pp. Cloth, $49.95, ISBN 0-415-903297. Paper, $16.95, ISBN 0-415-90330-0.) Get access William Graebner William Graebner State University College of New York, Fredonia, New York Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 80, Issue 3, December 1993, Pages 1173–1174, https://doi.org/10.2307/2080569 Published: 01 December 1993

Abstract The marine Middle and Upper Devonian section of the Appalachian Basin includes several black shale units that carry two regional joint sets (J1 and J2 sets) as observed in outcrop, core, and borehole images. These joints formed close to or at peak burial depth as natural hydraulic fractures induced by abnormal fluid pressures generated during thermal maturation of organic matter. When present together, earlier J1 joints are crosscut by later J2 joints. In outcrops of black shale on the foreland (northwest) side of the Appalachian Basin, the east-northeast–trending J1 set is more closely spaced than the northwest-striking J2 set. However, J2 joints are far more pervasive throughout the exposed Devonian marine clastic section on both sides of the basin. By geological coincidence, the J1 set is nearly parallel the maximum compressive normal stress of the contemporary tectonic stress field (SHmax). Because the contemporary tectonic stress field favors the propagation of hydraulic fracture completions to the east-northeast, fracture stimulation from vertical wells intersects and drains J2 joints. Horizontal drilling and subsequent stimulation benefit from both joint sets. By drilling in the north-northwest–south-southeast directions, horizontal wells cross and drain J1 joints, whenever present. Then, staged hydraulic fracture stimulations, if necessary, run east-northeast (i.e., parallel to the J1 set) under the influence of the contemporary tectonic stress field thereby crosscutting and draining J2 joints.

The Earth as a planetary system has experienced significant change since its formation c. 4.54 Gyr ago. Some of these changes have been gradual, such as secular cooling of the mantle, and some have been abrupt, such as the rapid increase in free oxygen in the atmosphere at the Archean–Proterozoic transition. Many of these changes have directly affected tectonic processes on Earth and are manifest by temporal trends within the sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock record. Indeed, the timing of global onset of mobile-lid (subduction-driven) plate tectonics on our planet remains one of the fundamental points of debate within the geosciences today, and constraining the age and cause of this transition has profound implications for understanding our own planet's long-term evolution, and that for other rocky bodies in our solar system. Interpretations based on various sources of evidence have led different authors to propose a very wide range of ages for the onset of subduction-driven tectonics, which span almost all of Earth history from the Hadean to the Neoproterozoic, with this uncertainty stemming from the varying reliability of different proxies. Here, we review evidence for paleo-subduction preserved within the geological record, with a focus on metamorphic rocks and the geodynamic information that can be derived from them. First, we describe the different types of tectonic/geodynamic regimes that may occur on Earth or any other silicate body, and then review different models for the thermal evolution of the Earth and the geodynamic conditions necessary for plate tectonics to stabilize on a rocky planet. The community's current understanding of the petrology and structure of Archean and Proterozoic oceanic and continental crust is then discussed in comparison with modern-day equivalents, including how and why they differ. We then summarize evidence for the operation of subduction through time, including petrological (metamorphic), tectonic, and geochemical/isotopic data, and the results of petrological and geodynamical modeling. The styles of metamorphism in the Archean are then examined and we discuss how the secular distribution of metamorphic rock types can inform the type of geodynamic regime that operated at any point in time. In conclusion, we argue that most independent observations from the geological record and results of lithospheric-scale geodynamic modeling support a global-scale initiation of plate tectonics no later than c. 3 Ga, just preceding the Archean–Proterozoic transition. Evidence for subduction in Early Archean terranes is likely accounted for by localized occurrences of plume-induced subduction initiation, although these did not develop into a stable, globally connected network of plate boundaries until later in Earth history. Finally, we provide a discussion of major unresolved questions related to this review's theme and provide suggested directions for future research.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical benefits of intense-pulsed-light therapy for the treatment of dry-eye disease caused by meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). BACKGROUND DATA: MGD is the leading cause of evaporative dry eye disease. It is currently treated with a range of methods that have been shown to be only somewhat effective, leading to the need for advanced treatment options. METHODS: A retrospective noncomparative interventional case series was conducted with 91 patients presenting with severe dry eye syndrome. Treatment included intense-pulsed-light therapy and gland expression at a single outpatient clinic over a 30-month study. Pre/post tear breakup time data were available for a subset of 78 patients. For all patients, a specially developed technique for the treatment of dry eye syndrome was applied as a series of monthly treatments until there was adequate improvement in dry eye syndrome symptoms by physician judgment, or until patient discontinuation. RESULTS: Primary outcomes included change in tear breakup time, self-reported patient satisfaction, and adverse events. Physician-judged improvement in dry eye tear breakup time was found for 68 of 78 patients (87%) with seven treatment visits and four maintenance visits on average (medians), and 93% of patients reported post-treatment satisfaction with degree of dry eye syndrome symptoms. Adverse events, most typically redness or swelling, were found for 13% of patients. No serious adverse events were found. CONCLUSIONS: Although preliminary, study results of intense-pulsed-light therapy treatment for dry eye syndrome caused by meibomian gland dysfunction are promising. A multisite clinical trial with a larger sample, treatment comparison groups, and randomized controlled trials is currently underway.

The purpose of this study was to confirm, in an American sample, the validity of a three-factor structural equation model that had been previously tested and refined with a sample of young adult students in Norway (Besemer, 1998). The three-factor model, a Creative Product Analysis Matrix (Besemer & Treffinger, 1981), was tested by analyzing the responses to the Creative Product Semantic Scale by a sample of American college students from two State University of New York colleges. Confirmatory factor analyses provided strong support for construct validity of the questionnaire and the three-dimensional creativity model. Participant judges were able to detect differences perceived in Novelty, Resolution, and Elaboration and Synthesis of the 4 stimulus items.

Childhood and adolescence are important developmental phases which influence health and well-being across the life span. Social relationships are fundamental to child and adolescent development; yet studies have been limited to children's relationships with other humans. This paper provides an evidence review for the potential associations between pet ownership and emotional; behavioural; cognitive; educational and social developmental outcomes. As the field is in the early stages; a broad set of inclusion criteria was applied. A systematic search of databases and grey literature sources found twenty-two studies meeting selection criteria. The review found evidence for an association between pet ownership and a wide range of emotional health benefits from childhood pet ownership; particularly for self-esteem and loneliness. The findings regarding childhood anxiety and depression were inconclusive. Studies also showed evidence of an association between pet ownership and educational and cognitive benefits; for example, in perspective-taking abilities and intellectual development. Evidence on behavioural development was unclear due to a lack of high quality research. Studies on pet ownership and social development provided evidence for an association with increased social competence; social networks; social interaction and social play behaviour. Overall, pet ownership and the significance of children's bonds with companion animals have been underexplored; there is a shortage of high quality and longitudinal studies in all outcomes. Prospective studies that control for a wide range of confounders are required.

Conservation biology emerged in the mid-1980s, drawing on established disciplines and integrating them in pursuit of a coherent goal: the protection and perpetuation of the Earth's biological diversity. Opportunistic in its borrowing and application of knowledge, conservation biology had its roots within the established biological sciences and resource management disciplines but has continually incorporated insights from the empirical experience of resource managers, from the social sciences and humanities, and from diverse cultural sources. The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) has represented the field's core constituency, while expanding that constituency in keeping with the field's integrative spirit. Conservation Biology has served as SCB's flagship publication, promoting research, dialog, debate, and application of the field's essential concepts. Over the last 20 years the field, SCB, and the journal have evolved to meet changing conservation needs, to explore gaps in our knowledge base, to incorporate new information from related fields, to build professional capacity, and to provide expanded opportunities for international participation. In turn, the field, SCB, and journal have prompted change in related fields, organizations, and publications. In its dedication to advancing the scientific foundations of biodiversity conservation and placing that science at the service of society in a world whose variety, wildness, and beauty we care for conservation biology represents both a continuation and radical reconfiguration of the traditional relationship between science and conservation.

The difficult task of estimating recurrence intervals for large floods has long plagued hydrologists because statistical measures fail when return intervals of floods exceed the length of historical data sets. Sediments deposited in the backwaters of large floods may accumulate thick sequences in tributary mouths. Stratigraphic and sedimentologic studies of these sequences combined with radiocarbon dating have established a 10,000-year paleoflood record for the lower Pecos and Devils rivers in southwestern Texas. This technique is rapid and relatively inexpensive and can be used where historical records are short or entirely absent.

Abstract: The Creative Product Semantic Scale (CPSS) is based on a theoretical model which conceptualizes three dimensions of product attributes: Novelty, Resolution, and Elaboration and Synthesis. The revision of the CPSS is described in the present article. Study 1 confirmed that the instrument could detect differences in the level of Novelty of three commercially available household products varying in unusualness. Study 2 was designed to validate the three dimensions of product attributes by testing whether or not the rankings of experts would agree with those of lay judges. Results indicated that judgments of Novelty made by naive judges were consistent with those of experts. The validity of Novelty, and to a lesser degree, that of Elaboration and Synthesis, were verified by Study 2. The validity of Resolution is yet to be established (no significant differences among products were observed). In both studies, Novelty and Resolution were independent, but Elaboration and Synthesis subscales migrated between loading with Novelty and Resolution.

This article explores the past, present, and possible future directions of the ‘‘new thalassology’’ [from the ancient Greek thalassa, ‘‘sea’’] and Indian Ocean studies from its humble beginnings in the 1950s and 1960s, and the cross-fertilization between the ‘Annales’ school and world-systems analysis in the 1980s, to its – admittedly incomplete – institutionalization in the early twenty-first century. In addition, it defines the numerous, often flexible and permeable, spatial and temporal boundaries or ‘frontiers’ of the Indian Ocean world(s). A final section surveys some of the potentialities and pitfalls of Indian Ocean studies and the new thalassology, with the strengths outweighing the weaknesses. The new thalassology undoubtedly presents some daunting challenges. It is to be hoped, however, that charting some of the ‘hundred frontiers’ of the globalized, inter-regional Indian Ocean seascape provides some sense of direction for this exciting field of scholarship and helps shape the future contours of maritime-based studies

Co–teaching is a popular strategy for implementing the inclusion of students with disabilities within secondary general education classrooms. However, we have little data regarding its effectiveness under routine conditions of educational practice. This study examined whether there was an “additive effect” of the special education teacher on the instructional experiences of students with disabilities as compared with the experiences of the same students taught by only the general education teacher under routine conditions. Observers used time sampling methods to document how students with disabilities spent their time in 11 middle school co–taught classes. Statistically significant differences were found for targeted students in terms of general education teacher interaction and individual instruction. General education teachers spent significantly less time with students with disabilities when the special education teacher was present. In addition, students with disabilities received significantly more individual instruction when the special education teacher was present. However, these differences were of limited practical significance.