University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2011 - 2012

Why Your Department Needs an IT Communication Manager

Shad Jessen — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:33:51 PDT

Financial Dashboards: Imagine Your Ford Telling You the Health of Your Water System?

Chris Blanchard — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:55:22 PDT

The idea behind a financial dashboard is really no different than a vehicle dashboard. With a glance across the dials, you are able to get a picture of how the vehicle is performing from speed, fuel level and upcoming maintenance needs. With financial dashboards, the dials tell you your burn rate of cash, affordability of rates, reserves for capital replacement and how soon you may run out of money if you do not stop at a cash station. Financial dashboards help operators, managers and ultimately board members determine the financial condition of the system, the upcoming major repairs and maintenance, and the ability to borrow money. Finally, dashboards give the user easy slide bars or dials to turn to see how much rates would have to rise if you are applying for a major capital improvement loan or simply wanting to establish a cash reserve.

Presence in Context: Teachers’ Negotiations with the Relational Environment of School

Vicki Stieha et al. — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:38:23 PDT

This inquiry research builds on the theory of presence in teaching (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006) adding nuanced understandings of how school contexts play into teachers’ abilities to support students’ learning. Findings are drawn from multiple interviews with five veteran middle school teachers, teachers’ written work, and field observations. Illustrating these findings is the compelling story of an exemplary teacher’s negotiations of her practice in response to the school’s relational environment. Our findings point to the teacher’s sense of isolation and vulnerability–indicators of the relational context in the school as a threat to undermining her presence. They also create a compelling argument for the importance of a healthy relational context to support teachers’ most powerful teaching, hence students’ learning.

Rupture and Repair: Episodes of Resistance and Resilience in Teachers’ Learning

Miriam Raider-Roth et al. — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:45:24 PDT

This action inquiry article examines veteran teachers’ learning in a week-long professional development seminar. We describe moments of disconnection in key learning relationships (teacher, learner, text) and analyze relational–cultural dynamics that contributed to the disconnections. We investigate the dynamics that facilitate repair within the relationships. We argue that disconnections were often acts of resistance which preserve teachers’ sense of self as learner. We aver that moments of reconnection were acts of resilience. This study’s significance demonstrates the inherent links between resistance and resilience. Implications point to the centrality of taking an inquiry stance in the study of professional development experiences.

Distribution of Carbonaceous Matter in Lithofacies: Impacts on HOC Sorption Nonlinearity

Indra Kalinovich et al. — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:33:40 PDT

Both the composition and distribution of the lithocomponents within an aquifer impact hydrophobic organic compound (HOC) transport. Using samples from the sandy, low fraction organic carbon content (f_oc ~ 0.02%) Borden aquifer, we demonstrate how HOC sorption is controlled by the carbonaceous matter (CM) associated with calcareous sedimentary lithocomponents. Two-point isotherms using perchloroethene (PCE) as a sorbate showed that medium-grained lithofacies have a broader range of K_f (Freundlich coefficient), 1/n (Freundlich parameter) and f_oc than fine-grained facies. Dual-mode (linear + Freundlich) sorption modeling, fraction inorganic carbon (f_ic) and laboratory analyses confirm that both the magnitude and variability of PCE K_d (sorption distribution coefficient) in the Borden aquifer are controlled by the presence of heterogeneous CM in dark and very dark carbonate lithocomponents. Laboratory analyses and model results confirmed that the CM type controlling PCE sorption behavior in the Borden aquifer is in a condensed form, likely kerogen, contained within the carbonate matrix of the grains. The dark carbonate grains comprise a small proportion of the aquifer sediment (≪ 1%) and are found predominantly in medium-grained lithofacies in the Borden aquifer. These results show that increased heterogeneity, HOC mass storage and sorption nonlinearity associated with medium-grained lithofacies impact HOC transport in historically contaminated sedimentary aquifers.