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Background In fire-adapted ecosystems of the western USA, prescribed fire is an essential restoration and fuel reduction tool. There is general concern that, as the fire season lengthens, the window for conducting prescribed burns will contract unless management changes are made. This could occur because a number of conditions must be met before prescribed fire can be used in the field, and those are most common during the spring and autumn when the need for fire suppression response has been historically less. To assess patterns of potential prescribed burning feasibility, this study evaluated three conditions: (1) permission to burn as granted by air quality regulators; (2) weather within burn plan prescription; and (3) availability of operational and contingency resources. Our 21-year analysis (1999 to 2019) combines three independent datasets for a daily comparison of when prescribed fires could have been implemented (henceforth, burn windows) in the Lake Tahoe Basin (LTB) and analyzes seasonality, interannual variability, and trends. Results Burn windows were most frequent during spring, followed by autumn, with the fewest burn windows during the summer and winter. Burn windows lasting multiple days occurred infrequently. Two- to three-day burn windows did not often occur more than twice per month over the study period, and longer burn windows were very rare. Interannual variation was considerable. Finally, an abrupt increase in burn windows was detected in 2008. This was determined to be related to a methodological change by air quality regulators and not to any changes in climate or resource availability. Conclusions While this case study focuses on the LTB, the analysis was performed with readily available data and could be applied easily to other land management units, demonstrating a valuable method for planning and prioritizing fire and fuels management activities. This type of tool can also identify areas for research. For example, if there were unused burn windows during the winter and early spring—or they were projected to increase—research into the ecological impacts of winter and spring burning may allow managers to more confidently adapt to changing climate. Moreover, this analysis demonstrated that modest and reasonable regulatory changes can increase opportunities for prescribed burning.

Motivational interviewing provides a framework and tools to promote patient-centered engagement and change. This article focuses on motivational interviewing at the clinical care level, with emphasis on the motivational interviewing spirit and its four elements: partnership, acceptance, compassion, and empowerment.

Motivational interviewing provides a framework and tools to promote patient-centered engagement and change. This article focuses on motivational interviewing at the clinical care level, with emphasis on the motivational interviewing spirit and its four elements: partnership, acceptance, compassion, and empowerment.

In an interview, Avram Noam Chomsky, public intellectual number one, talked about public intellectual. On what it means to be a public intellectual in addition to being an intellectual who engages with the public, he says the Emersonian notion of an intellectual is one who represents the \"world's eye\"; one who holds great ideas of the past, communicates them to the public, and, in the process, creates new ideas. Presenting ideas that are intellectually grounded for public consumption does require a physical place -- courtyards, public parks, classrooms, printed pages, Internet Web sites, and others. These places are directly \"accessible\" to people or can be \"recreated\" in public and private conversations. To move ideas further along the path to meaningful application, they believe that organizational communication scholars need to theorize in ways that foster deliberative, participatory dialogues. Dialogue with the oppressed requires speaking with resonance and language connectivity. Speaking with resonance means theorizing that emerges from the subjective experiences of those who are oppressed.

The recent discovery that semiconductor nanomaterials can sensitize triplet states in surface-appended molecular chromophores has implications in diverse fields spanning nonlinear optics, solar energy conversion, and medicine. However, numerous fundamental questions linger in understanding how charge carriers and entire electronic excited states migrate across interfaces between the semiconductor nanomaterials and the molecular chromophores. The first research project in this dissertation focused on the transient absorption spectroscopy of PbS nanocrystals (NCs) with size-controlled bandedge exciton energies ranging from 1.15 to 1.54 eV as the semiconductor nanomaterial. Following post-synthetic modification with a carboxylic acid-functionalized derivative of 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene (TPn), selective excitation of the PbS NCs at 743 nm leads to a step-wise triplet sensitization mechanism, which is conserved across all NC sizes. The rate constant for the delayed formation of the TPn triplet excited state was found to increase with increasing PbS conduction band energy, in accordance with Marcus theory. This study delivered evidence of an indirect triplet sensitization process, which inconsistent with a concerted Dexter-like energy transfer process.To better elucidate the role of surface-trapped carriers in the indirect triplet sensitization process, the second research project in this dissertation utilized PbS-CdS core-shell NCs derived from the multiple sizes of PbS NC via cation exchange. By combining 1.54 eV PbS cores with various CdS shell thicknesses and surface-appended TPn molecules, insights were gained into the impact of shells on TPn triplet generation. It was determined that indirect triplet sensitization of TPn by surface-trapped states on PbS NCs, while viable, is less efficient than tunneling through CdS from a PbS-CdS NC with a passivated PbS surface.Continuing with the theme of energy transfer across the interface between semiconductor nanomaterials and molecular chromophores, lead halide perovskite nanoplatelets were paired with a functionalized derivative of 4-(1-piperidinyl)naphthalene-1,8-dicarboximide (PNI). Successful synthesis of the PNI surfactant and unexpectedly high tolerance of PNI association by the nanoplatelet surfaces provided a test bed for solution-phase photophysical investigation. Time-resolved photoluminescence data from the obtained nanomaterial-surfactant assemblies provided the strongest evidence to date of dipolar Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) from colloidal perovskite nanoplatelets to molecular chromophores.

This study compared employment interviews with communication-based assessment centers as managerial selection tools. During a three-year period all job applicant finalists for midlevel management positions in a large corporation were placed in one of two selection settings, employment interviews or assessment centers. In the employment interview setting applicant finalists (N = 174) interviewed with one personnel representative and two managers. In the assessment center setting applicant finalists (N = 174) performed in simulations that were judged by trained assessors. In all, 29 midlevel managers were selected on the basis of interview performance; 27 as a result of assessment center performance. After one year of employment the midlevel managers were evaluated by their superiors and subordinates using standardized job performance scales. The managers selected by communication-based assessment centers received higher interpersonal, productivity, and problem-solving ratings than did managers selected by the interview method.