The University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point at Wausau (formerly University of Wisconsin–Marathon County or UWMC), is a two-year campus of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. It is located near downtown Wausau, Wisconsin, United States, and adjacent to 78-acre (32 ha) Marathon Park.UW–Stevens Point at Wausau's campus consists of six buildings: the main building, the fieldhouse, the ceramics/pottery building, the art building, Marathon Hall (residence hall) and the Center for Civic Engagement.UW–Stevens Point at Wausau had an enrollment of 1,262 students in fall 2014 and an average class size of 23.3 students. UWMC is the site of the Wisconsin Public Radio Wausau Regional Studio. The campus executive is Ann Herda-Rapp.In 2018, the college became a satellite campus of the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point and changed its name to the current one due to the dissolution of the University of Wisconsin Colleges.
With the acceleration of global climate change and urbanization, environmental differences between urban and rural regions may lead to differential tree growth. In this study, sample plots of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) and black pine (Pinus thunbergii) were set up in urban forest parks and rural mountainous areas of a temperate coastal city to investigate these effects. A total of 342 trees (626 tree cores) were collected. Tree-ring width data were analyzed to assess growth sensitivity to climate and air pollution (including CO2, PM10, NOx, and SO2) in the two regions, with a particular focus on growth resilience to extreme drought. The results showed that urban locust growth was primarily driven by climatic factors (with the contribution rate exceeding 93 %), whereas air pollution predominantly influenced rural locust and both urban and rural pine, contributing 62-91 %. Precipitation promoted urban locust growth, while temperature negatively affected both species in two sites. CO2 enhanced locust growth but suppressed pine. NOx showed opposing effects: negative for urban locust and positive for pine, while PM10 benefited rural locust and pine. SO2 consistently inhibited pine growth. The findings indicate that combined climate and air pollution factors heightened the sensitivity of urban trees to urbanization and climate change. Both species showed notable growth decline under extreme drought (resistance < 1) and good recovery (resilience > 1, recovery time < 3 years), with a significantly higher recovery of pine compare with locust, particularly for urban areas. This suggests urban irrigation can alleviate the water stress for both species. Despite drought, both urban and rural trees demonstrated good recovery capacity, suggesting that moderate drought is unlikely to cause immediate decline. Growth resilience to extreme drought in both species was primarily influenced by tree age, basal area, and pre-drought growth. This study provides new insights into the impact of climate change and urbanization on tree growth, aids in the selection of climate-adaptive tree species for urban environments, and offers a scientific basis for urban forest management strategies.
Structural diversity is an important urban forestry metric, used to estimate management requirements and as an indicator of urban forest age. As trees get larger, they also provide more–and different–ecosystem services than younger, smaller trees. Consequentially, structural diversity is an objective in urban forest management. While taxonomic diversity has previously been mapped, little is known about structural diversity patterns within and across municipalities. Using an urban tree inventory repository, we provide the first national-level assessment of street tree structural diversity in Canada’s urban forests. Across Canada, there is a dominance of smaller street trees, and no city was within ± 2.5
A well-trained workforce is imperative to managing effects of climate change, wildfires, stakeholder conflicts, and spread of pests and diseases. We conducted a survey to assess forestry training needs across Wisconsin. Our questionnaire addressed (i) skill gaps and training preferences of forestry professionals, (ii) barriers that prevent training engagement, and (iii) training outcomes that motivate participation. Survey participants represented urban forestry and forest management employment areas. Survey results indicate that tree and forest health, GIS, and conflict resolution are the most significant skill gaps for forestry professionals in Wisconsin. Job responsibilities and lack of awareness of training were most preclusive to professional development participation, while respondents were motivated by learning new skills and performing their job more effectively. Study Implications: Professional development is an intrinsic element to the forestry discipline. Providing relevant, valuable, and accessible training opportunities supports the continued development of a robust workforce. Our study confirms the discipline has neither sufficiently closed certain skill gaps, nor has it sufficiently addressed persistent barriers that impact training participation. Training providers may apply our findings and recommendations to refine their offerings and amplify their impact in helping professionals advance the forestry discipline.
This paper investigates the effects of racist behaviors and attitudes on economic growth. Using survey responses from the World Values Survey (WVS), we create an indicator of racist behaviors and find this indicator to be significantly and negatively associated with economic growth across countries. The association is robust to the inclusion of several geographic, institutional, and economic controls. Next, we create an indicator of racist attitudes using responses from the European Values Survey at the regional level. We find that racist attitudes are negatively associated with growth across subnational regions even after controlling for country fixed effects to eliminate concerns that the association is driven by the omission of country-specific fixed factors. We posit that lack of trust is driving the association between racist behaviors and economic growth. In support of our mechanism, in an individual-level analysis using the WVS data, we show that respondents who have witnessed racist behaviors in their neighborhood are less likely to agree with the statement that “most people can be trusted.”
A Review of: Subaveerapandiyan, A., Sunanthini, C., & Amees, M. (2023). A study on the knowledge and perception of artificial intelligence. IFLA Journal, 49(3), 503–513. https://doi.org/10.1177/03400352231180230 Objective – To assess the knowledge, perception, and skills of library and information science (LIS) professionals related to artificial intelligence (AI). Design – 45 statements were distributed to 469 LIS professionals via Google Forms to collect primary data. 245 participants responded to the structured questionnaire. Setting – University and college libraries in Zambia. Subjects – Zambian library and information science professionals. Methods – A descriptive approach was employed for the study. Data was gathered via a questionnaire. “The objective was to assess the statistical relationship between the knowledge, perception, and skills of LIS professionals (the independent variables) and AI (the dependent variable)” (Subaveerapandiyan et al., p. 506). The survey used a 5-point Likert scale with (1) strongly disagree being the lowest score and (5) strongly agree the highest. Means and standard deviations are included in data display tables. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data. SPSS was used for data analysis. Main Results – Survey results are presented in three tables. Table 1, “Awareness of AI among LIS professionals,” contains 21 statements related to AI use in various library environments and services, including reference (finding articles and citations, content summarization, detecting misinformation), circulation of library materials, security and surveillance, character recognition and document preservation, research data management, language translation, and others. The authors note that 44.1 percent of the respondents agreed that “AI is essential for the effectiveness and efficiency of library service delivery, enabling libraries to enhance and offer dynamic services for their users” (Subaveerapandiyan et al., 2023, p. 506). Table 2, “Perception of AI among LIS professionals,” contains 10 statements. Over 85 percent of respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that AI “makes library staff lazy” while 58.1 percent either strongly agreed or agreed that AI is a “threat to librarians’ employment” (Subaveerapandiyan et al., 2023, p. 506). The authors note that the “respondents also indicated barriers to the adoption of AI in libraries, such as the lack of LIS professionals’ skills and budgetary constraints” (Subaveerapandiyan et al., 2023, p. 506). Table 3 lists 13 competencies required by library professionals in the AI era. The majority of the respondents (an average of 65 percent) were in strong agreement that “electronic communication, hardware and software, Internet applications, computing and networking, cyber security and network management, data quality control, data curation, database management … are necessary competencies required by LIS professionals for them to be proficient in AI” (Subaveerapandiyan et al., 2023, p. 506).
