Valley Forge Research Articles

733 From the Trenches of War to the Bedside of Civilians: Joseph E. Murray MD FACS and the Contributions of Military Surgeons to Advances in Burn Care

Abstract Introduction Significant advances in medical and surgical care have often originated from our experience caring for those wounded on the battlefield. The year of the ABA’s 52nd annual meeting marks the 30th anniversary of the selection of Joseph E. Murray MD FACS as recipient of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Methods In his autobiography Surgery of the Soul: Reflections on a Curious Career, Dr. Murray credits a 22 year old US Army aviator named Charles Woods with guiding him into an emerging field of transplantation surgery. On December 23, 1944, Woods sustained burns over 70% of his body in an accident during takeoff while teaching another pilot at his Army Air Corps base in India. Woods survived and eventually was transferred back to the US where came under of the care of a young 25 year old surgeon named Joseph Murray. Results Like many young surgeons of his era, Dr. Murray joined the military service during WWII. Dr. Murray had just completed his internship at Peter Bent Brigham in Boston in September 1944 when he was assigned to Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, PA. Valley Forge was one of eight regional US Army hospitals created during WWII dedicated to plastic surgery and burn care. It was during his care for soldiers wounded in battle at this time in his early formative years that Dr. Murray developed his curiosity regarding tissue transplantation. Following military service, he completed his surgical training in Boston and New York City, and returned to the Brigham in July 1951. His military service caring for burn victims instilled a passion and curiosity regarding transplantation of human tissue. This culminated in his leading a team to perform the first human kidney transplantation on December 23, 1954...exactly 10 years to the day after the airplane crash that injured Charlie Woods. Conclusions Recognizing his dedication and accomplishments in the field of transplantation surgery, the Nobel selection committee awarded Dr. Murray thirty-six years later it’s Prize in Medicine. Applicability of Research to Practice Dr. Murray’s legacy which began during his care of soldiers during WWII offers an inspiration to all those caring for patients who have sustained burn injuries.

We Need an Insurgent Mass Movement

We Need an Insurgent Mass Movement Aziz Rana (bio) and Jedediah Britton-Purdy (bio) Aziz Rana, a political theorist and constitutional historian, anticipated many of the themes and crises of today's politics. Amid the liberal optimism of 2008–10, he warned that Barack Obama's presidency might prove to be the post-sunset afterglow of a very specific Cold War politics of meritocratic achievement and national unity. Rana calls the worldview of this unity "creedalism," for its devotion to an "American creed." It valorized bipartisanship and the idea that Americans had always been essentially committed to personal liberty, political equality, and competent but limited government, and just had to work out some imperfections through, say, the New Deal and the civil rights movement. Creedalism was the water of U.S. political life, the implicit grammar of presidential campaigns and of public education. It was how adults thought. In his first book, The Two Faces of American Freedom (2010), Rana advanced a different interpretation of U.S. history, anchored in the paradoxes of settler colonialism. Early settlers in North America created what was then both the most egalitarian and the most savagely hierarchical society in the world. For its insiders—white propertied and enfranchised men—the early republic maintained an unparalleled degree of political equality and popular sovereignty. But its outsiders, especially enslaved African Americans and Native Americans, were exploited and eliminated with extraordinary cruelty and intensity. And the opposites were integrally linked. For Rana, the American story is not about smoothing out wrinkles or correcting inconsistencies. It's about the struggle to radicalize and universalize settler freedom. Rana sees the present moment as a return to the American norm, a fierce conflict between race-and-class domination and radical egalitarian democracy. The revival of a self-described socialist left and the broader turn of the Democratic Party's progressive wing to "big, structural change" have brought back the understanding that robust democracy requires economic freedom as well as the political kind. At the same time, the highly visible ethno-nationalist right and new liberal awareness of the depth of racialized [End Page 76] Click for larger view View full resolution Organizations like DSA are developing "the cultural institutions … that collectively create a daily experience of liberation and community."—Aziz Rana inequality have drawn attention to the central place that denial of real freedom has always played in U.S. political economy. This interview is the result of many days of conversation and correspondence between Aziz Rana and Jedediah Britton-Purdy, the editor of this special section. Jedediah Britton-Purdy: One reason you and I have talked politics over the years is that we come to similar commitments by very different paths. My political identity runs from Valley Forge through Gettysburg and Radical Reconstruction to today's activists like the Reverend William Barber and efforts like the Green New Deal that aim to extend and radicalize a living tradition of self-rule. You self-describe as coming out of a Third Worldist tradition and being suspicious of all creedal national narratives, particularly one that belongs to an imperial colossus. If you were less personally charitable, you might call me a left creedalist. I think many people find themselves torn over what divides us, but also what holds us together: the problem of how to think about the depth and horror of inequality and violence in the United States while maintaining a sense that the country has also been, and is, a platform for people struggling to build ways of living together on more truly democratic terms. Recently, your take has gone mainstream. The New York Times's "1619 Project," for example, tries to recenter American history on the history of [End Page 77] slavery. You've talked in creative ways about what reparations could mean—how police reform, for example, could "decolonize" the institutions of U.S. law once we appreciate that they developed through a kind of internal racial colonialism—and how to think about global freedom of movement. Those once-fringe ideas are now running through the Democratic primaries. Is this a hopeful moment? Aziz Rana: We are obviously living during troubling times—the return of open white...

Leveraging a Free Enterprise Printing Software Solution to Reduce Cost and Increase Revenue: Print Logger by PaperCut

Leveraging a free enterprise printing software solution to reduce cost and increase revenue tells the story of Valley Forge Military Academy & College's process of identifying the need for a printing solution, weighing the options, and selecting a suitable solution for minimal cost (free software and minimal staff time). VFMAC is a small suburban campus consisting of an Academy (grades 7-12—all-boy, college-prep) and a junior college (co-ed, high transfer) located about 20 miles west of Philadelphia, PA.

Defence responses in the xylem of Ulmus americana cultivars after inoculation with Ophiostoma novo‐ulmi

AbstractEarlier, it has been shown that cultivars of American elm (Ulmus americana) can differ in their susceptibility to Dutch elm disease (DED) and in their ability to compartmentalize infection. To gain a better understanding of how certain factors of compartmentalization influence disease susceptibility, histological and histochemical studies were performed on five cultivars of American elm and two wild‐type seedling populations. There were a variety of differences in barrier zone formation and barrier zone characteristics among the cultivars which may help explain variability in resistance to DED. Timing of barrier zone production may be one factor that helps determine whether a tree survives infection. At 20 days postinoculation (DPI) in 2015, “New Harmony,” which had one of the highest mean disease severity ratings (DSR), was the only cultivar to have no barrier zones present in the samples examined. Barrier zones were present in all trees examined in 2016 for the two cultivars with the highest mean DSR, with many of the trees at 100% permanent wilt at 90 DPI, providing evidence that the formation of barrier zones does not ensure the tree will survive infection. When examining stem sections of these cultivars from 2016 for autofluorescence under blue light, which is indicative of phenolic compounds, they displayed significantly less autofluorescence than “Valley Forge,” which had the lowest DSR. Another important finding from this work is that despite having weak or discontinuous barrier zones, cultivars can still have relatively low DSR. “Prairie Expedition” and “Princeton” had multiple samples which had barrier zones which were breached or circumvented. When a barrier zone was breached, these cultivars often formed a subsequent barrier zone. Findings from these examinations help illustrate the complex nature of compartmentalization in American elm and how a variety of factors are affecting disease resistance.

Quenchant Cooling Curves, Rewetting, and Surface Heat Flux Properties of Vegetable Oils

Vegetable oils are currently used for biodegradable and renewable base stocks for quenchant formulation. However, there are relatively few references relating to their true equivalency, or lack thereof, comparative to the quenching performance of petroleum oil-based quenchant formulations. To obtain an overview of the variability vegetable oil quenching performance, the cooling curves and rewetting properties were determined, and the surface heat flux properties were calculated. The vegetable oils that were studied included canola, coconut, corn, cottonseed, palm, peanut, soybean, and sunflower oils. Cooling curves were obtained using the Tensi multiple-surface thermocouple 15 mm diameter by 45 mm cylindrical Inconel 600 probe (Note: The multiple thermocouple probe was custom manufactured to conform to a drawing provided by: Heattec located at Seglaregatan 1C, 302 90 Halmstad, Sweden). For comparison, similar data was obtained with Houghto-Quench H100, a conventional (slow) petroleum quenchant oil, and Houghto-Quench HKM, an accelerated (fast) petroleum oil quenchant (Houghton International Inc., Valley Forge, PA). The results of this work will be discussed here.

From Memory to Memorial: Shanksville, America, and Flight 93

From Memory to Memorial: Shanksville, America, and Flight 93

Marvin A. McMickle, Pulpit and Politics: Separation of Church and State in the Black Church. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2014. Pp. 220. $22.99 (paper).

Marvin A. McMickle, <i>Pulpit and Politics: Separation of Church and State in the Black Church</i>. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2014. Pp. 220. $22.99 (paper).

Bark and wood tissues of American elm exhibit distinct responses to Dutch elm disease

Tolerance to Dutch elm disease (DED) has been linked to the rapid and/or high induction of disease-responsive genes after infection with the fungus Ophiostoma novo-ulmi. Although the fungal infection by O. novo-ulmi primarily takes places in xylem vessels, it is still unclear how xylem contributes to the defense against DED. Taking advantage of the easy separation of wood and bark tissues in young American elm saplings, here we show that most disease-responsive genes exhibited higher expression in wood compared to bark tissues after fungal infection. On the other hand, the stress-related phytohormones were generally more abundant in the bark compared to wood tissues. However, only endogenous levels of jasmonates (JAs), but not salicylic acid (SA) and abscisic acid (ABA) increased in the inoculated tissues. This, along with the upregulation of JA-biosynthesis genes in inoculated bark and core tissues further suggest that phloem and xylem might contribute to the de novo biosynthesis of JA after fungal infection. The comparison between two tolerant elm varieties, ‘Valley Forge’ and ‘Princeton,’ also indicated that tolerance against DED might be mediated by different mechanisms in the xylem. The present study sheds some light on the amplitude and kinetics of defense responses produced in the xylem and phloem in response to DED.

American elm cultivars: Variation in compartmentalization of infection by Ophiostoma novo‐ulmi and its effects on hydraulic conductivity

SummaryFive cultivars and two populations of wild‐type seedlings of American elm (Ulmus americana), 3 and 4 years old, were examined for differences in their abilities to compartmentalize and resist infection by artificially inoculating with Ophiostoma novo‐ulmi. Morphological characteristics of tree defence, often referred to as the compartmentalization of decay in trees model, were used as a conceptual framework, with particular emphasis on the limiting of tangential spread of infection within the xylem and barriers that limit spread outwards to cells formed after infection. To investigate the change in functional xylem over time, 3‐year‐old trees were assessed at multiple time points following inoculation for hydraulic conductivity. Three and four‐year‐old cut trees were placed in 0.1% w/v safranin O for 18 to 24 hr to indicate functional xylem. Transverse sections of the stained stems were used to calculate per cent of sap‐conducting xylem area and the per cent of circumference conducting of first formed cells and later formed cells. At each collection time, trees were assessed for disease severity on a 1–12 scale, based on the percentage of permanent wilt in the crown. There was considerable variation between cultivars in disease severity and their capacity to localize and resist infection. “Prairie Expedition,” which had the lowest disease severity rating in 2015 and the second lowest in 2016, consistently limited the spread of infection into newly formed xylem and had functional xylem around the entire circumference of the stem at 90 days post‐inoculation. “Valley Forge” in 2016 had the lowest overall disease severity rating and was the only cultivar to consistently limit the tangential spread of infection within extant xylem. This research identifies key characteristics that some cultivars have to resist and limit infection and provides new information that can be used in disease screening programmes to evaluate other cultivars and older plant material.

I. Bernard Cohen

1 MARCH 1914 * 20 JUNE 2003 PROUD OF being the first American to receive a doctorate expressly in the history of science (as opposed to writing a thesis for a history department), I Bernard Cohen went on to lead the professionalization of the discipline and to establish a flagship history of science department at Harvard. With a booming voice, a familiar checked sport jacket, and a distinctive articulated fish watch fob, he exuded a memorable presence that inevitably attracted both admirers and detractors. An acknowledged authority on the science of Benjamin Franklin, he was a natural candidate for membership in the American Philosophical Society, yet his election came comparatively late in his career. Born in Far Rockaway, Long Island, Cohen entered New York University at the precocious age of fifteen, only to drop out after a semester; following a brief study of veterinary medicine at the Farmington Agricultural Institute, he attended the Valley Forge Military Academy before entering Harvard as a freshman in 1933 to concentrate in mathematics. Then, continuing as a graduate student in 1937 in the newly founded Program in History of Science and Learning, he became an assistant to George Sarton, the man considered the father of modern history of science and the founding editor of Isis (in 1912), which in the meantime had become the journal of the History of Science Society. Cohen's original dissertation proposal, on Franklin's work on electricity as an example of Newtonian experimental science, grew ever longer, and at the suggestion of Crane Brinton (and with the unenthusiastic approval of Sarton), Cohen's first book, published in 1941, a fully annotated edition of Franklin's Experiments and Observations on Electricity, became his thesis for a Ph.D. granted in 1947. Cohen's six-hundred-page Franklin and Newton was published in 1956. During the same period he researched and wrote Some Early Tools of American Science (1950), which documented an exhibition of the university's eighteenth-century instruments and helped to establish Harvard's Collection of Historic Scientific Instruments, in which he continued to maintain a strong interest. From 1946 on (and until his mandatory retirement in 1984) Cohen taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Harvard. Working with president James Bryant Conant on Harvard's newly installed General Education program, he helped introduce the case study method with his popular course, Natural Science 3, The Nature and Growth of the Physical Sciences. A consummate showman in the classroom, he taught an extended series of graduate teaching fellows (including this writer) how to keep undergraduates awake with a host of memorable demonstrations. For two decades he chaired Harvard's program in history of science and guided its transformation into a full-fledged department in the mid-1960s. In 1947 Cohen became managing editor of his, and in 1953 succeeded Sarton in the editorship. As his colleague Erwin Hiebert noted in 1974 when Cohen received the Sarton Medal, the History of Science Society's lifetime achievement award, Cohen shepherded Isis through a gentle metamorphosis that gave it a structure that it still essentially maintains in its current form. Cohen's research in the history of science covered a wide range of topics over the course of his more than six decades of publications. Nevertheless, he was best known for his work on Isaac Newton. In 1957 Cohen joined with Alexandre Koyre, then at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, on the monumental project of preparing a variorum edition of Newton's Principia. This endeavor covered not only its three published editions, but also the original manuscript and the voluminous corrections and annotations that Newton had made in his personal copies. …

Jetting after Dr. Douglas Sanders: From “Valley Forge” to New Haven to the Wood Library-Museum

Jetting after Dr. Douglas Sanders: From “Valley Forge” to New Haven to the Wood Library-Museum

Hills, Huts, and Horse-Teams: The New Jersey Environment and Continental Army Winter Encampments, 1778-1780

New Jersey’s role as a base for the Continental Army during the War of Independence has played an important part in the state’s understanding of its role in the American Revolution, and continues to shape the state’s image as the “Cockpit of the Revolution,” and “Crossroads of the American Revolution” today. This article uncovers how and why the Continental Army decided to place the bulk of its forces in northern New Jersey for two consecutive winters during the war. Unlike the more renowned Valley Forge winter quarters, neither New Jersey encampment has received significant scholarly attention, and most works that have covered the topic have presumed the state’s terrain offered obvious strategic advantages for an army on the defensive. This article offers a new interpretation, emphasizing the army’s logistical needs including forage for its animals and timber supplies for constructing winter shelters. The availability of these resources, rather than easily defended rough terrain or close-proximity to friendly civilians, led Washington and his staff to make northern New Jersey its mountain home for much of the war. By highlighting the role of the environment in shaping military strategy, this article adds to our understanding of New Jersey’s crucial role in the American struggle for independence.

John Laurance and the Role of Military Justice at Valley Forge

John Laurance and the Role of Military Justice at Valley Forge

John Laurance and the Role of Military Justice at Valley Forge

Introducing a fresh metric—general courts-martial per thousand fit-for-duty troops—this article expands Valley Forge historiography by quantifying trial incidence in a forty-two-month context to suggest military justice played a significantly greater role over the winter of privation than previously thought. Courts-martial discipline, the essay argues, served as General Washington's fundamental instrument of command and control until drillmaster Baron von Steuben's iconic parade-ground regimen took hold. As Washington's unheralded "courtroom von Steuben," Judge Advocate General John Laurance superintended rule of military law over eighty tattered Valley Forge regiments by diligently enforcing the 1776 Articles of War among private soldiers, officers, and civilians alike.

Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle by Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone

Reviewed by: Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle by Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone Benjamin G. Scharff Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle. By Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone. Campaigns and Commanders. ( Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. Pp. xxii, 600. $34.95, ISBN 978-0-8061-5335-3.) The battle of Monmouth Court House does not inspire the American imagination in the way that Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Yorktown, and other Revolutionary War battles do. Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone attempt to add Monmouth to this pantheon in Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle. By providing detailed battlefield analysis and extensive discussion of Continental politics, Lender and Stone have done just that—if one accepts George Washington as the indispensable man in the early American nation. Fatal Sunday suggests that the battle of Monmouth is an underappreciated event in the development of the United States. The battle has long been considered to be a glorified draw, but the authors argue that preexisting political competition made the outcome of the clash critical to Washington's future as commander of the Continental army, if not as president of the United States. [End Page 399] Outside of Boston, Trenton, and Princeton, the battlefield results of the early years of the Revolution had left some skeptical of Washington's fitness to lead the Continental army. Washington's failures created detractors, competitors, and, as the overblown Conway Cabal seemed to indicate, conspirators all bent on his removal from command. Fatal Sunday exposes the rift between Washington and a newly repatriated Charles Lee. While Washington favored a professionalized army, Lee proposed an irregular force to confront the British. Although Washington won the debate, the authors argue that Monmouth represented the first litmus test of Washington's preference. Set against the backdrop of Washington's opposition, Monmouth consequently assumes an importance transcending its battlefield results. Lender and Stone do not refute previous assessments of the battle—it was a draw that allowed both sides to derive some satisfaction. The battle's significance, therefore, results from the performance of the Continental army and the public perception of both Washington and Lee after the engagement. Despite the inconclusive outcome, Continental soldiers demonstrated in-creased discipline and ability, while officers exhibited an improved capability to handle troops in the field. These improved performances reflected the training regimen installed by Washington during the previous winter at Valley Forge. Monmouth consequently suggested that the Continental army might, with time, realize the professional bearing envisioned by Washington. In addition, Lee's struggles during the early part of the battle, followed by Washington's arrival, provided the Washington camp with a narrative that solidified his command and undermined his critics. Throughout their coverage of these developments the authors maintain an even keel. Washington is not a demigod, devoid of reproach. Nor is Lee a bumbling idiot, deserving unmitigated condemnation. Instead the rich battlefield narrative assigns blame and awards praise evenly. Only after the battle, with Washington's young and enthusiastic supporters leading the way, was the general able to solidify his position as the undisputed and unassailable commander of the Continental army. The authors' intimate knowledge of the battle has allowed them to take a single day in the Revolution and weave into it a broader narrative about the rise of Washington. Their interpretation is not entirely new; many Revolutionary War studies discuss the general's ascension above his political enemies. Lender and Stone, however, have tied this ascension to one singular event, and have done so with deep knowledge and extensive research. Fatal Sunday will consequently find its place as an accessible read for students and scholars of the American Revolution alike. Benjamin G. Scharff Mercyhurst University Copyright © 2017 The Southern Historical Association

INVITED EDITORIAL

1. John C. Bogle 1. is founder and former chairman of The Vanguard Group in Valley Forge, PA . (john\_c\_bogle{at}vanguard.com) TOPICS: [Portfolio theory][1], [legal/regulatory/public policy][2] I love the CFA Institute campaign’s theme for May 2015: “Putting Investors First.” But I

Half-History, or The Function of Cato at the Present Time

This essay examines three performances of Joseph Addison’s Cato (1713), each of which allegorizes George iii at different points in his life, in order to explore the relation of forgetting to the repertoire. I look at a famous 1812 portrait of John Philip Kemble in the role of Cato, painted by Thomas Lawrence, in order theorize a notion of “half-history,” and then turn to an earlier production of Addison’s play at the Prince of Wales’s residence at Leicester House in 1747. The future George iii, then age eleven, performed in this play as Cato’s son Portius, and I argue that the prologues and epilogues constitute a political future in opposition to George ii’s rule that resonates with the Prince of Wales’s political predicament. The essay next considers the famous performance of Cato at Valley Forge. Following the reading of these two private theatricals, I argue that Kemble’s revival of the play in the winter of 1811 reorients the allegory yet again in order to explore the complex politics of George iii’s madness and the Regency Bill of 1811. Kemble’s intervention in the play was “half-historical” in precisely the way presented in Lawrence’s painting.

Barack Obama and the Habit of Hope

Books Reviewed:The Irony of Barack Obama: Barack Obama, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Problem of Christian Statecraft. By R. Ward Holder and Peter B. Josephson. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2012. 232 pp. $119.95 (cloth).Reading Obama: Dreams, and American Political Tradition. By James T. Kloppenberg. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2011. 344 pp. $24.95 (cloth).The Audacity of Faith: Christian Leaders Reflect on Election of Barack Obama. Edited by Marvin A. McMickle. Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 2009. 192 pp. $17.00 (paper).Religion, Race, and Barack Obamas New Democratic Pluralism. Edited by Gaston Espinosa. New York: Routledge, 2013. 296 pp. $140.00 (cloth).Fundamentalism in American Religion and Law: Obama's Challenge to Patriarchy's Threat to Democracy. By David A. J. Richards. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 326 pp. $31.99 (paper).Barack Obama's America: How New Conceptions of Race, Family, and Religion Ended Reagan Era. By John Kenneth White. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 2009. 320 pp. $28.95 (paper).Barack Obama burst onto national stage with The Audacity of Hope, his inspiring speech at 2004 Democratic National Convention that anticipated his 2006 book Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming American Dream. Obamas theme echoed his pastor Jeremiah Wrights 1988 sermon The Audacity to Hope, as he sought to shed light on spiritual dimension of Democratic politics in contrast to religious skepticism of some on Left and more conservative religious stance of some on Right.Like all contemporary politicians, Obama has employed the God strategy, eponymous title of an excellent study by David Domke and Kevin Coe that tracks in detail evolution of religio-political language from Dwight Eisenhower to present. concern that arises with use of God strategy is that of authenticity of a candidate's faith as opposed to politically expedient use of God language. Domke and Coe recognize that question of a candidate's personal faith is unknowable, but emphasize that there is little doubt that strategic use of religious sentiments is one of the realities of modem American politics.1 Clearly, religious pluralism and secularism are challenges no politician can ignore. Obama, whose rhetoric of hope has driven his political career, has been forced to embrace a centrist position that has placed him between religion and politics. A spiritually committed leader must enter rough-and-tumble world of secular values and legislative realities, of technological methods and gridlock that by necessity divides statecraft from faith.One of Obama's greatest efforts has been attempt to instill of hope within an American society battered by Bush-era despair resulting from an unjust war, governmental approval of torture, advancement of wealthy one-percenters, and loss of trust, which is fabric of society. By habit I do not mean a repeated behavior, but something closer to hexis, a dispositional energy that interacts with wider environment, testing ideas and actions for their faithfulness. of hope is a vague yet pragmatic reality in which hope transforms persons and communities, making it essential to deliberative democracy. person's experience of hope dis-positions self, creating a new center of value and a new focus of action through experience of an expanded sense of trust, confidence, and possibility. Hope must be pragmatically tested in world of beings and things in order to build networks of community. After all, hope is about realization of a more fulfilling future through action necessary for amelioration of flawed humanity. It is fulcrum of history that counters despair, determinism, and retrospective thinking with a propulsive interaction with wider environment in which human flourishing can grow. …

Success and Predation of Bird Nests in Grasslands at Valley Forge National Historical Park

Abstract Populations of grassland birds are declining in the Northeast due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Fragmentation of grasslands can contribute to lower breeding success of grassland birds by altering local predator communities. Using miniature video cameras, I estimated nest success and identified nest predators in grassland fragments at Valley Forge National Historical Park in southeastern Pennsylvania. Estimated nest-success probability for Sturnella magna (Eastern Meadowlark) at Valley Forge was 0.25 (0.04–0.65, n = 7) and similar to estimates from the Midwest, but slightly lower than other studies in the Northeast. Nest success for Spizella pusilla (Field Sparrow; 0.77 [0.31–0.98, n = 8]) and Agelaius phoeniceus (Red-winged Blackbird; 0.48 [0.18–0.80, n = 10]) was higher than estimates from other studies. The local predator community identified at Valley Forge was less diverse than documented in other studies, with only 4 species depredating 8 of 25 monitored nests. The primary predator was ...

Biogenic volatile organic compound emissions from nine tree species used in an urban tree-planting program

The biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions of nine urban tree species were studied to assess the air quality impacts from planting a large quantity of these trees in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, through the Mile High Million tree-planting initiative. The deciduous tree species studied were Sugar maple, Ohio buckeye, northern hackberry, Turkish hazelnut, London planetree, American basswood, Littleleaf linden, Valley Forge elm, and Japanese zelkova. These tree species were selected using the i-Tree Species Selector (itreetools.org). BVOC emissions from the selected tree species were investigated to evaluate the Species Selector data under the Colorado climate and environmental growing conditions. Individual tree species were subjected to branch enclosure experiments in which foliar emissions of BVOC were collected onto solid adsorbent cartridges. The cartridge samples were analyzed for monoterpenes (MT), sesquiterpenes (SQT), and other C10–C15 BVOC using thermal desorption-gas chromatography–flame ionization detection/mass spectroscopy (GC–FID/MS). Individual compounds and their emission rates (ER) were identified. MT were observed in all tree species, exhibiting the following total MT basal emission rates (BER; with a 1−σ lower bound, upper bound uncertainty window): Sugar maple, 0.07 (0.02, 0.11) μg g−1 h−1; London planetree, 0.15 (0.02, 0.27) μg g−1 h−1; northern hackberry, 0.33 (0.09, 0.57) μg g−1 h−1; Japanese zelkova, 0.42 (0.26, 0.58) μg g−1 h−1; Littleleaf linden, 0.71 (0.33, 1.09) μg g−1 h−1; Valley Forge elm, 0.96 (0.01, 1.92) μg g−1 h−1; Turkish hazelnut, 1.30 (0.32, 2.23) μg g−1 h−1; American basswood, 1.50 (0.40, 2.70) μg g−1 h−1; and Ohio buckeye, 6.61 (1.76, 11.47) μg g−1 h−1. SQT emissions were seen in five tree species with total SQT BER of: London planetree, 0.11 (0.01, 0.20) μg g−1 h−1; Japanese zelkova, 0.11 (0.05, 0.16) μg g−1 h−1; Littleleaf linden, 0.13 (0.06, 0.21) μg g−1 h−1; northern hackberry, 0.20 (0.11, 0.30) μg g−1 h−1; and Ohio buckeye, 0.44 (0.06, 0.83) μg g−1 h−1. The following trees exhibited emissions of other C10–C15 volatile organic compounds (VOC): Littleleaf linden, 0.15 (0.10, 0.20) μg g−1 h−1; Ohio buckeye, 0.39 (0.14, 0.65) μg g−1 h−1; and Turkish hazelnut, 0.72 (0.49, 0.95) μg g−1 h−1. All tree species studied in this experiment were confirmed to be low isoprene emitters. Compared to many other potential urban tree species, the selected trees can be considered low to moderate BVOC emitters under Colorado growing conditions, with total emission rates one-tenth to one-hundredth the rates of potential high-BVOC emitting trees. The emissions data were used to estimate the impact of this targeted tree planting on the urban BVOC flux and atmospheric VOC burden. Selecting the low-emitting tree species over known high BVOC emitters is equivalent to avoiding VOC emissions from nearly 500,000 cars from the inner city traffic.