Letter from Wm. Garlic

Letter concerning winter courses at Utah Agricultural College

IMAGINING JUSTICE ENHANCING COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY: A FUTURE-ORIENTED, NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK INSPIRED BY AMARTYA SEN’S IDEAS ON INJUSTICE

Court use of web-based videoconferencing software like Zoom to host court hearings grew exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shifting hearings online has had some benefits—it has reduced travel time for participants and allowed the courts to conduct hearings during government shutdown, for example. There is hope that these video hearings can help courts rectify longstanding access barriers that have made the courts less accessible than they should be to people with limited economic resources, those socially marginalized due to their racial, language, or other group membership, those without attorney representation, and/or those living with disabilities. Yet, prior court technologies like electronic filing have disproportionately benefited those with resources and legal training instead, and early empirical research on video hearings shows a similar trend. This dual-sided relationship between injustice and court communication technology creates a paradox: How can court communication technology support equal access when it creates its own injustices? Communication scholarship offers a fresh perspective to this intractable problem. Drawing on communication technology affordances, software design justice, and political philosopher Amartya Sen’s ideas on injustice-reduction, this dissertation proposes a normative, analytical framework—the Justice Enhancing Communication Technologies (JECT) Framework. The framework provides philosophical grounding for collaborative efforts aimed at re-imagining court technologies alongside the communities that have been harmed by them. The JECT framework consists of five analytical steps tailored towards discovering the just actions courts can take when using communication technologies:1) listening for the manifest injustice, 2) acknowledging and apologizing for the institution’s role in the injustice, 3) understanding the communicative aspects of the injustice, 4) committing to address the injustice, and 5) cooperatively planning, implementing, and evaluating with members of the public. These steps point those dedicated to enhancing court access towards injustice-reducing action. The framework can be used by communication scholars and others that study the courts, court information technology practitioners, judges and court staff that utilize the technologies, court program evaluators, and court diversity, equity, and inclusion consultants. To illustrate how the framework can be utilized, the dissertation applies it to an illustrative, empirical case study of video hearings.Media & Communicatio

Biochemical Separation of Geographical Strains of Plum Curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), and Evaluation of Olfactory Attractants in Virginia Orchards

Plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst), is an endemic pest of stone and pome crops of the eastern United States. Two morphologically identical strains of plum curculio have been described and documented in Virgina: a univoltine strain and a multivoltine strain. Because of the cryptic coloring and behaviours of the plum curculio adults, monitoring in orchards is difficult and often ineffective. RAPD-PCR assay was an effective method for separation of the geographical strains. Of the tested primers four, OPE 01, OPE 03, OPE 04, and OPE 07, gave 21 amplimers that are useful for distinguishing individuals from the univoltine and multivoltine populations. Gene targeted PCR revealed the presence of Wolbachia in both populations. Analysis of the wsp gene sequence showed the univoltine population of plum curculio is associated with a strain of Wolbachia in supergroup B, most closely related to a strain identified from Perithemis tenera (Say) (Odonata). The multivoltine populations of plum curculio are associated with strains of Wolbachia which are in supergroup A, and most closely related to Wolbachia strains associated with Dacus destillatoria, Bactrocera sp., and Callosobruchus chinensis Linn. Three different trap designs baited with grandisoic acid, plant volatiles, and a combination of pheromone and plant volatiles were tested. In 1999, significantly more plum curculios were captured with Tedders traps baited with grandisoic acid and unbaited control in traps baited with limonene, plum essence or ethyl isovalerate. In 2000, Circle traps baited with plum essence, sour cherry essence and grandisoic acid yielded no results. In 2001, branch mimic traps yielded no significant differences among three release rates of a blend of benzaldehyde, ethyl isovalerate, trans-2-hexenal, and limonene; although, there was a significant interaction between the pheromone and the host plant volatiles. Overall however, all three of the traps were not effective.Master of Scienc

Ethics principles for social and behavior change communication

The field of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) has a history reaching back to the period of decolonization following World War II. Since that period, much has been learned about theories and methods pertinent to this communication subfield. One topic that has received too little attention is the ethical dimension of SBCC. This paper considers the need for an SBCC code of ethics and justification for such a code. Amartya Sen's capabilities approach and Habermas's discourse ethics are reviewed as substantial contributions to such a justification. Habermas's U and D principles are selected as especially useful when the criteria for communicative action are considered, including criteria related to validity claims and general symmetry conditions. The paper argues that discourse ethics is the most suitable general ethical approach for SBCC, offering both a theoretical foundation for SBCC ethics and guidelines for practice in the field. </jats:p

SI-TACO: Media Promotif dan Preventif COVID-19 Pada Masyarakat Desa Ngembal Kabupaten Malang

Saat ini dunia sedang menghadapi pandemi COVID-19, di Indonesia pun saat ini pemerintah juga melakukan berbagai kebijakan untuk dapat meminimalisir penyebaran COVID-19. Namun faktanya masih ada masyarakat yang kurang memahami akan bahaya COVID-19, sehingga kebijakan yang dikeluarkan oleh Pemerintah tidak sepenuhnya dipatuhi oleh masyarakat Indonesia. Secara khusus dari pengumpulan data yang sudah dilakukan dapat disimpulkan bahwa masyarakat Desa Ngembal cenderung kurang memahami tentang dampak dan upaya pencegahan COVID-19. Oleh karena itu dibutuhkan upaya promotif dan preventif bagi masyarakat Desa Ngembal terkait COVID-19. Pengabdian yang dilakukan menggunakan media Si-TACO (Edukasi Tanggap COVID-19). Si-TACO (Edukasi Tanggap COVID-19) merupakan video edukasi berbentuk animasi yang didalamnya berisi materi tentang penyebaran COVID-19 di Indonesia, kesadaran diri tentang adanya COVID-19, dampak COVID-19 dalam berbagai setting kehidupan, cara pencegahan COVID-19, dan olahraga ringan yang dapat dilaksanakan di rumah pada masa pandemi COVID-19. Kegiatan pengabdian dilaksanakan dengan enam tahapan antara lain, (1) koordinasi, (2) pembuatan Si-TACO, (3) impelemtasi Si-TACO, (4) evaluasi, dan (5) penutupan kegiatan pengabdian. Kata kunci— COVID-19, Promotif dan Preventif, Si-TACO Abstract Today’s world has been shocked by the presence of COVID-19. The government has also taken numerous policies in order to minimize the spread of COVID-19. But unfortunately, the fact is that there are still people who do not understand nor care about the dangers of COVID-19, so the policies issued by the Government are not fully obeyed by the people of Indonesia. From the data from the survey and various research collection that has been done, it can be concluded that the people of Ngembal tend to lack understanding of the impact and prevention efforts of COVID-19. Therefore, we need promotive and preventive efforts for the people of Ngembal related to COVID-19. The dedication for helping to spread not the virus but awareness is carried out through Si-TACO (Edukasi Tanggap COVID-19). Si-TACO (Edukasi Tanggap COVID-19) is an animated educational video which contains material regarding the spread of COVID-19 especially in Indonesia, Indonesian people awareness about the presence of COVID-19, the impact of COVID-19 in various social life settings, how to prevent COVID-19, and some light exercises that can be performed at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Community service programs are carried out in six stages including (1) coordination, (2) making Si-TACO, (3) implementation of Si-TACO, (4) evaluation, and (5) closing of community service programs. Keywords— COVID-19, Promotive and Preventive, Si-TAC

Revisiting variety ratings for ratoon stunting disease

Variety resistance ratings are provided by Sugar Research Australia for a number for sugarcane diseases through SPIDNet. These diseases rely on resistance as little can be done in regard to their management. However, for ratoon stunting disease (RSD), one of the most important diseases in the Australian industry, this has not been the case in recent years. For RSD, the term “resistance” is somewhat misleading and can impart a false sense of security if viewed as for other diseases. All known varieties can acquire RSD, which can lead to yield losses and also in turn act as an infection source. Enzyme-linked immunoassays (EB-EIA) were previously used to estimate Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli (Lxx) bacteria titres and to assign a resistance rating. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) offers a more specific and sensitive method of detecting Lxx. The qPCR method can also provide more accurate estimates of Lxx titre. This study compared the leaf sheath biopsy (LSB) sample type in the plant crop and the xylem-extract sample type in plant and first-ratoon crops with the aim of developing a variety rating method.Full Tex