Habitat loss and fragmentation is a common conservation threat in the United States. Land in urban areas is at a premium for biodiversity preservation and historic landmarks and cemeteries are green spaces that undergo limited disturbance. Historic and sacred sites, such as those designated by historical markers and listed as cemeteries often contain remnant old growth trees, native species and potentially rare or endangered flora. Old growth trees are often considered a ‘keystone structure’, providing resources that are crucial for other species and/or a ‘foundational species’, essential in forest ecosystems providing food and shelter for wildlife. These mature trees are more prone to environmental factors such as competition with invasive plants, climatic extremes, air pollution, disease/pets and habitat fragmentation, therefore it is crucial to evaluate these historical places to assess their ecosystem service roles. A rapid decline of old foundational trees will have major impacts on the ecosystem services reported in this study. Using a citizen science survey approach and the iNaturalist smartphone app, as well as i-Tree Eco software, we surveyed trees at cemeteries and various historical places in Clinton County, NY. Tree species, diameter at breast height, tree height, percent crown dieback, as well as signs of disease, and woodpecker damage were recorded. The survey found that the most common tree species were Picea abies (Norway spruce), Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust), and Picea pungens (blue spruce). Black locust sequesters the most carbon ≈ (525 kg/yr), while Norway spruce reduces runoff (≈75 m3). Annually, mature foundational trees combined annually removed ≈ 57.03 kg ($870/yr) of pollution, stored ≈ 148.7 tons ($21,300) of carbon, ≈ sequestered 1.302 tons ($186.00/yr) of carbon, and produced ≈ 3.472 tons of oxygen. Locally, Riverside Cemetery annually sequestered the most carbon (0.4 tons), produced ≈ 1.2 tons of oxygen, and stored ≈ 1.5 tons of CO2, followed by Gilliland Cemetery. Interestingly, Gilliland Cemetery was found to be a monoculture of the invasive species black locust; more research could provide insight as to ecosystem functioning prior to the invasion. Further research is needed to help provide a stronger ecological value to these historical and sacred spaces.

There are a few factors affecting the decision of migrant African students' choice to stay in the United States or return to their home countries. From the ideological wish to return to spark change in their country, various ideas and thoughts buffer in between. While conducting my research, I explored questions to reveal these factors such as: What social, political, and economic factors contribute to their decision? Do they feel a sense of obligation to bring their skills and knowledge to help in the building of the infrastructure of their countries of origin? What are the potential ramification of their decisions? The results showed that 40% of the students expressed their wish to return home while 60% expressed their wish to stay in the U.S. Although most of the students have a short-term goal of staying in the US, they collectively feel a sense of attachment to their home country. This idea creates a certain level of dynamic tension between their wish for personal advancement and their hope for their country's development. I've gathered from my data that this topic is more complicated than presumed. There is no direct response to this question and emerging between their views is a grey area. Understanding the different dimensions associated with the cause of students' decision will enrich our perception of the effects of their country's environment and what can be· done to foster its continual development.

This is a guided discovery activity to help students learn about the differences between scholarly and popular publications. Students are asked to look at an example of each type of resource and make observations. This activity is done individually or in small groups or pairs with a whole class discussion about the applications of each resource at the end of the activity. The activity requires 45-60 minutes of class time.

This paper examines definitions of the situation held by musicians and sound engineers participating in live bluegrass music concerts in a concert hall setting using sound reinforcement. Successful production of a live bluegrass music concert requires cooperation between the musicians who perform on stage and the sound mix engineer who is responsible for operation of the sound reinforcement system in the concert space. Cooperation between these key actors facilitates the creation of a shared definition of the situation that defines parameters of the roles they expect each other to play. Fundamental to the creation of an effective shared definition of the situation is communication between the musicians and sound engineer. Also basic to situational definitions are musicians' and sound engineers' background assumptions, including whether the sound engineer is primarily a support person or whether he or she makes use of expert knowledge before and during the show and thus takes on the role of creative artist. To examine these interactional processes the author administered a 51-question interview instrument consisting of closed-ended and open-ended questions to a sample of 28 bluegrass musicians and sound engineers in 2015 and 2016. Results of the interviews are analyzed and illustrative excerpts from the respondents comments are highlighted. The author discusses implications of these preliminary findings for interactional processes in a live performance setting.

Elegy is a brief composition without overt repetition in its large-scale formal design. The piece is unified instead by the developing variation of a single motive. The variations manifest themselves in two ways. First, the motive undergoes constant intervallic variation (what is heard at the outset as a perfect eleventh appears later as a major ninth, etc.). Second, concurrent with the intervallic alterations, the motive functions in different contexts within individual phrases: the motive may begin or end a phrase, or occur abruptly in the middle of a phrase. The combination of these two processes generates a sense of musical evolution and growth within defined boundaries.

In Our Own Image: An Oral History of Mexican Women Filmmakers (1988-1994) is a translation of Isabel Arredondo's Palabra de Mujer: Historia oral de las directoras de cine mexicanas 1988-1994. The translation is by Mark Schafer, Jim Heinrich, Elissa Rashkin, and Isabel Arredondo. The book includes an introduction, six interviews with Mexican women filmmakers, an epilogue and a filmography. The goal of the book is to accurately document the entrance of women filmmakers, as a group, into Mexico's film industry at the end of the 1980s into the 1990s. These interviews trace the emergence of a new perspective within Latin American cinema. Beginning in the 1980s, social problems are approached from the perspective of the individual; a person's gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation become the link to the society. The filmmakers, studied in In Our Own Image as a group, give a coherent overview of the problems in Latin American society, especially Mexican society, from a gender perspective at this time. The introduction, which includes interviews with key figures of the state film industry in Mexico, describes how films are produced within this industry, the rationale for having a state film industry, and the openings it provides for women. The interviews with filmmakers Guita Schyfter, Busi Cortes, Marisa Sistach, Mar­a Novaro, Dana Rotberg and Eva Lopez-Sanchez explain how each filmmaker made her way into the film industry. The interviews also highlight the filmmakers' personal preoccupations and experiments in approaching social problems from a gender perspective. In 2013 Isabel Arredondo will publish Motherhood in Mexican Cinema, 1941-1991 The Transformation of Femininity on Screen, a study drawing on the interviews published here in In Our Own Image. You can read more about Motherhood in Mexican Cinema at the publisher's website: http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-6804-1