Paul Vincelli "Geographic Observations Regarding Genetically Engineered Crops (GMOs)", Extension Professor and Provost's Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Jeffrey Mantz will go through the basics of NSF applications, talk about specific programs, and give some general grant writing advice. Mantz is Program Director in Cultural Anthropology and Human Subjects Research Officer at the National Science Foundation, where he has served since 2012. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and has previously taught at George Mason University, Cornell University, California State University at Stanislaus, and Vassar College. His own research takes him to the Caribbean and Central Africa, where he explores issues related to inequality, resource extraction, and commodity supply chains.
LaToya Eaves, “Racial Geographies of Progress in the Situated South”, Assistant Professor in the Global Studies and Cultural Geography Program at Middle Tennessee State University (Co-Sponsored by African American and Africana Studies)
Chris Fowler, “Segregation and Diversity as Multiscalar Phenomena: Why We Need Multiscale Measures to Understand Neighborhoods and Neighborhood Effects”, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Demography at Penn State University
Michael Samers, “Beyond the Banlieue: The Economic Lives of Young People of Immigrant Origin in a French City”, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky
Faculty and students sharing glimpses into their summer adventures.
The principle of gradient selection, along with a variety of “optimality” principles in geomorphology, geophysics, hydrology, and ecology (e.g., Patten, 1995; Fath et al., 2001; Lapenis, 2002; Ozawa et al., 2003; Kleidon et al., 2010; Quijano and Lin, 2014), is in essence a particular case of a broader principle of efficiency selection. Given this common behavior in many types of Earth surface systems, why do we not observe a general global trend toward ever more efficient routes and networks of flows?
First, note that gradient and efficiency selection are tendencies that (like natural selection in biological evolution) apply in the aggregate, and not to individual cases. Also recall from part 2 that gradient selection is imperfect even where it operates.
(Part 1 here)
Gradient Selection
Preferential flow phenomena are specific cases of what Phillips (2010, 2011) called the principle of gradient selection: the most efficient flux gradients are preferentially utilized, preserved, and replicated. Gradient selection is based on the twofold notion that (1) the most efficient potential flow paths are preferentially selected; and (2) use of or flow along these paths further enhances their efficiency and/or contributes to their preservation. While Phillips (2010) was concerned with hydrologic flows and geomorphic processes, the evolution of preferential flow paths by gradient selection has broader applicability.
Fluxes of mass and energy in hydrological and geomorphological processes, and in environmental systems in general, preferentially select and reinforce the most efficient pathways. In doing so, they also tend to selectively preserve the most stable and resistant materials and structures, and remove the weaker and unstable ones. This suggests that Earth surface systems should generally evolve toward more efficient flux paths and networks, and a prevalence of stable and resistant forms. The purpose of this essay is to explore why the attractor condition of maximum efficiency and stability is not fully attained.
Numerous theories, hypotheses, and conceptual frameworks exist in geosciences that predict or seek to explain the development of flow paths in Earth surface systems (ESS). These include so-called “extremal” principles and the least action principle in hydrology and fluvial geomorphology, principles of preferential flow in hydrology, constructal theory, and various optimality principles in geophysics and ecology.
