From transforming fire-hydrants, to public snow-sculpting, to growing "mini-gardens," Swiss cities and towns are undertaking initiatives to re-imagine the urban experience, in order to make it more pleasant, memorable, and relevant, for its residents. Here, I share several art projects that I have been involved in first-hand over the past several years, starting in the 1980s in the town of St. Gallen and in the village Braunwald, Switzerland, demonstrating how: a) through the re-painting of fire-hydrants as dwarfs, fairytales come alive in urban places, which re-energizes public places in rather unpredictable ways; b) through public snow-sculpting using scratched ice from a local ice-rink, discarded material is put into new, creative, and decorative use; and c. through guerilla gardening in public places, locals take care for a “mini-garden” set by the council in a wooden frame, creating a shared experience that will culminate in having a meal together, cooked from the vegetables grown in the mini-garden, and shared on the street, where the mini-garden is located.

This essay provides a detailed report of the CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship Program’s first four years and its outcomes, and draw conclusions about the role of this program in academic librarianship and in higher education more broadly. The experiences of CLIR Fellows are central to this analysis as they illustrate some of the challenges that programs of this sort will present, such as the need for new human resources categories, workflows, and procedures; new ways of capitalizing on the strengths of existing library professionals and providing retraining where needed; and new strategies for educating, retooling, and involving library users (especially faculty and other advanced scholars). Overall, this report shows that there is much that has worked well in the CLIR program for all involved. There is also much that could be improved, but in spite of this needed change, the CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship Program embodies the transition that academic libraries, as a whole, are undergoing. Consequently, the academic library profession would do well to learn from the CLIR Program experience and explore opportunities to create similar programs to meet other staffing and recruitment needs within the profession.

California’s 6-million-student public school system includes a vast inventory of publicly owned buildings and property. All of these facilities need to be maintained and some need major renovations to ensure health, safety, and educational suitability. Some communities also need new school buildings to house a growing student population.Research suggests students learn better in classrooms that are modern, comfortable, and safe, but the age and condition of school facilities varies widely across the state. According to a recent estimate, california school districts need to spend between $3.1 billion and $4.1 billion annually just to maintain their existing facilities. Further, the total amount of facility funding needed for california schools during the next decade for modernization and new construction is expected to be about $117 billion.

Meanwhile, many observers raise concerns about the state’s current policies related to school facility funding. They cite disparities in school facilities conditions and revenues across districts, and argue that the state’s school facilities funding system does not target aid toward districts with the greatest facility needs.

This study explains California’s approach to financing public school facilities and examines the level and distribution of state and local school facility funding since 2006, including facility funding for charter schools.

Key findings:

• Local sources of school facility funding greatly outstrip state support.• School facility funding is volatile and has declined since 2006.• Wide disparities in school facility funding that are systematically related to school district property wealth, income, and students’ backgrounds result in a relatively regressive finance system.• Charter school facility funding continues to expand.

Amphibians are among the world’s most endangered vertebrates, especially in the tropics. Land-use change remains the most significant driver of amphibian declines worldwide; natural history information on most tropical species is severely lacking, rendering conservation strategies difficult. Human actions have become one of the dominant forces driving the outcomes of a classic question in ecology: Why are species found where they are? Some frog species are tolerant to habitat disturbance, inhabiting urban areas or various types of agriculture, while others are only found in relatively untouched habitats like primary forests. Still other species are so understudied that we are unable to assess their distributions. This dissertation investigates the role of natural history traits in disturbance tolerance, as well as in the discovery of undescribed frog species and behaviors in Ecuador. Chapter 1 introduces these concepts in more detail. Chapter 2 investigates the effect of land management and species traits on pathogen prevalence, specifically the aquatic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd)—another major driver of global amphibian loss. At the community level, body size and lifetime aquatic index (level of water dependence for breeding) were the strongest predictors of Bd infection. The results introduce nuance to the theory that amphibian populations experience higher disease risk in natural habitats. In Chapter 3, I investigate how land-use change influences sound propagation, which has direct implications for amphibian communication. If the change in vegetation causes a habitat to become acoustically inhospitable, frogs with certain call properties would be rendered unable to attract mates. I found that species with high-pitched calls in some families (Hylidae and Strabomantidae) were more likely to be found in disturbed habitats—as hypothesized—but, unexpectedly, species with high-pitched calls in Centrolenidae were more likely to be found in undisturbed habitats. This work highlights the need to consider the acoustic environment when assessing a species’ vulnerability to habitat disturbance. In Chapter 4, I describe the call and visual signaling behavior of Sachatamia orejuela, an elusive glassfrog species that occupies a noisy acoustic niche. Documenting these new natural history traits provides a fascinating example of behavioral convergent evolution and further evidence that signals are shaped by their environment. Finally, Chapter 5 describes two new glassfrog species that are phenotypically very similar to other glassfrog species but are genetically and acoustically distinct. We recommend that both be listed as Endangered, given the rate of deforestation in their only known habitat. Chapter 6 discusses conservation challenges in the Ecuadorian Andes, especially for amphibians.

In medicine, computers are increasingly used not only to document patient care, but to support clinical decisions with relevant medical knowledge and patient information. This function is referred to as clinical decision support (CDS). Decades of scholarship have focused on evaluating CDS effectiveness, with promising but highly variable results. Having established that CDS can be useful, many have turned to more complex questions: what factors make CDS more effective and better-received by its users? How does CDS fit in with other strategies meant to ensure that clinical decisions are informed by current medical knowledge? When CDS works well, why and how does it do so? These are particularly important questions within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which has a long history of using CDS, and has a massive scale that can enable CDS improvements to affect millions of patients. In this dissertation, I explore the use of CDS in VA primary care clinics. In study 1, I use VA-wide survey data to evaluate "user-centered design" strategies intended to make CDS easier to use and more effective. In study 2, I link that survey data with administrative records on colorectal cancer screening to examine CDS as one of several strategies for implementing evidence-based practices. In study 3, I use data from semi-structured interviews with primary care providers at VA clinics around Los Angeles to understand how CDS works for a specific clinical decision (prostate cancer screening).

I find that “analysis of impact on performance improvement” is positively associated with perceived utility of CDS, but no association is evident for the other three user-centered design strategies examined. In assessing CDS efficacy alongside other strategies to support colorectal cancer screening, I find that neither CDS, nor any other implementation strategy examined, is associated with screening. In the qualitative study, I identify key factors in the effectiveness and acceptability of CDS for prostate cancer screening, including: workflow compatibility, the use of a trusted clinical guideline, and consultation with the intended users of CDS as part of its implementation.

Conclusion: Judicious implementation and governance of CDS are important determinants of its usefulness.