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This study aims to analyze the involvement of US colleges and universities in methane capture projects in the waste sector and their related educational initiatives aiming to build circular economies and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The authors compiled a subset of 22 “early adopting” institutions – those that received media attention for solid or liquid waste methane capture projects from 1999 to the present. The authors included all cases found within a reasonable number of queries. The institutions fell into two groups: (1) schools directly involved in gas capture projects, and (2) schools that purchased third-party offsets tied to landfill gas (LFG) projects. The authors assessed transparency and accountability, which the authors determined as fundamental to GHG mitigation and climate education. The authors expanded on five innovative cases from our subset to illustrate pathways to improve equity and circularity in waste flows.

US higher education institutions (HEIs) can measure and educate more transparently about waste streams. While institutions using LFG offsets range in size, curriculum and geography, there were few methane capture projects supplying energy directly to campuses. Although HEIs generally rely on third-party providers for waste management, cases demonstrate how universities can play a role in methane use, and be incubators for climate action and related employment.

Illustrative cases demonstrate the educational and institutional benefits from methane use.

HEIs can generate pathways of a “just” transition to a fossil-free circular economy.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first comparative studies examining waste sector methane capture and the potential for high-impact educational practices and sustainability training in US HEIs.

This study investigates national trends in students’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupational expectations by using Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000, 2003, and 2006 data. The analyses in this study revealed several noteworthy national trends in STEM occupational expectations. In many countries students’ computing or engineering (CE) occupational expectations changed between PISA 2000 and PISA 2006, while students’ health service (HS) occupational expectations remained constant. In particular, many developed countries experienced downward national trends in CE occupational expectations among top performers in science. This study also found gender differences in national trends in STEM occupational expectations. In many countries boys’ CE occupational expectations decreased between PISA 2000 and PISA 2006, while girls’ occupational expectations remained unchanged in both CE and HS fields. Finally, the gender gaps in CE occupational expectations converged in many countries, but this convergence was not due to increases in CE occupational expectations among girls, but rather decreases in expectations among boys. Because one of the policy goals in many countries is to promote engagement in STEM education and occupations among students, especially academically talented students, the current findings – national declines in CE occupational expectations among top academic performers – will most likely be viewed as problematic in several countries. Future research should use data collected over longer periods to investigate whether students’ interest in STEM education and occupations increased or decreased in a variety of countries, and whether these patterns varied by student characteristics and performance levels. Moreover, future research must focus on factors that can explain the national trends in student interest in STEM education and occupations.

In a circular letter, addressed to local authorities by the Board of Agriculture on December 28, 1901, with reference to the Milk Regulations, the Board suggested that in the absence of any special circumstances indicating the commission of fraud, the local authority might in the first instance call the attention of the vendor to the adverse report of the analyst, and afford him an opportunity of submitting any explanation he might desire to offer on the subject. The Board further expressed the opinion that if the explanation were one which the local authority “felt able” to accept, they might, in the exercise of their discretion, refrain from the institution of proceedings, or withdraw any summons which it might have been necessary to take out in order to avoid the failure of proceedings, at the same time making arrangements for the taking of further samples of the milk supplied, in order that a satisfactory conclusion as to its character might be arrived at. The issue of this letter was obviously a retrograde step, which could only be taken to indicate that the Board were “wobbling” over the milk standards—standards laid down by themselves on the strength of the overwhelming evidence in favour of the institution of those standards as absolute minima, which was laid before the Board's Departmental Milk Committee in 1900. If any proof were wanting that this is a correct view of the case, that proof would be afforded by the issue, on March 27 last, of a further circular letter from the Board, in which the views expressed in the former letter are reiterated, and the study of which can only produce amazement, not unmingled with disgust, among those who have had any experience worthy of the name as regards the working of the Adulteration Acts in this country. Presumably the Regulations were laid down upon due and proper cause shown. By issuing the documents referred to the Board have called the validity of their own Regulations in question, and have suggested that public authorities should base no action upon those Regulations in the absence of other evidence, the nature of which is not stated, indicating “the commission of fraud.” The action of the Board amounts to a smack in the face for the producer of honest and genuine milk such as the purchaser is entitled to get, and can only tend to the introduction of additional loopholes of escape for the dishonest and incompetent.

The March issue of the Journal of Chemical Technology contains the following article, with every word of which we cordially agree. It is gratifying to find that there is one—if only one—of our scientific Journals which has the courage and the patriotism to speak out and to do so in vigorous terms. The indictment of the flabby persons belonging to the Chemical Profession who by their ineptitude and inertia are condoning the bestial crimes of the modern Huns is well‐timed and thoroughly deserved.

In the continuation of the work previously described, experiments were conducted, according to the general plan already described, to determine the effects of benzoic acid and benzoates upon health and digestion. This investigation is of special importance because of the opinion held by many manufacturers, food officials, and consumers that benzoic acid and benzoates are probably the least harmful of the preservative substances employed. It is believed that for this reason there has been a very large increase in the use of these preservatives in the United States in the last few years, with a corresponding decrease in the amount of other preservative substances employed. It has also been claimed that there can be no reasonable objection to the use of benzoic acid by reason of its natural occurrence in many food products, either in traces or in considerable quantities. Among the products cited the cranberry occupies the most prominent position because of the notable amount of benzoic acid it contains. These considerations, however, had no determining influence on the choice of this substance for the experimental work, inasmuch as it was included in the original scheme which was prepared before the experimental work on preservatives previously reported was begun.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories:

The official supervision which may be exercised over the food supply of England and Wales, so far as its quality and wholesomeness is concerned, falls under the following heads:—

This article explores recent developments in the production and delivery of scholarly journal articles in digital form. It identifies the key stakeholders as authors, publishers, librarians and end users. It explores their concerns with regard to the digital journal production and delivery chain. It also explores the interrelationships of different stakeholder groups and considers how their concerns accord or conflict. The paper goes on to review cost and pricing developments. There appears to be no relationship between production costs and subscription prices of scholarly journals. Journals are priced according to what the market will bear, but, at the same time, the market is inelastic. As a result, prices have consistently increased annually at a rate well above the general inflation rate for the last two decades. Digital publishing by publishers has done nothing to relieve this problem. The ‘serials crisis’ has been the impetus for a number of developments that aim to use digital technology to reduce costs for the HE sector. These include alternative models of journal production such as that proposed by Harnad, and initiatives that aim to influence the structure of the market for scholarly journals with a view to driving prices down such as SPARC and HighWire Press. These developments are reviewed.

Prior research shows that stratification of future adult opportunities influences stratification in the academic performance of students. This perspective is used to generate hypotheses regarding the sources of cross-national gender differences in mathematics performance. These hypotheses are tested using multivariate and multilevel analyses of adult opportunities for women and cross-national differences in mathematics performance by gender. This future opportunity perspective is expanded to take into account the historical incorporation of women in modern nation-states through institutionalized mass schooling emphasizing egalitarian ideals. Results indicate a cross-national shift in the direction of less gender inequality in overall school mathematics performance. However, gender inequality is more evident in the advanced 12th grade mathematics. The results of a more specialized analysis of the advanced 12th grade mathematics are compared with the earlier findings regarding mathematics performance.