A follow-up study of the graduates of the Swampscott High School classes of 1950 and 1951.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

The Political Economy of Bison Management in Wood Buffalo National Park

Nearly a century ago government initiatives saved Canada's wild bison from extinction, and in the 1920s Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP) was established as a preserve for wood and plains bison. Today new government initiatives threaten these northern bison with extermination as a "game management" strategy. This paper outlines the history of bison management in WBNP and addresses critical issues for the 1990s. It is argued that until the mid-1960s, when the park came under the jurisdiction of Parks Canada, management strategies were presented as biologically based but were conditioned by external political and economic considerations. Similarly, an analysis of current proposals to "replace" the bison of WBNP concludes the contemporary issues of political economy are obscured by attempts to justify the plan on biological grounds.Key words: bison, game management, Wood Buffalo National Park, political economy, EARP, tuberculosis, brucellosisRÉSUMÉ. Il y a presque un siècle, des mesures instaurées par le gouvernement ont empêché la disparition du bison sauvage canadien et, durant les années 20, le parc national Wood Buffalo a été créé en tant que réserve intégrale pour le bison des bois et le bison des plaines. Aujourd’hui, de nouvelles mesures prises par le gouvernement dans le cadre d’une stratégie d’aménagement cynégétique menacent ces bisons du Nord de disparition complète. Cet article retrace l’historique de la conservation du bison dans le parc national Wood Buffalo et traite des enjeux critiques des années 90. Il soutient que, jusqu’au milieu des années 60, lorsque le parc a commencé à faire partie de Parcs Canada, les stratégies de conservation étaient mises de l’avant sur des bases biologiques mais qu’elles étaient en fait conditionnées par des considérations politiques et économique. De la même façon, une analyse des propositions actuelles visant à remplacer le bison du parc national Wood Buffalo nous amène à conclure que les enjeux actuels d’économie politiques ont brouillés par la tentative de justifier ces propositisounrs des bases biologiques.Mots clés: bison, aménagement cynégétique, parc national Wood Buffalo, économie politique, PEEE, tuberculose, brucellos

Catholic Elementary Schools as Agents of Parent Formation Needs as Perceived by Parents

Digitized thesi

Can Conducting a Talking Circle about a Sensitive Topic Increase Participation for Elementary Aged Learners?

This action research project investigated the effects of talking circles on student participation when engaging in sensitive topics. Researchers used 38-4th and 5th graders from two elementary classrooms. Both classrooms were located in Catholic schools. For the pretest phase, students were taught a series of controversial topics within the curriculum. To deconstruct the lesson themes, a traditional question, answer and discussion was employed. Researchers examined students’ participation, the quality of questions about injustice/justice that was raised and the students’ written statements about how they could make changes towards solutions. The strategy of using talking circles was implemented as a treatment. A second series of lessons concerning a controversial topic was presented. Students were directed to use the talking circle method to deconstruct themes in the lesson. Researchers again examined participation, the quality of questions about injustice/justice and students’ written statements about how they could make changes towards solutions. The researchers as teachers also reflected on their behavior and participation comparing a traditional discussion to the talking circle. The implementation of talking circles increased student participation, and the level of commitment to problem solving increased. The researchers as teachers also found that using the talking circle method was a more effective tool as it alleviated the role of teacher from expert to participant and facilitator. During the talking circle treatment, students communicated their opinions with civility. Researchers concluded that talking circles was an effective method for discussing sensitive topics for the 4th and 5th graders in this study. This corroborates the research on talking circles which has been implemented with older populations as much of the research begins with adolescent students. This research demonstrates that the method can be effective with younger populations and be an essential aid for teachers who may have difficulty presenting sensitive topics such as racism, death, gender differences, disability, immigration and slavery to younger students

Effects of ranolazine on astrocytes and neurons in primary culture

Ranolazine (Rn) is an antianginal agent used for the treatment of chronic angina pectoris when angina is not adequately controlled by other drugs. Rn also acts in the central nervous system and it has been proposed for the treatment of pain and epileptic disorders. Under the hypothesis that ranolazine could act as a neuroprotective drug, we studied its effects on astrocytes and neurons in primary culture. We incubated rat astrocytes and neurons in primary cultures for 24 hours with Rn (10−7, 10−6 and 10−5 M). Cell viability and proliferation were measured using trypan blue exclusion assay, MTT conversion assay and LDH release assay. Apoptosis was determined by Caspase 3 activity assay. The effects of Rn on proinflammatory mediators IL-β and TNF-α was determined by ELISA technique, and protein expression levels of Smac/Diablo, PPAR-γ, Mn-SOD and Cu/Zn-SOD by western blot technique. In cultured astrocytes, Rn significantly increased cell viability and proliferation at any concentration tested, and decreased LDH leakage, Smac/Diablo expression and Caspase 3 activity indicating less cell death. Rn also increased anti-inflammatory PPAR-γ protein expression and reduced pro-inflammatory proteins IL-1 β and TNFα levels. Furthermore, antioxidant proteins Cu/Zn-SOD and Mn-SOD significantly increased after Rn addition in cultured astrocytes. Conversely, Rn did not exert any effect on cultured neurons. In conclusion, Rn could act as a neuroprotective drug in the central nervous system by promoting astrocyte viability, preventing necrosis and apoptosis, inhibiting inflammatory phenomena and inducing anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents

Breast cancer risk variants at 6q25 display different phenotype associations and regulate ESR1, RMND1 and CCDC170.

We analyzed 3,872 common genetic variants across the ESR1 locus (encoding estrogen receptor α) in 118,816 subjects from three international consortia. We found evidence for at least five independent causal variants, each associated with different phenotype sets, including estrogen receptor (ER(+) or ER(-)) and human ERBB2 (HER2(+) or HER2(-)) tumor subtypes, mammographic density and tumor grade. The best candidate causal variants for ER(-) tumors lie in four separate enhancer elements, and their risk alleles reduce expression of ESR1, RMND1 and CCDC170, whereas the risk alleles of the strongest candidates for the remaining independent causal variant disrupt a silencer element and putatively increase ESR1 and RMND1 expression.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.352

Friendship networks and physical activity and sedentary behavior among youth: a systematized review

BACKGROUND: Low levels of physical activity and increased participation in sedentary leisure-time activities are two important obesity-risk behaviors that impact the health of today’s youth. Friend’s health behaviors have been shown to influence individual health behaviors; however, current evidence on the specific role of friendship networks in relation to levels of physical activity and sedentary behavior is limited. The purpose of this review was to summarize evidence on friendship networks and both physical activity and sedentary behavior among children and adolescents. METHOD: After a search of seven scientific databases and reference scans, a total of thirteen articles were eligible for inclusion. All assessed the association between friendship networks and physical activity, while three also assessed sedentary behavior. RESULTS: Overall, higher levels of physical activity among friends are associated with higher levels of physical activity of the individual. Longitudinal studies reveal that an individual’s level of physical activity changes to reflect his/her friends’ higher level of physical activity. Boys tend to be influenced by their friendship network to a greater extent than girls. There is mixed evidence surrounding a friend’s sedentary behavior and individual sedentary behavior. CONCLUSION: Friends’ physical activity level appears to have a significant influence on individual’s physical activity level. Evidence surrounding sedentary behavior is limited and mixed. Results from this review could inform effective public health interventions that harness the influence of friends to increase physical activity levels among children and adolescents

A framework for different levels of integration of computational models into web-based virtual patients

BACKGROUND: Virtual patients are increasingly common tools used in health care education to foster learning of clinical reasoning skills. One potential way to expand their functionality is to augment virtual patients’ interactivity by enriching them with computational models of physiological and pathological processes. OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of this paper was to propose a conceptual framework for the integration of computational models within virtual patients, with particular focus on (1) characteristics to be addressed while preparing the integration, (2) the extent of the integration, (3) strategies to achieve integration, and (4) methods for evaluating the feasibility of integration. An additional goal was to pilot the first investigation of changing framework variables on altering perceptions of integration. METHODS: The framework was constructed using an iterative process informed by Soft System Methodology. The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) initiative has been used as a source of new computational models. The technical challenges associated with development of virtual patients enhanced by computational models are discussed from the perspectives of a number of different stakeholders. Concrete design and evaluation steps are discussed in the context of an exemplar virtual patient employing the results of the VPH ARCH project, as well as improvements for future iterations. RESULTS: The proposed framework consists of four main elements. The first element is a list of feasibility features characterizing the integration process from three perspectives: the computational modelling researcher, the health care educationalist, and the virtual patient system developer. The second element included three integration levels: basic, where a single set of simulation outcomes is generated for specific nodes in the activity graph; intermediate, involving pre-generation of simulation datasets over a range of input parameters; advanced, including dynamic solution of the model. The third element is the description of four integration strategies, and the last element consisted of evaluation profiles specifying the relevant feasibility features and acceptance thresholds for specific purposes. The group of experts who evaluated the virtual patient exemplar found higher integration more interesting, but at the same time they were more concerned with the validity of the result. The observed differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: This paper outlines a framework for the integration of computational models into virtual patients. The opportunities and challenges of model exploitation are discussed from a number of user perspectives, considering different levels of model integration. The long-term aim for future research is to isolate the most crucial factors in the framework and to determine their influence on the integration outcome

Ultraconserved elements are novel phylogenomic markers that resolve placental mammal phylogeny when combined with species-tree analysis

Phylogenomics offers the potential to fully resolve the Tree of Life, but increasing genomic coverage also reveals conflicting evolutionary histories among genes, demanding new analytical strategies for elucidating a single history of life. Here, we outline a phylogenomic approach using a novel class of phylogenetic markers derived from ultraconserved elements and flanking DNA. Using species-tree analysis that accounts for discord among hundreds of independent loci, we show that this class of marker is useful for recovering deep-level phylogeny in placental mammals. In broad outline, our phylogeny agrees with recent phylogenomic studies of mammals, including several formerly controversial relationships. Our results also inform two outstanding questions in placental mammal phylogeny involving rapid speciation, where species-tree methods are particularly needed. Contrary to most phylogenomic studies, our study supports a first-diverging placental mammal lineage that includes elephants and tenrecs (Afrotheria). The level of conflict among gene histories is consistent with this basal divergence occurring in or near a phylogenetic \u27\u27anomaly zone\u27\u27 where a failure to account for coalescent stochasticity will mislead phylogenetic inference. Addressing a long-standing phylogenetic mystery, we find some support from a high genomic coverage data set for a traditional placement of bats (Chiroptera) sister to a clade containing Perissodactyla, Cetartiodactyla, and Carnivora, and not nested within the latter clade, as has been suggested recently, although other results were conflicting. One of the most remarkable findings of our study is that ultraconserved elements and their flanking DNA are a rich source of phylogenetic information with strong potential for application across Amniotes. © 2012 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press