Remote sensing in the coastal and marine environment. Proceedings of the US North Atlantic Regional Workshop

Presentations were grouped in the following categories: (1) a technical orientation of Earth resources remote sensing including data sources and processing; (2) a review of the present status of remote sensing technology applicable to the coastal and marine environment; (3) a description of data and information needs of selected coastal and marine activities; and (4) an outline of plans for marine monitoring systems for the east coast and a concept for an east coast remote sensing facility. Also discussed were user needs and remote sensing potentials in the areas of coastal processes and management, commercial and recreational fisheries, and marine physical processes

Advocacy, Mentorship, and Collaboration: Working with Assistant Directors to Enhance and Sustain the Introductory Course

This essay responds to the Basic Course Forum question about best practices for recruiting to and/or from the basic course

A Brief Review of Zuranolone

Zuranolone, a novel analog of allopregnanolone, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first oral medication approved for the treatment of postpartum depression in adults. Developed by Sage Therapeutics under the brand name Zurzuvae, zuranolone was approved by the FDA on August 4th, 2023.1 Zuranolone is a modified version of brexanolone (sold under the brand name Zulpresso), an intravenously administered allopregnanolone formulation that was previously the only FDA-approved medication for postpartum depression. Zuranolone offers a more accessible treatment option for patients with efficacy established in clinical trials. Its approval expands the treatment landscape for depression, especially in the peripartum period, and marks a crucial step forward in psychopharmacological innovation

Evaluating an Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math/Computational Thinking Professional Development Program for Elementary Level Paraprofessional Educators

For my dissertation, I looked at a training program one Utah school district used to teach paraprofessional educators science, technology, engineering, math, and computational thinking. Specifically, the program taught them about what computational thinking is and how they could use it when teaching science, technology, engineering, and math to students from kindergarten to sixth grade. While reviewing this program, I evaluated 1) The experiences the paraprofessionals had with the program, 2) Whether the paraprofessionals understood computational thinking, and 3) Whether the program prepared them to teach computational thinking to K-6 students. I worked with eight paraprofessionals who participated in this program. Each participant was given a survey before and after the training program, and I interviewed each of them to gather their thoughts, feelings, and experiences at the end of the program. This evaluation showed that the program provided a positive experience for participants and opportunities for them to understand computational thinking and how they can teach elementary school children those concepts. My evaluation also highlighted several ways the school district can support paraprofessionals to make them more effective when teaching computational thinking

Deconstructing Exploitative Systems and Restoring a Balanced Biosphere: An Ecofeminist Posthumanist Reading of Jane Smiley\u27s A Thousand Acres and Barbara Kingsolver\u27s Prodigal Summer

Although many scholarly articles have provided ecofeminist insights and critiques of A Thousand Acres that connect the abuse of women to the abuse of the land, few have dealt specifically with the link between the treatment of women and the treatment of nonhuman animals. In the first chapter of this paper, I argue that associations between women and nonhuman animals in A Thousand Acres sustain the constructed reality of patriarchal communities. Similarly, Prodigal Summer’s narratives center around females and nonhuman animals, but also provide a broader focus that emphasizes the interconnectivity of the entire biotic pyramid and optimistically holds that education, empathy, and a collective ecological conscience can reweave a balanced web of life. Thus, Prodigal Summer lends itself to a more expansive posthumanist critique, which offers an overarching perspective on the intersectionality of all things while warning against the human propensity to view themselves as closed systems. Therefore, in the second chapter of this paper, I argue that Barbara Kingsolver uses the three prominent female characters of the novel (Deanna, Lusa, and Nannie) to educate both their own social circles as well as Kingsolver’s readership about the importance of balance within the biotic pyramid

Ecological, evolutionary, and molecular mechanisms driving pyocin diversity in pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Bacteriocins are narrow-spectrum antibiotics produced in nearly all lineages of bacteria, meaning that these antimicrobials target closely related individuals. The bacteriocins of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, called pyocins, are highly prevalent and diverse in populations of this species. Laboratory studies have shown that pyocins can function to mediate the outcome of interactions, often allowing for the coexistence of multiple strains, as no one pyocin genotype is competitively superior. Although this has been demonstrated under laboratory conditions, the function of pyocins in natural settings and the ecological, evolutionary, and genetic mechanisms underlying pyocin diversity remains unclear. As such, for my dissertation, I conducted research that investigated the driving forces underlying diversity in pyocin phenotype and genotype in free-living isolates of P. aeruginosa. In Chapter II, I collected P. aeruginosa isolates from spatially structured household bathroom and kitchen sink drains to examine relationships among pyocin phenotype with spatial structure, environment of isolation, resource competition, and phylogenetic distance. I found isolates from different houses and different drain types to vary in pyocin-mediated inhibition, suggesting that dispersal limitations and environmental conditions help shape pyocin diversity. I also found that pyocin-mediated inhibition was most likely to occur between isolates that were intermediately phylogenetically related, but inhibition was not driven by resource competition. In Chapter III, I searched genome sequences of the isolates in my collection for pyocin genes to investigate the relationships between pyocin genotype and spatial structure, environment of isolation, and pyocin phenotype. I found isolates collected from bathroom sink drains to encode more pyocin genes than those collected from kitchen sink isolates, and isolates from different houses varied primarily with respect to pyocin immunity genes. These findings indicate that environment of isolation and, to a lesser extent, spatial structure contribute to differences in pyocin gene content. I found that while immunity genes and particular killing genes partially contribute to the outcome of inhibitory interactions, pyocin-mediated inhibition is a complex process likely driven by differing levels of expression, alternative mechanisms of resistance, and receptor specificity