Four Teaching Strategies for Creating Student Engagement and Learning

In this essay, the author discusses four evidence-based teaching strategies for creating student engagement and learning. The four evidence-based teaching strategies are (1) become an active learner, (2) become a storyteller and share your life stories with students, (3) create classroom collaboration, and (4) use technology to engage students with Classroom Mobiling

Inclusion Polymerization and Doping in Zeolite Channels. Polyaniline

Aniline has been polymerized in the three-dimensional channel system of zeolite Y. The monomer was diffused into zeolites with different levels of acidity from hexane solution. Subsequent admission of peroxydisulfate or iodate from aqueous solution yielded the intrazeolite polymers, as demonstrated by FT-IR, electronic absorption data and recovery of the included polymer. With S2O82-, the intrazeolite products are a function of the proton content of the zeolite. Polymer is only formed when a sufficient supply of protons is present in the zeolite host. When neutral iodate solution is used, no polymer is formed in NaY and acid zeolites, but at low pH aniline polymerizes in all zeolites. The open pore system of the zeolite host can be accessed by base such that the intrazeolite protonated polymer is transformed into the corresponding neutral polymer. The polymer chains encapsulated in zeolite hosts represent a new class of low- dimensional electronic materials

Evaluating Lethal and Nonlethal Management Options for Urban Coyotes

Human-coyote conflict in urban environments is a growing issue in cities throughout the United States with the primary problem being the development of problem individuals that are overly bold and aggressive with people and pets. Little research has focused on management options to deal with this conflict. We better define lethal and nonlethal management strategies associated with proactive and reactive management of coyotes with an emphasis on management of problem individuals. We then provide data from research in the Denver Metropolitan Area (DMA) that focused on reactive lethal removal of problem coyotes and reactive nonlethal hazing (i.e., community-level hazing, a commonly recommended strategy that we better define). The primary lethal management strategy being used in the DMA is to remove problem coyotes only when severe conflict (primarily threats to people) occurs. From 2009-2014 there were 27 removal events (4.5/year) with the average number of coyotes removed per event being 2.1 (range 1 – 11) and the average number of coyotes removed per year being 9.3. The estimated percentage of coyotes removed per year from the population was between 1.0 and 1.8%. We also measured recurrence of conflict (i.e., length of time until another severe conflict occurred in the vicinity of a removal event) as a measure of efficacy. Of the 27 removals, there were nine with recurrence with an average of 245 days (range 30-546) between removals, and 18 events without recurrence and with a mean time since conflict event of 1,042 days (range 133-2,159). For our community-level hazing experiment we used wildlife cameras to record activity of both people and coyotes at four sites (two treatment and two control). At treatment sites with prior history of conflict, we educated and encouraged people to haze visible coyotes and hypothesized that hazing would decrease the activity overlap between people and coyotes on treatment sites. We recorded over 50,000 independent sightings of people and coyotes and found activity overlap between humans and coyotes to be either similar or greater on treatment sites compared to control sites. Our results indicate that reactive nonlethal hazing as conducted in this study was ineffective in reducing human-coyote activity overlap. However, due to a variety of reasons we detail below, we encourage readers to interpret the hazing results with caution. We conclude that reactive lethal removal of problem individuals is an effective means of managing conflict and that proactive nonlethal strategies are critical as well

Effect of Sire Selection on Lamb Growth and Carcass Traits: Progress Report

The objective of this study is to determine the production advantage for growth and carcass traits in lambs sired by rams selected for rapid pre- and postweaning average daily gain (ADG)

Effect of Sire Selection on Lamb Growth and Carcass Traits

The objectives of our study were to determine the production advantage for growth and carcass traits in lambs sired by rams selected for rapid pre- and postweaning ADG

Coyote (\u3ci\u3eCanis latrans\u3c/i\u3e) diet in an urban environment: variation relative to pet conflicts, housing density, and season

Coyotes (Canis latrans Say, 1823) are highly successful in urbanized environments, but as they populate cities, conflict can occur and often manifests in the form of incidents with pets. To better understand whether coyotes view pets as prey or, alternatively, as competitors or a threat, we conducted a diet analysis of coyotes in the Denver metropolitan area (DMA) by analyzing scats. We also examined differences in diet between high- and low-density housing and among seasons. We found only small percentages of trash and domestic pets in the coyote diet. The presence of pets in the diet did not coincide with the increase of pet conflicts in the DMA in December and January, supporting the hypothesis that coyote conflict with pets is primarily driven by competition or a threat response. Coyotes relied mostly on native plant and animal species, and rodents and lagomorphs were the most prevalent diet items. Coyotes consumed rodents and non-native plants more often in high-density housing and deer, corn, and native plants more often in low-density housing. Coyotes also consumed more fruits and invertebrates during summer and autumn and more mammals and birds in winter and spring. As human–coyote conflicts increase in urban areas, understanding how coyotes and other urban-adapted carnivores use anthropogenic resources may provide insight that can be used to promote coexistence between humans and wildlife

Indiana Nonprofits: Scope and Community Dimensions

This report presents new data on the size, composition, and distribution of paid employment over the 1995-2011 time period in Indiana's private nonprofit organizations in a broad range of industries traditionally dominated by for-profit industries. Nonprofit organizations make significant contributions to the quality of life for the residents of Indiana and are a major force in the state's economy. This is particularly the case for the industries where nonprofits play a major role, such as health care, social assistance, education, arts, culture and recreation, and membership associations. However, very little is known about the large number of nonprofits that are scattered across virtually all other industries in Indiana where for-profit establishments dominate. This report provides an overview of nonprofit employment in all the other "minor" nonprofit industries

The Intrepid Urban Coyote: A Comparison of Bold and Exploratory Behavior in Coyotes from Urban and Rural Environments

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are highly adaptable, medium-sized carnivores that now inhabit nearly every large city in the United States and Canada. To help understand how coyotes have adapted to living in urban environments, we compared two ecologically and evolutionarily important behavioral traits (i.e., bold-shy and exploration-avoidance behavior) in two contrasting environments (i.e., rural and urban). Boldness is an individual’s reaction to a risky situation and exploration is an individual’s willingness to explore novel situations. Our results from both tests indicate that urban coyotes are bolder and more exploratory than rural coyotes and that within both populations there are individuals that vary across both spectrums. Bolder behavior in urban coyotes emerged over several decades and we speculate on possible processes (e.g., learning and selection) and site differences that could be playing a role in this behavioral adaptation. We hypothesize that an important factor is how people treat coyotes; in the rural area coyotes were regularly persecuted whereas in the urban area coyotes were rarely persecuted and sometimes positively rewarded to be in close proximity of people. Negative consequences of this behavioral adaptation are coyotes that become bold enough to occasionally prey on pets or attack humans

Assessing Ecological and Social Outcomes of a Bear-Proofing Experiment

Human-black bear conflicts within urban environments have been increasing throughout North America, becoming a high priority management issue. The main factor influencing these conflicts is black bears foraging on anthropogenic foods within areas of human development, primarily on residential garbage. Wildlife professionals have advocated for increased bear-proofing measures to decrease the accessibility of garbage to bears, but little research has been conducted to empirically test the effectiveness of this approach for reducing conflicts. Between 2011 and 2016, we conducted a before-after-control-impact experiment in Durango, Colorado where we distributed 1,110 bear-resistant trash containers, enhanced education, and increased enforcement to residents in 2 treatment areas, and monitored 2 paired control areas. We examined the ecological and social outcomes of this experiment, assessing whether bear-resistant containers were effective at reducing conflicts; the level of public compliance (i.e., properly locking away garbage) needed to reduce conflicts; whether the effectiveness of bear-resistant containers increased over time; and if the distribution of bear-resistant containers changed residents’ attitudes about bear management, support for ordinances that require bear-proofing, or perceptions of their future risk of garbage-related conflicts. After the bear-resistant containers were deployed, trash-related conflicts (i.e., observations of strewn trash) were 60% lower in treatment areas than control areas, resident compliance with local wildlife ordinances (properly locking away trash) was 39% higher in treatment areas than control areas, and the effectiveness of the new containers was immediate. Conflicts declined as resident compliance with wildlife ordinances increased to approximately 60% (by using a bear-resistant container or locking trash in a secure location), with minor additional declines in conflicts at higher levels of compliance. In addition to these ecological benefits, public mail surveys demonstrated that the deployment of bear-resistant containers was associated with increases in the perceived quality of bear management and support for ordinances that require bear-proofing, and declines in the perceived risk of future trash-related conflicts. Our results validate efforts by wildlife professionals and municipalities to reduce black bear access to human foods, and should encourage other entities of the merits of bear-proofing efforts for reducing human-bear conflicts and improving public attitudes about bears and their management

Tolerability and safety of the intake of bovine milk oligosaccharides extracted from cheese whey in healthy human adults.

Mechanistic research suggests a unique evolutionary relationship between complex milk oligosaccharides and cognate bifidobacteria enriched in breast-fed infants. Bovine milk oligosaccharides (BMO) were recently identified as structurally and functionally similar to human milk oligosaccharides. The present single-blind three-way crossover study is the first to determine the safety and tolerability of BMO consumption by healthy human participants (n 12) and its effects on faecal microbiota and microbial metabolism. Participants consumed each supplement (placebo-control; low- and high-BMO doses) for eleven consecutive days, followed by a 2-week washout period prior to initiating the next supplement arm. Low and high BMO doses were consumed as 25 and 35 % of each individual's daily fibre intake, respectively. Safety and tolerability were measured using standardised questionnaires on gut and stomach discomfort and stool consistency. Faecal extracts were profiled for bacterial populations by next-generation sequencing (NGS) and bifidobacteria presence was confirmed using quantitative PCR. Urine was analysed for changes in microbial metabolism using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-NMR). Consumption of both the low and high BMO doses was well tolerated and did not change stool consistency from baseline. Multivariate analysis of the NGS results demonstrated no change in faecal microbiota phyla among the placebo-control and BMO supplement groups. In conclusion, BMO supplementation was well tolerated in healthy adults and has the potential to shift faecal microbiota toward beneficial strains as part of a synbiotic treatment with probiotic cultures that selectively metabolise oligosaccharides