The unimagined city : public humanities and change in Fayetteville, North Carolina

The case study at the center of this dissertation describes an innovative public humanities program which was conducted in Fayetteville, North Carolina, during the fall of 1977. Sponsored by the Cumberland County Public Library with funds provided by the North Carolina Humanities Committee, "The Unimagined City: A Program for Fayetteville" examined issues of urban growth, downtown decay and community values and featured a thirteen week residency by Henry L. Kainphoefner, dean emeritus of the School of Design at North Carolina State University. Subsequent events in Fayetteville suggest that the broad public discussion initiated by this project served as the catalyst for significant community change. The chapters which precede and follow the case study provide a theoretical context for the examination of a number of broad public questions raised by the project, chief among which are how the modern experience of privatization has diminished American civic life and how it might be reinvigorated through a revival of public discourse. The political theory developed by Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition is used in the discussion of these matters, and a model which clarifies the role of a public institution as the initiator of public debate is proposed

A history of the Ludwig drummer with an annotated bibliography of the issues from 1961 to 1976

The Ludwig Drummer was the longest-running percussion publication of the twentieth century. The first series of issues documented percussion products and players from the early 1920s to 1948. The second series was published from 1961 to 1976. Although the Ludwig Drummer was widely distributed, no public library holds a complete set of issues, and the information in the Ludwig Drummer has previously been unavailable. A network of percussion professionals was established in the United States and Canada in order to combine resources and compile a complete set of the known issues. Each article in the issues from 1961 to 1976 was annotated and indexed to create a single document for reference purposes

A classification test for junior high school girls in physical education

There is a need in physical education for a performance test which classifies according to ability at the junior high school age and which is efficient in time and equipment. The development of such a test was the objective of this study. A test was desired which could be administered to a class of thirty-five girls in thirty minutes of activity, uncomplicated in form and the equipment needed, and which could be administered by one teacher and yield results easily interpreted and acceptably valid and reliable. A review of literature supported homogeneous classification as desirable in physical education. The factors of ability in performance were studied. Methods of classifying which have been used were analyzed, and the more applicable performance tests and items were examined to shape a new test

Mississippi's School Equalization Program, 1945-1954: "A Last Gasp to Try to Maintain a Segregated Educational System

A genuine attempt to integrate Mississippi’s public schools did not occur until 1970, sixteen years after the United States Supreme Court's pivotal 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. White resistance to school desegregation proved both deep-seated and sustained, relenting only under a steady stream of legal action by black parents and federal intervention. Consequently, the elimination of Mississippi's dual educational system occurred largely on white terms. Black teachers and administrators lost their jobs and the black community saw an erosion of the control they had exercised over their children's education. In the years that followed, as federal support waned, efforts in Mississippi and across the nation to create unitary school systems usually floundered, in many cases leading to a resegregation of schools. Given the difficulties surrounding the dismantling of separate schools, it is not surprising that many have judged school integration a failure. One flaw in the process that a number of commentators have pointed to is that the attempts to achieve school integration did little to help (or even hindered) the attainment of the larger goal surrounding school integration efforts: the improvement of black education

A Predictive Distribution Map for the Giant Tropical Ant, Paraponera clavata

Paraponera clavata (Fabricius 1775) (Formicidae: Paraponerinae) is a widely distributed Neotropical ant whose large size has attracted the attention of numerous collectors. Working from museum specimens, a georeferenced database of collection localities was developed. This database then served as the source for computer generated predictive distribution maps. Annual rainfall was the most important variable chosen by the computer model to predict the distribution of P. clavata, both on the scale of the neotropics and at a finer scale at the northern end its distribution in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. When the model was forced to use vegetation as the first predictive variable, the Neotropical model used temperature and rainfall variance as additional variables, while the Mesoamerican model used both climatic and soils variables. Overall, the modeling suggests that P. clavata is more sensitive to abiotic factors (rainfall, temperature, soils) than to biotic factors (vegetation type) in its distribution, although this conclusion comes with the caveat that the vegetation types used in the model are quite generalized. Predictive distribution mapping holds great promise for generating more precise representations of insect distributions, thereby allowing better tests of the extent of distribution overlaps and other community relationships

Impaired decisional impulsivity in pathological videogamers

Abstract Background Pathological gaming is an emerging and poorly understood problem. Impulsivity is commonly impaired in disorders of behavioural and substance addiction, hence we sought to systematically investigate the different subtypes of decisional and motor impulsivity in a well-defined pathological gaming cohort. Methods Fifty-two pathological gaming subjects and age-, gender- and IQ-matched healthy volunteers were tested on decisional impulsivity (Information Sampling Task testing reflection impulsivity and delay discounting questionnaire testing impulsive choice), and motor impulsivity (Stop Signal Task testing motor response inhibition, and the premature responding task). We used stringent diagnostic criteria highlighting functional impairment. Results In the Information Sampling Task, pathological gaming participants sampled less evidence prior to making a decision and scored fewer points compared with healthy volunteers. Gaming severity was also negatively correlated with evidence gathered and positively correlated with sampling error and points acquired. In the delay discounting task, pathological gamers made more impulsive choices, preferring smaller immediate over larger delayed rewards. Pathological gamers made more premature responses related to comorbid nicotine use. Greater number of hours played also correlated with a Motivational Index. Greater frequency of role playing games was associated with impaired motor response inhibition and strategy games with faster Go reaction time. Conclusions We show that pathological gaming is associated with impaired decisional impulsivity with negative consequences in task performance. Decisional impulsivity may be a potential target in therapeutic management

Homozygous microdeletion of exon 5 in ZNF277 in a girl with specific language impairment

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Marine Biodiversity in South Africa: An Evaluation of Current States of Knowledge

Continental South Africa has a coastline of some 3,650 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of just over 1 million km2. Waters in the EEZ extend to a depth of 5,700 m, with more than 65% deeper than 2,000 m. Despite its status as a developing nation, South Africa has a relatively strong history of marine taxonomic research and maintains comprehensive and well-curated museum collections totaling over 291,000 records. Over 3 million locality records from more than 23,000 species have been lodged in the regional AfrOBIS (African Ocean Biogeographic Information System) data center (which stores data from a wider African region). A large number of regional guides to the marine fauna and flora are also available and are listed

Proton Pump Inhibitors Inhibit Metformin Uptake by Organic Cation Transporters (OCTs)

Metformin, an oral insulin-sensitizing drug, is actively transported into cells by organic cation transporters (OCT) 1, 2, and 3 (encoded by SLC22A1, SLC22A2, or SLC22A3), which are tissue specifically expressed at significant levels in various organs such as liver, muscle, and kidney. Because metformin does not undergo hepatic metabolism, drug-drug interaction by inhibition of OCT transporters may be important. So far, comprehensive data on the interaction of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) with OCTs are missing although PPIs are frequently used in metformin-treated patients. Using in silico modeling and computational analyses, we derived pharmacophore models indicating that PPIs (i.e. omeprazole, pantoprazole, lansoprazole, rabeprazole, and tenatoprazole) are potent OCT inhibitors. We then established stably transfected cell lines expressing the human uptake transporters OCT1, OCT2, or OCT3 and tested whether these PPIs inhibit OCT-mediated metformin uptake in vitro. All tested PPIs significantly inhibited metformin uptake by OCT1, OCT2, and OCT3 in a concentration-dependent manner. Half-maximal inhibitory concentration values (IC50) were in the low micromolar range (3–36 µM) and thereby in the range of IC50 values of other potent OCT drug inhibitors. Finally, we tested whether the PPIs are also transported by OCTs, but did not identify PPIs as OCT substrates. In conclusion, PPIs are potent inhibitors of the OCT-mediated metformin transport in vitro. Further studies are needed to elucidate the clinical relevance of this drug-drug interaction with potential consequences on metformin disposition and/or efficacy