Investigation into qNMR for use in natural products research

Natural products research constantly has to deal with problems of analysis. Therefore, orthogonal techniques are extremely valuable when analyzing complex mixtures that are often seen in fungal extracts. Analysis of results of fungal fermentation experiments can influence the design of further experimentation. Earlier results can then expedite the process of analysis. Quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (qNMR) offers analysis of complex mixtures at early stages and with several benefits over some more common methods of quantitation, including ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy (UV) and mass spectrometry (MS). Several experiments were conducted to construct a methodology for use in analysis of natural products samples. A broadly applicable method was sought for use in both pure and complex mixtures. An externally calibrated method was used to quantify the solvent peak inside of a single batch of DMSO-d6, which was used repeatedly to quantify interesting analytes. Thereby, a method was constructed that did not require contamination with calibrant for quantification of analyte signals. The method was implemented to measure the biosynthetic yield of griseofulvin and dechlorogriseofulvin from three fungal isolates. One isolate, a Xylaria sp. coded MSX648662, was found to biosynthesize griseofulvin in the greatest yield, 149 ± 8 mg per fermentation, and was selected for further supply experiments

Multiple Case Studies of Literacy Practices Utilized by Intermediate Grade Teachers Which Enable African American Males to Become Literate Individuals---What's Going On?

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate ways in which six teachers in the intermediate grades at one urban and one rural school enabled their African American male students to be successful in their literacy efforts. It was my assumption that successful teachers of African American males would also be teachers who integrated culturally relevant teaching practices into their literacy instruction; therefore, I also examined the ways in which these teachers designed instruction that was culturally relevant (Villegas & Lucas, 2002a, 2002b). The six teacher participants in this study were purposefully selected because they were identified as demonstrating the ability to aid their African American males to be successful in reading. Qualitative, case study methodology was selected because it allowed me to collect multiple forms of evidence about the beliefs and practices of these teachers in the context of their actual classrooms. Data collection for this study included one-on-one teacher interviews, six classroom observations during teachers' literacy instruction across two weeks, post observation interviews following each observation, and the teachers' completion of a diversity questionnaire. Data collection spanned nine months and included numerous follow-up interviews to clarify my interpretation of the data collected. Both within- and cross-case analyses were conducted to understand the literacy and culturally relevant practices that the six teachers in this study associated with the success of their African American males. Within case analysis revealed general teacher beliefs and specific literacy practices and classroom environment factors associated with the success of their African American males. Literacy practices that were found to be most successful for African American males included their participation in guided reading groups, read alouds, and writing activities because these practices were targeted to the specific needs and interests of the teachers' African American males. Whole class, teacher directed reading was seen by the teachers to be the least successful literacy practice for the African American males in their classrooms. The cross-case study analysis suggested that successful teachers of African American males demonstrated these four characteristics: compassion, consistency, connectedness, and collaboration. Additionally, teachers' efforts to become culturally relevant were found to hinge on teachers' willingness to explore their own sociocultural consciousness. Having sociocultural consciousness enabled three of the six teachers to view their diverse student population from a positive perspective. Teachers with less developed sense of sociocultural consciousness tended to view students from diverse populations from a deficit perspective. Based on what was learned from the teachers in this study, several recommendations for schools of education, school administrators, and teachers are provided. Suggestions for future research still needed to study culturally relevant literacy teaching practices that promote the success of African American male students are also provided

The Practice of Reintegrative Shaming in Mental Health Court

Scholars and practitioners have renewed their interest in recognizing and designing restorative justice programs. Although these programs often provide successful outcomes, we know relatively little about why they work. Reintegrative shaming theory provides a lens by which to explain successful outcomes. This study uses over three years of direct observations to examine the practice of reintegrative shaming in a mental health court (MHC). We organize our findings around four primary components of reintegrative shaming outlined by Makkai and Braithwaite: respectful disapproval, disapproving the behavior rather than the individual, rejecting deviance as a master status, and ceremonial decertifications of deviance. Our data demonstrate that reintegrative shaming in MHC is largely accomplished through interactions with the judge, although the unique organization of the MHC, including their small caseloads, use of separate dockets, and pre-court team meetings, advance the court’s use of reintegrative shaming

Racial Threat Theory: Assessing the Evidence, Requesting Redesign

Racial threat theory was developed as a way to explain how population composition influences discriminatory social control practices and has become one of the most acknowledged frameworks for explaining racial disparity in criminal justice outcomes. This paper provides a thorough review of racial threat theory and empirical assessments of the theory and demonstrates that while scholars often cite inconsistent support for the theory, empirical discrepancies may be due to insufficient attention to the conceptual complexity of racial threat. I organize and present the following review around 4 forms of state-sanctioned control mechanisms: police expenditures, arrests, sentencing, and capital punishment. Arguing that the pervasiveness of racialization in state controls warrants continued inquiry, I provide suggestions for future scholarship that will help us develop enhanced understanding of how racial threat may be operating

A Republican governor and a Democratic editor : their relationship during the reconstruction in South Carolina

Daniel Henry Chamberlain, as Republican Governor of South Carolina during the last two years of Reconstruction, was sustained in his position by the newly enfranchised Negro electorate. Francis Warrington Dawson, Democratic editor of the powerful News and Courier, was a spokesman of the conservative Charleston business elite and a proponent of fusion or political cooperation with those Republicans who best served the economic and social interests of this influential minority. For a short time the two men came together in a spirit of bipartisan cooperation as a means for obtaining their separate goals. The coalition— temporary and shaky at best—was opposed by elements in both parties. Chamberlain was charged by some in his party with having sold out Republican principles of Negro political equality, and Dawson was charged by an element within his party with abandoning Democratic fundamentals of white supremacy. Finally the connection was severed by the race issue, larger than the men and the beliefs they held

Observations of Reintegrative Shaming in a Mental Health Court

This study compares the use of stigmatizing and reintegrative shame – as specified in Braithwaite’s Crime, shame and reintegration (1989) – across traditional criminal court and mental health court settings. Items from the Global Observational Ratings Instrument were used to gather data on 87 traditional court cases and 91 mental health court cases, presided over by five different judges. The observational items capture three constructs: respect, disapproval, and forgiveness, as they apply to Braithwaite’s theory. We present means tests to examine differences in shaming between court types and judges. Findings show that the mental health court is more likely to use reintegrative shaming and show respect and forgiveness for offenders, and less likely to show disapproval. Similarly, judges who preside in both court types are significantly more likely to practice reintegrative shaming in the mental health court context. We further explore these findings using field notes and illustrate those components of a mental health court that are conducive to reintegrative shaming

Injective modules over commutative noetherian rings

This thesis examines the structure of injective modules over commutative noetherian rings. The author shows that any injective module over a commutative noetherian ring can be written as a direct sum of indecomposable injective modules, where each summand is the injective hull of R/P for some prime ideal P. The results are then applied to the ring of integers

The Age Structure-Crime Rate Relationship: Solving a Long-Standing Puzzle

Objectives: Develop the concept of differential institutional engagement and test its ability to explain discrepant findings regarding the relationship between the age structure and homicide rates across ecological studies of crime. We hypothesize that differential degrees of institutional engagement—youths with ties to mainstream social institutions such as school, work or the military on one end of the spectrum and youths without such bonds on the other end—account for the direction of the relationship between homicide rates and age structure (high crime prone ages, such as 15–29). Methods: Cross sectional, Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses using robust standard errors are conducted using large samples of cities characterized by varying degrees of youths’ differential institutional engagement for the years 1980, 1990 and 2000. The concept is operationalized with the percent of the population enrolled in college and the percent of 16–19 year olds who are simultaneously not enrolled in school, not in the labor market (not in the labor force or unemployed), and not in the military. Results: Consistent and invariant results emerged. Positive effects of age structure on homicide rates are found in cities that have high percentages of disengaged youth and negative effects are found among cities characterized with high percentages of youth participating in mainstream social institutions. Conclusions: This conceptualization of differential institutional engagement explains the discrepant findings in prior studies, and the findings demonstrate the influence of these contextual effects and the nature of the age structure-crime relationship

Conceptual Remixing in Criminology: Tracing Durkheim and Marx's Influence on Etiological Theories of Crime

Sociologists have previously argued that our current knowledge and inquiries stem from our standing on the shoulders of giants. Exactly how this occurs, however, may be less clear. This paper identifies how the works of two of the most valued classical social theorists – Durkheim and Marx – have influenced theories of crime causation. In doing so, I reveal that classical social theory continues to be relevant in the advancement of criminological thought. Identifying this lineage is crucial in developing more informed research and policy on crime and social control, which is especially important given the widespread interest in crime and delinquency among students (and citizens more generally)

Student Perceptions of Teaching Transparency

The authors discuss the relationship between teaching transparency and active learning through the perspectives of their students. Active learning directly engages students in the learning process while transparency involves the instructor’s divulgence of logic regarding course organization and activity choices. After utilizing these teaching techniques, four instructors collected feedback regarding students’ positive and negative perceptions of both the activity and the transparency. The responses were overwhelmingly positive and indicate that students found that transparency gave them a better sense of purpose, motivation, clarity and connection to course objectives. In conclusion, we discuss ways in which the student feedback is essential for instructors’ reflection on teaching