A cinematographical analysis of two selected methods of drawing the bow

A cinematographic study was made of three female advanced archers to examine selected mechanical factors of the draw, anchor, release, and follow-through. Two cameras - one 25 feet directly in front of the archer, and one 20 feet above the ground directly over the archer's head - were used to record the archer's movements. Two of the archers drew using the back muscles as well as the arm and shoulder joint muscles, and one archer used the arm pull. The length of the hold at the anchor position was the only factor examined that seemed to be related to the method of drawing the bow, with the two who drew using their back muscles holding longer than the archer using the arm pull. This did not seem to be influenced by the draw weight of the bow used. The angle of the forearm of the drawing arm to the shaft of the arrow did not seem to be related to the method of drawing the bow, but rather to the length of the third (ring) finger of the archer's drawing hand. Bow movement in the horizontal plane after release was influenced by the alignment of the bow limbs to the arrow shaft prior to release as well as by string hand action at release. One of the archers dropped the bow arm after release, and was found to have started dropping it before the arrow had cleared the bow on one of the seven shots photographed. The action of the bow after release (vertical plane) was also examined

EcoWellness: construction & validation of the Reese EcoWellness inventory

Multidisciplinary scholars have argued the importance of nature in human health for the past several decades (Kellert & Wilson, 1993; Roszak, 1992), and numerous researchers have identified the positive effects of nature on human wellness (Brymer, Cuddihy, & Sharma-Brymer, 2010; Kuo, 2010). The profession of counseling is based on the philosophy of human wellness (Myers, 1992), although the current multidisciplinary wellness models (Myers & Sweeney, 2008) seem to overlook the wellness benefits of nature. As a way to begin the systematic exploration of nature in professional counseling, Reese and Myers (2012) developed the construct of EcoWellness and described the construct as the missing link in holistic wellness models in counseling. They recommended that the next step in exploring the construct included the development of an instrument operationalizing EcoWellness and its underlying constructs. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop and assess the initial validity and reliability of the Reese EcoWellness Inventory (REI). The researcher utilized a six-step instrument development method that included the pilot testing of an initial 111-item instrument with a convenience sample of college students (N = 264). After modification of the REI, a revised 62-item instrument was tested and evaluated with a simple random sample recruited from Researchmatch.org (N = 853). Participants completed the REI, the Five-Factor Wellness Inventory (Myers & Sweeney, 2005b), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale Short Form (Strahan & Gerbasi, 1972) in testing the initial validity and reliability of the REI. Results of confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses and the associated univariate tests demonstrated a mixed picture of the instrument's validity and reliability. A lower-level factor model was tested and it was found to possess adequate model fit. It was determined that the second-order factor of EcoWellness dictated the relationships between the lower-level factors. The development and testing of the REI provides an initial empirical foundation for the integration of nature into professional counseling and counselor education. Further research is needed to replicate and extend the study findings through utilizing samples more inclusive of national distributions of demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and ethnicity

Leading, learning, and teaching: an exploration of instructor leadership in a retention intervention program

There is a distressing dilemma in higher education concerning the increase in student attrition rates (Angelino, Williams, & Natvig, 2007; Hagedorn, 2006; Kramer, 2007; Lau, 2003, Seidman, 2005; Tinto, 2006). The seminal query of this study asks what higher education institutions are doing to effectively retain these students and secure student success. At a public university in the southeastern part of the United States, appreciative advising is utilized as a teaching strategy in a retention intervention program to answer this question. Developed as a theoretical framework by academic advisors where focus is on a student's strengths instead of on weaknesses (Bloom & Martin, 2002), appreciative advising was integrated into a curriculum designed to empower students to recover and retain academic good standing (Bloom, Hutson, & He, 2008; Bloom, Hutson, He, & Robinson, 2011; Hutson, 2006). This empowerment suggests a relationship between classroom instructor leadership and student self-leadership. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of classroom instructors and how they describe their teaching experiences in this retention intervention program. The researcher desired to know how these classroom instructors perceived their role, experienced instructional leadership, and sought to facilitate self-leadership in their students. Specifically, how an appreciative mindset inspired transformational leadership, encouraged transformational teaching, and aspired to impact transformational learning. Utilizing a qualitative instrumental case study design and applying an interpretivist research paradigm, a total of eleven past and current instructors were interviewed employing online Email and Instant Messaging (IM)/Chat as a means of data collection (Briggs & Coleman, 2007). Unfortunately, the data analyses revealed 9 of the 11 instructors were neither familiar with the core principles of appreciative advising nor understand its relevancy to the retention intervention program. However, the data analyses also indicated the majority of instructors did perceive their role as influencing positive change in the attitudes and behaviors of their students regardless of this deficiency in their knowledge base. This evidenced an intuitive and deductive acknowledgment of appreciative advising in the instructors' teaching experience that innately supported an appreciative mindset. It is through the participants' appreciative mindset that appreciative advising and instructor leadership are explored. Several themes emerged from the data relative to leading, learning, teaching, and the appreciative mindset. These themes reflect the instructors' perceptions of their teaching experiences and student learning: (a) a sense of responsibility central to their desire to impact student success; (b) leadership defined as guiding versus influencing: (c) engaging with students in reflection a primary teaching strategy; (d) belief that student self-awareness contributes to empowerment resulting in self-appreciation; (e) opinion that owning the circumstances of their academic probationary status allows students to practice self-leadership. However, one major theme emerged: leading, learning, and teaching are all relational. This study suggests the integration of appreciative advising with instructional leadership may contribute to enhanced learning experiences for students in pedagogical contexts and increase undergraduate student retention

Behavior of Piles and Pile Groups Under Lateral Load

DTFH61-84-Y-30005Several methods of analysis and design of piles under lateral loading are in use. Presumptive values that suggest allowable loads, but very conservative ones, are included in some manuals of practice. Batter piles may be employed with an assumption, not entirely correct, that no lateral load is taken by vertical piles. Several rational methods, in which the equations of mechanics are satisfied, have been proposed. The methods of Broms and of Poulos and his coworkers are reviewed. The rational method utilizes different equations to solve the governing differential equation along with the use of nonlinear curves to describe the soil response. Curves showing soil resistance p as a function of pile deflection y have been recommended for several types of soil and pile loading. Case studies are presented where results from analysis are compared with those from experiment. Design recommendations are made and needed research is outlined

Ecosystem Services in Conservation Planning: Targeted Benefits vs. Co-Benefits or Costs?

There is growing support for characterizing ecosystem services in order to link conservation and human well-being. However, few studies have explicitly included ecosystem services within systematic conservation planning, and those that have follow two fundamentally different approaches: ecosystem services as intrinsically-important targeted benefits vs. substitutable co-benefits. We present a first comparison of these two approaches in a case study in the Central Interior of British Columbia. We calculated and mapped economic values for carbon storage, timber production, and recreational angling using a geographical information system (GIS). These ‘marginal’ values represent the difference in service-provision between conservation and managed forestry as land uses. We compared two approaches to including ecosystem services in the site-selection software Marxan: as Targeted Benefits, and as Co-Benefits/Costs (in Marxan's cost function); we also compared these approaches with a Hybrid approach (carbon and angling as targeted benefits, timber as an opportunity cost). For this analysis, the Co-Benefit/Cost approach yielded a less costly reserve network than the Hybrid approach (1.6% cheaper). Including timber harvest as an opportunity cost in the cost function resulted in a reserve network that achieved targets equivalently, but at 15% lower total cost. We found counter-intuitive results for conservation: conservation-compatible services (carbon, angling) were positively correlated with each other and biodiversity, whereas the conservation-incompatible service (timber) was negatively correlated with all other networks. Our findings suggest that including ecosystem services within a conservation plan may be most cost-effective when they are represented as substitutable co-benefits/costs, rather than as targeted benefits. By explicitly valuing the costs and benefits associated with services, we may be able to achieve meaningful biodiversity conservation at lower cost and with greater co-benefits

Benign follicular tumors

Benign follicular tumors comprise a large and heterogeneous group of neoplasms that share a common histogenesis and display morphological features resembling one or several portions of the normal hair follicle, or recapitulate part of its embryological development. Most cases present it as clinically nondescript single lesions and essentially of dermatological relevance. Occasionally, however, these lesions be multiple and represent a cutaneous marker of complex syndromes associated with an increased risk of visceral neoplasms. In this article, the authors present the microscopic structure of the normal hair follicle as a basis to understand the type and level of differentiation of the various follicular tumors. The main clinicopathological features and differential diagnosis of benign follicular tumors are then discussed, including dilated pore of Winer, pilar sheath acanthoma, trichoadenoma, trichilemmoma, infundibuloma, proliferating trichilemmal cyst/tumor, trichoblastoma and its variants, pilomatricoma, trichodiscoma/fibrofolliculoma, neurofollicular hamartoma and trichofolliculoma. In addition, the main syndromes presenting with multiple follicular tumors are also discussed, namely Cowden, Birt-Hogg-Dubé, Rombo and Bazex-Dupré-Christol syndromes, as well as multiple tumors of follicular infundibulum (infundibulomatosis) and multiple trichoepitheliomas. Although the diagnosis of follicular tumors relies on histological examination, we highlight the importance of their knowledge for the clinician, especially when in presence of patients with multiple lesions that may be the cutaneous marker of a cancer-prone syndrome. The dermatologist is therefore in a privileged position to recognize these lesions, which is extremely important to provide further propedeutic, appropriate referral and genetic counseling for these patients.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Chitohexaose Activates Macrophages by Alternate Pathway through TLR4 and Blocks Endotoxemia

Sepsis is a consequence of systemic bacterial infections leading to hyper activation of immune cells by bacterial products resulting in enhanced release of mediators of inflammation. Endotoxin (LPS) is a major component of the outer membrane of Gram negative bacteria and a critical factor in pathogenesis of sepsis. Development of antagonists that inhibit the storm of inflammatory molecules by blocking Toll like receptors (TLR) has been the main stay of research efforts. We report here that a filarial glycoprotein binds to murine macrophages and human monocytes through TLR4 and activates them through alternate pathway and in the process inhibits LPS mediated classical activation which leads to inflammation associated with endotoxemia. The active component of the nematode glycoprotein mediating alternate activation of macrophages was found to be a carbohydrate residue, Chitohexaose. Murine macrophages and human monocytes up regulated Arginase-1 and released high levels of IL-10 when incubated with chitohexaose. Macrophages of C3H/HeJ mice (non-responsive to LPS) failed to get activated by chitohexaose suggesting that a functional TLR4 is critical for alternate activation of macrophages also. Chitohexaose inhibited LPS induced production of inflammatory molecules TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 by macropahges in vitro and in vivo in mice. Intraperitoneal injection of chitohexaose completely protected mice against endotoxemia when challenged with a lethal dose of LPS. Furthermore, Chitohexaose was found to reverse LPS induced endotoxemia in mice even 6/24/48 hrs after its onset. Monocytes of subjects with active filarial infection displayed characteristic alternate activation markers and were refractory to LPS mediated inflammatory activation suggesting an interesting possibility of subjects with filarial infections being less prone to develop of endotoxemia. These observations that innate activation of alternate pathway of macrophages by chtx through TLR4 has offered novel opportunities to cell biologists to study two mutually exclusive activation pathways of macrophages being mediated through a single receptor

The Transcriptional Repressor TupA in Aspergillus niger Is Involved in Controlling Gene Expression Related to Cell Wall Biosynthesis, Development, and Nitrogen Source Availability.

The Tup1-Cyc8 (Ssn6) complex is a well characterized and conserved general transcriptional repressor complex in eukaryotic cells. Here, we report the identification of the Tup1 (TupA) homolog in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger in a genetic screen for mutants with a constitutive expression of the agsA gene. The agsA gene encodes a putative alpha-glucan synthase, which is induced in response to cell wall stress in A. niger. Apart from the constitutive expression of agsA, the selected mutant was also found to produce an unknown pigment at high temperatures. Complementation analysis with a genomic library showed that the tupA gene could complement the phenotypes of the mutant. Screening of a collection of 240 mutants with constitutive expression of agsA identified sixteen additional pigment-secreting mutants, which were all mutated in the tupA gene. The phenotypes of the tupA mutants were very similar to the phenotypes of a tupA deletion strain. Further analysis of the tupA-17 mutant and the DeltatupA mutant revealed that TupA is also required for normal growth and morphogenesis. The production of the pigment at 37 degrees C is nitrogen source-dependent and repressed by ammonium. Genome-wide expression analysis of the tupA mutant during exponential growth revealed derepression of a large group of diverse genes, including genes related to development and cell wall biosynthesis, and also protease-encoding genes that are normally repressed by ammonium. Comparison of the transcriptome of up-regulated genes in the tupA mutant showed limited overlap with the transcriptome of caspofungin-induced cell wall stress-related genes, suggesting that TupA is not a general suppressor of cell wall stress-induced genes. We propose that TupA is an important repressor of genes related to development and nitrogen metabolism

X-exome sequencing of 405 unresolved families identifies seven novel intellectual disability genes

X-linked intellectual disability (XLID) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorder. During the past two decades in excess of 100 X-chromosome ID genes have been identified. Yet, a large number of families mapping to the X-chromosome remained unresolved suggesting that more XLID genes or loci are yet to be identified. Here, we have investigated 405 unresolved families with XLID. We employed massively parallel sequencing of all X-chromosome exons in the index males. The majority of these males were previously tested negative for copy number variations and for mutations in a subset of known XLID genes by Sanger sequencing. In total, 745 X-chromosomal genes were screened. After stringent filtering, a total of 1297 non-recurrent exonic variants remained for prioritization. Co-segregation analysis of potential clinically relevant changes revealed that 80 families (20%) carried pathogenic variants in established XLID genes. In 19 families, we detected likely causative protein truncating and missense variants in 7 novel and validated XLID genes (CLCN4, CNKSR2, FRMPD4, KLHL15, LAS1L, RLIM and USP27X) and potentially deleterious variants in 2 novel candidate XLID genes (CDK16 and TAF1). We show that the CLCN4 and CNKSR2 variants impair protein functions as indicated by electrophysiological studies and altered differentiation of cultured primary neurons from Clcn4−/− mice or after mRNA knock-down. The newly identified and candidate XLID proteins belong to pathways and networks with established roles in cognitive function and intellectual disability in particular. We suggest that systematic sequencing of all X-chromosomal genes in a cohort of patients with genetic evidence for X-chromosome locus involvement may resolve up to 58% of Fragile X-negative cases

The genome of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

We report the sequence and analysis of the 814-megabase genome of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, a model for developmental and systems biology. The sequencing strategy combined whole-genome shotgun and bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) sequences. This use of BAC clones, aided by a pooling strategy, overcame difficulties associated with high heterozygosity of the genome. The genome encodes about 23,300 genes, including many previously thought to be vertebrate innovations or known only outside the deuterostomes. This echinoderm genome provides an evolutionary outgroup for the chordates and yields insights into the evolution of deuterostomes