ACRL from the inside: an interview with recent ACRL president Mary Reichel

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Rev. of Baseball in the Carolinas: 25 essays on the states' hardball heritage by Chris Holaday

Revie

Storming the Hill: North Carolina librarians become lobbyists for a day

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Investigating an unknown protein (3UN6) in Staphylococcus aureus

Pathogenic bacteria wreak havoc on life all over the world and use virulent proteins which give them these destructive capabilities. Research groups all over the world investigate these proteins to understand how they operate, and what mechanisms they are incorporated in. This research project investigated an unidentified protein in Staphylococcus aureus (PDB: 3UN6). This bacterium is known to cause Staph infections and has the capability to become drug resistant. We hypothesize that 3UN6 is the substrate binding unit of an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter that attaches to the cell within the periplasmic space and is helping transport nitrate into the cell

Procedure for selection of participants in high school home economics programs with occupational emphasis

Home economics programs with occupational emphasis are an attempt to provide education for the development of skills, attitudes, and knowledge to the extent that an individual may enter or make progress in his chosen vocation. This study was designed to determine the criteria currently used for selection of participants in high school home economics courses with occupational emphasis and to determine if there is an apparent need to improve procedures for the selection of participants. A questionnaire was developed for obtaining the desired information and was mailed to a random sample of 110 persons throughout the United States and District of Columbia teaching home economics courses with occupational emphasis during the 1965-66 school year. Two follow-up attempts were made which resulted in a 76.4 per cent return of the questionnaires

Assessing Reproductive Potential In A Federally Listed Species: Differential Staining For Pollen Viability In Spiraea Virginiana

Spiraea virginiana Britton (Rosaceae) is a rare federally-listed, clonal shrub that inhabits riparian zones within the Ohio River drainage. The species often occurs in areas of high disturbance and predominantly uses asexual reproduction to propagate from upstream populations. Although the species' known range suggests that sexual reproduction played an important role in its evolutionary history, sexual reproduction is currently almost non-existent. Pollination studies have shown that the species can produce fertile seeds; however, this has not been witnessed in wild populations. Determining the role of pollen viability with regards to lack of fertile seed formation is an important step towards understanding the sexual reproductive barriers experienced in this species. In this study, pollen viability was determined through in vivo studies on a Motic BA410E research microscope and utilizing a modified Alexander’s stain that differentiates viable and aborted pollen. Inflorescences were collected along the south fork of the New River before anthesis while pollen was mature, but anthers were non-dehiscent. This study aimed to assess pollen viability among populations that were collected along this river drainage to help determine if pollen viability is a major contributing factor to sexual reproductive barriers within this species

Preparing preceptors to be clinical educators

Preceptors play a critical role in athletic training clinical education, but they lack training to be effective in this role. The One Minute Preceptor method (OMP) is a simple five-step clinical teaching tool that provides succinct guidelines for clinical educators. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of an OMP method training on preceptor knowledge and use of the OMP skills. A one-group pre-post design was used with surveys assessing knowledge and use of the OMP skills completed pre-, post-, and 4 weeks following OMP training. Eleven certified athletic trainers completed the pre- and post-training surveys, and six completed the surveys at all three intervals. The OMP training consisted of watching a 20-minute narrated PowerPoint presentation that included three student-preceptor case examples using the OMP. Familiarity with the OMP method increased significantly between the pre- (M = 1.18 ± .405) and post-training (M = 3.0 ± 1.138) surveys, t (10) = -4.822, p <.001. Participants (n = 6) mean knowledge scores increased from of 6.33 ± .82 at pre-training to 7.33 ± 1.63 at post-training, which was a significant increase in knowledge, t (5) = -2.739, p < .05. Knowledge scores remained the same at the 4-week follow-up. There were no changes in the overall use of the OMP or in any OMP microskills; this could be due to high baseline scores. Future studies should assess use at multiple intervals over a longer period of time. Overall, participants rated the OMP training favorably. Seven participants rated the presentation as “Very Good” while two rated it as “Excellent” and the other two rated it as “Good”. All participants also “Agreed” or “Strongly Agreed” that they learned a lot about the OMP method and that they would be more likely to use it. Findings show that the OMP training was effective at improving knowledge of the OMP

From participation to dropout

The academic e-learning practice has to deal with various participation patterns and types of online learners with different support needs. The online instructors are challenged to recognize these and react accordingly. Among the participation patterns, special attention is requested by dropouts, which can perturbate online collaboration. Therefore we are in search of a method of early identification of participation patterns and prediction of dropouts. To do this, we use a quantitative view of participation that takes into account only observable variables. On this background we identify in a field study the participation indicators that are relevant for the course completion, i.e. produce significant differences between the completion and dropout sub-groups. Further we identify through cluster analysis four participation patterns with different support needs. One of them is the dropout cluster that could be predicted with an accuracy of nearly 80%. As a practical consequence, this study recommends a simple, easy-to-implement prediction method for dropouts, which can improve online teaching. As a theoretical consequence, we underline the role of the course didactics for the definition of participation, and call for refining previous attrition models

Multiplexed, High Density Electrophysiology with Nanofabricated Neural Probes

Extracellular electrode arrays can reveal the neuronal network correlates of behavior with single-cell, single-spike, and sub-millisecond resolution. However, implantable electrodes are inherently invasive, and efforts to scale up the number and density of recording sites must compromise on device size in order to connect the electrodes. Here, we report on silicon-based neural probes employing nanofabricated, high-density electrical leads. Furthermore, we address the challenge of reading out multichannel data with an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) performing signal amplification, band-pass filtering, and multiplexing functions. We demonstrate high spatial resolution extracellular measurements with a fully integrated, low noise 64-channel system weighing just 330 mg. The on-chip multiplexers make possible recordings with substantially fewer external wires than the number of input channels. By combining nanofabricated probes with ASICs we have implemented a system for performing large-scale, high-density electrophysiology in small, freely behaving animals that is both minimally invasive and highly scalable