Evolution of symbiosis genes in an invasive ectomycorrhizal fungus

Abstracts from the April 12-14, 2019 MASC Conferenc

Seasonal and Diurnal Patterns of Temperature Inversion Formation and Breakup in a Topographically Complex Urban Environment

Measuring air temperatures and winds at several heights in a dense urban area over a nine-month period reveals important seasonal differences in patterns of atmospheric stability, boundary-layer circulation, and other important factors that affect concentrations of air pollutants. The study site in Portland, Oregon includes natural topographic variations from 5 meters above sea level at the shore of a heavily industrialized stretch of the Willamette River, up to 50 meters above sea level atop a nearby bluff where residents often complain of poor air quality. This study installed, and continues to maintain, a network of remote automated weather stations ranging in altitude from river-level to the rooftops of buildings up to eight stories high, spanning a range of 70 m in the vertical from the lowest to highest station altitude, within an area of only 0.25 square km. Prior to this study, the density of weather observations in this area was often insufficient for resolving the conditions relevant to analyzing and monitoring air pollution events, but the significantly higher resolution of meteorological data now available for the area shows promise for addressing these issues. Station measurements include air temperatures and humidities at multiple heights per station, wind direction, wind speed, gust speed, solar radiation in multiple wavelength ranges, direct-diffuse ratios of solar radiation, air pressure, precipitation rates, leaf wetness, soil moisture, thermal-infrared radiant temperatures, kinetic temperatures, and boundary layer fluxes. This study also designed new tethersonde sampling methods to complement the ground-based stations with high-resolution data on vertical profiles of air temperatures, humidity, and winds within the boundary layer. Results show strong, low-level temperature inversions that are often more diurnally-constant in winter than in other seasons, with important implications for local air pollutant concentrations. Applications include improved understanding of local atmospheric patterns, which could help to inform better policies for addressing air quality issues

Interprofessional Collaboration with Occupational Therapy Assistant and Physical Therapist Assistant Students Through a Simulated Academic Setting

Background: There is a direct emphasis on interprofessional learning and interprofessional education (IPE) at the accreditation and national level (IPE, 2016). There are, however, no studies on the effectiveness in the delivery of interprofessional collaboration in the academic setting, specific to occupational therapy assistant students. Therefore, the following research has been developed to address this area of need in occupational therapy assistant education. Methods: This research was conducted in the academic setting, through a simulated lab-based case with occupational therapy assistant and physical therapist assistant students as the participants. The perceived confidence and communication were measured through a pre and post survey using the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS). Qualitative data was collected 10 months after the IP event in the form of a focus group. Results: Twenty-three students participated in the interprofessional event. The quantitative results while using a paired samples t-test indicated that IEPS pre-test mean scores (M = 90.08) were significantly different than the IEPS post-test mean scores (M = 97.95), (t [23] = 5.57, p \u3c .001). The qualitative finding results resulted in the following themes: collaboration, building confidence and effective communication skills, during the IPE event, and student reflection of IPE. Conclusions: Many health program accreditation bodies include IPE within their educational standards. The results of this one-day interprofessional event demonstrated that the participants showed an improvement in their perceptions of affective domain components within an interdisciplinary education program. The results were IEPS and all four subscales within the IEPS were statistically significant indicating that student learning occurred in all domains. Occupational therapy assistant faculty need to continue to seek creative avenues to support and incorporate IPE in the academic setting to better prepare OT practitioners to work collaboratively in the workplace and with the clients they serve

An assessment of medical care provided by Nevada\u27s high school athletic programs

Even with preventative measures, injuries are inherent in sports. Almquist (2001) indicated that almost 60 percent of athletic injuries occur during practices. The American Medical Association recommends that all high schools establish an athletic medical team, but the National Athletic Trainers\u27 Association (NATA) has estimated that only 42% of all high schools in the United States have access to a certified athletic trainer. In 2002, a NATA inter-association task force created the Appropriate Medical Care for Secondary School-Aged Athletes (AMCSSAA) Consensus Statement, which outlined the minimum standards for health care for adolescent athletes. The purpose of this study was to assess the athletic medical care provided by Nevada\u27s high schools in relation to the recommendations set forth by the AMCSSAA Consensus Statement. A modified version of the Appropriate Medical Care Assessment Tool (AMCAT) was used to achieve this purpose. The tool was validated by a panel of experts using Cronbach\u27s alpha. Seven dependent variables and ten independent variables (factors associated with higher quality of care) were subsequently identified. The tool was sent via email to the athletic administrators of the member schools in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (n = 107). The association between the independent variables and the dependent variables was examined via a series of MANOVAs (α = 0.05). In the cases of significant MANOVAs, follow-up ANOVAs with a Bonferroni adjustment were used to determine which recommendations were related to each independent variable. There was a 50% (n = 54) return on the AMCAT with 76% (n = 41) of the respondents being 4A (large) high schools. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents were from large metropolitan areas of the state. The respondent schools had mean recommendation scores between 0.61-0.92, indicating that the respondent schools were moderately or highly likely to meet the AMCSSAA recommendations. A significant multivariate effect was found for presence, employment, and number of certified athletic trainers; school size and setting; distance from the nearest medical facility; and budget for supplies (p \u3c .0001). The results of this study indicated that a majority of the high school athletic programs that participated in the study adequately met the AMCSSAA recommendations

In Search of Lady Justice: Female Senators and the Politics of Supreme Court Confirmations.

While decades of research have substantiated a link between the descriptive representation of women in elective office and the substantive representation of women’s policy interests, an overwhelming majority of these studies focus on gender effects during the traditional policymaking process. I seek to extend this research to the broader context of America’s system of checks and balances. To do so, I focus on one of the most prominent examples of interbranch relations—the confirmation of justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. The empirical chapters in this work examine potential gender differences at several steps in the confirmation process. An analysis of forty Supreme Court confirmations reveals that female senators weigh the ideology of a nominee more heavily than their male counterparts when casting a final confirmation vote. Importantly, these differences held after controlling for the fact that noticeable numbers of women have entered the Senate only in recent decades, which have been shown to be a particularly ideological time in confirmation politics. Further investigations reveal that Democratic female senators are the primary driving force behind these noted gender differences. Additional examinations show that female senators are also more vocal advocates for women’s issues during confirmation proceedings. Analyses of floor statements from five confirmations reveal that female senators devoted proportionally more of their floor time to statements defending and advocating for the protection of women’s rights. These differences are particularly pronounced when senators are faced with a Republican nominee to the Court. Qualitative analyses suggest that these gender differences are also present during confirmation hearings. This dissertation therefore extends the existing literature connecting the levels of women’s descriptive and substantive representation to an interbranch context. Such findings highlight how the growing gender diversity in Congress not only affects the legislative branch, but rather reverberates through the entire federal government.PHDPolitical ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102332/1/brooketh_1.pd

IIb or not IIb? Regulation of myosin heavy chain gene expression in mice and men

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>While the myosin heavy chain IIb isoform (MyHC-IIb) is the predominant motor protein in most skeletal muscles of rats and mice, the messenger RNA (mRNA) for this isoform is only expressed in a very small subset of specialized muscles in adult large mammals, including humans.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identify the DNA sequences limiting MyHC-IIb expression in humans and explore the activation of this gene in human skeletal muscle. We demonstrate that the transcriptional activity of ~1.0 kb of the human MyHC-IIb promoter is greatly reduced compared to that of the corresponding mouse sequence in both mouse and human myotubes <it>in vitro </it>and show that nucleotide differences that eliminate binding sites for myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) and serum response factor (SRF) account for this difference. Despite these differences, we show that MyHC-IIb mRNA is expressed in fetal human muscle cells and that MyHC-IIb mRNA is significantly up-regulated in the skeletal muscle of Duchene muscular dystrophy patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data identify the genetic basis for a key phenotypic difference between the muscles of large and small mammals, and demonstrate that mRNA expression of the MyHC-IIb gene can be re-activated in human limb muscle undergoing profound degeneration/regeneration.</p

Implementing quality deer management on your property (2011)

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are the most popular game species in Missouri, and the state's deer population is estimated to be about 1.4 million. The current success of Missouri's deer management program is a tribute to the science of wildlife management, the increase in suitable habitat and regulation of season length and bag limits

The Spitzer c2d Survey of Nearby Dense Cores: III: Low Mass Star Formation in a Small Group, L1251B

We present a comprehensive study of a low-mass star-forming region,L1251B, at wavelengths from the near-infrared to the millimeter. L1251B, where only one protostar, IRAS 22376+7455, was known previously, is confirmed to be a small group of protostars based on observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The most luminous source of L1251B is located 5" north of the IRAS position. A near-infrared bipolar nebula, which is not associated with the brightest object and is located at the southeast corner of L1251B, has been detected in the IRAC bands. OVRO and SMA interferometric observations indicate that the brightest source and the bipolar nebula source in the IRAC bands are deeply embedded disk sources.Submillimeter continuum observations with single-dish telescopes and the SMA interferometric observations suggest two possible prestellar objects with very high column densities. Outside of the small group, many young stellar object candidates have been detected over a larger region of 12' x 12'. Extended emission to the east of L1251B has been detected at 850 micron; this "east core" may be a site for future star formation since no point source has been detected with IRAC or MIPS. This region is therefore a possible example of low-mass cluster formation, where a small group of pre- and protostellar objects (L1251B) is currently forming, alongside a large starless core (the east core).Comment: 35 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, for the full resolution paper, visit "http://peggysue.as.utexas.edu/SIRTF/PAPERS/pap27.pub.pdf

Luminosity Functions of Spitzer Identified Protostars in Nine Nearby Molecular Clouds

We identify protostars in Spitzer surveys of nine star-forming molecular clouds within 1 kpc: Serpens, Perseus, Ophiuchus, Chamaeleon, Lupus, Taurus, Orion, Cep OB3, and Mon R2, which combined host over 700 protostar candidates. Our diverse cloud sample allows us to compare protostar luminosity functions in these varied environments. We combine photometry from 2MASS J, H, and Ks bands and Spitzer IRAC and MIPS 24 micron bands to create 1 - 24 micron spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Using protostars from the c2d survey with well-determined bolometric luminosities (Lbol), we derive a relationship between Lbol, L_MIR (integrated from 1 - 24 microns), and SED slope. Estimations of Lbol for protostar candidates are combined to create luminosity functions for each cloud. Contamination due to edge-on disks, reddened Class II sources, and galaxies is estimated and removed from the luminosity functions. We find that luminosity functions for high mass star forming clouds peak near 1 Lsun and show a tail extending toward luminosities above 100 Lsun. The luminosity functions of the low mass star forming clouds do not exhibit a common peak, however the combined luminosity function of these regions peaks below 1 Lsun. Finally, we examine the luminosity functions as a function of the local surface density of YSOs. In the Orion molecular cloud, we find a significant difference between the luminosity functions of protostars in regions of high and low stellar density, the former of which is biased toward more luminous sources. This may be the result of primordial mass segregation, although this interpretation is not unique. We compare our luminosity functions to those predicted by models and find that our observed luminosity functions are best matched by models which invoke competitive accretion, although we do not find strong agreement of the high mass star forming clouds with any of the models.Comment: 76 pages, 18 figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa