Uphill Struggle: Impediments and Facilitators to Porter Health in the Khumbu Region

The surge of Nepal’s tourism industry has resulted in new waves of tourists visiting popular trekking areas such as the northern Khumbu region of the Solukhumbu District. One effect of this growing industry has been the increased prominence of porters in the area. Coming mostly from lowlands south of the Khumbu, porters are composed mainly of young individuals looking to make a career in the enticing business of trekking and mountaineering tourism. The current status of porter health in Solukhumbu is poor. Many ailments exist to physical and social well-being, and social segregation, incentives to carry heavier loads and a lack of basic health needs have left the porter population victim to a system that sacrifices health for financial profit. This study was done to determine the common impediments to porter well-being and to analyze current actions being taken to improve porter health. Interviews were conducted around settlements in Khumbu along the trail from Phaplu to Gokyo. Altitude illness and respiratory infections were common diseases for the regional porter population, and impediments to well-being included inadequacies in equipment, accommodation, insurance and education. Clothing centers, education workshops, porter shelters, awareness campaigns and an insurance program are some of the actions currently being taken in the area to improve porter health, though poor awareness, trekking company influence, and perceptions among porters have prevented widespread use of these resources. Altruism and abandonment were both common themes relating to porter health, highlighting the ethical nature of this topic

Communications System Using Signal Modulation

A communication method and system for communication utilizing modulation of digital signals, such as by targets and/or by use of low-complexity tags is presented. Targets may include any device or object that may alter signals, and tags can include a device with the ability to reflect and/or alter the properties of the signals and, in doing so, impose specific modulations on or alterations of such signals. Modulations can be sensed or detected using a receiver or receivers imple­menting processing algorithms derived from passive radar detection operations or other processes

Communications System

A communication method and system for communication utilizing modulation of digital signals, such as by targets and/or by use of low-complexity tags is presented. Targets may include any device or object that may alter signals, and tags can include a device with the ability to reflect and/or alter the properties of the signals and, in doing so, impose specific modulations on or alterations of such signals. Modulations can be sensed or detected using a receiver or receivers imple­menting processing algorithms derived from passive radar detection operations or other processes

Immunolocalization of Proteins in Corals: The V-Type H\u3csup\u3e+\u3c/sup\u3e-ATPase Proton Pump

Here we describe the immunolocalization of a membrane-bound proton pump, the V-type H+-ATPase (VHA), in tissues and isolated cells of scleractinian corals. Immunolocalization of coral proteins requires additional steps not required for various model organisms, such as decalcification of the coral skeleton for immunohistochemistry or removal of cells away from the skeleton for immunocytochemistry. The tissue and cell preparation techniques described here can be adapted for localization of other coral proteins, provided the appropriate validation steps have been taken for the primary antibodies and species of coral used. These techniques are important for improving our understanding of coral cell physiology

The Great Experiment and the Transformation of the Michigan State Normal School

Of the normal schools that existed in 1910, 180 would evolve into state colleges or universities. One of these, the Michigan State Normal School (MSNS), founded in 1849, would be the first such school outside the original 13 colonies, the fifth normal school in the country, and the first to offer a four-year curriculum leading to a bachelor’s degree. This essay examines the transition of MSNS from a quasi-secondary school into a college-level institution. The conflict that unfolded in 1878 with the beginning of what became known as “the Great Experiment” and ended with the dismissal of Charles Bellows in 1890 provides an opportunity to examine the institutional, political, and social forces that shaped the transition. The legacy of this transition suggests that the forces which directed the transformation of MSNS were not driven by a desire to improve the quality of teacher education; rather, they served to undermine the potential of a single purpose institution in the pursuit of self-interest. Using primary source documents, the presentation of this paper will engage the audience in a contextualization of the events that led to the transformation of MSNS into a four-year college

Conflict in Independent Catholic Schools

Independent Catholic schools are a growing phenomenon in the Catholic Church in America. This article provides a contextualized account of the phenomenon by examining via a field observation the experience of two independent Catholic schools in two different dioceses. These schools were founded in conflict and beset by continued conflict to the point of splitting; first from the diocese, then again with themselves. An environment of religious conflict motivated laity to open their own schools to socialize their children into a traditional notion of the Catholic faith. In both independent schools examined, conflict about governance, between founding parents and new stakeholders who joined the schools, led to each of the schools splitting; thus, the two became four. Each of the new breakaway schools was structured and governed much like the original schools, albeit with some increased openness to parental input. Second generation breakaway splits further complicated the relationship between these schools and their dioceses. While the limited sample prohibits highly generalizable data, the account suggests some preliminary conclusions about trends witnessed in the experience of these schools and suggests lines for further inquiry in this relatively unexamined phenomenon

The Best of All Worlds: ​ Collaborating Across Teams to Produce Quality Videos​

Universities need to create their own course content to best teach their students. Creating content, especially multimedia, requires specific skillsets, content knowledge, and an understanding of how people learn. The presenters, a media producer and instructional designer, discuss collaboration strategies and how to be your own instructional designer and media producer

A Three-Dimensional Pattern-Space Representation for Volumetric Arrays

A three-dimensional pattern-space representation is presented for volumetric arrays. In this representation, the radiation pattern of an array is formed by the evaluation of the three-dimensional pattern-space on a spherical surface. The scan angle of the array determines the position of this surface within the pattern-space. This pattern-space representation is used in conjunction with a genetic algorithm to minimize the sidelobe levels exhibited by a thinned volumetric array during scanning

Grating Lobe Reduction in Aperiodic Linear Arrays of Physically Large Antennas

We present performance bounds obtained from the optimization of the sidelobe levels of aperiodic linear arrays. The antennas comprising these arrays are large compared to the distance between neighboring antennas, a case not addressed in previously published work. This optimization is performed in pattern-space and is applicable over a wide range of scan angles. We show that grating lobes can be suppressed even when the elemental antennas are several wavelengths in size, provided that the ratio of the antenna size to the average spacing between the antenna center-points does not exceed 80%

Molecular, Enzymatic, and Cellular Characterization of Soluble Adenylyl Cyclase From Aquatic Animals.

The enzyme soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC) is the most recently identified source of the messenger molecule cyclic adenosine monophosphate. sAC is evolutionarily conserved from cyanobacteria to human, is directly stimulated by [Formula: see text] ions, and can act as a sensor of environmental and metabolic CO2, pH, and [Formula: see text] levels. sAC genes tend to have multiple alternative promoters, undergo extensive alternative splicing, be translated into low mRNA levels, and the numerous sAC protein isoforms may be present in various subcellular localizations. In aquatic organisms, sAC has been shown to mediate various functions including intracellular pH regulation in coral, blood acid/base regulation in shark, heart beat rate in hagfish, and NaCl absorption in fish intestine. Furthermore, sAC is present in multiple other species and tissues, and sAC protein and enzymatic activity have been reported in the cytoplasm, the nucleus, and other subcellular compartments, suggesting even more diverse physiological roles. Although the methods and experimental tools used to study sAC are conventional, the complexity of sAC genes and proteins requires special considerations that are discussed in this chapter