Strategic Planning for the Source of Light (SoL) Center of University Presbyterian Church

University Presbyterian Church has recently developed an adult education program called The SoL (Source of Light) Center. In operation for nearly a year, the SoL Center is a faith-based education center for adults, who seek to explore the full dimensions of Christian life in the 21st century. A dynamic board of directors representing diverse theological and religious backgrounds has supported the SoL Center. These individuals have provided the leadership for the first year of operations. For my pastoral project, I will utilize my organizational development coursework in combination with the Pastoral Institute study to facilitate the development of by-laws under which the SoL Center can operate. I would also like to facilitate the development of a strategic plan addressing goals, organizational objectives and strategies for accomplishing these goals. Working closely with the board of directors (as the focus group) and the operating committees these goals and strategies will support the direction of the SoL Center and its staff. Benchmarks will be identified to support SoL Center decision-making including programming funding, resource development, volunteer management, and marketing. Staff and volunteer needs will be identified as will strategies to meet these needs. The final outcome will include a written strategic plan, which the SoL Center will use as a guideline for operation. An evaluation will be utilized to measure the impact of the strategic planning retreat. Additional assessment will occur as the strategic plan is implemented

Know Your Oil: Creating A Global Oil-Climate Index

Oil is changing. Conventional oil resources are dwindling as tight oil, oil sands, heavy oils, and others emerge. Technological advances mean that these unconventional hydrocarbon deposits in once-unreachable areas are now viable resources. Meanwhile, scientific evidence is mounting that climate change is occurring, but the climate impacts of these new oils are not well understood. The Carnegie Endowment's Energy and Climate Program, Stanford University, and the University of Calgary have developed a first-of-itskind Oil-Climate Index (OCI) to compare these resources.The Oil-Climate Index (OCI) is a metric that takes into account the total life-cycle Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of individual oils -- from upstream extraction to midstream refining to downstream end use. It offers a powerful, yet user-friendly, tool that allows investors, policymakers, industry, the public, and other stakeholders to compare crudes and assess their climate consequences both before development decisions are made as well as once operations are in progress. The Oil-Climate Index will also inform oil and climate policy making

Biofilm Associated Staphylococcus Aureus Viability is Altered By Burkholderia Cenocepacia

Respiratory failure caused by chronic and recurrent microbial infections is the most common cause of death for people with cystic fibrosis (CF)1, a disease causing the formation of thick mucus in the lungs2. Most bacteria can form biofilms, collections of sessile cells adhered to a surface by a secreted substance. Biofilm-associated cells develop antibiotic resistance at higher rates3. The thicker mucus in CF lungs is extremely difficult to clear via action of the mucociliary escalator and its presence fosters the formation of bacterial biofilms. Staphylococcus aureus and Burkholderia cenocepacia are two pathogens commonly found in the CF lung. Previous work in the Yoder-Himes laboratory established an antagonistic relationship between members of the B. cepacia complex and S. aureus biofilms4. To understand this antagonism, it is crucial to identify the biofilm changes occurring when S. aureus and B. cenocepacia interact. This work provides insight into the changes that may be responsible for the reduced viability of S. aureus in biofilms. Using crystal violet to measure biofilm biomass, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and assessing differences in antibiotic susceptibility, S. aureus and B. cenocepacia were examined in both monoculture and co-culture conditions. The results of this experiment indicate S. aureus and B. cenocepacia biofilm formation increases over time and is greater in nutrient-rich media. Additionally, B. cenocepacia inhibits biofilm formation of S. aureus. These findings provide information that can be used for understanding the interactions between pathogenic bacteria in the lungs of CF patients, leading to the development of more effective therapeutics.https://ir.library.louisville.edu/uars/1038/thumbnail.jp

Taking the long view on writing development

Studies on writing development have grown in diversity and depth in recent decades, but remain fragmented along lines of theory, method, and age ranges or populations studied. Meaningful, competent writing performances that meet the demands of the moment rely on many kinds of well-practiced and deeply understood capacities working together; however, these capacities’ realization and developmental trajectories can vary from one individual to another. Without an integrated framework to understand lifespan development of writing abilities in its variation, high-stakes decisions about curriculum, instruction, and assessment are often made in unsystematic ways that may fail to support the development they are intended to facilitate; further, research may not consider the range of issues at stake in studying writing in any particular moment. To address this need and synthesize what is known about the various dimensions of writing development at different ages, the coauthors of this essay have engaged in sustained discussion, drawing on a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives. Drawing on research from different disciplinary perspectives, they propose eight principles upon which an account of writing development consistent with research findings could be founded. These principles are proposed as a basis for further lines of inquiry into how writing develops across the lifespan

The Relation of Patient Dependence to Home Health Aide Use in Alzheimer's Disease

BACKGROUND: Although there has been much research devoted to understanding the predictors of nursing home placement (NHP) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, there is currently a lack of research concerning the predictors of home health care. The objective of this study was to examine whether the Dependence Scale can predict home health aide (HHA) use. METHODS: The sample is drawn from the Predictors Study, a large, multicenter cohort of patients with probable AD, prospectively followed annually for up to 7 years in three university-based AD centers in the United States. Markov analyses (n=75) were used to calculate annual transition probabilities for the "new onset" of HHA use (instances where an HHA was absent at the previous visit, but present at the next visit) as a function of HHA presence at the preceding year's visit and dependence level at that preceding year's visit. RESULTS: The dependence level at the previous year's visit was a significant predictor of HHA use at the next year's visit. Three specific items of the Dependence Scale (needing household chores done for oneself, needing to be watched or kept company when awake, and needing to be escorted when outside) were significant predictors of the presence of an HHA. CONCLUSION: The Dependence Scale is a valuable tool for predicting HHA use in AD patients. Obtaining a better understanding of home health care in AD patients may help delay NHP and have a positive impact on the health and well-being of both the caregiver and the patient

A Direct Imaging Survey of Spitzer detected debris disks: Occurrence of giant planets in dusty systems

We describe a joint high contrast imaging survey for planets at Keck and VLT of the last large sample of debris disks identified by the Spitzer Space Telescope. No new substellar companions were discovered in our survey of 30 Spitzer-selected targets. We combine our observations with data from four published surveys to place constraints on the frequency of planets around 130 debris disk single stars, the largest sample to date. For a control sample, we assembled contrast curves from several published surveys targeting 277 stars which do not show infrared excesses. We assumed a double power law distribution in mass and semi-major axis of the form f(m,a) = $Cm^{\alpha}a^{\beta}$, where we adopted power law values and logarithmically flat values for the mass and semi-major axis of planets. We find that the frequency of giant planets with masses 5-20 $M_{\rm Jup}$ and separations 10-1000 AU around stars with debris disks is 6.27% (68% confidence interval 3.68 - 9.76%), compared to 0.73% (68% confidence interval 0.20 - 1.80%) for the control sample of stars without disks. These distributions differ at the 88% confidence level, tentatively suggesting distinctness of these samples.Comment: Accepted to A

Coral recruitment is impacted by the presence of a sponge community

© 2019 Peng Luo et al., published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston. C23H13NO4, monoclinic, P21/n (no. 14), a = 11.6537(6) Å, b = 5.1315(2) Å, c = 26.8047(13) Å, β = 96.266(3)°, V = 1593.4(13) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.0531, wRref(F2) = 0.1432, T = 90.0(5) K

Change in Body Mass Index before and after Alzheimer's Disease Onset

OBJECTIVES: A high body mass index (BMI) in middle-age or a decrease in BMI at late-age has been considered a predictor for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, little is known about the BMI change close to or after AD onset. METHODS: BMI of participants from three cohorts, the Washington Heights and Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP; population-based) and the Predictors Study (clinic-based), and National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC; clinic-based) were analyzed longitudinally. We used generalized estimating equations to test whether there were significant changes of BMI over time, adjusting for age, sex, education, race, and research center. Stratification analyses were run to determine whether BMI changes depended on baseline BMI status. RESULTS: BMI declined over time up to AD clinical onset, with an annual decrease of 0.21 (p=0.02) in WHICAP and 0.18 (p=0.04) kg/m2 in NACC. After clinical onset of AD, there was no significant decrease of BMI. BMI even increased (b=0.11, p=0.004) among prevalent AD participants in NACC. During the prodromal period, BMI decreased over time in overweight (BMI>/=25 and /=30) NACC participants. After AD onset, BMI tended to increase in underweight/normal weight (BMI<25) patients and decrease in obese patients in all three cohorts, although the results were significant in NACC study only. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that while BMI declines before the clinical AD onset, it levels off after clinical AD onset, and might even increase in prevalent AD. The pattern of BMI change may also depend on the initial BMI

Caged Phosphoproteins

We present the chemical and biological synthesis of caged phosphoproteins using the in vitro nonsense codon suppression methodology. Specifically, phosphoamino acid analogues of serine, threonine, and tyrosine with a single photocleavable o-nitrophenylethyl caging group were synthesized as the amino acyl tRNA adducts for insertion into full-length proteins. For this purpose, a novel phosphitylating agent was developed. The successful incorporation of these bulky and charged amino acids into the α-subunit of the nicotinic acetyl choline receptor (nAChR) and the vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) using an in vitro translation system is reported

Clinical Characteristics and Longitudinal Changes of Informal Cost of Alzheimer's Disease in the Community

Most estimates of the cost of informal caregiving in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) remain cross-sectional. Longitudinal estimates of informal caregiving hours and costs are less frequent and are from assessments covering only short periods of time. The objectives of this study were to estimate long-term trajectories of the use and cost of informal caregiving for patients with AD and the effects of patient characteristics on the use and cost of informal caregiving. The sample is drawn from the Predictors Study, a large, multicenter cohort of patients with probable AD, prospectively followed annually for up to 7 years in three university-based AD centers in the United States (n=170). Generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate the effects of patient characteristics on use and cost of informal caregiving. Patients' clinical characteristics included cognitive status (Mini-Mental State Examination), functional capacity (Blessed Dementia Rating Scale (BDRS)), comorbidities, psychotic symptoms, behavioral problems, depressive symptoms, and extrapyramidal signs. Results show that rates of informal care use and caregiving hours (and costs) increased substantially over time but were related differently to patients' characteristics. Use of informal care was significantly associated with worse cognition, worse function, and higher comorbidities. Conditional on receiving informal care, informal caregiving hours (and costs) were mainly associated with worse function. Each additional point on the BDRS increased informal caregiving costs 5.4%. Average annual informal cost was estimated at $25,381 per patient, increasing from$20,589 at baseline to $43,030 in Year 4