Extraction and Quantification of Hydrolyzable Tannins in Acorns from Different Species of Oak Trees (Quercus spp.)

Do white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) prefer to eat certain types of acorns based on tannin content? Hydrolyzable tannins consist of gallate groups connected via ester linkages to a carbohydrate (D-glucose) The Prussian Blue method was used to determine hydrolyzable tannin conten

Perennial Geraniums

Hardy geraniums are a great ground cover plant for sunny or partially shaded areas, but they are often confused with the beautiful annual geraniums found at the garden center in spring. Technically, annual geraniums are in the genus Pelargonium, while the hardy geraniums are true geraniums. However, hardy geraniums are great perennial plants that deserve to be used more in Nebraska gardens

Will Residency Be Relevant to Public Education in the Twenty-First Century?

[Excerpt] “Long before the framers of New Hampshire’s first constitution admonished legislatures and magistrates to cherish education, the provincial government had already established requirements for providing public education; these requirements were related to the size of a settlement. By 1708, the provincial government in New Hampshire had established the first public school. Not surprisingly, the school was in Portsmouth, which was, at the time, the seat of the provincial government. On May 2, 1719, the province passed an act that required communities of fifty families to employ a school teacher. Under the same act, a community that had one hundred families was required to maintain a school. Thus, the province established the duty to provide access to public education in New Hampshire and mandated that the settlements implement it. Where a child lived was the causal connection in the expansion of public education. The purpose of this work is to ascertain whether, as a matter of public policy, the location in which a student lives should continue to determine which public school that student shall attend. The article will first look at the development in, and some of the early exceptions to, the residency requirement and how they have affected education policy. Next, it will discuss the role that state and federal statutes, court decisions, school funding litigation, technology, and current national projects have in modifying a strict reliance on residency as the primary factor that decides where students have access to public education. Finally, it will analyze whether the reliance on a residency-based public education system continues to be justifiable. While the focus of this article is on public education in New Hampshire, the article also considers statutes and court decisions from Florida and Colorado, as well as some federal statutes and court decisions, in order to illustrate the general application of this analysis to public education nationwide and to demonstrate that the New Hampshire experience is not necessarily unique. There was no particular rationale for the choice of states other than to offer a limited, but geographically diverse, view as evidence of the parallel between the state experience in New Hampshire and that in other states, and of the experience at the national level.

Reestruturação de um distrito escolar no nível do condado: uma análise crítica do desenvolvimento de políticas e políticas para a descentralização

Policymakers and educational leaders continue to use school district decentralization as a reform effort that attempts to shift power and authority from central office administration to school-level leadership. In 2015, the Nevada Legislature passed legislation to restructure the Clark County School District (CCSD), the state’s largest school district, with the intent of breaking it up into smaller districts but instead evolving to decentralization. In this article, we use case study methods to explore the events leading up to the reorganization of CCSD. We take a critical perspective on Kingdon’s multiple streams framework to analyze the reorganization efforts, focusing specifically on how Nevada’s political context provided a window of opportunity for the reorganization to occur. We also examine the extent to which equitable educational opportunity was a factor in these efforts. Our analysis of the reorganization of CCSD contributes to a wider understanding of state-level policy development and politics within contemporary educational contexts. In this case, we find that state-level policymakers successfully leveraged the opportunity to enact the power and authority necessary to significantly and rapidly impact the structure of one of the largest school districts in the United States.  Los formuladores de póliticas y los líderes educativos continúan con el uso de la descentralización del distrito escolar como un esfuerzo de reforma que intenta cambiar el poder y la autoridad de la administración de la oficina central al liderazgo a nivel escolar. Durante 2015, la Legislatura de Nevada aprobó una ley para reestructurar el Distrito Escolar del Condado de Clark (CCSD), el distrito escolar más grande del estado, con la intención de dividirlo en distritos más pequeños, pero se desarrolló hacia la descentralización. En este artículo, usamos métodos de estudio de caso para explorar los eventos que causaron la reorganización de CCSD. Tomamos una perspectiva crítica sobre el multiple streams framework de Kingdon para analizar los esfuerzos de reorganización, centrándonos específicamente en como el contexto político de Nevada creo oportunidades para que se produzca la reorganización. También examinamos el punto en cual la oportunidad educativa equitativa fue un factor en estos esfuerzos. Nuestro análisis de la reorganización de CCSD contribuye a una comprensión más amplia del desarrollo de la política y las pólizas a nivel estatal dentro de contextos educativos contemporáneos. En este caso, encontramos que los legisladores a nivel estatal exitosamente aprovecharon la oportunidad de representar el poder y la autoridad necesaria para tener un impacto significativo y rápido en la estructura de uno de los distritos escolares más grandes de los Estados Unidos.Os formuladores de políticas e os líderes educacionais continuam a usar a descentralização do distrito escolar como um esforço de reforma que tenta mudar o poder e a autoridade da administração do escritório central para a liderança do nível escolar. Em 2015, o Legislativo de Nevada aprovou uma lei para reestruturar o Distrito Escolar do Condado de Clark (CCSD), o maior distrito escolar do estado, com a intenção de dividi-lo em distritos menores, mas desenvolvido para a descentralização. Neste artigo, utilizamos métodos de estudo de caso para explorar os eventos que causaram a reorganização do CCSD. Nós tomamos uma perspectiva crítica sobre o quadro de múltiplos fluxos de Kingdon para analisar os esforços de reorganização, enfocando especificamente sobre como o contexto político em Nevada cria oportunidades de reorganização. Nós também examinamos o ponto em que a igualdade de oportunidades educacionais foi um fator nesses esforços. Nossa análise da reorganização do CCSD contribui para uma compreensão mais ampla do desenvolvimento de políticas e políticas a nível estadual no contexto educacional contemporâneo. Nesse caso, descobrimos que os legisladores estaduais conquistaram com sucesso a oportunidade de representar o poder e a autoridade necessários para ter um impacto significativo e rápido na estrutura de um dos maiores distritos escolares nos Estados Unidos

Preventing Cardiovascular Disease in Kentucky: Epidemiology, Trends, and Strategies for the Future

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States despite dramatic improvements in the treatment of heart disease in recent years. Kentucky leads the nation in the prevalence of several individual risk factors for cardiovascular disease, the prevalence of multiple risk factors, and in cardiovascular mortality. While trends in the prevalence of some of these cardiac risk factors have shown improvement, others have remained unchanged or have worsened. The increased prevalence of obesity and diabetes, especially among young persons, is one of the most worrisome trends. The prevalence of smoking in Kentucky remains high, and has not declined substantially in the past fifteen years. As a consequence of poverty, low educational levels, a high unemployment rate, and often limited access to medical care, select populations in the Appalachian region of the state have among the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in the developed world. In the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kentucky had met none of the stated objectives related to cardiovascular risk for Healthy Kentuckians 2010. Public health initiatives and interventions directed toward the prevention of CVD in Kentucky must address Kentucky\u27s unique challenges if progress is to be made

The late Ordovician Soom Shale Lagerstȁtte: an extraordinary post-glacial fossil and sedimentary record

Fossils of the Late Ordovician Soom Shale Lagerstätte are characterized by exceptional preservation of their soft tissues in clay minerals. The low-diversity community lived in an unusual cold-water setting, dominated by anoxic bottom waters, in the immediate aftermath of the Hirnantian glaciation. Giant conodonts represented by complete tooth sets, and one with trunk musculature and liver preserved, unarmoured jawless fish, lobopods and enigmatic taxa are some of the more important fossils. Furthermore, this Lagerstätte also preserves biomineralized Ordovician taxa such as brachiopods, orthoconic nautiloids and trilobites. It is important in capturing the only known examples of many taxa, extending temporal ranges of others and providing a unique glimpse of a post-glacial refugium, at a time when other Lagerstätten are unknown

Brain activity measured by functional brain imaging predicts breathlessness improvement during pulmonary rehabilitation

Background Chronic breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is effectively treated with pulmonary rehabilitation. However, baseline patient characteristics predicting improvements in breathlessness are unknown. This knowledge may provide better understanding of the mechanisms engaged in treating breathlessness and help to individualise therapy. Increasing evidence supports the role of expectation (ie, placebo and nocebo effects) in breathlessness perception. In this study, we tested functional brain imaging markers of breathlessness expectation as predictors of therapeutic response to pulmonary rehabilitation, and asked whether D-cycloserine, a brain-active drug known to influence expectation mechanisms, modulated any predictive model. Methods Data from 71 participants with mild-to-moderate COPD recruited to a randomised double-blind controlled experimental medicine study of D-cycloserine given during pulmonary rehabilitation were analysed (ID: NCT01985750). Baseline variables, including brain-activity, self-report questionnaires responses, clinical measures of respiratory function and drug allocation were used to train machine-learning models to predict the outcome, a minimally clinically relevant change in the Dyspnoea-12 score. Results Only models that included brain imaging markers of breathlessness-expectation successfully predicted improvements in Dyspnoea-12 score (sensitivity 0.88, specificity 0.77). D-cycloserine was independently associated with breathlessness improvement. Models that included only questionnaires and clinical measures did not predict outcome (sensitivity 0.68, specificity 0.2). Conclusions Brain activity to breathlessness related cues is a strong predictor of clinical improvement in breathlessness over pulmonary rehabilitation. This implies that expectation is key in breathlessness perception. Manipulation of the brain’s expectation pathways (either pharmacological or non-pharmacological) therefore merits further testing in the treatment of chronic breathlessness

BAFF, a Novel Ligand of the Tumor Necrosis Factor Family, Stimulates B Cell Growth

Members of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family induce pleiotropic biological responses, including cell growth, differentiation, and even death. Here we describe a novel member of the TNF family, designated BAFF (for B cell activating factor belonging to the TNF family), which is expressed by T cells and dendritic cells. Human BAFF was mapped to chromosome 13q32-34. Membrane-bound BAFF was processed and secreted through the action of a protease whose specificity matches that of the furin family of proprotein convertases. The expression of BAFF receptor appeared to be restricted to B cells. Both membrane-bound and soluble BAFF induced proliferation of anti-immunoglobulin M–stimulated peripheral blood B lymphocytes. Moreover, increased amounts of immunoglobulins were found in supernatants of germinal center–like B cells costimulated with BAFF. These results suggest that BAFF plays an important role as costimulator of B cell proliferation and function

Direct measurements of ionic liquid layering at a single mica-liquid interface and in nano-films between two mica-liquid interfaces.

The layering of ionic liquids close to flat, charged interfaces has been identified previously through theoretical and some experimental measurements. Here we present evidence for oscillations in ion density ('layering') in a long chain ionic liquid (1-decyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide) near the interface with mica using two complementary approaches. Neutron reflection at the ionic liquid-mica interface is used to detect structure at a single interface, and surface force balance (SFB) measurements carried out with the same ionic liquid reveal oscillatory density in the liquid confined between two mica sheets. Our findings imply the interfacial structure is not induced by confinement alone. Structural forces between two mica surfaces extend to approximately twice the distance of the density oscillations measured at a single interface and have similar period in both cases.We thank BP for funding (KLB and LRG), the EPSRC for a Doctoral Prize (AMS), and the John Fell Fund (Oxford University) for financial support. SP and AMS are grateful for support from the ERC under grant 676861: LIQUISWITCH