Podcasting from PowerPoint Made Easy for Faculty

Student demand, institutional support, and evidence of quality learning through web-based instruction should encourage faculty to experiment with alternative methods of delivering instruction. The authors developed a procedure to produce and deliver classroom lecture material by narrating PowerPoint presentations and converting to podcasts. This procedure requires little to no technical support, even for the technologically impaired, and costs less than $100 in equipment and software combined. It is an example of the many alternative distance education options available to educators today

The Analysis of Multiple Genome Comparisons in Genus Escherichia and Its Application to the Discovery of Uncharacterised Metabolic Genes in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli CFT073

A survey of a complete gene synteny comparison has been carried out between twenty fully sequenced strains from the genus Escherichia with the aim of finding yet uncharacterised genes implicated in the metabolism of uropathogenic strains of E. coli (UPEC). Several sets of adjacent colinear genes have been identified which are present in all four UPEC included in this study (CFT073, F11, UTI89, and 536), annotated with putative metabolic functions, but are not found in any other strains considered. An operon closely homologous to that encoding the L-sorbose degradation pathway in Klebsiella pneumoniae has been identified in E. coli CFT073; this operon is present in all of the UPEC considered, but only in 7 of the other 16 strains. The operon's function has been confirmed by cloning the genes into E. coli DH5α and testing for growth on L-sorbose. The functional genomic approach combining in silico and in vitro work presented here can be used as a basis for the discovery of other uncharacterised genes contributing to bacterial survival in specific environments

Systems biology and ecology of microbial mat communities

Microbial mat communities consist of dense populations of microorganisms embedded in exopolymers and/or biomineralized solid phases, and are often found in mm-cm thick assemblages, which can be stratified due to environmental gradients such as light, oxygen or sulfide. Microbial mat communities are commonly observed under extreme environmental conditions, deriving energy primarily from light and/or reduced chemicals to drive autotrophic fixation of carbon dioxide. Microbial mat ecosystems are regarded as living analogues of primordial systems on Earth, and they often form perennial structures with conspicuous stratifications of microbial populations that can be studied in situ under stable conditions for many years. Consequently, microbial mat communities are ideal natural laboratories and represent excellent model systems for studying microbial community structure and function, microbial dynamics and interactions, and discovery of new microorganisms with novel metabolic pathways potentially useful in future industrial and/or medical applications. Due to their relative simplicity and organization, microbial mat communities are often excellent testing grounds for new technologies in microbiology including micro-sensor analysis, stable isotope methodology and modern genomics. Integrative studies of microbial mat communities that combine modern biogeochemical and molecular biological methods with traditional microbiology, macro-ecological approaches, and community network modeling will provide new and detailed insights regarding the systems biology of microbial mats and the complex interplay among individual populations and their physicochemical environment. These processes ultimately control the biogeochemical cycling of energy and/or nutrients in microbial systems. Similarities in microbial community function across different types of communities from highly disparate environments may provide a deeper basis for understanding microbial community dynamics and the ecological role of specific microbial populations. Approaches and concepts developed in highly-constrained, relatively stable natural communities may also provide insights useful for studying and understanding more complex microbial communities

Walking and Walkability: Is Wayfinding a Missing Link? Implications for Public Health Practice

Research on walking and walkability has yet to focus on wayfinding, the interactive, problem-solving process by which people use environmental information to locate themselves and navigate through various settings

Everything But the Merits: Analyzing the Procedural Aspects of the Healthcare Litigation

The role of States as Litigants in the Mandate Litigation Panel featured E. Duncan Getchell, Jr., Solicitor General of Virginia; William F. Brockman, Acting Solicitor General of Maryland; and William P. Marshall, the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law. The Defining the Scope and Legal Effect of the Challenges to the Individual Mandate Panel featured Edward A. Hartnett, Richard J. Hughes Professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law; Tobias A. Dorsey, Special Counsel for the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC); and Kevin C. Walsh, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law The Situating the Mandate Litigation in the Broader Regulatory and Political Landscape Panel featured Bradley W. Joondeph, Santa Clara University School of Law, Creator of the ACA litigation blog; A. Christopher Bryant, Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law; and Elizabeth Weeks Leonard, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Georgia Law School

Cultivating Forgiveness and Compassion Through a Mindfulness-based Program for Teachers: Results from Two Field Interventions

The aim of this research was to determine if a mindfulness-training (MT) program for teachers cultivated habits of mind (e.g., mindfulness, emotion regulation, compassion and forgiveness) conducive to effective teaching. Data were gathered in two randomized control trials. Results from pre- to post-test and follow-up showed that MT was associated with increases in mindfulness, efficacy for regulating emotion on the job, and the tendency to forgive others. Linguistic analyses revealed that teachers who underwent MT expressed more positive affect when discussing their most challenging student than those in the waitlist control group. Results warrant further investigation using behavioral-, observational-, and third-person measures of these habits of mind in the target individual

Cultivating Forgiveness and Compassion Through a Mindfulness-based Program for Teachers: Results from Two Field Interventions

The aim of this research was to determine if a mindfulness-training (MT) program for teachers cultivated habits of mind (e.g., mindfulness, emotion regulation, compassion and forgiveness) conducive to effective teaching. Data were gathered in two randomized control trials. Results from pre- to post-test and follow-up showed that MT was associated with increases in mindfulness, efficacy for regulating emotion on the job, and the tendency to forgive others. Linguistic analyses revealed that teachers who underwent MT expressed more positive affect when discussing their most challenging student than those in the waitlist control group. Results warrant further investigation using behavioral-, observational-, and third-person measures of these habits of mind in the target individual

Economic Values for Perennial Ryegrass Traits in New Zealand Dairy Farm Systems

Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) is the main species used in dairy pastures throughout New Zealand. There are approximately 30 perennial ryegrass cultivars sold commercially in New Zealand, but currently there is no evaluation system which allows farmers to compare the potential impact of different cultivars on the profitability of their farm business. Such an economic evaluation system requires information on performance values (PV) for cultivars which quantifies their performance with respect to the major productivity traits (herbage accumulation (HA, kg DM/ha), nutritive value and persistence) relative to a genetic base, and economic values (EV, Doyle and Elliott 1983) which estimate the additional profit resulting from each unit change in the trait of interest (Equation 1). Economic value = Δ operating profit/Δ trait of interest (1) This paper describes a system modelling approach developed to estimate EV for seasonal HA of pasture in the major dairying regions of New Zealand. This information is used in the DairyNZ Forage Value Index system (www.dairynzfvi.co.nz) which is being developed to include information on all three productivity traits for commercially available ryegrass cultivars

In Silico Analysis of the Small Molecule Content of Outer Membrane Vesicles Produced by Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron Indicates an Extensive Metabolic Link between Microbe and Host

The interactions between the gut microbiota and its host are of central importance to the health of the host. Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are produced ubiquitously by Gram-negative bacteria including the gut commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. These vesicles can interact with the host in various ways but until now their complement of small molecules has not been investigated in this context. Using an untargeted high-coverage metabolomic approach we have measured the small molecule content of these vesicles in contrasting in vitro conditions to establish what role these metabolites could perform when packed into these vesicles. B. thetaiotaomicron packs OMVs with a highly conserved core set of small molecules which are strikingly enriched with mouse-digestible metabolites and with metabolites previously shown to be associated with colonization of the murine GIT. By use of an expanded genome-scale metabolic model of B. thetaiotaomicron and a potential host (the mouse) we have established many possible metabolic pathways between the two organisms that were previously unknown, and have found several putative novel metabolic functions for mouse that are supported by gene annotations, but that do not currently appear in existing mouse metabolic networks. The lipidome of these OMVs bears no relation to the mouse lipidome, so the purpose of this particular composition of lipids remains unclear. We conclude from this analysis that through intimate symbiotic evolution OMVs produced by B. thetaiotaomicron are likely to have been adopted as a conduit for small molecules bound for the mammalian host in vivo