Mapping a Terrapin Town

Grade Level: 7th Grade Life Science and Environmental Science In small groups, students will explore diamondback terrapin habitat requirements, conservation, and how land use planning can affect their population

Place-Based Estuary Science Education at Machicomoco State Park

Project description: This experiential estuary science field trip program was initially created as a master\u27s capstone project by Anna Caputo in partnership with Machicomoco State Park, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), and the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (CBNERR). The ultimate goal of the project is to strengthen community estuarine literacy in the local area by teaching students who will be future marine scientists, community leaders, watermen, and environmentally conscious citizens. The program is designed to highlight the coastal habitats at the state park, the issues those habitats are facing, and how science and monitoring efforts done by VIMS and CBNERR lead to solutions. The curriculum aligns with Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) and highlights the marine science that is being done in and around the park by VIMS and CBNERR. It was designed as a program that could be offered by Machicomoco to local schools as a regular field trip option. There are three foci for different age groups (i.e., elementary, middle, and high school students). The elementary unit focuses on habitats and ecosystems and covers topics such as estuarine food webs. The middle school unit focuses on relationships humans have with these habitats. These can be beneficial relationships or the negative impacts humans can have on the environment. Topics for this group may include climate change, sea level rise, water quality, and ecosystem services. Lastly, the high school unit focuses on solutions, science, and monitoring by surveying a salt marsh habitat and exploring living shorelines as an ecological engineering technique for shoreline restoration. In addition, optional classroom extension activities can be offered for advanced high school classes that want to apply what they have learned during their time at the park beyond the field trip. The curriculum is designed to scaffold concepts, meaning that each field trip builds off of the information from the previous one. Therefore it will be most effective if students visit Machicomoco three times during their school experience (once per elementary, middle, and high school). However, the program can accommodate one-time visits. A note on the audience for this product: This field trip curriculum was built for Machicomoco State Park. All the lesson plans were written for the park’s interpretive staff and volunteer docents

Food Rescue Program Evaluation Three Square Food Bank

With 48 million Americans currently struggling with hunger, addressing food insecurity in U.S. communities remains a persistent issue in need of a remedy. Conversely, food waste is the single largest material deposited in American landfills, with an estimated 70 billion pounds wasted annually. The recovery of this food waste, or “food rescue” in food banking jargon, offers an ideal solution to fight hunger in our communities. With Three Square Food Bank (Three Square) consistently seeking to increase food rescue and distribution in its efforts to eliminate hunger, the need to ensure operational effectiveness and efficiency through programmatic change and improvement is a constant driving force within the organization. This report provides an examination and evaluation of Three Square’s Food Rescue program in Southern Nevada

Hormone replacement therapy, renal function and heart ultrasonographic parameters in postmenopausal women: an observational study.

A certain degree of impaired kidney function is related to an increased cardiovascular risk. The cardiovascular protection exerted in the postmenopausal state by the hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is debated. No studies have so far explored the relationship between menopause, renal function and cardiovascular risk profile in healthy menopausal women in relation with HRT.A total of 362 postmenopausal healthy women with normal albumin excretion rate were recruited and divided into two groups (HRT+ and HRT-) according to the presence or absence of HRT. All participants underwent a complete routine biochemical analyses and an echocardiogram.Clinical characteristics of the two groups were similar, but HRT+ showed a significantly higher estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR; by CKD-EPI formula). Regarding the heart ultrasonography, HRT+ had a significantly lower size of the aortic root and left atrium diameter (p = 0.038 and p = 0.012, respectively); no differences were found in the ejection fraction and Left Ventricular Mass Index (LVMI). In the whole study group, eGFR correlated inversely with LVMI and with the size of the aortic root (both p0.0001), being GFR the only determinant of the former by a stepwise regression. Dividing the study population according to an eGFR cut-off (80 and80 ml/min/1.73 m(2));80 women, in comparison with80, showed a significantly lower LVMI and lower size of aortic bulb, further reduced in the HRT+.In a cohort of healthy, drug-naïve, postmenopausal women, HRT seems to positively affect glomerular filtration and is associated with lower values of left ventricular mass and aortic root size, thus offering a further mechanism through female hormones exert cardioprotection

Effect of hunting awareness on wild game meat purchase behavior

Although wild game meat constitutes a sustainable and healthy alternative to conventional meat and hunting contributes to the control of game populations, international studies on consumer attitudes towards this type of meat are still limited and no previous research has been focused on the Italian population.For the development of successful marketing strategies and/or public policy intervention, the knowledge of consumers’ purchase behavior is a key factor. Among all the determinants that can influence the behavior of consumers of hunted wild game meat (i.e. animal welfare, sustainability, ecological food choice, product safety, nutritional quality), the consumers’ awareness of hunting activity and their perceptions of wild game meat assume a crucial role.Accordingly, in this paper an online survey on a sample of 741 Italian meat consumers has been conducted to investigate the relationship between consumers’ purchase behavior and their awareness of hunted game meat and hunting practices (chi-square test, F-test). Statistically significant differences were found among segments of consumers with different levels of wild game meat consumption frequency. The analysis shows that, as expected, the highest consumption level of wild game meat relates to the highest level of general awareness of wild game meat and hunting practices.Our findings are in line with previous literature, that links positive behaviors of consumers towards wild game meat and hunting to familiarity and experience with hunting and hunters. Nonetheless, the present study provides a deeper understanding of the Italian consumers’ attitudes and perceptions of wild game meat and could suggests policy guidelines for the development of future targeted marketing strategies.

Il gruppo come risorsa per familiari di soggetti con disagio psichico nella Fondazione Internazionale Don Luigi di Liegro

Lo studio approfondisce la relazione tra associazioni di familiari e istituzioni mediante lo studio di caso di un gruppo di familiari di disabili psichici, all’interno di un’organizzazione No Profit romana, in una fase di ripensamento della loro funzione. Ci si propone di rilevare aspetti della cultura locale, esplorando le dinamiche simbolico-emozionali del gruppo tramite l’analisi dei testi prodotti nei diversi incontri, con lo scopo di individuare nuove possibili funzioni del gruppo in questo contesto. I risultati mostrano un processo di sviluppo delle rappresentazioni del malato mentale e nella definizione di una domanda ai servizi di salute mentale, in relazione al cambiamento culturale organizzativo.This study aims at investigating the relationship between family associations, Mental Health Services and Non-Profit Organizations. Specifically, we present a case study of a group of relatives of persons with psychological disorders, in a Non-Profit organization in Rome. The research has the purpose to detect some components of the local culture, based on the exploration of the emotional symbolic dynamics during the group meetings, entirely recorded, processed through a text analysis, in order to identify and develop a new function of the group in this context. Findings from the data suggest a possible change in this group of family members- that concerns their representation of their relatives with psychological disorders and their demand to the institutions- and a relation with the cultural change of the Organization

A Wireless-Assisted Hierarchical Framework to Accommodate Mobile Energy Resources

The societal decarbonisation fosters the installation of massive renewable inverter-based resources (IBRs) in replacing fossil fuel based traditional energy supply. The efficient and reliable operation of distributed IBRs requires advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) , which may lead to a huge infrastructure investment and long construction time for remote communities. Therefore, to efficiently coordinate IBRs, we propose a low-cost hierarchical structure, especially for remote communities without existing strong ICT connections, that combines the advantages of centralised and distributed frameworks via advanced wireless communication technologies. More specifically, in each region covered by a single cellular network, dispatchable resources are controlled via a regional aggregated controller, and the corresponding regional information flow is enabled by a device-to-device (D2D) communication assisted wireless network. The wireless network can fully reuse the bandwidth to improve data flow efficiency, leading to a flexible information structure that can accommodate the plug-and-play operation of mobile IBRs. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed wireless communication scheme significantly improves the utilization of existing bandwidth, and the dynamically allocated wireless system ensures the flexible operation of mobile IBRs

Simboli e significati nella cultura locale di una periferia urbana: uno studio di caso

Una ricerca psicologico-clinica esplora la Cultura Locale (i significati emozionali condivisi da chi partecipa a un contesto, atti a mantenere stabilità e coesione, a regolare e l’emozionalità dei processi di convivenza) di un quartiere della periferia romana nel momento della pianificazione di servizi per la comunità. La ricerca è fondata sulla analisi del testo computer assistita (Analisi Emozionale del Testo) di interviste somministrate a 8 figure chiave, e sulla analisi delle corrispondenze multiple di 314 questionari sulla percezione soggettiva della qualità di vita e sulla anticipazione dei rapporti sociali, somministrati a cittadini del quartiere. I risultati della analisi di interviste e questionari hanno messo in luce la qualità di vita come soggettivamente percepita dagli abitanti e le caratteristiche della cultura locale del territorio oggetto dello studio. Vengono fornite indicazioni pragmatiche sulla attivazione di servizi coerenti con la cultura locale del territorio esaminato. Viene messo in evidenza il possibile contributo della psicologia clinica alle discipline geografiche, urbanistiche, ambientali.This clinical-psychological research explores the Local Culture (emotional meanings shared by people in a given context aimed at maintaining stability and unity as well as regulating emotions affecting cohabitation) of a suburban neighborhood in Rome in the phase of community service planning. The inquiry is based on a computer-assisted text analysis (Emotional Text Analysis) of interviews of 8 key figures, and on the multiple correspondence analysis of questionnaires on the subjective perception of the quality of life and on the expectation of social relationships. The questionnaires have been administered to 314 inhabitants. The results of the analysis of interviews and questionnaires highlighted the quality of life in terms of subjective perception and the specific features of the local culture of the territory considered for this study. Practical solutions are indicated based on the Local Culture of the neighborhood in question. The possible contribution of clinical psychology to geographic, urban, and environmental disciplines is also highlighted. © 2019 The Author(s

Severe ocular involvement in a newborn with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis

Abstract Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare proliferative disease of the mononuclear phagocyte system, characterised by tissue infiltration of CD1a + CD207+ histiocytes. The clinical presentation is variable, ranging from unifocal asymptomatic bone involvement to life-threatening multisystem disease, requiring aggressive therapeutic approaches. Intraocular involvement is uncommon and associated to poor visual and general prognosis. We report a case of LCH in a newborn with severe ocular and multisystem risk-organ involvement, unresponsive to several lines of chemotherapy. Off-label administration of vemurafenib led to dramatic improvement at systemic level; however, chronic sequelae of ocular involvement resulted in poor visual prognosis. Intraocular LCH involvement may be asymptomatic and clinical signs delayed, leading to severe complications, especially in newborns and young children. Screening for ocular involvement is essential for early treatment initiation, which can possibly improve the visual outcome. Vemurafenib is effective on systemic involvement, and its role in ocular LCH needs to be evaluated