Exchanges between residents and tourism development

This qualitative study focused on utilizing a combination of social exchange and power theories to wxplain exchange that occurt between residents of Langkawi and tourism development on the island. The guiding question for this inquiry was "what role does power play in social exchanges that occur between residents and tourism development?" Findings revealed that social exchanges is useful in examining residents' attitudes towards tourism as residents indeed based their attitudes on the evaluation of the returns that they receive from the exchanges. More importantly, the findings indicated that residents' general values, their dependence on tourism, and their ability and willingness to adapt moderated the influence of power on residents' evaluation of tourism impacts

Theoretical and experimental studies of the underlying processes and techniques of low pressure measurement Letter report, 1 Jul. 1967 - 31 May 1968

Ionization gage behavior in various gas mixtures and atmospheric composition

Theoretical and experimental studies of the underlying processes and techniques of low pressure measurement Progress report, 1 Jun. 1966 - 31 May 1967

Construction, testing, and refining of vacuum gauges - ionization gauge cross section ratio

Consecutive wildfires affect stream biota in cold- and warmwater dryland river networks

Citation: Whitney, J. E., Gido, K. B., Pilger, T. J., Propst, D. L., & Turner, T. F. (2015). Consecutive wildfires affect stream biota in cold- and warmwater dryland river networks. Freshwater Science, 34(4), 1510-1526. doi:10.1086/683391Climate change and fire suppression have altered fire regimes globally, leading to larger, more frequent, and more severe wildfires. Responses of coldwater stream biota to single wildfires are well studied, but measured responses to consecutive wildfires in warmwater systems that often include mixed assemblages of native and nonnative taxa are lacking. We quantified changes in physical habitat, resource availability, and biomass of cold- and warmwater oligochaetes, insects, crayfish, fishes, and tadpoles following consecutive megafires (covering >100 km(2)) in the upper Gila River, New Mexico, USA. We were particularly interested in comparing responses of native and nonnative fishes that might have evolved under different disturbance regimes. Changes in habitat and resource availability were related to cumulative fire effects, fire size, and postfire precipitation. The 2nd of 2 consecutive wildfires in the basin was larger and, coupled with moderate postfire discharge, resulted in increased siltation and decreased algal biomass. Several insect taxa responded to these fires with reduced biomass, whereas oligochaete biomass was unaffected. Biomass of 6 of 7 native fish species decreased after the fires, and decreases were associated with site proximity to fire. Nonnative fish decreases after fire were most pronounced for coldwater salmonids, and warmwater nonnative fishes exhibited limited responses. All crayfish and tadpoles collected were nonnative and were unresponsive to fire disturbance. More pronounced responses of native insects and fishes to fires indicate that increasing fire size and frequency threatens the persistence of native fauna and suggests that management activities promoting ecosystem resilience might help ameliorate wildfire effects

Microtubule Associated Protein 1b (MAP1B) Is a Marker of the Microtubular Cytoskeleton in Podocytes but Is Not Essential for the Function of the Kidney Filtration Barrier in Mice.

Podocytes are essential for the function of the kidney glomerular filter. A highly differentiated cytoskeleton is requisite for their integrity. Although much knowledge has been gained on the organization of cortical actin networks in podocyte's foot processes, less is known about the molecular organization of the microtubular cytoskeleton in primary processes and the cell body. To gain an insight into the organization of the microtubular cytoskeleton of the podocyte, we systematically analyzed the expression of microtubule associated proteins (Maps), a family of microtubules interacting proteins with known functions as regulator, scaffold and guidance proteins. We identified microtubule associated protein 1b (MAP1B) to be specifically enriched in podocytes in human and rodent kidney. Using immunogold labeling in electron microscopy, we were able to demonstrate an enrichment of MAP1B in primary processes. A similar association of MAP1B with the microtubule cytoskeleton was detected in cultured podocytes. Subcellular distribution of MAP1B HC and LC1 was analyzed using a double fluorescent reporter MAP1B fusion protein. Subsequently we analyzed mice constitutively depleted of MAP1B. Interestingly, MAP1B KO was not associated with any functional or structural alterations pointing towards a redundancy of MAP proteins in podocytes. In summary, we established MAP1B as a specific marker protein of the podocyte microtubular cytoskeleton

The Black Feminist Mixtape: A Collective Black Feminist Autoethnography of Black Women\u27s Existence in the Academy

Seven Black women graduate students from across different functional areas of higher education work in solidarity to write a collective Black Feminist Autoethnography (BFA) (Griffin, 2012) about our experiences at our respective colleges and universities. BFA is a theoretical and methodological means for Black female academics to critically narrate the pride and pain of Black womanhood (Griffin, 2012, p. 1). This article centers Black feminist scholarship as a framework to reflexively interpret how we as seven Black women navigate within, against, and beyond the academy to address dominant narratives that affect our professional and personal experiences. We use contemporary music lyrics and poems by Black women to actively illustrate and interrogate our individual and collective positionalities to promote critical literacy. Together, we are seven Black sista scholars who reclaim our voice as legitimized epistemologies in academic spaces. Hear Our Voices

Data Acquisition and Processing Techniques for Voltage Contrast Measurements

The effects of several data acquisition techniques on the accuracy of voltage contrast measurements are studied. In particular, the effect of using a voltage reference region directly connected to an external voltage source in performing the image intensity-to-voltage mapping of a node whose voltage is to be determined is examined. This is found to allow improved voltage measurement. The actual reference curves were obtained by least squares fitting the measured intensity-voltage reference data alternately to a quadratic and a cubic function. In addition, various mapping algorithms are considered including ones based alternately on the use of unprocessed, subtracted and normalized data. Using these techniques, one should expect voltage errors with means of approximately 25 mV and standard deviations of approximately 160 mV even with an unmodified commercial SEM incorporating no additional hardware to increase precision

Catastrophic wildfire and number of populations as factors influencing risk of extinction for Gila trout (Oncorhynchus gilae)

We used the computer program RAMAS to explore the sensitivity of an extinction-risk model for the Gila trout (Oncorhynchus gilae) to management of wildfires and number of populations of the species. The Gila trout is an endangered salmonid presently restricted to very few headwaters of the Gila and San Francisco river tributaries in southwestern New Mexico. Life history data for 10 extant populations were used to examine sensitivity of the species' viability to changes in a variety of factors including population size, fecundity, life stage structure, number of populations, severity and probability of forest fires, and a regulated fishery. The probability and severity of forest fires and number of populations had the greatest effect on viability. Results indicate that successful conservation of Gila trout requires establishment of additional populations and reduction of the severity of forest fires through a program incorporating more frequent, but less severe, fires.Peer reviewedZoolog

The comparative effectiveness and efficiency of cognitive behaviour therapy and generic counselling in the treatment of depression: evidence from the 2(nd) UK National Audit of psychological therapies.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is the front-line psychological intervention for step 3 within UK psychological therapy services. Counselling is recommended only when other interventions have failed and its effectiveness has been questioned. METHOD: A secondary data analysis was conducted of data collected from 33,243 patients across 103 Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services as part of the second round of the National Audit of Psychological Therapies (NAPT). Initial analysis considered levels of pre-post therapy effect sizes (ESs) and reliable improvement (RI) and reliable and clinically significant improvement (RCSI). Multilevel modelling was used to model predictors of outcome, namely patient pre-post change on PHQ-9 scores at last therapy session. RESULTS: Counselling received more referrals from patients experiencing moderate to severe depression than CBT. For patients scoring above the clinical cut-off on the PHQ-9 at intake, the pre-post ES (95% CI) for CBT was 1.59 (1.58, 1.62) with 46.6% making RCSI criteria and for counselling the pre-post ES was 1.55 (1.52, 1.59) with 44.3% of patients meeting RCSI criteria. Multilevel modelling revealed a significant site effect of 1.8%, while therapy type was not a predictor of outcome. A significant interaction was found between the number of sessions attended and therapy type, with patients attending fewer sessions on average for counselling [M = 7.5 (5.54) sessions and a median (IQR) of 6 (3-10)] than CBT [M = 8.9 (6.34) sessions and a median (IQR) of 7 (4-12)]. Only where patients had 18 or 20 sessions was CBT significantly more effective than counselling, with recovery rates (95% CIs) of 62.2% (57.1, 66.9) and 62.4% (56.5, 68.0) respectively, compared with 44.4% (32.7, 56.6) and 42.6% (30.0, 55.9) for counselling. Counselling was significantly more effective at two sessions with a recovery rate of 34.9% (31.9, 37.9) compared with 22.2% (20.5, 24.0) for CBT. CONCLUSIONS: Outcomes for counselling and CBT in the treatment of depression were comparable. Research efforts should focus on factors other than therapy type that may influence outcomes, namely the inherent variability between services, and adopt multilevel modelling as the given analytic approach in order to capture the naturally nested nature of the implementation and delivery of psychological therapies. It is of concern that half of all patients, regardless of type of intervention, did not show reliable improvement

Sustained miRNA-mediated Knockdown of Mutant AAT With Simultaneous Augmentation of Wild-type AAT Has Minimal Effect on Global Liver miRNA Profiles

α-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency can exhibit two pathologic states: a lung disease that is primarily due to the loss of AAT's antiprotease function, and a liver disease resulting from a toxic gain-of-function of the PiZ-AAT (Z-AAT) mutant protein. We have developed several recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors that incorporate microRNA (miRNA) sequences targeting the AAT gene while also driving the expression of miRNA-resistant wild-type AAT-PiM (M-AAT) gene, thus achieving concomitant Z-AAT knockdown in the liver and increased expression of M-AAT. Transgenic mice expressing the human PiZ allele treated with dual-function rAAV9 vectors showed that serum PiZ was stably and persistently reduced by an average of 80%. Treated animals showed knockdown of Z-AAT in liver and serum with concomitant increased serum M-AAT as determined by allele-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). In addition, decreased globular accumulation of misfolded Z-AAT in hepatocytes and a reduction in inflammatory infiltrates in the liver was observed. Results from microarray studies demonstrate that endogenous miRNAs were minimally affected by this treatment. These data suggests that miRNA mediated knockdown does not saturate the miRNA pathway as has been seen with viral vector expression of short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs). This safe dual-therapy approach can be applied to other disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington disease, cerebral ataxia, and optic atrophies