Play it Forward: Cooperative Learning & Structured Play During Recess

Cooperative learning and structured play (CLASP) are two things that have gone unappreciated in the modern educational setting. This is an important issue for many local low-income schools as the dropout rate is so high. CLASP ideals come with a wide array of positive outcomes that look to brighten the futures of affected youth. CLASP provides an incredible number of scholarly benefits: increased school involvement, higher GPA, improved interpersonal relationships, increased ability to work as a team, etc. This capstone identifies these critical benefits and addresses the best way to properly utilize CLASP within the school setting. The three primary stakeholders chosen are the Principal/Vice Principal, teachers, and students. All three of which stand to benefit from CLASP pedagogy. This Capstone implemented a prototype program in a local elementary school. Based on the results from the program, it has been made clear that the best way to utilize CLASP in the school setting is through the incorporation of service learning activity leaders during lunch recess. Furthermore, implementation of CLASP programs is minimal while the outcomes can be monumental

Play it Forward: Cooperative Learning and Structured Play

Cooperative learning and structured play (CLASP) are two things that have gone unappreciated in the modern educational setting. This is an important issue for many local low-income schools as the dropout rate is so high. CLASP ideals come with a wide array of positive outcomes that look to brighten the futures of affected youth. CLASP provides an incredible number of scholarly benefits: increased school involvement, higher grade point average,, improved interpersonal relationships, increased ability to work as a team, etc. This Capstone identifies these critical benefits and addresses the best way to properly utilize CLASP within the school setting. The three primary stakeholders chosen are the Principal/Vice Principal, teachers, and students. All three of which stand to benefit from CLASP pedagogy. This Capstone implemented a prototype program in a local elementary school. Based on the results from the program, it has been made clear that the best way to utilize CLASP in the school setting is through the incorporation of service learning activity leaders during lunch recess. Furthermore, implementation of CLASP programs is minimal while the outcomes can be monumental

Novel real-time PCR assays for the specific detection of human infective Cryptosporidium species

Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite causing gastrointestinal illness. Drinking waterborne outbreaks have been caused by C. hominis, C. parvum and C. cuniculus. Molecular detection techniques already exist for Cryptosporidium and usually target housekeeping genes. We set ourselves the task to identify species-specific genes. These genes are likely to be involved in host parasite interaction and virulence. Three subtelomeric species-specific putative virulence factor genes (Cops-2, Chos-1 and Chos-2) were identified in silico and used to develop novel real-time PCR assays. Our results show that Chos-2 is a suitable target for probe-based assays for the specific detection of C. hominis and C. cuniculus (two very closely related species) and that Cops-2 is a suitable target for specific detection of C. parvum

Multi-locus analysis of human infective Cryptosporidium species and subtypes using ten novel genetic loci

Background: Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite that causes diarrheal illness in a wide range of hosts including humans. Two species, C. parvum and C. hominis are of primary public health relevance. Genome sequences of these two species are available and show only 3-5% sequence divergence. We investigated this sequence variability, which could correspond either to sequence gaps in the published genome sequences or to the presence of species-specific genes. Comparative genomic tools were used to identify putative species-specific genes and a subset of these genes was tested by PCR in a collection of Cryptosporidium clinical isolates and reference strains. Results: The majority of the putative species-specific genes examined were in fact common to C. parvum and C. hominis. PCR product sequence analysis revealed interesting SNPs, the majority of which were species-specific. These genetic loci allowed us to construct a robust and multi-locus analysis. The Neighbour-Joining phylogenetic tree constructed clearly discriminated the previously described lineages of Cryptosporidium species and subtypes. Conclusions: Most of the genes identified as being species specific during bioinformatics in Cryptosporidium sp. are in fact present in multiple species and only appear species specific because of gaps in published genome sequences. Nevertheless SNPs may offer a promising approach to studying the taxonomy of closely related species of Cryptosporidia

LEED neighborhood and design assessment: the Bellingham downtown alleyway revitalization

Bellingham is a vibrant city nestled amid the Northwestern Cascades in close proximity to Canada, surrounded by vast agricultural flood plains, rolling foothills and striking snowcapped peaks. A crown jewel of the Pacific Northwest, Bellingham attracts people from across the country for a spectacular quality of life, higher education and a unique sense of community available only there. Needless to say, the population in Bellingham is projected to grow in the coming decades. By 2022, Bellingham is expected to grow over 50%, by almost 30,000 people, adding to the current population of 76,100 (COB, 2009), creating a significant impact on the municipality and metropolitan areas. (Population Growth Forecasts) Faced with a greater demand for land and services, municipalities of the future must seek innovative ways of meeting this growth without falling into the present urban paradigm of greater city sprawl. Space is becoming limited, farmland is being pressed by development and warnings of global climate change call for a radical shift in infrastructure. City planners, community leaders, developers, politicians and citizens are facing the difficult reality of finding ways to develop urban areas in revolutionary new ways. Boiled down into its most basic tenants, this new horizon is best described as sustainable urbanism, walk-able and transit served urbanism integrated with high performance buildings and high performance infrastructure . (Farr, 2008) Drawing from building movements like new urbanism, smart growth and green building, sustainable urbanism is a synthesis of the classic environmentally friendly growth with other pressing social concerns like economic disparity, vehicle dependent communities, un-equitable neighborhood patterns and pedestrian safety. Urban renewal projects are an opportunity to gain experience reaching the needs of a community both environmentally and socially. Downtown Bellingham is going to be the site of a major urban development in the near future that will add a great deal of community appeal for Bellingham residents and commercial real estate. This project is a major retrofit of the Cornwall corridor, the heart of Bellingham\u27s central business district. Large retail outlet is going to be placed on either ends of the project boundaries and the alleyways that run parallel to the main streets will be renovated. The goal of this project is to increase capacity and attractiveness of the central business district, using the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and sustainable building technology as they are synthesized in the current 2009 LEED Neighborhood Design rating system. Designed by the U.S. Green Building Council as an industry standard system to measure and rate Green building projects, LEED rating systems have evolved to provide a voluntary and objective measure of a project\u27s sustainability. Instead of designing and building the urban environment with a variety of Euclidean land uses that require extensive automobile connection to function properly, LEED standards help build mixed use communities that are designed and built to function self-sufficiently. Sustainable urbanism takes a more holistic approach to design, leading to the construction of healthy communities that encourage non-motorized transportation, mass transit and close proximity of everyday amenities. Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham is an example of a Euclidean use, automobile-dependent development, which resulted in the loss of economic activity downtown. Renovating the Downtown through LEED standards will effectively shift much of this retail activity from Bellis Fair Mall to a new urban village downtown, reducing automobile dependence and enhancing the livability of the downtown corridor. Our job as a sustainable growth consulting firm is to evaluate Bellingham\u27s potential for urban renewal based on the LEED-ND 2009 Rating System. This analysis begins with evaluating the current Cornwall revitalization proposal previously presented, through the LEED checklist. This project will focus on the alleyways that run parallel to Cornwall, the surrounding infill and building renovation. By doing this, we will be able to establish the potential for LEED certification of the existing plan and identify areas that can be improved upon to achieve a higher rating. Our alternative action will take the initial proposal a step further by evaluating potential solutions that can be utilized to meet more of the LEED requirements. As an academic consultation team, our mission is to bridge the gap between builders, government planners and the concerned public by evaluating the LEED-ND as a sustainable growth tool. We are confident that prejudice concerning environmentally sustainable growth can be met with practical methods for reducing environmental harm, efficiency thresholds and habitat restoration, providing the public with intelligently designed community space that will benefit us all

Prevalence and epidemiology of human Cryptosporidium parvum IIc infections in England and Wales

Background: Cryptosporidium parvum causes acute diarrhoeal disease, long-standing illness in immunosuppressed individuals, and longer-term problems, including stunting in malnourished children. C parvum IIc is a genotype that is genetically distinct, is anthroponotic in contrast to other C parvum genotypes, and is a major genotype causing disease in the developing world. This study aimed to characterise the prevalence and epidemiology of C parvum IIc infections in England and Wales over a 2 year period. Methods: We included C parvum-positive stool samples sent to the Cryptosporidium Reference Unit between Jan 1, 2013, and Dec 31, 2014, by microbiology laboratories in England and Wales. Samples underwent gp60 PCR and sizing of the amplicon to identify presumptive C parvum IIc isolates, which were sequenced for confirmation. Routinely collected epidemiological data were statistically analysed with the χ2 test. Prior ethics approval had been obtained. Findings: Of the 2641 samples received by the reference laboratory between the study dates, 149 were confirmed to be C parvum IIc, giving a prevalence of 5·6%. C parvum IIcA5G3j was the commonest allele (64%), followed by IIcA5G3a (24%). Male patients were more likely than female patients to be infected with subtype IIcA5G3a (26 [72%] vs 10 [28%], p=0·0179). Most patients were children, with 36 (24%) under the age of 5 years (median age 15 years, IQR 5–33). Sample collection peaked in October of both years. The autumn and winter predominance was particularly strong for the IIcA5G3j allele compared with the IIcA5G3a allele (74 samples of allele IIcA5G3j [80%] and 21 samples of allele IIcA5G3a [62%] collected in autumn and winter, p=0·0407). An unusual IIcA5G2 subtype clustered in the southeast of England. 27 patients with C parvum IIc infection (18%) reported foreign travel, with a significant difference in country visited between alleles IIcA5G3a and IIcA5G3j (15 patients with allele IIcA5G3a travelled outside of Europe vs none with IIcA5G3j, p<0·0001); allele IIcA5G3j was not demonstrated outside of Europe. Interpretation: This study provides the first estimate, to our knowledge, of the prevalence of C parvum IIc in England and Wales, and has shown a clear contrast with less economically developed countries where C parvum IIc is much more common. We have shown IIcA5G3j to be the major allele, which has rarely been reported worldwide, and postulate that it might be a European strain. Limitations of our study include use of routine epidemiological data and low prevalence of samples of certain allele types