Educational Resources: Exchange Rates and Unit Conversion

The document is meant to act as a resource for elementary through middle school teachers, featuring a science activity connected to Indiana state standards with grade-appropriate science connections aimed toward 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. Students might have experience in 3rd-6th grade with converting basic ideas such as volume and measurements. This is intended to expand that idea and introduce the mole. It\u27s also a general interactive conversion/exchange activity. All items in here are just based on what we had available and convenient, so feel free to swap out items such as rubber stoppers with something more easily available to you such as pieces of dry pasta

Educational Resources: Ionic Matching

The document is meant to act as a resource for elementary through middle school teachers, featuring a science activity connected to Indiana state standards with grade-appropriate science connections aimed toward 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The entire point of this piece is simply to introduce balancing charges in ionic compounds. This is a simpler method to get students thinking about the idea, which also makes it suitable for pre-high school students. It gives a visual representation of how charges balance and cow cations pair with anions. At this level, it is very similar to least common denominator calculations

Characterizing the Complex Relationship Between the Brown Widow Spider and Its Bacterial Endosymbiont, Wolbachia

The brown widow spider, Latrodectus geometricus (C. L. Koch 1841), has been found to harbor the maternally inherited bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis (Hertig and Wolbach 1924), but endosymbiont infection frequency varies widely among Southeastern US populations. Wolbachia is known to manipulate the reproduction of its hosts through male feminization, parthenogenesis, male killing, and cytoplasmic incompatibility. In brown widows, Wolbachia does not alter sex ratios, but any other effects the symbiont has on the spider are unknown. In my first chapter, I assess if there is linkage between Wolbachia infection and maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in three brown widow populations. I found no evidence of linkage between Wolbachia infection and mtDNA haplotypes, despite both being maternally inherited. This result is consistent with weak fitness manipulation by the endosymbiont on the host, and could explain the variable, and often low, population infection frequencies in brown widow populations. Lack of linkage could also be the result of common leakage events, in which the bacteria is randomly lost from one generation to the next. In my second chapter, I determine if Wolbachia can induce cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) in the brown widow. I provide evidence that Wolbachia infection causes partial CI in the brown widow. Weak host effects, such as partial CI, is consistent with the lack of linkage between Wolbachia and mtDNA described in Chapter 1, as well as the variable infection frequencies among populations. In my last chapter, I explore Wolbachia concentrations in brown widow body regions. I found that endosymbiont load did not differ among three body regions, indicating that any host effects are not tissue specific. Wolbachia load, however, does vary among maternal lineages. The observed variation in Wolbachia load among maternal lines should be tested as a possible cause of variation in CI levels among mating pairs. This study may help us better understand the relationship between evolutionary genetics and the strength of host manipulation by endosymbionts

Methyltransferase, Glucose Adaptation, and Import Complex in Trypanosoma Brucei

Trypanosoma brucei is a kinetoplastid parasite responsible for human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) and nagana, a livestock wasting disease, which both endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. Unique to kinetoplastids are the specialized peroxisomes, named glycosomes, which compartmentalize the first several steps of glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, nucleotide sugar biosynthesis, and many other metabolic processes. Kinetoplastids are unique in that they have a single mitochondrion. In this work, I present the first study into SET domain proteins in any kinetoplastid parasites. We have characterized a predicted SET domain protein, TbSETD3, that localizes to the mitochondrion and a depletion of the protein results in growth defects and increased sensitivity to environmental stress and cell death. TbSETD3 appears to interact with several mitochondrial proteins, including transporters and membrane proteins. In Chapter 2, I characterize how cell growth, metabolism, and organelle morphology are affected by extracellular glucose levels in two strains of T. brucei. I use transcriptomics and proteomics to identify the pathways that mediate these distinct responses. This work indicates glucose induced changes in organelle morphology and function changes are accompanied by relatively small changes in transcript and protein levels highlighting the limitations of the ‘omics approaches in predicting cellular responses of these parasites. Finally, I have development a yeast complementation system in our laboratory and initial results indicate that two trypanosome-specific peroxins, TbPex13.1 and TbPex13.2, complement strains of yeast deficient for Pex13, though at different levels

Educational Resources: Homemade Fluorometer

The document is meant to act as a resource for elementary through middle school teachers, featuring a science activity connected to Indiana state standards with grade-appropriate science connections aimed toward 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade

Development of Chemistry Activities for Local Outreach in STEM

Introduction: This research project was started because of an increase in outreach opportunities for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. For similar opportunities, we now have bins of content that are simple to use, encouraging more students to participate in volunteer research. Purpose: to find, modify, and/or create grade-level appropriate labs and demonstration activities for 5th-8th graders, with a specific focus on activities hat involve easily available components. These activities are intended to be used for outreach to local schools by chemistry student volunteers and released online to act as a resource for teachers

The Relationship Between High School Culinary Curriculum and Culinary Arts College Student Achievement and Completion

There is a lack of persistence and completion of students enrolled in a local college culinary arts program, a problem also evident in national data. Some students entering the college program have participated in a defined high school curriculum focused on culinary arts, such as the National Restaurant Association Education Association\u27s ProStart curriculum. The purpose of this study was to determine if participation in the ProStart program was related to the mean grade point average (GPA) and time to completion in the college culinary arts program. Dewey\u27s theory of experience provided the theoretical framework. Participants from 2 cohorts at the local college students who participated in ProStart (n = 17) and those who did not (n = 122) were examined for GPA and number of months to program completion. A t test revealed the students who participated in ProStart had higher average GPAs. There was no statistically significant difference in the time to completion between the 2 groups. The analysis must be viewed within the limitations of the available sample size of the ProStart group, and further study is recommended with larger group sizes. Based on the results of this study, a peer-to-peer mentoring program pairing ProStart with non ProStart students was developed and recommended to the research site. The implications for social change include providing research results to the local site and a recommendation for a mentoring program to improve the rate of completion in the culinary arts program

Take 2 steps and call me in the morning: Prescribing physical activity through primary care

Objectives: Physical activity guidelines for older adults target high-intensity activities (i.e. increasing exercise), with less attention on low-intensity activities (i.e. reducing/interrupting sedentary behaviours) to improve health. Mobile health (mHealth) holds promise for engaging patients in self-management of chronic diseases. The purpose of this research was to prescribe physical activity of various intensities (i.e. sedentary through exercise) in primary care paired with mHealth for self-management. Methods: 60 older adults (55-75yr) were randomly assigned to four groups: one control, and three receiving mHealth kits plus prescription for a specific intensity of physical activity (exercise, sedentary or both). Clinical measures (anthropometrics, blood pressure, aerobic fitness, glucose, lipid profile) were conducted in a primary care office. During the 12-week intervention, participants remotely submitted measures for physical activity, blood pressure, body weight, and blood glucose. Six-months post-intervention, aerobic fitness was measured and interviews were conducted. Results: Clinical and remotely submitted measures improved (p Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first report of sedentary behaviour prescription in primary care. Findings support the ongoing practice of measuring lifestyle-related risk factors (e.g. body weight status, blood pressure, cardiorespiratory fitness) in the primary care setting for chronic disease management and prevention. Novel results demonstrate clinical benefits of prescribing changes to sedentary behaviours among older men and women. Additionally, results support the physiological and behavioural benefits of pairing physical activity prescription with mHealth for self-monitoring among at-risk older adults

Educational Resources: Curie Point Engine

The document is meant to act as a resource for elementary through middle school teachers, featuring a science activity connected to Indiana state standards with grade-appropriate science connections aimed toward 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The Curie point of a metal is the temperature at which it loses its magnetic characteristics. Heat can cause magnets to stop being magnetic, which is why heating up magnets is not advised. The engine works because the Curie point of nickel is 354 degrees Celsius, a temperature that can be reached with a simple candle flame. Included are instructions about how to build your own engine and how to extend this activity for an entire classroom to experiment and build