Scientific Findings of the Neskak Gora Project on Second Generation Immigrant Girls and Young Women from North African and South Asian Families in Europe

Research project “Neskak Gora” on discrimination against young second generation female migrants in six European countrie

Using Multiple-Stimulus Without Replacement Preference Assessments to Increase Student Engagement and Performance

Multiple-stimulus without replacement preference assessment is a research-based method for identifying appropriate rewards for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. This article presents a brief history of how this technology evolved and describes a step-by-step approach for conducting the procedure. A discussion of necessary materials and data sheets is included. Finally, a case study is presented to illustrate how the procedure can be used to improve behavioral and academic outcomes

Reference Sediment Selection in the Lower Mississippi Delta

Floodplain deposition has been a critical part in the evolution of Arkansas\u27 Delta ecoregion, and because ofits high potential for such events, this region is highly enriched and extremely fertile. Historically, water quality in the area has been the subject ofscientific study, and as a result littlehas been published on the effects of underlying sediment with associated benthic communities. Sediment analysis is critical to many of the ongoing aquatic studies because ofits significance as both a habitat for benthic organisms and a sink for contaminants. Seven rivers and one creek within the Delta ecoregion were examined for water chemistry, sediment characterization, and sediment toxicity to determine survival and growth of Chironomus tentans. Greatest midge growth occurred insediment collected from Black River site A; additionally, those sediments were high in silt content (\u3e80%) and supported high midge survival. The results of combined characterization and biological test methods indicated that the Black River (site A) was the sediment that met criteria set by the researchers and was suitable to use as a reference control sediment forfuture Delta toxicity testing

Uneconomical Diagnosis of Cladograms: Comments on Wheeler and Nixon's Method for Sankoff Optimization

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74972/1/j.1096-0031.1997.tb00249.x.pd

Using Cash-To-Cash To Benchmark Service Industry Performance

The cash-to-cash (C2C) metric is a measurement tool which may be used to bridge the management of firms and functions in a supply chain.  C2C can be used by management to improve firm liquidity position and overall firm value.  Measuring C2C also offers a consistent measure across time, helps to identify the greatest leverage points and opportunities for improvement, serves as a means to set goals for improvement within the supply chain, and can help to optimize the entire supply chain, instead of sub-optimizing individual portions.  In this study, the authors illustrate the calculation of cash-to-cash, investigate changes in C2C between product and service industries to identify key differences, review and discuss key leverage points of C2C, and provide insights for today’s service industry managers to understand the C2C metric from both accounting and supply chain management perspectives.  Data in this study can also be used for benchmarking purposes

Impact of Black Shale Weathering on Sediment Quality

Weathering of black shales leads to elevated metal concentrations in both surface water and stream sediments. In spite of the recent focus on black shales, few data exist on the ecological impacts of this process particularly on aquatic organisms. The key objective of this study was to determine the impact of trace metal concentrations in sediments upon aquatic organisms. To achieve the above objective, stream sediment samples were collected from streams draining black shale and limestone (used as a reference stream) lithologies located in central Arkansas between June 2003 and January 2004. Trace metal concentrations were measured by the dynamic reaction cell inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS; Perkin Elmer DRC II) following EPA 6020 methodology. Sediment samples were tested for toxicity using standard EPA protocols. The trace metal concentrations in sediments and acute toxicity test findings using midge larvae, Chironomus tentans with endpoints measured as growth and survival is presented. Our results showed that there are significant differences in survival of the midge larvae among the study sites and also among the different sampling occasions. Percent survival of the midge larvae in the sediments derived from black shales was lower than that observed in the limestone-derived stream sediments. Significant differences in growth of the midge larvae were also observed among the sites with the control and reference stream sediments having higher growth than the black shale stream sediments. Though our measured metal concentrations in the black shale-derived sediments were below the Effects Range-Low, there is a great potential of metal accumulation in the fine sediment fraction particularly during baseflow regimes. At the time, metals can be concentrated in the fine sediment fraction due to the low discharge and less dilution. The study thus far has shown that the black shale metal-enriched stream sediments have both lethal and sublethal effects on aquatic organisms and higher organisms through food chain transfer

Inferior vena cava branch variations in C57BL/6 mice have an impact on thrombus size in an IVC ligation (stasis) model

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110835/1/jth12866.pd

The evolution of gregariousness in parasitoid wasps

Data are assembled on the clutch-size strategies adopted by extant species of parasitoid wasp. These data are used to reconstruct the history of clutch-size evolution in the group using a series of plausible evolutionary assumptions. Extant families are either entirely solitary, both solitary and gregarious, or else clutch size is unknown. Parsimony analysis suggests that the ancestors of most families were solitary, a result which is robust to different phylogenetic relationships and likely data inadequacies. This implies that solitariness was ubiquitous throughout the initial radiation of the group, and that transitions to gregariousness have subsequently occurred a minimum of 43 times in several, but not all lineages. Current data suggest that species-rich and small-bodied lineages are more likely to have evolved gregariousness, and contain more species with small gregarious brood sizes. I discuss the implications of these data for clutch-size theory