Education, Employment, and Coastal Carolina University: What Are CCU Students\u27 Plans After Graduation?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown that while unemployment amongst young college graduates is high, joblessness decreases as students pursue post-baccalaureate degrees. And with national unemployment near 8 percent, it is important for college students to consider what obstacles they may face when entering the workforce. Challenges may include sociohistorical (parent educational attainment) and socioeconomic factors as well as obstacles surrounding various forms of human capital. Using some of these challenges youth face when entering college and/or the workforce, this study predicts the decisions Coastal Carolina University (CCU) students will make post-graduation based upon four elements: parental education, academic achievement, paid work, and faculty-student interaction. I survey a random sample of CCU students assessing future occupational and/or educational plans post-baccalaureate graduation. Overall, the results show that the four selected elements accurately predict CCU student choice after graduation: whether they will enter a graduate program or enter the workforce. Considering, then, that unemployment risks decrease as education beyond a bachelor’s degree increases, CCU faculty have a unique opportunity to shape the economy by encouraging students to pursue schooling post-baccalaureate graduation

DY determinants, possibly associated with novel class II molecules, stimulate autoreactive CD4+ T cells with suppressive activity

A set of T cell clones (TCC) isolated from HLA-DR-, Dw-, DQ-matched allogeneic MLCs was found to proliferate autonomously when stimulated with cells carrying a wide range of class I or II specificities. This apparently unrestricted proliferation was relatively weak, and only low levels of IL-2 were present in the supernatants of stimulated cells. Autologous as well as allogeneic PBMC and B lymphoblastoid cell lines (B-LCL) were capable of stimulating such clones, which were also restimulated by suppressive, but not by helper, TCC. Moreover, such clones displayed the unusual property of autostimulation. mAb inhibition experiments suggested that class II- or class II-restricted antigens were involved in stimulation. Thus, certain "broad" mAbs (TU39, SG520) reacting with multiple locus products inhibited activation of these reagents, but none of those reacting more specifically with DR (TU34, TU37, L243, Q2/70, SG157), DQ (TU22, SPV- L3, Leu 10), or DP (B7/21), or mixtures of these mAbs, were able to do so. Evidence from sequential immunoprecipitation experiments suggested that mAb TU39 bound class II-like molecules other than DR, DQ, and DP on TCC and B-LCL, and it is therefore proposed that such putative novel class II-like molecules may carry the stimulating determinants for these autoreactive clones. DY-reactive clones lacked helper activity for B cells but mediated potent suppressive activity on T cell proliferative responses that was not restricted by the HLA type of the responding cells. Suppressive activity was induced in normal PBMC by such clones, as well as by independent suppressive clones, which was also inhibited only by mAb TU39. These findings lead to the proposal that DY-reactive autostimulatory cells may constitute a self- maintaining suppressive circuit, the level of activity of which would be regulated primarily by the availability of IL-2 in the microenvironmen

A Simple Test Method for Large Deformation Bending of Thin High Strain Composite Flexures

A simple test method for large deformation bending of thin composite laminates is investigated using image processing and full-field strain measurements. The assumptions and kinematic equations that represent the test are used to calculate numerically the laminate bending stiffness and strength as well as the curvature and strains at failure. In order to validate the test methodology, a comparison is performed between analytical model predictions and empirical data in terms of computed surface strains versus digital image correlation data and calculated rotation angles of the fixture arms throughout the test versus measured ones. The new test method is then used to calculate the bending stiffness in the D11 and D22 directions as well as failure strains for various thin-ply laminates of interest. These parameters are ultimately compared with predicted values using micromechanics and classical lamination theory analysis. In general, bending stiffness and strain test results and predictions for 0 degree orientation coupons have a maximum difference of 10% and 35%

"Tolerization" of human T-helper cell clones by chronic exposure to alloantigen

Induction of clonal anergy in T-helper (Th) cells may have a role in regulating immune responses. A model system for studying Th cell tolerization at the clonal level in vitro could be useful for investigating the mechanisms involved. Accordingly, alloreactive helper cells were maintained in culture with interleukin 2 (IL 2) by intermittent stimulation with specific antigen. Regardless of the frequency of antigen stimulation, clones of age less than ca. 35 population doublings (PD) were found to undergo antigen-specific autocrine clonal expansion in the absence of exogenous IL 2. Such young clones (designated as phase I) could therefore not be "tolerized" by frequent exposure to antigen. In contrast, most clones of age greater than ca. 35 PD could be tolerized by frequent exposure to antigen (designated as phase II clones). Their autocrine proliferation was then blocked, although they still recognized antigen specifically as shown by their retained ability to secrete interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). The mechanism of response failure involved both an inability to upregulate IL 2 receptors in the absence of exogenous IL 2, as well as an inability to secrete IL 2. These defects were not overcome by stimulation with mitogens or calcium ionophore and phorbol esther in place of alloantigen. T-cell receptor, alpha, beta, and gamma-chain gene rearrangements remained identical in phase I and phase II clones. Tolerization of phase II clones could be avoided by increasing the period between antigen exposures. Despite this, whether or not phase II cells were capable of autocrine proliferation, they were found to have acquired the novel function of inducing suppressive activity in fresh lymphocytes. Suppressor-induction was blocked by the broadly reactive MHC class II-specific monoclonal antibody (moAb) TU39, but not by moAb preferentially reacting only with HLA-DR, DQ, or DP. Sequential immunoprecipitation on T-cell clones showed the presence of a putative non-DR, DQ, DP, TU39+ molecule on phase II clones. However, this molecule was also found on phase I clones. The nature of the TU39-blockable suppressor-inducing determinant present on phase II but not on (most) phase I clones thus remains to be clarified. In addition to suppressor-induction activity, phase II clones also acquired lytic potential as measured in a lectin approximation system. Cytotoxic (CTX) potential was also not influenced by the frequency of antigenic stimulation and could be viewed as a constitutive modulation of clonal functio

Fine scale spatial variability in the influence of environmental cycles on the occurrence of dolphins at coastal sites

Passive acoustic data were collected under a series of grants and contracts from DECC Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment Programme, Marine Scotland, Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd., The Crown Estate, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Beatrice Offshore Wind Ltd. We thank Bill Ruck and colleagues from University of Aberdeen and Moray First Marine for fieldwork support. The tidal data was kindly provided by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. We would like to thank Dr Enrico Pirotta, Dr Julien Martin and Dr Barbara Cheney for their invaluable comments and ideas during the development of this work. We would also like to acknowledge the University of Aberdeen’s Maxwell computer cluster for assistance with the data processing. OFB was funded by “La Caixa” foundation and their support is gratefully acknowledged.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Windowed Green function method for wave scattering by periodic arrays of 2D obstacles

This paper introduces a novel boundary integral equation (BIE) method for the numerical solution of problems of planewave scattering by periodic line arrays of two-dimensional penetrable obstacles. Our approach is built upon a direct BIE formulation that leverages the simplicity of the free-space Green function but in turn entails evaluation of integrals over the unit-cell boundaries. Such integrals are here treated via the window Green function method. The windowing approximation together with a finite-rank operator correction -- used to properly impose the Rayleigh radiation condition -- yield a robust second-kind BIE that produces super-algebraically convergent solutions throughout the spectrum, including at the challenging Rayleigh-Wood anomalies. The corrected windowed BIE can be discretized by means of off-the-shelf Nystr\"om and boundary element methods, and it leads to linear systems suitable for iterative linear-algebra solvers as well as standard fast matrix-vector product algorithms. A variety of numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed methodolog

Fusion of SPOT5 multispectral and Ikonos panchromatic images

International audienceThe offer of high spectral and high spatial resolutions images has grown in the last decade. It is know possible to obtain data from different sources with different spatial and spec-tral resolutions. The field of data fusion of remotely sensed data grown also very fast in the last years. In this paper, an algorithm allowing the merging of SPOT 5 images and Ikonos images are proposed. This algorithm is based on the ARSIS concept and presents an implementation for a ratio of spatial resolution equal to 10. The ARSIS concept is first detailed. Then, the way of de-fining a new implementation based on this concept is presented, allowing to understand how to define new implementations and to develop new solutions based on this concept. The proposed algorithm is developed, describing the different steps for building a fused product from a SPOT 5 multispectral data at 10 m and from a IKONOS panchromatic data at 1 m. Some other methods are proposed. The evaluation of the quality of the different methods is achieved using a set of quantitative quality parameters. The visual quality of the products are evaluated by a set of inter-preters. Conclusions are drawn on the quality of the proposed products

Antioxidant Capacity and Antimicrobial Activity of Commercial Samples of Guava Leaves (\u3cem\u3ePsidium guajava\u3c/em\u3e)

Psidium guajava is a small tree native to South and Central America. Guava leaves have traditionally been used for treating different illnesses. These benefits can be attributed to phenolics and flavonoids produced by guava. The chemical composition of guava leaf extracts was correlated with biological activity. Total phenolics, total flavonoids, ABTS/DPPH, TZM-bl, plaque reduction, XTT, spectrophotometric and Kirby-Bauer assays were used to test phenols, flavonoids, antioxidant properties, antiviral activity, cytotoxicity, and antibacterial activity, respectively. The median cytotoxicity concentration and half-maximal effective concentration values were obtained in order to determine antiviral selectivity against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and herpes simplex virus type 1. Antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis were evaluated using a spectrophotometric assay and Kirby-Bauer test. The guava leaf extracts had a high phenol (0.8 to 2.1 GAE mg/mL) and flavonoid (62.7 to 182.1 Rutin Eq mg/g DW) content that correlated with high antioxidant capacity and selective antiviral activity (therapeutic index values above 10). Results of antibacterial tests indicated that the extracts have activity against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria