Transgender an At-Risk Population During and Following Emergencies and Disasters

The experiences and needs of transgendered individuals immediately following a natural or human-caused disaster are largely ignored in practice and absent from previous academic literature. Using Schneider and Ingram\u27s conceptualization of the social construction of target populations as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences and perspectives of transgendered people who sought shelter in the aftermath of a natural disaster in 2018. Data were collected through interviews with 12 displaced, transgendered individuals to explore their experiences while staying at shelters in 2018. Interview data were transcribed, inductively coded, and then a thematic analysis procedure was applied. According to the key findings, participants perceived internal threats at shelters, which may have prohibited or restricted others in the same population from seeking shelter assistance. Additionally, participants perceived that a lack of understanding of the transgender community may have resulted in dissatisfactory services being provided. Most participants in this study perceived that the biases associated with negative stereotypes were persistent and pervasive, which may have resulted in disparate treatment from cisgender community members. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to government officials and shelter staff regarding techniques to ensure that shelter services are provided in fair and equitable ways, including the need for additional training related to the unique needs of transgendered populations. Implementing these recommendations may improve shelter conditions for the transgender community and reduce the risks associated with going to evacuation shelters to secure housing during times of disaster

Qualities Of A School Counselor And Principal Partnership That Foster Student Learning And School Culture: A Qualitative

The close partnership between school counselors and principals suggested that their work together can influence student learning and school culture. Their roles, while different in nature, could be conducive to collaborating in an effective manner to help achieve their respective goals and the objectives of their employment responsibilities. Ideally, principals should fully understand the role of school counselors and allow them to implement a comprehensive counseling plan to increase student learning, reduce discipline issues, promote attendance, and positively impacts school culture. According to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), outlined the role of a professional school counselor to incorporate the removing of barriers to student success, be they personal, social, career, and/or academic (2012). The partnership between school counselors and principals should be inclusive, conducive to open communication, and rooted in a foundation of trust. As a school counselor, my interest in this topic motivated me to explore further this partnership between the two roles. The basic interpretive qualitative study investigated the essential qualities of an effective partnership between school counselors and principals and their role in enhancing student learning and enriching school culture. Surveys and interviews were used to identify the qualities of the school counselor–principal partnership which seemed to exert an effective, positive influence on student learning and school culture. Equally informative was the identification of qualities that were ineffective or had an adverse impact on student learning and school culture. Keywords: student learning, school counselors, principals, school cultur

Examining the Impact of Art-Based Anchor Charts on Academic Achievement in Language Arts

The students at 2 middle schools in County SD, NHMS and WMS are not scoring on or above grade level on the information text portion of the English Language Arts (ELA) standardized SC Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (SCPASS) test given annually in South Carolina. The teachers developed and implemented art-based anchor charts to help close the achievement gap among the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. There has been no formal exploration of the teachers\u27 experiences regarding the use of anchor charts. Using the elements of problem-based learning as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this project study was to explore the teachers\u27 experiences of art-based anchor charts on increasing students\u27 comprehension on informational text. The research questions guiding this study examined the teachers\u27 experiences and perceptions with using art-based anchor charts and the teachers\u27 perceptions of which strategies are helpful in increasing comprehension on informational text. Using a single case study research design and purposeful sampling, 5 middle school teachers who used art-based anchor charts were interviewed. Open and axial coding were employed through transcribe interviews with iterative categorization to collapse the codes into themes then findings. The findings revealed that the anchor charts allowed for use of visuals, prior knowledge, art-based activities, and cooperative learning to create understanding and relevance to informational text comprehension were effective for engaging and encouraging high-level performance for students. The findings from this study may be used to assist the teachers when developing and implementing art-based anchor charts and with helping students increase their reading comprehension on informational text

Phylogenetic relationships of hydrothermal vent mussels (Bathymodiolinae) and their symbionts

Deep-sea mussels of the subfamily Bathymodiolinae (Bivalvia, Pteriomorphia, Mytilidae) are dominant members of hydrothermal vent communities across the globe and have been found within every known hydrothermal vent biogeographic province. Thus, the apparent rarity of bathymodiolines at vents of the Juan de Fuca Ridge (JdF) is a notable exception. We examined mussels collected from the JdF over a span of 18 yr to clarify the classifications of mussel hosts and their symbiotic bacteria, and the relationships between sparsely distributed individuals. Several specimens, previously classified as Bathymodiolus and Adipicola, were reassigned as Adipicola sp. JdF based on new phylogenetic evidence and previous morphological studies. Adipicola sp. JdF are the most deeply branching members of Adipicola identified to date. Ultrastructural, molecular phylogenetic, and stable carbon isotope analyses indicated that Adipicola sp. JdF mussels harbor bacterial chemoautotrophic symbionts that appear to be extracellular and that are closely related to symbionts of other bathymodioline hosts. This study demonstrates that a sparsely distributed, yet cohesive, population of Adipicola has inhabited JdF vents for at least the past 18 yr. Moreover, the presence of extracellular symbionts in Adipicola sp. JdF at hydrothermal vents stands in contrast to the evolutionary patterns proposed for bathymodiolines in general. Adipicola sp. JdF represents an exception to the trend of bathymodiolines harboring extracellular symbionts living exclusively in shallow marine wood and bone habitats (<1000 m), indicating that bathymodiolines are more flexible with regard to habitat and symbiont characteristics than previously considered.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Impact of an Advanced Cardiac Life Support Process Improvement Initiative on Leadership Role Comfort

Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR) in the Emergency Department (ED) requires optimized advanced cardiac life support (ACLS). An ACLS leader monitors compressions, orders medications, performs rhythm checks, directs defibrillation, and times events. This role was reassigned from physicians to nurses. Nurse led ACLS may allow physicians to assess ECPR inclusion criteria. There is limited research on ACLS leader role comfort for nurses. We hypothesized an ECPR initiative in the ED would improve personnel comfort in the ACLS leader role. ECPR initiative implementation included didactics and simulation training. A survey was distributed to ED residents, attending physicians, and nurses, and included six Likert-scale items on comfort with the ACLS leader role. Surveys were administered 6 months prior to and 3 months after implementation. There were 91 respondents at baseline and 100 respondents in the follow-up, resulting in a 43% and 48% response rate, respectively. We used Mann-Whitney tests to compare ordinal variables and non-parametric tests to assess the impact of initiative completion and level of experience on a cumulative score for comfort. We observed no significant changes for the six comfort items from the baseline survey regardless of respondent group. In the post-period, nurses (22.6/30) and resident physicians (23.9/30) had significantly lower mean cumulative comfort scores when compared to attending physicians (27.5/30) (p\u3c .001). Experience leading ACLS in the past 12 months was a significant predictor of cumulative comfort score for nurses in the post-period (p = .029), even when completion of ECPR requirements was controlled. While most report comfort acting in the role of ACLS leader there was no significant improvement post-initiative. These findings, combined with the significance of experience leading ACLS on comfort for nurses and resident physicians, suggest continued experiential learning and opportunities for simulation

0D-1D hybrid silicon nanocomposite as lithium-ion batteries anodes

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are the enabling technology for many of the societal changes that are expected to happen in the following years. Among all the challenges for which LIBs are the key, vehicle electrification is one of the most crucial. Current battery materials cannot provide the required power densities for such applications and therefore, it makes necessary to develop new materials. Silicon is one of the proposed as next generation battery materials, but still there are challenges to overcome. Poor capacity retention is one of those drawbacks, and because it is tightly related with its high capacity, it is a problem rather difficult to address with common and scalable fabrication processes. Here we show that combining 0D and 1D silicon nanostructures, high capacity and stability can be achieved even using standard electrode fabrication processes. Capacities as high as 1200 mAh/g for more than 500 cycles at high current densities (2 A/g) were achieved with the produced hybrid 0D/1D electrodes. In this research, it was shown that while 0D nanostructures provide good strain relaxation capabilities, 1D nanomaterials contribute with enhanced cohesion and conductive matrix integrityThis research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 713567 and Science Foundation Irelands Research Centre award 12/RC/2278_P2. This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain, under Grant ENE2014-57977-C2-1-R and “Estancias de Movilidad Salvador Madariaga”. Financial support from the U.S. Department of Defense (grant W911NF-14-1-0046), and from the U.S. Department of Energy, through the Consortium for Integrating Energy Systems in Engineering and Science Education, CIESESE (DE-NA0003330) is also acknowledge

Diel transcriptional response of a California Current plankton microbiome to light, low iron, and enduring viral infection.

Phytoplankton and associated microbial communities provide organic carbon to oceanic food webs and drive ecosystem dynamics. However, capturing those dynamics is challenging. Here, an in situ, semi-Lagrangian, robotic sampler profiled pelagic microbes at 4 h intervals over ~2.6 days in North Pacific high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll waters. We report on the community structure and transcriptional dynamics of microbes in an operationally large size class (&gt;5 μm) predominantly populated by dinoflagellates, ciliates, haptophytes, pelagophytes, diatoms, cyanobacteria (chiefly Synechococcus), prasinophytes (chiefly Ostreococcus), fungi, archaea, and proteobacteria. Apart from fungi and archaea, all groups exhibited 24-h periodicity in some transcripts, but larger portions of the transcriptome oscillated in phototrophs. Periodic photosynthesis-related transcripts exhibited a temporal cascade across the morning hours, conserved across diverse phototrophic lineages. Pronounced silica:nitrate drawdown, a high flavodoxin to ferredoxin transcript ratio, and elevated expression of other Fe-stress markers indicated Fe-limitation. Fe-stress markers peaked during a photoperiodically adaptive time window that could modulate phytoplankton response to seasonal Fe-limitation. Remarkably, we observed viruses that infect the majority of abundant taxa, often with total transcriptional activity synchronized with putative hosts. Taken together, these data reveal a microbial plankton community that is shaped by recycled production and tightly controlled by Fe-limitation and viral activity

Microbial community structure and function on sinking particles in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

Sinking particles mediate the transport of carbon and energy to the deep-sea, yet the specific microbes associated with sedimenting particles in the ocean's interior remain largely uncharacterized. In this study, we used particle interceptor traps (PITs) to assess the nature of particle-associated microbial communities collected at a variety of depths in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Comparative metagenomics was used to assess differences in microbial taxa and functional gene repertoires in PITs containing a preservative (poisoned traps) compared to preservative-free traps where growth was allowed to continue in situ (live traps). Live trap microbial communities shared taxonomic and functional similarities with bacteria previously reported to be enriched in dissolved organic matter (DOM) microcosms (e.g., Alteromonas and Methylophaga), in addition to other particle and eukaryote-associated bacteria (e.g., Flavobacteriales and Pseudoalteromonas). Poisoned trap microbial assemblages were enriched in Vibrio and Campylobacterales likely associated with eukaryotic surfaces and intestinal tracts as symbionts, pathogens, or saprophytes. The functional gene content of microbial assemblages in poisoned traps included a variety of genes involved in virulence, anaerobic metabolism, attachment to chitinaceaous surfaces, and chitin degradation. The presence of chitinaceaous surfaces was also accompanied by the co-existence of bacteria which encoded the capacity to attach to, transport and metabolize chitin and its derivatives. Distinctly different microbial assemblages predominated in live traps, which were largely represented by copiotrophs and eukaryote-associated bacterial communities. Predominant sediment trap-assocaited eukaryotic phyla included Dinoflagellata, Metazoa (mostly copepods), Protalveolata, Retaria, and Stramenopiles. These data indicate the central role of eukaryotic taxa in structuring sinking particle microbial assemblages, as well as the rapid responses of indigenous microbial species in the degradation of marine particulate organic matter (POM) in situ in the ocean's interior.Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Grant 3777)Agouron Institute (AI-MO9.12.1)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (EF0424599)Simons Foundation (Award 329108)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology DBI-1202684

Photocatalytic degradation of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in solution by Au@ZnO-rGO-gC3N4 composites

The photocatalytic degradation of two quinolone-type antibiotics (ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin) in aqueous solution was studied, using catalysts based on ZnO nanoparticles, which were synthesized by a thermal procedure. The efficiency of ZnO was subsequently optimized by incorporating different co-catalysts of gC3N4, reduced graphene oxide, and nanoparticles of gold. The catalysts were fully characterized by electron microscopy (TEM and SEM), XPS, XRD, Raman, and BET surface area. The most efficient catalyst was 10%Au@ZnONPs-3%rGO-3%gC3N4, obtaining degradations of both pollutants above 96%. This catalyst has the largest specific area, and its activity was related to a synergistic effect, involving factors such as the surface of the material and the ability to absorb radiation in the visible region, mainly produced by the incorporation of rGO and gC3N4 in the semiconductor. The use of different scavengers during the catalytic process, was used to establish the possible photodegradation mechanism of both antibiotics

Web: A Wireless Experiment Box for the Dextre Pointing Package ELC Payload

The Wireless Experiment Box (WEB) was proposed to work with the International Space Station (ISS) External Wireless Communication (EWC) system to support high-definition video from the Dextre Pointing Package (DPP). DPP/WEB was a NASA GSFC proposed ExPRESS Logistics Carrier (ELC) payload designed to flight test an integrated suite of Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking (AR&D) technologies to enable a wide spectrum of future missions across NASA and other US Government agencies. The ISS EWC uses COTS Wireless Access Points (WAPs) to provide high-rate bi-directional communications to ISS. In this paper, we discuss WEB s packaging, operation, antenna development, and performance testing