AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPACT OF GORDON’S INSTRUMENT TIMBRE PREFERENCE TEST ON GENDER AND STUDENT INSTRUMENT CHOICE

The purpose of this study is to investigate different practices of musical instrument choice and how those relate to gender equitable outcomes of music students. Little attention has been given to a student’s preference of the timbre of the instrument that is to be learned. Rather, instrument choice has been largely determined by a teacher based on what the student reports visually and physically liking after trying multiple instruments. This study will explore whether male and female students’ instrument placement differs when using Gordon’s Instrument Timbre Preference Test (ITPT). This study will use archived data from music students in Grades 4 through 12. Students in Grades 4 and 5 used the ITPT to select an instrument. Students in Grades 6 through 12 used the traditional “petting zoo” model. However, the ITPT was administered to these students in the 2018-2019 school year. The study will first establish if there are significant differences in the timbre preferences of boys and girls in Grades 4 through 12. Then it will explore if there are significant differences in the instrument placement of boys and girls when using Gordon’s ITPT method versus the traditional instrument selection petting zoo method. Among middle and high school students who did not use the ITPT to select their instruments, it will examine if students’ instrument choices correspond to their timbre preferences as measured by ITPT and whether that differs for boys and girls and their ensemble

Restoration of Β-Hexosaminidase A Deficiency through the use of Protein Chaperones

Tay-Sachs disease (TSD, also known as GM2-gangliosidosis) is an incurable autosomal-recessive neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disease caused by a mutation in the HEX A gene that codes for the lysosomal enzyme β-hexosaminidase A (Hex A). For patients with TSD, GM2-gangliosides cannot be properly broken down, and, as a result, accumulate in their neurons, causing severe neurological complications. Although all past treatment options have been ineffective, this study set out to reduce the number of GM2-gangliosides in cells by increasing Hex A activity using novel pharmacological chaperone therapy. Four factors, DMSO, glutamic acid, Pyrimethamine, and a decrease in temperature, were assessed for their ability to ameliorate Hex A activity in TSD cells and decrease the GM2-ganglioside buildup in a TSD derived cell line, GM00502. The human kidney fibroblast cell line contains two of the most common mutations that cause TSD (1278ins4 and 1421+1G→C). The effects of the chaperones outlined in this project have yet to be tested on a cell line with both of these major mutations. I hypothesized that temperature reduction, DMSO, glutamic acid, and pyrimethamine would rescue Hex A activity in the TSD derived human kidney fibroblast cell line GM00502. A study in cytotoxicity was conducted to find the optimum concentration of DMSO, glutamic acid, and Pyrimethamine to treat both GM00502 and HEK293 (control) human kidney fibroblasts. After confirming proposed treatment concentrations were not cytotoxic, a gradient of three concentrations of each factor was then used in the subsequent testing phase. Differences in GM2-ganglioside levels were quantified through the use of LysoTracker DND-26 staining and fluorescence microscopy. GM00502 TSD derived cells were shown to contain an increased accumulation of GM2-gangliosides when compared to the unafflicted HEK293 control cells. After treating GM00502 cells with DMSO, glutamic acid, Pyrimethamine, and a temperature reduction it was found that all treatments were able to reduce the overall GM2-ganglioside level. Likewise, each treatment was also able to further reduce the GM2-ganglioside levels in HEK293 cells. Of the four factors tested, glutamic acid appeared the most effective in decreasing lysosomal accumulation in both cell types (p\u3c0.05). Pyrimethamine also appeared to be effective at decreasing lysosomal accumulation in GM00502 cells (p\u3c0.005)

Novel Treatments for Native Forb Restoration in The Great Basin

Public land management agencies, conservation organizations, and landowners are interested in expanding the diversity of plant species used in rangeland restoration seedings. While the restoration of native grasses and shrubs in the Great Basin has become increasingly successful, restoration of native forbs continues to be problematic. In the Great Basin, soil water availability and soil fungal pathogens are thought to limit to restoration success. During the course of two years, we conducted two field experiments at three sites in the Great Basin that spanned a latitudinal gradient encompassing different precipitation and temperature patterns. In the first experiment, we evaluated two treatments for enhancing native forb restoration – snow fences and N-sulate fabric. In addition, we tested whether multiple fungicide and hydrophobic seed coatings could reduce seed and seedling mortality from soil fungal pathogens. To quantify the effectiveness of treatments, we tracked the fate of sown seeds over four life stages: germination, seedling emergence, establishment, and second-year survival. We found that snow fences and N-sulate fabric had varying degrees of success for increasing seedling emergence or establishment but ultimately did not increase second-year survival. Seed coatings increased seedling emergence but did not increase establishment or second-year survival. In the second experiment, we replicated the first experiment and also measured soil water availability to better understand how snow fences and N-sulate fabric alter soil water availability, and if differences in soil water availability can explain restoration outcomes. While we found that our treatments can increase soil water availability, increased soil water did not consistently result in better restoration outcomes. Snow fences did not benefit any life stage at any site while N-sulate fabric had positive and negative effects on forb restoration depending on the site. Seed coatings increased seedling emergence and establishment at all sites, warranting further research with other forb species. Results from both experiments provide insights for developing new treatments and techniques that can improve native forb restoration in the Great Basin and similar semiarid systems

THE MACROECONOMIC EFFECTS OF COUNTERPART FUNDS

Summary This article discusses the major macroeconomic effects of counterpart funds. These include their effects on the money supply, the balance of payments, government finances, and inflation. While the macroeconomic effects of aid and counterpart funds may be important in some countries at some times, in most countries they are probably too small to cause much instability or contribute much to stabilization efforts. We present some evidence on these issues. Résumé Les effets macro?économiques des fonds de contrepartie Cet article présente une discussion des principaux effets macro?économiques des fonds de contrepartie, y compris l'effet de ces derniers sur la masse monétaire, sur la balance des paiements, sur les finances gouvernementales, et sur l'inflation. S'il est vrai que les effets macro?économiques de l'aide et des fonds de contrepartie sont importants dans certains pays à certaines époques, dans la plupart des pays leur influence est probablement trop restreinte pour créer une instabilité perceptible ni encore pour contribuer aux efforts de stabilisation. Les auteurs présentent de l'évidence relative à ces questions. Resumen Los efectos macroeconómicos de los fondos de contrapartida El artículo examina los principales efectos macroeconómicos de los fondos de contrapartida. Estos incluyen: efectos en la provisión de dinero, la balanza de pagos, las finanzas del Estado, y la inflación. Si bien los efectos macroeconómicos de la asistencia y los fondos de contrapartida pueden ser importantes en algunos países en épocas determinadas, en la mayoría de los casos son demasiado pequeños para provocar inestabilidad o contribuir mucho a los esfuerzos de estabilización. En el artículo se presentan evidencias de estas conclusiones

Poverty-Centred Rural Road Funds Sharing in Sub-Saharan Africa

Poverty-centred allocation of funds for rural roads and their systematic prioritisation are important to enhance sustainability, provide equality of transport opportunities and mitigate poverty. The aim of this work was to investigate and develop new approaches with specific emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa, given that the existing decision systems do not appropriately consider social impacts and poverty. An understanding of rural road funds allocation and road scheme prioritisation to alleviate poverty is important as road transport is by far the most predominant form of transport in Africa. This study developed new allocation and prioritisation processes for rural roads based on expert opinion surveys and empirical evidence, which were then applied to analyse allocation and road scheme selection processes used in Uganda and Ghana. The study found that the multi-dimensional poverty index is the most highly prioritised factor in rural road scheme selection and, for regional rural road funds sharing, poverty is equally weighted with the rural accessibility index. A goal programming model, based on expert opinion weightings, is recommended for poverty alleviation

Children's daily travel to school in Johannesburg-Soweto, South Africa: geography and school choice in the Birth to Twenty cohort study

This paper has two aims: to explore approaches to the measurement of children’s daily travel to school in a context of limited geospatial data availability, and to provide data regarding school choice and distance travelled to school in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa. The paper makes use of data from the Birth to Twenty cohort study (n=1428) to explore three different approaches to estimating school choice and travel to school. Firstly, straight-line distance between home and school is calculated. Secondly, census geography is used to determine whether a child's home and school fall in the same area. Thirdly, distance data are used to determine whether a child attends the nearest school. Each of these approaches highlights a different aspect of mobility, and all provide valuable data. Overall, primary school aged children in Soweto-Johannesburg are shown to be travelling substantial distances to school on a daily basis. Over a third travel more than 3km, one-way, to school, 60% attend schools outside of the suburb in which they live, and only 18% attend their nearest school. These data provide evidence for high levels of school choice in Johannesburg-Soweto, and that families and children are making substantial investments in pursuit of high quality educational opportunities. Additionally, these data suggest that two patterns of school choice are evident: one pattern involving travel of substantial distances and requiring a higher level of financial investment, and a second pattern, involving choice between more local schools, requiring less travel and a more limited financial investment