CHARACTERIZATION OF SURFACE ROUGHNESS ALONG THE ROCKY COASTLINE USING STEREO PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES

High-resolution images have been used to estimate and characterize the roughness of the rocky seafloor in terms of small-scale roughness and power spectral density. The application of this work is acoustical modeling of scattering from the sea floor. Two camera systems were designed and built to collect images of the ten different types of surfaces along the rocky shoreline on the Monterey Peninsula at low tide. Using commercial photogrammetry software, the images were processed to calculate height Digital Elevation Maps, which were then used to estimate 1-D and 2-D roughness power spectra. A power-law model was fit to the spectrum and had two parameters, the spectral strength and spectral slope. These roughness power spectra parameters were compared to previously collected parameter data on sandy seafloor, and the scattering strength values were compared to recently collected data along the same rocky coastline of the Monterey Bay. The lower-frequency rocky seafloor spectral strength and slope showed overlap with some of the sand surfaces at varying spatial scales. These parameters were used as inputs into a small-scale roughness perturbation theory model to predict scattering strength of the ten different surfaces for a frequency of 200 kHz and three different grazing angles. The predictions using this scattering strength method were within 10 dB of measurements collected within the same area in the Monterey Bay.Lieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release. distribution is unlimite

The Reading Experience: How Struggling and Non-struggling Readers Differ

The reading experience is a socially charged multifaceted event. During the reading experience, students are engaged with text and forming their own identity as a reader. Often teachers help form the identity of readers based on achievement. This study asked the question; how does the reading experience differ between struggling and non-struggling readers? Research was done in Moo, New York (pseudonym) with a group of six students; 3 struggling readers and three non-struggling readers. Through surveys and interviews there was a distinct difference between the students understanding of the reading process, emotional connection to text, and connection to instruction. These findings call for teachers to evolve their instructional practices to meet the needs of individual students throughout the reading experience

Mapping the optical absorption of a substrate-transferred crystalline AlGaAs coating at 1.5 µm

The sensitivity of 2nd and 3rd generations of interferometric gravitational wave detectors will be limited by thermal noise of the test-mass mirrors and highly reflective coatings. Recently developed crystalline coatings show a promising thermal noise reduction compared to presently used amorphous coatings. However, stringent requirements apply to the optical properties of the coatings as well. We have mapped the optical absorption of a crystalline AlGaAs coating which is optimized for high reflectivity for a wavelength of 1064nm. The absorption was measured at 1550nm where the coating stack transmits approximately 70% of the laser light. The measured absorption was lower than (30.2 +/- 11.1)ppm which is equivalent to (3.6 +/- 1.3)ppm for a coating stack that is highly reflective at 1530nm. While this is a very promising low absorption result for alternative low--loss coating materials, further work will be necessary to reach the requirements of <1ppm for future gravitational wave detectors. Jessica Steinlechner, Iain W Martin, Angus Bell, Garrett Cole, Jim Hough, Steven Penn, Sheila Rowan, Sebastian Steinlechne

Factors Related To Quality Of Life In Families Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

The purpose of this study was to explore how caretakers of children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are able to move through adverse circumstances with which they are confronted while raising their child with considerable developmental needs and challenges. Family resilience in this study includes family quality of life, locus of control, sense of coherence, perceived stress, uncertainty, severity, and demands. The participants in this study were 153 parents of children diagnosed with ASD. The parents were members of the Autism Society of Oakland County. The participants completed a survey comprised of six scales (Parental Concerns Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale, Orientation to Life Questionnaire, Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale, Family Quality of Life, and a short demographic survey) using SurveyMonkey. Three research questions were developed for this study. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that four variables, uncertainty in illness, perceived stress, age of parent, and average socioeconomic status accounted for 33% of the variance in family quality of life. Results of the mediation analysis used to answer the second research question used control variables (locus of control and orientation to life) as the mediating variable. The results indicated that orientation to life was partially mediating the relationship between uncertainty and family quality of life. The third research question used the control variables (locus of control and orientation to life) as the mediating variable in the relationship between perceived severity of disability and family quality of life. The results were not statistically significant. Because of a predominantly high socioeconomic status among the parents of children diagnosed with ASD, further study is needed using participants across the socioeconomic continuum. Additional research using instruments with better psychometric attributes for mastery, control, and stress might provide more information on parenting children with ASD and family quality of life

Jail Health and Early Release Practices

Local jails in the United States incarcerate millions of people each year. The COVID-19 pandemic made jail health a pressing public health concern nationally, where releasing individuals from jails occurred across the country in order to prevent pandemic spread. But releases also faced substantial resistance and exposed long-standing challenges in delivering adequate healthcare in jail settings. People in jail have substantially higher levels of medical need than individuals in the general population, with large numbers having serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Further, overcrowded conditions and poor healthcare standards and delivery make jails harmful to those already-vulnerable people. What means exist to protect individuals whose health would suffer in jail? Constitutional standards under the Eighth Amendment are highly deferential to jail administrators, nor is there substantial state or local level regulation of jail health. However, more informal mechanisms do exist, and they may be more responsive to health-based needs than constitutional or legal rights. This Article describes insights from qualitative interviews with jail medical staff in four states, to explore what challenges face delivery of healthcare, but more specifically, when health-based needs require counsel releasing individuals from jail. The Article describes widespread informal and unwritten mechanisms for health-based releases from jails. The Article will present the data and how such practices have implications for reforming the legal rules surrounding jail healthcare

OUTCOMES FROM OUR VISITING TEACHING FELLOW PROGRAM IN THE SCHOOL OF PHYSICS

In 2017 a visiting teaching fellow program was introduced in the School of Physics, University of New South Wales. Each year a high school teacher is seconded to the university to teach first year classes and develop outreach materials. This has led to a very fruitful partnership between teachers and academics. Projects that the teaching fellows have worked on include the introduction of online depth study resources to support the introduction of new Higher School Certificate syllabi; the opening of the first year physics laboratory out of term for school excursions; and the introduction of a summer school program, SciX, to support the extension science syllabus. Many of these projects expanded from physics to encompass the entire science faculty. The teachers have found the experience rewarding and refreshing while academics have benefitted from having a high school teacher’s insights into the background of our incoming students

Cells exhibiting strong p16INK4a promoter activation in vivo display features of senescence

The activation of cellular senescence throughout the lifespan promotes tumor suppression, whereas the persistence of senescent cells contributes to aspects of aging. This theory has been limited, however, by an inability to identify and isolate individual senescent cells within an intact organism. Toward that end, we generated a murine reporter strain by “knocking-in” a fluorochrome, tandem-dimer Tomato (tdTom), into exon 1α of the p16 INK4a locus. We used this allele (p16 tdTom ) for the enumeration, isolation, and characterization of individual p16 INK4a -expressing cells (tdTom + ). The half-life of the knocked-in transcript was shorter than that of the endogenous p16 INK4a mRNA, and therefore reporter expression better correlated with p16 INK4a promoter activation than p16 INK4a transcript abundance. The frequency of tdTom + cells increased with serial passage in cultured murine embryo fibroblasts from p16 tdTom/+ mice. In adult mice, tdTom + cells could be readily detected at low frequency in many tissues, and the frequency of these cells increased with aging. Using an in vivo model of peritoneal inflammation, we compared the phenotype of cells with or without activation of p16 INK4a and found that tdTom + macrophages exhibited some features of senescence, including reduced proliferation, senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) activation, and increased mRNA expression of a subset of transcripts encoding factors involved in SA-secretory phenotype (SASP). These results indicate that cells harboring activation of the p16 INK4a promoter accumulate with aging and inflammation in vivo, and display characteristics of senescence

Seasonal variation in preference dictates space use in an invasive generalist

The spatiotemporal distribution of resources is a critical component of realized animal distributions. In agricultural landscapes, space use by generalist consumers is influenced by ephemeral resource availability that may produce behavioral differences across agricultural seasons, resulting in economic and production consequences and increased human-wildlife conflict. Our objective was to assess changes in habitat selection across seasons in an invasive generalist omnivore (feral pigs, Sus scrofa). Hypothesizing that pig space use is primarily driven by forage availability, we predicted strong selection for the most nutritionally beneficial crops and resource types as agricultural seasons progressed. We deployed GPS collars on 13 adult feral pigs in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley to study resource selection in a fragmented agricultural landscape. We estimated resource selection using mixed-effect logistic regression to assess variation in selection across planting, growing, harvest, and fallow seasons

Effects of Nostalgia Directed Music Therapy on Residents with Dementia in Nursing Home

Background • Studies support a beneficial relationship between music therapy and the management of dementia. • Music therapy intended to activate memory may improve apathy and decrease cognitive decline in patients with mild to moderate dementia. • Individuals are typically most influenced by music encountered during early adulthood. Objective To analyze the effect of nostalgia directed music therapy on the quality of life of nursing home residents with moderate to severe dementia.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1286/thumbnail.jp

A dinucleotide deletion in the ankyrin promoter alters gene expression, transcription initiation and TFIID complex formation in hereditary spherocytosis

Ankyrin defects are the most common cause of hereditary spherocytosis (HS). In some HS patients, mutations in the ankyrin promoter have been hypothesized to lead to decreased ankyrin mRNA synthesis. The ankyrin erythroid promoter is a member of the most common class of mammalian promoters which lack conserved TATA, initiator or other promoter cis elements and have high G+C content, functional Sp1 binding sites and multiple transcription initiation sites. We identified a novel ankyrin gene promoter mutation, a TG deletion adjacent to a transcription initiation site, in a patient with ankyrin-linked HS and analyzed its effects on ankyrin expression. In vitro, the mutant promoter directed decreased levels of gene expression, altered transcription initiation site utilization and exhibited defective binding of TATA-binding protein (TBP) and TFIID complex formation. In a transgenic mouse model, the mutant ankyrin promoter led to abnormalities in gene expression, including decreased expression of a reporter gene and altered transcription initiation site utilization. These data indicate that the mutation alters ankyrin gene transcription and contributes to the HS phenotype by decreasing ankyrin gene synthesis via disruption of TFIID complex interactions with the ankyrin core promoter. These studies support the model that in promoters that lack conserved cis elements, the TFIID complex directs preinitiation complex formation at specific sites in core promoter DNA and provide the first evidence that disruption of TBP binding and TFIID complex formation in this type of promoter leads to alterations in start site utilization, decreased gene expression and a disease phenotype in viv