The Use of Behavioral Agreements by Senior Student Affairs Officers and Counseling Center Directors to Manage Student Mental Health Concerns and Minimize Threatening Behavior

This qualitative investigation examines the use of behavioral agreements by Senior Student Affairs Officers and Counseling Center Directors to manage student mental health concerns and minimize behavior that poses threats to campus communities. Six pairs of Senior Student Affairs Officers and Counseling Center Directors at the same institution were interviewed for this study. In addition, documents concerning mental health and threat assessment policy and protocols are also examined and discussed. An expanded theory of practice known as Student Intervention Facilitators is presented as an option to mandated psychotherapy

Nucleon Structure and Parity-Violating Electron Scattering

We review the area of strange quark contributions to nucleon structure. In particular, we focus on current models of strange quark vector currents in the nucleon and the associated parity-violating elastic electron scattering experiments from which vector- and axial-vector currents are extractedComment: 40 pages including 7 figures; review article to be published in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

NOSA, an Analytical Toolbox for Multicellular Optical Electrophysiology

Understanding how neural networks generate activity patterns and communicate with each other requires monitoring the electrical activity from many neurons simultaneously. Perfectly suited tools for addressing this challenge are genetically encoded voltage indicators (GEVIs) because they can be targeted to specific cell types and optically report the electrical activity of individual, or populations of neurons. However, analyzing and interpreting the data from voltage imaging experiments is challenging because high recording speeds and properties of current GEVIs yield only low signal-to-noise ratios, making it necessary to apply specific analytical tools. Here, we present NOSA (Neuro-Optical Signal Analysis), a novel open source software designed for analyzing voltage imaging data and identifying temporal interactions between electrical activity patterns of different origin. In this work, we explain the challenges that arise during voltage imaging experiments and provide hands-on analytical solutions. We demonstrate how NOSA’s baseline fitting, filtering algorithms and movement correction can compensate for shifts in baseline fluorescence and extract electrical patterns from low signal-to-noise recordings. NOSA allows to efficiently identify oscillatory frequencies in electrical patterns, quantify neuronal response parameters and moreover provides an option for analyzing simultaneously recorded optical and electrical data derived from patch-clamp or other electrode-based recordings. To identify temporal relations between electrical activity patterns we implemented different options to perform cross correlation analysis, demonstrating their utility during voltage imaging in Drosophila and mice. All features combined, NOSA will facilitate the first steps into using GEVIs and help to realize their full potential for revealing cell-type specific connectivity and functional interactions

Longitudinal impact of process-oriented guided inquiry learning on the attitudes, self-efficacy and experiences of pre-medical chemistry students

A follow-up study was conducted with foundation-year chemistry students who were taught in an inquiry- and role-based, small-group active learning environment in order to evaluate their attitudes, experiences and self-efficacy during pre-medical chemistry courses. The study adopted a mixedmethods research design that involved both experimental and comparison groups. Using the CAEQ (Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionnaire) and the ASCI v2 (Attitude toward the Study of Chemistry Inventory), the findings of this study indicated that inquiry-based chemistry learning experience improves the students’ intellectual accessibility and emotional satisfaction as well as develops their self-efficacy levels while pursuing intensive pre-medical courses in chemistry. The results of the qualitative data analyses using a course experience questionnaire indicated that the process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) experience helped the students succeed in rigorous pre-medical chemistry courses and gained some process skills required in the medical programme as listed by the AAMC (American Association of Medical Colleges)

Rats bred for low and high running capacity display alterations in peripheral tissues and nerves relevant to neuropathy and pain

IntroductionDiet and activity are recognized as modulators of nervous system disease, including pain. Studies of exercise consistently reveal a benefit on pain. This study focused on female rats to understand differences related to metabolic status and peripheral nerve function in females.MethodsHere, we investigated parameters of peripheral nerve function relevant to pain in rats selectively bred for high (high‐capacity runners; HCR) or low endurance exercise capacity (low‐capacity runners; LCR) resulting in divergent intrinsic aerobic capacities and susceptibility for metabolic conditions.ResultsLCR female rats have reduced mechanical sensitivity, higher intraepidermal nerve fiber density and TrkA‐positive epidermal axons, increased numbers of Langerhans and mast cells in cutaneous tissues, and a higher fat content despite similar overall body weights compared to female HCR rats. Sensory and motor nerve conduction velocities, thermal sensitivity, and mRNA expression of selected genes relevant to peripheral sensation were not different.ConclusionsThese results suggest that aerobic capacity and metabolic status influence sensory sensitivity and aspects of inflammation in peripheral tissues that could lead to poor responses to tissue damage and painful stimuli. The LCR and HCR rats should prove useful as models to assess how the metabolic status impacts pain.These results suggest that aerobic capacity and metabolic status influence sensory sensitivity and aspects of inflammation in peripheral tissues that could lead to poor responses to tissue damage and painful stimuli. The LCR and HCR rats should prove useful as models to assess how the metabolic status impacts pain.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139060/1/brb3780.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139060/2/brb3780_am.pd

Optimized ratiometric calcium sensors for functional in vivo imaging of neurons and T lymphocytes

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature Methods 11 (2014): 175-182, doi:10.1038/nmeth.2773.The quality of genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) has improved dramatically in recent years, but high-performing ratiometric indicators are still rare. Here we describe a series of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based calcium biosensors with a reduced number of calcium binding sites per sensor. These ‘Twitch’ sensors are based on the C-terminal domain of Opsanus troponin C. Their FRET responses were optimized by a large-scale functional screen in bacterial colonies, refined by a secondary screen in rat hippocampal neuron cultures. We tested the in vivo performance of the most sensitive variants in the brain and lymph nodes of mice. The sensitivity of the “Twitch” sensors matched that of synthetic calcium dyes and allowed visualization of tonic action potential firing in neurons and high resolution functional tracking of T lymphocytes. Given their ratiometric readout, their brightness, large dynamic range and linear response properties, Twitch sensors represent versatile tools for neuroscience and immunology.2014-07-0

Necator americanus and Helminth Co-Infections: Further Down-Modulation of Hookworm-Specific Type 1 Immune Responses

Parasitic infections in humans are common in tropical regions and under bad housing and sanitation conditions multiple parasitic infections are the rule rather than the exception. For helminth infections, which are thought to affect almost a quarter of the world's population, most common combinations include soil-transmitted helminths, such as hookworm, roundworm, and whipworm, as well as extra-intestinal infections by schistosomes. In order to develop and test a hookworm vaccine in endemic areas, the understanding of the impact of multiple helminth infections (co-infection) on the immune response against hookworm in infected individuals is crucial. The authors report in their article, that several parameters of the cellular (T cell markers, cytokines, chemokines) and humoral immune response (e.g. IgG4 and IgE antibodies) against hookworm are significantly affected or modulated in individuals co-infected with hookworm, roundworm and/or schistosomes. These results imply that the immune response against components of a hookworm vaccine might be altered by previous contact with other helminth species in endemic areas

Regional and teleseismic double-difference earthquake relocation using waveform cross-correlation and global bulletin data

We have developed a double-difference algorithm to relocate earthquakes recorded at global seismic networks, using differential arrival times for first and later arriving regional and global phases to invert for the vectors connecting the hypocenters. Differential times are formed from global seismic bulletins and are accurately measured on similar seismograms by time domain waveform cross correlation. We evaluate the performance of this spherical, multiphase double-difference algorithm using three-dimensional regional-scale synthetic data and two sets of earthquake data in different tectonic settings. The first includes 3783 intermediate depth earthquakes that occurred between 1964 and 2000 in the subducting Nazca plate beneath northern Chile, where the relocated seismicity confirms a narrowly spaced double seismic zone previously imaged with temporary local seismic data. Residual statistics and comparison with accurately known locations indicate mean relative location errors at the 90% confidence level of 2.4 km laterally and 1.8 km vertically. Later events typically constrained by cross-correlation data have errors of 1.6 km laterally and 1.4 km vertically. The second data set includes 75 crustal earthquakes in the 1999 Izmit and Düzce, Turkey, aftershock sequences, where the double-difference solutions image orientation and dip of individual fault segments that are consistent with focal mechanisms and near-surface information. Fault complexity likely causes a low level of waveform similarity in this aftershock sequence and thus generates fewer correlated events compared to the Chile earthquakes. Differences between the double-difference locations and corresponding locations in global seismicity catalogs (Earthquake Data Report, EDR; International Seismological Centre, ISC; Engdahl-Hilst-Buland, EHB) are typically greater than 10 km. We evaluate the potential of cross-correlation and double-difference methods to improve hypocenter locations on a global scale

Data Assimilation Enhancements to Air Force Weathers Land Information System

The United States Air Force (USAF) has a proud and storied tradition of enabling significant advancements in the area of characterizing and modeling land state information. 557th Weather Wing (557 WW; DoDs Executive Agent for Land Information) provides routine geospatial intelligence information to warfighters, planners, and decision makers at all echelons and services of the U.S. military, government and intelligence community. 557 WW and its predecessors have been home to the DoDs only operational regional and global land data analysis systems since January 1958. As a trusted partner since 2005, Air Force Weather (AFW) has relied on the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA/GSFC to lead the interagency scientific collaboration known as the Land Information System (LIS). LIS is an advanced software framework for high performance land surface modeling and data assimilation of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) information