Short-Term Belowground Responses to Thinning and Burning Treatments in Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests of the USA

Microbial-mediated decomposition and nutrient mineralization are major drivers of forest productivity. As landscape-scale fuel reduction treatments are being implemented throughout the fire-prone western United States of America, it is important to evaluate operationally how these wildfire mitigation treatments alter belowground processes. We quantified these important belowground components before and after management-applied fuel treatments of thinning alone, thinning combined with prescribed fire, and prescribed fire in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) stands at the Southwest Plateau, Fire and Fire Surrogate site, Arizona. Fuel treatments did not alter pH, total carbon and nitrogen (N) concentrations, or base cations of the forest floor (O horizon) or mineral soil (0–5 cm) during this 2-year study. In situ rates of net N mineralization and nitrification in the surface mineral soil (0–15 cm) increased 6 months after thinning with prescribed fire treatments; thinning only resulted in net N immobilization. The rates returned to pre-treatment levels after one year. Based on phospholipid fatty acid composition, microbial communities in treated areas were similar to untreated areas (control) in the surface organic horizon and mineral soil (0–5 cm) after treatments. Soil potential enzyme activities were not significantly altered by any of the three fuel treatments. Our results suggest that a variety of one-time alternative fuel treatments can reduce fire hazard without degrading soil fertility

Youth Design the Future of Transportation for Their Community

The complexity of a globalized world, accelerating technological advances, and rapid change challenge educational systems. Around the world the call is to develop 21st century skills with a focus on career readiness, ability for lifelong learning, and collaboration skills. The development of the foundational elements of civic engagement (civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions) of children and youth is also a dominant concern for educators and policymakers. Unfortunately, not all youth have the same opportunities to develop civic self-efficacy. However, the civic empowerment engagement gap can be closed by providing underserved students with interactive and authentic civic experiences. We strove to create such an authentic civic experience and piloted the Fresno State Transportation Challenge (FSTI) at an elementary school in the Washington Unified School district, Fresno County, California. The research question for this innovation grant was: Can we leverage the expertise and resources of the Fresno State Transportation Institute to bring high quality educational experience to underserved students and help them improve their communities

NEW APPROACHES IN UNDERSTANDING DRUG METABOLISM

Limitations in technology, such as DNA sequencing and appropriate model systems, have made it difficult to understand the genetic and non-genetic factors that influence the liver's role in metabolizing drugs. New approaches are required to overcome these limitations. In this Dissertation, we evaluate 3 such new approaches. Our first new approach relates to the field of pharmacogenetics: using genetics to predict how a patient will respond to medication based on their genetic code. We looked for polymorphisms in a novel target gene, Cytochrome P450 Oxidoreductase (POR). Our results show a mutation in P450 reductase (L577P) that associates with decreased metabolism for 8 of 10 major drug metabolizing enzymes. However, even though we found a statistical association between POR polymorphism and drug metabolism, a wide range of variation in POR activity was still observed among the samples with the L577/ P577 genotype, making predicting POR activity solely on the basis of L577P genotype difficult. POR represents only a single gene amongst the tens of thousands present in the human genome. To investigate the relationship between how genes and their products interact, a systems approach is necessary. Therefore, in our second new approach, we will characterize the transcriptome of our model system, the HepaRG cell line. We found that HepaRG cells globally transcribe genes at the levels more similar to human primary hepatocytes and human liver than HepG2 cells, particularly in genes encoding drug processing proteins. Finally, I describe the third new approach: the use of next-generation DNA sequencing to understand hepatic drug response. This section contains two parts. First, we introduce methods that significantly decrease the false discovery rate of genotyping from RNA-Seq data. With these high fidelity SNPs, we were able to perform a genome-wide pharmacogenomic analysis on HepaRG cells. Second, we introduce a new program, called PRUNE, to more accurately quantify gene expression, and compare its performance to that of established programs

A Furstenberg-Katznelson-Weiss type theorem on (d + 1)-point configurations in sets of positive density in finite field geometries

We show that if $E \subset \mathbb{F}_q^d$, the $d$-dimensional vector space over the finite field with $q$ elements, and $|E| \geq \rho q^d$, where $q^{-\frac{1}{2}}\ll \rho \leq 1$, then $E$ contains an isometric copy of at least $c \rho^{d-1} q^{d+1 \choose 2}$ distinct $(d+1)$-point configurations

The Fresno State Transportation Challenge

The goal of the “Fresno State Transportation Challenge” was outreach to schools and community engagement, to provide K-8 students opportunities to learn about transportation and transportation-related careers, and to practice 21st century skills by solving a transportation-related issue in their community. Through the pedagogical frameworks of action civics and eduScrum (a method to facilitate self-managed teamwork with a visual board), teachers and students worked on solving issues in their community. They learned design thinking to identify issues and develop solutions while using eduScrum to manage their work. University students from transportation engineering visited the schools regularly to support the K-8 students in their work on a transportation-related project. The study tested two different formats: summer school and during the regular academic school year. The research question was: What is the impact of the “Fresno State Transportation Challenge” on K-8 students, K-8 teachers, university students, and community members? The research methods involved observations, open interviews, and a final survey of participants. Key findings reveal the Transportation Challenge is suited to teach elementary and middle school students about transportation and transportation-related careers, and to encourage them to apply this knowledge in addressing a transportation-related issue in their community. The involvement of university students had a positive influence on the younger students’ learning in regard to motivation, role modeling, and broadening the perspective of transportation-related careers. The pedagogical approaches of action civics and eduScrum facilitated the development of career skills, such as collaboration, communication, creativity, teamwork, critical thinking, and persistence to overcome challenges. Implications for practice include that leveraging university resources, such as the Fresno State Transportation Institute, can be an effective way to engage K-8 students and teachers in transportation-related authentic learning experience, increase their awareness of transportation-related careers and topics, and develop their career skills

Sensor Based on Extending the Concept of Fidelity to Classical Waves

We propose and demonstrate a remote sensor scheme by applying the quantum mechanical concept of fidelity loss to classical waves. The sensor makes explicit use of time-reversal invariance and spatial reciprocity in a wave chaotic system to sensitively and remotely measure the presence of small perturbations. The loss of fidelity is measured through a classical wave-analog of the Loschmidt echo by employing a single-channel time-reversal mirror to rebroadcast a probe signal into the perturbed system. We also introduce the use of exponential amplification of the probe signal to partially overcome the effects of propagation losses and to vary the sensitivity.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

A Guide for Homeland Security Instructors Preparing Physical Critical Infrastructure Protection Courses

Over 350 academic programs in the United States currently offer instruction in the field of homeland defense and security. In spite of this growth at the program level over the past ten years, there still exists a shortage of instructors and coursework in critical infrastructure protection (CIP). Traditional instructor preparation (which is accomplished through the attainment of an advanced degree coupled with research and professional experience) does not currently produce enough instructors qualified in CIP because of the extremely limited number of CIP-related educational opportunities. Therefore, an alternate venue for instructor preparation must be provided. This article addresses that need by providing a guide for educators who desire to engage in a deliberate self-study program to develop sufficient expertise to teach a first course in physical CIP at the undergraduate or master’s degree level. This information is also useful for professionals who have had to assume CIP-related duties and functions without the benefit of supporting coursework. This article introduces a five-part framework for understanding CIP — policy, networks, level of hazard, level of protection, and system design — and provides resources for understanding each part of the framework. Each element of the framework is introduced and briefly explained and then resources are presented which will allow the reader to explore this particular topic in detail. Where possible, resources are presented as Web links to allow the reader to directly access the learning resource, free of charge. The article concludes with guidance for adapting the five-part framework and the materials presented in designing a CIP course tailored to the needs of a specific instructor and institution

A Guide for Homeland Security Instructors Preparing Physical Critical Infrastructure Protection Courses

Over 350 academic programs in the United States currently offer instruction in the field of homeland defense and security. In spite of this growth at the program level over the past ten years, there still exists a shortage of instructors and coursework in critical infrastructure protection (CIP). Traditional instructor preparation (which is accomplished through the attainment of an advanced degree coupled with research and professional experience) does not currently produce enough instructors qualified in CIP because of the extremely limited number of CIP-related educational opportunities. Therefore, an alternate venue for instructor preparation must be provided. This article addresses that need by providing a guide for educators who desire to engage in a deliberate self-study program to develop sufficient expertise to teach a first course in physical CIP at the undergraduate or master’s degree level. This information is also useful for professionals who have had to assume CIP-related duties and functions without the benefit of supporting coursework. This article introduces a five-part framework for understanding CIP — policy, networks, level of hazard, level of protection, and system design — and provides resources for understanding each part of the framework. Each element of the framework is introduced and briefly explained and then resources are presented which will allow the reader to explore this particular topic in detail. Where possible, resources are presented as Web links to allow the reader to directly access the learning resource, free of charge. The article concludes with guidance for adapting the five-part framework and the materials presented in designing a CIP course tailored to the needs of a specific instructor and institution