Improving Language Skills Of Kindergarteners With Deficient Receptive And Expressive Vocabularies

This practicum addressed the need for methods to improve the receptive and expressive vocabularies of kindergarten children. The Peabody Vocabulary Test and the Expressive One Word Vocabulary Test were employed as screening devices to assess students. Language based activities, recordings, and musical activities were used to enhance development of language skills. Students were engaged in stimulating language activities over a period of ten weeks. Appropriate classroom experiences were provided to help instill positive self-concepts while stimulating vocabulary development. It was hoped that an increase in vocabulary would better prepare the students for success in first grade. The results showed the program was beneficial to the target group and that students showed a desire to learn. The Appendices include language activities, an evaluation checklist, and monitoring sheets

Identification of putative methanol dehydrogenase (moxF) structural genes in methylotrophs and cloning of moxF genes from Methylococcus capsulatus bath and Methylomonas albus BG8

An open-reading-frame fragment of a Methylobacterium sp. strain AM1 gene (moxF) encoding a portion of the methanol dehydrogenase structural protein has been used as a hybridization probe to detect similar sequences in a variety of methylotrophic bacteria. This hybridization was used to isolate clones containing putative moxF genes from two obligate methanotrophic bacteria, Methylococcus capsulatus Bath and Methylomonas albus BG8. The identity of these genes was confirmed in two ways. A T7 expression vector was used to produce methanol dehydrogenase protein in Escherichia coli from the cloned genes, and in each case the protein was identified by immunoblotting with antiserum against the Methylomonas albus methanol dehydrogenase. In addition, a moxF mutant of Methylobacterium strain AM1 was complemented to a methanol-positive phenotype that partially restored methanol dehydrogenase activity, using broad-host-range plasmids containing the moxF genes from each methanotroph. The partial complementation of a moxF mutant in a facultative serine pathway methanol utilizer by moxF genes from type I and type X obligate methane utilizers suggests broad functional conservation of the methanol oxidation system among gram-negative methylotrophs

<i>Teredinibacter waterburyi</i> sp. nov., a marine, cellulolytic endosymbiotic bacterium isolated from the gills of the wood-boring mollusc <i>Bankia setacea</i> (Bivalvia: Teredinidae) and emended description of the genus <i>Teredinibacter</i>

A cellulolytic, aerobic, gammaproteobacterium, designated strain Bs02T, was isolated from the gills of a marine wood-boring mollusc, Bankia setacea (Bivalvia: Teredinidae). The cells are Gram-stain-negative, slightly curved motile rods (2-5×0.4-0.6 µm) that bear a single polar flagellum and are capable of heterotrophic growth in a simple mineral medium supplemented with cellulose as a sole source of carbon and energy. Cellulose, carboxymethylcellulose, xylan, cellobiose and a variety of sugars also support growth. Strain Bs02T requires combined nitrogen for growth. Temperature, pH and salinity optima (range) for growth were 20 °C (range, 10-30 °C), 8.0 (pH 6.5-8.5) and 0.5 M NaCl (range, 0.0-0.8 M), respectively when grown on 0.5 % (w/v) galactose. Strain Bs02T does not require magnesium and calcium ion concentrations reflecting the proportions found in seawater. The genome size is approximately 4.03 Mbp and the DNA G+C content of the genome is 47.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, and on conserved protein-coding sequences, show that strain Bs02T forms a well-supported clade with Teredinibacter turnerae. Average nucleotide identity and percentage of conserved proteins differentiate strain Bs02T from Teredinibacter turnerae at threshold values exceeding those proposed to distinguish bacterial species but not genera. These results indicate that strain Bs02T represents a novel species in the previously monotypic genus Teredinibacter for which the name Teredinibacter waterburyi sp. nov. is proposed. The strain has been deposited under accession numbers ATCC TSD-120T and KCTC 62963T

Food Distribution and Consumption in Knoxville: Exploring Food-Related Local Planning Issues

Summary: City planners have traditionally made an effort to understand the interrelationships between urban activities and various support systems, such as transportation, water and sewer, waste management, communications and energy. Food is also an important urban support system with a complex system of supply, distribution, and consumption. An understanding of the nature of the food supply and distribution system seems important, but in the past has not been an area of concern for the planning profession. It was the intent of this project to develop a basis from which to seek an understanding of the Knoxville food support system and its implications for local planning policy in Knoxville. The thrust of the study was three-fold. First, food-related problems and issues were identified. Then, further work was undertaken in order to propose remedial measures or public programs that might be initiated by local units of government. Finally, the group considered the possibility of establishing some kind of public oversight of the local food supply and distribution function. The approach has been general and comprehensive. One assumption here is that before public action can be initiated, those with responsibility for maintaining the public interest must understand the system. Thus, an analysis which would describe the system comprehensively, while allowing an opportunity to detect interrelationships among system components, was utilized. Patterns of consumption, food services and programs, and marketing channels by food types were also explored. The development of information involves consultation with literature, academicians, public officials, and industry representatives

Shipworm bioerosion of lithic substrates in a freshwater setting, Abatan River, Philippines: ichnologic, paleoenvironmental and biogeomorphical implications

Teredinid bivalves, commonly referred to as shipworms, are known for their propensity to inhabit, bioerode, and digest woody substrates across a range of brackish and fully marine settings. Shipworm body fossils and/or their borings, which are most allied with the ichnotaxon Teredolites longissimus, are found in wood preserved in sedimentary sequences ranging in age from Early Cretaceous to Recent and traditionally they have been regarded as evidence of marginal marine or marine depositional environments. Recent studies associated with the Philippine Mollusk Symbiont International Collaboration Biodiversity Group (PMS-ICBG) expedition on the island of Bohol, Philippines, have identified a new shipworm taxon (Lithoredo abatanica) that is responsible for macrobioerosion of a moderately indurated Neogene foraminiferal packstone cropping out along a freshwater reach of the Abatan River. In the process of drilling into and ingesting the limestone, these shipworms produce elongate borings that expand in diameter very gradually toward distal termini, exhibit sinuous or highly contorted axes and circular transverse outlines, and are lined along most of their length by a calcite tube. Given their strong resemblance to T. longissimus produced in wood but their unusual occurrence in a lithic substrate, these shipworm borings can be regarded as incipient Gastrochaenolites or, alternatively, as Apectoichnus. The alternate names reflect that the borings provide a testbed for ideas of the appropriateness of substrate as an ichnotaxobasis. The discovery of previously unrecognized shipworm borings in lithic substrates and the co-occurrence of another shipworm (Nausitora) in submerged logs in the same freshwater setting have implications for interpreting depositional conditions based on fossil teredinids or their ichnofossils. Of equal significance, the Abatan River study demonstrates that macrobioerosion in freshwater systems may be just as important as it is in marine systems with regard to habitat creation and landscape development. L. abatanica serve as ecosystems engineers in the sense that networks of their abandoned borings provide habitats for a variety of nestling invertebrates, and associated bioerosion undoubtedly enhances rates of mechanical and chemical degradation, thus influencing the Abatan River profile