A century of Toxoplasma gondii research

Toxoplasma gondii (Fig. 1) is a protozoan parasite that can be transmitted directly from cats to humans through faecal contamination of food, or indirectly from cats to livestock and then to humans through undercooked meat. Around 30% of humans in the United Kingdom are infected, and as such, harbour dormant cysts in their brain, but few have overt symptoms of disease. Neurological disease can occur in these people if they become immunosuppressed (Fig. 2). The possibility that apparently healthy people with infection are more likely to develop psychiatric disease, including schizophrenia and depression, is under investigation. Infection during pregnancy can cause abortion or foetal infection. Congenital disease can result in systemic, neurological and progressive eye disease

The Effects of Remote Teaching Pedagogy on Online Writing Instruction

This thesis will investigate the development of online writing instruction and the new innovations or adaptations that were created to cope with the online learning environment during the pandemic. I conducted interviews with four Writing & Rhetoric professors from Florida International University. The interviews I conduct for this thesis focused on the experience that these professors had and how they faced certain challenges along the way such as building an online community and promoting communication and collaboration in the online classroom. I argue that the themes of mindfulness, flexibility, balance, community, and empathy that were found in the interviews are the foundation or the origin of why the key areas of interest that I chose to focus on (active learning, community, digital literacy, and trauma-informed pedagogy) are so important for teaching online writing instruction remotely or online. By representing some of the experiences and changes to pedagogy that happened during the pandemic, this thesis adds to the existing conversation around pandemic pedagogy, and helps professors learn more ways they can create a comfortable, safe, and efficient learning space whether it is online or in-person

Assessing soil phosphorus status under different agronomic land use

The study of the availability of soil phosphorus (P) to crops has been an important issue for years in different agroecosystems around the world. Because of the complex P cycling in soils this has been studied from different points of view. The study of soil P forms has been seen as a possible way to explain many processes and changes occurring in plant-soil interactions. The purpose of this research was to characterize soil P forms under different land uses and evaluate the relationship between different land use areas and the spatial distribution of soil P forms. The study was carried out in Costa Rica on a Typic Hapludand under coffee plantation (Coffea arabica ), sugar cane plantation (Saccharum spp.), and secondary forest. A modified Hedley soil P fractionation methodology was used for determining the soil P forms. Means of the relative content of P forms were 0.43% labile-Pi, 6.44% NaOH-Pi, 9.20% HCl-Pi, 32.55% extractable organic P and 51.37% residual-P. Inorganic fertilization was correlated with labile-P, NaOH-Pi, and HCl-Pi forms. In the first experiment the sugar cane yields were correlated with labile-Pi and NaOH-Pi. Organic fertilizer increased the extractable organic P suggesting an accumulation in this form. In the second descriptive study a spatial relationship was found with soil management areas. Sugar cane soil accumulated more P in HCl-Pi, extractable organic P, and residual-Pi forms. Coffee soil had the highest values in labile-Pi and NaOH-Pi that were correlated with the higher rate of fertilizer application. Secondary forest had intermediate values between these two cropped areas. The third experiment showed that under greenhouse conditions P uptake was closely related to labile-Pi and NaOH-Pi suggesting also that a sparingly available P form could be related to P uptake by plants in time. Extractable organic P and residual-P were suggested to act as a sink of the available P forms. It is concluded that under a sustainable crop production framework the adequate input of P is necessary in order to maintain the adequate nutrient supply through time

La Feminista Nuyorquina Contextualizing Latina Experience in the Space of Radical U.S. History: Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban Presence in New York City

International migrations of women to the United States had a pronounced urban bias because cities offered women the best chances to work for wages, whether they came alone or in family groups. Immigrant women were more likely than men to arrive in East Coast ports, especially New York - Donna Gabaccia Latino immigrants have been entering the United States through New York City since before the inception of the country\u27s history. Political history on the Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba includes influential interference from the United States. Latinos began mass migration to the U.S. in the 1940s and most heavily through the 1970s and 1980s. Radical U.S. History (i.e. National Protests of Vietnam War, Black and Chicano Civil Rights Movements, Women\u27s Liberation Movement) carved a space for Latinas assimilated in U.S. life to participate in the counterculture and political movement. However, their cultural existence and personal attachments to the islands traditions provoked a big challenge in being able to fully participate and be accepted as influential in U.S. political history. I have concentrated my research to contextualize the experiences of Hispanic Caribbean women to respect differences in historical, political, economic and social status that make up the Latino racial identity and migration pattern

Where We Stand Today with the Public Charge Rule

The Statue of Liberty has become known as the “Mother of Exiles, greeting millions of immigrants and embodying hope and opportunity for those seeking a better life in America [,]” not only to Americans but to all people around the world. Yet, despite being designated as the land of dreams and opportunities, the United States has a long history of denying such dreams and opportunities to marginalized communities. The “public charge” rule refers to inadmissibility and deportability grounds in U.S. immigration law that have constantly barred poor noncitizens and noncitizens of color from obtaining legal status. The public charge rule deems any noncitizen who, in the government’s opinion, “is likely to at any time to become a public charge” as inadmissible or deportable. This post was originally published on the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice website on October 10, 2022. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above

I hope to be a symbol of encouragement : Using craft in community colleges to facilitate student voice in the remedial studies debate

The purpose of this study is to collect information about basic skills students in one cohort of 24 students at a local community college in order to inform policy-makers about the group for which they are making decisions. As faculty and administrators scramble to enact changes to cope with the current economy, political changes, and community demands, students are the only stakeholders whose voices aren\u27t heard in the debate over what is to come of remedial studies in California Community Colleges. Throughout all of this research, one important element is missing in the discourse regarding remedial coursework in community college--the student voice. This dissertation seeks to present remedial students as students through their own words

All My Heroes Are Broke

ALL MY HEROES ARE BROKE is a poetry collection written from the perspective of a first generation American coming to terms with the implicit struggles and disillusionment of the American Dream. The first section takes place in New York, both implicitly and explicitly, and serves to introduce the speaker and reveal aspects of his family’s history. The second section takes place in Florida, and continues to further exemplify the speaker’s growing cynicism towards the circumstances of his life, and the peculiar atmosphere of solitude that it creates. ALL MY HEROES ARE BROKE primarily uses two forms: short, image driven poems inspired by the works of Robert Bly and Po Chu-I; and longer narrative poems that reveal more personal information about the speaker, in the manner of Li-Young Lee and Frank O’Hara, allowing the speaker to project his own life onto his surroundings and the people of those larger communities