Taking the ‘Local’ out of Local News: Implications for an Informed Public

The meaning of “local” in TV news is not as straightforward as one might imagine. “Local” newscasts in several U.S. markets are outsourced to an independent company located hundreds of miles from the communities served. What are the implications of such a delivery system for coverage of local issues and the Jeffersonian ideal of an informed citizenry? This study employs a content analysis of outsourced and local newscasts, using a data set of more than 1,000 stories from more than 30 hours of newscasts to determine if differences exist on story topics and source types. Does one type of station cover more public affairs stories than the other? Does one type use more official sources, or more perspective from private individuals? Even with the wide array of news sources currently available, local TV news still ranks as the most widely used information source. How well that source delivers information to local audiences is an important question to ask, particularly when the information may be coming from a great distance

Student Nurses Who Witness Critical Events in the Clinical Setting: A Grounded Theory Qualitative Study

Hood, Tiffany Lee. Student Nurses Who Witness Critical Events in the Clinical Setting: A Grounded Theory Qualitative Study. Published Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2020. Background: Nursing students often experience critical events in the clinical setting, and too often, the clinical instructor does not have the training to help students through these situations. The literature shows that students often feel alone and abandoned, requiring them to endure these experiences without proper psychological recovery. Clinical nurse educators and staff nurses may not fully understand their role in emotional support, pre-briefing, and debriefing, not knowing what to do to help students through such difficult situations. Procedure: A grounded theory qualitative study was conducted to better understand the experiences of student nurses who have witnessed critical events in the clinical setting, and to better understand the types of support provided and the effectiveness of the support. Fourteen undergraduate student nurses from three four-year universities in Utah, United States, participated in this study. Results: Using a four-stage coding procedure, 50 initial categories were categorized into one core category, nine primary categories, and nine secondary categories. Relationships between categories were identified, and a theory of student nurse support and recovery through critical events in the clinical setting emerged. Conclusion: Student nurses need active faculty and/or staff support during critical events, and pre-briefing whenever possible. Students should be taught coping skills and have risk and support systems assessed prior to entering the clinical setting. Nursing knowledge, life experiences, values, beliefs, coping skills, current mental health state, and prior history of trauma affect student responses to critical events. Immediate debrief positively affects post-event stress response and coping by providing the opportunity for students to gain closure, decrease anxiety, increase understanding, time to mentally process the event, and emotional support. Lack of debrief increases post-event psychological distress and decrease coping and resilience. Support after critical events should continue in the days, weeks, and months following the event. Students should be monitored for signs of increased psychological distress and psychological trauma and be provided resources for help in coping. Students who do not receive adequate support prior to, during, or after a critical event are at risk for psychological trauma

EST analysis of gene expression in early cleavage-stage sea urchin embryos

A set of 956 expressed sequence tags derived from 7-hour (mid-cleavage) sea urchin embryos was analyzed to assess biosynthetic functions and to illuminate the structure of the message population at this stage. About a quarter of the expressed sequence tags represented repetitive sequence transcripts typical of early embryos, or ribosomal and mitochondrial RNAs, while a majority of the remainder contained significant open reading frames. A total of 232 sequences, including 153 different proteins, produced significant matches when compared against GenBank. The majority of these identified sequences represented ‘housekeeping’ proteins, i.e., cytoskeletal proteins, metabolic enzymes, transporters and proteins involved in cell division. The most interesting finds were components of signaling systems and transcription factors not previously reported in early sea urchin embryos, including components of Notch and TGF signal transduction pathways. As expected from earlier kinetic analyses of the embryo mRNA populations, no very prevalent protein-coding species were encountered; the most highly represented such sequences were cDNAs encoding cyclins A and B. The frequency of occurrence of all sequences within the database was used to construct a sequence prevalence distribution. The result, confirming earlier mRNA population analyses, indicated that the poly(A) RNA of the early embryo consists mainly of a very complex set of low-copy-number transcripts

The genetics, evolution and expression of antibody molecules

The vertebrate immune system shares certain general properties with other complex systems in higher organisms and, accordingly, may serve as an ideal model for studying various aspects of differentiation and evolution in eukaryotes. I will discuss the general patterns which have emerged from genetic, molecular and cellular studies of this system. These observations will be related to three aspects of the problem of "information handling" in higher organisms; namely, how the information from a complex system is stored in the genome, how it is expressed during the differentiation of individual organisms, and how it changes during the evolution of eukaryotes.LEE HOOD, Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

An enigmatic fourth runt domain gene in the fugu genome: ancestral gene loss versus accelerated evolution

BACKGROUND: The runt domain transcription factors are key regulators of developmental processes in bilaterians, involved both in cell proliferation and differentiation, and their disruption usually leads to disease. Three runt domain genes have been described in each vertebrate genome (the RUNX gene family), but only one in other chordates. Therefore, the common ancestor of vertebrates has been thought to have had a single runt domain gene. RESULTS: Analysis of the genome draft of the fugu pufferfish (Takifugu rubripes) reveals the existence of a fourth runt domain gene, FrRUNT, in addition to the orthologs of human RUNX1, RUNX2 and RUNX3. The tiny FrRUNT packs six exons and two putative promoters in just 3 kb of genomic sequence. The first exon is located within an intron of FrSUPT3H, the ortholog of human SUPT3H, and the first exon of FrSUPT3H resides within the first intron of FrRUNT. The two gene structures are therefore "interlocked". In the human genome, SUPT3H is instead interlocked with RUNX2. FrRUNT has no detectable ortholog in the genomes of mammals, birds or amphibians. We consider alternative explanations for an apparent contradiction between the phylogenetic data and the comparison of the genomic neighborhoods of human and fugu runt domain genes. We hypothesize that an ancient RUNT locus was lost in the tetrapod lineage, together with FrFSTL6, a member of a novel family of follistatin-like genes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the runt domain family may have started expanding in chordates much earlier than previously thought, and exemplify the importance of detailed analysis of whole-genome draft sequence to provide new insights into gene evolution

Gold sol formation mechanisms: Competitive binding of citrate and auric acid anions

Thesis (B.S.) in Chemical Engineering--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993.Includes bibliographical references.Microfiche of typescript. [Urbana, Ill.]: Photographic Services, University of Illinois, U of I Library, [1993]. 3 microfiches (104 frames): negative.s 1993 ilu n

Identification of a novel retroviral gene unique to human immunodeficiency virus type 2 and simian immunodeficiency virus SIVMAC

Human and simian immunodeficiency-associated retroviruses are extraordinarily complex, containing at least five genes, tat, art, sor, R, and 3' orf, in addition to the structural genes gag, pol, and env. Recently, nucleotide sequence analysis of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) and simian immunodeficiency virus SIVMAC revealed the existence of still another open reading frame, termed X, which is highly conserved between these two viruses but absent from HIV-1. In this report, we demonstrate for the first time that the X open reading frame represents a functional retroviral gene in both HIV-2 and SIVMAC and that it encodes a virion-associated protein of 14 and 12 kilodaltons, respectively. We also describe the production of recombinant TrpE/X fusion proteins in Escherichia coli and show that sera from some HIV-2-infected individuals specifically recognize these proteins