Barbaetis: A New Genus of Eastern Nearctic Mayflies (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae)

The new genus Barbaetis Waltz and McCafferty, and new species Barbaetis benfieldi Kennedy are described from larvae collected from the New River, Virginia. Barbaetis is easily told from Baetis by the presence of procoxal osmobranchia. Cladistics of B. benfieldi, related Pseudocloeon species, and the lutheri and pavidus complexes of Baetis are presented and indicate the need for further taxonomic revision. The habitat of B. benfieldi is described in terms of several ecological parameters. The new species demonstrates a univoltine life history with postembryonic development restricted to a short springtime period

Conceptual Learning: Enhancing Student Understanding of Physiology

Students are leaving undergraduate science programs without the knowledge and skills they are expected to have. This is apparent in professional programs, such as medical and veterinary school, where students do not possess the critical thinking skills necessary to be successful. Physiology is a required discipline for these professional programs and often before, as a pre-requisite. Physiology classrooms are an excellent place to teach critical thinking skills because the content consists of integrated processes. Therefore, in one study, it was investigated whether focusing on physiological concepts improved student understanding of physiology in both a non-physiological science course, Invertebrate Zoology, and in an undergraduate physiology course. An educational intervention was used in Invertebrate Zoology, where students were exposed to human physiology concepts that were similar to comparative physiology concepts they had learned during the semester. A pre-/post-test was used to assess learning gains. In a second study, the use of multimedia file usage was correlated to student exam scores in a physiology course. This was done to see if providing additional study materials that focused on specific concepts improved student understanding, as assessed using exam scores. Overall these studies indicate that encouraging assimilation of new concepts that expand upon material from lecture may help students gain a more complete understanding of a concept. The integration of these concepts into pre-existing conceptual frameworks may serve to teach students valuable critical thinking skills such as evaluation of new ideas within their current understanding and synthesizing the new content with the existing information. Focusing on this type of conceptual learning may enable students to apply content knowledge and think through problems. Additionally, focusing on concepts may enable students to improve their understanding of material without being overwhelmed by content

Case Study: Boulder County Healthy Kids - A Collaborative Community Approach to Public Health Insurance Enrollment for Children and Families

In the past decade, a number of national efforts have endeavored to increase enrollment of eligible children and families in public health insurance programs, but enrolling this population continues to be a struggle due to systemic barriers at the state, county and local levels. In response, foundations like The Colorado Trust have invested in community-based outreach efforts to improve the enrollment, retention and utilization of Medicaid and Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+). This case study highlights the work of one such effort: employing a unique network model of county government and community-based organization coordination, Healthy Kids has successfully bridged the gap between the organizations targeting eligible but not enrolled children and families, the county technicians who process Medicaid or CHP+ applications in the Colorado Benefits Management System, and the health clinics that ultimately serve eligible clients

New Synonomy in \u3ci\u3eHypogastrura\u3c/i\u3e (Collembola: Hypogastruridae)

(excerpt) In the course of faunistic studies of Indiana Collembola, seasonal occurrences of the two species Hypogastrura packardi (Folsom), 1902 and H. notha (MacNamara), 1922 were found to exhibit seasonal dimorphism and population dynamics similar to those patterns observed in cyclomorphic species previously reported in literature (Leinaas 1981 a,b)

Probability and magnitude evaluation in schizophrenia

Alterations in reinforcement learning and decision making in schizophrenia have been linked with orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) dysfunction, a region critical for weighing reward magnitude in the calculation of expected value (EV). However, much of this work has used complex tasks that require combined learning and EV calculation. Here we used a simple “Roulette” task that examined the calculation of EV directly through a combination of text and/or pictorial representation of reward probability and magnitude. Forty-four people with schizophrenia and 30 controls were recruited. Patients were less sensitive to adjustments in a parameter combining probability and magnitude into one EV construct. Breaking down the construct into independent contributions of probability and magnitude, we found that negative symptoms were associated with magnitude sensitivity. This is consistent with the hypothesized role of OFC in actively representing magnitude and the notion that negative symptoms may involve a failure to appropriately estimate and use future reward magnitude to guide decision making

Remote sensing techniques for mapping range sites and estimating range yield

Image interpretation procedures for determining range yield and for extrapolating range information were investigated for an area of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota. Soil and vegetative data collected in the field utilizing a grid sampling design and digital film data from color infrared film and black and white films were analyzed statistically using correlation and regression techniques. The pattern recognition techniques used were K-class, mode seeking, and thresholding. The herbage yield equation derived for the detailed test site was used to predict yield for an adjacent similar field. The herbage yield estimate for the adjacent field was 1744 lbs. of dry matter per acre and was favorably compared to the mean yield of 1830 lbs. of dry matter per acre based upon ground observations. Also an inverse relationship was observed between vegetative cover and the ratio of MSS 5 to MSS 7 of ERTS-1 imagery

Age and Growth of King Mackerel, \u3cem\u3eScomberomorus cavalla\u3c/em\u3e, from the Atlantic Coast of the United States

Whole sagittae from 683 and sectioned sagittae from 773 adult (age\u3e 0 ; 437-1.310 mm FL), and lapilli from 29 larval (2-7 mm SL) and 69 young-of-the-year (79-320 mm FL) king mackerel, were examined. All fish were from waters off the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United States (Cape Canaveral, Florida to Cape Fear. North Carolina). Back-calculated lengths at ages and von Bertalanffy growth equations were calculated from both whole and sectioned sagittae. Ages determined from sectioned sagittae were significantly greater than ages determined from whole sagittae, and the magnitude of the difference increased with age (from sections). Rings on sectioned sagittae are considered to be true annual increments, forming during June-September. There was no clear pattern to ring formation on whole otoliths. The oldest fish examined was age 21. The daily nature of rings on lapilli of age 0 king mackerel was not validated, but if the marks are formed daily they suggest growth rates of approximately 0.47 mm/d for early larvae and 2.9 mm/d for fish 1-3 months of age