Letter May 30, 1949

Letter from Florence DeShazer to family in Oregon, describing their recent activities (including a church picnic at a local beach), some of their future plans and a brief update on Paul. A postscript by Jacob giving his greetings is included

Letter September 30, 1955

Letter from Jacob and Florence DeShazer to family in Salem, Oregon, describing their new house in Kentucky, some of their plans, Jacob\u27s impressions of Asbury Theological Seminary, and a supper party the DeShazers had with Japanese students at Asbury. Also included is a brief update on the DeShazer children. The first half of the letter is typewritten by Jacob, the second half handwritten by Florence

Letter May 2, 1949

Letter from Florence and Jacob DeShazer to family in Salem, Oregon, wishing Jacob\u27s mother a happy Mother\u27s Day; describing the family\u27s Easter activities and recent missionary activities; giving an update on the Free Methodist church in Japan; and giving an update on Paul

Letter October 22, 1955

Letter from Jacob and Florence DeShazer to family in Salem, Oregon, thanking them for some unspecified material help; describing the possibility of buying or renting a different house in Wilmore; responding to some news from Salem; and giving an update on the DeShazer kids and a few of the family activities

Christmas Card, 1949

Christmas Card sent by the DeShazers to family and friends in the United States, describing their year in Japan and announcing the birth of their son John

Cell death and transcriptional signalling mediated by the coiled-coil domain of the barley resistance protein MLA

Plants rely entirely on innate immunity to prevent infection by pathogens. Extracellular perception of evolutionarily conserved pathogen/microbe-associated molecular patterns (P/MAMP) by membrane-resident pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) leads to pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). Host-adapted pathogens intercept PRR-mediated immunity by delivering effectors into host cells. These polymorphic effectors can be recognized by intracellular immune receptors of the nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat (NLR) family. Upon effector recognition, NLRs trigger a rapid immune response, termed effector-triggered immunity (ETI), which is typically associated with a host cell death response. In barley, the NLR MLA confers ETI against the pathogenic powdery mildew fungus, Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei. Although MLA orthologues are present only in the Triticeae family of monocotyledonous plants, barley MLA is functional in transgenic dicotyledonous A. thaliana, indicating that the underlying disease resistance mechanism has been evolutionarily conserved for at least 150 Mya in monocot and dicot plants. In dicotyledonous Nicotiana benthamiana, transient gene expression of the coiled-coil (MLACC) domain, consisting of the N-terminal 160 amino acids of the MLA receptor, was sufficient to activate a cell death response, raising the possibility that MLA initiates a conserved signalling mechanism through the MLACC domain. This thesis aimed at identifying signalling mechanism(s) acting downstream of the MLACC module in transgenic A. thaliana. Conditional MLACC expression triggered immune-related responses, characterized by a rapid onset of massive changes in gene expression at ~2 h post induction (hpi), followed by cell death at ~4 hpi. These MLACC–triggered responses are retained in A. thaliana plants simultaneously lacking the immune components PAD4, SAG101, PEN2, and all major defence phytohormones, i.e. ethylene, jasmonic acid, and salicylic acid. A comparison of time-resolved and genome-wide transcript profiles in MLACC-expressing transgenic plants with expression profiles induced during ETI and PTI by endogenous A. thaliana NLRs or PRRs revealed at early time points highly similar patterns. This suggests that early signalling mediated by MLACC, ETI, and PTI converges on a common transcriptional machinery that activates immune response genes, implying that the barley MLACC domain is sufficient to stimulate an ETI-like response in A. thaliana. This also suggests that activation of these immune response genes can occur independently of PTI. Most (> 74.7%) of the 562 genes that were significantly upregulated at 2 hpi in MLACC-expressing plants are immediate early response genes since their induction does not depend on de novo protein synthesis, suggesting that these genes are activated by the removal of short-lived repressors. In the 5’ regulatory regions of the early induced genes, I found a striking enrichment of cis-acting motifs that serve as binding sites for Ca2+-responsive transcription factors, including the calmodulin-binding transcription activator 3 (CAMTA3) which is known to be rapidly degraded during ETI. This might explain complete inhibition of MLACC–mediated responses by the Ca2+ channel inhibitor LaCl3, which was previously also reported for several NLR-mediated and P/MAMP-triggered responses. Using chemical mutagenesis, I identified three candidate suppressor mutants of MLACC-mediated responses. Affinity purification of MLACC complexes and a yeast two-hybrid screen identified several MLACC candidate interacting proteins. Together this has revealed novel candidate components engaged in MLACC signalling

Constraints in Implementation of HIV and AIDS Curriculum Integration in Primary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya

Education was identified as the critical means of achieving behaviour change in and out of the classroom in order to prevent and mitigate the spread of HIV and AIDS among the youth. This study sought to investigate the constraints during HIV and AIDS curriculum implementation, the study was guided by social cognitive approach theories, survey and evaluation research designs. The study population constituted all class eight pupils, teachers, head teachers, teacher counsellors, quality assurance and standards officers of the Ministry of Education. Both multi – stage cluster sampling and purposive sampling procedures were used to select the sample.  Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires, interview schedule, observation checklist and Focus Group Discussion.  Secondary data was collected from documented information on HIV and AIDS curriculum integration programme. The established that Constraints facing implementation of HIV and AIDS curriculum integration program in primary schools included lack of adequate teaching and learning resources, financial constraint, ignorance on the part of pupils, inadequate resources, lack of motivation for teachers, Lack of adequate teaching materials, lack of adequate time, negative attitude, stigma, understaffing and wide curriculum. The study recommends that the ministry of education should provide adequate teaching and learning materials for HIV and AIDS education for effective implementation of the integration in the curriculum in primary schools. Relevant infrastructure, such as electricity should be provided so that learners can be able to use facilities such as audio-visual materials. There is also need for teachers to attend in-service training to be more equipped in teaching HIV and AIDS. This will increase their knowledge base and help curb against misconceptions on HIV and AIDS. Keywords: HIV/AIDS curriculum, implementation, constraints/challenges, adequac