Incorporating engineering in high school biology

textThe purpose of this project was to create a series of lessons that incorporate both Biology and Engineering concepts. The three lessons were intended to increase in complexity as the students progress throughout the year. Using PyMol software allowed students to visually represent complex protein structures while introducing and providing an opportunity to practice programming. Each lesson was followed by a worksheet or activity to aid in students' comprehension and application of practice. These lessons were designed to maximize students' time learning to program and using PyMol software while enhancing the current curriculum. Lesson one introduced students to the PyMol software while building and representing the four main structures of proteins. With increased programming knowledge, lesson two focused on modeling the DNA double helix. The final lesson introduced students to evolutionary relationships based on a protein's amino acid sequence.Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Educatio

Play Your Fan : Exploring Hand Props and Gender on the Restoration Stage Through the Country Wife, the Man of Mode, the Rover, and the Way of the World

The full irony and wit of Restoration comedies relies not only on what characters communicate to each other, but also on what they communicate to the audience, both verbally and physically

Revisiting the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary in western Kentucky, USA

This study revisits a Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) sedimentary section in western Kentucky to determine the nature of this boundary and the depositional environments. Although previous pollen work identified the boundary over four decades ago, to our knowledge no work has been carried out at this important K-Pg boundary site. A combination of stratigraphy and sedimentology were used to characterize the section in detail. Bulk and oriented samples were collected for grain-size, geochemical, and petrographic analysis. We relocated the site and measured 1.5m of section that includes the K-Pg boundary. Four distinct units were identified and from base to top of section are (I) bioturbated black lignitic clay, (II) bioturbated brownish gray mud, (III) gray laminated mud with interlaminated quartz and micaceous sand, and (IV) red and yellow mud with laminated sand. The K-Pg boundary is a 5mm thick Fe-sulfide concretion layer, where these concretions commonly have a mammillary fabric. Preliminary geochemistry shows an iridium anomaly near the boundary. Petrographic analysis shows the presence of deformation features in quartz within the section at the boundary. Fossil wood and amber droplets occur throughout the section. The presence of fossil wood, amber droplets, and root traces below the K-Pg boundary suggest the presence of a paleosol weathering in a marsh environment. Above the boundary, the presence of leaf impressions, along with fossil wood, and cyclic deposition of mud and sand suggests delta plain or prodelta environment. These depositional environments are consistent with the site being situated in a transitional zone along the Mississippi Embayment

The Penobscot Nation, the State of Maine, and the River Between Them

Since the arrival of Europeans in North America, Native Americans have been enticed into deceptive treaties and agreements that dispossessed them of their land, significantly alter their autonomy, and infringed on their sovereign rights. Sticking with this tradition, the State of Maine, today, is apprehensive to recognize Wabanaki sovereign rights, as guaranteed in federal Indian law. The rights and benefits that tribes have in other states, such as federal legislation regarding tribal healthcare, are withheld from Wabanaki Nations. This trepidation leaves Maine’s Native peoples vulnerable to political exploitation and environmental degradation. I endeavor to understand how Maine’s Land Claims Settlement acts limit the Penobscot Nation’s authority to protect their land and resources and how this has affected the lives of tribal members. The Penobscot River’s water quality is detrimentally impacted by industries along the river - notably by landfill leachate and industrial effluent. Discharge into navigable waters is regulated by the permitting authority, the Maine Pollution Discharge and Elimination System (MEPDES) - an authority delegated to the State by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The State is thus able to enforce water quality standards (WQS) of its choosing, as long as they uphold federal minimum quality standards. This authority, however, is moot as the State’s WQS do not protect Penobscot sustenance fishing rights, rights that are legislated in the Maine Implementing Act (MIA) and Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA). This has engendered consumption advisories, preventing the safe consumption of fish by Penobscot Nation tribal members. This abrogation of traditional rights represents a lack of consideration for tribal rights in Maine, as well as the prevailing interests of industry and consumerism. This thesis addresses the potential avenues available to Wabanaki Nations such as the Penobscot Nation to restore their environmental authority, take advantage of future federal legislation, as well as the importance of Indigenous voices in public environmental policy

Injury incidence and severity at the South African Rugby Union (SARU) Youth Weeks Tournaments: a four year study

Introduction Rugby Union (hereinafter referred to as ‘rugby’) is a contact sport with players being exposed to repetitive collisions throughout a match. As the risk of injury is relatively high, incidence surveillance studies within rugby has become popular. However most of the studies have focussed on senior players. The data on injuries among youth rugby players are limited. This makes it difficult to develop the game to make it safer for youth of all ages. Objectives The first objective of this study was to establish if any injury trends exist across different ages of youth rugby players (13 to 18 years). The second objective was to determine the patterns of injuries changed over four years (2011 to 2014). Methods The South African Rugby Union (SA Rugby) hosts four local youth tournaments annually to for local rugby talent: Craven Week under-13, Grant Khomo under-16, Academy Week under-18 and Craven Week under-18. Injury data were collected from the four SARU Youth Week Tournaments between 2011 and 2014. These data were compiled into one central SARU injury surveillance database. Injury categories were used to group data: ‘Type’, ‘Location’, ‘Event’ and ‘Severity’ of injury were assessed. Injuries were defined as either ‘Time-loss’ (those injuries that prevented a player from match participation for one or more days), or ‘Medical attention’ (injuries that required the player to seek medical attention at the time of or after injury but were not required to miss a match). Injury rates were represented by injury incidence densities (IIDs) (corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for IID were calculated for the number of injuries regardless of whether one person was injured more than once) per 1000 hours of match play. Incidence densities were considered to be significantly different from each other if their 95% CIs did not overlap and using Poisson regression analysis. Results The ‘overall’ combined IID across all four years was 54.6 injuries per 1000 hours of match play (95%CI: 51.0-58.2). The combined ‘time-loss’ IID was 18.9 injuries per 1000 hours of match play (95%CI: 16.8-21.0). ‘Time-loss’ injuries were greatest in 2011 (23.2 per 1000 match hours (95% CI: 18.5-28.0)). However, ‘time-loss’ injuries rates were significantly reduced in 2013, when compared to these injury rates in 2011 (13.3 (9.7-17.0). Craven Week under-13 presented significantly greater ‘overall’ injury incidence densities when compared to the older age groups (71.9 per 1000 match hours (95% CI: 62.4-81.4)). Overall, joint/ligament/tendon injuries were most common ‘overall’ and ‘time-loss’ injury sustained by players between 2011 and 2014 (30% and 33% respectively). This was followed closely by concussion injuries, which accounted for 29% of ‘time-loss’ and 12% of ‘overall’ injuries. A large proportion of both ‘overall’ (57%) and ‘time-loss’ (55%) injuries occurred during the tackle event, with the tackler being injured more often than the ball-carrier (37% and 18% respectively). However, there were no statistically significant differences when comparing ‘overall’ and ‘time-loss’ IID between the different tournaments from 2011 until 2014. Discussion Significant differences were found when comparing ‘overall’ and ‘time-loss’ IID between the different tournaments from 2011 until 2014. Craven Week under-13 presented significantly greater ‘overall’ injury incidence densities. This finding contradicts previous literature within youth rugby research. The tackle (combination of tackler and ball-carrier) still accounts for the highest proportion both ‘time-loss’ and ‘overall’ injury events (57% and 55% respectively). This is in accordance with previous studies. However, a point of concern was that concussion accounted for 29% of all ‘time-loss’ injuries and 12% of all ‘overall’ injuries. This finding suggests a gradual increase in the number of concussions suffered during the SARU Youth Week Tournaments between 2011 and 2014. Further research is required to determine the reason for this pattern. Conclusion Further research within youth rugby cohorts is required to determine the risk associated with involvement at various level of participation. Injury prevention programs should place focus on reducing the prevalence of concussion at youth level by educating players and coaches about safe tackle techniques. Future studies should focus on local youth cohorts for seasona

Development of a Modern Computational Infrastructure Around University Curricula

This thesis investigates solutions required to construct a modern computational infrastructure around the delivery of student degree plans as a web service. The initial system consisted of a data store organized around an SQL relational database. In this thesis, subsequent new architectures are explored that allow student and institutional analytics to be seamlessly integrated into the application. The foundation of these new architectures involve data representation and storage, and several NoSQL options are explored for performing this task. Implementing the data stores with these technologies allowed the data to be stored in its native structure and greatly facilitates extensibility of the data model and the capability for analytics. This thesis describes some of the benefits of using NoSQL data stores in this domain, including increased ease of analyzing and processing data

Deposition, Persistence, and Utilization of Kelp Wrack Along the Central California Coast

Kelp wrack occurs year round along temperate coastlines providing food to a low productivity environment; few efforts however, have been made to quantify wrack’s variability in deposition, persistence, and utilization along beaches and the rocky intertidal. Knowing the biomass deposited, persistence (amount of time a piece of wrack is found in an area), and how primary and secondary consumers respond to wrack allows for a better understanding of how these three variables work together to promote a food web and the ecological implications of the presence/absence of wrack within an area. My work focused on spatiotemporal variation in wrack deposition, persistence, and utilization by kelp flies and bacteria in central California from April 2013 to August 2014. Changes in wrack biomass density, persistence on the shore, phlorotannin concentration, bacterial density, and kelp fly density were measured along with a suite of other factors including species composition, condition (individual or fragmented), and burial. Over the study period, a significant difference in biomass density was found between substrates with higher amounts of wrack on the rocky intertidal. In addition, persistence maps indicating hotspots of prolonged wrack accumulation showed a significant increase in kelp wrack at greater distances from the shoreline, such as the berm on beaches and the high intertidal in the rocky intertidal, although no difference between substrate was observed. In terms of utilization, phlorotannin concentration did not appear to affect bacterial abundance or fly density, which suggested that the levels present in kelp wrack were not a strong deterrent for bacteria and flies. A two-week experiment was also conducted, which manipulated the weight of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera to determine its effect on the above-mentioned factors. The rate of water loss and persistence was measured daily, while utilization changes occurred on a slower scale and were measured weekly. During this time, kelp fly density changed significantly between substrate, while phlorotannins decreased significantly over time. Again, there was no relationship between phlorotannin concentration, bacterial abundance, or fly density, although bacterial abundance and fly density increased when wrack was rehydrated by high tides after initial desiccation. Quantifying deposition, persistence, and utilization of kelp wrack is important to establish baselines, make comparisons, and understand the interactions taking place that can affect wrack’s ecological role as a subsidy