A Moral Debate at the Invisible Rainbow: Thoughts about Best Practices in Servicing LGBTQ Students in Special Education

Instead of occupying a marginal space within teacher preparation programs, special education courses and training should promote diversity in servicing marginalized groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students. Within these programs, issues related to LGBTQ students should occupy a meaningful and formative space in the training of future teachers in special education. Often, special education teachers are at a loss about how to educate LGBTQ students with disabilities. Rethinking the role of special education and LGBTQ students with special needs within teacher education programs enables pre-service teachers to cultivate new values and attitudes that can enrich the student/teacher relationship within public schools. As such, this article proposes to explore best practices for servicing LGTBQ students in special education by promoting better ways to train future teachers

Mauriac Syndrome in a Child with a Positive Antinuclear Antibody Screen

A 17-year-old male with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) presented to clinic with elevated transaminases and a positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) screen. Due to concern for autoimmune hepatitis, a liver biopsy was performed which revealed Mauriac syndrome. This case report is the second known description of a child with Mauriac syndrome presenting with positive autoimmune markers

Flood disturbance and riparian species diversity on the Colorado River Delta

We investigated the influence of channel migration and expansion on riparian plant species diversity along the lower Colorado River near the United States-Mexico border. Using repeat aerial photography in a GIS we identified and classed areas of low, moderate, and high disturbance frequency caused by channel expansion and migration. Replicate vegetation plots (12 m × 12 m) were sampled in each of the three disturbance classes. One-way ANOVA was used to test for differences in species richness, species diversity (using the Shannon-Weiner Index) and overall percent ground cover of plants between the three disturbance classes. Regardless of disturbance class, plots were dominated by trees or shrubs, especially the non-native Tamarix ramosissima, as well as Pluchea sericea, Baccharis salicifolia and Salix goodingii. Clearly woody species constitute the great bulk of overall species richness, percent ground cover, and species diversity (H′) in each disturbance group. No overall statistically significant differences were revealed among the disturbance groups for values of species richness, percent ground cover, or the Shannon-Wiener Index, though paired contrasts of means revealed that total percent ground cover on low disturbance plots was significantly higher than on moderately disturbed plots. Spatial and temporal variability in riparian diversity in the study area appears to hinge on factors other than disturbance frequency such as salt or drought stress. Alternately, our results could be interpreted as suggesting that in the presence of intensive flow regulation, disturbance plays a secondary role to ecological stresses, similar to that demonstrated by others. Intentional flood pulses are advocated as a restorative management strategy for improving plant productivity, management of exotic species (particularly T. ramosissima), and restoration of overall biodiversit

Genetic variation of rougheye rockfish (Sebastes aleutianus) and shortraker rockfish (S. borealis) inferred from allozymes

Rougheye rockfish (Sebastes aleutianus) and shortraker rockfish (Sebastes borealis) were collected from the Washington coast, the Gulf of Alaska, the southern Bering Sea, and the eastern Kamchatka coast of Russia (areas encompassing most of their geographic distribution) for population genetic analyses. Using starch gel electrophoresis, we analyzed 1027 rougheye rockfish and 615 shortraker rockfish for variation at 29 proteincoding loci. No genetic heterogeneity was found among shortraker rockfish throughout the sampled regions, although shortraker in the Aleutian Islands region, captured at deeper depths, were found to be significantly smaller in size than the shortraker caught in shallower waters from Southeast Alaska. Genetic analysis of the rougheye rockfish revealed two evolutionary lineages that exist in sympatry with little or no gene f low between them. When analyzed as two distinct species, neither lineage exhibited heterogeneity among regions. Sebastes aleutianus seems to inhabit waters throughout the Gulf of Alaska and more southern waters, whereas S. sp. cf. aleutianus inhabits waters throughout the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Asia. The distribution of the two rougheye rockfish lineages may be related to depth where they are sympatric. The paler color morph, S. aleutianus, is found more abundantly in shallower waters and the darker color morph, Sebastes sp. cf. aleutianus, inhabits deeper waters. Sebastes sp. cf. aleutianus, also exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of two parasites, N. robusta and T. trituba, than did Sebastes aleutianus, in the 2001 samples, indicating a possible difference in habitat and (or) resource use between the two lineages

Four selenoprotein P genes exist in salmonids : Analysis of their origin and expression following Se supplementation and bacterial infection

Acknowledgements: This research was funded by Alltech. We thank Dr. Jun Zou (Shanghai Ocean University) for the provision of the recombinant proteins and PAMPS used in this study. Data Availability: All cloned sequences as reported in this study were submitted to the GenBank database at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/ (accession number(s) MH085053-MH085057). Funding: M.A.N.P. received funding of his PhD studies by Alltech (https://www.alltech.com/) under the grant code rg13398-10. The research yielded this manuscript. The authors can confirm the funder provided support in the form of a studentship for author M.A.N.P. and salaries for JS but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Semantically-Enhanced Information Extraction

Information Extraction using Natural Language Processing (NLP) produces entities along with some of the relationships that may exist among them. To be semantically useful, however, such discrete extractions must be put into context through some form of intelligent analysis. This paper1,2 offers a two-part architecture that employs the statistical methods of traditional NLP to extract discrete information elements in a relatively domain-agnostic manner, which are then injected into an inference-enabled environment where they can be semantically analyzed. Within this semantic environment, extractions are woven into the contextual fabric of a user-provided, domain-centric ontology where users together with user-provided logic can analyze these extractions within a more contextually complete picture. Our demonstration system infers the possibility of a terrorist plot by extracting key events and relationships from a collection of news articles and intelligence reports

Worms and the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Are Molecules the Answer?

The lack of exposure to helminth infections, as a result of improved living standards and medical conditions, may have contributed to the increased incidence of IBD in the developed world. Epidemiological, experimental, and clinical data sustain the idea that helminths could provide protection against IBD. Studies investigating the underlying mechanisms by which helminths might induce such protection have revealed the importance of regulatory pathways, for example, regulatory T-cells. Further investigation on how helminths influence both innate and adaptive immune reactions will shed more light on the complex pathways used by helminths to regulate the hosts immune system. Although therapy with living helminths appears to be effective in several immunological diseases, the disadvantages of a treatment based on living parasites are explicit. Therefore, the identification and characterization of helminth-derived immunomodulatory molecules that contribute to the protective effect could lead to new therapeutic approaches in IBD and other immune diseases

Moths and Butterflies (Lepidoptera) of the Boreal Mixedwood Forest near Lac La Biche, Alberta, Including New Provincial Records

Lepidoptera were collected, primarily via UV light trap, for three seasons in the boreal mixedwood forest near Lac La Biche, Alberta. A total of 11,111 specimens were collected, representing 41 families and 438 species. A species list with flight times is presented. The total Lepidoptera community was estimated to be 546 ± 23.34 species. Abundance and species richness peaked in late July. Thirty-five species constitute new records for Alberta, while one species, Acanthopteroctetes bimaculata, is a new record for Canada, and the first record of the family Acanthopteroctetidae in Canada