William E. Wright, in Memoriam

A tribute to William Wright, recognizing his professional achievements and impact in the area of Austrian / Central European - U.S. relations

Determining the Future for Louisiana Sugar Cane Products, Inc.: A Case Study Analyzing Vertical Coordination Options

Deciding how to coordinate activities can be a challenge posed in any marketing chain. This case involves an agricultural cooperative that has focused entirely on marketing raw sugar cane for additional refinement. Recent dramatic shifts in the sector have caused the members of the cooperative to consider building a facility that will process the raw sugar cane. In so doing, the cooperative can consider using the spot market, using contracts, vertically coordinating, or vertically integrating. This case study of Louisiana Sugar Cane Products, Inc. is a unique, real-life case that can be widely used in marketing and cooperatives courses.Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries,

Opportunities for Competency Support of Virginia Cooperative Extension Professionals at the Colleague Stage

This study focused on the professional development needs of Cooperative Extension agents and specialists with between four and seven years of experience, placing them roughly within the colleague career stage. Data were collected through focus groups and validated through member checking and the use of a modified World Café approach. A research team collaborated, increasing the reliability of the findings through intentional reflection in the development of the findings. Areas of competency strength and weakness vary for agents and specialists, and specific topic areas within competencies vary. While many of the emergent competencies identified in this study fit within the competency framework of Harder et al. (2011) and previous competency studies, more specific topic areas were identified. However, the top priorities identified for professional development focus included communication, educational design, leadership, and budget and fiscal management. Attention to these areas can increase the ability of these professionals to work more effectively and productively. Providing professional development in areas of need for both agents and specialists can support the development of collegiality within the Extension organization. Supporting professionals in this stage of their career growth will position them well for advancing to additional career stages within Cooperative Extension

Oral Health Knowledge and Behaviors among Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes

Early onset and more advanced periodontal disease has been reported for children with diabetes. We surveyed oral health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among adolescents with diabetes in order to inform potential intervention strategies. Study subjects were youth (ages 12–19 years) with type 1 diabetes (N = 90) participating in a cohort study investigating determinants of periodontal disease at a regional pediatric diabetes specialty clinic. Over 90% of the youth had been instructed on how to brush and floss and had preventive dental care in the past year. However, 44% knew that periodontal disease is associated with diabetes and 32% knew that it can start in childhood with bleeding gums. Despite being at high risk for developing periodontal disease, the mean toothbrushing frequency was once per day and 42% did not floss. Significant opportunity exists for improving periodontal disease knowledge and adoption of preventive oral hygiene behaviors in adolescents with diabetes

Recreational vessels without Automatic Identification System (AIS) dominate anthropogenic noise contributions to a shallow water soundscape

This study was funded by FNU and Semper Ardens Carlsberg Grants to P.T.M., and support from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency to J.T.Recreational boating is an increasing activity in coastal areas and its spatiotemporal overlap with key habitats of marine species pose a risk for negative noise impacts. Yet, recreational vessels are currently unaccounted for in vessel noise models using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. Here we conduct a case study investigating noise contributions from vessels with and without AIS (non-AIS) in a shallow coastal area within the Inner Danish waters. By tracking vessels with theodolite and AIS, while recording ambient noise levels, we find that non-AIS vessels have a higher occurrence (83%) than AIS vessels, and that motorised recreational vessels can elevate third-octave band noise centred at 0.125, 2 and 16 kHz by 47–51 dB. Accordingly, these vessels dominated the soundscape in the study site due to their high numbers, high speeds and proximity to the coast. Furthermore, recreational vessels caused 49–85% of noise events potentially eliciting behavioural responses in harbour porpoises (AIS vessels caused 5–24%). We therefore conclude that AIS data would poorly predict vessel noise pollution and its impacts in this and other similar marine environments. We suggest to improve vessel noise models and impact assessments by requiring that faster and more powerful recreational vessels carry AIS-transmitters.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Combinatorial lentiviral gene delivery of pro‐oligodendrogenic factors for improving myelination of regenerating axons after spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in paralysis below the injury and strategies are being developed that support axonal regrowth, yet recovery lags, in part, because many axons are not remyelinated. Herein, we investigated strategies to increase myelination of regenerating axons by overexpression of platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF)‐AA and noggin either alone or in combination in a mouse SCI model. Noggin and PDGF‐AA have been identified as factors that enhance recruitment and differentiation of endogenous progenitors to promote myelination. Lentivirus encoding for these factors was delivered from a multichannel bridge, which we have previously shown creates a permissive environment and supports robust axonal growth through channels. The combination of noggin+PDGF enhanced total myelination of regenerating axons relative to either factor alone, and importantly, enhanced functional recovery relative to the control condition. The increase in myelination was consistent with an increase in oligodendrocyte‐derived myelin, which was also associated with a greater density of cells of an oligodendroglial lineage relative to each factor individually and control conditions. These results suggest enhanced myelination of regenerating axons by noggin+PDGF that act on oligodendrocyte‐lineage cells post‐SCI, which ultimately led to improved functional outcomes.Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in paralysis below the injury and strategies are being developed that support axonal regrowth, yet recovery lags, in part because many axons are not remyelinated. Herein, we investigated strategies to increase myelination of regenerating axons by overexpression of platelet‐derived growth factor‐AA and noggin either alone or in combination in a mouse SCI model.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146575/1/bit26838_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146575/2/bit26838.pd

Long-term sound and movement recording tags to study natural behavior and reaction to ship noise of seals

This study was funded by the German Federal Agency of Nature Conservation under the project “Effects of underwater noise on marine vertebrates” (Cluster 7, Z1.2‐53302/2010/14) and “Under Water Noise Effects – UWE” (Project numbers FKZ 3515822000). MJ was supported for development of the tags by a Marie Sklodowska‐Curie career integration grant and by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland. PTM and DMW were partly supported by a large frame grant from the Danish National Research Council. DMW was also supported by an Office of Naval Research grant to Jeremy Goldbogen at Stanford University.1.  The impact of anthropogenic noise on marine fauna is of increasing conservation concern with vessel noise being one of the major contributors. Animals that rely on shallow coastal habitats may be especially vulnerable to this form of pollution. 2.  Very limited information is available on how much noise from ship traffic individual animals experience, and how they may react to it due to a lack of suitable methods. To address this, we developed long-duration audio and 3D-movement tags (DTAGs) and deployed them on three harbor seals and two gray seals in the North Sea during 2015-2016. 3. These tags recorded sound, accelerometry, magnetometry, and pressure continuously for up to 21 days. GPS positions were also sampled for one seal continuously throughout the recording period. A separate tag, combining a camera and an accelerometer logger, was deployed on two harbor seals to visualize specific behaviors that helped interpret accelerometer signals in the DTAG data. 4.  Combining data from depth, accelerometer, and audio sensors, we found that animals spent 6.6%-42.3% of the time hauled out (either on land or partly submerged), and 5.3%-12.4% of their at-sea time resting at the sea bottom, while the remaining time was used for traveling, resting at surface, and foraging. Animals were exposed to audible vessel noise 2.2%-20.5% of their time when in water, and we demonstrate that interruption of functional behaviors (e.g., resting) in some cases coincides with high-level vessel noise. Two-thirds of the ship noise events were traceable by the AIS vessel tracking system, while one-third comprised vessels without AIS. 5.  This preliminary study demonstrates how concomitant long-term continuous broadband on-animal sound and movement recordings may be an important tool in future quantification of disturbance effects of anthropogenic activities at sea and assessment of long-term population impacts on pinnipeds.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Reducing neuroinflammation by delivery of IL‐10 encoding lentivirus from multiple‐channel bridges

The spinal cord is unable to regenerate after injury largely due to growth‐inhibition by an inflammatory response to the injury that fails to resolve, resulting in secondary damage and cell death. An approach that prevents inhibition by attenuating the inflammatory response and promoting its resolution through the transition of macrophages to anti‐inflammatory phenotypes is essential for the creation of a growth permissive microenvironment. Viral gene delivery to induce the expression of anti‐inflammatory factors provides the potential to provide localized delivery to alter the host inflammatory response. Initially, we investigated the effect of the biomaterial and viral components of the delivery system to influence the extent of cell infiltration and the phenotype of these cells. Bridge implantation reduces antigen‐presenting cell infiltration at day 7, and lentivirus addition to the bridge induces a transient increase in neutrophils in the spinal cord at day 7 and macrophages at day 14. Delivery of a lentivirus encoding IL‐10, an anti‐inflammatory factor that inhibits immune cell activation and polarizes the macrophage population towards anti‐inflammatory phenotypes, reduced neutrophil infiltration at both day 7 and day 28. Though IL‐10 lentivirus did not affect macrophages number, it skewed the macrophage population toward an anti‐inflammatory M2 phenotype and altered macrophage morphology. Additionally, IL‐10 delivery resulted in improved motor function, suggesting reduced secondary damage and increased sparing. Taken together, these results indicate that localized expression of anti‐inflammatory factors, such as IL‐10, can modulate the inflammatory response following spinal cord injury, and may be a key component of a combinatorial approach that targets the multiple barriers to regeneration and functional recovery.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134909/1/btm210018.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134909/2/btm210018_am.pd

The Effect of Locally Delivered Controlledâ Release Doxycycline or Scaling and Root Planing on Periodontal Maintenance Patients Over 9 Months

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142157/1/jper0022.pd

Two Multiâ Center Studies Evaluating Locally Delivered Doxycycline Hyclate, Placebo Control, Oral Hygiene, and Scaling and Root Planing in the Treatment of Periodontitis

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142011/1/jper0490.pd