Global Worming: A Quantitative Study about Greenhouse Gas Flux in Surface Soils Facilitated by the Anecic Earthworm, \u3ci\u3eLumbricus terrestris\u3c/i\u3e, Under Rising Global Temperature

Climate change is the long-term alteration in the Earth’s average weather conditions believed to be driven by greenhouse gases (GHG): carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). These alterations are expected to cause more extreme weather events, gradually warmer global temperatures and greater amounts of precipitation. Roughly 20% of the Earth’s CO2, one-third of CH4 and two-thirds of N2O emissions, originate from soils, and earthworms are known to accelerate GHG. As climate change proceeds, there is expected to be an increase in global temperature of 2-6ºC. Temperature is a key factor in determining the rate of soil biological processes that produce and consume GHG. To test how temperature could impact the effects of earthworms on GHG production in soils, we placed earthworms in microcosms with agricultural or forest soil with plant detritus, and incubated the microcosms at 15ºC and 20ºC for six weeks. We found that CH4 soil consumption decreased at higher temperature and in the presence of earthworms, while CH4 consumption fluctuated negatively and positively in soils without earthworms at both lower and higher temperature. Production of CO2 decreased at higher temperature in the absence of earthworms, but production increased in the presence of earthworms at higher temperature. N2O production increased, lowering the soils ability to absorb N2O, with higher temperature and the presence of earthworms. CH4 production was increased in agriculture soil with some minor decrease in absorption in forest soil. CO2 production fluctuated greatly in agriculture soil. Forest soil CO2 production was mostly stable with little variability. Both soils experienced the same trend in N2O flux where there was a sudden production of gas followed by a slowed leveling out with minor fluctuation between production and consumption. Our results show strong evidence that changes in temperature, due to climate change, can impact the effect of earthworms on GHG production and consumption

Exploring Stress in the Field of Early Childhood Education

The teaching profession is recognized to be one of the most stressful fields worldwide (Lhospital & Gregory, 2009). This qualitative study was conducted to explore the different stresses of early childhood professionals in the workplace and further explored to see if there is a difference between general and special educators’ stress. 14 individuals participated in one-on-one interviews, 7 general educators and 7 special educators. After interviews were conducted, five major themes were found, three of which were echoed in the literature. With the key findings, it was concluded that there is virtually no difference in the stresses among general and special educators. Both general and special educators expressed that there is a lack of professional support for stress management in the workplace which contributes to their stress. In addition to that, another stress factor for educators was not receiving sufficient training for the position they are in. This study presented data and knowledge on what can be done to support educators and decrease their stress in the workplace.https://source.sheridancollege.ca/fahcs_student_capstones_hbecl/1014/thumbnail.jp

Regulation of mRNA Export by the PI3 kinase / AKT Signal Transduction Pathway

UAP56, ALY/REF, and NXF1 are mRNA export factors that sequentially bind at the 5\u27 end of a nuclear mRNA, but are also reported to associate with the Exon Junction Complex (EJC). To screen for signal transduction pathways regulating mRNA export complex assembly we used Fluorescence Recovery after Photobleaching (FRAP) to measure the binding of mRNA export and EJC core proteins in nuclear complexes. The fraction of UAP56, ALY/REF, and NXF1 tightly bound in complexes was reduced by drug inhibition of the PI3 kinase / AKT pathway, as was the tightly bound fraction of the core EJC proteins eIF4A3, MAGOH, and Y14. Inhibition of the mTOR mTORC1 pathway decreased the tight binding of MAGOH. Inhibition of the PI3 Kinase/AKT pathway increased the export of poly(A) RNA and of a subset of candidate mRNAs. A similar effect of PI3 kinase/AKT inhibition was observed for mRNAs from both intron-containing and intron-less Histone genes. However, the nuclear export of mRNAs coding for proteins targeted to the Endoplasmic Reticulum or to Mitochondria was not affected by the PI3 kinase/AKT pathway. These results show that the active PI3 kinase/AKT pathway can regulate mRNA export and can promote the nuclear retention of some mRNAs

Proceedings of the Second FAROS Public Workshop, 30th September 2014, Espoo, Finland

FAROS is an EC FP7 funded, three year project to develop an approach to incorporate human factors into Risk-Based Design of ships. The project consortium consists of 12 members including industry, academia and research institutes. The second FAROS Public Workshop was held in Dipoli Congress Centre in Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland, on the 30th of September 2014. The workshop included keynotes from industry, papers on risk models for aspects such as collision and grounding, fire and the human element, descriptions of parametric ship models and the overall approach being adopted in the FAROS project

Social Media and Relationship Satisfaction

In this study, researchers looked at several factors between social media use and different relationships. One study showed that relationships can be torn apart if the members have different opinions on controversial topics (Kruse et al., 2008). The family systems theory suggests that family structure could shape social development and emotional functioning, caused by differences in family–level contexts (Wikle & Hoagland, 2020). Researchers looked to see if high utilization of social media within a relationship will result in lower satisfaction. To test the hypothesis, several Likert scales were put into a survey and distributed online to students from Susquehanna University enrolled in psychology courses. Questions within the scales related to information about student demographics, social media use, and self-efficacy. Students had the option to voluntarily take the survey as well as the option to withdraw at any time, but surveys that were withdrawn were not counted as part of the data. Our results did not support the hypothesis. The statistics from the t-test and the Pearson’s r correlation did not provide the statistical data that we hypothesized, t(143) = 0.21, p = 0.98, r(145) = 0.11, p = 0.201. One limitation was that we had a limited sample of psychology students at a small campus. Future research could include larger and broader sample sizes, along with more age-appropriate relationship scales. Even though the amount of time on social media did not cause less satisfaction, our implications included to use social media with caution as it could lead to potential harm, like self- consciousness or cyber-bullying

Multiple identities: the civic function of architectural education in Europe.

Architectural education asks students to look beyond the confines of the studio to embrace global cultures, politics, and social contexts critically. Through making, digital interventions, drawing and critical analysis, architectural practices reveal complex narratives of the contexts they emerge from, reflecting multiple identities of place, heritage, and culture. This special edition of Charrette marks the 10th Biennial Congress of EURAU, (European Research in Architecture & Urbanism). EURAU is a network of schools and researchers in Architecture and Urbanism, which meets biannually in a conference to share their insights and concerns. EURAU's main objective is to establish these meetings as a place of debate and discussion of contemporary discourses in Architecture, City and Town Planning. This is a committed action organised by the Universities and contributes to the Europe 2020 Strategy towards a smart, sustainable and inclusive society. First initiated by the French Ministry of Culture in 2004, EURAU has convened regularly and continues to grow

Modeling and natural mode analysis of tethered multi-aircraft systems

Two complementary simulators aimed at the dynamic analysis of airborne wind energy systems based on multi-aircraft configurations are presented. The first model considers a train of stacked aircraft linked among them by two inelastic and massless tethers with no aerodynamic drag. The architecture of the mechanical system in the second simulator is configurable, as long as the system is made of a set of aircraft linked by an arbitrary number of elastic tethers. In both cases, the aircraft are modeled as rigid bodies and the controller is incorporated in the aerodynamic torque through the deflections of control surfaces. An analysis of the symmetric equilibrium state and the corresponding natural modes of a train (stacked configuration) of aircraft was carried out. It revealed that the higher the position of the aircraft in the train, the more they participate in the modes. Tether inertial and aerodynamic drag effects increase the equilibrium angles of attack of the aircraft and the tether tension at the attachment points. The potential applications and computational performance of the two codes are discussed.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund under the GreenKite project ENE2015-69937-R (MINECO/FEDER, UE) and continued under the GreenKite-2 project funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PID2019-110146RB-I00/ AEI / 10.13039/501100011033). GSA work is supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain under the Grant RYC-2014-15357

Influence of Body Weight Category on Outcomes in Candidemia Patients Treated With Anidulafungin

BACKGROUND: Case reports and pharmacokinetic data suggest off-label echinocandin dosing may be needed to reach adequate serum concentrations in obese patients. Few outcome studies exist evaluating this population. OBJECTIVES: Of this study were to (1) determine the association of body mass index (BMI) with clinical outcomes of candidemia patients on standard doses of anidulafungin and (2) characterize fungal infections by body weight. METHODS: A retrospective cohort was conducted to evaluate hospitalized patients treated for candidemia with anidulafungin at Food and Drug Administration-labeled dosing for at least 72 hours from January 1, 2014, through January 31, 2018. Candidemia was diagnosed by blood culture or T2 magnetic resonance (T2MR). Patients were compared according to BMI category. RESULTS: One hundred seventy-three patients were included. CONCLUSION: There was no difference detected in mortality among patients with candidemia across BMI category. Larger studies are needed to confirm whether standard doses of anidulafungin are sufficient for candidemia in obese patients