University Evolution Education: The Effect of Evolution Instruction on Biology Majors’ Content Knowledge, Attitude Toward Evolution, and Theistic Position

Issues regarding understanding of evolution and resistance to evolution education in the United States are of key importance to biology educators at all levels. While research has measured student views toward evolution at single points in time, few studies have been published investigating whether views of college seniors are any different than first-year students in the same degree program. Additionally, students choosing to major in biological sciences have largely been overlooked, as if their acceptance of evolution is assumed. This study investigated the understanding of evolution and attitude toward evolution held by students majoring in biological science during their first and fourth years in a public research university. Participants included students in a first-year introductory biology course intended for biological science majors and graduating seniors earning degrees in either biology or genetics. The portion of the survey reported here consisted of quantitative measures of students’ understanding of core concepts of evolution and their attitude toward evolution. The results indicate that students’ understanding of particular evolutionary concepts is significantly higher among seniors, but their attitude toward evolution is only slightly improved compared to their first-year student peers. When comparing first-year students and seniors, students’ theistic position was not significantly different

Objective benefits, participant perceptions and retention rates of a New Zealand community-based, older-adult exercise programme

INTRODUCTION: Most exercise studies for older adults have been university- or hospital-based. Little is known about the benefits and factors influencing long-term participation in community-based exercise programmes, especially in New Zealand. AIM: To quantify the objective benefits, participant perceptions and retention rates of a New Zealand community-based exercise programme for adults (60 years or older). METHODS: Study 1 involved assessing the benefits of 12 weeks’ training on a convenience sample of 62 older adults commencing the never2old Active Ageing programme. Study 2 assessed the perceptions of 150 current participants on a variety of programme components that could act as barriers or facilitators to continued engagement. Study 3 assessed the retention rates of 264 participants in the programme over a two-year period. RESULTS: Significant improvements in many physical functional scores were observed in Study 1 (5–30 percentile points; p less than 0.05). Questionnaire responses from participants in Study 2 indicated many xsi:type=""benefits (positive responses from 67–95% on various questions) and that core components of the programme were rated very highly (64–99% on various components). Retention rates were high, with Study 3 finding 57% of participants still engaging in the programme at the end of the two-year period. DISCUSSION: A community-based exercise programme for older adults can improve many objective and subjective measures of physical fitness and functional performance and have good retention rates. General practitioners and other allied health professionals in New Zealand should consider promoting programmes, such as the never2old Active Ageing programme, to their older patients

University Faculty and Their Knowledge & Acceptance of Biological Evolution

Misconceptions about biological evolution specifically and the nature of science in general are pervasive in our society and culture. The view that biological evolution explains life’s origin(s) and that hypotheses become theories, which then become laws are just two examples of commonly held misconceptions. These misconceptions are reinforced in the media, in people’s personal lives, and in some unfortunate cases in the science classroom. Misconceptions regarding the nature of science (NOS) have been shown to be related to understanding and acceptance of biological evolution. Previous work has looked at several factors that are related to an individual’s understanding of biological evolution, acceptance of biological evolution, and his/her understanding of the NOS. The study presented here investigated understanding and acceptance of biological evolution among a highly educated population: university faculty. To investigate these variables we surveyed 309 faculty at a major public Midwestern university. The questions at the core of our investigation covered differences across and between faculty disciplines, what influence theistic position or other demographic responses had, and what model best described the relationships detected. Our results show that knowledge of biological evolution and acceptance of biological evolution are positively correlated for university faculty. Higher knowledge of biological evolution positively correlates with higher acceptance of biological evolution across the entire population of university faculty. This positive correlation is also present if the population is broken down into distinct theistic views (creationist and non-creationist viewpoints). Greater knowledge of biological evolution also positively correlates with greater acceptance of biological evolution across different levels of science education. We also found that of the factors we examined, theistic view has the strongest relationship with knowledge and acceptance of biological evolution. These results add support to the idea that a person’s theistic view is a driving force behind his or her resistance to understanding and accepting biological evolution. We also conclude that our results support the idea that effective science instruction can have a positive effect on both understanding and acceptance of biological evolution and that understanding and acceptance are closely tied variables

GES DISC Data Recipes in Jupyter Notebooks

The Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project manages twelve Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) which are geographically dispersed across the United States. The DAACs are responsible for ingesting, processing, archiving, and distributing Earth science data produced from various sources (satellites, aircraft, field measurements, etc.). In response to projections of an exponential increase in data production, there has been a recent effort to prototype various DAAC activities in the cloud computing environment. This, in turn, led to the creation of an initiative, called the Cloud Analysis Toolkit to Enable Earth Science (CATEES), to develop a Python software package in order to transition Earth science data processing to the cloud. This project, in particular, supports CATEES and has two primary goals. One, to transition data recipes created by the Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Service Center (GES DISC) into an interactive and educational environment using JupyterNotebooks. Two, to acclimate Earth scientists to cloud computing. To accomplish these goals, we create JupyterNotebooks to compartmentalize the different steps of data analysis and help users obtain and parse data from the command line. We also develop a Docker container, comprised of Jupyter Notebooks, Python dependencies, and command line tools, and configure it into an easy-to-deploy package. The end result is an end-to-end product that simulates the use case of end users working in the cloud computing environment

Improvement of Segmental Lordosis in Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion: A Comparison of Two Techniques

Study Design Retrospective review. Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the radiographic impact of a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) versus a cantilever TLIF technique on segmental lordosis, segmental coronal alignment, and disk height. Methods A retrospective review was done of all patients undergoing TLIF procedures from 2006 to 2011 by three spine surgeons. Traditional TLIF versus cantilever TLIF results were compared, and radiographic outcomes were assessed. Results One hundred one patients were included in the study. Patients undergoing the cantilever TLIF procedure had a significantly greater change in segmental lordosis and disk height compared with those who underwent the traditional procedure (p \u3e 0.0001). Conclusions The cantilever TLIF technique can lead to greater change in segmental lordosis based upon radiographic outcomes

Chlorine Inactivation of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus (H5N1)

To determine resistance of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) virus to chlorination, we exposed allantoic fluid containing 2 virus strains to chlorinated buffer at pH 7 and 8, at 5°C. Free chlorine concentrations typically used in drinking water treatment are sufficient to inactivate the virus by >3 orders of magnitude

Broadly neutralizing antibodies abrogate established hepatitis C virus infection

In most exposed individuals, hepatitis C virus (HCV) establishes a chronic infection; this long-term infection in turn contributes to the development of liver diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The role of antibodies directed against HCV in disease progression is poorly understood. Neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) can prevent HCV infection in vitro and in animal models. However, the effects of nAbs on an established HCV infection are unclear. We demonstrate that three broadly nAbs—AR3A, AR3B, and AR4A—delivered with adeno-associated viral vectors can confer protection against viral challenge in humanized mice. Furthermore, we provide evidence that nAbs can abrogate an ongoing HCV infection in primary hepatocyte cultures and in a human liver chimeric mouse model. These results showcase a therapeutic approach to interfere with HCV infection by exploiting a previously unappreciated need for HCV to continuously infect new hepatocytes to sustain a chronic infection

Dynamics and transport near quantum-critical points

The physics of non-zero temperature dynamics and transport near quantum-critical points is discussed by a detailed study of the O(N)-symmetric, relativistic, quantum field theory of a N-component scalar field in $d$ spatial dimensions. A great deal of insight is gained from a simple, exact solution of the long-time dynamics for the N=1 d=1 case: this model describes the critical point of the Ising chain in a transverse field, and the dynamics in all the distinct, limiting, physical regions of its finite temperature phase diagram is obtained. The N=3, d=1 model describes insulating, gapped, spin chain compounds: the exact, low temperature value of the spin diffusivity is computed, and compared with NMR experiments. The N=3, d=2,3 models describe Heisenberg antiferromagnets with collinear N\'{e}el correlations, and experimental realizations of quantum-critical behavior in these systems are discussed. Finally, the N=2, d=2 model describes the superfluid-insulator transition in lattice boson systems: the frequency and temperature dependence of the the conductivity at the quantum-critical coupling is described and implications for experiments in two-dimensional thin films and inversion layers are noted.Comment: Lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Dynamical properties of unconventional magnetic systems", Geilo, Norway, April 2-12, 1997, edited by A. Skjeltorp and D. Sherrington, Kluwer Academic, to be published. 46 page

Overview of Spirit Microscopic Imager Results

This paper provides an overview of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit Microscopic Imager (MI) operations and the calibration, processing, and analysis of MI data. The focus of this overview is on the last five Earth years (2005-2010) of Spirit's mission in Gusev crater, supplementing the previous overview of the first 450 sols of the Spirit MI investigation. Updates to radiometric calibration using in-flight data and improvements in high-level processing are summarized. Released data products are described, and a table of MI observations, including target/feature names and associated data sets, is appended. The MI observed natural and disturbed exposures of rocks and soils as well as magnets and other rover hardware. These hand-lens-scale observations have provided key constraints on interpretations of the formation and geologic history of features, rocks, and soils examined by Spirit. MI images complement observations by other Spirit instruments, and together show that impact and volcanic processes have dominated the origin and evolution of the rocks in Gusev crater, with aqueous activity indicated by the presence of silica-rich rocks and sulfate-rich soils. The textures of some of the silica-rich rocks are similar to terrestrial hot spring deposits, and observations of subsurface cemented layers indicate recent aqueous mobilization of sulfates in places. Wind action has recently modified soils and abraded many of the rocks imaged by the MI, as observed at other Mars landing sites. Plain Language Summary The Microscopic Imager (MI) on NASA's Spirit rover returned the highest-resolution images of the Martian surface available at the time of the 2004-2010 mission. Designed to survive 90 Mars days (sols) and search for evidence of water in the past, Spirit returned data for 2210 sols, far exceeding all expectations. This paper summarizes the scientific insights gleaned from the thousands of MI images acquired during the last 5years of the mission, supplementing the summary of the first 450 sols of the Spirit MI investigation published previously (Herkenhoff et al., ). Along with data from the other instruments on Spirit, MI images guided the scientific interpretation of the geologic history of the rocks and soils observed in Gusev crater on Mars. We conclude that the geologic history of the area explored by Spirit has been dominated by impacts and volcanism, and that water, perhaps very hot water, was involved in the evolution of some of the rocks and soils. More recently, winds have moved soil particles and abraded rocks, as observed elsewhere on Mars. These results have improved our understanding of Mars' history and informed planning of future missions to Mars.National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationPublic domain articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]