Big Data for Small Parks: Examining Regional Vegetation Patterns to Assess the Current Condition and Vulnerability of Eastern National Parks to Climate Change

The United States National Park Service mission is to preserve natural and cultural resources unimpaired for future generations. Given climate change, the paradigm of restoring natural resources to their pre-European settlement condition is no longer appropriate or achievable management. Instead, we must promote resilience and plan for adaptation. This approach poses many challenges, including knowledge gaps about the current condition of park ecosystems including wetlands, and lack of information about the matrix surrounding parks, which will strongly influence park ecosystem response to climate change. My dissertation research focused on filling these knowledge gaps to provide much needed information to managers in northeastern national parks (NP). We constructed multimetric indicators (MMIs) of wetland condition for vegetation, soil, water chemistry, and algae to assess wetland condition in Acadia NP, compared patterns of structure and tree diversity in park and matrix forests, and assessed migration potential of eastern tree species through dispersal simulations and spatial analyses of tree regeneration. Using the MMIs, we found Acadia NP wetlands to be in good condition overall, and identified degraded wetlands to prioritize for restoration. Our study of 50 eastern NPs found parks to have consistently older forest structure, such as higher density of large trees and greater coarse woody debris volume, than matrix forests. Our follow-up study in 39 eastern NPs documented consistently higher tree diversity in parks than matrix forests. These results suggest that park forests may respond differently and potentially be more resilient to climate change than matrix forests. However, our assessments of tree migration capacity documented significant dispersal barriers north of many southern oak (Quercus spp.), hickory (Carya spp.) and pine (Pinus spp.) species predicted to gain suitable habitat in the northeastern US. In roughly the same area, we documented widespread regeneration debt of these same southern tree species, with invasive plant species, deer overabundance, and anthropogenic land cover the likely drivers. Taken together, these results indicate that while parks may be somewhat resilient in the short-term, without intervention, longer-term adaptive capacity of northeastern forests to climate change will be severely impacted by migration barriers and regeneration debts in the mid-Atlantic region

Complementary transcriptomic, lipidomic, and targeted functional genetic analyses in cultured Drosophila cells highlight the role of glycerophospholipid metabolism in Flock House virus RNA replication

Abstract Background Cellular membranes are crucial host components utilized by positive-strand RNA viruses for replication of their genomes. Published studies have suggested that the synthesis and distribution of membrane lipids are particularly important for the assembly and function of positive-strand RNA virus replication complexes. However, the impact of specific lipid metabolism pathways in this process have not been well defined, nor have potential changes in lipid expression associated with positive-strand RNA virus replication been examined in detail. Results In this study we used parallel and complementary global and targeted approaches to examine the impact of lipid metabolism on the replication of the well-studied model alphanodavirus Flock House virus (FHV). We found that FHV RNA replication in cultured Drosophila S2 cells stimulated the transcriptional upregulation of several lipid metabolism genes, and was also associated with increased phosphatidylcholine accumulation with preferential increases in lipid molecules with longer and unsaturated acyl chains. Furthermore, targeted RNA interference-mediated downregulation of candidate glycerophospholipid metabolism genes revealed a functional role of several genes in virus replication. In particular, we found that downregulation of Cct1 or Cct2, which encode essential enzymes for phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis, suppressed FHV RNA replication. Conclusion These results indicate that glycerophospholipid metabolism, and in particular phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis, plays an important role in FHV RNA replication. Furthermore, they provide a framework in which to further explore the impact of specific steps in lipid metabolism on FHV replication, and potentially identify novel cellular targets for the development of drugs to inhibit positive-strand RNA viruses.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78268/1/1471-2164-11-183.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78268/2/1471-2164-11-183-S3.XLShttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78268/3/1471-2164-11-183-S2.XLShttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78268/4/1471-2164-11-183.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78268/5/1471-2164-11-183-S4.XLShttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78268/6/1471-2164-11-183-S1.XLSPeer Reviewe

Interprofessional Education: How to Make It Happen

Interprofessional education (IPE) will be defined and demystified with exemplars from Nursing and their IPE events with Aviation, Medicine, and American Sign Language and Interpreting

Patient Perceptions of the Caring Environment

As health management information system technology at the point of care increases to ensure greater efficiency, effectiveness and patient safety, the impact of such technology needed to be explored for impact on the nurse-patient dyad, and patient perception of the caring environment. This evidence-based practice pilot project based on the Iowa Model of Evidence- Based Practice to Promote Quality Care utilized quasi-experimental methodology to measure implication of mobile computer workstations at the point of care and sought to answer if an evidence-based practice change of ergonomic use surrounding technology improved patient perceptions of the caring environment. Significance of the pilot project was noted with an increased awareness of patient perceptions that may be applied to increase patient-centered care. Results indicated that ergonomic interventional use of mobile computer workstations did in fact improve patient perceptions of the caring environment. Key words: caring, computers, patient perception, nursing care, caring environmen

Is Social Media a Threat or Can It Be a Trusted Agent?

There is a prevailing belief within the United States Department of Defense (DOD) that social media is a threat to national security, leading to restrictions in workplace use of social-media applications. However, instead of dismissing social media as a threat, leaders should be asking whether or not the information received via social media can be trusted, thus leveraging the information-sharing capabilities of social media. This article presents a theoretical case for quantifying social media trustworthiness by exploring the factors that influence trust in social media and proposing a trust framework to be used to quantify trustworthiness

Provider Support of Spontaneous Pushing During the Second Stage of Labor

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74899/1/0884217505281904.pd

Conditioned Reinforcement can be Mediated by Either Outcome-Specific or General Affective Representations

Conditioned reinforcers are Pavlovian cues that support the acquisition and maintenance of new instrumental responses. Responding on the basis of conditioned rather than primary reinforcers is a pervasive part of modern life, yet we have a remarkably limited understanding of what underlying associative information is triggered by these cues to guide responding. Specifically, it is not certain whether conditioned reinforcers are effective because they evoke representations of specific outcomes or because they trigger general affective states that are independent of any specific outcome. This question has important implications for how different brain circuits might be involved in conditioned reinforcement. Here, we use specialized Pavlovian training procedures, reinforcer devaluation and transreinforcer blocking, to create cues that were biased to preferentially evoke either devaluation-insensitive, general affect representations or, devaluation-sensitive, outcome-specific representations. Subsequently, these cues, along with normally conditioned control cues, were presented contingent on lever pressing. We found that intact rats learned to lever press for either the outcome or the affect cues to the same extent as for a normally conditioned cue. These results demonstrate that conditioned reinforcers can guide responding through either type of associative information. Interestingly, conditioned reinforcement was abolished in rats with basolateral amygdala lesions. Consistent with the extant literature, this result suggests a general role for basolateral amygdala in conditioned reinforcement. The implications of these data, combined with recent reports from our laboratory of a more specialized role of orbitofrontal cortex in conditioned reinforcement, will be discussed

Maturation-dependent responses of human neuronal cells to western equine encephalitis virus infection and type I interferons

AbstractInnate cell-autonomous antiviral responses are essential first lines of defense against central nervous system infections but may also contribute to neuropathogenesis. We investigated the relationships between innate immunity and neuronal differentiation using an in vitro culture system with human cell lines to analyze cellular responses to the neurotropic alphavirus western equine encephalitis virus. Human neuronal cells displayed a maturation-dependent reduction in virus-induced cytopathology that was independent of autocrine interferon α or β activity. In addition, maturation was associated with enhanced responsiveness to exogenous stimuli, such that differentiated neurons required five- to ten-fold less type I interferon to suppress viral replication or virus-induced cytopathology compared to immature cells, although this enhanced responsiveness extended to only a subset of unique type I interferons. These results demonstrate that maturation-dependent changes in human neuronal cells may be key determinants in the innate immune response to infections with neurotropic alphaviruses

NIH Initiative to Balance Sex of Animals in Preclinical Studies: Generative Questions to Guide Policy, Implementation, and Metrics

In May of 2014, the NIH Director together with the Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health announced plans to take a multi-dimensional approach to address the over reliance on male cells and animals in preclinical research. The NIH is engaging the scientific community in the development of policies to improve the sex balance in research. The present, past, and future presidents of the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences, in order to encourage thoughtful discussion among scientists, pose a series of questions to generate ideas in three areas: 1. research strategies, 2. educational strategies, and 3. strategies to monitor effectiveness of policies to improve the sex balance in research. By promoting discussion within the scientific community, a consensus will evolve that will move science forward in a productive and effective manner

Identification of B6SJL mSOD1(G93A) mouse subgroups with different disease progression rates

Disease progression rates among patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) vary greatly. Although the majority of affected individuals survive 3-5 years following diagnosis, some subgroups experience a more rapidly progressing form, surviving less than 1 year, and other subgroups experience slowly progressing forms, surviving nearly 50 years. Genetic heterogeneity and environmental factors pose significant barriers in investigating patient progression rates. Similar to the case for humans, variation in survival within the mSOD1 mouse has been well documented, but different progression rates have not been investigated. The present study identifies two subgroups of B6SJL mSOD1(G93A) mice with different disease progression rates, a fast progression group (FPG) and slow progression group, as evidenced by differences in the rate of motor function decline. In addition, increased disease-associated gene expression within the FPG facial motor nucleus confirmed the presence of a more severe phenotype. We hypothesize that a more severe disease phenotype could be the result of 1) an earlier onset of axonal disconnection with a consistent degeneration rate or 2) a more severe or accelerated degenerative process. We performed a facial nerve transection axotomy in both mSOD1 subgroups prior to disease onset as a method to standardize the axonal disconnection. Instead of leading to comparable gene expression in both subgroups, this standardization did not eliminate the severe phenotype in the FPG facial nucleus, suggesting that the FPG phenotype is the result of a more severe or accelerated degenerative process. We theorize that these mSOD1 subgroups are representative of the rapid and slow disease phenotypes often experienced in ALS