Assessing the quality of water quality assessments: An analytical quality control protocol for benthic diatoms

In this paper, the background to the development of an analytical quality control procedure for the Trophic Diatom Index (TDI) is explained, highlighting some of the statistical and taxonomic problems encountered, and going on to demonstrate how the system works in practice. Most diatom-based pollution indices, including the TDI, use changes in the relative proportions of different taxa to indicate changing environmental conditions. The techniques involved are therefore much simpler than those involved in many studies of phytoplankton, for example, where absolute numbers are required

Understanding Veillonella atypica as a potential metabolic mediator in diabetic exercise

Diabetes is one of the leading health threats to Western society. While several treatmentoptions and preventative measures exist for diabetes, physicians routinely recommend exercise to improve glucose metabolism in diabetics. However, many patients still struggle with both excessglucose production and inefficient glucose uptake, despite adherence to an exercise regimen.This phenomenon, known as exercise resistance, means that exercise is either ineffective orharmful for diabetics. While some diabetics may not respond well to exercise due tomitochondrial limitations, other factors, such as gut microbiome dysbiosis and lactic acidosis,could be contributors. Lactate-metabolizing gut bacteria, like Veillonella atypica, couldameliorate exercise’s negative effects in diabetics byimproving dysbiosis and lactic acidosis. V.atypica is traditionally classified as a strict anaerobe that could metabolize lactate into usableshort-chain fatty acids (SCFA) to improve diabetic exercise resistance symptoms. However,many characteristics of V. atypica have only been supported by genomic studies, so this project’sgoal was to begin to characterize the metabolic features of V. atypica in the laboratory. In thisstudy, fluid thioglycollate tests supported literature that V. atypica was an obligate anaerobe.Growth on Brain heart infusion (BHI) versus BHI plus lactate (BHIL) media showed that V.atypica could grow with or without lactate at 25°C and 37°C; however, V. atypica grew better inthe presence of lactate at 37°C. GC-MS analysis detected high quantities of potentially beneficial SCFAs, acetic and propionic acids, from metabolism of V. atypica, particularly inBHIL media. These data could contribute to the potential development of a well-tested, clinically-safe, V. atypica-based probiotic to amend exercise resistance in diabetics

Application of data envelopment analysis to measure technical efficiency on a sample of Irish dairy farms

peer-reviewedThe aim of this study was to determine the levels of technical efficiency on a sample of Irish dairy farms utilizing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and to identify key management and production factors that differ between producers indentified as efficient and inefficient. DEA was used in this study to generate technical efficiency scores under assumptions of both constant returns to scale (CRS) and variable returns to scale (VRS). The average technical efficiency score was 0.785 under CRS and 0.833 under VRS. Key production characteristics of efficient and inefficient producers were compared using an analysis of variance. More technically efficient producers used less input per unit of output, had higher production per cow and per hectare and had a longer grazing season, a higher milk quality standard, were more likely to have participated in milk recording and had greater land quality compared to the inefficient producers

Stefano Maderno’s Santa Cecilia and the Frame of the Jubilee of 1600

viii, 59 p. : col. ill.In 1599, in commemoration of the remarkable discovery of the incorrupt remains of the early Christian martyr St. Cecilia, Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrato commissioned Stefano Maderno to create a memorial sculpture which dramatically departed from earlier and contemporary monuments. While previous scholars have considered the influence of the historical setting on the conception of Maderno's Santa Cecilia , none have studied how this historical moment affected the beholder of the work. In 1600, the Church's Holy Year of Jubilee drew hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Rome to take part in Church rites and rituals. This thesis employs anthropological theories of performance as a means of analyzing how this context influenced the interaction of Jubilee pilgrims with Maderno's Santa Cecilia. The work's innovative form and the context of the Jubilee composed a dynamic relationship between sculpture and viewer and resulted in a profound intercessory experience.Committee in charge: Dr. James Harper， Chairperson； Dr. Nicola Camerlenghi， Member； Dr. Jessica Maier， Membe

Skin And Smoke

My thesis consists of the first ten chapters of a horror novel, entitled Skin and Smoke. My novel focuses on the character of Violet Masterson and her attempts to create her own identify and reconcile with her family\u27s past actions. Violet lives in the small, recently unincorporated town of Nuovita in central Washington. Following her grandmother\u27s death, she must face the paranormal events occurring in Nuovita, while her father leaves on an unknown journey. My thesis addresses themes of loss, identity, and revenge. In Joseph Campbell\u27s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he proposes that the monomyth ends with the hero returning home with the elixir of life and earning the freedom to live. That is, he is able to preserve a way of life, and learn to master the world he left at the beginning of the journey. Campbell\u27s hero returns to a comfortable, solid place, content in the knowledge he has gained and his place in society. However, as Campbell notes, the time of such heroes has passed. The journey of the monomyth, he believes, is now an internal one: a quest for ordinary individuals to find and master their role in life. In Skin and Smoke, I use the structure of a heroic journey to question the feasibility of such an ending. Rather than returning home, the story moves toward postmodern fragmentation and alienation as well as the transcendental homelessness described by Georg Lukacs