Enrollment, Retention, and Activity in an Online Master Gardener Course

An online version of the OSU Master Gardener training course was launched in the fall of 2006. Student retention in the online course was comparable to retention in on-site trainings. Students who were most active in the course, measured as the number of optional assignments and quizzes completed, were more likely to score higher on the final exam. Online courses have the capacity to broaden the reach of Extension and to allow individuals who traditionally could not take advantage of programs to become a part of the Extension community

Planning Tours as Part of a Professional Conference: Lessons Learned

Tours are often one of the most popular aspects of a large professional conference. However, tour planning can be time-consuming and overwhelming. We share the lessons we learned while planning 17 multiday, full-day, and half-day tours as part of the 2017 International Master Gardener Conference. We consider tour organization, pricing, site selection, and tour promotion, among other topics

An Online Resource Site for Extension Master Gardener Coordinators

Developing an online resource site for Extension master gardener (EMG) coordinators is an ongoing project for Extension collaborators. Begun in 2014, the website includes peer-reviewed resources focused on best practices in volunteer management and program administration. The website is organized according to nine resource categories (e.g., program planning, engaging and teaching adults) and three resource types (i.e., readings, PowerPoint files, templates). In this article, we identify criteria used by peer reviewers and describe the processes for identifying potential resources, building site content, and making the website more accessible

Evaluating Community Gardens as Habitat for an Urban Butterfly

Although many butterfly species persist in heavily developed landscapes, it is unclear what factors influence movements of butterflies among urban habitat patches. We used mark-recapture and translocation experiments to assess residency and movement of the highly successful urban butterfly, Pieris rapae, within and among community gardens of New York City. Although the majority of marked butterflies used gardens transiently, a small number remained for several days. Recruitment (via pupation and/or immigration) and residence time of P. rapae adults was higher in larger gardens and gardens with more flowers. Residence time, but not recruitment, was influenced by the amount of surrounding green space. When translocated outside of gardens, butterflies readily moved to a variety of other urban green spaces including street trees, street plantings and other small patches of vegetation. This study demonstrate the ability of P. rapae to move through heavily developed landscapes and to locate floral resources, factors which may contribute to this species success in urbanized landscapes

Bumble Bee Abundance in New York City Community Gardens: Implications for Urban Agriculture

A variety of crops are grown in New York City community gardens. Although the production of many crops benefits from pollination by bees, little is known about bee abundance in urban community gardens or which crops are specifically dependent on bee pollination. In 2005, we compiled a list of crop plants grown within 19 community gardens in New York City and classified these plants according to their dependence on bee pollination. In addition, using mark-recapture methods, we estimated the abundance of a potentially important pollinator within New York City urban gardens, the common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens). This species is currently recognized as a valuable commercial pollinator of greenhouse crops. However, wild populations of B. impatiens are abundant throughout its range, including in New York City community gardens, where it is the most abundant native bee species present and where it has been observed visiting a variety of crop flowers. We conservatively counted 25 species of crop plants in 19 surveyed gardens. The literature suggests that 92% of these crops are dependent, to some degree, on bee pollination in order to set fruit or seed. Bombus impatiens workers were observed visiting flowers of 78% of these pollination-dependent crops. Estimates of the number of B. impatiens workers visiting individual gardens during the study period ranged from 3 to 15 bees per 100m2 of total garden area and 6 to 29 bees per 100m2 of garden floral area. Of 229 B. impatiens workers marked, all recaptured individuals (45%) were found in gardens where they were initially marked. These results indicate an abundance of B. impatiens workers within New York City community gardens and suggest that, at least for certain time periods, many individual workers forage within single gardens. Both findings suggest that B. impatiens may be an especially important pollinator of several common crops grown within community gardens and other urban green spaces that are used for agricultural production. Studies of other pollinating insect species in urban habitats as well as the relationship between pollen movement and seed or fruit set will complement the findings of this study

Planning Large Conferences: Tips and Tricks

Large conference planning requires a high degree of attention to detail as well as collaboration and coordination between the conference chair and committee chairs. Often, it is useful to learn directly from past conference chairs and to consider those elements that have worked well in the past or could be improved on. We present the lessons learned from planning the 2017 International Master Gardener Conference. This article may help others in organizations that are considering hosting large conferences

The Influence of Garden Size and Floral Cover on Pollen Deposition in Urban Community Gardens

Many cucurbits, such as cucumbers, squashes and pumpkins, depend on pollinating bees in order to set fruit. However, fruit yield and progeny vigor in these plants generally decreases as heterospecific pollen deposition increases. We studied how the spatial area dedicated to cucumbers (Cucumis sativis), versus other flowering plants, influenced the deposition of conspecific and heterospecific pollen on cucumber plants in New York City community gardens. We also examined the effect of garden size on conspecific and heterospecific pollen deposition on cucumber plants. Female flowers were collected from potted cucumber plants that had been experimentally placed into the gardens, specifically for this study, or that were established in raised beds by members of the community garden. In the laboratory, pollen grains were isolated from the flower by acetolysis, and the number of heterospecific and conspecific cucumber pollen grains were quantified. Conspecific pollen deposition was positively and significantly associated with the size of a community garden, as well as with the area of each garden dedicated to non-cucumber, flowering plants (i.e. floral cover) and the area of each garden dedicated to cucumber plants (i.e. cucumber cover). Although floral cover explained a greater proportion of the variance, cucumber cover had the strongest effect on conspecific pollen deposition. Heterospecific pollen deposition was positively and significantly related to garden area. However, no significant relationship was found between heterospecific pollen deposition and floral cover or cucumber cover. Based upon these results, we hypothesize that floral cover positively impacts conspecific pollen deposition by attracting a greater number of pollinators into an urban garden, and that total cucumber area positively impacts conspecific pollen deposition when pollinators are locally foraging within a garden. We suggest that the arrangement of plants within a garden can positively influence yield in fruit and vegetable-producing plants within urban community gardens. Due to the low availability of fruits and vegetables within the stores of the neighborhoods where this study was conducted, developing a better understanding of those factors that constrain or foster fruit and vegetable production are important to increasing food security and public health

Ischemic preconditioning in the younger and aged heart

: Ischemic preconditioning is the effect of brief ischemic episodes which protect the heart from the following more prolonged ischemic episode. This mechanism is effective in younger but not in aged heart. The age-related reduction of ischemic preconditioning has been demonstrated in experimental models and in elderly patients. Preinfarction angina, a clinical equivalent of ischemic preconditioning, reduces mortality in adult but not in elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction. Physical activity or caloric restriction is partially capable to preserve the cardioprotective effect of ischemic preconditioning in the aging heart. More importantly, physical activity and caloric restriction in tandem action completely preserve the protective mechanism of ischemic preconditioning. Accordingly, the protective mechanism of preinfarction angina is preserved in elderly patients with a high grade of physical activity or a low body-mass index. Thus, both physical activity and caloric restriction are confirmed as powerful anti-aging interventions capable to restore age-dependent reduction of a critical endogenous protective mechanism such as ischemic preconditioning

Loss of mTOR signaling affects cone function, cone structure and expression of cone specific proteins without affecting cone survival

Cones are the primary photoreceptor (PR) cells responsible for vision in humans. They are metabolically highly active requiring phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) activity for long-term survival. One of the downstream targets of PI3K is the kinase mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), which is a key regulator of cell metabolism and growth, integrating nutrient availability and growth factor signals. Both PI3K and mTOR are part of the insulin/mTOR signaling pathway, however if mTOR is required for long-term PR survival remains unknown. This is of particular interest since deregulation of this pathway in diabetes results in reduced PR function before the onset of any clinical signs of diabetic retinopathy. mTOR is found in two distinct complexes (mTORC1 and mTORC2) that are characterized by their unique accessory proteins RAPTOR and RICTOR respectively. mTORC1 regulates mainly cell metabolism in response to nutrient availability and growth factor signals, while mTORC2 regulates pro-survival mechanisms in response to growth factors. Here we analyze the effect on cones of loss of mTORC1, mTORC2 and simultaneous loss of mTORC1 and mTORC2. Interestingly, neither loss of mTORC1 nor mTORC2 affects cone function or survival at one year of age. However, outer and inner segment morphology is affected upon loss of either complex. In contrast, concurrent loss of mTORC1 and mTORC2 leads to a reduction in cone function without affecting cone viability. The data indicates that PI3K mediated pro-survival signals diverge upstream of both mTOR complexes in cones, suggesting that they are independent of mTOR activity. Furthermore, the data may help explain why PR function is reduced in diabetes, which can lead to deregulation of both mTOR complexes simultaneously. Finally, although mTOR is a key regulator of cell metabolism, and PRs are metabolically highly active, the data suggests that the role of mTOR in regulating the metabolic transcriptome in healthy cones is minimal

Syncope in the elderly: An update

Abstract Syncope in the elderly is an extremely prevalent clinical condition characterized by high mortality and presence of recurrences. The diagnosis of syncope in the elderly is sometimes difficult and multidimensional geriatric assessment should be carefully administered. Diagnostic algorithms should be applied with attention, although unknown syncope is still frequent. The therapeutic approach to syncope in the elderly is complicated by the high prevalence of neurally-mediated syncope, in which the therapeutic approach is still unknown. The establishment of a "Syncope Unit" has certainly improved the diagnostic-therapeutic approach to patients with syncope, especially in old age where the management is extremely difficult