Pirates of the Press: Case Studies in the Prehistory of Copyright

What do book pirates steal? Unlike buccaneers who plunder treasure from travelers, press-pirates seize reprinting rights from other publishers. In sixteenth-century England, Thomas Dekker first gave the name ‘pirates’ to those booksellers who navigated the dangerous waters of intellectual property by selling in-demand titles under false pretenses. Pirates operated even though London’s Worshipful Company of Stationers closely guarded booksellers’ privileges to print, known as ‘copies.’ Raids on the English book trade escalated until 1709, when a royal statute rescued writers and publishers by arguing that ‘copyright’ accrued always from a work to its author. The 1709 Copyright Act was a landmark in literary history and international property law, although it never entirely stopped piracy, especially across regional and national boundaries. The problem resurfaces today: as global media companies amass rights formerly held by authors, and book pirate bots trawl the digital seas. Co-Curated by UIUC Professor of English Lori Newcomb and RBML Curator of Rare Books Adam Doskey, the Fall exhibition in RBML explores the colorful lives of certain nefarious booksellers, the various means of identifying piracies, and the lasting impact of piracy on literary authorship and intellectual property law. Exhibits include examples of pirated works, books printed with false publisher information, and even a manuscript composed by a real, high-seas pirate that was itself pirated.Ope

Higher Education Financial Assistance Tools for Middle- and Upper-Income Taxpayers

This article describes higher education financial assistance tools designed mainly for students of middle- and upper-income families who may not be eligible for financial aid from other sources. It includes the 2007 legislative updates for these tools, all of which have been devised and offered by either state or federal governments. The authors discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each tool and offer planning suggestions for families, students, and others who may participate in the higher education financial planning process

Once-daily medications for the pharmacological management of ADHD in adults

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder in children and adolescents. Symptoms of ADHD often persist beyond childhood and present significant challenges to adults. Pharmacotherapy is a first-line treatment option for ADHD across all age groups. The current review’s goals are (a) to critically examine the current state of knowledge regarding once-daily formulations of pharmacotherapies for treatment of adults with ADHD and (b) to provide clinicians with evidence-based information regarding the safety, efficacy and tolerability of once-daily medications for adult ADHD. The reviewed body of evidence strongly supports the use of pharmacotherapy as a first-line therapeutic option for the treatment of adults with ADHD. The once-daily pharmacological agents are effective therapeutic options for the treatment of adults with ADHD. In the US, based on the available evidence, once-daily medications are currently underutilized in adults with ADHD compared to pediatric population

CD45 immunoaffinity depletion of vesicles from Jurkat T cells demonstrates that exosomes contain CD45: no evidence for a distinct exosome/HIV-1 budding pathway

The presence of relatively high levels of cellular protein contamination in density-purified virion preparations is a confounding factor in biochemical analyses of HIV and SIV produced from hematopoietic cells. A major source of this contamination is from vesicles, either microvesicles or exosomes, that have similar physical properties as virions. Thus, these particles can not be removed by size or density fractionation. Although virions and vesicles have similar cellular protein compositions, CD45 is excluded from HIV-1 yet is present in vesicles produced from hematopoietic cells. By exploiting this finding, we have developed a CD45 immunoaffinity depletion procedure that removes vesicles from HIV-1 preparations. While this approach has been successfully applied to virion preparations from several different cell types, some groups have concluded that "exosomes" from certain T cell lines, specifically Jurkat, do not contain CD45. If this interpretation is correct, then these vesicles could not be removed by CD45 immunoaffinity depletion. Here we show that dense vesicles produced by Jurkat and SupT1/CCR5 cells contain CD45 and are efficiently removed from preparations by CD45-immunoaffinity depletion. Also, contaminating cellular proteins were removed from virion preparations produced by these lines. Previously, the absence of CD45 from both "exosomes" and virions has been used to support the so called Trojan exosome hypothesis, namely that HIV-1 is simply an exosome containing viral material. The presence of CD45 on vesicles, including exosomes, and its absence on virions argues against a specialized budding pathway that is shared by both exosomes and HIV-1

Parents....an Invaluable Link to Student Success

Research demonstrates the strong correlation between parental involvement and student achievement. This research, which involves studies that highlight the outcomes of parental involvement, will be presented. In addition, examples of parental involvement from tiers 1, 2, and 3 in the various PBIS systems in northwest Georgia will be given. Haralson County Schools will provide specific examples on how they have included not only parents, but also community stakeholders in their quest to increase participation. They will discuss specific strategies on how to engage parent/community stakeholders on a limited budget. Participants will walk away with ideas and strategies that have been successful in seven PBIS systems in northwest Georgia

Students’Experiential Learning of Hydroponics and Local Markets on the Island of Roatán, Honduras

International experiences for students provide a means for globalization of higher education, promoting communication and understanding of real world issues. Undergraduatestudents participating in a 10-day short course study abroad to Honduras experienced first-hand entrepreneurial education by working directly with a farm business while learning applied science of water and light relations with regard to hydroponically grown plants on the island of Roatán. This paper describes the teaching methods the professors implemented in order to help improve students’ understanding of complexissues related to science. Undergraduate students worked in pairs to collect greenhouse data and helped to harvest and package lettuce and mint to sell to local markets. The students were given a pre-test about water and light relations and were asked to respond to questions about issues they might encounter related to plant water uptake within a tropical greenhouse setting. The students participated in reflective sessions with the business owner after work experience, followed by post-tests after completing the exercises. These teaching methods were repeated for two years with a total of 20 participants. Overall, the post-test scores showed a gain in science knowledge. During reflective sessions, students commented that they enjoyed this unique mini-research experience and felt it was more valuable than just touring. Students appreciated the comprehensive interactions with the agricultural business and gained self-awareness related to entrepreneurship in agriculture. Study-abroad courses should try to include hands-on experiences for students to engage with local entrepreneurs and to apply science-based questions to promote critical thinking skill

UNSWIRF: A Tunable Imaging Spectrometer for the Near-Infrared

We describe the specifications, characteristics, calibration, and analysis of data from the University of New South Wales Infrared Fabry-Perot (UNSWIRF) etalon. UNSWIRF is a near-infrared tunable imaging spectrometer, used primarily in conjunction with IRIS on the AAT, but suitable for use as a visitor instrument at other telescopes. The etalon delivers a resolving power in excess of 4000 (corresponding to a velocity resolution ~75 km/s), and allows imaging of fields up to 100" in diameter on the AAT at any wavelength between 1.5 and 2.4 microns for which suitable blocking filters are available.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, uses psfig.sty and html.sty (included). To appear in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australi

Social Media Behaviors and Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Associations With Anxiety, Depression, and Stress

The majority of research concerning public health crises and social media platforms has focused on analyzing the accuracy of information within social media posts. The current exploratory study explored social media users’ specific social media behaviors and experiences during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic and whether these behaviors and experiences related to anxiety, depression, and stress. Data were collected March 21–31, 2020 from adults in the United States (N = 564) through snowball sampling on social media sites and Prime Panels. Online surveys included questions regarding social media use during the pandemic and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS). Forward stepwise modeling procedures were used to build three models for anxiety, stress, and depression. Participants who actively engaged with COVID-19 social media content were more likely to experience higher anxiety. Those who had emotional experiences via social media and used social media to connect during the pandemic were susceptible to higher levels of stress and depression. The current study suggests that during the pandemic specific behaviors and experiences via social media were related to anxiety, stress, and depression. Thus, limiting time spent on social media during public health crises may protect the mental health of individuals

Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program after 18 Years: Benefits, Unintended Consequences, and Changes

Since its inception in 1993, Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program has provided thousands of state residents the opportunity to pursue a college education. This study examines the history and recent changes to the merit-based program along with interesting consequences resulting from its implementation. This study demonstrateshow the program has thrived and continues to grow because of its role in encouraging students to perform better academically in high school and by increasing enrollment at state institutions of higher education

Enhancing legacy in palliative care: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of Dignity Therapy focused on positive outcomes.

BackgroundDignity Therapy is a brief psychotherapy that can enhance a sense of legacy while addressing the emotional and existential needs of patients receiving hospice or palliative care. In Dignity Therapy, patients create a formalized "legacy" document that records their most cherished memories, their lessons learned in life, as well as their hopes and dreams for loved ones in the future. To date, this treatment has been studied for its impact on mitigating distress within hospice and palliative care populations and has provided mixed results. This study will instead focus on whether Dignity Therapy enhances positive outcomes in this population.Methods/designIn this study, 90 patients with cancer receiving hospice or palliative care will complete a mixed-methods randomized controlled trial of Dignity Therapy (n = 45) versus Supportive Attention (n = 45). The patients will be enrolled in the study for 3 weeks, receiving a total of six study visits. The primary outcomes examine whether the treatment will quantitatively increase levels of positive affect and a sense of life closure. Secondary outcomes focus on gratitude, hope, life satisfaction, meaning in life, resilience, and self-efficacy. Using a fixed, embedded dataset design, this study will additionally use qualitative interviews to explore patients' perceptions regarding the use of positive outcome measures and whether these outcomes are appropriately matched to their experiences in therapy.DiscussionDignity Therapy has shown mixed results when evaluating its impact on distress, although no other study to date has solely focused on the potential positive aspects of this treatment. This study is novel in its use of mixed methods assessments to focus on positive outcomes, and will provide valuable information about patients' direct experiences in this area.Trial registrationISRCTN91389194