A linear AC trap for polar molecules in their ground state

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Valuing Teacher Retention: Unpacking Policies, Incentives, and Benefits that Retain Teachers

Over the last two decades California school districts’ budgets have become increasingly constrained by increased pension and health and welfare costs, while also experiencing sustained teacher shortages. Districts have been forced to balance being frugal with budgets while keeping highly qualified teaching staff during the Great Recession, the school finance shake-up brought by California’s new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), and the recent pension cost crisis. The three papers included in this dissertation explore three components of teacher compensation as policy tools during these challenges: teacher salaries before and after the implementation of the LCFF, master’s degree salary premiums in recent decades, and the rising cost of teacher health insurance over time.The first paper in this dissertation, also published in the Journal of Education Finance in Fall 2023, examines the impact of California’s LCFF on teacher salaries in high- and low- poverty districts. In 2013 California implemented the Local Control Funding Formula with the design of directing additional funding toward the student populations that most need support, resulting in districts with more students in poverty receiving substantially greater funding than previously. Using a difference-in-differences analysis we find little evidence that these high- poverty districts used the additional funding on teacher salaries, with teacher salaries rebounding from the Great Recession at similar rates in high- and low-poverty districts. Teacher Salaries in high-poverty districts remain lower than those in low-poverty ones. The second paper in this dissertation evaluates the effectiveness of paying teachers more for having a master’s degree. Beyond simply having enough teachers, districts typically want highly qualified ones. Between 1999-00 and 2018-19 115 districts implemented salary premiums awarding teachers thousands of dollars more a year for possessing a master’s degree. Districts may see this targeted spending as incentivizing the best teachers to work for their schools while keeping the overall impact on the budget low. Using a staggered implementation event study, I find that districts that implement master’s premiums can see both immediate and long-term increases in the share of their teachers that hold master’s degrees. Districts implementing large premiums saw sustained 4-8 percentage point increase in the share of their teachers holding master’s degrees, though smaller premiums seem to have no significant effect. The third paper in this dissertation examines the cost of teacher health insurance over twenty years from 1999-00 to 2018-19. This work tracks the increased total cost of health insurance plans, district contributions to these plans, and the burden for teachers. Additionally, this paper uses OLS regressions to describe associations between district contributions and teacher and district characteristics. I find that the inflation adjusted cost of teacher health insurance doubles during the two-decade period, and that school districts typically covered most of this increased cost while passing some increased costs on to teachers. In recent years, districts that contribute more seem to have stronger union pressures to contribute to health insurance plans and typically pay their teachers lower salaries

Diverse soil carbon dynamics expressed at the molecular level

The stability and potential vulnerability of soil organic matter (SOM) to global change remains incompletely understood due to the complex processes involved in its formation and turnover. Here we combine compound-specific radiocarbon analysis with fraction-specific and bulk-level radiocarbon measurements in order to further elucidate controls on SOM dynamics in a temperate and sub-alpine forested ecosystem. Radiocarbon contents of individual organic compounds isolated from the same soil interval generally exhibit greater variation than those among corresponding operationally-defined fractions. Notably, markedly older ages of long-chain plant leaf wax lipids (n-alkanoic acids) imply that they reflect a highly stable carbon pool. Furthermore, marked 14C variations among shorter- and longer-chain n-alkanoic acid homologues suggest that they track different SOM pools. Extremes in SOM dynamics thus manifest themselves within a single compound class. This exploratory study highlights the potential of compound-specific radiocarbon analysis for understanding SOM dynamics in ecosystems potentially vulnerable to global change

PRACTICE CHANGE: SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE SCREENING TO IDENTIFY HIGH RISK ADULT PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS

Background: In today’s culture, social media relationships are an integral part of adult socialization. According to research, 83% of persons between the ages of 18-33 have at least one social media account. As social media use has gained popularity, the effect of this type of socialization on psychiatric disorders needs to be considered by clinicians. Current evidence suggests high utilization of social media has been linked to increased psychiatric distress including higher depression, anxiety, and body dissatisfaction. Purpose: The purpose of this practice change project was to assist psychiatric providers with identification of adult psychiatric patients who experience increased psychological distress from social media use. Methods: The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model was used to guide implementation of the Social Media Screening Questionnaire (SMSQ) as part of the initial psychiatric evaluation. Provider-participants administered the SMSQ to all new adult patients. At the end of each of the three PDSA cycles, provider-participants were asked to evaluate barriers and facilitators of the practice change. Upon completion of the PDSA cycles, participants completed a QualtricsXM final survey and a post-implementation debrief. Results: Six psychiatric clinicians from a suburban psychiatric clinic participated in this practice change. All six providers completed the QualtricsXM final survey and participated in the post-implementation debrief. All participants either agreed or strongly agreed that utilization of the SMSQ was helpful in identifying high utilizers of social media and stated they would recommend psychiatric providers continue to screen for social media use in the future. Of the 136 screenings administered, 113 were completed correctly (83%), 17 (12.5%) were discarded due to a no-show patient, and six (4%) were not completed during the visit. Conclusion: The data from this practice change suggests screening for social media usage rates was effective in increasing providers awareness of the impact of social media on the patients’ social environment and psychological state. It is recommended that psychiatric providers consider screening adult patients for social media use.Doctor of Nursing Practic

Feasibility of Single - Encounter Telemedicine Lung Cancer Screening: A Retrospective Cohort Study in an Underserved Population

COVID-19 forced a delay of non-essential health services, including lung cancer screening. Our institution developed a single-encounter, telemedicine (SET) lung cancer screening whereby patients receive low-dose CT in-person, but counseling regarding results, coordination of follow-up care and smoking cessation is delivered using telemedicine. This study compares outcomes of SET lung cancer screening to our pre-COVID, single-visit, in-person (SIP) lung cancer screening.Lewis Katz School of MedicineSurgeryClinical RadiologyHealth DisparityThoracic Medicine and SurgeryTemple University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund, 2022-2023 (Philadelphia, Pa.

Practice change: Social Media Screening Questionnaire to identify high-risk adult psychiatric patients

Purpose: Include social media screening during initial psychiatric examination with new adult patients to increase psychiatric providers' awareness of the rate and impact of social media use in their patients. Design and Methods: Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles were implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of psychiatric provider 5-question social media screening during the initial evaluation. Findings: Screening for social medial usage (N = 136) improved providers' a wareness of the rate and impact of social media use on patients' distress levels. The process of screening influenced a conversation between provider and patient about healthy social media use. Practice Implications: The inclusion of social media screening during initial psychiatric evaluation may aid in the assessment of risk factors for psychological distress

Is soluble protein mineralisation and protease activity in soil regulated by supply or demand?

Protein represents a major input of organic matter to soil and is an important source of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) for microorganisms. Therefore, determining which soil properties influence protein mineralisation in soil is key to understanding and modelling soil C and N cycling. However, the effect of different soil properties on protein mineralisation, and especially the interactions between soil properties, are poorly understood. We investigated how topsoil and subsoil properties affect protein mineralisation along a grassland altitudinal (catena) sequence that contained a gradient in soil type and primary productivity. We devised a schematic diagram to test the key edaphic factors that may influence protein mineralisation in soil (e.g. pH, microbial biomass, inorganic and organic N availability, enzyme activity and sorption). We then measured the mineralisation rate of 14C-labelled soluble plant-derived protein and amino acids in soil over a two-month period. Correlation analysis was used to determine the associations between rates of protein mineralisation and soil properties. Contrary to expectation, we found that protein mineralisation rate was nearly as fast as for amino acid turnover. We ascribe this rapid protein turnover to the low levels of protein used here, its soluble nature, a high degree of functional redundancy in the microbial community and microbial enzyme adaptation to their ecological niche. Unlike other key soil N processes (e.g. nitrification, denitrification), protease activity was not regulated by a small range of factors, but rather appeared to be affected by a wide range of interacting factors whose importance was dependent on altitude and soil depth [e.g. above-ground net primary productivity (NPP), soil pH, nitrate, cation exchange capacity (CEC), C:N ratio]. Based on our results, we hypothesise that differences in soil N cycling and the generation of ammonium are more related to the rate of protein supply rather than limitations in protease activity and protein turnover per se

Decadal-scale litter manipulation alters the biochemical and physical character of tropical forest soil carbon

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Climate change and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations are likely to alter tropical forest net primary productivity (NPP), potentially affecting soil C storage. We examined biochemical and physical changes in soil C fractions in a humid tropical forest where experimental litter manipulation changed total soil C stocks. We hypothesized that: (1.) low-density soil organic C (SOC) fractions are more responsive to altered litter inputs than mineral-associated SOC, because they cycle relatively rapidly. (2.) Any accumulation of mineral-associated SOC with litter addition is relatively stable (i.e. low leaching potential). (3.) Certain biomolecules, such as waxes (alkyl) and proteins (N-alkyl), form more stable mineral-associations than other biomolecules in strongly weathered soils. A decade of litter addition and removal affected bulk soil C content in the upper 5 cm by +32% and −31%, respectively. Most notably, C concentration in the mineral-associated SOC fraction was greater in litter addition plots relative to controls by 18% and 28% in the dry and wet seasons, respectively, accounting for the majority of greater bulk soil C stock. Radiocarbon and leaching analyses demonstrated that the greater mineral-associated SOC in litter addition plots consisted of new and relatively stable C, with only 3% of mineral-associated SOC leachable in salt solution. Solid-state13C NMR spectroscopy indicated that waxes (alkyl C) and microbial biomass compounds (O-alkyl and N-alkyl C) in mineral-associated SOC are relatively stable, whereas plant-derived compounds (aromatic and phenolic C) are lost from mineral associations on decadal timescales. We conclude that changes in tropical forest NPP will alter the quantity, biochemistry, and stability of C stored in strongly weathered tropical soils

Bovine proteins containing poly-glutamine repeats are often polymorphic and enriched for components of transcriptional regulatory complexes

peer-reviewedBackground: About forty human diseases are caused by repeat instability mutations. A distinct subset of these diseases is the result of extreme expansions of polymorphic trinucleotide repeats; typically CAG repeats encoding poly-glutamine (poly-Q) tracts in proteins. Polymorphic repeat length variation is also apparent in human poly-Q encoding genes from normal individuals. As these coding sequence repeats are subject to selection in mammals, it has been suggested that normal variations in some of these typically highly conserved genes are implicated in morphological differences between species and phenotypic variations within species. At present, poly-Q encoding genes in non-human mammalian species are poorly documented, as are their functions and propensities for polymorphic variation. Results: The current investigation identified 178 bovine poly-Q encoding genes (Q ≥ 5) and within this group, 26 genes with orthologs in both human and mouse that did not contain poly-Q repeats. The bovine poly-Q encoding genes typically had ubiquitous expression patterns although there was bias towards expression in epithelia, brain and testes. They were also characterised by unusually large sizes. Analysis of gene ontology terms revealed that the encoded proteins were strongly enriched for functions associated with transcriptional regulation and many contributed to physical interaction networks in the nucleus where they presumably act cooperatively in transcriptional regulatory complexes. In addition, the coding sequence CAG repeats in some bovine genes impacted mRNA splicing thereby generating unusual transcriptional diversity, which in at least one instance was tissue-specific. The poly-Q encoding genes were prioritised using multiple criteria for their likelihood of being polymorphic and then the highest ranking group was experimentally tested for polymorphic variation within a cattle diversity panel. Extensive and meiotically stable variation was identified. Conclusions: Transcriptional diversity can potentially be generated in poly-Q encoding genes by the impact of CAG repeat tracts on mRNA alternative splicing. This effect, combined with the physical interactions of the encoded proteins in large transcriptional regulatory complexes suggests that polymorphic variations of proteins in these complexes have strong potential to affect phenotype.Dairy Australia (through the Innovative Dairy Cooperative Research Center

Transcriptomic analysis of milk somatic cells in mastitis resistant and susceptible sheep upon challenge with Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The existence of a genetic basis for host responses to bacterial intramammary infections has been widely documented, but the underlying mechanisms and the genes are still largely unknown. Previously, two divergent lines of sheep selected for high/low milk somatic cell scores have been shown to be respectively susceptible and resistant to intramammary infections by <it>Staphylococcus spp</it>. Transcriptional profiling with an 15K ovine-specific microarray of the milk somatic cells of susceptible and resistant sheep infected successively by <it>S. epidermidis </it>and <it>S. aureus </it>was performed in order to enhance our understanding of the molecular and cellular events associated with mastitis resistance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The bacteriological titre was lower in the resistant than in the susceptible animals in the 48 hours following inoculation, although milk somatic cell concentration was similar. Gene expression was analysed in milk somatic cells, mainly represented by neutrophils, collected 12 hours post-challenge. A high number of differentially expressed genes between the two challenges indicated that more T cells are recruited upon inoculation by <it>S. aureus </it>than <it>S. epidermidis</it>. A total of 52 genes were significantly differentially expressed between the resistant and susceptible animals. Further Gene Ontology analysis indicated that differentially expressed genes were associated with immune and inflammatory responses, leukocyte adhesion, cell migration, and signal transduction. Close biological relationships could be established between most genes using gene network analysis. Furthermore, gene expression suggests that the cell turn-over, as a consequence of apoptosis/granulopoiesis, may be enhanced in the resistant line when compared to the susceptible line.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Gene profiling in resistant and susceptible lines has provided good candidates for mapping the biological pathways and genes underlying genetically determined resistance and susceptibility towards <it>Staphylococcus </it>infections, and opens new fields for further investigation.</p