Availability of Tuition Assistance Funding Effects on Educational Pursuits

The problem of this study was to investigate how the availability of tuition assistance funding effects the educational pursuits of marines stationed at Marine Corps Base Quantico during fiscal years 2013 and 2014

Manipulation of the Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus Envelope Protein in an Effort to Develop Directly and Indirectly Targeted Retroviral Vectors for Use in Human Gene Therapy

Highly effective, targeted therapies against cancer would revolutionize the way people recover from this devastating illness. Gone would be the lingering side effects of the current non-specific treatments and in their place would be faster recovery times, better quality of life both during and after treatment, and less ambiguity about whether or not treatment was effective. This concept will elude modern medicine until treatments can be tailored to the patient\u27s individual and unique disease. This concept of a transient, targeted, and tailored vehicle aimed at cancer cells lends itself to the use of replication deficient retroviral gene therapy vectors with interchangeable receptor binding sites. These vectors may be used separately or in combination with each other to ensure maximum delivery of a suicide gene only to cancerous cells involved with the primary tumor as well as those equally dangerous metastatic cells. Recently, a prototype retroviral vector incorporating the short peptide Somatostatin in place of its natural receptor binding site has been developed. The design of this chimeric envelope protein has the potential to make the insertion of varied receptor binding sites a simple and efficient process. The goal of my studies was to learn more about the potential of this design by taking steps towards challenging its ligand capacity, both in size and secondary structure, and improving its interaction with the target cell. My studies indicate that the peptide ligand Stromal Derived Factor-1α (lysine 22 through lysine 89) is not a good candidate for use with this chimeric design. They also show that only certain modifications within the Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus heparin binding motif can be tolerated. Supplemental studies point out that (1) the removal of an MluI site at the CMV promoter N-terminus may enhance promoter function, (2) TransIT (Mirus) is an effective reagent for transfection of DNA into the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line, and (3) a eukaryotic α-complementation assay is not sensitive enough to detect cell-cell fusion at levels below that of the wild type MoMLV envelope with its natural receptor. While much investigation remains to be done, these observations will help pave the way to the development of effective retroviral vectors for cancer therapy

Facilitating respite, communication, and care for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Preliminary evaluation of the Caregiver Pain Information Guide.

Background: Pain is common in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and yet is an understudied issue. Respite workers commonly care for children with I/DD but are lacking in resources to assist in pain assessment and management for this population. Without adequate knowledge in this domain, children with I/DD are at risk of their pain being underrecognized and undermanaged. A resource for caregivers was developed to address this issue, facilitating communication between parents and respite workers and better addressing the complex pain-related needs of children with I/DD. The objective of this study was to solicit initial feedback on the content, feasibility, and usability of the resource. Method/Procedure: Semistructured individual interviews and questionnaires were completed with 7 parents of children with I/DD and 6 respite workers. Results: All participants viewed the resource as important and potentially useful. Content analyses indicated that participants appreciated the comprehensiveness and format of the resource, whereas the modifiability was identified as an area for improvement. Participants believed that the resource would be useful across settings with a variety of caregivers. Three categories of considerations were identified as potential facilitators and barriers for implementation: consideration of how the resource is being completed, who is completing it, and organization-based procedures. Discussion/Conclusions: Results from this study suggest that the Caregiver Pain Information Guide is a promising resource for helping respite workers better understand pain in children with I/DD. Future work is needed on implementation and impact of this resource in community settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)Implications for Impact Statement—Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience pain frequently and are at risk of having their pain missed by caregivers. Parents would like to share pain-related knowledge and skills specific to their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities with those who support their child in other settings. The Caregiver Pain Information Guide was created to facilitate communication between parents and caregivers of these children. The current article discusses initial feedback from parents and respite workers regarding this new tool. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved

Vacancy Tuning in Li,V-Substituted Lyonsites

© 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. The lyonsite structure, characterized by the formula A 4 M 3O12, is a relatively understudied tunneled crystal structure. This host structure is known to be compositionally flexible, able to incorporate a number of cations in various oxidation states into the A site. In the parent compound Co3.75V1.5Mo1.5O12, it is apparent that a stoichiometric vacancy of 0.25 is unavoidable as a result of Coulombic repulsion. This work focuses on the systematic elimination of vacancies by chemically introducing guest Li ions while maintaining host integrity. A full solid solution was found to exist with the formula □0.25–1/8xLi x Co3.75–7/8xV1.5–3/4xMo1.5+3/4xO12 (0 ≤ x ≤ 2), terminating at the known end member Li2Co2Mo3O12. Lattice refinements on PXRD data confirmed the isostructural nature of the whole series, and detailed structural analysis revealed that competition between Li and Co in the same crystallographic site is unequal, with Li exhibiting a stronger site preference for larger interstitial sites. Diffuse reflectance analysis revealed that the optical band gap is directly tunable with x, and supporting structure-property relationships were also explored via magnetometry and dielectric measurements

ANALYSIS OF SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE MARKETPLACES

As commercial e-commerce portals continue to grow in popularity among the acquisition workforce, it is imperative that the federal government ensures companies of all business sizes are able to compete fairly. This research examines the current framework of platform providers and makes recommendations on how small businesses can be better utilized without sacrificing competition, while keeping an extensive industry base and receiving best value for both the taxpayer and warfighter.Civilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

The First 1 1/2 Years of TOTEM Roman Pot Operation at LHC

Since the LHC running season 2010, the TOTEM Roman Pots (RPs) are fully operational and serve for collecting elastic and diffractive proton-proton scattering data. Like for other moveable devices approaching the high intensity LHC beams, a reliable and precise control of the RP position is critical to machine protection. After a review of the RP movement control and position interlock system, the crucial task of alignment will be discussed.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figures; 2nd International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC 2011), San Sebastian, Spain; contribution MOPO01