Evolution of the Air Toxics Under the Big Sky Program

As a yearlong exploration of air quality and its relation to respiratory health, the “Air Toxics Under the Big Sky” program offers opportunities for students to learn and apply science process skills through self-designed inquiry-based research projects conducted within their communities. The program follows a systematic scope and sequence designed to first lay a strong foundation, followed by activities intended to expand understanding, and ending with a final step aimed at achieving retention of content and principles learned. The foundation consists of content regarding environmental health sciences and human health. The next level guides students during their independent study projects as they test their hypotheses, analyze results, and draw conclusions. The final step requires these junior researchers to share their findings with others in some type of culminating event, with the most prominent being a high school symposium held at the conclusion of the school year. This article describes the evolution of the Air Toxics Under the Big Sky program since its inception in 2003

The Big Sky Model: A Regional Collaboration for Participatory Research on Environmental Health in the Rural West

As an innovative community-based framework for science learning, the Big Sky Model is guiding high school and tribal college students from rural areas of Montana and Idaho in their understanding of chemical, physical, and environmental health concepts in the context of their own homes, schools, and communities. Students participate in classroom lessons and continue with systematic inquiry through actual field research to investigate a pressing, real-world issue: understanding the complex links between poor air quality and respiratory health outcomes. This article provides background information, outlines the procedure for implementing the model, and discusses its effectiveness as demonstrated through various evaluation tools

Air Toxics Under The Big Sky – A High School Science Teaching Tool

A project has been developed between Big Sky High School and The University of Montana (UM) which has brought together high school students and teachers, university scientists, and county environmental health officials in a multilayered research experience focusing on the collection and analysis of specific air toxics, and investigating their relationship to respiratory diseases. The Air Toxics Under the Big Sky project allows students to benefit from an independent experience linking science, research, and local environmental issues. We see this as a long term project which will be built upon and expanded by future students during each new school year and as new schools are added. This project will foster a long-term scientific collaboration between UM and Montana high schools, and establishes high school students as valuable contributors to the scientific community while educating them about environmental issues

The Power of the Symposium: Impacts from Students\u27 Perspectives

The Air Toxics under the Big Sky program developed at the University of Montana is a regional outreach and education initiative that offers a yearlong exploration of air quality and its relation to respiratory health. The program was designed to connect university staff and resources with rural schools enabling students to learn and apply science process skills through self-designed research projects conducted within their communities. As part of the program, students develop and conduct independent projects, then share their findings at the conclusion of the school year in some type of interactive capstone experience, the most prominent being a high school symposium held at The University of Montana campus. Student feedback collected through a carefully controlled evaluation program suggest that the annual symposium as the culminating event is a critical component of the Air Toxics Under the Big Sky program, and a valuable learning experience as many of the students go on to post-secondary education. AcknowledgmentsThe authors wish to thank all the students who have participated in the Air Toxics Under the Big Sky Program, with our special gratitude toward the many dedicated teachers who have made its implementation so successful and rewarding. Funding for this project was provided by the Toyota USA Foundation and by a Science Education Partnership Award, Grant Number R25 RR020432, from the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health. The contents of this manuscript are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the officials views of our funding sponsors

Evaluation of heavy metals, cytotoxicity, and antioxidant activity of tomatoes grown in toxic muddy soils

This research studies tomatoes grown in polluted soils to ascertain their phytochemical and nutritive features. Pulp and seeds from tomatoes grown in muddy soils were analyzed for their antioxidant power and their toxicity because of the possibility that heavy metals were present in the soils. An antioxidant assay on methanol extracts was made by using DDPH, while an ABTS [2,2'-Azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)] assay was used to evaluate the antioxidant activity of lipophilic fractions. Results of the antioxidant assay showed that the tomatoes maintained a high level of antioxidant activity especially in the lipophilic fractions which contain the most representative compounds. Cytotoxic activity was performed on HeLa, PDAC, and A375 cell lines by [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-phenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide] (MTT) assay. Results showed that neither the seeds, nor the pulp, of the extracts was cytotoxic. The presence of heavy metals was evaluated by using spectroscopy of atomic absorption with a graphite oven. Test results show the absence of heavy metals and these results have an interesting scientific role because they provide useful information for promoting food safety

Air Toxics under the Big Sky: A Real-World Investigation To Engage High School Science Students

This paper describes a problem-based chemistry education model in which students perform scientific research on a local environmentally relevant problem. The project is a collaboration among The University of Montana and local high schools centered around Missoula, Montana. Air Toxics under the Big Sky involves high school students in collecting air samples inside and outside their homes within and near Missoula. As part of this program, teachers, students, and university researchers investigate the relationship between air pollutants and their harmful respiratory effects. Students experience scientific research, use scientific equipment, gain an insight into the relationship between the environment and public health, and develop scientific hypotheses. UM benefits by having a pipeline of high school students, several of whom participated in the program while in high school and now attend UM. The local community benefits from the work students and university researchers have done producing high-quality data that are being used in a tracking database for respiratory disease in western Montana. Student research efforts have culminated in three annual symposia that allowed students to present their results at a public forum

The Marine light - mixed layer experiment cruise and data report, R/V Endeavor : cruise EN-224, mooring deployment, 27 April-1 May 1991, cruise EN-227, mooring recovery, 5-23 September 1991

The Marine Light - Mixed Layer experiment took place in the sub-Arctic North Atlantic ocean, approximately 275 miles south of Reykjavik, Iceland. The field program included a central surface mooring to document the temporal evolution of physical, biological and optical properties. The surface mooring was deployed at approximately 59°N, 21°W on 29 April 1991 and recovered on 6 September 1991. The Upper Ocean Processes Group of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was responsible for design, preparation, deployment, and recovery of the mooring. The Group's contrbution to the field measurements included four different types of sensors: a meteorological observation package on the surface buoy, a string of 15 temperature sensors along the mooring line, an acoustic Doppler current profiler, and four instruments for measuring mooring tension and accelerations. The observations obtained from the mooring are sufficient to describe the air-sea fluxes and the local physical response to surface forcing. The objective in the analysis phase will be to determine the factors controlling this physical response and to work towards an understanding of the links among physical, biological, and optical processes. This report describes the deployment and recovery of the mooring, the meteorological data, and the subsurface temperature and current data.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-89-J-1683

Mutations in CIC and IDH1 cooperatively regulate 2-hydroxyglutarate levels and cell clonogenicity

The majority of oligodendrogliomas (ODGs) exhibit combined losses of chromosomes 1p and 19q and mutations of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH1-R132H or IDH2-R172K). Approximately 70% of ODGs with 1p19q co-deletions harbor somatic mutations in the Capicua Transcriptional Repressor (CIC) gene on chromosome 19q13.2. Here we show that endogenous long (CIC-L) and short (CIC-S) CIC proteins are predominantly localized to the nucleus or cytoplasm, respectively. Cytoplasmic CIC-S is found in close proximity to the mitochondria. To study wild type and mutant CIC function and motivated by the paucity of 1p19q co-deleted ODG lines, we created HEK293 and HOG stable cell lines ectopically co-expressing CIC and IDH1. Non-mutant lines displayed increased clonogenicity, but cells co-expressing the mutant IDH1-R132H with either CIC-S-R201W or -R1515H showed reduced clonogenicity in an additive manner, demonstrating cooperative effects in our assays. Expression of mutant CIC-R1515H increased cellular 2-Hydroxyglutarate (2HG) levels compared to wild type CIC in IDH1-R132H background. Levels of phosphorylated ATP-citrate Lyase (ACLY) were lower in cell lines expressing mutant CIC-S proteins compared to cells expressing wild type CIC-S, supporting a cytosolic citrate metabolism-related mechanism of reduced clonogenicity in our in vitro model systems. ACLY or phospho-ACLY were similarly reduced in CIC-mutant 1p19q co-deleted oligodendroglioma patient samples

As atualizações científicas sobre a hipertensão pulmonar persistente no recém-nascido / Scientific updates on persistent pulmonary hypertension in the newborn

A hipertensão pulmonar persistente do recém-nascido ocorre quando a resistência vascular pulmonar permanece anormalmente elevada após o nascimento, resultando em desvio de sangue da direita para a esquerda através das vias circulatórias fetais. Isso, por sua vez, leva a hipoxemia grave que pode não responder ao suporte respiratório convencional. No feto, os circuitos pulmonar e sistêmico operam em paralelo, ambos os ventrículos direito e esquerdo ejetam sangue na aorta com subsequente perfusão da placenta, o órgão respiratório fetal. A hipertensão pulmonar persistente do recém-nascido ocorre quando a resistência vascular pulmonar permanece elevada após o nascimento, resultando em desvio de sangue da direita para a esquerda através das vias circulatórias fetais que leva à hipoxemia, que em alguns casos pode ser grave e não responde ao suporte respiratório convencional. A HPPN ocorre principalmente em bebês nascidos a termo ou prematuros tardios e é causada por anormalidades da vasculatura pulmonar que incluem subdesenvolvimento, desenvolvimento inadequado e má adaptação. Os  bebês com HPPN geralmente apresentam cianose e dificuldade respiratória, a HPPN está associada a fatores de risco pré-natal e uma variedade de distúrbios respiratórios primários, como síndrome de aspiração de mecônio, pneumonia, síndrome do desconforto respiratório, hérnia diafragmática congênita e hipoplasia pulmonar.

As atualizações científicas sobre a hipertensão pulmonar persistente no recém-nascido / Scientific updates on persistent pulmonary hypertension in the newborn

A hipertensão pulmonar persistente do recém-nascido ocorre quando a resistência vascular pulmonar permanece anormalmente elevada após o nascimento, resultando em desvio de sangue da direita para a esquerda através das vias circulatórias fetais. Isso, por sua vez, leva a hipoxemia grave que pode não responder ao suporte respiratório convencional.No feto, os circuitos pulmonar e sistêmico operam em paralelo, ambos os ventrículos direito e esquerdo ejetam sangue na aorta com subsequente perfusão da placenta, o órgão respiratório fetal. A hipertensão pulmonar persistente do recém-nascido ocorre quando a resistência vascular pulmonar permanece elevada após o nascimento, resultando em desvio de sangue da direita para a esquerda através das vias circulatórias fetais que leva à hipoxemia, que em alguns casos pode ser grave e não responde ao suporte respiratório convencional. A HPPN ocorre principalmente em bebês nascidos a termo ou prematuros tardios e é causada por anormalidades da vasculatura pulmonar que incluem subdesenvolvimento, desenvolvimento inadequado e má adaptação. Os  bebês com HPPN geralmente apresentam cianose e dificuldade respiratória, a HPPN está associada a fatores de risco pré-natal e uma variedade de distúrbios respiratórios primários, como síndrome de aspiração de mecônio, pneumonia, síndrome do desconforto respiratório, hérnia diafragmática congênita e hipoplasia pulmonar.