Minority Teacher Recruitment, Employment, and Retention: 1987 to 2013

This study examines and compares the recruitment, employment, and retention of minority and nonminority school teachers over the past quarter century. Our objective is to empirically ground the debate over minority teacher shortages. The data we analyze are from the National Center for Education Statistics\u27 nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and its longitudinal supplement, the Teacher Follow-Up Survey (TFS).

Introgressive Hybridization and the Evolution of Lake-Adapted Catostomid Fishes.

Hybridization has been identified as a significant factor in the evolution of plants as groups of interbreeding species retain their phenotypic integrity despite gene exchange among forms. Recent studies have identified similar interactions in animals; however, the role of hybridization in the evolution of animals has been contested. Here we examine patterns of gene flow among four species of catostomid fishes from the Klamath and Rogue rivers using molecular and morphological traits. Catostomus rimiculus from the Rogue and Klamath basins represent a monophyletic group for nuclear and morphological traits; however, the Klamath form shares mtDNA lineages with other Klamath Basin species (C. snyderi, Chasmistes brevirostris, Deltistes luxatus). Within other Klamath Basin taxa, D. luxatus was largely fixed for alternate nuclear alleles relative to C. rimiculus, while Ch. brevirostris and C. snyderi exhibited a mixture of these alleles. Deltistes luxatus was the only Klamath Basin species that exhibited consistent covariation of nuclear and mitochondrial traits and was the primary source of mismatched mtDNA in Ch. brevirostris and C. snyderi, suggesting asymmetrical introgression into the latter species. In Upper Klamath Lake, D. luxatus spawning was more likely to overlap spatially and temporally with C. snyderi and Ch. brevirostris than either of those two with each other. The latter two species could not be distinguished with any molecular markers but were morphologically diagnosable in Upper Klamath Lake, where they were largely spatially and temporally segregated during spawning. We examine parallel evolution and syngameon hypotheses and conclude that observed patterns are most easily explained by introgressive hybridization among Klamath Basin catostomids

Computational tools for the study of the genomes of filamentous fungi

During the past year, we have developed and deployed several new computational tools to provide new means of access to information used for research in the biology of filamentous fungi. These new tools complement and extend other resources available for access to both molecular and biological data

Rice Breeding Strategies in the Philippines

Rice is a major staple in the Philippines. The major goal of the rice sector in the country is to increase its productivity to meet the ever growing demand for rice. Breeding is one of the potential solutions to achieve rice self-sufficiency in the country. Rice variety development is led by research institutions such as PhilRice, IRRI, UPLB, and private companies and each adapts various breeding strategies. Rice variety normally takes 10-12 years of a journey from breeding to release and more than 300 varieties have been developed and released that were suited for various rice ecosystems. Sufficient varieties were available for production and this led to continuous in rice production for the past decade. However, yield increment has plateaued. To meet the increasing demand for rice, achieve self-sufficiency, and particularly, break the yield barrier (plateau) and achieve a leap in yield potential, breeding institutions particularly PhilRice should embrace new advances and technologies in rice breeding. The introduction of the concept of transforming breeding into a “factory line” type encouraging rapid generation advance, earlier multi-location trials, and increasing selection pressure, and employing genomic selection (GS) in handling a large quantity of materials/populations can improve breeding efficiency and outputs significantly

Introgressive Hybridization and the Evolution of Lake-Adapted Catostomid Fishes

Hybridization has been identified as a significant factor in the evolution of plants as groups of interbreeding species retain their phenotypic integrity despite gene exchange among forms. Recent studies have identified similar interactions in animals; however, the role of hybridization in the evolution of animals has been contested. Here we examine patterns of gene flow among four species of catostomid fishes from the Klamath and Rogue rivers using molecular and morphological traits. Catostomus rimiculus from the Rogue and Klamath basins represent a monophyletic group for nuclear and morphological traits; however, the Klamath form shares mtDNA lineages with other Klamath Basin species (C. snyderi, Chasmistes brevirostris, Deltistes luxatus). Within other Klamath Basin taxa, D. luxatus was largely fixed for alternate nuclear alleles relative to C. rimiculus, while Ch. brevirostris and C. snyderi exhibited a mixture of these alleles. Deltistes luxatus was the only Klamath Basin species that exhibited consistent covariation of nuclear and mitochondrial traits and was the primary source of mismatched mtDNA in Ch. brevirostris and C. snyderi, suggesting asymmetrical introgression into the latter species. In Upper Klamath Lake, D. luxatus spawning was more likely to overlap spatially and temporally with C. snyderi and Ch. brevirostris than either of those two with each other. The latter two species could not be distinguished with any molecular markers but were morphologically diagnosable in Upper Klamath Lake, where they were largely spatially and temporally segregated during spawning. We examine parallel evolution and syngameon hypotheses and conclude that observed patterns are most easily explained by introgressive hybridization among Klamath Basin catostomids.Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Representatives of SSCP haplotypes and all sequences for phylogenetic analysis were deposited in GenBank (Accession numbers KU697909-KU698077)

The Vehicle, Spring 2010

Table of Contents ForgettingRashelle McNairpage 34 MuseMary Lieskepage 35 My CompulsionAshton Tembypage 38 MemoryKate Vandermeerpage 41 Killmercialize MeGreg Petersonpage 42 PenJake Smithpage 46 GrassKate Vandermeerpage 48 Character CreationMary Lieskepage 52 Ring Around TheKim Hunter-Perkinspage 54 The Great Cursive ScareJake Smithpage 55 OpiateDoug Urbanskipage 61 What Happens to Little Girls...Jennifer O\u27Neilpage 63 Poetry Sunny DaysRyan Poolpage 2 AtlantisDoug Urbanskipage 4 Garbage CityKate Vandermeerpage 6 Fat Girl ThongsKim Hunter-Perkinspage 7 MercilessRosalia Pecorapage 19 ChemistryMary Lieskepage 20 He-Who-Stopped-TalkingJustin Sudkamppage 22 In Which Iris Contemplates a Barren EarthSean Slatterypage 24 At the Bottom of the WorldNick Canadaypage 27 Dogma: Mush!Scott Maypage 28 ThiefMary Lieskepage 29 Prose Coming HomeDoug Urbanskipage 8 DodoDan Davispage 31 The Poet in the PedestrianScott Maypage 37 Toxic RainJacob Swansonpage 40 What\u27s Your Greatest Fear?Justine Fittonpage 43 Soul VoiceHolly Thomaspage 49 Conversations with a SniperKim Hunter-Perkinspage 56 LettersDaniel Paquinpage 65 Art San Marcos, MexicoKate Vandermeercover Contemplation of the World\u27s EndNicholas Giffordpage 18 Little Lady SitsSarah Hadwigerpage 26 MoodAlycia Rockeypage 30 Four Ducks in a RowMegan Mathypage 36 The Daily EasternBen Tillerypage 39 BirdsAlycia Rockeypage 45 March of the BugsMegan Mathypage 47 Mexico Work ExperienceKate Vandermeerpage 53 Feather and JewelsAlycia Rockeypage 60 The ForgottenMegan Mathypage 64 Special Features Fall 2009-Spring 2010 Vehicle Award Winnerspage 1 James K. Johnson Creative Writing Awardpage 74 Kim Hunter-PerkinsWinning Entries (Poetry)page 75 Clint WalkerWinning Entry (Fiction)page 86 Faculty Spotlight: Professor Jason Brownpage 99 About the Contributorspage 106 About the Editorspage 110https://thekeep.eiu.edu/vehicle/1093/thumbnail.jp

A review of open top chamber (OTC) performance across the ITEX Network

Open top chambers (OTCs) were adopted as the recommended warming mechanism by the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) network in the early 1990’s. Since then, OTCs have been deployed across the globe. Hundreds of papers have reported the impacts of OTCs on the abiotic environment and the biota. Here we review the impacts of the OTC on the physical environment, with comments on the appropriateness of using OTCs to characterize the response of biota to warming. The purpose of this review is to guide readers to previously published work and to provide recommendations for continued use of OTCs to understand the implications of warming on low stature ecosystems. In short, the OTC is a useful tool to experimentally manipulate temperature, however the characteristics and magnitude of warming varies greatly in different environments, therefore it is important to document chamber performance to maximize the interpretation of biotic response. When coupled with long-term monitoring, warming experiments are a valuable means to understand the impacts of climate change on natural ecosystems

SSWAP: A Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol for semantic web services

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>SSWAP (<b>S</b>imple <b>S</b>emantic <b>W</b>eb <b>A</b>rchitecture and <b>P</b>rotocol; pronounced "swap") is an architecture, protocol, and platform for using reasoning to semantically integrate heterogeneous disparate data and services on the web. SSWAP was developed as a hybrid semantic web services technology to overcome limitations found in both pure web service technologies and pure semantic web technologies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There are currently over 2400 resources published in SSWAP. Approximately two dozen are custom-written services for QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) and mapping data for legumes and grasses (grains). The remaining are wrappers to Nucleic Acids Research Database and Web Server entries. As an architecture, SSWAP establishes how clients (users of data, services, and ontologies), providers (suppliers of data, services, and ontologies), and discovery servers (semantic search engines) interact to allow for the description, querying, discovery, invocation, and response of semantic web services. As a protocol, SSWAP provides the vocabulary and semantics to allow clients, providers, and discovery servers to engage in semantic web services. The protocol is based on the W3C-sanctioned first-order description logic language OWL DL. As an open source platform, a discovery server running at <url>http://sswap.info</url> (as in to "swap info") uses the description logic reasoner Pellet to integrate semantic resources. The platform hosts an interactive guide to the protocol at <url>http://sswap.info/protocol.jsp</url>, developer tools at <url>http://sswap.info/developer.jsp</url>, and a portal to third-party ontologies at <url>http://sswapmeet.sswap.info</url> (a "swap meet").</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>SSWAP addresses the three basic requirements of a semantic web services architecture (<it>i.e</it>., a common syntax, shared semantic, and semantic discovery) while addressing three technology limitations common in distributed service systems: <it>i.e</it>., <it>i</it>) the fatal mutability of traditional interfaces, <it>ii</it>) the rigidity and fragility of static subsumption hierarchies, and <it>iii</it>) the confounding of content, structure, and presentation. SSWAP is novel by establishing the concept of a canonical yet mutable OWL DL graph that allows data and service providers to describe their resources, to allow discovery servers to offer semantically rich search engines, to allow clients to discover and invoke those resources, and to allow providers to respond with semantically tagged data. SSWAP allows for a mix-and-match of terms from both new and legacy third-party ontologies in these graphs.</p