Service-Learning in Action: Lafayette, Indiana, Rain Garden Installation

Indiana’s Wabash River is being polluted with contaminated water runoff from precipitation events. A lack of pervious land cover has led to an accumulation of fertilizer, sediment, and waste in the river. Green infrastructure, a stormwater management practice that mimics the natural ecosystem, is one of the most effective ways to prevent pollution from stormwater runoff and benefit the community. This project consisted of a rain garden installation at the Lafayette Fueling Station, a site where frequent water drainage and water runoff into the Wabash occurs. The rain garden will allow on-site water infiltration during rain events and promote natural pollutant removal underground. Further, students had the opportunity to engage with community partners at Lafayette Renew, the City of Lafayette’s division in charge of stormwater management. This experience and its challenges and successes can be used as a reference for others pursuing community volunteer efforts. While this rain garden is a positive addition to the city’s green infrastructure projects, more installations in this course and beyond that utilize best management practices are recommended in order to protect the Wabash River and promote sustainable development. The rain garden will prevent pollution from contaminating the Wabash and downriver bodies of water such as the Gulf of Mexico. This project has allowed me to reflect on the impacts that community service can provide to communities not only near the site of the project but also hundreds of miles away. The project has also allowed me to reaffirm my commitment to making the world a cleaner place through my work and volunteer efforts alike

Contrast sensitivity for motion detection and direction discrimination in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and their siblings

The magnocellular (M) pathway hypothesis proposes that impaired visual motion perception observed in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) might be mediated by atypical functioning of the subcortical M pathway, as this pathway provides the bulk of visual input to cortical motion detectors. To test this hypothesis, we measured luminance and chromatic contrast sensitivity, thought to tap M and Parvocellular (P) pathway processing, respectively. We also tested the hypothesis that motion processing is impaired in ASD using a novel paradigm that measures motion processing while controlling for detectabilty. Specifically, this paradigm compares contrast sensitivity for detection of a moving grating with contrast sensitivity for direction-of-motion discrimination of that same moving grating. Contrast sensitivities from adolescents with ASD were compared to typically-developing adolescents, and also unaffected siblings of individuals with ASD (SIBS). The results revealed significant group differences on P, but not M, pathway processing, with SIBS showing higher chromatic contrast sensitivity than both participants with ASD and TD participants. This atypicality, unique to SIBS, suggests the possible existence of a protective factor in these individuals against developing ASD. The results also revealed impairments in motion perception in both participants with ASD and SIBS, which may be an endophenotype of ASD. This impairment may be driven by impairments in motion detectors and/or by reduced input from neural areas that project to motion detectors, the latter possibility being consistent with the notion of reduced connectivity between neural areas in ASD

Mobile acoustic transects miss rare bat species: implications of survey method and spatio-temporal sampling for monitoring bats

Due to increasing threats facing bats, long-term monitoring protocols are needed to inform conservation strategies. Effective monitoring should be easily repeatable while capturing spatio-temporal variation. Mobile acoustic driving transect surveys (‘mobile transects’) have been touted as a robust, cost-effective method to monitor bats; however, it is not clear how well mobile transects represent dynamic bat communities, especially when used as the sole survey approach. To assist biologists who must select a single survey method due to resource limitations, we assessed the effectiveness of three acoustic survey methods at detecting species richness in a vast protected area (Everglades National Park): (1) mobile transects, (2) stationary surveys that were strategically located by sources of open water and (3) stationary surveys that were replicated spatially across the landscape. We found that mobile transects underrepresented bat species richness compared to stationary surveys across all major vegetation communities and in two distinct seasons (dry/cool and wet/warm). Most critically, mobile transects failed to detect three rare bat species, one of which is federally endangered. Spatially replicated stationary surveys did not estimate higher species richness than strategically located stationary surveys, but increased the rate at which species were detected in one vegetation community. The survey strategy that detected maximum species richness and the highest mean nightly species richness with minimal effort was a strategically located stationary detector in each of two major vegetation communities during the wet/warm season

ERP indices of performance monitoring and feedback processing in psychosis: A meta-analysis

BackgroundAlthough individuals with, or at risk for, psychotic disorders often show difficulties with performance monitoring and feedback processing, findings from studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) to index these processes are not consistent. This meta-analytic review focused on studies of two different indexes of performance monitoring, the early error-related negativity (ERN; n = 25) and the later error positivity (Pe; n = 17), and one index of feedback processing, the feedback negativity (FN; n = 6).MethodsWe evaluated whether individuals (1) with psychotic disorders, or (2) at heightened risk for these disorders differ from healthy controls in available studies of the ERN, Pe, and FN.ResultsThere was a significant, large ERN reduction in those with psychosis (g = -0.96) compared to controls, and a significant, moderate ERN reduction in those at-risk (g = -0.48). In contrast, there were uniformly non-significant, small between-group differences for Pe and FN (gs ≤ |0.16|).ConclusionsThe results reveal a differential pattern of impairment in psychosis. Early performance monitoring (ERN) impairments are substantial among those with psychotic disorders in general and may be a useful vulnerability indicator for these disorders. However, later performance monitoring (Pe) and basic feedback processing (FN) appear to be relatively spared in psychosis

Ohio Child and Adolescent Sexual Abuse Protocol

Since development of the first protocol in 2000 developed by the Ohio American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Attorney General’s office, the field of child abuse pediatrics and the development of coordinated efforts to provide comprehensive, standardized, non-judgmental, equitable treatment of pediatric sexual abuse/assault has changed and improved. This protocol is a modification of the Ohio Department of Health Protocol For The Treatment Of Sexual Assault Survivors, and addresses many of the complex services necessary to facilitate consistent, comprehensive health care treatment to include emotional, social, and crisis intervention as well as provide information about available follow up services in the community

Ohio Child and Adolescent Sexual Abuse Protocol

Since development of the first protocol in 2000 developed by the Ohio American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Attorney General’s office, the field of child abuse pediatrics and the development of coordinated efforts to provide comprehensive, standardized, non-judgmental, equitable treatment of pediatric sexual abuse/assault has changed and improved. This protocol is a modification of the Ohio Department of Health Protocol For The Treatment Of Sexual Assault Survivors, and addresses many of the complex services necessary to facilitate consistent, comprehensive health care treatment to include emotional, social, and crisis intervention as well as provide information about available follow up services in the community