Effects of Small Dams on Freshwater Bivalve Assemblages in North Carolina Piedmont and Coastal Plain Streams

Small dams represent one of the most widespread human alterations to North American streams, yet effects on bivalve assemblages are understudied. Dams are quickly being removed and prioritizing dams for removal presents a challenge for resource managers also tasked with preserving imperiled taxa. My study examined effects of dam condition (intact, breached, relict) on bivalve assemblages in North Carolina river drainages (Tar, Neuse, Roanoke) from 2009-2011. I sampled bivalve assemblages within three 150-m reaches associated with each dam. I found that streams with small intact dams support more mussels, higher richness, and greater numbers of imperiled species compared to streams with breached or relict dams. Mill reaches of intact dams had higher mussel abundance (density and CPUE) compared to up- and downstream reaches. Mill reaches of intact dams had larger Elliptio complanta compared to up- and downstream reaches, suggesting mussels in mill reaches exhibit rapid growth and larger sizes relative to conspecifics in other reaches. Small dams may stabilize/moderate upstream landuse effects and provide mussels with enhanced food resources. My data suggest that un-controlled dam removals may have negative consequences for mussels and restoration projects need to assess ecological trade-offs between species-specific costs and benefits of decisions regarding imperiled taxa

Does lateral attention affect health behavior?: investigating hemispheric influences in framed health messages.

The current study was designed to test whether the systematic/contextual perspective would successfully account for lateralized responses to framed health messages. Accordingly, gain or loss framed messages promoting sunscreen use were presented to participants’ left or right hemisphere via a dichotic listening task. After listening to the message, participants rated how likely they were to use sunscreen. A 2 X 2 ANOVA conducted on these likelihood ratings revealed a significant interaction between Hemisphere and the Message Frame, such that loss versus gain framed messages were rated significantly higher in the right hemisphere but there was virtually no difference when the same messages were presented to the left hemisphere. These results were consistent with the systematic/contextual perspective and recent work on ostensibly distinct framing manipulations

Hemispheric differences in color perception: relative versus absolute frequency levels, implications and possible applications

Four experiments tested a proposed extension of Double Filtering by Frequency theory by examining whether the left and right hemispheres of the human brain are differentially sensitive to high and low electromagnetic frequencies, respectively, and whether this effect is primarily based on relative or absolute frequency levels. Experiments 1 and 2 provided initial support by replicating a known hemispheric effect using different background colors. Experiments 3 and 4 provided converging evidence by varying visual field presentation and measuring participant's reaction times. These findings indicate that the right hemisphere is relatively more sensitive to low frequency colors, whereas the left hemisphere is more sensitive to high frequency ones. The findings also suggest that this difference is primarily based on absolute frequency levels. Implications and possible applications are discussed

Creatures without names.

This thesis is a collection of poems written during two years of study at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro MFA writing program. This collection is an attempt to articulate questions of failure, confusion, uselessness, and love

Needs assessment of motor proficiency and health-related fitness for children conducted in cooperation with classroom teachers in grades K-3

The purpose of this study was to use tests of motor proficiency and health-related fitness to assess selected motor needs of elementary school children and to establish a baseline for the development of physical education instructional objectives. The study was conducted in the spring of 1984. One school from Robeson County, North Carolina, was selected for this study. The school had a student population of 323 and a teacher population of 13 and was classified as a K-3 elementary school. All of the teachers and students participated in the study. The method of the study was a descriptive design. Quantitative data were collected, analyzed, and interpreted about student motor behavior. Only motor performance scores were used in the student assessment phases of the study. Qualitative data were collected, analyzed, and interpreted from teacher responses about the helpfulness and practicality of the needs assessment data

Imaging of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) with Reduced Autofluorescence Reveals a Novel Stage of FtsZ Localization

Imaging of low abundance proteins in time and space by fluorescence microscopy is typically hampered by host-cell autofluorescence. Streptomycetes are an important model system for the study of bacterial development, and undergo multiple synchronous cell division during the sporulation stage. To analyse this phenomenon in detail, fluorescence microscopy, and in particular also the recently published novel live imaging techniques, require optimal signal to noise ratios. Here we describe the development of a novel derivative of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) with strongly reduced autofluorescence, allowing the imaging of fluorescently labelled proteins at significantly higher resolution. The enhanced image detail provided novel localization information for the cell division protein FtsZ, demonstrating a new developmental stage where multiple FtsZ foci accumulate at the septal plane. This suggests that multiple foci are sequentially produced, ultimately connecting to form the complete Z ring. The enhanced imaging properties are an important step forward for the confocal and live imaging of less abundant proteins and for the use of lower intensity fluorophores in streptomycetes

Modeling “psychosis” in vitro by inducing disordered neuronal network activity in cortical brain slices

# The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Introduction Dysregulation of neuronal networks has been suggested to underlie the cognitive and perceptual abnor-malities observed schizophrenia. Discussions An in vitro model of psychosis is proposed based on the two different approaches to cause aberrant networ

A Threshold Equation for Action Potential Initiation

In central neurons, the threshold for spike initiation can depend on the stimulus and varies between cells and between recording sites in a given cell, but it is unclear what mechanisms underlie this variability. Properties of ionic channels are likely to play a role in threshold modulation. We examined in models the influence of Na channel activation, inactivation, slow voltage-gated channels and synaptic conductances on spike threshold. We propose a threshold equation which quantifies the contribution of all these mechanisms. It provides an instantaneous time-varying value of the threshold, which applies to neurons with fluctuating inputs. We deduce a differential equation for the threshold, similar to the equations of gating variables in the Hodgkin-Huxley formalism, which describes how the spike threshold varies with the membrane potential, depending on channel properties. We find that spike threshold depends logarithmically on Na channel density, and that Na channel inactivation and K channels can dynamically modulate it in an adaptive way: the threshold increases with membrane potential and after every action potential. Our equation was validated with simulations of a previously published multicompartemental model of spike initiation. Finally, we observed that threshold variability in models depends crucially on the shape of the Na activation function near spike initiation (about −55 mV), while its parameters are adjusted near half-activation voltage (about −30 mV), which might explain why many models exhibit little threshold variability, contrary to experimental observations. We conclude that ionic channels can account for large variations in spike threshold

Dietary iron intake in the first 4 months of infancy and the development of type 1 diabetes: a pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Aims</p> <p>To investigate the impact of iron intake on the development of type 1 diabetes (T1DM).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Case-control study with self-administered questionnaire among families of children with T1DM who were less than 10 years old at the time of the survey and developed diabetes between age 1 and 6 years. Data on the types of infant feeding in the first 4 months of life was collected from parents of children with T1DM (n = 128) and controls (n = 67) <10 years old. Because some cases had sibling controls, we used conditional logistic regression models to analyze the data in two ways. First we performed a case-control analysis of all 128 cases and 67 controls. Next, we performed a case-control analysis restricted to cases (n = 59) that had a sibling without diabetes (n = 59). Total iron intake was modeled as one standard deviation (SD) increase in iron intake. The SD for iron intake was 540 mg in the total sample and 539 mg in the restricted sample as defined above.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The median (min, max) total iron intake in the first 4 months of life was 1159 (50, 2399) mg in T1DM cases and 466 (50, 1224) mg among controls (<it>P </it>< 0.001). For each one standard deviation increase in iron intake, the odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for type 1 diabetes was 2.01 (1.183, 3.41) among all participants (128 cases and 67 controls) while it was 2.26 (1.27, 4.03) in a restricted sample of T1 D cases with a control sibling (59 cases and 59 controls) in models adjusted for birth weight, age at the time of the survey, and birth order.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this pilot study, high iron intake in the first 4 months of infancy is associated with T1DM. Whether iron intake is causal or a marker of another risk factor warrants further investigation.</p

Costs Associated with Low Birth Weight in a Rural Area of Southern Mozambique

BACKGROUND: Low Birth Weight (LBW) is prevalent in low-income countries. Even though the economic evaluation of interventions to reduce this burden is essential to guide health policies, data on costs associated with LBW are scarce. This study aims to estimate the costs to the health system and to the household and the Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) arising from infant deaths associated with LBW in Southern Mozambique. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Costs incurred by the households were collected through exit surveys. Health system costs were gathered from data obtained onsite and from published information. DALYs due to death of LBW babies were based on local estimates of prevalence of LBW (12%), very low birth weight (VLBW) (1%) and of case fatality rates compared to non-LBW weight babies [for LBW (12%) and VLBW (80%)]. Costs associated with LBW excess morbidity were calculated on the incremental number of hospital admissions in LBW babies compared to non-LBW weight babies. Direct and indirect household costs for routine health care were 24.12 US$(CI 95$ (CI 95% 6.33; 10.72). Of the 3,322 live births that occurred in one year in the study area, health system costs associated to LBW (routine health care and excess morbidity) and DALYs were 169,957.61 US$ (CI 95% 144,900.00; 195,500.00) and 2,746.06, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This first cost evaluation of LBW in a low-income country shows that reducing the prevalence of LBW would translate into important cost savings to the health system and the household. These results are of relevance for similar settings and should serve to promote interventions aimed at improving maternal care