Investigating Student Service Member and Veteran Support in Higher Education

Since the passing of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, more than 817,000 service members have participated in higher education. In this time, little research has been done to study student veterans as a unique college population; and to gauge whether the current best practices to support these students are impactful and effective. The purpose of this study is to further the scholarship on student veterans by investigating the transition into higher education and the factors that influence their engagement with academia. Both survey and interview data were collected to inform this research. 45 survey responses and 4 interview conversations were recorded during the data collection phase of the research plan. Three themes that influence student veteran transition and engagement in higher education emerged from the data collected: (1) Veteran Camaraderie, (2) Nontraditional Student Status, and (3) Campus Culture. The findings of this research give insight into the relationship that student veterans have with entering and persisting in higher education, that differs from their non-military affiliated peers. In addition to this, findings and conclusions from this research may help to enhance veteran specific services in higher education

Critical reflection of the advanced rehabilitation of an elite rugby league player sustaining a posterior Bankart lesion

The following is a critical description and discussion of the successful assessment and rehabilitation of a right shoulder posterior Bankart repair in an elite rugby league player. The rehabilitation follows accelerated, goal based guidelines, widely adopted in current sports practice but not well documented in the literature [Funk and Snow, 2007] and [Park et al., 2004]). The study serves to be the first critical discussion of such a regime

The Effect of Postsurgical Edema of the Knee Joint on Reflex Inhibition of the Quadriceps Femoris

Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 1996,5,172-182 © 1996 Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.The purpose of this case study was to investigate reflex inhibition of the quadriceps femoris in a subject with postsurgical edema of the left knee. The subject was a 45-year-old male with a traumatic knee injury with resultant edema who underwent elective arthroscopic surgery. Reflex inhibition was assessed by H-reflex elicitation in the femoral nerve and surface electromyography of the quadriceps. To assess the degree of edema, direct circumferential measurements were taken. On the first presurgical visit, the left knee demonstrated mild edema with a decrease in H-reflex amplitudes. Two days after surgery, a further reduction in amplitudes and more swelling were demonstrated followed by an increase in amplitudes and a reduction in edema on the 28th postoperative day. These findings document a relationship between reflex inhibition and joint swelling that was previously described in experimental models where joint edema was simulated

Identifying the Cytotoxic Effects of Mycobacteriophage Genes

A bacteriophage is a virus that infects and reproduces in bacteria. During productive infections—those that result in construction and release of infectious phage particles—key host cell metabolic processes are modified by the infecting phage and redirected toward making new phage particles. Protein-protein interactions are likely involved in this process. In this work, gene 80 of mycobacteriophage Vix, a gene cytotoxic to host strain Mycobacterium smegmatis, was studied. Our hypothesis was that an interaction between the Vix80 gene product and a host cell protein caused growth inhibition. Comparative analysis of the Vix80 protein sequence shows a conserved domain of unknown function 2786 (DUF2786) near the N-terminus. The Vix80 gene was dissected, and the N-terminal 66 residues, encompassing the entire DUF2786 domain, was found to be cytotoxic to M. smegmatis. DUF2786 was found to be homologous to a region of three M. smegmatis ORFs, two of which are related by alternate initiation points of the same sequence. Using in vitro protein pull-down and in vivo two-hybrid analyses, efforts are underway to look for possible interactions of Vix80 with itself and the three host proteins. As part of this process, different constructs of the Vix80 protein were expressed in Escherichia coli. We have determined that certain Vix80 constructs are also lethal to the E.coli host cell, while others permit growth, suggesting a conservation of cytotoxic function. Identifying the relevant phage and host gene products and understanding how phage exploit their host’s weaknesses could lead to new therapeutic options for many bacterial illnesses

Catastrophic production of slow gravitinos

We study gravitational particle production of the massive spin-$3/2$ Rarita-Schwinger field, and its close relative, the gravitino, in Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological spacetimes. For masses lighter than the value of the Hubble expansion rate after inflation, $m_{3/2}≲H$, we find catastrophic gravitational particle production, wherein the number of gravitationally produced particles is divergent, caused by a transient vanishing of the helicity-1/2 gravitino sound speed. In contrast with the conventional gravitino problem, the spectrum of produced particles is dominated by those with momentum at the UV cutoff. This suggests a breakdown of effective field theory, which might be cured by new degrees of freedom that emerge in the UV. We study the UV completion of the Rarita-Schwinger field, namely $N=1$, $d=4$, supergravity. We reproduce known results for models with a single superfield and models with an arbitrary number of chiral superfields, find a simple geometric expression for the sound speed in the latter case, and extend this to include nilpotent constrained superfields and orthogonal constrained superfields. We find supergravity models where the catastrophe is cured and models where it persists. Insofar as quantizing the gravitino is tantamount to quantizing gravity, as is the case in any UV completion of supergravity, the models exhibiting catastrophic production are prime examples of four-dimensional effective field theories that become inconsistent when gravity is quantized, suggesting a possible link to the swampland program. We propose the gravitino swampland conjecture, which is consistent with and indeed follows from the Kachru-Kallosh-Linde-Trivedi and large volume scenarios for moduli stabilization in string theory

Investigation of the twin-arginine translocation pathway in mycobacteria

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an intracellular pathogen that resides primarily in host macrophages. Proteins that reside on the surface of the bacillus or are secreted into environment are ideally positioned to interact with host cell components and are therefore candidate virulence factors and immunogenic antigens. These proteins are actively transported from the cytoplasm to the cell envelope or extracellular space by specific export pathways. In this work, we describe the initial characterization of the twin-arginine translocation (Tat) export pathway in mycobacteria. The Tat pathway exports folded proteins, including virulence factors, in a number of bacteria. Proteins targeted for Tat-export carry N-terminal signal sequences that have a conserved twin-arginine motif, referred to as R-R-x-φ-φ(φ = uncharged residue). We provide evidence that the Tat pathway is functional in Mycobacterium smegmatis and required for the export of mycobacterial β-lactamases, including BlaC of M. tuberculosis. We demonstrate that BlaC can be used as a reporter to exclusively identify Tat-exported fusion proteins that promote resistance to the β-lactam antibiotic carbenicillin. We describe using the BlaC reporter with a M. tuberculosis genomic expression library to identify random Tat signal sequence-BlaC fusions that promote Tat export in M. smegmatis. Using this approach, we identified eleven M. tuberculosis Tat signal sequences shown to direct the export of the BlaC reporter through the Tat pathway, including the known phospholipase C virulence factors. In addition, we identified a protein lacking the typical twin-arginine motif, suggesting that our current understanding of what defines a Tat signal sequence is limited, and demonstrating the effectiveness of our experimental system. We describe ongoing evaluation to determine the specificity and requirements for export of the authentic full length M. tuberculosis proteins. Finally, we demonstrate the novel finding that BlaC can be used as a reporter for the identification of proteins exported by M. tuberculosis during growth in macrophages. This may lead to the identification of a subset of proteins exported exclusively within the intracellular environment. This work has important implications in determining the role that protein export plays in M. tuberculosis, as well as increasing the understanding of how the Tat pathway functions in bacteria

In-vehicle nitrogen dioxide concentrations in road tunnels

There is a lack of knowledge regarding in-vehicle concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO) during transit through road tunnels in urban environments. Furthermore, previous studies have tended to involve a single vehicle and the range of in-vehicle NO concentrations that vehicle occupants may be exposed to is not well defined. This study describes simultaneous measurements of in-vehicle and outside-vehicle NO concentrations on a route through Sydney, Australia that included several major tunnels, minor tunnels and busy surface roads. Tests were conducted on nine passenger vehicles to assess how vehicle characteristics and ventilation settings affected in-vehicle NO concentrations and the in-vehicle-to-outside vehicle (I/O) concentration ratio. NO was measured directly using a cavity attenuated phase shift (CAPS) technique that gave a high temporal and spatial resolution. In the major tunnels, transit-average in-vehicle NO concentrations were lower than outside-vehicle concentrations for all vehicles with cabin air recirculation either on or off. However, markedly lower I/O ratios were obtained with recirculation on (0.08–0.36), suggesting that vehicle occupants can significantly lower their exposure to NO in tunnels by switching recirculation on. The highest mean I/O ratios for NO were measured in older vehicles (0.35–0.36), which is attributed to older vehicles having higher air exchange rates. The results from this study can be used to inform the design and operation of future road tunnels and modelling of personal exposure to NO