Nonprofit Funding Agencies’ Review of Grant Recipients

Nonprofits need to be just as responsible as public corporations. Nonprofit funding agencies have the responsibility for evaluating the organizations they fund to make sure that they are operating with high integrity, maintaining strong internal controls, remaining financially stable, and overall being good stewards of the funds received. This paper will explain the criteria that a funding agency should follow in order to affect this process, as well as how a recipient nonprofit will benefit from following the criteria

Governor Glick (Kansas) and prohibition, 1883-1884

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Kansas, History, 1931

CAFFEINE CONSUMPTION PATTERNS AND BELIEFS OF COLLEGE FRESHMEN

Recently, energy drinks that contain high caffeine content without any age restrictions for purchase, have been introduced into the U.S. market. Caffeine consumption in the U.S. has increased dramatically, resulting in an increase in emergency room visits and calls to poison control centers. This increase in energy drink consumption, along with the traditional coffees, teas, and soft drinks that people consume regularly, have pushed caffeine consumption to new highs in a multi-billion dollar market. The purpose of this study was to determine (1) the amount of caffeine consumed by a sample of freshmen students at Marshall University, (2) their beliefs regarding caffeine consumption, (3) reported perceived benefits and adverse effects of caffeine consumption, (4) reasons for consuming or refraining from consuming caffeine, and (5) predictors of high and low caffeine consumption. Eighty three percent reported having at least one sign/symptom of caffeine intoxication in the past while 51% reported having at least one sign/symptom of caffeine withdrawal. More than 78% consumed above the recommended 200mg of caffeine per day. The mean milligram of caffeine consumed per day in the present study was 849.86, which computes to 12.08 mg/kg/day. This was three to five times the recommended amount. Father’s social index, participation in organized activity in college, and three items for concentration, keep awake, and wake up (items of alertness) were statistically significant predictors of caffeine consumption. Respondents that participated in organized activity while in college consumed on average 60.7% more caffeine than those who indicated they did not participate in organized activity while in college. Every time the three items for concentration, keep awake, and wake up increased one point, caffeine consumption increased on average 41.1%. Females were more likely to believe that caffeine is addictive than their male counterparts. Beliefs of negative consequences of caffeine consumption did not deter caffeine consumption. Slightly more than 60% reported using caffeine to wake up in the morning and more than 76% reported using it to stay awake. This was consistent with reported beliefs of the effects of caffeine consumption. Implications for education were discussed

Conserved cis-elements in the Xenopus red opsin promoter necessary for cone-specific expression

AbstractThe long-wavelength sensitive (red) opsin genes encode proteins which play a central role in daytime and color vision in vertebrates. We used transgenic Xenopus to identify 5′ cis-elements in the red cone opsin promoter necessary for cone-specific expression. We found a highly conserved extended region (−725 to −173) that was required for restricting GFP transgene expression to cones. We further identified a short element (5′-CCAATTAAGAGAT-3′) highly conserved amongst tetrapods, including humans, necessary to restrict expression to cones in the retina. These results identify novel conserved elements that regulate spatial expression of tetrapod red cone opsin genes

A measurement of the longitudinal-transverse interference structure function from the D(e,e'p) reaction

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-165).by Thomas Robert McIlvain.Ph.D

Bioinformatic identification of novel putative photoreceptor specific cis-elements

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cell specific gene expression is largely regulated by different combinations of transcription factors that bind <it>cis</it>-elements in the upstream promoter sequence. However, experimental detection of <it>cis</it>-elements is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. This provides a motivation for developing bioinformatic methods to identify <it>cis</it>-elements that could prioritize future experimental studies. Here, we use motif discovery algorithms to predict transcription factor binding sites involved in regulating the differences between murine rod and cone photoreceptor populations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To identify highly conserved motifs enriched in promoters that drive expression in either rod or cone photoreceptors, we assembled a set of murine rod-specific, cone-specific, and non-photoreceptor background promoter sequences. These sets were used as input to a newly devised motif discovery algorithm called Iterative Alignment/Modular Motif Selection (IAMMS). Using IAMMS, we predicted 34 motifs that may contribute to rod-specific (19 motifs) or cone-specific (15 motifs) expression patterns. Of these, 16 rod- and 12 cone-specific motifs were found in clusters near the transcription start site. New findings include the observation that cone promoters tend to contain TATA boxes, while rod promoters tend to be TATA-less (exempting <it>Rho </it>and <it>Cnga1</it>). Additionally, we identify putative sites for IL-6 effectors (in rods) and RXR family members (in cones) that can explain experimental data showing changes to cell-fate by activating these signaling pathways during rod/cone development. Two of the predicted motifs (NRE and ROP2) have been confirmed experimentally to be involved in cell-specific expression patterns. We provide a full database of predictions as additional data that may contain further valuable information. IAMMS predictions are compared with existing motif discovery algorithms, DME and BioProspector. We find that over 60% of IAMMS predictions are confirmed by at least one other motif discovery algorithm.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We predict novel, putative <it>cis-</it>elements enriched in the promoter of rod-specific or cone-specific genes. These are candidate binding sites for transcription factors involved in maintaining functional differences between rod and cone photoreceptor populations.</p

Subbarrel patterns in somatosensory cortical barrels can emerge from local dynamic instabilities

Complex spatial patterning, common in the brain as well as in other biological systems, can emerge as a result of dynamic interactions that occur locally within developing structures. In the rodent somatosensory cortex, groups of neurons called "barrels" correspond to individual whiskers on the contralateral face. Barrels themselves often contain subbarrels organized into one of a few characteristic patterns. Here we demonstrate that similar patterns can be simulated by means of local growth-promoting and growth-retarding interactions within the circular domains of single barrels. The model correctly predicts that larger barrels contain more spatially complex subbarrel patterns, suggesting that the development of barrels and of the patterns within them may be understood in terms of some relatively simple dynamic processes. We also simulate the full nonlinear equations to demonstrate the predictive value of our linear analysis. Finally, we show that the pattern formation is robust with respect to the geometry of the barrel by simulating patterns on a realistically shaped barrel domain. This work shows how simple pattern forming mechanisms can explain neural wiring both qualitatively and quantitatively even in complex and irregular domains. © 2009 Ermentrout et al