2023: Assessment Mini-Grant Lightning Talks 1

During this learning session, recipients of Assessment Mini Grants will share their projects and findings. Christopher McMahan & Jun Park Evaluating the Effectiveness of Teaching Modalities on Student Academic Performance across Ethnicities Tina Farrell Advancing Clinical Skills in Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students with Underserved Populations Chia-Lin Tsai, Gabriel Owusu, & Sidney Bonser Students\u27 Perceptions of Teaching and Learning in the STAT150 Course: Preliminary Findings from Online and Face-to-Face Sessions Jenni Harding & Michelle Holmes Ensuring Validity, Reliability, and Effectiveness of Teacher Candidate Field Observations Emily Holt & Jessica Duke Biology Students See Local Climate Change: A Classroom Intervention Melissa Hoffner & Claire Landrieu Measuring the Effectiveness of Supplemental Instruction Services at Tutorial Services: A Correlation Study Between Student Use of Supplemental Instruction and End-of-Semester Grade

Factors associated with Anaplasma spp. seroprevalence among dogs in the United States

Background Dogs in the United States are hosts to a diverse range of ticks and tick-borne pathogens, including A. phagocytophilum, an important emerging canine and human pathogen. Previously, a Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC)-sponsored workshop proposed factors purported to be associated with the infection risk for tick-transmitted pathogens in dogs in the United States, including climate conditions, socioeconomic characteristics, local topography, and vector distribution. Methods Approximately four million test results from routine veterinary diagnostic tests from 2011–2013, which were collected on a county level across the contiguous United States, are statistically analyzed with the proposed factors via logistic regression and generalized estimating equations. Spatial prevalence maps of baseline Anaplasma spp. prevalence are constructed from Kriging and head-banging smoothing methods. Results All of the examined factors, with the exception of surface water coverage, were significantly associated with Anaplasma spp. prevalence. Overall, Anaplasma spp. prevalence increases with increasing precipitation and forestation coverage and decreases with increasing temperature, population density, relative humidity, and elevation. Interestingly, socioeconomic status and deer/vehicle collisions were positively and negatively correlated with canine Anaplasma seroprevalence, respectively. A spatial map of the canine Anaplasma hazard is an auxiliary product of the analysis. Anaplasma spp. prevalence is highest in New England and the Upper Midwest. Conclusions The results from the two posited statistical models (one that contains an endemic areas assumption and one that does not) are in general agreement, with the major difference being that the endemic areas model estimates a larger prevalence in Western Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. As A. phagocytophilum is zoonotic, the results of this analysis could also help predict areas of high risk for human exposure to this pathogen

Regulation of Synaptic Vesicle Docking by Different Classes of Macromolecules in Active Zone Material

The docking of synaptic vesicles at active zones on the presynaptic plasma membrane of axon terminals is essential for their fusion with the membrane and exocytosis of their neurotransmitter to mediate synaptic impulse transmission. Dense networks of macromolecules, called active zone material, (AZM) are attached to the presynaptic membrane next to docked vesicles. Electron tomography has shown that some AZM macromolecules are connected to docked vesicles, leading to the suggestion that AZM is somehow involved in the docking process. We used electron tomography on the simply arranged active zones at frog neuromuscular junctions to characterize the connections of AZM to docked synaptic vesicles and to search for the establishment of such connections during vesicle docking. We show that each docked vesicle is connected to 10–15 AZM macromolecules, which fall into four classes based on several criteria including their position relative to the presynaptic membrane. In activated axon terminals fixed during replacement of docked vesicles by previously undocked vesicles, undocked vesicles near vacated docking sites on the presynaptic membrane have connections to the same classes of AZM macromolecules that are connected to docked vesicles in resting terminals. The number of classes and the total number of macromolecules to which the undocked vesicles are connected are inversely proportional to the vesicles’ distance from the presynaptic membrane. We conclude that vesicle movement toward and maintenance at docking sites on the presynaptic membrane are directed by an orderly succession of stable interactions between the vesicles and distinc

Additional file 1: Figure S1. of Factors associated with Anaplasma spp. seroprevalence among dogs in the United States

Statewide Deer/Vehicle Collision Percentages in 2013. (JPG 2151 kb

Additional file 2: Figure S2. of Factors associated with Anaplasma spp. seroprevalence among dogs in the United States

Granulocytic anaplasmosis-endemic areas of the United States. Areas where granulocytic anaplasmosis is considered endemic are reflective of counties surrounding established I. scapularis and I. pacificus populations and where clinical diagnosis of granulocytic anaplasmosis or competent reservoir hosts have been reported. Counties where granulocytic anaplasmosis is considered endemic are shaded red; non-endemic counties are shaded white. (JPG 2025 kb