SB53-20/21: Resolution Urging UM to Implement a Plastic Bag Ban

SB53-20/21: Resolution Urging UM to Implement a Plastic Bag Ban. This resolution was approved on a 21Y-0N-1A vote during the January 27, 2021 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM)

Impact of environmental factors on growth and satratoxin G production by strains of Stachybotrys chartarum

The black mould Stachybotrys chartarum and its mycotoxins have been linked to damp building-associated illnesses. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of water availability (water activity, aw) and temperature on growth and production of satratoxin G (SG) by a macrocyclic trichothecene-producing strain (IBT 7711) and non-producing strain (IBT 1495) of S. chartarum. Growth studies were carried out on potato dextrose agar modified with glycerol to 0.995-0.92 aw at 10-37 °C. Growth extension was measured and the cultures were extracted after 10 days and a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method used to quantify the SG content. Growth was optimal at 25 to 30 °C at 0.995 aw, but this was modified to 0.98 aw at 30 °C for both strains (1.4- 1.6 mm/day, respectively). The ELISA method revealed that, in contrast to growth, SG production was maximal at 20 °C with highest production at 0.98 aw (approximately 250 μg/g mycelia). When water was freely available (0.995 aw), SG was maximally produced at 15 °C and decreased as temperature was increased. Interestingly, the strain classified as a non-toxigenic produced very low amounts of SG (<1.6 μg/g mycelia) that were maximal at 25 °C and 0.98 aw. Contour maps for growth and SG production were developed from these data sets. These data have shown, for the first time, that growth and SG production profiles are very different in relation to key environmental conditions in the indoor environment. This will be very useful in practically determining the risk from exposure to S. chartarum and its toxins in the built env

On the influence of statistics on the determination of the mean value of the depth of shower maximum for ultra high energy cosmic ray showers

The chemical composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays is still uncertain. The latest results obtained by the Pierre Auger Observatory and the HiRes Collaboration, concerning the measurement of the mean value and the fluctuations of the atmospheric depth at which the showers reach the maximum development, Xmax, are inconsistent. From comparison with air shower simulations it can be seen that, while the Auger data may be interpreted as a gradual transition to heavy nuclei for energies larger than ~ 2-3x10^18 eV, the HiRes data are consistent with a composition dominated by protons. In Ref. [1] it is suggested that a possible explanation of the observed deviation of the mean value of Xmax from the proton expectation, observed by Auger, could originate in a statistical bias arising from the approximated exponential shape of the Xmax distribution, combined with the decrease of the number of events as a function of primary energy. In this paper we consider a better description of the Xmax distribution and show that the possible bias in the Auger data is at least one order of magnitude smaller than the one obtained when assuming an exponential distribution. Therefore, we conclude that the deviation of the Auger data from the proton expectation is unlikely explained by such statistical effect.Comment: To be published in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physic

EJM Chain Fall Tooling Optimization

The following report describes the progress made by the EJM Chain Fall Tooling Optimization Team since the In-Progress Review. The team has finalized the facility layout design for the chain fall area including the concept of operations, functional requirements, and performance specifications. The scope of the project is completing the new procedures for reducing waste and completing the AutoCAD drawing of the final design. The team researched the objectives accomplished by the new layout design. The goal of the project is to reduce the safety hazards and increase productivity. The team shifted the focus to the salvage, recycling, and waste policy for the chain fall area and the assessment time of the kits﹣kit turns, time needed to assess, amount of inventory. The team estimated the average cost of the missing kits in the chain fall area based on average tool costs. The team estimated the losses of the company for two years (2016 and 2017). Although the team has not currently finished all the cost benefit analysis for each alternative, the team has finalized the outcome of the problem-solving approach for most of the problems found in the chain fall area. The reason for this is that the team is still waiting to receive data from Siemens. After finalizing the design area, the team makes recommendations for future studies based on the limited time to finalize all the proposals made in the report

Monitoreo de áreas contaminadas por residuos sólidos con sistema web SIG participativo en la ciudad de Pedro Ruiz Gallo, Amazonas.

Debido al crecimiento poblacional, el volumen de residuos sólidos municipales ha aumentado sustancialmente en los últimos diez años, lo que puede significar altos costos y dificultar la gestión ambiental si no se maneja adecuadamente. El propósito de esta investigación fue desarrollar un modelo de monitoreo para áreas contaminadas por residuos sólidos con un sistema Web SIG participativo en la ciudad de Pedro Ruiz Gallo, Amazonas. Para comenzar, se creó una interfaz participativa para que la población con previa capacitación pueda reportar áreas contaminadas por residuos sólidos, por un periodo de dos meses. Posteriormente, se utilizó la información recopilada para llevar a cabo la generación de mapas de calor que permitieron identificar cuáles fueron las áreas con mayo contaminación en la ciudad. Para lo cual, se utilizaron herramientas de Sistema de Información Geográfica como ArcGIS online, ArcGIS Desktop, Survey123, Web App Builder y Experience Builder. Se lograron reportar un total de 2795 áreas contaminadas por residuos sólidos, de las cuales el 54% (1496) correspondieron a un nivel de contaminación bajo (área menor a 1 m²), el 16% (446) a un nivel de contaminación medio (área igual a 1m²) y el 30% (853) a un nivel de contaminación alto (área mayor a 1 m²). Los mapas de calor nos permitieron identificar que existe una tendencia bien marcada con respecto a las áreas con mayor densidad de residuos sólidos en la ciudad, las cuales se encuentran generalmente en accesos directos a la rivera de ríos y quebradas

Funder Collaborations — Flourish or Flounder?

Funders regularly collaborate to leverage their influence, channel their funding, and mobilize grantees in the same direction. Our sector’s default assumption is that more collaboration is better — even as too many collaborations end with a whimper instead of a bang. Why do some funder collaborations flourish, and others flounder? The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Education First participated in a half-dozen joint funding efforts to support the success of the Common Core State Standards in the nation’s K–12 public education system. Looking critically at these efforts, we learned lessons about why some collaborations are more effective. Funder collaborations work best when participants recognize key milestones in a partnership and make decisions at each of these stages to set up success: defining the problem and agreeing on clear goals and strategies that leverage the unique value of collaboration; taking action aligned to shared objectives through nimble decision-making, defined lines of authority, and strong support and expertise; and setting criteria for success that allow participants to know what they are accomplishing, honestly assess their progress along the way, and determine the right next steps

Cooperation and Conflict in the Social Amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum and its Paraburkholderia Endosymbionts

A big question in biology is how organisms compete in an environment of competitors for scarce resources. Part of the answer lies in distinguishing friend from foe and in forging cooperative bonds in the face of cheaters. The social amoeba – bacteria system I have studied here is an excellent place to explore these tensions. The first part of my thesis research involves a review of cooperation and conflict in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum and a study of the limits on obligate social cheating in this species. The second part focuses on the benefits of associating with D. discoideum for two bacterial intracellular endosymbionts, Paraburkholderia agricolaris and P. hayleyella. I also explore kin discrimination within each of these species. I found that an obligate social cheater in D. discoideum is limited by negative frequency-dependent cheating and reduced potential for dispersal. One endosymbiont that I studied, P. hayleyella, has a reduced genome and is more AT rich than non-symbiotic congeners, similar to obligate endosymbionts. I found that this endosymbiont benefits from D. discoideum in the context of interspecific resource competition while the species more similar to non-symbiont species, P. agricolaris, does not get this benefit. I found surprisingly little kin discrimination between strains of P. agricolaris and P. hayleyella

Limits to the spread of an obligate social cheater in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum

Cooperation is widespread across life, but its existence can be threatened by exploitation. Social cheaters can be obligate, incapable of contributing to a necessary function, so that spread of the cheater leads to loss of the function. In the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, obligate social cheaters cannot become dead stalk cells that lift spores up for dispersal, but instead depend on forming chimeras with fully functional altruistic individuals for forming a stalk. Obligate cheaters in D. discoideum are known to pay the cost of being unable to form fruiting bodies on their own. In this study we discovered that there are two additional costs that can apply to obligate cheaters. Even when there are wild-type cells to parasitize, the chimeric fruiting bodies that result have shorter stalks that are disadvantaged in spore dispersal. Furthermore, we found that obligate cheaters were overrepresented among spore cells in chimeras only when they were at low frequencies. Failure to develop into viable fruiting bodies on their own, negative frequency-dependent cheating, and shorter fruiting bodies represent three limits on obligate social cheating so it is not surprising that obligate cheaters have not been found in nature

Identifying innovation in higher education elearning strategies

There are many case studies of individual Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) devising distinctive eLearning strategies, reported by the HEI itself, journalists, or research observatories. An extraordinarily wide range of university-level eLearning programmes are rapidly becoming available from large numbers of HEIs across Europe, and there are strong attempts being made to identify and disseminate case studies of innovative eLearning practices (e.g. MENON, 2006). However, the vital research goal of obtaining more systematic evidence across countries in relation to HEIs' innovations in eLearning strategies represents a particular challenge for collectors of case studies, especially given the diverse processes in different countries for measuring pedagogical value and cost-effectiveness. By contrast, there are typically several reports a year of large-scale attempts to survey HEIs in relation to eLearning, sponsored, for example, by EU programmes or industry groups. Yet the factors that determine educational effectiveness are not, so far, well understood; and consequently it can be difficult to develop reliable quantitative survey items that simultaneously enable valid and insightful comparisons between essentially qualitative eLearning strategies. Moreover, such quantitative evidence is not collected systematically by the typical HEI; when collected, such evidence is commercially sensitive; and it is not easy for researchers to obtain independently of the HEI. So, claims are made, for example, that European universities plan to 'expand their use of eLearning' (BBC News, 2005), but it is not at all clear what measures of expansion are appropriate, and what kinds of strategies are associated with such expansion. The two-year research study described here attempted a mixed-method approach to the problem of identifying examples of innovation in relation to the eLearning strategies developed by HEIs. Where possible the study estimated the impact of the implemented eLearning programmes, but the emphasis was on illuminating a range of innovative eLearning strategy cases, rather than necessarily determining best practice. Two key research questions asked by the study are: 1. How can innovation in Higher Education eLearning strategies be identified? 2. What factors are critical to the success of these strategies? This research did not set out to obtain, directly, insight into why eLearning has not been more widely adopted by HEIs, why various eLearning projects have failed, why some eLearning projects have achieved less success than anticipated, or why some eLearning projects have achieved success more slowly than anticipated. However, by researching innovation, the challenges faced by the innovators, and how strategies needed to change over time, it is anticipated that the findings from this study might indirectly illuminate these crucial questions. It is not possible within the space available here to do more than outline the methodology and highlight a few key findings: fuller reports are available on the project website www.spi.pt/innounilearning