Deliberative Television: Encouraging Substantive, Citizen-Driven News

With Americans’ confidence in the news media dwindling, the quality of programming declining, and audiences turning elsewhere, the American news media is at a crossroads. We argue that news outlets should consider a new form of deliberation-based programming for local news coverage as a means of responding to these problems. As a basis for the programming, we build on public journalism (Rosen & Merritt, 1994) and deliberative citizen panels (Knobloch, Gastil, Reedy, & Walsh, 2013). By engaging citizens in the production of news, media outlets not only stand to gain viewers by increasing the quality of their issue coverage, but they also could secure their claim as a public institution providing a valuable public good. We urge media outlets to consider turning to citizen panels to determine which issues are salient and to engage in structured deliberations about those issues, which can be captured and built into content packages for use in news programming. In so doing, news outlets can help activate viewers by positioning them not as passive consumers but as engaged citizens prepared for public deliberation

Integrating Service-Learning in the Public Speaking Course

This best-practices article endorses incorporating service-learning into the foundational public speaking course. The article explains connections between service-learning and the rhetorical tradition, highlights pedagogical approaches that would benefit from a service-learning component, and discusses the benefits of service-learning for community partners and students. The remainder of the article focuses on how to implement servicelearning in a public speaking course, including reflection and assessment recommendations

Deer Vehicle Accidents in Kansas: Spatial Distributions and Trends

This study uses multivariate regression analysis to gain a better understanding of what factors are influencing deer vehicle accident distributions in Kansas. The study examines an 17 year time span from 1992 to 2008, with the years 1992, 2001, and 2008 chosen to serve as snapshots for the overall time period. Variables associated with roads, land use, human, and deer populations are examined to determine how the influence of these factors affects the distribution of deer vehicle accidents throughout the state. Using multivariate regression analysis, the county level models revealed that the primary factors responsible for deer vehicle accident distributions are human related. Bridge density and human population density were the main factors influencing deer vehicle accident distributions for all the years examined. Additionally, percent of land used for hay, percent of land used for wheat, highway density, and deer harvest density were factors found influential in at least one or more of the yearly models. Overall, the types of factors and their level of influence in each of the models were fairly consistent for all the years, the exception being 1992 which saw the greatest variation in factor influence. From the results it is clear that mitigation techniques aimed at changing driver habits and increasing their awareness to the dangers posed by deer would be the most likely to secede at reducing deer vehicle accident rates in Kansas.Department of Geograph

Immune reconstitution syndrome in HIV: validating a case definition and identifying clinical predictors in persons initiating antiretroviral therapy

Background: Clinical deterioration after initiation of antiretroviral therapy may result from restored immunity. There is no standard clinical definition for immune reconstitution syndrome. The objectives of this study were to validate a proposed definition and to identify factors predictive of immune reconstitution syndrome. Methods: This was a retrospective case-control study from an academic university medical practice. Cases were matched to ⩾2 control subjects by CD4+ cell count at the time of initiation of antiretroviral therapy. Cases and “mock cases” were blindly reviewed by 2 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) experts. Results: Twenty possible cases of immune reconstitution syndrome were identified; HIV experts excluded all cases of herpes zoster (shingles), with agreement on real and mock cases of 92%. For 14 confirmed case patients (compared with 40 control subjects), immune reconstitution syndrome was associated with a higher number of prior opportunistic infections (P = .003) and higher CD8+ cell counts at baseline (P = .05) and at week 12 (P = .02). Immune reconstitution syndrome was associated with lower baseline levels of alanine aminotransferase (P = .05) and hemoglobin (P = .02). On multivariate analysis, the number of prior opportunistic infections (odds ratio, 2.7; P = .007) and lower hemoglobin level at baseline (odds ratio, 0.8; P = .003) were independently associated with development of immune reconstitution syndrome. A predictive model was defined by classification and regression tree analysis with a sensitivity and specificity of 78.57% and 87.50%, respectively, for an importance score of ⩾4 (on a scale of 0.0 to 100.0), and 92.86% and 80.00%, respectively, for a score of ⩾2, using the number of prior opportunistic infections, CD8+ cell count, and hemoglobin level. Conclusions: A standard definition for immune reconstitution syndrome is possible. Patients with a greater severity of illness at initiation of antiretroviral therapy are at risk for immune reconstitution syndrome. The model defined by classification and regression tree analysis may provide a basis for risk stratification before initiation of antiretroviral therapy

Frequency control of photonic crystal membrane resonators by mono-layer deposition

We study the response of GaAs photonic crystal membrane resonators to thin film deposition. Slow spectral shifts of the cavity mode of several nanometers are observed at low temperatures, caused by cryo-gettering of background molecules. Heating the membrane resets the drift and shielding will prevent drift altogether. In order to explore the drift as a tool to detect surface layers, or to intentionally shift the cavity resonance frequency, we studied the effect of self-assembled monolayers of polypeptide molecules attached to the membranes. The 2 nm thick monolayers lead to a discrete step in the resonance frequency and partially passivate the surface.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Appl. Phys. Let

Using dimensional overlap theory as a framework to explain the relationship between working memory capacity and cognitive control

Three experiments examined the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and two different forms of cognitive conflict: stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (S-R) interference. My goal was to test whether WMC's relation to conflict-task performance is mediated by stimulus-identification processes (captured by S-S conflict), response-selection processes (captured by S-R conflict), both, or neither. In Experiment 1, subjects completed a single task presenting both S-S and S-R conflict trials, plus trials that combined the two conflict types. I limited ostensible goal-maintenance contributions to performance by requiring the same goal for all trial types and by presenting frequent conflict trials that reinforced the goal. WMC predicted resolution of S-S conflict as expected: Higher-WMC subjects showed reduced response time interference. Although WMC also predicted S-R interference, here, higher-WMC subjects showed increased error interference. Experiment 2A replicated these results in a version of the conflict task without combined S-S/S-R trials. Experiment 2B increased the proportion of congruent (i.e., non-conflict) trials to promote reliance on goal-maintenance processes. Here, higher-WMC subjects resolved both S-S and S-R conflict more successfully than did lower-WMC subjects. Experiment 3 tested for the generalizability and robustness of the effect found in Experiments 1 and 2A. This pattern of results did not generalize to other task configurations and latent variable analyses revealed that S-S and S-R conflicts were task-specific and did not represent stable across-task individual differences. Theoretical implications for the relationship between WMC and executive control are discussed

DNA methylation changes from primary cultures through senescence-bypass in Syrian hamster fetal cells initially exposed to benzo[a]pyrene

Current chemical testing strategies are limited in their ability to detect non-genotoxic carcinogens (NGTxC). Epigenetic anomalies develop during carcinogenesis regardless of whether the molecular initiating event is associated with genotoxic (GTxC) or NGTxC events; therefore, epigenetic markers may be harnessed to develop new approach methodologies that improve the detection of both types of carcinogens. This study used Syrian hamster fetal cells to establish the chronology of carcinogen-induced DNA methylation changes from primary cells until senescence-bypass as an essential carcinogenic step. Cells exposed to solvent control for 7 days were compared to naïve primary cultures, to cells exposed for 7 days to benzo[a]pyrene, and to cells at the subsequent transformation stages: normal colonies, morphologically transformed colonies, senescence, senescence-bypass, and sustained proliferation in vitro. DNA methylation changes identified by reduced representation bisulphite sequencing were minimal at day-7. Profound DNA methylation changes arose during cellular senescence and some of these early differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were preserved through the final sustained proliferation stage. A set of these DMRs (e.g., Pou4f1, Aifm3, B3galnt2, Bhlhe22, Gja8, Klf17, and L1l) were validated by pyrosequencing and their reproducibility was confirmed across multiple clones obtained from a different laboratory. These DNA methylation changes could serve as biomarkers to enhance objectivity and mechanistic understanding of cell transformation and could be used to predict senescence-bypass and chemical carcinogenicity