The neurochemical basis of photic entrainment of the circadian pacemaker

Circadian rhythmicity in mammals is controlled by the action of a light-entrainable hypothalamus, in association with two cell clusters known as the supra chiasmatic nuclei (SCN). In the absence of temporal environmental clues, this pacemaker continues to measure time by an endogenous mechanism (clock), driving biochemical, physiological, and behavioral rhythms that reflect the natural period of the pacemaker oscillation. This endogenous period usually differs slightly from 24 hours (i.e., circadian). When mammals are maintained under a 24 hour light-dark (LD) cycle, the pacemaker becomes entrained such that the period of the pacemaker oscillation matches that of the LD cycle. Potentially entraining photic information is conveyed to the SCN via a direct retinal projection, the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT). RHT neurotransmission is thought to be mediated by the release of excitatory amino acids (EAA) in the SCN. In support of this hypothesis, recent experiments using nocturnal rodents have shown that EAA antagonists block the effects of light on pacemaker-driven behavioral rhythms, and attenuate light induced gene expression in SCN cells. An understanding of the neurochemical basis of the photic entrainment process would facilitate the development of pharmacological strategies for maintaining synchrony among shift workers in environments, such as the Space Station, which provide unreliable or conflicting temporal photic clues

Disproportionate Minority Contact in Maine: DMC Assessment and Identification

Executive Summary: Since 1998, the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act has required all states that receive formula grant program funding to determine whether the proportion of minority youth in confinement exceeds their proportion of the population, and, if so, to develop corrective strategies. In 1992, Congress elevated this issue to a “core requirement” of the JJDP Act. In 2002, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention expanded the requirement to include the proportion of minorities at each key decision point, and not just at confinement. This allows a broader examination of how minority groups are treated in the juvenile justice system. The ultimate goal of this federal priority is to ensure equal and fair treatment for every youth in the juvenile justice system, regardless of race or ethnicity

Complete Genome Sequence of the Citrobacter freundii Type Strain.

Citrobacter freundii is a species of facultative anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae The complete genome is composed of a single chromosomal circle of 4,957,773 bp with a G+C content of 52%

Maine Crime & Justice Data Book 2008 (2009)

The 2008 Maine Crime and Justice Data Book presents a portrait of crime and justice indicators in the state, using the most recent Department of Public Safety, Department of Corrections and court data available for Maine. Totals were disaggregated to the state, county and municipal levels (where possible) and stratified by crime type, age of offender and gender. The data book consists of four sections, 1) Index Crimes in Maine, 2) Arrests and Clearances in Maine, 3) Courts and Corrections, and 4) Maine’s Adult and Juvenile Recidivism Outcomes. While Maine has the lowest violent crime rate in the country, certain crimes, most notably forcible rate and domestic assaults, are occurring more often. In addition, drug and alcohol arrests account for a disproportionate share of all arrests made. This report also examines the rise of incarceration rates, a trend which is having profound social and fiscal impacts on the state and counties. Finally, this report offers both adult and juvenile recidivism data for the first time

Collaboration Made It Happen! The Kansas Archive-It Consortium

This case study explores the formation, current membership, and future goals of the Kansas Archive-It Consortium (KAIC), one of the larger consortia contracting with the Web archiving service Archive-It. KAIC, which is composed of the state historical society and five public universities, has its foundation in a statewide culture of collaboration, and participants have agreed on an informal governance structure with a strong commitment to broadening accessible web resources for researchers. After establishing consortial consistency during its first two years, members have shared documentation with partners and are beginning to do collaborative collecting. In the future, the consortium will seek additional members and work with Archive-It to develop a consortial search tool. This web archiving collaborative has helped member institutions overcome challenges by having group discussions, sharing documentation and guidelines, and jointly serving a primary user group, Kansas residents

Data Driving Better Decisions In The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin contains approximately twenty percent of the world’s surface freshwater. The five Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario) provide drinking water for 24 million people and support industry, agriculture, and a world-class fishery and ecosystem. The region includes parts of two nations, eight U.S. States and two Canadian Provinces, many Tribes and First Nations, thousands of municipalities and local governments, and a range of stakeholders. These various governments and partners work across borders to manage and protect the region’s water resources and share data and information through a legal and political framework that has evolved over several decades. The “Great Lakes Compact” and companion Agreement establish how each State and Province will enact laws to manage shared water resources, including water withdrawal criteria and water conservation and efficiency programs. This approach has earned national and international recognition for enabling the States and Provinces to achieve shared environmental goals within a flexible framework reflecting the region’s diverse history, geography, and political landscape. This approach has also lead to many policy innovations. Under the Compact and Agreement, the States and Provinces commit to gather and share comparable water use information to improve scientific understanding of the Basin’s waters, and to develop a collaborative strategy to strengthen the scientific basis for sound water management decision making. The States and Provinces report annual water use data for each lake watershed to a centralized, regional database. This data is used to improve decision making for water resource managers, policymakers, and water users through the development of annual water use reports, and compared against the Basin water budget in periodic cumulative impact assessments. The governance structure for this collaboration and its practical application to resource management serves as a model of cross-border data sharing and cooperation for other regions with shared water resources

Teachers’ Reflections On Their Experiences Teaching Interdisciplinary Project-Based Courses

In project-based, interdisciplinary engineering courses, teachers face the challenge of not only imparting technical knowledge but also facilitating effective project- and teamwork. In this study we conducted a thematic qualitative analysis of 11 teachers\u27 reflections on interdisciplinary project-based learning (PjBL). The results show that teachers appreciated PjBL as a means to motivate students and that one challenge was handling differences in terms of student disciplinary background. While most teachers did not see a need for further training, teachers who did identify such needs also seemed to already apply a wider range of PjBL teaching strategies. We discuss the implication of our findings for both practitioners and researchers