An Academic Program for Resort Managers

Academic departments of park and recreation resources have recently moved to establish majors in commercial recreation in response to fewer job opportunities in the public sector combined with a lessening of demand from students for the traditional natural resource management career. It is proposed that a marketable career option for commercial recreation graduates 1s resort management. Resorts combine three elements-management of the natural resource base; management of guest activities; management of services. Because of the expertise in the first two areas found in departments of park and recreation resources a joint program with a hotel school, which provides education in the management of food and lodging, would ensure a graduate with the skills and education necessary to meet the challenge of resort management

Investigation of reactivity of launch vehicle materials with liquid oxygen Quarterly report, 23 Jul. - 22 Oct. 1968

Reactivity of launch vehicle organic materials with liquid oxyge

Investigation of Reactivity of Launch Vehicle Materials with Liquid Oxygen

Impact sensitivity and ignition mechanism of organic compounds in liquid oxygen correlated with chemical and physical propertie

Stigmatization as a Social Control Mechanism for Persons Living with HIV and AIDS

Stigmatization contributes to inequity by marginalizing persons living with HIV and AIDS (PHAs). In this study we examined the stigmatizing practices in health care settings from the perspectives of PHAs and health care providers (HCPs). A qualitative design, using a participatory action research approach, was used. Interviews and focus groups were completed with 16 aboriginal and 17 nonaboriginal individuals living with HIV (APHAs and PHAs) and 27 HCPs in Ottawa and Edmonton, Canada. We present findings to support the premise that stigmatization can be used as a social control mechanism with PHAs. Participants described both active and passive social control mechanisms: shunning and ostracizing, labeling, and disempowering health care practices. Forgiving behavior, balancing disclosure, practicing universal precautions, bending the rules, shifting services, and reducing labeling were strategies to manage, resist, and mitigate social control. The findings illustrate the urgent need for multilevel interventions to manage, resist, and mitigate stigma

Prenatal maternal immune activation causes epigenetic differences in adolescent mouse brain

Epigenetic processes such as DNA methylation have been implicated in the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental disorders including schizophrenia and autism. Epigenetic changes can be induced by environmental exposures such as inflammation. Here we tested the hypothesis that prenatal inflammation, a recognized risk factor for schizophrenia and related neurodevelopmental conditions, alters DNA methylation in key brain regions linked to schizophrenia, namely the dopamine rich striatum and endocrine regulatory centre, the hypothalamus. DNA methylation across highly repetitive elements (long interspersed element 1 (LINE1) and intracisternal A-particles (IAPs)) were used to proxy global DNA methylation. We also investigated the Mecp2 gene because it regulates transcription of LINE1 and has a known association with neurodevelopmental disorders. Brain tissue was harvested from 6 week old offspring of mice exposed to the viral analog PolyI:C or saline on gestation day 9. We used Sequenom EpiTYPER assay to quantitatively analyze differences in DNA methylation at IAPs, LINE1 elements and the promoter region of Mecp2. In the hypothalamus, prenatal exposure to PolyI:C caused significant global DNA hypomethylation (t=2.44, P=0.019, PolyI:C mean 69.67%, saline mean 70.19%), especially in females, and significant hypomethylation of the promoter region of Mecp2, (t=3.32, P=0.002; PolyI:C mean 26.57%, saline mean 34.63%). IAP methylation was unaltered. DNA methylation in the striatum was not significantly altered. This study provides the first experimental evidence that exposure to inflammation during prenatal life is associated with epigenetic changes, including Mecp2 promoter hypomethylation. This suggests that environmental and genetic risk factors associated with neurodevelopmental disorders may act upon similar pathways. This is important because epigenetic changes are potentially modifiable and their investigation may open new avenues for treatment

Transcriptomic changes in the frontal cortex associated with paternal age

Advanced paternal age is robustly associated with several human neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly autism. The precise mechanism(s) mediating the paternal age effect are not known, but they are thought to involve the accumulation of de novo (epi)genomic alterations. In this study we investigate differences in the frontal cortex transcriptome in a mouse model of advanced paternal age

Mortalities, amyloidosis and other diseases in free-living red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) on Jersey, Channel Islands

Between 2007 and 2014, 337 free-living red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) on Jersey, Channel Islands, were examined post mortem as part of a mortality and disease surveillance scheme. Road traffic accidents (RTAs) were attributable for 50.7 per cent (171/337) of the casualties, 34.4 per cent (116/337) succumbed to diseases including fatal exudative dermatitis (FED), 7.1 per cent (24/337) to predation, 6.5 per cent (22/337) to other trauma and 1.2 per cent (4/337) to suspected poisoning. Cat predation accounted for 5 per cent (17/337) of mortalities. Pathologies were diverse and individual animals were often identified with more than one disease process. Squirrelpox virus (SQPV) particles were not detected in selected cases examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Amyloid was identified in 19.3 per cent (65/337) of squirrels, often in conjunction with inflammatory lesions like hepatic capillariasis. A consistent cause of amyloid accumulation was not identified, although there was a significant association of amyloidosis with hepatic capillariasis and FED. In addition to RTAs, amyloidosis and FED have been identified as important causes of squirrel morbidity and mortality on Jersey, while the underlying aetiology and predisposing factors for these two disease complexes are presently unclear. Disease, fragmented woodlands, an increasingly suburban habitat, along with various anthropogenic factors, may jeopardise the long-term viability of this island red squirrel population

Offshore pelagic subsidies dominate carbon inputs to coral reef predators

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Skinner, C., Mill, A. C., Fox, M. D., Newman, S. P., Zhu, Y., Kuhl, A., & Polunin, N. V. C. Offshore pelagic subsidies dominate carbon inputs to coral reef predators. Science Advances, 7(8), (2021): eabf3792, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf3792.Coral reefs were traditionally perceived as productive hot spots in oligotrophic waters. While modern evidence indicates that many coral reef food webs are heavily subsidized by planktonic production, the pathways through which this occurs remain unresolved. We used the analytical power of carbon isotope analysis of essential amino acids to distinguish between alternative carbon pathways supporting four key reef predators across an oceanic atoll. This technique separates benthic versus planktonic inputs, further identifying two distinct planktonic pathways (nearshore reef-associated plankton and offshore pelagic plankton), and revealing that these reef predators are overwhelmingly sustained by offshore pelagic sources rather than by reef sources (including reef-associated plankton). Notably, pelagic reliance did not vary between species or reef habitats, emphasizing that allochthonous energetic subsidies may have system-wide importance. These results help explain how coral reefs maintain exceptional productivity in apparently nutrient-poor tropical settings, but also emphasize their susceptibility to future ocean productivity fluctuations.Sample analysis funding was provided by NERC LSMSF grant BRIS/102/0717 and BRIS/125/1418. C.S. was supported by a Newcastle University SAgE DTA studentship and a cooperative agreement with Banyan Tree

A machine learning case–control classifier for schizophrenia based on DNA methylation in blood

Epigenetic dysregulation is thought to contribute to the etiology of schizophrenia (SZ), but the cell type-specificity of DNA methylation makes population-based epigenetic studies of SZ challenging. To train an SZ case–control classifier based on DNA methylation in blood, therefore, we focused on human genomic regions of systemic interindividual epigenetic variation (CoRSIVs), a subset of which are represented on the Illumina Human Methylation 450K (HM450) array. HM450 DNA methylation data on whole blood of 414 SZ cases and 433 non-psychiatric controls were used as training data for a classification algorithm with built-in feature selection, sparse partial least squares discriminate analysis (SPLS-DA); application of SPLS-DA to HM450 data has not been previously reported. Using the first two SPLS-DA dimensions we calculated a “risk distance” to identify individuals with the highest probability of SZ. The model was then evaluated on an independent HM450 data set on 353 SZ cases and 322 non-psychiatric controls. Our CoRSIV-based model classified 303 individuals as cases with a positive predictive value (PPV) of 80%, far surpassing the performance of a model based on polygenic risk score (PRS). Importantly, risk distance (based on CoRSIV methylation) was not associated with medication use, arguing against reverse causality. Risk distance and PRS were positively correlated (Pearson r = 0.28, P = 1.28 × 10−12), and mediational analysis suggested that genetic effects on SZ are partially mediated by altered methylation at CoRSIVs. Our results indicate two innate dimensions of SZ risk: one based on genetic, and the other on systemic epigenetic variants

European “freedoms”: a critical analysis

Faced with the present migrant crisis and the dismal record of Europe in protecting vulnerable refugees’ and migrants’ rights, what could be the view of the moral philosopher? The contrast between the principles enshrined in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the reality of present policies is shocking, but more scrutiny will show that it is the result of a larger trend towards an understanding of freedom mostly in economic terms, at a time when economists such as Amartya Sen have revised their approach to economic growth and prosperity, noting the central role played by a much richer conception of freedom. The paper will scrutinize these inconsistencies and the conception of the person from which they derive and will provide an alternative and more coherent moral vision that could strengthen the legitimacy of the European Charter, at a time of growing dissatisfaction and so-called democratic deficit. Such a vision could help reconnect the Charter with a conception of the human person as in need not solely of passive legal protection, but also of active promotion of her self-respect and capabilities, and of her aspiration to a valuable life