Honoring the National Parks: A Local Adaptation of a Partners in the Parks Adventure

The National Collegiate Honors Council has long recognized that collaboration among institutions is important to honors education. Since its inception over five decades ago, NCHC has promoted the mutual exchange of ideas about honors in order to disseminate the best of these ideas as potential prototypes (Andrews). In addition to its annual NCHC conferences, which offer a large forum for sharing ideas, NCHC has fostered and supported a variety of collaborative programs such as Honors Semesters and Faculty Institutes, the most recent of which is the Partners in the Parks Program (PITP), which—like its predecessor programs—is designed not only to provide educational opportunities for students and faculty in honors but to inspire educational innovations within honors programs and colleges across the country. PITP has already begun to spin off such innovations. The adaptation of the PITP program “Fire Island to Ellis Island” in a college course called “Honoring the Parks” demonstrates the way that colleges and universities can use NCHC resources to inspire new educational opportunities on their campuses

Honoring the National Parks: A Local Adaptation of a Partners in the Parks Adventure

The National Collegiate Honors Council has long recognized that collaboration among institutions is important to honors education. Since its inception over five decades ago, NCHC has promoted the mutual exchange of ideas about honors in order to disseminate the best of these ideas as potential prototypes (Andrews). In addition to its annual NCHC conferences, which offer a large forum for sharing ideas, NCHC has fostered and supported a variety of collaborative programs such as Honors Semesters and Faculty Institutes, the most recent of which is the Partners in the Parks Program (PITP), which—like its predecessor programs—is designed not only to provide educational opportunities for students and faculty in honors but to inspire educational innovations within honors programs and colleges across the country. PITP has already begun to spin off such innovations. The adaptation of the PITP program “Fire Island to Ellis Island” in a college course called “Honoring the Parks” demonstrates the way that colleges and universities can use NCHC resources to inspire new educational opportunities on their campuses

Panel discussion: teaching the library research process (or, how would a Great Dane, a collie and a poodle teach the new dogs some old tricks)

pp. 57-6

Rewards, Challenges, Approaches and Solutions for Developing the Soos Creek Bioassessment TMDL

The focus of this presentation is to outline the development of Washington State’s first bioassessment TMDL. Under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act and supporting regulations (40 CFR 130.7), states are charged with developing a list of impaired and threatened waters requiring a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). Impaired waters are those not meeting one or more of the applicable Water Quality Standards, including designated uses, narrative criteria and numeric criteria. If biological assessment indicates a waterbody is impaired, the waterbody is included on the state’s section 303(d) list and prioritized for TMDL development. The Soos Creek watershed has Category 5 listings for temperature and dissolved oxygen and the upcoming draft Water Quality Assessment will have three Category 5 listings for bioassessment. The goal of this TMDL is to protect the aquatic life uses through implementation of allocations that address temperature, dissolved oxygen and aquatic health impairments in the basin. The aquatic life uses being protected include the five species of Pacific salmon (Chinook, coho, chum, pink and sockeye), steelhead and cutthroat trout, and a diverse benthic macroinvertebrate community consisting of long-lived and pollutant intolerant species. The Clean Water Act calls for an integrated strategy to restore the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of surface waters. Bioassessment will enhance the DO and temperature TMDLs and provide an important tool to measure improvements in the aquatic life use. This innovative aquatic health TMDL consists of selecting a target B-IBI score to fully support beneficial uses and develop hydrologic allocations and achievable implementation measures within the Soos Creek watershed. The purpose of this presentation is to talk about the process, challenges, approaches and solutions used to develop the first bioassessment TMDL in Washington State

Role for polo-like kinase 4 in mediation of cytokinesis.

The mitotic protein polo-like kinase 4 (PLK4) plays a critical role in centrosome duplication for cell division. By using immunofluorescence, we confirm that PLK4 is localized to centrosomes. In addition, we find that phospho-PLK4 (pPLK4) is cleaved and distributed to kinetochores (metaphase and anaphase), spindle midzone/cleavage furrow (anaphase and telophase), and midbody (cytokinesis) during cell division in immortalized epithelial cells as well as breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancer cells. The distribution of pPLK4 midzone/cleavage furrow and midbody positions pPLK4 to play a functional role in cytokinesis. Indeed, we found that inhibition of PLK4 kinase activity with a small-molecule inhibitor, CFI-400945, prevents translocation to the spindle midzone/cleavage furrow and prevents cellular abscission, leading to the generation of cells with polyploidy, increased numbers of duplicated centrosomes, and vulnerability to anaphase or mitotic catastrophe. The regulatory role of PLK4 in cytokinesis makes it a potential target for therapeutic intervention in appropriately selected cancers

Size at birth, growth trajectory in early life, and cardiovascular and metabolic risks in early adulthood: EPICure study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether size at birth and growth trajectories in infancy and childhood are associated with determinants of cardiovascular and metabolic risks in young adults born extremely preterm (EP, <26 weeks of gestation). METHODS: We used longitudinal data from the EPICure study of 129 EP survivors up to 19 years in the UK and Ireland in 1995. Determinants of cardiovascular and metabolic risks at 19 years included the presence of metabolic syndrome, body mass index (BMI) and systolic blood pressure (SBP). Predictors were birth weight for gestation and gain in weight z-scores in the following periods: birth-postmenstrual age of 40 weeks (term), infancy (term-2.5 years), early childhood (2.5-6.0 years) and late childhood (6-11 years). RESULTS: Metabolic syndrome was present in 8.7% of EP participants at 19 years. Compared with subjects without metabolic syndrome, those with metabolic syndrome tended to have a smaller size at birth (difference in means: -0.55 SD, 95% CI -1.10 to 0.01, p=0.053) and a greater increase in weight z-scores from term to 2.5 years (difference in means: 1.00 SD, 95% CI -0.17 to 2.17, p=0.094). BMI at 19 years was positively related to growth from 2.5 to 6.0 years (β: 1.03, 95% CI 0.31 to 1.75, p=0.006); an inverse association with birthweight z-scores was found in the lower socioeconomic status group (β: -1.79, 95% CI -3.41 to -0.17, p=0.031). Central SBP was positively related to growth from 2.5 to 6.0 years (β: 1.75, 95% CI 0.48 to 3.02, p=0.007). CONCLUSION: Size at EP birth and increased catch-up in weight from 2.5 to 6.0 years were associated with BMI and central SBP in early adulthood

Affirmative Action Programs in Social Service Agencies: Status of the Female M.S.W.

Job status and salary inequities between men and women have only recently been documented (Kravetz 1976). The federal government, over the past few decades, through various acts and executive orders, has created legislation to prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion or national origin in all employment practices. The question is to what extent this legislation has permeated social service agencies and affected their employment patterns, particularly with respect to administrative positions. In 1976, the Women\u27s Issues Committee of the Oregon Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), addressed this question by initiating a study of social work employment in Oregon. The first part of the study examined the salaries and positions of NASW members in this state. The second part of the study was designed to study more specifically the employment patterns of women MSWs in Oregon\u27s social service agencies. Under the auspices of the Women\u27s Issues Committee, the second part of the study was designed and conducted by eight graduate students at the School of Social Work at Portland State University. One objective of the study was to find out the proportion of men and women filling the management positions in local social service agencies. But the primary purpose of the study was to examine the management-executive employment patterns in agencies before and after affirmative action programs were instituted. An attempt was then made to determine the effects, if any, of such programs. It was hoped that the results would clarify how agencies implement their affirmative action programs, the effects of implementation, and the barriers to the employment of women in management positions

CV11004

Use the URI link below to search the Marine Institute Data Discovery Catalogue for datasets relevant to this report.The prawn (Nephrops norvegicus) are common in the Celtic Sea occurring in geographically distinct sandy/muddy areas were the sediment is suitable for them to construct their burrows. The Celtic Sea area (Functional Units 19-22) supports a large multi-national targeted Nephrops fishery mainly using otter trawls and yielding landings in the region of ~6,000 t annually over the last decade (ICES, 2011). Nephrops spend a great deal of time in their burrows and their emergence behaviour is influenced many factors; time of year, light intensity and tidal strength. Underwater television surveys and assessment methodologies have been developed to provide a fishery independent estimate of stock size, exploitation status and catch advice (ICES, 2009 & 2011).This is the sixth in a time series of UWTV surveys in the Celtic Sea carried out by the Marine Institute, Ireland. The 2011 survey was multi disciplinary in nature and this report details the final UWTV results of the 2011 survey and also documents other data collected during the survey

Isolation of an embryogenic line from non-embryogenic Brassica napus cv. Westar through microspore embryogenesis

Brassica napus cultivar Westar is non-embryogenic under all standard protocols for induction of microspore embryogenesis; however, the rare embryos produced in Westar microspore cultures, induced with added brassinosteroids, were found to develop into heritably stable embryogenic lines after chromosome doubling. One of the Westar-derived doubled haploid (DH) lines, DH-2, produced up to 30% the number of embryos as the highly embryogenic B. napus line, Topas DH4079. Expression analysis of marker genes for embryogenesis in Westar and the derived DH-2 line, using real-time reverse transcription-PCR, revealed that the timely expression of embryogenesis-related genes such as LEAFY COTYLEDON1 (LEC1), LEC2, ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE3, and BABY BOOM1, and an accompanying down-regulation of pollen-related transcripts, were associated with commitment to embryo development in Brassica microspores. Microarray comparisons of 7 d cultures of Westar and Westar DH-2, using a B. napus seed-focused cDNA array (10 642 unigenes), identified highly expressed genes related to protein synthesis, translation, and response to stimulus (Gene Ontology) in the embryogenic DH-2 microspore-derived cell cultures. In contrast, transcripts for pollen-expressed genes were predominant in the recalcitrant Westar microspores. Besides being embryogenic, DH-2 plants showed alterations in morphology and architecture as compared with Westar, for example epinastic leaves, non-abscised petals, pale flower colour, and longer lateral branches. Auxin, cytokinin, and abscisic acid (ABA) profiles in young leaves, mature leaves, and inflorescences of Westar and DH-2 revealed no significant differences that could account for the alterations in embryogenic potential or phenotype. Various mechanisms accounting for the increased capacity for embryogenesis in Westar-derived DH lines are considered

Control of an ambulatory exoskeleton with a brain-machine interface for spinal cord injury gait rehabilitation

The closed-loop control of rehabilitative technologies by neural commands has shown a great potential to improve motor recovery in patients suffering from paralysis. Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) can be used as a natural control method for such technologies. BMI provides a continuous association between the brain activity and peripheral stimulation, with the potential to induce plastic changes in the nervous system. Paraplegic patients, and especially the ones with incomplete injuries, constitute a potential target population to be rehabilitated with brain-controlled robotic systems, as they may improve their gait function after the reinforcement of their spared intact neural pathways. This paper proposes a closed-loop BMI system to control an ambulatory exoskeleton-without any weight or balance support-for gait rehabilitation of incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. The integrated system was validated with three healthy subjects, and its viability in a clinical scenario was tested with four SCI patients. Using a cue-guided paradigm, the electroencephalographic signals of the subjects were used to decode their gait intention and to trigger the movements of the exoskeleton. We designed a protocol with a special emphasis on safety, as patients with poor balance were required to stand and walk. We continuously monitored their fatigue and exertion level, and conducted usability and user-satisfaction tests after the experiments. The results show that, for the three healthy subjects, 84.44 ± 14.56% of the trials were correctly decoded. Three out of four patients performed at least one successful BMI session, with an average performance of 77.6 1 ± 14.72%. The shared control strategy implemented (i.e., the exoskeleton could only move during specific periods of time) was effective in preventing unexpected movements during periods in which patients were asked to relax. On average, 55.22 ± 16.69% and 40.45 ± 16.98% of the trials (for healthy subjects and patients, respectively) would have suffered from unexpected activations (i.e., false positives) without the proposed control strategy. All the patients showed low exertion and fatigue levels during the performance of the experiments. This paper constitutes a proof-of-concept study to validate the feasibility of a BMI to control an ambulatory exoskeleton by patients with incomplete paraplegia (i.e., patients with good prognosis for gait rehabilitation)