A Study of Women in Professional Organizations

The objectives that were established to answer this problem were: 1. Identify how members of this organization perceive their job requirements and performance; 2. Identify what overall factors within the Society of Women Engineers organization led them to obtain membership; 3. Determine what types of specific skills these members obtained from this organization to assist them in their professional growth and development; 4. Determine whether these specific skills had any professional impacts by evaluating the current job status of these members in relationship to their job status before membership

Working Them Out...Working Them In: Ideology and the Everyday Lives of Female Military Partners Experiencing the Cycle of Deployment

This paper reports the findings of a feminist qualitative research study which involved interviews with seven heterosexual female military partners experiencing the cycle of deployment. The daily work of deployment was revealed as well as the paradoxical yet reinforcing character of the military and gender ideologies embodied in that work.Cet article rapporte les conclusions d'une recherche qualitative feministe constitute d'entrevues avec sept femmes heterosexuelles partenaires de militaires qui vivent le cycle du deploiement. Le travail quotidien du deploiement fut revele ainsi que le caractere paradoxal qui toutefois renforce les ideologies militaires sur les hommes et les femmes qui sont incarnees dans ce trava

The Role of an Urban Tallgrass Prairie Remnant in Conservation: A Case Study in Central Iowa (USA)

Although more than 85% of Iowa (USA) was covered by tallgrass prairie at the time of settlement by Europeans in the early 19th century, less than 0.1% remains. The Richard W. Pohl State Preserve at Ames (IA) High School, surrounded on three sides by structures, roads, and other development, protects 4 ha of tallgrass prairie. The preserve, commonly referred to as Ames High Prairie (AHP), was grazed but never plowed under private ownership until its acquisition by the Ames School District in 1959. Although considered for development as a parking lot or football field in the 1960s, the residents of Ames voted in 1970 to award The Nature Conservancy (TNC) a 49-year lease to the property (until 2019). This preserve, almost completely open in the 1930s, has been subject to numerous threats, including encroachment by woody plants, entry of non-native and invasive plant species associated with human activity, and erosion associated with storm water runoff, sewer line repair, foot and bike traffic, and major flood events. Recent management activities at AHP, conducted by volunteer land stewards, high school and college students, TNC summer interns, and private contractors, has consisted of controlled burns, cutting and herbicide treatment of encroaching woody plants, manual removal and herbicide treatment of invasive herbaceous plants, and sowing of seeds (collected on site) into reopened areas. Three vascular plant inventories of the 8.9 ha preserve (1966, 1995, current study) have documented the occurrence of 465 taxa (329 native) at AHP, including 5 Iowa special concern species. This flora includes 147 native prairie plant taxa, which ranks 8th in comparison with the 26 other (and mostly larger) prairies protected as state preserves in Iowa. As a vegetation remnant, AHP protects tallgrass prairie taxa and their gene pools, maintains an example of historically abundant (but now scarce) tallgrass prairie vegetation, and provides citizens an opportunity to experience prairie

Preoperational Child's Concept of Family Structure

Family Relations and Child Developmen

Anthropogenic influences on the distribution of a threatened apex-predator around sustainable-use reserves following hydropower dam installation

Although previous studies demonstrate declines in many large bodied species following hydropower dam installation, others suggest that some species, including the giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) may return to newly created reservoir habitats. Yet, there is a lack of evidence to support such theories. Here, we analyzed the effects of a hydropower dam on giant otters using a before-after control-impact study design in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. We collected data 3 years before (2011–2012 and 2015) and after (2017–2019) dam construction, totaling 6,459 km of surveys along rivers with 43 direct sightings of giant otters. Contrary to expectations, our results revealed that giant otters did not remain nor did they return to the dam reservoir. Beyond the zone directly impacted by the dam giant otter occurrence and relative abundance declined next to sustainable-use reserves where the river was more intensely used by people. Our study showed that in the absence of active management sustainable-use reserves and low human density were not sufficient to maintain this apex-predator. Our findings suggest a need to proactively create and maintain areas with low levels of anthropogenic disturbance to enable sustainable coexistence between energy demands and biodiversity across Amazonia

A simple technique for quantifying apoptosis in 96-well plates

BACKGROUND: Analyzing apoptosis has been an integral component of many biological studies. However, currently available methods for quantifying apoptosis have various limitations including multiple, sometimes cell-damaging steps, the inability to quantify live, necrotic and apoptotic cells at the same time, and non-specific detection (i.e. "false positive"). To overcome the shortcomings of current methods that quantify apoptosis in vitro and to take advantage of the 96-well plate format, we present here a modified ethidium bromide and acridine orange (EB/AO) staining assay, which may be performed entirely in a 96-well plate. Our method combines the advantages of the 96-well format and the conventional EB/AO method for apoptotic quantification. RESULTS: We compared our method and the conventional EB/AO method for quantifying apoptosis of suspension cells (Jurkat) and adherent cells (A375) under normal growth and apoptosis-inducing conditions. We found that our new EB/AO method achieved quantification results comparable to those produced using the conventional EB/AO method for both suspension and adherent cells. CONCLUSION: By eliminating the detaching and washing steps, our method drastically reduces the time needed to perform the test, minimizes damage to adherent cells, and decreases the possibility of losing floating cells. Overall, our method is an improvement over the currently available techniques especially for adherent cells

Posaconazole therapeutic drug monitoring in a regional hospital setting

BACKGROUND: Posaconazole therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is recommended to promote effective antifungal prophylaxis, but its utility has yet to be optimized. Breakthrough invasive fungal infections have been reported with serum concentrations/L, but there is little evidence to determine the optimal serum concentration for efficacy or concentrations associated with toxicity. Challenges for effective monitoring are greater in settings without posaconazole TDM facilities because of the long turnaround time before receipt of results. METHODS: Thirty-eight TDM episodes were performed on 18 patients in a regional center in Australia during a 30-month period. Australian guidelines recommend a trough serum concentration of ≥700 mcg/L. The response to concentrations below the recommendation threshold (700 mcg/L), the final serum plasma concentration for each patient, and the appropriateness of TDM were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 19 (50%) concentrations were recorded to be \u3c 700 mcg/L. Of these 19 concentrations, the drug dose was increased on only 4 occasions. Eleven of 18 patients (61%) had initial concentrations CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate a lack of confidence and consistency in ordering, interpreting, and following up posaconazole concentrations. Therefore, the use of TDM should be carefully considered, especially in regional centers. Such settings should consider the practicalities of posaconazole TDM and try to improve the process to ensure consistency and optimization of patient care

More than a Century of Change in the Ames, Iowa Flora (1859-2000)

We compared two floras compiled in Ames, Iowa: (1) an historic flora based on two published floras (1871, 1890) and on 1450 herbarium voucher specimens of plants collected in Ames between 1859 and 1899, and (2) a current flora compiled by us during recent fieldwork (1990-2000). Our goals were to determine 1) long-term changes in composition (i.e., the proportion of native species) over time, 2) long-term changes in the abundance of individual plant species over time, and 3) the extent of gains and losses of native and non-native plant species. We found that the proportion of native species declined over time from 83.5% to 71.2%. Native taxa had a greater tendency to decrease in abundance and a lesser tendency to increase in abundance than did non-native taxa (p :S 0.001). Furthermore, historically uncommon plant taxa (regardless of origin) were more prone to extirpation from the flora than were more abundant taxa (p :S 0.001). Of the 277 plant species that likely entered the Ames flora after 1899, 160 of them (57.8%) are nonnative including eleven aggressive invasive species: garlic mustard (A/liaria petio!ata (Bieb.) Cav. & Grande), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii DC.), crown vetch (Coroni!!a varia L.), leafy spurge (Euphorbia esu!a 1.), Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii (Rupr.) Herder), purple loosestrife (Lythrum sa!icaria 1.), Osage orange (Madura pomifera (Raf. ex. Sarg.) Schneider), white mulberry (Moras alba 1.), European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica 1.), multiflora rose (Rosa mu!tiflora Thunb. ex Murray) and Siberian elm (U!mus pumi!a 1.). We argue that more floristic inventory work is needed to facilitate continued analysis of human impact on the Iowa flora

Lessons From an Inventory of the Ames, Iowa, Flora (1859-2000)

A botanical survey of the vascular flora of the planning and zoning jurisdiction of the city of Ames, Iowa (i.e., the area within a boundary 3.2 km beyond the current city limits) was compiled from 1990 to 2000. During this survey, 916 taxa (71 % native) were encountered within chis boundary. Literature reviews and a survey of Iowa State University\u27s Ada Hayden Herbarium for specimens that had been collected in Ames since 1859 add 204 taxa to the flora. This total of 1,120 taxa exceeds the number of taxa known from any comparable area (including counties) in Iowa. We produced a checklist including date of first record, origin, abundance and habitat codes for all species that were noted during the current survey. Information for historic records includes source and, if based on a herbarium voucher, daces of first and most recent collections. This study reports 58 taxa that are not included in Eilers and Roosa\u27s (1994) checklist of the Iowa vascular flora; 28 species currently or historically known from Ames are included in the 1994 Iowa Department of Natural Resources list of endangered, threatened or special concern species. Two species on the federal list of threatened plant species, Lespedeza leptostachya (native) and Boltonia decurrens (naturalized), are also found within the study area. An outline of previous studies of the Ames flora is presented. Sites containing notable plant assemblages in the survey area are mapped and described. The results of the survey provide both an enhanced general knowledge of the state\u27s flora and an example of local analysis of floristic change. These results are also relevant co conservation efforts, such as habitat restoration and reconstruction, and in evaluating the conservation status of the vascular plant species in the state. This inventory highlights the need for similar, intensive studies of the flora elsewhere in Iowa. The compilation of the historical data for such studies could be greatly aided by the development of computerized catalogs of the state\u27s herbaria