Community Attitudes Towards Covid-19 Vaccination

Vaccination is a very valuable tool in combating the public health crisis of COVID-19 and will be essential in reducing transmission rates and deaths due to the pandemic. Public willingness to receive the vaccination in large polls has stayed well below the ~95% of the population needed to achieve herd immunity against the virus. Here were survey Vermonters to determine their attitudes towards receiving the vaccine and what sources of information patients use to inform themselves about the different vaccines available.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1726/thumbnail.jp

Civil Rights - Race Discrimination - Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Res Judicata - Individual Actions Subsequent to EEOC Actions

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has held that dismissal for failure to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act of a Title VII employment discrimination action brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Co mission is res judicata as to an individual\u27s subsequent private action based upon the same claim. Jones v. Bell Helicopter Co., 614 F.2d 1389 (5th Cir. 1980)

Ascetical Practice and Ignatian Pedagogy for Sustainability: Tools for Teaching Sustainable Living

Inspired by Laudato Sí, we outline an application of the Ignatian Pedagogy for Sustainability to our course, Sustainable Practice: The Examined Life. We describe the development of the course in the context a new undergraduate program in the College of Arts and Sciences at Creighton University. In the course, we draw from the notion of ascetical practice, an approach for students as they strive for incorporating more sustainable practices into their daily living. We concentrate on four domains of asceticism: attention, sustenance, materials, and energy. Additionally, we argue that mindfulness through meditation is a necessary activity for students pursuing sustainable practices and an examined life

Differentiating the Roles of Redox-Active Cysteine Residues in Plasmodium falciparum Thioredoxin Reductase by using a Seleno Effect

The purpose of my research is to determine if the substitution of selenium for sulfur will cause rate acceleration of the thiol-disulfide exchange reaction in the C-terminal redox center of Plasmodium falciparum thioredoxin reductase (PfTR) in a position specific manner. P. falciparum is the protist that causes most serious form of malaria and is responsible for the majority of malaria related deaths. While mammalian thioredoxin reductase (mTR) contains selenium in its C-terminal redox center, which accelerates the rate of reaction, PfTR functions in the absence of selenium. The results of my studies show that the introduction of selenium via selenocysteine to the C-terminal redox center of PfTR impacts the rate of this reaction positively when substituted at Cys540 and negatively at Cys535. This data can be explained mechanistically by the use of a disulfide electrophilic activation mechanism by PfTR. Specifically, the disulfide bond between Cys540 and Cys535 in the C-terminal redox center of PfTR is primed for attack by the thiolate of Cys93 of the N-terminal redox center because of a hydrogen bonding interaction between Cys535 and an adjacent histidine residue. This interaction polarizes the Cys540–Cys535 disulfide, making the sulfur atom of Cys540 highly electrophilic. The differential effects on rate caused by selenium substitution of each of the two sulfur atoms of the C-terminal disulfide represents a “seleno effect”, similar to the observed “thio effect” in phosphodiesterases when sulfur substitutes for oxygen in non-bridging oxygen atoms of phosphodiesters. Thioredoxin reductase is essential in all organisms and its loss of function is deadly for the host. Due to the differences in structure between PfTR and mTR, the mechanism proposed represents a potential drug target in the fight against malaria