Perception of Racial Discrimination in the Workplace and Its Impact on Job Satisfaction and Job Security

The purpose of this study is to determine if the perception of racial discrimination in the workplace (discrimination and everyday discrimination) impacts job satisfaction and job security among adults. The participants in this study were a convenience sample of 89 volunteers solicited from four different personal Facebook pages. The primary instrument of data collection for the study was a survey created by the researchers using three scales. The instrument consisted of a total of 26 items. The study was designed as a nonexperimental, casual-comparative study that used a survey to measure perception of racial discrimination (discrimination and everyday discrimination) job satisfaction, and job security. The primary instrument of data collection for the study was a survey created by the researchers using three scales. This study confirmed that when there is perceived racial discrimination or everyday racial discrimination, it had an effect on job satisfaction in the workplace. However, our findings showed that perceived racial discrimination or everyday racial discrimination does not affect job security. The results also demonstrated that ethnicity was affected by perceived racial discrimination, as African Americans ranked higher in their scores compared to Whites and others

Assessing The Health Of Fringing Salt Marshes Along The Fore River And Its Tributaries

Casco Bay has experienced two significant oil spills in recent history - the Tamano Tanker spill in 1972 and the Julie N spill in 1996. In addition, the Fore River and its tributaries have experienced numerous small spills over the years, including the August 2002 fuel oil spill (2,900 gallons) and the April 2003 jet fuel spill (6,000 gallons). The impacts of these spills on the fringing salt marshes that line the edges of the Fore River and its tributaries are not well understood. Are these salt marshes resilient enough to withstand these impacts and still act as healthy marshes should? Or are they functioning at lower levels, compared to other fringing salt marshes in Casco Bay? The salt marshes that line the Fore River provide an important suite of functions and values to the citizens of southern Maine. The results of this study will help resource managers in their efforts to protect these important and unique natural resources

A Comprehensive Wetland Program For Fringing Salt Marshes In The York River, Maine

The overall goal of this project was to assist the Town of York, Maine, in its efforts to monitor and protect the fringing salt marshes along the York River. In particular, the project focused on potential impacts to the marshes due to shoreline development pressures. Specific objectives included (1) gathering baseline data about the marshes (2) developing a set of indicators to be used in future monitoring, and (3) generating management recommendations

Numerical Modeling of Turbulent and Laminar Airflow and Odorant Transport during Sniffing in the Human and Rat Nose

Human sniffing behavior usually involves bouts of short, high flow rate inhalation (\u3e300 ml/s through each nostril) with mostly turbulent airflow. This has often been characterized as a factor enabling higher amounts of odorant to deposit onto olfactory mucosa than for laminar airflow and thereby aid in olfactory detection. Using computational fluid dynamics human nasal cavity models, however, we found essentially no difference in predicted olfactory odorant flux (g/cm2 s) for turbulent versus laminar flow for total nasal flow rates between 300 and 1000 ml/s and for odorants of quite different mucosal solubility. This lack of difference was shown to be due to the much higher resistance to lateral odorant mass transport in the mucosal nasal airway wall than in the air phase. The simulation also revealed that the increase in airflow rate during sniffing can increase odorant uptake flux to the nasal/olfactory mucosa but lower the cumulative total uptake in the olfactory region when the inspired air/odorant volume was held fixed, which is consistent with the observation that sniff duration may be more important than sniff strength for optimizing olfactory detection. In contrast, in rats, sniffing involves high-frequency bouts of both inhalation and exhalation with laminar airflow. In rat nose odorant uptake simulations, it was observed that odorant deposition was highly dependent on solubility and correlated with the locations of different types of receptors

Computational fluid dynamics as surgical planning tool: a pilot study on middle turbinate resection.

Controversies exist regarding the resection or preservation of the middle turbinate (MT) during functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Any MT resection will perturb nasal airflow and may affect the mucociliary dynamics of the osteomeatal complex. Neither rhinometry nor computed tomography (CT) can adequately quantify nasal airflow pattern changes following surgery. This study explores the feasibility of assessing changes in nasal airflow dynamics following partial MT resection using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. We retrospectively converted the pre- and postoperative CT scans of a patient who underwent isolated partial MT concha bullosa resection into anatomically accurate three-dimensional numerical nasal models. Pre- and postsurgery nasal airflow simulations showed that the partial MT resection resulted in a shift of regional airflow towards the area of MT removal with a resultant decreased airflow velocity, decreased wall shear stress and increased local air pressure. However, the resection did not strongly affect the overall nasal airflow patterns, flow distributions in other areas of the nose, nor the odorant uptake rate to the olfactory cleft mucosa. Moreover, CFD predicted the patient\u27s failure to perceive an improvement in his unilateral nasal obstruction following surgery. Accordingly, CFD techniques can be used to predict changes in nasal airflow dynamics following partial MT resection. However, the functional implications of this analysis await further clinical studies. Nevertheless, such techniques may potentially provide a quantitative evaluation of surgical effectiveness and may prove useful in preoperatively modeling the effects of surgical interventions

Pilot study outcomes from a resource‐limited setting for a low‐cost training program for laparoscopic surgical skills

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135455/1/ijgo186.pd

Investigating eye movement patterns, language, and social ability in children with autism spectrum disorder

Although all intellectually high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display core social and communication deficits, some develop language within a normative timescale and others experience significant delays and subsequent language impairment. Early attention to social stimuli plays an important role in the emergence of language, and reduced attention to faces has been documented in infants later diagnosed with ASD. We investigated the extent to which patterns of attention to social stimuli would differentiate early and late language onset groups. Children with ASD (mean age = 10 years) differing on language onset timing (late/normal) and a typically developing comparison group completed a task in which visual attention to interacting and noninteracting human figures was mapped using eye tracking. Correlations on visual attention data and results from tests measuring current social and language ability were conducted. Patterns of visual attention did not distinguish typically developing children and ASD children with normal language onset. Children with ASD and late language onset showed significantly reduced attention to salient social stimuli. Associations between current language ability and social attention were observed. Delay in language onset is associated with current language skills as well as with specific eye-tracking patterns

Assessment of smoking status based on cotinine levels in nasal lavage fluid

Cotinine is a principal metabolite of nicotine with a substantially longer half-life, and cotinine levels in saliva, urine or serum are widely used to validate self-reported smoking status. The nasal cavity and olfactory system are directly exposed to tobacco smoke in smokers and in non-smokers who live with or work around smokers. However, despite the potential for a direct impact of tobacco smoke on the nasal epithelium and olfactory neurons, no prior studies have assessed cotinine levels in nasal mucus. We sought to determine whether cotinine levels in nasal lavage fluid (NLF) would provide a reasonable estimate of smoke exposure. We assayed cotinine using a competitive immunoassay in NLF from 23 smokers, 10 non-smokers exposed to tobacco smoke (ETS) and 60 non-smokers who did not report smoke exposure. NLF cotinine levels were significantly higher in smokers than in non-smokers, regardless of their exposure to ambient tobacco smoke. Cotinine levels in this small group of exposed non-smokers were not significantly different than those of non-exposed non-smokers. A cutoff of 1 ng/ml provided a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 99% for smoking status in this sample. Data were consistent with self-reported smoking status, and a cutoff of 1.0 ng/ml NLF cotinine may be used to classify smoking status. While saliva is the most easily obtained body fluid, NLF can be used to provide an objective and precise indication of smoking status and more directly reflects smoke exposure in the nasal and olfactory mucosa

Diversity of selected toll-like receptor genes in cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) and African leopards (Panthera pardus pardus).

BackgroundThe growing world population amplifies the anthropogenic impact on wildlife globally. With shrinking habitats, wild populations are being pushed to co-exist in close proximity to humans, leading to an increased threat of infectious disease. Therefore, understanding the immune system of a species is key to assess its resilience in a changing environment. The innate immunity system (IIS) is the body’s first line of defense against pathogens. High variability in IIS-genes, such as the toll-like receptor (TLR) genes, appears to be associated with resistance to infectious diseases. However, few studies have investigated diversity in TLR genes in non-model organisms and drawn conclusions for the conservation of vulnerable species. Large predators are threatened globally, and their populations increasingly have been declining over the last decades. Big cats, such as leopards (Panthera pardus) and cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are no exception to this trend and are listed as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) including several subspecies, e.g., A. j. venaticus and P. p. melas, that already face extinction. To better understand vulnerability in terms of immune genetic diversity in the two sympatric occurring species, we compared selected TLR genes (TLR2, TLR4, TLR6 and TLR8) between modern African leopards (P. p. pardus) and Southern African cheetahs (A. j. jubatus). ResultsOur study supports the previously detected high genetic diversity in African leopards and confirms genetic impoverishment in Southern African cheetahs. Despite notable differences, both species share some haplotypic similarities in the investigated TLRs. Moreover, our historic cheetah samples from all five subspecies showed levels of genetic diversity comparable to modern African leopards. By including historic cheetahs and samples from all known subspecies, we put the observed IIS diversity into an evolutionary context.ConclusionThe genetic diversity in the investigated TLR genes in modern Southern African cheetahs and in historic cheetahs is low compared to African leopards. However, according to previous studies, the low immune genetic diversity might not yet affect the health of this cheetah subspecies. Compared to historic cheetah data and other subspecies, a more recent population decline might explain the observed genetic impoverishment of TLR genes in modern Southern African cheetahs.<br/