Mediated Computer Search Services Relative to Instruction Services: A Survey of One Health Sciences Library

To assess the quality and usefulness of one health sciences library's mediated computer search service, a survey was undertaken to determine satisfaction rates, why users do or do not use the service, and how useful the service is perceived to be in comparison to instructional service. Satisfaction rates were high, with users indicating librarian expertise and time/cost savings as the main reasons for using the service. Non-users indicated that they preferred to do their own searching, and many were unaware of the service. Though a majority of respondents do not currently use the service, surprisingly a majority of respondents placed significant value on the mediated search service in relation to instruction

General and special education teachers\u27 perspectives of full membership for students with disabilities

The idea of full membership (FM) for students with disabilities (SWD) originated with the 1975 Education for all Handicapped Children Act which required equal educational access for these students. Full membership has evolved from mainstreaming to focusing on acceptance and belonging in a school community where all stakeholders have a voice and the culture is reflective of these values and beliefs. Despite American public education policy, there appears to be minimal progress for SWD in gaining FM. This phenomenological qualitative study was conducted to gain insight into the perceptions and lived experiences of teachers. Comparing two high schools in the southern region of the United States, through face-to-face interviews with five general and nine special education teachers, the author explored how scripts of disability inform teacher practices and what systemic barriers may be in place that impede FM for SWD. The findings in this study provided evidence that teachers agreed on the importance of FM. Parental involvement is a vital component for successful implementation. Unexpectedly, a lack of exposure to disabilities during formative years and special education teacher perceptions tended to limit FM opportunities due to focusing on scripts of disability. Challenges needing to be addressed include educator mindset toward the abilities of SWD and access to FM opportunities. Methods to overcoming FM barriers and value-laden actions include professional learning communities, collaborative practices, and continuous sustained professional development that reflects on self-beliefs and practices. Additional research is needed in the areas of lack of exposure to others with disabilities and teacher perceptions of the role they play in FM opportunities for SWD

Conservation and ecology of fringing salt marshes along the southern Maine/New Hampshire coast

The small, fringing salt marshes that line the edges of estuaries in southern Maine and New Hampshire were the focus of this research. Although larger meadow marshes in New England have been studied extensively, little is known about the ecology of fringing marshes. Not only are fringing marshes much more numerous than meadow marshes in northern New England, they are often restored or created as mitigation for marsh impacts. Five ecological functions (primary production, soil organic matter accumulation, sediment trapping and binding, wave dampening and maintenance of plant diversity) were compared in meadow marsh and fringing marsh sites, and sometimes in areas where no marsh was present. Also explored were the relationships between these functions and several physical characteristics, including soil salinity, percent surface slope, elevation and size. Fringing marsh and meadow marsh sites differed significantly in terms of their physical characteristics, but functional indicator values were similar, with the exception of plant species richness and soil organic matter content. A field experiment tested whether marsh surface slope or north-south orientation affects the growth of newly planted cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) in fringing marshes. These experiments were not able to show that orientation or slope had an effect on plant growth. Comparisons were also made between six constructed fringing marshes and a set of selected reference sites (matched to constructed marshes using principal components analysis) in the Great Bay Estuary. Four ecological functions (primary production, soil organic matter accumulation, sediment trapping and binding, and maintenance of plant diversity) were studied. Mean values for constructed site (n = 6) and reference site (n = 11) functions were significantly different. Because the age of the constructed sites ranged from 1--14 years, patterns of functional development could be examined. Using constructed marsh age as the independent variable and functional indicator values as dependent variables, non-linear regression analyses produced several ecologically meaningful trajectories (r2 \u3e .9). These models illustrate that although indicators of some functions (primary production, sediment deposition, and plant species richness) should reach natural site values in less than ten years, soil organic matter content will take more than fifteen years to develop

The Lilies Yawn, The Tiger Sleeps: Towards an Understanding of Subjective and Biographical Knowing

This thesis is not about story or therapy. It moves toward an understanding of subjective and biographical knowing. The purpose of the excursion into story, therapy and the journal is to lift out some of the dynamics of subjective knowing. Subjectivity involves both conscious and unconscious activity. The knowing individual is in relationship with this process. Story, the therapeutic experience and the journal are three modalities that permit this relationship to show itself more explicitly

A primary neural cell culture model to study neuron, astrocyte, and microglia interactions in neuroinflammation.

BackgroundInteractions between neurons, astrocytes, and microglia critically influence neuroinflammatory responses to insult in the central nervous system. In vitro astrocyte and microglia cultures are powerful tools to study specific molecular pathways involved in neuroinflammation; however, in order to better understand the influence of cellular crosstalk on neuroinflammation, new multicellular culture models are required.MethodsPrimary cortical cells taken from neonatal rats were cultured in a serum-free "tri-culture" medium formulated to support neurons, astrocytes, and microglia, or a "co-culture" medium formulated to support only neurons and astrocytes. Caspase 3/7 activity and morphological changes were used to quantify the response of the two culture types to different neuroinflammatory stimuli mimicking sterile bacterial infection (lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure), mechanical injury (scratch), and seizure activity (glutamate-induced excitotoxicity). The secreted cytokine profile of control and LPS-exposed co- and tri-cultures were also compared.ResultsThe tri-culture maintained a physiologically relevant representation of neurons, astrocytes, and microglia for 14 days in vitro, while the co-cultures maintained a similar population of neurons and astrocytes, but lacked microglia. The continuous presence of microglia did not negatively impact the overall health of the neurons in the tri-culture, which showed reduced caspase 3/7 activity and similar neurite outgrowth as the co-cultures, along with an increase in the microglia-secreted neurotrophic factor IGF-1 and a significantly reduced concentration of CX3CL1 in the conditioned media. LPS-exposed tri-cultures showed significant astrocyte hypertrophy, increase in caspase 3/7 activity, and the secretion of a number of pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., TNF, IL-1α, IL-1β, and IL-6), none of which were observed in LPS-exposed co-cultures. Following mechanical trauma, the tri-culture showed increased caspase 3/7 activity, as compared to the co-culture, along with increased astrocyte migration towards the source of injury. Finally, the microglia in the tri-culture played a significant neuroprotective role during glutamate-induced excitotoxicity, with significantly reduced neuron loss and astrocyte hypertrophy in the tri-culture.ConclusionsThe tri-culture consisting of neurons, astrocytes, and microglia more faithfully mimics in vivo neuroinflammatory responses than standard mono- and co-cultures. This tri-culture can be a useful tool to study neuroinflammation in vitro with improved accuracy in predicting in vivo neuroinflammatory phenomena

A Comparison of Courtship Behaviors of Two Generations of HBCU Male Students in Georgia

The research was funded through the Center for Undergraduate Research at Albany State University. Abstract This paper is the completion of a replication of an earlier project which contributes to research on families, specifically courtship behaviors, attitudes, and strategies by young men of color in dating and searching for a life partner. Prior research indicates that males select female partners on physical attractiveness, and sex role socialization. Data collection via SurveyMonkey obtained 68 respondents, and a final sample size of 56 after filtering via four screening measures. The adjusted sample size of 48 participants ensured that all of those in the sample identified as single, heterosexual, Black/African American males. Data obtained is compared to data from 1948 with a similar population. Preliminary results indicate that the top two reasons for dating are companionship and finding a suitable life partner/mate. Spearman’s rho correlation indicated several statistically significant monotonic relationships between the “Appropriate Behavior in Courtship” statements. Limitations include validity/reliability of the measure of “courtship behaviors” statements as it was not created as a scale, and items were unable to be reverse coded due to a lack of additional information from the original study. Keywords: courtship, dating, marriage, Historically Black Colleges & Universities, African American Males DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-4-14 Publication date: February 29th 202

An analysis of the functions of the Epstein-Barr virus latent proteins, LMP1 and EBNA3

EBV is a prevalent human herpesvirus which is implicated in the aetiology of several human malignancies, including Burkitt’s Lymphoma and several other cancers of lymphoid/epithelial origin. Infection of primary B lymphocytes in vitro with EBV leads to expression of a restricted set of EBV latent genes and subsequent immortalisation of cells into continuously proliferating lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). Eleven viral genes are expressed in latently-infected (immortalised) B cells, of which just six are critical for transformation. These include latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) and five nuclear antigens (EBNA1, -2, -3A, -3C and -LP ). The first part of this study was undertaken in order to investigate the mechanism of EBV-mediated deregulation of cell growth by examining its effects on the mRNA levels of a range of cell cycle inhibitor genes using ribonuclease protection assay (Chapter 3). Significantly elevated p21 mRNA levels was found to be a characteristic feature of the transition from EBV latency type I infection (expressing EBNA1 only) to type III infection (expressing all 11 latent EBV genes) of Burkitt Lymphoma (BL) cells, with elevated expression detected in EBV-immortalised lymphoblastoid cell lines, consistent with previous reports. Western blot analysis confirmed a similar degree of upregulation at the protein level. p21 (WAF1/CIP1) is an important nuclear protein with cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) inhibitory activity, which can promote cytostasis by blocking cell cycle progression at the Gi and/or G2 phases of the cell cycle and by inhibiting PCNA-dependent DNA replication. As EBNA2 and LMP1 are both central to the immortalisation process, the contributions of each of these proteins to the observed p21 upregulation was investigated using a tetracyclineregulatable gene expression system in an EBV-negative BL background. This revealed an important role for LMP1, but not for EBNA2 when expressed singly. LMP1 is defined as a classical oncogene and its profound effects on cell growth are well-documented. The observed LMP1-mediated upregulation of p21 was found to be a B cell-specific effect, and was not detected in a second BL-derived cell line which lacks the characteristic c-myc translocation. In addition, the effect is likely to be p53-independent. On further investigation into the mechanism of upregulation, no transactivation of the p21 promoter was detected while enhanced p21 mRNA stability was found to be important in the LMP1-mediated effect. Further studies will be required to characterise the molecular basis of this stabilisation. The precise functions of the EBNA3 proteins are unclear, although persistent expression of these genes against negative selective pressure by cytotoxic T lymphocytes in vivo is consistent with important roles for all three members of this protein family. In attempting to identify potential protein binding partners for EBNA3B, the yeast two hybrid system (YTHS) was employed to screen two cDNA libraries. Both libraries yielded only false positives, including two EBNA3B-specific interactions. However, this type of result is well-documented as a recurring problem associated with use of YTH systems