Role of Endophytes in Tall Fescue

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is the most commonly grown cool season grass used for pastures in Arkansas. Most tall fescue contains a fungal endophyte (Acremonium coenophialum Morgan-Jones & Gams), which causes fescue toxicosis in livestock and costs cattle producers millions of dollars annually in lost production. Endophyte presence is known to reduce wild mammal populations in areas where tall fescue is prevalent. The endophyte spends its entire life cycle within the plant and is transmitted through the seed. The association is mutualistic with the plant providing nutrients for the endophyte and the endophyte conferring drought, insect, and nematode resistance to the plant. Several classes of alkaloids exist in endophyte-infected tall fescue including ergopeptides and lolines. The ergopeptides are animal toxins, where as lolines deter insects. Our present work is on elucidating physiological mechanisms explaining animal disorders and improved host drought tolerance due to endophyte, and on identifying endophyte strains that are not toxic to livestock but improve drought and pest resistance in tall fescue

Using Authentic Literature to Enrich Young Children’s Literacy Experiences

This article focuses on the five components (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) needed to effectively teach children to read. Early childhood educators can teach these five skills through the use of authentic literature. To be classified as authentic literature, books and texts need to utilize “real life” writing that is written to engage the reader. Authentic narrative texts generally appeal to the reader and offers a theme and a moral to the story. The article explains the five components needed to teach children to read and offers some authentic texts, synopses, and lesson ideas specifically for each of the components. Although children may not be able to read the texts, the texts selected are at the child’s listen-ing comprehension level. In addition, the selected texts will aid early childhood educators and parents in infusing these skills for engaging implementation

Prevention of suicidal behaviour in prisons: an overview of initiatives based on a systematic review of research on near-lethal suicide attempts

Background: Worldwide, prisoners are at high risk of suicide. Research on near-lethal suicide attempts can provide important insights into risk and protective factors, and inform suicide prevention initiatives in prison. Aims: To synthesize findings of research on near-lethal attempts in prisons, and consider their implications for suicide prevention policies and practice, in the context of other research in custody and other settings. Method: We searched two bibliographic indexes for studies in any language on near-lethal and severe self-harm in prisoners, supplemented by targeted searches over the period 2000–2014. We extracted information on risk factors descriptively. Data were not meta-analyzed owing to heterogeneity of samples and methods. Results: We identified eight studies reporting associations between prisoner near-lethal attempts and specific factors. The latter included historical, prison-related, and clinical factors, including psychiatric morbidity and comorbidity, trauma, social isolation, and bullying. These factors were also identified as important in prisoners' own accounts of what may have contributed to their attempts (presented in four studies). Conclusion: Factors associated with prisoners' severe suicide attempts include a range of potentially modifiable clinical, psychosocial, and environmental factors. We make recommendations to address these factors in order to improve detection, management, and prevention of suicide risk in prisoners

Controlling Cockroaches Without Synthetic Organic Insecticides.

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Reusable Agena study. Volume 2: Technical

The application of the existing Agena vehicle as a reusable upper stage for the space shuttle is discussed. The primary objective of the study is to define those changes to the Agena required for it to function in the reusable mode in the 100 percent capture of the NASA-DOD mission model. This 100 percent capture is achieved without use of kick motors or stages by simply increasing the Agena propellant load by using optional strap-on-tanks. The required shuttle support equipment, launch and flight operations techniques, development program, and cost package are also defined

Photoemission evidence for crossover from Peierls-like to Mott-like transition in highly strained VO2_2

We present a spectroscopic study that reveals that the metal-insulator transition of strained VO$_2$ thin films may be driven towards a purely electronic transition, which does not rely on the Peierls dimerization, by the application of mechanical strain. Comparison with a moderately strained system, which does involve the lattice, demonstrates the crossover from Peierls- to Mott-like transitions

Struggling and juggling: a comparison of assessment loads in research and teaching-intensive universities

In spite of the rising tide of metrics in UK higher education, there has been scant attention paid to assessment loads, when evidence demonstrates that heavy demands lead to surface learning. Our study seeks to redress the situation by defining assessment loads and comparing them across research-and teaching intensive universities. We clarify the concept of ‘assessment load’ in response to findings about high volumes of summative assessment on modular degrees. We define assessment load across whole undergraduate degrees, according to four measures: the volume of summative assessment; volume of formative assessment; proportion of examinations to coursework; number of different varieties of assessment. All four factors contribute to the weight of an assessment load, and influence students’ approaches to learning. Our research compares programme assessment data from 73 programmes in 14 UK universities, across two institutional categories. Research-intensives have higher summative assessment loads and a greater proportion of examinations; teaching-intensives have higher varieties of assessment. Formative assessment does not differ significantly across both university groups. These findings pose particular challenges for students in different parts of the sector. Our study questions the wisdom that ‘more’ is always better, proposing that lighter assessment loads may make room for ‘slow’ and deep learning

Strain dependence of bonding and hybridization across the metal-insulator transition of VO2

Soft x-ray spectroscopy is used to investigate the strain dependence of the metal-insulator transition of VO2. Changes in the strength of the V 3d - O 2p hybridization are observed across the transition, and are linked to the structural distortion. Furthermore, although the V-V dimerization is well-described by dynamical mean-field theory, the V-O hybridization is found to have an unexpectedly strong dependence on strain that is not predicted by band theory, emphasizing the relevance of the O ion to the physics of VO2