An Analysis Of Inclusive Pedagogical Practices Within North Carolina Secondary Agricultural Education Programming

Objective: In this study the state of inclusion within North Carolina Secondary Agricultural Education programming was examined. Background: In 2012 The North Carolina State Board of Education established a vision of assuring a strong, flexible, and sound educational system that serves all students and additionally promotes the public interest. This vision includes its secondary agricultural education programs as well. Methodology: The research design for this study consisted of a descriptive survey research design, encompassing a random sample of 196 North Carolina Secondary Agricultural Educators. The final return rate yielded a usable sample of 90 respondents (45% return rate). Findings: North Carolina Secondary Agricultural Educators indicated that agricultural education was beneficial to women and minority populations. Various barriers to inclusion were noted. Uncertainty in working with various dimensions of inclusion were found. Solutions to improving inclusion were identified. Conclusion:Overall, it was found that inclusion was critical for secondary agricultural education in North Carolina. Application: Findings from this study will aid North Carolina Secondary Agricultural Educators and officials in developing more inclusive learning environments

Energetic, structural, and antimicrobial analyses of β-lactam side chain recognition by β-lactamases

AbstractBackground: Penicillins and cephalosporins are among the most widely used and successful antibiotics. The emergence of resistance to these β-lactams, most often through bacterial expression of β-lactamases, threatens public health. To understand how β-lactamases recognize their substrates, it would be helpful to know their binding energies. Unfortunately, these have been difficult to measure because β-lactams form covalent adducts with β-lactamases. This has complicated functional analyses and inhibitor design.Results: To investigate the contribution to interaction energy of the key amide (R1) side chain of β-lactam antibiotics, eight acylglycineboronic acids that bear the side chains of characteristic penicillins and cephalosporins, as well as four other analogs, were synthesized. These transition-state analogs form reversible adducts with serine β-lactamases. Therefore, binding energies can be calculated directly from Ki values. The Ki values measured span four orders of magnitude against the Group I β-lactamase AmpC and three orders of magnitude against the Group II β-lactamase TEM-1. The acylglycineboronic acids have Ki values as low as 20 nM against AmpC and as low as 390 nM against TEM-1. The inhibitors showed little activity against serine proteases, such as chymotrypsin. R1 side chains characteristic of β-lactam inhibitors did not have better affinity for AmpC than did side chains characteristic of β-lactam substrates. Two of the inhibitors reversed the resistance of pathogenic bacteria to β-lactams in cell culture. Structures of two inhibitors in their complexes with AmpC were determined by X-ray crystallography to 1.90 Å and 1.75 Å resolution; these structures suggest interactions that are important to the affinity of the inhibitors.Conclusions: Acylglycineboronic acids allow us to begin to dissect interaction energies between β-lactam side chains and β-lactamases. Surprisingly, there is little correlation between the affinity contributed by R1 side chains and their occurrence in β-lactam inhibitors or β-lactam substrates of serine β-lactamases. Nevertheless, presented in acylglycineboronic acids, these side chains can lead to inhibitors with high affinities and specificities. The structures of their complexes with AmpC give a molecular context to their affinities and may guide the design of anti-resistance compounds in this series

Building Capacity within Extension to Address Animal Agriculture in a Changing Climate

The Animal Agriculture in a Changing Climate project was formed to build capacity among Extension professionals and other livestock advisors to address climate change issues. We offer a case study of how a small team can build national capacity for new topics. We used a coordinated multiregional approach to leverage national efforts applied to locally relevant climatology, production systems, and climate issues. Key insights on overcoming challenges centered on (a) engaging audiences with local, historical trends and agricultural impacts, (b) beginning with adaptation, rather than mitigation of climate change, and (c) providing strategies for effectively communicating science during controversy. Program participants found the project valuable and substantially increased their ability and motivation to apply climate science

Cross-Reactive Neuraminidase Antibodies Afford Partial Protection against H5N1 in Mice and Are Present in Unexposed Humans

BACKGROUND: A pandemic H5N1 influenza outbreak would be facilitated by an absence of immunity to the avian-derived virus in the human population. Although this condition is likely in regard to hemagglutinin-mediated immunity, the neuraminidase (NA) of H5N1 viruses (avN1) and of endemic human H1N1 viruses (huN1) are classified in the same serotype. We hypothesized that an immune response to huN1 could mediate cross-protection against H5N1 influenza virus infection. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Mice were immunized against the NA of a contemporary human H1N1 strain by DNA vaccination. They were challenged with recombinant A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (PR8) viruses bearing huN1 (PR8-huN1) or avN1 (PR8-avN1) or with H5N1 virus A/Vietnam/1203/04. Additional naïve mice were injected with sera from vaccinated mice prior to H5N1 challenge. Also, serum specimens from humans were analyzed for reactivity with avN1. Immunization elicited a serum IgG response to huN1 and robust protection against the homologous challenge virus. Immunized mice were partially protected from lethal challenge with H5N1 virus or recombinant PR8-avN1. Sera transferred from immunized mice to naïve animals conferred similar protection against H5N1 mortality. Analysis of human sera showed that antibodies able to inhibit the sialidase activity of avN1 exist in some individuals. CONCLUSIONS: These data reveal that humoral immunity elicited by huN1 can partially protect against H5N1 infection in a mammalian host. Our results suggest that a portion of the human population could have some degree of resistance to H5N1 influenza, with the possibility that this could be induced or enhanced through immunization with seasonal influenza vaccines

Dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI with localized arterial input functions

Compared to gold-standard measurements of cerebral perfusion with positron emission tomography (PET) using H2[15O] tracers, measurements with dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MR are more accessible, less expensive and less invasive. However, existing methods for analyzing and interpreting data from DSC MR have characteristic disadvantages that include sensitivity to incorrectly modeled delay and dispersion in a single, global arterial input function (AIF). We describe a model of tissue microcirculation derived from tracer kinetics which estimates for each voxel a unique, localized AIF (LAIF). Parameters of the model were estimated using Bayesian probability theory and Markov-chain Monte Carlo, circumventing difficulties arising from numerical deconvolution. Applying the new method to imaging studies from a cohort of fourteen patients with chronic, atherosclerotic, occlusive disease showed strong correlations between perfusion measured by DSC MR with LAIF and perfusion measured by quantitative PET with H2[15O]. Regression to PET measurements enabled conversion of DSC MR to a physiological scale. Regression analysis for LAIF gave estimates of a scaling factor for quantitation which described perfusion accurately in patients with substantial variability in hemodynamic impairment

The Best and Worst of Contracts Decisions: An Anthology

Five hundred years ago, the common law of contract was without substance. It was form-procedure. Plaintiffs picked a form of action, and common law judges made sure someone besides themselves answered all the hard questions; the parties, a jury, or a ritual determined the winner and the remedy. Judges ran a switch on a conflicts-resolution railway. Thomas More, when Chancellor of England (1529-33), urged judges to lay tracks and control the trains. The problem, he said, was that the judges, by the verdict of the jury[,] cast off all quarrels from themselves. The judges soon assumed greater authority, taking responsibility for the law\u27s substance. The consideration requirement was in place by 1539, and judges afterwards imposed doctrine upon doctrine. Over centuries, they created the common law of contract. That law is now mature, more or less, meaning that judges have tools to fix what they want to fix, and feel free to do so. The law they created-the common law of contract-is a remarkable intellectual and political achievement

Spectroscopy of Na+⋅Rg and transport coefficients of Na+ in Rg(Rg=He–Rn)

High-level ab initio calculations are used to obtain accurate potential energy curves for Na+·Kr, Na+·Xe, and Na+·Rn. These data are used to calculate spectroscopic parameters for these three species, and the data for the whole Na+·Rg series (Rg=He-Rn) are compared. Potentials for the whole series are then used to calculate both mobilities and diffusion coefficients for Na+ moving through a bath of each of the six rare gases, under conditions that match previous experimental determinations. Different available potentials and experimental data are then statistically compared. It is concluded that the present potentials are very accurate. The potential and other data for Na+·Rn appear to be the first such reported

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin