MSW Interns at Public Libraries: Fostering Collaboration For Change

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians continues to grow, literature about the utilization of student social workers partnering with libraries is non-existent. Currently 40,000 students are enrolled in M.S.W. programs through the United States and nearly all are required to complete approximately 900 hours in the field. Such students provide untapped skills, knowledge, and values that can help take diversity in public libraries to the next level

Partnering for Social Justice: Social Work Students’ Placement at Public Libraries

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians is garnering much deserved attention, literature about social work students partnering with public libraries is virtually nonexistent. Public librarians can advocate for social justice by initiating partnerships with master-level social work (MSW) students to enhance small- and large-scale programs to address the unique needs of patrons. In this chapter, I highlight existing collaborations among public libraries and student social workers to raise awareness of possibilities

Exploring the effects of various growth conditions on gene expression of mechanosensitive ion channels in Escherichia coli

In rapidly changing environmental conditions, bacterial mechanosensitive ion channels are responsible for ensuring cell survival. Bacterial mechanosensitive channels gate in response to membrane tension in order to relieve intracellular pressure, prior to cell lysis. The most well-studied bacterial mechanosensitive channels include the mechanosensitive channel of large (MscL) and small (MscS) conductance from Escherichia coli (E. coli), both of which gate in response to tension. In E. coli, there are seven mechanosensitive ion channel genes: MscL, MscS, and five additional genes that are members of the MscS superfamily. Of these seven genes, six have been shown to gate directly in response to tension applied to the cellular membrane. We determine each channel’s expression in varying growth conditions like salt concentration, pH, and temperature. To determine each gene’s contribution to survival, we utilized qPCR and compared mRNA levels of each individual channel to a standard ribosomal gene, RpoB, within each growth condition. The relative expression of each channel provides insight into the specific roles that each of these channels fulfills during the survival response of the cell. Throughout our data, we see that MscL plays an active role in cell survival across various conditions. We rarely see any indication of YnaI expression, with the exception of cells cultured at lower temperatures. Apart from these channels, we observe similarities in expression levels between MscS, MscM, and YbdG as well as between MscK and YbiO across various conditions. This research shows that the expression of mechanosensitive channels fluctuates based on the growth environment

Countering the Obesity Epidemic: Policy Recommendations for a New Century

This paper discusses the public health ramifications of the obesity epidemic among American children and adults. It explores several contributing factors to this epidemic as well as analyzes public policy recommendations for addressing this issue. It also offers an in-depth analysis of the feasibility of litigation against fast food companies by analyzing the initial attempts in this area

Partnering For Social Justice: MSW Interns in Public Libraries

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians continues to grow, literature about the utilization of student social workers partnering with libraries is non-existent. Over 64,000 students are currently enrolled in M.S.W. programs through the United States and nearly all are required to complete approximately 900 hours of fieldwork. Such students provide the skills, knowledge, and values that can help take diversity in public libraries to the next level. Public librarians play a critical role in advocating for social justice and change. By reaching out to MSW programs, they invite budding social workers to help advance tolerance for a diversity of people and needs in public libraries. While the professional values and ethics of both librarianship and social work have a strong overlap, librarians need to invite social work students to partner with them; particularly as libraries are still considered non-traditional points of social service delivery. MSW students can assist libraries to expand programming, strengthen outreach, and enhance the professional development of both social workers and librarians to the benefit of patrons

Innovative collaborations: Social work student interns at public libraries

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians is garnering much-deserved attention, literature about social work students partnering with public libraries is virtually non-existent. In fact, there are at least 73 partnerships yet a scarcity of academic literature addresses social work interns within public libraries. While there are students at Canadian libraries, this research focuses on the bulk of known partnerships based in the United States. Emerging from a mix of interviews and public resources, the author’s inquiry fosters this call to action: Social work educators must initiate interagency collaboration with libraries in order for students to expand community outreach, enhance librarians’ professional development, and ultimately connect patrons with community resources

Innovative social work field placements in public libraries

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians has accumulated much-deserved attention for several years, literature about social work students partnering with public libraries is only beginning to emerge. In fact, there are at least 100 branches that host social work students, yet academic literature examining the scope of these collaborations is sparse. Student placements do exist at Canadian and Australian libraries, yet the current research focuses on the bulk of known partnerships based in the United States. This paper includes information on the prevalence, nature, and fit of social work education and public library partnerships, garnered from an extensive review of the extant literature as well as public documents such as library memos and minutes, newsletters, annual reports, news articles, video clip websites, and social media posts. Practical applications of field placements are presented including students’ assignments for educational competencies such as conducting needs assessments, providing training to library staff, and developing outreach to patrons. Student attributes suitable for placement are discussed as are potential challenges in establishing and implementing fieldwork. Proposals for how to commence such partnerships are offered including suggestions for further research

Global Properties of Neutral Hydrogen in Compact Groups

Compact groups of galaxies provide a unique environment to study the evolution of galaxies amid frequent gravitational encounters. These nearby groups have conditions similar to those in the earlier universe when galaxies were assembled and give us the opportunity to witness hierarchical formation in progress. To understand how the compact group environment affects galaxy evolution, we examine the gas and dust in these groups. We present new single-dish GBT neutral hydrogen (HI) observations of 30 compact groups and define a new way to quantify the group HI content as the HI-to-stellar mass ratio of the group as a whole. We compare the HI content with mid-IR indicators of star formation and optical [g-r] color to search for correlations between group gas content and star formation activity of individual group members. Quiescent galaxies tend to live in HI-poor groups, and galaxies with active star formation are more commonly found in HI-rich groups. Intriguingly, we also find "rogue" galaxies whose star formation does not correlate with group HI content. In particular, we identify three galaxies (NGC 2968 in RSCG 34, KUG 1131+202A in RSCG 42, and NGC 4613 in RSCG 64) whose mid-IR activity is discrepant with the HI. We speculate that this mismatch between mid-IR activity and HI content is a consequence of strong interactions in this environment that can strip HI from galaxies and abruptly affect star-formation. Ultimately, characterizing how and on what timescales the gas is processed in compact groups will help us understand the interstellar medium in complex, dense environments similar to the earlier Universe.Comment: Accepted to A

The Shape of LITTLE THINGS Dwarf Galaxies DDO 46 and DDO 168: Understanding the stellar and gas kinematics

We present the stellar and gas kinematics of DDO 46 and DDO 168 from the LITTLE THINGS survey and determine their respective Vmax/sigma_z,0 values. We used the KPNO's 4-meter telescope with the Echelle spectrograph as a long-slit spectrograph. We acquired spectra of DDO 168 along four position angles by placing the slit over the morphological major and minor axes and two intermediate position angles. However, due to poor weather conditions during our observing run for DDO 46, we were able to extract only one useful data point from the morphological major axis. We determined a central stellar velocity dispersion perpendicular to the disk, sigma_z,0, of 13.5+/-8 km/s for DDO 46 and of 10.7+/-2.9 km/s for DDO 168. We then derived the maximum rotation speed in both galaxies using the LITTLE THINGS HI data. We separated bulk motions from non-circular motions using a double Gaussian decomposition technique and applied a tilted-ring model to the bulk velocity field. We corrected the observed HI rotation speeds for asymmetric drift and found a maximum velocity, Vmax, of 77.4 +/- 3.7 and 67.4 +/- 4.0 km/s for DDO 46 and DDO 168, respectively. Thus, we derived a kinematic measure, Vmax/sigma_z,0, of 5.7 +/- 0.6 for DDO 46 and 6.3 +/- 0.3 for DDO 168. Comparing these values to ones determined for spiral galaxies, we find that DDO 46 and DDO 168 have Vmax/sigma_z,0 values indicative of thin disks, which is in contrast to minor-to-major axis ratio studies