A Silent Injustice: Air Pollution as a Contributing Factor of COVID-19 Health Disparities

COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 has had a disproportionate impact on Black communities throughout the United States. This paper suggests that air pollution may be a factor for why Black individuals experience markedly poorer health outcomes after contracting COVID-19. It establishes that not only are Black Americans exposed to disproportionate amounts of air pollution, but also that many air pollution-related ailments are the exact ones that have been clinically proven to make COVID-19 more fatal. AV Whe UniWed SWaWeV diVcXVVeV ZhaW a ³neZ noUmal´ entails for healthcare practice and public health policy, this paper makes the case for why air pollution and the danger it presents to Black Americans should play a greater role in those discussions

Dynamic Visual Indicators for Indicating Destinations of Web Links

Clicking on a web link sometimes takes the user to an unexpected destination or results in an unexpected operation, possibly exposing the user to undesirable content and resulting in a frustrating user experience (UX). This disclosure describes mechanisms that display visual indicators dynamically within a web browser to provide information about the nature of the resource expected upon activation of a given link. The indicators deliver corresponding information about the destination of a link while the user is likely considering activating on the link but is yet to do so. The indicators are rendered dynamically as the user moves a mouse pointer around within a page and hovers over any of the linked elements in the page

Community-level response of coastal microbial biofilms to ocean acidification in a natural carbon dioxide vent ecosystem.

The version on PEARL: Corrected proofs are Articles in Press that contain the authors' corrections. Final citation details, e.g., volume/issue number, publication year and page numbers, still need to be added and the text might change before final publication. Although corrected proofs do not have all bibliographic details available yet, they can already be cited using the year of online publication and the DOI , as follows: author(s), article title, journal (year), DOIThe impacts of ocean acidification on coastal biofilms are poorly understood. Carbon dioxide vent areas provide an opportunity to make predictions about the impacts of ocean acidification. We compared biofilms that colonised glass slides in areas exposed to ambient and elevated levels of pCO(2) along a coastal pH gradient, with biofilms grown at ambient and reduced light levels. Biofilm production was highest under ambient light levels, but under both light regimes biofilm production was enhanced in seawater with high pCO(2). Uronic acids are a component of biofilms and increased significantly with high pCO(2). Bacteria and Eukarya denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profile analysis showed clear differences in the structures of ambient and reduced light biofilm communities, and biofilms grown at high pCO(2) compared with ambient conditions. This study characterises biofilm response to natural seabed CO(2) seeps and provides a baseline understanding of how coastal ecosystems may respond to increased pCO(2) levels

The biogeochemistry of carbon across a gradient of streams and rivers within the Congo Basin

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and inorganic carbon (DIC and pCO2), lignin biomarkers and the optical properties of dissolved organic matter (DOM) were measured in a gradient of streams and rivers within the Congo Basin (Republic of Congo), with the aim of examining how vegetation cover and hydrology influences the composition and concentration of exported fluvial carbon (C). Three sampling campaigns (February 2010, November 2010 and August 2011) spanning 56 sites are compared by sub-basin watershed land cover type (savannah, tropical forest, and swamp) and hydrologic regime (high, intermediate, and low). Land cover properties predominately controlled the amount and quality of DOC, chromophoric DOM (CDOM) and lignin phenol concentrations (∑8) exported in streams and rivers throughout the Congo Basin. Higher DIC concentrations and changing DOM composition (lower molecular weight, less aromatic C) during periods of low hydrologic flow indicated a shift from rapid overland supply pathways in wet conditions to deeper groundwater inputs during drier periods. Lower DOC concentrations in forest and swamp sub-basins were apparent with increasing catchment area, indicating enhanced DOC loss with extended water residence time. Surface water pCO2 in savannah and tropical forest catchments ranged between 2600 and 11922 µatm, and swamp regions contained extremely high pCO2 (10598-15802 µatm), highlighting their potential as significant pathways for water-air efflux. Our data suggest that the quantity and quality of DOM exported to streams and rivers is largely driven by terrestrial ecosystem structure and that anthropogenic land-use or climate change may impact the composition and reactivity of fluvial C, with ramifications for regional C budgets and future climate scenarios

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES: AN EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON PROFESSIONAL CONVERSATIONS AND STUDENT LEARNING

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have emerged in the last 20 years as a popular professional development initiative. However, despite a wealth of PLC literature available, researchers have found that forming teacher communities does not automatically result in improved teaching practices that support student learning. This qualitative study was used to explore the ways in which humanities teachers perceive their work in existing PLCs. Specifically, it examined the ways teachers experience their work together related to subject knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and the influence the work within the PLC has on changing instructional practices. Using an embedded unit case study design with each PLC representing a unit, data were gathered from a sample of 19 English, social studies, and world languages teachers who belonged to five PLCs that met regularly during the school day in a Connecticut high school. The researcher completed an interview with each teacher, the high school principal, and the high school assistant principals (n = 23) and each of the five PLCs were observed three times for the duration of a full meeting block (81 minutes). Interview transcripts, participant observations, and field notes were coded to allow themes to emerge within and across cases, triangulation of the data was essential for developing themes. The researcher concluded that although the feelings about peer collaboration in PLCs were positive, teachers believed their work was limited because they needed training in several areas. This was communicated through interviews and supported by observations that identified several areas of insufficiency. To increase the likelihood that the PLCs make an impact on improving teaching practices and student achievement, it is recommended that the district develop a shared vision about PLC work, increase the participation from school leaders around the PLC work, and provide teacher training on the use of data and on the dynamics of group discourse