Gaetz Aerospace Institute — Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University\u27s High School Dual Enrollment Program

Gaetz Aerospace Institute uses aviation, aerospace, and engineering to capture students’ imaginations and motivate them toward their studies. Students are officially registered in Embry-Riddle courses that will reflect on their college transcripts. The concurrent enrollment courses that are administered at high school reflect the pedagogical, theoretical, and philosophical orientation of Embry-Riddle courses. Our Embry-Riddle instructors provide discipline-specific training and orientation regarding course curriculum, assessment criteria, pedagogy, and course philosophy to the high school instructor. Assessments are evaluated at the same standards of achievement as those expected at the Daytona Beach campus. Concurrent Enrollment is great because the courses are taught on the high school campus and follow the high school schedule

Developing a Positive Self-Concept in Foster Care Youth: 2016 Final Report

This project focused on reviewing the process of self-esteem development and then also provides resources that parents and caseworkers can both use to help youth develop healthy self-esteem. These resources include examples of activities and the links to go directly to printable worksheets and more detailed directions

Ventricular septal defect due to blunt chest trauma

Blunt chest trauma may cause cardiac trauma, this possibility often being overlooked. Various anatomical structures may be affected. A case of ventr'icular septal defect due to blunt chest trauma is described and the relevant literature is reviewed

A molecular dynamics study on the equilibrium magnetization properties and structure of ferrofluids

We investigate in detail the initial susceptibility, magnetization curves, and microstructure of ferrofluids in various concentration and particle dipole moment ranges by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We use the Ewald summation for the long-range dipolar interactions, take explicitly into account the translational and rotational degrees of freedom, coupled to a Langevin thermostat. When the dipolar interaction energy is comparable with the thermal energy, the simulation results on the magnetization properties agree with the theoretical predictions very well. For stronger dipolar couplings, however, we find systematic deviations from the theoretical curves. We analyze in detail the observed microstructure of the fluids under different conditions. The formation of clusters is found to enhance the magnetization at weak fields and thus leads to a larger initial susceptibility. The influence of the particle aggregation is isolated by studying ferro-solids, which consist of magnetic dipoles frozen in at random locations but which are free to rotate. Due to the artificial suppression of clusters in ferro-solids the observed susceptibility is considerably lowered when compared to ferrofluids.Comment: 33 pages including 12 figures, requires RevTex

Magnetic Fields at First Order Phase Transition: A Threat to Electroweak Baryogenesis

The generation of the observed baryon asymmetry may have taken place during the electroweak phase transition, thus involving physics testable at LHC, a scenario dubbed electroweak baryogenesis. In this paper we point out that the magnetic field which is produced in the bubbles of a first order phase transition endangers the baryon asymmetry produced in the bubble walls. The reason being that the produced magnetic field couples to the sphaleron magnetic moment and lowers the sphaleron energy; this strengthens the sphaleron transitions inside the bubbles and triggers a more effective wash out of the baryon asymmetry. We apply this scenario to the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) where, in the absence of a magnetic field, successful electroweak baryogenesis requires the lightest CP-even Higgs and the right-handed stop masses to be lighter than about 127 GeV and 120 GeV, respectively. We show that even for moderate values of the magnetic field, the Higgs mass required to preserve the baryon asymmetry is below the present experimental bound. As a consequence electroweak baryogenesis within the MSSM should be confronted on the one hand to future measurements at the LHC on the Higgs and the right-handed stop masses, and on the other hand to more precise calculations of the magnetic field produced at the electroweak phase transition.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. Minor corrections and references added to match published versio

Initial Results of the International Efforts in Screening New Agents against Candida auris

This article belongs to the Special Issue Biology, Immunology, Epidemiology, and Therapy of Fungal Infections: A Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor David A. Stevens.Background: Candida auris is an emergent fungal pathogen and a global concern, mostly due to its resistance to many currently available antifungal drugs. Objective: Thus, in response to this challenge, we evaluated the in vitro activity of potential new drugs, diphenyl diselenide (PhSe)2 and nikkomycin Z (nikZ), alone and in association with currently available antifungals (azoles, echinocandins, and polyenes) against Candida auris. Methods: Clinical isolates of C. auris were tested in vitro. (PhSe)2 and nikZ activities were tested alone and in combination with amphotericin B, fluconazole, or the echinocandins, micafungin and caspofungin. Results: (PhSe)2 alone was unable to inhibit C. auris, and antagonism or indifferent effects were observed in the combination of this compound with the antifungals tested. NikZ appeared not active alone either, but frequently acted cooperatively with conventional antifungals. Conclusion: Our data show that (PhSe)2 appears to not have a good potential to be a candidate in the development of new drugs to treat C. auris, but that nikZ is worthy of further study.his work was accomplished with support from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Brazil, within the scope of the Capes-PrInt Program—Financing Code 001info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Paradoxical Effects of Chronic Intra-Amniotic Ureaplasma parvum Exposure on Ovine Fetal Brain Development

Chorioamnionitis is associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants. Ureaplasma spp. are the microorganisms most frequently isolated from the amniotic fluid of women diagnosed with chorioamnionitis. However, controversy remains concerning the role of Ureaplasma spp. in the pathogenesis of neonatal brain injury. We hypothesize that re-exposure to an inflammatory trigger during the perinatal period might be responsible for the variation in brain outcome of preterms following Ureaplasma driven chorioamnionitis. To investigate these clinical scenarios, we performed a detailed multi-modal study in which ovine neurodevelopmental outcomes were assessed following chronic intra-amniotic Ureaplasma parvum (UP) infection, either alone or combined with subsequent lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure. We show that chronic intra-amniotic UP exposure during the second trimester provoked a decrease of astrocytes, increased oligodendrocyte numbers and elevated 5-methylcytosine levels. In contrast, short-term LPS exposure before preterm birth induced increased microglial activation, myelin loss, elevation of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine levels and lipid profile changes. These LPS-induced changes were prevented by chronic pre-exposure to UP (preconditioning). These data indicate that chronic UP exposure provokes dual effects on preterm brain development in utero. On one hand, prolonged UP exposure causes detrimental cerebral changes which may predispose to adverse postnatal clinical outcomes. On the other, chronic intra-amniotic UP exposure preconditions the brain against a second inflammatory hit. This study demonstrates that microbial interactions, timing and duration of inflammatory insults will determine the effects on the fetal brain. Therefore, this study helps to understand the complex and diverse postnatal neurological outcomes following UP driven chorioamnionitis

Professional closure by proxy: the impact of changing educational requirements on class mobility for a cohort of Big 8 partners

Closure events impacting on class mobility may include mechanisms initiated by bodies other than the professional body. The research examines if the introduction of full-time study requirements at universities for aspiring accountants effectively introduced a closure mechanism in the accounting profession. Data was derived from an Oral History study of partners in large firms. The younger partners (born after the Second World War) completed full-time degree study at university, but did not provide evidence of class mobility into the profession. The older cohort, born between 1928 and 1946, completed part-time studies only, few completed a degree, and, in contrast to the younger cohort, shows a perceptible upward movement from lower socio-economic classes into the professional class. This suggests that changing the preferred educational routes for new accountants entering the large chartered accounting (CA) firms compromised the "stepping stone" function of accounting as a portal into the professional class

Tomato: a crop species amenable to improvement by cellular and molecular methods

Tomato is a crop plant with a relatively small DNA content per haploid genome and a well developed genetics. Plant regeneration from explants and protoplasts is feasable which led to the development of efficient transformation procedures. In view of the current data, the isolation of useful mutants at the cellular level probably will be of limited value in the genetic improvement of tomato. Protoplast fusion may lead to novel combinations of organelle and nuclear DNA (cybrids), whereas this technique also provides a means of introducing genetic information from alien species into tomato. Important developments have come from molecular approaches. Following the construction of an RFLP map, these RFLP markers can be used in tomato to tag quantitative traits bred in from related species. Both RFLP's and transposons are in the process of being used to clone desired genes for which no gene products are known. Cloned genes can be introduced and potentially improve specific properties of tomato especially those controlled by single genes. Recent results suggest that, in principle, phenotypic mutants can be created for cloned and characterized genes and will prove their value in further improving the cultivated tomato.

Effect of a behavioral intervention for underserved preschool-age children on change in body mass index: A randomized clinical trial

IMPORTANCE Prevention of obesity during childhood is critical for children in underserved populations, for whom obesity prevalence and risk of chronic disease are highest. OBJECTIVE To test the effect of a multicomponent behavioral intervention on child body mass index (BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) growth trajectories over 36 months among preschool-age children at risk for obesity. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A randomized clinical trial assigned 610 parent-child pairs from underserved communities in Nashville, Tennessee, to a 36-month intervention targeting health behaviors or a school-readiness control. Eligible children were between ages 3 and 5 years and at risk for obesity but not yet obese. Enrollment occurred from August 2012 to May 2014; 36-month follow-up occurred from October 2015 to June 2017. INTERVENTIONS The intervention (n = 304 pairs) was a 36-month family-based, community-centered program, consisting of 12 weekly skills-building sessions, followed by monthly coaching telephone calls for 9 months, and a 24-month sustainability phase providing cues to action. The control (n = 306 pairs) consisted of 6 school-readiness sessions delivered over the 36-month study, conducted by the Nashville Public Library. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was child BMI trajectory over 36 months. Seven prespecified secondary outcomes included parent-reported child dietary intake and community center use. The Benjamini-Hochberg procedure corrected for multiple comparisons. RESULTS Participants were predominantly Latino (91.4%). At baseline, the mean (SD) child age was 4.3 (0.9) years; 51.9% were female. Household income was below $25 000 for 56.7% of families. Retention was 90.2%. At 36 months, the mean (SD) child BMI was 17.8 (2.2) in the intervention group and 17.8 (2.1) in the control group. No significant difference existed in the primary outcome of BMI trajectory over 36 months (P = .39). The intervention group children had a lower mean caloric intake (1227 kcal/d) compared with control group children (1323 kcal/d) (adjusted difference, −99.4 kcal [95% CI, −160.7 to −38.0]; corrected P = .003). Intervention group parents used community centers with their children more than control group parents (56.8% in intervention; 44.4% in control) (risk ratio, 1.29 [95% CI, 1.08 to 1.53]; corrected P = .006). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE A 36-month multicomponent behavioral intervention did not change BMI trajectory among underserved preschool-age children in Nashville, Tennessee, compared with a control program. Whether there would be effectiveness for other types of behavioral interventions or implementation in other cities would require further research