Researching potential partners for an equestrian learning center in Frankenmuth, MI

Researchers believe that 90% of emotional communication is non-verbal (Gibbs, 1995). Monty Roberts (1997), and many others in the equestrian industry, recognize the power of using horses as a communication tool for humans. The North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) is an organization whose mission is to promote and support equine-facilitated activities, including communication, self-awareness and self-esteem. A learning organization incorporates the elements of a shared vision, personal mastery, systems thinking, mental models, and team learning. This study found that there are NARHA members that possess a learning organization philosophy and therefore could possibly be interested in creating an equestrian learning center in Frankenmuth, MI. Sixty-seven percent of the learning organization questions were answered affirmatively with either strongly agree or agree; almost half of those were in the strongly agree category. Additionally, because a lack of self-esteem and self-awareness directly relate to the vulnerability of young people, the literature review of this study explores youth as a potential target market for programs offered by an equestrian learning center

The Design, Implementation, and Assessment of Initial Change and Growth in a Local Voluntary Organization and its Members

Problem. During the past 30 years, Americans have steadily reduced their participation in the traditional forms of community involvement, such as clubs, associations, and organizations, that bring people together to effectively pursue a shared objective. In this postmodern society, leaders of community and nonprofit organizations find they are asking themselves difficult questions about the most effective methods of fulfilling their mission and simultaneously meeting members\u27 changing needs. Participatory volunteer-run organizations, such as a local branch or chapter of a national organization, face many challenges, making it hard to establish and maintain there organizations. They demand great energy of leaders, are vulnerable to moderate changes in their environments, and must rely on the good intentions of their members to get the work done. The same conditions that make these organizations difficult to study are at the heart of their existence. The shift from association to advocacy has been recognized as evidence that people are still interested in collective concerns, but that they are developing new methods of involvement that better suit the demands of a fast-paced, contemporary world. Purpose of the Study. My purpose in this study was to design, implement, and assess the initial change and growth of a local voluntary organization, the Frankenmuth Area American Association of University Women Branch. Method. I used participatory-action research to design, implement, and assess the initial organizational change in the Frankenmuth Area American Association of University Women (AAUW). The history and culture of AAUW, the community of Frankenmuth, significant aspects of social change, feminism, and organizational change were studied. Through action and reflection, three learning cycles were identified during an 11-month study period. The decisions made by leaders of the organization during the study were characterized according to eight key themes to determine whether the decisions were made from an organization-centered or a member-centered paradigm. Results. During the first research cycle, the decision-making by the organization leaders showed a predominance of an organization-paradigm. In 10 of the 12 evidence indicators (75%), the group responded by honoring the organization instead of the members. During Cycle 2, the shift to more of a member-centered focus began to take place. Sixteen Cycle 2, the shift to more of a member-centered focus began to take place. Sixteen instances are offered as evidence of the decision-making mind-set relating to the Frankenmuth AAUW, with only 62%, as opposed to 75% from Cycle 1, supporting an organization-centered paradigm. The profound shift from an organizational-centered paradigm to a member-centered paradigm approach tool place during Cycle 3 when thirteen out of the 15 evidence incidents (87%) reflected a new approach to thinking from a member-centered paradigm. Conclusions. Understanding cultural and environmental influences in addition to recognizing the decision-making paradigm of organizational leaders are valuable when seeking organizational change. A nostalgic desire to maintain hierarchical, often ineffective, organizations, redirects energy, time, and resources that could be used to further the organizational mission and add value to members\u27 lives. This study concludes that the ability to integrate newfound awareness may be the essence of what it will take for community organizations to grow, change, and evolve

Rapid Accumulation of Trihydroxy Oxylipins and Resistance to the Bean Rust Pathogen Uromyces fabae Following Wounding in Vicia faba

• Background and Aims Insect damage to plants leads to wound-activated responses directed to healing of damaged tissues, as well as activation of defences to prevent further insect damage. Negative cross-talk exists between the jasmonic acid-based signalling system that is activated upon insect attack and the salicylic acid-based system frequently activated following pathogen infection. Thus, insect attack may compromise the ability of the plant to defend itself against pathogens and vice versa. However, insect herbivory and mechanical wounding have been shown to reduce fungal infections on some plants, although the underlying mechanisms remain to be defined. This work examines the effects of mechanical wounding on rust infection both locally and systemically in the broad bean, Vicia faba and follows changes in oxylipins in wounded leaves and unwounded leaves on wounded plants. • Methods The lamina of first leaves was wounded by crushing with forceps, and first and second leaves were then inoculated, separately, with the rust Uromyces fabae at various times over a 24 h period. Wounded first leaves and unwounded second leaves were harvested at intervals over a 24 h period and used for analysis of oxylipin profiles. • Key Results Mechanical wounding of first leaves of broad bean led to significantly reduced rust infection in the wounded first leaf as well as the unwounded second leaf. Increased resistance to infection was induced in plants inoculated with rust just 1 h after wounding and was accompanied by rapid and significant accumulation of jasmonic acid and two trihydroxy oxylipins in both wounded first leaves and unwounded second leaves. The two trihydroxy oxylipins were found to possess antifungal properties, reducing germination of rust spores. • Conclusions These results demonstrate the rapidity with which resistance to pathogen infection can be induced following wounding and provides a possible mechanism by which pathogen infection might be halte

Interpolation between Airy and Poisson statistics for unitary chiral non-Hermitian random matrix ensembles

We consider a family of chiral non-Hermitian Gaussian random matrices in the unitarily invariant symmetry class. The eigenvalue distribution in this model is expressed in terms of Laguerre polynomials in the complex plane. These are orthogonal with respect to a non-Gaussian weight including a modified Bessel function of the second kind, and we give an elementary proof for this. In the large n limit, the eigenvalue statistics at the spectral edge close to the real axis are described by the same family of kernels interpolating between Airy and Poisson that was recently found by one of the authors for the elliptic Ginibre ensemble. We conclude that this scaling limit is universal, appearing for two different non-Hermitian random matrix ensembles with unitary symmetry. As a second result we give an equivalent form for the interpolating Airy kernel in terms of a single real integral, similar to representations for the asymptotic kernel in the bulk and at the hard edge of the spectrum. This makes its structure as a one-parameter deformation of the Airy kernel more transparent

Impact of prawn farming effluent on coral reef water nutrients and microorganisms

© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Aquaculture Environment Interactions 9 (2017): 331-346, doi:10.3354/aei00238.Tropical coral reefs are characterized by low-nutrient waters that support oligotrophic picoplankton over a productive benthic ecosystem. Nutrient-rich effluent released from aquaculture facilities into coral reef environments may potentially upset the balance of these ecosystems by altering picoplankton dynamics. In this study, we examined how effluent from a prawn (Litopenaeus vannamei) farming facility in Al Lith, Saudi Arabia, impacted the inorganic nutrients and prokaryotic picoplankton community in the waters overlying coral reefs in the Red Sea. Across 24 sites, ranging 0-21 km from the effluent point source, we measured nutrient concentrations, quantified microbial cell abundances, and sequenced bacterial and archaeal small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) genes to examine picoplankton phylogenetic diversity and community composition. Our results demonstrated that sites nearest to the outfall had increased concentrations of phosphate and ammonium and elevated abundances of non-pigmented picoplankton (generally heterotrophic bacteria). Shifts in the composition of the picoplankton community were observed with increasing distance from the effluent canal outfall. Waters within 500 m of the outfall harbored the most distinct picoplanktonic community and contained putative pathogens within the genus Francisella and order Rickettsiales. While our study suggests that at the time of sampling, the Al Lith aquaculture facility exhibited relatively minor influences on inorganic nutrients and microbial communities, studying the longer-term impacts of the aquaculture effluent on the organisms within the reef will be necessary in order to understand the full extent of the facility’s impact on the reef ecosystem.This research was supported by a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Ocean Life Institute postdoctoral scholar fellowship to A.A., the Semester at WHOI Program supporting C.B., and Award No. USA 00002 to K.H. made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

A geographic information system for characterizing exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam.

Between 1961 and 1971, U.S. military forces dispersed more than 19 million gallons of phenoxy and other herbicidal agents in the Republic of Vietnam, including more than 12 million gallons of dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange, yet only comparatively limited epidemiologic and environmental research has been carried out on the distribution and health effects of this contamination. As part of a response to a National Academy of Sciences' request for development of exposure methodologies for carrying out epidemiologic research, a conceptual framework for estimating exposure opportunity to herbicides and a geographic information system (GIS) have been developed. The GIS is based on a relational database system that integrates extensive data resources on dispersal of herbicides (e.g., HERBS records of Ranch Hand aircraft flight paths, gallonage, and chemical agent), locations of military units and bases, dynamic movement of combat troops in Vietnam, and locations of civilian population centers. The GIS can provide a variety of proximity counts for exposure to 9,141 herbicide application missions. In addition, the GIS can be used to generate a quantitative exposure opportunity index that accounts for quantity of herbicide sprayed, distance, and environmental decay of a toxic factor such as dioxin, and is flexible enough to permit substitution of other mathematical exposure models by the user. The GIS thus provides a basis for estimation of herbicide exposure for use in large-scale epidemiologic studies. To facilitate widespread use of the GIS, a user-friendly software package was developed to permit researchers to assign exposure opportunity indexes to troops, locations, or individuals

Frequency and Determinants of Unprotected Sex among HIV-Infected Persons: The Swiss HIV Cohort Study

Background. Access to antiretroviral therapy may have changed condom use behavior. In January 2008, recommendations on condom use for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive persons were published in Switzerland, which allowed for unprotected sex under well-defined circumstances ("Swiss statement”). We studied the frequency, changes over time, and determinants of unprotected sex among HIV-positive persons. Methods. Self-reported information on sexual preference, sexual partners, and condom use was collected at semi-annual visits in all participants of the prospective Swiss HIV Cohort Study from April 2007 through March 2009. Multivariable logistic regression models were fit using generalized estimating equations to investigate associations between characteristics of cohort participants and condom use. Findings. A total of 7309 participants contributed to 21,978 visits. A total of 4291 persons (80%) reported sexual contacts with stable partners, 1646 (30%) with occasional partners, and 557 (10%) with stable and occasional partners. Of the study participants, 5838 (79.9%) of 7309 were receiving antiretroviral therapy, and of these, 4816 patients (82%) had a suppressed viral load. Condom use varied widely and differed by type of partner (visits with stable partners, 10,368 [80%] of 12,983; visits with occasional partners, 4300 [88%] of 4880) and by serostatus of stable partner (visits with HIV-negative partners, 7105 [89%] of 8174; visits with HIV-positive partners, 1453 [48%] of 2999). Participants were more likely to report unprotected sex with stable partners if they were receiving antiretroviral therapy, if HIV replication was suppressed, and after the publication of the "Swiss statement.” Noninjection drug use and moderate or severe alcohol use were associated with unprotected sex. Conclusions. Antiretroviral treatment and plasma HIV RNA titers influence sexual behavior of HIV-positive persons. Noninjection illicit drug and alcohol use are important risk factors for unprotected sexual contact

Applying a novel environmental health framework theory (I-ACT) to noise pollution policies in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands

I-ACT is a theoretical framework designed to guide environmental health improvement efforts. “IACT” identifies four interacting drivers of change that influence an environmental health aim: (1) Information systems; (2) public Awareness; (3) leadership and Coordination; and, (4) Tools. Actors can use I-ACT to clarify roles and identify strategies to impact their aim. Here we apply the I-ACT framework to a ubiquitous environmental hazard, noise pollution, comparing three Western countries: the United States, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Our approach statutorily defines each country’s designated aims, qualitatively evaluates its information systems, awareness, coordination, and tools, and assesses the role of these drivers in achieving the aims. While the Netherlands and the United Kingdom demonstrated robust activity in some drivers, the United States showed limited activity and achievement. There appeared to be an association between achievement of aims and demonstrated elements of each driver, providing support for the utility of IACT

Pointing control for the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope

We present the technology and control methods developed for the pointing system of the SPIDER experiment. SPIDER is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to detect the imprint of primordial gravitational waves in the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. We describe the two main components of the telescope's azimuth drive: the reaction wheel and the motorized pivot. A 13 kHz PI control loop runs on a digital signal processor, with feedback from fibre optic rate gyroscopes. This system can control azimuthal speed with < 0.02 deg/s RMS error. To control elevation, SPIDER uses stepper-motor-driven linear actuators to rotate the cryostat, which houses the optical instruments, relative to the outer frame. With the velocity in each axis controlled in this way, higher-level control loops on the onboard flight computers can implement the pointing and scanning observation modes required for the experiment. We have accomplished the non-trivial task of scanning a 5000 lb payload sinusoidally in azimuth at a peak acceleration of 0.8 deg/s$^2$, and a peak speed of 6 deg/s. We can do so while reliably achieving sub-arcminute pointing control accuracy.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, Presented at SPIE Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V, June 23, 2014. To be published in Proceedings of SPIE Volume 914