Effect of Oxo-Degradation Products on Yeast Growth

The purpose of this research is to determine the effects of degraded plastic products on yeast and bacteria growth. The work done fits into a larger project funded by DARPA with the goal of turning plastics into edible nutrients. A group of nonconventional carbon based substrates representative of the products of plastic oxo-degradation will be tested with the yeast strain Y. lipolytica. The goal of this project is to quantify how the effects of oxo-degradation products affect the growth of different candidate yeast and bacteria strains. One result will be a list of organisms that grow well on the oxo-degraded substrate and can be used as a platform for optimization through genetic engineering. The other results will be a list of compounds to target for oxo-degradation products, as well as a list of compounds to avoid

The Relationship Between Personality Characteristics, as Measured by the California Test of Personality, and Reading Performance, as Measured by the Gates Primary Reading Test, in a Group of Second Grade Children

Everyone in close contact with children contributes to their development, and the developmental process seldom appears to be the same in any two children. People are often confused by child behavior resulting from these differences in developmental processes. One of the most interesting aspects of child behavior relates to the seemingly wide individual differences displayed by children in the classroom situation. It would seem reasonable to assume that in a given classroom all children would display classroom performance at about the same grade level. However, contrary to this logic, in a given class, wide differences exist in academic performance and also in the display of personality traits. Evidence of these differences has been secured in so many investigations that their existence is clearly recognized and accepted. (13, p.42)

The Influence of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm on Instructors Integrating It into Undergraduate Courses in the College of Professional Studies at Marquette University

This is the initial installment of a two-part story narrating the process of embedding the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) into the curriculum of four core courses in the College of Professional Studies at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This article provides a template for faculty development when integrating the IPP into undergraduate courses at a Jesuit University. The trainer followed the recommendation of the 1989 International Commission on the Apostolate of Jesuit Education (ICAJE), which states “Teachers need much more than a cognitive introduction to the Paradigm. They require practical training that engages and enables them to reflect on the experience of using these new methods confidently and effectively.”1 The first part of this article provides the reader with the trainer’s immersion and utilization of the IPP by using the IPP constructs of context, experience, reflections, actions, and evaluation. In the second part of this article the four participants share their reflections regarding the challenges of understanding the IPP as well as the benefits of adapting their teaching, curriculum, and rubrics to insure the successful integration of the IPP into their courses. The second part of this article reports the participants’ thoughts and activities related to comprehending and developing the major constructs of the IPP: Context, Experience, Reflection, Action, and Evaluation. Therefore, it has a conversational tone of a shared learning experience to illustrate for the reader the deeply reflective process each participant experienced in becoming an IPP learning community. It includes a description of the process used to collect data to determine the impact of the IPP on the instructor as the courses were taught. A future article will describe the data analysis, conclusions and recommendations

The New Parallel: Urban and Agrarian Political, Environmental, and Architectural Landscapes of the Demilitarized Zone

North and South Korea share the most heavily armed military border in the world. Technically both sides are still at war dating back to 1950. The 38th parallel, also known as The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a 156-mile long by 2.5- mile wide border condition with over two million plus known landmines buried with-in its boundaries. The Juxtapositions of the financial, political, economical, and military modalities could not be more drastically different between North and South Korea. North Korea is a communist autocratic military dictatorship and has one of the worlds lowest Gross Domestic Products (GDP). South Korea is a capitalistic democratic republic with the worlds thirteenth highest GDP and famous for its industrial complexes and economic export growth. The fall of the Soviet Union and its infrastructural resources coupled with copious other environmental landscape management disasters has led to the contamination of North Korea’s water table and the degradation of nearly all agrarian soils used for farming. Imminent famine, guaranteed to equal if not greatly surpass the North Korean Famine of the 1990’s, which resulted in over 3.5 million human beings starving to death, is exactly what is to be expected. North Korea has 25 million inhabitants and they are to become refugees in their own state sooner rather than later because their government refuses to provide for its people. Instead the North Korean Government seeks to build a nuclear arsenal in the name of self-reliance

Survey of non-conventional yeasts for lipid and hydrocarbon biotechnology

Non-conventional yeasts have an untapped potential to expand biotechnology and enable process development necessary for a circular economy. They are especially convenient for the field of lipid and hydrocarbon biotechnology because they offer faster growth than plants, easier scalability than microalgae and exhibit increased tolerance relative to some bacteria. The ability of industrial organisms to import and metabolically transform lipids and hydrocarbons are crucial in such applications. Here, we assessed the ability of 14 yeasts to utilize 18 model lipids and hydrocarbons from six functional groups and three carbon chain lengths. The studied strains covered 12 genera from nine families. Nine non-conventional yeast performed better than Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the most common industrial yeast. Rhodotorula toruloides, Candida maltosa, Scheffersomyces stipis and Yarowia lipolytica were observed to grow significantly better and on more types of lipid and lipid-molecules than other strains. They were all able to utilize mid to long-chain fatty acids, fatty alcohols, alkanes, alkenes and dicarboxylic acids, including 28 previously unreported substrates across the four yeasts. Interestingly, a phylogenetic analysis showed a short evolutionary distance between the R. toruloides and C. maltosa and S. stipitis, even though R. toruloides is classified under a different phylum. This work provides valuable insight into the lipid substrate range of non-conventional yeasts that can inform species selection decisions and viability of lipid feedstocks.This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology following peer review. The version of record: Rodriguez-Ocasio, Efrain, Ammara Khalid, Charles J. Truka, Mark A. Blenner, and Laura R. Jarboe. "Survey of non-conventional yeasts for lipid and hydrocarbon biotechnology." Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (2022) is available online at DOI: 10.1093/jimb/kuac010. Copyright 2022 The Author(s). Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Posted with permission