Upskilling in Emergencies: Benefits and Consequences

Graduate Theoretical Proposa

Co-Infection Studies on Hepatitis C Virus and Malaria Parasite Liver Stages

Malaria and hepatitis C are infectious diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. These two diseases are caused by two different pathogens, Plasmodium parasite for malaria and hepatitis C virus (HCV) for hepatitis C, that share some similarities in their development within the hepatocytes of the liver. Co-infection of these two pathogens has largely remained unstudied, but due to epidemiological overlap, it is plausible that individuals can be afflicted with both malaria and hepatitis C. To date, it has been shown that Plasmodium parasites and HCV utilize four common host entry factors to gain entry into hepatocytes: Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs), scavenger receptor-B1 (SR-B1), cluster of differentiation 81 (CD-81), and apolipoprotein E (apoE). ApoE incorporated into new HCV virions plays a key role in viral infectivity. In its entirety, our hypothesis states that given the increasing prevalence of hepatitis C in parts of the world where malaria is endemic, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Plasmodium spp. Co-infections are a likely occurrence. In this case, it is plausible that co-infections with these pathogens will affect the replication of either pathogen during their liver stages. Furthermore, it is likely that Plasmodium parasites utilize claudin-1, occludin, and apoE host entry factors, which are important for HCV entry and ability to invade hepatocytes. Using an in vitro model of infection in liver derived HuH7 hepatoma cells, we hope to look at the overall affects theses pathogens have on one another through co-infection studies of P. berghei and HCV both together and individually. Furthermore, we hope to examine other host factors that HCV utilizes for entry into hepatocytes and their affect on Plasmodium entry during the liver stages of infection. This study is significant to public health to improve existing anti-malarial and hepatitis C treatments by intervening at the early stages of each pathogen’s development. By understanding how a pathogen enters, invades, and develops within a host, it is better understood how therapeutic drugs can target and decrease pathogenic development

The Role of Transfer-Appropriate Processing in the Testing Effect

The testing effect is the finding that taking a review test enhances performance on a final test relative to merely restudying the material. I investigated the role of transfer-appropriate processing in the testing effect using semantic cues to evoke conceptual processing and orthographic cues to evoke data-driven processing. After an initial study phase, subjects either restudied the material or took a cued recall test consisting of half semantic cues and half orthographic cues. Two days later, all of the subjects returned for a final cued recall test. The final test consisted of the exact same cue given for that target in the review phase, or a new cue that matched or mismatched the type of cue used for that target in the review phase. A “far transfer” effect of testing was found, with testing enhancing memory relative to restudying even in conditions in which the review test cue and final test cue involved different processing evoked by the mismatching type of cues. Consistent with transfer-appropriate processing, performance was the best when the review test and final test cues were identical (for the semantic cues), and was better when the type of cues matched than when they mismatched (whether the final test cues were semantic or orthographic). These results suggest that the testing effect is greater to the degree that the type of retrieval processing involved in the final test overlaps with the type of processing done during review

Allen P. McCartney (1940-2004)

Northern studies lost one of its most esteemed practitioners on June 15, 2004, with the death of Allen P. McCartney, who had suffered from Parkinson's-related disease for several years. He was 63. For over four decades, Allen pursued an especially broad range of anthropological and archaeological research interests: he was perhaps the only recent scholar whose work spanned the North American Arctic, from the western Aleutian Islands in Alaska to the eastern Canadian Arctic. Allen was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on August 8, 1940 .... He graduated [from the University of Arkansas in 1958] ... with a B.A. and high honors in Sociology and Anthropology .... It was also while an undergraduate, when he studied the World War II internment of Aleuts in southeastern Alaska for a class paper, that Allen first became interested in the North. For assistance with his paper, Allen wrote to biological anthropologist William Laughlin, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin and the foremost Aleutians scholar of the time. This led, ultimately, to Allen's entrance in 1962 to the graduate program in anthropology at Wisconsin .... In the summer before Allen's first semester at Wisconsin, Laughlin invited him to take part in the 1961-63 Aleut-Konyag Prehistory and Ecology Project. ... Allen's part in Laughlin's project - which continued during the summer of 1963, when he served as excavation supervisor - centered on excavations in the Nikolski village area of southwestern Umnak Island, which included the important sites of Chaluka and Anangula. Allen earned his M.A. in 1967 from Wisconsin, with a thesis entitled "An Analysis of the Bone Industry from Amaknak Island, Alaska." ... In 1968, Allen took part in the Northwest Hudson Bay Thule Project, which focused on the Kamarvik, Silumiut, and IgluligardJuk sites. In the following year, he served as the principal investigator for excavations at the Silumiut site, under contract to the National Museum of Man. His 1971 doctoral dissertation, "Thule Eskimo Prehistory Along Northwestern Hudson Bay," was based on this fieldwork. Over the span of his graduate student years, Allen held instructor and lecturer positions at various campuses of the University of Wisconsin Center System. In 1970, he joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville as an assistant professor of anthropology. He was promoted to associate professor in 1974 and to professor in 1979. He remained at Arkansas for his entire professional career, retiring because of illness in the spring of 2003. In addition to his service as chair of the anthropology department for six years, Allen was instrumental in establishing the Ph.D. program in Environmental Dynamics, an interdisciplinary specialty emphasizing the study of complex human and environmental interactions and change. He served as its first director from 1998 to 2002. ... With such an active research career and varied interests, Allen's academic output was prodigious, ranging from short notes to full, single-authored monographs. However, one of Allen's most notable strengths was his ability-and indeed great enthusiasm-for bringing together archaeologists of various theoretical and analytical approaches. ... As equally impressive as his writings was another, sometimes unrecognized contribution that Allen made that was crucial to the development of northern anthropology .... This came in the form of his editorship of the journal Arctic Anthropology in 1981-89 and 1996-2000 and his role as Associate Editor in 1989-95 and in 2001. Additionally, Allen served on the Board of Governors of the Arctic Institute of North America in 1977-79 and as Associate Editor of the Alaska Journal of Anthropology in 2001. ..

Implementation of the Exercise is Medicine (EIM)™ Referral System at Slippery Rock University

Please view abstract in the attached PDF file

First glimpse into the genomic characterization of people from the imperial Roman community of Casal Bertone (Rome, first–third centuries AD)

This paper aims to provide a first glimpse into the genomic characterization of individuals buried in Casal Bertone (Rome, first-third centuries AD) to gain preliminary insight into the genetic makeup of people who lived near a tannery workshop, fullonica. Therefore, we explored the genetic characteristics of individuals who were putatively recruited as fuller workers outside the Roman population. Moreover, we identified the microbial communities associated with humans to detect microbes associated with the unhealthy environment supposed for such a workshop. We examined five individuals from Casal Bertone for ancient DNA analysis through whole-genome sequencing via a shotgun approach. We conducted multiple investigations to unveil the genetic components featured in the samples studied and their associated microbial communities. We generated reliable whole-genome data for three samples surviving the quality controls. The individuals were descendants of people from North African and the Near East, two of the main foci for tannery and dyeing activity in the past. Our evaluation of the microbes associated with the skeletal samples showed microbes growing in soils with waste products used in the tannery process, indicating that people lived, died, and were buried around places where they worked. In that perspective, the results represent the first genomic characterization of fullers from the past. This analysis broadens our knowledge about the presence of multiple ancestries in Imperial Rome, marking a starting point for future data integration as part of interdisciplinary research on human mobility and the bio-cultural characteristics of people employed in dedicated workshops

CAFF Technical Report No. 14 - Aleut / Unangax Ethnobotany: An Annotated Bibliography

This project, “Traditional Use and Conservation of Plants from the Aleutian, Pribilof, and Commander Islands,” was inspired by an Aleut (Unangan) Elder, Lorraine Jonsson, from the village of False Pass on Unimak Island in the eastern Aleutian Islands. Early in her life, Lorraine lived in a traditional Aleut dwelling, barabara, while her family subsisted on local resources. From elders, Lorraine learned about hundreds of uses of local plants that were abundant on the islands. She is particularly knowledgeable about their medicinal properties. Today, she teaches traditional ways of life to children, and passionately promotes activities that help preserve traditional knowledge to transfer it to the next generations. Lorraine also serves on the Board of the Aleut International Association