Expertise and Service: A Call to Action

Although theological librarianship occurs most often at seminaries or graduate level theology programs, there are also librarians working with theology on an undergraduate level. In many cases, these librarians are responsible for additional subject areas and may or may not have any theological expertise or training. While the two groups do the same types of work, they are doing so in different ways. To explore these commonalities and differences, a study was conducted among undergraduate theology liaisons and those results were compared with the literature and data regarding graduate level theological librarianship. One hundred ten undergraduate librarians responded to a survey regarding theological liaison activities, and the results indicate both the need for more research and the need for further emphasis on undergraduate subject-area liaison duties in theology and adjacent areas

An Ecological Assessment of Ectoparasites on Rodents

Relationships of ectoparasiteson small-mammal hosts from hardwood forest, pine forest, and grass/forb habitats at The Hobart Ames Plantation in southwestern Tennessee were investigated. Five rodent species (Peromyscus leucopus, Sigmodon hispidus, P. maniculatus, Microtus pinetorum, and Ochrotomys nuttalli) were captured and examined for ectoparasites. Ectoparasites (Amblomma maculatum, A. americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, Ixodes scapularis, Xenopsylla cheopis, Orchopeas howardii) were collected from the rodents and screened for the presence of Rickettsia, a spotted fever group bacterium. Analyses yielded neutral interspecific relationships between D. variabilis and I. scapularis on the rodent host P. leucopus, statistically significant relationships between tick burden and sex, age, and weight of rodent hosts, and no significant association of Rickettsia-positive ectoparasites with host habitat. Tick burden increased as host weight increased; subadult females had the highest average tick burden, while subadult males had the lowest. Although not statistically significant, smaller rodents were more likely to have Rickettsia-postiive ectoparasites

Are Humans Good for Goats? Assessing the Welfare of Goats Engaged in Human Interaction in a Care Farm Setting

Despite the lack of representation in the research, therapeutic care farming may provide an optimal approach to human animal interaction, endorsing positive animal welfare and, as Fine & Mackintosh (cited Fine et al., 2019) urge, promoting and protecting the welfare of animals at a comparable level to human outcomes. Unlike virtually all other modalities of human-animal interaction (HAI) or animalassisted intervention (AAI), care farming allows animals an element of control over their environment and the opportunity to express their preferences. The animals can initiate or terminate human interaction by choosing to approach or retreat, the animals choose when to take a breaks, and they are free to explore their environment. Autonomy and the ability to express preferences is a key indicator of positive animal welfare in general (Stilwell, 2016; Mattiello et al, 2019) but especially relevant for promoting animal welfare in human animal interactions. This randomized control trial investigated the longitudinal behavioral changes of goats residing in a therapeutic care farm setting who engage in human interactions. My hypothesis is goats engaged in reoccurring, semi-structured human interaction will display an increase in positive welfare over time. This would demonstrate that care farming can both be good for human health and improve animal welfare

An Evaluation Study Examining the Understandability of STI/HIV Health Education Print Materials Provided by Health Clinics Serving Hispanic and Latino Populations of DeKalb County, Georgia

The prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Hispanic and Latino populations in the United States is on the rise. In 2015, 26% of all HIV diagnoses in the United States were among Hispanic and Latinos. To effectively combat the prevalence of HIV in this population, it is necessary to examine the efficacy and accessibility of current interventions. Printed educational materials (i.e. pamphlets, brochures, and fact sheets) are low-cost and effective intervention strategies if the material is clear to the reader. This study aims to provide further evidence of the understandability of printed educational resources on safe sex practices and HIV in health clinic

Inquiry in Inquiry: A Classification of the Learning Theories Underlying Inquiry-Based Undergraduate Number Theory Texts

While undergraduate inquiry-based texts in number theory share similar approaches with respect to learning as the embodiment of professional practice, this does not entail that these texts all operate from the same fundamental understanding of what it means to learn mathematics. In this paper, the instructional design of several texts of the aforementioned types are analyzed to assess the theory of learning under which they operate. From this understanding of the different theories of learning employed in an inquiry-based mathematical setting, one can come to understand the popular model of what it is to learn number theory in a meaningful sense

HB 1084: Protect Students First Act

The Act prohibits local school systems, charter schools, and their employees from teaching or advocating for divisive concepts as defined in the Act. Training programs for teacher certification by the Professional Standards Commission may not advocate for such divisive concepts. The Act also implements a complaint resolution policy for aggrieved parent(s), students, or school employees that allows them to appeal decisions to the State Board of Education, which can ultimately require local school systems to adopt a corrective action plan upon a finding of a violation of the Act. Local school systems that fail to adopt the corrective action plan are subject to suspension of one or more waivers. Finally, the Act requires all high schools receiving Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding for interscholastic sports events to appoint an executive oversight committee. Among the authority and duties of the committee is the power to prohibit transgender females from participating in sports events designated for female students. Violators of this provision are subject to forfeiture of QBE funding

The Circle of Life: The Mathematics of Predator-Prey Dynamics

Some animals hunt other animals to feed themselves; these animals are called predators. Animals who are hunted and eaten are known as prey. What do you think would happen if a predator were introduced to an ecosystem where the prey previously lived without fear of being hunted? Would the new predator eat all the prey animals until they go extinct? Actually, the relationship between predator and prey is far more interesting than this. In this article, we show what the predator-prey relationship looks like over time and explain how scientists can make predictions about future population levels, all using basic mathematics like addition, subtraction, and multiplication