Peer Mentors and Writing Center Tutors: What our collaborations taught us about serving the SJSU Freshmen Students

The Library Outpost, a satellite office of the campus’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, seeks ways to reach out to First Year students who are new to writing research papers. One of our goals is to meet the First Year students on their own turf. Since the Peer Mentors and Writing Center tutors have peer relationships with the First year students, we want to learn how we can collaborate with them to provide services to the First year students. We surveyed the Peer Mentors and Writing Center Tutors to assess their perceptions of their own research skills, and their students’ research needs to guide the services and workshops offered by the Library Outpost

Knowledge Area Module V: Theories of Organizational and Social Systems

In this section the theories of Perry, Erikson, Kegan, Parks, as well as Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule are compared and contrasted. The significant ideas of each theorist on the stages of human development are analyzed and assessed in terms of their underlying assumptions about meaning making and the internal motivation to learn. The strategy that guided this examination focuses on the process of learning and its relation to the stages of development from infancy through adulthood

Knowledge Area Module 1: Principles of Societal Development

In the Breadth component of the KAM, I explore the question of why the U.S. education system throughout the history of the country has failed to provide students a quality education. An analysis of the views of Abraham Maslow, Jean Piaget, and John Dewey, and others who emphasized the importance and relevance of being able to learn and think critically, are reviewed. The ability to communicate what is learned for the betterment of the individual,l as well as society as a whole, is explored

Digital learning objects: a local response to the California State University system initiative

The purpose of this paper is to present a virtual library plan created by library directors of the 23 California State University (CSU) system campuses. The information literacy portion of the project offers a repository of high quality interactive digital learning objects (DLOs) in the MERLOT repository. Therefore, DLOs created locally at the Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Library at San José State University (SJSU) focus on topics that supplement the “core” DLO collection

Gender, Epistemology, and Education: An Exploration of the Knowledge Construction of Female and Male Pupils

This study explores gender differences in the knowledge constructed about World War II by 11- and 12-year-old Scottish pupils. Data collected over seven months included field notes, interviews, students\u27 reading and writing, and audiotapes of discussions. Examination revealed the young women\u27s work showcased individuals while the young men framed World War II information using a world view. The findings illustrate the epistemological differences that can exist between our male and female students as they construct their own understanding of topics

Detection of skewed X-chromosome inactivation in Fragile X syndrome and X chromosome aneuploidy using quantitative melt analysis.

Methylation of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) exon 1/intron 1 boundary positioned fragile X related epigenetic element 2 (FREE2), reveals skewed X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) in fragile X syndrome full mutation (FM: CGG > 200) females. XCI skewing has been also linked to abnormal X-linked gene expression with the broader clinical impact for sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs). In this study, 10 FREE2 CpG sites were targeted using methylation specific quantitative melt analysis (MS-QMA), including 3 sites that could not be analysed with previously used EpiTYPER system. The method was applied for detection of skewed XCI in FM females and in different types of SCA. We tested venous blood and saliva DNA collected from 107 controls (CGG < 40), and 148 FM and 90 SCA individuals. MS-QMA identified: (i) most SCAs if combined with a Y chromosome test; (ii) locus-specific XCI skewing towards the hypomethylated state in FM females; and (iii) skewed XCI towards the hypermethylated state in SCA with 3 or more X chromosomes, and in 5% of the 47,XXY individuals. MS-QMA output also showed significant correlation with the EpiTYPER reference method in FM males and females (P < 0.0001) and SCAs (P < 0.05). In conclusion, we demonstrate use of MS-QMA to quantify skewed XCI in two applications with diagnostic utility

Physicochemical factors influence the abundance and culturability of human enteric pathogens and fecal indicator organisms in estuarine water and sediment

To assess fecal pollution in coastal waters, current monitoring is reliant on culture-based enumeration of bacterial indicators, which does not account for the presence of viable but non-culturable or sediment-associated micro-organisms, preventing effective quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). Seasonal variability in viable but non-culturable or sediment-associated bacteria challenge the use of fecal indicator organisms (FIOs) for water monitoring. We evaluated seasonal changes in FIOs and human enteric pathogen abundance in water and sediments from the Ribble and Conwy estuaries in the UK. Sediments possessed greater bacterial abundance than the overlying water column, however, key pathogenic species (Shigella spp., Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella spp., hepatitis A virus, hepatitis E virus and norovirus GI and GII) were not detected in sediments. Salmonella was detected in low levels in the Conwy water in spring/summer and norovirus GII was detected in the Ribble water in winter. The abundance of E. coli and Enterococcus spp. quantified by culture-based methods, rarely matched the abundance of these species when measured by qPCR. The discrepancy between these methods was greatest in winter at both estuaries, due to low CFU's, coupled with higher gene copies (GC). Temperature accounted for 60% the variability in bacterial abundance in water in autumn, whilst in winter salinity explained 15% of the variance. Relationships between bacterial indicators/pathogens and physicochemical variables were inconsistent in sediments, no single indicator adequately described occurrence of all bacterial indicators/pathogens. However, important variables included grain size, porosity, clay content and concentrations of Zn, K, and Al. Sediments with greater organic matter content and lower porosity harbored a greater proportion of non-culturable bacteria (including dead cells and extracellular DNA) in winter. Here, we show the link between physicochemical variables and season which govern culturability of human enteric pathogens and FIOs. Therefore, knowledge of these factors is critical for accurate microbial risk assessment. Future water quality management strategies could be improved through monitoring sediment-associated bacteria and non-culturable bacteria. This could facilitate source apportionment of human enteric pathogens and FIOs and direct remedial action to improve water quality