Anthropogenic Impact on Meiofauna in Myrtle Beach Area Estuaries

The population of South Carolina has been steadily increasing for years, especially in coastal areas. In fact, Horry County, which contains Myrtle Beach, has shown a population increase of 37% in the last decade. With significant population increase comes a proportional increase in urbanization, defined by more industries, more buildings, and more natural areas encroached upon. Not only does urbanization physically impact the natural environment, there are also chemical impacts through the release of anthropogenic waste and chemicals. Through runoff and direct input, these chemicals can eventually reach the estuaries and may cause some changes in those communities. For this study, samples were obtained from the high and low marsh of four separate estuary locations, two anthropogenically impacted locations and two relatively pristine locations. These samples were then analyzed to obtain the abundances of the meiofauna groups that make up each community and compared to observe differences in community structure. It has been previously suggested that meiofauna can be used as environmental indicators of the pollution and overall health of an area, and it was expected that significant differences would be seen between the impacted and non-impacted locations. The results showed significant differences in community structure when non-impacted locations were compared to the impacted locations. Specifically, the most significant differences were seen with higher nematode abundance and lower copepod abundance in the impacted sites. Due to this difference, there was a higher nematode to copepod ratio in the impacted sites, which has been suggested to indicate a response to an anthropogenic impact. As nematodes are more resilient to chemical changes, they are able to increase in abundance while the copepods reproduction is negatively impacted by the pollution. With these results, it is apparent that more research must be done to see if another factor is influencing the meiofauna communities and, if not, what pollutants and what concentrations are causing the differences in the communities

The perceived competency of Hispanic teachers in teaching classes of diversity is a function of demographic and personality traits

For the past three decades, multicultural education has remained a focal point in the culture wars that United States education has encountered. Multicultural education is an educational reform movement that continues to evolve as ethnic minorities make their educational concerns and needs known. The forces driving the reform effort extend beyond linguistic and cultural diversity to include issues of academic diversity, gender, social class and sexual orientation (Wilhelm, 1998). How do educators address these needs, and how does the interaction among these diverse groups impact students and society? The purpose of this paper is to determine the perceived competency of Hispanic teachers to teach diverse students. Without identifying the competency of teachers in South Texas to teach diverse students, leaders in education are unable to address the needs of teachers in order to educate all students successfully. It is the obligation of educators to serve all students equitably. The methods used for data analysis are both exploratory and confirmatory, which are used side by side (Tukey, 1977). The study is examining teachers from 11 elementary campuses located in South Texas. Data are gathered through the use of three survey instruments developed to measure a teacher\u27s perceived competency to teach diverse students as well as acculturation and authoritarian personality. It was found from this study that Hispanic teachers\u27 perceived competency to teach diverse students is a function of attitudes toward multicultural pluralism, sensitivity to issues of cultural pluralism, acculturation, authoritarian personality, gender, ethnicity, age, educational background, language(s). The findings of this study have implications for school district personnel who work in the area of staff development as well as teacher hiring. Interview questions can be geared toward identifying areas that are a function of perceived competency as well as formulating staff development that will ultimately assist all students educationally

Using Vehicle Dynamics Simulation and Metamodels to Evaluate Factors and Mechanisms Affecting Roll Angle: An Initial Assessment

A rollover is defined as any vehicle rotation of 90 degrees or more about a longitudinal or lateral axis, according to NASS CDS. Rollover crashes are still represented highly in terms of frequency and fatalities when compared to other crash categories. Even though there are various vehicular technical innovations that act as a preventative or protective improvement, rollover crashes and subsequent loss of life and injuries are still prevalent in crash statistics. In 2015, rollovers represented 33% of occupant fatalities. Existing research on rollover as it relates to highway safety is often based on crash data analysis. Limited studies have investigated the initiating mechanisms contributing to vehicular propensity to rollover. Hence, there is a gap in knowledge to understand initiation factors that affect rollover events. Herein, vehicle dynamics simulations will be utilized to examine several vehicle rollover crash scenarios. A second aspect of this research is to develop a metamodel of vehicle roll angle as a function of initiation/influencing factors. A total of 282 vehicle rollover scenarios were created and data from the simulations was used to build metamodels. The vehicle rollover scenarios were split up into 16 categories. The surface metamodel, accuracy model, and global sensitivities were analyzed. These models show that for all the categories, speed had the greatest influence on the vehicle’s propensity to roll over. Friction held a greater influence on the deviation from the centerline of the right lane

A Survey of Children’s and Young Adult Literature Collections in Academic Libraries of Christian Higher Education

Children\u27s and young adult literature collections have an important place in an academic library. Most often, these collections go unnoticed by many in academia, who may regard children\u27s literature as irrelevant to the mission of the academic library. In reality, these important collections support institutional curriculum and include interdisciplinary resources used in many academic departments. Findings are reported of a survey conducted of private Christian colleges and universities regarding their management of children\u27s and young adult literature collections which seeks to identify current practices and procedures being utilized. Results from the survey highlight use, promotion, and management

Sowing Seeds of Evaluation: A Pilot Study Measuring Master Gardener Program Public Benefit

We conducted an evaluation pilot study to measure the influence of the statewide University of California Master Gardener Program on participants who attended its public education events. We discuss (a) steps for developing a statewide evaluation and (b) findings from the event follow-up survey we used to evaluate public education participants\u27 self-reported behavior changes. Our findings suggest that volunteer-led public education events resulted in participants improving science-based gardening practices. Our approach has implications for other states\u27 Extension programs; sharing program evaluation measurement strategies and data across states can facilitate better communicating Extension\u27s benefit to the public, thereby addressing a need identified in the literature

Uncovering human transcription factor interactions associated with genetic variants, novel DNA motifs, and repetitive elements using enhanced yeast one-hybrid assays

Identifying transcription factor (TF) binding to noncoding variants, uncharacterized DNA motifs, and repetitive genomic elements has been difficult due to technical and computational challenges. Indeed, current experimental methods such as chromatin immunoprecipitation are capable of only testing one TF at a time and motif prediction algorithms often lead to false positive and false negative predictions. Here, we address these limitations by developing two approaches based on enhanced yeast one-hybrid assays. The first approach allows to interrogate the binding of >1,000 human TFs to single nucleotide variant alleles, short insertions and deletions (indels), and novel DNA motifs; while the second approach allows for the identification of TFs that bind to repetitive DNA elements. Using the former approach, we identified gain of TF interactions to a GG→AA mutation in the TERT promoter and an 18 bp indel in the TAL1 super-enhancer, both of which are associated with cancer, and identified the TFs that bind to three uncharacterized DNA motifs identified by the ENCODE Project in footprinting assays. Using the latter approach, we detected the binding of 75 TFs to the highly repetitive Alu elements. We anticipate that these approaches will expand our capabilities to study genetic variation and under-characterized genomic regions.https://doi.org/10.1101/459305First author draf

College Ready at a Cost: Underrepresented Students Overwhelmed, Scared, Increasingly Stressed, and Coping

As the push and expectation to attend college continues to increase, making the process of getting into college more competitive than ever before, there is a need to interrogate whether and how efforts to create a college-going culture and increase college readiness among students, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds, might have an adverse impact on students. This study illuminates 59 students’ voices who participated in a multisite descriptive case study examining the strong college-going culture and college readiness efforts at three racially and economically diverse urban public high schools in different regions of Texas. Although students revealed positive aspects of their schools’ efforts, this study focuses on some of the negative, unintended consequences related to how students felt and coped with being overwhelmed, scared, and increasingly stressed as a result of the narrow focus on college readiness. Such findings must be considered by scholars, policymakers, and practitioners alike

Intraoperative Glycemic Management

Background: Hospitals have protocols in place to provide safe and high quality care for clients. One of these protocols involves monitoring blood glucose levels by anesthesiologists every two hours during surgery if the client had subcutaneous insulin prior to surgery. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if anesthesiologists at a specific hospital are following a new glycemic management protocol during surgeries. Method(s): Anesthesia surgery records were audited for the day of surgery on all clients whose medication administration records indicated they had received subcutaneous insulin prior to surgery. Data was gathered during the months of December 2013 through February 2014. Results: 46% (13 of 28) of clients that fell under protocol parameters were not monitored. Conclusions: Action needs to be taken to ensure the protocol is being followed. Possible actions might include posting the protocol in the surgical area and providing in-service education to appropriate staff

Osteopontin ablation ameliorates muscular dystrophy by shifting macrophages to a pro-regenerative phenotype.

In the degenerative disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy, inflammatory cells enter muscles in response to repetitive muscle damage. Immune factors are required for muscle regeneration, but chronic inflammation creates a profibrotic milieu that exacerbates disease progression. Osteopontin (OPN) is an immunomodulator highly expressed in dystrophic muscles. Ablation of OPN correlates with reduced fibrosis and improved muscle strength as well as reduced natural killer T (NKT) cell counts. Here, we demonstrate that the improved dystrophic phenotype observed with OPN ablation does not result from reductions in NKT cells. OPN ablation skews macrophage polarization toward a pro-regenerative phenotype by reducing M1 and M2a and increasing M2c subsets. These changes are associated with increased expression of pro-regenerative factors insulin-like growth factor 1, leukemia inhibitory factor, and urokinase-type plasminogen activator. Furthermore, altered macrophage polarization correlated with increases in muscle weight and muscle fiber diameter, resulting in long-term improvements in muscle strength and function in mdx mice. These findings suggest that OPN ablation promotes muscle repair via macrophage secretion of pro-myogenic growth factors