Tidewater Virginia Technology Education Teacher Professional Development Needs

The following objectives were established to answer this problem: 1. Determine the types of professional development being sought by Tidewater public school technology education teachers; 2. Recommend specific types of professional development that should be made available to Tidewater technology education teachers

Effectiveness of translocation in mitigating reptile-development conflict in the UK

The translocation of reptiles from development sites is a frequent but controversial intervention to resolve reptile-development conflicts. A general lack of post-translocation monitoring means that the fate of translocated reptiles is largely unknown. Here we report on the outcome of six reptile translocations carried out to mitigate the impacts of development. Through detailed post-translocation monitoring, we sought to determine whether translocated reptiles established populations within the receptor sites. To determine the effect of translocation, we investigated six sites within the UK that had received populations of translocated slow-worm Anguis fragilis, viviparous lizard Zootoca vivipara, adder Vipera berus and / or grass snake Natrix helvetica. Identification photographs were taken of all reptiles during the translocation. Following release, between one and three years of post-translocation monitoring was undertaken; during the monitoring, identification photographs were again collected to establish whether captured individuals were part of the translocated populations. Very few translocated individuals were encountered during the post-translocation monitoring. The mean number of translocated reptiles was 98 (SE 19.61). Of these, an average of 1.5 (SE 0.72) individuals or 1.6% of the population were captured during the monitoring. No recaptures of translocated reptiles were made at three (50%) of the study sites. The low recapture rates of translocated reptiles could be due to mortality, imperfect detection (including inaccurate identification of individuals) or post-translocation dispersal. There is some limited evidence to support each of the possible options, but post-translocation dispersal is considered to be the most likely explanation. The study found no confirmatory evidence that mitigation-driven translocations are compensating for the losses of populations to development

Ranging behaviour of adders (Vipera berus) translocated from a development site

Translocation of animals from sites scheduled for development is a widespread but controversial intervention to resolve human-wildlife conflicts. Indeed, reptiles are very frequently the subject of such translocations, but there is a paucity of information on the fate of such animals or how their behaviour compares to residents. In 2014, a population of adders (Vipera berus) was translocated from a development site in Essex, UK. A sample of snakes was fitted with external radio tags and tracked for a period of 10 days during the spring. This exercise was repeated during the summer using a combination of translocated and resident individuals. Translocated males exhibited significantly greater average daily movements than resident conspecifics. Furthermore, all translocated males undertook long-distance, unidirectional movements away from the release site. In contrast, all translocated females remained within 50 m of the point of release. One of the males returned to the donor site, crossing large areas of unsuitable habitat in doing so. Translocated males also maintained significantly larger total ranges than resident conspecifics. No differences in range sizes were observed between translocated and resident females. The dispersal of male snakes from the release site may increase the risk of mortality of translocated snakes and reduces the likelihood of establishing a new population. Interventions to encourage the establishment of new home ranges within the boundaries of release sites may include mechanisms to prevent dispersal immediately following release

Minor histocompatibility antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes generated with dendritic cells from DLA-identical littermates

AbstractDonor cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) specific for minor histocompatibility antigens (mHA) mediate the graft-versus-host effect whereas host mHA-specific CTL mediate graft rejection in the setting of major histocompatibility complex identical allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Development of a large animal model from which mHA-specific CTL can be isolated would accelerate translation in clinical studies to improve control of the graft-versus-host effect as well as prevention of graft rejection in sensitized hosts. The aims of the current study were to isolate mHA-specific CTL from dog leukocyte antigen-identical littermate nonsensitized recipients before transplantation, from stable mixed hematopoietic chimeras, and from dogs sensitized to mHA after graft rejection. Donor dendritic cells (DCs) were cultured from bone marrow-derived CD34+ cells and were used to stimulate recipient T lymphocytes on days 1, 10, and 20 of CTL culture. We reliably generated and expanded mHA-specific CTL ex vivo from sensitized dogs that were given a donor-specific blood transfusion to boost immune recall after graft rejection after a nonmyeloablative transplantation. The mHA-specific cytotoxicity measured by 51Cr release assay was enriched from less than 5% in the starting population of sensitized peripheral blood mononuclear cells to a median of 63% after 4 weeks in CTL culture. The expanded mHA-specific CTLs were not tissue-specific: hematopoietic cells, fibroblast, and stromal cell lines were lysed in an mHA-specific manner. Allogeneic DCs, but not peripheral blood mononuclear cells, were necessary for stimulating ex vivo expansion of mHA-specific CTL. We were unable to generate mHA-specific CTL from nonsensitized dogs before transplantation, from previously sensitized dogs but without recent recall immunization, or from stable mixed hematopoietic chimeras. We conclude that after recent in vivo sensitization, large-scale ex vivo expansion of mHA-specific CTL was feasible using allogeneic DCs. © 2003 American Society for Blood and Marrow TransplantationBiology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation 9:234-242 (2003

Open models for removal data

Individuals of protected species, such as amphibians and reptiles, often need to be removed from sites before development commences. Usually, the population is considered to be closed. All individuals are assumed to i) be present and available for detection at the start of the study period and ii) remain at the site until the end of the study, unless they are detected. However, the assumption of population closure is not always valid. We present new removal models which allow for population renewal through birth and/or immigration, and population depletion through sampling as well as through death/emigration. When appropriate, productivity may be estimated and a Bayesian approach allows the estimation of the probability of total population depletion. We demonstrate the performance of the models using data on common lizards, Zootoca vivipara, and great crested newts, Triturus cristatus

Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Fail to Prevent Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease and Graft Rejection after Dog Leukocyte Antigen-Haploidentical Bone Marrow Transplantation

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been shown to have immunosuppressive effects in vitro. To test the hypothesis that these effects can be harnessed to prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and graft rejection after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), we administered a combination of 3 different immortalized marrow-derived MSC lines (15-30 × 106 MSCs/kg/day, 2-5 times/week) or third-party primary MSC (1.0 × 106 MSCs/kg/day, 3 times/week) to canine recipients (n = 15) of dog leukocyte antigen–haploidentical marrow grafts prepared with 9.2 Gy of total body irradiation. Additional pharmacological immunosuppression was not given after HCT. Before their in vivo use, the MSC products were shown to suppress alloantigen-induced T cell proliferation in a dose-dependent, major histocompatibility complex–unrestricted, and cell contact–independent fashion in vitro. Among 14 evaluable dogs, 7 (50%) rejected their grafts and 7 engrafted, with ensuing rapidly fatal acute GVHD (50%). These observations were not statistically different from outcomes obtained with historical controls (n = 11) not given MSC infusions (P = .69). Thus, survival curves for MSC-treated dogs and controls were virtually superimposable (median survival, 18 vs 15 days, respectively). Finally, outcomes of dogs given primary MSCs (n = 3) did not appear to be different from those given clonal MSCs (n = 12). In conclusion, our data fail to demonstrate MSC-mediated protection against GVHD and allograft rejection in this model