Brain food for babies

How does a mother supply a key building block of the brain required for neurodevelopment to her fetus in pregnancy? The critical requirement of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for fetal brain development, and the poor efficiency of its synthesis in humans, is a tricky metabolic problem to be overcome in pregnant women. Supplying this unique fatty acid to the fetus requires exquisite specificity and timing, processes that can unravel in disease conditions such as pre-eclampsia

Professorial Reflections: informal discussions and reflections

We open our issue with ‘Professorial Reflections’ – an informal, but nonetheless productive discussion about researching spirituality in dance and performance studies. We aim to offer this type of discussion, between different leading professors in dance and performance studies, in subsequent issues of DMAS. Our intention here is to open dialogue about spirituality in these fields, through informal discussion and academic chit-chat, with the aim of supporting new areas of research through conversation and reflecting

Maternal plasma docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) concentrations increase at the critical time of neural tube closure

No abstract available

Support Services and the Division I Student-Athlete: Experiences, Needs, and Implications

This paper examined typical support service experiences of Division I football and men's basketball players. Specifically, the paper provided insight into the types ot support services generally received by Division I revenue-producing sport student-athletes, discussed perceptions of these services and the service providers, and offered opinions on how future student-athletes might be better served. The author interviewed 26 former athletes from football and men's basketbal who graduated from a particular institution about academic support, career support, support personnel, and mising links. They shared their thoughts on their advisors and tutors, location of support services, time of day to access support, whether or not study hall was effective, and other topics of interest (e.g., drug and alcohol awareness). Based on these findings, both long- and short-term recommendations for athletic personnel were proposed, including the need for more in-house career development programming for athletes

Dreams and their relationship to the social world.

EducationDoctor of Education (Ed.D.

A Re-conceptualization of Student-Athlete Education: Utilizing Critical Theory to Eliminate Perceived Conflict

The purposes of this qualitativestudy were to examine how Division I football and basketball players were able to obtain a balanced, comprehensive college education, and to explore specific factors that enhanced the overall quality and symmetry of their experience. The participants in the study consisted of 26 former male letter-winning football (n=20) and basketball (n=6) players. Nineteen percent of the participants were African-American and 81% were Anglo-American. Approximately 30% of the men in the sample had played their respective sports at the professional level. Results of this study highlighted the inability of role theory to explain and manage issues related to student-athlete education, and suggested that critical theory may best explain how to secure a balanced, comprehensive education. Implications for personnel who provide personal support to student-athtetes were discussed

Intercellular communication in normal and regenerating rat liver: a quantitative analysis

We have compared intercellular communication in the regenerating and normal livers of weanling rats. The electrophysiological studies were conducted at the edge of the liver, and we have found that here as elsewhere in the liver there is a dramatic decrease in the number and size of gap junctions during regeneration. The area of hepatocyte membrane occupied by gap junctions is reduced 100-fold 29-35 h after hepatectomy. By combining observations made with the scanning electron microscope with our freeze fracture data we have estimated the number of "communicating interfaces" (areas of contact between hepatocytes that include at least one gap junction) formed by hepatocytes in normal and regenerating liver. In normal liver a hepatocyte forms gap junctions with every hepatocyte it contacts (approximately 6). In regenerating liver a hepatocyte forms detectable gap junctions with, on average, only one other hepatocyte. Intercellular spread of fluorescent dye and electric current is reduced in regenerating as compared with normal liver. The incidence of electric coupling is reduced from 100% of hepatocyte pairs tested in control liver to 92% in regenerating liver. Analysis of the spatial dependence of electronic potentials indicates a substantial increase in intercellular resistance in regenerating liver. A quantitative comparison of our morphological and physiological data is complicated by tortuous pattern of current flow and by inhomogeneities in the liver during regeneration. Nevertheless we believe that our results are consistent with the hypothesis that gap junctions are aggregates of channels between cell interiors

Investitionsbedarf von Milchviehställen für horntragende Kühe

Die routinemäßige Enthornung von Milchkühen ist laut EG Öko-Verordnungen nicht mehr ohne weiteres möglich. Daher besteht Bedarf an Stallkonzepten, die für behornte Milchkühe geeignet sind. Im vorliegenden Projekt wurde der Investitionsbedarf für Laufställe für behornte Milchkühe ermittelt. Es wurden die Baukosten für ein Zweiflächenbuchtmodell und fünf Liegeboxenlaufstallmodelle ermittelt. Letztere unterscheiden sich in den Bestandsgrößen und der Melktechnik. Der Investitionsbedarf wurde mit der für das KTBL-Programm Baukost definierten Methode erhoben, für das bereits der Investitionsbedarf für Öko-Milchviehställe für Kühe ohne Hörner berechnet wurde (KTBL 2011). Die Ergebnisse sind wichtige Eingangsgrößen für weiterführende Wirtschaftlichkeitsberechnungen. Milchviehställe für horntragende Kühe haben durchschnittlich einen etwa 30–40 % höheren Platzbedarf je Tierplatz als Ställe für hornlose Kühe

The Double-Edged Sword of Standardized Testing

Assessment in Pk-12 schools has always been a challenge. Measurement and comparison of students, schools, school districts and states provides accountability for all stakeholders in education. Standardized testing has become the norm, but it is overused. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers is one test adopted on a large scale to measure whether students are prepared for college and career. Parents are one of the stakeholders who had had concerns about another standardized test, but they also recognize the need. A survey was conducted of parents whose children took PARCC to learn their expectations of the test, how the results measured to their expectations, and what they wished the results could provide. Parents were mixed regarding their perceptions of the usefulness of the results, The authors provide suggestions for future standardized test adoption