Online communities of practice as a strategy for staff involvement in SWITCH

Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP) target physical activity behaviors through the recommended “whole-of-school” approach which recommends staff from all areas of school should be involved in health promotion. The component of Staff Involvement is highly effective at improving student health behaviors; however, descriptive research in this area is limited. One program that focuses on supporting school staff to lead school wellness programing is SWITCH. It is recommended that school staff should be given opportunities for professional development that are ongoing and collaborative, and online communities of practice (CoP) have been shown to support staff in this way. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to examine the usefulness and feasibility of an online CoP as a resource for staff involvement in SWITCH. An online CoP was developed for school staff, extension members and the SWITCH team to interact and share resources and best practices. The sample consisted of 70 school staff and members of extension, ages 18-69, with the majority being classroom teachers (32.9%) and extension members (21.4%). Feasibility and usefulness of the CoP was measured with number of posts and comments (ning platform throughout the 12 weeks of SWITCH implementation); page views and average time of visits (Google Analytics throughout implementation); perceived value, support, sense of belonging and perceived barriers (Qualtrics survey upon completion of implementation); and self-reported use and importance (checkpoint survey midway and satisfaction survey upon completion of implementation). Descriptive statistics were used for all variables and correlations for intention, value, belonging, support, and obstacles Overall visits and average time spent per visit was high with 620 total sessions, 4.67 pages viewed per session, and 3.3 minutes average session duration. Thirty-seven percent of members showed somewhat to high engagement. The CoP was perceived as highly valued and interesting (M=4.32 on a 5-point scale). Members perceived a sense of belonging (M=4.09 on a 5-point scale) and reported intentions to use it in the future (79.1%). Intention to continue to use the CoP was significantly correlated with sense of belonging (especially with trust from the SWITCH team), as well as value and interest in the CoP and perceived support. Perceived obstacles for using the CoP were overall low (M=1.94 on a 4-point scale) with the highest obstacles relating to effort, usability, and self-competence. Significant negative correlations existed between all obstacles and support, belonging, value and interest, similarity, and trust. This thesis supports the usefulness and feasibility of an online CoP as a tool for SWITCH programming. Members perceived it as valuable and important, and overall obstacles were low. Communities of practice are viewed as a tool to support teachers and provide ongoing collaborative learning opportunities. The present thesis supports the use of online communities of practice in the implementation of SWITCH and their potential as a tool for staff involvement in CSPAP programming

Mapping wetlands and potential wetland restoration areas in Black Hawk County, Iowa using object-oriented classification and a GIS-based model

Wetlands are transitional lands between terrestrial and aquatic systems that provide many benefits, including: floodwater retention, non-point pollution treatment, wildlife habitat, and soil-erosion control. Wetlands in Iowa have decreased over 95% in the last 200 years. Therefore, there is a need to map and monitor these resources, as well as to determine potential sites for wetland restoration. In Black Hawk County, wetland maps are outdated, and ground surveys have proved to be too time-consuming and expensive. Traditional pixel-based automated classifiers of remotely-sensed imagery have also proven to be inaccurate in classifying wetlands because of spectral confusion. This study tests multispectral data, hybrid data, hyperspectral data, a seasonal matrix, and a new object-oriented classifier. These are tested against traditional multispectral, pixelbased (ISODATA and Maximum-Likelihood) classifiers both to see if wetland classification accuracies from remotely-sensed imagery can be increased and to produce an updated wetlands map for Black Hawk County. A hyperspectral image of Eddyville, Iowa is tested to evaluate how well wetlands are classified when a hyperspectral image is used with an object-oriented classifier and a hyperspectral pixel-based (Spectral Angle Mapper or SAM) classifier. A GIS-based wetland restoration model is developed to identify potential wetland restoration sites in Black Hawk County. This study shows that the object-oriented classifier is more accurate in identifying wetlands and overall land-cover than pixel-based ones (ISODATA, Maximum-Likelihood, SAM) in both multispectral, hybrid-multispectral, and hyperspectral imagery. The summer/fall seasonal matrix produced unacceptable accuracies. Wetlands in Black Hawk County decreased by 1500 acres (plus or minus an error margin of 375 acres) from 1983 to 2003. The restoration model identified 2,971 acres in Black Hawk County as being highly suitable, 34,307 acres as being moderately suitable, and 121,271 acres as having low suitability for wetland restoration. The results are available at http://gisrl-9.geog.uni.edu/wetland. Limitations of the study include file size when using the object-oriented classifier, image availability for the seasonal matrix, and the number of variables employed in the GIS-based restoration model. The future direction of the study lies in obtaining hyperspectral data for Black Hawk County, more current Landsat multispectral imagery for the seasonal matrix, and testing of more non-parametric classifiers, such as the CART algorithm

Bronchogenic Adenocarcinoma in the Dog

A nine-year-old male Irish Setter was presented at the Iowa State University Stage Memorial Clinic on July 28, 1966. The owner noticed that the dog had become listless and weakened about the first of July and had become progressively worse since that date. The animal was in a very weakened state and the mucous membranes appeared cyanotic

The impact of divorce and healthy adjustment of children

The purpose of this paper was to examine the impact divorce has on children as: well as how parents can help their children adjust to divorce. The negative impacts that .divorce may have on children include emotional and behavioral problems. However, positive effects such as allowing the child to escape a hostile environment were also found. A review of the literature indicated that children\u27s response to divorce differed according to type, stage, and age of the child at the time of divorce. The types of strategies that are being used to aid parents in helping their children cope include mediation, educational workshops, and seminars

Elucidation of novel biosynthetic pathways for the discovery of cyclodipeptide derivatives from Streptomyces species

Cyclodipeptides (CDPs) with a 2,5-diketopiperazine (DKP) as central core occur ubiquitously in living organisms, from simple bacteria and fungi to more complex ones like plants and animals. They display various biological and pharmacological effects, including antibiotic, antifungal, and antiproliferative activities. In microorganisms, CDPs are usually synthesized by one of the two distinct enzyme families, nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs), mainly occurring in fungi, or cyclodipeptide synthases (CDPSs), commonly found in bacteria. NRPS for CDP formation are comparably large (~2500 amino acids), bi-modular enzymes, using free amino acids as substrates. CDPSs on the other hand are smaller (200 – 300 amino acids) and require activated amino acyl tRNAs for peptide bond formation. In general, the formation of the DKP ring increases the stability of CDPs against proteolysis compared to their acyclic counterparts. This enables a variety of intriguing modifications carried out by tailoring enzymes. Their genetic information often lies in direct neighborhood to that of backbone enzymes, like CDPSs, arranged in biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). In CDPS-associated pathways, tailoring enzymes comprise cyclodipeptide oxidases (CDOs), cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes, FeII/2-oxoglutarate dependent (FeII/2-OG) oxidases, as well as methyl- (MTs) and prenyltransferases (PTs). In this thesis, eight of such BGCs from Streptomyces species were identified using genome mining and elucidated by a combination of heterologous expression and biochemical analyses. In the first project, a BGC from Streptomyces cinnamoneus consisting of five genes was chosen for detailed investigation and termed gtm gene cluster. It codes for four enzymes, i.e. a CDPS (GtmA), a CDO (GtmBC), a P450 enzyme (GtmD), and a FeII/2-OG oxidase (GtmE). The genes were cloned in different combinations into the replicative pPWW50A vector for heterologous expression in Streptomyces albus J1074 (S. albus). Investigation using LC-MS and NMR spectroscopy revealed that GtmA synthesizes cyclo-L-Trp-L-Met, GtmBC installs a double bond at the methionine residue of the DKP, GtmD transfers a guanine onto the tryptophan moiety, and GtmE forms a second double bond at another side of the DKP. Together, this cascade results in the formation of the novel secondary metabolite guatrypmethine C. As the second dehydrogenation by GtmE displayed a novel reaction for FeII/2-OG oxidases in CDPS-dependent pathways, it was further characterized biochemically using the recombinant protein. It was proven that GtmE indeed catalyzes the conversion of the precursor guatrypmethine A to the pathway end product guatrypmethine C. No efficient conversion of the stable isomer guatrypmethine B was observed by GtmE. This experimental finding was further supported by quantum chemical calculations using density functional theory. In the second project, in cooperation with Dr. Jing Liu, a widely distributed two-gene locus, gymAB, was identified in 47 different actinobacteria. It comprises the genes gymA and gymB, coding for a CDPS and a P450 oxidase, respectively. The latter is closely related to CYP121, an essential enzyme for the viability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Six representative Streptomyces species were selected for functional elucidation of these BGCs. In analogy to the first project, their genes were cloned into pPWW50A and overexpressed in S. albus. Analyses of the cultural extracts by LC-MS in combination with NMR spectroscopy of the purified compounds showed that all six CDPSs produce cyclo-L-Tyr-L-Tyr (cYY) as major product. Subsequently, the P450 oxidases catalyze two different kind of reactions – either the formation of an intramolecular C-C bond within cYY resulting in mycocyclosin, or the intermolecular transfer of the nucleobases guanine or hypoxanthine, leading to the formation of the novel secondary metabolites guatyromycine A and B, respectively. The reactions catalyzed by GymBs were confirmed with biochemical assays using recombinant proteins of all six candidates. As the intramolecular coupling is the same reaction performed by CYP121 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the corresponding gene cluster was also expressed heterologously in the same manner. However, CYP121 merely catalyzes the formation of mycocyclosin, indicating that GymBs might have evolved from CYP121 and slightly changed during evolution. In the third project, I contributed to the elucidation of a BGC from Streptomyces aurantiacus, coding for the CDPS SasA, the PT SasB, and the MT SasC. It was proven that the sasABC gene cluster is responsible for the formation of streptoazine C. The involved PT SasB catalyzes two regular prenylations at both tryptophan residues within cyclo-L-Trp-L-Trp. By incubation with other CDPs and dehydrogenated CDPs, it was shown that SasB possesses a broad substrate flexibility and can convert at least eight other CDP derivatives efficiently

A Chat with the Dean

Effective college teaching is the answer to the problem of an increasing amount of knowledge in the field of veterinary medicine, stated Dean Kitchell about the mounting concern over how to secure more successful teaching techniques for the future