An exploratory study to determine what factors influence nurses attitudes toward mental retardation

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

The Use of a Mouse Model to Determine the Influence of Diet and Genetics on Vitamin D Status, Vitamin D Deficiency, and Glycemic Control

Well-known for its importance in calcium homeostasis, there is evidence that vitamin D also plays a role in the maintenance of glycemic control. In this study, we utilized a panel of Collaborative Cross inbred mice to investigate the extent to which vitamin D status, vitamin D deficiency, and glycemic regulation are influenced by diet and genetic background. We detected a dietary treatment effect on 25(OH)D but not on 1,25(OH)2D. We detected genetic effects on vitamin D status, deficiency, and on glycemic control. Interestingly, strains with lower vitamin D had lower markers of glycemic control. Lastly, dietary depletion of vitamin D led to lower liver GAPDH expression, which was also associated with lower markers of glycemic control. These data not only validate a relationship between vitamin D status and glycemic regulation, but provide evidence that genetic contribution to that status is an important factor in understanding risk of associated physiological outcomes.Master of Scienc

The Effect Of Tourism On Land Value In Watauga County, North Carolina, 1890 To 1920

This study investigates the effect of tourism on land values in Blowing Rock, North Carolina from 1890 to 1920. Seasonal visitors from the nation's elite class made annual trips to Blowing Rock, of Watauga County, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. The methodology of this study consisted of comparing the township of Blowing Rock with nearby Meat Camp via county census and tax records for the years in question, as well as consulting secondary accounts of early and modern tourism in Appalachia. Local tax records show an accelerated increase in land values in Blowing Rock within a few decades. In comparison with Meat Camp, a township also in Watauga that depended substantially more on agriculture than tourism, it becomes clear that affluent interest in Blowing Rock caused land value to rise even above those in other areas of the county. This trend continued throughout the next century in many parts of Appalachia, especially Western North Carolina

Supercharged storytimes, supercharged solutions: Enhancing storytimes with a research-based community of practice

This article is a narrative of our session at the Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA) Conference in Calgary on August 3, 2016, where we provided background on the research behind Supercharged Storytimes and then presented tips, tricks, and effective practices to help library staff to be intentional and interactive in the planning and delivery of early literacy storytimes. We also emphasized the importance of building a practitioner community to encourage professional growth through peer feedback and self-reflection of storytime programs. Storytime practitioners, both brand new and those with years of experience, will discover how to supercharge their storytimes and make an impact on the children in their communities

Evaluating Services for Bhutanese Elders at the Champlain Senior Center

Introduction: •Bhutanese refugees have been living in Vermont since 2008. They constitute a vulnerable population due to lack of language skills, increased health care requirements and lack of access to transportation. The Champlain Senior Center (CSC) provides services and a community space for Bhutanese refugee elders (older than 55 years). We aimed to determine the necessity for the CSC in the elders’ wellbeing and to demonstrate that services are crucial to ensure this New American elderly population’s needs are being met.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1209/thumbnail.jp

TB133: Experimental Stream Application of B.t.i. for Human Nuisance Black Fly Management in a Recreational Area

Biting and swarming black flies are abundant in Maine and can cause serious discomfort to humans, especially in recreational areas where their presence may substantially decrease satisfaction in outdoor activities. In 1985, 1986 and 1987 a series of experimental applications of B.t.i. was made on property owned by the Sugarloaf Mountain Corporation. The 198 5 study determined the persistenc e o f B.t.i. in stream and river water and the concentration necessary to achieve \u3e90% mortality in black fly larvae. It also indicated that B.t.i. had no detectable impact on non-target organisms. In 1986 and 1987 the objective was to determine if controlling the black fly larvae in streams within the Sugarloaf property would result in decreasing adult human nuisance flies to an acceptable level.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_techbulletin/1069/thumbnail.jp

Promoting Screening of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in Vermont: A proposal for ongoing continuing medical education (CME)

In 2010, 11,382 Vermonters were diagnosed with dementia, many of whom had Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In 2025, an estimated 1 in 8 Vermonters aged 65 or older will have some form of dementia. Reported rates of overlooked dementia are between 35% and 90% or greater. Clinical presentations of dementia are often insidious and attributed to aging, making an accurate diagnosis difficult. Because of the challenges of dementia screening and diagnosis, primary care physicians (PCPs) are often unwilling to diagnose, discuss, and treat dementia due to AD.3 Although physicians are reluctant to screen for dementia, research in Vermont (VT) has shown a clear preference by patients and their families for earlier diagnosis. A timely diagnosis allows the patient and their family to plan for the future and start treatment earlier. Our research demonstrated PCPs may be misinformed about the usefulness and implications of dementia screening and diagnosis. In an effort to further educate physicians, we propose instituting a mandatory continuing medical education (CME) hour focused on screening for dementia. Our project surveyed 72 physicians to determine their attitudes towards screening, the assessment tools they use, and their attitudes towards a required CME hour.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1079/thumbnail.jp

Unloading shoes for intermittent claudication: a randomised crossover trial

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the functional effects and acceptability of rocker-soled shoes that were designed to relatively “unload” the calf muscles during walking in people with calf claudication due to peripheral arterial disease. Methods: In this randomised AB/BA crossover trial, participants completed two assessment visits up to two weeks apart. At each visit, participants completed walking tests whilst wearing the unloading shoes or visually-similar control shoes. At the end of the second visit, participants were given either the unloading or control shoes to use in their home environment for 2 weeks, with the instruction to wear them for at least 4 hours every day. The primary outcome was 6-minute walk distance. We also assessed pain-free walking distance and gait biomechanical variables during usual-pace walking, adverse events, and participants’ opinions about the shoes. Data for continuous outcomes are presented as mean difference between conditions with corresponding 95% confidence interval. Results: Thirty-four participants (27 males, mean age 68 years, mean ankle-brachial index 0.54) completed both assessment visits. On average, the 6-minute walk distance was 11 m greater when participants wore the control shoes (95% CI -5 to 26), whereas mean pain-free walking distance was 7 m greater in the unloading shoes (95% CI -17 to 32). Neither of these differences were statistically significant (p=0.18 and p=0.55, respectively). This was despite the unloading shoes reducing peak ankle plantarflexion moment (mean difference 0.2 Nm/kg, 95% CI 0.0 to 0.3) and peak ankle power generation (mean difference 0.6 W/kg, 95% CI 0.2 to 1.0) during pain-free walking. The survey and interview data was mixed, with no clear differences between the unloading and control shoes. Conclusions: Shoes with modified soles to relatively unload the calf muscles during walking conferred no substantial acute functional benefit over control shoes

Marine Phytoplankton Temperature versus Growth Responses from Polar to Tropical Waters – Outcome of a Scientific Community-Wide Study

"It takes a village to finish (marine) science these days" Paraphrased from Curtis Huttenhower (the Human Microbiome project) The rapidity and complexity of climate change and its potential effects on ocean biota are challenging how ocean scientists conduct research. One way in which we can begin to better tackle these challenges is to conduct community-wide scientific studies. This study provides physiological datasets fundamental to understanding functional responses of phytoplankton growth rates to temperature. While physiological experiments are not new, our experiments were conducted in many laboratories using agreed upon protocols and 25 strains of eukaryotic and prokaryotic phytoplankton isolated across a wide range of marine environments from polar to tropical, and from nearshore waters to the open ocean. This community-wide approach provides both comprehensive and internally consistent datasets produced over considerably shorter time scales than conventional individual and often uncoordinated lab efforts. Such datasets can be used to parameterise global ocean model projections of environmental change and to provide initial insights into the magnitude of regional biogeographic change in ocean biota in the coming decades. Here, we compare our datasets with a compilation of literature data on phytoplankton growth responses to temperature. A comparison with prior published data suggests that the optimal temperatures of individual species and, to a lesser degree, thermal niches were similar across studies. However, a comparison of the maximum growth rate across studies revealed significant departures between this and previously collected datasets, which may be due to differences in the cultured isolates, temporal changes in the clonal isolates in cultures, and/or differences in culture conditions. Such methodological differences mean that using particular trait measurements from the prior literature might introduce unknown errors and bias into modelling projections. Using our community-wide approach we can reduce such protocol-driven variability in culture studies, and can begin to address more complex issues such as the effect of multiple environmental drivers on ocean biota.EL and MKT were in part supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) grants DEB-0845932 and OCE-0928819. TAR and KAW were supported by NSF grant OCE-0727227. UP was supported by NSF grants OCE-0926711 and OCE-1041038. PWB and RS were supported by the New Zealand Royal Society Marsden Fund and the Ministry of Science and Innovation. RMK and KH were in part supported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms (MERHAB) grant NA04NOS4780239 and NSF grant OCE-0238347. DAH and FX-F were supported by NSF grants OCE-0942379, OCE-0962309, and OCE-117030687. MRM was partially supported by NSF grant OCE-0722395 and a NOAA The Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) grant NA06NO54780246. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Genomic analysis of a rare recurrent Listeria monocytogenes prosthetic joint infection indicates a protected niche within biofilm on prosthetic materials

Listeria monocytogenes is a rare cause of prosthetic joint infections (PJI). In this study, we describe a case of recurrent L. monocytogenes infections, 39 months apart, following debridement and retention of a prosthetic hip. Despite numerous studies reporting persistent L. monocytogenes in human infections, the genomic and phenotypic changes that clinically relevant strains undergo in the host are poorly understood. Improved knowledge of how PJI occurs is needed to improve the management of prosthetic infections. We used a combination of long- and short-read sequencing to identify any potential genomic differences between two L. monocytogenes isolates that occurred over 39-month incubation in the host. The isolates, QI0054 and QI0055, showed three single nucleotide polymorphisms and three insertions or deletions, suggesting that the recurrent infection was caused by the same strain. To identify potential differences in the capacity for persistence of these isolates, their biofilm-forming ability and potential to colonize prosthesis-relevant materials was investigated both in microtitre plates and on prosthetic material titanium, stainless steel 316 and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene. Whilst the L. monocytogenes isolate from the most recent infection (QI0055) was able to form higher biofilm in microtitre plates, this did not lead to an increase in biomass on prosthetic joint materials compared to the initial isolate (QI0054). Both clinical isolates were able to form significantly more biofilm on the two metal prosthetic materials than on the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, in contrast to reference strain Scott A. Transcriptomics revealed 41 genes overexpressed in biofilm state and 643 in planktonic state. Moreover, genes with mutations were actively expressed in both isolates. We conclude the isolates are derived from the same strain and hypothesize that L. monocytogenes formed biofilm on the prosthetic joint materials, with minimal exposure to stresses, which permitted their survival and growth