2014 Missouri School Health Profiles and Teacher Professional Development

Influencing knowledge to establish healthy habits and behaviors in our youth is the cornerstone to the necessity of health education as a skill set. Research has shown that adequate K-12 health education can reduce risk behaviors in adolescents (Freudenberg & Ruglis, 2007). Health teachers desire specific training in particular health education domains and professional development improves teaching knowledge and skills (Summerfield, 2001). The School Health Profiles is a collection of bi-annual surveys measuring school health policies and practices in state and educational systems. The profiles collect data on the status of the school’s health education requirements and content; school health coordination; school health policies (HIV/AIDs, tobacco, nutrition, etc.); asthma management policies; physical education and physical activity; and family and community participation in school health programs. State survey sample was from randomly selected secondary schools (grades 6 – 12) within a school district, territory, or tribal government. Health profile data were retrieved from self-administered questionnaires of principals and lead health education teachers (CDC DASH 2012)

Evaluation of a Teaching Assistant Program in Online Education

Online student success is determined by several factors, including learning effectiveness, access (academic, technical, and administrative support), faculty satisfaction, and student satisfaction. These factors are part of the Online Learning Consortium’s Pillars of Quality Online Education, which were established to ensure all students are provided a quality education, with high levels of student engagement, instructor feedback and interaction, and experiential learning opportunities. Using Teaching Assistants (TAs) in the virtual classroom is not a traditional practice for most online institutions, but is a strategy that can have a positive impact on these factors. This exploratory research study discusses a TA program that was developed, implemented, and evaluated over 3 years. Fifteen (n = 15) doctoral students were hired to provide teaching support to high-risk courses in the undergraduate programs. Background, recruitment, onboarding, division of course responsibilities, data, and outcomes of the 3-year TA programs are discussed in alignment with the five pillars. Findings suggest the addition of TAs in online education is a potentially useful strategy to improve student learning outcomes, scale, access, and faculty and student satisfaction

Increased levels of the inflammatory biomarker C-reactive protein at baseline are associated with childhood sickle cell vasocclusive crises

Several lines of evidence suggest that sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with a chronic inflammatory state. In this study of 70 children with SCD at steady state evaluated by a broad panel of biomarkers representing previously examined mechanisms of pathogenicity in SCD, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), a marker of low-grade, systemic inflammation, emerged as the most significant laboratory correlate of hospitalizations for pain or vaso-occlusive (VOC) events. While markers of increased haemolytic status, endothelial activation and coagulation activation all correlated positively with VOC events by univariate analysis, baseline hs-CRP levels provided the most significant contribution to the association in multiple regression models (22%), and, hs-CRP, along with age, provided the best fit in negative binomial models. These data highlight the clinical relevance of the role of inflammation in paediatric VOC, providing both a rationale for future therapeutic strategies targeting inflammation in microvessel occlusive complications of SCD, and the potential clinical use of hs-CRP as a biomarker in childhood SCD

Expression of Regulatory Platelet MicroRNAs in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease

Background: Increased platelet activation in sickle cell disease (SCD) contributes to a state of hypercoagulability and confers a risk of thromboembolic complications. The role for post-transcriptional regulation of the platelet transcriptome by microRNAs (miRNAs) in SCD has not been previously explored. This is the first study to determine whether platelets from SCD exhibit an altered miRNA expression profile. Methods and Findings: We analyzed the expression of miRNAs isolated from platelets from a primary cohort (SCD = 19, controls = 10) and a validation cohort (SCD = 7, controls = 7) by hybridizing to the Agilent miRNA microarrays. A dramatic difference in miRNA expression profiles between patients and controls was noted in both cohorts separately. A total of 40 differentially expressed platelet miRNAs were identified as common in both cohorts (p-value 0.05, fold change>2) with 24 miRNAs downregulated. Interestingly, 14 of the 24 downregulated miRNAs were members of three families - miR-329, miR-376 and miR-154 - which localized to the epigenetically regulated, maternally imprinted chromosome 14q32 region. We validated the downregulated miRNAs, miR-376a and miR-409-3p, and an upregulated miR-1225-3p using qRT-PCR. Over-expression of the miR-1225-3p in the Meg01 cells was followed by mRNA expression profiling to identify mRNA targets. This resulted in significant transcriptional repression of 1605 transcripts. A combinatorial approach using Meg01 mRNA expression profiles following miR-1225-3p overexpression, a computational prediction analysis of miRNA target sequences and a previously published set of differentially expressed platelet transcripts from SCD patients, identified three novel platelet mRNA targets: PBXIP1, PLAGL2 and PHF20L1. Conclusions: We have identified significant differences in functionally active platelet miRNAs in patients with SCD as compared to controls. These data provide an important inventory of differentially expressed miRNAs in SCD patients and an experimental framework for future studies of miRNAs as regulators of biological pathways in platelets. © 2013 Jain et al

Structural and stereochemical diversity in prenylated indole alkaloids containing the bicyclo[2.2.2]diazaoctane ring system from marine and terrestrial fungi

Various fungi of the generaAspergillus,Penicillium, andMalbrancheaproduce prenylated indole alkaloids possessing a bicyclo[2.2.2]diazaoctane ring system.</p

Toro Times: Raising Our Voices!

During the Spring 2019 semester, Dr. Noah Asher Golden\u27s Teaching of Writing K-12 students partnered with the Journalism class at Yorba Academy for the Arts. Through collaboration over a four-month period, Chapman\u27s future teachers and Yorba\u27s junior high journalists engaged a deep writing process to write a series of features, editorials, and news articles related to a number of global issues. Thank you to Principal Preciado-Martin, former principal Tracy Knibb, Mrs. Andrea Lopez, Mrs. Kori Shelton, and the Lloyd E. and Elisabeth H. Klein Family Foundation for supporting this project.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/yorba-chapman/1004/thumbnail.jp

HIV-1 Gag-Pol Sequences from Ugandan Early Infections Reveal Sequence Variants Associated with Elevated Replication Capacity.

The ability to efficiently establish a new infection is a critical property for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Although the envelope protein of the virus plays an essential role in receptor binding and internalization of the infecting virus, the structural proteins, the polymerase and the assembly of new virions may also play a role in establishing and spreading viral infection in a new host. We examined Ugandan viruses from newly infected patients and focused on the contribution of the Gag-Pol genes to replication capacity. A panel of Gag-Pol sequences generated using single genome amplification from incident HIV-1 infections were cloned into a common HIV-1 NL4.3 pol/env backbone and the influence of Gag-Pol changes on replication capacity was monitored. Using a novel protein domain approach, we then documented diversity in the functional protein domains across the Gag-Pol region and identified differences in the Gag-p6 domain that were frequently associated with higher in vitro replication

The retrospective analysis of Antarctic tracking data project

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. RAATD consolidated tracking data for multiple species of Antarctic meso- and top-predators to identify Areas of Ecological Significance. These datasets and accompanying syntheses provide a greater understanding of fundamental ecosystem processes in the Southern Ocean, support modelling of predator distributions under future climate scenarios and create inputs that can be incorporated into decision making processes by management authorities. In this data paper, we present the compiled tracking data from research groups that have worked in the Antarctic since the 1990s. The data are publicly available through biodiversity.aq and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System. The archive includes tracking data from over 70 contributors across 12 national Antarctic programs, and includes data from 17 predator species, 4060 individual animals, and over 2.9 million observed locations