Identities and Motives of Naturalist Development Program Attendees and Their Relation to Professional Careers

In recent years, there has been much concern over the decline of biologists who actually identify themselves to be naturalists, which negatively impacts the field of conservation and the study of biology as a whole. This could result in a decrease in individuals who participate in naturalist-like activities, such as informal environmental education and environmental volunteerism. The purpose of my study was to determine what discourse identities were held by naturalist development program participants, how these discourse identities related to their volunteer motives in environmental settings, and how discourse identity related to professional careers. I defined identity through the lens of discourse-identity, which describes a person’s identity as being conveyed through that individual’s communication and actions. I conducted individual interviews or used an online questionnaire to ask questions to naturalist development program attendees about their workshop experience, relationship with nature, volunteer motives and activities, as well as professional career or career aspiration. Volunteer motives were quantitatively measured in both types of program participants using the published Volunteer Motivation Questionnaire. Overall, I found the 100 study participants had six discourse identities: naturalist (n = 27), aspiring naturalist (n = 32), nature steward (n = 5), outreach volunteer (n = 6), casual nature observer (n = 22), and recreational nature user (n = 8). Naturalist development programs should focus on developing more naturalist-like discourse identities in their participants to help encourage participation in naturalist activities. Volunteer motives were ranked by importance to participants in the following order: helping the environment, learning, user, project organization, values and esteem, social, and career. The majority of Master Naturalist Program study participants that stated a career were in non-STEM careers; however, the majority of individuals with a naturalist or aspiring naturalist discourse identity did have careers in STEM. The OUTSIDE NDP study participants all expressed their intention to pursue STEM careers. By focusing on hands-on outdoor professional development, the development of naturalist discourse identities, and on developing the volunteer motives participants’ value, more individuals could be retained to assist with naturalist activities

Burrowing Behavior of the Fiddler Crab \u3ci\u3eUca panacea\u3c/i\u3e in Relation to Food Availability

Much of fiddler crab behavior is regulated by the tides and centers around their burrows. Field and laboratory studies were conducted to assess the effect of food availability on burrowing in the Gulf coast fiddler crab, Vea panacea. In the field, crabs were observed for droving behavior through visual observations; evidence for this behavior was assessed further by determining sediment organic content. Although the organic content did increase significantly as distance increased from the edge of the water, fiddler crabs did not exhibit droving behavior at my study site. Field burrows were cast and measured for depth, diameter and volume to determine if burrow size changed as distance increased from the water. Burrow size did not differ significantly based on distance from the water. In the laboratory, males and females were randomly assigned to either low food (0.2% sediment organic content) or high food (1.5% sediment organic content) treatments for a period of 12 d; plaster casts of burrows were measured as above. When male and female results were pooled, there was a significant difference between low and high food treatments in burrow depth, diameter and volume. When crabs were grouped by carapace width into small (8.0-11.0 mm) and large (11.1-15.0 mm) size classes, diameter was the only burrow parameter that differed significantly. Food availability did affect some aspects of fiddler crab burrowing behavior; understanding what affects burrowing may shed light on fiddler crab importance and impact on ecosystem composition and processes

Crystal Structure of Orthorhombic {bis-[(pyridin-2-yl)methyl](3,5,5,5-tetrachloropentyl)amine-κ\u3csup\u3e3\u3c/sup\u3e\u3cem\u3eN,N\u27,N\u27\u27\u3c/em\u3e}chloridocopper(II) Perchlorate

In the title compound, [CuCl(C17H19Cl4N3)]ClO4, the CuII ion adopts a distorted square-planar geometry defined by one chloride ligand and the three nitro­gen atoms from the bis­[(pyridin-2-yl)meth­yl](3,5,5,5-tetra­chloro­pent­yl)amine ligand. The perchlorate counter-ion is disordered over three sets of sites with refined occupancies 0.0634 (17), 0.221 (16) and 0.145 (7). In addition, the hetero-scorpionate arm of the bis­[(pyridin-2-yl)meth­yl](3,5,5,5-tetra­chloro­pent­yl)amine ligand is disordered over two sets of sites with refined occupancies 0.839 (2) and 0.161 (2). In the crystal, weak Cu⋯Cl inter­actions between symmetry-related mol­ecules create a dimerization with a chloride occupying the apical position of the square-pyramidal geometry typical of many copper(II) chloride hetero-scorpionate complexes

MicroRNA Expression Profiling Identifies Activated B Cell Status in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Cells

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is thought to be a disease of resting lymphocytes. However, recent data suggest that CLL cells may more closely resemble activated B cells. Using microRNA (miRNA) expression profiling of highly-enriched CLL cells from 38 patients and 9 untransformed B cells from normal donors before acute CpG activation and 5 matched B cells after acute CpG activation, we demonstrate an activated B cell status for CLL. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) identified statistically-significant similarities in miRNA expression between activated B cells and CLL cells including upregulation of miR-34a, miR-155, and miR-342-3p and downregulation of miR-103, miR-181a and miR-181b. Additionally, decreased levels of two CLL signature miRNAs miR-29c and miR-223 are associated with ZAP70+ and IgVH unmutated status and with shorter time to first therapy. These data indicate an activated B cell status for CLL cells and suggest that the direction of change of individual miRNAs may predict clinical course in CLL

Crystal structure of {(but-3-en-1-yl)bis[(pyridin-2-yl)methyl]amine-κ3N,N′,N′′}dichloridocopper(II) diethyl ether hemisolvate

The five-coordinate CuII atom in the title complex [CuCl2(C16H19N3)]·0.5C4H10O, adopts a near-ideal square-pyramidal geometry (τ-5 = 0.01). The apical Cu—Cl distance is 0.2626 (6) Å longer than the basal Cu—Cl distance. Weak C—H...Cl interactions between pyridine rings and the Cl atoms of adjacent complex molecules are present. The solvent molecule, located on a twofold rotation axis, is situated in the voids of this arrangement. Copper atoms coordinated by tridentate nitrogen-containing ligands have been found to be excellent promoters of Atom Transfer Radical Addition (ATRA) reactions

Crystal structure of orthorhombic {bis[(pyridin-2-yl)methyl](3,5,5,5-tetrachloropentyl)amine-κ\u3csup\u3e3\u3c/sup\u3eN,N′,N″}chloridocopper(II) perchlorate

In the title compound, [CuCl(C17H19Cl4N3)]ClO4, the CuII ion adopts a distorted square-planar geometry defined by one chloride ligand and the three nitrogen atoms from the bis[(pyridin-2-yl)methyl](3,5,5,5-tetrachloropentyl)amine ligand. The perchlorate counter-ion is disordered over three sets of sites with refined occupancies 0.0634 (17), 0.221 (16) and 0.145 (7). In addition, the hetero-scorpionate arm of the bis[(pyridin-2-yl)methyl](3,5,5,5-tetrachloropentyl) amine ligand is disordered over two sets of sites with refined occupancies 0.839 (2) and 0.161 (2). In the crystal, weak Cu⋯Cl interactions between symmetry-related molecules create a dimerization with a chloride occupying the apical position of the square-pyramidal geometry typical of many copper(II) chloride hetero-scorpionate complexes