Teaching Field Broadens in Scope

Iowa schools have a greater need for homemaking teachers due to the war, says Norma Shellit

The Economic Effect of Refugee Crises on Host Countries and Implications for the Lebanese Case

The contemporary refugee crises across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa have captured the world’s attention. Much of the existing discourse has focused on the humanitarian and security implications that this crisis will have, specifically for developed regions such as the European Union. This paper, on the other hand, seeks to explore this issue through a purely economic lens, focusing instead on the economic impacts that refugees have on the countries that receive them. Through exploring the existing academic and popular literature around historical and contemporary case studies, this paper has identified some of the key positive and negative economic effects that refugee crises can have on the host country. On the positive side, refugees can be a boon to the host country by (1) spurring long-term investment (2) filling needed demographic gaps (3) integrating effectively into the labor market (4) becoming productive economic consumers and producers and (5) by increasing bilateral trade with the country of origin. On the negative side, refugees can be a burden to the host country by (1) straining public and private services (2) causing physical and economic overcrowding and (3) increasing societal strife and the potential for civil conflict. The paper then turns to the contemporary refugee crisis in Lebanon by examining the relevance of these aforementioned positive and negative effects to the Lebanese case. Along the way, the paper provides policy recommendations that can be employed in the Lebanese case to amplify the positive benefits of refugees while mitigating the negative consequences. Ultimately, the paper hopes to use past refugee crises as an instruction point for how Lebanon can cope with its current crisis. By learning from past examples and applying existing literature to the current crisis, it is this author’s hope that the refugee crisis can be an eventual boon to the Lebanese economy

Beliefs about Global Climate Change Among Faculty at the University of Northern Colorado

A survey was administered to UNC faculty and instructors in Fall 2019 with the aim of assessing faculty beliefs about global climate change and the role that UNC plays in preparing students for the impacts of global climate change in coming years. A majority of survey respondents (n=226) are concerned that climate change will affect the lives of UNC students in the future and that UNC should be doing more to address global climate change and prepare students. We share survey results and faculty suggestions and comments regarding incorporating global climate issues across a broad disciplinary spectrum

GIS and 3D Analysis Applied to Sea Turtle Mortalities and Navigation Channel Dredging

Between 2000 and 2003 there were an increased number of documented sea turtle mortalities related to hopper dredging in the channels of the Chesapeake Bay. A pilot study was undertaken to create a bathymetric surface and three-dimensional model of the Cape Henry Channel using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a visualization tool to examine sea turtle mortalities in relation to the dredging. In Fall 2003, the US Army Corps of Engineers dredged the Thimble Shoals Federal Navigation Channel, and a more refined model was developed using this data. This project examines the growing concerns over sea turtle mortality rates and dredging operations, as well as a description of the usage of GIS analysis, interpolation, and visualization methods as tools for examining turtle habitat and mortality issues. Future directions for incorporating GIS into attempts to reduce sea turtle mortality in dredging operations are then outlined

Multiple acid pathways in Casco Bay: Implications for the next 25 years (2015 State of the Bay Presentation)

https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/cbep-presentations/1020/thumbnail.jp

Temporal and spatial dynamics of CO2 air-sea flux in the Gulf of Maine

Ocean surface layer carbon dioxide (CO2) data collected in the Gulf of Maine from 2004 to 2008 are presented. Monthly shipboard observations are combined with additional higher‐resolution CO2 observations to characterize CO2 fugacity ( fCO2) and CO2 flux over hourly to interannual time scales. Observed fCO2 andCO2 flux dynamics are dominated by a seasonal cycle, with a large spring influx of CO2 and a fall‐to‐winter efflux back to the atmosphere. The temporal results at inner, middle, and outer shelf locations are highly correlated, and observed spatial variability is generally small relative to the monthly to seasonal temporal changes. The averaged annual flux is in near balance and is a net source of carbon to the atmosphere over 5 years, with a value of +0.38 mol m−2 yr−1. However, moderate interannual variation is also observed, where years 2005 and 2007 represent cases of regional source (+0.71) and sink (−0.11) anomalies. We use moored daily CO2 measurements to quantify aliasing due to temporal undersampling, an important error budget term that is typically unresolved. The uncertainty of our derived annual flux measurement is ±0.26 mol m−2 yr−1 and is dominated by this aliasing term. Comparison of results to the neighboring Middle and South Atlantic Bight coastal shelf systems indicates that the Gulf of Maine exhibits a similar annual cycle and range of oceanic fCO2 magnitude but differs in the seasonal phase. It also differs by enhanced fCO2 controls by factors other than temperature‐driven solubility, including biological drawdown, fall‐to‐winter vertical mixing, and river runoff

CD4+ T cell–independent vaccination against Pneumocystis carinii in mice

Host defenses are profoundly compromised in HIV-infected hosts due to progressive depletion of CD4(+) T lymphocytes. Moreover, deficient CD4(+) T lymphocytes impair vaccination approaches to prevent opportunistic infection. Therefore, we investigated a CD4(+) T cell–independent vaccine approach to a prototypic AIDS-defining infection, Pneumocystis carinii (PC) pneumonia. Here, we demonstrate that bone marrow–derived dendritic cells (DCs) expressing the murine CD40 ligand, when pulsed ex vivo by PC antigen, elicited significant titers of anti-PC IgG in CD4-deficient mice. Vaccinated animals demonstrated significant protection from PC infection, and this protection was the result of an effective humoral response, since adoptive transfer of CD4-depleted splenocytes or serum conferred this protection to CD4-deficient mice. Western blot analysis of PC antigen revealed that DC-vaccinated, CD4-deficient mice predominantly reacted to a 55-kDa PC antigen. These studies show promise for advances in CD4-independent vaccination against HIV-related pathogens

Divergent roles of IL-23 and IL-12 in host defense against Klebsiella pneumoniae

Interleukin (IL)-23 is a heterodimeric cytokine that shares the identical p40 subunit as IL-12 but exhibits a unique p19 subunit similar to IL-12 p35. IL-12/23 p40, interferon γ (IFN-γ), and IL-17 are critical for host defense against Klebsiella pneumoniae. In vitro, K. pneumoniae–pulsed dendritic cell culture supernatants elicit T cell IL-17 production in a IL-23–dependent manner. However, the importance of IL-23 during in vivo pulmonary challenge is unknown. We show that IL-12/23 p40–deficient mice are exquisitely sensitive to intrapulmonary K. pneumoniae inoculation and that IL-23 p19−/−, IL-17R−/−, and IL-12 p35−/− mice also show increased susceptibility to infection. p40−/− mice fail to generate pulmonary IFN-γ, IL-17, or IL-17F responses to infection, whereas p35−/− mice show normal IL-17 and IL-17F induction but reduced IFN-γ. Lung IL-17 and IL-17F production in p19−/− mice was dramatically reduced, and this strain showed substantial mortality from a sublethal dose of bacteria (103 CFU), despite normal IFN-γ induction. Administration of IL-17 restored bacterial control in p19−/− mice and to a lesser degree in p40−/− mice, suggesting an additional host defense requirement for IFN-γ in this strain. Together, these data demonstrate independent requirements for IL-12 and IL-23 in pulmonary host defense against K. pneumoniae, the former of which is required for IFN-γ expression and the latter of which is required for IL-17 production