The Future of Georgia's Nonprofit Leadership

The aim of this survey of Georgia nonprofits is to better understand how leadership transitions will impact nonprofits, and inform the development of strategies to address the pending generational shift in leaders. Sections cover executive director stability and career paths, depth of management capacity at organizations, and transition and succession plans

High resolution spectroscopy of two gamma-ray bursts in November 1978

The first results from the ISSEE-3 radiatively colled germanium gamma ray burst spectrometer are presented. Spectra and time histories from two events on the 1978 November 4 and 1978 November 19 are given. A significant difference in the continuum spectra for the two events was observed. Evidence is presented for two spectral features in the features in the November 19 events, a broad one at approximately 420 key KeV and a narrower one at 740 KeV with a suggestion of an accompanying high energy tail

Determination of Biologically Relevant Vitamin D Metabolites in a Mouse Model of Non Melanoma Skin Cancer

Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (FAES): 1st Place (The Ohio State University Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum)Background: Vitamin D has received recent attention as a nutrient in which a large portion of Americans may be deficient. Vitamin D is a unique “essential” nutrient in that it can be produced endogenously in the skin via UVB irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol, or taken in from the diet. Although it is well established that vitamin D plays a role in bone health, a growing body of evidence suggests that it may also have a role in chronic diseases, including several types of cancer. Vitamin D is not naturally present in many foods although some foods including dairy products and ready to eat cereals are fortified. Some researchers recommend that individuals receive approximately 5 to 15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure several times a week in order to produce sufficient amounts of vitamin D, yet unprotected sun exposure is also a risk factor for skin cancer. Cell studies have demonstrated that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, the active metabolite of vitamin D, has an inhibitory effect on skin cancer initiation, but cancerous cells lose sensitivity to the growth regulating properties of the compound. These recent reports indicate an important biological role of vitamin D metabolites in skin cancer development, but there have been no studies on the disease measuring these compounds in skin. This is primarily due to the challenging nature of this analysis and need for highly sensitive and sophisticated analytical instrumentation. Purpose/Rationale: Since vitamin D may have a role in the prevention of skin cancer, and the UVB exposure needed for endogenous synthesis of the vitamin is a risk factor for the disease, the effects of dietary vitamin D on the development of skin cancer is a critical area of investigation. However, before results can be translated to humans, appropriate animal models of skin cancer need to be investigated. The purpose of this research is to measure the levels of biologically relevant vitamin D metabolites in the skin and serum of mice fed escalating doses of vitamin D. Research Methods: To evaluate the effects of dietary vitamin D on non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), 150 Skh-1 hairless, but immunocompetent, mice were placed on diets with escalating doses of the vitamin for 29 weeks. The Skh-1 mouse is a well-recognized model of NMSC. Equal numbers of male and female mice were assigned to each dietary level of vitamin D (25, 150, 1000 IU). Within each dietary level, n=15 mice were exposed to UVB light three times per week for the last 25 weeks of the study, and n=10 mice were abstained from the treatment. The UVB exposure given to the mice was one minimal erythemic dose, which is equivalent to a light sunburn. Vitamin D metabolite levels will be measured in the serum and skin of the mice using high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), a sensitive and advanced analytical technique. The estimated levels of these compounds in the skin are quite low, thus extracts from skin samples will be derivatized with 4-phenyl-1,2,4-triazoline-3,5-dione (PTAD), allowing more efficient and sensitive analysis of the vitamin D metabolites. Predicted Findings: We expect to see increased vitamin D metabolites in samples from mice supplemented with the nutrient. A dose-dependent increase in specific metabolites is also expected. Implications: The levels of vitamin D-related compounds in the tissues and serum of mice from this study will be correlated with previously evaluated cancer outcomes. This will be the first study of its kind to measure vitamin D metabolites in murine skin using HPLC-MS/MS in an effort to elucidate the influence of dietary vitamin D on NMSC.A five-year embargo was granted for this item

Heat Treatment of Soy Flour and Its Effects on β-glucosidase Activity

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Research Forum, Second Place in Food Science CategoryIsoflavones, phytochemicals readily found in soy beans and soy products, have been associated with reduced risk of prostate cancer in mice. Such findings require translation to human prostate cancer patients and thus methods for delivering the isoflavones to the body. Previous work in our laboratory has focused on soy-almond bread. The majority of isoflavones in soy are not in a form easily absorbed by the body. However, isoflavones are converted to a bioactive form by β-glucosidase, an enzyme intrinsic to soy and almond. Previous studies in our lab have suggested that the extent of this conversion may be affected by the heat treatment of soy ingredients. In order to elucidate the role of heat treatment in increasing β-glucosidase activity, crude enzyme extracts from raw almonds and raw or heat treated soy flour-soy milk mixture were obtained using a sodium phosphate buffer at pH 5.0. The heat treatment consisted of roasting or steaming. Protein content was quantified using the Bradford and bicinchoninic acid methods, which indicated that almond and raw soy mixture contained the most protein, while the steamed contained the least. When the β-glucosidase activity of the extracts was measured using p-nitrophenol-β-D-glucopyranoside, almond extract showed the greatest activity, but interestingly, roasted and steamed extracts showed the next highest activity, followed by fermented and raw. It appears that water plays a key role in the mechanism of conversion of isoflavones into bioactive forms, while protein content is less relevant. Such finding is critical when tailoring foods to contain high levels of phytochemicals that are potentially more bioactive by either modifying the crops that provide the raw ingredients or the processing that leads to the desired outcome.Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, S.E.E.D.S. GrantCollege of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Research GrantA five-year embargo was granted for this item

Copepod grazing selection and particle discrimination on the basis of PSP toxin content

Omnivorous copepods are capable of discriminatory feeding using mechano- and chemosensory mechanisms. The presence of phycotoxins in phytoplankton often results in reduced consumption of such potential prey by copepods, though it has not been clear if this is the result of discriminatory feeding by either tactile (mechanosensory) or chemosensory recognition of toxic prey, or perhaps a physiological response to ingested neurotoxic compounds. In this study, experiments were performed to determine whether 3 species of marine copepods (Acartia tonsa, Centropages hamatus, and Eurytemora herdmani) that commonly co-occur with toxic Alexandrium spp. dinoflagellates were capable of discriminating between cultured Alexandrium spp. strains on the basis of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxin content, i.e. by chemosensory means, using live fluorescently labeled cells. Additional experiments investigated whether toxic cells in mixtures with non-toxic alternate species of dinoflagellates affected either prey selection or total carbon consumption rates of copepods, and whether daily carbon rations could be maintained on both toxic and non-toxic Alexandrium spp. monoculture diets. Results indicated that all 3 copepod species could discriminate between toxic and non-toxic Alexandrium spp. cells by chemosensory means, suggesting that selective behavior, rather than physiological effects, governs the grazing response of copepods exposed to toxic prey. Prey selection in mixtures of several dinoflagellate species depended on whether the Alexandrium spp. cells present were toxic or non-toxic. C. hamatus and E. herdmani (but not A. tonsa) maintained daily carbon rations despite the presence of toxic Alexandrium spp., chiefly through increased consumption of alternate prey. For A. tonsa and C. hamatus, carbon rations were not equivalent between toxic and non-toxic Alexandrium spp. monoculture diets, indicating strong aversions to PSP toxins, and the potential for physiological effects when no other food is available. In all experiments feeding behavior varied among copepod species, suggesting that grazing pressure on toxic Alexandrium spp. is not uniform throughout the zooplankton community. The grazer-deterrent effects observed have implications for the function of PSP toxin

Hannibal at the Gates: An Analysis of the Punic Invasion of Italy in the Third Century BCE

This thesis examines Hannibal Barca and his role in the Second Punic War while scrutinizing his battle tactics to gain perspective on his military campaigns. Hannibal was the first Carthaginian general known to have been educated in Greek warfare. This training coupled with his natural affinity for warfare gave him a distinct advantage because the Greeks had developed the most advanced military theories and tactics of the time. There are no extant autobiographies of Hannibal or Carthaginian works on Hannibal, which has resulted in a historiographical bias. This thesis focuses on Hannibal's battle tactics in order to present this argument in as direct and unbiased a format as possible. A reexamination of Hannibal's tactics makes dissecting the imbalance between the ancient, primary sources and modern, secondary sources possible while ultimately giving a more realistic view of Hannibal

MGGPOD: a Monte Carlo Suite for Modeling Instrumental Line and Continuum Backgrounds in Gamma-Ray Astronomy

Intense and complex instrumental backgrounds, against which the much smaller signals from celestial sources have to be discerned, are a notorious problem for low and intermediate energy gamma-ray astronomy (~50 keV - 10 MeV). Therefore a detailed qualitative and quantitative understanding of instrumental line and continuum backgrounds is crucial for most stages of gamma-ray astronomy missions, ranging from the design and development of new instrumentation through performance prediction to data reduction. We have developed MGGPOD, a user-friendly suite of Monte Carlo codes built around the widely used GEANT (Version 3.21) package, to simulate ab initio the physical processes relevant for the production of instrumental backgrounds. These include the build-up and delayed decay of radioactive isotopes as well as the prompt de-excitation of excited nuclei, both of which give rise to a plethora of instrumental gamma-ray background lines in addition to continuum backgrounds. The MGGPOD package and documentation are publicly available for download from http://sigma-2.cesr.fr/spi/MGGPOD/. We demonstrate the capabilities of the MGGPOD suite by modeling high resolution gamma-ray spectra recorded by the Transient Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (TGRS) on board Wind during 1995. The TGRS is a Ge spectrometer operating in the 40 keV to 8 MeV range. Due to its fine energy resolution, these spectra reveal the complex instrumental background in formidable detail, particularly the many prompt and delayed gamma-ray lines. We evaluate the successes and failures of the MGGPOD package in reproducing TGRS data, and provide identifications for the numerous instrumental lines.Comment: 60 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ