Quinebaug Valley Community College

The metabolic effects of a high protein diet (HPD) were studied in eight patients with idiopathic recurrent calcium oxalate stones. On the HPD there was a 35% increase in urinary calcium concomitant with increased excretion of cyclic AMP and hydroxyproline. These findings point to an enhanced resorption of bone, possibly secondary to increased renal loss of calcium. The urinary citrate decreased by 25% along with reduced serum standard bicarbonate and urinary pH. The high formation of acid metabolites might also have adverse effects on calcium balance and bone. Urinary oxalate excretion was not affected nor were there any significant changes in the calculated urinary supersaturation of calcium oxalate, if changes in urinary citrate, pH, sulphate, sodium, phosphate and volume were also considered. This study suggests that the possible negative influence on the propensity to form renal stones of a diet rich in animal protein is probably due to reduced urinary inhibitory activity.

The inhibitory effects of essential oils extracted from 10 Indian plants were evaluated against five fungi. The plants used for extraction of essential oils were six species of the genus Eucalyptus and Ocimum basilicum, Prosopis cineraria and Derris indica. The fungi used in the experiments were Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum, F. pallidoroseum, F. acuminatum and F. chlamydosporum. The susceptibility of the Fusarium species was tested by the paper disc method and the serial dilution technique. The results were compared with the inhibitory effects of miconazole on the fungi. The essential oils extracted from the Eucalyptus species markedly inhibited fungal growth. Prosopis cineraria did not show inhibiting properties. Among the fungi, F. oxysporum proved to be the most resistant species.

Initial tests indicate that personal and occupational use of personal digital assistants (PDAs or palm-held wireless units) produce high intensity bursts of extremely-low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF). These emissions could result in comparatively high ELF-EMF exposure in persons that carry a PDA close to the body (i.e., in a pocket or on a belt); or held to the head for cell phone conversations. ELF-EMF emissions of 10 microT were recorded on PDAs during normal office use over a 24 h test period. Results of ELF-EMF measurements show that email transmit and receive functions produce rapid, short-duration ELF-EMF spikes in the 2-10 microT range, each lasting several seconds to over a minute apparently depending on file download size. Some units produced spikes as high as 30-60 microT during email activities. Cell phone activity on PDAs produced continuously elevated ELF-EMF readings in the 0.5-1 microT range, as opposed to the rapid spiking pattern for email receipt and transmission. Switching the PDA unit from "OFF" to "ON" position resulted in single ELF-EMF pulses of over 90 microT on two units. Email downloads into the PDA can occur randomly throughout the day and night when the unit is "ON"; thus the user who wears the PDA may be receiving high-intensity ELF-EMF pulses throughout the day and night. The frequency of email traffic on the PDA, and the power switching unit (battery unit) may affect the frequency and intensity of ELF-EMF emissions.

In this second article of the new series on ecoliteracy, Carmen Cid and Richard Pouyat make the case for “place-based” research, especially for ecosystems dominated by human activities. The authors suggest ecologists should avoid the traditional approach of “scientist as observer” and become more integrated (socially) into the ecosystems they are investigating, for more effective environmental problem solving. Although ecologists have long conducted research within human-dominated landscapes, in the past, ecological research explicitly avoided recognizing humans as components of ecosystems (McDonnell and Pickett 1993; Miller and Hobbs 2002). This omission and the challenges of conducting transdisciplinary research (Pickett et al. 1999; Fry 2001) have resulted in an overall lack of understanding of human dominated ecosystems, leading, in turn, to the absence of an ecological foundation for informed decision making (ie an ecoliterate public). Indeed, even when ecological knowledge has been available to decision makers, it has not been used effectively in determining public policy or managing ecological systems (Pouyat et al. 2010; Sarewitz 2004). Since decision makers and the public are not typically ecoliterate (Cardelús and Middendorf 2013), ecologists must engage the public and help them to appreciate the value of incorporating ecological principles in developing, implementing, and interpreting policies to protect the environment. More recently, research in urban ecological systems has yielded insights into how ecologists can better integrate their research into decision making (Alberti 2008; McDonnell et al. 2009; Pickett et al. 2010). Even with these advances, research in human-dominated ecosystems continues to be a challenge due to the complexity introduced by the activity and behavior of people (Marzluff et al. 2008). The methodologies, conceptual frameworks, and mathematical models used by ecologists have largely avoided integrating the human impact on ecosystem interactions and functions (Groffman and Likens 1994). Consequently, ecologists have been using the traditional tools available to them. Modern “urban” ecologists refer to this approach as conducting ecology in the city (Collins et al. 2000), which has certainly led to a greater understanding of urban ecological systems, although not at a truly integrated level (Pickett et al. 2001, 2010). If ecologists are to predict the responses of human-dominated ecosystems to environmental and anthropogenic perturbations, they must understand the feedbacks between the human and biophysical components of ecosystems. In the case of urban ecological systems, ecologists refer to this level of engagement as ecology of the city (Collins et al. 2000). While more predictive power can come from an ecological understanding of the city (eg Pickett et al. 2010), ecologists continue to observe from outside rather than as part of the ecological system, much in the same way they conduct studies of other ecological systems. This traditional approach of “scientist as observer” can limit the opportunities for ecologists to affect decision making or feedbacks from within the system itself, whether that system occurs in or near urban or rural communities. When ecologists and their research are integral to the ecosystem they are investigating, however, we consider this level of involvement as the human-centered approach (sensu Kingsland 2005). We propose that this approach leads to more effective problem solving that is tied to societal needs, such that ecological science becomes part of the decision-making process. Moreover, a human-centered approach is more likely to occur when teams of scientists focus their research on a “place” that people inhabit or utilize for resources, such as fiber or water. Place-based research has been highly successful in the study of ecological systems, as seen in some of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) and the US Forest Service's Experimental Forest and Rangeland sites. However, only rarely have these sites been located in places inhabited by people or dominated by human activity (eg LTER sites in Baltimore, Maryland; Phoenix, Arizona; and the Kellogg Biological Station near Kalamazoo, Michigan). Place-based research in human-dominated ecosystems leads to the development of a social infrastructure with common environmental management goals, into which ecologists can fully integrate their investigations (Felson et al. 2013). Under such circumstances, ecologists can partner with public institutions or community groups to facilitate data collection, interpretation, and use to enable environmentally sound decision making by individuals and local government entities (Barthel 2006; Ernston et al. 2008). Place-based research in which ecologists have developed community partnerships for environmental stewardship has been successful in increasing the relevance of ecological research to environmental decision making. Besides the urban and agricultural LTER sites, another successful example is the Long Tom Watershed Council's work in Oregon's Willamette Valley. This agriculturally rich area generates complex environmental management problems related to water quality and threatened or endangered species (Flitcroft et al. 2009). Here, scientists are partnering with landowners in data collection, project planning, and ecological restoration, helping to structure educational outreach with the aim of answering community-generated questions and building trust. This place-based research model shows that protection and restoration of important habitats requires transdisciplinary interpretation of scientific findings and insights that are adapted to the local situation, and confirms how important it is that action plans be both socially and ecologically viable (sensu Berkes and Folke 1998; Pouyat et al. 2010). Other effective, community-engaging examples include various invasive species and nature-reserve management models developed in the US (Marzluff et al. 2001; Epanchin-Niell et al. 2010), Australia (Hobbs and Mooney 1998), and Europe (Barthel et al. 2005; Tress et al. 2005). We therefore argue that ecologists can better integrate their research and knowledge into decision making by taking a research approach that is human centered; this often involves: (1) developing stewardship-focused partnerships through outreach and dialogue with community stakeholders and policy makers, and (2) engaging in place-based research, particularly in systems inhabited or utilized by humans. To incorporate the interdisciplinary team-building needed for human-centered ecological research and to make ecological work relevant to decision making, we need to train some ecologists to work at the interface of science, policy, and management, and to teach graduate students not only research skills but also communication, management, and “people” skills. Examples of effective education approaches that address these needs include interdisciplinary curricula that integrate the social, natural, and physical sciences while adopting the human-centered approach (eg School of Sustainability at Arizona State University); ecology courses with curricula tied to local environmental problems, including the development of “green” college campuses as labs (eg Grant 2003; Lowman 2010); and science communication courses that teach students how to convey ecological concepts, including the role that uncertainty plays in data interpretation (eg Lubchenco et al. 1998; Weiss 2003; Foote et al. 2009; Biggs et al. 2010; Lowman 2010). Ecology, as with other scientific disciplines, has encountered many cultural and institutional barriers in its integration with public policy (Pouyat 1999; Sarewitz 2004). Ecologists therefore also need to develop educational outreach programs that engage the diverse communities involved in and affected by policy development related to local environmental issues. For example, to maximize effective information delivery and access, ecologists can engage a diverse range of the public through partnerships with local religious institutions and non-governmental organizations (Hitzhusen 2011). Nationally, ecologists can work with media organizations that already promote public service announcements on current environmental issues (eg Hispanic Communications Network's radio affiliate network “La Red Hispana”, www.hcnmedia.com), and integrate accessible educational databases into large-scale environmental research projects (see National Ecological Observatory Network initiative, www.neoninc.org/about/ overview) that place local environmental issues into a national perspective. Ecologists can also take advantage of the guidelines provided by the Ecological Society of America's (ESA) Public Affairs Office for identifying and making effective use of opportunities to communicate ecological knowledge to the public (ESA 2011). Ecologists with experience in citizen-science projects have also generated guidelines for engaging diverse audiences in the appreciation of ecological research and for effective use of public assistance in collecting data for solving community-relevant environmental problems (Dickinson et al. 2012; Pandya 2012). Several authors have addressed ways in which ecologists can engage in the policy-making process (Pouyat 1999; Airame 2003; Leidner 2009; Nelson and Vucetich 2009), while others have recommended caution because ecologists risk being perceived as environmental advocates rather than as scientists who objectively conduct ecological research (Alpert and Keller 2003; Laurenroth 2003). Whatever the case, conceptual frameworks for facilitating the effective use of scientific knowledge in policy and decision making suggest that we need to improve our delivery (translation and mediation) of ecological knowledge (Cash et al. 2003), be actively involved in managing the “supply and demand” of such knowledge (Sarewitz and Pielke 2007), and “embed” ecologists within the institutions that make or implement policy (Pouyat 2007). We suggest that place-based research in any human-dominated ecosystem enables or facilitates these practices while at the same time minimizing the confusion or conflict over whether an ecologist is advocating for the environment or for science (Pouyat et al. 2010). While professional organizations like ESA can help in making policy-relevant ecological research available and understandable, it will take collaborative partnerships among local groups and the ecological, business, and education communities to truly realize the benefits of the human-centered approach. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

The World Bank has for over a decade tried to formalize the informal economy in Kosovo. However, local journalists and businessmen among others provide an alternative understanding of informality that problematizes the World Bank’s view and actions. Against this backdrop, the article analyses the constitution and the constitutive effects of the World Bank’s anti-informality operations in Kosovo between 1999 and 2014. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s power analytics, the article claims that the Bank’s agenda, and the economic ideas enacted through it, does structure and shape informal economic practices on the ground. Yet this structuring involves two forms of misrecognition. As a result, informality is paradoxically constituted (in novel ways) and reconstituted through the World Bank’s imposed anti-informality agenda. The article concludes with a discussion of how this underlines the need for policy solutions that depart from liberal peacebuilding’s subject–object distinction to form instead around an acknowledgement of informality as emergent and transforming throughout international interventions.

Abstract I studied Louisiana (Seiurus motacilla) and Northern (S. noveboracensis) waterthrushes during an exceptionally dry spring to determine if environmental stress elicited interspecific competition. Previously, I had found little evidence for competition between these species despite wide overlap in foraging methods, use of foraging microhabitats, and characteristics of breeding habitat. I observed breeding adults forage by placing them in a portable flight cage located in natural habitat, and concurrently gathered data on the influence of waterthrush foraging on aquatic invertebrate prey and prey abundance. The species selected different prey. Louisiana Waterthrushes fed predominantly on Trichoptera larvae and on larger average prey than did Northern Waterthrushes, which fed predominantly on Diptera larvae. The species had similar foraging methods and attack rates, indicating that, unlike many Parulinae, their principal foraging differences were in prey selection rather than in means of locating prey. Experiments with foraging exclosures gave no clear evidence that waterthrushes affected prey biomass or composition. There was no significant relation between territory size vs. prey biomass and water cover. No interspecific aggression was observed, and territories overlapped widely, indicating that interference competition did not occur. Divergence in prey selection implies exploitive competition, but invertebrate and habitat data indicate that prey were not limiting, thus making competition for prey unnecessary. Therefore, from these data I cannot eliminate the alternative hypothesis that observed differences between the species may only reflect independent specialization.

A brief Socratic dialogue is employed to facilitate adult students' comprehension of the mole concept. Continuing education students are found to benefit from using the dialogue format to learn chemistry.

As community colleges seek new revenue streams, philanthropic organizations, including college foundations and private funders, have already begun to influence both revenues and college programming. This chapter discusses the current role of philanthropy, especially private foundations such as the Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to provide revenue and direction to community colleges. The chapter also explores untapped potentials and the role of local college foundations and alumni in contributing resources.

Scientific visualization techniques offer plenty of opportunities for enhancing learning in the high school and undergraduate classroom. We explore several directions in using scientific visualization approaches in both computational geography and introductory astronomy courses. The techniques include VRML, visualization and statistical analysis of spatial data with geographic information systems (GIS), and visualization and qualitative analysis of flexible image transport system (FITS) astrophysics files. In addition we will look at the collaborative use of graphics over the Internet in distance instruction. The geography courses are part of an experiment conducted by NPACI's Education Center (EC/CSE) while the astronomy courses are part of a NSF grant (DUE #9751569) at Quinebaug Valley Community Technical College in Danielson Connecticut. In the geography experiment at NPACI's Education Center we found that sharing graphics and applications between instructor and students proved to be critically important in our distance teaching from San Diego State University and Western Michigan University using a collaborative Web-based environment. Manipulating VRML representations of several layers of geological information derived from a GIS database, was important in teaching GIS to geology students. We will discuss the setup and outcomes of the experiments, the results of student surveys, and lessons we learned, in both technical and pedagogical areas(See http://www.edcenter.sdsu.edu/training/disted/collabpres.html#3mystuff). At QVCTC downloading FITS files from the Internet and analyzing them is becoming an important part of the introductory astronomy and other general science courses. Manipulating and understanding FITS files in both collaborative and individual projects is becoming critical to teaching students concepts in deep space science. We will discuss the range of projects and the educational outcomes. In addition we will touch on using published abstracts and papers available on the Internet to help students understand some of the features in the data sets used. Scientific visualization was also used to discover and address student misconceptions in astronomy andphysics. Finally we will evaluate a small set of low end (Win95 and WinNT) and high end (UNIX workstation) FITS programs and their strengths and weaknesses (see http://eta-carinae.commnet.edu:2005/fits/). Like many new educational technologies scientific visualization holds great promise for the future. As a tool it will make more complex concepts easier to learn. It will enable to students to discover and learn for themselves many of the scientific ideas that they learned by rote before. Scientific visualization will also change the nature of what is taught in the classroom. The tools used by professionals will increasing become an important part of the curriculum in undergraduate and even high school education as the Internet expands and inexpensive computers become more powerful. This will allow teachers to concentrate on what science is as it is practiced today. The danger is that by concentrating on the tools, science will be lost in the technology. By carefully balancing scientific visualization techniques with content the science classroom can become a much richer environment for learning.

Abstract An alarm system is described which monitors air pressure in fish hatcheries operating such equipment as air-lift pumps. The system monitors air pressures from 0.3 to 5.0 lb/in2 supplied in 1 1/4-in polyvinyl chloride pipe. A drop in pressure to 1.0 lb/in2 activates a pressure-differential switch, which sets off an alarm. The system can operate on either 110-V AC or 12-V DC electric power.

The National Computational Science Alliance's Education and Outreach Team (EOT) is working with the Alliance's Environmental Hydrology Applications Technology Team (EH-AT) to make information technolgies for watershed monitoring, system modeling, simulation, and data visualization and analysis accessible to educational communities and the public at large. The broad vision here is promote the education of 21st century citizens to participate actively in science-based informed debate and policy-making about the management of natural resources vital to their communities. As one step towards realizing this vision, we have assembled a team of middle and high school teachers, instructional designers, scientists and other researchers to build a framework on the world wide web to support inquiry-based, project driven watershed science activities that explicitly address national and state standards. We have named this project the RiverWeb Toolsuite™ Our paper will review progress and outline future plans.Project partners have brought together experience from other educational efforts in environmental hydrology and ecology. For example, NCSA is a partner in the Mississippi RiverWebSM Museum Consortium, which expects to be awarded a major grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a number of museum- and web-based virtual reality simulations of river basin processes. Teachers from the Maryland Virtual High School of Science and Mathematics have created and managed a stream quality modeling project through which students state-wide have collaborated in submitting stream quality data and used teacher and student designed computer models to compare stream health. MVHS has also initiated discussions with a University of Maryland Center for Ecological Studies research team to determine how their state of the art watershed model maybe made accessible to educators and students. The Ohio Supercomputer Center brings to the partnership expertise in water quality data gathering and analysis.We are building a proof of concept prototype suite of tools that encompass gathering, viewing and analysis of spatial data across various scales, from local field data to regional data. The prototype will support web-mediated interaction with pre-built, demonstration models of watershed hydrology and ecology addressing local environmental issues and problems. We have begun to assess to what extent these tools and supporting curriculum materials promote and support authentic, inquiry-driven learning in environmental science as delineated in state and national standards. Small focus groups of teachers have helped in evaluating aspects of usability and relevance to the high school curriculum. Science and technology coordinators have been consulted on design and content issues related to standards and available technology.Methodology is under development for investigating additional research questions such as whether and to what degree integration of complementary tools within a unified, curriculum-grounded framework can help transform classroom practice, how the use of computational models can promote authentic learning and how this learning can be linked to community concerns. Prototype development is also helping us to provide feedback to the Alliance EH-AT pertaining to its research program to develop and test watershed management decision support systems. Perhaps most significantly, current collaboration efforts have helped us define the needs and strengths of a distributed working group that encompasses the viewpoints of varied constituencies.

Mission:Explore Food is a revolutionary cookbook, guide, fieldbook and atlas to what we grow in the ground, chase around fields, put in our mouths, poo out our bums and plant our seeds in. The book will include scores of both delicious and disgusting recipes, missions, games and wisdom on good ways to find, eat and dispose of food.

We propose a surface modification procedure to construct DNA arrays for use in surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging studies for the highly sensitive detection of a K-ras point mutation, enhanced with hydrogel nanospheres. A homobifunctional alkane dithiol was adsorbed on Au film to obtain the thiol surface, and ethyleneglycol diglycidylether (EGDE) was reacted to insert the ethyleneglycol moiety, which can suppress nonspecific adsorption during SPR analysis. Then streptavidin (SA) was immobilized on EGDE using tosyl chloride activation. Biotinylated DNA ligands were bound to the SA surface via biotin-SA interaction to fabricate DNA arrays. In SPR analysis, the DNA analyte was exposed on the DNA array and hybridized with the immobilized DNA probes. Subsequently, the hydrogel nanospheres conjugated with DNA probes were bound to the DNA analytes in a sandwich configuration. The DNA-carrying nanospheres led to SPR signal enhancement and enabled us to discriminate a K-ras point mutation in the SPR difference image. The application of DNA-carrying hydrogel nanospheres for SPR imaging assays was a promising technique for high throughput and precise detection of point mutations.

As many articles in the March 2009 issue of PMLA imply, the question of ability is central to any consideration of the human. For example, in “Human, All Too Human: ‘Animal Studies’ and the Humanities” (124.2 [2009]: 564–75), Cary Wolfe shows how the humanities transgresses its own limits and thereby shifts its locus and center. Insofar as this broad area of study is the appropriate venue for reflection on the discursive boundary of the human, it must erase that boundary.

La manière dont les individus se meuvent, réfléchissent et s’expriment exerce de complexes influences sur la construction subjective, intersubjective et sociétale des genres et des sexualités. La masculinité, la féminité et l’intimité ne peuvent, autrement dit, être détachées des normes sur les capacités et les incapacités. Ces intrications se déploient notamment dans le champ communicatif du bégaiement. Un nombre grandissant de travaux révèlent que les hommes qui bégaient entrent en contradiction avec l’archétype d’une voix masculine assertive et assurée, alors que les femmes qui bégaient battent en brèche le stéréotype de la présomption féminine à la loquacité. Le bégaiement, qui plus est, complexifierait la rencontre de partenaires intimes. Force est d’admettre que ces écrits ont cependant été frappés par des biais hétéronormatifs et cisnormatifs, résultant en une carence de recherches auprès des personnes issues de la diversité sexuelle et de genre. Cette étude s’attèle à examiner le rapport qu’entretiennent les personnes queers et trans qui bégaient avec leur orientation sexuelle, leur identité de genre et leur parole. Dans le cadre d’une approche qualitative, des entretiens semi-dirigés ont été menés auprès de 19 adultes queers et trans qui bégaient vivant au Royaume-Uni, au Canada et aux États-Unis. Une analyse thématique a permis l’identification de quatre thèmes phares : (1) le rapport subjectif pluriel et dynamique au bagage identitaire, (2) les obstacles au développement d’un rapport positif à soi (3) les stratégies pour naviguer la marginalisation et (4) le rôle facilitant ou complexifiant des identités imbriquées dans l’acceptation de soi. Les résultats suggèrent que, face au poids des discours dominants qui marginalisent la diversité sexuelle, de genre et communicationnelle, l’intégration harmonieuse de la queeritude, de la transitude et du bégaiement représente un parcours de longue haleine. Les personnes queers et trans qui bégaient mobilisent différentes tactiques pour mener à terme cette quête, au premier rang desquelles se trouve la connexion aux autres. Les expériences en lien avec le bégaiement, la queeritude et la transitude empruntent chacune des avenues distinctes, quoiqu’entrecroisées. Cette étude offre la première documentation empirique du vécu du bégaiement chez la pluralité des genres et offre des pistes de réflexion pour affiner la pratique sexologique et orthophonique auprès de cette population. _____________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : queer, transgenre, bégaiement, hétéronormativité, cisnormativité, capacitisme, oppressions, empowerment