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Gawande’s fourth popular book, Being Mortal, layers touching story after touching story into a devastating critique of how people approach the end of life. At times, keeping all the narratives straight proves difficult, yet each piece of each narrative remains powerful. These accounts are woven neatly together with personal and professional reflection as well as scholarship. For example, in the midst of telling readers about his grandmother-in-lawu27s approach to the end of life, surgeon/journalist Gawande (Brigham and Womenu27s Hospital; Harvard Medical School; The New Yorker) quotes B. Vladeck, summing up the origins of one problematic approach: “describing the history of nursing homes from the perspective of the elderly ‘is like describing the opening of the American West from the perspective of the mules’” (Unloving Care: The Nursing Home Tragedy, 1980). As Being Mortal draws to a close, Gawande offers some (albeit tentative) recommendations for improving how people face the end of life. Though he does not break new ground here, he rightly points out and announces human shortcomings in a way that all can see and understand. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries

Nucleobase biochemistry plays a central role in serving various needs of plants during their growth and development.The synthesis of nucleic acids, carbohydrate metabolism, and overall plant growth, development, and reproduction depends on a continuous flow of purines and pyrimidines attributed to a balance of different pathways like de novo synthesis, salvage pathways, and catabolic pathways.This intricate nucleobase biochemistry requires intra- and inter-cellular movement of nucleobases facilitated by different families of membrane transporter proteins.The genome of Zea mays contains three genes that encode for putative azagunainelike transporters (AZG) with high similarity to a previously characterized AZG transporter of Arabidopsis thaliana in our lab.The goal of this research is to identify the substrate specificity and binding properties of the three putative members of AZG-like family of Zea mays; ZmAZG1, ZmAZG2 and ZmAZG3.The genes encoding for ZmAZG1, ZmAZG2, and ZmAZG3 were independently PCR-cloned then spliced into a yeast expression vector, and the recombinant plasmids transformed into yeast cells lacking their native nucleobase transporters.The transgenic yeast cells were assayed for their ability to uptake a panel of radiolabeled nucleobases to reveal the transport profiles of the heterologously expressed ZmAZG transporters.The results show that ZmAZG1 facilitates transport of uracil whereas, ZmAZG3 transports adenine, guanine, cytosine and hypoxanthine.The kinetic properties of AZG-like transporters were further revealed using heterologous competition between radiolabeled [3H]- hypoxanthine as a substrate and an array of non-radioactive cold nucleobase competitors.For ZmAZG3, the nucleobase adenine competitively inhibited [3H]-hypoxanthine transport, whereas cytosine and xanthine were respectively found to be weak and poor competitive inhibitors.As for ZmAZG2, the nucleobases adenine and cytosine competitively inhibited [3H]-hypoxanthine transport, while xanthine and uric acid were respectively found to be weak and poor inhibitors.Moreover, both ZmAZG2 and ZmAZG3 continually transported [3H]-hypoxanthine over a period of two hours without reaching a saturation point suggesting their pivotal role in hypoxanthine transport.These findings shed light on the significant role the AZG-like transporters play in maize growth and development.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2015/1008/thumbnail.jp

In this presentation we consider the best uniform approximation of the u22checkmark functionu22 |x-a| by polynomials on the interval [-1,1]. The dynamic behavior of the points of alternation in terms of the parameter a is investigated. For certain values of this parameter the approximation gives rise to the classical polynomials of Chebyshev and Zolotarev. We include numerical computations to illustrate the results

This trip will cover the high-resolution sequence stratigraphy, depositional environment, process sedimentology, and paleontology of four spectacularly fossil-rich exposures of the Cincinnati Upper Ordovician (internationally the Katian Stage; in North America the Cincinnatian Series) in southeastern Indiana. Stops include Madison (Richmondian through Silurian), Lawrenceburg (Edenian and Maysvillian), Southgate Hill (Deeper water Richmondian), and Brookville Dam (Maysvillian) . The Cincinnatian is characterized by alternating beds of shell-rich limestones (shell beds) and fossil poor, mudstones. Limestone-rich and mud-rich intervals define meter scale and 10-meter-scale cycles. The sedimentological processes that generated these beds and cycles are the subject of recent research. We will discuss the role of high energy events and fluctuating sediment supply in generating these strata, and discuss the possibility of correlating meter-scale cycles across facies transitions over tens of kilometers of distance using physical, paleontological, and geochemical techniques. We will also discuss how sedimentological processes lead to the destruction of organic matter in a succession of obviously fossil-rich strata. There will be ample opportunity to collect a spectacularly fossil-rich slab, and perhaps even a perfect trilobite! The trip will depart from the Crowne Plaza Indianapolis at 8:00 AM and return at 6:30 PM. Antendees are urged to be flexible in scheduling Saturday evening activities

While several nonchromatographic methods are available for the isolation and purification of endohedral fullerenes of the type M3N@Ih-C80, little work has been done that would allow other members of the M3N@C2n family to be isolated with minimal chromatography. Here, we report that Gd3N@D2(35)-C88 can be isolated from the multitude of endohedral and empty cage fullerenes present in carbon soot obtained by electric-arc synthesis using Gd2O3-doped graphite rods. The procedure developed utilizes successive precipitation with the Lewis acids CaCl2 and ZnCl2 followed by treatment with amino-functionalized silica gel. The structure of the product was identified by single-crystal X-ray diffraction

The maintaining of separation between aircraft or any air bound projectile is an important concept in the daily lives of many people. Whether it is air traffic controllers in public transportation or military use in the battlefield, maintaining projectile separation can be the difference between success and tragedy. To prevent and resolve failures and operational errors that may occur, automated tools are being developed to assist in controlling traffic in airspaces. These automated tools not only need to process logistical data for each aircraft or projectile in a particular airspace, but they also need to provide collision-avoidance techniques such as airspace deconfliction. Developing these kinds of automated tools may be too computationally demanding for typical Central Processing Units (CPUs). Solutions to handling such computational stresses may come in the form of supercomputers or a series of computers executing in parallel. Though these come at a price and require additional resources, a solution involving low cost Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) may provide the processing power required by the air traffic control systems because of the parallel nature in which it is able to perform computations

As phototrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria are continually exposed to ultraviolet radiation as they harvest solar energy. In particular, long-wavelength ultraviolet radiation (UVA) damages living cells by releasing reactive oxygen species. To mitigate damage to the cell, some cyanobacteria produce a UVA-absorbing pigment in the extracellular sheath, known as scytonemin. Scytonemin is a heterocyclic, dimeric molecule that is only produced upon induction by UVA. In Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133, it is hypothesized that scytonemin is regulated by the two component regulatory system (TCRS) of NpF1277 (sensor kinase) and NpF1278 (response regulator). Gene expression of the TCRS was studied after exposure to UVA, UVB, high light, and oxidative stress after 20, 40, 60 min. The TCRS genes were significantly up-regulated after 20 min for the light-associated stresses (UVA, UVB, and high light) and after 60 min for high light, however they were down-regulated by 60 min under UVB. Furthermore, these genes did not significantly respond to oxidative stress for any of the tested time points. It was also concluded that the TCRS genes are co-transcribed in N. punctiforme. Finally, progress was made in the construction of an NpF1277 mutant strain. To do this, a deletion fragment of NpF1277 was created by fusion PCR and inserted into a conjugal vector. While mutants were not obtained, the construct has been constructed for future studies

Composition studies recognizes the power of writing to reshape and clarify an individual’s vision of who they are and what they value. Defining self is an individual and lifelong process that is not performed in isolation nor in a single event. Identifying the values, beliefs and culture that shape how you define self is a process of negotiation. Developed largely in narrative, oral, and life history studies, the careful study of how individuals represent themselves in writing opens windows to the soul of self-identification.Building off the qualitative practices of autoethnographic research, and placed within interpretive frameworks supplied by a Composing the Self course, I began to re-visit my own personal archive of nearly 30 years of journals to discover myself anew. My auto-ethnographic study of reflexive journal writing employs methodological practices to discover how personal identity building and counter-story creation occur in “ordinary writing.” As I began to examine the documents as substantive personal recollections of self-representation, a pattern of countery-story narrative emerged. The immediate and naturally imposed identifier of family name and heritage became the first powerful dynamic of self. Over time the connection to family and association to values that I had not consciously chose became a master narrative that I needed to negotiate. Writing allowed me to collect the words of others, sort through them, categorize them based on personal value, and then determine if they would be adopted, adapted, or alienated in my own renaming. My journals and the reflexive process of writing gave me the agency to respond to the imposed perspective of who I was supposed to be as delegated by family and who I desired to become. Journals, or diaries, are often categorized within larger discourses of memoir writing as flippant, narrative “storying,” or “discardable” (Finders 1997, Sinor 2002). The intrinsic value of analyzing journals as archived personal records beyond such diminishing categorical studies is the theoretical base for examining my own writing now as a burgeoning scholar in the field of composition studies. I have discovered that journal writing through life refutes the cultural presumption of flippant diaries written by emotionally unstable, young, twitter-patted girls; my journals carved out a literal and literary ‘safe-space’ in which to reflexively look at my life in process. This study presents the correlation of family cultural identity and self-identification in writing as a re-vision of journals as literary site for individual discovery of identity. Specific coding for identifiers within my journals revealed how writing is the ability to name not only the powers that pressure personal development, but also to rename the value of self. Seen as artifacts in a personal archive, each journal pieced together the puzzle of not only who I saw myself to be, but how I negotiated my pre-determined role in a family culture. This study further claims that identity building is a personal and individual type of activism in writing.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2015/1010/thumbnail.jp

The correlation between child hearing health and parent socioeconomic status has been suggested by many, but actual data is limited. This study examined the hearing screening pass/fail rates of children ages three through five years old who attended one of the eight Community Action of Northeast Indiana Head Start centers in three counties (Allen, Noble, and Whitley) during the fall of 2014. The subjects of this study included 435 students, ages three through five years old who underwent otoscopic examination and otoacoustic emission testing. For comparison, the children were divided into eight different groups based on the preschool’s zip code. There was a clear correlation between the percentage of students who passed their initial preschool hearing screening with median annual household income as determined by the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data. The correlation coefficient was .75. A second comparison which included just the children from the Fort Wayne urban area yielded a correlation coefficient of .80. Since the main criterion for Head Start eligibility is family at or below poverty level, the correlation of pass rates with median income in the surrounding neighborhood suggests that more affluent neighborhoods support better health care outcomes even for the most disadvantages families. These results suggest that there should be a strong emphasis on the needs of the preschool children from socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods when planning preschool hearing screening services.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2015/1063/thumbnail.jp

The demand for a sustainable source of high quality protein increases, marine invertebrates such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers are becoming increasingly important in aquaculture, in addition to becoming important in developing marine medicines. As with other aquatic species in aquaculture, stress can also have a significant impact these species. Hence, we wanted to study the impact of potentially aquaculture related stressors, such as low salinity and handling, using a variety of physiological and immunological tests on the coelomic fluid of the sea cucumber, Parastichopus californicus, and the sea urchin, Stronglyocentrotus purpurtatus. Based on the results obtained, sea urchins kept in handling and salinity stress conditions showed significantly more stress responses than controls, whereas sea cucumbers did not show any significant differences across the treatment groups. This would indicate that sea cucumbers are a more viable candidate for aquaculture than sea urchins, as they appear to be more resistant to stress. Based on this, the use of sea cucumbers in aquaculture should be more widely encouraged in the United States.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2015/1065/thumbnail.jp

Many of the applicable properties of aerogels are related to the size of their pores. These properties, which include thermal conductivity, dielectric constant, and Rayleigh scattering, might therefore be useful in determining pore size. An aerogel’s pore size is affected by the methods used in its creation, and is somewhat indicative of its quality. Measurements of pore size can therefore be useful in perfecting aerogel production. Optimizing production will make them more applicable in electrical and optical systems, as well as increasing their effectiveness as thermal insulators. I will present my results on making aerogels and also my techniques for determining pore size.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2015/1070/thumbnail.jp

The requirement for dc (average) voltage power supply for the functionality of consumer electronics has made the study of rectifier circuits a very popular topic in analog electronics course. DC power pact (unit) could be inbuilt with the electronic appliances as seen in desktop computers and some heavy telecom equipment or they could be separate, detachable (plug in) unit as seen in laptops, cell phones, iPads and tablets. In this class project, we designed and constructed a 12 V, dc regulated, bridge rectifier. Bridge rectifier is chosen over half‐wave rectifier or full‐wave center‐tap because of its many advantages over the two. The displayed results include the transformer step‐down voltage waveform, the unfiltered and capacitor‐filtered dc rectified waveforms and the ripple voltage waveform. The 146 mV peak‐to‐peak ripple voltage obtained accounted for less than 2 percent of the 12 V rectified dc voltage and it matches the theoretical values computed. This qualifies the dc power supply we constructed as an ideal candidate for powering laptops and other related electronic equipment

This paper describes a mathematical model for simulating the transient processes which occur in liquid flat-plate solar collectors. A discrete nodal model that represents the flat-plate solar collectoru27s layers and the storage tank is employed. The model is based on solving a system of coupled differential equations which describe the energy conservation for the glass cover, air gap, absorber, fluid, insulation, and the storage tank. Inputs to the model include the time-varying liquid flow rate, incident solar radiation, and the ambient air temperature, as well as the volume of liquid in the storage tank and initial temperature of the system. The system of differential equations is solved iteratively using an implicit, finite-difference formulation executed with MATLAB software. In order to verify the proposed method, an experiment was designed and conducted on different days with variable ambient conditions and flow rates. The comparison between the computed and measured results of the transient fluid temperature at the collector outlet shows good agreement. The proposed method is extremely general and flexible accounting for variable ambient conditions and flow rates and allowing for a geometrical and thermophysical description of all major components of the solar collector system, including the storage tank. The validated, general model is suitable to investigate the effectiveness of various components without the necessity of carrying out experimental work, and the flexible computational scheme is useful for transient simulations of energy systems

Finding a comfortable and functional life is a challenge for many individuals living with chronic mental illness. Even when active symptoms are resolved and the individual is deemed “stable,” the residual traumas of mental illness, including loneliness, loss, grief, and stigma, persist, severely reducing quality of life and acting as destabilizers. Our current healthcare system is not inclined to spend time and dollars on symptomatology that is not immediately injurious to self or others or actively troublesome in social contexts, so these lingering symptoms that are psychological and emotional in nature become invisible, except by those for whom they are daily experiences. Research literature from positive psychology suggests that addressing the issues of self-concept, self-efficacy, and quality of life is integral to successful recovery from mental illness. Music therapy provides opportunities for individuals living with chronic mental illness to address these types of subjective goals through music engagement that allows them to be heard, to build relationships, and to re-experience the wholeness of their own humanity. Several music therapy perspectives that incorporate aspects of Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI) are identified, and clinical vignettes are shared that explore just a few of the ways that music allows these individuals to find relief from invisible symptoms, including building new, meaningful relationships, finding new identity beyond mental illness, and discovering enjoyment, camaraderie, and new roles in shared social experiences. The effective incorporation of PPI into clinical practice regardless of theoretical orientation or clinical approach is discussed, as demonstrated by the vignettes

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of behavioral contracting on preservice elementary teachers’ performance achievement on the soprano recorder. Participants were elementary and special education majors (N = 60) enrolled in an undergraduate elementary music methods course. The study used a withdrawal design (ABA) composed of 2-week baseline–contract–baseline phases. Participants performed an assigned excerpt on the soprano recorder at the conclusion of each phase, and the tempo and number of errors performed were scored as data points for each participant. Results showed that participants performed with significantly higher tempos and significantly fewer errors during the contracting phase. Following the contracting phase, participants’ performed tempo continued to increase even in the absence of the behavioral contract. These results are consistent with previous research suggesting that behavioral contracting does have a positive impact on students’ performance skills

Due to low energy demands and infrequent feeding, little is known about potential fitness trade-offs for temperate pitvipers which must balance remaining stationary to acquire and digest food while traversing large areas to procure mating opportunities. We radio-tracked 16 male Massasaugas (Sistrurus catenatus) from May to August 2014 in northern Michigan, half of which were fed a supplement diet of mice, and compared body condition as well as space and habitat use between the two treatments. Fed snakes were in better body condition than unfed controls at the end of the study. Microhabitat selection of fed snakes did not differ from controls. Prior to the mating season, fed snakes had smaller activity ranges than controls, but there was no difference in activity range size or movement patterns during the breeding period. Our results suggest supplemental feeding reduced movements related to foraging prior to the breeding season, but movements associated with finding mates exert a significant pressure on males, causing them to forgo stationary digestion in exchange for increasing the prospect of reproducing. Given the infrequent reproductive rates of female Massasaugas in northern latitudes, intense mate searching by males may be a fixed behavior in these populations, regardless of food intake

Sea urchins and sea cucumbers are becoming increasingly important sources of food and marine pharmaceuticals. Sea urchin roe has been considered a delicacy for many years, and the demand for it has been increasing. Sea cucumbers are a valuable resource both for food and the production of nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. Though there have been many fisheries established to harvest sea urchins, many of them have been greatly depleted, or yield poor quality roe. Since the sea cucumber is such a valuable product, the market for the giant California sea cucumber, Parastichopus californicus, has greatly increased, which has caused the establishment of fisheries along the west coast of North America. However, because the sea cucumber industry is poorly regulated, the fisheries are not believed to be sustainable, and there is interest in promoting the aquaculture of this species. In order to alleviate these problems, both for sea urchins and sea cucumbers, intensive aquaculture is generating interest as a solution. However, when an animal is placed into an artificial system, there are a variety of stresses that it can encounter, such as salinity changes or handling. In addition, sea urchins are a primary research model for embryological and developmental research, and sea cucumbers are being used in research as sources of marine based medicines, both of which necessitates the handling of the adult animals, which can cause stress. Since aquaculture conditions can cause stress to animals, which makes them more susceptible to disease, it is important to determine the stress susceptibility of sea urchins and sea cucumber to two potential stresses, handling and low salinity. In order to study the impact of these stressors, a variety of physiological and immunological assays were done on the coelomic fluid of purple sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and giant California sea cucumbers. Assays included total and differential cell counts, packed cell volume, coelomic fluid protein, phagocytic capacity, lytic activity, and respiratory burst activity. These assays were chosen as there tend to be clear changes in individuals that experience stress as compared to unstressed individuals. Our results indicated that low salinity and handling both cause significant stress responses in both physiological and immunological parameters in sea urchins relative to controls. For sea cucumbers, there were few significant differences from the control, and no differences in parameters analyzing immune function. These results indicate that the giant California sea cucumber is more likely to be productive in an aquaculture environment than the purple sea urchin, and that facilities interested in raising sea urchins should be particularly careful to avoid any condition that is potentially stressful

I walked attendees though lesser-known compositions by great composers appropriate for all levels of choirs from every major era of music history available for free online, from the Renaissance to the Modern era

The quality of properly managed habitat is a high priority in wildlife conservation. Landscape modifications have been implemented by natural resource managers to improve conditions for a variety of imperiled species, but relatively little is known regarding how massasaugas respond to land management. We used radio telemetry to monitor the spatial ecology of snakes before an experimental clear cutting operation, in the short-term (1-2 years) post-cutting, and long-term (u3e5 years) in northern Michigan. The removal of tree canopy was done in hopes of providing snakes with greater access to basking habitat. Snakes utilized the clear-cuts in the short term, but usage was lower than would be expected by chance. Furthermore, no females gestated or gave birth in manipulated sites during those years. In the long-term, use of the clear-cuts was much higher and two females produced litters within the harvested areas. Our findings suggest that timber harvest is tolerated by massasauga populations, and may also serve as a conservation tool for management of the species

Provide an empowering learning experience to motivate your students to their best work. Design and deliver a course that focuses students’ time and attention on developing a semester/service-learning project