Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory [22nd ed. 2003]

This 22nd edition of Foundations in Wisconsin (2003) is the first produced by the new Marquette University John P. Raynor, S.J., Library. The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was extracted from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. However, additional information was obtained from surveys, annual reports, and foundation Web sites. The economy has slowed the growth of Wisconsin foundations. While the number of active foundations grew to 1160 (up slightly from 1151 last year), other areas are showing decline. For the first time in 23 years of reporting, both grants and assets decreased rather than increased. Grants decreased by .6% as compared to last year’s increase of 7.7%. Assets declined by 6.3%, down from the .3% increase documented in 2002. The following table illustrates the financial pattern over the last 10 editions.https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fiw/1008/thumbnail.jp

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory [23rd ed. 2004]

This 2004 edition of Foundations in Wisconsin marks the 23rd release of the print directory and the 4th year of the online version. The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was extracted from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. However, additional information was obtained from surveys, annual reports, and foundation Web sites. Wisconsin foundations have shown small increases as compared to the 2003 edition. The number of active foundations has grown to an all-time high of 1184. Both total assets and grants for the state’s foundations increased from 2003, albeit not to the heights documented in the 2002 edition. Total assets grew by 1.53% and total grants by .23%. The following table details the financial pattern over the 10 years.https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fiw/1007/thumbnail.jp

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory [24th ed. 2005]

The 2005 release of Foundations in Wisconsin marks the 24th edition of the print directory and the 5th year of the online version (www.wifoundations.org). The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was extracted from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. However, additional information was obtained from surveys, annual reports, and foundation Web sites. The 2005 edition documents the significant economic rebound and growth of Wisconsin foundations. The number of active grant making foundations has risen to an all-time high of 1213. As compared to last year’s numbers, total grants increased by 10% and total assets by 2%, the highest the totals have ever been.https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fiw/1005/thumbnail.jp

Hippocampal Pathway Plasticity Is Associated with the Ability to Form Novel Memories in Older Adults

White matter deterioration in the aging human brain contributes to cognitive decline. The fornix as main efferent hippocampal pathway is one of the tracts most strongly associated with age-related memory impairment. Its deterioration may predict conversion to Alzheimer’s dementia and its precursors. However, the associations between the ability to form novel memories, fornix microstructure and plasticity in response to training have never been tested. In the present study, 25 healthy older adults (15 women; mean age (SD): 69 (6) years) underwent an object-location training on three consecutive days. Behavioral outcome measures comprised recall performance on the training days, and on 1-day and 1-month follow up assessments. MRI at 3 Tesla was assessed before and after training. Fornix microstructure was determined by fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity (MD) values from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In addition, hippocampal volumes were extracted from high-resolution images; individual hippocampal masks were further aligned to DTI images to determine hippocampal microstructure. Using linear mixed model analysis, we found that the change in fornix FA from pre- to post-training assessment was significantly associated with training success. Neither baseline fornix microstructure nor hippocampal microstructure or volume changes were significantly associated with performance. Further, models including control task performance (auditory verbal learning) and control white matter tract microstructure (uncinate fasciculus and parahippocampal cingulum) did not yield significant associations. Our results confirm that hippocampal pathways respond to short-term cognitive training, and extend previous findings by demonstrating that the magnitude of training-induced structural changes is associated with behavioral success in older adults. This suggests that the amount of fornix plasticity may not only be behaviorally relevant, but also a potential sensitive biomarker for the success of training interventions aimed at improving memory formation in older adults, a hypothesis to be evaluated in future studies

Soil surface-active fauna in degraded and restored lands of Northeast Brazil.

Land degradation reducing vegetation cover may affect the soil surface-active fauna because both aboveground and belowground invertebrates depend on complex plant communities. In this study, we evaluated the effect of land degradation and restoration on soil fauna in northeast Brazil. Sites differed in degradation status: native vegetation, moderately degraded land, highly degraded land, and land under restoration for 4 years.Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/ldr.224

Soil microbial properties and temporal stability in degraded and restored lands of Northeast Brazil.

Human activities, such as land use change, cause severe land degradation in many ecosystems around the globe with potential impacts on soil processes. Restoration practices aim at reverting such impacts and reconstituting the biotic composition and functioning of an ecosystem to its initial condition. The aim of this study was to monitor soil microbial properties in degraded lands in Northeast Brazil and to compare those with land under restoration. Soil samplings were conducted in 2009, 2010 and 2011 in two different seasons (wet and dry season) at sites differing in degradation status: native vegetation (NAT), moderately degraded land (MDL), highly degraded land (HDL), and land under restoration for four years (RES). Soil microbial properties showed pronounced fluctuations between seasons with higher levels of functioning in the wet than in the dry season. Soil microbial biomass and enzymes had significantly higher values under native vegetation than in degraded land, while restored land mostly corresponded to native vegetation. Soil microbial biomass, respiratory quotient and enzyme activities were more strongly affected by land degradation than soil chemical properties

Community Composition and Abundance of Bacterial, Archaeal and Nitrifying Populations in Savanna Soils on Contrasting Bedrock Material in Kruger National Park, South Africa

Savannas cover at least 13% of the global terrestrial surface and are often nutrient limited, especially by nitrogen. To gain a better understanding of their microbial diversity and the microbial nitrogen cycling in savanna soils, soil samples were collected along a granitic and a basaltic catena in Kruger National Park (South Africa) to characterize their bacterial and archaeal composition and the genetic potential for nitrification. Although the basaltic soils were on average 5 times more nutrient rich than the granitic soils, all investigated savanna soil samples showed typically low nutrient availabilities, i.e., up to 38 times lower soil N or C contents than temperate grasslands. Illumina MiSeq amplicon sequencing revealed a unique soil bacterial community dominated by Actinobacteria (20–66%), Chloroflexi (9–29%), and Firmicutes (7–42%) and an increase in the relative abundance of Actinobacteria with increasing soil nutrient content. The archaeal community reached up to 14% of the total soil microbial community and was dominated by the thaumarchaeal Soil Crenarchaeotic Group (43–99.8%), with a high fraction of sequences related to the ammonia-oxidizing genus Nitrosopshaera sp. Quantitative PCR targeting amoA genes encoding the alpha subunit of ammonia monooxygenase also revealed a high genetic potential for ammonia oxidation dominated by archaea (~5 × 107 archaeal amoA gene copies g−1 soil vs. mostly < 7 × 104 bacterial amoA gene copies g−1 soil). Abundances of archaeal 16S rRNA and amoA genes were positively correlated with soil nitrate, N and C contents. Nitrospira sp. was detected as the most abundant group of nitrite oxidizing bacteria. The specific geochemical conditions and particle transport dynamics at the granitic catena were found to affect soil microbial communities through clay and nutrient relocation along the hill slope, causing a shift to different, less diverse bacterial and archaeal communities at the footslope. Overall, our results suggest a strong effect of the savanna soils' nutrient scarcity on all microbial communities, resulting in a distinct community structure that differs markedly from nutrient-rich, temperate grasslands, along with a high relevance of archaeal ammonia oxidation in savanna soils

Defining the impact of clinically modeled hindlimb stretching, exercise, & inactivity on functional recovery after spinal cord injury.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating, life altering event that affects approximately 282,000 Americans. The most obvious side effect of SCI is paralysis due to damage to the spinal cord that disrupts ascending and descending pathways as well as central pattern generating circuitry. In addition to paralysis, patients suffer from other debilitating side effects including altered cardiovascular function, autonomic dysreflexia, neuropathic pain, spasticity, and contractures. In contrast to humans, rodents display spontaneous locomotor recovery following incomplete SCI due to in-cage activity/training. Previously, our laboratory has studied the effect of lack of in-cage training by utilizing custom designed rodent wheelchairs. The immobilized SCI animals had poor locomotor function and developed muscle contractures. Additional work by our lab was done to help alleviate the contractures by using clinically-modeled hindlimb stretching. It was found that clinically modeled stretching of rats with a thoracic SCI does not prevent contractures and surprisingly, causes a dramatic decrease in locomotor function that can persist even after stretching is stopped. Most recently, it has been discovered by our lab that stretching is dependent upon the presence of C-fibers (nociceptive afferents), as injured, stretched animals depleted of TRPV1+ C-fibers do not experience such dramatic detriments to their locomotor recovery. Increased sprouting of these nociceptive afferents occurs spontaneously after injury and has been associated with a myriad of other issues, such as autonomic dysreflexia and neuropathic pain. However, recent work has shown that nociceptive afferent sprouting can be prevented or reduced with increased activity and exercise. These findings are significant because stretch-based physical therapy is the most common approach for treating spasticity, contractures, and combating muscle atrophy after spinal cord injury in patients. The work presented in this dissertation aims to clarify the potential mechanisms for stretch-induced locomotor dysfunction in rodent models as well as provide rationale for future clinical and translational research that will be able to determine whether stretching has a negative impact in humans post-SCI. The following experiments revealed that the additional of applied exercise to the stretching protocol does not prevent locomotor dysfunction or the sprouting of nociceptive afferents. We also discovered that stretching animals with high thoracic contusion injuries similarly causes a drastic drop in locomotion, but with some key differences in ability to recover locomotor ability. Our studies suggest that stretching is likely maladaptive for functional locomotor recovery after SCI regardless of injury location or activity status