Distant X-ray Galaxies: Insights from the Local Population

A full understanding of the origin of the hard X-ray background requires a complete and accurate census of the distant galaxies that produce it. Unfortunately, distant X-ray galaxies tend to be very faint at all wavelengths, which hinders efforts to perform this census. This chapter discusses the insights that can be obtained through comparison of the distant population to local X-ray galaxies, whose properties are well characterized. Such comparisons will ultimately aid investigations into the cosmic evolution of supermassive black holes and their environments.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, to appear as Chapter 7 in "Supermassive Black Holes in the Distant Universe" (2004), ed. A. J. Barger, Kluwer Academic Publishers, in pres

The Social and Political Dimensions of the Ebola Response: Global Inequality, Climate Change, and Infectious Disease

The 2014 Ebola crisis has highlighted public-health vulnerabilities in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea – countries ravaged by extreme poverty, deforestation and mining-related disruption of livelihoods and ecosystems, and bloody civil wars in the cases of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ebola’s emergence and impact are grounded in the legacy of colonialism and its creation of enduring inequalities within African nations and globally, via neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus. Recent experiences with new and emerging diseases such as SARS and various strains of HN influenzas have demonstrated the effectiveness of a coordinated local and global public health and education-oriented response to contain epidemics. To what extent is international assistance to fight Ebola strengthening local public health and medical capacity in a sustainable way, so that other emerging disease threats, which are accelerating with climate change, may be met successfully? This chapter considers the wide-ranging socio-political, medical, legal and environmental factors that have contributed to the rapid spread of Ebola, with particular emphasis on the politics of the global and public health response and the role of gender, social inequality, colonialism and racism as they relate to the mobilization and establishment of the public health infrastructure required to combat Ebola and other emerging diseases in times of climate change

Solution structure of a repeated unit of the ABA-1 nematode polyprotein allergen of ascaris reveals a novel fold and two discrete lipid-binding sites

Parasitic nematode worms cause serious health problems in humans and other animals. They can induce allergic-type immune responses, which can be harmful but may at the same time protect against the infections. Allergens are proteins that trigger allergic reactions and these parasites produce a type that is confined to nematodes, the nematode polyprotein allergens (NPAs). These are synthesized as large precursor proteins comprising repeating units of similar amino acid sequence that are subsequently cleaved into multiple copies of the allergen protein. NPAs bind small lipids such as fatty acids and retinol (Vitamin A) and probably transport these sensitive and insoluble compounds between the tissues of the worms. Nematodes cannot synthesize these lipids, so NPAs may also be crucial for extracting nutrients from their hosts. They may also be involved in altering immune responses by controlling the lipids by which the immune and inflammatory cells communicate. We describe the molecular structure of one unit of an NPA, the well-known ABA-1 allergen of Ascaris and find its structure to be of a type not previously found for lipid-binding proteins, and we describe the unusual sites where lipids bind within this structur

Prenatal auditory experience with melodies : effects on postnatal auditory preferences in human newborns

It has recently been demonstrated that human newborns prefer a story their mothers had read aloud while pregnant over an unfamiliar story. It is unclear from these results, however, whether the newborns were using word information, non-word information (e.g., rhythmic structure) or both in their postnatal recognition of the story. The present study was conducted to determine if prenatal experience with non-word information was sufficient to produce a postnatal preference. Pregnant women who were close to term sang a melody everyday for the rest of their pregnancies. Their infants were tested postnatally with a choice procedure in which they could listen to the familiar melody or an unfamiliar melody. The melodies differed only in their prosodic characteristics (eg., frequency contours). A previous experiment had demonstrated that non-experienced newborns could discriminate between these two melodies. Analyses of preferential responding showed that the prenatally experienced newborns preferred the familiar melody over the unfamiliar melody whereas a control group of non-experienced newborns showed no systematic preference. These results are consonant with our understanding of the fetal auditory system and the intrauterine sound environment

A history of the department of physical education at Winthrop College, 1886-1970

It was the objective of this study to construct a historical narrative concerning the origin and development of the physical education program at Winthrop College, Rock Hill, South Carolina. Winthrop, the South Carolina College for Women, was founded in 1886. Physical education has always been included in the college curriculum. The Department of Physical Education was formally established in 1910 and a professional preparation program was initiated in 1919. After materials related to the topic had been located and examined, eleven questions were formulated as a guide for further research. The questions were concerned with the establishment of the college, the origin of its physical education program, the beginning of the professional preparation program, the facilities occupied by the Department of Physical Education, the influence of national trends on the program, and outstanding persons in the history of the department. The material assembled in the process of answering these questions was synthesized into a narrative which provided a reconstruction of past events relating to the Department of Physical Education at Winthrop College

INSTRUCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND PREDICTORS FOR EIGHTH GRADE STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AS MEASURED BY THE NORTH CAROLINA END OF GRADE COMPREHENSIVE READING SCORES TO THE NUMBER OF VISUAL ARTS CLASSES COMPLETED DURING MIDDLE SCHOOL

The purpose of the researcher was to test for any significant relationships existing among the physical number of visual arts courses completed by 8th grade students during the middle school years to the actual academic performance as measured by the 2012-2013 North Caroling End of Grade (EOG) examination, specifically the Reading Comprehensive component. Scale scores from 125 students’ unnamed, archival files from a school in a district in the southern Piedmont of North Carolina were selected for the study. Student files were chosen using systematic sampling from a middle school which was representative of the population in the school system. The researcher analyzed data using a hierarchical multiple regression model in which the researcher first entered gender, sex, and socioeconomic status into the regression model to control for any effects on the number of years of art courses completed. The researcher determined that the results of the hierarchical regression analysis were not supportive of the research hypothesis. Beta coefficients for the predictive number of visual art courses completed, B = -.10, SE B = .65, ß = -.01, t = -.16, p = .88 lacked any predictive value to the core academic area of reading as had been believed by art and reading teachers for decades, at least as was discovered in this study. Some factors beyond the control of the researcher could cause some concern such as changing data systems and changing to a new version of the North Carolina End of Grade examination. Perhaps of most interest to all teachers is the need to check the whys in the justification of any one area as being so inclusive in the overall implementation of the Common Core Standards. Ease of personalization that art courses can offer to all students is just one idea. Perhaps legislatures and school boards members should commission studies to find other advantages or disadvantages

Reconceptualizing the influence of empathic capacity and emotional numbing on perceptions of social support in female survivors of interpersonal violence: an initial investigation into the implications of neurophysiology for trauma recovery

An estimated 80 percent of individuals living in the United States have experienced at least one traumatic event during their lifetime, with nearly one in eight developing symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result (Breslau & Kessler, 2001). Prevalence rates, however, are higher among females, particularly female survivors of interpersonal trauma (Kessler, 2000; Olff, Langeland, Draijer, & Gersons, 2007; Tolin & Foa, 2006). Of the numerous factors that influence PTSD, social support has been identified as one of the foremost predictors of both symptom severity and duration (Brewin, Andrews, & Valentine, 2000; Ozer, Best, Lipsey, & Weiss, 2003). However, research routinely assesses social support based solely on subjective measures of perceived support and has yet to elucidate whether individuals with PTSD have the neurophysiological capacity to accurately perceive and maintain available support networks. Following trauma, the compromised ability of the prefrontal cortex to optimally regulate affective processing centers of the brain, accompanied by the dysregulation of an individual's autonomic nervous system, underlie the hyperarousal and affective numbing characteristic of PTSD (Garfinkel & Liberzon, 2009; Glover, 1992; Ogden, Minton, & Pain, 2006; Porges, 2011; Siegel, 1995; van der Kolk, 2006). Further still, such dysregulated neurological functioning occurs in tandem with a maladaptive cascade of regulatory hormones known to influence social functioning as well as empathy (Hurlemann et al., 2010; Porges, 2003; Seng, 2010; Steuwe et al., 2012). In this way, neurophysiological corollaries of trauma may inhibit an individual's ability to both experience and express empathy, preventing survivors from recognizing and drawing upon the viable social support available to them (Nietlisbach & Maercker, 2009). As such, the present study explored the relationship between PTSD symptom severity, emotional numbing, empathy, and perceived social support in female survivors of interpersonal trauma. Findings revealed that the difficulties in empathy experienced among survivors were directly related to PTSD symptom severity. However, such impairments appeared to be dictated by the survivor's degree of emotional numbing rather than the severity of the PTSD symptoms specifically. Emotional numbing, and difficulty perceiving or expressing positive emotions in particular, was found to also predict perceptions of social support. Furthermore, although empathy exhibited a direct relationship with perceived support, impairments in empathy did not mediate the relationship between positive emotional numbing and perceptions of the social support availability and valence as originally hypothesized. However, the severity of a survivor's comorbid depression appeared to confound nearly all of the relationships between the study variables. Nevertheless, emotional numbing, a condition common to both depression and PTSD, continued to show a strong relationship with empathy even when accounting for depression. Such insights have marked implications on the way counselors understand and work with female survivors of interpersonal trauma and suggest that experiences of emotional numbing and comorbid depression should be central foci in early therapeutic interventions. Interventions aimed at regulating the autonomic nervous system have shown success in alleviating both emotional numbing and struggles with depression and may be appropriate in this regard. The need to assess for and work with symptoms of emotional numbing and depression early in therapy may serve to enhance empathic capacity in survivors, facilitate the development of a strong therapeutic relationship and cultivate the interpersonal resources necessary for lasting change and healing to occur. Future research will serve to expand the many potential advantages that such findings can have on better conceptualizing the influence of interpersonal trauma on a survivor's ability to experience and express empathy and a full range of emotional experiences and benefit from the positive social support that exists around her

A study of attitudes of selected public school music teachers toward the integration of handicapped students into music classes

Public Law 94-142, Education of the Handicapped Act, mandates that handicapped students be educated, to the maximum extent possible, in the regular classroom with children who are not handicapped. Because of the association of music with therapy, it seems probable that the music classroom will be one area in which handicapped children will be placed with nonhandicapped children. A review of the literature reveals that many educators believe that successful implementation of mainstreaming handicapped children into regular classes may be dependent upon the attitudes of the teacher. The purposes of this study were, first, to assess the attitudes of selected North Carolina public school music educators toward mentally and physically handicapped students, and second, to determine their willingness to have these students mainstreamed or integrated into their music classes. The research questions investigated were: (l) Are there differences in attitudes expressed by the music educators as a function of age, sex, years of teaching experience, educational level, previous experience with handicapped students, course work and training in areas of exceptionality, or area of teaching responsibility? (2) Is strength of opinion related to years of teaching experience, previous experience with handicapped students, or with course work and training in areas of exceptionality? (3) Are teachers from any one area of teaching responsibility more willing to accept handicapped students into their music classes or performance groups

Artistic integrity in Woodstock

Study of the anonymous Elizabethan drama Woodstock has heretofore been directed externally to the play's relationship to Marlowe's Edward II and to Shakespeare's 2 Henry VI and Richard II. Much attention has been devoted to an explanation of the literary relations of the drama but none to an explanation of how the play works, its function as art. The organization of Woodstock toward poetic purposes is indicative of the nature of the development of the history play from the chronicle play. Mature history plays utilize form as a vehicle of meaning in contrast to the purely ornamental or episodic structure of earlier chronicle dramas. The concept of integrity is more exclusive than the concept of unity: rather than simply a relationship of parts, integrity connotes an organic condition, in which the relation of parts is not always fully amenable to separate analysis but must be considered as a total experience (gestalt) of analogous actions. The action of Woodstock is to find a rationale for disobedience to the king in order to save the state from economic and territorial disintegration. This action, in addition to the progress of plot events, is imitated in the interacting functions of the disease metaphor, the condition of inversion, and the masque-clothing metaphor

The influence of Andrew Craig Phillips on North Carolina local superintendents

Craig Phillips was the North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1968-1988, longer than any other holder of that office. This study investigates the impact of his tenure as state superintendent on local superintendents. Accordingly, the study had four purposes. The first was to determine to what extent Craig Phillips' behavior influenced local administrative procedure. The second purpose was to determine whether age, years in office, size of administrative unit, geographical region, or Phillips' tenure affected local superintendents' perceptions of Phillips and/or his administration. The third was to determine which statewide implemented programs during Phillips' tenure were attributed to Phillips and/or his administration. Finally, the fourth purpose was to examine how local superintendents would select the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The study was based on interviews with local superintendents in Region 8 and a Likert-scaled survey mailed to all of the 139 local superintendents in North Carolina