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Review on Honey Bee Colony Collapse: Problems, Consequence and Solutions
Get PDFThis thesis manuscript is a review on how climate change, nutritional stress, and other factors contribute to colony collapse disorder (CCD). This is a phenomenon when majority of adult bees vacate their hive to die, leaving what little what little is left of the colony to fend for themselves. This phenomenon is considered a serious threat to global food biosecurity. The big question is on when and why honeybees abandon the colony and die. This phenomenon remains a mystery. Unable to study their carcasses for analysis to better serve the pollinator species, there has been a rise in research focused on investigating the key drivers to CCD. My research suggested that the problem of CCD is complex and tied up to the greater problem of climate change and human activities. The focus of this paper is to understand how climate change in a rapidly warming world has contributed to the demise of honeybees. I focused on isolating the major factors and reviewed the data on global warming and its specific impact on honeybee colonies, where many other drivers participate. Evaluation of the interactive and synergistic effects of key drivers revealed how they affected mutually beneficial relationships, and ultimately the ecology of the bees and their habitat. I also investigated and assessed the overall interactive effects of potential synergies between climatic and nutritional stresses and understand how they affect honeybee colonies feeding responses. Notions were evaluated based on colony growth, composition of brood, mortality, total pollen and syrup collection. My review highly suggest that sociality, honeybees’ interdependence on one another are crucial in buffering the negative effects of environmental perturbations and increasing their resilience
The Use of Drama to Help Children Build Confidence and Self Image
Get PDFThe art of Theatre has been practiced for hundreds of years. It is an art form that merely imitates life. The actor is challenged mentally, physically, and emotionally in order to live truthfully under the imaginary circumstances given by the creator of the show/production that they are participating in. This requires one to flex a set of creative muscles that must be developed through constant training within the craft. Although excellent formal training would equip any Actor with the appropriate tools to excel within a performance, those tools don’t just apply to the stage. The tools given to one who trains in the Theatre are the same tools that can be used in every other facet of one\u27s life outside of the Theatre. Theatre teaches discipline, dedication, cooperation, and builds confidence. In the early stages of Theatre, participation was exclusive to only men who were of age. Thankfully, as Theatre evolved over time, women were allowed to perform as well. In this thesis I will be talking about the impact and benefits of Theatre in regards to children. Considering all of the concepts Theatre teaches, children are most impressionable in regards to learning things because children are more emotionally malleable in comparison to adults. In this paper, I will be talking about the benefits of theatre and performing in regards to children and their development. Research shows that Theatre can be helpful in regards to enriching the social and emotional development of youth. According to the National Arts Council, “Students who have arts-rich experiences in school do better across the board academically, and they also become more active and engaged citizens , voting, volunteering, and generally participating at higher rates than their peers.” Artistic engagement has cognitive benefits within kids. The concept of role-playing helps children develop positive cognitive characteristics, specifically a strong sense of confidence. Ensemble group performances creates a sense of community amongst the children and teaches them to cooperatively work with others. Theatre improvisation games help kids with developing critical thinking skills considering the level of creativity and imagination they require. Within this paper, I will dive more into how theatre boosts kid’s confidence, teaches children the importance of teamwork, and how It also helps kids with developing critical thinking
The Impact of Demographic Factors on the Persistence, Study Habits, and Motivation of African American and Latino Male Community College Students
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to determine the relationship and predictability of demographic factors on the persistence, study habits and motivation level among African American and Latino male community college students. Specifically, this study was concerned with the predictive power of demographic (socio-economic status, age, ethnicity, and family support) factors on the persistence, study habits, and motivation level among minority male community college students. A predictive correlated research design was utilized in the current study. Eighty-three (83) minority male college students were selected to participate in the study. An instrument entitled The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) was used to collect the data for this investigation. The investigative survey was found to have excellent construct validity. There were three statistical (Null) hypotheses tested in this empirical study. All three null hypotheses were assessed to determine the predictable relationship between selected demographic factors and the persistence, motivation level, and study habits among minority male community college students. One of the three hypotheses was found to be significant. Relative to hypothesis one, the demographic factors of age, ethnicity, SES, and family support were found not to be significantly reliable in distinguishing those male minority college students who would return to school and those who would not return to school. All four demographic factors were found not to be independent predictors of persistence rate. Additionally, regarding hypothesis two, the demographic factors of age, ethnicity, SES, and family support were found not to be statistically reliable in distinguishing those male minority college students who would be motivated and those who would not be motivated. Neither one of the four demographic factors was found to be an independent predictor of motivation. Finally, the demographic factors of age, ethnicity, SES, and family support were found to be statistically linear related to the study habits among minority male community college students. The variable age was found to be an independent predictor of study habits among minority male community college students
The Temporal and Frequent Pattern Mining Analysis and Machine Learning Forecasting on Mobile Sourced Urban Air Pollutants
Get PDFGround-level ozone and atmospheric fine particles (PM2.5) have been recognized as critical air pollutants that act as important contributors to the toxicity of anthropogenic air pollution in urban areas. To limit the adverse impacts on public health and ecosystems of ground-level ozone and PM2.5, it is necessary and imperative to identify a practical and effective way to predict the upcoming pollution concentration levels accurately. Under this need, various research was conducted aiming to perform the forecasting of ground-level ozone and PM2.5 that mainly utilized the time-series and neural network analysis. In the meantime, machine learning is also adopted in analysis and forecasting in existing research, which is, however, associated with some limitations that are not easily overcome. (1) The majority of existing forecasting models are highly dependent on time-series inputs without considering the influencing factors of the air pollutants. While a relatively accurate prediction may be provided, the influencing factors of the air pollution level caused by real-world complexity are neglected. (2) The existing forecasting models are mainly focused on the short-term estimation, while some of them need to use the previous prediction as a part of the input, which increased the system complexity and decreased the computational efficiency and accuracy. (3) The accurate annual hourly air pollution level forecasting ability is seldomly achieved. The objective of this research is to propose a systematical methodology to forecast the long-term hourly future air pollution concentration levels through historical data considering the concentration influencing factors. To achieve this research goal, a series of methodologies to analyze the historical air pollution concentration by temporal characteristics and frequent pattern data mining algorithms are introduced. The association rules of air pollution concentration levels and the influencing factors are revealed. A systematical air pollution level forecasting approach based on supervised machine learning algorithms with the ability to predict the annual hourly value is proposed and evaluated. To quantify and validate the results, a case study was conducted in the Houston region with the collection and analysis of ten years of historical environmental, meteorological, and transportation-related data. From the results of this research, (1) the complex correlations between the influencing factors and air pollution concentration levels are quantified and presented. (2) The association rules between each dependant and independent parameters are calculated. (3) The supervised machine learning algorithm pool is created and evaluated. And (4), an accurate long-term hourly air pollution level machine learning forecasting procedure is proposed. The innovative methodology of this research is advanced in computation complexity with high accuracy when compared with the existing models, which could be easily applied to similar regions for various types of air pollution concentration level forecasting
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Age-and Region-Dependent Disposition of Raloxifene in Rats
No full textPurpose: Raloxifene undergoes extensive glucuronidation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the liver. However, the impact of age on raloxifene disposition has never been studied. The purpose of this paper is to determine glucuronidation and Pharmacokinetics (PK) profiles of raloxifene in rats at different ages. Methods: Raloxifene glucuronidation was characterized using S9 fractions prepared from different intestinal segments and the liver of F344 rats at 4-, 11-, and 28-week. PK studies were conducted to determine raloxifene oral bioavailability at different ages. Raloxifene and its glucuronides were quantified using LC-MS/MS. Results: Raloxifene-6-glucuronide and raloxifene-4′-glucuronide were detected as the major metabolites and the ratio of these two glucuronides were different ranging from 2.1 to 4.9 folds in the ileum, jejunum, liver, and duodenum, and from 14.5 to 50 folds in the colon. The clearances in the duodenum at 4-week for both two glucuronides were significantly lower than those at the other two ages. PK studies showed that the oral bioavailability of raloxifene is age dependent. The absolute oral bioavailability of raloxifene was 3.5-folds higher at 4-week compared to that at 11-weeks. When raloxifene was administered through IV bolus, its half-life was 5.9 ± 1.16 h and 3.7 ± 0.68 h at 11-and 4-week, respectively. Conclusion: These findings suggested that raloxifene metabolism in the duodenum was significantly slower at young age in rats, which increased the oral bioavailability of raloxifene. At 11-week, enterohepatic recycling efficiency was higher than that of 4-week. Raloxifene’s dose at different ages should be carefully considered
Marginalized: The Missing Public Management Research on Homelessness
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Homelessness is long-standing issue in American cities, with significant human consequences. However, current public management research does not typically include research on public agencies responding to the needs of the homeless.
This paper uses a case study to explore the disconnect between public management research and those living on the margins of society as homeless. The case study illustrates the potential for multiple streams of research in public management to effectively research the complexities of homelessness. This paper makes the case for that public agency responses to the varied dimensions of homelessness align with public management research, with the potential to expand the scope of public management research to benefit the homeless as a marginalized community.
A case study of homelessness in Los Angeles County is explored to show the potential for well-developed lines of public management research to be applied to the public agency response to homelessness. This paper contributes three components to public management research: one, noting that homelessness is understudied in public management; two, applying current research streams in public management to develop analytic leverage for understanding the public management dimensions of homelessness; and three, exploring the potential for varied streams of public management research to address a marginalized community of vulnerable individuals
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