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0877: The Links, Incorporated, 1989-2018
Get PDFThe Links, Incorporated is one of the oldest and largest volunteer service organizations consisting of members who are women of African descent. It was established in 1946 and is an international not-for-profit corporation. The Sister Links are committed to enriching, sustaining, and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry. They offer a variety of programs meant to educate and assist members of the community targeted at all community members from preschoolers to senior citizens
Anti-Cancer Activity of Sustained Release Capsaicin Formulations
No full textCapsaicin (trans-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-noneamide) is a hydrophobic, lipophilic vanilloid phytochemical abundantly found in chili peppers and pepper extracts. Several convergent studies show that capsaicin displays robust cancer activity, suppressing the growth, angiogenesis and metastasis of several human cancers. Despite its potent cancer-suppressing activity, the clinical applications of capsaicin as a viable anti-cancer drug have remained problematic due to its poor bioavailability and aqueous solubility properties. In addition, the administration of capsaicin is associated with adverse side effects like gastrointestinal cramps, stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea and vomiting. All these hurdles may be circumvented by encapsulation of capsaicin in sustained release drug delivery systems. Most of the capsaicin-based the sustained release drugs have been tested for their pain-relieving activity. Only a few of these formulations have been investigated as anti-cancer agents. The present review describes the physicochemical properties, bioavailability, and anti-cancer activity of capsaicin-sustained release agents. The asset of such continuous release capsaicin formulations is that they display better solubility, stability, bioavailability, and growth-suppressive activity than the free drug. The encapsulation of capsaicin in sustained release carriers minimizes the adverse side effects of capsaicin. In summary, these capsaicin-based sustained release drug delivery systems have the potential to function as novel chemotherapies, unique diagnostic imaging probes and innovative chemosensitization agents in human cancers
Embracing the Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education
Get PDFEach year, hundreds of early childhood educators from the many parts of the world travel to a small town in the northern part of Italy to study the arts-based, project focused, a child-initiated method known as the Reggio Emilia approach. This unique approach focuses on infant-toddler through preschool and primary education. While teachers are engaged in professional learning and growth, it is hard to determine how many early childhood programs and classrooms are truly influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach. The purpose of this study was to explore and examine the experiences of five teachers from West Virginia who have implemented the Reggio Emilia approach in early childhood. This study examined the question: How is the Reggio Emilia approach being implemented by educators in both the public and private school settings and what are the challenges and supports that occur during implementation? The study revealed educators value this type of experiential learning and project work for children. There are critical supports that need to be in place to ensure effective implementation such as administrative and collegial support. The data also show that barriers such as curriculum mandates and other regulations make this type of implementation difficult. Also, children show great learning leaps when experiencing this type of learning approach. Future research recommendations include studying children longitudinally who have experienced a Reggio-inspired classroom environment to determine long-lasting impacts
Ephemeroptera Culturing Methods: An Analysis on Rearing and Toxcity Testing on Sensitive Early Life Stages of Native Mayfly Taxa
Get PDFStandard toxicity testing organisms are utilized for regulatory purposes and often ecological risk assessments. Ephemeroptera taxa have been reported to be more sensitive to aquatic contaminants than the standard toxicity testing organisms currently used in determining effects on aquatic ecosystems. Establishing methods for culturing native Ephemeroptera taxa will provide a more sensitive test organism to determine the toxicity of contaminants and will be more representative of the responses of native taxa. Additionally, it will provide a test organism at the most sensitive life stages. The objective of this research is to develop methods for culturing and testing of native Ephemeroptera in the laboratory. Two different experiments were conducted to try to establish culturing and testing methods: temperature fluctuation effects on egg development and preliminary high sulfate toxicity tests on eggs and nymphs. Eggs were collected from native Ephemeroptera via oviposition or dissection and exposed to various temperature and high sulfate toxicity treatments during incubation. During the temperature test the eggs would either be put in a constant temperature or moved from a low (10℃) to a high temperature (20℃ or 24℃). Incubation duration, hatch rate and hatch length were evaluated to see if incubation temperature manipulation can be utilized to provide consistently available juvenile Ephemeroptera for toxicity testing. The results showed no significant difference between the temperature treatments and egg development, which shows the low storage method can be utilized and will allow for less frequent field collections and more testing year-round due to increased holding time for eggs. In the preliminary high sulfate toxicity test, both eggs and nymphs were exposed to a simulated mine effluent representing exposure to elevated conductivity in mining influenced Appalachian streams. Endpoints evaluated were hatch rate, hatch duration, incubation period, survival and growth of juveniles exposed to elevated conductivity post-hatch. Multiple taxa were evaluated including Ephemeridae (Hexagenia sp.), Heptageniidae (Epeorus sp.) and Baetidae (Acentrella sp. and Baetis sp.). The significant difference between the natural water control, the reconstituted water control and all treatment groups was hypothesized to originate from the natural conditions being optimal for genus-specific survival. These mechanisms of greater development and survival in the natural water have not been confirmed but are under further investigation
Dielectrophoretic Trapping of Carbon Nanotubes for Temperature Sensing
Get PDFConventional sensors are rapidly approaching efficiency limitations at their current size. In designing more efficient sensors, low dimensional materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), quantum dots, and DNA origami can be used to enable higher degrees of sensitivity. Because of the high atomic surface to core ratio, these materials can be used to detect slight changes in chemical composition, strain, and temperature. CNTs offer unique advantages in different types of sensors due to their electromechanical properties. In temperature sensing, the high responsiveness to temperature and durability can be used to produce an accurate, reliable sensor in even extreme temperatures. This study aimed to utilize CNTs to reliably produce a temperature sensor in an easily reproducible method. CNTs were trapped and immobilized using dielectrophoresis to bridge two gold nanoelectrodes on a sapphire substrate. The fabricated device showed high sensitivity to temperature variation, with a measured resistive sensitivity of 2.96 E-3/K, a higher sensitivity than similar thin film sensors. This study will help further development of CNT-based temperature sensors
