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Given the political and social fragmentation and incivility that currently exists in America, this paper examines existing scholarship on diversifying the American literary canon in order to increase cultural literacy and to encourage reflective and critical conversations about modern-day issues of social justice. A brief overview of pedagogical theory concerning literary canons is discussed with an emphasis on post-colonial theory. Additionally, literature faculty at Pensacola State College were interviewed regarding the diversity of their assigned American literature readings, and findings are reported. The results will be used to guide a second, student-centered component of the study.

Dressing is a fundamental independent living skill (ILS). Vision is an integrative sense which affords learning via sighted observation. Visual impairment (VI) denies/restricts access to learning via sight. As a result, children with VI and conditions where VI may be a component (e.g. Down syndrome (DS)) require structured, systematic support to develop ILS. The current study used a repeated-measures-intervention approach to examine the development of the ILS of dressing (ILSD) with novel intervention materials in young children. Participants (N = 27: age range 5;05-10;02 years) were drawn from three groups: VI (n = 9; age range 5;05-10;02 years); DS (n = 9; age range 5;05-10;00 years) and Typically Developing (TD) (n = 9; age range 6;05-8;00 years). The effectiveness of the intervention materials was measured over a period of 10 weeks. Clear and systematic verbal instruction combined with motor activities was useful in supporting ILSD. The assessment of the longer-term effectiveness was carried out at 1 and 3 months post-intervention. This paper reported that the novel intervention materials supported the development of ILSD in all three groups. The findings could form a model for future work regarding the development of ILS in other skill areas and generalised to other developmental disorders.

With the growing limitations on arable land, alfalfa (a widely cultivated, low-input forage) is now being selected to extend cultivation into saline lands for low-cost biofeedstock purposes. Here, minerals and [...]

Jan Heath, Karen Grimmer-Somers, Steve Milanese, Susan Hillier, Ellena King, Kylie Johnston, Kylie Wall, Olivia Thorpe, Alexandra Young, Saravana KumarSchool of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, AustraliaBackground: Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) rankings are given to academic journals in which Australian academics publish. This provides a metric on which Australian institutions and disciplines are ranked for international competitiveness. This paper explores the issues surrounding the ERA rankings of allied health journals in Australia.Methods: We conducted a broad search to establish a representative list of general allied health and discipline-specific journals for common allied health disciplines. We identified the ERA rankings and impact factors for each journal and tested the congruence between these metrics within the disciplines.Results: Few allied health journals have high ERA rankings (A*/A), and there is variability in the impact factors assigned to journals within the same ERA rank. There is a small group of allied health researchers worldwide, and this group is even smaller when divided by discipline. Current publication metrics may not adequately assess the impact of research, which is largely aimed at clinicians to improve clinical practice. Moreover, many journals are produced by underfunded professional associations, and readership is often constrained by small numbers of clinicians in specific allied health disciplines who are association members.Conclusion: Allied health must have a stronger united voice in the next round of ERA rankings. The clinical impact of allied health journals also needs to be better understood and promoted as a research metric.Keywords: allied health, research impact, publication metrics

The 2006, 2011 and 2017 Report Cards on the condition of built environment fixed infrastructure in South Africa were the product of cooperation between the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE). Their purpose has been to draw the attention of government, and of the public at large, to the importance of maintenance, and to factors underlying the condition of public sector infrastructure. One of the ten public infrastructure sectors assessed in all three report cards was the health sector, comprising hospitals and clinics. This paper describes how the collection and analysis for the 2017 infrastructure report card of health sector condition data was conducted. In particular, it describes how, in the absence of a comprehensive reasonably up-to-date database, and the way, without their interrogation and integration in mind, in which available datasets had been compiled, the CSIR formulated a pragmatic derivative method to assess the condition of the public health built infrastructure portfolio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This epidemiological study analysed SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance and case notifications data to inform evidence-based public health action in NSW. We investigated measures of association between SARS-CoV-2 RNA fragments detected in wastewater samples (n = 100) and case notifications (n = 1,367, as rates per 100,000 population) within wastewater catchment areas (n = 6); and evaluated the performance of wastewater testing as a population-level diagnostic tool. Furthermore, we modelled SARS-CoV-2 RNA fragment detection in wastewater given the case notification rate using logistic regression. The odds of a viral detection in wastewater samples increased by a factor of 5.68 (95% CI: 1.51-32.1, P = 0.004) with rates of one or more notified cases within a catchment. The diagnostic specificity of wastewater viral detection results was 0.88 (95% CI: 0.69-0.97); the overall diagnostic sensitivity was 0.44 (95% CI: 0.33-0.56). The probability of a viral detection result in wastewater exceeded 50% (95% CI: 36-64%) once the case rate within a catchment exceeded 10.5. Observed results suggest that in a low prevalence setting, wastewater viral detections are a more reliable indicator of the presence of recent virus shedding cases in a catchment, than non-detect results are of the absence of cases in a catchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) Infrastructure Report Cards of 2006, 2011 and 2017 reported that much of the South African infrastructure is in a poor condition. To augment the recent 2017 Report Card, a survey was, for the first time, conducted amongst SAICE members to obtain their opinion on the condition of infrastructure (in terms of a grading), the trend of the condition over time, as well as the reasons for the individual’s grading. The 669 respondents indicated that, apart from a few exceptions such as national airports and the Gautrain, much of the infrastructure is in a poor state, which is very similar to the results obtained from the SAICE Report Card process. The results were also analysed per province and indicated that, in the opinion of respondents, specific provinces in particular are struggling with poor infrastructure. The main reasons given for the poor infrastructure were a lack of maintenance, lack of institutional capability, lack of sufficient funding and over-loading of infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orbital imagery and spectroscopy at Mars have identified a variety of deposits potentially consistent with volcanic tephra formed during explosive volcanic eruptions, and some of these deposits may have formed due to water‐ or ice‐magma interactions during phreatomagmatic eruptions. If this is the case, these deposits could serve as an additional record of past water on Mars. Previous work has demonstrated that phreatomagmatic tephra is characterized by much lower crystallinities than tephras from other types of eruptions. We hypothesize that crystallinity could be inferred remotely using spectroscopy; however, tephra spectral properties have not been directly linked to their mineralogy. Here, we use Mars analog tephra samples to investigate if eruption styles and the past presence of water during the eruption of possible volcanic deposits on Mars can be determined using orbital spectroscopy. Visible/near‐infrared (VNIR) reflectance and thermal infrared (TIR) emission spectra were collected of basaltic volcanic tephras sourced from a range of eruption styles and deposit types on Earth. Our research demonstrates that, TIR and VNIR data are both sufficient to detect increased glass abundances in volcanic deposits, potentially indicating volatile interactions during an eruption, and that glass‐poor tephras have distinct TIR properties that can be used to infer tephra type (e.g., ignimbrite vs. scoria). Combining VNIR and TIR orbital data for analysis based on our new laboratory spectral endmember library may allow a reevaluation of Martian volcanic and volatile histories using current and future planetary orbital and in situ spectral datasets. Plain Language Summary: Volcanism is a common process across the solar system. Eruptions can become explosive after interactions with water, and the search for current or past water is critical to planetary exploration. Collecting planetary samples to understand what types of eruptions created the volcanic rocks present is not always possible, so we investigate a method for determining volcanic eruption styles that could be completed from orbit. Spectrometers are common instruments on orbiters and can measure the reflection and emission of light from surface materials, including glass. Glass forms in volcanic eruptions when magma quickly cools before minerals can form. We demonstrated that, volcanic deposits from eruptions that were explosive due to interaction with water were glass‐rich and could be distinguished from deposits created in other types of eruptions using data similar to those collected by satellites at Mars. Alteration due to water in the local environment just after eruption is also detectable from orbit. Applying these results to existing or future satellite datasets will provide insight into volcanic eruption styles and environments on planets like Mars. Key Points: The presence of significant glass in volcanic tephras can indicate formation in an explosive phreatomagmatic eruptionVisible/near‐infrared (VNIR) and thermal‐infrared (TIR) spectroscopy can be used together to determine the eruption and cooling history of tephrasA combination of VNIR and TIR orbital spectral datasets would provide insight into the volcanic and volatile histories of Mars and other planets [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the degree of concordance between parent and adolescent self-report of internalizing and externalizing pathology is well studied, virtually nothing is known about concordance in borderline pathology and the implication of parent-adolescent discrepancies for outcomes. The present study aimed to (1) examine discrepancies between parents and adolescents on two interview-based measures of borderline personality disorder (BPD)-the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB-R22) and the Childhood Interview for Borderline Personality Disorder (CI-BPD23); and (2) investigate the implications of discrepancies for clinical outcomes. Diagnostic concordance on the DIB-R and CI-BPD showed rates of 82% and 94% respectively, with lower concordance demonstrated for dimensionally scored variables. Standardized difference scores between adolescent and parent reports on both borderline measures were significantly correlated with few interview-based axis I diagnoses as reported by parents, but not adolescents themselves. Implications regarding the use of each measure for the assessment and diagnosis of borderline personality disorder are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study sought to determine factors associated with sterilization among HIV-positive US women. HIV-positive women aged 18–45 completed an Audio Computer Assisted Self Interview (ACASI) questionnaire. Chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression evaluated factors associated with sterilization. The median age of the 187 participants was 37, the majority had at least a high school education, and 88% were African American. Nearly a quarter (22%) of women had undergone sterilization at an average age of 25; of these women, 71% cited their HIV-positive status as an important factor in deciding to have a tubal ligation, 22% expressed desire for future children, 32% reported sterilization regret, and 20% reported feeling pressure to undergo sterilization. In multivariable analysis, factors significantly associated with sterilization included non-African American race, no desire for future pregnancy, having heard of any birth control methods making it harder to get pregnant in the future, belief that women should take a break from hormonal methods every few years, and having had a child born with HIV. While almost a quarter of this HIV-positive group was sterilized, many during the height of the early HIV epidemic, a large proportion of sterilized women expressed sterilization regret. Counseling messages for sterilized HIV-positive women should be sensitive to the fact that women may have regret regarding a decision that, in some cases, may historically have been part of provider recommendations to prevent vertical transmission of HIV. Improved knowledge about contraceptive options such as the IUD and implant is needed among HIV-positive women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Microbial pinnacles in ice-covered Lake Vanda, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, extend from the base of the ice to more than 50 m water depth. The distribution of microbial communities, their photosynthetic potential, and pinnacle morphology affects the local accumulation of biomass, which in turn shapes pinnacle morphology. This feedback, plus environmental stability, promotes the growth of elaborate microbial structures. In Lake Vanda, all mats sampled from greater than 10 m water depth contained pinnacles with a gradation in size from <1-mm-tall tufts to pinnacles that were centimeters tall. Small pinnacles were cuspate, whereas larger ones had variable morphology. The largest pinnacles were up to ~30 cm tall and had cylindrical bases and cuspate tops. Pinnacle biomass was dominated by cyanobacteria from the morphological and genomic groups Leptolyngbya, Phormidium, and Tychonema. The photosynthetic potential of these cyanobacterial communities was high to depths of several millimeters into the mat based on PAM fluorometry, and sufficient light for photosynthesis penetrated ~5 mm into pinnacles. The distribution of photosynthetic potential and its correlation to pinnacle morphology suggests a working model for pinnacle growth. First, small tufts initiate from random irregularities in prostrate mat. Some tufts grow into pinnacles over the course of ~3 years. As pinnacles increase in size and age, their interiors become colonized by a more diverse community of cyanobacteria with high photosynthetic potential. Biomass accumulation within this subsurface community causes pinnacles to swell, expanding laminae thickness and creating distinctive cylindrical bases and cuspate tops. This change in shape suggests that pinnacle morphology emerges from a specific distribution of biomass accumulation that depends on multiple microbial communities fixing carbon in different parts of pinnacles. Similarly, complex patterns of biomass accumulation may be reflected in the morphology of elaborate ancient stromatolites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]