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The article discusses how educational facilities are focusing on sustainability with reference to the Kalamazoo Valley Community College's (KVCC) Healthy Living Campus in Michigan. Topics include views of Dan Maley, director of facilities and construction at KVCC, on the Sustainable Moves initiative for student-led recycling process, attaining Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification, and emphasizing on urban farming through educational courses.

The article focuses on trends in higher education that shows evolution of colleges and universities in social, physical, and digital world. Topics discussed include increase in number of massive open online courses (MOOCs), growing presence of social media in classroom, and views of Spencer Graham of West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, West Virginia on the issue.

The article discusses the importance of understanding what makes the process of student and faculty recruitment successful. According to President Bill Vanderbilt at Hope College, the long tenure of faculty significantly benefits the student recruitment process. It adds that in the recruitment effort, showing a strong emphasis on learning and discovery within one's departments, faculty, and students is important.

The article offers information on the environmental health and safety of schools in association with the non-profit organization Healthy Schools Network Inc. (HSN). It describes the Healthy Purchasing for Healthy Schools, a guidance memo offered by HSN. It mentions that offgassing from furniture can cause several health issues including nausea, skin rashes and asthma attacks.

The article discusses the importance of feedback on furniture from students and faculty to select proper furniture for college campuses. Topics discussed include customizing classroom furniture according to the subjects and atmosphere, and designing the furniture according to the expectations of students. It also discusses views of Jacob Duffy, sophomore at the Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and Victoria Irvin, junior at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida.

The article discusses the importance of classroom ergonomics to student safety. Problems that may arise from ergonomically unfriendly classroom furniture include sore hips, shoulders, back and neck together with eye irritation and discomfort. Furniture companies are learning about how classroom furniture is affecting student performance and health by working with college administrators, professors and student populations.

The article focuses on the effectiveness of the presence of campus police departments in at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and University of Cincinnati in Ohio in providing security to their students.

In this article the author discusses why concrete should be used in campus buildings. It highlights that concrete make buildings sustainable, strong and attractive. It mentions the role of concrete in building envelopes for getting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. It states several advantages of using concrete including environmental friendly building by reducing the amount of heat going inside the building, earthquake resistance and strong building envelopes.

The article focuses on the issue of training future college facilities managers in the U.S. Topics include providing a blend of college engineering course along with a series of leadership seminars to the facilities managers, views of Mike Steger on the importance of interpersonal communication in the training of facilities managers, and the emphasis laid by the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers on the value of leadership in profession of facilities manager.

The article offers information on the healthy, sustainable grounds that have an impact on people in terms of productivity, ranging from first-time visitors to students, stakeholders and the maintenance department in the U.S. Topics discussed include prospects of green gardens, necessity for planning for plants and causes of high traffic, low maintenance. Also mentions important aspects of planning a sustainable landscape accounting for differing ideas of beauty and functionality.

ABSTRACTPseudomonas aeruginosaemploys numerous, complex regulatory elements to control expression of its many virulence systems. The P. aeruginosaAlgZR two-component regulatory system controls the expression of several crucial virulence phenotypes. We recently determined, through transcriptomic profiling of a PAO1 ΔalgRmutant strain compared to wild-type PAO1, that algZRand hemCDare cotranscribed and show differential iron-dependent gene expression. Previous expression profiling was performed in strains without algRand revealed that AlgR acts as either an activator or repressor, depending on the gene. Thus, examination of P. aeruginosagene expression from cells locked into different AlgR phosphorylation states reveals greater physiological relevance. Therefore, gene expression from strains carrying algRalleles encoding a phosphomimetic (AlgR D54E) or a phosphoablative (AlgR D54N) form were compared by microarray to PAO1. Transcriptome analyses of these strains revealed 25 differentially expressed genes associated with iron siderophore biosynthesis or heme acquisition or production. The PAO1 algR D54Nmutant produced lower levels of pyoverdine but increased expression of the small RNAs prrf1and prrf2compared to PAO1. In contrast, the algR D54Nmutant produced more pyocyanin than wild-type PAO1. On the other hand, the PAO1 algR D54Emutant produced higher levels of pyoverdine, likely due to increased expression of an iron-regulated gene encoding the sigma factor pvdS, but it had decreased pyocyanin production. AlgR specifically bound to the prrf2and pvdSpromoters in vitro. AlgR-dependent pyoverdine production was additionally influenced by carbon source rather than the extracellular iron concentration per se. AlgR phosphorylation effects were also examined in a Drosophila melanogasterfeeding, murine acute pneumonia, and punch wound infection models. Abrogation of AlgR phosphorylation attenuated P. aeruginosavirulence in these infection models. These results show that the AlgR phosphorylation state can directly, as well as indirectly, modulate the expression of iron acquisition genes that may ultimately impact the ability of P. aeruginosato establish and maintain an infection.IMPORTANCEPyoverdine and pyocyanin production are well-known P. aeruginosavirulence factors that obtain extracellular iron from the environment and from host proteins in different manners. Here, we show that the AlgR phosphorylation state inversely controls pyoverdine and pyocyanin production and that this control is carbon source dependent. P. aeruginosaexpressing AlgR D54N, mimicking the constitutively unphosphorylated state, produced more pyocyanin than cells expressing wild-type AlgR. In contrast, a strain expressing an AlgR phosphomimetic (AlgR D54E) produced higher levels of pyoverdine. Pyoverdine production was directly controlled through the prrf2small regulatory RNA and the pyoverdine sigma factor, PvdS. Abrogating pyoverdine or pyocyanin gene expression has been shown to attenuate virulence in a variety of models. Moreover, the inability to phosphorylate AlgR attenuates virulence in three different models, a Drosophila melanogasterfeeding model, a murine acute pneumonia model, and a wound infection model. Interestingly, AlgR-dependent pyoverdine production was responsive to carbon source, indicating that this regulation has additional complexities that merit further study.

The article reports on the offering of mobile device application courses by several universities and colleges in the U.S. as of 2013. Institutions that introduced these courses include Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, and the University of California in San Diego. Also provided is information regarding the applications designed by college students such as Andrew Bares' Power Planner.