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Closing the achievement gap is a multi-faceted task. One important facet is using cultural proficiency--the ability of an educator from one cultural background to effectively teach, interact and connect with students of a different cultural background--as a tool. An examination of cultural proficiency was conducted at three comprehensive public high schools in the greater Los Angeles area using the responses from 195 teachers and 532 students to identify indicators of cultural proficiency based on teacher and student perspectives. The findings in this study reflect that teachers and administrators in urban schools do not feel that the home is supportive of the students' academic success. The students respond more favorable than the teachers when asked about their home, indicating that they do indeed have the support from their parents to do well in school. This study underscores how important it is to understand students' backgrounds and the kinds of support their families provide.

From 2014–2019, 8 juvenile black bears (Ursus americanus) from different geographic regions were presented to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife because of emaciation, alopecia, and exfoliative dermatitis that resulted in death or euthanasia. Autopsy and histopathology revealed that all 8 bears had generalized hyperkeratotic dermatitis, folliculitis, and furunculosis. Skin structures were heavily colonized by fungal hyphae and arthrospores; fungal cultures of skin from 7 bears yielded Trichophyton equinum, a zoophilic dermatophyte reported only rarely in non-equid species. Additional skin conditions included mites (5), ticks (2), and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus sp. infections (2). No other causes of morbidity or mortality were identified. Molecular comparisons performed at the University of Texas Fungal Reference Laboratory determined that all isolates produced identical banding patterns, potentially representing a clonal population. Dermatophytosis is commonly localized and limited to the stratum corneum of the epidermis and hair follicles. Generalized disease with dermal involvement is rare in immunocompetent individuals; illness, malnutrition, age, or immunosuppression may increase susceptibility. Underlying causes for the severe disease impact in these bears were not evident after physical or postmortem examination. The mechanism by which bears from different geographic locations had severe, T. equinum –associated dermatophytosis from a potentially clonal dermatophyte could not be explained and warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological resilience is a powerful heuristic for ecosystem management in the context of rapid environmental change. Significant efforts are underway to improve the resilience of biodiversity and ecological function to extreme events and directional change across all types of landscapes, from intact natural systems to highly modified landscapes such as cities and agricultural regions. However, identifying management strategies likely to promote ecological resilience remains a challenge. In this article, we present seven core dimensions to guide long-term and large-scale resilience planning in highly modified landscapes, with the objective of providing a structure and shared vocabulary for recognizing opportunities and actions likely to increase resilience across the whole landscape. We illustrate application of our approach to landscape-scale ecosystem management through case studies from two highly modified California landscapes, Silicon Valley and the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. We propose that resilience-based management is best implemented at large spatial scales and through collaborative, cross-sector partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blackleg is an infectious disease of cattle and rarely other ruminants, produced by Clostridium chauvoei and characterized by necrotizing myositis. In most cases of blackleg, the large muscles of the pectoral and pelvic girdles are affected, with other skeletal muscles and the heart involved less frequently. We studied 29 blackleg cases selected from the archives of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory, 1991–2015. Immunohistochemistry was also evaluated to detect C. chauvoei in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues of cattle. Nineteen animals had gross and/or microscopic lesions in both skeletal muscle and heart, 9 had lesions in the skeletal musculature alone, and 1 in the heart alone. Gross lesions in the skeletal musculature involved the following muscle groups: hindquarters (n = 8), forequarters (n = 5), neck (n = 5), lumbar area (n = 3), brisket (n = 2), diaphragm (n = 2), abdominal wall (n = 1), thoracic wall (n = 1), and tongue (n = 1). Of the 20 animals that had lesions in the heart, 11 had pericarditis and myocarditis; 7 had pericarditis, myocarditis, and endocarditis; and 1 each had pericarditis and myocarditis. Immunohistochemistry was 100% sensitive to detect C. chauvoei in FFPE skeletal muscle and/or heart of cattle with blackleg. Simultaneous lesions in skeletal musculature and heart were relatively common in blackleg cases in California; the most affected skeletal muscles were those of the hindlimbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]