Bilinguals have reduced verbal fluency compared to monolinguals and this has been attributed to cross language interference (Rosselli et al., 2000 ; Gollan et al., 2002). To manage interference, bilinguals may rely on executive control mechanisms to suppress the non-target language. We would therefore expect the bilingual disadvantage to increase with aging and Alzheimer's disease, which are associated with declines in executive control (Perry and Hodges, 1999). To test this account, we examined bilinguals' verbal fluency with analyses of a) number of correct responses, b) within language errors (c) cross-language intrusions and two measures of executive functioning (Stroop test and Attentional Network Task ; ANT, Fan et al., 2002). In Experiment 1a, we compared matched groups of 10 young and 10 older Spanish-English bilinguals on 18 fluency categories (5 semantic and 4 phonemic categories in Spanish and English) and we examined correlations between age and older bilinguals' (N= 18) performances on both executive control and response measures. In Experiment 1b, we compared a group of older (n=15) and young English monolinguals (n=36) on the same categories as in Experiment 1a. In Experiment 2, we compared matched groups of bilinguals with AD (n=10) with normal bilinguals (n=13), on the same categories as in Experiment 1a. Supporting an interference account, age and cross language intrusions were correlated such that older-old bilinguals produced more intrusions than younger -old bilinguals and cross-language intrusion rates were positively correlated with error rates in the ANT. Also, bilinguals with AD produced more cross language errors in semantic fluency than controls particularly in the non- dominant language. Challenges for the interference model included low rates of cross-language intrusions, even in older bilinguals and in bilinguals with AD. There was little evidence suggesting that production of a nondominant language becomes more difficult in aging and AD. We propose that executive control is important for language selection and monitoring, but after language selection, there is either (a) limited competition for selection between lexical representations across languages, or (b) a specialized mechanism for controlling competition between lexical representations that is less susceptible to cognitive decline. Thus, bilingualism is mostly maintained in aging and AD

Working with the legendary choreographer Donald McKayle during the last year of his life made a permanent impression on one of the dancers in his Ensemble.

[No abstract]

An important area of biomedical nanotechnology is based on the interaction of living systems with inorganic and organic materials at the nanoscale. Silica nanoshells (NS) are attractive biomaterials because of their advantages as readily functionalized transport and imaging devices. Some of the advantages of silica include: the porous structure of amorphous silica allows small molecule storage; the surface can be modified easily with trimethoxysilyl reagents; silica has low biotoxicity and good biocompatibility. In addition, titanium and titanium alloys have a long history in medical applications due to the excellent biocompatibility of its surface oxides, and more recently, titania (TiO2) nanomaterials have gained interest in cancer research due to TiO2 nanoparticles producing photo-induced electrons and holes under ultra- violet (UV) excitation leading to their possible use as photodynamic therapy agents. Consequently, silica and titania nanoshells potentially have multiple biomedical applications such as imaging agents, targeted drug delivery agents, or gene transferring motherships. Simple scalable methods to fabricate uniform luminescent europium -doped, hollow silica or titania NS with 200 nm diameters are reported in this thesis. Fluorophore reporter, Eu3+ ions, were incorporated directly into the NS matrix, leaving the surface free for targeting functionalization, while also leaving the nanoshell interior free for drug or other payload encapsulation. Amino polystyrene beads were used as templates and a 5-10 nm thick silica or titania gel coating was formed by the sol-gel reaction. After removing template by calcination, porous dehydrated silica gel or predominately anatase titania phase nanoshells of uniform size were obtained. The structure of the nanoshells were characterized by transmission electron microscopy measurements and XRD analysis, while particle size and zetapotentials of the particles suspended in aqueous solution were characterized by dynamic light scattering and their emission and excitation spectra were analyzed using a luminescence spectrometer. Furthermore, the surfaces of SiO2 NS were functionalized with folic acid in order to specifically target cancer cells. Folic acid, also known as vitamin B9 or folate, is essential for the synthesis of nucleotide bases and binds with high affinity to folate receptors, which are frequently over- expressed in tumor cells such as certain ovarian and cervical carcinomas, for example. With the use of fluorescent and confocal microscopy, it was found that as the amount of folate on the surface of the NS was increased, a higher amount of NS adhered and endocytosed into HeLa cancer cells, a cervical cancer cell line, when compared to non-targeted NS. In addition, a selectivity experiment demonstrated that folate targeted NS did selectively target the folate receptor rich HeLa cancer cells at a higher rate when they were mixed in with human foreskin fibroblast (HFF-1), a normal cell line. Nanoshell interactions with HeLa cervical cancer cells in vitro were also studied and quantified using a luminescence ratio analysis to assess nanoshells adhesion and cell endocytosis

In 2007 we continued with the management of the WSP population at Coal Oil Point Reserve as in previous year. We were not able to track chicks until fledged age as in previous years. I attribute this to the more complex beach profile that prevented a clear view of the beach and the large number of simultaneous broods that hatched in the beginning and again at the end of the breeding season. We experimented with replacing plover eggs with wood eggs and then returning the hatching egg to the plover nest. This was s successful way to improve hatchability during a high skunk predation time but it was very laborious.

In 2008 we continued with the management of the WSP population at Coal Oil Point Reserve as in previous years. We were able to estimate chicks until fledged age. We experimented with replacing plover eggs with wood eggs and then returning the hatching egg to the plover nest. This was s successful way to improve hatchability during a high skunk predation time but it was very laborious.

In 2006 we continued with the management of the WSP population at Coal Oil Point Reserve as in previous year. We abandoned the use of mini-exclosures after Great Horned owls cued in the exclosure to pursue adult plovers. We continued to raise chicks from destroyed or abandoned nests and banded the 10 chicks that fledged in captivity. 48 chicks fledged at the beach and another 11 fledged in our nursery. This was the largest number of fledglings since management started in 2001.