The Detrimental Effects of a Competitive Classroom Environment

In this paper, I will be analyzing the appearance of the Electrical Engineering classroom environment by utilizing the unique perspective I have as a student of Electrical Engineering and Philosophy. I will be drawing on philosophical approaches to pedagogy that I have studied and developed as both a student and tutor of Philosophy

The Rider (2025-02-03)

Vol.10 No.17https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/rider/1264/thumbnail.jp

Pensar el enfoque STEM desde los lugares habitados por los estudiantes

Abordamos el tema de los árboles, que surge del diálogo con padres de estudiantes de un poblado indígena al sur de México. Este tema es potente para pensar en la implementación del enfoque STEM desde una perspectiva situada y relevante, considerando los vínculos de las personas por los lugares habitados

Analysis of Corneal Nerve Morphology and Stromal Haze Pre and Post Oxervate Therapy in Patients with Neurotrophic Keratopathy

Neurotrophic keratopathy (NK) is a rare disease secondary to the damage or degradation of corneal nerves, which results in a compromised integrity of the tear film, corneal epithelium, and stroma. Oxervate, a topical recombinant human nerve growth factor approved by the FDA in August 2018, has shown promising results in healing neurotrophic corneal ulcers and preventing recurrence of this disease. Our preliminary display of results on four patients treated with oxervate provides further insight on the pathophysiology of NK and the mechanism of action of oxervate

Novel Signaling Pathways Involved in YBX1 role in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background: The most prevalent type of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and socioeconomic and health disparities have a major impact on both its incidence and fatality rates. HCC rates are typically greater in areas with poor access to healthcare, high obesity rates, and a high frequency of infectious diseases. Because of risk factors include diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and Hepatitis B and C, HCC is particularly common in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). The burden of HCC in this underprivileged area is made worse by McAllen, Texas, which regrettably holds the distinction of being the most obese city in the US. Patient outcomes are greatly impacted by late-stage diagnoses, which are frequently the result of limited access to screening and early detection. Improving early detection and treatment of HCC requires an understanding of the molecular pathways underlying the disease, including medication resistance. Resistance to sorafenib, the first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) used for advanced HCC, and Y-Box Binding Protein 1 (YBX1) are important factors in the progression of HCC. By interacting with microRNAs and non-coding RNAs, the 324-amino acid protein YB-1, which is a member of the Cold Shock Domain (CSD) protein family, helps control the translation of mRNA. Despite sorafenib\u27s efficacy, resistance frequently arises, and little is known about the underlying causes of this resistance. Methods: ATCC methods were used to cultivate the HCC cell line SK-Hep1. Abmgood produced lentiviral overexpression plasmids for YBX1 that included a puromycin selection marker and GFP. Western blot and RT-PCR were used to confirm the levels of YBX1 expression. To describe phenotypic changes, functional experiments were conducted, including invasion, migration, proliferation, colony formation, and Xcelligence impedance analysis. To find kinase pathways impacted by YBX1, a phosphoproteome array was utilized. Results: According to an analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), YBX1 expression is substantially higher in HCC tumors than in normal tissues and is associated with poor survival, metastasis, and disease progression. YBX1 overexpression promoted colony formation, invasion, migration, and proliferation, among other carcinogenic tendencies, in vitro. YBX1 knockdown (KD), on the other hand, decreased these behavioral traits. Xcelligence impedence experiments verified that YBX1-overexpressing cells proliferated more, whereas knockdown cells grew at slower rates. In HCC cells, phosphoproteome research revealed a number of kinases that are YBX1 regulated. Additional pathway analysis is being conducted to clarify their functions in drug resistance. Conclusion and Future Directions: GFP-expressing SK-Hep1 cell lines with stable YBX1 overexpression and knockdown have been effectively created and characterized. These models show how YBX1 plays a crucial part in encouraging carcinogenic traits in HCC. Based on our results we procured certain kinase activators and inhibitors which were evaluated through literature and purchased for additional studies in order to obtain understanding of the YBX1-regulated signaling pathways resulting in sorafenib resistance. The goal of ongoing proteomic research is to better understand the proteins and pathways linked to YBX1, with an emphasis on kinase regulation. These results may help direct the development of tailored therapies to overcome resistance in HCC and advance our understanding of the processes underlying sorafenib resistance

BPEN: Brain Posterior Evidential Network for trustworthy brain imaging analysis

The application of deep learning techniques to analyze brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data has led to significant advancements in identifying prospective biomarkers associated with various clinical phenotypes and neurological conditions. Despite these achievements, the aspect of prediction uncertainty has been relatively underexplored in brain fMRI data analysis. Accurate uncertainty estimation is essential for trustworthy learning, given the challenges associated with brain fMRI data acquisition and the potential diagnostic implications for patients. To address this gap, we introduce a novel posterior evidential network, named the Brain Posterior Evidential Network (BPEN), designed to capture both aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty in the analysis of brain fMRI data. We conducted comprehensive experiments using data from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and ADNI-depression (ADNI-D) cohorts, focusing on predictions for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and depression across various diagnostic groups. Our experiments not only unequivocally demonstrate the superior predictive performance of our BPEN model compared to existing state-of-the-art methods but also underscore the importance of uncertainty estimation in predictive models

An unintended effect of school entrance age: pushing children ahead through private school

In the United States, public kindergarten enrollment typically requires children to be five years old by September. However, private schools, without state-mandated cutoffs, provide an alternative option. Using American Community Survey data from 2008 to 2019, I examine the relationship between children’s birth quarter and their likelihood of attending private school. I find that children born in July to September and October to December are more likely to attend private kindergarten than those born between April and June, an effect that is not observed in higher grade levels. These findings suggest that the entrance age cutoff influences parents’ school choices, and they use private schooling to ease the cutoff constraint and initiate their children’s formal education, later transitioning them to public school as they advance through the K-12 system

Québec\u27s Cultural Policy in the United States: From Diplomacy to Industries

The Québec state apparatus, which developed most fully starting in the 1960s, initially focused the objectives of Québec\u27s cultural policy in the United States on the promotion of nationalism and the building of a national identity. Following the 1990s recessions, the Québec government adjusted its policies to partly focus its cultural policy on the marketing of cultural industries. Cultural industries have increasingly been promoted as helping build the national identity while providing jobs and contributing to Québec\u27s GDP. Today, the Québec government\u27s main objective in the United States is promoting and securing business opportunities. It explicitly pursues its cultural policy in the United States with this objective at the forefront. This paper seeks to answer the following question: How has the Québec government\u27s cultural policy in the United States evolved since the 1960s? Overall, there has been a notable shift in Québec\u27s cultural policy in the United States. It has become mainly pragmatic or utilitarian, serving as tool to advance economic benefits for the province. Using original archival research, government documentation, and academic literature, this chapter chronicles this shift that has taken place in the 1990s, while further discussing the implications of a utilitarian cultural policy in the long run

[Rio Grande City] Photograph of Lourdes Bernadette Statue

Grotto of Lourdes Bernadette Statue from France.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/hidalgohist_aa/1034/thumbnail.jp

Languages and Nation Building

In this chapter, I analyze the ideologies behind the rationale that implies that citizens of a specific country should speak specific languages. In other words, I examine the relationship between the ideological construction of citizens and languages. I first explore notions of ideological construction explained by Weberian (1904/2002), Marxist (1872), and Geertz (1973) to provide a seminal understanding of the creation of a “collective we” embedded in nation-states. I then refer to some common academic research frameworks to analyze the ideological construction of citizenship within a nation state to differing degrees of acceptance of (Gramsci, 1948) and resistance to (Anzaldúa, 1987) the promotion of national languages and the oppression of those living in marginalized spaces due to rigid notions of national identity and language that has lead to the post-structural concept of translanguaging. I exemplify the relevance of citizenship construction and language by referring to the Mexican case, starting from the fall of the Aztec Empire in 1521 to recent changes in the linguistic landscape due to the current return of Mexican populations from the United States. To this end, I introduce the ideological construct of the Cosmic Race (Vasconcelos, 1926)—the unification of multicultural nations into one—which has impacted the national and linguistic identities of Mexican (trans)nationals since then. I conclude by problematizing the ideological tenets that coexist in current nations and suggest that the relationship between language and nation building is reconfiguring, as this artificial construct does not solely depend on the influence of (one) state