1,393 research outputs found

    It Takes A Village: A Qualitative Study on Parent and Teacher Perceptions of The Full-Service Community School Model and its Influence on School Communities

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    Many school districts, particularly in inner-city communities, face numerous barriers to students’ academic success. Unfortunately, the school paradigm is not constructed to address the glaring social/emotional conditions affecting millions of children (Anderson-Butcher et al., 2017). As a result, educators and social reformers have urged school leaders to expand the public school mission by emphasizing community agencies to bridge the socio-economical gaps plaguing urban districts (Dryfoos, 1994; Dryfoos, 1998). The Full-Service Community School (FSCS) model involves collaboration with community organizations by making the school a hub for the community beyond typical academic services (Blank et al., 2003; Dryfoos, 1994; Dryfoos, 1998). Despite the promising research on the FSCS model, little analysis has been done to understand parents’ and staff’s perceptions of the model. This study investigates teacher and parent perceptions of the Full-Service Community School model and its impact on overall school communities. This narrative research design used semi-constructed interviews to capture stakeholders’ experiences regarding how they perceive the model to impact school communities. The study found that parents and teachers perceive the FSCS model to positively impact the school community, especially in school climate, school resources, academics, and community engagement. These findings substantiated the prior research on the Full-service community school model and its impact on school outcomes

    The Effect of Oxytocin Receptor Genetic Variants on Oxytocin Response

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    Oxytocin is a nonapeptide hormone that modulates social behavior, mediates the lactation reflex, and induces and strengthens uterine contractions. Each year, oxytocin is administered to about half of laboring patients for induction and augmentation, and to almost all patients for prevention of post-partum hemorrhage – a total of four million patients per year in the United States alone. However, response to oxytocin varies widely between individuals, and complications including uterine hyperstimulation, uterine atony, required Cesarean section, and postpartum hemorrhage can arise from either excessive or inadequate oxytocin response. To avoid these adverse events, it is critically important to identify individuals at risk for aberrant oxytocin response and develop strategies to improve outcomes in these patients.In this dissertation, I first sought to determine the effects of common missense genetic variants in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene on oxytocin response. I screened prevalent genetic variants in OXTR and found that five variants alter calcium signaling and β-arrestin recruitment in cells. Three of these five variants had differential effects on calcium signaling and β-arrestin recruitment, leading to imbalance between activation and desensitization of the OXTR. Molecular dynamics simulations showed that these three variants cause conformational changes that are consistent with the signaling changes we observed in cells. Overall, these data show that OXTR variants alter oxytocin response, and suggest that individuals with these genetic variants may benefit from personalized oxytocin dosing. In the second part of this dissertation, I investigated the role of OXTR trafficking in determining oxytocin responsiveness. OXTR genetic variants that impair OXTR trafficking decrease maximal oxytocin response in transfected cells. I investigated whether small molecule modulators of OXTR and the closely related vasopressin receptor family could act as pharmacological chaperones for OXTR, increasing the cell surface localization of the wild type OXTR and rescuing the trafficking defects in variant OXTR. Treatment with the oxytocin/vasopressin antagonists increased cell surface localization of variant OXTR and rescued oxytocin signaling. The increase in OXTR cell surface localization and oxytocin responsiveness could also be observed in immortalized and primary human myometrial cells. Overall, these results show that pharmacological chaperones can enhance trafficking and function for both wild type and variant OXTR. This work presents a novel therapeutic strategy to improve the efficacy of oxytocin use in patients predicted to respond poorly due to genetic or environmental factors

    Taking a Collaborative Approach to Our Students’ Research in Education Settings

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    In the United Kingdom (U.K.), all students who are studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree need to complete a piece of independent research in order to gain their “honours” (U.S. “honors”) status. As a university faculty we have very specific ideas about the purpose of this research and the positive impact that we hope that it will have upon the U.K. settings (mainly schools and kindergartens) in which it is carried out, which we discuss in this article. Although our approach would appear successful, this judgement has so far been based upon the evidence of the final, summative project alone. Obtaining a small amount of funding from the university for students to act as co-researchers provided the ideal opportunity to explore the topic further by collecting empirical data from students and settings. Because our original plans for data collection were disrupted by COVID-19, we gained responses through an anonymous survey which enabled frank responses from both students and staff in settings. Although the data collected was, overall, encouraging, it did raise some issues for us, as faculty tutors, to consider. These include the way that we convey the importance of students carrying out their projects independently (that is, without university supervisor intervention) to settings themselves, and how we ensure that the students collaborate with settings at all stages of the project

    Targeting pro-oxidant iron with exogenously administered apotransferrin provides benefits associated with changes in crucial cellular iron gate protein TfR in a model of intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke in mice

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    We have previously demonstrated that the post-stroke administration of iron-free transferrin (apotransferrin, ATf) is beneficial in different models of ischemic stroke (IS) through the inhibition of the neuronal uptake of pro-oxidant iron. In the present study, we asked whether ATf is safe and also beneficial when given after the induction of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in mice, and investigated the underlying mechanisms. We first compared the main iron actors in the brain of IS- or collagenase-induced ICH mice and then obtained insight into these iron-related proteins in ICH 72 h after the administration of ATf. The infarct size of the IS mice was double that of hemorrhage in ICH mice, but both groups showed similar body weight loss, edema, and increased ferritin and transferrin levels in the ipsilateral brain hemisphere. Although the administration of human ATf (hATf) to ICH mice did not alter the hemorrhage volume or levels of the classical ferroptosis GPX4/system xc- pathways, hATf induced better neurobehavioral performance, decreased 4-hydroxynonenal levels and those of the second-generation ferroptosis marker transferrin receptor (TfR), and restored the mRNA levels of the recently recognized cytosolic iron chaperone poly(RC) binding protein 2. In addition, hATf treatment lowered the ICH-induced increase in both endogenous mouse transferrin mRNA levels and the activation of caspase-2. In conclusion, hATf treatment provides neurobehavioral benefits post-ICH associated with the modulation of iron/oxidative players

    Data journeys in the sciences

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    This is the final version. Available from Springer via the DOI in this record. This groundbreaking, open access volume analyses and compares data practices across several fields through the analysis of specific cases of data journeys. It brings together leading scholars in the philosophy, history and social studies of science to achieve two goals: tracking the travel of data across different spaces, times and domains of research practice; and documenting how such journeys affect the use of data as evidence and the knowledge being produced. The volume captures the opportunities, challenges and concerns involved in making data move from the sites in which they are originally produced to sites where they can be integrated with other data, analysed and re-used for a variety of purposes. The in-depth study of data journeys provides the necessary ground to examine disciplinary, geographical and historical differences and similarities in data management, processing and interpretation, thus identifying the key conditions of possibility for the widespread data sharing associated with Big and Open Data. The chapters are ordered in sections that broadly correspond to different stages of the journeys of data, from their generation to the legitimisation of their use for specific purposes. Additionally, the preface to the volume provides a variety of alternative “roadmaps” aimed to serve the different interests and entry points of readers; and the introduction provides a substantive overview of what data journeys can teach about the methods and epistemology of research.European CommissionAustralian Research CouncilAlan Turing Institut

    Molecular regulation of bacterial stress responses and pyocin production

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    Bacteria have a variety of systems to sense stress and respond ensuring the survival of cells. Bacillus subtilis uses stressosomes—large cytoplasmic multiprotein complexes—to sense environmental stressors and trigger the general stress response through activation of the alternative sigma factor σB. Stressosomes are comprised of 40 RsbR proteins made up of four paralogous (RsbRA, RsbRB, RsbRC, and RsbRD) putative stress sensors. Previous work uncovered differences in the timing and magnitude of the RsbR paralogs’ σB response profiles to the same stressor. In chapter 1, we use microfluidic-coupled microscopy to investigate the σB responses mediated by each paralog and how they differ in the presence of different environmental stressors. Wild-type and RsbRA-only cells activate σB with a characteristic transient response irrespective of the stressor, modulating the magnitude of the response. Other individual RsbR paralogs show distinct timing and magnitude of responses to stressors, implying RsbR proteins can distinguish among stressors. In Chapter 2 we explore how these differences in σB activation affect the fitness of cells by conducting competition experiments under stress conditions. Our data suggests that the dynamics of the σB responses, which are impacted by the single RsbR paralogs, is capable of affecting fitness of cells.Pyocins are bacteriophage tail-like complexes released via cell lysis and kill other strains of P. aeruginosa, thought to aid in the elimination of competition for resources within a niche. The production of pyocins in xerC mutant strains occurs through a previously unknown non-canonical pathway. Normally the production of pyocins and resulting cell death is kept off by the transcriptional repressor PrtR, which undergoes autocleavage allowing pyocin production to occur only when RecA binds to damaged DNA. In chapter 3 we investigate the genetic regulation of pyocins via PrtR which appears to have previously unappreciated targets. In a recA and xerC double deletion, pyocins are still produced despite the trigger (RecA) for cleaving the repressor (PrtR) being absent, suggesting the xerC deletion is bypassing the PrtR repressor. Surprisingly, replacement of PrtR with a non-cleavable version still allows pyocin expression but somehow blocks production of functional pyocins, suggesting other previously unknown targets of PrtR

    Wright State University\u27s Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities from Thursday, October 26, 2023

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    The student abstract booklet is a compilation of abstracts from students\u27 oral and poster presentations at Wright State University\u27s Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities on October 26, 2023.https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/celebration_abstract_books/1001/thumbnail.jp

    The molecular athlete: exercise physiology from mechanisms to medals

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    Human skeletal muscle demonstrates remarkable plasticity, adapting to numerous external stimuli including the habitual level of contractile loading. Accordingly, muscle function and exercise capacity encompass a broad spectrum, from inactive individuals with low levels of endurance and strength, to elite athletes who produce prodigious performances underpinned by pleiotropic training-induced muscular adaptations. Our current understanding of the signal integration, interpretation and output coordination of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern muscle plasticity across this continuum is incomplete. As such, training methods and their application to elite athletes largely rely on a "trial and error" approach with the experience and practices of successful coaches and athletes often providing the bases for "post hoc" scientific enquiry and research. This review provides a synopsis of the morphological and functional changes along with the molecular mechanisms underlying exercise adaptation to endurance- and resistance-based training. These traits are placed in the context of innate genetic and inter-individual differences in exercise capacity and performance, with special considerations given to the ageing athletes. Collectively, we provide a comprehensive overview of skeletal muscle plasticity in response to different modes of exercise, and how such adaptations translate from "molecules to medals"
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