Everything With a Smile: Loxie Dowdy

This biography details the life of Vietnam Veteran Loxie Dowdy and her partner Lucille Laugesen

Effect of vertical stretching on the extraction of mean identity from faces

Observers can extract the mean identity from a set of faces and falsely recognise it as a genuine set member. The current experiment demonstrated that this ‘perceptual averaging’ also occurs with vertically stretched faces. On each trial, participants decided whether a target face was present in a preceding set of four faces. In the control condition, the faces were all normally proportioned; in the stretched set condition, the face sets were stretched but the targets were normal; and in the stretched target condition, the face sets were normal but the targets were stretched. In all three conditions, participants falsely identified the set mean as a face that had been presented within the set, implying that this identity-averaging effect is based on high-level identity information rather than the low-level physical characteristics of the face stimuli

The Career Advancement Experiences of Female Faculty of Color in Athletic Training Education Programs

Healthcare professions are currently experiencing increased professional member diversity, necessitating an investigation of employee workplace experiences and career advancement. Yet, the rate of female faculty of color in athletic training education programs is inconsistent with athletic training membership diversity rates. This study explores their career advancement and mentoring experiences

Evaluation of the Injury Control Council of Western Australia's Understanding and Building Resilience in the South West Project Phase 1 - Development of Community Road Maps

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe Understanding and Building Resilience in the South West Project was coordinated by the Injury Control Council of Western Australia (ICCWA) on behalf of the South West Suicide Prevention Taskforce and in partnership with the South West Area Health Service (SWAHS) Population Health Unit. This report was commissioned by ICCWA as an independent evaluation of the process used to develop the Community Road Maps (CRM) and the appropriateness of the recommendations therein to promote understanding of, and build resilience to, suicide in each community involved in the project. The conclusions and recommendations in the report have been developed based on the data collected from key stakeholders in the area of suicide prevention and community members living in the south west of Western Australia.Overall, suicide prevention appears to be an issue of high community concern in the three communities who completed a CRM. Those involved reported that the project was thorough in its consultation and well-managed. The high level of interest in the project was further manifested with a 90% response rate of the evaluation questionnaires and the willingness of participants to engage in follow-up telephone interviews.Small rural communities face significant challenges in providing health services and support to those most in need. Residents often have to travel significant distances to larger towns to access specialist services or training. Furthermore, the stigma associated with suicide and mental illness inhibits some individuals from seeking help earlier rather than later, even when services or assistance is available within their own community.A coordinated and collaborative approach by service providers (both professional and voluntary) would promote a more proactive approach to suicide prevention and serve to maximise the scarce resources available in rural communities. A whole-of-community coordinated approach to the issue of suicide prevention is required to identify and support individuals 'at risk' of suicide, who may not qualify for mental health assistance, but currently appear to fall through the gaps until a crisis point is reached. This evaluation found that strong local leadership was required to drive the project forward, and centrally facilitated processes and frameworks were considered essential to implement the recommendations provided in each Community Road Map

Wide-Scale Automatic Analysis of 20 Years of ITS Research

The analysis of literature within a research domain can provide significant value during preliminary research. While literature reviews may provide an in-depth understanding of current studies within an area, they are limited by the number of studies which they take into account. Importantly, whilst publications in hot areas abound, it is not feasible for an individual or team to analyse a large volume of publications within a reasonable amount of time. Additionally, major publications which have gained a large number of citations are more likely to be included in a review, with recent or fringe publications receiving less inclusion. We provide thus an automatic methodology for the large-scale analysis of literature within the Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) domain, with the aim of identifying trends and areas of research from a corpus of publications which is significantly larger than is typically presented in conventional literature reviews. We illustrate this by a novel analysis of 20 years of ITS research. The resulting analysis indicates a significant shift of the status quo of research in recent years with the advent of novel neural network architectures and the introduction of MOOCs

Measuring the difference between actual and reported food intakes in the context of energy balance under laboratory conditions

Acknowledgements The present study was funded by the Food Standards Agency, UK. The Food Standards Agency had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article. The authors’ responsibilities were as follows: R. J. S., L. M. O’R. and G. W. H. designed the research; L. M. O’R. and Z. F. conducted the research and analysed the data; G. W. H. performed the statistical analyses; P. R. carried out the DLW analysis; R. J. S. had primary responsibility for the final content; R. J. S., L. M. O’R., Z. F., S. W. and M. B. E. L. wrote the paper.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Antibody responses to a Cryptosporidium parvum rCP15/60 vaccine

Cryptosporidium parvum is a zoonotic apicomplexa-protozoan pathogen that causes gastroenteritis and diarrhoea in mammals worldwide. The organism is transmitted by ingestion of oocysts, which are shed in faeces, and completes its lifecycle in a single host.^1^ C. parvum is ubiquitous on dairy operations worldwide and is one of the leading causes of diarrhoea in calves on these farms.^2,3^ Here, for the first time, we describe the antibody response in a large group of cows to a recombinant C. parvum oocyst surface protein (rCP15/60) vaccine and the antibody response in calves fed rCP15/60-immune colostrum produced by these vaccinated cows. Results of recent genotype surveys indicate that calves are the only major reservoir for C. parvum infections in humans.^4^ Human C. parvum infections are particularly prevalent and often fatal in neonates in developing countries and to immunocompromised people, such as AIDs patients.^4^ Drug therapy against cryptosporidiosis is limited and not wholly efficacious in either humans or calves^5^, making development of an effective vaccine of paramount importance. To date, there is no commercially available effective vaccine against C. parvum, although passive immunization utilizing different zoite surface (glyco)proteins has showed promise.^6-9^ All cows we vaccinated produced an antibody response to the rCP15/60 vaccine and the magnitude of response correlated strongly with the subsequent level of antibody in their colostrum. All calves fed rCP15/60-immune colostrum showed a dose-dependent absorption of antibody. Our results demonstrate that vaccination of cows with rCP15/60 successfully induces antibodies against CP15/60 in their serum and colostrum and that these antibodies are then well absorbed when fed to neonatal calves. With further research, this C. parvum vaccine may well be a practical method of conferring passive protection to calves against cryptosporidiosis. Furthermore, a specifically targeted immune-colostrum may be valuable in protection and treatment of immunocompromised human patients with cryptosporidiosis

Climate change adaptation in Metro Vancouver: The role of boundary organizations and advocacy planning

City planners have an opportunity to act as agents of change to build resilience within their cities to respond to climate change. With climate change rapidly changing urban environments, it is critical that municipal planners are advocating for adaptation based on the latest science. Advocacy planning was proposed in the mid-twentieth century as an alternative to the rational comprehensive planning model. However, in the current era, the rational comprehensive model still dominates planning environments and climate change adaptation guides. Using a case study in Metro Vancouver, I interviewed municipal practitioners about their experience planning for climate change adaptation. Results demonstrate that municipal practitioners can have conflicting views regarding their responsibility to advocate for climate change adaptation planning. Practitioners feel responsible for the health and safety of their constituents, but also feel responsible to act on behalf of the views of their constituents and council. This thesis explores this tension and proposes strategies for urban planners to position themselves as advocates for climate change adaptation planning. Additionally, this thesis builds on urban climate governance research to focus on how city planners’ partnerships with boundary organizations influence adaptation planning within cities. At the root of effective urban climate governance is the integration of science and policy. Boundary organizations offer a governance approach that disseminates knowledge, builds capacity, and engages more participants in the adaptation planning process. However, little is known about how these partnerships foster adaptation at the local scale. Using a case study in Metro Vancouver, this study investigated how boundary organizations can better support municipal adaptation action. This case study builds on existing theory on local adaptation planning by incorporating concepts from organizational change theory. The results of this study demonstrated that boundary organizations were perceived as more influential when they were credible, legitimate, and salient, as well as when they provided action-oriented support. Ultimately, this paper contributes to the literature by illustrating how boundary organizations operate at the sub-regional scale to foster adaptation and proposing tangible administrative practices to improve the effectiveness of these partnerships

Transcriptional dynamics of the Sonic hedgehog gene

Enhancers are capable of driving gene expression over linearly vast distances, allowing precise patterns of spatiotemporal gene expression. They are able to do this independent of orientation to the promoter, and a single gene often has multiple enhancers. There is still limited understanding of how developmental enhancers drive transcription. It must be a highly regulated process, previous evidence has shown that alterations in expression levels can result in developmental malformations. Furthermore, there is debate surrounding the mechanisms of how enhancers interact with their distal promoters. The models currently most popular in the field are looping and transcriptional hubs. Sonic hedgehog (Shh) gene expression is a good model to further our understanding of both developmental transcriptional regulation and distal enhancer-promoter interactions. Shh expression is regulated by many tissue and spatial specific enhancers with, in some instances, single enhancers driving expression in single embryonic domains. The enhancers are all located within a single TAD, at a range of distances from the Shh promoter. Over the years, my lab has taken a special interest in the limb enhancer, ZRS. The ZRS drives transcription in the distal posterior mesenchyme of the developing limb bud in a domain called the ZPA. We have been able to identify a network of activator and repressor binding sites within the ZRS that restricts transcription in the absence of histological boundaries providing an interesting model for me to explore mechanisms for how a developmental enhancer drives transcription. Throughout this thesis I will address three main aims. Firstly, I will establish transcriptional characteristics at the wild-type Shh locus. Before I start exploring how an enhancer drives transcription using different mouse models, I first need a strong understanding of what transcription looks like in wild-type animals. I addressed this using nascent RNA-FISH. Using nascent RNA-FISH I have been able to determine the bursting frequency of Shh in the ZPA. Furthermore, this technique has allowed me to ascertain if an active enhancer can be transcribed through. Meanwhile, the use of RNAscope has allowed me to establish the overall pattern of expression across the ZPA. Determining whether there is a clear-cut boundary or a gradient type pattern. Secondly, I will decipher the role of discrete functional elements of the ZRS in transcription. Previous work from members of my lab has identified different binding sites located throughout the ZRS. For example, there are four known Hox binding sites. Mutations in these sites are known to cause down-regulation of Shh. I used mutants for these sites to determine the action of HOXD proteins on the ZRS and how this impacts transcription. Furthermore, I have investigated how pioneer factor binding of the ZRS influences transcriptional characteristics. This was done by investigating how the mutation of a Lim homeodomain binding site impacted transcriptional characteristics of Shh. To contrast, I then explored how up-regulatory mutations of the ZRS effect transcription by using mice where a ZRS repressor site, the WMS, was disrupted. This work revealed that HOXD proteins, Limb homeodomain proteins and proteins binding the WMS all have different influences on Shh transcription, revealing a range of different roles. Finally, I will explore long-range regulation of distal enhancer-promoter interactions. There have been multiple models proposed to explain how enhancers interact with their target promoters. Two of these models for explaining long range regulation are the looping model and the transcriptional hub model. These two models can be differentiated by the action of a single enhancer on multiple promoters, the looping model predicts promoter choice while the transcriptional hub predicts simultaneous promoter activation. To test these models, I looked at the ability of Shh enhancers to drive transcription of multiple promoters in different contexts. Firstly, I used a mouse line carrying a LacZ reporter integrated within the Shh TAD. This provided a second internal promoter where expression is driven by Shh enhancers in their cognate tissues. Secondly, I performed experiments examining activation of two endogenous genes in adjacent TADs, Shh and Mnx1