Biocompatible parylene neurocages developing a robust method for live neural network studies

We present a refined method and design for fabricating parylene neurocages for in vitro studies of live neural networks. Parylene neurocages are biocompatible and very robust, making them ideally suited for studying the synaptic connections netween individual neurons to gain insight into learning and memory. The neurocage fabrication process is significantly less complex than earlier versions. Previous neurocage designs achieved limited neuronal outgrowth; however, the long-term cell survival rate was 50%

Development of biocompatible parylene neurocages

We present a refined method and design for building parylene neurocages for in vitro studies of live neural networks. Parylene neurocages are biocompatible and very robust, making them ideally suited for studying the synaptic connections between individual neurons to gain insight into learning and memory. The neurocage fabrication process is significantly less complex than earlier versions. Previous neurocage designs achieved limited neuronal outgrowth; however, the long-term cell survival rate was 50%

Hedonic pricing models for metropolitan bus services

Conventional studies on the pricing of bus services use the cost structure to explain bus fares. In this paper, a hedonic pricing model for bus services in Hong Kong is estimated. The contributions of cost and market factors are uncovered. It is found that the cost factors dominate the determination of bus fares. In contrast to our expectation, bus fares do not react to competition faced by bus companies. Moreover, except the three cross-harbour tunnels, the bus fare has no direct relationship with the tolls of other tunnels. Our model serves well as a reference tool for bus companies to set market-acceptable bus fares.Hedonic Pricing Model, Bus Fares, Kowloon Motor Bus.

Elusive Kodály Part I: Searching for Hungarian Influences in US Preschool Music Education

This paper is the first part of two articles exploring whether and how Hungarian music pedagogues have influenced early childhood music education in the United States. Using less-known publications and archived materials, this study moves beyond the well-documented history of the Hungarian pedagogue, Zoltán Kodály’s influence upon American general music education to focus on Kodály’s early childhood concepts, which form the backbone of the Hungarian philosophy of music education. Through the lives and work of the Hungarian and American music educators, Katinka Dániel, Katalin Forrai, Sister Lorna Zemke and Betsy Moll, I delineate a pedigree of distinguished female Kodály protégés professing a passion for Hungarian early childhood music pedagogy that did not mainstream into US preschools. In words spoken by and about these scholar-educators, my research locates the systemic and cultural factors contributing to the challenge of implementing Hungarian musical ideas in US preschools. To round out a description of the elusive Kodály influence on US early childhood music, this analysis also draws upon my own Los Angeles experience in searching for a quality Kodály education for my young toddlers

Elusive Kodály, Part II: The Hungarian Foundations of the Baby-Toddler Music Industry in the US

This article is the second part of a study investigating how Hungarians have influenced early childhood music education in the United States. In Part One, Chong documented the lesser-known histories of four Hungarian and American female scholar-educators who promoted the early childhood concepts at the heart of Zoltán Kodály's approach to music education. In this study, she traces Kodály’s footprints to private, stand-alone baby-toddler music classes in the US. In the 2000’s, baby-toddler music enrichment exploded in popularity as the children’s activity industry became one of the fastest growing sectors of the US market. Only a handful of local programs are explicitly Kodály-based, such as Sing, Play, Move!, at Holy Names University’s Kodály Center. Chong’s search in the Los Angeles area for quality Kodály instruction for her toddlers led to highly lucrative major US providers of baby-toddler music such as Music Together and Kindermusik. These programs share Kodály pedagogical practices, such as that of singing folk music in the children’s mother tongue, but map histories without reference to Hungary and attribute their approaches to American men not known as Kodály protégés. This paper explores whether the impressive profits and musical excellence of these programs can rightly be attributed to Kodály

Using two-tier bitwise interest oriented QRP data structure for high clustering through interest similarity in SWB P2P systems

The concept of “Small-World” paradigm has been used by many peer-to-peer (P2P) systems to achieve high clustering and low number of hops to arrive to its desired target. This approach intends to improve performance of P2P systems. The Small world concept requires that the architecture of a P2P system to achieve high cluster coefficient and low average hop between any two randomly chosen peers. In this research, we propose an enhanced hierarchical overlay network by incorporating the concept of Small world into the base hierarchical architecture. This research adopts the Query Routing Protocol (QRP) data structure of a hierarchical P2P network by storing the interest information of files in the leaf peers in the network. The QRP in the leaf peers will be aggregated and propagated to the SuperPeer so that interest information could be used to form short-range, medium-range and long-range links with other SuperPeers to achieve low average hop. As peers join and leave the network, a proposed rewiring protocol is used to ensure peers are clustered by interest to form high clustering coefficient so that search activities are yielding higher relevance results in a more predictable fashion. We simulated the porposed small world P2P using test scenarios to evaluate recall rate of the small world P2P system. Our simulated results evaluate and benchmark our proposed Small-World Bee (SWB) overlay network with iCluster [3], Firework Query Model [5] and Limewire [1] to assess performance obtained and goals achieved in the research work so that future research directions could be planned

Beginning Teachers’ Perceptions of their Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills in Teaching: A Three Year Study

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the beginning teachers’ perceptions of pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching in Singapore. Data was collected from the beginning teachers at three time points: the exit point of the teacher education programme, the end of their first year and third year of teaching. In this three year study, the focus is to examine the beginning teachers’ perceptions of their development in the following teaching related factors: lesson planning, classroom management and instructional strategies. The results showed that beginning teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills increased significantly, but at different rates, in all three factors at the end of their third year of teaching. It suggested that learning to teach is an on-going process that begins from the pre-service teacher education programme and continues into the initial three years of teaching

Relationship of the mucosal microbiota to gastrointestinal inflammation and small cell intestinal lymphoma in cats

Background: The gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota in healthy cats is altered in IBD. Little research has been performed to identify whether specific bacterial groups are associated with small cell GI lymphoma (LSA). Hypothesis: Mucosal bacteria, including Enterobacteriaceae and Fusobacterium spp., are abundant in intestinal biopsies of cats with small cell GI LSA compared to cats with IBD. Animals: Fourteen cats with IBD and 14 cats with small cell GI LSA. Methods: Retrospective case control study. A search of the medical records was performed to identify cats diagnosed with IBD and with GI LSA. Bacterial groups identified by FISH in GI biopsies were compared between cohorts and correlated to CD11b+ and NF‐κB expression. Results: Fusobacterium spp. (median; IQR bacteria/region) were higher in cats with small cell GI LSA in ileal (527; 455.5 – 661.5; P = .046) and colonic (404.5; 328.8 – 455.5; P = .016) adherent mucus, and combined colonic compartments (free mucus, adherent mucus, attaching to epithelium) (8; 0 – 336; P = .017) compared to cats with IBD (ileum: 67; 31.5 – 259; colon: 142.5; 82.3 – 434.5; combined: 3; 0 – 34). Bacteroides spp. were higher in ileal adherent mucus (P = .036) and 3 combined ileal compartments (P = .034) of cats with small cell GI LSA. There were significant correlations between Fusobacterium spp. totals and CD11b+ cell (P = .009; rs .476) and NF‐κB expression (P = .004; rs .523). Conclusions: The bacterial alterations appreciated might be influential in development of small cell GI LSA, and should drive further studies to elucidate the effects of microbial‐mediated inflammation on GI cancer progression