College Students who are Deaf-Blind

Imagine being in college and being deaf-blind. What opportunities might you have? What types of challenges would you face? This publication describes a study that begins to answer these questions. During the study, 11 college students with deaf-blindness were interviewed about their college experiences. They were like most college students in many ways, but in addition to managing their classes and social lives, they had to educate others about deaf-blindness, adjust to changes in their vision, coordinate interpreting services, and get orientation and mobility instruction. These students are truly role models. As more young adults with deaf-blindness begin to attend college, it is essential to understand what college is like for them and make sure they have the support and assistance they need to be fully included in college life

“I’m So Excited About This!” A Shared Administrative Vision for Inclusive Practice

Introduction by: John J. O’Kane, Assistant Professor, Teacher Education, Roberts Wesleyan College Those of us who have long sought to promote meaningful program innovations and structural changes to advance the more normalized teaching model, often referred to as “inclusion,” fully understand the critical need for administrative support of the process. “I’m So Excited About This” clearly and succinctly describes the significant contributions of Hilton Central School District’s leadership at both district and building levels in advancing an inclusive continuum of services as the approach to integrating special and general education. This strategy is based on three key and fundamental beliefs: Hilton’s students belong in Hilton’s schools; general education settings afford the best opportunity for success; and special education is a service, not a place. This narrative history powerfully articulates and affirms the importance of a shared vision, mutual collaboration, and a common core of beliefs that promote learning for all students

The Ideal Museum: Art and the Audience of Museums, Real and Imagined

The aim of this project is to examine the impulse to create community gathering space within the museum. This work has been undertaken by museum staff who are aware of the museum's various points of inaccessibility, though continue to struggle with ways to engage historically excluded publics. I find that three main factors inhibit this type of community gathering: the hierarchical structure of the museum profession, the spatial politics and layout of museum, and the location of art museums. I then synthesize my findings, proposing a new mode of institutional collaboration to ground a community-based practice that promotes the broadest public access to the arts.I am thankful to have received funding from Ohio State's Undergraduate Research Scholarship.No embargoAcademic Major: History of Ar

Re-Seeing The Mighty: Critically Examining One Film\u27s Representations of Disability in the English Classroom

Films portraying characters with disabilities are often shown in the English classroom. Films such as Of Mice and Men, Simon Birch, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Glass Menagerie, Moby Dick, Gattaca, and A Beautiful Mind often show simplistic and stereotypical representations of characters and their disabilities. Although students are frequently encouraged to think critically about a film\u27s structure, themes, or symbolic elements, the authors argue that they should also learn to examine critically the representations of disability in these films. If stereotypical representations of characters with disabilities are not identified and challenged, another generation of people may hold on to outdated and unhealthy assumptions about real people with disabilities. In this article, the authors show what an active reading of The Mighty, a commonly used film by English teachers adapted from Rodman Philbrick\u27s novel Freak the Mighty, might look like. The Mighty is valuable in that it positively portrays friendships between disabled and nondisabled characters, but the damaging and limited representations of disability that this film offers may perpetuate prevailing stereotypes of disability so that students maintain a stigmatizing viewpoint of persons with disability labels. The authors provide a synopsis of The Mighty and then describe an analytical tool--Martin Norden\u27s stereotypic roles--that they think is useful in challenging negative constructions of characters with disabilities in the film. They present Norden\u27s roles and their own critical reading of The Mighty as a model for other English teachers to use when reading disability in both film and literature. The authors end with recommendations for teachers on how to approach using film in ways that are respectful of people with disabilities and that are accepting of difference in classrooms

Physical Recreation Constraints Among Guatemalan Families with Children with Visual Impairments

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify constraints related to active participation in physical recreation activities and strategies to overcome those constraints from the perspective of Guatemalan families with children with visual impairments. Methods: Participants in this study were Hispanic parents (N=13) of children with visual impairments attending a sports camp held in Guatemala City. Qualitative data were gathered through one-on-one interviews. Results: Results of this study indicate that Hispanic families who reside in Guatemala City face constraints that impact their physical recreation choices, although they manage to engage in activity whenever possible and try to do the very best for their children with visual impairments. Conclusion: Families voiced their desire to receive help from governmental agencies to establish community programs and activities for family participation

A Network Integration Approach to Predict Conserved Regulators Related to Pathogenicity of Influenza and SARS-CoV Respiratory Viruses

Respiratory infections stemming from influenza viruses and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV) represent a serious public health threat as emerging pandemics. Despite efforts to identify the critical interactions of these viruses with host machinery, the key regulatory events that lead to disease pathology remain poorly targeted with therapeutics. Here we implement an integrated network interrogation approach, in which proteome and transcriptome datasets from infection of both viruses in human lung epithelial cells are utilized to predict regulatory genes involved in the host response. We take advantage of a novel "crowd-based" approach to identify and combine ranking metrics that isolate genes/proteins likely related to the pathogenicity of SARS-CoV and influenza virus. Subsequently, a multivariate regression model is used to compare predicted lung epithelial regulatory influences with data derived from other respiratory virus infection models. We predicted a small set of regulatory factors with conserved behavior for consideration as important components of viral pathogenesis that might also serve as therapeutic targets for intervention. Our results demonstrate the utility of integrating diverse 'omic datasets to predict and prioritize regulatory features conserved across multiple pathogen infection models

Role of C677T and A1298C MTHFR, A2756G MTR and -786 C/T eNOS Gene Polymorphisms in Atrial Fibrillation Susceptibility

Hyperhomocysteinemia has been suggested to play a role in the NonValvular Atrial Fibrillation (NVAF) pathogenesis. Polymorphisms in genes coding for homocysteine (Hcy) metabolism enzymes may be associated with hyperhomocysteinemia and NVAF.456 NVAF patients and 912 matched controls were genotyped by an electronic microchip technology for C677T and A1298C MTHFR, A2756G MTR, and -786C/T eNOS gene polymorphisms. Hcy was determined by an immunoassay method.The genotype distribution of the four polymorphisms as well as genotype combinations did not differ in patients and controls. Hcy was higher in patients than in controls (15.2, 95%CI 14.7–15.7 vs 11.3, 95%CI 11.0–11.6 µmol/L; p<0.0001). In both populations, a genotype-phenotype association (p<0.0001) between Hcy and C677T MTHFR polymorphism was observed; in controls a significant (p = 0.029) association between tHcy and −786C/T eNOS polymorphism was also observed. At the multivariate analysis the NVAF risk significantly increased in the upper quartiles of Hcy compared to the lowest: OR from 2.8 (1.68–4.54 95%CI) in Q2 to 12.9 (7.96–21.06 95%CI) in Q4. or in combination

Gene expression profiling of mucinous ovarian tumors and comparison with upper and lower gastrointestinal tumors identifies markers associated with adverse outcomes.

PURPOSE: Advanced-stage mucinous ovarian carcinoma (MOC) has poor chemotherapy response and prognosis and lacks biomarkers to aid stage I adjuvant treatment. Differentiating primary MOC from gastrointestinal (GI) metastases to the ovary is also challenging due to phenotypic similarities. Clinicopathologic and gene-expression data were analyzed to identify prognostic and diagnostic features. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Discovery analyses selected 19 genes with prognostic/diagnostic potential. Validation was performed through the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium and GI cancer biobanks comprising 604 patients with MOC (n = 333), mucinous borderline ovarian tumors (MBOT, n = 151), and upper GI (n = 65) and lower GI tumors (n = 55). RESULTS: Infiltrative pattern of invasion was associated with decreased overall survival (OS) within 2 years from diagnosis, compared with expansile pattern in stage I MOC [hazard ratio (HR), 2.77; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.04–7.41, P = 0.042]. Increased expression of THBS2 and TAGLN was associated with shorter OS in MOC patients (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.04–1.51, P = 0.016) and (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.01–1.45, P = 0.043), respectively. ERBB2 (HER2) amplification or high mRNA expression was evident in 64 of 243 (26%) of MOCs, but only 8 of 243 (3%) were also infiltrative (4/39, 10%) or stage III/IV (4/31, 13%). CONCLUSIONS: An infiltrative growth pattern infers poor prognosis within 2 years from diagnosis and may help select stage I patients for adjuvant therapy. High expression of THBS2 and TAGLN in MOC confers an adverse prognosis and is upregulated in the infiltrative subtype, which warrants further investigation. Anti-HER2 therapy should be investigated in a subset of patients. MOC samples clustered with upper GI, yet markers to differentiate these entities remain elusive, suggesting similar underlying biology and shared treatment strategies

CCNE1 and survival of patients with tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma: An Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium study

BACKGROUND: Cyclin E1 (CCNE1) is a potential predictive marker and therapeutic target in tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC). Smaller studies have revealed unfavorable associations for CCNE1 amplification and CCNE1 overexpression with survival, but to date no large-scale, histotype-specific validation has been performed. The hypothesis was that high-level amplification of CCNE1 and CCNE1 overexpression, as well as a combination of the two, are linked to shorter overall survival in HGSC. METHODS: Within the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium, amplification status and protein level in 3029 HGSC cases and mRNA expression in 2419 samples were investigated. RESULTS: High-level amplification (>8 copies by chromogenic in situ hybridization) was found in 8.6% of HGSC and overexpression (>60% with at least 5% demonstrating strong intensity by immunohistochemistry) was found in 22.4%. CCNE1 high-level amplification and overexpression both were linked to shorter overall survival in multivariate survival analysis adjusted for age and stage, with hazard stratification by study (hazard ratio [HR], 1.26; 95% CI, 1.08-1.47, p = .034, and HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.05-1.32, p = .015, respectively). This was also true for cases with combined high-level amplification/overexpression (HR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.09-1.47, p = .033). CCNE1 mRNA expression was not associated with overall survival (HR, 1.00 per 1-SD increase; 95% CI, 0.94-1.06; p = .58). CCNE1 high-level amplification is mutually exclusive with the presence of germline BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants and shows an inverse association to RB1 loss. CONCLUSION: This study provides large-scale validation that CCNE1 high-level amplification is associated with shorter survival, supporting its utility as a prognostic biomarker in HGSC