Educational Technology Portfolio

An educational technology portfolio was completed as a creative component project to meet the requirement for the educational technology masters program in the School of Education at Iowa State University. Artifacts included in this portfolio were aligned to the program’s standards of: 1) technology planning and integration, 2) Digital citizenship, 3) Research and assessment, and 4) visionary leadership. A social studies lesson modeling the TPACK model was used for technology planning and integration. A digital infographic created using SMORE was submitted for the digital citizenship artifact. The research and assessment artifact was an action research that was conducted over literature circles and the visionary leadership artifact was a professional development session created about the Seesaw application

Separate Microcircuit Modules of Distinct V2a Interneurons and Motoneurons Control the Speed of Locomotion

SummarySpinal circuits generate locomotion with variable speed as circumstances demand. These circuits have been assumed to convey equal and uniform excitation to all motoneurons whose input resistance dictates their activation sequence. However, the precise connectivity pattern between excitatory premotor circuits and the different motoneuron types has remained unclear. Here, we generate a connectivity map in adult zebrafish between the V2a excitatory interneurons and slow, intermediate, and fast motoneurons. We show that the locomotor network does not consist of a uniform circuit as previously assumed. Instead, it can be deconstructed into three separate microcircuit modules with distinct V2a interneuron subclasses driving slow, intermediate, or fast motoneurons. This modular design enables the increase of locomotor speed by sequentially adding microcircuit layers from slow to intermediate and fast. Thus, this principle of organization of vertebrate spinal circuits represents an intrinsic mechanism to increase the locomotor speed by incrementally engaging different motor units

53BP1 expression is a modifier of the prognostic value of lymph node ratio and CA 19–9 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: 53BP1 binds to the tumor suppressor p53 and has a key role in DNA damage response and repair. Low 53BP1 expression has been associated with decreased survival in breast cancer and has been shown to interact with several prognostic factors in non-small cell lung cancer. The role of 53BP1 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has yet to be determined. We aimed to investigate whether 53BP1 levels interact with established prognostic factors in PDAC. METHODS: 106 patients for whom there was tissue available at time of surgical resection for PDAC were included. A tissue microarray was constructed using surgical specimens, stained with antibodies to 53BP1, and scored for expression intensity. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were performed to investigate the association between 53BP1 and patient survival with known prognostic factors for survival. RESULTS: The association of 53BP1 with several established prognostic factors was examined, including stage, tumor grade, surgical margin, peripancreatic extension, lymph node ratio (LNR), and CA 19–9. We found that 53BP1 modified the effects of known prognostic variables including LNR and CA 19–9 on survival outcomes. When 53BP1 intensity was low, increased LNR was associated with decreased OS (HR 4.84, 95% CI (2.26, 10.37), p<0.001) and high CA19-9 was associated with decreased OS (HR 1.72, 95% CI (1.18, 2.51), p=0.005). When 53BP1 intensity was high, LNR and CA19-9 were no longer associated with OS (p=0.958 and p=0.606, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, 53BP1, a key player in DNA damage response and repair, was found to modify the prognostic value of two established prognostic factors, LNR and CA 19–9, suggesting 53BP1 may alter tumor behavior and ultimately impact how we interpret the value of other prognostic factors

Comparative investigation of control mechanisms for turning during quadrupedal robot locomotion

The 11th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines. Kobe University, Japan. 2023-06-06/09. Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines Organizing Committee.Poster Session P

The evolution of insecticide resistance in the peach-potato aphid, Myzus persicae

© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence e (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.The peach potato aphid, Myzus persicae is a globally distributed crop pest with a host range of over 400 species including many economically important crop plants. The intensive use of insecticides to control this species over many years has led to populations that are now resistant to several classes of insecticide. Work spanning over 40 years has shown that M. persicae has a remarkable ability to evolve mechanisms that avoid or overcome the toxic effect of insecticides with at least seven independent mechanisms of resistance described in this species to date. The array of novel resistance mechanisms, including several ‘first examples’, that have evolved in this species represents an important case study for the evolution of insecticide resistance and also rapid adaptive change in insects more generally. In this review we summarise the biochemical and molecular mechanisms underlying resistance in M. persicae and the insights study of this topic has provided on how resistance evolves, the selectivity of insecticides, and the link between resistance and host plant adaptation.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Architecture of a nascent viral fusion pore

Enveloped viruses use specialized protein machinery to fuse the viral membrane with that of the host cell during cell invasion. In influenza virus, hundreds of copies of the haemagglutinin (HA) fusion glycoprotein project from the virus surface. Despite intensive study of HA and its fusion activity, the protein's modus operandi in manipulating viral and target membranes to catalyse their fusion is poorly understood. Here, the three-dimensional architecture of influenza virus–liposome complexes at pH 5.5 was investigated by electron cryo-tomography. Tomographic reconstructions show that early stages of membrane remodeling take place in a target membrane-centric manner, progressing from punctate dimples, to the formation of a pinched liposomal funnel that may impinge on the apparently unperturbed viral envelope. The results suggest that the M1 matrix layer serves as an endoskeleton for the virus and a foundation for HA during membrane fusion. Fluorescence spectroscopy monitoring fusion between liposomes and virions shows that leakage of liposome contents takes place more rapidly than lipid mixing at pH 5.5. The relation of ‘leaky' fusion to the observed prefusion structures is discussed