Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation for Volume Control and Pressure Control Ventilator Modes

The purpose of this doctoral project was to create a tool to teach student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNAs) in The University of Sothern Mississippi’s (USM’s) anesthesia program about pressure control and volume control ventilator modes, and how to use them. To accomplish this goal an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) was developed. The framework used for creating this OSCE was Kolb\u27s Theory. Kolb\u27s Theory uses a four-stage learning cycle in which the learner encounters a new experience, reflects on the observations of said new experience, conceptualizes or modifies a concept based on this experience, and then applies their idea to the world around them (Kurt, 2020). Kolb’s Theory was applied to this doctoral project by the learner first encountering and reflecting on the topics of pressure control and volume control modes of ventilation in didactic teaching and assigned readings. After being introduced to the material, the student could reflect on how they might use the two modes in a practice setting. The learner was then provided with a scenario to practice what was learned in a controlled environment. Lastly, the student could reflect on their performance and repeat the process as many times as needed for mastery of the concept. A template that laid out the material that needed to be reviewed before completing the OSCE and provided a guide to evaluate the student’s performance was created. A video that reviewed the two modes and provided a scenario for practice was also produced. A survey was sent out to a group of peers to evaluate the effectiveness of the OSCE, and all participants agreed that the OSCE was beneficial to learning about and practicing the use of volume control and pressure control ventilator modes

Atherosusceptible Shear Stress Activates Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress to Promote Endothelial Inflammation.

Atherosclerosis impacts arteries where disturbed blood flow renders the endothelium susceptible to inflammation. Cytokine activation of endothelial cells (EC) upregulates VCAM-1 receptors that target monocyte recruitment to atherosusceptible regions. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress elicits EC dysregulation in metabolic syndrome. We hypothesized that ER plays a central role in mechanosensing of atherosusceptible shear stress (SS) by signaling enhanced inflammation. Aortic EC were stimulated with low-dose TNFα (0.3 ng/ml) in a microfluidic channel that produced a linear SS gradient over a 20mm field ranging from 0-16 dynes/cm2. High-resolution imaging of immunofluorescence along the monolayer provided a continuous spatial metric of EC orientation, markers of ER stress, VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 expression, and monocyte recruitment. VCAM-1 peaked at 2 dynes/cm2 and decreased to below static TNFα-stimulated levels at atheroprotective-SS of 12 dynes/cm2, whereas ICAM-1 rose to a maximum in parallel with SS. ER expansion and activation of the unfolded protein response also peaked at 2 dynes/cm2, where IRF-1-regulated VCAM-1 expression and monocyte recruitment also rose to a maximum. Silencing of PECAM-1 or key ER stress genes abrogated SS regulation of VCAM-1 transcription and monocyte recruitment. We report a novel role for ER stress in mechanoregulation at arterial regions of atherosusceptible-SS inflamed by low-dose TNFα

Spiritual Formation: A Model to Strengthen the Mission, Operation, and Commitment of African American Churches

Spiritual formation, the practice of intentional spiritual disciplines like fasting, silence, studying, and fellowship, should be the heart of growth in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina small churches. This practice assists congregants in developing closeness with God and relationships with others. Amidst a steady decline in national church attendance since 1992, few of today’s African-American Church ministries address the need for spiritual formation. This thesis explores this critical issue at the local level through interviews with pastors and church leaders, who describe their churches’ current efforts to foster spiritual formation in congregants. The findings are used to propose a model for local church leadership to promote community members’ spiritual formation. This model includes the thesis of applicable biblical passages and encourages attention to the Great Commission and Great Commandment of Christ–which all can assist church leadership in revitalizing missions, operations, and their commitments to developing the local African-American Church

Stock Trading: Prediction of Auction Volumes

With data analysis methods comes the ability to make predictions about the future behavior of numerous types of data. This project seeks to analyze stock market closing auctions. Stock exchanges hold closing auctions at the end of a trading day to determine the closing price for each stock. We analyzed volume, the total value of stock exchanged, during the closing auctions from stock exchanges covering a set of 900 stocks over 800 days. In order to complete this project, we built a model to predict stock trade volumes utilizing data provided on challengedata.ens.fr. A benchmark was created by Capital Fund Management, the providers of the challenge, that utilizes a linear fit method for our model to be compared against. We have interpreted and cleaned the data in order to predict exchanged volume of a given stock during closing auctions

The Role of Loop 5 in Acetylcholine Receptor Channel Gating

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor channel (AChR) gating is an organized sequence of molecular motions that couples a change in the affinity for ligands at the two transmitter binding sites with a change in the ionic conductance of the pore. Loop 5 (L5) is a nine-residue segment (mouse α-subunit 92–100) that links the β4 and β5 strands of the extracellular domain and that (in the α-subunit) contains binding segment A. Based on the structure of the acetylcholine binding protein, we speculate that in AChRs L5 projects from the transmitter binding site toward the membrane along a subunit interface. We used single-channel kinetics to quantify the effects of mutations to αD97 and other L5 residues with respect to agonist binding (to both open and closed AChRs), channel gating (for both unliganded and fully-liganded AChRs), and desensitization. Most αD97 mutations increase gating (up to 168-fold) but have little or no effect on ligand binding or desensitization. Rate-equilibrium free energy relationship analysis indicates that αD97 moves early in the gating reaction, in synchrony with the movement of the transmitter binding site (Φ = 0.93, which implies an open-like character at the transition state). αD97 mutations in the two α-subunits have unequal energetic consequences for gating, but their contributions are independent. We conclude that the key, underlying functional consequence of αD97 perturbations is to increase the unliganded gating equilibrium constant. L5 emerges as an important and early link in the AChR gating reaction which, in the absence of agonist, serves to increase the relative stability of the closed conformation of the protein

Gating Dynamics of the Acetylcholine Receptor Extracellular Domain

We used single-channel recording and model-based kinetic analyses to quantify the effects of mutations in the extracellular domain (ECD) of the α-subunit of mouse muscle–type acetylcholine receptors (AChRs). The crystal structure of an acetylcholine binding protein (AChBP) suggests that the ECD is comprised of a β-sandwich core that is surrounded by loops. Here we focus on loops 2 and 7, which lie at the interface of the AChR extracellular and transmembrane domains. Side chain substitutions in these loops primarily affect channel gating by either decreasing or increasing the gating equilibrium constant. Many of the mutations to the β-core prevent the expression of functional AChRs, but of the mutants that did express almost all had wild-type behavior. Rate-equilibrium free energy relationship analyses reveal the presence of two contiguous, distinct synchronously-gating domains in the α-subunit ECD that move sequentially during the AChR gating reaction. The transmitter-binding site/loop 5 domain moves first (Φ = 0.93) and is followed by the loop 2/loop 7 domain (Φ = 0.80). These movements precede that of the extracellular linker (Φ = 0.69). We hypothesize that AChR gating occurs as the stepwise movements of such domains that link the low-to-high affinity conformational change in the TBS with the low-to-high conductance conformational change in the pore

The effects of salt on the shear strength of Boston blue clay

Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Sanitary Engineering, 1961.MIT copy bound with: Settling of spheres in an oscillating fluid / by John H. Bousman [1961] -- The value of overseas study and engineering education projects / by Jonathan William Bulkley [1961] -- Cracking and ultimate strength in shear of curved concrete beams reinforced with welded wire fabric / by Charles E. George and Michael J. Wechsler [1961] -- General analytical aerial trangulation program analysis / by Frank S. Greatorex, Jr. [1961] -- Residual pore pressures and shear strength of compacted clay / by Shashi K. Gulhati [1961]Includes bibliographical references (leaf 83).by William A. Bailey.B.S

Image processing to optimize wave energy converters

The world is turning to renewable energies as a means of ensuring the planet’s future and wellbeing.There have been a few attempts in the past to utilize wave power as a means of generatingelectricity through the use of Wave Energy Converters (WEC), but only recently are theybecoming a focal point in the renewable energy field. Over the past few years there has been aglobal drive to advance the efficiency of WEC. Placing a mechanical device either onshore oroffshore that captures the energy within ocean surface waves to drive a mechanical device is howwave power is produced. This paper seeks to provide a novel and innovative way to estimate oceanwave frequency through the use of image processing. This will be achieved by applying a complexmodulated lapped orthogonal transform filter bank to satellite images of ocean waves. Thecomplex modulated lapped orthogonal transform filterbank provides an equal subbanddecomposition of the Nyquist bounded discrete time Fourier Transform spectrum. The maximumenergy of the 2D complex modulated lapped transform subband is used to determine the horizontaland vertical frequency, which subsequently can be used to determine the wave frequency in thedirection of the WEC by a simple trigonometric scaling. The robustness of the proposed methodis provided by the applications to simulated and real satellite images where the frequency is known