Building Infrastructures for Community Engagement at the University of Louisville: Graduate Models for Cultivating Stewardship

From our perspectives at the University of Louisville, we address the need to provide structures for graduate student participation in community-engaged scholarship. Architectures of participation such as the ones we describe in this piece—the Community Engagement Academy and the Digital Media Academy—offer graduate students the opportunity to practice designing and implementing community engagement projects within interdisciplinary and disciplinary sites. The models we provide were designed to make the invisible work of community engagement visible and to create low barriers of entry for graduate students to become stewards of their disciplines as well as stewards of their communities. Such opportunities, we argue, help promote a more capacious view of stewardship, and thus encourage emerging engaged scholars to learn how to act responsibly and wisely in conducting communityengaged research

The Victorian Newsletter (Spring 2006)

The Victorian Newsletter is sponsored for the Victorian Group of the Modern Language Association by Western Kentucky University and is published twice annually.Scandalous Sensations: The Woman in White on the Victorian Stage / Maria K. Bachman -- Nostalgia to Amnesia: Charles Dickens, Marcus Clarke and Narratives of Australia's Convict Origins / Beth A. Boehm -- The Epigraph to Henley's In Hospital / Edward H. Cohen -- Emily Brontë's Pedagogy of Desire in Wuthering Heights / Amy Carol Reeves -- Kate Field and Anthony Trollope: The Gaps in the Record / Gary Scharnhorst -- Metaphoric Mules: Dickens's Tom Gradgrind and Dante's Vanni Fucci / Ernest Fontana -- A Husband's Tragedy: The Relationship between Art and Life in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband / Carol Schnitzer -- Coming In Victorian Newsletter -- Books Receive

Perspectives on Cognitive Phenotypes and Models of Vascular Disease

Clinical investigations have established that vascular-Associated medical conditions are significant risk factors for various kinds of dementia. And yet, we are unable to associate certain types of vascular deficiencies with specific cognitive impairments. The reasons for this are many, not the least of which are that most vascular disorders are multi-factorial and the development of vascular dementia in humans is often a multi-year or multi-decade progression. To better study vascular disease and its underlying causes, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health has invested considerable resources in the development of animal models that recapitulate various aspects of human vascular disease. Many of these models, mainly in the mouse, are based on genetic mutations, frequently using single-gene mutations to examine the role of specific proteins in vascular function. These models could serve as useful tools for understanding the association of specific vascular signaling pathways with specific neurological and cognitive impairments related to dementia. To advance the state of the vascular dementia field and improve the information sharing between the vascular biology and neurobehavioral research communities, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened a workshop to bring in scientists from these knowledge domains to discuss the potential utility of establishing a comprehensive phenotypic cognitive assessment of a selected set of existing mouse models, representative of the spectrum of vascular disorders, with particular attention focused on age, sex, and rigor and reproducibility. The workshop highlighted the potential of associating well-characterized vascular disease models, with validated cognitive outcomes, that can be used to link specific vascular signaling pathways with specific cognitive and neurobehavioral deficits

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Evaluation of Treatment Options for Ulcerative Dermatitis in the P Rat

Rotational outbred adult rats, phenotypically selected to prefer drinking alcohol ("P" rats) frequently present with self-inflicted wounds and ulcerative dermatitis, similar to that seen in C57BL/6 mice. Historically, veterinary interventions used to address this clinical condition have included triple antibiotic ointment (TABO), Columbia wound powder (CPW), nail trims, or plastic tubes that allow affected animals to hide. More recent studies have suggested that nail trims are the most successful intervention in mice, but this has not been evaluated previously in rats. In this study, we evaluated nail trims in rats and also tested whether placing a pumice stone in the cage would reduce the need for nail trims to reduce self-inflicted wounds. Our hypothesis was that interacting with the pumice stone would dull/trim the rats' nails without causing stress or illness and allow the wounds time to heal. We used 66 P rats that were assigned to 1 of 6 treatment groups (pumice stone, TABO, CWP, huts, nail trims, and an untreated control group) of 11 rats each. Rats were transferred to this study from a colony of experimentally naïve animals that had evidence of dermatitis. The wounds were photographed and measured for 12 wk at 2 wk intervals. At the end of the study, representative skin samples from the site of the wound were collected for histopathologic evaluation of inflammation. Our data showed no significant differences in the inflammation scores. The rats treated with nail trims healed significantly more often than did all of the other treatment groups. This suggests that nail trims are the most effective intervention for treating self-inflicted wounds in P rats

Fitts Education Award Winners: Teaching Human Factors and Ergonomics

Every day, current Human Factors & Ergonomics (HF/E) professionals work to foster the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for their students to be future HF/E professionals. Experienced HF/E educators possess a wealth of knowledge of what works in regards to teaching their particular topics. Unfortunately, this valuable in-domain teaching knowledge and expertise often does not get disseminated to other HF/E educators. The purpose of the current panel is to provide a forum for professionals, who have been recognized for teaching excellence, to share their ideas and approaches with other educators. The panelists are recent winners of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society\u27s Paul M. Fitts Education Award, an award that recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to HF/E education. The discussion will focus on three themes: strategies to integrate practical problems into the education process, suggestions for improving instructional effectiveness via mentoring skills, and HF/E teaching challenges. Copyright 2012 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Inc. All rights reserved

Fitts Education Award Winners: Teaching Human Factors And Ergonomics

Every day, current Human Factors & Ergonomics (HF/E) professionals work to foster the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for their students to be future HF/E professionals. Experienced HF/E educators possess a wealth of knowledge of what works in regards to teaching their particular topics. Unfortunately, this valuable in-domain teaching knowledge and expertise often does not get disseminated to other HF/E educators. The purpose of the current panel is to provide a forum for professionals, who have been recognized for teaching excellence, to share their ideas and approaches with other educators. The panelists are recent winners of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society\u27s Paul M. Fitts Education Award, an award that recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to HF/E education. The discussion will focus on three themes: strategies to integrate practical problems into the education process, suggestions for improving instructional effectiveness via mentoring skills, and HF/E teaching challenges. Copyright 2012 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Inc. All rights reserved

Perspectives on Cognitive Phenotypes and Models of Vascular Disease.

Clinical investigations have established that vascular-associated medical conditions are significant risk factors for various kinds of dementia. And yet, we are unable to associate certain types of vascular deficiencies with specific cognitive impairments. The reasons for this are many, not the least of which are that most vascular disorders are multi-factorial and the development of vascular dementia in humans is often a multi-year or multi-decade progression. To better study vascular disease and its underlying causes, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health has invested considerable resources in the development of animal models that recapitulate various aspects of human vascular disease. Many of these models, mainly in the mouse, are based on genetic mutations, frequently using single-gene mutations to examine the role of specific proteins in vascular function. These models could serve as useful tools for understanding the association of specific vascular signaling pathways with specific neurological and cognitive impairments related to dementia. To advance the state of the vascular dementia field and improve the information sharing between the vascular biology and neurobehavioral research communities, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened a workshop to bring in scientists from these knowledge domains to discuss the potential utility of establishing a comprehensive phenotypic cognitive assessment of a selected set of existing mouse models, representative of the spectrum of vascular disorders, with particular attention focused on age, sex, and rigor and reproducibility. The workshop highlighted the potential of associating well-characterized vascular disease models, with validated cognitive outcomes, that can be used to link specific vascular signaling pathways with specific cognitive and neurobehavioral deficits