Boise State Open Educational Resources Staff Training

Join colleagues from the Library, eCampus, Learning Technology Solutions and the IDEA Shop for a morning of learning about OER. Goals include: 1) Participants will learn about OER and how we can help support faculty interested in adopting OER. 2) Participants will meet each other, learn what we do in our respective departments and how we can work together

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality: A Volvo case study

Core values are an important part of Volvo Car Group’s and Volvo Trucks’ strategic development plans. These two companies share the same core values, quality, safety, and environmental care, but they approach these values in different ways. This study seeks to understand how industry professionals and customers perceive these core values and the attributes that are associated with them, using semi-structured interviews with industry professionals from both companies and quantitative survey methods with customers. The purposes of this study are to investigate how designers convey core values to customers through product attributes and how customers perceive those core values through the same attributes. Such an understanding reveals the commonalities and discrepancies between the perspectives of producers and customers, and can contribute to more effective design processes that communicate company values in the early product development phases

Supramolecular Complexes of Plant Neurotoxin Veratridine with Cyclodextrins and their Antidote-Like Effect on Neuro-2a Cell Viability

Veratridine (VTD) is a plant neurotoxin that acts by blocking the voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSC) of cell membranes. Symptoms of VTD intoxication include intense nausea, hypotension, arrhythmia, and loss of consciousness. The treatment for the intoxication is mainly focused on treating the symptoms, meaning there is no specific antidote against VTD. In this pursuit, we were interested in studying the molecular interactions of VTD with cyclodextrins (CDs). CDs are supramolecular macrocycles with the ability to form host–guest inclusion complexes (ICs) inside their hydrophobic cavity. Since VTD is a lipid-soluble alkaloid, we hypothesized that it could form stable inclusion complexes with different types of CDs, resulting in changes to its physicochemical properties. In this investigation, we studied the interaction of VTD with β-CD, γ-CD and sulfobutyl ether β-CD (SBCD) by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Docking and molecular dynamics studies confirmed the most stable configuration for the inclusion complexes. Finally, with an interest in understanding the effects of the VTD/CD molecular interactions, we performed cell-based assays (CBAs) on Neuro-2a cells. Our findings reveal that the use of different amounts of CDs has an antidote-like concentration-dependent effect on the cells, significantly increasing cell viability and thus opening opportunities for novel research on applications of CDs and VTD

Cross-Jurisdictional Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Maryland and Washington, D.C., 1996–2000, Linked to the Homeless

From 1996 to 2000, 23 Maryland and Washington, D.C., tuberculosis cases were identified in one six-band DNA cluster. Cases were clustered on the basis of their Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates. Medical record reviews and interviews were conducted to identify epidemiologic linkages. Eighteen (78%) of the 23 case-patients with identical restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns were linked to another member; half the patients were associated with a Washington, D.C., homeless shelter. Molecular epidemiology defined the extent of this large, cross-jurisdictional outbreak

Swallowing dysfunction in cancer patients

Purpose Dysphagia (swallowing dysfunction) is a debilitating, depressing, and potentially life-threatening complication in cancer patients that is likely underreported. The present paper is aimed to review relevant dysphagia literature between 1990 and 2010 with a focus on assessment tools, prevalence, complications, and impact on quality of life in patients with a variety of different cancers, particularly in those treated with curative chemoradiation for head and neck cancer. Methods The literature search was limited to the English language and included both MEDLINE/PubMed and EMBASE. The search focused on papers reporting dysphagia as a side effect of cancer and cancer therapy. We identified relevant literature through the primary literature search and by articles identified in references. Results A wide range of assessment tools for dysphagia was identified. Dysphagia is related to a number of factors such as direct impact of the tumor, cancer resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy and to newer therapies such as epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors. Concomitant oral complications such as xerostomia may exacerbate subjective dysphagia. Most literature focuses on head and neck cancer, but dysphagia is also common in other types of cancer. Conclusions Swallowing impairment is a clinically relevant acute and long-term complication in patients with a wide variety of cancers. More prospective studies on the course of dysphagia and impact on quality of life from baseline to long-term follow-up after various treatment modalities, including targeted therapies, are needed

Corporealities of violence in Southern and Eastern Africa

no abstract availabl

First Direct Observation of Collider Neutrinos with FASER at the LHC

We report the first direct observation of neutrino interactions at a particle collider experiment. Neutrino candidate events are identified in a 13.6 TeV center-of-mass energy $pp$ collision data set of 35.4 fb${}^{-1}$ using the active electronic components of the FASER detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The candidates are required to have a track propagating through the entire length of the FASER detector and be consistent with a muon neutrino charged-current interaction. We infer $153^{+12}_{-13}$ neutrino interactions with a significance of 16 standard deviations above the background-only hypothesis. These events are consistent with the characteristics expected from neutrino interactions in terms of secondary particle production and spatial distribution, and they imply the observation of both neutrinos and anti-neutrinos with an incident neutrino energy of significantly above 200 GeV.Comment: Submitted to PRL on March 24 202

Justify your alpha

Benjamin et al. proposed changing the conventional “statistical significance” threshold (i.e.,the alpha level) from p ≤ .05 to p ≤ .005 for all novel claims with relatively low prior odds. They provided two arguments for why lowering the significance threshold would “immediately improve the reproducibility of scientific research.” First, a p-value near .05provides weak evidence for the alternative hypothesis. Second, under certain assumptions, an alpha of .05 leads to high false positive report probabilities (FPRP2 ; the probability that a significant finding is a false positive

A communal catalogue reveals Earth's multiscale microbial diversity

Our growing awareness of the microbial world's importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of researchers for the Earth Microbiome Project. Coordinated protocols and new analytical methods, particularly the use of exact sequences instead of clustered operational taxonomic units, enable bacterial and archaeal ribosomal RNA gene sequences to be followed across multiple studies and allow us to explore patterns of diversity at an unprecedented scale. The result is both a reference database giving global context to DNA sequence data and a framework for incorporating data from future studies, fostering increasingly complete characterization of Earth's microbial diversity.Peer reviewe

A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity

Our growing awareness of the microbial world’s importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of researchers for the Earth Microbiome Project. Coordinated protocols and new analytical methods, particularly the use of exact sequences instead of clustered operational taxonomic units, enable bacterial and archaeal ribosomal RNA gene sequences to be followed across multiple studies and allow us to explore patterns of diversity at an unprecedented scale. The result is both a reference database giving global context to DNA sequence data and a framework for incorporating data from future studies, fostering increasingly complete characterization of Earth’s microbial diversity