Student Composers\u27 Recital 2019

This special program features world-premiere performances of original works created by current student composers of the KSU School of Music under the supervision of KSU Composer-in-Residence, Dr. Laurence Sherr, and faculty composer Jennifer Mitchell. An exciting feature of the concert will be the premiere of a 30-minute, Broadway-style musical by Nicholas Felder. The musical, titled Rick and Josie, is a love story performed by students in the School of Music and Department of Theater and Performance Studies with accompaniment by faculty member Judith Cole. Also featured will be a woodwind quintet by Ben Champion plus several additional student works.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2184/thumbnail.jp

2018 Student Composers Recital

The 2018 Student Composers Recital features performances of works created by KSU student composers with direction from Composer-in-Residence, Dr. Laurence Sherr.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2046/thumbnail.jp

Agricultural producer perceptions of climate change and climate education needs for the Central Great Plains

Citation: Hibbs, Amber Campbell, Daniel Kahl, Lisa PytlikZillig, Ben Champion, Tarik Abdel-Monem, Timothy Steffensmeier, Charles W. Rice, and Kenneth Hubbard. “Agricultural Producer Perceptions of Climate Change and Climate Education Needs for the Central Great Plains.” Journal of Extension 52, no. 3 (June 2014). https://www.joe.org/joe/2014june/a2.php.The Central Great Plains Climate Education Partnership conducted focus groups throughout Kansas to gain a better understanding of farmer perceptions and attitudes towards climate change education. Results indicate concern about climatic changes, even if producers are unsure that "human caused climate change" is occurring. Participants indicated they would like access to information through Web-based programs that allow them to manipulate variables relevant to their area and situation. Participants prefer locally relevant information and identified Extension agents as trusted educators. The study provided an expanded understanding of agricultural producer perceptions that will be valuable to individuals or organizations providing climate education

IgM Promotes the Clearance of Small Particles and Apoptotic Microparticles by Macrophages

Background: Antibodies are often involved in enhancing particle clearance by macrophages. Although the mechanisms of antibody-dependent phagocytosis have been studied for IgG in greater detail, very little is known about IgM-mediated clearance. It has been generally considered that IgM does not support phagocytosis. Recent studies indicate that natural IgM is important to clear microbes and other bioparticles, and that shape is critical to particle uptake by macrophages; however, the relevance of IgM and particle size in their clearance remains unclear. Here we show that IgM has a sizedependent effect on clearance. Methodology/Principal Findings: We used antibody-opsonized sheep red blood cells, different size beads and apoptotic cells to determine the effect of human and mouse IgM on phagocytosis by mouse alveolar macrophages. Our microscopy (light, epifluorescence, confocal) and flow cytometry data show that IgM greatly enhances the clearance of small particles (about 1–2 micron) by these macrophages. There is an inverse relationship between IgM-mediated clearance by macrophages and the particle size; however, macrophages bind and internalize many different size particles coated with IgG. We also show that IgM avidly binds to small size late apoptotic cells or bodies (2–5 micron) and apoptotic microparticles (,2 mm) released from dying cells. IgM also promotes the binding and uptake of microparticle-coated beads. Conclusions/Significance: Therefore, while the shape of the particles is important for non-opsonized particle uptake, th

The light-from-above prior is intact in autistic children

Sensory information is inherently ambiguous. The brain disambiguates this information by anticipating or predicting the sensory environment based on prior knowledge. Pellicano and Burr (2012) proposed that this process may be atypical in autism and that internal assumptions, or “priors,” may be underweighted or less used than in typical individuals. A robust internal assumption used by adults is the “light-from-above” prior, a bias to interpret ambiguous shading patterns as if formed by a light source located above (and slightly to the left) of the scene. We investigated whether autistic children (n = 18) use this prior to the same degree as typical children of similar age and intellectual ability (n = 18). Children were asked to judge the shape (concave or convex) of a shaded hexagon stimulus presented in 24 rotations. We estimated the relation between the proportion of convex judgments and stimulus orientation for each child and calculated the light source location most consistent with those judgments. Children behaved similarly to adults in this task, preferring to assume that the light source was from above left, when other interpretations were compatible with the shading evidence. Autistic and typical children used prior assumptions to the same extent to make sense of shading patterns. Future research should examine whether this prior is as adaptable (i.e., modifiable with training) in autistic children as it is in typical adults

The Bryn Celli Ddu Minecraft Experience: A Workflow and Problem-Solving Case Study in the Creation of an Archaeological Reconstruction in Minecraft for Cultural Heritage Education

This article explores the technical and interpretative issues surrounding the creation of a Minecraft Education Edition world for use by primary age school children (5-11 years). The project team undertook to create a Minecraft version of the prehistoric landscape surrounding the Neolithic passage tomb of Bryn Celli Ddu, Anglesey, Wales, United Kingdom. The workflow described here details the process from the initial aims of the project, designed to integrate heritage and STEM education; through the processing of lidar data to create the topography of the world; through the archaeological reconstruction; and then final release. An understanding of the workflow is particularly important for researchers and educators because the successful delivery of our aims resulted in a number of technical obstacles inherent in creating a Minecraft world when a designer is required to navigate several versions of the program - Java architecture, C++ architecture, and the Education Edition - and explains workarounds developed to overcome these issues. The article also considers the interpretative compromises required to translate complex archaeological remains into an accessible and engaging experience for school children set within the strictures of a program that allows a maximum physical resolution of a 1 × 1 m voxel block

Contrast-agent-based perfusion MRI code repository and testing framework: ISMRM Open Science Initiative for Perfusion Imaging (OSIPI)

Purpose Software has a substantial impact on quantitative perfusion MRI values. The lack of generally accepted implementations, code sharing and transparent testing reduces reproducibility, hindering the use of perfusion MRI in clinical trials. To address these issues, the ISMRM Open Science Initiative for Perfusion Imaging (OSIPI) aimed to establish a community-led, centralized repository for sharing open-source code for processing contrast-based perfusion imaging, incorporating an open-source testing framework. Methods A repository was established on the OSIPI GitHub website. Python was chosen as the target software language. Calls for code contributions were made to OSIPI members, the ISMRM Perfusion Study Group, and publicly via OSIPI websites. An automated unit-testing framework was implemented to evaluate the output of code contributions, including visual representation of the results. Results The repository hosts 86 implementations of perfusion processing steps contributed by 12 individuals or teams. These cover all core aspects of DCE- and DSC-MRI processing, including multiple implementations of the same functionality. Tests were developed for 52 implementations, covering five analysis steps. For T1 mapping, signal-to-concentration conversion and population AIF functions, different implementations resulted in near-identical output values. For the five pharmacokinetic models tested (Tofts, extended Tofts-Kety, Patlak, two-compartment exchange, and two-compartment uptake), differences in output parameters were observed between contributions. Conclusions The OSIPI DCE-DSC code repository represents a novel community-led model for code sharing and testing. The repository facilitates the re-use of existing code and the benchmarking of new code, promoting enhanced reproducibility in quantitative perfusion imaging

The clustering of risk behaviours in adolescence and health consequences in middle age.

INTRODUCTION: There is increasing interest in the clustering of risk behaviours in adolescence. However, few studies have examined what clusters of risk behaviours exist among adolescents, their early-life predictors, and their associations with later health. METHODS: We analysed data derived from 8754 participants (women 53.3%) in the 1970 British Cohort Study. Latent class analysis was used to identify clusters of risk behaviours at age 16. Regression modelling was then used to examine predictors of clusters and their consequences of risk behaviours and health outcomes at age 42. RESULTS: We identified two latent classes: a risky-behaviour (men: 20.0%, women: 23.6%) and less-risky-behaviour class. Among men, those in the risky-behaviour class were more likely to report smoking, multiple binge drinking, sexual debut before 16, involvement in fights and delinquency than were women. Membership in risky-behaviour class was mainly predicted by sociodemographic and parental risk behaviours and monitoring. The risky-behaviour class at age 16 was associated with the following outcome age 42: smoking status (more strongly among women), excessive alcohol consumption (more strongly among men), worse self-rated health (more strongly among men), and psychological distress (only among women). CONCLUSIONS: Engagement in multiple risk behaviours in adolescence is an important driver of health inequalities later in life. Early life intervention, for example via school-based interventions, may be warranted for favourable lifelong health

Current results and future prospects from PSR J1757-1854, a highly-relativistic double neutron star binary

Pulsars, rapidly-rotating highly-magnetised neutron stars, can serve as useful laboratories for probing aspects of fundamental physics. Binary pulsars, especially those in tight binary systems with massive, compact companions, are useful in testing different theories of gravity, the current paradigm being General Relativity (GR). Additionally, binary pulsars can also be utilised to explore other areas of fundamental physics, such as the behaviour of matter at ultra-high densities and the neutron star moment of inertia. A standout example is PSR J1757-1854, a 21.5-ms pulsar in a highly-eccentric (e=0.61), 4.4-hr orbit around a neutron star companion. This pulsar exhibits some of the most extreme relativistic parameters ever observed in a binary pulsar, reaching a maximum line-of-sight acceleration of close to 700 m/s/s and displaying among the strongest relativistic effects due to gravitational wave damping. To date, five post-Keplerian parameters have been measured in PSR J1757-1854, allowing for three independent tests of gravity to be conducted (of which GR passes all three) and for the component neutron star masses to be separated. The extreme properties of this system (particularly its high eccentricity) are expected to allow for future measurements of Lense-Thirring precession effects (allow for a measurement of the neutron star moment of inertia) and the relativistic deformation of the orbit, both of which remain almost completely unexplored by other binary systems. Although first discovered by the Parkes Radio Telescope in 2016 as part of the High Time Resolution Universe Southern Galactic Plane survey, it is ongoing observations with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) which have provided the backbone of PSR J1757-1854’s continuing study. The large-bandwidth, high-precision observations afforded by the GBT played a fundamental role in delivering the science derived from the pulsar so far, and will be critical in allowing it to reach its full scientific potential going forward. In this talk I will provide a progress report on the ongoing timing of the system, including a review of the latest mass measurements and gravity tests, with an emphasis towards the future science which this pulsar will make possible

Whole genome identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccine candidates by comprehensive data mining and bioinformatic analyses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</it>, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), infects ~8 million annually culminating in ~2 million deaths. Moreover, about one third of the population is latently infected, 10% of which develop disease during lifetime. Current approved prophylactic TB vaccines (BCG and derivatives thereof) are of variable efficiency in adult protection against pulmonary TB (0%–80%), and directed essentially against early phase infection.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A genome-scale dataset was constructed by analyzing published data of: (1) global gene expression studies under conditions which simulate intra-macrophage stress, dormancy, persistence and/or reactivation; (2) cellular and humoral immunity, and vaccine potential. This information was compiled along with revised annotation/bioinformatic characterization of selected gene products and <it>in silico </it>mapping of T-cell epitopes. Protocols for scoring, ranking and prioritization of the antigens were developed and applied.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cross-matching of literature and <it>in silico</it>-derived data, in conjunction with the prioritization scheme and biological rationale, allowed for selection of 189 putative vaccine candidates from the entire genome. Within the 189 set, the relative distribution of antigens in 3 functional categories differs significantly from their distribution in the whole genome, with reduction in the Conserved hypothetical category (due to improved annotation) and enrichment in Lipid and in Virulence categories. Other prominent representatives in the 189 set are the PE/PPE proteins; iron sequestration, nitroreductases and proteases, all within the Intermediary metabolism and respiration category; ESX secretion systems, resuscitation promoting factors and lipoproteins, all within the Cell wall category. Application of a ranking scheme based on qualitative and quantitative scores, resulted in a list of 45 best-scoring antigens, of which: 74% belong to the dormancy/reactivation/resuscitation classes; 30% belong to the Cell wall category; 13% are classical vaccine candidates; 9% are categorized Conserved hypotheticals, all potentially very potent T-cell antigens.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The comprehensive literature and <it>in silico</it>-based analyses allowed for the selection of a repertoire of 189 vaccine candidates, out of the whole-genome 3989 ORF products. This repertoire, which was ranked to generate a list of 45 top-hits antigens, is a platform for selection of genes covering all stages of <it>M. tuberculosis </it>infection, to be incorporated in rBCG or subunit-based vaccines.</p