Designing and Implementing Open Workshop Education at Bank Street College of Education

Bank Street College of Education needs to design and implement an expanded program of open workshop education. Increased input of staff, scheduled time, and equipment is necessary for this implementation. Open workshop education offers help, time and facilities where a teacher can be involved with learning concepts using a combination of materials and skills. In addition, it can also function as an opportunity to continue and further develop ideas and skills initiated in other classes or from one\u27s own school or classroom

Local Network Heterogeneities In Photopolymerized Hydrogels Promote Cartilage Tissue Regeneration

Cartilage tissue engineering using biodegradable scaffolds as carriers forchondrocytes presents a promising strategy to regenerate cartilage damaged by age or injury. Photopolymerizable poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogel scaffolds that can be modified to permit tunable degradation present an opportunity to tailor scaffolds to the patient&rsquo;s cells. Scaffold degradation must be matched to the rate of matrix deposition in order to prevent construct failure, which is a significant design challenge further complicated by the effects of age. The goal of this thesis was to characterize polymer network formation of photopolymerizable hydrogels and its modes of hydrolytic and enzymatic degradation. By understanding how each mode of degradation behaves, it is possible to design hydrogels tailored to patient specific needs. Initial work focused on the characterization of newly formed cell-laden photopolymerized PEG hydrogels. Young (bovine donor of age ~3 weeks) and adult (bovine donor of age 1-3 years) chondrocytes were encapsulated in radical mediated hydrogels and were found to reduce the bulk crosslinking density resulting in lower overall compressive moduli compared to acellular hydrogels. Furthermore, confocal fluorescence microscopy of these hydrogels suggested that there exists a gradient of reduced crosslinking density around encapsulated cells. These findings were studied for their effect on polymer network degradation and tissue formation in hydrolytically and enzymatically degradable hydrogels. The heterogeneous formation of the hydrogel caused by encapsulated cells were found to be critical in promoting localized hydrogel degradation and tissue connectivity thereby reducing the chances of construct failure. Finally, a strategy employing IGF-1 was investigated for stimulating the anabolic activity of older chondrocytes. Improving the tissue regenerative potential of older chondrocytes will help develop a tissue engineering platform for patients of varying age. Soluble IGF-1 was found to slightly increase collagen production of encapsulated adult chondrocytes; however, there was no significant increase in glycosaminoglycan production of noticeable differences in tissue spatial elaboration. A different mode of growth factor employment of growth factor choice should be investigated and may elicit a more positive response from older chondrocytes. Overall, this thesis identified new control parameters in rationally designing hydrogels for cartilage engineering applications in a wide range of patients.</p

Pressure Effects in Supercooled Water: Comparison between a 2D Model of Water and Experiments for Surface Water on a Protein

Experiments in bulk water confirm the existence of two local arrangements of water molecules with different densities, but, because of inevitable freezing at low temperature $T$, can not ascertain whether the two arrangements separate in two phases. To avoid the freezing, new experiments measure the dynamics of water at low $T$ on the surface of proteins, finding a crossover from a non-Arrhenius regime at high $T$ to a regime that is approximately Arrhenius at low $T$. Motivated by these experiments, Kumar et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 105701 (2008)] investigated, by Monte Carlo simulations and mean field calculations, the relation of the dynamic crossover with the coexistence of two liquid phases in a cell model for water and predict that: (i) the dynamic crossover is isochronic, i.e. the value of the crossover time $\tau_{\rm L}$ is approximately independent of pressure $P$; (ii) the Arrhenius activation energy $E_{\rm A}(P)$ of the low-$T$ regime decreases upon increasing $P$; (iii) the temperature $T^*(P)$ at which $\tau$ reaches a fixed macroscopic time $\tau^*\geq \tau_{\rm L}$ decreases upon increasing $P$; in particular, this is true also for the crossover temperature $T_{\rm L}(P)$ at which $\tau=\tau_{\rm L}$. Here, we compare these predictions with recent quasi elastic neutron scattering (QENS) experiments performed by X.-Q. Chu {\it et al.} on hydrated proteins at different values of $P$. We find that the experiments are consistent with these three predictions.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, to appear on J. Phys.: Cond. Ma

Advanced Tuneable Micronanoplatforms for Sensitive and Selective Multiplexed Spectroscopic Sensing via Electro-Hydrodynamic Surface Molecular Lithography

Micro- and nanopatterning of materials, one of the cornerstones of emerging technologies, has transformed research capabilities in lab-on-a-chip diagnostics. Herein, a micro- and nanolithographic method is developed, enabling structuring materials at the submicron scale, which can, in turn, accelerate the development of miniaturized platform technologies and biomedical sensors. Underpinning it is the advanced electro-hydrodynamic surface molecular lithography, via inducing interfacial instabilities produces micro- and nanostructured substrates, uniquely integrated with synthetic surface recognition. This approach enables the manufacture of design patterns with tuneable feature sizes, which are functionalized via synthetic nanochemistry for highly sensitive, selective, rapid molecular sensing. The development of a high-precision piezoelectric lithographic rig enables reproducible substrate fabrication with optimum signal enhancement optimized for functionalization with capture molecules on each micro- and nanostructured array. This facilitates spatial separation, which during the spectroscopic sensing, enables multiplexed measurement of target molecules, establishing the detection at minute concentrations. Subsequently, this nano-plasmonic lab-on-a-chip combined with the unconventional computational classification algorithm and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, aimed to address the challenges associated with timely point-of-care detection of disease-indicative biomarkers, is utilized in validation assay for multiplex detection of traumatic brain injury indicative glycan biomarkers, demonstrating straightforward and cost-effective micro- and nanoplatforms for accurate detection.</p

Characterization of an Extensive Interface on Vitronectin for Binding to Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1: Adoption of Structure in an Intrinsically Disordered Region

Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements were pursued to study human vitronectin, a protein found in tissues and the circulation that regulates cell adhesion/migration and proteolytic cascades that govern hemostasis and pericellular proteolysis. Many of these functions occur via interactions with its binding partner, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), the chief inhibitor of proteases that lyse and activate plasminogen. We focused on a region of vitronectin that remains uncharacterized from previous X-ray scattering, nuclear magnetic resonance, and computational modeling approaches and which we propose is involved in binding to PAI-1. This region, which bridges the N-terminal somatomedin B (SMB) domain with a large central β-propeller domain of vitronectin, appears unstructured and has characteristics of an intrinsically disordered domain (IDD). The effect of osmolytes was evaluated using circular dichroism and SANS to explore the potential of the IDD to undergo a disorder-to-order transition. The results suggest that the IDD favors a more ordered structure under osmotic pressure; SANS shows a smaller radius of gyration (Rg) and a more compact fold of the IDD upon addition of osmolytes. To test whether PAI-1 binding is also coupled to folding within the IDD structure, a set of SANS experiments with contrast variation were performed on the complex of PAI-1 with a vitronectin fragment corresponding to the N-terminal 130 amino acids (denoted the SMB-IDD because it contains the SMB domain and IDD in linear sequence). Analysis of the SANS data using the Ensemble Optimization Method confirms that the SMB-IDD adopts a more compact configuration when bound to PAI-1. Calculated structures for the PAI-1:SMB-IDD complex suggest that the IDD provides an interaction surface outside of the primary PAI-1-binding site located within the SMB domain; this binding is proposed to lead to the assembly of higher-order structures of vitronectin and PAI-1 commonly found in tissues

Does government spending affect income inequality? A meta-regression analysis

In this paper findings of a meta-regression analysis are presented exploring the effects of government spending on income inequality, with a particular focus on low and middle income countries. We identify a total of 84 separate studies containing over 900 estimates of the effect of one or more measures of spending on one or more measures of income inequality. The results show some evidence of a moderate negative relationship between government spending and income inequality, which is strongest for social welfare and other social spending, and when using the Gini coefficient or the top income share as the measure of inequality. However, both the size and direction of the estimated relationship between government spending and income inequality is affected by a range of other factors, including the control variables and estimation method used. We also find evidence of publication bias, in that negative estimates of the relationship appear to be under-reported in the literature

Just in case it rains:building a hydrophobic biofilm the <i>Bacillus subtilis</i> way

Over the millennia, diverse species of bacteria have evolved multiple independent mechanisms to structure sessile biofilm communities that confer protection and stability to the inhabitants. The Gram-positive soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis biofilm presents as an architecturally complex, highly hydrophobic community that resists wetting by water, solvents, and biocides. This remarkable property is conferred by a small secreted protein called BslA, which self-assembles into an organized lattice at an interface. In the biofilm, production of BslA is tightly regulated and the resultant protein is secreted into the extracellular environment where it forms a very effective communal barrier allowing the resident B. subtilis cells to shelter under the protection of a protein raincoat

Francisella tularensis in the United States

Subpopulations A.I and A.II. of Francisella tularensis subsp. tularensis are associated with unique biotic and abiotic factors that maintain disease foci