Factors Affecting Student Success in Small Collage-Classroom Settings

Teacher qualifications are reported to be one of the most important factors affecting learning, yet improving teacher qualifications is difficult, time consuming and sometimes impossible in the short term. Knowledge of other factors that have limited effects on student learning and success may be more valuable if these factors are more easily manipulated. In this study, factors affecting student success were studied in small classroom settings in undergraduate Biology classes. A strong correlation between the sitting position of the student in the classroom and student success was demonstrated in the study. In addition, there was a strong correlation between good note taking skills and student success. Sitting position is a factor that can easily be manipulated and can be of help especially for failing students. Instruction of good note taking skills during K-12 education and strategies that will determine and support the students that need improvement in this particular skill early on in college will promote the academic success of students in STEM areas in higher education

Book Review: The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire

Review of The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire by Cynthia Enlo

Al Hybrid Content-Based Retrieval Approach For Video Data

Increasing use of multimedia data makes it crucial to develop intelligent search mec:hanisms for retrieving multimedia data by content. Traditional text-based methods clearly do not suffice to describe the rich content of images, voice or video. Digital vidseo requires the incorporation of temporal information for any effective contentbased retrieval scheme. We present a novel technique which integrates object motion ancl temporal relationship information in order to characterize the events for subsequent search for similar clips. We propose a hybrid mechanism based on object motion trails similarity match and interval-based temporal modeling that leads to a unique framework for spatio-temporal content based access in digital video. We implemented the proposed methods and demonstrated that high-level query formulation can be achieved for the aforementioned purpose. Development of such technology will enable true multimedia search engines that will accomplish what current Internet search engines like Infoseek or Excite do today for textual data

Regulation of Inflammation by Short Chain Fatty Acids

The short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) acetate (C2), propionate (C3) and butyrate (C4) are the main metabolic products of anaerobic bacteria fermentation in the intestine. In addition to their important role as fuel for intestinal epithelial cells, SCFAs modulate different processes in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract such as electrolyte and water absorption. These fatty acids have been recognized as potential mediators involved in the effects of gut microbiota on intestinal immune function. SCFAs act on leukocytes and endothelial cells through at least two mechanisms: activation of GPCRs (GPR41 and GPR43) and inhibiton of histone deacetylase (HDAC). SCFAs regulate several leukocyte functions including production of cytokines (TNF-α, IL-2, IL-6 and IL-10), eicosanoids and chemokines (e.g., MCP-1 and CINC-2). The ability of leukocytes to migrate to the foci of inflammation and to destroy microbial pathogens also seems to be affected by the SCFAs. In this review, the latest research that describes how SCFAs regulate the inflammatory process is presented. The effects of these fatty acids on isolated cells (leukocytes, endothelial and intestinal epithelial cells) and, particularly, on the recruitment and activation of leukocytes are discussed. Therapeutic application of these fatty acids for the treatment of inflammatory pathologies is also highlighted

Facilitating accessible, rapid, and appropriate processing of ancient metagenomic data with AMDirT [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Background: Access to sample-level metadata is important when selecting public metagenomic sequencing datasets for reuse in new biological analyses. The Standards, Precautions, and Advances in Ancient Metagenomics community (SPAAM, https://spaam-community.github.io) has previously published AncientMetagenomeDir, a collection of curated and standardised sample metadata tables for metagenomic and microbial genome datasets generated from ancient samples. However, while sample-level information is useful for identifying relevant samples for inclusion in new projects, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) library construction and sequencing metadata are also essential for appropriately reprocessing ancient metagenomic data. Currently, recovering information for downloading and preparing such data is difficult when laboratory and bioinformatic metadata is heterogeneously recorded in prose-based publications. Methods: Through a series of community-based hackathon events, AncientMetagenomeDir was updated to provide standardised library-level metadata of existing and new ancient metagenomic samples. In tandem, the companion tool 'AMDirT' was developed to facilitate automated metadata curation and data validation, as well as rapid data filtering and downloading. Results: AncientMetagenomeDir was extended to include standardised metadata of over 5000 ancient metagenomic libraries. The companion tool 'AMDirT' provides both graphical- and command-line interface based access to such metadata for users from a wide range of computational backgrounds. We also report on errors with metadata reporting that appear to commonly occur during data upload and provide suggestions on how to improve the quality of data sharing by the community.Conclusions: Together, both standardised metadata and tooling will help towards easier incorporation and reuse of public ancient metagenomic datasets into future analyses.Bioarchaeolog

Acute treatment with valproic acid and L-thyroxine ameliorates clinical signs of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and prevents brain pathology in DA rats

This work was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (MJ (K2008-66X-20776-01-4 and K2012-99X-20776-05-3)), OH (2011-3457) and GCB (K2011-80P-21816-01-4 and K2011-80X- 21817-01-4)), Harald and Greta Jeanssons Foundation (MJ), Swedish Association for Persons with Neurological Disabilities (MJ), ÅkeWibergs Foundation (MJ), Åke Löwnertz Foundation (MJ), Swedish Brain Foundation (MJ and GCB), David and Astrid Hagélen Foundation (GCB), Swedish Society for Medical Research (GCB), Swedish Society of Medicine (GCB), Socialstyrelsen (MJ), Karolinska Institutet funds (MJ and GCB), Marie Curie Integration Grant, Seventh Framework Programme, European Union (GCB, PCIG12-GA-2012-333713)), Neuropromise LSHM-CT-2005-018637 (MZA, HL) and Theme Center for Regenerative Medicine at Karolinska Institutet (OH)

Heterogeneous Encounters: Tolerance, Secularism and Religious Difference at Turkey's Border with Syria

This dissertation is an ethnographic investigation into the politics of religious difference in Turkey. Drawing on fieldwork in Antakya, a city near Turkey's Syrian border populated by Arabs and Turks of Sunni, Alawi, Jewish, and Orthodox Christian backgrounds, it explores the mundane, political, and aesthetic representations of religious difference and demonstrates how such difference is constructed, lived, and configured in everyday realms of sociality. Four such realms are focused on: a multi-religious choral ensemble, Antakya's historical marketplace, domestic and communal sitings of guesthood (misafirlik), and places and discourses of common worship. Official representations of Antakya's religious diversity imply a pluralist and "tolerant" form of national citizenship as compared to Turkey's Republican secularist model. I argue, however, that daily practices, artistic expressions, and networks of exchange between different denominations of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish residents of the city inhabit a more heterogeneous field characterized by interpersonal relations of negotiation, hospitality, intimacy, and hostility. These interrelations are further informed and delimited by structures of power embedded in local, national, and transnational regimes of diversity management and implicated in the minoritization of non-Sunni and non-Turkish communal identities. Nevertheless, they also rework and transcend such regimes of governance. In illustrating what it means to cohabit an interreligious milieu near a national border, this dissertation is positioned among other anthropological explorations of religious diversity and the growing literature on secularism, as well as anthropological studies of borders and marginality. It shows that religious difference is produced at the intersection of multiple discourses, practices, and boundaries, and as such it evades both pluralist (multi-community) and dualist (i.e. religion vs. secular) models of religious co-existence.Ph.D.2016-11-30 00:00:0

Spatio-temporal content characterization and retrieval in multimedia databases

The increasing use of multimedia data makes it crucial to use intelligent search mechanisms for retrieving multimedia data by content. Traditional text-based methods clearly do not suffice to describe the rich content present in digital video. We present a video database indexing and search engine, PICTURESQUE (Pictorial Information and Content Transformation Unified Retrieval Engine for Spatiotemporal QUE ries) that incorporates object motion and temporal relationship information in a video database. Spatial composition of the salient objects and their movements play a crucial role in characterization of the “content” of video. PICTURESQUE offers a unified spatio-temporal model and a retrieval scheme for fast and effective access to the underlying database. We propose three different motion representation schemes, trail-based, trajectory coordinates, and interval-based models and validate their effectiveness by comparative performance measures. Our query mechanism is based on an intuitive QBE-like method that involves sketching of the desired motion by the users. Our use of efficient numerical techniques to describe both the query and data composition enables us to take advantage of analytical methods for query evaluation. In addition to improved performance, these methods provide benefits such as flexibility and temporal scale invariance. PICTURESQUE covers a complete solution from pre-indexing of video to presentation of results via a graphical user interface and its modular implementation provides concision and extensibility. Development of such technology will enable true multimedia search engines that will accomplish what current textual search engines do today

CONTESTED MODERNITIES: DIVERSE VOICES OF THE PIONEERING JOURNALISTS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

The history of journalism in Turkey, had moved in parallel to the history of modernization/Westernization which displays a top-down character. The first journalists (and novelists) after the Tanzimat of 1839 were state bureaucrats of the Ottoman administration. These Young Ottomans, or Jenue Turks as they were known, were in the vanguard of promoting a range of western ideas and concepts including : journalism, public opinion, liberalism, constitutional monarchy, parliment, nation, nation-state, and modern family. Most members of a group had tried to combine Western liberalism and Islam. This paper reviews the avaliable analysis and commentary on the Young Ottomans in order to re-assess their role in the process of Turkish Modernization/Westernization. A close reading of the work and careers of these key figures reveals the contested nature of negotiations around the relations between modernity (and its secular impetus) and understanding of the Islam of that time. The tensions between these two World views-which is still an ongoing problematic issue