The Hollywood curriculum : teachers and teaching in the movies

Fifty-one motion pictures (distributed widely in the United States over the past 60 years) are analyzed to construct a theory of curriculum in the movies grounded in the emerging field of cultural studies with particular ties to critical pedagogy. The social curriculum of Hollywood implicit in popular films is based on individual rather than collective action and relies on that carefully plotted action rather than meaningful struggle to ensure the ultimate outcome leaving educational institutions, which represent the larger cultural status quo, intact and in power. This dissertation ties Huebner's five frameworks for valuing curriculum with the author's interpretations of a number of commercial films to ground a discussion of the meaning of popular culture and its importance in a democratic vision for education. The films are viewed through four sets of interpretive lenses: viewing the "good" teacher through three of Huebner's value frameworks; viewing the "bad" teacher through Huebner's two remaining value frameworks; viewing the "gendered" teacher through the lens of feminist literature; and, viewing students through the lens of critical pedagogy. The author contends that popular culture constructs its own curriculum in the movies, a popular curriculum that remains largely unchallenged. The film texts are interrogated using the concepts of critical pedagogy. Interrogating the "Hollywood Curriculum" is to ask what it means as a culture to be responsive at both social and personal levels and to engage these films as both entertaining and potentially transformative

College Students as Facilitators in Reducing Adolescent Obesity Disparity in Southern Appalachia: Team up for Healthy Living

The proportion of obese adolescents in Southern Appalachia is among the highest in the nation. Through funding from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities — National Institutes of Health, the Team Up for Healthy Living project was a cluster-randomized trial targeting obesity prevention in adolescents through a cross-peer intervention. The specific aims of the project were to: 1) develop a peer-based health education program focusing on establishing positive peer norms towards healthy eating and physical activity (PA) among high school students, 2) test program efficacy, and 3) explore mechanisms underlying the program. The study was guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, which presupposes that human behavior is primarily driven by attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and social support. To deliver the intervention, undergraduate students from the disciplines of public health, nutrition, and kinesiology were hired as peer facilitators. Ten area high schools were invited to participate, were matched on demographics and then randomized to intervention or control. The primary outcomes of the study included body mass status, dietary behaviors, PA, and sedentary behaviors which were assessed at baseline and at three and twelve months post baseline. Intervention schools received Team Up for Healthy Living curriculum, which consists of eight 40-minute sessions. The curriculum focused on improving nutrition awareness, PA, leadership and communication. Control schools received their regularly scheduled Lifetime Wellness curriculum. The long-term goal of the study was to establish an effective academia–community partnership program to address adolescent obesity disparity in Southern Appalachia

Validation of Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopic Measurement of Cerebral Blood Flow Using Phase-Encoded Velocity Mapping Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) is a novel optical technique that appears to be an excellent tool for assessing cerebral blood flow in a continuous and non-invasive manner at the bedside. We present new clinical validation of the DCS methodology by demonstrating strong agreement between DCS indices of relative cerebral blood flow and indices based on phase-encoded velocity mapping magnetic resonance imaging (VENC MRI) of relative blood flow in the jugular veins and superior vena cava. Data were acquired from 46 children with single ventricle cardiac lesions during a hypercapnia intervention. Significant increases in cerebral blood flow, measured both by DCS and by VENC MRI, as well as significant increases in oxyhemoglobin concentration, and total hemoglobin concentration, were observed during hypercapnia. Comparison of blood flow changes measured by VENC MRI in the jugular veins and by DCS revealed a strong linear relationship, R = 0.88, p \u3c 0.001, slope = 0.91 ± 0.07. Similar correlations were observed between DCS and VENC MRI in the superior vena cava, R = 0.77, slope = 0.99 ± 0.12, p \u3c 0.001. The relationship between VENC MRI in the aorta and DCS, a negative control, was weakly correlated, R = 0.46, slope = 1.77 ± 0.45, p \u3c 0.001

Biomarkers of rapid chronic kidney disease progression in type 2 diabetes.

Here we evaluated the performance of a large set of serum biomarkers for the prediction of rapid progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with type 2 diabetes. We used a case-control design nested within a prospective cohort of patients with baseline eGFR 30-60 ml/min per 1.73 m(2). Within a 3.5-year period of Go-DARTS study patients, 154 had over a 40% eGFR decline and 153 controls maintained over 95% of baseline eGFR. A total of 207 serum biomarkers were measured and logistic regression was used with forward selection to choose a subset that were maximized on top of clinical variables including age, gender, hemoglobin A1c, eGFR, and albuminuria. Nested cross-validation determined the best number of biomarkers to retain and evaluate for predictive performance. Ultimately, 30 biomarkers showed significant associations with rapid progression and adjusted for clinical characteristics. A panel of 14 biomarkers increased the area under the ROC curve from 0.706 (clinical data alone) to 0.868. Biomarkers selected included fibroblast growth factor-21, the symmetric to asymmetric dimethylarginine ratio, β2-microglobulin, C16-acylcarnitine, and kidney injury molecule-1. Use of more extensive clinical data including prebaseline eGFR slope improved prediction but to a lesser extent than biomarkers (area under the ROC curve of 0.793). Thus we identified several novel associations of biomarkers with CKD progression and the utility of a small panel of biomarkers to improve prediction.We acknowledge all the SUMMIT partners (http://www.imi-summit.eu/) for their assistance with this project. This work was funded by the Innovative Medicine Initiative under grant agreement no. IMI/115006 (the SUMMIT consortium) and the Go-DARTS cohort was funded by the Chief Scientists Office Scotland.This is the accepted manuscript of a paper published in Kidney International (Looker et al., Kidney International, 2015 doi: 10.1038/ki.2015.199). The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ki.2015.19

Volume 01

Introduction from Dean Dr. Charles Ross Three Decades of Digging: Undergraduate Archeology at Longwood by Jessica Fields and Stephanie Neeley Interactions of Allelopathy and Heat Stress in Plants by Derek W. Hambright and Mary E. Lehman Inertial Electrostatic Confinement D-D Fusion Device: Construction and Simulation by Andrew R. Grzankowski Shackled Nim by Zachary Johnson Development of GC-MS and Chemometric Methods for the Analysis of Accelerants in Arson Cases by Boone M. Prentice A Comparison of Image Analysis Methods in cDNA Microarrays by Ashley M. Swandby Perceived Sexual Activity of Short and Long-Term Relationships by Victoria Morgan and Katie Williamson Elderly Male Communication by Kristine G. Bender Three Poems: “Adam and Eve and an Orange Tree”, “The Name of Everything Before Dying”, and “The ‘Poet Voice’” by Katelyn N. Romaine There\u27s Nothing Like Dancing, After All : Marriage and Gender in the Dance Scenes of Jane Austen\u27s Novels by D. Nicole Swann Two Poems: “Age Nine with Mother” and “The Apple That Crawls Away From the Tree” by Jessica Fox Untitled by Mike McAteer Room 9 by Alex Grabiec Two Photographs: “Gracie” and “Emily” by Laura Nodtvedt Bowling Lanes Night by Nick Costa Two Paintings: “Can and Kettle” and “Scarecrow” by Rachel Wolfe Exploring Henrik Ibsen\u27s “Perr Gynt” by Zack Dalton Creative Writing Scholarship at Longwood University Music Scholarship at Longwood – Senior Recital Arianne K. Burrus Longwood University Theater – Peer Gyn

Co-ordinated Gene Expression in the Liver and Spleen during Schistosoma japonicum Infection Regulates Cell Migration

Determining the molecular events induced in the spleen during schistosome infection is an essential step in better understanding the immunopathogenesis of schistosomiasis and the mechanisms by which schistosomes modulate the host immune response. The present study defines the transcriptional and cellular events occurring in the murine spleen during the progression of Schistosoma japonicum infection. Additionally, we compared and contrasted these results with those we have previously reported for the liver. Microarray analysis combined with flow cytometry and histochemistry demonstrated that transcriptional changes occurring in the spleen were closely related to changes in cellular composition. Additionally, the presence of alternatively activated macrophages, as indicated by up-regulation of Chi3l3 and Chi3l4 and expansion of F4/80+ macrophages, together with enhanced expression of the immunoregulatory genes ANXA1 and CAMP suggests the spleen may be an important site for the control of S. japonicum-induced immune responses. The most striking difference between the transcriptional profiles of the infected liver and spleen was the contrasting expression of chemokines and cell adhesion molecules. Lymphocyte chemokines, including the homeostatic chemokines CXCL13, CCL19 and CCL21, were significantly down-regulated in the spleen but up-regulated in the liver. Eosinophil (CCL11, CCL24), neutrophil (CXCL1) and monocyte (CXCL14, CCL12) chemokines and the cell adhesion molecules VCAM1, NCAM1, PECAM1 were up-regulated in the liver but unchanged in the spleen. Chemokines up-regulated in both organs were expressed at significantly higher levels in the liver. Co-ordinated expression of these genes probably contributes to the development of a chemotactic signalling gradient that promotes recruitment of effector cells to the liver, thereby facilitating the development of hepatic granulomas and fibrosis. Together these data provide, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the molecular events occurring in the spleen during schistosomiasis and will substantially further our understanding of the local and systemic mechanisms driving the immunopathogenesis of this disease

Clinical Trials in Head Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a major public health problem globally. In the United States the incidence of closed head injuries admitted to hospitals is conservatively estimated to be 200 per 100,000 population, and the incidence of penetrating head injury is estimated to be 12 per 100,000, the highest of any developed country in the world. This yields an approximate number of 500,000 new cases each year, a sizeable proportion of which demonstrate signficant long-term disabilities. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of proven therapies for this disease. For a variety of reasons, clinical trials for this condition have been difficult to design and perform. Despite promising pre-clinical data, most of the trials that have been performed in recent years have failed to demonstrate any significant improvement in outcomes. The reasons for these failures have not always been apparent and any insights gained were not always shared. It was therefore feared that we were running the risk of repeating our mistakes. Recognizing the importance of TBI, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) sponsored a workshop that brought together experts from clinical, research, and pharmaceutical backgrounds. This workshop proved to be very informative and yielded many insights into previous and future TBI trials. This paper is an attempt to summarize the key points made at the workshop. It is hoped that these lessons will enhance the planning and design of future efforts in this important field of research.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63185/1/089771502753754037.pd

Genetic Manipulation of Schistosoma haematobium, the Neglected Schistosome

More people are infected with Schistosoma haematobium than other major human schistosomes yet it has been less studied because of difficulty in maintaining the life cycle in the laboratory. S. haematobium might be considered the ‘neglected schistosome’ since minimal information on the genome and proteome of S. haematobium is available, in marked contrast to the other major schistosomes. In this report we describe tools and protocols to investigate the genome and genetics of this neglected schistosome. We cultured developmental stages of S. haematobium, and investigated the utility of introducing gene probes into the parasites to silence two model genes. One of these, firefly luciferase, was a reporter gene whereas the second was a schistosome gene encoding a surface protein, termed Sh-tsp-2. We observed that both genes could be silenced – a phenomenon known as experimental RNA interference (RNAi). These findings indicated that the genome of S. haematobium will be amenable to genetic manipulation investigations designed to determine the function and importance of genes of this schistosome and to investigate for novel anti-parasite treatments