Extending an Effective Classroom-Based Math Board Game Intervention to Preschoolers’ Homes

The preschool years are a critical time for math development. Unfortunately, children from low-income backgrounds often enter kindergarten with lower math skills than middle-income peers, perhaps due to less math exposure at home. Few home-based math interventions are available for preschool age children; those that do exist are costly and difficult to implement. Interventions conducted in children’s schools using linear numeric board games developed by researchers have been particularly successful with low-income preschool children. Researchers have suggested they may be adapted for home-use by using commercially available board games, such as Chutes and Ladders, and teaching parents how to play. The two studies described in this paper explored the effectiveness of using Chutes and Ladders with a specialized counting procedure with Head Start families. Implementation proved to be challenging and children did not improve as much as in previous classroom-based interventions

“Find One of Your Own Kind”: Auto-ethnography and my Aboriginal Women Ancestors

This thesis is an exploration by Badimaya women in my family to interrogate constructions of identity as a decolonising process and generates an account of survival against colonial oppression. The common thread uniting these different strands was my own perspectives, or auto-ethnography which used family stories as strong foundations for contemporary manifestations of a living, continuous indigenous culture. I was able to explore rich, deep and revealing content that documented a counter-colonial history in Australia

Constructing Identity Identity Construction

In this art-based study I will examine the construction of identity creating three life size figures utilizing metaphor and symbolism. I recorded and analyzed the process through reflections. The artist/teacher/researcher will provide conclusions based on art production and self-reflection

Like Other Women: Perspectives of Mothers with Physical Disabilities

This article is based on interviews with ten women, ranging in age from 19 to 45 and living in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. Their disabilities are neurmuscular or musculoskeletal and include spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, post-polio and spina bifida. Their children range in age from 11 months to adulthood. The article focuses on specific issues and concerns regarding early childhood ranagement, and includes some discussion of pre-natal and cbstetrical care. Cann misconceptions concerning motherhood and disability are also discussed. men with disabilities also have special concerns as parents. Although their concerns are not addressed in this paper, they are not seen as any less important or deserving of attention. Work on this paper was made possible under Grant #10H53008032 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Community Health Services, Family Planning Program, 1980

Exploring Attitudes of Future Educators About Sexual Minority Youth

Fifty-two secondary teacher candidates from a Canadian university completed questionnaires assessing levels of homoprejudice, knowledge of homosexuality, and perceptions of professional issues related to sexual minority youth. The level of homoprejudice in this sample was lower than in earlier studies with teachers, and lower homoprejudice was found to be significantly related to higher professional commitment and willingness to assist sexual minority students. As well greater knowledge of homosexual issues was significantly related to lower levels of homoprejudice, and men had significantly more homoprejudiced attitudes than women.Cinquante-deux stagiaires d’une université canadienne ont complété des questionnaires évaluant les préjugés contre l’homosexualité, les connaissances sur l’homosexualité et les perceptions des enjeux professionnels liés aux jeunes appartenant à une minorité sexuelle. Cet échantillon a démontré moins de préjugés face à l’homosexualité que ceux des études précédentes impliquant des enseignants; or, un rapport significatif existe entre des niveaux peu élevés de préjugés face à l’homosexualité d’une part, et un plus grand engagement des les jeunes membres d’une minorité sexuelle et une volonté accrue de leur venir en aide d’autre part. Un lien significatif existe également entre des connaissances plus importantes relatives aux enjeux touchant les homosexuels et des niveaux moins élevés de préjugés face à l’homosexualité. Finalement, les hommes ont démontré, de manière significative, plus d’attitudes homophobes que les femmes

A Mediterranean-like dietary pattern with vitamin D3 (10 µg/d) supplements reduced the rate of bone loss in older Europeans with osteoporosis at baseline: results of a 1-y randomized controlled trial

Background: The Mediterranean diet (MD) is widely recommended for the prevention of chronic disease, but evidence for a beneficial effect on bone health is lacking.  Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a Mediterranean-like dietary pattern [NU-AGE (New Dietary Strategies Addressing the Specific Needs of the Elderly Population for Healthy Aging in Europe)] on indexes of inflammation with a number of secondary endpoints, including bone mineral density (BMD) and biomarkers of bone and collagen degradation in a 1-y multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT; NU-AGE) in elderly Europeans.  Design: An RCT was undertaken across 5 European centers. Subjects in the intervention group consumed the NU-AGE diet for 1 y by receiving individually tailored dietary advice, coupled with supplies of foods including whole-grain pasta, olive oil, and a vitamin D3 supplement (10 µg/d). Participants in the control group were provided with leaflets on healthy eating available in their country.  Results: A total of 1294 participants (mean ± SD age: 70.9 ±4.0 y; 44% male) were recruited to the study and 1142 completed the 1-y trial. The Mediterranean-like dietary pattern had no effect on BMD (site-specific or whole-body); the inclusion of compliance to the intervention in the statistical model did not change the findings. There was also no effect of the intervention on the urinary biomarkers free pyridinoline or free deoxypyridinoline. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D significantly increased and parathyroid hormone decreased (P < 0.001) in the MD compared with the control group. Subgroup analysis of individuals with osteoporosis at baseline (site-specific BMD T-score ≤ −2.5 SDs) showed that the MD attenuated the expected decline in femoral neck BMD (n = 24 and 30 in MD and control groups, respectively; P = 0.04) but had no effect on lumbar spine or whole-body BMD.  Conclusions: A 1-y intervention of the Mediterranean-like diet together with vitamin D3 supplements (10 µg/d) had no effect on BMD in the normal age-related range, but it significantly reduced the rate of loss of bone at the femoral neck in individuals with osteoporosis. The NU-AGE trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01754012

Identification of pancreatic cancer invasion-related proteins by proteomic analysis

Background – Markers of pancreatic cancer invasion were investigated in two clonal populations of the cell line, MiaPaCa-2, Clone #3 (high invasion) and Clone #8 (low invasion) using proteomic profiling of an in vitro model of pancreatic cancer. Materials and methods – Using 2D-DIGE followed by MALDI-TOF MS, two clonal sub-populations of the pancreatic cancer cell line, MiaPaCa-2 with high and low invasive capacities were incubated on matrigel 24 hours prior to analysis to stimulate cell-ECM contact and mimic in vivo interaction with the basement membrane. Results - Sixty proteins were identified as being differentially expressed (>1.2 fold change and p ≤ 0.05) between Clone #3 and Clone #8. Proteins found to have higher abundance levels in the highly invasive Clone #3 compared to the low invasive Clone #8 include members of the chaperone activity proteins and cytoskeleton constituents whereas metabolism-associated and catalytic proteins had lower abundance levels. Differential protein expression levels of ALDH1A1, VIM, STIP1 and KRT18 and GAPDH were confirmed by immunoblot. Using RNAi technology, STIP1 knockdown significantly reduced invasion and proliferation of the highly invasive Clone #3. Knockdown of another target, VIM by siRNA in Clone #3 cells also resulted in decreased invasion abilities of Clone #3. Elevated expression of STIP1 was observed in pancreatic tumour tissue compared to normal pancreas, whereas ALDH1A1 stained at lower levels in pancreatic tumours, as detected by immunohistochemistry. Conclusion - Identification of targets which play a role in the highly invasive phenotype of pancreatic cancer may help to understand the biological behaviour, the rapid progression of this cancer and may be of importance in the development of new therapeutic strategies for pancreatic cancer

Computational Models of Auditory Scene Analysis: A Review

Auditory scene analysis (ASA) refers to the process(es) of parsing the complex acoustic input into auditory perceptual objects representing either physical sources or temporal sound patterns, such as melodies, which contributed to the sound waves reaching the ears. A number of new computational models accounting for some of the perceptual phenomena of ASA have been published recently. Here we provide a theoretically motivated review of these computational models, aiming to relate their guiding principles to the central issues of the theoretical framework of ASA. Specifically, we ask how they achieve the grouping and separation of sound elements and whether they implement some form of competition between alternative interpretations of the sound input. We consider the extent to which they include predictive processes, as important current theories suggest that perception is inherently predictive, and also how they have been evaluated. We conclude that current computational models of ASA are fragmentary in the sense that rather than providing general competing interpretations of ASA, they focus on assessing the utility of specific processes (or algorithms) for finding the causes of the complex acoustic signal. This leaves open the possibility for integrating complementary aspects of the models into a more comprehensive theory of ASA

Ryanodine Receptor 1-Related Disorders: An Historical Perspective and Proposal for a Unified Nomenclature

The RYR1 gene, which encodes the sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium release channel or type 1 ryanodine receptor (RyR1) of skeletal muscle, was sequenced in 1988 and RYR1 variations that impair calcium homeostasis and increase susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia were first identified in 1991. Since then, RYR1-related myopathies (RYR1-RM) have been described as rare, histopathologically and clinically heterogeneous, and slowly progressive neuromuscular disorders. RYR1 variants can lead to dysfunctional RyR1-mediated calcium release, malignant hyperthermia susceptibility, elevated oxidative stress, deleterious post-translational modifications, and decreased RyR1 expression. RYR1-RM-affected individuals can present with delayed motor milestones, contractures, scoliosis, ophthalmoplegia, and respiratory insufficiency.Historically, RYR1-RM-affected individuals were diagnosed based on morphologic features observed in muscle biopsies including central cores, cores and rods, central nuclei, fiber type disproportion, and multi-minicores. However, these histopathologic features are not always specific to RYR1-RM and often change over time. As additional phenotypes were associated with RYR1 variations (including King-Denborough syndrome, exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis, lethal multiple pterygium syndrome, adult-onset distal myopathy, atypical periodic paralysis with or without myalgia, mild calf-predominant myopathy, and dusty core disease) the overlap among diagnostic categories is ever increasing. With the continuing emergence of new clinical subtypes along the RYR1 disease spectrum and reports of adult-onset phenotypes, nuanced nomenclatures have been reported (RYR1- [related, related congenital, congenital] myopathies). In this narrative review, we provide historical highlights of RYR1 research, accounts of the main diagnostic disease subtypes and propose RYR1-related disorders (RYR1-RD) as a unified nomenclature to describe this complex and evolving disease spectrum

Murine Fig4 is dispensable for muscle development but required for muscle function

Abstract Background Phosphatidylinositol phosphates (PIPs) are low-abundance phospholipids that participate in a range of cellular processes, including cell migration and membrane traffic. PIP levels and subcellular distribution are regulated by a series of lipid kinases and phosphatases. In skeletal muscle, PIPs and their enzymatic regulators serve critically important functions exemplified by mutations of the PIP phosphatase MTM1 in myotubular myopathy (MTM), a severe muscle disease characterized by impaired muscle structure and abnormal excitation–contraction coupling. FIG4 functions as a PIP phosphatase that participates in both the synthesis and breakdown of phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate (PI(3,5)P2). Mutation of FIG4 results in a severe neurodegenerative disorder in mice and a progressive peripheral polyneuropathy in humans. The effect of FIG4 mutation on skeletal muscle has yet to be examined. Methods Herein we characterize the impact of FIG4 on skeletal muscle development and function using the spontaneously occurring mouse mutant pale tremor (plt), a mouse line with a loss of function mutation in Fig4. Results In plt mice, we characterized abnormalities in skeletal muscle, including reduced muscle size and specific force generation. We also uncovered ultrastructural abnormalities and increased programmed cell death. Conversely, we detected no structural or functional abnormalities to suggest impairment of excitation–contraction coupling, a process previously shown to be influenced by PI(3,5)P2 levels. Conditional rescue of Fig4 mutation in neurons prevented overt muscle weakness and the development of obvious muscle abnormalities, suggesting that the changes observed in the plt mice were primarily related to denervation of skeletal muscle. On the basis of the ability of reduced FIG4 levels to rescue aspects of Mtmr2-dependent neuropathy, we evaluated the effect of Fig4 haploinsufficiency on the myopathy of Mtm1-knockout mice. Male mice with a compound Fig4 +/−/Mtm1 –/Y genotype displayed no improvements in muscle histology, muscle size or overall survival, indicating that FIG4 reduction does not ameliorate the Mtm1-knockout phenotype. Conclusions Overall, these data indicate that loss of Fig4 impairs skeletal muscle function but does not significantly affect its structural development.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112676/1/13395_2013_Article_83.pd