A Compelling Collaboration: The First Year Writing Program, Writing Center, and Directed Self-Placement

At Rhode Island College (RIC), Becky Caouette, Director of Writing, and Claudine Griggs, Writing Center Director, are invested in helping students become better writers. That’s our job, and our privilege. While we share this goal, we each work under markedly different institutional scaffolding. Perhaps nowhere was this difference more apparent than in our former writing placement testing process for RIC’s First Year Writing (FYW) courses, where all of the work was done by the writing center. In what follows, we talk about how the uneven work distribution provided the exigency to change our placement process, and how we turned to Directed Self-Placement (DSP) as a possible solution on two fronts: providing better placement procedures for our students and creating more egalitarian (and collaborative) working conditions between the writing center and the FYW Program.University Writing Cente

Vasculogenic mimicry in malignant mesothelioma: an experimental and immunohistochemical analysis

SummaryVasculogenic mimicry, the process in which cancer cells form angiomatoid structures independent of or in addition to host angiogenesis has been recorded in several otherwise non-endothelial malignant neoplasms. This study describes evidence of routine vascular mimicry by human mesothelioma cell lines in vitro, when the cell lines are cultured alone or co-cultured with human umbilical vascular endothelial cells, with the formation of angiomatoid tubular networks. Vasculogenic mimicry is also supported by immunohistochemical demonstration of human-specific anti-mitochondria antibody labelling of tumour-associated vasculature of human mesothelioma cells xenotransplanted into nude mice, and by evidence of vascular mimicry in some biopsy samples of human malignant mesotheliomas. These studies show mosaic interlacing of cells that co-label or label individually for immunohistochemical markers of endothelial and mesothelial differentiation. If vascular mimicry in mesothelioma can be characterised more fully, this may facilitate identification of more specific and targeted therapeutic approaches such as anti-angiogenesis in combination with chemotherapy and immunotherapy or other therapeutic approaches

An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

The evolution and development of human mortuary behaviors is of enormous cultural significance. Here we report a richly-decorated young infant burial (AVH-1) from Arma Veirana (Liguria, northwestern Italy) that is directly dated to 10,211–9910 cal BP (95.4% probability), placing it within the early Holocene and therefore attributable to the early Mesolithic, a cultural period from which well-documented burials are exceedingly rare. Virtual dental histology, proteomics, and aDNA indicate that the infant was a 40–50 days old female. Associated artifacts indicate significant material and emotional investment in the child’s interment. The detailed biological profile of AVH-1 establishes the child as the earliest European near-neonate documented to be female. The Arma Veirana burial thus provides insight into sex/gender-based social status, funerary treatment, and the attribution of personhood to the youngest individuals among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and adds substantially to the scant data on mortuary practices from an important period in prehistory shortly following the end of the last Ice Age

Praxis, Volume 06, No. 01: Technology in Today's Writing Center

Content: (Un)Complicating Planning and Revising: Metacognition and Problem-Based Tutoring / by R. Evon Hawkins -- A Snapshot of an Evolving Writing Center into a Bilingual Service / by Cindy E. Officer -- Allied Forces: Students, Writing Tutors, and a Collaboration Station / by Claudine Griggs -- Consultations without Bodies: Technology, Virtual Space, and the Writing Center / by Rusty Carpenter -- Pagecasting in the UWC: Writing, Digital Media, and Community Outreach / by James Jesson, Paige Normand, and Andrea Saathoff -- Professional Development for Writing Center Staff: Students' Investment in the Success of the Writing Center / by Elise T. Bishop -- Record and Reflect: iPod Use in Writing Center Staff Development / by Elizabeth Boquet, Betsy A. Bowen, Catherine Forsa, Devin Hagan, and Mary A. McCall -- They Say / They Say: Today's Writing Center as Technology / by Mitch Nakaue and Michelle SizemoreUniversity Writing Cente

An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

The evolution and development of human mortuary behaviors is of enormous cultural significance. Here we report a richly-decorated young infant burial (AVH-1) from Arma Veirana (Liguria, northwestern Italy) that is directly dated to 10,211–9910 cal BP (95.4% probability), placing it within the early Holocene and therefore attributable to the early Mesolithic, a cultural period from which well-documented burials are exceedingly rare. Virtual dental histology, proteomics, and aDNA indicate that the infant was a 40–50 days old female. Associated artifacts indicate significant material and emotional investment in the child’s interment. The detailed biological profile of AVH-1 establishes the child as the earliest European near-neonate documented to be female. The Arma Veirana burial thus provides insight into sex/gender-based social status, funerary treatment, and the attribution of personhood to the youngest individuals among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and adds substantially to the scant data on mortuary practices from an important period in prehistory shortly following the end of the last Ice Age