Building empathy at the intersection of art, nature, & culture: a field guide for art educators

This thesis is an offering for those compelled to use art and design learning as a way to strengthen the resiliency of our collective cultures. By integrating intersectional place-based pedagogy into art and design learning, art educators can resist the idea that humans exist on a hierarchy with each other and other species. A deeper understanding of place can build empathy for both nature and culture, and can help educators imagine alternative classroom models that focus on building empathy within a learning environment. The importance of place is examined through a literature review, contemporary artist analysis, case studies, and interviews with art educators. Intersectional place-based pedagogy calls for art educators to recognize not only the physical land of a site, but also the non-dominant cultural narratives that are embedded within a place

High Resolution Multi-parametric Diagnostics and Therapy of Atrial Fibrillation: Chasing Arrhythmia Vulnerabilities in the Spatial Domain

After a century of research, atrial fibrillation (AF) remains a challenging disease to study and exceptionally resilient to treatment. Unfortunately, AF is becoming a massive burden on the health care system with an increasing population of susceptible elderly patients and expensive unreliable treatment options. Pharmacological therapies continue to be disappointingly ineffective or are hampered by side effects due to the ubiquitous nature of ion channel targets throughout the body. Ablative therapy for atrial tachyarrhythmias is growing in acceptance. However, ablation procedures can be complex, leading to varying levels of recurrence, and have a number of serious risks. The high recurrence rate could be due to the difficulty of accurately predicting where to draw the ablation lines in order to target the pathophysiology that initiates and maintains the arrhythmia or an inability to distinguish sub-populations of patients who would respond well to such treatments. There are electrical cardioversion options but there is not a practical implanted deployment of this strategy. Under the current bioelectric therapy paradigm there is a trade-off between efficacy and the pain and risk of myocardial damage, all of which are positively correlated with shock strength. Contrary to ventricular fibrillation, pain becomes a significant concern for electrical defibrillation of AF due to the fact that a patient is conscious when experiencing the arrhythmia. Limiting the risk of myocardial injury is key for both forms of fibrillation. In this project we aim to address the limitations of current electrotherapy by diverging from traditional single shock protocols. We seek to further clarify the dynamics of arrhythmia drivers in space and to target therapy in both the temporal and spatial domain; ultimately culminating in the design of physiologically guided applied energy protocols. In an effort to provide further characterization of the organization of AF, we used transillumination optical mapping to evaluate the presence of three-dimensional electrical substrate variations within the transmural wall during acutely induced episodes of AF. The results of this study suggest that transmural propagation may play a role in AF maintenance mechanisms, with a demonstrated range of discordance between the epicardial and endocardial dynamic propagation patterns. After confirming the presence of epi-endo dyssynchrony in multiple animal models, we further investigated the anatomical structure to look for regional trends in transmural fiber orientation that could help explain the spectrum of observed patterns. Simultaneously, we designed and optimized a multi-stage, multi-path defibrillation paradigm that can be tailored to individual AF frequency content in the spatial and temporal domain. These studies continue to drive down the defibrillation threshold of electrotherapies in an attempt to achieve a pain-free AF defibrillation solution. Finally, we designed and characterized a novel platform of stretchable electronics that provide instrumented membranes across the epicardial surface or implanted within the transmural wall to provide physiological feedback during electrotherapy beyond just the electrical state of the tissue. By combining a spatial analysis of the arrhythmia drivers, the energy delivered and the resulting damage, we hope to enhance the biophysical understanding of AF electrical cardioversion and xiii design an ideal targeted energy delivery protocol to improve upon all limitations of current electrotherapy

Studies on fatty acid de novo synthesis and metabolism in free-living and parasitic nematodes and their feeding sites in plants

Lipids are essential constituents of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells being involved in membrane biogenesis, signaling and energy storage. Furthermore, organisms have evolved different ways to obtain and synthesize these molecules which is reflected in the various life styles. Whereas plants are capable to synthesize all their required lipids de novo, some animals like nematodes depend at least partly on dietary lipid supply. Nematodes are microscopic, ubiquitously present roundworms comprising free-living as well as plant- and animal-parasitic species. Among the plant parasitic nematodes, the sedentary cyst nematodes such as Heterodera sp. are economically important as they infect crops like soy bean and sugar beet. After invading a host plant, cyst nematodes establish a feeding site that acts as a sink tissue for plant metabolites supplying nutrients to the nematode. In this work, I was interested to probe the importance of fatty acid de novo synthesis and dietary supply of fatty acids in the interaction between Heterodera schachtii and Arabidopsis thaliana. To study fatty acid de novo synthesis, I determined the mode of action of spirotetramat (SPT) on the free living nematode C. elegans. Using a series of in vivo, biochemical, imaging and enzyme assays I show that SPT inhibits C. elegans acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) causing developmental arrest. Follow-up studies using H. schachtii and A. thaliana show that foliar applied SPT also causes developmental arrest in cyst nematodes. Bioinformatics revealed the presence of a H. schachtii ACC similar to other nematode ACC´s and its knock down by RNAi phenocopied the effect of foliar applied SPT. Together this suggest that cyst nematodes are depending on ACC activity for fatty acid de novo synthesis that is essential for development. To study the involvement of dietary fatty acid supply, I first determined the lipidome of the nematode feeding sites which supply all required nutrients for the nematodes’ development. Most lipids were found at higher levels with triacylglycerol (TAG) showing the strongest fold-increase. Transcriptomic analysis suggested that increased syncytial fatty acid de novo synthesis and inhibition of lipolysis might be involved in TAG accumulation. This allowed candidate genes to be identified. Arabidopsis insertional lines for these candidate genes with impaired lipolytic capability favored nematode development. These findings support a concept of increased nutritional value of the feeding site due to impaired lipolysis and possibly increased TAG availability. In conclusion, fatty acid de novo synthesis and dietary lipids are involved in cyst nematode development. Moreover, understanding the biology of these pathways can be translated into improved crop plants and novel approaches for nematode control.Lipide sind wesentliche Bestandteile von prokaryotischenund eukaryotischen Zellen und sind beteiligt in Membranbiogenese, Signal- und Energiespeicherung. Darüber hinaus entwickelten Organismen unterschiedliche Strategien um diese Moleküle aufzunehmen und zu synthetisieren. Diese verschiedenen Strategien spiegeln sich in den Lebensweisen der verschiedenen Organismen wider. Während Pflanzen in der Lage sind, alle ihre benötigten Lipide de novo zu synthetisieren sind einige Tiere wie Nematoden zumindest teilweise auf Lipide angewiesen, die mit der Nahrung aufgenommen werden. Nematoden sind mikroskopisch kleine, ubiquitär vorkommende Fadenwürmer, zu denen freilebende, sowie Pflanzen- und Tierparasitäre Arten zählen. Bei den pflanzenparasitären Nematoden, sind die sedentären Zystennematoden, wie Heterodera sp., landwirtschaftlich relevant, da sie Kulturpflanzen wie Sojabohnen und Zuckerrüben infizieren. Nach der Invasion einer geeigneten Wirtspflanze induziert der Nematod ein Nährzellsystem, das als Sink-Gewebe für Pflanzenmetabolite wirkt und für den Nematoden Nährstoffe produziert. In dieser Arbeit war ich daran interessiert, die Bedeutung der Fettsäure de novo Synthese und Nahrungsversorgung durch Fettsäuren in der Wechselwirkung zwischen Heterodera schachtii und Arabidopsis thaliana zu untersuchen. Um die Fettsäure de novo Synthese zu studieren war ich erst daran interessiert die Wirkungsweise von Spirotetramat (SPT) auf den frei lebenden Fadenwurm Caenorhabditis elegans zu bestimmen. Mit einer Reihe von in vivo, biochemischen, bildgebenden und Enzymaktivitätstests zeige ich, dass SPT die Aktivität der Acetyl-CoA-Carboxylase (ACC) von C. elegans hemmt und einen Entwicklungsstillstand verursacht. Studien mit H. schachtii und A. thaliana zeigen, dass foliar-appliziertes SPT auch bei Zystennematoden einen Entwicklungsstillstand hervorruft. Bioinformatisch kann die Anwesenheit einer H. schachtii ACC, ähnlich der von anderen Nematoden gezeigt werden und ihr Knockdown mittels RNAi gleicht der Wirkung von SPT. Zusammen legt dies nah, dass Zystennematoden auf die Aktivität der ACC angewiesen sind, da sie für die Synthese von Fettsäuren, die für die Entwicklung der Nematoden gebraucht werden, essentiell ist. Um die Beteiligung der Nematoden Nahrungsversorgung durch Fettsäuren zu studieren bestimmte ich das Lipidom des Nährzellsystem, das alle erforderlichen Nährstoffe für die Nematoden Entwicklung liefert. Obwohl die meisten quantifizierten Lipidklassen einen Anstieg zeigten war Triacylglycerol (TAG) am stärksten angereichert. Transkriptom-Analysen isolierter Nährzellsysteme, zeigte eine gesteigerte Fettsäure de novo Synthese und die Hemmung der Lipolyse als mögliche Ursachen der TAG Akkumulation und erlaubte mir die Identifizierung von Kandidatengenen. Arabidopsis Insertionslinien für diese Kandidatengene mit eingeschränkter lipolytischer Fähigkeit wiesen eine begünstigte Nematodenentwicklung auf. Diese Ergebnisse unterstützen ein Konzept eines erhöhten Nährwerts des Nährzellsystems aufgrund eingeschränkter Lipolyse und möglicherweise erhöhter TAG-Verfügbarkeit für den Nematoden. Zusammenfassend wirken sich Fettsäure de novo Synthese und Nahrungs-Lipide auf die Zystennematoden Entwicklung aus. Ein Verständnis dieser Biologie kann in die Verbesserung von Kulturpflanzen und neuartige Ansätze zur Nematodenkontrolle übersetzt werden

New Physics at the International Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) Next to GSI

The project of the international Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), co-located to the GSI facility in Darmstadt, has been officially started on November 7, 2007. The current plans of the facility and the planned research program will be described. An investment of about 1 billion euro will permit new physics programs in the areas of low and medium energy antiproton research, heavy ion physics complementary to LHC, as well as in nuclear structure and astrophysics. The facility will comprise about a dozen accelerators and storage rings, which will enable simultaneous operations of up to four different beams.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. Invited Talk presented at the "Fourth International Conference on Fission and Properties of Neutron-Rich nuclei", held at Sanibel Island, Florida, November 11-17, 200

Determination of the reaction plane in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions

In the particles produced in a nuclear collision undergo collective flow, the reaction plane can in principle be determined through a global event analysis. We show here that collective flow can be identified by evaluating the reaction plane independently in two separate rapidity intervals, and studying the correlation between the two results. We give an analytical expression for the correlation function between the two planes as a function of their relative angle. We also discuss how this correlation function is related to the anisotropy of the transverse momentum distribution. Email contact: [email protected]: Saclay-T93/026 Email: [email protected]

Directed and Elliptic Flow in 158 AGeV Pb+Pb Collisions

Directed and elliptic flow of protons and positively charged pions has been studied in the target fragmentation region using the Plastic Ball detector in the WA98 experiment. The results exhibit a strong dependence on centrality, rapidity, and transverse momentum. The rapidity dependence can be described by a Gaussian distribution. The model comparisons reveal a large discrepancy of the flow strength obtained from the data and the simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures, talk at Quark Matter 99, see also http://qgp.uni-muenster.de/WA98/qm99/flo

Disorientation in amnesia: A confusion of memory traces

Disorientation is a common phenomenon in delirium and amnesia. It is thought to have an obvious explanation, i.e. disoriented patients fail to store the information crucial for the maintenance of orientation. In this study, we explored whether disorientation was indeed associated with a failure to learn new information or rather with a confusion of information within memory. Twenty-one patients with severe amnesia were examined. Orientation was tested with a 20item questionnaire. Two runs of a continuous recognition task were used to test the ability to acquire information (first run of the task) and the tendency to confuse the temporal context of information acquisition (comparison of the second with the first run). We found that orientation was much better predicted by the measure of temporal context confusion (r = 0.90) than by the ability to simply acquire information (r = 0.54). Superimposition of neuroradiological scans demonstrated that increased temporal context confusion was associated with medial orbitofrontal or basal forebrain damage; patients with normal levels of temporal context confusion did not have damage to these areas. We conclude that disorientation more often indicates a confusion of memory traces from different events, i.e. increased temporal context confusion, than an inability to learn new information. Disorientation appears to reflect primarily a failure of the orbitofrontal contribution to memor

The mechanisms of spontaneous and provoked confabulations

Summary Confabulation is a mysterious adjunct of amnesia. It remains unexplained why some patients invent untrue stories in response to questions (provoked confabulations) or even spontaneously with no apparent motivation (spontaneous confabulations). Hypothesized mechanisms range from a desire to fill gaps in memory to a loss of the temporal context in memory. We examined the mechanisms of confabulations in 16 amnesic patients. Patients were classified as spontaneous confabulators if they ever acted according to their confabulations. Provoked confabulations were measured as the number of intrusions in a verbal learning test. We found a double dissociation between the two types of confabulations, indicating that they represent different disorders rather than different degrees of the same disorder. Confabulating patients did not show an increased tendency to fill gaps in memory as measured by the number of fake questions concerning non existent items that they answered. Neither type of confabulation correlated with a failure to store new information as gauged with recognition tasks; pure information storage was even found to be normal in some patients. However, we found a positive correlation between several measures of verbal learning and verbal fluency with provoked, but not spontaneous, confabulations. In contrast, spontaneous, but not provoked, confabulations were associated with an inability to recognize the temporal order of stored information as measured by the comparison of two runs of a continuous recognition task. We suggest that provoked confabulations depend on an amnesic subject's search in his deficient memory and are the trade-off for increased item recollection. Spontaneous confabulations appear to be based on a failure to recognize the temporal order of stored information, resulting in erroneous recollection of elements of memory that do not belong togethe