A Comparison of Hamstring Injury Recovery Rates in Male and Female Athletes

Excerpt from Introduction Hamstring injuries are among the most common muscular injuries sustained by athletes across multiple levels of various sports (Askling et al). Most hamstring injuries occur during similar movements and under similar conditions, where the muscle is required to be explosive. Thus, athletes that participate in sports where “sprinting, kicking, or high-speed skilled movements” are required, experience an increased likelihood of suffering a hamstring injury (Erickson and Sherry). After injury, athletes are then subjected to different methods of rehabilitation to heal and strengthen the afflicted area. However, some athletes take longer than others to return and impatience may lead to a premature return to sport. Further compounding the importance of adequate rehabilitation, Erickson and Sherry’s research has determined that after an athlete is cleared to return, approximately one-third of hamstring injuries will recur with the risk being higher during the first two weeks

Playing house: exploring domesticity gone awry

This thesis is intended to further explore themes developed in the thesis exhibition entitled Playing House: Domesticity Gone Awry, on exhibition in Ames, Iowa from March 31 through April 9, 2013. A description of artistic process and themes are explored, as well as art historical references for the works. Hand-colored lithographs comprise the majority of the catalog, and are joined by modern renditions of traditional art of the home, such as embroidery and cross stitching. These methods and mediums are used to emphasize the gap between the way domesticity is viewed as an ideal, and the more ugly realism of our human behavior

WE ARE... : CREATING DISCURSIVE SPACES FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF COUNTER NARRATIVES THROUGH PHOTOVOICE AS CRITICAL SERVICE LEARNING

Broader social issues that affect students’ lives manifest in the classroom and the current neo-liberal reform structures in education (e.g., the accountability movement combined with punitive discipline measures and structural classism/racism) fail to acknowledge the impact of these issues on student identity within school and community. While this era of standardized testing has brought about anti-democratic realities in schools of all sorts, it is also the case that schools that pass tests often enjoy a more liberatory climate while schools struggling to meet testing requirements are more likely to possess oppressive qualities. Not coincidentally, the more oppressive schools are often populated by poor kids, kids of color, and very often in urban schools, poor kids of color. Deficit thinking runs rampant in urban schools and marginalized communities – student experiences perpetuate oppressive social hierarchies and students are pushed to think that they can’t, won’t, and aren’t capable. Critical service learning, and more specifically photovoice as a form of critical service learning, has promise to provide a different kind of educational experience. This project is an exploratory qualitative study using photovoice, photo elicitation, and critical thematic analysis to determine what narratives students construct while participating in photovoice as a form of critical service learning. This study posits a way to move from deficits to possibilities by providing a space for traditionally marginalized youth to legitimize their sense of place, identity, and connection to their community while empowering them to be advocates for social change. Students served as action researchers, constructing counter narratives through an adaptation of photovoice documentation, addressing social inequities by highlighting strengths and assets in their own schools and community. In addition to using photovoice as a methodology, this study also addressed how photovoice as critical service learning pedagogy can serve to create discursive spaces for those counter-narratives to circulate and to be heard. This project addressed the need for a critical service learning approach in education that empowers students to become agents of change, using their own stories and cultural/social capital to disrupt deficit perspectives while promoting possibility perspectives – moving us closer to a more democratic public education

San Antonio de Pocotalaca: An Eighteenth-Century Yamasee Indian Town in St. Augustine, Florida, 1716-1752

Following the Yamasee War of 1715, many of the Yamasee Indians rekindled alliances with the Spanish and returned to La Florida. San Antonio de Pocotalaca (1716 to 1752) was one of three initial Yamasee Indian towns to relocate from South Carolina and settle on the fringes of St. Augustine. In South Carolina, Pocotalaca (referred to there as Pocotaligo) served as the primary upper town of six Yamasee towns and was the political center for conferences and council meetings between Yamasees, their Indian allies, and South Carolina officials. When Pocotalaca relocated to St. Augustine after the Yamasee War, the town and its inhabitants retained their political significance. Having recognized the importance of the town’s Yamasees, their connections to Indian groups in Apalachicola, and how the alliance could be beneficial to the colony, the Spanish treated them accordingly. As a result, Pocotalaca’s Yamasees secured influence and continued to so by bolstering power through their relations with the Spanish. For these reasons, they were able to carve out their own space in St. Augustine where they retained a high level of autonomy, maintained their Yamasee identity, some traditional practices, and many aspects in their material choices

HISTOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES OF REPEATED MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY IN MICE

The majority of the estimated three million traumatic brain injuries that occur each year are classified as “mild” and do not require surgical intervention. However, debilitating symptoms such as difficulties focusing on tasks, anxiety, depression, and visual deficits can persist chronically after a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) even if an individual appears “fine”. These symptoms have been observed to worsen or be prolonged when an individual has suffered multiple mild TBIs. To test the hypothesis that increasing the amount of time between head injuries can reduce the histopathological and behavioral consequences of repeated mild TBI, a mouse model of closed head injury (CHI) was developed. A pneumatically controlled device with a silicone tip was used to deliver a diffuse, midline impact directly onto the mouse skull. A 2.0mm intended depth of injury caused a brief period of apnea and increased righting reflex response with minimal astrogliosis and axonal injury bilaterally in the entorhinal cortex, optic tract, and cerebellum. When five CHIs were repeated at 24h inter-injury intervals, astrogliosis was exacerbated acutely in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex compared to a single mild TBI. Additionally, in the entorhinal cortex, hemorrhagic lesions developed along with increased neurodegeneration and microgliosis. Axonal injury was observed bilaterally in the white matter tracts of the cerebellum and brainstem. When the inter-injury interval was extended to 48h, the extent of inflammation and cell death was similar to that caused by a single CHI suggesting that, in our mouse model, extending the inter-injury interval from 24h to 48h reduced the acute effects of repeated head injuries. The behavioral consequences of repeated CHI at 24h or 48h inter-injury intervals were evaluated in a ten week longitudinal study followed by histological analyses. Five CHI repeated at 24h inter-injury intervals produced motor and cognitive deficits that persisted throughout the ten week study period. Based upon histological analyses, the acute inflammation, axonal injury, and cell death observed acutely in the entorhinal cortex had resolved by ten weeks after injury. However, axonal degeneration and gliosis were present in the optic tract, optic nerve, and corticospinal tract. Extending the inter-injury interval to 48h did not significantly reduce motor and cognitive deficits, nor did it protect against chronic microgliosis and neurodegeneration in the visual pathway. Together these data suggested that some white matter areas may be more susceptible to our model of repeated mild TBI causing persistent neuropathology and behavioral deficits which were not substantially reduced with a 48h inter-injury interval. In many forms of TBI, microgliosis persists chronically and is believed to contribute to the cascade of neurodegeneration. To test the hypothesis that post-traumatic microgliosis contributes to mild TBI-related neuropathology, mice deficient in the growth factor progranulin (Grn-/-) received repeated CHI and were compared to wildtype, C57BL/6 mice. Penetrating head injury was previously reported to amplify the acute microglial response in Grn-/- mice. In our studies, repeated CHI induced an increased microglial response in Grn-/- mice compared to C57BL/6 mice at 48h, 7d, and 7mo after injury. However, no differences were observed between Grn-/- and WT mice with respect to their behavioral responses or amount of axonal injury or ongoing neurodegeneration at 7 months despite the robust differences in microgliosis. Dietary administration of ibuprofen initiated after the first injury reduced microglial activation within the optic tract of WT mice 7d after repeated mild TBI. However, a two week ibuprofen treatment regimen failed to affect the extent of behavioral dysfunction over 7mo or decrease chronic neurodegeneration, axon loss, or microgliosis in brain-injured Grn-.- mice when compared to standard diet. Together these studies underscore that mild TBIs, when repeated, can result in long lasting behavioral deficits accompanied by neurodegeneration within vulnerable brain regions. Our studies on the time interval between repeated head injuries suggest that a 48h inter-injury interval is within the window of mouse brain vulnerability to chronic motor and cognitive dysfunction and white matter injury. Data from our microglia modulation studies suggest that a chronically heightened microglial response following repeated mild TBI in progranulin deficient mice does not worsen chronic behavioral dysfunction or neurodegeneration. In addition, a two week ibuprofen treatment is not effective in reducing the microglial response, chronic behavioral dysfunction, or chronic neurodegeneration in progranulin deficient mice. Our data suggests that microglia are not a favorable target for the treatment of TBI

Creating communities of practice: A shared culture of professional development

Engagement in professional development activities is an expectation for many library faculty and staff. The ways in which librarians grow as professionals has a direct impact on their work within their institutions, as well as the development of the library profession as a whole. Typically, professional development is encouraged and reinforced through a system of reappointment and promotion that is often measured by individual activities. The University of North Carolina Charlotte’s J. Murrey Atkins Library is field testing a model of engagement that redefines professional development as a collaborative endeavor that supports individual exploration and growth while, potentially, impacting the profession. The focus of this new model is a philosophy of collective action and community building through the establishment and growth of library-initiated communities of practice

Preparing Future Faculty as Service-Learning Instructors: A Proposal to Integrate Instruction in Service-Learning Pedagogy into the VCU Preparing Future Faculty Program

This proposal provides a detailed plan for incorporating service-learning pedagogy into the VCU Preparing Future Faculty Program (http://graduate.vcu.edu/development/faculty.html). The VCU Preparing Future Faculty Program (PFF Program) is an optional training program offered by the VCU Graduate School to all graduate students enrolled at the university. The PFF Program involves a series of courses and professional development opportunities aimed at preparing doctoral students for the professoriate

Rethinking Leadership: The Changing Role of Principal Supervisors

In the fall of 2012, the Council of the Great City Schools launched a two-part study of the ways principal supervisors are selected, supported, and evaluated in major school districts across the country. The first part involved a survey administered to district staff serving as principal supervisors in the fall of 2012. The second part of the study involved site visits to the six districts participating in The Wallace Foundation's Principal Pipeline Initiative -- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Denver Public Schools, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Hillsborough County Public Schools, the New York City Department of Education, and Prince George's County Public Schools. This report provides a summary of findings from both the survey and site visits. Part I presents a description of the organizational structure and general features of the various principal supervisory systems, including the roles, selection, deployment, staffing, professional development, and evaluation of principal supervisors, as well as the preparation, selection, support, and evaluation of principals. Part II provides recommendations for building more effective principal supervisory systems. Based on the survey results and observations from the site visits, these recommendations identify those structures and practices that are most likely to result in stronger school leaders and higher student achievement