Novel collagen based scaffold to promote tissue regeneration for commercial applications

Dermelle, LLC is actively pursuing commercialization of a novel collagen matrix having the following bio-histochemical characteristics: reduced native collagen enzymatic degradation, high fibroblast cellular interaction and high tissue in-growth. Their properties are believed to promote tissue regeneration. A limitation of current injectable collagen soft tissue fillers is their short duration time and lack of cellular integration. By exploiting nanomaterial characteristics, Dermelle will improve upon current interventions for tissue reconstruction. A recent study measuring degradation of our novel collagen scaffold in comparison to a pure collagen control sample demonstrated a significant decrease in total collagen degradation of the novel collagen construct. In addition, a 13 day cell culture of the scaffold indicated a significant increase of DNA over the period of time in the novel collagen matrix, whereas the collagen alone demonstrated a decrease in DNA. Therefore, the treatment of the collagen with the nanomaterials may increase cellularity over time, thus initiate tissue regeneration. This device has the primary application in the cosmetic market as an injectable dermal filler to reduce signs of aging. The base technology is also believed to be applied to urological, wound, orthopedic and cardiovascular applications. The innovation was developed by researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A provisional patent has been filed; and an option has been executed by Dermelle, LLC. The main advantages of this innovation are a longer lasting product with better efficacy by decreasing degradation, promoting cell-collagen matrix adhesion and antioxidant/ antimicrobial properties

Factors Related to Adolescent Attrition from the 4-H Program in Kay County, Oklahoma

Family Relations and Child Developmen

Influence of the 4-H Incentive System on the Development and Retention of 4-H Members

Home Economics--Family Relations and Child Developmen

The nature and substance of communication in music teacher evaluation

The purpose of this study was to deconstruct the communication that occurs in the post-observation conference in music teacher evaluation. If music teachers and evaluators are to communicate effectively, demonstrate and assess various dimensions of music teaching, accurately judge the professional qualities and pedagogical actions of music teachers, and apply such judgements in measuring music teacher effectiveness, then the beliefs, thoughts, words, actions, habits, and values of those music teachers and evaluators must be appropriately and deeply understood. This study utilized aspects of ethnography and critical discourse analysis in examining the dialogue between sets of ensemble directors and their evaluators in the context of music teacher evaluation. The primary theoretical foundation of this study flows from James Paul Gee’s writings on the theory and practice of discourse analysis. Thus, I examined the attributes of discourse among evaluators and music teacher dyads and the means by which significance, social goods, and relationships shaped the music teacher evaluation process. The results indicated the language-in-use during the post-observation conferences in the music teacher evaluation process shaped the nature and quality of communication between music teachers and their evaluators. Music teachers and evaluators used language to indicate significance through repetition of and/or direct statements of importance. The results did not indicate any discrepancies on the situated meanings of terms associated with interpretation of the rubric when applied to the band rehearsal. Social goods, such as growth in band enrollment, teacher rating, and pay, were exchanged within the verbal and written discourse, or implied within the communication process itself. Relationships were more difficult to detect through the verbal language of the evaluative conferences. However, nonverbal clues during post-observation conferences offered insight into the type of relationship that had been built or was in place, and it was noted that the nonverbal language, such as eye contact and posture, reflected the quality of communication in these music teacher evaluation conferences. The importance of this study rests within the context of understanding the role of communication in music teacher evaluation

The Effect of Ultrasonics on Fibroblast Cells

The field of dentistry uses the debriding properties of ultrasonic vibration. It is unknown if this property is detrimental to the periodontal ligament (PDL) of an avulsed tooth. This information is important when a clinician is faced with a debris-covered avulsed tooth following a traumatic event. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect that ultrasonic vibration has on those PDL cells most numerous and most vital to a successful tooth replantation, namely, the fibroblasts. Several fibroblast cell sources were exposed to varying ultrasonic times. These included a commercially available cell line of human foreskin fibroblast (HFF), a harvested and cultured human periodontal ligament fibroblast (HPDLF) cell line and PDL fibroblast cells bound to the root surfaces of freshly extracted teeth. The HFF cells were exposed to ultrasonic vibration between 2-45 minutes. The HPDLF cells and the bound PDL fibroblasts were exposed to 5, 10 and 15 minutes of ultrasonic vibration. The latter groups were also compared to similar groups of PDL bound cells that were dried for 30 and 60 minutes prior to ultrasonification. This was to determine a difference in cell survival with ultrasonics when cells were dried. The vitality of the harvested fibroblast cells was assessed by the ability to form a monolayer. Growth indicated survival of the cell lineage and possibly a favorable replantation prognosis. The results of this study indicated that fibroblast cell lines from both HFF and HPDL were not adversely affected by ultrasonics up to 45 minutes and 15 minutes respectively. Fibroblasts harvested from the PDL of freshly extracted teeth following 5, 10 and 15 minutes of ultrasonic were not affected. However, a dry time of 30 minutes significantly decreased cell vitality (p \u3c 0.0001) and a dry time of 60 minutes resulted in complete cell death (p \u3c 0.0001). Ultrasonification of teeth up to 15 minutes did not adversely affect fibroblast vitality. Extra-oral dry time of 30-60 minutes appeared to be the most destructive to cell vitality, regardless of ultrasonic vibration. In conclusion, this study showed that the ultrasonic cleaner may have little or no detrimental effect on the root surface fibroblasts when used for tooth debridement prior to replantation

STEVE-1: A Generative Model for Text-to-Behavior in Minecraft

Constructing AI models that respond to text instructions is challenging, especially for sequential decision-making tasks. This work introduces an instruction-tuned Video Pretraining (VPT) model for Minecraft called STEVE-1, demonstrating that the unCLIP approach, utilized in DALL-E 2, is also effective for creating instruction-following sequential decision-making agents. STEVE-1 is trained in two steps: adapting the pretrained VPT model to follow commands in MineCLIP's latent space, then training a prior to predict latent codes from text. This allows us to finetune VPT through self-supervised behavioral cloning and hindsight relabeling, bypassing the need for costly human text annotations. By leveraging pretrained models like VPT and MineCLIP and employing best practices from text-conditioned image generation, STEVE-1 costs just $60 to train and can follow a wide range of short-horizon open-ended text and visual instructions in Minecraft. STEVE-1 sets a new bar for open-ended instruction following in Minecraft with low-level controls (mouse and keyboard) and raw pixel inputs, far outperforming previous baselines. We provide experimental evidence highlighting key factors for downstream performance, including pretraining, classifier-free guidance, and data scaling. All resources, including our model weights, training scripts, and evaluation tools are made available for further research

The Clinical Teaching Fellow role:exploring expectations and experiences

BackgroundMany UK junior doctors are now taking a year out of the traditional training pathway, usually before specialty training, and some choose to work as a clinical teaching fellow (CTF). CTFs primarily have responsibility for delivering hospital-based teaching to undergraduate medical students. Only a very small amount of literature is available regarding CTF posts, none of which has explored why doctors choose to undertake the role and their expectations of the job. This study aimed to explore the expectations and experiences of CTFs employed at NHS hospital Trusts in the West Midlands.MethodsCTFs working in Trusts in the West Midlands region registered as students on the Education for Healthcare Professionals Post Graduate Certificate course at the University of Birmingham in August 2019 took part in a survey and a focus group.ResultsTwenty-eight CTFs participated in the survey and ten participated in the focus group. In the survey, participants reported choosing a CTF role due to an interest in teaching, wanting time out of training, and being unsure of which specialty to choose. Expectations for the year in post were directly related to reasons for choosing the role with participants expecting to develop teaching skills, and have a break from usual clinical work and rotations. The focus group identified five main themes relating to experiences starting their job, time pressures and challenges faced in post, how CTF jobs differed between Trusts, and future career plans. Broadly, participants reported enjoying their year in a post at a mid-year point but identified particular challenges such as difficulties in starting the role and facing time pressures in their day-to-day work.ConclusionThis study has provided a valuable insight into the CTF role and why doctors choose a CTF post and some of the challenges experienced, adding to the sparse amount of literature. Understanding post holders’ experiences may contribute to optimisation of the role. Those employing CTFs should consider ensuring a formal handover process is in place between outgoing and incoming CTFs, having a lead person at their Trust responsible for evaluating changes suggested by CTFs, and the balance of contractual duties and personal development time

Growing up in Ireland - The findings of the qualitative study with the 9-year-olds and their parents.

The qualitative studies which are part of Growing Up in Ireland involve interviews with sub-samples of 122 children and their parents. They are designed to complement the quantitative studies of 8,570 nineyear-olds and 11,100 nine-month-olds. This is the first report on the qualitative study with the nine-yearolds. The broad aim of the Growing up in Ireland study is to examine factors which contribute to or undermine the well-being of children in contemporary Ireland. The output from the study is expected to contribute to the formulation of effective policies and design of services which address issues pertinent to the lives of children and their families. The study is closely aligned to the National Children‟s Strategy (2000) which identifies as one of its principal aims that children‟s lives will be better understood, and will benefit from evaluation, research, and information on their needs and rights and on the effectiveness of services