A Multi Case Study of Community College Discipline Faculty’s Participation in a Disciplinary Literacy Professional Learning Community

Many students enter college with inadequate reading, writing, and critical thinking skills to successfully navigate discipline-specific college-level coursework (Duff, 2010; Hyland, 2006; Lea & Street, 1998; Tsui, 2002). As such, college faculty, and specifically community college faculty, are challenged to meet the multiple literacy needs of their students while still maintaining high expectations within their discipline-specific courses. One option is for discipline faculty (e.g., history) to integrate disciplinary literacy instruction within their courses. As discipline faculty are deemed experts in their content area and often not trained in literacy, professional development focused on disciplinary literacy could provide the knowledge and experience for faculty to make this pedagogical shift. This multi-case study investigated the impact participating in a disciplinary literacy learning community had on community college discipline faculty’s perceptions, self-efficacy, and practice regarding incorporating disciplinary literacy instruction within their courses. Ten faculty from a large, multi-campus mid-Atlantic community college participated in three discipline-specific learning communities, where they learned about Moje’s (2015) 4E framework for teaching disciplinary literacy, collaborated with their peers, enhanced an assignment to address disciplinary literacy, and reflected on their experiences. The following data were collected for this study: learning community curriculum and documents, initial and final semi-structured focus group interviews, faculty journal entries, enhanced course activities, and researcher observations and reflexive journal. Data were analyzed using open and axial coding and constant comparative analysis (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) to identify within-case patterns and replicative relationships across the cases (Yin, 2018). The findings revealed similarities and differences across the learning communities, and they provide insight for community college discipline faculty, literacy personnel, and administration

Health care transition: How adolescent survival, interruption of care, and continuity of care can inform health care transition programs for young adults with sickle cell disease

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic disorder that causes acute and chronic complications throughout the lifespan with morbidity and mortality increasing in young adulthood. Health care transition is important to promote continuous care throughout young adulthood. The aim of this dissertation was to inform transition programs for young adults with SCD by assessing survival among adolescents and young adults (AYA), analyzing an interruption period between pediatric and adult care, and evaluating a transition program for its effect on retention in adult care. The objective was to better inform health care transition protocols to improve overall wellness in young adults.In the first aim, the mortality of AYA with SCD born in West Tennessee from 19932019 was assessed. The probability of surviving into adulthood (i.e., greater than 18 years) was greater than 0.97. In the second aim, the effect of an interruption of care between pediatric and adult care was evaluated for its effect on health care utilization in adult care. Two sites were included in this analysis: Methodist Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center (Methodist) and Duke Sickle Cell Center (Duke). Among patients at Methodist, those with a longer interruption experienced increased rates of acute healthcare encounters in the first two years of adult care compared to those with a shorter interruption period; however, the opposite association was observed among patients at Duke. In the third aim, a healthcare transition program focused on continuity of care was evaluated for its effect on adult care retention. Those who participated in the transition program had 1.94 times the odds of being retained in adult care after 24 months compared to those who did not participate in the program (95%CI: 1.01, 3.70).As nearly all SCD patients are now surviving into adulthood, it is important to have protocols in place that support a successful transition to adult care. Two measures for successful transition might include a reduced interruption period between pediatric and adult care and improved retention in adult care. These factors indicate that patients receive consistent care throughout young adulthood, which might maintain or improve health

Prevalence and Differences of Sport Concussion Symptoms and Severity among Male and Female University Student Athletes

The prevalence of sport concussions continues to increase among university student athletes in the United States. Earlier methods of prevention, such as the Halo and modified football and hockey helmets, have not resulted in significantly fewer sport concussions. Further, even less is known about the differences between male and female university student athletes’ concussion symptoms and severity. PURPOSE: To measure sport concussion prevalence among university student athletes and compare the severity of self-reported symptoms among university male and female student athletes. METHODS: In the Fall of 2021, a modified version of the SCAT5 (Sport Concussion Assessment Tool, 5th Edition) was emailed to 335 male and female NCAA Division III and varsity club student athletes at a rural, liberal arts university. Descriptive analyses were conducted to examine the prevalence of sport concussions and symptom severity. RESULTS: Fifty-one participants (M age=19.74 years) representing 10 university sports, some being dual sport athletes (N=5), including 16 males (baseball N=5, basketball N=4, cross country N= 2, golf N=1, soccer N=4, track and field N=2) and 35 females (basketball N=4, cross country N=2, golf N=2, soccer N=6, softball N=11, track and field N=2, volleyball N=4, wrestling N=3) responded. Fifty-one percent of participants reported being concussed and suffered from headaches, “pressure in head”, nausea or vomiting, dizziness, blurred vision, balance problems, light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, feeling “in a fog”, difficulty concentrating, difficulty remembering, fatigue, confusion, drowsiness, trouble falling asleep, irritability, sadness, and nervous or anxious. Female student athletes reported considerably higher severity scores for headaches, “pressure in head” and feeling “in a fog”. Male student athletes reported higher severity scores for blurred vision, light sensitivity and difficulty remembering, though statistically significant differences were not obtained. CONCLUSION: Participants represented a variety of sports (impact and non-impact), and most reported suffering from a past concussion. Future studies should analyze the differences among different sports, various levels, and positions. Trainers, coaches, and players should be educated on symptoms and the progressions that may arise

An Overview of the RD Mentorship Program

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics highlights the need for more mentorship opportunities for Registered Dietitian (RDs) in their 2017 Strategic Plan. There are a limited number of published structured programs that facilitate relationships between practicing dietitians and dietetics students (DS). The purpose of the RD Mentorship Program is to determine the impact of a project-based mentoring experience on self-perceptions of mentoring and professional advancement. The RD Mentorship Program partners RDs with DS to work on specific nutrition-related projects. Partnerships are required to meet at least once per month to work on their project. After piloting the program for several years, the program launched state-wide in Texas and Florida for 2019-2020. Currently, there are 178 RDs and 202 DS which includes a 15% attrition rate from the start. At baseline, 23% of RDs currently had a student working with them, and 62% of RDs reported being confident in their mentoring ability. As for DS, 44% had worked with an RD before at baseline and 57% reported confidence in their mentee abilities. In the mid-program evaluation survey (n=110), a majority of participants (53%) said they found the program very useful or extremely useful, and 86% of the participants said they would be interested in participating in the program in the future. It is hoped that the RD Mentorship Program will strengthen the working knowledge of students and be an innovative approach to building the bridge between student and practitioner, fulfilling part of the Academy’s Strategic Plan

Modeling Clausal Complementation for a Grammar Engineering Resource

We present a grammar engineering library for modeling objectival declarative clausal complementation patterns attested cross-linguistically. Our primary contribution is positing a set of syntactico-semantic analyses couched within a variant of the HPSG syntactic formalism and integrating them with a variety of phenomena already implemented in a grammar engineering toolkit. We evaluate the addition to the system on testsuites from genetically diverse languages that were not considered during development

Complement activation and increased anaphylatoxin receptor expression are associated with cortical grey matter lesions and the compartmentalised inflammatory response of multiple sclerosis

Background: The extent of cortical pathology is an important determinant of multiple sclerosis (MS) severity. Cortical demyelination and neurodegeneration are related to inflammation of the overlying leptomeninges, a more inflammatory CSF milieu and with parenchymal microglia and astroglia activation. These are all components of the compartmentalised inflammatory response. Compartmentalised inflammation is a feature of progressive MS, which is not targeted by disease modifying therapies. Complement is differentially expressed in the MS CSF and complement, and complement receptors, are associated with demyelination and neurodegeneration. Methods: To better understand if complement activation in the leptomeninges is associated with underlying cortical demyelination, inflammation, and microglial activation, we performed a neuropathological study of progressive MS (n = 22, 14 females), neuroinflammatory (n = 8), and non-neurological disease controls (n = 10). We then quantified the relative extent of demyelination, connective tissue inflammation, complement, and complement receptor positive microglia/macrophages. Results: Complement was elevated at the leptomeninges, subpial, and within and around vessels of the cortical grey matter. The extent of complement C1q immunoreactivity correlated with connective tissue infiltrates, whilst activation products C4d, Bb, and C3b associated with grey matter demyelination, and C3a receptor 1+ and C5a receptor 1+ microglia/macrophages closely apposed C3b labelled cells. The density of C3a receptor 1+ and C5a receptor 1+ cells was increased at the expanding edge of subpial and leukocortical lesions. C5a receptor 1+ cells expressed TNFα, iNOS and contained puncta immunoreactive for proteolipid protein, neurofilament and synaptophysin, suggesting their involvement in grey matter lesion expansion. Interpretation: The presence of products of complement activation at the brain surfaces, their association with the extent of underlying pathology and increased complement anaphylatoxin receptor positive microglia/macrophages at expanding cortical grey matter lesions, could represent a target to modify compartmentalised inflammation and cortical demyelination

Natural genetic variation determines microglia heterogeneity in wild-derived mouse models of Alzheimer\u27s disease.

Genetic and genome-wide association studies suggest a central role for microglia in Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD). However, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of microglia in mice, a key preclinical model, has shown mixed results regarding translatability to human studies. To address this, scRNA-seq of microglia from C57BL/6J (B6) and wild-derived strains (WSB/EiJ, CAST/EiJ, and PWK/PhJ) with and without APP/PS1 demonstrates that genetic diversity significantly alters features and dynamics of microglia in baseline neuroimmune functions and in response to amyloidosis. Results show significant variation in the abundance of microglial subtypes or states, including numbers of previously identified disease-associated and interferon-responding microglia, across the strains. For each subtype, significant differences in the expression of many genes are observed in wild-derived strains relative to B6, including 19 genes previously associated with human AD including Apoe, Trem2, and Sorl1. This resource is critical in the development of appropriately targeted therapeutics for AD and other neurological diseases

The economic trade-offs of large language models: A case study

Contacting customer service via chat is a common practice. Because employing customer service agents is expensive, many companies are turning to NLP that assists human agents by auto-generating responses that can be used directly or with modifications. Large Language Models (LLMs) are a natural fit for this use case; however, their efficacy must be balanced with the cost of training and serving them. This paper assesses the practical cost and impact of LLMs for the enterprise as a function of the usefulness of the responses that they generate. We present a cost framework for evaluating an NLP model's utility for this use case and apply it to a single brand as a case study in the context of an existing agent assistance product. We compare three strategies for specializing an LLM - prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and knowledge distillation - using feedback from the brand's customer service agents. We find that the usability of a model's responses can make up for a large difference in inference cost for our case study brand, and we extrapolate our findings to the broader enterprise space.Comment: Paper to be published at the Association for Computational Linguistics in the Industry Track 202

Meox2 haploinsufficiency increases neuronal cell loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer\u27s disease

Evidence suggests that multiple genetic and environmental factors conspire together to increase susceptibility to Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD). The amyloid cascade hypothesis states that deposition of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide is central to AD; however, evidence in humans and animals suggests that Aβ buildup alone is not sufficient to cause neuronal cell loss and cognitive decline. Mouse models that express high levels of mutant forms of amyloid precursor protein and/or cleaving enzymes deposit amyloid but do not show neuron loss. Therefore, a double-hit hypothesis for AD has been proposed whereby vascular dysfunction precedes and promotes Aβ toxicity. In support of this, copy number variations in mesenchyme homeobox 2 (MEOX2), a gene involved in vascular development, are associated with severe forms of AD. However, the role of MEOX2 in AD has not been studied. Here, we tested Meox2 haploinsufficiency in B6.APP/PS1 (B6.APBTg) mice, a mouse model of AD. Despite no overt differences in plaque deposition or glial activation, B6.APBTg mice that carry only one copy of Meox2 (B6.APBTg.Mx−/+) show increased neuronal cell loss, particularly in regions containing plaques, compared with B6.APBTgmice. Neuronal cell loss corresponds with a significant decrease in plaque-associated microvessels, further supporting a synergistic effect of vascular compromise and amyloid deposition on neuronal cell dysfunction in AD

Meox2 haploinsufficiency increases neuronal cell loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer\u27s disease

Evidence suggests that multiple genetic and environmental factors conspire together to increase susceptibility to Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD). The amyloid cascade hypothesis states that deposition of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide is central to AD; however, evidence in humans and animals suggests that Aβ buildup alone is not sufficient to cause neuronal cell loss and cognitive decline. Mouse models that express high levels of mutant forms of amyloid precursor protein and/or cleaving enzymes deposit amyloid but do not show neuron loss. Therefore, a double-hit hypothesis for AD has been proposed whereby vascular dysfunction precedes and promotes Aβ toxicity. In support of this, copy number variations in mesenchyme homeobox 2 (MEOX2), a gene involved in vascular development, are associated with severe forms of AD. However, the role of MEOX2 in AD has not been studied. Here, we tested Meox2 haploinsufficiency in B6.APP/PS1 (B6.APBTg) mice, a mouse model of AD. Despite no overt differences in plaque deposition or glial activation, B6.APBTg mice that carry only one copy of Meox2 (B6.APBTg.Mx−/+) show increased neuronal cell loss, particularly in regions containing plaques, compared with B6.APBTgmice. Neuronal cell loss corresponds with a significant decrease in plaque-associated microvessels, further supporting a synergistic effect of vascular compromise and amyloid deposition on neuronal cell dysfunction in AD