DESIGN BY EXCEPTION: OUTLIERS, MISFITS AND THE DESIGN OF EXTRAORDINARY HEALTHCARE

Medicare was created to serve all Canadians. This fact also makes the design of healthcare products and services challenging because the user base is hugely diverse. In our quest for universality, it might be appealing to target our designs at mainstream users first, and then make adjustments to accommodate the needs of users who we might consider to be “outliers”. But there’s a different approach, one that does the complete opposite, that promises to be more effective at coming up with breakthrough products and services. This approach targets not the majority but the fringe users first, under the theory that users with exceptional needs provide the best ideas, and that products and services developed to meet these needs could, in time, also appeal to mainstream users. Through a careful review of the literature and the application of these concepts to the student’s own work, this paper explores the roles of outliers in the design of healthcare products and services. It makes the distinction between those with design agency(ability to design their own solutions) and those without, and proposes a framework, design by exception, in which outliers are sought after, rather than accommodated, in healthcare design projects

Injectable Immunomodulatory Strategies to Enhance Muscle Recovery Following Injury

Although skeletal muscle displays an astonishing regenerative capacity, injuries or diseases that resulted in bedridden or chronic muscle wasting can overwhelm this intrinsic feature of skeletal muscle and lead to functional deficit (range of motion and/or strength) and overall reduction in quality of life. Microenvironmental cues within injured skeletal muscle dictate regenerative and repair process which are tightly coordinated interplay among resident cells, cells recruitment and immune response following an assault in the muscle extracellular matrix (ECM). The successful regeneration of functional tissues requires both appropriate modulation of the inflammatory response, and activation of a variety of cell populations. Biomaterials offer unique opportunities to spatiotemporally control cytokine delivery and may provide significant benefits in the modulation of immune cells and muscle-immune micro-environment (MIME) to promote regeneration. The aim of this dissertation is to create injectable therapeutics that are capable of both modulating the inflammatory response and directly promoting muscle regeneration. In aim 1, we investigated the safety and therapeutic potential of human muscle derived decellularized ECM to promote muscle regeneration in mouse disuse and reloading hindlimb injury model and rabbit chronic rotator cuff tear muscle degenerative injury model. In aim 2, we investigated the therapeutic potential of delayed delivery of IL-10 to boost muscle regeneration when combined with progenitor cells repair (mined muscle grafts) in rat volumetric muscle loss injury model. Together, the findings of these two aims further our understanding of the role that pro-regenerative immune cells play in promoting endogenous mechanisms of tissue repair after muscle injury and present potential therapeutic avenues to modulate the MIME in aiding muscle repair and recovery

Injectable Immunomodulatory Strategies to Enhance Muscle Recovery Following Injury

Although skeletal muscle displays an astonishing regenerative capacity, injuries or diseases that resulted in bedridden or chronic muscle wasting can overwhelm this intrinsic feature of skeletal muscle and lead to functional deficit (range of motion and/or strength) and overall reduction in quality of life. Microenvironmental cues within injured skeletal muscle dictate regenerative and repair process which are tightly coordinated interplay among resident cells, cells recruitment and immune response following an assault in the muscle extracellular matrix (ECM). The successful regeneration of functional tissues requires both appropriate modulation of the inflammatory response, and activation of a variety of cell populations. Biomaterials offer unique opportunities to spatiotemporally control cytokine delivery and may provide significant benefits in the modulation of immune cells and muscle-immune micro-environment (MIME) to promote regeneration. The aim of this dissertation is to create injectable therapeutics that are capable of both modulating the inflammatory response and directly promoting muscle regeneration. In aim 1, we investigated the safety and therapeutic potential of human muscle derived decellularized ECM to promote muscle regeneration in mouse disuse and reloading hindlimb injury model and rabbit chronic rotator cuff tear muscle degenerative injury model. In aim 2, we investigated the therapeutic potential of delayed delivery of IL-10 to boost muscle regeneration when combined with progenitor cells repair (mined muscle grafts) in rat volumetric muscle loss injury model. Together, the findings of these two aims further our understanding of the role that pro-regenerative immune cells play in promoting endogenous mechanisms of tissue repair after muscle injury and present potential therapeutic avenues to modulate the MIME in aiding muscle repair and recovery

A weighted residual relationship for the contact problem with Coulomb friction

International audienceIn this work, a weighted residual relationship is proposed as an extension of the standard virtual work principle to deal with the large deformation contact problem with Coulomb friction. This weak form is a mixed relationship involving the displacements and the multipliers defined on the reference contact surface of the contactor and is shown to be equivalent to the strong form of the initial/boundary value contact problem. The discretization in space by means of the finite element method is carried out on the mixed relationship in a simple way in order to obtain the semi-discrete equation system. The contact tangent stiffness is derived and numerical examples are presented to assess the efficiency of the formulation. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Preservice Teachers’ Identity Development during the Teaching Internship

This article reports the analysis of two preservice teachers’ narratives to highlight the process of teacher identity development during their teaching internship. The analysis showed that their teacher identities had been shaped before they entered the teacher education program where it continued to be shaped by educational experts. In that way, they formed expectations or imaginations of their professional roles and responsibilities prior to the teaching internships. When entering the teaching internships, these pre-existing expectations or imaginations were challenged by the reality they faced. Their engagement with the internship, resilience and negotiations of professional practices were found to be significant for the development of their teacher identities. The article discusses some important implications for teacher education programs

Influencer analysis on social networks

Along with the growth of social networks, social marketing, and influencer marketing, the analysis of influencers, especially the analysis of micro-influencers on social networks, becomes an interesting topic that attracts many researchers as well as industry organizations. An ideal micro-influencer is a user who is able to create positive content relevance to the business and get high engagement from his/her audience, continuously and consistently. Various approaches have been suggested for this problem but there is still a research gap that no effort meets these requirements yet. Resolving this gap is the main aim of this study. This study proposes a novel approach for identifying influencers on social networks using three metrics including the amplification factor to evaluate the information propagation, the passion point to measure the user's preference for a brand or its products and services, and the content creation score to estimate user's ability in creating contents on a social network. The main hypothesis is that the approach using these metrics will propose high-performing influencers. The study has been compared with some recent relevant methods as the baseline. It is also tested in the real world and the experiment shows that the proposed method's influencers deliver a react-to-purchase conversion rate's efficiency and a good return on investment in the influencer marketing campaign.Spolu s růstem sociálních sítí, sociálního marketingu a influencer marketingu se analýza influencerů, obzvlášť analýza mikroinfluencerů na sociálních sítích se stává zajímavým předmětem, který přitahuje mnoho výzkumníků i organizací různých oborů. Ideálním mikroinfluencerem je člověk, který dokáže vytvořit pozitivní obsah,relevantní pro danou organizaci a je schopen získat od svého publika neustálou a konstantní míru angažovanosti. Pro tento předmět byly navrženy různé metody mikroinfluencerů, ale studie ukazují, že stále existuje mezera ve výzkumu, která dosud nesplňovala tyto požadavky. Hlavním cílem této práce je vyřešení zmiňované mezery navrhující efektivní metody sociálního marketingu se zapojením influenecerů. Tato studie navrhuje nový přístup k identifikaci influencerů na sociálních sítích pomocí tří následujících metrik: amplifikační faktory pro ohodnocení propagovaného obsahu, oblast, o kterou je spotřebitelský zájem k určení zájmu daného uživatele u značky a jejich produktů a služeb, skóre tvorby obsahu pro odhad schopnosti uživatele vytvářet obsah na sociální síti. Hlavní hypotézou je, že metody využívající těchto metrik dokážou navrhnout kvalitní influencery, kteří podávají vysoký výkon. Tato studie byla porovnána se současnými metodami relevantní k této studii. Experimentální výsledky ukazují, že influenceři navržení tímto nástrojem, přinášejí efektivnější konverzní poměr a vyšší návratnost investice influencer marketingové kampaně.460 - Katedra informatikyvyhově

CALCULATION OF PAVEMENT PERMANENT DEFORMATION USING PERZYNA’S ELASTO-VISCOPLASTIC MODEL

In this work, a method for calculation of pavement permanent deformation due to traffic loading is presented. The mechanics behavior of asphalt concrete layer is considered as Perzyna’s elasto-viscoplastic material. The pavement permanent deformation is incrementally calculated using nonlinear finite element method. Model parameters are determined using Hamburg Wheel Tracking Test result.In this work, a method for calculation of pavement permanent deformation due to traffic loading is presented. The mechanics behavior of asphalt concrete layer is considered as Perzyna’s elasto-viscoplastic material. The pavement permanent deformation is incrementally calculated using nonlinear finite element method. Model parameters are determined using Hamburg Wheel Tracking Test result

Investigating Effects of Teacher’s Using Authentic Texts on Cognitive Reading Engagement of Vietnamese EFL Students

The study examines the effects of teacher’s using authentic texts on EFL students’ cognitive reading engagement related to four variables including (i) reading comprehension, (ii) oral response to reading, (iii) reaction paragraph, and (iv) students’ perceptions of learning to read. Participants included 52 Vietnamese undergraduate students of EFL pre-intermediate level. The data of the study were collected through reading tests for the first three variables and a 32- item questionnaire for the fourth variable. Results revealed that students in the experimental condition achieved significantly better understanding of reading comprehension after the intervention course. In terms of reflection after reading and creating a reaction paragraph, the holistic quality of oral response and the reaction paragraph was significantly improved for both groups from a peer rating. However, students in the experimental group showed a more dramatic increase. Moreover, the findings of the questionnaire showed that students in the intervention course achieved a more positive perception of their learning to read

SKILLS TO COPE WITH LEARNING STRESS OF STUDENTS IN CAN THO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

The research on the topic has systematized the theoretical basis of students' skills to cope with stress in learning. Currently, students face a lot of pressure and stress in their studies, so coping skills are an extremely important issue and need attention. The study presents the manifestations of skills to cope with stress in the learning of students of School of Education at Can Tho University (CTU), Vietnam. The research mainly uses a questionnaire survey method with 400 students from various fields of study, SoE, CTU. According to survey results, there were many manifestations of stress that students encountered. The survey results are the basis for finding the causes so students can plan and manage their time, set specific goals to find effective remedies, adapt and manage better emotions. From the current situation of the problem, the study has proposed measures to support students' skills to cope with stress in their studies. This study provides recommendations to deploy and apply the research results to Can Tho University lecturers and students as well.  Article visualizations