Transatlantic Constructions of Childhood in the Late 19th Century

This project aims to analyze the methods with which 19th century children’s periodicals cultivated and scripted ideal childhoods for their readers. This analysis was performed by examining reader correspondence (interactions between child readers and adult editors)in two magazines from the Nesbitt collection: a British periodical for girls, entitled The Girl’s Own Paper, and in an American periodical, St.Nicholas, that was written for children more broadly

Tannic Acid Crosslinked Collagen Type I for Prevention of Local HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Recurrence

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the United States, affecting about 12 percent of women nationally (Ma and Jemal, 2013). The American Cancer Society estimates that 246,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women in 2016 (American Cancer Society, 2016 b). Breast cancer accounts for almost 30% of new cancer diagnoses and is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths among women in developed countries. In addition, breast cancer is becoming a worldwide problem with incidence and mortality rates increasing steadily over the past 20 years in developing countries (Ma and Jemal, 2013). Current treatment options for breast cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation; however, there are many negative side effects associated with these treatments, and these treatments are not always suitable for every patient. In addition, there is a risk of local breast cancer recurrence, particularly in patients who undergo a lumpectomy. Up to 20% of breast cancer patients experience recurrence, and of these recurrences, around 70% are defined as local (Zimmerman and Mehr, 2014). Therefore, there is a need for the development of a therapeutic agent specifically designed to target the surgical site and minimize the risk of locally recurrent breast cancer. The overall goal of this research was to develop an injectable soft tissue regeneration matrix for the prevention of local HER2+ breast cancer recurrence. Collagen type I beads were crosslinked with tannic acid (TA) to form the basis for the injectable therapy. The collagen beads were seeded with human adipocytes. The adipocytes attach and grow on the collagen beads, thus remodeling the beads and releasing the tannic acid to the surrounding environment. The tannic acid acts as an anticancer therapeutic agent by inducing apoptosis in HER2+ breast cancer cells via caspase pathways. In order to prove the viability of this therapeutic option, several studies were conducted. LIVE/DEAD assays were used to prove successful seeding of the human adipocytes onto the collagen beads. Cell viability studies were conducted to assess the effect of tannic acid on human adipocytes and HER2+ breast cancer cells. In addition, the Folin-Ciocalteu assay was used to analyze the release profile of tannic acid. RNA was isolated from both the human adipocytes and HER2+ breast cancer cells, and Real Time-PCR was conducted to determine the activated pathways involved in cell apoptosis as a result of exposure to tannic acid. Western blotting was used to identify expression of caspases from proteins isolated from the HER2+ breast cancer cell line and normal human breast epithelial cell line

Kalasiris and Charikleia: Mentorship and Intertext in Heliodorus\u27 Aithiopika

Heliodorus, the 4th century AD novelist, incorporated thematic elements from the Odyssey into his own work the Aithiopika or the Ethiopian Story. In doing so, he built upon a tradition already established by Second Sophistic authors, including Lucian, Philostratus, and Dio Chrysostom. Heliodorus’ work also engages innovatively with the conventions of the Greek novels, whose main thematic elements often involve travel and a love story. In the Aithiopika, Charikleia has a nostos to her home country of Ethiopia. During the course of her journey, Charikleia grows in confidence and learns to use deceit and intelligent plans to accomplish her goals and avoid danger. This paper argues that Heliodorus constructs the relationship of Kalasiris and Charikleia to mirror the relationship of Athena and Odysseus in the Odyssey. Just as Athena acts as mentor and patron to Odysseus, so Kalasiris guides and mentors Charikleia

Student Spotlights: Michael Belding

The First Amendment guarantees our most basic rights: free speech, freedom of religion, and the right to assemble. We, as a people, do not have to face jail time, or even death, for shouting our opinions or practicing a religion. Even though more people in today’s day and age share their thoughts anonymously on the internet, these thoughts and feelings are still enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Iowa State University, along with the Greenlee School of Journalism, recognizes the importance of this amendment, and celebrates First Amendment Day, as a part of First Amendment week, every year in April. Focusing on the free speech aspect, I sat down with Michael Belding, senior in History and Political Science and Opinion Editor for the Iowa State Daily, to talk about why Iowa State celebrates this important amendment

No Person is an Island: A Multi-Level Analysis of the Relationship Between Self-Determination Theory and Well-Being

Individuals frequently work collaboratively with others in school, workplaces, and in their daily lives. As such, the group literature has focused on several concerns that individuals have in groups such as making choices with others, feeling competent, and getting along with others. One such theory that addresses these concerns at the individual level is self-determination theory, or the idea that people must be satisfied in their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness to experience growth and well-being. The purpose of this project was to determine whether self-determination theory replicates in groups and whether individuals’ perceptions that their groups are autonomous, competent, and related is associated with their own well-being. Undergraduate students met in small groups over Zoom and played the cooperative board game, Forbidden Island® (Gamewright, 2010). Participants responded to how satisfied and frustrated they were in their own basic psychological needs, as well as how satisfied and frustrated they thought their group was in these needs, at several points during the game. Self-determination theory did not replicate well in this context. Specifically, how autonomous one felt in their own personal psychological needs did not predict any well-being measures. People did rate their group’s psychological needs as being different from their personal needs, but perceptions of group basic psychological needs only accounted for additional variance in negative affect. Thus, perceptions of how one’s group is doing may not matter when a person is satisfied in their personal needs, but people’s well-being may be negatively affected when they perceive their groups are not doing well

A Systematic Review: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Cognitive Standardized Assessments Following Stroke in Acute Care

Objectives of Presentation: Upon conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to: • Identify valid, reliable, and sensitive standardized cognitive assessments found within our systematic review that can be utilized within the acute care setting with adults following stroke. • Describe how the current literature presented from this systematic search of standardized cognitive assessments influences safe discharge planning in acute care. • Discuss the feasibility of implementing standardized assessments into daily practice. Clinical Question: What is the evidence supporting the use of standardized cognitive assessments in acute care for patients who have experienced a stroke? Methods: • Databases: CINAHL and PubMed; Searched completed with population and outcome terms (i.e. cognitive, stroke, CVA) • The PRISMA diagram was used and 9 out of the 153 articles were used for our systematic review based off of our inclusion/exclusion criteria • Appraisal of articles: Quality Appraisal for Clinical Measurement Research Evaluation11 • Appraisal of assessments: Adapted Outcome Measure Rating11 Psychometrics Properties Defined: • Reliability: the overall consistency of a measure • Inter-rater reliability: assesses the degree of agreement between two or more raters in their appraisals • Internal consistency reliability: assesses the consistency of results across items within a test • Test- retest: is a measure of how consistent the results of a test are over time • Validity: refers to the extent to which a study actually captures or measures what it claims to examine • Sensitivity: refers to the ability of a tool to detect a disease or condition when it is actually present • Specificity: refers to the ability of a tool to exclude a condition when it is not present16 Presentation: 34 minute

Preclinical Study for Targeted Breast Cancer Therapy

Cancer is a devastating disease which affects millions. For this reason, many scientists are working to develop drugs that can specifically target cancer cells within the body. Preclinical trials are an important phase in the drug development process, as they allow scientists to determine whether or not a drug candidate may be viable for human use. Targeted therapies can be achieved by using monoclonal antibodies as well as small molecule drugs. In this study we compared the effects of two control monoclonal antibody drugs, “mAb1” and “mAb2,” with one small molecule drug, “Drug S,” on the MDAMB231 human breast cancer cell line in a xenograft SCID mouse model. All treatment groups containing Drug S exhibited the same trends as the negative control, mAb1, suggesting Drug S is an ineffective tumorreducing treatment

Connecting Green Infrastructure with Transportation Planning

The development of green infrastructure planning is increasingly espoused by landscape, conservation, and metropolitan planners as an effective way to create a network of ecological functionality in regions that are otherwise highly impacted by anthropogenic changes. The most common condition is one of expanding metropolitan growth transforming cultivated and natural landscapes into developed ones. Despite its promise, several critical problems arise with green infrastructure planning. We will consider three. The first is that the definition of green infrastructure within the public realm remains highly variable if not embryonic. The second is green infrastructure is a long-term investment whose effects will not be able to be measured until years after implementation, yet there are very few cases of green infrastructure planning that have actually resulted in adopted and implemented plans, which can be used as models of success. And third, although the public benefits of green infrastructure are positive, other forms of regional scale planning have more dominant influence and impacts, most notably transportation planning. Concerning this last point, our thesis is that green infrastructure and transportation infrastructure have important interactions. Furthermore, transportation infrastructure potentially degrades green infrastructure networks through fragmentation, ecosystem impairment, and loss of connectivity. Mitigating the impacts of transportation infrastructure could potentially be an important asset to green infrastructure planning. Coordination of transportation and green infrastructure holds promise for sustainable development across regional landscapes. We address this thesis by assessing the landscape significance of both green and transportation infrastructure planning and presenting a case study from Maryland, USA. The case study indicates that there are numerous logical connections between the two types of plans, some of them conflicting. However, it also indicates that there is much research still necessary on green infrastructure, especially in the areas of implementation and efficacy

Do Gender Differences in Perceived Prototypical Computer Scientists and Engineers Contribute to Gender Gaps in Computer Science and Engineering?

Women are vastly underrepresented in the fields of computer science and engineering (CS&E). We examined whether women might view the intellectual characteristics of prototypical individuals in CS&E in more stereotype-consistent ways than men might and, consequently, show less interest in CS&E. We asked 269 U.S. college students (187, 69.5% women) to describe the prototypical computer scientist (Study 1) or engineer (Study 2) through open-ended descriptions as well as through a set of trait ratings. Participants also rated themselves on the same set of traits and rated their similarity to the prototype. Finally, participants in both studies were asked to describe their likelihood of pursuing future college courses and careers in computer science (Study 1) or engineering (Study 2). Across both studies, we found that women offered more stereotype-consistent ratings than did men of the intellectual characteristics of prototypes in CS (Study 1) and engineering (Study 2). Women also perceived themselves as less similar to the prototype than men did. Further, the observed gender differences in prototype perceptions mediated the tendency for women to report lower interest in CS&E fields relative to men. Our work highlights the importance of prototype perceptions for understanding the gender gap in CS&E and suggests avenues for interventions that may increase women’s representation in these vital fields

Inclusion of Knowledge Communities in Planning Processes : An Analysis of Green Infrastructure Planning in Maryland, USA.

Throughout the United States many natural areas are facing tremendous threats due to increases in population and haphazard development patterns. Recently, green infrastructure planning initiatives have emerged, providing a proactive approach to conservation planning. One area under particular stress is the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland. Several counties within Maryland have created countywide green infrastructure plans that are based upon a larger state initiative. Although there is a guiding framework for developing these plans, little is known about how these plans are being created in practice and how the integration of knowledge held by the various knowledge communities, commonly involved in environmental planning practices, are included in the process. This dissertation fills this gap with an analysis of how knowledge communities are involved throughout the green infrastructure planning process as well as the role of the planner within planning practice. Qualitative methods are used to analyze each process whereby themes are presented based on inductive procedures. The cases are analyzed based on the inclusion of expert and experiential knowledge and each case is analyzed within the broader context of statewide green infrastructure planning. Although there is no "one size fits all" approach to green infrastructure planning, the research finds that scientific data alone is not sufficient to create adoptable and implementable plans. The study recommends the (1) establishment of a guiding committee comprised of expert and experiential knowledge communities prior to goal setting and linking goals with those within the comprehensive plan; (2) inclusion of knowledge communities early and often in the process to foster support and establish measurable and attainable goals; (3) utilization of principles of landscape ecology and conservation biology to guide network identification while using the feedback gathered from experiential knowledge communities to lead to better integration of knowledge and more informed decision-making; (4) collaboration with agencies and neighboring jurisdictions to increase discourse and ensure the appropriate knowledge communities, possessing relevant data, are included in the process. Ultimately, the planner functions as the catalyst for this process and shapes how the knowledge held by these essential experiential knowledge communities is integrated within the planning process.  Ph.D