Learning Frameworks, Nobel Prizes, and World Peace

In this presentation, I apply a working definition of new literacies, which are comprised of new technical stuff and new ethos stuff, to conduct an analysis of three academic papers that each describe a framework for learning. The papers of interest include one on personalized learning (Halverson et al., 2015), one on participatory culture (Jenkins et al., 2006), and one on connected learning (Ito et al., 2013). Concept coding was used to identify instances of new technical stuff and new ethos stuff, as well as other themes across these three papers. Multiple examples were found within the papers to support the framing of a new literacy that can describe learners’ activity in what may be called a “New Classroom.” Discussion focuses on comparing the three frameworks in terms of similarities, differences, goals, and potential value for defining the new literacy of the New Classroom. A new hybrid framework is briefly introduced and labeled “personalized and participatory learning

Voyager

NASA’s Voyager mission is an inspiring story of both scientific discovery and humanitarianism. Launched in 1977, the twin spacecraft made observations which revolutionized our understanding of our cosmic neighborhood and simultaneously proclaimed our species’ existence in an incomprehensibly vast universe. Onboard both vessels are copies of the Golden Record, a time capsule depicting Earth and humanity in the event that they are discovered by sapient beings in the future. Golden Record producer Timothy Ferris (via planetary scientist Carolyn Porco) has equated Voyager’s incomprehensibly long journey ahead to “knocking on eternity’s door”. That so much music from many different cultures was included on the record is a testament to the esteemed place of art in our society. The Voyager program also serves as an awe-inspiring reminder of the ability nations have to use their power for exploratory endeavors that benefit all. The musical composition Voyager for percussion octet consists of 11 parts: a prelude with greetings in 55 languages from the Golden Record, five main movements (called Encounters), and five spatial interludes (called Approaches) for a total production time of approximately one hour and 55 minutes (including a 30-minute pre-concert section). The work is designed to be presented in a large, multi-chambered space such as a museum in order to realize the spatial aspects of the composition and allow for the audience to interact with the piece free from the constraints of a typical concert setting

Levels of human tear lacritin isoforms in healthy adults

Current diagnostics of dry eye disease are unable to identify the multiple complex causes of dry eye, thereby limiting the proper treatments of the disease. The tear glycoprotein lacritin has been reported to be decreased in dry eye patients, specifically those with Sjӧgren’s syndrome associated dry eye. Therefore, the use of lacritin in a diagnostic test for dry eye could improve the current diagnostics available. Western blot assays have revealed the presence of an active lacritin monomer as well as an inactive tissue transglutaminase cross-linked polymer in human tears. A third isoform of lacritin, the splice variant lacritin-c, has also been detected in human tears. Using a diagnostic multiplex western blot assay, the three lacritin isoforms were quantitated in forty samples of human tears from twenty adults and analyzed using JMP software. This provided a baseline distribution of percent lacritin in human tears that will be used in future lacritin clinical trials

Know-Nothingism, Abolitionism, and Fanaticism: An Analysis of the Collapse of the Second Party System in Maine

The 1850s were a tumultuous period in American politics, with a complete partisan realignment fundamentally shifting the balance of power away from the status quo and toward possibilities for change. This paper focuses on the collapse of the Second Party System in Maine, and understanding how we can explain this stunning and rapid shift. The varying factors can be placed into two broad categories First, ethnocultural issues were primarily responsible for much of the growing turmoil within and between the major parties throughout the 1840s, and accelerating greatly in the early 1850s with rising levels of immigration and the increasing draw of the temperance movement, which was then followed by the passage of highly controversial legislation concerning these issues. Second, national-level issues such as the Fugitive Slave Act and detailed reports of the violence out West in local newspapers brought the consequences of the unfettered expansion of slavery closer to home for many Mainers. Scholars of this period have expressed varying opinions as to the relative importance of local and national level issues in generating a change to the political system. Using Maine as a case study due to its position as a leader in the temperance movement and its geographical distance from the battlegrounds of national politics at the time, I conduct an in-depth examination of the political history of the state and conclude that rising tensions on both local and national levels were necessary to cause such transformational change

Lactose’s Intolerance: The Role of Manufacturers’ Rights and Commercial Free Speech in Big Dairy’s Fight to Restrict Use of the Term “Milk”

This note examines the relationship between restrictions on commercial speech and manufacturers’ First Amendment right to describe their products to consumers, with a focus on the DAIRY PRIDE Act. It argues that broad, content-based restrictions of commercial speech, like that proposed in the DAIRY PRIDE Act, likely impose unconstitutional limitations on manufacturers’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech. This note recommends that both Congress and the FDA should refrain from passing a statute or promulgating a regulation like the DAIRY PRIDE Act. Rather, it proposes that adding rules to control the proportions and location of disclaimers on product labels and in advertising would serve the government’s stated purpose without implicating the level constitutional scrutiny triggered by content-based speech restrictions

Recruitment and function of ORP1L on the Coxiella burnetii parasitophorous vacuole

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Coxiella burnetii, the zoonotic agent of human Q fever and chronic endocarditis, is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen. The Coxiella intracellular niche, a large, lysosome-like parasitophorous vacuole (PV), is essential for bacterial survival and replication. There is growing evidence that host cell cholesterol trafficking plays a critical role in PV development and maintenance, prompting an examination of the role of cholesterol-binding host protein ORP1L (Oxysterol binding protein-Related Protein 1, Long) during infection. ORP1L is a multi-functional cholesterol-binding protein involved in late endosome/lysosome (LEL) trafficking, formation of membrane contact sites between LEL and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and cholesterol transfer from LEL to the ER. ORP1L localizes to the PV at novel membrane contact sites between the ER and the PV membrane. Ectopically expressed ORP1L in Coxiella-infected cells localizes to the PV membrane early during infection, before significant PV expansion and independent of other PV-localized proteins. Further, the N-terminal ORP1L Ankyrin repeats are both necessary and sufficient for PV localization, suggesting that protein-protein interactions, and not protein-lipid interactions, are primarily involved in PV association. Coxiella employs a Type IVB Secretion System (T4BSS) to translocate effector proteins into the host cytoplasm and manipulate various cellular functions. ORP1L is not found on the PV of a Coxiella mutant lacking a functional T4BSS, indicating a secreted bacterial protein is likely responsible for ORP1L recruitment. We identified a Coxiella mutant with a transposon insertion in CBU_0352 that exhibits a 50% decrease in ORP1L recruitment, suggesting that Coxiella CBU_0352 interacts directly or indirectly with ORP1L. Finally, we found that ORP1L depletion using siRNA alters PV dynamics, resulting in smaller yet more fusogenic Coxiella PVs. Together, these data suggest that ORP1L is specifically recruited to the PV, where it plays a novel role in Coxiella PV development and interactions between the PV and the host cell