God's Fingers

A sunset from the lake at Alum Creek State Park in Delaware, Ohio

Skeletal element elongation and interdigital tissue regression in developing bat limbs: a gene expression analysis

Vertebrate limbs classically illustrate the morphological diversity of homologous structure. Bat limbs exemplify this, having strikingly divergent limbs: wings with asymmetrically elongated digit elements, supporting expansive membranes; and hindlimbs with short, symmetrical, free digits. An understanding of the genes, interactions and events that shape bat limbs, will inform conventional models of development. This dissertation characterised differential expression of Meis2, in the context of interdigital regression, and the 5'HoxD genes in the context of digit formation in developing bat autopods (CS15 - CS18). Meis2 is involved in limb proximodistal patterning, and has been shown to promote proliferation, and survival of cells in other developmental contexts. Meis2 had strong expression in the expanding bat forelimb interdigits, with lowered expression in mouse and bat hindlimb interdigits, and did not correspond with Hoxa13 expression, which was reduced in the forelimb. Autopod expression was independent of retinoic acid (RA) signalling, with genes involved in RA synthesis ( Rdh10 , Aldha2 ) , degradation ( Cyp26b1 ) and signalling (Rar β) expressed in bat limbs. Altered expression patterns of Aldha2 and Cyp26b1, indicate that this pathway may be modulated in the forelimb. Meis2 is suggested to play a role in interdigital tissue retention, enhancing cell proliferation and contributing to wing expansion. 5'HoxD genes (Hoxd10 - 13) are involved in limb patterning, digit formation and growth. Their modular autopod expression domains correspond to the bat skeletal element phenotype, with strong overexpression of Hoxd10 - 11 (and to a lesser extent Hoxd12) in the forelimb posterior elements (digits II - V), which are highly elongated, and a loss of expression of these genes in hindlimb digits. These genes were not expressed in a typical reverse collinear relationship, with absolute q PCR revealing highest expression of Hoxd10. While the coding protein sequence of these genes appeared highly conserved between bats and other mammals, several changes were found in the CsC region of the digit enhancer Prox, some of which were associated with alterations in transcription binding sites. These findings indicate that Hoxd10 - 12 expressions contribute to the altered skeletal element morphologies of bat forelimbs and hindlimbs. This study makes a valuable contribution to the growing body of work that explores bat limb development and the evolutionary adaptation s of these unique structures

The Effects of Bullying and Solutions to Bullying of LGBTQ+ Students in Schools

Research has revealed the effects that peer bullying has on LGBTQ+ students in public schools. This project focuses on the prevention of LGBTQ+ student bullying. This is done by teaching school policy makers and educators in understanding LGBTQ+ issues for the development of a positive school climate where everyone should thrive. The incorporation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Minority Stress theory created a method for understanding and interpreting the research compiled. The research has shown that professional developments for educators, adding curriculum into classrooms, and utilizing LGBTQ+ anti-bullying policies can diminish the effects of bullying against LGBTQ+ students. To make the professional development more effective, novels, scenario-based activities, and duration times of the professional development are suggested by research. An eight-session professional development was created to address peer bullying against LGBTQ+ students, with the goal to increase chances of teacher response, increase training, and increase willingness to assist LGBTQ+ students in and out of their classrooms. The goal is to also incorporate an anti-bullying policy as well as LGBTQ+ friendly curriculum into classrooms to provide a safe learning environment, and ultimately, help them succeed

Meanings in motion and faces: Developmental associations between the processing of intention from geometrical animations and gaze detection accuracy

Aspects of face processing, on the one hand, and theory of mind (ToM) tasks, on the other hand, show specific impairment in autism. We aimed to discover whether a correlation between tasks tapping these abilities was evident in typically developing children at two developmental stages. One hundred fifty-four normal children (6-8 years and 16-18 years) and 13 high-IQ autistic children (11-17 years) were tested on a range of face-processing and IQ tasks, and a ToM test based oil the attribution of intentional movement to abstract shapes in a cartoon. By midchildhood, the ability accurately and spontaneously to infer the locus of attention of a face with direct or averted gaze was specifically associated with the ability to describe geometrical animations using mental state terms. Other face-processing and animation descriptions failed to show the association. Autistic adolescents were impaired at both gaze processing and ToM descriptions. using these tests. Mentalizing and gaze perception accuracy are associated in typically developing children and adolescents. The findings are congruent with the possibility that common neural Circuitry underlies, at least in part, processing implicated in these tasks. They are also congruent with the possibility that autism may lie at one end of a developmental continuum with respect to these skills, and to the factor(s) underpinning them

The compatible conversion system

Compatible conversion system centralizes the solution of general problems arising from the use of direct access mass storage. It also provides a simple stable interface for the conversion of production programs to process on third generation computer system

Patient preferences for adjuvant radiotherapy in early breast cancer are strongly influenced by treatment received through random assignment

Objective: TARGIT‐A randomised women with early breast cancer to receive external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or intraoperative radiotherapy (TARGIT‐IORT). This study aimed to identify what extra risk of recurrence patients would accept for per‐ ceived benefits and risks of different radiotherapy treatments. Methods: Patient preferences were determined by self‐rated trade‐off question‐ naires in two studies: Stage (1) 209 TARGIT‐A participants (TARGIT‐IORT n = 108, EBRT n = 101); Stage (2) 123 non‐trial patients yet to receive radiotherapy (pre‐treat‐ ment group), with 85 also surveyed post‐radiotherapy. Patients traded‐off risks of local recurrence in preference selection between TARGIT‐IORT and EBRT. Results: TARGIT‐IORT patients were more accepting of IORT than EBRT patients with 60% accepting the highest increased risk presented (4%–6%) compared to 12% of EBRT patients, and 2% not accepting IORT at all compared to 43% of EBRT pa‐ tients. Pre‐treatment patients were more accepting of IORT than post‐treatment pa‐ tients with 23% accepting the highest increased risk presented compared to 15% of post‐treatment patients, and 15% not accepting IORT at all compared to 41% of pre‐ treatment patients. Conclusions: Breast cancer patients yet to receive radiotherapy accept a higher recurrence risk than the actual risk found in TARGIT‐A. Measured patient preferences are highly influenced by experience of treatment received. This finding challenges the validity of post‐treatment preference studies