The archaeology of Roman Durham

No abstract availabl

A survey of school psychologists to promote support for developing self-advocacy skills in students with disabilities

Self-advocacy is a critical skill for effective communication and for individual assertion of interests, needs, and rights (Hengen & Weaver, 2018). It is especially important for people with disabilities to be able to self-advocate, which includes understanding their own abilities and rights and being able to voice when they need assistance or when their rights are being violated (Hengen & Weaver, 2018). Even though self-advocacy has been determined to be a necessary skill for students with disabilities to develop, research indicates that self-advocacy instruction is often not provided to students with disabilities. Furthermore, while researchers have shown that teaching students to participate in their IEP meetings helps to prepare them to be successful self-advocates after high school (Barnard-Brak and Lechtenberger, 2009), there is often inconsistent inclusion of students in their educational planning meetings. Thus, there is a need to identify supports for developing self-advocacy skills in students with disabilities. This research project reviewed the literature to inform the development of a mixed-methods survey to examine school psychologists’ perceptions and experiences in supporting students with disabilities’ self-advocacy skills. The results indicate school psychologists recognize self-advocacy skill development as a critical tool for students with disabilities’ success; however, several barriers exist which prevent school psychologists from directly supporting students in this area

IMPLICATIONS OF AN INTERACTION BETWEEN PINK1 AND VCP FOR PARKINSON’S DISEASE PATHOGENESIS

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder, and affects approximately 950 per 100,000 people in North America. The etiology of PD remains unknown, but a small percentage of affected individuals have heritable forms of the disease with known genetic causes. Study of the proteins encoded by these genes has provided tremendous insight into molecular pathways that underlie PD-associated neurodegeneration. Mutations in the gene encoding PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) have been identified as the cause of an autosomal, recessively inherited parkinsonism. PINK1 is a serine/threonine kinase, uniquely localized to both the cytosol and mitochondrion. The profound effect of PINK1 on mitochondrial homeostasis has been extensively investigated, but far less is understood about its function in the cytosol. This project aimed to identify cytosolic PINK1 interacting proteins and characterize the functional consequences of the association. Using an unbiased proteomic screen, valosin-containing protein (VCP), an AAA+ ATPase, was identified as a PINK1 interactor. Upon discovery that the physical association does not require mitochondrial localization, the role of VCP in previously identified functions of the cytosolic pool of PINK1 was examined. These studies discovered a PINK1-VCP pathway that promotes neurite extension and complexity, and contributes to the maturation and maintenance of synapses. Further, PINK1 and VCP were shown to co-regulate autophagy and the accumulation of high molecular weight ubiquitination products. These results indicate that the PINK1-VCP interaction plays a key role in dendritic arbor maintenance, synapse preservation, and autophagy regulation. These three processes are commonly impaired in sporadic and familial PD as well as other neurodegenerative diseases, indicating that treatments targeting components of the PINK1-VCP signaling hub may have broad therapeutic applications

Does joint architecture influence the nature of intra-articular fractures?

Introduction: The architecture of joints has potentially the greatest influence on the nature of intra-articular fractures. We analysed a large number of intra-articular fractures with two aims: (1) to determine if the pattern of injuries observed supports our conjecture that the local skeletal architecture is an important factor and (2) to investigate whether associated dislocations further affect the fracture pattern. Methods: A retrospective study of intra-articular fractures over a 3.5-year period; 1003 joints met inclusion criteria and were analysed. Three independent investigators determined if fractures affected the convex dome, the concave socket, or if both joint surfaces were involved. Further review determined if a joint dislocation occurred with the initial injury. Statistical analysis was performed using a one-way frequency table, and the χ test was used to compare the frequencies of concave and convex surface fractures. The odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to establish the association between the frequencies of concave and convex surface fractures, as well as between dislocation and either fracture surface involvement. Results: Of the 1003 fractures analysed, 956 (95.3%) involved only the concavity of the joint; in 21 fractures (2.1%) both joint surfaces were involved; and in 26 fractures (2.6%) only the convexity was involved (χ = 1654.9, df = 2, p < 0.0001). As expected, the concavity was 20.8 times more likely to fail than the convexity (11.2-36.6, 95% CI). However, the risk of fracturing the convex surface was 18.6 times higher (9.8-35.2, 95% CI) in association with a simultaneous joint dislocation, compared to those cases without a joint dislocation. Conclusions: These results very strongly support the study hypotheses: the skeletal architecture of joints clearly plays a highly significant role in determining the nature of intra-articular fractures. Intra-articular fractures involving the convexity are much more likely to be associated with a concurrent joint dislocation. Crow

A first confirmed record of the Indian Crested Porcupine Hystrix indica (Mammalia: Rodentia: Hystricidae) in the United Arab Emirates

We report the first records of the Indian Crested Porcupine (Hystrix indica; Kerr, 1792) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), approximately 600km beyond its known range in Arabia. Images of H. indica were taken by camera traps at two locations in Wadi Wurayah National Park (WWNP), Fujairah, in three separate events in 2015 and 2016. Long-term occupancy of porcupines was confirmed via social surveys conducted in four villages bordering WWNP. These findings represent a previously unrecorded and most likely isolated subpopulation of H. indica. Further study is warranted to assess the genetic and demographic resilience of the population

(Invited) towards a vertical and damage free post-etch InGaAs fin profile: dry etch processing, sidewall damage assessment and mitigation options

Based on current projections, III-Vs are expected to replace Si as the n-channel solution in FinFETs at the 7nm technology node. The realisation of III-V FinFETs entails top-down fabrication via dry etch techniques. Vertical fins in conjunction with high quality sidewall MOS interfaces are required for high-performance logic devices. This, however, is difficult to achieve with dry etching. Highly anisotropic etching required of vertical fins is concomitant with increased damage to the sidewalls, resulting in the quality of the sidewall MOS interface being compromised. In this work, we address this challenge in two stages by first undertaking a systematic investigation of dry etch processing for fin formation, with the aim of obtaining high resolution fins with vertical sidewalls and clean etch surfaces. In the second stage, dry etch process optimisation and post-etch sidewall passivation schemes are explored to mitigate the damage arising from anisotropic etching required for the realisation of vertical fins

Non-BPS Brane Cosmology

We study cosmology on a BPS D3-brane evolving in the 10D SUGRA background describing a non-BPS brane. Initially the BPS brane is taken to be a probe whose dynamics we determine in the non-compact non-BPS background. The cosmology observed on the brane is of the FRW type with a scale factor $S(\tau)$. In this mirage cosmology approach, there is no self-gravity on the brane which cannot inflate. Self-gravity is then included by compactifying the background space-time. The low energy effective theory below the compactification scale is shown to be bi-metric, with matter coupling to a different metric than the geometrically induced metric on the brane. The geometrical scale factor on the brane is now $S(\tau) a(\tau)$ where $a(\tau)$ arises from brane self-gravity. In this non-BPS scenario the brane generically inflates. We study the resulting inflationary scenario taking into account the fact that the non-BPS brane eventually decays on a time-scale much larger than the typical inflationary time-scale. After the decay, the theory ceases to be bi-metric and COBE normalization is used to estimate the string scale which is found to be of order $10^{14}$ GeV.Comment: 20 pages, JHEP3.cl