An evaluation of exercises for the development of word recognition and word meaning in grade five

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

An evaluation of exercises for the development of word recognition and word meaning in grade five

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Ovalbumin sensitization and challenge increases the number of lung cells possessing a mesenchymal stromal cell phenotype

Abstract Background Recent studies have indicated the presence of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in human lung diseases. Excess airway smooth muscle, myofibroblasts and activated fibroblasts have each been noted in asthma, suggesting that mesenchymal progenitor cells play a role in asthma pathogenesis. We therefore sought to determine whether MSCs are present in the lungs of ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized and challenged mice, a model of allergic airways disease. Methods Balb/c mice were sensitized and challenged with PBS or OVA over a 25 day period. Flow cytometry as well as colony forming and differentiation potential were used to analyze the emergence of MSCs along with gene expression studies using immunochemical analyses, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and gene expression beadchips. Results A CD45-negative subset of cells expressed Stro-1, Sca-1, CD73 and CD105. Selection for these markers and negative selection against CD45 yielded a population of cells capable of adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation. Lungs from OVA-treated mice demonstrated a greater average colony forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F) than control mice. Sorted cells differed from unsorted lung adherent cells, exhibiting a pattern of gene expression nearly identical to bone marrow-derived sorted cells. Finally, cells isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage of a human asthma patient showed identical patterns of cell surface markers and differentiation potential. Conclusions In summary, allergen sensitization and challenge is accompanied by an increase of MSCs resident in the lungs that may regulate inflammatory and fibrotic responses.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78265/1/1465-9921-11-127.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78265/2/1465-9921-11-127.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78265/3/1465-9921-11-127-S1.DOCPeer Reviewe

Scarab Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in the Dung of Native Arkansas Mammals

Dung beetles are important ecological components of natural ecosystems. One primary activity is the fragmentation and recycling of animal dung. Little is known about the ecological impact of beetles associated with the dung of mammals native to Arkansas. We surveyed the dung of native mammals within Arkansas to determine the species and distributional patterns associated with dung. We searched and collected beetles in situ from the dung or nests of native mammalian species within Arkansas. We also set simple pitfall traps using dung of various native Arkansas mammals as bait. Most of the beetles collected were common dung beetles. However, we collected a new state record, Ataenius cylindrus, in dung of white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, and we provide the first report of dung beetles in the dung of river otter, Lontra canadensis

Factorization Structure of Gauge Theory Amplitudes and Application to Hard Scattering Processes at the LHC

Previous work on electroweak radiative corrections to high energy scattering using soft-collinear effective theory (SCET) has been extended to include external transverse and longitudinal gauge bosons and Higgs bosons. This allows one to compute radiative corrections to all parton-level hard scattering amplitudes in the standard model to NLL order, including QCD and electroweak radiative corrections, mass effects, and Higgs exchange corrections, if the high-scale matching, which is suppressed by two orders in the log counting, and contains no large logs, is known. The factorization structure of the effective theory places strong constraints on the form of gauge theory amplitudes at high energy for massless and massive gauge theories, which are discussed in detail in the paper. The radiative corrections can be written as the sum of process-independent one-particle collinear functions, and a universal soft function. We give plots for the radiative corrections to q qbar -> W_T W_T, Z_T Z_T, W_L W_L, and Z_L H, and gg -> W_T W_T to illustrate our results. The purely electroweak corrections are large, ranging from 12% at 500 GeV to 37% at 2 TeV for transverse W pair production, and increasing rapidly with energy. The estimated theoretical uncertainty to the partonic (hard) cross-section in most cases is below one percent, smaller than uncertainties in the parton distribution functions (PDFs). We discuss the relation between SCET and other factorization methods, and derive the Magnea-Sterman equations for the Sudakov form factor using SCET, for massless and massive gauge theories, and for light and heavy external particles.Comment: 44 pages, 30 figures. Refs added, typos fixed. ZL ZL plots removed because of a possible subtlet

Risk Behaviors of Dominican Adolescents in Their Homeland and in the United States

The purpose of this study was to compare self-reported high risk behaviors that may lead to unintentional and intentional injuries among adolescents living in the Dominican Republic and Dominican adolescents living in the United States

Pumping the Brakes on Robot Cars: Current Urban Traveler Willingness to Consider Driverless Vehicles

A growing literature suggests that widespread travel conducted through driverless connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) accessed as a service, in contrast to those personally owned, could have significant impacts on the sustainability of urban transportation. However, it is unclear how the general public currently considers willingness to travel in driverless vehicles, and if they would be more comfortable doing so in one personally owned or one accessed as a service. To address this, we collected travel survey data by intercepting respondents on discretionary or social trips to four popular destinations in a medium-size U.S. city in the spring of 2017. After collecting data on how the respondent reached the survey site and the trip’s origin and destination, survey administrators then asked if respondents would have been willing to make their current trip in either a personally-owned driverless vehicle or through a driverless vehicle service. Over one-third expressed willingness to use both forms, while 31% were unwilling to use either. For those that considered only one, slightly more favored the personally-owned model. Consideration of an existing mobility service was consistently a positive and significant predictor of those that expressed willingness to travel in a driverless vehicle, while traveling downtown negatively and significantly influenced consideration of at least one form of driverless vehicle. These findings highlight the diverse public views about the prospect of integration of CAVs in transportation systems and raise questions about the assumption that travelers to central city locations would be early adopters of automated vehicle mobility services.The research reported here was supported in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), SPEED Program Grant No. 83594901the University of Michigan Energy Institute (UMEI) and University of Michigan Dow Sustainability Fellows progra