WHAM: Wellness, Happiness, and Mindfulness: A Pilot Class at Open High School for the Translational Application of Well-being Education

WHAM: Wellness, Happiness, and Mindfulness: A Pilot Class at Open High School for the Translational Application of Well-being Education Emaan Dawood, Depts. of Biology, Chemistry, & Spanish, and Moorin Khan, with Dr. Christy Tyndall, VCU Honors College The education of student well-being is desired as evidence-based positive psychology principles explain how humans can better succeed in life despite surmounting obstacles. Based on a VCU honors class titled “Flourishing,” which educates incoming freshmen about the science of health and wellness, a similar pilot class titled “WHAM: Wellness, Happiness, and Mindfulness,” implemented at Open High School, targets younger students. The goals for WHAM are to encourage high school students to build resilience through obstacles, develop strategies to promote well-being, and increase overall life satisfaction. An additional goal of the course is to learn more about which well-being principles are most helpful for high school students and why. The curriculum of WHAM was created with a focus on positive psychology principles and strategies that enhance well-being. Each class begins with discussion of a specific principle followed by an applied in-class activity of that principle. Covered principles included mindfulness, gratitude, stress and time management, physical health, meaning and engagement, relationships, and accomplishments. From student feedback and discussions, our pilot class has informally revealed that practicing well-being activities amongst high school-aged students promotes their relaxation and appreciation, indicating that the course effectively increases awareness of well-being practices. Therefore, our goal for the next session of WHAM will be to provide objective and formalized measurements of student well-being pre and post completion of the class. Measurements will be determined from surveys of evidence-based literature assessing different areas of well-being. The results will reveal how much students benefit from well-being education, help improve teaching methods, and provide insight for such a course being a standard in student education.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1342/thumbnail.jp

Bitcoin and Future of Cryptocurrency

There are diverse variables that impact the future usage of bitcoin, from issues related to security to concerns pertaining to garnering acceptance from the market and customers. In this article, few predictive statements have been analysed regarding the future of bitcoin, such as (1) the growth of share of digital purchases, (2) customer acceptance for blockchain innovation in electronic settlements, payment and banking system, (3) the emergence of bitcoin and also various other cryptocurrencies as niche cash, and (4) the implications of bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency as a specific niche cash in nations with specifically weak currency, and (5) the possibilities of regulative dangers of bitcoin usage in these nations

UTP Co Curriculum Clicks

Education is very critical. Everyday students have to make choices on which subject to undertake and which course would benefit them. In UIP, students are required to attend several co curriculum courses as part ofthe requirement to be graduated. Most of the students in UTP have problems on deciding co curriculum coursesand they basically choose these courses without proper knowledge and understanding on what these courses got to offer. The atilhor has decided to use the blackboard system knowledge capture technique and to create an interactive web based knowledge management system to assiststudents pertaining to the course selection of Co Cuniculum in UTP. The author will now discuss the progress of his proposed project and the additions and removals made post proposal. The author discusses the problems and the solutions provided by the implementation of urP Co Cuniculum Clicts. UTP Co Cuniculum Clicks solved all the problems defined as discussed in this report

COVID-19 and the Unseen Benefits of Dexamethasone

According to World Health Organization (WHO) current updates, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread all over the globe affecting 216 countries and caused 8,860,331 confirmed cases and 465,740 deaths last followed by 24 June 2020. Many countries cannot afford the nucleic acid tests to confirm COVID-19 infected patients; as a result, people cannot know the COVID-19 status of the people living around them. The use of dexamethasone in COVID-19 hospitalized patients for up to 10 days lower 28-day mortality as compared to the patients taking usual care and also receiving mechanical ventilation at randomization (by age-adjusted percentage points 12.3, approximately one third of proportional reduction) and those patients receiving oxygen without invasive mechanical ventilation (by age-adjusted percentage points 4.1, approximately one fifth of proportional reduction)

The impact of diabetes and obesity on fertility and the potential role of gut hormones as treatment

Aims: Alongside its metabolic implications, obesity and associated diabetes impair female reproductive function, causing infertility and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Recently, gut hormones and their receptors have been identified in various reproductive organs indicating their potential regulatory effects on reproductive function. This review aims to give an overview of their potential effects. Methods: This review focuses on literature that outlines modifications during obesity, diabetes and related infertility with an emphasis on gut hormones and their therapeutic potential. Results: Evidence suggests that bariatric surgery has positive effects on fertility and PCOS where major alterations in metabolism occurs through restoration of gut hormone levels. This is thought to be due to the indirect effect weight loss and regulation of blood glucose has on the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis influencing reproduction. Conclusions: Further research is required to elucidate the cellular mechanisms involved in the direct effects of gut hormone receptor activation on reproductive tissues. Current observations suggest a therapeutic role for gut hormones in infertility/PCOS associated with metabolic pathophysiology

New media influences on the public broadcaster's content value chain and business model

The emergence of new media technologies has influenced the broadcasting marketplace causing it to evolve and become more competitive. The various platforms that new media technologies have made available for content repurposing and the increased number of channels available via digital television and radio has altered the landscape of the public service broadcaster in an unprecedented manner. Thus, questioning its viability amongst the other private media organisations whose core focus is on commercialisation of content rather than serving the public interest. Based on the case study of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), this study articulates the influence of new media broadcasting on the public broadcaster’s business model and value chain. It investigated the legitimacy of public service broadcasting in the new media age. This study examined the current status of the SABC’s broadcasting policy and concluded that there is urgency for policy revisions to be fast tracked

Impact of Corruption on Economic Growth in Pakistan: A Comparative Approach

This work is intended to find a relationship between corruption and economic growth. Economic growth is viewed in terms of per capita GDP and corruption is quantified as corruption perception index (CPI) published by Transparency International annually. Population, investment, total public expenditures, and expenditure in education by the government are used as the determinants of GDP. Study period expands from 1995 to 2019. Solow growth model is modified for the purpose to incorporate corruption with the macroeconomic variables of economic growth. Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) Bounds Testing methodology is used for the analysis. The results authenticate a long run relation amid corruption and economic growth in the economy of Pakistan. The estimates signify that corruption poses negative effects on per capita GDP and thus diminishes the economic growth of the country

Role of sonomammography and its diagnostic accuracy for evaluating benign and malignant breast lesions

Background: Mammography and ultrasound are the best-known techniques used for screening and diagnosis of breast cancer. This study evaluated the accuracy of sonomammography in diagnosing breast lesions, both benign and malignant separately and confirmation of the findings by histopathology.Methods: A prospective study was conducted for 18 months in women aged above 15 years with breast lesions or symptoms of breast diseases. The diagnosis protocol consisted of clinical breast examination, mammography, ultrasound and histopathological examination. Mammograms were interpreted according to the breast imaging reporting and data system (BI-RADS) diagnostic categories on a five-point scale. This was followed by ultrasound imaging of the breast and axilla with ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (sonomammography-FNAC) from the breast lump.Results: Among the 52 patients, three patients were divorced, 40 were married and nine were unmarried. Eight had a history of oral contraceptive pills (OCP) use and one patient had a family history of breast lesions. The mammography report revealed 31 patients suspected to be malignant and 21 patients to be benign. According to the sonomammography report, 32 patients were suspected to be malignant while 20 patients were suspected to be benign. Correlation between mammography report, sonomammography report and grade versus histopathological finding also showed significance with p<0.0001.Conclusions: Sonomammography reveals good sensitivity and specificity for detecting all breast lesions. Hence it can be considered as a suitable means of investigation than mammography especially in patients less than 40 years of age.

Towards development of a platform process for novel Lantiobic production

The worldwide increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria has been identified as a major concern to the continued provision of healthcare. The lack of new antibiotic discoveries and the diminishing number effective against multi-drug resistant bacteria has increased efforts to identify new natural antimicrobials and to use synthetic biology to engineer artificial ones. Lantibiotics, a class of ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides, with a broad spectrum of activity, have been identified as potential candidates to combat such bacteria. However no clinical lantibiotic products currently exist, owing to low product titres and lack of a suitable manufacturing process. Initial studies on the lantibiotic gallidermin have managed to increase product titre by modifying the producer strain, Stapylococcus gallinarum Tϋ3928, to synthesize the biologically inactive precursor, pregallidermin. This helps overcome product auto-toxicity and may be a generic route to enhancing the production of novel engineered lantibiotics. This thesis investigates the scalability of a pregallidermin production process to determine whether it could serve as a production platform for novel lantibiotics. Initially, fed-batch cultures were performed in 7.5 L stirred tank bioreactors to characterise the parameters necessary for achieving high cell density. These identified aeration, agitation and nutrient feed rates as important parameters to optimal product formation. The fed-batch culture was repeated at pilot scale (30 L) under the same process conditions, yielding 0.7 g.L-1 of pregallidermin. A scalable downstream process was also developed and evaluated. The overall process flowsheet comprised of pregallidermin capture on the hydrophobic resin Amberlite XAD-7, followed by cation exchange chromatography to purify the pregallidermin. This was then trypsinised to release the required gallidermin. The final purity of gallidermin was 70 % (w/w) with an overall process yield of 13.5 %. Using this downstream process sequence 1.9 g (0.09 g.L-1) of pregallidermin was isolated from the 30 L fermentation. Confirmation of the identity of the purified pregallidermin and gallidermin was obtained by HPLC and mass spectrometry. Microscale methods were developed to optimise the downstream process and determine product physico-chemical properties with a view to informing process design. These determined that higher purity gallidermin recovery was possible with the optimisation of the XAD-7 adsorption/desorption. Optimal conditions for pregallidermin adsorption, resin wash and pregallidermin elution from resin were determined using the microscale methods. A redesign of the downstream process based on optimised pregallidermin capture increased overall recovery of mature gallidermin 3-fold to 0.3 g.L-1. In summary, this work has demonstrated a novel process for lantibiotic production and purification at pilot scale. The process is sufficiently generic that it could serve as a manufacturing platform for production of next generation engineered lantibiotics. It has also demonstrated the utility of microscale methods in optimising the production process