Talk Among the Dragonflies and Dalmations: An Investigation of Communicative Competence in a Pre-Kindergarten Classroom: A Dissertation

A year-long ethnographic study of young children\u27s language was conducted in a pre-kindergarten classroom. The investigation focused on the teachers\u27 direct instruction and the children\u27s emerging communicative competence in the rules and structure of group conversation. The class Morning Meeting was recorded once or twice a week for the entire year; a subset of these recordings formed the data set for the analysis. Of particular interest were communication behaviors that emphasized the growth of a sense of membership and community within the group as well as evidence that the children had learned conventions for turn-taking, topic maintenance, and solidarity

Band Gap Engineering with Ultralarge Biaxial Strains in Suspended Monolayer MoS2

We demonstrate the continuous and reversible tuning of the optical band gap of suspended monolayer MoS2 membranes by as much as 500 meV by applying very large biaxial strains. By using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to grow crystals that are highly impermeable to gas, we are able to apply a pressure difference across suspended membranes to induce biaxial strains. We observe the effect of strain on the energy and intensity of the peaks in the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum, and find a linear tuning rate of the optical band gap of 99 meV/%. This method is then used to study the PL spectra of bilayer and trilayer devices under strain, and to find the shift rates and Gr\"uneisen parameters of two Raman modes in monolayer MoS2. Finally, we use this result to show that we can apply biaxial strains as large as 5.6% across micron sized areas, and report evidence for the strain tuning of higher level optical transitions.Comment: Nano Lett., Article ASA

A Comparison of Various Monoclonal Antibodies to the Previous Standard of Care Chemotherapy in the Treatment of Advanced-Stage Melanoma

In the year 2015, it is estimated that the number of new cases of invasive melanoma will be 42,670 in males and 31,200 in females.1 Melanoma is treatable with early diagnosis; however, more advanced disease has devastating outcomes. For the past decade, two chemotherapy agents, dacarbazine and temozolomide, have been the treatment of choice for advanced stage III or IV melanoma requiring systemic treatment. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) therapy has been used but with serious side effects. More recently, the focus has shifted to monoclonal antibodies and enzyme inhibitors as the main systemic treatment for advanced cutaneous melanoma. This literature review gathered several studies which looked at the use of monoclonal antibodies, and compared monoclonal antibodies to conventional chemotherapy to assess whether there is a significant difference in tumor response, sustained remissions and side effect profile. An extensive medical literature review was conducted with PubMed and Cochrane databases using the keywords: “monoclonal antibody,” “melanoma,” and “treatment.” This list of articles was further narrowed by specific inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as reviewed for validity and quality using the GRADE system. Seven clinical trials were included in this literature review. One observational study evaluated the overall safety and efficacy of monoclonal antibodies, while another compared monoclonal antibodies versus placebo under the same variables. Three of the research studies were randomized clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of monoclonal antibodies in comparison to chemotherapy. Two retrospective studies assessed patients from expanded access programs who did not meet criteria to participate in a clinical trial. All seven studies had similar inclusion and exclusion criteria and the patients were prognostically similar before starting treatment. Six out of the seven studies demonstrated superiority of monoclonal antibodies advanced-stage melanoma treatment. One study failed to demonstrate a statistically significant survival advantage over traditional chemotherapy. The use of monoclonal antibodies has been demonstrated to be a more specific and effective treatment approach than other therapies tried in the past. While monoclonal antibodies have demonstrated efficacy in first line treatment for advanced stage melanoma, further research is necessary to determine which combination of medications is most beneficial for these patients

Are Boredom Prone Individuals Creative and Curious About Their Environment?

After controlling for overall personality characteristics, boredom proneness did not predict creativity, but did positively predict people’s motivation to seek out novel experiences and find answers to things they do not understand. Thus, future work should explore how to use these relationships to help individuals respond effectively to the experience of boredom.Knowledge Mobilization at York - York University’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services for faculty, graduate students, community and government seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. This summary has been supported by the Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation at York and project funding from SSHRC and CIHR. [email protected] www.researchimpact.c

How many cards should you lay out in a game of EvenQuads?: A detailed study of 2-caps in AG(n,2)

A 2-cap in the affine geometry $AG(n, q)$ is a subset of 4 points in general position. In this paper we classify all 2-caps in $AG(n, 2)$, up to affine equivalence, for $n \leq 6$. We also provide structural results for general $n$. Since the EvenQuads card deck is a model for $AG(6, 2)$, as a consequence we determine the probability that an arbitrary $k$-card layout contains a quad.Comment: 36 pages, 20 figures, 5 table

Microcystic, Elongated, and Fragmented (MELF) Pattern Invasion in Ovarian Endometrioid Carcinoma: Immunohistochemical Profile and Prognostic Implications

BACKGROUND •Microcystic, Elongated and Fragmented (MELF) is a well-recognized pattern of uterine endometrioid carcinoma (UEC) associated with lymphovascular space invasion and occult lymph node metastasis •MELF in UEC may be seen with Lynch Syndrome •MELF in UEC is hypothesized to be histologic evidence of an epithelial mesenchymal transition •MELF pattern invasion in ovarian endometrioid carcinoma (OEC) was first described at USCAP 2015 • Current study evaluates MELF in OEC for •Prognostic implications •Immunohistochemical (IHC) profile related to •Lynch Syndrome •Epithelial mesenchymal transition DESIGN •42 consecutive cases of OEC without concurrent UEC (1996-2014) evaluated by 2 pathologists •MELF defined as at least three glands fulfilling histologic criteria •32 cases had blocks available for staining •MLH1, PMS2, MSH2 and MSH6 for mismatch repair (MMR) protein expression •Graded as “retained” or “lost” •β-catenin, e-cadherin, CK19 and cyclin D1 for evidence of epithelial mesenchymal transition •Graded as “rare” (75% cells stain) •Retrospective chart review of clinical and demographic features and overall survival •Data analyzed using Fisher exact test analysis •Survival analyzed using Kaplan-Meier metho

Systematic Review of Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Treatment Facilities

This study reviewed the published literature evaluating multidisciplinary chronic pain treatment facilities to provide an overview of their availability, caseload, wait times, and facility characteristics. A systematic literature review was conducted using PRISMA guidelines following a search of MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL databases. Inclusion criteria stipulated that studies be original research, survey more than one pain treatment facility directly, and describe a range of available treatments. Fourteen articles satisfied inclusion criteria. Results showed little consistency in the research design used to describe pain treatment facilities. Availability of pain treatment facilities was scarce and the reported caseloads and wait times were generally high. A wide range of medical, physical, and psychological pain treatments were available. Most studies reported findings on the percentage of practitioners in different health care professions employed. Future studies should consider using more comprehensive search strategies to survey facilities, improving clarity on what is considered to be a pain treatment facility, and reporting on a consistent set of variables to provide a clear summary of the status of pain treatment facilities. This review highlights important information for policymakers on the scope, demand, and accessibility of pain treatment facilities.Samantha Fashler is supported by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Lindsay Burns is supported by a Frederick Banting and Charles Best CIHR Doctoral Scholarship. Joel Katz is supported by a CIHR Canada Research Chair in Health Psychology. This project was conducted in collaboration with the Canadian Pain Coalition (CPC) as a part of the Report Card on Pain

‘Alright my lovely’: the use of terms of endearment as a mitigation device in the care of people living with dementia in the acute hospital environment

This paper examines how terms of endearment (ToE) are used as a mitigation device in interactions between staff and people living with dementia (PLWD) in the acute hospital environment. ToE are often discouraged in training for healthcare staff. However, this research demonstrates that they are still commonly used in practice. Using conversation analysis, video and audio data were examined to identify the interactional functions of ToE. Analysis showed that ToE play an important role in mitigating potentially face-threatening actions such as when patients are asked to repeat hard-to-interpret talk, or when patient agency is compromised through instruction sequences or having necessary healthcare tasks undertaken. The success of this mitigation is sensitive to the specific interactional circumstances, as well as the responsiveness of the HCP to the patient’s voiced concerns. These findings have implications for healthcare practice, training and wider care of PLWD

The effect of induced sadness and moderate depression on attention networks

This study investigates how sadness and minor/moderate depression influences the three functions of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control using the attention network test. The aim of the study is to investigate whether minor to moderate depression is more similar to sadness or clinical depression with regards to attentional processing. It was predicted that both induced sadness and minor to moderate depression will influence executive control by narrowing spatial attention and in turn this will lead to less interference from the flanker items (i.e., less effects of congruency) due to a focused attentional state. No differences were predicted for alerting or orienting functions. The results from the two experiments, the first inducing sadness (Experiment 1) and the second measuring subclinical depression (Experiment 2), show that, as expected, participants who are sad or minor to moderately depressed showed less flanker interference compared to participants who were neither sad nor depressed. This study provides strong evidence, that irrespective of its aetiology, sadness and minor/moderate depression have similar effects on spatial attention