Building Leadership Capacity in Early Childhood Pre-Service Teachers

Building leadership capacity within the early childhood profession has emerged as a key concern as the sector responds to national reforms. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion around the changes needed in tertiary training to build early childhood leadership capacity in school settings. Eight experienced early childhood teachers enrolled in a post graduate leadership unit participated in this small scale, exploratory study. Data were drawn from the participants’ research plans, reflective journals and a post unit survey. The findings indicated that the participants found it difficult to perceive themselves as leading families and community. Two key challenges emerged from the data; the importance of developing home/school partnerships and difficulties with infrastructure and support. In order to prepare teachers for the changing early childhood environment, teacher educators need to consider course renewal to acknowledge the changing landscape in early childhood school settings and make adjustments accordingly

An automated technique for identifying associations between medications, laboratory results and problems

AbstractBackgroundThe patient problem list is an important component of clinical medicine. The problem list enables decision support and quality measurement, and evidence suggests that patients with accurate and complete problem lists may have better outcomes. However, the problem list is often incomplete.ObjectiveTo determine whether association rule mining, a data mining technique, has utility for identifying associations between medications, laboratory results and problems. Such associations may be useful for identifying probable gaps in the problem list.DesignAssociation rule mining was performed on structured electronic health record data for a sample of 100,000 patients receiving care at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA. The dataset included 272,749 coded problems, 442,658 medications and 11,801,068 laboratory results.MeasurementsCandidate medication-problem and laboratory-problem associations were generated using support, confidence, chi square, interest, and conviction statistics. High-scoring candidate pairs were compared to a gold standard: the Lexi-Comp drug reference database for medications and Mosby’s Diagnostic and Laboratory Test Reference for laboratory results.ResultsWe were able to successfully identify a large number of clinically accurate associations. A high proportion of high-scoring associations were adjudged clinically accurate when evaluated against the gold standard (89.2% for medications with the best-performing statistic, chi square, and 55.6% for laboratory results using interest).ConclusionAssociation rule mining appears to be a useful tool for identifying clinically accurate associations between medications, laboratory results and problems and has several important advantages over alternative knowledge-based approaches

MULTI-ACTION NITRIC OXIDE-RELEASE SYSTEMS FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections pose a significant threat to global health. Limitations in treating resistant, biofilm-based, and polymicrobial infections necessitate the development of novel antimicrobial agents that limit the potential for resistance. Nitric oxide (NO), an endogenous signaling molecule, is involved in a host of physiological properties, including the eradication of foreign pathogens. As NO also possesses roles in modulating inflammation, angiogenesis, and thrombosis, it represents an attractive molecule for the multimodal treatment of chronic wound and catheter-based infections. Hyaluronic acid (HA), a biopolymer involved in endogenous wound healing, was modified with a series of alkylamines to store and release NO, with release kinetics dependent upon the alkylamine structure. The NO-releasing HA derivatives exhibited broad-spectrum antibacterial efficacy against a range of wound pathogens, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The biopolymers also exhibited antibiofilm action against P. aeruginosa biofilms. Nitric oxide-releasing HA was evaluated using an infected murine model and proved beneficial in accelerating wound healing and reducing bacterial burden. Two glycosaminoglycans, HA and chondroitin sulfate (CS), were derivatized with alkylamines to form NO donors and compared regarding their wound healing properties. Both NO- releasing glycosaminoglycans exhibited bactericidal activity against antibiotic-susceptible and multi-drug resistant strains of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. The alkylamine identity, glycosaminoglycan identity, and NO-release capability were all found to influence skin cell proliferation and adhesion to the extracellular matrix. Owing to NO’s anti-inflammatory properties, the NO-releasing glycosaminoglycans were found to mitigate activation of inflammatory pathways via Toll-like receptor 4. Comparison in an infected murine model demonstrated that NO-releasing CS outperformed HA in accelerating wound closure, with success attributed to both NO and the CS backbone. Nitric oxide-releasing hemodialysis catheter lock solutions were prepared using low molecular weight NO donors with different NO-release profiles. Slow, sustained release of NO from the catheter surface was found to be superior to high NO flux in preventing bacterial and protein adhesion as well as removing pre-adhered bacteria from the surface, indicating the potential for this system to act as both a preventative and treatment strategy. Minimal toxicity of the catheter lock solutions was discovered toward mammalian cells.Doctor of Philosoph

Wind-Tunnel Investigation of Shielded Horn Balances and Tabs on a 0.7-Scale Model of XF6F Vertical Tail Surface

Results of subject tests indicate the difficulty of obtaining closely balanced rudder surfaces for most tail assemblies with shielded horns and maintaining a near zero rate-of-change of hinge-moment coefficient without an additional balancing device. A comparison is made between shielded and unshielded horn test results. Pressure distribution and tuft tests of flow over different shaped horns showed higher critical speed for medium-taper nosed horn. The trim tab nose shape had little effect on tab test results

Prediction by Energy Phenomenology for Harnessing Hydrokinetic Energy Using Vortex-Induced Vibrations

This dissertation studies harnessing of the hydrokinetic energy of water-currents by utilizing single degree-of-freedom vortex-induced vibrations of a circular cylinder. A mathematical model is developed based on a novel approach of energy phenomenology supported by experimental measurements of harnessed energy. VIV is a complex fluid-structure interaction. Computational fluid dynamics has limited success due to the necessity to resolve the smallest scales. Phenomenological models are based on linear, mass-spring-dashpot equations or van der Pol oscillators with experimentally defined sinusoidal forcing missing the underlying physics of VIV. Van der Pol oscillators do not model VIV, just classical flutter. In all models, the vortex- shedding mode is limited to 2-Single vortices per cylinder cycle, while experiments show broad variety of vortex structures. In this dissertation, a new math model is developed through rigorous derivation of the energy of a cylinder, boundary layer, shear layer, and attached vortices, allowing for small-scale variations to be smoothed out, leaving the large-scale variations as the drivers for VIV. All parameters are physically meaningful and experimentally measurable. No curve-fitting is used to develop the model and there was no intended final form of the equation. Hamilton's principle is used to develop the force equation. The developed model has high level of qualitative and quantitative success capturing: (a) The phase-shift between the lift force and the cylinder displacement at synchronization lock-in. (b) The cylinder frequency lock-in response around the natural frequency. (c) The higher cylinder frequency response for very low mass ratio. (d) Lock-out at desynchronization. (e) The vortex-shedding frequency not locking in at synchronization. This allows for the model to respond to various vortex shedding modes, with both the tra- ditional 2-Single and 2-Pair modes documented, along with even higher modes observed in the output. (f) The amplitude response, qualitatively, in the representation of initial, upper, and lower branches within the range of synchronization, followed by desynchroniza- tion. The model yet fails to capture the actual amplitudes, but small changes in energy have nonlinearly large effects on the amplitude. In future research, the model will be updated to capture all of the energy affecting the system.Ph.D.Naval Architecture & Marine EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61601/1/elishamh_1.pd

Lessons Learned from Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 Pandemic Response in Thailand

The strengths and weaknesses of this response can inform planning for pandemics and other prolonged public health emergencies

Secondary somatic mutations restoring RAD51C and RAD51D associated with acquired resistance to the PARP inhibitor rucaparib in high-grade ovarian carcinoma

High-grade epithelial ovarian carcinomas (OC) containing mutated BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) homologous recombination (HR) genes are sensitive to platinum-based chemotherapy and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi), while restoration of HR function due to secondary mutations in BRCA1/2 has been recognized as an important resistance mechanism. We sequenced core HR pathway genes in 12 pairs of pre-treatment and post-progression tumor biopsy samples collected from patients in ARIEL2 Part 1, a phase 2 study of the PARPi rucaparib as treatment for platinum-sensitive, relapsed OC. In six of 12 pre-treatment biopsies, a truncation mutation in BRCA1, RAD51C or RAD51D was identified. In five of six paired post-progression biopsies, one or more secondary mutations restored the open reading frame. Four distinct secondary mutations and spatial heterogeneity were observed for RAD51C. In vitro complementation assays and a patient-derived xenograft (PDX), as well as predictive molecular modeling, confirmed that resistance to rucaparib was associated with secondary mutations