The Impact of Digital Storytelling on Student Engagement, Motivation, and Revision During the Writing Process

Life in the digital era demands a new set of technological skills and competencies. The twenty-first century learner is currently challenged to embrace both traditional and newer literacies. Digital storytelling, the process of enhancing a narrative with images, audio, video, and text, gracefully blends these literacies, proving an effective tool for both educator and student. While student engagement and motivation may present as problematic during writing instruction, the willingness of students to revise their writing often proves a bigger challenge. The opportunity to produce digital stories has the potential to engage and motivate the twenty-first century learner, as it embraces their technological comfort level and presents the writing process in a novel way. The purpose of this case study was to examine the impact of digital storytelling on student engagement, motivation, and revision during the writing process in a third grade classroom. The researcher applied both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods (i.e., observations, surveys, interviews, and student artifacts) to determine the impact of digital storytelling on these learning indicators. Through the application of inductive analysis and descriptive statistics, the researcher concluded that the process of digital storytelling had a positive impact on student engagement and motivation. Students were driven by a desire to showcase their digital stories to their classroom audience. Unfortunately, the digital storytelling process did not instigate a noteworthy increase in student writing revisions. Further research is needed to inform the impact of digital storytelling on the writing process

Fear Learning and the Olfactory Bulb: Neural Correlates of Behavioral Fear Generalization

The exploration of how learning alters neural coding to guide behaviors remains fundamental to neuroscience. At the most basic level, the ability for organisms to flexibly adapt to changing environments and situations is paramount to biological success and often manifests in behavioral responses controlled by neural activity. For example, organisms must modify their behavior to defensive responses in the face of biological threat. Neural circuitry is involved in coordinating an initial defensive behavioral response but must undergo reorganization in order to reliably employ defensive responses in subsequent encounters based on a cue that signals imminent danger. One such form of this learning is associative fear learning, in which an organism learns to associate an initially neutral stimulus, which by itself has no biological relevance, with an innately fear-inducing stimulus. After temporally pairing the two stimuli, organisms learn that the initially neutral stimulus predicts the fear-inducing stimulus such that encountering the former induces similar behavioral responses as the latter. Interestingly, associative fear learning is often not specific and organisms display fear responses to completely neutral stimuli that have never been associated with the innately fear-inducing stimulus. This aberrant expression of fear is referred to as generalization and is a hallmark of many psychological disorders such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The underlying cause of fear generalization remains unknown; however, there are two predominant theories. One theory is fear generalization arises as a better-safe-than-sorry strategy, wherein sensory information remains perceptually segregated between fear predictive and neutral stimuli but the organism responds to both the same way despite the perceptual information. The second theory argues that learning alters sensory processing to make the stimuli more difficult to perceptually distinguish, which cascades into behaviorally treating them as the same. The olfactory bulb (OB) represents an ideal model system for studying the extent to which fear learning alters sensory coding in ways that support failure of perceptual discrimination due to its odotopic organization that creates unique “maps” of odor representation for each experience odor. Therefore, we used both wide-field and 2-photon (2P) calcium imaging of the OBs of awake mice in combination with classical olfactory fear conditioning to investigate how learning changes sensory representation of the conditioned odor, the initially neutral odor specifically paired with fear-inducing foot shock, as well as neutral odors never paired with shock. This allowed direct testing of the extent to which fear learning reorganizes olfactory processing in a manner that supports the failure to discriminate hypothesis of fear generalization. Both wide-field and 2P imaging revealed enhanced odor-evoked responses following fear learning that likely signal increased salience of incoming sensory information. Furthermore, the responses evoked by neutral odors became more similar to those evoked by the conditioned odor at both the population level (wide-field) and in a specific subset of OB output cells (2P), indicating neutral odors were more difficult to distinguish from the conditioned odor. Importantly, the enhanced odor-evoked responses were not attributable to behavioral state change nor top-down influence from the amygdala, the area widely believed to be involved in aberrant fear. Together, this evidence supported the failure of perceptual discrimination at early stages of sensory process as the underlying mechanism of fear generalization. We additionally investigated the role of neuromodulators in basic olfactory fear learning through in vivo pharmacology, optogenetics, and relative gene expression analysis. Manipulation of acetylcholine in the OB during olfactory fear learning established cholinergic neurotransmission can enhance the strength of learned fear and that signaling through muscarinic receptors is required for the formation of olfactory fear. Gene expression analysis revealed that several neurotransmitter receptors are downregulated 4 hours following odor-shock pairing. The majority of the downregulated genes were associated with OB inhibition suggesting that fear learning, behavioral fear generalization, and altered OB coding may arise from decreased inhibition in the OB. Altogether these results characterize neural correlates of fear generalization in the olfactory bulb at both the population and single cell level and demonstrate the importance of neuromodulation in fear learning, supporting the idea that fear generalization may initially arise from altered processing of incoming information in sensory areas. These results also highlight the importance of investigating the mechanisms of learning-induced sensory processing alterations as they relate to behavior in understanding fear generalization. This will bring insights into basic processes of learning and has the immense potential to translate to the treatment of disorders of fear generalization

Immunometabolic profiling of CD4+ T cells in cattle

Immunometabolism is a growing field and examines the effects cellular metabolism has on driving the immune response. T cell function is impacted by the changes in bioenergetics, as metabolism is intricately linked to activation signals intra- and extracellularly, nutrient acquisition, cell cycle progression and proliferation, and overall the induction of a productive effector response. This dissertation interrogates the role immunometabolism plays in CD4+ T cells from dairy cattle during the complete lactation cycle (early lactation to the dry period), as well as its role in the maturation of the CD4+ T cell response in the calf and how that compares to the adult animal. During the dynamic process of lactation and pregnancy, dairy cattle exhibit various levels of disease susceptibility. Substantial literature indicates a reduced function of innate immunity in early lactating cows, a time when animals are most susceptible to infection. Data shown in Chapter 2 suggests that adaptive immune responses are also reduced during early lactation. CD4+ T cells, a critical cell type in the effector and memory immune response, were shown to have decreased cytokine production, as well as an altered metabolic phenotype in comparison to cells from dry cows and cows later in lactation. Additionally, an examination of the altered effector function exhibited by calf CD4+ T cells, as anticipated, produced less cytokines, but exhibited a propensity to produce Th2-driven cytokine IL-4 rather than Th1-driven cytokine IFN-γ. Polyclonal activation of CD4+ T cells from calves induced a unique metabolic phenotype with both mitochondrial respiration and aerobic glycolysis increasing, characteristic of the metabolic phenotype of Th2 cells. Upon activation, we also show an increase in glycolytic genes and aerobic glycolysis, greater than that from adult cows. Additionally, in comparison to adult cows, we show young calves have a greater proportion of recent thymic emigrants (RTEs), an immature t cell population shown to have dampened effector and metabolic functions. However, the complete contribution of RTEs to the altered metabolic reprogramming and dampened effector function of CD4+ T cells from young calves remains to be elucidated In conclusion, CD4+ T cells from dairy cattle exhibit differential metabolic phenotypes during activation that can be attributed to physiological status, as well as development and the maturation of the immune system

Can recent property price dynamics still be justified by fundamentals or are they indicating house price bubbles?

have fueled the analysis of property price determinants. Using a Fixed Effects model, we analyze to what extent fundamental factors, such as macroeconomic, demographic or real estate market conditions, influence the evolution of housing prices in 15 OECD economies over the period 1970-2016. In the second part of this work, a Rolling Augmented Dickey-Fuller test was applied with the objective of providing evidence for potential bubbles in these OECD countries

Irish Enough?

Irish Enough? is an essay collection that primarily describes my travels to Ireland. Before leaving America, I was overwhelmed with the prospect that I would be touring the country for eleven days, exploring where my great-grandparents came from, and essentially journeying to “the homeland” (as my family referred to it at a wedding, months later). Through the collection I explore not only what it is like to travel through Ireland as an outsider, but also the expectations and realities of being an American with Irish heritage “returning” to Ireland. The collection tackles questions, such as “Why does our society romanticize traveling abroad, especially in Europe?” or “What does it mean to be a tourist?” Furthermore, I wanted my travel narratives to be accompanied by a recollection of moments spent with my grandmother, Meme, who has taught me Irish culture and superstition. In order to tell of my experiences abroad, I had to tell my family’s history, first

No Safe Spaces: Institutionally Washed Out

Abstract Prior literature has shown that black and brown bodies (BBB) are policed and victimized at higher rates than their white counterparts within the criminal justice system. The criminalization of school discipline is a microcosm of ‘big’ criminal justice. Criminal justice measures were implemented within schools as a means of maintaining ‘safety.’ Policing in schools perpetuates punishment disproportionality and maintains similar disproportionalities as the ‘big’ criminal justice system in terms of for whom and how how severely it is applied. Meaning that regardless of the school\u27s demographics or student backgrounds, black and brown bodies are punished at a higher rate than their white counterparts. Prior literature has already shown that black and brown youth are policed at higher rates within schools than their white counterparts and that school demographics also have an effect on racialized school discipline. However, prior research is limited in its ability to take into account the potential interconnectivity of these multilevel findings. This research uses Wacquant\u27s theory to explain the intentional holes in institutions that are used as a means of maintaining social control and Racial/Ethnic Threat to negate the idea of \u27safety.\u27 Based on past research, the purpose of this study is to correlate the disproportional use of punishment on minorities at the individual level and the institutional level. This research controls for prior misconduct and/or prior criminalization, finding that BBBs continue to be punished at higher rates, regardless of the demographics of the school. The findings of this research allude to the reality of these discriminatory practices; they are not to maintain ‘safety\u27, but could be interpreted as institutional means of control aimed to preserve and perpetuate systems of marginalization and oppression

We Ultimately Just Need to Connect Engaging in a Digital World: Perceptions From Families and Educators During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Henderson & Berla (1994) state “the evidence is now beyond dispute. When schools work together with families to support learning, children tend to succeed not just in school, but throughout life” (p.1). The objective of this study was to explore how the COVID19 pandemic changed the way elementary educators needed to connect and develop relationships with the families of their students. This study addressed the broad research question of how elementary teachers and families perceived their interactions through remote modalities during the COVID-19 pandemic using focus groups from rural central Maine. They also discussed what technology and digital modalities were used to communicate with each other when schools were required to move traditional teacher-family activities such as conferences, school visits and meetings to a virtual platform. Historically family engagement has been researched as to its importance and effect on student achievement (Hattie, 2008; Epstein, 2011; Ferlazzo, 2011) and the pandemic heightened the need for strong parent engagement. While using technology to communicate was not a new phenomenon in education (Tobokla, 2006; Fleming, 2012) using a variety of means and ways to communicate helped bridge communication barriers. Parents developed confidence interacting with teachers as a result of the use of technology, specifically email, messaging and video-conferencing. (Hayhurst, 2021; Logan et. al., 2021) This study investigates a new phenomenon in education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is significant as a study in an area that is just being developed and researched. The findings and suggestions can be utilized immediately to support communication through digital modalities. Using focus groups rather than surveys makes the study uniquely situated to hear the thoughts and perceptions from educators and parents, in a new area of educational research

Utilizing Multitask Transfer Learning for Sonographic Rheumatoid Arthritis Synovitis Grading

Classifying the four sonographic Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) synovitis grades (Grade 0, Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3) is a difficult problem due to the complexity of the relevant markers. Therefore, the current research proposes a Multitask Transfer Learning (MTL) framework for sonographic RA synovitis grading of Ultrasound (US) images in Brightness mode (B-Mode) and Power Doppler mode. In the medical community, the lack of reliability of scoring these images has been an issue and reason for concern for doctors and other medical practitioners. The human/machine variability across the acquisition procedure of these US images creates an additional challenge that restricts the development of an efficient automated scoring system. The literature reports the lack of coherency among the doctors’ opinions about the grade of arthritis for patients in controlled trials. Motivated by these reasons, the current work moves away from the traditional wisdom of separately scoring B-mode and Power Doppler mode images and poses an MTL framework that jointly learns the features for images across both modes, leading to a more robust automated classifier. The multitask nature of the model also provides additional benefits such as better generalization to blinded test data from the inherent regularization and the ability of the model to be trained by a combination of B-Mode and Power Doppler US images, thereby efficiently handling data scarcity. Results show the superior performance of the proposed approach compared to traditional machine learning algorithms as well as other standard deep learning models such as Convolutional Neural Networks and Vision Transformers. The mean testing accuracy of our proposed MTL model on B-Mode was 51.55% and on Power Doppler was 61.18%. However, since the boundary between classes is not always clear or defined in RA synovitis grades, the Top 2 success rates have been regarded as another measure of performance in this domain. Accordingly, with a mean B-Mode Top 2 success rate of 80.52% and a Power Doppler Top 2 success rate of 82.50%, the proposed approach can reach a near-human doctor-level classification performance, establishing the usability of this approach

Colonization factors of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in pigs

Escherichia coli O157:H7 causes severe hemorrhagic colitis in people. The main source of infection by E. coli O157:H7 is improperly cooked, or handled, contaminated food. E. coli O157:H7 has two well-described virulence factors: intimin and Shiga toxins. Research presented in this document utilized strains of E. coli O157:H7 that were mutated in genes that encoded a quorum sensing molecule, long polar fimbriae, and intimin. Gnotobiotic and conventionally reared pigs were infected to demonstrate whether the mutated strains were impaired in their ability to colonize or create disease when compared to the parent strain of E. coli O157:H7.;Mutation of the luxS gene, the product of which was a quorum sensing communicative molecule Al-2, was the first mutant of E. coli O157:H7 presented. AI-2 positively influences the bacterium to transcribe and translate genes that are necessary for bacterial attachment to enterocytes. Natural host hormones, epinephrine and norepinephrine, can override the luxS mutation given to the bacteria. The mutation in luxS had minimal effect on the colonization capability for E. coli O157:H7 possibly due to the provision of hormones from the intestinal tract of the pigs.;The second set of E. coli O157:H7 mutants had genes disrupted that were homologous to long polar fimbriae genes in Salmonella. The fimbriae may contribute to the initial adherence of E. coli O157:H7 to the enterocytes. The results of the long polar fimbriae studies indicated the lpf genes are not critical for virulence; however, they may aid E. coli O157: H7 in the colonization of gnotobiotic and conventionally reared pigs.;The third E. coli O157:H7 mutant was an intimin mutant. Several studies have shown that E. coli O157:H7 can be recovered from the tonsils from infected conventional pigs. In some instances, the recovery from tonsils exceeded that from the feces or any intestinal organ. It was concluded that intimin is not required for colonization of conventional pigs by E. coli O157:H7; nor does it preferentially colonize a particular area of the alimentary tract, but can remain at low levels throughout the tract.;These three studies may contribute to the idea that redundancy of adherence mechanisms may allow E. coli O157:H7 a competitive advantage in the colonization process

Eating disorders, the imposter phenomenon, and achievement in a nonclinical population

The Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), the Work and Family orientation Questionnaire (WOFO), and the Impostor Phenomenon (IP) Scale were compared to determine whether these tests measure similar phenomena in women in a nonclinical population. Each test was subjected to factor analysis to explore existing factor structures. The combined scales of the three tests were factor analyzed, and four factors emerged. The EDI scales loaded on two factors (Symptomology and Immaturity), and the IP Scale loaded on both of these factors. The WOFO loaded on two separate factors (Achievement and Personal Unconcern), with the Perfectionism and Interpersonal Distrust scales of the EDI. The results establish that the EDI is a good inclusive measure, touching on achievement and personal unconcern, and that the EDI incorporates the concept of impostor phenomenon in its scale structure. It is also concluded that the EDI provides an adequate measure of the core characteristics of eating disorders in a normal population