Integrating Technology to Improve Communicative and Cultural Proficiency

The purpose of this report is to explore how the integration of technology can enhance students’ communicative and cultural proficiency in a second language by connecting two world language classrooms from across the globe. Through a series of weekly emails between partners, students practiced their reading and writing skills while gaining knowledge of their partners’ culture and colloquial language in a meaningful and individualized manner. The participants were high school students in the United States who were learning Spanish and high school students in Spain who were learning English. This created an authentic and organic environment for language acquisition, showing improvement in both communicative and cultural proficiency. Data collected was qualitative and quantitative to adequately capture student improvement, and through reflection of the feedback, both stated by students and observed, I created an updated guide to help the project improve in future implementation

The Globalized Classroom: Integrating Technology to Improve Communicative and Cultural Proficiency

The purpose of this project was to explore how the integration of technology affects students’ communicative and cultural proficiency in a second language when connecting two world language classrooms from across the globe. Through a series of weekly emails between partner schools, students practiced their interpretive reading and presentational writing skills while gaining knowledge of their partners’ cultures and colloquial language in a meaningful and individualized manner. The participants were U.S. high school students learning Spanish and Spanish high school students learning English. This created an authentic and organic environment for language acquisition, showing improvement in both communicative and cultural proficiency. Data collected was qualitative and quantitative to capture adequately student improvement. Through analysis of the feedback, both stated by students and observed, an updated curriculum guide was created to help the project improve in future implementation

Finite Element Analysis Simulations of Micro and Nano-Electromechanical Sensors for Design Optimization

Micro and Nano-electromechanical sensors (MEMS and NEMS) provide a means of actively sensing minute changes in the surrounding environment. Small changes in temperature, momentum, and strain may be sensed in passive modes while greater sensing possibilities exist in active modes. Theoretical femto-gram resolution mass detection and heated element sensing methods may be used while volatile organic compound (VOC) sensing may be achieved when combined with a functionalization layer or device heating. These devices offer a great reduction in cost and offer increased mobility by allowing a lab-on-chip solution for the prospective user while also greatly reducing the amount of energy consumed by current sensor designs and equipment set-ups. Work has been done in our lab on AlGaN/GaN MEMS cantilevers and InN NEMS nanowire sensors for use as NOx and VOC sensing applications. Research and development of optimal mechanical designs for these proposed sensors can be a very iterative, and therefore an expensive process. The devices must be grown (in the case of NEMS) etched, and characterized; a process taking several weeks or months and often involving the use of advanced facilities. Because of this great time and material cost methods are needed to reduce the number of iterations to optimal design and streamline the research and development process to achieve a faster time to end-product. Finite element analysis (FEA) simulations allow the researcher to test hundreds of proposed designs within weeks. Allowing a research and development team to reduce the number of proposed design configurations as well as propose and test the feasibility of new sensor designs for future works. Using full-featured simulation packages such as COMSOL Multiphysics allows a researcher to not only model the mechanical properties of the proposed MEMS/NEMS sensors, but also provides the ability to couple together other attributes of the complete device model such as environmental losses, joule heating effects, and polarization. This can be done either within the simulation software itself, or through coupling with external packages such as MATLAB. Here COMSOL simulations, as well as the simulation methodology, will be presented for the cases of the AlGaN/GaN resonant cantilever sensor as well as the InN nanowire based design. In the case of the AlGaN/GaN MEMS sensor some simulation results will be compared to experimental measurements to show the feasibility of this research step for micro-scale and nanoscale mechanical sensor design

Expression and purification of functional human glycogen synthase-1:glycogenin-1 complex in insect cells

We report the successful expression and purification of functional human muscle glycogen synthase (GYS1) in complex with human glycogenin-1 (GN1). Stoichiometric GYS1:GN1 complex was produced by co-expression of GYS1 and GN1 using a bicistronic pFastBac™-Dual expression vector, followed by affinity purification and subsequent size-exclusion chromatography. Mass spectrometry analysis identified that GYS1 is phosphorylated at several well-characterised and uncharacterised Ser/Thr residues. Biochemical analysis, including activity ratio (in the absence relative to that in the presence of glucose-6-phosphate) measurement, covalently attached phosphate estimation as well as phosphatase treatment, revealed that recombinant GYS1 is substantially more heavily phosphorylated than would be observed in intact human or rodent muscle tissues. A large quantity of highly-pure stoichiometric GYS1:GN1 complex will be useful to study its structural and biochemical properties in the future, which would reveal mechanistic insights into its functional role in glycogen biosynthesis

The origin of deep ocean microseisms in the North Atlantic Ocean

Oceanic microseisms are small oscillations of the ground, in the frequency range of 0.05–0.3 Hz, associated with the occurrence of energetic ocean waves of half the corresponding frequency. In 1950, Longuet-Higgins suggested in a landmark theoretical paper that (i) microseisms originate from surface pressure oscillations caused by the interaction between oppositely travelling components with the same frequency in the ocean wave spectrum, (ii) these pressure oscillations generate seismic Stoneley waves on the ocean bottom, and (iii) when the ocean depth is comparable with the acoustic wavelength in water, compressibility must be considered. The efficiency of microseism generation thus depends on both the wave frequency and the depth of water. While the theory provided an estimate of the magnitude of the corresponding microseisms in a compressible ocean, its predictions of microseism amplitude heretofore have never been tested quantitatively. In this paper, we show a strong agreement between observed microseism and calculated amplitudes obtained by applying Longuet-Higgins' theory to hindcast ocean wave spectra from the North Atlantic Ocean. The calculated vertical displacements are compared with seismic data collected at stations in North America, Greenland, Iceland and Europe. This modelling identifies a particularly energetic source area stretching from the Labrador Sea to south of Iceland, where wind patterns are especially conducive to generating oppositely travelling waves of same period, and the ocean depth is favourable for efficient microseism generation through the ‘organ pipe’ resonance of the compression waves, as predicted by the theory. This correspondence between observations and the model predictions demonstrates that deep ocean nonlinear wave–wave interactions are sufficiently energetic to account for much of the observed seismic amplitudes in North America, Greenland and Iceland

Introduction to ‘Homology and convergence in nervous system evolution’

The origin of brains and central nervous systems (CNSs) is thought to have occurred before the Palaeozoic era 540 Ma. Yet in the absence of tangible evidence, there has been continued debate whether today's brains and nervous systems derive from one ancestral origin or whether similarities among them are due to convergent evolution. With the advent of molecular developmental genetics and genomics, it has become clear that homology is a concept that applies not only to morphologies, but also to genes, developmental processes, as well as to behaviours. Comparative studies in phyla ranging from annelids and arthropods to mammals are providing evidence that corresponding developmental genetic mechanisms act not only in dorso–ventral and anterior–posterior axis specification but also in segmentation, neurogenesis, axogenesis and eye/photoreceptor cell formation that appear to be conserved throughout the animal kingdom. These data are supported by recent studies which identified Mid-Cambrian fossils with preserved soft body parts that present segmental arrangements in brains typical of modern arthropods, and similarly organized brain centres and circuits across phyla that may reflect genealogical correspondence and control similar behavioural manifestations. Moreover, congruence between genetic and geological fossil records support the notion that by the ‘Cambrian explosion’ arthropods and chordates shared similarities in brain and nervous system organization. However, these similarities are strikingly absent in several sister- and outgroups of arthropods and chordates which raises several questions, foremost among them: what kind of natural laws and mechanisms underlie the convergent evolution of such similarities? And, vice versa: what are the selection pressures and genetic mechanisms underlying the possible loss or reduction of brains and CNSs in multiple lineages during the course of evolution? These questions were addressed at a Royal Society meeting to discuss homology and convergence in nervous system evolution. By integrating knowledge ranging from evolutionary theory and palaeontology to comparative developmental genetics and phylogenomics, the meeting covered disparities in nervous system origins as well as correspondences of neural circuit organization and behaviours, all of which allow evidence-based debates for and against the proposition that the nervous systems and brains of animals might derive from a common ancestor

The Diagnosis and Management of Toxic Alcohol Poisoning in the Emergency Department: A Review Article

Context: This review discusses the range of clinical presentations seen with poisonings by the major toxic alcohols--methanol, ethylene glycol, and isopropyl alcohol. It outlines a straightforward diagnostic strategy and discusses in detail the current treatment recommendations. Evidence acquisition: The authors conducted a literature search of primary and secondary sources related to the topic. For treatment recommendations, search restrictions included articles published between 2008 and 2019. For background information, search restrictions included articles written from 1990 – present. Results: This review discusses in detail how the diagnosis can be made via clinical signs, symptoms, and laboratory values as well as the most recent treatment recommendations. This paper will also discuss the limitations of the emergency department workup and how the absence of particular laboratory findings does not necessarily rule out the diagnosis. Conclusion: Poisoning with methanol, ethylene glycol, and isopropanol present diagnostic and therapeutic challenges to emergency physicians. Toxic alcohol poisonings lead to an elevated osmolar gap and, with the exception of Isopropanol, a metabolic acidosis. In order for the timely initiation of life-saving treatment, emergency physicians need a solid understanding of the pathophysiology, clinical presentation, laboratory workup, and treatment. Laboratory assays for these compounds are send-out tests in most hospitals and are therefore of no value in the acute clinical setting