An Analysis of the Effects of an Integrated Learning System on Student Achievement in Mathematics

Abstract The purpose of this study was to contribute to the debate regarding the effects of integrated learning systems (ILS) with respect to mathematical remediation on student achievement. In addition, the results of the study were intended to provide information and analysis to school district leaders with respect to curricular, scheduling, and financial decisions. The study was guided by the following research question: Will the use of ALEKS®, an online mathematical ILS, significantly affect the achievement of at-risk eighth grade students by way of growth on the Kansas Mathematics Assessment? The study was designed to measure the achievement of students in a treatment group (students who utilized the ALEKS program) and compare that to the achievement of a control group (students who did not utilize the ALEKS program). The participants in this study were 1,269 eighth grade students from the Shawnee Mission School District in northeastern Kansas. Using data from 2007, a multivariate linear regression was used to determine the effects of the ALEKS program on student achievement while controlling for student characteristics and school and teacher fixed effects. Results from this quantitative, quasi-experimental study showed that at-risk students that utilized the ALEKS program experienced more growth on the KMA in one year's time compared to at-risk students who did not utilize the ALEKS program. However, this was only true for a small portion of the ALEKS users. By including a variable in the regression that accounted for the effects of the interaction between ALEKS users and their prior score on the KMA, the results revealed the ALEKS program only showed significant and positive effects for students who entered the ALEKS program with a prior KMA score below 33.8%. The results from this study coincided with current literature that expresses the effectiveness of utilizing ILS as a remediation strategy for at-risk students

Mast Cells Shape Early Life Programming of Social Behavior

Inflammation during development increases risk for neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism. Mast cells are a type of innate immune cells present in the brain that modulate inflammation. However, their role in brain development is unknown. We have previously shown thousands of mast cells reside in the developing rat brain suggesting that they may mediate the effects of early life inflammation. The goals of these experiments were to characterize effects mast cells play on the development of social behaviors. To determine if mast cells participate in regular programming of social behaviors, we pharmacologically activated or inhibited mast cells during the neonatal period and tested social interaction behavior in adulthood. We found that social avoidance was decreased in males following mast cell activation. There were no effects on active investigation or passive interaction. Early life activation led to life-long increases in the brain mast cell population. We next utilized a prenatal allergic immune challenge to better simulate physiologically-relevant mast cell activation during development. We performed a social play test on juvenile rats, and found that they engaged in less social play behavior than the control group. We are currently testing the effects of allergic challenge on social interaction behavior in adult rats. We are also assessed the effects on allergic challenge on the number of mast cells in the in brain regions, and found that hippocampal mast cell up-regulation with allergic challenge correlates to the observed behavioral decreases in male juvenile play, however females also showed a decrease in rough and tumble behaviors that did not correlate with mast cell differences. Because neuropsychiatric disorders are more prevalent in males and our lab has previously found marked sex differences in the number of mast cells in the developing brain, we determined that males and females respond differently to prenatal allergic challenge. Together these studies show that mast cells may play a key role in the early life programming of social behavior, and activation of these cells following early life inflammation may contribute to the ontogeny of autism.Department of PsychologyDepartment of NeuroscienceNo embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

Meaningful change: defining the interpretability of changes in endpoints derived from interactive and mHealth technologies in healthcare and clinical research

Immersive, interactive and mHealth technologies are increasingly being used in clinical research, healthcare and rehabilitation solutions. Leveraging technology solutions to derive new and novel clinical outcome measures is important to the ongoing assessment of clinical interventions. While demonstrating statistically significant changes is an important element of intervention assessment, understanding whether changes detected reflect changes of a magnitude that are considered meaningful to patients is equally important. We describe methodologies used to determine meaningful change and recommend that these techniques are routinely included in the development and testing of clinical assessment and rehabilitation technology solutions

Interstitial Cell Remodeling Promotes Aberrant Adipogenesis in Dystrophic Muscles.

Fibrosis and fat replacement in skeletal muscle are major complications that lead to a loss of mobility in chronic muscle disorders, such as muscular dystrophy. However, the in vivo properties of adipogenic stem and precursor cells remain unclear, mainly due to the high cell heterogeneity in skeletal muscles. Here, we use single-cell RNA sequencing to decomplexify interstitial cell populations in healthy and dystrophic skeletal muscles. We identify an interstitial CD142-positive cell population in mice and humans that is responsible for the inhibition of adipogenesis through GDF10 secretion. Furthermore, we show that the interstitial cell composition is completely altered in muscular dystrophy, with a near absence of CD142-positive cells. The identification of these adipo-regulatory cells in the skeletal muscle aids our understanding of the aberrant fat deposition in muscular dystrophy, paving the way for treatments that could counteract degeneration in patients with muscular dystrophy

Tuning the relative affinities for activating and repressing operators of a temporally regulated restriction-modification system

Most type II restriction-modification (R-M) systems produce separate endonuclease (REase) and methyltransferase (MTase) proteins. After R-M genes enter a new cell, MTase activity must appear before REase or the host chromosome will be cleaved. Temporal control of these genes thus has life-or-death consequences. PvuII and some other R-M systems delay endonuclease expression by cotranscribing the REase gene with the upstream gene for an autogenous activator/repressor (C protein). C.PvuII was previously shown to have low levels early, but positive feedback later boosts transcription of the C and REase genes. The MTase is expressed without delay, and protects the host DNA. C.PvuII binds to two sites upstream of its gene: OL, associated with activation, and OR, associated with repression. Even when symmetry elements of each operator are made identical, C.PvuII binds preferentially to OL. In this study, the intra-operator spacers are shown to modulate relative C.PvuII affinity. In light of a recently reported C.Esp1396I-DNA co-crystal structure, in vitro and in vivo effects of altering OL and OR spacers were determined. The results suggest that the GACTnnnAGTC consensus is the primary determinant of C.PvuII binding affinity, with intra-operator spacers playing a fine-tuning role that affects mobility of this R-M system

STUDIES OF NONIONIC MICELLAR SOLUTIONS BY FLUORINE NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY

Abstract not availabl

Data collection from sensors - confirmation of the temperature chamber

Thesis deals with desing and implementation of automated data collection during confirmation of temperature chamber. First chapter describes the confirmation of temperature chamber. Second chapter consist of overview of temperature sensors and description of hardware used in the thesis. Third chapter describes work with selected LabVIEW libraries and architectures. Whole LabVIEW application is described in chapter four. Chapter Fifth chapter serves as user manual and last chapter consist of evaluation of application and ideas for improvements