Using Interactive Lessons through Technology to Improve Students’ Academic Performance

Many after school programs aim to have an effective instructional component with time for learning and practice. This ABAB study examined the effects of use of SAS Curriculum Pathways and traditional white board instruction for three students who attend an after school program and struggle in certain aspects of school. Grammar topics were taught throughout the study and students were assessed by a 10-question quiz. A functional relation was demonstrated and indicates that the use of SAS Curriculum Pathways might be beneficial for students to learn grammatical topics. Future research could include using the SAS Curriculum Pathways with other populations or other school subjects

Social life and ritual practices in an Alaskan Pentecostal community (The First Assembly of God, Fairbanks)

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2013This MA thesis research project focuses on the First Assembly of God Church in Fairbanks, Alaska. It seeks to better understand the implementation of Pentecostal-Charismatic (PC) Christianity in 21st century urban Alaska. While social activism and outreach form a significant portion of the success of Pentecostalism in Alaska (as anywhere else), my research shows that it is also substantially due to the appeal of ritual to newcomers. In particular, I suggest that there are forms of spiritual possession and spirit embodiment that need to be examined in relation to the attractiveness of Pentecostalism in Fairbanks. There is a gap in academic literature pertaining to Pentecostal rituals. Recent anthropological studies have focused primarily on notions of conversion, rupture, empowerment, and modernization. My research complements these studies by shedding an unprecedented light on Pentecostal processes of ritualization. Participant observation and interviews were used to examine ritual activity and the nature of spiritual gifts within PC Christianity in Fairbanks.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Theoretical framework -- 2.1. Spiritual possession: The divide between possession theorists -- 2.2. Ritual -- 2.3. Mobility (fluidity) -- Chapter 3. Background -- 3.1. Christianity in Alaska -- 3.2. Brief history of Pentecostalism -- 3.3. Assembly of God Church (AG) -- 3.3.1. First Assemblies in Alaska -- Chapter 4. The culture of Pentecostalism -- 4.1. Connection between churches -- 4.2. Membership -- 4.3. Mobility and church planting -- Chapter 5. An ethnographer in the assembly -- 5.1. Participant observation in a PC community -- 5.2. Interviews and conversations with faith practitioners -- Chapter 6. Rituals and ritualized social programs in the assembly -- 6.1. Wednesday night Bible study -- 6.2. Tuesday night Bible study (women's 'Bible study) -- 6.3. Retreats -- 6.3.1. Men's retreat -- 6.3.2. Women's retreat -- 6.4. Handprint -- 6.5. Quilting circle -- 6.6. Sunday service -- 6.6.1. Usual service -- 6.6.2. Special Sunday services -- Chapter 7. Discussion of key themes -- 7.1. Socio-political themes in the assembly -- 7.2. Language versus physicality in rituals -- 7.3. Reassessing the shamanism/possession divide -- Chapter 8. Conclusion -- References cited

Stronger Together: Type 1 Diabetes & Military Personnel

Details the final Capstone project for MDS 495. Purpose of the project was to start a support group for military members who are Type 1 Diabetics (late onset)

Aromatase inhibitors produce hypersensitivity in experimental models of pain : studies in vivo and in isolated sensory neurons

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are the current standard of care for the treatment of hormone receptor positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Nearly one-half of patients receiving AI therapy develop musculoskeletal toxicity that is characterized by joint and/or muscle pain and approximately one-fourth of patients discontinue their therapy as a result of musculoskeletal pain. Since there are no effective strategies for prevention or treatment, insight into the mechanisms of AI-induced pain is critical to improve treatment. However, there are few studies of AI effects in animal models of nociception. To determine whether AIs produce hypersensitivity in animal models of pain, I examined the effects of AI administration on mechanical, thermal, and chemical sensitivity in rats. The results demonstrate that (1) repeated injection of 5 mg/kg letrozole in male rats produces mechanical, but not thermal, hypersensitivity that extinguishes when drug dosing is stopped; (2) administering a single dose of 1 or 5 mg/kg letrozole in ovariectomized (OVX) rats also induces mechanical hypersensitivity, without altering thermal sensitivity and (3) a single dose of 5 mg/kg letrozole or daily dosing of letrozole or exemestane in male rats augments flinching behavior induced by intraplantar ATP injection. To determine whether the effects of AIs on nociceptive behaviors are mediated by activation or sensitization of peptidergic sensory neurons, I determined whether letrozole exposure alters release of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) from isolated rat sensory neurons and from sensory nerve endings in rat spinal cord slices. No changes in basal, capsaicin-evoked or high extracellular potassium-evoked CGRP release were observed in sensory neuronal cultures acutely or chronically exposed to letrozole. Furthermore, letrozole exposure did not alter the ability of ATP to augment CGRP release from sensory neurons in culture. Finally, chronic letrozole treatment did not augment neuropeptide release from spinal cord slices. Taken together, these results do not support altered release of this neuropeptide into the spinal cord as mediator of letrozole-induced mechanical hypersensitivity and suggest the involvement of other mechanisms. Results from this dissertation provide a new experimental model for AI-induced hypersensitivity that could be beneficial in delineating mechanisms mediating pain during AI therapy

Beyond "Clear Transmission" : Commercial Aviation, Communication and Crew Resource Management

This exploratory study looks at communication perspectives and applies them to the transcript of USAir Flight 427, a flight that crashed while attempting to land. Researchers calculate that 60% to 80% of the accidents can he traced to pilot error. Many of these errors occur through a single communication event or series of communication events. Human factor engineers developed crew resource management (CRM) to address communication, decision-making, and teamwork to proactive address these challenges. Often, human factors engineering studies recommend "better" or "clearer" communication to address the issue of pilot error. B. A. Fisher's perspectives (mechanistic, psychological, symbolic interactionist, and pragmatic) provide researchers a way to talk about communication by explaining the strengths and weaknesses associated with various approaches to communication phenomena. The application of Coordinated Management of Meaning and Conversation Analysis offers some insight and support to CRM that need further research. More research needs to he conducted solely focusing on communication's role in aviation

A Penalized Mixture Model Approach in Genotype/Phenotype Association Analysis for Quantitative Phenotypes

A mixture normal model has been developed to partition genotypes in predicting quantitative phenotypes. Its estimation and inference are performed through an EM algorithm. This approach can conduct simultaneous genotype clustering and hypothesis testing. It is a valuable method for predicting the distribution of quantitative phenotypes among multi-locus genotypes across genes or within a gene. This mixture model’s performance is evaluated in data analyses for two pharmacogenetics studies. In one example, thirty five CYP2D6 genotypes were partitioned into three groups to predict pharmacokinetics of a breast cancer drug, Tamoxifen, a CYP2D6 substrate (p-value = 0.04). In a second example, seventeen CYP2B6 genotypes were categorized into three clusters to predict CYP2B6 protein expression (p-value = 0.002). The biological validities of both partitions are examined using established function of CYP2D6 and CYP2B6 alleles. In both examples, we observed genotypes clustered in the same group to have high functional similarities. The power and recovery rate of the true partition for the mixture model approach are investigated in statistical simulation studies, where it outperforms another published method

N-(4-{4-[2-(Trifluoro­meth­oxy)phen­yl]piperazin-1-yl}but­yl)thio­phene-2-carboxamide dihydrate

In the title compound, C20H24F3N3O2S·2H2O, a dopamine D3 ligand, the piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation while the piperazine and benzene rings form a dihedral angle of 47.71 (6)°. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by inter­molecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. In the mol­ecular structure, the F atoms of the trifluoro­methyl group are disordered over two sites with occupancies of 0.69 (11) and 0.31 (11)

Aromatase inhibitors augment nociceptive behaviors in rats and enhance the excitability of sensory neurons

Although aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are commonly used therapies for breast cancer, their use is limited because they produce arthralgia in a large number of patients. To determine whether AIs produce hypersensitivity in animal models of pain, we examined the effects of the AI, letrozole, on mechanical, thermal, and chemical sensitivity in rats. In ovariectomized (OVX) rats, administering a single dose of 1 or 5mg/kg letrozole significantly reduced mechanical paw withdrawal thresholds, without altering thermal sensitivity. Repeated injection of 5mg/kg letrozole in male rats produced mechanical, but not thermal, hypersensitivity that extinguished when drug dosing was stopped. A single dose of 5mg/kg letrozole or daily dosing of letrozole or exemestane in male rats also augmented flinching behavior induced by intraplantar injection of 1000nmol of adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP). To determine whether sensitization of sensory neurons contributed to AI-induced hypersensitivity, we evaluated the excitability of neurons isolated from dorsal root ganglia of male rats chronically treated with letrozole. Both small and medium-diameter sensory neurons isolated from letrozole-treated rats were more excitable, as reflected by increased action potential firing in response to a ramp of depolarizing current, a lower resting membrane potential, and a lower rheobase. However, systemic letrozole treatment did not augment the stimulus-evoked release of the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) from spinal cord slices, suggesting that the enhanced nociceptive responses were not secondary to an increase in peptide release from sensory endings in the spinal cord. These results provide the first evidence that AIs modulate the excitability of sensory neurons, which may be a primary mechanism for the effect of these drugs to augment pain behaviors in rats

Population Pharmacokinetic Modeling To Estimate the Contributions of Genetic and Nongenetic Factors to Efavirenz Disposition

Efavirenz pharmacokinetics is characterized by large between-subject variability, which determines both therapeutic response and adverse effects. Some of the variability in efavirenz pharmacokinetics has been attributed to genetic variability in cytochrome P450 genes that alter efavirenz metabolism, such as CYP2B6 and CYP2A6. While the effects of additional patient factors have been studied, such as sex, weight, and body mass index, the extent to which they contribute to variability in efavirenz exposure is inconsistently reported. The aim of this analysis was to develop a pharmacometric model to quantify the contribution of genetic and nongenetic factors to efavirenz pharmacokinetics. A population-based pharmacokinetic model was developed using 1,132 plasma efavirenz concentrations obtained from 73 HIV-seronegative volunteers administered a single oral dose of 600 mg efavirenz. A two-compartment structural model with absorption occurring by zero- and first-order processes described the data. Allometric scaling adequately described the relationship between fat-free mass and apparent oral clearance, as well as fat mass and apparent peripheral volume of distribution. Inclusion of fat-free mass and fat mass in the model mechanistically accounted for correlation between these disposition parameters and sex, weight, and body mass index. Apparent oral clearance of efavirenz was reduced by 25% and 51% in subjects predicted to have intermediate and slow CYP2B6 metabolizer status, respectively. The final pharmacokinetic model accounting for fat-free mass, fat mass, and CYP2B6 metabolizer status was consistent with known mechanisms of efavirenz disposition, efavirenz physiochemical properties, and pharmacokinetic theory. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under identifier NCT00668395.

Rifampin modulation of xeno- and endobiotic conjugating enzyme mRNA expression and associated microRNAs in human hepatocytes

Rifampin is a pleiotropic inducer of multiple drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters. This work utilized a global approach to evaluate rifampin effects on conjugating enzyme gene expression with relevance to human xeno- and endo-biotic metabolism. Primary human hepatocytes from 7 subjects were treated with rifampin (10 μmol/L, 24 hours). Standard methods for RNA-seq library construction, EZBead preparation, and NextGen sequencing were used to measure UDP-glucuronosyl transferase UGT, sulfonyltransferase SULT, N acetyltransferase NAT, and glutathione-S-transferase GST mRNA expression compared to vehicle control (0.01% MeOH). Rifampin-induced (>1.25-fold) mRNA expression of 13 clinically important phase II drug metabolizing genes and repressed (>1.25-fold) the expression of 3 genes (P < .05). Rifampin-induced miRNA expression changes correlated with mRNA changes and miRNAs were identified that may modulate conjugating enzyme expression. NAT2 gene expression was most strongly repressed (1.3-fold) by rifampin while UGT1A4 and UGT1A1 genes were most strongly induced (7.9- and 4.8-fold, respectively). Physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling (PBPK) was used to simulate the clinical consequences of rifampin induction of CYP3A4- and UGT1A4-mediated midazolam metabolism. Simulations evaluating isolated UGT1A4 induction predicted increased midazolam N-glucuronide exposure (~4-fold) with minimal reductions in parent midazolam exposure (~10%). Simulations accounting for simultaneous induction of both CYP3A4 and UGT1A4 predicted a ~10-fold decrease in parent midazolam exposure with only a ~2-fold decrease in midazolam N-glucuronide metabolite exposure. These data reveal differential effects of rifampin on the human conjugating enzyme transcriptome and potential associations with miRNAs that form the basis for future mechanistic studies to elucidate the interplay of conjugating enzyme regulatory elements