1,682 research outputs found
Narrative-Focused Video Games As Situated Learning: Media Literacy Implications of Play, Identity, and Perspective Taking
With the emergence of more narrative-focused video games, this study attempted to better understand how college students construct meaning through these interactive experiences as a means of understanding social and cultural differences and perspectives. This study explored how playing narrative-focused video games may interconnect with college students' lived experiences, their understanding of others through perspective taking, and their sense of identity in reality and in-game through the lens of media literacy. The theoretical framework utilized in this study drew from situated learning theory and Gee's theory of identity and identity stories. Data collection for this study used multiple data sources including college student focus groups, gameplay observations of students playing Gone Home, and individual participant interviews. Qualitative, narrative analysis was utilized to explore the identity stories shared by five college student participants as well as the themes that emerged across the various data sources. The results of this study found that participants situated video game narratives within their lived experiences, assimilating the experiences within the game with their own stories and reflections. Preliminary evidence emerged that participants engaged in perspective taking tendencies while playing narrative-focused games; however, this finding appears to be connected with the participant's level of awareness and attention to detail while playing the game. This study also explored concepts of the real, virtual, and projective identities (Gee, 2007). Results found that participants utilized video games that tell stories as a vehicle for exploring their own identity as they project themselves into the characters they embody within the game. While participants primarily described their real identity in regard to discursively established identity traits, video games allowed them to explore alternative points of view. Through gameplay observations and the stories participants shared, evidence in support for the media literacy concepts of play and performance emerged, while the media literacies of simulation and negotiation were less prominently featured. Implications for education and future research are also discussed.Educatio
The H-alpha Luminosity Function and Star Formation Rate Volume Density at z=0.8 from the NEWFIRM H-alpha Survey
[Abridged] We present new measurements of the H-alpha luminosity function
(LF) and SFR volume density for galaxies at z~0.8. Our analysis is based on
1.18m narrowband data from the NEWFIRM H-alpha Survey, a comprehensive
program designed to capture deep samples of intermediate redshift emission-line
galaxies using narrowband imaging in the near-infrared. The combination of
depth ( erg s cm in H-alpha at
3) and areal coverage (0.82 deg) complements other recent H-alpha
studies at similar redshifts, and enables us to minimize the impact of cosmic
variance and place robust constraints on the shape of the LF. The present
sample contains 818 NB118 excess objects, 394 of which are selected as H-alpha
emitters. Optical spectroscopy has been obtained for 62% of the NB118 excess
objects. Empirical optical broadband color classification is used to sort the
remainder of the sample. A comparison of the LFs constructed for the four
individual fields reveals significant cosmic variance, emphasizing that
multiple, widely separated observations are required. The dust-corrected LF is
well-described by a Schechter function with L*=10^{43.00\pm0.52} ergs s^{-1},
\phi*=10^{-3.20\pm0.54} Mpc^{-3}, and \alpha=-1.6\pm0.19. We compare our
H-alpha LF and SFR density to those at z<1, and find a rise in the SFR density
\propto(1+z)^{3.4}, which we attribute to significant L* evolution. Our H-alpha
SFR density of 10^{-1.00\pm0.18} M_sun yr^{-1} Mpc^{-3} is consistent with UV
and [O II] measurements at z~1. We discuss how these results compare to other
H-alpha surveys at z~0.8, and find that the different methods used to determine
survey completeness can lead to inconsistent results. This suggests that future
surveys probing fainter luminosities are needed, and more rigorous methods of
estimating the completeness should be adopted as standard procedure.Comment: 19 pages (emulate-ApJ format), 16 figures, 5 tables, published in
ApJ. Modified to match ApJ versio
Development of a new humanized mouse model to study acute inflammatory arthritis
BACKGROUND: Substantial advances have been generated in understanding the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Current murine models of RA-like disease have provided great insights into the molecular mechanism of inflammatory arthritis due to the use of genetically deficient or transgenic mice. However, these studies are limited by differences that exist between human and murine immune systems. Thus, the development of an animal model that utilizes human immune cells, will afford the opportunity to study their function in the initiation and propagation of inflammatory arthritis. METHODS: One to two-day old irradiated NOD-scid IL2rγ(null) (NSG) mice were reconstituted with human CD34+ cord blood stem cells. Leukocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry and circulating antibodies were determined by ELISA. Arthritis was induced by injecting complete Freund’s adjuvant into knee or ankle joints. Mice were also treated with the TNF inhibitor, Etanercept, or PBS and joints were analyzed histologically. RESULTS: Humanized mice were established with high reconstitution rates and were able to spontaneously produce human immunoglobulins as well as specific IgG in response to immunization. Intraperitoneal injection of thioglycolate or injection of complete Freund’s adjuvant into joints resulted in migration of human immune cells to the injected sites. Arthritic humanized mice treated with Etanercept had markedly less inflammation, which was associated with decreased total numbers of human CD45+ cells, including human lymphocytes and neutrophils. CONCLUSIONS: The humanized mouse model is a new model to study inflammatory arthritis disease using human leukocytes without rejection of engrafted tissue. Future studies may adapt this system to incorporate RA patient cord blood and develop a chimeric animal model of inflammatory arthritis using genetically predisposed immune cells
Body size dissatisfaction and avoidance behavior: How gender, age, ethnicity, and relative clothing size predict what some won’t try
Sixty-eight percent of U.S. adults are overweight/obese, and this epidemic has physical, psychosocial, and behavioral consequences. An internet sample of adults (N = 2997) perceiving themselves as larger than ideal in clothing size reported their body mass index (BMI), relative clothing size (RS; discrepancy between current and ideal size), and avoidance behaviors. Exploratory factor analysis of 10 avoid-ance items produced social avoidance and body display avoidance factors. A relative importance analysis revealed RS as a better predictor than BMI for avoidance. A hierarchical multivariate analysis of covariance found RS to predict both avoidance constructs. The relationship between RS and both avoidance con-structs was stronger for women than men, and for younger as compared to older participants. Caucasians reported more body display avoidance than African Americans. This suggests that personal dissatisfac-tion with body size may deter involvement in varied life events and that women are especially avoidant of activities that entail displaying their bodies
Earliest Eocene mammalian fauna from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum at Sand Creek Divide, southern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89881/1/Papers On Paleontology 36 02-15-2012.pd
Tight Clustering of Extracellular BP180 Epitopes Recognized by Bullous Pemphigoid Autoantibodies
Bullous pemphigoid is a blistering skin disease associated with autoantibodies against the BP180 antigen, a transmembrane component of the hemidesmosome. Anti-BP180 antibodies have been demonstrated to be pathogenic in a passive transfer mouse model. One extracellular site on human BP180 (MCW-1) was previously shown to be recognized by 50–60% of bullous pemphigoid sera. To facilitate the identification of additional autoantibody-reactive epitopes, recombinant forms of the BP180 ectodomain were generated using both bacterial and mammalian expression systems. One recombinant protein, sec180e, that was expressed in COS-1 cells and that contained the entire BP180 ectodomain, provided us with a tool to detect conformational epitopes. Bullous pemphigoid sera immuno-adsorbed against the major noncollagenous NC16A domain no longer reacted with sec180e, indicating that autoantibody reactivity to the BP180 ectodomain is restricted to the NC16A region. Immunoblot analysis of bullous pemphigoid sera immunoadsorbed with a series of recombinant NC16A peptides revealed the presence of three novel autoantigenic sites that, along with the MCW-1 epitope, are clustered within the N-terminal 45 amino acid stretch of NC16A. All 15 bullous pemphigoid sera tested reacted with a recombinant protein containing this BP180 segment. No disease-associated epitopes were detectable within the remaining 28 amino acids of NC16A. Thus, bullous pemphigoid patient autoantibodies react with a set of epitopes on the BP180 ectodomain that are highly clustered. This autoantibody-reactive region on human BP180 shows overlap with the corresponding murine BP180 site that is targeted by antibodies that are pathogenic in the mouse model of bullous pemphigoid. These findings suggest new directions for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools for this disease
The H-alpha Luminosity Function and Star Formation Rate Volume Density at z=0.8 from the NEWFIRM H-alpha Survey
[Abridged] We present new measurements of the H-alpha luminosity function
(LF) and SFR volume density for galaxies at z~0.8. Our analysis is based on
1.18m narrowband data from the NEWFIRM H-alpha Survey, a comprehensive
program designed to capture deep samples of intermediate redshift emission-line
galaxies using narrowband imaging in the near-infrared. The combination of
depth ( erg s cm in H-alpha at
3) and areal coverage (0.82 deg) complements other recent H-alpha
studies at similar redshifts, and enables us to minimize the impact of cosmic
variance and place robust constraints on the shape of the LF. The present
sample contains 818 NB118 excess objects, 394 of which are selected as H-alpha
emitters. Optical spectroscopy has been obtained for 62% of the NB118 excess
objects. Empirical optical broadband color classification is used to sort the
remainder of the sample. A comparison of the LFs constructed for the four
individual fields reveals significant cosmic variance, emphasizing that
multiple, widely separated observations are required. The dust-corrected LF is
well-described by a Schechter function with L*=10^{43.00\pm0.52} ergs s^{-1},
\phi*=10^{-3.20\pm0.54} Mpc^{-3}, and \alpha=-1.6\pm0.19. We compare our
H-alpha LF and SFR density to those at z<1, and find a rise in the SFR density
\propto(1+z)^{3.4}, which we attribute to significant L* evolution. Our H-alpha
SFR density of 10^{-1.00\pm0.18} M_sun yr^{-1} Mpc^{-3} is consistent with UV
and [O II] measurements at z~1. We discuss how these results compare to other
H-alpha surveys at z~0.8, and find that the different methods used to determine
survey completeness can lead to inconsistent results. This suggests that future
surveys probing fainter luminosities are needed, and more rigorous methods of
estimating the completeness should be adopted as standard procedure.Comment: 19 pages (emulate-ApJ format), 16 figures, 5 tables, published in
ApJ. Modified to match ApJ versio
Scalable downstream purification of recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors
Scalable manufacturing technologies are essential for ensuring modern medicines can be produced to meet the needs of clinical trials, process development, and commercial manufacture. Recent advances in in vivo gene therapies have resulted in multiple regulatory approvals of rAAV vectors for gene transfer in humans. These vectors can be produced using transient transfection of mammalian cells, baculovirus infection of insect cells or produced via engineered stable producer cells. These production methods are performed in single-use bioreactors and utilize other scalable technologies as used in commercial monoclonal antibody manufacture. In this work, we evaluated the use of existing single-use filtration and separation technologies for downstream purification of an rAAV5 viral vector. rAAV5 vector was produced by transient transfection of HEK293 cells in the Pall iCELLis® Nano bioreactor. Bioreactor harvest lysis material was clarified using direct flow filtration with both depth and sterilizing grade filters. The product was concentrated 10x using 100kD OmegaTM flat-sheet tangential flow-filtration (TFF) before primary purification using affinity chromatography. The rAAV5 vector was then polished using Mustang® Q membrane chromatography to enrich for full capsids. A second TFF step was performed to concentrate and buffer exchange with flat sheet TFF with the same 100KD Omega membrane. Final sterile filtration was performed using Supor® EKV validated sterilizing grade filters. All downstream unit operations resulted in acceptable performance. Feasibility of a complete downstream process was established with a theoretical whole process yield of ~25%. This process results in a very low contaminant profile as host cell protein (HCP) and host cell DNA were reduced to near and below the assays’ limits of quantitation during purification. Of particular interest, Mustang Q polishing resulted in retention of only ~10% of total capsids, while recovering ~50% of full capsids enriching the ratio of full capsids to empty capsids by 4.5 fold
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