Making Space for Online Students to Create Relevancy from Course Content for Their Context

In my experience, though online courses are somewhat different from face-to-face instruction, they are just as effective in advancing course learning outcomes. A key reason is that I have discovered ways to enable students to create relevancy for their own contexts from the online course content.Constructivist learning theory has helped us understand that adults learn best when they can connect content to their own life or work

Modernity, nationalism and global marginalisation: representing the nation in contemporary Taiwanese art exhibitions

This thesis describes and analyses the development of the most prestigious large- scale exhibitions of the Taipei Fine Arts Museums from its opening in 1983 until 2009, concentrating on the Trends of Modern Art in the R.O.C. series of the 1980s , the introduction of the Taipei Biennial in 1992, and the Taiwan Pavilion in Venice from 1995 until 2009. Its focus lies on the transformation of the museum space and the status of the work of art. Several threads of questions run through this thesis: an attempt to analyse and illuminate the specific modernity and its inherent contradictions that characterized the museum space; the specific status of the object of art (and the artist) within the museum space; and lastly the image of the nation and its transformations as it is projected through these exhibitions. The first part of this thesis concentrates on how modernism was enacted in the first museum of modern and contemporary art in Taiwan (and one of the first in Asia), how a Chinese modernism was anointed through the exhibitionary system, and how this was challenged and finally abolished in favour of a new exhibitionary system, the Taipei Biennial. This part also analyses the rupture between those two exhibitions, and how the latter inaugurated a new and different status of the work of art, not merely an aesthetic object, but an element of a cultural narrative and discourse. The second part of the thesis shifts its focus on how the work of art was re-framed through the discourse of Taiwanese identity. Using as a starting point the writings of Benedict Anderson, the idea of the nation as a universe or microcosm of knowledge is used to describe a new pattern of representation of the nation that emerged since 1995, with the inauguration of the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. This part of the thesis concentrates on how this new and pluralist pattern of nationalism was created, repeated, and re-confirmed, but also re-written over the years, projecting an archetypical image of an “imagined community” or a microcosm of knowledge of the nation, rooted in the past, projected into the future, and centred around a synthesis of the nature of its territory and the urban experience of the capital. The third part of the thesis describes how the subaltern position of local artists and curators in relation to the museum have re-shaped their analysis of the nation, and how the notion of centrality of the nation was de-constructed once the question of the voice of a nation, but most of all of its curators and artists within a globalised world came to the fore

Seismic Analysis of Concrete Dam by Using Finite Element Method

This paper reports a brief study on linear seismic analysis of Sg. Kinta Concrete Dam. The analysis was conducted in order to determine the performance and behaviour of the dam under seismic excitation. The dam was modelled as two-dimensional and developed based on the design drawing that is obtained from Angkasa Consulting Services Sdn. Bhd. The seismic analysis of the dam is conducted using finite element analysis software package LUSAS 14.3 and the dam has been analyse as a plain stress problem with a linear consideration. A set of historic data, with E1 Centro earthquake acceleration of about 0.50g is used as an earthquake excitation. The natural frequency and mode shape up to fifth mode of the dam has been obtained from the analysis to show the differences of the stress and deformation between each mode. The maximum horizontal and vertical stress of Sg. Kinta dam was found and the distribution of them was discussed in form of contours. The deformation of the dam were also been discussed by comparing the maximum displacement for each mode shaped

Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) is an option for patients with localized breast recurrences after previous external-beam radiotherapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>For patients suffering of recurrent breast cancer within the irradiated breast, generally mastectomy is recommended. The normal tissue tolerance does not permit a second full-dose course of radiotherapy to the entire breast after a second breast-conserving surgery (BCS). A novel option is to treat these patients with partial breast irradiation (PBI). This approach is based on the hypothesis that re-irradiation of a limited volume will be effective and result in an acceptable frequency of side effects. The following report presents a single center experience with intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) during excision of recurrent breast cancer in the previously irradiated breast.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between 4/02 and 11/06, 15 patients were treated for in-breast recurrences at a median of 10 years (3–25) after previous EBRT (10 recurrences in the initial tumor bed, 3 elsewhere in-breast failures, 2 invasive recurrences after previous DCIS). Additional 2 patients were selected for IORT with new primary breast cancer after previous partial breast EBRT for treatment of Hodgkin's disease. IORT with a single dose of 14.7 – 20 Gy 50 kV X-rays at the applicator surface was delivered with the Intrabeam™-device (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After a median follow-up of 26 months (1–60), no local recurrence occurred. 14 out of 17 patients are alive and free of disease progression. Two patients are alive with distant metastases. One patient died 26 months after BCS/IORT due to pulmonary metastases diagnosed 19 months after BCS/IORT. Acute toxicity after IORT was mild with no Grade 3/4 toxicities and cosmetic outcome showed excellent/good/fair results in 7/7/3 cases.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>IORT for recurrent breast cancer using low energy X-rays is a valuable option for patients with recurrent breast cancer after previous radiotherapy.</p

Cystinosis: practical tools for diagnosis and treatment

Cystinosis is the major cause of inherited Fanconi syndrome, and should be suspected in young children with failure to thrive and signs of renal proximal tubular damage. The diagnosis can be missed in infants, because not all signs of renal Fanconi syndrome are present during the first months of life. In older patients cystinosis can mimic idiopathic nephrotic syndrome due to focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis. Measuring elevated white blood cell cystine content is the corner stone for the diagnosis. The diagnosis is confirmed by molecular analysis of the cystinosin gene. Corneal cystine crystals are invariably present in all patients with cystinosis after the age of 1 year. Treatment with the cystine depleting drug cysteamine should be initiated as soon as possible and continued lifelong to prolong renal function survival and protect extra-renal organs. This educational feature provides practical tools for the diagnosis and treatment of cystinosis

Identification of calcium-binding proteins associated with the human sperm plasma membrane

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The precise composition of the human sperm plasma membrane, the molecular interactions that define domain specific functions, and the regulation of membrane associated proteins during the capacitation process, still remain to be fully understood. Here, we investigated the repertoire of calcium-regulated proteins associated with the human sperm plasma membrane.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Surface specific radioiodination was combined with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, a 45Ca-overlay assay, computer assisted image analysis and mass spectrometry to identify calcium-binding proteins exposed on the human sperm surface.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nine acidic 45Ca-binding sperm proteins were excised from stained preparative 2D gels and identified by mass spectrometry. Five of the calcium binding proteins; HSPA2 (HSP70-1), HSPA5 (Bip), HYOU1 (ORP150), serum amyloid P-component (SAP) and protein kinase C substrate 80K-H (80K-H) were found to be accessible to Iodo-Bead catalyzed 125I-labelling on the surface of intact human sperm. Agglutination and immunofluorescence analysis confirmed that SAP is situated on the plasma membrane of intact, motile sperm as well as permeabilized cells. Western blot analysis showed increased phosphorylation of human sperm 80K-H protein following in vitro capacitation. This is the first demonstration of the 80K-H protein in a mammalian sperm.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The presence of SAP on the surface of mature sperm implies that SAP has a physiological role in reproduction, which is thought to be in the removal of spermatozoa from the female genital tract via phagocytosis. Since 80K-H is a Ca2+-sensor recently implicated in the regulation of both inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor and transient receptor potential (TRP) cation channel activities, its detection in sperm represents the first direct signaling link between PKC and store-operated calcium channels identified in human sperm.</p