Taking Control

Commencement address given by Albert Shapero, Professor of Management Sciences, to the Autumn 1982 graduating class of The Ohio State University, St. John Arena, Columbus, Ohio, December 10, 1982

A validation study of the newly developed Calce method for determining age-at-death using the acetabulum

Age-at-death estimation is a key component of creating a biological profile in forensic and bioarchaeological contexts, and the development of methods that utilize different skeletal elements or observe traits in a new manner are an important part of progress in the study of forensic anthropology. Use of the acetabulum for identifying age-at-death is among new methods being developed, and the recently published method by Calce (2012) was the focus of the present study. The present author analyzed a sample of 489 modern American individuals drawn from the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection housed at the University of Tennessee and assigned each individual to a phase described by Calce (2012). The results of the present study show that use of this method correctly classified age-at-death 62.2% of the time. The performance of this method is low compared to the results of the initial study where Calce (2012) found the method to be 81% accurate. This suggests that the acetabulum is not as beneficial as an age-at-death indicator as previously considered, and that more research on the utility of the acetabulum as an age indicator is required

Interactions between valvular cells: implications for heart valve tissue engineering

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityApproximately 1 in 1000 children are born with congenital cardiovascular defects yearly in the US, including many abnormalities in heart valves. Tissue engineered heart valves (TEHVs) offer a solution for replacement or repair of affected valves. However, its therapeutic application is limited, and in ovine models, no TEHV has performed satisfactorily in vivo for longer than twenty weeks, in part due to the absence of supporting data for selection of the appropriate cell type(s) to be incorporated into the construct. This partially owes to the lack of a full understanding of the cells that inhabit the valve, which includes valve interstitial cells (VICs) and valve endothelial cells (VECs), and on the molecular mechanism underlying their interactions that maintain valve homeostasis. During embryonic valve development, the vast majority of VICs are derived from VECs via endothelial to mesenchymal transformation (EMT). EMT in postnatal valves is rare but it has been implicated in diseased valves. Yet, relatively little is known about VECs and VICs in post-natal valves in terms of specialized features, and how VECs and VICs might influence each other. This lack of knowledge has made it difficult to determine what type of cells should be used to create a TEHV. In order to achieve the optimal construction of a tissue engineered heart valve we look to the native valve as our guide for proper valve structure and function. Examination of the native valve leaflets can contribute to our understanding of the proper cellular environment and how disruption of this environment affects the valves. Many common mitral valve pathologies including mitral valve prolapse are characterized by thickening of the valve spongiosa, the presence of activated myofibroblasts, and excessive remodeling of the extracellular matrix. By examining the cell-cell interactions in healthy native valves, and comparing this with observations from pathogenic valves, a greater understanding can be achieved and then applied to the field of TEHV. In this thesis we explored the cell dynamics of the heart valve as related to natural homeostasis, disease progression, and tissue engineering. Using an in vitro co-culture model we revealed a novel two-way communication between mitral valve endothelial and interstitial cells. We propose that this communication promotes a healthy valve phenotype and function by inhibiting EndMT and suppressing VIC activation. We made a similar observation in the aortic valve, where VEC-VIC communication may prevent the process of an EndMT mediated osteogenesis in the context of calcific aortic valve disease. We have also used the VEC-VIC co-culture model to identify possible candidate cell sources for a tissue engineered heart valve. And finally, we show that cells that populated a tissue engineered pulmonary valve leaflet, created using an acellular scaffold, are phenotypically and functionally similar to native valve cells. These studies contribute to an understanding of the dynamics of the cellular interactions between VECs and VICs, and provide a new framework for identifying and testing the functionality of appropriate cell sources for building a TEHV with the ability to grow with the child, maintain homeostasis, and prevent fibrosis and calcification

Campaign strategy in the internet age: The use and effectiveness of internet advocacy tools in American political campaigns.

This paper explores the use and effectiveness of Internet Advocacy Tools, including Twitter, Facebook, Email, and blogs, in American Political campaigns in order to better understand their role in the American electoral process. Data was collected through a census of political campaign professionals immediately following the 2010 Congressional elections. The results of this research indicate that simply utilizing Internet Advocacy Tools is not enough to win an election, and that campaign professionals of all political persuasions have reservations regarding their across-the-board usefulness and effectiveness, despite presenting some certain advantages over traditional campaign methods and tools

Therapy of Mycosis Fungoides

Mycosis fungoides is best viewed as a cutaneous lymphoma. Over a period of years, it progresses through three stages—the first consisting of red scaly patches, the second of pruritic plaques, and the third of brownish-red tumors. The therapy of each stage is outlined, and several selected modalities are discussed in detail, including topical steroids, systemic steroids, localized superficial irradiation, topical nitrogen mustard, electron beam, and chemotherapy (alkylating agents and antimetabolites

High-order bounds-satisfying approximation of partial differential equations via finite element variational inequalities

Solutions to many important partial differential equations satisfy bounds constraints, but approximations computed by finite element or finite difference methods typically fail to respect the same conditions. Chang and Nakshatrala enforce such bounds in finite element methods through the solution of variational inequalities rather than linear variational problems. Here, we provide a theoretical justification for this method, including higher-order discretizations. We prove an abstract best approximation result for the linear variational inequality and estimates showing that bounds-constrained polynomials provide comparable approximation power to standard spaces. For any unconstrained approximation to a function, there exists a constrained approximation which is comparable in the $W^{1,p}$ norm. In practice, one cannot efficiently represent and manipulate the entire family of bounds-constrained polynomials, but applying bounds constraints to the coefficients of a polynomial in the Bernstein basis guarantees those constraints on the polynomial. Although our theoretical results do not guaruntee high accuracy for this subset of bounds-constrained polynomials, numerical results indicate optimal orders of accuracy for smooth solutions and sharp resolution of features in convection-diffusion problems, all subject to bounds constraints

Speaking Places: Language, Mind, and Environment in the Ancash Highlands (Peru)

This dissertation explores the relationship between language and environmental practice among Ancash Quechua speakers in the Río Negro watershed of the Cordillera Blanca mountain range in the central Peruvian Andes. Using mixed methods, it demonstrates how specific relationships between people and places—for example grazing routes, place-based kinship, and divination—shape how Ancash Quechua speakers conceive the surrounding world for speaking, thinking, and acting. By juxtaposing two experimental studies of spatial orientation in language with an analysis of its use in everyday conversation, it shows that speakers draw on a rich, embodied awareness of their orientation with respect to an expansive landscape of named places. Analyses of filmed interactions, reveal how this embodied awareness also partly constitutes the common ground of demonstrative reference, a domain of language that is not explicitly spatial. While the experimental studies of spatial language showed that geocentric orientation was the overwhelming preference for speakers in Río Negro, ethnographic research showed that individuals’ familiarity with the landscape varies. Herders work in open ranges among the highest peaks, and farmers in small parcels near urban centers. Furthermore, while both groups share a cultural understanding of the highest peaks as powerful social authorities, herders alone interact with individual mountains through offerings and divination. These cultural distinctions between farmers’ and herders’ environmental experiences correlated with performance on an experimental spatial memory task: herders were significantly more likely to orient to the landscapes, and farmers to their bodies. Moreover, the same correlation also appeared within the community’s sub-population of first-language Spanish speakers. In conclusion, this research contrasts with the commonly held view that the most basic concepts underlying human language are rooted in innate biology, and that their relation to cultural and environmental diversity must therefore be superficial at best. The findings also have broad implications for further research, suggesting that shifting patterns of environmental practice such as large-scale population movement and anthropogenic climate change resonate in human sociality, language, cognition, and corporeality.PHDAnthropologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138703/1/shaperoj_1.pd