From paradigm to K Mart : an alternative approach to teaching students with severe mental retardation

This dissertation documents a public school special education teacher's efforts to create an alternative method to teach language and functional skills to teenagers with severe mental retardation. Over a 3 year period, the students were taught to sequence photographs of school and community experiences into simple photo-based personal stories which were "told" to their families and friends. In addition to the acquisition of language, the work stresses the importance of personal narratives and the short story form for the formation of interpersonal relationships, the creation of meaning, the establishment of limits and boundaries, the development of affect and empathy, and personal empowerment. The paper concludes with examples of the students' stories and interpretations of their developmental effects. Influences that directly contributed to the development of this method of teaching include new educational and service delivery models for handicapped people, and readings on the new scientific paradigm (best represented by the work of Albert Einstein), liberation theology, Piaget's cognitive developmental theory, characteristics of human oppression, and the nature of the creative process. The author contrasts his method to common public school special education practices which are significantly influenced by behaviorism (Skinner) and beliefs and values stemming from classical Newtonian science and the Industrial Revolution

Swinging Toward Social Change: How Lindy Hop Promotes Gender Equality

Lindy Hop is a type of swing dance that became popularized in the late 1920’s. As a dancer in the current revival, I have noticed a dissonance between the discussions of gender equality in the community and the people’s actions. After conducting interviews and observations at The Snowball, a Lindy Hop event in Stockholm, Sweden, I coded my data and organized it based on common themes. I discovered that the community members’ actions and experiences are not as progressive as their discussions. Furthermore, individuals have not thought much about their goals for the future of Lindy Hop. I believe that we can bridge these gaps through being accountable for our actions, creating discussion, and holding our leadership to high standards

An assessment tool for participant groupings for human neuroimaging research: measuring musical training

The purpose of this study was to develop an assessment tool to measure musical training and experiences for grouping participants in human neuroimaging research studies. To fulfill the purpose of this study, the researcher: 1. Completed a comprehensive review of the research literature to establish the essential content of the assessment tool; 2. Developed an assessment tool to survey subjects about their musical training and experiences; 3. Pilot tested the assessment tool, and revised the tool according to the preliminary analyses of the validity, reliability, and usefulness of the assessment tool; 4. Established the content validity and reliability of the assessment tool with subjects participating in a neuroimaging study designed to analyze the influences of musical training and experiences on brain structures and functions, and 5. Determined if the assessment tool functioned effectively in the selection and grouping of musically trained and musically untrained subjects for neuroimaging studies. The assessment tool was administered to a purposive sample (N = 42) in the southeastern region of the United States. Participants were recruited on the basis of musical training, both the existence and lack thereof. The assessment was completed via the web-based platform, Qualtrics. Coding of survey responses indicated differences in the participant pool that resulted in two groups: Musicians and Non-musicians. Further investigation yielded two subgroups within the Musician participant group: Moderate and Advanced. Validity of the assessment tool was established using a three-step construction process, (a) development of a draft based on the existing literature and the musical training knowledge of the researcher, (b) a review of the assessment tool by five music educators and performers, and (c) administration to a pilot group of five additional people with varying levels of musicianship. Additional content validity was completed by external reviewers by rating each assessment item using a Likert-type scale: 1 – Not important, 2 – Slightly important, 3 – Fairly important, 4 – Important, and 5 – Very important. Reliability was established using interrater reliability and was determined to be 88.9%. A discussion was presented that included the differences among participants that made their musical training and experiences unique compared with other participants. Implications were discussed regarding the usage possibilities for the survey, as well as the potential effects of the survey on human neuroimaging research

Spatial Analysis of Surveyed Perceptions of Safety, Crime, and Lighting: A College Campus Case Study

With recent crime incidents at universities highlighted through the media, campus safety is of increasing importance to universities today. This research examines spatiotemporal relationships between surveyed perceptions of safety, reported incidents of crime, and exterior lighting. A GIS was used to digitize data from student surveys into digital points. Spatial analysis tools were used to convert these points into an enhanced campus perception of safety density surface. These point data were analyzed with spatial statistics tools in the CrimeStat application to examine relationships between daytime, nighttime, sexes, and other spatiotemporal characteristics. The perception points were compared with actual campus crime locations and the spatial extent of exterior illumination. The daytime perception data yielded results primarily and unexpectedly related to foot-traffic and transportation safety while the nighttime data related to more classic safety concerns. Results from this study suggest a high level of clustering of perceptions of unsafe areas but these do not necessarily correlate with areas in which crime actually occurs. However, there were similarities between poor lighting conditions and unsafe perceptions. Results from this study may potentially be used to create a safer real and perceived environment for students as well as offer a more focused crime prevention régime

How do we take care of our own? Principal support and development in Rocky Top Public Schools

Principals are isolated in their work and suffer from low morale. The role of the principal has become increasingly complex and demanding especially within the current accountability model with the public nature of school report cards. This is a problem in Rocky Top Public Schools and in school districts across the country. The purpose of this improvement effort is to provide support to decrease feelings of isolation and improve principal morale.Rocky Top Public Schools is an urban school system and one of three school systems in Carter County, North Carolina. Rocky Top Public Schools was designated as low performing under state legislation for the 2014-2015 school year. The pressures from this designation exacerbate the issues of low morale and isolation as principals seek additional ways to quickly improve student achievement.In the absence of resources and structures designed to support principals, principals collaborated to support one another as a community of learners. As an intervention, a structured professional learning community (PLC) with mentoring was implemented, so principals could engage in job-embedded inquiry and meaningful reflective dialogue. Improvement science was used as the framework to implement the change, an initiative to provide support to principals, and the impact of the change on the system will be measured to determine if the change is an improvement. Qualitative measures were used to collect data and study participant perceptions of the impact of the intervention. Reflection on the process applied revealed the PLC was functioning as a Community of Practice. The assessment of the effectiveness of the Community of Practice was analytic auto-ethnographic, relying on field notes, interviews, and journal reflections from a complete member researcher. Analysis of the findings suggest the intervention combats isolation and builds trust among participants

Absolute quantitation of DNA methylation of 28 candidate genes in prostate cancer using pyrosequencing

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Aberrant DNA methylation plays a pivotal role in carcinogenesis and its mapping is likely to provide biomarkers for improved diagnostic and risk assessment in prostate cancer (PCa). We quantified and compared absolute methylation levels among 28 candidate genes in 48 PCa and 29 benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) samples using the pyrosequencing (PSQ) method to identify genes with diagnostic and prognostic potential. RARB, HIN1, BCL2, GSTP1, CCND2, EGFR5, APC, RASSF1A, MDR1, NKX2-5, CDH13, DPYS, PTGS2, EDNRB, MAL, PDLIM4, HLAa, ESR1 and TIG1 were highly methylated in PCa compared to BPH (p < 0.001), while SERPINB5, CDH1, TWIST1, DAPK1, THRB, MCAM, SLIT2, CDKN2a and SFN were not. RARB methylation above 21% completely distinguished PCa from BPH. Separation based on methylation level of SFN, SLIT2 and SERPINB5 distinguished low and high Gleason score cancers, e.g. SFN and SERPINB5 together correctly classified 81% and 77% of high and low Gleason score cancers respectively. Several genes including CDH1 previously reported as methylation markers in PCa were not confirmed in our study. Increasing age was positively associated with gene methylation (p < 0.0001). Accurate quantitative measurement of gene methylation in PCa appears promising and further validation of genes like RARB, HIN1, BCL2, APC and GSTP1 is warranted for diagnostic potential and SFN, SLIT2 and SERPINB5 for prognostic potential

An Educational Intervention on Guidelines to Attenuate Spinal Anesthesia-Induced Maternal Hypotension and Related Side Effects

Background: Spinal anesthesia (subarachnoid block; SAB) is the preferred anesthetic technique used for elective cesarean sections (CS). While this technique is safe, hypotension and bradycardia are commonly occurring complications, putting both mother and baby at risk for adverse effects. Recent studies have examined the practice of administering prophylactic ondansetron, co-loading of crystalloids, and using sequential compressive devices as effective methods to reduce the incidence of spinal-induced maternal hypotension (SIH) and bradycardia. Purpose: This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project aimed to examine the impact of an educational intervention provided to Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) on evidence-based guidelines to attenuate spinal induced maternal hypotension and bradycardia. Outcomes included the effectiveness of an educational intervention, practice change, and barriers to change. Methods: The project utilized a post-intervention follow-up study design consisting of a pre-intervention survey, an online educational video, and a post-intervention survey. Results: Findings revealed a knowledge gap in the management of SIH. Although not statistically significant, there was an increase in knowledge and utilization of presented EBP to reduce SIH during elective CS. An educational intervention helped enhance CRNAs’ knowledge regarding SIH management and encouraged practice change.Recommendations and Conclusion: Findings support the use of EBP guidelines for managing SIH for parturient patients. Larger-scale research on this topic is recommended to support practice implementation

The Effects Of Aneuploidy On Posterior Development In Danio Rerio

Aneuploidy is the state of having more or fewer sets of chromosomes than what naturally occurs in the organism. In cases of aneuploidy, the altered number of chromosomes is associated with proportional changes in cell volume. To address this question, the zebrafish is an ideal model. Their external fertilization allows us to observe development from the one-cell stage. Protocols were developed for generating haploid and tetraploid embryos. This allowed a comparison of embryonic development between normal diploid embryos versus haploid and tetraploid embryos with half or double the normal number of chromosomes, respectively. The altered chromosome number was confirmed using karyotyping. Analysis of the gross morphology of the embryos at 24 hours post fertilization found haploid and tetraploid embryos to have shortened and malformed posterior bodies. Next, in situ hybridization was performed to determine whether gene expression was affected in the somites (blocks of developing muscle) or somite boundaries. Expression of myod1 was disrupted in haploid and tetraploid embryos, indicating defects in normal muscle development. Similarly, expression of xirp2a showed disruptions to the somite boundaries. These results support the hypothesis that aneuploidy affects posterior development by causing defects in somite development. These findings are supported by the growing interest in mechanical forces in development

Resveratrol Inhibits KSHV Reactivation by Lowering the Levels of Cellular EGR-1

In the field of herpesvirus research, the exact molecular mechanism by which such viruses reactivate from latency remains elusive. Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) primarily exists in a latent state, while only 1–3% of cells support lytic infection at any specific time. KSHV reactivation from latency is an exceedingly intricate process mediated by the integration of viral and cellular factors. Previously, our lab has described early growth response-1 (Egr-1) as an essential component for the KSHV reactivation process via its ability to mediate transcription of KSHV ORF50, the gene encoding for replication and transcription activator (RTA), a viral component known to control the switch from latent to lytic infection. In here, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments revealed that Egr-1 binds KSHV ORF50 promoter (ORF50P) in at least two different GC-rich binding domains. Expression profiles of cellular egr-1 and KSHV-encoded ORF50 follow a similar pattern during de novo KSHV infection. Over-expressing Egr-1, a signaling component downstream of Raf>MEK>ERK1/2, in KSHV-infected cells activates KSHV lytic replication. Through performing more physiologically relevant experiments, we analyzed the effect of a dietary supplement containing resveratrol on KSHV-infected cells. Our results, for the first time, demonstrate resveratrol to act in lowering ERK1/2 activity and expression of Egr-1 in KSHV-infected cells, resulting in the suppression of virus reactivation from latency. Taken together, these findings will undoubtedly contribute to future studies on not only combating KSHV related disease conditions, but also on other herpesviruses-induced pathogenesis

WNT signaling regulates self-renewal and differentiation of prostate cancer cells with stem cell characteristics

Prostate cancer cells with stem cell characteristics were identified in human prostate cancer cell lines by their ability to form from single cells self-renewing prostaspheres in non-adherent cultures. Prostaspheres exhibited heterogeneous expression of proliferation, differentiation and stem cell-associated makers CD44, ABCG2 and CD133. Treatment with WNT inhibitors reduced both prostasphere size and self-renewal. In contrast, addition of Wnt3a caused increased prostasphere size and self-renewal, which was associated with a significant increase in nuclear Β-catenin, keratin 18, CD133 and CD44 expression. As a high proportion of LNCaP and C4-2B cancer cells express androgen receptor we determined the effect of the androgen receptor antagonist bicalutamide. Androgen receptor inhibition reduced prostasphere size and expression of PSA, but did not inhibit prostasphere formation. These effects are consistent with the androgen-independent self-renewal of cells with stem cell characteristics and the androgen-dependent proliferation of transit amplifying cells. As the canonical WNT signaling effector Β-catenin can also associate with the androgen receptor, we propose a model for tumour propagation involving a balance between WNT and androgen receptor activity. That would affect the self-renewal of a cancer cell with stem cell characteristics and drive transit amplifying cell proliferation and differentiation. In conclusion, we provide evidence that WNT activity regulates the self-renewal of prostate cancer cells with stem cell characteristics independently of androgen receptor activity. Inhibition of WNT signaling therefore has the potential to reduce the self-renewal of prostate cancer cells with stem cell characteristics and improve the therapeutic outcome.Peer reviewe