4,045 research outputs found
Let Me Tell You What I See Creating a Culturally Relevant Arts Based Education Through the use of Photography and Storytelling
There are many constructs that can hinder the ability of students of color to succeed in a classroom environment. Factors such as the construct of whiteness, microaggressions, the banking method, as well as cuts in arts based classes create a learning environment where oppression occurs on multiple levels. The construct of whiteness creates an environment in which only the ideas, values, lived experiences, and knowledge of whites are considered valid. Microaggressions uphold the construct of whiteness by insulting and invalidating any ideas, values, lived experiences, languages, and knowledge that are outside the construct of whiteness. The constructs of whiteness as well as microaggressions create a social and cultural hierarchy. Students of color may detach from their cultural heritage to avoid harassment. The use of the banking method creates an intellectual hierarchy by creating a space in which knowledge is derived from one source. Teachers control what is learned in the classroom and students are expected to remember the information that is being “taught”. In this situation it is uncertain if students are really understanding the material that is being taught or they are just regurgitating information. Lastly cuts in arts based classes create an inequitable learning environment because students are stripped of the opportunity to engage in multimodal learning space. These factors create an inequitable learning environment for students of color. The aim of this project is to provide educators with a curriculum that creates a culturally relevant arts based education through the use of photography and storytelling. This curriculum is based on the ideas of critical pedagogy, community cultural wealth, culturally relevant education, arts based education, photography, storytelling, as well as collaborative education. Together these concepts reconstruct a different type of learning space; one that is calls upon, utilizes, and driven by the lived experiences, values, knowledge, and ideas of students of color. Students of color will be able to identify and analyze various topic such as identity, community, culture, power, love, and inspiration/ aspiration. The use of photography and storytelling will allow students of color to artistically portray their ideas while engaging in a collaborative learning space. The main objective of this project is to provide students of color an opportunity to appreciate and value their culture while being able to express themselves artistically
An L1 Penalty Method for General Obstacle Problems
We construct an efficient numerical scheme for solving obstacle problems in
divergence form. The numerical method is based on a reformulation of the
obstacle in terms of an L1-like penalty on the variational problem. The
reformulation is an exact regularizer in the sense that for large (but finite)
penalty parameter, we recover the exact solution. Our formulation is applied to
classical elliptic obstacle problems as well as some related free boundary
problems, for example the two-phase membrane problem and the Hele-Shaw model.
One advantage of the proposed method is that the free boundary inherent in the
obstacle problem arises naturally in our energy minimization without any need
for problem specific or complicated discretization. In addition, our scheme
also works for nonlinear variational inequalities arising from convex
minimization problems.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figure
The Role of Olfactory-Nigral Circuitry in Neurodegeneration and Hyposmia in Rodent Model of Parkinson\u27s Disease
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by both motor and non-motor symptoms. The motor symptoms include bradykinesia and resting tremor while the non-motor symptoms associate with sleeping disorders and olfactory dysfunctions. Besides that, patients may experience hyposmia prior being diagnosed with PD. Thus, the present project’s objective is to confirm a new dopaminergic pathway, which contributes to hyposmia link in pre-exposed PD patients. In order to validate the nigro-olfactory pathway, the MitoPark model was set up in the combination of several techniques including cryosectioning, mounting, and fluorescent microscopy. After collecting data, there were significant fluorescent of FG tracers emitted at Striatum. In order to validate the hypothesis, more fluorescent data need collecting specifically for Dil and CTB at the olfactory bulb
Improving the tensile strength of carbon nanotube spun yarns using a modified spinning process
A modified process for the dry spinning of carbon nanotube (CNT) yarn is reported. The approach gives an improved structure of CNT bundles in the web drawn from the CNT forest and in the yarn produced from the twisted web leading to improved mechanical properties of the yarn. The process enables many different mechanical and physical treatments to be applied to the individual stages of the pure CNT spinning system, and may allow potential for the development of complex spinning processes such as polymer–CNT-based composite yarns. The tensile strength and yarn/web structure of yarn spun using this approach have been investigated and evaluated using standard tensile testing methods along with scanning electron microscopy. The experimental results show that the tensile properties were significantly improved. The effect of heat treatments and other yarn constructions on the tensile properties are also reported
Measuring Chemotherapy Response in Breast Cancer Using Optical and Ultrasound Spectroscopy
Purpose: This study comprises two subprojects. In subproject one, the study
purpose was to evaluate response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) using
quantitative ultrasound (QUS) and diffuse optical spectroscopy imaging (DOS)
in locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) during chemotherapy. In subproject
two, DOS-based functional maps were analysed with texture-based image
features to predict breast cancer response before the start of NAC.
Patients and Measurements: The institution’s ethics review board approved
this study. For subproject one, subjects (n=22) gave written consent before
participating in the study. Participants underwent non-invasive, DOS and QUS
imaging. Data were acquired at weeks 0 (i.e. baseline), 1, 4, 8 and before
surgical removal of the tumour (mastectomy and/or lumpectomy);
corresponding to chemotherapy schedules. QUS parameters including the midband fit (MBF), 0-MHz intercept (SI), and the spectral slope (SS) were
determined from tumour ultrasound data using spectral analysis. In the same
patients, DOS was used to measure parameters relating to tumour haemoglobin
and tissue composition such as %Water and %Lipids. Discriminant analysis
and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to correlate the
measured imaging parameters to Miller-Payne pathological response during
treatment. Additionally, multivariate analysis was carried out for pairwise DOS
and QUS parameter combinations to determine if an increase in the
classification accuracy could be obtained using combination DOS and QUS
parametric models.
For subproject two, 15 additional patients we recruited after first giving
their written informed consent. A pooled analysis was completed for all DOS
baseline data (subproject 1 and subproject 2; n=37 patients). LABC patients
planned for NAC had functional DOS maps and associated textural features
generated. A grey-level co-occurrence matrix (texture) analysis was completed
for parameters associated with haemoglobin, tissue composition, and optical
properties (deoxy-haemoglobin [Hb], oxy-haemoglobin [HbO2], total
haemoglobin [HbT]), %Lipids, %Water, and scattering power [SP], scattering
amplitude [SA]) prior to treatment. Textural features included contrast (con),
vi
correlation (cor), energy (ene), and homogeneity (hom). Patients were
classified as ‘responders’ or ‘non-responders’ using Miller-Payne pathological
response criteria after treatment completion. In order to test if baseline
univariate texture features could predict treatment response, a receiver
operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed, and the optimal
sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) was calculated using
Youden’s index (Q-point) from the ROC. Multivariate analysis was conducted to
test 40 DOS-texture features and all possible bivariate combinations using a
naïve Bayes model, and k-nearest neighbour (k-NN) model classifiers were
included in the analysis. Using these machine-learning algorithms, the pretreatment DOS-texture parameters underwent dataset training, testing, and
validation and ROC analysis were performed to find the maximum sensitivity
and specificity of bivariate DOS-texture features.
Results: For subproject one, individual DOS and QUS parameters, including
the spectral intercept (SI), oxy-haemoglobin (HbO2), and total haemoglobin
(HbT) were significant markers for response outcome after one week of
treatment (p<0.01). Multivariate (pairwise) combinations increased the
sensitivity, specificity and AUC at this time; the SI+HbO2 showed a
sensitivity/specificity of 100%, and an AUC of 1.0 after one week of treatment.
For subproject two, the results indicated that textural characteristics of
pre-treatment DOS parametric maps can differentiate treatment response
outcomes. The HbO2-homogeneity resulted in the highest accuracy amongst
univariate parameters in predicting response to chemotherapy: sensitivity (%Sn)
and specificity (%Sp) = 86.5 and 89.0%, respectively and an accuracy of
87.8%. The highest predictors using multivariate (binary) combination features
were the Hb-Contrast + HbO2-Homogeneity which resulted in a %Sn = 78.0,
a %Sp = 81.0% and an accuracy of 79.5% using the naïve Bayes model.
Conclusion: DOS and QUS demonstrated potential as coincident markers for
treatment response and may potentially facilitate response-guided therapies.
Also, the results of this study demonstrated that DOS-texture analysis can be
used to predict breast cancer response groups prior to starting NAC using
baseline DOS measurements
Gene Expression Signature in Adipose Tissue of Acromegaly Patients.
To study the effect of chronic excess growth hormone on adipose tissue, we performed RNA sequencing in adipose tissue biopsies from patients with acromegaly (n = 7) or non-functioning pituitary adenomas (n = 11). The patients underwent clinical and metabolic profiling including assessment of HOMA-IR. Explants of adipose tissue were assayed ex vivo for lipolysis and ceramide levels. Patients with acromegaly had higher glucose, higher insulin levels and higher HOMA-IR score. We observed several previously reported transcriptional changes (IGF1, IGFBP3, CISH, SOCS2) that are known to be induced by GH/IGF-1 in liver but are also induced in adipose tissue. We also identified several novel transcriptional changes, some of which may be important for GH/IGF responses (PTPN3 and PTPN4) and the effects of acromegaly on growth and proliferation. Several differentially expressed transcripts may be important in GH/IGF-1-induced metabolic changes. Specifically, induction of LPL, ABHD5, and NRIP1 can contribute to enhanced lipolysis and may explain the elevated adipose tissue lipolysis in acromegalic patients. Higher expression of TCF7L2 and the fatty acid desaturases FADS1, FADS2 and SCD could contribute to insulin resistance. Ceramides were not different between the two groups. In summary, we have identified the acromegaly gene expression signature in human adipose tissue. The significance of altered expression of specific transcripts will enhance our understanding of the metabolic and proliferative changes associated with acromegaly
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