Releasing The Power Within: Exploring The Magical Girl Transformation Sequence With Flash Animation

This studio-based thesis explores the universal theme of transformation within the Magical Girl genre of Animation. My research incorporates the viewing and analysis of Japanese animations and discusses the symbolism behind transformation sequences. In addition, this study discusses how this theme can be created using Flash software for animation and discusses its value as a teaching resource in the art classroom

An online experiment to assess bias in professional medical coding.

BackgroundMultiple studies have documented bias in medical decision making, but no studies have examined whether this bias extends to medical coding practices. Medical coding is foundational to the US health care enterprise. We evaluate whether bias based on patient characteristics influences specific coding practices of professional medical coders.MethodsThis is an online experimental study of members of a national professional medical coding organization. Participants were randomly assigned a set of six clinical scenarios reflecting common medical conditions and asked to report encounter level of service codes for these clinical scenarios. Clinical scenarios differed by patient demographics (race, age, gender, ability) or social context (food insecurity, housing security) but were otherwise identical. We estimated Ordinary Least Squares regression models to evaluate differences in outcome average visit level of service by patient demographic characteristics described in the clinical scenarios; we adjusted for coders' age, gender, race, and years of coding experience.ResultsThe final analytic sample included 586 respondents who coded at least one clinical scenario. Higher mean level of service was assigned to clinical scenarios describing seniors compared to middle-aged patients in two otherwise identical scenarios, one a patient with type II diabetes mellitus (Coef: 0.28, SE: 0.15) and the other with rheumatoid arthritis (Coef: 0.30, SE: 0.13). Charts describing women were assigned lower level of service than men in patients with asthma exacerbation (Coef: -0.25, SE: 0.13) and rheumatoid arthritis (Coef: -0.20, SE: 0.12). There were no other significant differences in mean complexity score by patient demographics or social needs.ConclusionWe found limited evidence of bias in professional medical coding practice by patient age and gender, though findings were inconsistent across medical conditions. Low levels of observed bias may reflect medical coding workflow and training practices. Future research is needed to better understand bias in coding and to identify effective and generalizable bias prevention practices

Promotion of Community Wellness Through Language Activism & Revitalization: A Student Perspective

Sacred Roots Language Society (SRLS) is a student led organization which believes in the importance of establishing one’s identity through language and organizes community based activities to bring awareness to the endangered status of Montana's indigenous languages. Through our collaborations with the Missoula community, we have been able to establish a space within the university setting that provides Native students the opportunity to represent and advocate for their languages. Language activism at the college level provides a unique opportunity for students’ personal development, as this can be many students’ first time away from home, and is a critical stage in the development of one’s identity. Our society’s membership varies from local immersion school graduates, to linguistic majors, language speakers, future teachers, and those simply interested in indigenous language. It is a key focus of ours to represent the 11 different indigenous languages of Montana by providing a supportive community committed to representing this diversity both on and off campus. Since our creation in January of 2015, SRLS has fundraised and organized several local community events in addition to online advocacy. The first project undertaken by our society was a Valentine’s Day video featuring the phrase “I love you” in 10 different indigenous languages, with nearly 8,000 views, it was featured on the popular site UpWorthy. Our two larger annual events include a 5k “Save Our Languages” fun run (runners ranged from grade school aged youth to elders) and a community oriented language and culture conference. At the conference, students and community members alike had the opportunity to network with others to share ideas on how each tribe was approaching language revitalization within their communities. Our efforts of working together with other student groups, local tribal communities, and several indigenous non-profit organizations have strengthened relationships which have lead language revitalization efforts to prosper and, ultimately, a greater exchange of knowledge between our communities. We look forward to sharing our model for community involvement, language advocacy, and language revitalization as an example of how students across the nation can shape, support, and strategize their language revitalization efforts

The Engaged Department Initiative: GVSU, GRCC, and Aquinas Join Forces for Place-Based Impact

The Engaged Department Initiative (EDI) is a place-based cross-institutional collaboration located in the Grand Rapids region. Participating organizations include Michigan Campus Compact (MiCC), Grand Valley State University (GVSU), Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC), and Aquinas College (AQ). This innovative ethnographic case study is focused on evaluating how well the initiative completes their goals of increasing faculty knowledge and skills, expanding students’ community engagement, fostering intra- and inter- collaborations between the three institutions of higher education, and enhancing community partnerships. The hopes of this initiative is to make a real difference in the community and to create engaged citizens. By disseminating this research, we aspire to offer recommendations for people interested in spanning boundaries and working on place-based change in their own region

Making Pacific Languages Discoverable: A Project to Catalog the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library Pacific Collection by Indigenous Languages

In this essay, we describe our recent three-year project to increase the discoverability and accessibility of the Pacific-language materials in the Pacific Collection at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Hamilton Library by improving and making consistent the descriptive metadata in the catalog, using standards accepted by both library science and linguistic science

Making Pacific Language Materials Discoverable

Conference presentation at the West Maui Conference on Pacific Peoples and Their Environment, Lahaina HI October 13-14 201

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Solving the Problem of Poor Teacher Retention in a Small Rural Mississippi School District

This applied research study was designed to determine how to solve the ongoing problem of teacher retention in a rural Mississippi school district. This study used both qualitative and quantitative research methods to determine how to solve the problem of teacher retention within one relatively small, rural Mississippi school district. After identifying common influencers, the researcher proposed a plan to offer a systematic retention plan for improved teacher retention that can be used within one rural Mississippi school district. The plan included guided instruction and established a program that addresses many of the issues that were discovered using a mix-method approach of both qualitative and quantitative data

Engineering Smooth Muscle to Understand Extracellular Matrix Remodeling and Vascular Disease

The vascular smooth muscle is vital for regulating blood pressure and maintaining cardiovascular health, and the resident smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in blood vessel walls rely on specific mechanical and biochemical signals to carry out these functions. Any slight change in their surrounding environment causes swift changes in their phenotype and secretory profile, leading to changes in the structure and functionality of vessel walls that cause pathological conditions. To adequately treat vascular diseases, it is essential to understand how SMCs crosstalk with their surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). Here, we summarize in vivo and traditional in vitro studies of pathological vessel wall remodeling due to the SMC phenotype and, conversely, the SMC behavior in response to key ECM properties. We then analyze how three-dimensional tissue engineering approaches provide opportunities to model SMCs’ response to specific stimuli in the human body. Additionally, we review how applying biomechanical forces and biochemical stimulation, such as pulsatile fluid flow and secreted factors from other cell types, allows us to study disease mechanisms. Overall, we propose that in vitro tissue engineering of human vascular smooth muscle can facilitate a better understanding of relevant cardiovascular diseases using high throughput experiments, thus potentially leading to therapeutics or treatments to be tested in the future

Sensitive SERS Characterization and Analysis of Chlorpyrifos and Aldicarb Residues in Animal Feed using Gold Nanoparticles

The spectroscopic method based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technique combined with chemometric methods was developed for simple, cost-effective, and efficient analysis of chlorpyrifos (CPF) and aldicarb (ALD) pesticide residues in animal feed. Animal feeds free from the pesticides were spiked at different concentrations of CPF (0-20 mg/kg) and aldicarb (0-100 µg/kg). Gold nanoparticles were mixed with sample extract for SERS measurement. A significant spectral difference induced by the presence and different level of CPF and ALD concentration in animal feed was observed between the pesticide spiking groups. Different chemometric models applied on training datasets showed excellent classification rates (100 percent) while the models on external validation dataset exhibited lower correct classification rates (50.0-76.7 percent) with no false-negative error. The selected chemometric models for CPF and ALD quantification also showed a high predictive ability and performance. The developed models displayed no statistical significant difference between model predicted and reference values in the external validation dataset (p < 0.01). The study results indicate that the SERS spectroscopic method could be an effective and efficient analytical tool for pesticide analysis in highly complex animal feed matrices for screening at a point of sampling to improve food and feed safety. https://doi.org/10.21423/jrs-v08le