3 research outputs found
Spontaneous Communities of Learning: Cooperative Learning Ecosystems Surrounding Virtual Worlds
This thesis is the culmination of a five year research project exploring online gamers
and the cultures they engage with, both virtually in the many massively multiplayer
games and virtual worlds online, and in the physical spaces they inhabit in various
play spaces around the world. The primary research questions concerned social
learning in such spaces, i.e. how do players learn from one another what they need
to be successful, and what are the associated norms and practices for doing so?
What sorts of peripheral skills are gained, and are they applicable to physical world
contexts? Finally, what does participation in such spaces mean for individuals who
may have lacked other mechanisms for social learning, and what impacts might such
findings have on existing educational structures?
I anticipate that this thesis will generate as many questions as it will answer, and I
hope, that as a snapshot of a gaming culture in time, will be looked upon as a
monograph in the classic ethnographic tradition
Quaking Regulates Hnrnpa1 Expression through Its 3ⲠUTR in Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells
In mice, Quaking (Qk) is required for myelin formation; in humans, it has been associated with psychiatric disease. QK regulates the stability, subcellular localization, and alternative splicing of several myelin-related transcripts, yet little is known about how QK governs these activities. Here, we show that QK enhances Hnrnpa1 mRNA stability by binding a conserved 3ⲠUTR sequence with high affinity and specificity. A single nucleotide mutation in the binding site eliminates QK-dependent regulation, as does reduction of QK by RNAi. Analysis of exon expression across the transcriptome reveals that QK and hnRNP A1 regulate an overlapping subset of transcripts. Thus, a simple interpretation is that QK regulates a large set of oligodendrocyte precursor genes indirectly by increasing the intracellular concentration of hnRNP A1. Together, the data show that hnRNP A1 is an important QK target that contributes to its control of myelin gene expression