Career Readiness and Preparation Criteria in Undergraduate Dance Degree Programs

The purpose of the research study was to examine the history and philosophy of certain very distinct dance degree programs. The dissertation is intended to serve as a resource to benefit faculty and administrators in American undergraduate and graduate level dance programs. The primary goal was to recognize emergent themes aimed at stronger outcomes for students seeking a career track in dance. Beginning with an overview of the historical development of dance and dance education in the United States, the study closely examined the current cultural, educational, and political structures, functions, and mechanisms which influence prevailing public views of this art form in mainstream American life. These views frame fundamental topics for the field of post-secondary dance education regarding curriculum, instruction, and definitions of professional career possibilities. These topics and their sub-topics contributed to the formulation of qualitative questions, which were devised to document perceptions, attitudes, opinions, and practices of the participants in the study. The participants consisted of faculty at eight targeted post-secondary institutions. A variety of instrumentation was employed in order to collect and record pertinent data. These included guided interviews and follow-up questions for selected individuals. Additional focused studies required oral interviews in person or via phone. As themes and patterns emerged, creative data displays were developed in order to facilitate systemic analysis. The findings of this research were reported in an objective voice, presenting and preserving the quantitative data gathered from the participants\u27 words. The analysis and interpretation of this research was filtered through this researcher\u27s specific lens, with the intention of discovering the effective principles and practices that the institutions utilize to impact individual students, the profession, and the dance community at large. It is further hoped that this study will serve as a catalyst for inter-academic dialogue, in order to strengthen and advocate for the integrity and position of dance education in American colleges and universities

The expanding repertoire of receptor activity modifying protein (RAMP) function

Receptor activity modifying proteins (RAMPs) associate with G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) at the plasma membrane and together bind a variety of peptide ligands, serving as a communication interface between the extracellular and intracellular environments. The collection of RAMP-interacting GPCRs continues to expand and now consists of GPCRs from families A, B, and C, suggesting that RAMP activity is extremely prevalent. RAMP association with GPCRs can regulate GPCR function by altering ligand binding, receptor trafficking and desensitization, and downstream signaling pathways. Here, we elaborate on these RAMP-dependent mechanisms of GPCR regulation, which provide opportunities for pharmacological intervention

South Platte River Basin

Presented at Competing interests in water resources - searching for consensus: proceedings from the USCID water management conference held on December 5-7, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada.Includes bibliographical references.The potential of demand management as a water management tool in the South Platte River basin is limited by a lack of information regarding existing irrigation practices. A study was conducted to obtain information regarding irrigation water use practices in the basin, to determine the frequency of adoption of water conservation practices, and to relate the frequency of adoption of water conserving measures to various demographic factors. The results were based on 285 responses to a voluntary survey sent to a random sample of 1000 irrigators in eight counties within the basin during the winter of 1995. The survey sought information on farming practices, the adoption of water conservation practices, and grower characteristics. Although disincentives for irrigation water conservation appeared to be significant, the results indicated a high rate of adoption. Seventy-four percent of the survey respondents had adopted some type of water conservation measure on their farms. Adoption of various irrigation water conservation practices was associated most frequently with farm size, but factors such as method of irrigation, water source, knowledge of water law, and level of education were also associated with adoption of one or more conservation measures. Respondents indicated that the primary incentive for adopting water conservation measures was "water conservation." The typical reason for conserving water was to improve existing operations. This suggests that in many instances conservation is being used as a method of extending existing supplies on farms operating under water-short decrees

Climate, Conflict and Society: Changing Responses to Weather Extremes in Nineteenth Century Zululand

Changing climates affect human societies differently depending on societal structures, cultural perceptions and their relative vulnerability and resilience. In this study, we explore the complex relationship between climate, conflict and society in nineteenth century Zululand. The paper first reviews current debates surrounding the links between climatic change, societal transformation and the rise of the Zulu Kingdom from the late-eighteenth to early-nineteenth centuries. It then considers new empirical evidence relating to conflict and socio-economic changes at a local scale in Zululand from the early-mid-nineteenth century onwards, using a combination of unpublished archival materials written by missionaries and other observers, together with oral histories and traditions. Our analysis highlights how changing precipitation patterns, especially towards drier conditions, may have contributed to changes in societal responses, including dominant narratives about rain-control, the migration and dissolution of society, and conflicts and unrest. We suggest that temporal differences in these responses were contingent upon the role of leaders, power structures, and the willingness and ability of leaders to yield this power. The case of nineteenth century Zululand exemplifies the complexity of environment-society interactions, and strengthens the call for a thorough scrutiny of the narratives of social unrest in specific socio-cultural contexts

Speckle-tracking echocardiography combined with imaging mass spectrometry assesses region-dependent alterations

Left ventricular (LV) contraction is characterized by shortening and thickening of longitudinal and circumferential fibres. To date, it is poorly understood how LV deformation is altered in the pathogenesis of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetes mellitus-associated diabetic cardiomyopathy and how this is associated with changes in cardiac structural composition. To gain further insights in these LV alterations, eight-week-old C57BL6/j mice were intraperitoneally injected with 50 mg/kg body weight STZ during 5 consecutive days. Six, 9, and 12 weeks (w) post injections, echocardiographic analysis was performed using a Vevo 3100 device coupled to a 30-MHz linear-frequency transducer. Speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) demonstrated impaired global longitudinal peak strain (GLS) in STZ versus control mice at all time points. 9w STZ animals displayed an impaired global circumferential peak strain (GCS) versus 6w and 12w STZ mice. They further exhibited decreased myocardial deformation behaviour of the anterior and posterior base versus controls, which was paralleled with an elevated collagen I/III protein ratio. Additionally, hypothesis-free proteome analysis by imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) identified regional- and time-dependent changes of proteins affecting sarcomere mechanics between STZ and control mice. In conclusion, STZ-induced diabetic cardiomyopathy changes global cardiac deformation associated with alterations in cardiac sarcomere proteins

Evaluating Active Lecture and Traditional Lecture in Higher Education

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional and active lecture methods in higher-education courses. A multiple group convergent parallel mixed method design was used, with measurement of learning, attention, and student preference for active or traditional lecture methods. Six faculty at a public university in the northeast region of the United States engaged 178 undergraduate and graduate students in a traditional lecture session and an active lecture session during the Spring 2022 semester. Results indicated effectiveness of active and traditional lecture approaches (p \u3c .05). Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data in the study provides additional information regarding student preference for active lecture based on perceptions of increased learning benefits, interaction/engagement, attention, activities, discussion, and the use of multimedia. In implementing both traditional and active lecture sessions this study employed pre-lecture and post-lecture quizzes that students found to be very beneficial to learning

Clinical Research: Evaluation of Healing Touch\u27s Effect on Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) Recovery, a Randomized Study

This study is assessing the efficacy of Healing Touch on patients receiving Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting at St. Cloud Hospital. A single previous research study determined Healing Touch, when added to standard nursing care, can significantly reduce anxiety and length of stay in patients undergoing CABG procedures.https://digitalcommons.centracare.com/nursing_posters/1087/thumbnail.jp

Vascular anatomy of the tibiofibular syndesmosis

This Open Access Publication is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons@Becker. It has been accepted for inclusion in Ope

Chromosome-breakage genomic instability and chromothripsis in breast cancer

Background: Chromosomal breakage followed by faulty DNA repair leads to gene amplifications and deletions in cancers. However, the mere assessment of the extent of genomic changes, amplifications and deletions may reduce the complexity of genomic data observed by array comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH). We present here a novel approach to array CGH data analysis, which focuses on putative breakpoints responsible for rearrangements within the genome. Results: We performed array comparative genomic hybridization in 29 primary tumors from high risk patients with breast cancer. The specimens were flow sorted according to ploidy to increase tumor cell purity prior to array CGH. We describe the number of chromosomal breaks as well as the patterns of breaks on individual chromosomes in each tumor. There were differences in chromosomal breakage patterns between the 3 clinical subtypes of breast cancers, although the highest density of breaks occurred at chromosome 17 in all subtypes, suggesting a particular proclivity of this chromosome for breaks. We also observed chromothripsis affecting various chromosomes in 41% of high risk breast cancers. Conclusions: Our results provide a new insight into the genomic complexity of breast cancer. Genomic instability dependent on chromosomal breakage events is not stochastic, targeting some chromosomes clearly more than others. We report a much higher percentage of chromothripsis than described previously in other cancers and this suggests that massive genomic rearrangements occurring in a single catastrophic event may shape many breast cancer genomes

Engineering Antibodies to Enhance Activity and Increase Half-life

Background: HIV/AIDS remains one of the most serious current threats to global public health. Although anti-HIV drugs have been effective among the wealthiest populations, a vaccine and/or new methods to prevent infections are needed lo control HIV globally. Strategies to combat HIV-1 require structural knowledge of how antibodies recognize HIV envelope proteins and how the immune system eliminates viruses. Until recently, only a small number of broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 had been characterized, and the immunological basis for their breadth and potency remains poorly understood. However. it was recently demonstrated that antibodies could be engineered to greatly enhance their breadth and potency (Diskin et al., Science 2011). Unfortunately, this and other engineering efforts have resulted in a decrease in antibody half-life in mouse and non-human primate models. This decrease in half-life correlates with an increase in reactivity to a variety of antigens, termed polyreactivity. Methods: In order to make better targets for passive delivery therapies, we are working to increase the half-life of antibodies while maintaining their breadth and potency using a variety of computational and structured-based techniques. One technique involves reducing the spatial aggregation propensity, in which an algorithm finds dynamically exposed hydrophobic patches on the surlace of proteins (Chemansetty et al., PNAS 2009). To this end, we have constructed several mutations in regions that have been predicted to have high aggregation propensities, and have tested them for polyreactivity and potency in neutralization assays. Results: Initial results show that these novel reagents have reduced polyreactivily, yet they still maintain their potency in in vitro neutralization assays. Conclusions: We are currently pursuing in vivo experiments in mice to further understand the relationship between antibody potency, polyreactivity, and half-life