Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase 3 - Native Americans

This paper documents the results of a pilot paired testing program to examine the treatment of Native Americans by real estate agents in rental housing markets in three states and owner-occupied housing markets in one state. The study finds that the level of discrimination experienced by Native Americans in rental markets exceed those experienced by Hispanics, Blacks, and Asian-Americans.

Articulatory Kinematics During Stop Closure in Speakers with Parkinson’s Disease

Purpose: The goal of this exploratory study was (a) to investigate the differences in articulatory movements during the closure phase of bilabial stop consonants with respect to distance, displacement, and timing of motion between individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and healthy controls; and (b) to investigate changes in articulatory movements of speakers with PD when they voluntarily vary the degree of speech intelligibility. Methods: Six participants, 4 PD and 2 healthy control (HC) speakers, participated in this study. The stimulus was a sentence containing several bilabial stop consonants (i.e., “Buy Bobby a puppy”). Movement data were collected using the Wave Speech Research System (NDI, Canada). Movement measures included duration, distance, and displacement and speed of the tongue front, tongue back, upper lip, lower lip, and jaw. Results: Speakers with PD and HC speakers produced observable articulatory differences during the stop closure of bilabial stops. Generally, the PD group produced smaller articulatory movement and had longer closure durations than the HC group. Regarding changes in speaking mode, the two groups made observable, but different articulatory changes during the stop closure. For more clear speech, both groups made greater articulatory movements and decreased the stop closure duration. For less clear speech, the HC group demonstrated reduced articulatory movements and longer closure durations whereas the PD group made greater articulatory movements and longer closure durations. Discussion: The findings of this study revealed several articulatory differences during the stop closure between the two speaking groups. For more clear speaking conditions, speakers in the PD group can successfully compensate for reduced articulatory movement by producing exaggerated lower lip and jaw movement. These findings support the use of more clear speaking modifications as a therapeutic technique to elicit better articulatory movement among speakers with PD. However, it also appears the PD group has difficulty producing fine motor articulatory changes (e.g., less clear speech)

Fabrication and Testing of Arabinan Cellulose Nanocomposites

Inspired by the structure and composition of cactus spines found in nature, arabinan-cellulose nanocomposites were fabricated into thin films and tested for mechanical stiffness. The composites consisted of varying amounts of nanocrystalline cellulose reinforcement suspended in an arabinan matrix. Both materials are polysaccharides and are known to be biodegradable and food safe. The thin film samples were tensile tested using a dynamic mechanical analysis machine both as-cast and after a heat-treatment. The heat treatment of the arabinan itself resulted in an order of magnitude increase in stiffness, while the cellulose reinforced composites increased roughly six fold. The arabinan-50 wt% cellulose heat-treated sample had a mean stiffness of 6.09 GPa. These results are promising because early trials have already surpassed the stiffness of PET, a common packaging material and are approaching future goals of matching the mechanical properties of fiberglass and eventually dry native cactus spines

Prior cigarette smoke exposure does not affect acute post-stroke outcomes in mice

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently the third leading cause of death globally and is characterized by airflow limitation that is progressive and not fully reversible. Cigarette smoking is the major cause of COPD. Fifty percent of deaths in the COPD population are due to a cardiovascular event and it is now recognised that COPD is a risk factor for stroke. Whether COPD increases stroke severity has not been explored. The aim of this study was to investigate whether functional and histological endpoints of stroke outcomes in mice after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAo) were more severe in mice exposed to cigarette smoke (CS). 7-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to room air or CS generated from 9 cigarettes/day, 5 days/week for 2, 8 and 12 weeks. Following air or CS exposure, mice underwent tMCAO surgery with an ischaemic period of 30–40 min or sham surgery. Mice were euthanised 24 h following the induction of ischaemia and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), lungs and brains collected. Mice exposed to CS for 2 weeks and subjected to a stroke had similar BALF macrophages to air-exposed and stroke mice. However, CS plus stroke mice had significantly more BALF total cells, neutrophils and lymphocytes than air plus stroke mice. Mice exposed to CS for 8 and 12 weeks had significantly greater BALF total cells, macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes than air-exposed mice, but stroke did not affect CS-induced BALF cellularity. Prior CS exposure did not worsen stroke-induced neurological deficit scores, reduced foregrip strength, infarct and oedema volumes. Collectively, we found that although CS exposure caused significant BALF inflammation, it did not worsen acute post-stroke outcomes in mice. This data suggests that while patients with COPD are at increased risk of stroke, it may not translate to COPD patients having more severe stroke outcomes

Immersive Composition for Sensory Rehabilitation: 3D Visualisation, Surround Sound, and Synthesised Music to Provoke Catharsis and Healing

There is a wide range of sensory therapies using sound, music and visual stimuli. Some focus on soothing or distracting stimuli such as natural sounds or classical music as analgesic, while other approaches emphasize the active performance of producing music as therapy. This paper proposes an immersive multi-sensory Exposure Therapy for people suffering from anxiety disorders, based on a rich, detailed surround-soundscape. This soundscape is composed to include the users’ own idiosyncratic anxiety triggers as a form of habituation, and to provoke psychological catharsis, as a non-verbal, visceral and enveloping exposure. To accurately pinpoint the most effective sounds and to optimally compose the soundscape we will monitor the participants’ physiological responses such as electroencephalography, respiration, electromyography, and heart rate during exposure. We hypothesize that such physiologically optimized sensory landscapes will aid the development of future immersive therapies for various psychological conditions, Sound is a major trigger of anxiety, and auditory hypersensitivity is an extremely problematic symptom. Exposure to stress-inducing sounds can free anxiety sufferers from entrenched avoidance behaviors, teaching physiological coping strategies and encouraging resolution of the psychological issues agitated by the sound

Transcriptome Analyses of Tumor-Adjacent Somatic Tissues Reveal Genes Co-Expressed with Transposable Elements

Background: Despite the long-held assumption that transposons are normally only expressed in the germ-line, recent evidence shows that transcripts of transposable element (TE) sequences are frequently found in the somatic cells. However, the extent of variation in TE transcript levels across different tissues and different individuals are unknown, and the co-expression between TEs and host gene mRNAs have not been examined. Results: Here we report the variation in TE derived transcript levels across tissues and between individuals observed in the non-tumorous tissues collected for The Cancer Genome Atlas. We found core TE co-expression modules consisting mainly of transposons, showing correlated expression across broad classes of TEs. Despite this co-expression within tissues, there are individual TE loci that exhibit tissue-specific expression patterns, when compared across tissues. The core TE modules were negatively correlated with other gene modules that consisted of immune response genes in interferon signaling. KRAB Zinc Finger Proteins (KZFPs) were over-represented gene members of the TE modules, showing positive correlation across multiple tissues. But we did not find overlap between TE-KZFP pairs that are co-expressed and TE-KZFP pairs that are bound in published ChIP-seq studies. Conclusions: We find unexpected variation in TE derived transcripts, within and across non-tumorous tissues. We describe a broad view of the RNA state for non-tumorous tissues exhibiting higher level of TE transcripts. Tissues with higher level of TE transcripts have a broad range of TEs co-expressed, with high expression of a large number of KZFPs, and lower RNA levels of immune genes

Design and Assembly of a Carbon Fiber Professional Scooter

After reviewing the current professional grade scooter market, it was concluded that there is a definite need for weight reduction. The current market consists of rigid aluminum and titanium structures. This design is made primarily of unidirectional carbon fiber in an epoxy resin system. The deck of the scooter will be made with a high density foam core. Using carbon fiber to replace metal will provide a substantial weight reduction in the final assembly. Testing will be done to ensure that the scooter meets all required safety and dimensional requirements.https://openriver.winona.edu/urc2019/1054/thumbnail.jp