Mathematics of students' culture: a goal of localized ethnomathematics

Ethnomathematics is the mathematics of cultural groups, but often those cultural groups are “others” and “elsewhere”. However, it is also valuable to look inward to see the interaction of mathematics and one’s own culture. An assignment in a graduate course offers this opportunity to students. The assignment is to find an area of the student’s personal “culture” (sometimes defined rather broadly) and find its use of mathematics. Students are asked to write about (a) the cultural area; (b) how they are personally tied to it; and (c) how and where it uses mathematics. In addition to the paper, students make an oral presentation. Thus, all students learn (often surprising) aspects of their classmates’ non-professional life, and the presenter digs into areas of family and heritage that may not have been reviewed before. Since all students are classroom mathematics teachers, finding their own cultural mathematics is not only enlightening for themselves, but also offers opportunities to include new mathematics applications in their teaching. This paper includes much personal background that led to this assignment and is a report on more than a decade of using it, including brief student examples

U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform

The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform was created by Congress to assess U.S. immigration policy and make recommendations regarding its implementation and effects. Mandated in the Immigration Act of 1990 to submit an interim report in 1994 and a final report in 1997, the Commission has undertaken public hearings, fact-finding missions, and expert consultations to identify the major immigration-related issues facing the United States today.LBJ School of Public Affair

Inference of transcriptional regulation in cancers

We developed an efficient and accurate computational framework, RABIT (regression analysis with background integration), and comprehensively integrated public transcription factor (TF)-binding profiles with TCGA tumor-profiling datasets in 18 cancer types. To systematically search for cancer-associated TFs, RABIT controls the effect of tumor-confounding factors on transcriptional regulation, such as copy number alteration, DNA methylation, and TF somatic mutation. Our predicted TF regulatory activity in tumors is highly consistent with the knowledge from cancer gene databases and reveals many previously unidentified cancer-associated TFs. We also analyzed RNA-binding protein regulation in cancer and demonstrated that RABIT is a general platform for predicting oncogenic gene expression regulators

User observations on information sharing (corporate knowledge and lessons learned)

The sharing of 'corporate knowledge' and lessons learned in the NASA aerospace community has been identified by Johnson Space Center survey participants as a desirable tool. The concept of the program is based on creating a user friendly information system that will allow engineers, scientists, and managers at all working levels to share their information and experiences with other users irrespective of location or organization. The survey addresses potential end uses for such a system and offers some guidance on the development of subsequent processes to ensure the integrity of the information shared. This system concept will promote sharing of information between NASA centers, between NASA and its contractors, between NASA and other government agencies, and perhaps between NASA and institutions of higher learning

Progress toward curing HIV infection with hematopoietic cell transplantation.

HIV-1 infection afflicts more than 35 million people worldwide, according to 2014 estimates from the World Health Organization. For those individuals who have access to antiretroviral therapy, these drugs can effectively suppress, but not cure, HIV-1 infection. Indeed, the only documented case for an HIV/AIDS cure was a patient with HIV-1 and acute myeloid leukemia who received allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) from a graft that carried the HIV-resistant CCR5-∆32/∆32 mutation. Other attempts to establish a cure for HIV/AIDS using HCT in patients with HIV-1 and malignancy have yielded mixed results, as encouraging evidence for virus eradication in a few cases has been offset by poor clinical outcomes due to the underlying cancer or other complications. Such clinical strategies have relied on HIV-resistant hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells that harbor the natural CCR5-∆32/∆32 mutation or that have been genetically modified for HIV-resistance. Nevertheless, HCT with HIV-resistant cord blood remains a promising option, particularly with inventories of CCR5-∆32/∆32 units or with genetically modified, human leukocyte antigen-matched cord blood

Transarterial chemoembolization is ineffective for neuroendocrine tumors metastatic to the caudate lobe: a single institution review.

BACKGROUND: Caudate lobe liver metastases occur commonly in patients with neuroendocrine tumors. It is unknown, however, how these lesions respond to regional therapy and how their presence impacts outcomes. We reviewed our experience treating these lesions using transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). METHODS: We reviewed radiographic response to TACE in 86 patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors to the liver. We determined the impact of caudate lesions on outcomes in comparison to the cohort of patients without caudate lesions, as well as response of caudate lesions to TACE versus lesions elsewhere in the liver. RESULTS: Caudate lesions were identified in 45 (52%) patients. All patients had disease in other liver segments. Only seven caudate lesions (12.3%) had a radiographic response to TACE, whereas 82% of lesions elsewhere in the liver demonstrated a response. The presence or absence of a caudate lesion did not impact the overall radiographic (82.2% vs. 82.9%), symptomatic (64.4% vs. 56.1%), or biochemical (97.6% vs. 88.9%) response to TACE (P \u3e 0.1 for all). However, median overall survival was reduced in those presenting with caudate lesions (87.1 vs. 45.6 months, P = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS: Metastatic neuroendocrine tumors to the caudate lobe respond poorly to TACE. Symptomatic or threatening caudate lobe lesions should be considered for palliative resection in spite of additional inoperable liver metastases

Current and Future Perspectives of Ethnomathematics as a Program

Mathematics Education; Learning; Teachin