Connecting the International Experience

The purpose of this study was to explore how relationships between international students and study abroad returnees can further global education throughout the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) community. My overarching question was: how can I, as an advisor at the International Students and Programs Office (ISPO), create a program that fosters cross-cultural interaction between international students and study abroad returnees? A secondary question was: how can these interactions help cultivate the intercultural competencies of both parties? Using O’Leary’s Cycles of Action Research as a guiding framework, I conducted one pre-cycle, a needs assessment, and three cycles of data collection: observation of three existing programs, informational interviews with six UCSD staff, and a student survey. For the final cycle, I created a program focused on connecting international students and study abroad returnees. The program included forging connections between the two target communities by building upon their intercultural understanding and knowledge while creating new, meaningful relationships. As a result of this study, I was able to better understand the existing global education programs and resources for international students and study abroad returnees at UCSD and to develop recommendations on how to better utilize these communities in future discussion toward increasing globalization efforts throughout the campus

The Gift of Life:Ethical and Social Consequences of Organ Donation

Organ transplantation is a comprehensive subject covering many different issues: medical, social, political and economic. This paper focuses on the ethical and social implications of organ donation. Also presented are the different policy and program options attempting to meet the immense demand for donors. Part I addresses an initial obstacle to organ transplantation-- consent. Part II describes the ethical conflicts related to donor sources. Part III examines possible transplant policy solutions and the potential ramifications of their implementation. Part IV concludes with suggestions for future solutions and a recommendation for an effective policy which can increase the organ donor supply, while accounting for consent and respecting individual personal beliefs and wishes

The Gift of Life:Ethical and Social Consequences of Organ Donation

Organ transplantation is a comprehensive subject covering many different issues: medical, social, political and economic. This paper focuses on the ethical and social implications of organ donation. Also presented are the different policy and program options attempting to meet the immense demand for donors. Part I addresses an initial obstacle to organ transplantation-- consent. Part II describes the ethical conflicts related to donor sources. Part III examines possible transplant policy solutions and the potential ramifications of their implementation. Part IV concludes with suggestions for future solutions and a recommendation for an effective policy which can increase the organ donor supply, while accounting for consent and respecting individual personal beliefs and wishes

Quality Assurance in Competency Training of Pre-anesthesia Consultation Skills

The absence of quality assurance in training clinicians to perform pre-anesthesia consultations at a Canadian university is the Problem of Practice addressed in this Organizational Improvement Plan. This competency requires learners to apply their anesthesia knowledge to take medical histories; perform physical examinations; diagnose anesthetic risks; and generate anesthesia plans. Random chart audits of many learners identify deficiencies and suggest inconsistent training of this competency. This Organizational Improvement Plan analyzes the anesthesia program’s organizational context to be a complex adaptive system; organizational structure to be a hierarchy; and organizational state to be static. Through the paradigms of complexity theory, interpretivism, critical theory, and pragmatism, this proposal describes how adaptive, enabling, and administrative leadership strategies will (1) improve competency training of pre-anesthesia consultations; (2) build capacity of the anesthesia program’s stakeholders; and (3) foster a collaborative culture. An Integrated Framework of the Change Path Model and the Modified Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle will serve to implement change in this organization. The research and recommendations offered in this work can be adapted for use in other clinical programs aiming to improve competency training

Working Memory and Falls Risk in Older Adults: An Event-Related Potential Study

BACKGROUND: The aging population is rapidly increasing, where currently in North America, the population of older adults (ages 60+) outnumbers the population of children. Falls are a major concern for older adults and their quality of life. Cognitive impairment has been shown to be declined in older adults at-risk for falls, but working memory has not been thoroughly investigated within this population. PURPOSE: To examine differences in Non-Fallers, Moderate Risk for Falls, and Fallers in a working memory task using electroencephalography (EEG). METHODS: Older adults (n=44, female=27) aged 60 – 80 years (m=68.8, SD=4.7) completed two sessions. The first session incorporated general demographic questionnaires and Tinetti’s Mobility Test. Participants were classified as Non-Fallers, Moderate Risk for Falls, or Fallers based on their Tinetti’s Mobility Test results and their falls history. The second session had participants complete the n-back, a working memory test, while behavioural and EEG results were recorded. RESULTS: We found that in the 2-Back test, behaviorally those who were at risk performed the worst (slower reaction time and decreased accuracy) in comparison to the Non-Fallers and Fallers. However, from the EEG results, Fallers were more cognitively impaired, with earlier latencies for the N2 and P3 components in comparison to the other groups, while the Moderate Risk for Falls group were significantly impaired in peak latencies in the N2 only in comparison to the Non-Faller group. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals at risk and fallers differ in their impairment in working memory in comparison to non-fallers. Working memory and falls risk should be further investigated as a proactive approach to the falls phenomena

Leaf-inspired microcontact printing vascular patterns.

The vascularization of tissue grafts is critical for maintaining viability of the cells within a transplanted graft. A number of strategies are currently being investigated including very promising microfluidics systems. Here, we explored the potential for generating a vasculature-patterned endothelial cells that could be integrated into distinct layers between sheets of primary cells. Bioinspired from the leaf veins, we generated a reverse mold with a fractal vascular-branching pattern that models the unique spatial arrangement over multiple length scales that precisely mimic branching vasculature. By coating the reverse mold with 50 μg ml-1 of fibronectin and stamping enabled selective adhesion of the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to the patterned adhesive matrix, we show that a vascular-branching pattern can be transferred by microcontact printing. Moreover, this pattern can be maintained and transferred to a 3D hydrogel matrix and remains stable for up to 4 d. After 4 d, HUVECs can be observed migrating and sprouting into Matrigel. These printed vascular branching patterns, especially after transfer to 3D hydrogels, provide a viable alternative strategy to the prevascularization of complex tissues

Uncovering changes in proteomic signature of rat pelvic floor muscles in pregnancy.

BackgroundStructural and functional changes of the rat pelvic floor muscles during pregnancy, specifically, sarcomerogenesis, increase in extracellular matrix content, and higher passive tension at larger strains protect the integral muscle components against birth injury. The mechanisms underlying these antepartum alterations are unknown. Quantitative proteomics is an unbiased method of identifying protein expression changes in differentially conditioned samples. Therefore, proteomics analysis provides an opportunity to identify molecular mechanisms underlying antepartum muscle plasticity.ObjectiveTo elucidate putative mechanisms accountable for pregnancy-induced adaptations of the pelvic floor muscles, and to identify other novel antepartum alterations of the pelvic floor muscles.Materials and methodsPelvic floor muscles, comprised of coccygeus, iliocaudalis, and pubocaudalis, and nonpelvic limb muscle, tibialis anterior, were harvested from 3-month-old nonpregnant and late-pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats. After tissue homogenization, trypsin-digested peptides were analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectroscopy using nano-spray ionization. Peptide identification and label free relative quantification analysis were carried out using Peaks Studio 8.5 software (Bioinformatics Solutions Inc., Waterloo, ON, Canada). Proteomics data were visualized using the Qlucore Omics Explorer (New York, NY). Differentially expressed peptides were identified using the multi-group differential expression function, with q-value cutoff set at <0.05. Proteomic signatures of the pelvic floor muscles were compared to nonpelvic limb muscle and between nonpregnant and pregnant states.ResultsUnsupervised clustering of the data showed clear separation between samples from nonpregnant and pregnant animals along principal component 1 and between pelvic and nonpelvic muscles along principal component 2. Four major gene clusters were identified segregating proteomic signatures of muscles examined in nonpregnant vs pregnant states: (1) proteins increased in the pelvic floor muscles only; (2) proteins increased in the pelvic floor muscles and tibialis anterior; (3) proteins decreased in the pelvic floor muscles and tibialis anterior; and (4) proteins decreased in the pelvic floor muscles alone. Cluster 1 included proteins involved in cell cycle progression and differentiation. Cluster 2 contained proteins that participate in mitochondrial metabolism. Cluster 3 included proteins involved in transcription, signal transduction, and phosphorylation. Cluster 4 comprised proteins involved in calcium-mediated regulation of muscle contraction via the troponin tropomyosin complex.ConclusionPelvic floor muscles gain a distinct proteomic signature in pregnancy, which provides a mechanistic foundation for the antepartum physiological alterations acquired by these muscles. Variability in genes encoding these proteins may alter plasticity of the pelvic floor muscles and therefore the extent of the protective pregnancy-induced adaptations. Furthermore, pelvic floor muscles' proteome is divergent from that of the nonpelvic skeletal muscles

Using Context and Interactions to Verify User-Intended Network Requests

Client-side malware can attack users by tampering with applications or user interfaces to generate requests that users did not intend. We propose Verified Intention (VInt), which ensures a network request, as received by a service, is user-intended. VInt is based on "seeing what the user sees" (context). VInt screenshots the user interface as the user interacts with a security-sensitive form. There are two main components. First, VInt ensures output integrity and authenticity by validating the context, ensuring the user sees correctly rendered information. Second, VInt extracts user-intended inputs from the on-screen user-provided inputs, with the assumption that a human user checks what they entered. Using the user-intended inputs, VInt deems a request to be user-intended if the request is generated properly from the user-intended inputs while the user is shown the correct information. VInt is implemented using image analysis and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Our evaluation shows that VInt is accurate and efficient