On the Small Count Inflated Poisson Distribution

Inflated count distributions are used in situations where counts of an underlying distribution of a population are larger than expected by traditional count distributions. One of the most commonly used inflated count distributions is the zero-inflated Poisson distribution. This work demonstrates the construction of a small count inflated Poisson distribution, of which the zero-inflated Poisson distribution is a special case. Model construction and parameter estimation are shown. Simulations analyzing asymptotic properties, group prediction, and count prediction are presented. Conclusions and recommendations for future research are discussed

What Makes a Good Research Consultant?

Statistical and research consulting is defined as the collaboration of a statistician or methodologist with another professional for devising solutions to research problems. An in-depth, interview qualitative approach was taken to answer the research question of what makes a good research consultant. The authors interviewed four faculty members in the field of statistics and research methods and two experienced graduate student consultants. In-depth, face-to-face interviews revealed common themes regarding consultancy skills, resourcefulness, communication and interpersonal skills. The participants discussed how to improve consulting sessions and deal with clients with different statistics levels and backgrounds. Participants felt there was no difference in how they approached a qualitative vs. quantitative consulting session. Finally, all the participants stated that the training of graduate student consultants can be improved by project-based coursework

Утилизация отходов биологического производства

В статье рассматривается проблема утилизации отходов, так как в год Экологии это тема стала актуальной. На каждом предприятии и в каждом доме увеличилось количество мусора и от этого страдает экологическая обстановка в каждом городе. В статье подробно узучена тема биологического производства. К биологическим отходам относятся ткани и органы, образующиеся в результате медицинской и ветеринарной оперативной практики, медико-биологических экспериментов, гибели скота, других животных и птиц, и другие отходы, получаемые при переработке пищевого и непищевого сырья животного происхождения, а также отходы биотехнологической промышленности.The article deals with the problem of waste disposal as in the year of the Environment this issue has become topical. Every enterprise and every household increased the amount of debris and suffers the environmental situation in each city. The article Azucena the theme of biological production. Biodegradable waste includes tissues and organs resulting from operational medical and veterinary practice, medical and biological experiments, loss of livestock, other animals and birds, and other waste obtained in the processing of food and non-food raw materials of animal origin and waste products of the biotechnology industry

Psychological Capital and Professional Identity: A Study of Professional Business Students

This research article reports the results and findings of an online survey questionnaire administered to 593 Masters of Business Administration (MBA) students using the MCPIS-9 and PCQ-12 instruments that measure Professional Identity (ProfId) and Psychological Capital (PsyCap), respectively. The results indicated a strong sense of ProfId (M = 4.2/5.0, SD = 0.66, N = 593), and a significant and positive relationship (p < .01, ΔR2adj = .25, N = 593) between PsyCap and ProfId. The results of this study represent a fruitful, albeit initial, foray into the ProfId and PsyCap of professional business students. The implications of these results inform and equip program stakeholders to devise curricular and pedagogical approaches to support students’ sense of self in their career trajectory

Accreditation by Design: Construction of an Instrument to Measure Teacher Candidates’ Perceptions of Preparedness to Meet InTASC Standards

The InTASC Candidate Self-Perception Instrument (ICSPI) is an innovative, high-quality educational measurement tool designed to support the assessment and accreditation efforts of a wide variety of educator preparation programs (EPP). The procedures used for the creation and refining of items for the ICSPI are presented, including empirical estimates of reliability from a trial implementation across three semesters. Evidence of instrument validity is discussed, while observed reliability estimates were found to be above acceptable levels for all subgroups. The ICSPI can be used to evaluate EPPs’ course offerings and requirements, align course outcomes with educational standards, provide data to advise programs of relative strengths and weaknesses, and improve teacher preparation

DNA barcoding data release for Coleoptera from the Gunung Halimun canopy fogging workpackage of the Indonesian Biodiversity Information System (IndoBioSys) project

We present the results of a DNA barcoding pipeline that was established as part of the German-Indonesian IndobioSys project - Indonesian Biodiversity Information System. Our data release provides the first large-scale diversity assessment of Indonesian coleoptera obtained by canopy fogging. The project combined extensive fieldwork with databasing, DNA barcode based species delineation and the release of results in collaboration with Indonesian counterparts, aimed at supporting further analyses of the data. Canopy fogging on 28 trees was undertaken at two different sites, Cikaniki and Gunung Botol, in the south-eastern area of the Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park in West Java, Indonesia. In total, 7,447 specimens of Coleoptera were processed, of which 3,836 specimens produced DNA barcode sequences that were longer than 300 bp. A total of 3,750 specimens were assigned a Barcode Index Number (BIN), including 2,013 specimens from Cikaniki and 1,737 specimens from Gunung Botol. The 747 BINs, that were obtained, represented 39 families of Coleoptera. The distribution of specimens with BINs per tree was quite heterogeneous in both sites even in terms of the abundance of specimens or diversity of BINs. The specimen distribution per taxon was heterogeneous as well. Some 416 specimens could not be identified to family level, corresponding to 72 BINs that lack a family level identification. The data have shown a large heterogeneity in terms of abundance and distribution of BINs between sites, trees and families of Coleoptera. From the total of 747 BINs that were recovered, 421 (56%) are exclusive from a single tree. Although the two study sites were in close proximity and separated by a distance of only about five kilometres, the number of shared BINs between sites is low, with 81 of the 747 BINs. With this data release, we expect to shed some light on the largely hidden diversity in the canopy of tropical forests in Indonesia and elsewhere

Processing Techniques and Applications of Silk Hydrogels in Bioengineering

Hydrogels are an attractive class of tunable material platforms that, combined with their structural and functional likeness to biological environments, have a diversity of applications in bioengineering. Several polymers, natural and synthetic, can be used, the material selection being based on the required functional characteristics of the prepared hydrogels. Silk fibroin (SF) is an attractive natural polymer for its excellent processability, biocompatibility, controlled degradation, mechanical properties and tunable formats and a good candidate for the fabrication of hydrogels. Tremendous effort has been made to control the structural and functional characteristic of silk hydrogels, integrating novel biological features with advanced processing techniques, to develop the next generation of functional SF hydrogels. Here, we review the several processing methods developed to prepare advanced SF hydrogel formats, emphasizing a bottom-up approach beginning with critical structural characteristics of silk proteins and their behavior under specific gelation environments. Additionally, the preparation of SF hydrogel blends and other advanced formats will also be discussed. We conclude with a brief description of the attractive utility of SF hydrogels in relevant bioengineering applications

Capturing Complex Microenvironments for Directed Stem Cell Differentiation

Loss of vascular function associated with cardiovascular disease, such as arthrosclerosis, represents the leading medical epidemic in the United States and typically requires surgical intervention through synthetic or autologous vascular grafts. To overcome the limitations associated with adult cell sources, which are often restricted by supply or compromised by disease, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have emerged as potential candidates for vascular tissue engineering. While evidence suggests the roles of several factors influencing MSC differentiation into vascular phenotypes, including matrix rigidity, geometry and chemistry, the phenomena associated with these events are still largely unknown. Further, the development of mature vascular phenotypes, such as vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs), with functional behavior remains elusive to the research community. This thesis proposed to engineer and direct specific and mature vascular differentiation from MSCs by way of highly tailored matrices mimicking the vascular niche environment. Taking inspiration from natural organization, we contend that a biomimetic design approach to tissue scaffolds that display features of the natural cellular microenvironment whilst mimicking the bulk tissue properties may elicit highly specific differentiation of MSCs to vascular phenotypes. To validate our hypothesis, we employed a systemic approach incorporating physical and chemical microenvironmental cues, i.e. stiffness, biological ligands and chemical factors, with the aim to augment vascular phenotype expression, functionality, and final incorporation into a tailored biomaterial scaffolds. First, we present a novel technique for the preparation of silk hydrogels directly from high pressure CO2 environments without the need for crosslinking agents or additional additives such as surfactants or co-solvents. Through this novel method, we demonstrate the utility of CO2 as a volatile electrolyte, capable of sufficiently influencing the sol-gel transition of silk proteins, resulting in the formation of stable hydrogels with properties suitable for biomedical applications. Second, we hypothesized that suitable soluble factor regimen and matrix rigidity can instruct MSC differentiation towards more mature, functional vSMCs. To address this, we investigated cellular differentiation on tunable SF hydrogels prepared using a solvent-free CO2 processing method. The focus of this portion of the thesis is on exploiting the combined use of substrate stiffness and growth factor (TGF- β1) on SF matrices, with the aim of correlating the effects on the vascular commitment of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Our data reveal that hMSC differentiation into mature SMCs can be achieved within modest culture periods (72 h) by combining appropriate SF hydrogel stiffness (33 kPa) with growth factor (TGF-β1). These findings advance our understanding of how complex multicomponent biomaterials, whereby mimicking the intricacy of natural tissue environments, can play a significant role in developing optimal stem cell differentiation protocols. Third, we postulated that the presentation of ECM proteins on 3D matrices with tunable stiffness will augment the differentiation of MSCs to vascular lineages. To address this, we established a high-throughput ECM platform based on soft, fibrous PEG hydrogels meanwhile highly-tunable in stiffness and 3-dimensional geometry. Using this technique, we identified several microenvironments supporting MSC adhesion, spreading and differentiation toward early vascular lineages. This portion of the thesis supports the hypothesis that a complex milieu exists coupling protein functional behavior with substrate rigidity and that this phenomenon may potentially be exploited through proper application of high-throughput screening methodologies. In the final work of this thesis, we explored the integration of ECM-derived small engineered peptides with 3D soft matrices to refine the differentiation of MSCs to vascular phenotypes, and further successfully recapitulate the complex vascular niche necessary for specific and efficient MSC differentiation into vascular lineages. In line with this, we report the development of a microarray platform based on electrospun nanofibrous hydrogels of photoclickable thiol-ene poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels. Here, we demonstrate the ability to control primary cell adhesion to soft, fibrous hydrogels functionalized with RGD peptide. However, future work will be focused on designing combinatorial peptide studies, whereby, the integration of several biological ligands of interest with tunable physical properties can instruct stem cell differentiation in a highly specific manner. This thesis has provided fundamental insights into the effects of physiological stimuli on vascular differentiation of MSC in terms of the specificity and maturity of the final differentiated cells. Better understanding of such mechanisms will prove paramount in the sequential stages of MSC differentiation to mature vascular cells. Additionally, the findings of this thesis will help to better define the process of regenerating functional healthy vascular tissue from MSCs. Altogether, a combinatorial approach investigating the effects of matrix elasticity, biological ligands and growth factors on MSC differentiation in a 3D nanofiber culture will be critical towards understanding and recapitulating MSC differentiation in the in vivo vascular environment

Exploring the Relationship Between Pedogogy and Counselor Trainees\u27 Multicultural and Social Justice Competence

The authors evaluated the acquisition of 6 constructs related to multicultural and social justice competence for 60 counselors-in-training (CITs) in 3 multicultural counseling courses. Each course was assigned a unique pedagogical approach: didactic, experiential, or community service learning. Statistical analyses indicated that pedagogical approach had the greatest impact on CITs’ growth in multicultural relationship, multicultural skills, and social justice advocacy constructs. Analyses also indicated growth across all 3 pedagogies for multicultural knowledge and multicultural awareness constructs. The authors explore patterns of pedagogical impact, discuss practical implications, and make suggestions for further research