Senior Recital: Ryan Burns, Horn; Grace Eom, Piano; November 12, 2023

Kemp Recital HallNovember 12, 2023SundayNoo

A Systematic Review into the Effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture and/or Acupressure for the Treatment of Adult Patients Presenting with Nausea and Vomiting Symptoms.

Introduction and Background Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the growth and popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) amongst professionals and within the public. Acupuncture, acupressure and acustimulation, adapted from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), is believed to provide therapeutic effects for many suffering from nausea and vomiting symptoms when applied to the „Pericardium 6‟ (PC6) acupoint. Review question and Method The present systematic review examined the following research question; “What research is available regarding the effectiveness of acupuncture and/or acupressure in reducing the symptoms of nausea and vomiting in adult patients?” The electronic search of CINAHL and MEDLINE (OVID) databases was conducted through the eLibrary Gateway of the University of Nottingham. It began in August 2010 in the form of the preliminary search. The final search was carried out in December 2010. Key words were combined into a formal search strategy. Once identified, the retrieved studies were then filtered through a stringent inclusions/exclusion criteria. A total of 10 studies were included in this review; their data were extracted, analysed and synthesised in the form of a narrative summary. Results The included studies were grouped according to the cause of nausea and vomiting. Group 1 included four studies which investigated into PONV and nausea and vomiting associated with anaesthesia, their findings suggest acupuncture, acupressure and acustimulation as an effective method of treatment. Group 2 investigated nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy, and also concluded acupressure as effective. Group 3 investigated nausea and vomiting induced by a cause or treatment, their findings indicate acupressure as an effective method of treatment for nausea and vomiting symptoms. Conclusion In conclusion, acupuncture, and its associated therapies, such as acupressure and acustimulation are effective methods of treatment for nausea and vomiting symptoms for adult patients in a variety of settings

Ram Essential

The underlying causes of food insecurity are complex and often intertwined with related issues that affect a student’s ability to meet even basic needs, such as housing, employment and health care, forcing them to choose between their well-being and their education. The latest Hunger in America report finds that about 10 percent of Feed America’s 46.5 million adult clients are college students. That equates to 2 million full-time college students. “Of those surveyed by the emergency food services network, roughly 30.5 percent of students reported that they were forced to choose between food and educational expenses at some point over the last year.”1 In response, colleges and universities, including VCU, have sprung into action, and the number of campus food pantries at higher educational institutions has risen from a handful in 2009 to more than 500 in 2017.2 But changing food insecurity to food security goes beyond providing just food. It involves a comprehensive approach to providing resources that address the causes and results of being food insecure. Ram Essentials is a holistic approach to addressing basic needs insecurity among VCU students by asking the question, What is essential for our students to be successful? The project focuses on raising the awareness of all existing VCU resources and disseminating them widely through a single user-friendly portal to enhance students’ experience, academic achievement and physical and mental well-being

Identifying privacy risks in distributed data services:A model-driven approach

Online services are becoming increasingly data-centric; they collect, process, analyze and anonymously disclose growing amounts of personal data. It is crucial that such systems are engineered in a privacy-aware manner in order to satisfy both the privacy requirements of the user, and the legal privacy regulations that the system operates under. How can system developers be better supported to create privacy-aware systems and help them to understand and identify privacy risks? Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) offers a principled approach to engineer systems software. The capture of shared domain knowledge in models and corresponding tool support can increase the developers' understanding. In this paper, we argue for the application of MDE approaches to engineer privacy-aware systems. We present a general purpose privacy model and methodology that can be used to analyse and identify privacy risks in systems that comprise both access control and data pseudonymization enforcement technologies. We evaluate this method using a case-study based approach and show how the model can be applied to engineer privacy-aware systems and privacy policies that reduce the risk of unintended disclosure

Joint Recital, October 31, 2021

Kemp Recital Hall October 31, 2021 1:30 p.m

Closely related bird species demonstrate flexibility between beak morphology and underlying developmental programs

The astonishing variation in the shape and size of bird beaks reflects a wide range of dietary specializations that played an important role in avian diversification. Among Darwin's finches, ground finches (Geospiza spp.) have beaks that represent scaling variations of the same shape, which are generated by alterations in the signaling pathways that regulate growth of the two skeletal components of the beak: the prenasal cartilage (pnc) and the premaxillary bone (pmx). Whether this developmental mechanism is responsible for variation within groups of other closely related bird species, however, has remained unknown. Here, we report that the Caribbean bullfinches (Loxigilla spp.), which are closely related to Darwin's finches, have independently evolved beaks of a novel shape, different from Geospiza, but also varying from each other only in scaling. However, despite sharing the same beak shape, the signaling pathways and tissues patterning Loxigilla beaks differ among the three species. In Loxigilla noctis, as in Geospiza, the pnc develops first, shaped by Bmp4 and CaM signaling, followed by the development of the pmx, regulated by TGFβIIr, β-catenin, and Dkk3 signaling. In contrast, beak morphogenesis in Loxigilla violacea and Loxigilla portoricensis is generated almost exclusively by the pmx through a mechanism in which Ihh and Bmp4 synergize to promote expansion of bone tissue. Together, our results demonstrate high flexibility in the relationship between morphology and underlying developmental causes, where different developmental programs can generate identical shapes, and similar developmental programs can pattern different shapes.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Deep Learning Assisted Fixed Wireless Access Network Coverage Planning

Wireless network coverage planning is crucial for mobile network operators and fixed wireless network providers to estimate the performance of their networks and plan future antenna mast deployments. To generate accurate coverage maps for target buildings, traditional wireless coverage planning tools either require manual input of Customer-Premises Equipment (CPE) antenna locations or need to compute received signal strength from nearby Access Points (APs) to all geolocations in the area of interest which consumes computational resource unnecessarily. In this paper we propose a Deep Learning (DL) based universal enhancement to wireless coverage planning tools which automatically extracts potential CPE antenna locations from aerial images of the target buildings. We evaluate the performance of the pixel level object detection provided by Mask Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Mask R-CNN) trained on an image dataset with suburban and rural residential properties across North Yorkshire, UK. We also demonstrate a complete task flow to generate informative building coverage reports while combining the DL based building detection with the WISDM industrial wireless coverage planning system

Learning hand in hand: Engaging in research-practice partnerships to advance developmental science.

Developmental science research often involves research questions developed by academic teams, which are tested within community or educational settings. In this piece, we outline the importance of research-practice partnerships, which involve both research and practice-based partners collaborating at each stage of the research process. We articulate challenges and benefits of these partnerships for developmental science research, identify relevant research frameworks that may inform these partnerships, and provide an example of an ongoing research-practice partnership

Autosomal Dominant STAT6 Gain of Function Causes Severe Atopy Associated with Lymphoma

The transcription factor STAT6 (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 6) is a key regulator of Th2 (T-helper 2) mediated allergic inflammation via the IL-4 (interleukin-4) JAK (Janus kinase)/STAT signalling pathway. We identified a novel heterozygous germline mutation STAT6 c.1255G > C, p.D419H leading to overactivity of IL-4 JAK/STAT signalling pathway, in a kindred affected by early-onset atopic dermatitis, food allergy, eosinophilic asthma, anaphylaxis and follicular lymphoma. STAT6 D419H expression and functional activity were compared with wild type STAT6 in transduced HEK293T cells and to healthy control primary skin fibroblasts and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). We observed consistently higher STAT6 levels at baseline and higher STAT6 and phosphorylated STAT6 following IL-4 stimulation in D419H cell lines and primary cells compared to wild type controls. The pSTAT6/STAT6 ratios were unchanged between D419H and control cells suggesting that elevated pSTAT6 levels resulted from higher total basal STAT6 expression. The selective JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor ruxolitinib reduced pSTAT6 levels in D419H HEK293T cells and patient PBMC. Nuclear staining demonstrated increased STAT6 in patient fibroblasts at baseline and both STAT6 and pSTAT6 after IL-4 stimulation. We also observed higher transcriptional upregulation of downstream genes (XBP1 and EPAS1) in patient PBMC. Our study confirms STAT6 gain of function (GOF) as a novel monogenetic cause of early onset atopic disease. The clinical association of lymphoma in our kindred, along with previous data linking somatic STAT6 D419H mutations to follicular lymphoma suggest that patients with STAT6 GOF disease may be at higher risk of lymphomagenesis.245 words

Interest and learning in informal science learning sites: Differences in experiences with different types of educators.

This study explored topic interest, perceived learning and actual recall of exhibit content in 979 children and adolescents and 1,184 adults who visited informal science learning sites and interacted with an adult or youth educator or just the exhibit itself as part of family visits to the sites. Children in early childhood reported greater topic interest and perceived learning, but actually recalled less content, than participants in middle childhood or adolescence. Youth visitors reported greater interest after interacting with a youth educator than just the exhibit, and perceived that they learn more if they interact with an educator (youth or adult). Participants in middle childhood recall more when they encounter a youth educator. Adult visitors reported greater interest after interaction with a youth educator than with the exhibit alone or an adult educator. They also perceived that they learn more if they interact with an educator (youth or adult) than just the exhibit and perceived that they learned more if they interacted with a youth educator than an adult educator. Results highlight the benefits of educators in informal science learning sites and document the importance of attention to developmental needs