Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Purdue\u27s IMPACT Course Transformation Faculty Learning Community

Describes the collaborative faculty learning community established within a specific IMPACT team from the Spring 2017 Cohort. Describes the IMPACT course redesign program and experiences of the individual faculty fellows working within the team to redesign their courses

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Purdue\u27s IMPACT Course Transformation Faculty Learning Community

Describes the collaborative faculty learning community established within a specific IMPACT team from the Spring 2017 Cohort. Describes the IMPACT course redesign program and experiences of the individual faculty fellows working within the team to redesign their courses

Rapamycin Enhances Mitophagy and Attenuates Apoptosis After Spinal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

The spinal cord is extremely vulnerable to ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, and the mitochondrion is the most crucial interventional target. Rapamycin can promote autophagy and exert neuroprotective effects in several diseases of the central nervous system. However, the impact of rapamycin via modulating mitophagy and apoptosis after spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion injury remains unclear. This study was undertaken to investigate the potential role of rapamycin in modulating mitophagy and mitochondria-dependent apoptosis using the spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion injury (SCIRI) mouse model. We found that rapamycin significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced mitophagy by increasing the translocation of p62 and Parkin to the damaged mitochondria in the mouse spinal cord injury model. At the same time, rapamycin significantly (p < 0.05) decreased mitochondrial apoptosis related protein (Apaf-1, Caspase-3, Caspase-9) expression by inhibiting Bax translocation to the mitochondria and the release of the cytochrome c from the mitochondria. After 24 h following SCIRI, rapamycin treatment reduced the TUNEL+ cells in the spinal cord ischemic tissue and improved the locomotor function in these mice. Our results therefore demonstrate that rapamycin can improve the locomotor function by promoting mitophagy and attenuating SCIRI -induced apoptosis, indicating its potential therapeutic application in a spinal cord injury

Boosting Heterosubtypic Neutralization Antibodies in Recipients of 2009 Pandemic H1N1 Influenza Vaccine

Our data demonstrated that the inoculation with vaccine derived from the 2009 pandemic influenza raised vigorous neutralization antibodies against both cognate H1N1 and heterotypic influenza viruses. This observation has important implication for vaccine development

Novel, Real-Time Cell Analysis for Measuring Viral Cytopathogenesis and the Efficacy of Neutralizing Antibodies to the 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) Virus

A novel electronic cell sensor array technology, the real-time cell analysis (RTCA) system, was developed to monitor cell events. Unlike the conventional methods labeling the target cells with fluorescence, luminescence, or light absorption, the RTCA system allows for label-free detection of cell processes directly without the incorporation of labels. Here, we used this new format to measure the cytopathic effect (CPE) of the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus and the efficacy of neutralizing antibodies in human sera to this virus. The real-time dynamic monitoring of CPE was performed on MDCK cell cultures infected with the H1N1 virus, ranging from 5.50×102 to 5.50×107 copies/mL. The resulting CPE kinetic curves were automatically recorded and were both time and viral load dependent. The CPE kinetics were also distinguishable between different H1N1 stains, as the onset of CPE induced by the A/Shanghai/37T/2009 H1N1 virus was earlier than that of the A/Shanghai/143T/2009 H1N1 virus. Furthermore, inhibition of H1N1 virus-induced CPE in the presence of human specific anti-sera was detected and quantified using the RTCA system. Antibody titers determined using this new neutralization test correlated well with those obtained independently via the standard hemagglutination inhibition test. Taken together, this new CPE assay format provided label-free and high-throughput measurement of viral growth and the effect of neutralizing antibodies, illustrating its potential in influenza vaccine studies

Seeing the way they are in the way they IM: case studies of instant messaging in Taiwanese fifth graders' lives

Empirical studies suggest instant messaging (IMing) is a dominant Internet activity among teenagers and has been portrayed as an essential element in teenagers’ social lives. How IMing exists in younger aged children, however, receives little investigation. What a person’s IMing usage can tell us beyond its critical role in one’s personal relations deserves further exploration. With this in mind, I interviewed five 11-year-old elementary school students in Taiwan on their use of IMing with peers over Yahoo!Messenger and on their interactions with their “online friends” in online gaming chat rooms. To achieve my research goal I adopted two approaches in this study. First, to understand the role of Yahoo! Messenger in a child’s life I asked questions such as: “How it is related to the child’s personal elationships?”; “ How did it become a part of the child’s Internet activities?”; “Where is it situated in the child’s daily life?” Second, I also sought to obtain a larger picture of the child through examining the ways the child used Yahoo! Messenger. In other words, I looked at the ways the child’s IMing reflected his or her character and ideas about friendship. To capture the nature of the child’s IMing experience and how it is related to other aspects in the larger image of the child, I adopted the “participant as ally—essentialist portraiture approach” research methodology, which argues that a researcher’s task is not just to understand the investigated phenomenon but also to explore how the investigated phenomenon ties into the other aspects of the participant’s life. The primary research data are in-depth interviews with five 11-year-old children, each of whom had three to four 40-minute interviews. I conducted hourlong interviews with the children’s parents, and their homeroom and computer teachers to obtain a richer understanding of these children. The research findings suggest there were immediate effects of the computer education on the children’s Internet activities. In the computer class the fourth grade students were taught how to use Yahoo! Messenger. I observed the use of Yahoo! Messenger among these students and their peers immediately after this class. IMing quickly became an afterschool activity and their primary Internet activity. My second discovery is that each child’s own strong and distinct identity was apparent in the ways they each used IMing. Who the child was in the real world was never left behind when he or she IMed. Further, the images of the child’s family, parents, and peer groups were also reflected in the essence and nature of the child. The third research finding indicates that Yahoo! Messenger was a social tool assisting these children in maintaining their offline friendships (and online friendships for three of them). Nevertheless, in their perceptions of genuine personal relationships, in-person contact was considered indispensable. These research findings were possible to achieve because the spirit of the essentialist portraiture research methodology puts the participant in a caring relationship with the researcher and yields a more holistic image of the participant. All five participants in this study noticed and commented favorably on the relationship they felt with me

Seeing the Way They Are in the Way They IM: Case Studies of Instant Messaging in Taiwanese Fifth Graders' Lives

215 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010.To capture the nature of the child's IMing experience and how it is related to other aspects in the larger image of the child, I adopted the "participant as ally---essentialist portraiture approach" research methodology, which argues that a researcher's task is not just to understand the investigated phenomenon but also to explore how the investigated phenomenon ties into the other aspects of the participant's life. The primary research data are in-depth interviews with five 11-year-old children, each of whom had three to four 40-minute interviews. I conducted hour-long interviews with the children's parents, and their homeroom and computer teachers to obtain a richer understanding of these children. The research findings suggest there were immediate effects of the computer education on the children's Internet activities. In the computer class the fourth grade students were taught how to use Yahoo! Messenger. I observed the use of Yahoo! Messenger among these students and their peers immediately after this class. IMing quickly became an afterschool activity and their primary Internet activity. My second discovery is that each child's own strong and distinct identity was apparent in the ways they each used IMing. Who the child was in the real world was never left behind when he or she IMed. Further, the images of the child's family, parents, and peer groups were also reflected in the essence and nature of the child. The third research finding indicates that Yahoo! Messenger was a social tool assisting these children in maintaining their offline friendships (and online friendships for three of them). Nevertheless, in their perceptions of genuine personal relationships, in-person contact was considered indispensable. These research findings were possible to achieve because the spirit of the essentialist portraiture research methodology puts the participant in a caring relationship with the researcher and yields a more holistic image of the participant. All five participants in this study noticed and commented favorably on the relationship they felt with me.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

More than addiction: Examining the role of anonymity, endless narrative, and socialization in prolonged gaming and instant messaging practices

This ethnographic study explores a user’s prolonged engagement within virtual gaming communities. Likening prolonged engagement with addiction, this research provides an alternative perspective into virtual addiction focusing on three interrelated themes: 1) anonymity, 2) endless narrative, and 3) socialization. By employing narrative interviews and virtual observations, the researchers examine two different cultural, racial and age groups’ user experience within console and computer-based multiplayer environments. More specifically, they explore how the three factors (i.e., anonymity; endless narrative; socialization) relate to the prolonged and extended use within these virtual communities and highlight the multifaceted uses of traditional chat services, social media, and the convergence of media existing within these chat communities