Bone marrow aspirate in the treatment of chondral injuries

The ability of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to transdifferentiate into a desired cell lineage has captured the imagination of scientists and clinicians alike. The limited ability for chondrocytes to regenerate in chondral injuries has raised the concept of using MSCs to help regenerate and repair damaged tissue. The expansion of cells in a laboratory setting to be delivered back to the patient is too costly for clinical use in the present tough economic climate. This process is slow with due to the complexity of trying to imitate the natural environment and biological stimulation of chondral cell replication and proliferation. Bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) has the potential to provide an easily accessible and readily available source of MSCs with key growth factors that can be used in treating chondral injuries. This review summarizes the underlying basic science of MSCs and the therapeutic potential of BMAC

“We Do More Than Discuss Good Ideas”: A Close Look at the Development of Professional Capital in an Elementary Education Liaison Group

In an era when many news media, policy makers, and professionals in the field may consider teacher education under attack, teacher education programs are being held accountable for increased rigor (Council of Chief of State School Officers, 2012). Teacher educators are in a unique position to examine more closely specific practices and teacher education as a profession to enhance program quality and candidate outcomes. Toward that end, we focused on work within a community of practice (Wenger, 1998) for this inquiry. Faculty who work in elementary school settings at least one day per week, serving as liaisons to partner schools and supervising teacher candidates, made up this community

Navigating the Terrain of Third Space: Tensions with/in Relationships in School-University Partnerships

Using theoretical conceptions of third space and hybrid teacher education, we engaged in a collaborative self-study of our practices as university-based teacher educators working in student teaching partnership settings. We sought to understand the ways in which the hybrid teacher educator fosters and mediates relationships to work towards a collective third space. In this article, we describe the nature of relationships in our work, the tensions wrought by complexities of these relationships, and ways we negotiated tensions in order to foster relationships that productively mediated processes of teacher education. In addition, we propose a framework for moving beyond traditional notions of oppositional triadic relationships of student teacher, mentor teacher, and supervisor in recognition of complex social interactions in the third space

Pedestrian Wayfinding Under Consideration of Visual Impairment, Blindness, and Deafblindness: A Mixed-Method Investigation Into Individual Experiences and Supporting Elements

In this report we discuss to-date findings of a project that aimed at assessing individual and environmental affordances in the context of human pedestrian wayfinding of visually impaired, blind, and deafblind travelers in public spaces. Our project afforded collaboration, co-design, and co-creation of knowledge between the investigators, partners at the American Printing House of the Blind and GoodMaps, the Portland State University Digital City Testbed Center, and members of the disability community. The objective of the project was to better understand how different wayfinding aids, that is, wayfinding apps, tactile maps, and verbal route descriptions, are employed by visually impaired, blind, and deafblind travelers. On that account, we examined individual wayfinding behavior and experiences of visually impaired travelers who were tasked with the completion of a set of unfamiliar outdoor/indoor routes on the campus of Portland State University. Our methodology incorporated both qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the efficacy of wayfinding behavior, in general, and specifically route completion performance across a set of three routes and wayfinding aids. We expect that the insights garnered from our project drive forward the development of standards and innovation in mobile wayfinding in relation to best practices for technology-mediated pedestrian wayfinding of visually impaired, blind, and deafblind travelers in public spaces

Adaptive latitudinal variation in Common Blackbird Turdus merula nest characteristics

Nest construction is taxonomically widespread, yet our understanding of adaptive intraspecific variation in nest design remains poor. Nest characteristics are expected to vary adaptively in response to predictable variation in spring temperatures over large spatial scales, yet such variation in nest design remains largely overlooked, particularly amongst open-cup-nesting birds. Here, we systematically examined the effects of latitudinal variation in spring temperatures and precipitation on the morphology, volume, composition, and insulatory properties of open-cup-nesting Common Blackbirds’ Turdus merula nests to test the hypothesis that birds living in cooler environments at more northerly latitudes would build better insulated nests than conspecifics living in warmer environments at more southerly latitudes. As spring temperatures increased with decreasing latitude, the external diameter of nests decreased. However, as nest wall thickness also decreased, there was no variation in the diameter of the internal nest cups. Only the mass of dry grasses within nests decreased with warmer temperatures at lower latitudes. The insulatory properties of nests declined with warmer temperatures at lower latitudes and nests containing greater amounts of dry grasses had higher insulatory properties. The insulatory properties of nests decreased with warmer temperatures at lower latitudes, via changes in morphology (wall thickness) and composition (dry grasses). Meanwhile, spring precipitation did not vary with latitude, and none of the nest characteristics varied with spring precipitation. This suggests that Common Blackbirds nesting at higher latitudes were building nests with thicker walls in order to counteract the cooler temperatures. We have provided evidence that the nest construction behavior of open-cup-nesting birds systematically varies in response to large-scale spatial variation in spring temperatures

The Effect of the Lake Restoration Project on Passerine Bird Diversity

A three page summary by six Furman students showing their research results on the lake restoration\u27s effects on passerine bird populations.https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/lake-documents/1017/thumbnail.jp