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Understanding and Defining Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care Outdoor Environments: Comparing Stakeholder Perspectives
No full textHigh quality outdoor environments (OEs) are essential for young children\u27s physical, emotional, and intellectual development. This study identified nine key attribute categories of high- and low-quality OEs using data from 41 focus groups comprising ECEC practitioners, policy and oversight professionals, parents, children, and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) specialists. The categories include Setting the Stage, Natural Elements, Equipment and Materials, Program Intent, Activities, Interactions, Safety and Maintenance, Professional Development, and Barriers to Implementation. Seven of these categories were identified in both high- and low-quality OEs, while Professional Development and Barriers to Implementation were associated with high- and low-quality, respectively. Four stakeholder groups prioritized the environment\u27s setup, while EDI specialists equally emphasized natural elements and programming. These findings provide clear quality indicators for OEs in ECEC settings, which can guide research and policy to incorporate high-quality outdoor spaces into ECEC programs, recognizing the significance of outdoor environments for children\u27s development
Age-Related Longitudinal Changes In Gray Matter Microstructure
Get PDFMeasures of the brain’s microstructure may be more sensitive markers of aging than macrostructural measures. However, it remains unclear exactly how gray matter microstructure changes during aging and how this relates to changes in macrostructure. The present study evaluated how neurite density, orientation dispersion, and gray matter volume changed over a three-year period in a sample of healthy older adults. The role of age in modifying structural change within the hippocampus, precuneus, and rostral anterior cingulate cortex was also considered. Repeated measures general linear models additionally evaluated whether degree of change in microstructure between the first two measurement occasions modified change in macrostructure over the full study period. While structural change over time did occur within some regions, overall the results of the present analyses did not support the notion that microstructural metrics are more sensitive to change than macrostructure. Furthermore, change in microstructure was unrelated to change in macrostructure
The Impact Of Folate Transporters On The Import Of Cyclic Dinucleotides And Sting Signaling
No full textActivation of stimulator of interferon genes (STING) activates the transcription factor pIRF3, promoting transcription of genes encoding type I interferons including IFN-β and other cytokines that stimulate broader immune responses. Targeting the STING pathway is especially compelling given its importance in promoting cancer progression and metastasis. Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) function as STING agonists. Inspired by pre-clinical studies, two phase I clinical trials with CDNs including ADU-S100 were conducted but concluded early due to lack of efficacy. CDNs have been implicated as traversing the plasma membrane by the reduced folate carrier (SLC19A1; RFC). While previous exploratory studies have shown that depletion of the proton-coupled folate transporter (SLC46A1; PCFT) in THP-1 cells had nominal effects on CDN-mediated STING activation, overexpression of PCFT did increase STING signaling. Limited clinical responses may reflect the impact of physiologic variables governing RFC and PCFT not previously considered. Understanding mechanisms of CDN uptake by RFC and PCFT under physiologic conditions may elucidate the role of folate transporters on CDN transport and STING signaling. To study the impact of RFC levels on CDN transport and STING signaling, we used an engineered R1-11/Tet-on-RFC HeLa model. RFC dose-dependence of ADU-S100 uptake and level of STING activation was confirmed by monitoring IFN-β mRNA transcripts (RT-qPCR) and phosphorylation of IRF3 by Western blotting. Induction of IFN-β was observed in THP-1 cells in response to ADU-S100 treatment at pH 7.2, the RFC pH optimum. ADU-S100 showed a low affinity for binding to RFC as measured by direct competition for transport with [3H]methotrexate. ADU-S100 treatment showed no pIRF3 or IFN-β production in an engineered R1-11/Tet-on-PCFT HeLa model, suggesting no transport via PCFT. Lastly, the engineered R1-11/Tet-on-RFC/PCFT HeLa model reveals an increase in STING activity as measured by Western blotting and RT-qPCR. In conclusion, RFC mediates ADU-S100 uptake and STING activation under physiologic conditions. Whereas PCFT does not directly mediate ADU-S100 uptake, an indirect effect is possible. Additional CDNs with better substrate specificity for RFC should be explored to improve the efficacy of CDN-based cancer therapeutics
Not Small Men: A Study Of Sex-Specific Dynamics In Cortisol Reactivity To Psychosocial Stress Following Trauma, And The Value Of Subjectivity In Assessing Trauma-Related Neurobiology
No full textTrauma is associated with significant physiological and psychological risks; thus, identifying the mechanisms through which these complications occur is critical to improving treatments. Though prior studies have documented a potential link between trauma exposure and a blunted cortisol response to psychosocial stress—a condition associated with increased risk of anxiety, PTSD, and other pathologies—results to date are largely inconsistent. Notably, despite accumulating evidence that subjective perceptions of trauma impact health outcomes differently than trauma exposure itself, this factor has yet to be investigated regarding cortisol function. Prior research in this area has included only objective definitions of trauma, thus potentially contributing to heterogeneous results. The current study investigated subjective perception of trauma (i.e., event centrality) as a potential moderator of the relationship between potentially traumatic events and cortisol reactivity. Adult volunteers (n=67) participated in the Trier Social Stress Test, completed measures of subjective and objective trauma, and provided salivary cortisol samples. Hierarchical multiple regression was performed to assess for potential associations between event centrality (high/low) and cortisol reactivity (operationalized as area under the curve in respect to ground (AUCG) and increase (AUCI)). Potentially moderating effects of developmental timing of trauma exposure (childhood vs. adulthood) and type of trauma (interpersonal vs. non-interpersonal) were also examined. Analyses were conducted first in the total sample, and subsequently in sex-disaggregated data to account for unique endocrinological milieus. A significant positive association was identified between high event centrality and cortisol AUCI (b = 5.82, SE = 2.36, t = 2.47, p = .017) in the full sample. Sensitivity analyses in sex-disaggregated data revealed this association to be driven by female participants (b = 7.46, SE = 2.59, t = 2.88, p = .007); there was no relation between these variables in the male participant group. Analyses of trauma type and developmental timing revealed blunted cortisol reactivity in female participants endorsing childhood trauma (b = -8.72, SE = 2.77, t = 2.93, p = .004); notably, this association held only when the childhood trauma event was rated as highly impactful. Considering the persistent lack of clarity in the literature regarding whether blunted cortisol reactivity is in fact associated with psychological trauma and risk of psychopathology, these findings provide needed clarity regarding the circumstances under which these psychophysiological changes may occur. These insights have potential to improve our ability to prospectively assess risk for HPA-axis dysfunction based on perception of traumatic events; leverage cortisol dysregulation as a biomarker of trauma-related pathology in clinical and research settings; and inform focused clinical trials in the field of personalized precision medicine—perhaps to further investigate the utility of supplementary cortisol for augmenting fear extinction therapies
Autonomous Robot For Indoor Enhanced Living (ariel)
Get PDFThe global population is aging rapidly, with the total percentage of older adults (65 years and older) projected to increase from 10\% of the total population in 2022 to 16\% by 2050, according to the World Population Prospectus 2022 issued by the United Nations. For certain parts of the world such as Europe and North America, this translates to 1 in every 4 persons is projected to be 65 years or older by 2060. This trend raises concerns about providing quality long-term care for the older population. Moreover, according to the 2021 survey by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), more than three-quarters of adults wish to age in their own homes and communities. This is expected to create an increase in demand for long-term care. Given that the current long-term care system is already struggling with a shortage of caregivers, it is crucial to implement innovative ways to ensure a sustainable long-term care system. We propose integrating autonomous mobile robots into the existing long-term care network to help adults age in place without jeopardizing their safety. Our research exploits ambient sound and speech from indoor environments to develop various applications that can be deployed on an autonomous mobile robot.
Firstly, we introduce ListenBot, a robot audition system that acts as a safety and security guard for indoor environments. The system classifies and localizes ambient sounds to inform of any safety and security threats. The results show that the average error of the SSL in computing the azimuth angle of the sound source is less than 3.3304 for a source that is up to 3 meters away from the robot’s position. Secondly, given that falls are one of the deadly threats to the health of older adults, we developed a fall detection system based on audio input. This non-wearable and non-invasive system classifies falls with an accuracy of 0.8673. Thirdly, we augment the fall detection system with the addition of speech recognition for distress detection from speech. Since falls are often accompanied by speech such as screaming or calling for help, we detect speech using a state-of-the-art speech recognition model called Whisper. Lastly, we present a direct speech-to-speech translation application. We demonstrate a novel end-to-end speech translation model on Punjabi to English translation though the model is extensible to any other pair of languages. The model achieves a BLEU score of 3.9829
Mental Health Recovery Narratives In Anti-Stigma Communication: Longitudinal Effects Of Narratives And Social Media Affordances On Reducing Stigma And Promoting Professional Service-Seeking Among Minoritized Communities
No full textAccessing professional mental health care when needed is essential for maintaining mental and physical well-being. However, stigma remains a significant barrier, particularly among minoritized populations. This dissertation investigated the effectiveness of social media mental illness recovery narratives in anti-stigma communication, focusing on African American, Hispanic, and Asian American populations. Drawing from narrative persuasion and social media affordance theories, an affordance-based social media narrative persuasion model was developed to understand how message characteristics and communication channels influenced the persuasiveness of anti-stigma messages. A three-wave longitudinal online experiment examined the impact of message form (narrative vs. non-narrative), narrative point of view (first-person vs. third-person), and social media evaluability (e.g., likes, comments, shares) affordances (present vs. absent) on reducing stigma and promoting behavioral intention toward professional mental health care. While narrative messages did not significantly reduce stigma or increase behavioral intention than non-narrative messages, evaluability affordances on social media significantly influenced the persuasiveness of recovery-oriented anti-stigma messages. Specifically, the presence of evaluability affordances influenced the impact of message form on self-devaluation stigma, which, in turn, influenced intentions toward professional mental health care. Although first-person narratives did not significantly influence narrative character identification, participants exposed to first-person narratives exhibited lower public stigma than those exposed to third-person narratives, with evaluability affordances moderating the impact of narrative point of view on public stigma. These findings provide initial support for the proposed affordance-based narrative persuasion model, indicating that the persuasiveness of recovery narrative messages can vary depending on the presence of evaluability affordances. Additionally, while the causal effect of recovery narratives over time remains unknown, the impact of time on self-stigma and behavioral intention emphasizes the need for sustained anti-stigma interventions. Overall, these findings emphasize the importance of considering both message characteristics and social media platform features in designing anti-stigma interventions. Findings contribute to persuasion theories and inform the development of evidence-based, culturally tailored, and inclusive anti-stigma health interventions
Clinical-Scale Hyperpolarizers For Low-Field Pulmonary Mri: Development, Optimization, And Validation
No full textThe human respiratory system has been one of the focal points in medical research, driven by a need to better understand the dynamics and function of the lung, including gas ventilation, alveolar viability, gas-exchange efficiency, etc. This focus is motivated by the need of early pulmonary disease detection, precise treatment planning, effectively monitoring disease progression, and treatment efficacy. The urgency of this endeavor was further underscored in 2019 with the emergence of global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), as COVID-19 adds significantly extensive complications to the lung health compared to any other human organ.1-3 In addition to COVID-19, other lung-related diseases, e.g., Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),4-7 lower respiratory infections,8 trachea, bronchus,9, 10 are responsible for almost 7.7 million deaths annually, and affects the lives of hundreds of millions of others every year.11 Over 545 million individuals worldwide are currently living with chronic respiratory conditions, which represents 7.4% of the global population.4 Cumulatively, this highlights chronic respiratory conditions as one of the biggest health concerns around the globe and therefore, better diagnosis of lung functionality in these disease states is desperately needed.Detection and understanding of various physiological processes and diseases in the human body, e.g., brain, heart, injuries to the liver, and cancer development, can be investigated using bio-medical sensing techniques, e.g., Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Radiation generated from CT scans and X-rays has an adverse effect on the human body and can stimulate cancer ceFll division if applied to any stage of cancer and associated with the risk of DNA damage. Detecting discrepancies and abnormalities in the water-rich soft tissues is safer using MRI due to the absence of ionizing radiation. Standard clinical MRI technique uses external radio frequency (RF) pulses and magnetic fields to detect thermally polarized protons to generate images. Moreover, MRI has much better contrast in soft tissue that provides excellent images.12-20 However, even with the MRI technique, a satisfactory detection of lung functionality is challenging to date. Conventional proton MRI of the brain and other body parts is established in routine clinical practice because conventional MRI uses protons of the body\u27s water molecules to generate signals. Our body contains a substantial amount of protons; thus, a clear signal (image) originating from abundant protons of fat and water, can be produced, even at thermal equilibrium.21 However, the lungs possess low proton densities (estimated one-third of muscle).22 As a result, proton MRI of the lung with high-resolution has been challenging. With advanced conventional MRI and CT method, it is possible to get detailed anatomical images of lung structural morphology, but high-resolution imaging and detection of disorder in the lungs using these approaches is far from the standard needed for medical diagnosis. However, utilizing an inhalable gas that does not induce any acute side effects and provides a detectable signal, has the potential to resolve the challenges associated with lung MRI.23 Studies to this effect have been demonstrated using thermally polarized inhalable perfluorinated gas (fluorine-19), which is non-toxic, abundant and has no background signal while detection, thereby makes it ideal for lung imaging. However, these approaches require a long scan time due to signal averaging and relatively low resolution, which are significant drawbacks for this method.24-26 The shortcoming of sensitivity related to perfluorinated gas can be resolved by using hyperpolarized gas (HP). Hyperpolarization is a technique where the nuclear spin of a material is polarized in the presence of an external magnetic field, far beyond the thermal equilibrium level.23 HP NMR active gases (e.g., 3He, 13C, 129Xe, etc.) have the potential to be used as an MRI contrast agent within the lungs by imaging the gas as it permeates the airways upon inhalation. HP noble gases (e.g., 3He, 129Xe etc.) have a good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); they are non-toxic, can stay hyperpolarized in an external magnetic field (B0) for an extended period, typically in the range of 150-200 minutes.27 However, the production of HP noble gases is associated with high cost of instrumentation, and lengthy HP gas production time. In contrast, the production of HP gases such as propane and butane are more cost-effective and less time-consuming, however they cannot stay hyperpolarized for long, typically at a range of 2-5 seconds, in-vitro.28-32 There are many hyperpolarization techniques developed over the years, such as dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP),33 spin exchange optical pumping (SEOP),34, 35 parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP),36 and signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE).37 Among these techniques, my research focuses on SEOP, PHIP and SABRE. In this dissertation, I explore the use of HP 129Xe gas produced using the SEOP process as an MRI contrast agent for functional pulmonary imaging. My research includes a comprehensive investigation of instrumentation, production optimization, and pilot quality-assurance of a clinical-scale batch-mode generation-3 (GEN-3) hyperpolarizer for robust production of HP 129Xe gas. Moreover, I will discuss the MR imaging of the ejected HP 129Xe gas produced by using the GEN-3 hyperpolarizer in a 0.35 T clinical MRI scanner. Additionally, I present 0.35 T MRI studies of HP butane and propane gas produced by PHIP hyperpolarization technique in Tedlar bags and excised rabbit lungs. The study helps to establish these HP gases as a potential HP contrast agent in MRI, bridging the gap between fundamental research and clinical practice. Finally, I will present on the development of a purpose-built NMR spectrometer that was developed for ultra-low-field NMR spectroscopy (2 - 125 kHz), and it was utilized to study SEOP and SABRE hyperpolarization processes, and to perform NMR polarimetry
Thermosensitive Phosphors As Optical Temperature Sensors In Extreme Environments
No full textLuminescent temperature sensors offer unique advantages over thermocouples and pyrometers for applications in extreme environments such as operando wall temperature mapping of combustion engines. A refractory oxide host doped with an optically active ion has the potential to afford a thermosensitive phosphor with a well-defined temperature response in such extreme environments. However, the design of thermosensitive phosphors with targeted temperature sensitivity and spatial resolution in the operational temperature range of interest has been hindered by the inability to rationally select host–activator pairs. A major scientific question is what crystal-chemistry features a low thermal conductivity oxide must possess to afford a thermosensitive phosphor with targeted figures-of-merit. To begin addressing this question, there is a need for a materials platform in which structural, vibrational, and electronic features of the host can be compositionally tuned, as these are directly relevant for the luminescence response of the activator.This dissertation focuses on expanding the library of thermosensitive phosphors for high-temperature applications by including chemically tunable refractory oxide hosts Ba3MgTa2O9 (BMTO) and Y3NbO7 (YNO). Dy3+ has been selected as the activator given its relevance for thermometry at high temperatures. The core issue that this dissertation revolves around is establishing thermal quenching pathways of Dy3+-doped phosphors at high temperatures. Generating this understanding is significant to enable the rational design of high-temperature thermosensitive phosphors as thermal quenching directly correlates with the figures-of-merit of the sensor. We pursued four main objectives. (1) Optimization of solid-state routes to access phase pure BMTO and YNO, and chemically substituted (Dy,Ba,Sr)3MgTa2O9, (Dy,Y)3NbO7 analogs. (2) Analysis of the crystal structure of the target composition employing high-resolution structural probes. (3) Construction of a furnace with optical access ports to probe luminescence at high temperatures; and (4) study of the luminescence response of Dy3+-doped BMTO and YNO at high temperatures with an eye towards rationalizing active thermal quenching pathways
Development Of Methods For The Synthesis Of 2-Deoxy Glycosides
No full text2-Deoxy glycosides are a highly valuable class of carbohydrates commonly found in biologically active molecules. In natural products, the composition and length of 2-deoxy glycosides often contribute significantly to the potency of these compounds. However, the stereoselective synthesis of this class of carbohydrates is challenging due to their high reactivity and the inability to utilize well-established C2 neighboring group participation for stereoselectivity control. Current methods heavily rely on expensive transition metal and organocatalysts. This work introduces the use of commercially available phenanthroline as an additive for the selective glycosylation of 2-deoxy glycosyl chloride donors. Additionally, it employs an economical source of trifluoromethyl radical, TTCF3OTf, under mild reaction conditions to afford 2-deoxy-2-trifluoromethyl glycosides. These methods provide efficient access to α-2-deoxy and 2-deoxy-2-trifluoromethyl glycosides through operationally simple protocols. Collectively, these approaches demonstrate the feasibility of using commercially available reagents for the synthesis of high-value carbohydrate molecules
Changes In Public Attitudes On And Prevalence Of Homelessness In The Context Of The Covid-19 Pandemic
No full textThe current study sought to explore changes in experiences with homelessness and housing instability as well as public opinions on homelessness from 2001 to 2023, and to explore the relationship between homelessness and the COVID-19 pandemic. Online data collection was used to recruit a sample of 399 participants across the U.S., and their responses were compared to a random digit dial sample (n = 435) collected by our research team in 2001. It was hypothesized that both experiences of homelessness and empathy for homelessness would have increased over the past two decades, and that experiences of homelessness and housing instability would be related to job/financial losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. As predicted, findings revealed overall homelessness and literal homelessness increased significantly over the twenty years, and COVID-19 job and income losses were significantly associated with experiences of homelessness and housing instability. Finally, attitudes towards homelessness seemed to have shifted towards more empathy and support for structural intreventions than previous samples. These findings may have important policy implications