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Sustaining Critical Approaches to Translanguaging in Education: A Contextual Framework
Get PDFTranslanguaging remains a timely and important topic in bi/multilingual education. The most recent turn in translanguaging scholarship involves attention to translanguaging in context in response to critiques of translanguaging as a universally empowering educational practice. In this paper, seven early career translanguaging scholars propose a framework for researching translanguaging “in context,” drawing on the Douglas Fir Group\u27s (2016) transdisciplinary framework for language acquisition. Examining translanguaging in context entails paying attention to who in a classroom wields power, as a result of their greater proficiency in societally valued languages, their more “standard” ways of speaking these languages, their greater familiarity with academic literacies valued at school, and/or their more “legitimate” forms of translanguaging. In our framework for researching translanguaging in context, we propose three principles. The first principle is obvious: (1) not to do so apolitically. The other two principles describe a synergy between ethnographic research and teacher-researcher collaborative research: (2) ethnographic research can assess macro-level language ideologies and enacted language hegemonies at the micro- and meso levels, and (3) teacher-researcher collaborations must create and sustain inclusive, equitable classroom social orders and alternative academic norms different from the ones documented to occur in context if left by chance
Acquisitions Unit Annual Report 2022-2023
Get PDFAnnual Report of the Acquisitions Unit, University Libraries, University of Rhode Island for FY2023. Covers personnel, work flow, special projects, and serial, monograph, and e-resource acquisitions. Supplemental files include data on library materials expenditures by a number of variables as well as important working documents from the year
Development of a website for wound assessment
No full textIntroduction: The assessment and treatment of wounds are nurses’ and their teams’ responsibilities, as it is up to the nurses to outline a therapeutic plan for tissue repair. For the evaluation process, the nurse must be scientifically trained and use reliable instruments. Objective: Website development for wound assessment. Materials and Methods: This is a methodological study that developed a website to evaluate wounds based on an assessment questionnaire called Expected Results of the Evaluation of Chronic Wound Healing (RESVECH 2.0), which consists of an adapted and validated instrument. Results: The website construction followed the basic flowchart of elaboration. To use it, the professionals create their login and subsequently register their patients. Then, they answer six questionnaires that form the evaluation process according to RESVECH 2.0. The website allows nurses to monitor the patient\u27s evolution through graphs and previous assessments that are filed in a database. For the evaluation process, the professional needs to have a technological internet-accessed device, such as a tablet or cell phone, in order to make wound care assistance more practical and efficient. Conclusion: the findings demonstrate the importance of adding technology to assistance in the treatment of wounds and may provide more qualified service and more resolutive treatment
Socioeconomic Disparities Associated with Healthcare Utilization among Adults with Rheumatoid Arthritis
No full textBackground Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and debilitating disease associated with negative health outcomes and high healthcare utilization. Little is known about the role of demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with healthcare utilization in RA. Objectives The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, insurance status, general health perception, and healthcare utilization among adults with RA. Methods In this cross-sectional analysis of data from 537 participants with a self-reported diagnosis of RA from the 2017-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to explore the relationships between demographic and socioeconomic factors, insurance status, general health perception, and healthcare utilization (i.e., whether an individual saw a provider, had a routine place to go for healthcare, and stayed overnight in the hospital). Results The mean age of participants was 57 years; 50% were female, 57.9% were non-Hispanic White, 17.9% were Black, and 15.2% were Mexican or other Hispanic. Individuals without health insurance were less likely than insured individuals with RA to have seen a provider, have a routine place to go for healthcare, and have stayed overnight in the hospital. Adults with RA who rated their health as very good or excellent were more likely to have a routine place for healthcare and less likely to stay overnight in the hospital than those who rated their health as fair or poor. Discussion Lack of health insurance significantly correlates with decreased healthcare utilization in adults with RA in the United States. Our findings underscore the need for more frequent assessment of insurance status in adults with RA to identify individuals at an increased risk for reduced healthcare utilization and who are more likely to experience poorly perceived general health
Hip Joint Angles and Moments during Stair Ascent Using Neural Networks and Wearable Sensors
Get PDFEnd-stage hip joint osteoarthritis treatment, known as total hip arthroplasty (THA), improves satisfaction, life quality, and activities of daily living (ADL) function. Postoperatively, evaluating how patients move (i.e., their kinematics/kinetics) during ADL often requires visits to clinics or specialized biomechanics laboratories. Prior work in our lab and others have leveraged wearables and machine learning approaches such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) to quantify hip angles/moments during simple ADL such as walking. Although level-ground ambulation is necessary for patient satisfaction and post-THA function, other tasks such as stair ascent may be more critical for improvement. This study utilized wearable sensors/ANNs to quantify sagittal/frontal plane angles and moments of the hip joint during stair ascent from 17 healthy subjects. Shin/thigh-mounted inertial measurement units and force insole data were inputted to an ANN (2 hidden layers, 10 total nodes). These results were compared to gold-standard optical motion capture and force-measuring insoles. The wearable-ANN approach performed well, achieving rRMSE = 17.7% and R2 = 0.77 (sagittal angle/moment: rRMSE = 17.7 ± 1.2%/14.1 ± 0.80%, R2 = 0.80 ± 0.02/0.77 ± 0.02; frontal angle/moment: rRMSE = 26.4 ± 1.4%/12.7 ± 1.1%, R2 = 0.59 ± 0.02/0.93 ± 0.01). While we only evaluated healthy subjects herein, this approach is simple and human-centered and could provide portable technology for quantifying patient hip biomechanics in future investigations
Proteomic quantification of receptor tyrosine kinases involved in the development and progression of colorectal cancer liver metastasis
Get PDFIntroduction: Alterations in expression and activity of human receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are associated with cancer progression and in response to therapeutic intervention.
Methods: Thus, protein abundance of 21 RTKs was assessed in 15 healthy and 18 cancerous liver samples [2 primary and 16 colorectal cancer liver metastasis (CRLM)] matched with non-tumorous (histologically normal) tissue, by a validated QconCAT-based targeted proteomic approach.
Results: It was demonstrated, for the first time, that the abundance of EGFR, INSR, VGFR3 and AXL, is lower in tumours relative to livers from healthy individuals whilst the opposite is true for IGF1R. EPHA2 was upregulated in tumour compared with histologically normal tissue surrounding it. PGFRB levels were higher in tumours relative to both histologically normal tissue surrounding tumour and tissues taken from healthy individuals. The abundances of VGFR1/2, PGFRA, KIT, CSF1R, FLT3, FGFR1/3, ERBB2, NTRK2, TIE2, RET, and MET were, however, comparable in all samples. Statistically significant, but moderate correlations were observed (Rs \u3e 0.50, p \u3c 0.05) for EGFR with INSR and KIT. FGFR2 correlated with PGFRA and VGFR1 with NTRK2 in healthy livers. In non-tumorous (histologically normal) tissues from cancer patients, there were correlations between TIE2 and FGFR1, EPHA2 and VGFR3, FGFR3 and PGFRA (p \u3c 0.05). EGFR correlated with INSR, ERBB2, KIT and EGFR, and KIT with AXL and FGFR2. In tumours, CSF1R correlated with AXL, EPHA2 with PGFRA, and NTRK2 with PGFRB and AXL. Sex, liver lobe and body mass index of donors had no impact on the abundance of RTKs, although donor age showed some correlations. RET was the most abundant of these kinases in non-tumorous tissues (~35%), while PGFRB was the most abundant RTK in tumours (~47%). Several correlations were also observed between the abundance of RTKs and proteins relevant to drug pharmacokinetics (enzymes and transporters).
Discussion: DiscussionThis study quantified perturbation to the abundance of several RTKs in cancer and the value generated in this study can be used as input to systems biology models defining liver cancer metastases and biomarkers of its progression
High-Performance Lithium Metal Batteries Enabled by a Fluorinated Cyclic Ether with a Low Reduction Potential
Get PDFElectrolyte engineering is crucial for developing high-performance lithium metal batteries (LMB). Here, we synthesized two cosolvents methyl bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (MFSI) and 3,3,4,4-tetrafluorotetrahydrofuran (TFF) with significantly different reduction potentials and add them into LiFSI-DME electrolytes. The LiFSI/TFF-DME electrolyte gave an average Li Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 99.41 % over 200 cycles, while the average Li CEs for MFSI-based electrolyte is only 98.62 %. Additionally, the TFF-based electrolytes exhibited a more reversible performance than the state-of-the-art fluorinated 1,4-dimethoxylbutane electrolyte in both Li||Cu half-cell and anode-free Cu||LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 full cell. More importantly, the decomposition product from bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide anion could react with ether solvent, which destroyed the SEI, thus decreasing cell performance. These key discoveries provide new insights into the rational design of electrolyte solvents and cosolvents for LMB.
[PDF also includes a graphical abstract
Changes in the productivity of US West Coast fish stocks
No full textThe California Current ecosystem is highly dynamic at interannual to interdecadal time scales. Variability has been documented in pelagic and other fish species, but climate change may be altering the historical models of variation. This study investigates changes in productivity of 31 fish stocks in the California Current ecosystem. Productivity was measured from recent stock assessments, as the per-capita recruitment rate, estimated with a dynamic stock-recruitment model. Contrary to expectations, the dynamic stock-recruitment model fit better than the corresponding stationary model for only seven of the 31 stocks. There was little evidence of linear drift in productivity that might be expected to result from climate change. Climate variables improved forecast accuracy for a few stocks, but there was no common climate signal in productivity. One explanation of these results is that most of the west coast stocks are above their biomass levels for maximum sustainable yield, making them less susceptible to environmental variation. On the other hand, the dynamic recruitment models improved short-term forecasts for all stocks, which may be useful for quota setting. Finally, results for the subset of stocks with dynamic recruitment models could be used to establish dynamic biological reference points
Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel
Get PDFInterest in lightweight composite overwrapped pressure vessels for military, aerospace and industrial sectors, just to name a few, has grown greatly in recent years. For the military and specifically the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, the main objective of the composite overwrapped pressure vessel is to replace the steel tanks that hold high pressure gasses in the new generation submarines to reduce overall weight of the submarine. The following analysis will show the development of a composite overwrapped pressure vessel using an aluminum liner from soda cans and a 90-0-90-0 overwrap of 2x2, 3,000 filament twill weave carbon fiber with an epoxy resin.
Initially, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center wanted our team to conduct a more research based approach to this design project. Asking us to more or less buy already made composite pressure vessels and conduct various tests on them. Some of these tests included shock testing, burst tests, impact tests, salt fog and crack propagation tests. We quickly figured out that with a budget of only one-thousand dollars, this was not feasible and also would not fulfill our task for our senior capstone class which was to end the year with a fully built and working prototype. In our case, a composite pressure vessel that would fit into our design specifications and match our engineering analysis based on those specifications.
We joined customer requirements from NUWC and engineering requirements to create some design specifications like a maximum length of 24 inches and a maximum weight of less than 4 pounds. We worked through our problem definition and moved to concept generation, Pugh Analysis and QFD Analysis. At the end of that, we were left with 120 concepts to sort through and find the best three that would fit our engineering and customer requirements. A final design was chosen with aluminum circular discs to avoid the costly process of wrapping hemispherical end caps like you would see on shell tanks.
In the spring 2023 semester the team was able to fabricate and test the COPVs. The liner of the COPVs was chosen to be a soda can, where the ends were cut off on the lathe using a razor blade. The soda can was then wrapped in carbon fiber twill, using epoxy and shrink wrap tape. The cans were then put in the oven for 2 hours at 250°F, and then cut down to size after the curing process. The end caps were fabricated from an aluminum cylinder. After cutting the end caps down to size, a center bore was created on both using a lathe. A gasket was then placed at the bottom of the bore, creating a face seal when fully assembled with threaded rods and locknuts. These COPVs then underwent burst testing, which involved filling and pressurizing the vessels with water until failure