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Modulation of diet-induced gut inflammation in slowing initiation of hematologic malignancies
Get PDFThe intestinal tract serves as a host to an extremely complex microbial system. Microbes in the gut regulate their metabolism in response to chemicals generated by other microorganisms as well as nutrition supply from dietary intake. Alterations in gut bacteria have been implicated in the development of metabolic disorders such as obesity and the progression of diseases such as Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Although the cause of obesity is multifactorial, the consumption of high-fat or sugar-rich diets (Western diets) has been proposed as a significant contributor to this global epidemic. Obesity is a major public health concern that has been extensively linked to dysbiosis in the gut. Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) on the other hand, are a group of various hematopoietic conditions arising from ineffective hematopoiesis. Preliminary findings have shown a strong correlation between obesity and the incidence of MDS/Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). It has since been hypothesized that obesity and MDS contribute to dysbiosis by increasing the production of inflammatory myeloid cells which has a profound effect on the intestinal lining of the gut in both human and rodent models. Despite this knowledge, the mechanisms modulating diet-induced obesity and microbiota dysbiosis have not been elucidated in detail. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the influence of diet-induced obesity on gut flora, and inflammatory myeloid cells in MDS-susceptible mice
Revolutionizing Revenue Cycle Management: AI\u27s Impact on Healthcare Organizations
Get PDFRevenue Cycle Management (RCM) stands as a cornerstone in healthcare, overseeing the intricate processes involved in capturing, managing, and collecting revenue generated from patient services. However, the landscape of RCM has long been plagued by inefficiencies. These inefficiencies underscore the urgency for innovative approaches, and the integration of AI emerges as a promising solution to streamline processes and optimize revenue capture
The Dilemma of the United States’ Military Presence in Okinawa
No full textThe United States military has occupied Japan since the end of the second World War in 1945. In the 75 years since then, their presence could be attributed as a deterrent of foreign threats, or as a source of suffering for the Japanese people. The objective of this research is to determine if the U.S. Military presence in Okinawa can be justified. Whether or not the bases are seen positively is subjective, but this research will be looking at events objectively, specifically through the lens of Okinawa. How effective is the United States’ Military Presence in Okinawa, and are the consequences worth it
Listen to the Healers: How the Knowledge of Curanderos can Change Medicine
No full textCuranderos, traditional healers of Latin America, often blend indigenous knowledge with Catholic faith in their roles as physical, mental, and spiritual healers. As their title derives from the Spanish “to heal” (curar), curanderos employ several means of healing, such as counseling, massage, and herbal remedies. As economic and environmental pressures increase, curanderos continue to see a decline in both the patients and plants they require to continue their work. Meanwhile, proponents of modern western medicine push to delegitimize unstandardized medicinal practices such as those of the curanderos. However, a thorough review of scientific articles, ecological studies, and interviews with indigenous people reveals— as this paper aims to— that the knowledge and skill set of curanderos is far greater and more useful today than many predicted. Specifically, curanderos hold three traits which could be of great value to the world: deep pharmacological knowledge, ecological literacy, and connections with people and communities who do not trust or cannot access modern western healthcare. The long-overdue inclusion of curanderos and other indigenous healers into the field of medicine would have lasting benefits in cultural relations, scientific development, and global healthcare
Shadow Smoke
No full text“Shadow Smoke” imagines those traces of stories that aren’t really ours, but can be, and should be. It recreates and pictures what life was once like for my great great grandparents Nathan and Sophia Worley, who grew up in the midst of the Civil War and moved to West Virginia, a state still writing its own identity. As a research driven creative nonfiction piece, “Shadow Smoke” is focusing on the process of finding, but more so understanding, how to engage with the remnants of the Appalachian region’s and my family’s oral traditions. It is written as an uncovering process about a history of strength, about a world in a continuous process of damage and healing, and about reconstructing a character I don’t really know by piecing together the space around her and imagining what it must have been like to live that life. Prompted through research but driven through story, “Shadow Smoke” lives narratively in the hills of Bolt, West Virginia with the stories and people still there, but also expands the modern discussion of historical storytelling and impacts of trauma theory within speculative nonfiction. It gives autonomy to the past and personally reflects on how the “shadows of your strength still dance around your memory,” and why storying this region is so significant for the Appalachian region and beyond
From Polygraphs to Truth Machines: Artificial Intelligence in Lie Detection
Get PDFThe proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced lie detection tools in business, educational, community, and governmental contexts signals a new era of deception detection. With these AI developments, collections of intimate biometric information such as facial and retinal data, keystroke patterns, brain scans, and physiological changes in the cardiovascular system are combined with personal profiles to produce analyses of a subject’s supposed veracity. This article explores some early lie detection technologies (such as the polygraph) and discusses the influences that lie detection initiatives have had in human interactions through the decades. It addresses the empirical issues of whether specific AI technologies have the capability of recognizing lying along with the related cultural concerns involving the proliferation of lie detection implementations. It analyzes the appropriateness of using invasive and often unreliable new AI methodologies for lie detection in comparison with previous methods such as the polygraph. The article also examines ethical and cultural concerns involving the obtaining and analyzing of such intimate data. It analyzes the subordinate statuses of the human subjects of lie detection as well as issues of consent for those that are faced with complex and often opaque systems. Whatever the answers to questions about reliability and mental privacy, many AI-enabled lie detection technologies are currently being used in security and police procedures, employment interviewing, and as part of anti-cheating educational initiatives
ChatGPT and Death of an Author
Get PDFThe proposed piece seeks to critically explore pedagogical implication of ChatGPT, especially on students’ capacities to author a text. The piece suggests that increased reliance on the ChatGPT, while provide short term solution to produce a text, in the long term it is likely to lead to ‘death of an author’. Here the usage of the phrase is a twist to earlier usage by Barthes- which refers to ‘death of an author’ where once the text is written, it gets re-created in readers’ reception and through interpretive act and imagination. The overarching argument of the paper emphasizes that technology is not neutral, especially in a context where its opacity has risen concerns about surveillance, control, and manipulation of human behavior, and therefore its infiltration in education begs critical questioning and sensitive e-value-ation. The discussion argues that rise of AI in education should be checked and not embraced uncritically, but rather it should be critically scrutinized, debated, and scaffolded through critical theoretical, pedagogical, and ethical references to counter its hegemonic and de-humanization of learning. For empirical part, the analysis draws upon reflections generated through a focus group discussion with four undergraduate students enrolled in a Bachelors degree in Computer Science who employed use of ChatGPT in preparing their speeches in context of a humanities course. The students found ChatGPT useful in terms of composing a text/speech and saving time and efforts. However, they realized that its use caused them loss of authentic learning, imagination and suppressed self’s voice. Based on the analysis, the piece shares further insights into pedagogic implications, and suggest a pedagogical scaffolding using critical pedagogical references of relationship between technology and human/learners’ values, distinction between information, knowledge, and wisdom, application and experiential learning references, and praxis in learning
Optimal additive fabrication of patient-specific bone tissue scaffolds through material formulation, computational flow simulation, and material deposition monitoring
No full textThe advancement of additive manufacturing technologies has opened new avenues for fabricating biocompatible and structurally functional bone tissue scaffolds, essential in treating osseous fractures, defects, and diseases. This research aims to develop mechanically strong, dimensionally precise, and patient-specific porous bone tissue scaffolds that provide both structural integrity and biological functionality. Through three interconnected studies, several key challenges in the fabrication of these structures using the PME additive manufacturing process are addressed. First, the influence of polysaccharide and hydroxyapatite concentrations on the compressive modulus of PME-printed porous scaffolds is investigated. By creating structures with varying hydroxyapatite and polysaccharide compositions, the study seeks to identify the optimal material formulations for enhanced strength. It was found that increasing hydroxyapatite concentrations decreased scaffold stiffness, while increasing the polysaccharide concentration increased the scaffold stiffness. It was observed that there was a correlation between the density and the compressive modulus of the structures. Second, a robust computational framework is developed to simulate the bioink deposition process using a CFD model in Ansys Fluent. This study focuses on evaluating the effects of print speed on the deposition characteristics and behaviors, including material deposition, velocity, pressure, and wall shear stress. The primary objective is to understand and optimize deposition parameters through a comprehensive analysis of volume fraction, velocity, pressure, and wall shear stress contours. It was found that the deposited bead width was much more greatly affected than the bead height. Additionally, the high wall shear stress within the nozzle may cause some of the cells within the bioink to die. Third, a convolutional neural network (CNN) is developed for real-time quality monitoring during the PME biofabrication process. This part of the research aims to detect extrusion quality issues such as normal extrusion, over-extrusion, and under-extrusion, ensuring high-quality production. The CNN model is trained using a dataset of images from the printing process. Hyperparameters such as batch size, convolutional layers, dense layers, and training epochs are varied to determine their impact on model performance. Performance metrics, including accuracy, loss, validation accuracy, validation loss, and F-score, are used to evaluate and experimentally optimize the model, enabling its application for real-time quality control. It was found that the number of training epochs had the most significant influence on performance, even leading to possible overfitting. By achieving these objectives, this research enhances the reliability and precision of scaffold fabrication, ultimately contributing to the production of high-quality, patient-specific tissue-engineered products that meet clinical standards. Through the integration of material composition studies, computational flow simulations, and advanced quality monitoring techniques, this work aims to advance the field of bone tissue engineering and provide a foundation for future clinical applications
Codes from Incidence Matrices of Hypergraphs
No full textBinary codes are constructed from incidence matrices of hypergraphs. A combinatorial description is given for the minimum distances of such codes via a combinatorial tool called “eonv”. This combinatorial approach provides a faster alternative method of finding the minimum distance, which is known to be a hard problem. This is demonstrated on several classes of codes from hypergraphs. In particular the “eonv” method is used to prove that the minimum distance of codes from incidence matrices of complete 3-partite 3-uniform hypergraphs with partite set size of n is n2. A lower bound on the minimum distances of codes from a special class of circulant hypergraphs is also obtained. Moreover, self-duality and self-orthogonality conditions are also studied through hypergraphs
