44 research outputs found
Understanding Experiences of High School Student Spoken Word Poetry Mentors of Color in a Large Midwest Urban District
No full text172 leavesAchievement, opportunity, and access gaps impacting students of color continue despite numerous studies spanning decades seeking to understand and determine solutions. Researchers’ studies focus on ways urban youth are often viewed with deficit lenses, the increase in afterschool programs directly addressing character development and academic growth, the potential power of mentors of color, and the use of Hip-Hop and expressive arts as tools for engagement and learning.
This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of teenage mentors of color working in an elementary spoken word poetry and performance after-school program in an urban Midwest district. More specifically the study investigates how the experiences of mentors of color in the program impacts their own academic achievement in school, their relationships with school teachers, their future career aspirations, and perceptions of the way the program influences mentees.
Participants provided information on their experiences responding to paper and pencil surveys, participant logs, and one-on-one interviews. Profiles of each participant are presented, covering their interest and involvement in the program, and racial demographics.
Seven major themes emerged through analysis of data, along with numerous subthemes, directly addressing the studies sub-questions and more. Larger themes included: Academic Experiences, Teacher Empathy, Career Aspirations, Perception of Program Impact on Mentees, SelfConfidence, Culture, and Race and Power. These themes were explored through participant survey responses, participant logs, and one-on-one interview excerpts.
The study concludes with a summary of findings, implications for future studies, and reflection. After consideration of the overwhelming data collected the researcher concluded participants of this study reflect feeling mostly uplifted by their experiences in the program. However, lows were associated with feelings of inferiority based upon race, age, and traditional power dynamics
Investigating the impact of gold nanoparticles on cells: from transcription to behavior
No full textGold nanoparticles (Au NPs) are being research extensively for various biomedical applications; their applicability arises from a unique set of optical and physical properties brought on by their nanoscale dimensions.1 Furthermore, facile and scalable synthetic and surface functionalization strategies for Au NPs make these properties highly tunable.1 These areas of research are still relatively new and the number of publications per year referring to gold nanomaterials has skyrocketed from 11 in 1990, to 673 in 2000, to more than 31,400 in 2015 (Web of Science database, topic search = “gold nano*”, accessed March 2, 2016). The potential application of Au NPs for disease detection, diagnosis and therapy has motivated numerous analyses of their interactions with biomolecules, cells, animals, humans and the environment.1,2 A vast majority of studies aimed at gaining a better understanding of how cells interact with and are influenced by Au NPs have focused mainly on measuring cytotoxicity and simple cell processes like proliferation or NP uptake. While Au NPs larger than 4-5 nm in diameter (with appropriate, non-toxic surface coatings) have been shown to be largely non-cytotoxic, there can be subtle non-toxic effects induced by Au NPs.3 The adsorption of soluble proteins onto NP surfaces (the protein corona) is highly studied, but little attention has been paid to how those interactions perturb gene expression of cells or to understanding NP interactions with other types of biomolecules. This thesis aims to look deeper into how molecular level effects of NPs in cells and cellular environments can lead to down-stream changes to cell gene expression and behavior.
Firstly, the impact of Au nanorods (Au NRs) on 3D cancer cell migration via interactions between Au NRs and extracellular matrix (ECM) structural proteins was examined.4 While experiments on the influence of NPs on cell behaviors exist, nearly all of these studies neglect the impact of the ECM. In vivo cells exist in complex, fibrous 3D environments and series of intricate biochemical, cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions govern behaviors such as migration. Cancer cell migration allows tumor cells to spread and metastasize to new areas of the body, but little is known about how Au NR interaction with the ECM after injection and targeting to tumors may affect this process. The inevitable contact of in vivo Au NRs with the ECM presents a possible source of unintended side effects. In order to study how gold nanoparticles can influence ECM properties and cell-ECM interactions, we have created a nested-gel type I collagen matrix for measuring whether Au NRs alter the migration of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells in 3D collagen environments. In contrast to the few studies of Au NR-induced migration changes in 2D environments, our results show that Au NRs in a model ECM increase the frequency of spontaneous cellular migration. The presence of negatively-charged polyelectrolyte-coated Au NRs during the collagen self-assembly process was shown to induce mechanical and structural changes, to alter molecular diffusion, and to affect cellular adhesion, morphology, locomotion strategy and protease expression. The results demonstrate the indirect impact nanoparticles can exert on cell behaviors within three-dimensional ECMs.
The shape and surface chemistry of Au NPs was also investigated in terms of the role of these factors in cellular transcriptomic (gene expression) responses after both short- and long-term exposures.5 Respectively, human dermal fibroblasts (HDF) and prostate cancer (PC3) cells were exposed to 0.1 nM (24 hours) and 1.0 nM (48 hours) concentrations of Au NPs of four different, but related surface chemistries. A combination of microarray gene expression analysis techniques and typical cellular characterization was used to learn more about how the nature of the Au NP surface coating influences cells on a molecular level. Identity, charge and lability of surface coatings (and cell type and dosing parameters) were all implicated as important factors to consider in order to predict gene expression responses. In a separate study, HDF cells were exposed to 0.1 nM (low-dose) Au NPs of different shapes and surface coatings for 20 weeks. The long-term effects of acute (24 hour) and chronic (20 weeks) exposure were measured by viability, proliferation, NP uptake, and morphology studies combined with gene expression analysis of genes related to stress and toxicity pathways. It is rare to find chronic exposure studies, especially with Au NPs, and these experiments showed that acute, sub-cytotoxic doses of NPs may induce long-term stress on cells. These cells were found to react very differently to acute versus chronic doses of the same NPs after 20 weeks. Additionally, surface coating was shown to have a much larger impact on determining NP-cell interactions than shape of Au NPs. In all, we have expanded the collective understanding of the molecular interactions Au NPs experience inside cells based on surface chemistry, shape, dosage and exposure time and parameters.
References
1. Dreaden, E.C.; Alkilany, A.M.; Huang, X.; Murphy, C.J.; El-Sayed, M.A. The Golden Age: Gold Nanoparticles for Biomedicine. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2012, 41, 2740–2779.
2. Yang, X.; Yang, M.; Pang, B.; Vara, M.; Xia, Y. Gold Nanomaterials at Work in Biomedicine. Chem. Rev. 2015, 115, 10410–10488.
3. Alkilany, A.M.; Lohse, S.E.; Murphy, C.J. The Gold Standard: Gold Nanoparticle Libraries to Understand the Nano-Bio Interface. Acc. Chem. Res. 2013, 46, 650–661.
4. Grzincic, E.M.; Murphy, C.J. Gold Nanorods Indirectly Promote Migration of Metastatic Human Breast Cancer Cells in Three-Dimensional Cultures. ACS Nano 2015, 9, 6801–6816.
5. Grzincic, E.M.; Yang, J.A.; Drnevich, J.; Falagan-Lotsch, P.; Murphy, C.J. Global Transcriptomic Analysis of Model Human Cell Lines Exposed to Surface-Modified Gold Nanoparticles: The Effect of Surface Chemistry. Nanoscale 2015, 7, 1349–1362.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2018-05-01The student, Elissa Grzincic, accepted the attached license on 2016-04-14 at 19:38.The student, Elissa Grzincic, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2016-04-14 at 19:46.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2016-04-19 at 08:16.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #9234 on 2016-07-07 at 14:16:45Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-07T21:14:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3
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Classification of 2-symbol orthogonal arrays of even-strength t and t + 2 columns up to OD-equivalence
No full textBulutoglu and Ryan [Australas. J. Combin. 70 (2018), 362–385] developed the concept of OD-equivalence of 2-symbol orthogonal arrays (OAs) that captures the symmetries present in the even-strength cases that cannot be captured by array isomorphism. In this paper, we improve upon the classification results up to isomorphism of Stufken and Tang [Ann. Stat. 35 (2007), 793–814] by classifying all non-OD-equivalent 2-symbol OAs of even-strength t with t + 2 columns and index λ. The classification results up to OD-equivalence that we obtain are significantly simpler than the classification results up to isomorphism of Stufken and Tang in the aforementioned paper. © The author(s)
The Limitation of Misinformation Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
No full textThe purpose of this thesis to explore what limitations may exist for s.2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter), the section concerning freedom of expression. Specifically, this thesis is interested in how the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has interpreted this section regarding the dissemination of misinformation. To this end, this thesis examined SCC decisions post-1982 to understand the Justices’ logic when navigating issues of false news. This thesis followed a qualitative, hermeneutic case analysis under the psychological theoretical basis of the “dual-process” theory to best understand a person’s motivation when disseminating misinformation. Doing this, this thesis collected a couple of SCC cases which fulfilled the requirements as laid out in the methodology chapter. The results indicate that SCC is unwilling to use the powers of government to silence statements of misinformation due to the potential chilling effect for a minority population’s freedom of expression. On the other hand, specific wording in the Charter exempts private actors from being bound to the s.2(b), therefore leaving open the possibility of civil lawsuits. This article is scholarly significant as it informs the public discussion regarding private platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat to moderate speech on their platforms. Furthermore, this distinction between civil and criminal action has implications for the range of sanctions available for any potential offender
Integrating Functional Reactive Programming in a High-Level VR Framework
No full textAbstract: The recently developed Functional Reactive Programming paradigm provides a new potential method for the creation of dynamic, interactive Virtual Environments. Com-plex simulation environments are modeled as a combination of continuous time functions and discrete events. In this paper, we present a method to introduce the Functional Reactive Programming paradigm into higher level VR system, on hand the AVANGO VR system. The implementation highlights how the various mechanisms of the systems can be arranged to complement each other and work together. In order to allow the VE author to seamlessly incorporate the values into the AVANGO data-flow system, without low-level programming, a new reflective Field mechanism is developed to facilitate the use of the run-time specified external system
Alternatives to traditional model comparison strategies for covariance structure models
No full textThis work was funded in part by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant DA16883 awarded to the first author while at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Observing the Galápagos–EUC interaction : insights and challenges
No full textAuthor Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 40 (2010): 2768–2777, doi:10.1175/2010JPO4461.1.Although sustained observations yield a description of the mean equatorial current system from the western Pacific to the eastern terminus of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array, a comprehensive observational dataset suitable for describing the structure and pathways of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) east of 95°W does not exist and therefore climate models are unconstrained in a region that plays a critical role in ocean–atmosphere coupling. Furthermore, ocean models suggest that the interaction between the EUC and the Galápagos Islands (92°W) has a striking effect on the basic state and coupled variability of the tropical Pacific. To this end, the authors interpret historical measurements beginning with those made in conjunction with the discovery of the Pacific EUC in the 1950s, analyze velocity measurements from an equatorial TAO mooring at 85°W, and analyze a new dataset from archived shipboard ADCP measurements. Together, the observations yield a possible composite description of the EUC structure and pathways in the eastern equatorial Pacific that may be useful for model validation and guiding future observation.Karnauskas acknowledges
the WHOI Penzance Endowed Fund in Support of
Assistant Scientists
Planning For Wind Energy: Evaluating Municipal Wind Energy Land Use Planning Frameworks in Southwestern Ontario with a Focus on Developing Wind Energy Planning Policies for the City of Stratford
No full textWind energy provides an environmentally friendly and renewable source of electricity, that can help meet Canada's Kyoto commitments, help safeguard against future blackouts, reduce air pollution and create economic opportunities in the form of manufacturing jobs and land leases for farmers. From a land use planning perspective, however, wind turbines create challenges that municipalities and planners have to deal with more frequently. Ontario in particular lags behind countries such as Ireland and Australia in terms of providing a clear, equitable and comprehensive land use planning framework to deal with wind energy. What is lacking in particular is a clear understanding of how Ontario municipalities are dealing with the issue of wind energy developments, whether the policies that are being developed adhere to good planning principles, what are the land use planning issues that are impacting wind energy development in Ontario and what are some recommendations that could be made to improve wind energy policies. A secondary goal of this thesis was to identify common elements of good wind energy planning frameworks that could be used to develop wind energy planning policies in the City of Stratford, which currently does not have any policies or a wind energy land use planning framework and is also where the author is employed as the City Planner. To address this lack of information, this report focuses on the current state of wind energy planning policy development in southwestern Ontario and in particular; the types of wind energy planning frameworks have been developed in the world, the elements of "good" planning principles and frameworks and whether or not they are found in these frameworks, whether there are components of these policies that would be appropriate for wider adoption in Ontario and finally, what types of framework should the City of Stratford develop for wind energy? To address these questions, a literature review was conducted on wind energy land use planning issues and examples of international wind energy planning guidelines were reviewed. Additionally, five southwestern Ontario municipalities with wind energy policies were selected as case studies and Planners and other wind energy stakeholders were interviewed. This study found that the main issues and barriers surrounding wind energy planning policy development in Ontario are visual impact, lack of education and a lack of a municipal planning framework. It was also determined that, the public reaction to wind energy proposals in Southwestern Ontario has been mostly positive and the conflicts that have arisen have been in instances where wind turbines are proposed in the vicinity of recreational properties. In terms of a wind energy planning framework, southwestern Ontario municipalities have for the most part opted for General Official Plan policies supporting wind energy development in principle and directing its development to certain land use designations subject to a zoning by-law amendment. The planning frameworks in the case studies for the most part conform to good planning principles identified, however, there was a large variation between the municipalities in terms of the level of detail within the planning framework. Finally, it was determined that the City of Stratford Official Plan and Zoning By-law are inadequate in terms of policy and regulations for wind energy. This study recommends that the Ontario Provincial Government should follow up on the Wind Energy Information Sheet and the recent Provincial Policy Statement with a comprehensive land use-planning framework for wind energy developments that should borrow on existing international guidelines that have been developed. This study also recommends that the City of Stratford should update its Official Plan to include policies that address wind energy generation, should initiate a study to determine if there are any areas within the City that are considered to be natural heritage views or areas that should be protected from the visual impacts of wind energy production, should investigate permitting wind energy facilities in certain industrial areas of the City, subject to a zoning by-law amendment and should work with the County of Perth to develop a common set of zoning by-law regulations for wind energy developments
Social Norms as Social Controls: Effects of Fundamental Motives on Policing of Norms
No full textabstract: I propose that norms regulate behaviors that negatively impact an individual's survival and reproduction. But because monitoring and enforcing of norms can be costly, individuals should be selective about which norms they police and under what circumstances they should do so. Two studies tested this idea by experimentally activating fitness-relevant motives and having participants answer questions about the policing of norms. The first study examined a norm prescribing respect for status and another proscribing sexual coercion. Results from Study 1 failed to support the hypotheses; activating a status-seeking motive did not have the predicted effects on policing of the respect-status norm nor did activating a mating motive have the predicted effects on policing of the respect-status norm or anti-coercion norm. Study 2 examined two new norms, one prescribing that people stay home when sick and the other proscribing people from having sex with another person's partners. Study 2 also manipulated whether self or others were the target of the policing. Study 2 failed to provide support; a disease avoidance motive failed to have effects on policing of the stay home when sick norm. Individuals in a relationship under a mating motive wanted less policing of others for violation of the mate poaching norm than those in a baseline condition, opposite of the predicted effects
