8 research outputs found
Transforming Teacher Preparation in Early Childhood Education: Moving to Inclusion
No full textDescribes efforts at the University of Northern Iowa to transform the early-childhood education major and the early-childhood special-education major into a single unified major supportive of inclusive education. Events at the state and university level and progress during the effort\u27s first year are reviewed. (Author/DB
User's guide for waste tank corrosion data model code
No full textCorrosion tests were conducted on A-516 and A-537 carbon steel in simulated Double Shell Slurry, Future PUREX, and Hanford Facilities wastes. The corrosion rate data, gathered between 25 and 180/sup 0/C, were statistically ''modeled'' for each waste; a fourth model was developed that utilized the combined data. The report briefly describes the modeling procedure and details on how to access information through a computerized data system. Copies of the report and operating information may be obtained from the author (DB Mackey) at 509-376-9844 of FTS 444-9844
Modeling investment behavior in developing countries : an application to Egypt
No full textThe economic literature on investment has been characterized by considerable controversy, even by the standards of economists. A number of different, often overlapping, models of investment determination have been hypothesized and the empirical evidence has done little to clarify which, if any, are accurate representations of the way in which capital formation occurs in the economy. This paper suggests some methodological innovations in modelling aggregate investment behavior. A theoretical framework for analyzing investment decisions that takes into account some of the structural features of a developing economy is presented. Starting from the firm's optimization problem, an aggregate investment function is derived that reflects the results of a survey of decision-making in fifty private sector firms in Egypt. The model is then tested at the macroeconomic level using new econometric techniques that have emerged in the recent literature on stationarity testing and cointegration. The relationship between investment and an array of government policies is highlighted in the econometric analysis. The conclusions, both methodological and empirical, are also presented.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Financial Intermediation,Trade and Regional Integration
Psycholinguistics meets psycholinguistics : different emphases, sustainable collaborations
No full textThe first author (DB) first met Acharn Sudaporn ('Acharn Sudie', as he later came to call her, succumbing to the Australian obsession with adding '-ie' to as many proper nouns as possible) in 1989. He was on sabbatical in the (then) Linguistic Research Unit (LRU), which later became, under the Illustrious Acharn's steerage, the CRSLP (Centre for Research in Speech and Language Processing). DB had gone to the Chula to conduct studies on speech perception development in Thai children and had found (in those preinternet days) reference to a couple of Acharn at Chulalongkorn (Chula), neither of them Acharn Sudaporn Luksaneeyanawin (SL). There were two defining moments that set the scene for DB's and SL's later work together. The first concerns food. The second concerns academia, when Acharn Sudie told DB the parable of 'The Chulalongkorn Administration and the Enterprising Linguist'. The collaborations initiated by Acharn Sudaporn have led to all sorts of innovations, insights, and illuminations. Below we set out juxtapositions that show that considering research from different perspectives can be fun and enlightening, and keeps one forever a student! We start with the Visual vs the Auditory senses and then move gradually to the main concern here, psycholinguistics and speech perception development
Evaluation of surveillance system for pneumonia in children below five years, Tema Metropolis, Ghana, 2012 – 2016
No full textBackground: We evaluated the pneumonia surveillance system in Tema Metropolis to determine whether it is meeting its objectives and to assess its attributes.Design: Descriptive primary and secondary data analysisData Source: We interviewed health staff on the system’s operation and resources. We also extracted 2012-2016 surveillance dataset for under-five pneumonia cases and deaths from the District Health Information Management System for review.Participants: Health staffIntervention: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) updated guidelines for evaluating surveillance systems was used to assess system attributes. Main outcome measure: state of the pneumonia surveillance system in TemaResults: A suspected case was defined as fast breathing in any child < 5 years old. The case definition was easy to apply, even at the community level. From 2012 to 2016, a total of 3,337 cases and 54 deaths (case fatality rate 1.6%) was recorded from 13 (23.6%) of 55 health facilities. Two epidemics were missed by the district because data were not being analysed. There were no laboratory data on antimicrobial resistance. Although reporting timeliness increased from 28.1% in 2012 to 83% in 2016, data inconsistencies existed between reporting levels.Conclusion: The surveillance system for under-five pneumonia in Tema Metropolis is simple, stable, flexible, timely,but of low sensitivity and acceptability, and only partly meeting its objectives. Major shortcomings are lack of laboratory data, non-use of data and low representativeness.Keywords: Under-five Pneumonia, Surveillance System Evaluation, Tema, GhanaFunding: The study was supported by a grant to author DB by the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) -CDC CoAg 6NU2GGH00187
Sources of Stress Study: What are the causes of dissociation in the lives of young people in twenty-first century Britain?
No full textThis project will use an online survey method to ask whether the multiple sources of stress and faced by young people (aged 16 to 25) today might be related to their experiences of dissociation (felt sense of anomaly subtype; FSA-dissociation).
PRIMARY RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
The primary research objective will therefore be to explore the relative relationships of: perceived daily stress, childhood trauma, experiences of discrimination, SES, disability, gender, and ethnicity to levels of FSA-dissociation.
Mediation by negative cognitive appraisals of dissociation, negative self-beliefs, and affect intolerance will be tested for.
ADDITIONAL USES OF DATA
Separately, four undergraduate students will use the collected data to answer their own research questions focusing on the relationship of FSA-dissociation to sources of social and psychological difficulty. These will form undergraduate research dissertations:
1. Does FSA-dissociation mediate the relationship between anxiety and unhelpful coping strategies (substance use and self-harm)? (Author LC)
2. Does substance use mediate the relationship between anxiety and FSA-dissociation? (Author MA)
3. Do negative cognitive appraisals mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and FSA-dissociation? (Author RM)
4. Does loneliness mediate the relationship between emotion regulation and FSA-dissociation? (Author DB
Multiparametric Flow Cytometry Using Near-Infrared Fluorescent Proteins Engineered from Bacterial Phytochromes
No full textEngineering of fluorescent proteins (FPs) has followed a trend of achieving longer fluorescence wavelengths, with the ultimate goal of producing proteins with both excitation and emission in the near-infrared (NIR) region of the spectrum. Flow cytometers are now almost universally equipped with red lasers, and can now be equipped with NIR lasers as well. Most red-shifted FPs of the GFP-like family are maximally excited by orange lasers (590 to 610 nm) not commonly found on cytometers. This has changed with the development of the iRFP series of NIR FPs from the protein family of bacterial phytochromes. The shortest wavelength variants of this series, iRFP670 and iRFP682 showed maximal excitation with visible red lasers. The longer wavelength variants iRFP702, iRFP713 and iRFP720 could be optimally excited by NIR lasers ranging from 685 to 730 nm. Pairs of iRFPs could be detected simultaneously by using red and NIR lasers. Moreover, a novel spectral cytometry technique, which relies on spectral deconvolution rather than optical filters, allowed spectra of all five iRFPs to be analyzed simultaneously with no spectral overlap. Together, the combination of iRFPs with the advanced flow cytometry will allow to first image tissues expressing iRFPs deep in live animals and then quantify individual cell intensities and sort out the distinct primary cell subpopulations ex vivo.Peer reviewe
Meta-analysis of muscle transcriptome data using the MADMuscle database reveals biologically relevant gene patterns
No full textAbstract Background DNA microarray technology has had a great impact on muscle research and microarray gene expression data has been widely used to identify gene signatures characteristic of the studied conditions. With the rapid accumulation of muscle microarray data, it is of great interest to understand how to compare and combine data across multiple studies. Meta-analysis of transcriptome data is a valuable method to achieve it. It enables to highlight conserved gene signatures between multiple independent studies. However, using it is made difficult by the diversity of the available data: different microarray platforms, different gene nomenclature, different species studied, etc. Description We have developed a system tool dedicated to muscle transcriptome data. This system comprises a collection of microarray data as well as a query tool. This latter allows the user to extract similar clusters of co-expressed genes from the database, using an input gene list. Common and relevant gene signatures can thus be searched more easily. The dedicated database consists in a large compendium of public data (more than 500 data sets) related to muscle (skeletal and heart). These studies included seven different animal species from invertebrates (Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans) and vertebrates (Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus, Canis familiaris, Gallus gallus). After a renormalization step, clusters of co-expressed genes were identified in each dataset. The lists of co-expressed genes were annotated using a unified re-annotation procedure. These gene lists were compared to find significant overlaps between studies. Conclusions Applied to this large compendium of data sets, meta-analyses demonstrated that conserved patterns between species could be identified. Focusing on a specific pathology (Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy) we validated results across independent studies and revealed robust biomarkers and new pathways of interest. The meta-analyses performed with MADMuscle show the usefulness of this approach. Our method can be applied to all public transcriptome data.</p
