This research explores race related issues within Sherman Alexie's novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to generalize how race and racism is portrayed between different races within America, in this case Native Americans and white Americans. From there, the research presents the need to present these racial aspects through high school classroom instructions in order to raise awareness of race in secondary education. This research was presented at University of Cincinnati's 2018 Scholarly Showcase and was awarded in Top 25 poster presentation at the showcase.
This data set includes the raw rare earth element data for all fluorite and calcite samples analyzed by Josh Bergbower for work on his thesis project titled "Trace and Rare Earth Element Chemistry of Fluorite from the Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District and its Implications for the Origins of Mineralizing Fluids".
Summary:
The diagnosis of sarcoidosis is made by the combination of clinical features and biopsy results. The clinical features of sarcoidosis can be quite variable. We developed a Sarcoidosis Diagnostic Score (SDS) to summarize the clinical features of possible sarcoidosis patients. Biopsy confirmed sarcoidosis patients seen during a seven-month time period at the University of Cincinnati Sarcoidosis clinic were prospectively identified. Non-sarcoidosis patients seen at the same clinic were used as controls. Using a modified WASOG organ assessment instrument, we scored all patients for presence of biopsy, one or more highly probable symptom, and one or more at least probable symptom for each area. Two sarcoidosis scores were generated: SDS biopsy (with biopsy) and SDS clinical (without biopsy).The 980 evaluable patients were divided into two cohorts: an initial 600 patients (450 biopsy confirmed sarcoidosis, 150 controls) to establish cut-off values for SDS biopsy and SDS clinical and a validation cohort of 380 patients (103 biopsy confirmed sarcoidosis patients and 277 controls). The best cutoff value for SDS biopsy was > 6 (sensitivity =99.3%; specificity=100%). For the total the 980 patients, an SDS clinical > 3 had a sensitivity of 94.2%, specificity of 88.8%, and a likelihood ratio of 7.9. An SDS clinical score > 4 had a lower sensitivity of (76.9%) but higher specificity (98.6%). For sarcoidosis, the presence of specific clinical features, especially multi-organ involvement, can enhance the diagnostic certainty. The SDS scoring system quantitated the clinical features consistent with sarcoidosis.
Awards/Publications:
Published in CHEST Journal 2018
Oral presentation at the 2018 American Thoracic Society Conference
This was a project presented at the 2018 UC Scholarly Showcase that placed within "Top 25" out of 405.
Supporting Latino Families in Northern Kentucky partnered with students in Jenny Zhen-Duan’s Community Psychology class to assess work engagement and cultural competence among service providers as well as to examine the barriers that service providers face when serving the Latino population in Northern Kentucky. A mixed method approach was used to assess barriers that service providers face and how cultural competency and work engagement may be improved to better serve the Latino community in Northern Kentucky. Surveys containing three parts were distributed to the participating service providers. The academic partner administered the survey around Northern Kentucky and obtained 99 responses from community members. The mean age of the participants was 29 years with almost seventy percent being female. For cultural competence the subscale of service delivery was significantly higher than knowledge of community and reaching out. On work engagement the subscale of dedication was significantly higher than both vigor and absorption. Other findings were service providers have issues with lack of translators, interpretors, cultural knowledge and funding. Additional issues were not enough english as a second language resources, familial differences, attitudes towards education, mistrust towards institutions and high amounts of community level poverty. Several recommendations were made:
● The Supporting Latino Families in Northern Kentucky (SLFNK) could research where Latinos that are receiving services have immigrated from, which could help in finding an impact of origin on barriers when they are receiving the services.
● The SLFNK could have the Latino population, who receive the services from the providers, answer the survey. Then, the organization could look at and compare the two surveys to see what the similarities and differences are with the barriers.
● The SLFNK could provide lessons in cultural competence to its workers to enhance their understanding of the Latino culture.
● The SLFNK could apply for grants pertaining to gaining resources they need.
Human iPSCs (TkDA cell-line) were differentiated on laminin coated plates into endoderm by treatment of Activin and BMP, then treated with FGF4 and CHIR to further differentiate into posterior foregut. The cells were embedded into Matrigel droplets and cultured in Advanced DMEM. Droplet media was collected for ELISA to measure Albumin concentrations. The droplets were collected for histology and RNA isolation to test for AFP, ALB, and HBG1 genes. These methods resulted in the creation of a novel culture system containing both hepatic and hematopoietic lineage cells to model developing fetal liver.
The purpose of this project was to develop a method to characterize polymers using size exclusion chromatography. Specifically, high performance liquid chromatography coupled with a refractive index detector (RID) was used. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) was used a standard for this method. The mobile phase used was dimethylformamide (DMF). Three different mixtures of PEG polymers with known molecular weights were analyzed to characterize the molecular weight of polyacrylic acid (PAA). After running all polymers, retention times were taken and plotted on the x-axis along with LogMp (molecular weight) on the y-axis. A calibration curve was created and plugged in the retention time of PAA to the line equation. We then, took 10 to the power of that number and calculated a molecular weight of 52292.97 g/mol. This method was shown to be an effective way to characterize polymers using PEG as a standard. Poly (methyl methacrylate), otherwise known as P(MMA), was also tested using the same method. The known weight of the polymer was 60,500 g/mol. After running the polymer, 23,000 g/mol was calculated to be the molecular weight. This molecular weight shows that certain parameters like polarity needs to be considered when running samples on the HPLC.
In the field of information technology, virtual reality and simulation learning have become huge trends, not only in gaming and entertainment, but also in academic fields such as medicine. In the past, medical training has always been costly in providing tools and resources for entry-level medical students to acquire proper training. Medical training conducted in a virtual environment has not only yielded higher success rates, but has also reduced resource costs overall. However, with no standardized guidelines for conducting certain training regimens and learning skills, there are still studies that show some medical training programs do not produce the best results. This research focuses on analyzing the usage of virtual reality in current medical training programs to design a medical, virtual reality, training program. This program will revolve around entry-level medical students who will be attending the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine. This research proposal will not only examine previous research on the utilization of virtual reality in various types of medical training, but also discuss the potential benefits of developing this training program at UC.
