Framing Versatility as a Positive: Building Institutional Validity at The University of Colorado at Boulder's Writing Center

One of a writing center’s greatest institutional strengths is its versatility. A common misconception is that all writing centers are alike–indeed, many clients may not notice differences from one kind of organizational structure to another. Admittedly, regardless of a writing center’s actual structure, it always holds to the ideal of providing support for what Muriel Harris calls “collaboration in learning about writing” (370). Yet variations in writing centers do exist, and often for complex reasons including funding, resources, prospective personnel, and the needs of the larger educational institution or community. Writing centers can be differentiated by the kind of people they employ: either what we call an expert/novice model or a peer-tutoring model, and sometimes a combination of the two. Thus, writing centers are spaces that can be tailored to the needs of the larger institution, and this versatility is one of the writing center’s strengths in finding broad applications and implementation across a variety of locales.University Writing Cente

Agreement between mothers and children with malocclusion in rating children's oral health-related quality of life

Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the assessment of oral health-related quality of life (OH-QoL) between children with malocclusion and their mothers, by using responses to the child perceptions questionnaire and the parental-caregivers perceptions questionnaire. Methods: The study was conducted in 90 children, aged 11 to 14 years, with a malocclusion grade of 4 or 5 according to the index of orthodontic treatement need dental health component. The children and their mothers completed the questionnaires independently. Results: The mean ratings were similar for total scores (children, 20.4; mothers, 20.1), oral symptoms (children, 5.2; mothers, 4.7), and social well-being (children, 4.3; mothers, 4.8). However, the mothers group had a lower mean score for functional limitations (children, 5.3; mothers, 3.6) and a higher mean score for emotional well-being (children, 5.6; mothers, 7.1). The correlations between children's and mothers' responses ranged from rs = 0.545 for total score and emotional well-being to rs = 0.357 for functional limitations. There were good correlations between their responses to global (rs = 0.466) and life overall (rs = 0.427) questions, but poor correlations between the 2 questions, suggesting that these concepts were considered differently. Conclusions: Maternal opinions were similar to those of their children for the overall impact on OH-QoL of malocclusion, but mothers were more dissatisfied with the appearance of their children's teeth and overestimated the emotional impact of malocclusion. It would be useful to develop a specific measure to assess OH-QoL in children with malocclusion. (Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2010;137:631-8

Obesity discrimination in the workplace : "You're Hired!'"

The purpose of this study is to first identify whether obese people are discriminated against when hiring employees. Employees of workforces that vary due to the physical demand of their job, will rate hypothetical applicants on their suitability for employment using Likert-type responses to a range of questions. Applicants’ curriculum vitae will be manipulated by weight status and gender. Implicit and explicit attitudes towards obese people will also be examined using existing measures with strong psychometric properties as reported in extant research. Second, using focus group discussions with employees of either sedentary or physically active workforces, this study will explore why and in what ways obese people are discriminated against in the workplace

Coronary Artery Calcification (CAC) and Post-Trial Cardiovascular Events and Mortality Within the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Estrogen-Alone Trial.

BackgroundAmong women aged 50 to 59 years at baseline in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Estrogen-Alone (E-Alone) trial, randomization to conjugated equine estrogen-alone versus placebo was associated with lower risk of myocardial infarction and mortality, and, in an ancillary study, the WHI-CACS (WHI Coronary Artery Calcification Study) with lower CAC, measured by cardiac computed tomography ≈8.7 years after baseline randomization. We hypothesized that higher CAC would be related to post-trial coronary heart disease (CHD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and total mortality, independent of baseline randomization or risk factors.Methods and resultsWHI-CACS participants (n=1020) were followed ≈8 years from computed tomography scan in 2005 (mean age=64.4) through 2013 for incident CHD (myocardial infarction and fatal CHD, n=17), CVD (n=69), and total mortality (n=55). Incident CHD and CVD analyses excluded women with CVD before scan (n=89). Women with CAC=0 (n=54%) had very low age-adjusted rates/1000 person-years of CHD (0.91), CVD (5.56), and mortality (3.45). In comparison, rates were ≈2-fold higher for women with any CAC (>0). Associations were not modified by baseline randomization to conjugated equine estrogen-alone versus placebo. Adjusted for baseline randomization and risk factors, the hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for CAC >100 (19%) was 4.06 (2.11, 7.80) for CVD and 2.70 (1.26, 5.79) for mortality.ConclusionsAmong a subset of postmenopausal women aged 50 to 59 years at baseline in the WHI E-Alone Trial, CAC at mean age of 64 years was strongly related to incident CHD, CVD, and to total mortality over ≈8 years, independent of baseline randomization to conjugated equine estrogen-alone versus placebo or CVD risk factors.Clinical trial registrationURL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00000611

Using Maya and Mathematica to Create Mathematical Art

The project consists of six pieces of art that were created in Maya using mathematical objects created in Mathematica. Accompanying the art are artist statements for each piece, the mathematics behind each object used, and the Mathematica codes used to generate the objects

Development of Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry Methods For Enzyme Kinetics and Inhibition in Glycolysis and The Methylerythritol Phosphate (MEP) Pathways

This dissertation focuses on method development for enzymatic activity and inhibition assays for use in screening potential antibacterial compounds. Infection by antibiotic-resistant pathogens in on the rise globally and several enzymes, including the those in the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway and fructose bisphosphate aldolase, as strong targets for novel pharmaceuticals because they are not present in humans. Several assays exist for the MEP pathway and aldolase, but there is always work to be done to improve sensitivity, increase throughput, and lower cost. This dissertation describes the development of several methods – hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and high resolution-mass spectrometry (HR-MS) – to detect and quantitative enzymatically-relevant analytes. The HILIC method was used to identify nucleotide analytes from the MEP pathway and was applied to LC-MS with no post-column desalting. In addition, the procedure was transferred for the analysis of fructose bisphosphate (FBP), the substrate of the aldolase reaction, with no changes. Additionally, an HR-MS was developed and validated to detect and quantitate FBP with high specificity and precision. Furthermore, the validated HR-MS method was used to obtain kinetic data from rabbit muscle aldolase uninhibited and with known inhibitors adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Results confirmed that the HR-MS method was able to detect and quantitate enzyme turnover in quenched aliquots of reaction mixture. Future work will focus on using HR-MS detection to continuously monitor reactions in situ in order to save time, labor, and cost. Finally, the goal is to combine the HILIC method with the continuous HR-MS method to study kinetics and inhibition of a variety of target enzymes against libraries of potential inhibitors in vitro and in vivo

Development of chromatography and mass spectrometry methods for enzyme kinetics and inhibition in glycolysis and the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathways

This dissertation focuses on method development for enzymatic activity and inhibition assays for use in screening potential antibacterial compounds. Infection by antibiotic-resistant pathogens in on the rise globally and several enzymes, including the those in the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway and fructose bisphosphate aldolase, as strong targets for novel pharmaceuticals because they are not present in humans. Several assays exist for the MEP pathway and aldolase, but there is always work to be done to improve sensitivity, increase throughput, and lower cost. This dissertation describes the development of several methods - hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and high resolution-mass spectrometry (HR-MS) - to detect and quantitative enzymatically-relevant analytes. The HILIC method was used to identify nucleotide analytes from the MEP pathway and was applied to LC-MS with no post-column desalting. In addition, the procedure was transferred for the analysis of fructose bisphosphate (FBP), the substrate of the aldolase reaction, with no changes. Additionally, an HR-MS was developed and validated to detect and quantitate FBP with high specificity and precision. Furthermore, the validated HR-MS method was used to obtain kinetic data from rabbit muscle aldolase uninhibited and with known inhibitors adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Results confirmed that the HR-MS method was able to detect and quantitate enzyme turnover in quenched aliquots of reaction mixture. Future work will focus on using HR-MS detection to continuously monitor reactions in situ in order to save time, labor, and cost. Finally, the goal is to combine the HILIC method with the continuous HR-MS method to study kinetics and inhibition of a variety of target enzymes against libraries of potential inhibitors in vitro and in vivo

Just the Two of Us: Those Who Co-Teach, Co-Learn

Teaching librarians are always seeking opportunities to improve their professional practice. Traditional forms of professional and personal development—attending workshops and conferences and reading the scholarly and practitioner literature—are valuable and useful, but often ignore the powerful personal connections we have between colleagues. Using a narrative approach, this article will provide two teacher librarians’ stories about their experiences with team teaching as a method of professional development. Turning the traditional mentorship model on its head, each librarian contributed equally to the relationship and took the risk of being vulnerable in order to learn from one another. A newer librarian, looking to expand her teaching toolkit, become acculturated to her new institution, and develop her teacher identity, taught alongside an experienced librarian looking for new teaching techniques, a way to prevent “burnout,” and a more intentional and reflective approach to teaching. In addition, the authors will discuss the theoretical underpinnings of the benefits of team teaching and will provide recommendations for others through an account of how they planned, managed the classroom, and assessed student work