Explore the vast range of titles available.

Many symptoms of respiratory viral infection are due to the inflammatory response, rather than direct cytopathic effects of the virus. Thus, it would be beneficial to reduce inflammation without impairing viral clearance. We previously demonstrated that virally infected neonatal mice were able to clear virus with the same efficiency as adult mice, but in the absence of inflammation. Importantly, increased levels of Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) in neonatal mice were associated with reduced inflammation. Studies show that PGD2 ligation of the PGD2 receptors 1 and 2 (DP1 and DP2) have different effects in different models: sometimes proinflammatory, sometimes anti-inflammatory. In addition, a metabolite of PGD2, 15-deoxy-delta-12,14-prostaglandin J2 (15d-PGJ2), has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects via the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARg) receptor. In this study, we treated mice with DP1, DP2 and PPARg agonists and antagonists to elucidate their roles in the inflammatory response during respiratory viral infection. Six – eight week old C57BL/6 mice were infected intranasally with 500 pfu/g Sendai Virus (SeV) and given a DP1, DP2 or PPARg agonist or vehicle. Results showed that DP2 and PPARg agonists reduction in the proinflammatory cytokine interferon gamma and decreased weight loss. In opposing experiments, two-day old C57BL/6 mice were infected intranasally with SeV and treated with DP1, DP2, PPARg receptor antagonists or vehicle. Neonates given the PPARg antagonist showed decreased survival rates and increased inflammation. Together, these results suggest that the high levels of PGD2 in neonatal lungs during viral infection may provide a protective effect and could be a potential therapeutic target. Identification of cells that express the PGD2 receptors is important in identifying the role of the receptors in respiratory viral infection. We infected 6-8 week old C57BL/6 mice with 500pfu/g SeV and harvested lung and trachea at days 0, 1, 3, and 7 post infection. Uninfected neonatal C57BL/6 lungs and trachea were also collected. Samples were immunofluorescently stained with antibodies to DP1, DP2, club cell secretory protein (CCSP), and major histocompatibility complex type 2 (MHCII). The DP1 and DP2 receptors occasionally colocalized with CCSP and MHCII with the colocalization pattern changing throughout viral infection.

The purpose of this dissertation is to answer two main research questions: are struggling learners making writing gains that are undetected on standardized English Language Arts (ELA) assessment tests, and how might we strengthen and improve evaluation rubrics to better measure the writing gains of all learners? For this data analysis, I define struggling learners as striving students who do not perform well on the required tests at the required time and are therefore considered to be less able (Zhao, 2009). To date, my research with the WIRC team has had an ideational and interpersonal focus. In order to thoroughly evaluate the development and assessment of the writing of struggling learners, I propose to add this textual component of the linguistic system to prior case study analyses. My research design has a three stage gradually focusing construct: first the large scale holistic categorization of the levels of writing development of 418 fourth grade pretest and posttest writing samples from eleven experimental WIRC study classrooms, next a detailed textual analysis of pretest and posttest patterns of cohesion and coherence in the essay writing of two representative struggling writers for each of the eleven experimental fourth grade classrooms, and finally I hone in my discourse analysis on three forms of text samples (pretest short response writing, posttest short response writing, and thinksheet extended writing) produced by eleven selected struggling students--one each from all eleven of the WIRC experimental classrooms of this study. This last stage of my discourse analysis is triangulated by the use of three different data sources (Creswell, 2007). This design expands upon the methods and findings of a similar mini-study I conducted in the Spring of 2008. This methodology involves the use of descriptive statistics resulting from manually coding and analyzing the corpus of fourth grade experimental and control WIRC pretest, posttest and thinksheet extended-writing data. The nature of the ELA assessment writing task may constrain student writing; however, by also taking into consideration thinksheet writing I provide insight into the possibility of assisted writing for enhancing higher cognitive processes of struggling learners.

To the New York Herald Tribune: Inclosed is a copy of a letter received recently from a friend, an American lady married to an English university professor and living in a small town in England. It seems to give so vivid a picture of life in England that it occurred to...